Humans Don't Make Good Familiars

Farnír's POV

6 days remaining…

Nausea, dizziness, painful tingling, and mild hallucination; those are the effects of Mana Overload. Today's training started with over two-hundred Neame, about fifty of which were Drakes. Everyone had to go through this training, because when Deyja returned from the Aether realm, he would be radiating it constantly, and a lot of it. This part of the training I didn't have much to do with. The instructors just used me as a battery for everyone to train in. We were all in a purple cloud of my mana. Something like half of the participants already had to be removed by others outside the cloud because they'd fainted or became delirious. These were the noncombatants who would be playing support roles in the battle such as medics and ritual mages. Some would be on the edge of the battle, some up close, but likely all of them would be within Deyja's Aether emanation, and they needed to be prepared. Meanwhile, I was teaching my own class of Drakes how to use the Railgun spell.

"Picture the magnetic force like two cones emanating from opposite ends of an atom. Each end attracts the other, but repels poles of the same kind. North and South. Use this image to guide the ball along a path you build." I said, using a similar spell to cause a small ball bearing to hover around in a circle. Never before in my life have I had to resist the urge to say "Do or do not. There is no try." so hard.

"I'm getting it!" Someone said, as a ball bearing moved back and forth. I looked over, and saw it was Nine from my squad. He was the first to pick it up in this group. It was actually really impressive. Others asked him questions, and he helped them. Which caused others to get it too. Soon, about a third of everyone in the class got the hang of it. Some however, took their failure hard… like Captain Gigoales and Lieutenant Datahu, who were clearly struggling.

"MOVE! Move you stupid metal ball!" The Captain shouted and started pecking violently at his ball, failing for the thirteenth time. Lieutenant Datahu stood close to him, intensely watching her own ball. She said nothing, but her seething made it clear to everyone around that she wanted to be left alone.

"I've never seen the Captain so mad before." Someone nearby said.

"Maybe he's stressed?" The other Neame he was talking to replied. Several of us watched as the Captain tried a fourteenth time, failed, and used a wind spell to fling the metal ball bearing over the base's walls while screaming obscenities.

"Maybe." The first agreed.

"Okay Captain," I said stepping in to help him out, "is there anything I can do? Need me to reexplain any part you're struggling with?"

"I simply cannot comprehend how a force can exist so that it both repels and attracts itself, depending on which was it is facing." He sighed. Once short talk later about how electromagnetism works not by depending on direction, but how electrons spin and… he threw another ball bearing. "Want me to get Nine to explain it to you in a way he understands? He seemed to get it well enough."

Captain Gigoales looked over to Nine and a small crowd of others all teaching themselves to propel the bearings faster the further they traveled. I couldn't help but wonder if Nine was a prodigy when it came to magnetism. "I would rather be eaten by the dragon. Just… give me a moment. I will do this…"

"Okay, well… I'll just… check on the Lieutenant." Walking over to her, I called out. "Lieutenant Datahu, do you need any help with-" She shot me a glare that told me to back away slowly and not come back. Nodding my head and walking away was the best option.

"Farnír, perhaps this is enough mana resistance training today?" One of the soldier's instructors said. He seemed tired himself, and when looking over to the field they were training in, I saw that less than a quarter of them were left. And of that quarter, all of them looked ready to keel over.

"Whatever you say." I said, and caused a huge gust of wind to blow the excess mana upwards into the sky. Some Neame went with it, letting out surprised and annoyed squawks, but they can fly, so whatever. "How's the training going on your end?"

"Good. Lots of talent in this group. Most of them already had experience controlling their mana from stealth/recon training, so that was a boon. What about your assault spell training?"

"It's…" I looked over my shoulder and saw the Captain and Lieutenant getting ready to kill the first thing that came too close, "coming along. We've got some real talent too."

"The fact that each member of the Drakes can perform such complex spells while also not getting Mana Overload is impressive. They were training within your mana as well, yes?"

"Yup."

"Yours in Chaos Magic; Inversion, right?"

"Also yes."

"Why is it that their spells are not being inverted then? Would that not create issues with their training?"

"They are, probably. But since the opposite of the North Pole is the South Pole, and vis versa, it really doesn't matter much. In the end, the effect remains the same."

