"Ah! Wonderful, more friends to join us in fight!" She motioned to the front doors that they had kicked in "today, Kethric Thorn finally knows what death feels like."
"Sounds good," I smiled as we all headed in. They already had taken down half the people in the main hall.
The orc woman narrowed her eyes at me, "you! What are you doing with them?! You serve The Absolute!"
I mistystepped to her, my dagger already drawn slashing at her, "I serve no one," I growled at her.
She swing and I dodged, "tsk, how disappointing." She was strong and was able to cancel out any spell I tried to throw her way. But I was faster with my dagger than her. I was able to puncture a lung and make her bleed to death.
We secured the main floor, clearing out everyone. The white haired elf spoke to us by the stairs. "We have this floor, you should find Kethric in one of the floors above."
"You should join us" I smiled at her, "I think you want him dead more than anyone else." She nodded, "perfect, up we go!" We went up a floor, there were only a few people so it was easy to clear. They all seemed to be guarding an office, blocked by a large licked door. "My love, would you be so kind?"
He smiled and nodded as he began to pick the lock, "I still love hearing you say that," he said quietly. After a moment we all heard the click of the lock, the door swong open. "Voi la! We're in!" We all entered a study. Books overflowed the many shelves. I was reading some of the titles and grabbing a few for me to read at camp.
Gale was staring at one bookcase in particular. I went over to him, "something wrong friend?"
"Somethings off about these shelves. They open, question is how."
"It's a castle, you probably have to pull a certain book." Astarion joined us looking at the books.
"Should we just start pulling?" I grabbed a book and yanked it.
"NOO!" They shouted in unison as a strange offering bowl appeared next to the shelves. "Are you mad my dear? That could have killed us!" Gale yelled at me.
"Well, it didn't." I went to the bowl looking at the small writing allong the rim. I looked around, "what would Thorn sacrifice?" I pondered out loud before my eyes landed on a dead body on the ground. I went to examine it and saw the in tact, but cut out heart. I reached in and gently grabbed it, "here we go!" The party looked disgusted with me but Astarion smiled and nodded in approval as I placed the heart in the bowl, the noise of clanking gears filled the room as the two bookcases swung open. We entered and were shocked at the corpse of a mindflare tied down to a table. Diagrams and notes written on papers pinned to the walls.
"What in the seven hells was he doing?" Astarion asked out loud breaking the silence.
"Oak Father Preserve us, this is where your tadpoles were changed. I can feel the twisted magic." Halsin picked up a tadpole in a jar and showed us. It was a dead version of the same tadpoles that the camp leaders had.
"So he was the one experimenting on the tadpoles." I took a closer look at the illithid. "But why? Was it really all for just some god?"
"If one is devoted enough, they'll do anything for their God or Goddess." Shadowheart said softly. "But how do we put a stop to this?"
"We kill the source. We kill Thorn." We heard the sounds of thumping on the floor above us. "That must be him."
"Well, let's go get the bastard." Astarion twirled his dagger in hand as we made our way out of the study and up the stairs onto the roof. The Nightsong stood in the middle of the opening, Kathric Thorn was looking down on us from a landing. Cloaked skeletons lined the side walls. His eyes narrowed at us, more specifically at me.
"You!" His voice cut through the air like a knife. The tadpole in my head screamed, bringing me down to my knees as I clutched my head. "You were supposed to obey The Absolute, obey me. Instead you defy us both! How dare you!"
"I!" I yelled back with a shaky breath as I threw both hands out, covering the floor where the skeletons stood with spikes, "obey" I shakily got back onto my feet as I looked him in the eyes, "no one!"
"Then you will die tonight, fallen soul."
"Death can have me, when he earns me." I gritted as the Nightsong launched her attack, I mistystepped to be right beside her. The party took care of the skeletons as the Nightsong fought Kethric Thorn. I took care of his skeletal dog before joining the fight against Thorn.
"This is impossible. I'm immortal! You can't be killing me!" He backed away from us, afraid.
