Chapter Text
The scent of acrid, burning flesh assaulted Shadowheart’s senses before her eyes even opened.
The memories of the past several hours flooded her mind – a veritable swarm of meaningless words and images as she worked to gather herself. One image in particular flashed in her mind’s eye: the wriggling, alien tadpole coming closer and closer until its parasitic body crawled into her socket and nestled itself in her brain against her will.
Hells…
Shadowheart groaned as her head throbbed in the presence of its new inhabitant and her muscles ached as she tried to get off the ground. Her eyes finally adjusted to her surroundings and panic started to well up in her chest.
Fire. It’s burning!
The nautiloid resembled the fires of Avernus, searing heat pressing in on her from all angles and smoke billowing out from holes in the walls of the Mind-Flayer ship. More images flashed in rapid succession now: red dragons surrounding the ship, their riders directing the beasts to burn it to ash. Shadowheart felt her blood run cold despite the flames.
The Githyanki. They’re here for me.
At that thought, her hand went to the pouch sitting on her hip, feeling for the reason she was here in the first place. The artefact she was to retrieve and return, as a special mission for her Lady Shar. She was the last surviving member of the band of Sharites sent to retrieve it and they had only just succeeded in stealing it from the Githyanki. The cleric did not know what this artefact was to her Goddess, but whatever it was, the Githyanki were hell bent on getting it back. More memories started to flood her mind as her feet steadied and her eyes landed on an empty Mind-Flayer pod. She wasn’t the only victim on this ship. She recalled seeing a pale elf, a human draped in purple robes, and…a Githyanki woman donning armor. Was she here for Shadowheart and had gotten captured by the Mind-Flayers instead?
Regardless of the answer to that question, they were probably dead and her priority needed to be getting this artefact to Mother Superior. She would prove to Lady Shar she was worthy or die trying. Shadowheart willed her legs forward, stepping carefully as the ship lurched and tumbled. She strained her eyes and ears for anything remotely familiar as she stepped through a door that can only be described as a sphincter. This new room wasn’t as hot and the smoke wasn’t as dense as the last, giving her a chance to survey it. She spied a Mind-Flayer, its body broken and eyes empty, clearly dead. As she prepared to approach it she heard- no, felt , a voice.
“ Help Us. Free Us.”
This voice penetrated her very thoughts as it pleaded for her to rescue it. This newfound mental violation she likened to the presence of her new Illithid interloper. Shadowheart knew time was of the essence, she knew that Mother Superior would chastise her for it, but her curiosity got the better of her. She did not know what “it” was, but if it was something she could save, should she not try? Its pleading, high pitched cries guided her closer until she was face-to-face with what she assumed was the nautiloid version of an elevator. There were no buttons, no magic, just a blank red plate perched on a stalk of some sort of black alien metal. Before she even had a chance to think about what to do, her parasite wiggled in some sort of recognition and she felt a new sensation as she placed her palm on the red plate. It hawed and hummed before beginning to lurch up and forward, clearly accepting Shadowheart.
It wasn’t a long ride, and as soon as it slowed to a stop, Shadowheart’s eyes landed upon what appeared to be an elf corpse. She took tentative steps forward, preparing for it to rise and attack her.
“Help Us.”
That voice, the whole reason she was here to begin with, echoed again, louder, closer, and more desperately than before. That voice was coming from the corpse and as she flanked it, she realized what was speaking to her. She peered through narrowed eyes at a pink mass wriggling inside the man’s skull. It seemed to be struggling to get free of its skull prison and had recruited Shadowheart to aid it. A few more steps and she was standing in front of “it.”
“You’re here! Help Us! We must get to the helm! Free Us!”
Desperation mingled with hope now, hope that Shadowheart would free it. She recalled sitting with the other recruits for this mission, reading on Illithids as Mother Superior instructed. One of the books detailed an Illithid creature known as an “Intellect Devourer.” The Intellect Devourer wore the visage of a brain but was not as feeble and soft as it appeared to be. They were under control of the Mind-Flayers, at least, according to the literature.
“Free Us! We must get to the helm!”
“What’s at the helm?” Shadowheart cringed as she flexed a muscle she had never used before in reaching back out to this creature through their mental connection.