"I do not understand, but as long as things are progressing, then that is good." He said. After that, he went to check on the soldiers who'd fainted. And I went to dismiss this session of training, since it would be time for the next group to come in soon. Until then though, a short break was in order. One by one, all the Drakes went to attend their various duties. I did see both Captain Gigoales and Lieutenant Datahu fill a small brown bag with balls and fly away towards the training ground.

I thought about visiting my Mum on my break. She was a special guest of Queen Ompera at the moment, and had even been given a room of her own in the Queen's personal bunker. Mum was loving it of course. According to her, she'd never felt so posh and special. The Queen and her had meetings constantly. Mum said they would talk about all kinds of things. Mostly about Earth, sometimes about the Queen's life. Apparently, Mum reminds the Queen of the attendant that took care of her when she was young, so they got along well. Plus, Mum used to be a volunteer nurse in the Desert Storm phase of the Gulf War; which is how she met Dad when he was a soldier. So she offered suggestions on how to improve their medic's treatment procedures for when the fighting starts. Thinking of that made me twinge with worry. The thought that Mum got caught up in this was bad enough, but the idea that she may still choose to stay for the fighting was worse.

Outside the base's walls were several groups of Neame on the ground. They were drawing magic circles the size of houses, but no one was casting a spell.

"That's the Ritual Core." A Neame who was guarding this section of the base said.

"Never heard of them." I answered.

"Not surprised. You're that Viking familiar, right? Most Neame don't even know about them. Can't blame you for not hearing of them."

"What do they do?"

"Anything that involves Grand-Scale Tactical Magic, or really any Rituals performed by the country, they handle."

"What are they doing now?" I asked.

"No clue. But you're some kind of big figure in this right? If you ask them, they'll probably tell you."

"Good point… why not? I got a minute." The walls I was standing on were pretty tall. Enough that I'd break my legs from the fall, maybe even die. So instead, I cast a spell that created a powerful updraft, like what I used to disperse the mana cloud, and jumped into it. I still couldn't figure out a way to fly with Chariot, but since parachutes weren't an option, this had been my go to plan if ever I fell off. Thanks to Suma's Healing Magic, and the fact I never landed on my head, I'd been able to test this out a few times. I landed, not gracefully but close enough, and walked over to them. "Hello."

"Ah, greetings Sir Farnír." One of them said. "Did you need something?"

"I was just wondering what you were setting up here."

"Magic Circles for the battle. We need them for the rituals. Much preparation must be done before they can be used."

"I know the plan includes Ritual Magic. And that you all are supposed to be the ones that deal the finishing blow, but can I ask what you were planning to use?"

"Of course, Sir. Rather, it is a bit surprising you did not already know."

"I've been kinda busy."

"Our current plan is to provide the main attacking teams with support. With the left and right circles, we will call upon the power of flames and lightning to deal as much damage to the dragon as possible. This, in combination with your teams attacks, are meant to keep the dragon on the ground. After the middle circle's ritual is complete, we will transmute the ground, and anything touching it, to stone." He explained.

"What if the dragon isn't touching it when the spell is done?" I asked.

"We can hold the spell in place for a time, however we will be relying on the attacking teams to force the dragon onto the ground."

"Does anyone hear that?" One of the other Neame building the circle asked aloud. He was looking towards the base. I thanked the Neame, and let them get back to work, then summoned Chariot and went to investigate that strange sound. Really, it was more of a cacophony of sounds overlapping. Once I crested over the base's walls, I saw, emerging from the other side of the horizon, a swarm of thousands of Neame flying together. After some mild flashbacks to the battles I fought in as both Zachariah at Dragon's Fall Bay and as Jake at the Island of Sangu, I went into the base. Some were confused, but soon a group of Neame came out calling orders.

"Reinforcements from the New Lerna, Apepdon, and several local cities are arriving! In accompaniment are King Hidra and Chancellor Aye-Aron! Her Majesty Queen Ompera moves to greet them. Return to your duties!" The Neame announced.