"I'm free now Kethric!" Nightsong raised her wings and weapon, "which means you can, and will die!"
The castle shook, parts of its towers cracked and fell off as a large tentacle slammed onto the ground between us and Thorn. He grabbed onto it and was pulled back with the tentacles as it retracted into the casm it came from.
"What the hells was that?!" Someone shouted as my legs buckled, I fell to the ground. The tadpole in my head going crazy.
Astarion rushed over to me, "what's wrong? Are you hurt?"
"My tadpole, it's on the fritz. My body feels completely drained." He put one of my arms over his shoulder as he held my side, I leaned onto him as we walked. "Thanks," I smiled at him.
He rolled his eyes smiling back, "death hasn't earned you yet darling. Let's get you somewhere safe."
"Shouldn't we follow him down?!" Lay'zel said almost ready to jump.
"(F/N) just needs a little rest, then I'm sure we'll all be in the best shape to go down. We can spare a moment." Halsin assured her as we decended the stairs to the main hall.
We found a bench still in tact, Astarion helped me sit down on it as people talked amongst themselves. Gale handed ne a water jug, I drank from it as some friends approached.
The elven woman looked pissed, "he got away for now, but soon he will be ours."
The woman who gave us the moon blessing smiled at us, the Nightsong at her side, "I can't thank you enough for saving my love! She's free at last!"
"Yes, take some time to rest although I recommend going upstairs, it's lively down here. I will go with you to finish Kethric once and for all at your word." She gave us a nod before smiling at her lover as they went off hand in hand.
"A rest sounds good." We got up and headed up to the first floor, finding a good spot for us to sit, I put my head on Astarions shoulder, he stroked my hair.
"I.." he sighed, "I need to thank you." I sat up and looked at him.
"For what?"
"For what you said, to that vile drow. I spent soo long doing whatever he wanted, my feelings and wants be damned! You could have easily made me do it, bite her and be done with it....but you didn't."
I put my hand on his cheek, "you will never have to do anything you don't want to do. You are your own person Astarion."
He leaned in and kissed me making us both smile, "thank you treasure. Now rest that pretty little head of yours." I snuggled up against him and closed my eyes, the tadpole finally calmed down.
-------
The party stared at the sleeping leader, after a while Gale was the one who finally broke the silence, speaking softly as to not wake her.
"Are we sure she's going to be alright? Her magic levels have been all over the place."
"Yeah, so has her personality. First she shuts herself off, flinching at every touch. Then she's literally jumping into the middle of battle. And that song? I thought I was a child of darkness." Shadowheart moved her bangs out of her face.
"She's been through quite a lot it seems. I'm sure she's dealing with it in her own way, the best she can." Halsin smiled at her. "I can tell deep down shes still the same caring person that I first met at the Cove."
"She just needs time." Astarion sighed, "at least now she won't die on us." He rested his head on hers, he didn't like showing his soft side to the party, but wanted to be at her side, feel her skin on his so badly just to make sure she was okay. That she was still there with him. No one said anything fir a while as she rested. The castle was quiet for the time being.
------
I awoke the the ground shaking again. Causing me to nearly fall onto the floor. "Woah!" We all cried as we kept our balance.
"Guess that's our cue," I stretched as we all got up.
"You sure you're alright?" They asked me.
"Yeah, I think it was more the tadpole than anything. Let's go get the Nightsong and see what awaits us at the bottom of that hole." I grabbed my dagger as we got a few extra hands to fight with us and we all stood around the entrance to the hole. A red glow awaited at the bottom. I casted feather fall on us as we jumped down.
"What in the hells--" I began as I landed first, looking around.
"Are....are we?" Astarion questioned.
"In a Mindflare hive? It sure looks like it." Gale sighed as we looked around.
"Why...how is this down here?" Halsin asked. We found more pods like the ship we were originally in.