“It calls to Us. We must go to the helm.”
Shadowheart paused and stared at the trapped creature. She sensed no hostility from it, but feared what would happen if it were free. She noticed the edema pressing the creature into the skull with such force it could not budge. She could kill it here and move on or…she could free it. It looked pathetic trapped here, waiting for help that shouldn’t have come. Yet here she is, and some recesses of her truly wanted to free it. This act would have lit her hand ablaze if they were anywhere else, Lady Shar punishing her for her weakness.
However, here, on this ship, the Lady of Loss couldn’t be found. All she had was the artefact and her devotion and so, she would help this creature. She felt around for any space she could get her fingers in without hurting it. Finally, at the back of the skull, she felt a small fracture…one that could become much larger with some well applied force. Deft hands broke off pieces of the skull from the back, giving the creature a chance to gather force and propel its fleshy body out and onto the ground with a loud PLOP .
The cleric watched with a mixture of amusement and disgust as the creature trembled, its body sprouting reptilian limbs and spikes erupted from its central fissure. The pink, fleshy-colored creature now looked blue-green and quite fearsome, every bit the book she had studied described them to be. Tendrils whipped around it as it felt out its new appendages. It had no eyes, at least none she could see, but it turned towards her.
“ Thank you! Oh thank you!”
“What is your name?”
“Us. You may call us Us.”
“Okay. Why do we need to get to the helm?”
“It calls to Us!”
With that brief exchange, Shadowheart felt that perhaps this little creature was her best bet for surviving this hellscape. She didn’t know where this helm was, but it seemed to. She may not have been a ship captain, but the helm sounded like an important place to be, perhaps the only way she was getting off this thing. With that, the unlikely duo embarked forward, Us moving at a pace that could only be described as “excited.” They reached a room where a hole had been blasted clean through the wall of the ship. The outside was a murky haze of maroon and ashen grey; if there were stars in whatever foreign sky this was, there was no hope of seeing them. Outside this hole, a rudimentary path heralded the duo forward, into a new uncertainty. Shadowheart paused, anxiety creeping up and nestling in her chest. If the ship rocked or a force knocked it, she could be launched clean off into the sky and to her death. However, there was no alternative. So, she moved, one step forward at a time, through the blast hole and into the open air.
So far, so good. The path was wider than it looked from the inside and the ship’s rocking was almost rhythmic, enough for her to brace for each impact. That was, until a red dragon soared overhead, the torrent of wind kicked up by its wings enough to force Shadowheart to whisper a silent prayer to her Goddess in the event she was to fail her mission and fall to her death. However, the threat passed just as soon as it appeared, and she sighed.
The Gith are still here. They’re still looking.
With her eyes turned towards the sky, wondering what in the world this artefact could be for the Gith dragon riders to be hunting it, she didn’t pick up on the presence sneaking up behind her. A thud behind Shadowheart forced her to whirl around, her right hand prepared to cast at this unexpected adversary. The cleric’s eyes widened as she took in the thing standing just a meter or so from herself. Polished, silver armor studded with red gems reflected the fires burning in the ship behind them, brilliant flickers of orange and red interrupting the smooth lines of the steel. Its arms were outstretched, and, in both hands, it held a large sword, one larger than Shadowheart could ever hope to wield effectively. The point of the sword was cast skyward, a threat more than anything else, a promise that any mistake on Shadowheart’s part would result in her skull being separated from her body. Finally, its face- no, her face, was simultaneously alien and enchanting. Her eyes were golden with a slit pupil that burned straight into Shadowheart’s own. Dark makeup accentuated her harsh features and the Gith’s mouth was set into a grimace. Long, pointed ears added to her decidedly alien appearance and her small, upturned nose gave Shadowheart the impression of a bat. Her hair was held back in a slightly sloppy bun, with the rest falling at her sides in auburn braids and cascades that were almost delicate and out of place on a creature that exuded so much hostility. There was no mistaking that this was the Gith that Shadowheart had recalled seeing when she woke up what felt like hours ago.
“ Ghaik! I saw you on the ship before the attack!” The Gith’s voice was a resonant growl, sheer malice leaving her lips.
