The next morning we move on from Moonhaven and push into the wilderness once again. The forest trees are thick here, and a roaring river cuts through the landscape below. A gentle breeze rustles the leaves, and birds sing merrily from branch to branch overhead. Nature is here in abundance. It's a peaceful setting, one that could relax even the most weary of traveler.
But as we push ahead, there's a sudden disturbance in the atmosphere. The tranquility is replaced by voices in the distance, jagged, ripping through the stillness of the air. Two voices wailing, sobbing, pleading. Down the trail, not much farther ahead, we discover the source of it.
Two people, a man and a woman, hunched over the body of an injured dwarf. The dwarf lies on the ground in a pool of his own blood, barely conscious.
"You're a True Soul," the woman pleads. "You can't die. Please stay with us."
"I don't think he's conscious," the man says, his voice shaking. "Can you hear us, Ed?"
As we come upon the scene, the man and woman notice our presence, and rise to face us.
"You," the woman warns us. "Not a step closer."
Her eyes meet mine, a threat flashing behind them. But as our gazes lock on to each other, a symbol emblazons itself on skin around her eye. I recognize it as the same symbol that appeared over the goblin's eye back at the blighted village. As as the symbol glows, I feel power coursing through me. Authority.
"I will go where I wish," I say, trying out the parasite's power again.
The woman reacts to it. The warning in her eyes dissipates, replaced with realization... then sorrow. "I"m so, so sorry," she says. "It's our brother - True Soul Edowin. He's injured, and I... I wasn't thinking."
My blood runs quicker in response to the command, feeling the gnawing absence at the center of my mind. The injured man on the ground locks eyes with me. The parasite in my head writhes. As I holdh is stare, our minds intertwine. I see his siblings, the man and woman by his side - Andrick and Bynna. New recruits. Mine to shepherd."
Protect them, Edowin projects the words into my mind.
And then, out loud to his siblings, he tries to speak, but his voice is weak and faltering. "Mind the True Soul," he instructs them, referring to me. "She will - she - she..."
His life fades as his lungs push out the last breath of air. And then he is gone.
"Edowin!" The man named Andrick cries. "Ed! Please!"
"He's gone..." Brynna says, her voice hollow and empty. "He's with the Absolute now."
The two bow their heads in brief silence before turning to me.
"A True Soul," Andrick says, the pain in his voice painted with relief. "Thank the Absolute. Edowin, our brother - he was chosen. Like you."
"Do you have orders for us?" Brynna asks. "We were reporting to Edowin."
"True Soul?" I ask, my mind still buzzing with confusion. Maybe now is my chance to get answers.
"What...?" Andrick asks, dumbfounded. "Are you... are you testing us?"
"A True Soul - like you," Brynna explains, "has been chosen by the Absolute. You speak with her voice. Your words are her command. She grants you the power to enforce her will. And when the time comes, the True Souls - you - will rule."
"Please," Shadowheart mutters. "Any supposed new god would have an uphill battle."
I ignore her comment, continuing my questioning. "What happened to your brother, exactly?"
"We were looking for fugitives," Andrick says sadly. "Survivors from that ship that crashed farther east of here. But instead of them, Edowin found an owlbear. An angry one. We managed to drag him away, but the beast's claws had already done their work. I told Edowin not to look in that cave - it was filthy with owlbear tracks... Maybe we should... Maybe we should go back there and-"
"Forget the owlbear," I say. "You're still alive. So go. Get to safety."
"And just... leave Ed? I suppose... I suppose he'd want us to go on - find a way to honor his sacrifice."
Brynna nods in agreement. "May the Absolute guide us," she says, and with that she and her brother take off down the trail, supposedly in search of their next calling from whoever this Absolute is.
Once they are gone, I turn back to the body - Edowin. He was special like us - someone this new Absolute cult calls a True Soul, someone who has control over the tadpoles in their brains - has the ability to command them.
A strange power resonates from within the corpse. It calls to me. Most corpses have felt like toys before me from what I can remember. Things to be played with and discarded when I tire of them. But this body seems different. A friend calls out from inside the corpse, desperate to be freed. Another tadpole.
