Like Starlight and Wine (A Baldur's Gate 3 Astarion x Tav Fanfic)

3. Escape The Nautiloid

Shadowheart, the githyanki, Us and I all make our way to the nearest exit. Once through the door, we are met with apocalypse once more. We are surrounded by the aftermath of battle. Fire. Debris. Destruction.

"We are nearing the helm," the githyanki woman instructs. "Once inside, do as I say."

"Who put you in charge?" Shadowheart spits. "I'll trust my own judgment."

"Kainyank," the githyanki woman curses under her breath. And while I don't understand the word, I'm fairly certain it's nothing nice.

"There's no time for disagreements," I say firmly. "Let's just get to the helm, We can smooth out all of our wrinkles afterward."

The two women reluctantly acquiesce, as I lead the way through the door to the helm. That's when all hell breaks loose. Between the helm, and the corridor where we stand there is a battle that has been raging between the mind flayers and some devils. As we walk in, bodies lay strewn everywhere at our feet, and toward the back of the room, there is a showdown between the last mind flayer and the last devil alive. Besides them, the hand-fulls of devilish imps and hells-boars that litter the room all turn their attentions to us.

The Mind Flayer seems injured but is still standing. And as he wards off the devil's attacks, he turns to us briefly.

"Thrall!" he commands, addressing me. "Connect the nerves on the transponder. We must escape. Now."

"Do it," the githyanki woman says. "We will deal with the ghaik after we escape."

Us shudders with glee. "Connect the nerves!" it says. "We will connect them!"

As the Mind Flayer fends off the devil's attacks, we move in. And at the same time, the hell-creatures move in after us. We don't have time for another fight. We are only moments away from the nautiloid crashing and killing us all. But if these creatures are going to get in the way, I don't mind paving my path with a trail of their blood.

And neither do my new companions, it seems, as they draw their weapons with me, ready to cut down anyone or anything that gets in the way. The imps and the hell-boars all charge at us, and they all die easily by our hands. They are nothing but the devil's grunts. They barely slow us down as we make our way to the front of the helm where the transponder is. And as we approach, out through the front viewing window I see movement. Something large whooshes by us in a blur of red. It's that dragon again, rushing passed the nautiloid. The githyanki woman sees it too.

"Tsk'va! Hurry!" She exclaims. "Before they strike!"

A new wave of panic bubbles low in my stomach, but I work to push it down. There's no time to panic now. I have to hurry before it's too late. Nimbly, my legs lurch forward, and I'm rushing toward the transponder at full speed. Through the haze of adrenaline pounding in my ears, I can barely hear the moment the last mind flayer finally falls by the devil's sword.

"Now it's your turn," the devil calls out to us next. He's behind me now, in hot pursuit, and I know that I won't be strong enough to deal with him if he catches up. I can't fight him. I just have to out run him.

"Throw their corpses in the Styx!" The devil cries behind me, and hear the ringing metal of his sword as it lunges at me, narrowly missing me. I can feel the rush of air at my back as I dodge away just in time.

The transponder is just up ahead. So close. Just within reach. Will I make it?

Moments feel like hours as I reach the transponder. Weird tentacle like appendages flail and flap in the wind. These must be the "nerves" that the mind flayer was talking about. He said to connect them. So, with the devil bearing down on me, and with no prior knowledge of natiloud bio mechanics, I manage to reach forward, grab the correct set of nerves and pull them together. As if they have a mind of their own, they latch on to each other, snapping together and holding fast. Then, they vibrate and pulse with activity.

Just then, the red dragon appears again, poking its head into an opening in the wall. Before I even have time to dodge out of the way, the dragon unhinges its  jaws and sends a blast of fire roaring into the helm. It's hot. Gods, it's so hot. I cry out as heat sears my skin, the force of the blast bowling me over. When the blast lets up, I look toward the helm, and am glad to see that at least the connected "nerves" are still holding fast.

The dragon prepares to breath its fire one last time, aiming it's horrible, jagged maw directly at me. But just before it can turn me into roast meat, the nautiloid suddenly zaps out of existence. The craft, and everyone in it, including me, are teleported to another plane in the blink of an eye. The connected nerves have done their job. But it seems like it's too late. The nautiloid is still crashing. And it will still  crash into whatever plane we've just been zapped to. Thanks to that last breath of fire from the dragon to the helm, we are all going to die anyway.

I try to find something to hold onto as the nautiloid does a barrel roll through the sky. The room tilts and sways, and I claw desperately at the floor as I slide away from it, but I can find nothing to grasp onto. I fly backwards. My spine explodes with pain as I make impact against the wall behind me. Then I'm free falling again as the nautiloid zaps to yet another plane, and begins a spin in the opposite direction. This time I manage to grab hold of the transponder before I'm flung out through a hole in the side of the ship. And there, I cling, as the ship falls through the air.

At this point, I have no idea what's happened to my new companions. I don't know if they've been thrown from the ship, roasted by fire or crushed by flying debris. Or maybe, by some miracle, they are still alive somewhere on this hellish contraption. They have already proven to be survivors. I'm sure they can take care of themselves. Right now, I don't have time to worry about them, I can only worry about myself.

As the nautiloid barrels through the air to its inevitable demise, I notice movement next to me. I turn my head, and find myself looking deep into the eyes of a mind flayer that is also clinging onto the nearest foothold for dear life. I see something besides coldness it this ones eyes. I can't quite read it, but there isn't malice. There isn't calculated coldness. But something... else. Something that sends an ache through the core of my being. Like it's reaching into my soul.

We share that moment, our eyes interlocked, as time seems to stand still. Then, the nautiloid hitches and jerks forward, braking more debris loose. A large object hurls toward me. My skull erupts with an explosion of pain as the object connects with the side of my head, knocking my senses out of me. My hand loses its grip on the transponder and I feel myself tumbling in free fall through the air. This time there is nothing to grab onto, if I could even get my arms to work.

I'm falling. My body, tired, exhausted, overwhelmed, is plummeting to the ground like a rag doll. The nautiloid grows smaller and smaller in the distance as I fall farther away. And I know, when I finally make impact, there is going to be nothing left of me but splatter of gore decorating the dirt below. This is it. This is the end.

The stars in the sky look hauntingly beautiful tonight as I plummet to my death. I try to focus my bleary vision on them. If they are to be the last thing I will see, then I want to drink them in. To study every detail, and commit it all to my memory, however short it will be.

Then I close my eyes, and wait for an impact that never comes. Just before I hit the ground, something stops me abruptly. Similar to the magic that held me down and paralyzed me back in the mind flayer pod, this magic grabs hold of my body, quickly, jarringly, stopping me mid-fall, my head hovering barely a few feet above the ground below. 

Then, as quickly as the magic held me, it's gone, and I tumble the rest of the way, for a not-so-soft landing. Although a fall from a few feet is a much better prospect than a fall from the sky. Whatever just saved me, I am grateful. Or at least, I would be grateful if I wasn't too shocked and exhausted to maintain consciousness. As I lay in the sand, oblivion overtakes me, my eyes growing heavy, shadows growing long across my bleary vision. And then I drift away, drowning in darkness.