Shadowheart did not even have time to respond before it felt like her head was being simultaneously smothered and violently invaded. Her parasite seemed to reel with joy in the presence of this Gith and she started to see… herself.
I’m looking through her eyes.
Shadowheart took in her appearance: battered and covered in soot. She felt the Gith’s hostility elevate further as her eyes took in Us, for she knew what these Intellect Devourers were to the Mind-Flayers. This connection between the two women lasted but a moment longer before they were rubber-banded back to their respective minds, the connection cut.
The Githyanki was the first to speak, her voice apprehensive, but betraying no sense of fear, “I see. So you’re like me. If we want to get these ghaik parasites out of our heads, we should work together and find a way off of this ship. You may call me Lae’zel.”
“Shadowheart. Very well, you may well be right.”
Shadowheart resisted the urge to reach for her artefact. She did not know if this was one of the Gith hunting for it, but she did not want to find out.
“Why do you travel with that…thing,” Lae’zels disgust evident.
Lae’zel glanced down at Us, but the hostility Shadowheart felt through the mind connection was not present in her words or body language. Perhaps she had seen how the cleric had “rescued” Us.
“It has promised to guide me to the helm, though I’m not sure what is waiting there,” she answered honestly, she felt no reason to lie to this Lae’zel.
Lae’zel nodded, seemingly satisfied with the simple answer, “Let us push onward then.”
With that, the trio trekked further. They deftly crossed the exposed pathway before ending up in another section of the nautiloid. The fires that had raged in the previous section were greatly subdued here and portions of the Illithid architecture were intact. The survey of this new room was rather grim: two people lay unconscious on chairs with their bodies bound down. Next to these bodies was a set of buttons set into some strange machinery. Much like the elevator from before, these buttons meant nothing and there was no label under either. However, unlike the elevator, Shadowheart did not get a response from her parasite, nothing telling her what these buttons do.
“Don’t touch anything. Focus on getting to the helm,” Lae’zel directed while stepping past the contraption, preparing to move onto the next room and continue their journey.
This irked Shadowheart. She had only just met her, and she was trying to give her orders? Sure, she was probably right and it was better to just ignore this whole scenario and move on, but Shadowheart wasn’t going to let her walk all over her. With these thoughts, she reached forward and pressed the button on the right. The bound bodies jolted, trembled, and then fell into the stillness of death.
“ Istik! Fool! I told you not to do that!” The warrior’s eyes glared directly into Shadowheart’s, willing her to step down and apologize. The hostility from before was coming off of her in waves now and Shadowheart wondered if perhaps she was going to abandon her, or even kill her here, where these nameless bodies now lay.
“I just wanted to see what would happen.” Which was a partial truth. Maybe not so much the whole truth but she was not going to admit to a hostile stranger that she didn’t like to be ordered around. She was devoted to Lady Shar, nobody else had that authority.
“Don’t do that again. Next time I will not be so patient.” This was a promise, Shadowheart knew. Lae’zel was practically snarling, her lips pulled slightly back in an animalistic expression. Shadowheart said nothing but walked onward with Us at her legs.
“The helm!! We’re almost at the helm!”
At this, both Shadowheart and Lae’zel picked up the pace. Whatever was at this helm was the best chance they had at getting down to the ground. Us rushed through a final sphincter and Shadowheart gasped at the scene before her. There was a single Mind-Flayer locked in combat with what appeared to be a…Devil?
Well that’s just another mystery now isn’t it?
Why was there a devil here? Better yet, why was there not only a devil, but several devil spawn? Where were they? Shadowheart did not have time to ponder these questions for long before Us sprung forward and the occupied Mind-Flayer reached out to them through the tadpoles.
“Get to the helm. Don’t worry about this, I will take care of it. You must get to the helm.”