The Neame that arrived were the special forces from the allied nations, as well as their construction specialists. I heard from other later that the bulk of their forces were left behind and would arrive as quickly as the could. But upon receiving the emergency message from the Queen about the new expected arrival date of the dragon, they all decided that speed was more important than power. As soon as they arrived, their leaders got to work were needed. Chancellor Aye-Aron helped organize his troops to assist in the excavation as quickly as possible. Meanwhile, King Hidra joined his troops in my Railgun classes. Surprisingly, they took to it pretty well. King Hidra himself and his personal guards actually had a decent understanding of magnets already. Apparently, there is a lot of natural magnetite and raw iron in their lands, so they refined it, and are now the largest supplier of iron on the continent. Between his soldiers, Nine's help, and my own lessons with others, about thirty-five out of the one-hundred and thirty-eight mages had so far learned the necessary steps needed to cast Railgun. Most of those who did not know how yet were new arrivals, or those, like the Captain and Lieutenant, who simply struggled to understand the concept. Some of the new arrivals who did learn, or already knew the individual steps, were from King Hidra's nation, but the bulk of those who could now learn the spell were from the Drakes. So, I took them and began a new class off to the side. Everyone else kept practicing how to use magnetism.

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"Okay everyone. You all have the basic steps down, so I'm just going to give a quick explanation of how the spell works and why, and then you all can start practicing it on the range." I said, pulling out a few more ball bearings and passing them out to the new Neame. There was one good thing about Neame. Since they were all natural mages, they only needed to perform a spell once to remember how to do it. It may not have been perfect, but according to Suma, they could remember the feeling of their mana moving and replicate it. "First, you need to set a path. The length of the path determines how much power the attack has, so it should be decently long. However, bear in mind that targets move, so you may need to make adjustments along the path before you fire it off."

One of the new Neame, one from New Lerna, spoke up. "How come we need to know why? Can't we just- OW!"

"Don't ask stupid questions… Just shut up and listen." King Hidra said, smacking the Neame with his wing.

"… Anyway. But if you're firing at a moving target, I'd recommend shorter paths. But if you do that, you'll need to add more magnetic pulls and pushes to get it up to speed. Remember, the power of this spell comes from speed above all else. The magnetism only acts as a means to accomplish this." I held up a ball bearing and cast Railgun once to show the newbies its capabilities. The Drakes had seen me do it a few times, so they knew what to expect. Instead, they, and I, kept an eye on the New Lerna and Apepdon forces. They were startled to say the least. Only King Hidra remained unfazed. The rest squawked and flapped their wings, moving away from the thunderous crack as the ball bearing broke the sound barrier and effectively deleted a chunk of the ground where it hit.

"Impressive." King Hidra said, clearly excited. He was yelling, but that could have been either the genuine joy he felt at seeing the attack, or hearing damage. "It moved faster than I could see, and left a crater the size of a few borogs."

"So far, I've had all of you apply magnetic fields to ball bearings to make them float. Now I want you to create paths of rapidly switching magnetic fields to push and pull the ball along. When it is moving forward towards a new field, it needs to be pulled, and the instant it passes the mid-line of the field, it needs to switch so that it begins pushing the ball away from it. When I do it, I preset the spell so that it happens with my conscious knowledge."

"What?" A voice in the crowd said.

"How?" Someone else asked.

"What's going on?" I asked.

"Farnír, have you always been able to do that?" Nine asked.

"Yessss. Why?" I asked, hesitantly.

"Well, where's the magic circle you use?" King Hidra asked, and looked at the ground beneath me.

"Magic circle… this?" I asked, and lifted my sleeve, revealing the mark I'd gotten years ago when I became Suma's familiar. It was a white symbol that had burned into my arm when she named me. I'd always assumed that Deyja had something to do with it. But I'd seen others like this around, but the one I have was far more complex. It never hurt, but did occasionally glow when I cast complex spells.

"A familiar's circle. So, we all need to make magic circles before we can use this spell?" Nine asked.

"Fine then, if that's what it takes. We'll just have to prepare them before the battle. Lerna warriors, begin forming a magic circle! I want to try this spell!" King Hidra ordered.

"What's going on?" I asked.

This time, it was Suma who answered. "Setting magical effects to happen, without actively doing them yourself, is only possible using magic circles."

"But I can." I said.

