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Last of The Fae Chapter 119: Garden Snake Pt. 2
🕑 Added 2025-02-20 03:47:23 +0000 UTCHarry and Ron ducked throwing up their robes to shield themselves from the flying dirt and rocks as Thane's staff erupted from the earth.
When the flurry of activity died down Harry and Ron peaked out from behind their robes and stared at Thane who stood holding a massive staff in hand. Seven feet of dark brown wood scored with veins of glowing green sap and silver metallic silver streaks that wrapped around the entire weapon.
"What in the bloody hell is that?" Ron asked his voice barely above a whisper staring at the staff in Thane's hand. The glowing sap pulsed with a steady rhythmic pattern like a heartbeat, but instead of pumping blood, a powerful aura rolled off the artifact in waves.
In an instant the staff's presence filled the entire bathroom, sweeping over Ron and Harry who froze as their souls tried to decipher the ancient essence that brushed against them.
The aura wasn't domineering, though it was far from passive. There was the promise of life, renewal, and rebirth, but also the threat of death, destruction, and chaos. The essence of nature where every living thing existed in harmonious balance each as a cog of a grand system. But also the duality of that same system which flourished with the decaying bodies of those who had lost the ultimate test of survival of the fittest.
That was what the staff represented it possessed the ability to grant and take away life. However, this embodiment of nature wasn't controlled by natural processes as the result of countless millennia of evolution. No, it was clear, judging from how the staff's aura wrapped around Thane like a cloak, that it had a master, whose orders it would follow.
When it came to bestowing the staff's blessings or directing its wrath, Thane would be the judge, jury, and if needed executioner.
"Because your sister is involved, Ron. I will allow you and Harry and accompany me in the Chamber, but let me be clear," Thane started talking in a low voice before he glanced over his shoulder at the two boys his emerald eyes glowing, "When I say run, you need to run."
Thane turned back around without waiting for a reply and spoke out loud with a slithering hiss, "Hasssth!"
There was a deep rumbling followed by the sound of two massive stones grinding together, as the center sink sank into the floor revealing a massive spiraling staircase leading down into the bowels of the earth.
Without hesitation, Thane stepped over the edge and plummeted down ignoring the lengthy staircase and entering a free fall. Thane's hair whipped up around him and the ground quickly approached, but he didn't take any action to slow his fall.
Thane hit the bottom with a thud and a slight bend of his knees as the ground beneath him rippled absorbing the impact of the fall.
Rising to his full height Thane stared down the massive stone pipe easily forty feet in diameter that quickly vanished behind a wall of shadow.
Thane waved his free hand summoning a dense cloud of glowing silver mist that rose into the air before spreading along the roof of the pipe pushing back the wall of shadow further and further into the distance.
"Christ mate, a bit of warning before you jump down a massive hole!" Ron cursed as he and Harry arrived at the bottom of the stairs slightly out of breath and panting.
"With you're sister being in potentially mortal danger I thought it was wise to act as quickly as possible," Thane replied before tapping the butt of his staff against the ground causing a wooden platform to emerge from underneath Harry and Ron who flinched and wobbled before steadying themselves.
"Hold on," Thane warned before he suddenly took off at a sprint moving far faster than any human should with Harry and Ron trailing behind him on the platform.
The tunnel continued for several hundred meters until it finally opened into a massive chamber, roughly the size of three football fields. The floor and walls were all covered in stone tiles slick with a thick green slime, most likely due to the high humidity.
The air was warm and stagnant to the point where puddles had formed in the various cracks and divots in the chamber.
However, those details were hardly noticeable when put in the same space as the massive stone snake heads positioned along the back wall of the room with one in the very center being much larger and situated in its mouth was a dark cave opening.
Then there was the still and pale form of Ginny Weasley lying unresponsive in the very middle of the chamber an old book lying a few inches away from her hand open to show its weathered pages were blank.
"Ginny!" Ron shouted running forward to be by his sister's side only for Thane to lower his staff blocking his way forward.
"What are you doing?!" Ron shouted furious as he tried to push the staff aside only to feel a stinging bite that made him flinch back.
"If you haven't forgotten, there's a massive thousand-year-old snake hiding around down here, along with its tamer responsible for kidnapping your sister," Thane answered with a relaxed tone, though his eyes were narrowed in concentration, "Who can stop hiding now...I sensed you the moment I entered."
At first, no one responded to Thane's prompt but then the sound of footsteps echoed out and from the center, snakehead a boy roughly the same age as Thane emerged. His pale face easily reflected the pale green glow from the stagnant pools of water, but his sharp features were contorted into a mask of frustration and unease, "Who are you and why were you able to sense me?"
For a long moment, Thane stared at the stranger, in utter disbelief as he confirmed what his senses were telling him, "So this was your first Horcrux...I must say I'm impressed."
The stranger's face contorted even further and he stared at Thane with visible rage and hatred, "How do you know who I am?!"
"Last year I encountered another fragment of your soul. Though it was possessing one of my professors at the time I wouldn't forget such a rancid aura even if a thousand years passed," Thane replied his disbelief slowly morphing into amusement.
"Thane you can't possibly mean," Harry started as he stared at the stranger with wide eyes as realization dawned upon him.
"Possibly mean what?" Ron asked looking between the three other people in the room, "Could someone tell me what the bloody hell is going on?!"
"He's Voldemort, Ron!" Harry exclaimed as he turned to his friend, "Or more accurately Tom Riddle!"
"DON'T YOU DARE REFER TO ME BY THAT NAME!" The disembodied soul shouted unleashing its aura that attempted to press down on Harry and Ron, but Thane batted the flimsy magic aside with a wave of his hand.
"I have to say I'm rather disappointed," Thane muttered as he stared at Voldemort, "Had I known it was only mere echo responsible for unleashing the Baskilisk I would have acted much sooner."
Voldemort turned his fury towards Thane but deep within his eyes there was a seed of uncertainty, "Silence! All of you are beneath me, and nothing will stop me from purging Hogwarts of every last worthless Mudblood!"
Voldemort then turned around and faced the cave opening raising his hands into the air as he began to speak in tounges, "Sssshall hasssth nathhh’sskirrr, sssilthh nasss’kar hissss Heirrr!"
The echo of Voldemort's demand was answered by an even louder hiss and Thane watched as from within the cave a massive creature emerged.