"We sure have come a long way." I said softly, placing my hand on an empty pod. A souless me was in one of these. She began an incredible adventure and made great friends. I stole a glance at Astarion. We found an incredible partner. His eyes drifted and found mine making me look away blushing. I could tell he had a grin on his face. We continued onwards, finding unhatched eggs. Beyond that there was a closed hatched. We walked up to it, I reached my hand out, using my parasite to command it open.
There were others behind the hatch, a woman looking at her papers before looking at us, "oh great, you finally arrived. Your patrol is over there," she pointed to the left, "if you mess up, I will not be blamed."
"We won't mess up maam!" I smiled at her as I waved for the party to follow me as we followed the path that led us straight to Thorn...and others? We ducked behind a ledge and watched them interact. The 3 chosen ones the parasite told us about so long ago. This was them. A man with black hair, Thorn, and a drow woman who aperantly was a follower of Baahl. They talked of moving their army to attack Balders Gate since Moonrise fell. They began a chant that summoned, a literal giant brain that had a small crown on top. Gems glowed on all three of them as they commanded the brain to gather the soldiers and launch the attack on the city as the black haired one and the woman left with it.
Gale turned a little green, "how, how is that possible?"
Thorn turned towards us, "you can come out. You were stupid enough to follow me, but smart enough to hide from the others."
The night song swooped in to attack but he got her in another trap, one like Balthazar had her in. Ghost like chains wrapped around her legs and arms holding her in place.
Without a word I went after the nightsong, Astarion watching my back as the rest of the party attacked Thorn at the same time. All attacks were useless until I got her free, I grabbed the chains and ripped them off of her. "Thank you"
"Always" I smiled at her as she launched herself to Thorn.
"Always such a hero" Astarion teased pretending to swoon.
I stuck my tongue out at him making us both laugh, "Let's just kill the old man already." We joined the others and fought Thorn. He was out of breath and was almost done for before he laughed hysterically.
"You fools! I gave up everything to a God. I traded my soul, my life for that of my daughter. I gave the land for her. I will not let it all end here!" He leaned back and fell into a hole. Greenish yellow light exploded from the hole as a fucking MASSIVE skeleton arose.
"Oh, well, shit" Astarion said as he looked at the skeletal God that towered 20× over us.
"We've got this! Let's work together! Shadowheart, we need blessings, guardians, anything your cleric powers can do. Halsin, we need those bear claws to do some real damage against those bones. Let's throw everything we have!" I conjured flames in my hands as we all got ready.
"Yes maam!" They all said in unison as we launched our attack.
"You could have been more, false soul. I could have given you an army to burn the world down as you so very much desire deep down inside."
"I don't need anything from you. I'll get what I want on my own!" I yelled back as I continued launching attacks at him.
"Pathetic! I am a literal god! You will bow before me!" He waved his hand making my body move against my will. My tadpole screaming in rage in my head being forced to obey. I got down on my hands and knees, I struggled to look up at him as he himself looked weak.
"Even gods...can be killed." I stated as the Nightsong used her sword to stab into him, making the light flicker before going out. The skeleton crumbling into a pile of ash before dissapearing all together. Only leaving behind the large red stone Thorn had on his chestplate.
Get the stone! The parasites screamed as Lay'zel rushed to pick it up. Halsin was at my side quickly to help me back to my feet.
"Are you alright?" He asked me.
I nodded, "I think so. We're no closer to solving our tadpole problem though."
"I'm afraid not. It seems like the fight is being taken to Balders Gate."
"We're going back home. A little ironic isn't it?" Shadowheart commented.
"That city is more trouble than it's worth." Astarion sighed, "but if we must."
"We should really rest before we travel some more. My tadpole is not happy right now."
"Good idea, well need the rest for they days journey that it's gonna take to get there." Gale patted my back.
We traveled back to the Inn so we could have a more comfortable bed to sleep on for the night. Everyone settled in but my parasite was restless, screaming in my head with emotions as I secluded myself to the beach to help get it all out of my system.