Learning from the Dark Side

"I... I see..."

The moment she mentioned the brain, Orion formulated a good educated guess about how the hex worked. His best guess was that it manipulated the hypothalamus to some degree, possibly simulating the circumstances that would trigger a normal fever. The revelation put a smile on his face even as he sweated and crawled over Delise. So far the contract was turning out to not only be fruitful, but fun.

Her hand on his neck was a welcome touch, and he sighed happily at it. His own hands wanted to thank her, but she kept pulling away from him. It was a move that disappointed him even as he got his breath back.

"I... I'll have to find out. For science."

Summoning some of his reserve strength through the grip of the returning fever, Orion pulled himself fully to his feet and lunged at Delise with hungry eyes. He managed to get right on her. With his hands on her, he pulled her close. One hand wrapped around her waist while the other pulled her leg up his hip. The fever went away immediately, replaced by the more heat of her body.

"So... Is there some inverse effect if we get even closer~?"

In his efforts to test his hypothesis with Delise, Orion might have skewed his own results by introducing a lot of excess heat production that might not have been related in any way to the hex he was originally testing. But before he came to his conclusions, he tested a variety of other factors that he thought might contribute in some way to the functioning of the hex. For instance, he wanted to know if the distance-sensing function of the hex was centered in or on any particular part of his or her body. His observations were not the best, however, as he was distracted by other things the entire time.

In the end, he found that the hex was efficient and effective in producing one desired outcome: Keeping Orion close to Delise. It was the right mix of incentive and punishment for him to keep himself right up on the young woman is at all possible.

The experiment concluded, he laid on his bed, still sweaty and breathless, with his arms around Delise. He was still feeling hot, but that was not the result of the hex. In fact, the way he held her, he seemed quite unwilling to see if the hex had worn off or not.

"So... I suppose I'm gonna be by your side for awhile now, huh?"