I feel my arm move almost of its own accord, a strange power courses through me, and with this power I lift the dead dwarf's body from the ground, his limbs hanging lifelessy in the air like a rag dolls'.
Why let the hosts' memories go to waste? His tadpole has absorbed it all. Its experiences could nourish me. Strengthen me. The tadpole in my mind beckons to the one in his, embracing the desire to commune with the other tadpole.
My companions look on, eyes wide, a mixture of horror and intrigue shuffling through them as the power inside me - the illithid power from my tadpole, wills Edowin's tadpole to break free. The wriggling little parasite, like a tiny worm, floats out from behind his dead eye and levitates in the air before me. I'm just as surprised as everyone else when the tadpole floats toward me, and I am able to grab it form out of the air.
There, Edowin's tadpole sits in the palm of my hand, it's little black eyes staring up at me. The tadpole in my mind resonates with it. I can't seem to find it in me to discard it. Maybe... maybe I'll need it later.
"We.... we can do that!?" Astarion exclaims, his surprise and excitement ricocheting off the quiet, rolling hills around us.
"I don't like it - Gale frowns. "You should destroy that thing."
Shadowheart nods in agreement, but I'm not so sure.
"I think we should keep it," I say, pulling out an empty water jar from my pack and placing the tadpole inside. "It could be useful. Maybe we can have someone study it... learn more about it."
Gale doesn't sound convinced, but he goes along with it for now. "Perhaps... But we need to keep a close eye on it. We don't know what it might be capable of."
It try to tell myself that that's the only reason I'm keeping Edowin's tadpole... for research. But something deeper inside of me beckons to its call - yearns to figure out what this thing is capable of doing. If it, indeed, it can do what it promised it could do when it connected with my tadpole... if it can give me strength... enough strength to pull me out of my Dark Urge's clutches.
It's a tempting thought... but a dangerous one.
---
As we sit around the campfire that night, I can still feel the weight of Edowin's tadpole sitting in my pack, bending my mind toward it - making me conscious of its presence in the jar. I try to fight it, hugging my knees close to my chin, keeping my eyes focused on the flickering flames that dance along the log in the campfire.
True Soul. Absolute. These are terms that, until just recently, I'd never heard. A new cult revolving around these things - these parasites. And us - the special ones - the chosen ones... the 'True Souls' are in control of their power. But... who controls us? This diety... this thing called the Absolute... it's dangerous. But it promises power. Power that even tempted me. Power that tempts Astarion, even now.
From the very beginning, Astarion didn't seek to rid himself of the tadpoles. He simply wanted to learn how to control it - how to control its power. At first I assumed he was just another power-hungry noble seeking new possibilities to extort and exploit power, but after today, I'm not so sure. What if he is like me... tempted, even if only for a moment, to use its power to gain freedom. The possibility, no matter how slim, of using it to free myself from the Dark Urge... what if he felt the same about using it to free himself from the clutches of his master?
Without the tadpole, Astarion would be a slave once more, forced to obey his vampire lord's every command... unable to walk in the sunlight anymore he'd be forced to live in shadows once again- forced to drink blood from the bodies of diseased rats... Astarion isn't just power-hungry... more than that, he just wants to be free. Well and truly free.
As I silently watch him walk out of camp, stalking toward the wilderness on another nightly hunt for blood, I realize that I am beginning to see him in an new light. He's not just a shallow, flirtatious magistrate from the city. He's so much more complex than his outward exterior allows us to see. Deep inside, he must feel so frightened... so alone.
My heart aches for him as I watch him disappear into the shadows of the forest, looking so hungry. So eager for his next meal.
While everyone else is looking for a way to get rid of the parasite as soon as possible, Astarion is looking for a way to let this new-found freedom last as long as possible. I'm suddenly flooded with an overwhelming sense of protectiveness. I want to help him in any way that I can. For as long as I can before the Dark Urge comes to consume me... whenever that might be.