He seemed to be under the impression that the three of them were under Mind-Flayer control. Shadowheart took a quick glance at Lae’zel and could see that the Githyanki was resisting the urge to join the fight and kill the Mind-Flayer. The cleric didn’t need to read her thoughts to know that she was struggling with the choice between staying alive and killing this Illithid. Shadowheart did not know well the history of the Gith and the Illithids, but she knew it was a long blood-soaked history. This brief train of thought did not last long as Us lunged forward towards one of the flying imps. Its large claws struck the imp and blood sprayed from the creature as a hellish scream escaped its lips. The imp crawled on the ground, its tattered wings no longer suitable for flight. As it reached out to strike back at Us, a large sword came down and cleaved its body in two. Lae’zel stood over its corpse, her face spattered with its red blood. There was an expression on her face resembling something wild, something primitive.
Shadowheart concentrated on what remained ahead. A hellboar, a few more imps, and then the control panel just past them. She was certainly no warrior, but she could hold her own, and she refused to look lesser in front of this Gith. The cleric positioned her hands and murmured her practiced words. A gold ray of light formed between her fingertips and with a final yell, she cast the bolt forward. The hellboar cried out as the bolt found its target, its body burning with radiant energy. It stumbled forward, preparing to retaliate, its rage evident in its hearty cries of pain. Just before it rushed, its voice was cut off as steel sliced cleanly through its neck. Lae’zel’s weapon dripped with the creature’s blood, her armor no longer just red from jewel inlays. She cast a look towards Shadowheart and yelled with a demanding, “Forward! Get to the controls istik! ”
Us was behind her, dueling with another imp. The walking brain had been seared by bolts of fire, but seemed unphased as it continued its assault. To the left, the Mind-Flayer kept the Devil occupied. He had taken damage though and it did not take a cleric to see that he would not last much longer in the battle. Shadowheart realized that the best she could do for everyone was to just move. She sprinted forward, covering as much ground as she could before coming face-to-face with another set of imps between her and the controls. Freedom felt so close, so tangible, and yet so far away. Lae’zel and Us came up beside her, brandishing their respective weapons and threw themselves at their adversaries. These distractions gave Shadowheart the opening she needed to reach the control panel.
“Connect the tentacles!” rang a voice in her head. She realized it was the Mind-Flayer and turned around. The creature was on the ground, looking directly at her, willing her to do what it bade. The Devil was grinning above it, a great axe pulled back behind its head as it prepared to deliver a final blow. Shadowheart realized it was now or never and began to try connecting the dozens of tentacles. What sort of control panel was this? What species would make something so inconvenient? Her hands fumbled each tentacle, desperately trying to get them to connect to each other. This was not an intuitive process and she felt that their time was quickly running out.
“ What is taking so long?!” yelled Lae’zel from just behind her. She was coming to her side now, Us close behind.
“Look, this isn’t exactly self-explanatory! Have you ever connected Mind-Flayer tentacles?” Shadowheart retorted, not looking away from her task.
“Let Us help!” chimed the familiar voice in her head.
Why hadn’t she thought of that at first? Of course the Intellect Devourer would have a much better understanding of Illithid machinery than herself. Just as she was about to step back, a massive red dragon flew across their vision. Its rider seemed to glimpse the battle and circled back, flying the dragon to face the helm of the ship.
“Vlaakith’s Knights…” came Lae’zel’s voice through the beating of the dragon’s wings. There was a reverence in the tone that Shadowheart was well acquainted with, one that she spoke when praising her Lady Shar. She would get the chance to pray to her Goddess soon enough as the dragon opened its maw. Its throat started to glow, first yellow, then orange, as the flames from the depths of its bowels crawled up. The torrent of fire that poured out blinded Shadowheart and she felt the ship lurch with the impact of its hit. Her shoulder hit the floor of the ship and her hands groped for anything to grab, but it was in vain. She slid further, tumbling hard as the right side of the helm was blasted clean away. The ship was falling apart now and there was nothing she could do.
Lady Shar…forgive me.
She felt for the artefact, giving it a final squeeze just before a piece of debris knocked her unconscious.
Shadowheart slid over the side and into the night sky, her body falling rapidly towards the ground. Yet, just before making contact, she was held in stasis, floating with her head mere centimeters from the sand. Whatever benevolent force had saved her then laid the unconscious Shadowheart down gently on the beach. The nautiloid came crashing down around her, marring the natural landscape with its alien features.
The cleric was unconscious, but not dead, and soon the sun would rise.