"It must have been your familiar's mark. Otherwise it would be impossible. Even dragons cannot do such things." She said.

"You know, some legends say that Apep, our land's Guardian Dragon, even went so far as to engrave a magic circle into his own flesh to ensure he could cast any spell he wished, now matter what." One of the New Lerna Neame said.

"So did the Dragon King." Suma said.

I thought back, but couldn't remember Deyja ever having a magic circle like this, but Apep and Ahshem both had symbols carved onto their bodies. At the time, I'd assumed it was some kind of special mark only for certain dragons.

It didn't take them long to set up a circle with all of them working together. In pairs of three, which was as many as they could fit into the circle at a time, they tested out the spell. To my surprise, they all managed to do it. It wasn't as powerful as the one I'd demonstrated, but it was fairly close.

"How…? You all just learned how to make something magnetic." I whispered to myself. I looked at the circle hastily drawn in the dirt. Multiple Neame stood around it, and filled the lines with rapidly flowing mana. It pulsed and surged like electricity in the lines. The Neame seemed to be in deep concentration around it. And then I felt this sensation in the back of my mind. Like I'd seen this somewhere before. Then it hit me, (It's a circuit board.) I thought. The one on my arm was way more complex than this one, but still… "How come y'all don't use these all the time?"

"They are too fragile for combat use. But since this spell has such a long range, we should be fine." King Hidra said, fluttering out of the circle and letting the next Neame take his place.

"Fragile?"

"They are like far more complex runes. If you break a line on runes, the effects end, and maybe the mana erupts from it at worst. But with a magic circle, you can break multiple lines with little effect, but once enough of the lines have been broken, all the mana inside will be released all at once; every time." He explained.

After finishing talking with mage and after the class, a messenger arrived and told me that someone was requesting me near our supply storage bunker, so I headed that way. It took a few minutes since I couldn't fly safely at the moment. With all the new Neame around, the sky was too full for Chariot to maneuver, and getting close to the Neame would risk sucking them down its pseudo-turbines. It was funny when it happened once, but having it happen to literally hundreds of Neame, one after the other… well, it would probably be hilarious, but I'd get in trouble. So, walking was my best option.

The storage bunker was a busy place, Neame flew in and out of dozens of holes in the ground. It was one of the only places on the base that wasn't hidden underground fully. While it would be a prime target in an attack, it would also be impossible to defend properly, since it had to be constructed so that lots of room was left inside. Meaning one good Earth Magic spell would be enough to open up a massive hole. This meant that a lot of its inner working could be seen from the outside, or were halfway out already.

The part I was instructed to go to was the main outer area, where the other familiars were normally kept. However, since there were so many new Neame, it was in the process of being converted into extra sleeping spaces.

"Jake!" A voice nearby called out. Looking around, I saw an elderly, mostly grey with a bit of blue in his feathers, Neame flying towards me.

"Ceil?" I asked, confused. He landed on my shoulder.

"I have finished it!" He exclaimed.

"The axe?" I asked. "Wait, what are you doing here?"

"Well, once I'd finished, I could not very well stay behind, could I? Not after the Queen put out a summons for volunteers! But look at this Jake, it is a thing of vicious beauty." He fluttered down off my shoulder and onto the ground. He summoned a wooden box, about the size of a rubbish bin. He opened it up, and used mana molding to pull free my axe; built exactly to specifications. In looks at least, it was nearly identical to the one Ambos and I designed so long ago.

"It looks fantastic!" I said. Then I noticed it… runes. They were carved into the wood and metal. "Wait, did you do this?"

"No. I can not even understand them. It was that rune smith, Sela-Car."

"Sela-Car? Is she here? Wait, when did you see her?"

"Yes, somewhere. She received a call from the Queen and showed up just a few days before the Queen's request for volunteers was announced. Since she and you knew one another, I asked her for some help to surprise you." He said.

"Oh, thank you Ceil. I appreciate it. What do the runes do?" I asked.

"Exactly what we talked about." He beamed proudly. He was practically shining with how bright his glitter had grown.

"You mean the runes from Ambos?"

"Those very ones!"

"How?"

