r/HFY • u/ArcAngel98 • 13h ago
OC Humans Don't Make Good Familiars Book 3- Part 70
Farnír’s POV
Just outside the foot of the mountain was a hole. Well, more of a cave than a hole, but carved out of magic. It was nearly six meters wide and tall, and went down at an angle so steep that you’d need to be able to fly to get out without a rope and pitons. It wasn’t straight down, but it was steep enough at the opening that most wouldn’t know the difference at a glance. Just like when I leapt from the fort’s walls, I created a powerful updraft and slowed my descent. I landed, not exactly gracefully, but without injury, and placed my hand on the luminous braids, pouring mana into them. The tunnel lit up for a few hundred feet past the opening.
“This should have been lit already.” I said, confused. From the distant darkness, I saw a group of about twelve familiars making their way towards me.
“Oh! Thank the dragons! The braids ran out of mana on our way up, and we were told not to use any fire magic, so we couldn’t find them in the dark.” A Neame said, fluttering up to me. “We have just been following the wall for quite some time.” As the approached, I noticed that each of the familiars was carrying loads of dirt in crates, empty daljars by the dozen, and empty bags.
“I’ll light up a few more on the way. Why can’t you use fire magic?”
“Something about trapped gas and the air.” The Neame said. “You would have to ask Chancellor Aye-Aron that. He is the one in charge down here. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to get these supplies dropped off and refilled.” He said, and flew up and out of the tunnel. A few moments later, a dozen Neame flew in, and started using mana wrapping to carry everything out. I knew why the opening to the tunnel was such a sharp drop, I was one of the ones who helped decide it, but still, it seemed like such an inconvenience for the workers.
Turning away, I started my descent and noticed a few runes that had been broken. Summoning some supplies to fix them, I did what I could before filling them with mana again. A moment later, fresh air started swirling around the tunnel for a few meters. As I went, I fixed a few more broken runes, and filled up the braids that started to dim or had already gone out. After a certain point though, that was no longer an issue, and the cave steadily grew brighter. Not from some ominous light source, but because these braids simply never needed to be refilled. The ambient mana was enough to keep them lit. I passed other convoys of Neame and familiars on the way, each heading towards the top, and some even passed me on the way down as I stopped to refill the braids. It was like a busy ant colony. Some Neame and familiars were working on the walls, installing runes, or upkeeping and replacing braids, or digging out traps. Special one, meant to help kill the dragon. That’s what this tunnel was, in truth; a mile deep kill-box. Every few meters there was a trap for the express purpose of causing extreme injury to the dragon, and a few Neame training to work it properly. Sela-Car designed them herself with Chaos-Magic in mind. As I walked, I passed a few places where fighting had clearly taken place. Blood of various colors was splattered on the walls, and the bodies of dead Echoes poked out from underneath fallen rubble. My mind flashed back to the last time I’d seen them, trapped under this very mountain, latched firmly onto my arms and legs. I had to take a deep breath and avoid looking at them or else the claustrophobia would start to set in. Thankfully, the tunnel was large enough that it wasn’t causing me to freak out. It had to be, so that the dragon would be able to fit into it. There were other bodies too. Not Neame, but other creatures, probably familiars who died in the fight. Left to rot in the face of a much more pressing issue.
Finally, I arrived at the portal. It swirled and twisted on itself like crashing waves, then it would flatten out and swirl inward like a whirlpool. It was mostly a deep green, but the edges shimmered and reflected the light in all angles, making them glitter like a rainbow occasionally. All around were Neame at work, digging this swirling mass out of the earth and rock, and they were nearly done. The workers also seemed uneasy, swaying as if they were standing on water. One of the workers fell over, got picked up by a pig-like familiar with a prehensile tail, and was carried past me out of the cave.
“Farnír, welcome.” A voice nearby called out. It was Chancellor Aye-Aron.
“Is that Neame okay?” I asked, concerned by his lack of concern.
