After the encounter with the builder drones, things went much smoother.
Ferro still had to restrain Star at tis, but by not attacking they managed to duck out of sight and wait out the machines.
That was one problem solved, but another problem made itself apparent as the hours stretched by.
Brrbbrgll...
Ferro’s stomach groaned. As light as Lawre was, carrying him for so long was draining, and Ferro hadn’t exactly thought to bring food when he was grabbing his things to escape.
"Ugh, quiet that thing," Star said, peering around a bend at a group of drones that were passing through a wall of light.
"Have you ever been hungry in your life?" Ferro was sitting with Lawre collapsed next to him.
"Of course I have. But I only need to eat if I don’t get enough mana, or to maintain my cover, and you graciously fed right before we ca inside."
"More like before you ca inside." Ferro muttered. That crazy, unplanned session had left him sowhat drained, instead of energized like when Star put mana into him. He cleared his throat before speaking up. "I don’t think I’ll be able to make it to the end carrying Lawre... Not with as long as we’re taking." He looked up, trying to gauge if the Djet looked any closer than it had.
"Well I’m not going anywhere without that key. As you’ve no doubt guessed, it needs contact to work, and I can’t exactly make contact with it."
"Why tell this now?" Ferro asked.
"Because I figure at this point you and I need to co to so sort of arrangent if we’re going to make it through without the kid."
"I said I’m not leaving him."
"This is the perfect place for it, though. Deep enough he won’t be able to set his father on us, but not so deep that he has zero chance of survival. Whatever that thing dosed him with clearly isn’t wearing off anyti soon."
"Then this would be a good ti to rest for a bit and see if it does wear off. You’re acting like so sort of stereotype, trying to get to pick evil."
"Options are options, kitten, and you know I prefer adults. But if you’re set on waiting here instead of making the pragmatic choice..." Star went up to the wall next to Ferro and leaned on it. "We might as well have so fun." Using his tail, he guided Ferro’s face to look at his crotch. Then he licked his lips.
"Gods damn it, Star, I’m not in the mood."
"Well, what else are we going to do until the kid wakes up?"
"How about we look around? Since you’re being so trusting, I can stay here with Lawre while you find us so food."
"Not a chance. The mont I leave you might run off, I’d rather carry the kid and continue than waste ti."
"Great, so it’s decided then," Ferro turned to rest his head against the wall.
"You little shit! You were baiting , weren’t you?"
"Would it kill you to perform so labor?"
Before Star could answer, a rumble began in the floor. The entire labyrinth shook, and a warbled alarm sounded. A voice began to speak from everywhere.
"Warning: Dinsional cavitation detected. Heat dispersal rotation comncing. Please stand clear of moving plates."
"What’s it saying?" Ferro shouted as the voice began to repeat itself.
"Sothing about heat, it’s speaking too fast."
"Should we run?" Ferro started to stand when the world shook and screeched.
"I don’t think that’s an option anymore."
Everything started to move, and when they looked to the outlet for the dead end they were in, they saw that everything was rotating, accelerating so fast that the walls passing the gap beca a solid blur. The screeching died down, leaving an eery hum and the whooshing of air.
The section they were in wasn’t moving, but sparks were flying above them and so rained down on Ferro, their heat biting his arms as he covered his head.
Star tried to reach towards the flashing, speeding walls, only to wind up with one of his claws filed down to a nub. "Well it’s not an illusion," he scowled at his dulled nail.
"What could have set it off?"
From far, far away, ca a shout. "Ferro! I’m coming for you! Give back my son!" It was quite impressive how far the man could project his voice. "Ferro!!!"
Ferro swore, "It’s Lanoch, but why is he coming after ?"
"You did steal his key."
"I didn’t steal Lawre!"
"Well~" Star chewed his lip a bit as he seed to hide a smile, "I may have borrowed your appearance when I escorted Lawre out of the camp..."
"Fucking asshole!"
"Oh so now you’re in the mood?"
"You set up!"
"Well, I was pretty sure you were going to betray when you didn’t co back with the key."
"You betrayed first!"
"I was acting completely within the bounds of our Oath."
"An Oath you screwed on from the start, you fucking djinn!"
"Why get mad now? It’s not like he’s going to find us. He doesn’t have a key. And I thought we already, mmm, pounded out our differences?"
"Why you -"
As much as he hated to admit it, Ferro knew Star was right. He tried taking a few short breaths before sighing. And that was when he noticed a new problem. "Is it... getting hotter?"
"A little, but not uncomfortably so. It almost reminds of the lava outside of Tzal..."
"Well it’s not ’comfortable’ for at all," Ferro looked around. He grabbed Lawre by the wrist and started dragging him deeper in, to the very end of the culvert. It was cooler, but not by much, and by the ti he managed to prop up Lawre, the heat at the back was higher than what it had been near the exit.
Ferro panted as uncomfortable beca unbearable. His fur started to foam with sweat as his instincts tried to make him look for so way out. Reaching for his magic, he tried to condense so water, but it was boiling hot and not of a high enough quantity to produce so kind of shield...
"Star..." he coughed. "I need help."
"I’m not exactly at my peak. Why don’t you just do what you did before when you got away?"
"Not enough water..." He coughed twice.
"Do you need water for it?"
Did he?
Heat, or "thermal energy" as the note-taker in his book called it, was just particles of its dium moving fast. It was always transferring itself, but because of magic, it could be accumulated. Manipulated...
...and maybe sent elsewhere.
As he continued to pant heavily, he raised a hand. He imagined the heat in the air like a series of rapidly moving balls - exactly the way the note taker described - striking each other, slowing with each impact. The spell began to cool the air as heat began to collect above his hand, holding furiously to the image as he gathered and gathered, forming a pocket of air where the air inside would take more heat than was natural from the air outside.
He felt it working, but he still needed to send it elsewhere, and so he aid it straight up and gave the collected, heated air only one outlet.
What left his hand was not just heat, but light as the confinent began to ignite the air with a soft, blue-white glow.
Star rounded on him when he saw this. "Could you not cool off in a way that lead’s Lanoch right to us?"
"Gotta aim out," Ferro said between pants. "Or I’m gonna... I’m gonna -"
He lost his concentration and the spell faltered. Blacking out for just a second, he saw the world sideways and realized he’d fallen over.
It was too late.
The heat had built too rapidly, and he realized that the pain he was now feeling on his hands was the burning off of his fur.
It beca hard for him to hear anything, and keeping his eyes opened was growing painful.
He blinked, and saw that Star had his back turned, and was gesticulating up the hall. The reason why beca apparent as a pair of dark figures approached... or perhaps it was one dark figure? Ferro’s vision was getting blurry.
"Stay back! I’m only going to warn you once!" Star shouted as he backed towards Lawre and Ferro.
He saw dark light and heard the sounds of spellcasting as Star began to fight, but the world was getting dark, except for the falling sparks.
Raising his arm, he blindly cast a single spell. A bolt of mana, as simple as he could make it. If he’d known that he hit his mark, he would have felt despair at seeing the spell break uselessly against their body. But the world was going away, and taking him with it.
And then he blinked, and the world was gone.
In the mont just before Ferro lost consciousness, he thought he felt... cold.
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