"Well, she worked nearly sleeplessly once I'd told her about your idea for the weapon to get it done in time for my departure. She is a rather… intimidating Neame. And she had a message for you."

"Let me guess, I have to be her test subject again?" I gulped. Her experiments weren't usually painful… usually being the operative word. I'd been weary of agreeing to that again after the first time. Sure, helping with her experiments was fun and interesting, but being the experiment was a different story.

"Among other things, yes."

"How did she even figure the runes out? Ambos and I were never able to do it. And we didn't make much progress before I left."

"She called it a 'fascinating idea' and then did not emerge from her lab for two days. I doubt she slept."

"I should thank her. Do you know where she is?" I asked, picking up the axe from Ceil wooden box. It was well balanced, hefty, and wickedly sharp. It had a slight hook in the edge meant to homage a Neame's beak. It was light enough to be used in one hand, but solid enough to crush bone. Holding the ridged handle in my palm felt so… nostalgic. Images of Faðir and Bjorn flashed through my mind. They taught me how to use an axe.

"Maybe unloading supplies? She was called to install mana channels on the walls of the base. She could already be doing that." She said, looking towards the walls. "Either way, are you satisfied with the weapon?"

"It's perfect, Ceil. Thank you. Really."

"Any idea what you will name it?"

"Not yet, but I'll think about it."

"You know, Sela-Car told me that naming something that has runes on it makes them stronger. So this could be the strongest one yet." He said.

"Really? That's interesting." I said. After that, he summoned another, larger, box that was filled exclusively with ball bearings, gave them to me, and we said our goodbyes. He left to finish what he was doing, and I performed a quick summoning ritual on the box so that I could take it when I needed it. After that, I went looking for Sela-Car.

I found her a bit later, using a spell to carve lines into the stone of the walls around the base. Afterwards, she would fill the empty space with what looked like concrete, except it glowed in various colors, like the rainbow effect on an oil spot.

"Sela-Car!" I said, walking up.

"Ah, Jake. There you are. Quickly, fill up those daljars with mana for me. My assistant is running low and I do not wish to wait for him to recover."

"Sure." I placed my hand on the lid and began to fill the jar. "Oh, thanks for the runes by the way. Ceil said you helped him finish my axe."

"It was my pleasure. I have designed runes meant to heal before, but this was the first time I have ever designed one meant to prevent healing. I used some of what you told me about 'cells' and the nature of Death Magic to make it work. It kills them cells as they are repaired by Healing Magic. And if they are not being repaired with Healing Magic… well…"

"So it's an Axe that uses something like a 'Rot' spell?" I asked.

"Exactly." She said, casually. As if she hadn't just admitted to creating something that was very much illegal. She may have seen the look of shock on my face if she were looking at me. But through our conversation so far she hadn't looked away from what she was doing.

"I won't tell anyone if you don't." I joked.

"I would hope not." She said dryly. "We might both be executed."

"Don't worry. The Queen gave me permission to use Death Magic."

"Well, that is good to know." She said.

"Wait, did you make this not knowing that?" I asked.

"Correct." She said, filling a freshly creaked line with the magic concrete stuff.

"Why?"

"… I have more experiments I want to run." She said wryly, and for the first time looked back at me for a moment. Now normally, I would have assumed she was being cheeky, but I knew her well enough to know that wasn't the case. She looked away and a cold shiver almost ran down my spine.

Changing the subject, I asked her a question I'd had on my mind since the class ended. "Hey, do you know anything about magic circles?"

"A bit. Why?"

"Is there a way to make magic circles that move?"

"For what purpose?"

"The special forces are trying to learn my Railgun spell, but they need magic circles to do it apparently. We could make some and set them up around the portal, but according to some mages I talked to, they are fragile." I explained.

"Portal?" She asked. "Actually, never mind. The only magic circles that can move that I know of are the ones on familiars. Aside from that, you may need to consult an expert."

"I see. Well, I can't exactly put a bunch of familiars circles on the special forces members. Thanks anyway Sela-Car." I said and started walking away.

"Why not?" She asked. I stopped walking. She hadn't turned around, or even looked bothered by what I said.

"What?" I asked.

"Why can't you put familiar's circles on the special forces members? It works on familiars. It should work on them…"