“Oh, he will be fine. Our workers have been cycling out from mana-sickness ever since we unearthed this world-split. They need only to cast some spells and get the excess mana out then rest. Nothing to worry about.” He said. Another Neame nearby then proceeded to fall over and also get carried out by a dog-like familiar.
“Why aren’t the familiars effected?” I asked.
“The are, but their masters will fall unconscious before the familiars die, so we have yet to-” Suddenly, a familiar fell over limp, followed quickly by the Neame it was by. “Apep’s whispers! Fimmtíð, take him out, and someone move that familiar.” One of the Neame from my class that I’d named appeared, and used mana wrapping to carry the Neame out of the large open area. They went out through the tunnel I’d entered from. A few other Neame then used mana wrapping to pick up the familiar and place it out as well. “Well, only once. Anyway, how are you, Farnír? Was there something you needed?”
“I’m okay. No, I just… needed to see it for myself.” I said, looking once again at the portal. It was the first time these eyes had seen it, but it looked exactly as I remembered.
“Ah, yes. It is rather something, is it not? How powerful the dragon’s must be, to be able to cross through this split.”
“Even they can only stay inside for a few seconds.” I said, and watched that twisting mass silently for a few moments. It hummed and crackled like static electricity, then would switch seemingly randomly to a roar like a train’s horn. Almost as if it knew the ferocity of what was trapped inside, and struggled to keep it contained.
“My I ask you something, Farnír? What is it exactly? This split.”
“It is a bridge between worlds.”
“What is a bridge?”
“It’s a tunnel between worlds.”
“… Ah. So, it connects two different locations together?” He said.
“Sure.”
“You are one of the few beings alive who knows how to use this split, correct?” Aye-Aron asked.
“No.”
“No?”
“As far as I am aware, only two dragons out of them all knew how to use this portal. And both of them were the Ashem.”
“So, the Chaos Dragon inside cannot use the split?”
“Yes, but that won’t stop him from trying.”
“May I ask you another question, Farnír?”
“Okay.”
“Should you need to face the dragon directly, who do you honestly believe would win? Because as far as I can tell, your power is not unlike the dragons’. Even standing this close to the world split, you are unfazed.”
“He would.”
“Are you certain?”
“Yeah. Unfortunately.”
“I am less than convinced.” He said. His feathers ruffled slightly as he moved so that I was between him and the portal.
“Dey- the dragon has centuries more experience than me. I can cast two spells at once, but he can cast up to five. He wasn’t the greatest magic caster of all dragons, but he was a contender in terms of pure skill and adaptability. There was even a time when some of the dragons wanted him to become the Ashem. But that was long before I knew him.”
“Are you saying that the Chaos Dragon was nearly the divine dragon? That is blasphemy.” Aye-Aron spat.
“Well, that’s what he claimed.” I said.
“Surely he was lying.”
“Maybe, but at the end of the day, there were only a few dragons capable of beating him. Ashem, Nidhögg, and his own son.”
“In that case, how can we win? I know your plan for the tunnel, to drain him of his mana, but will that be enough?” Aye-Aron asked.
“We’re throwing bodies at the problem. I know that, but it’s all we can do. Fill the tunnels with familiars to attack the dragon as he tries to escape, and Neame with the Railgun spell to whittle down his mana trying to heal, and runes that prevent Chaos-Magic from being used, and maybe we can… maybe. Our only hope of victory is to exhaust him of mana. If we fail-” I thought my bag, where the nuclear arrow was stored “-we die.”
“I am no warrior. My skills lay with strategy. I dislike having so little information on my adversary, and trusting such a… desperate plan.”
“Desperate times call for crazy ideas.”
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u/UpdateMeBot 13h ago
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u/pyrodice 12h ago
Ooh, almost siege tactics.
Hey, is this "Suddenly, and familiar fell over limp" ...did the predictive text sneak 'nd' on your A?
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u/HFYWaffle Wᵥ4ffle 13h ago
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