EPISODE 7
An uneventful week passed and everyday, Zojikoe insisted on leading the group through the Underdark. He and Dil'andau hadn't had the courage to tell Rose and Ka that they had lost the map given to them by Matron Irrialishe. Zoe was positive, however, that he knew his way to the ice caves...so why bother telling the females about the map?
Unfortunately for Zoe and Dil, things would not go the way they planned them to.
Halfway through the fifth week of their travels, Ka began to experience frequent headaches. The team was often forced to stop their progress in order to let the drowess rest (and sometimes even sleep) in order to be able to continue on as effectively as before...
Hey," Rose prodded gently, plopping down beside Ka; the psionicist was sitting with her back against the cavern wall, her head resting on her forearms. "Are you gonna be okay?" The priestess asked. It was the third time that week that Ka had asked to sit down and rest, and Rose was getting worried. Ka didn't bother to lift up her head.
"I'll be fine." She muttered, her voice muffled by the sleeve of her coat. "My head just...hurts too much to move right now." She closed her eyes and tried her very best to block out the throbbing pain that assaulted her head. The headaches came to her more often now than they had at the beginning of the week; the pain hit her full force and then gradually died down until she was capable of movement again.
"Is there anything I can do?" Rose asked, cocking her head to try to get a look at Ka's face. Dil'andau and Zojikoe, who had been sitting opposite Rose and Ka, tried their very best to remain as quiet as possible. They looked on with concern.
"Are you dying, Ka?" Dil asked all of a sudden, his voice meek. Zoe shot the warrior a dire glare.
"Shut up, Dil," He snapped. "Just shut UP." He rolled his eyes and directed his gaze to Rose's pet panther Slayer; the cat lay by Rose's side, serenely cleaning its forepaws. Even a creature of low intelligence could understand that Ka needed silence... Dil'andau frowned over at the mage.
"I figured that headaches were a bad thing for psionicists!" He retorted at once.
"Yes, but they don't necessarily mean that the psionicist is dying!" Zoe replied caustically. He gave Dil'andau a dull look and turned his attention to his sister.
"Shut up please." Ka moaned from against her forearms, pulling her knees tighter against her chest. Why was she getting these pains all of a sudden...and why did they have to hurt so much? Rose sighed and turned to the two males.
"Zoe, how far are we from these ice caves you were telling me about?" She asked the mage and absent-mindedly began to stroke Slayer's back. Dil and Zoe exchanged a nervous glance and Zoe managed an uncomfortable smile.
"Oh, I'd say about a week or so." He answered vaguely, "Why? Anxious to return home?" He asked with a hint of disappointment. Rose shook her head.
"I was just wondering is all." She looked to Ka, who seemed momentarily dead, and frowned over at Zoe. "Where are we now?" She asked curiously. She hated the fact that she could do nothing about Ka's pain, so she tried to get her mind off of it by changing the subject.
"In the Underdark." Dil interjected, flashing Rose a disarming smile. Rose eyed the warrior idly and returned her attention to Zoe.
"So, where are we?" She repeated. Terribly uncomfortable now, Zoe chewed on his lower lip; why was it that he could never think of something smart to say when he was being questioned by Rose? He opened his mouth to say something vague again when his sister spoke up.
"He lost the map." Ka declared flatly, finally looking up from her arms; she narrowed her eyes at her brother and pursed her lips. "He has no idea where we are." She concluded and dropped her head back down with a groan. Zoe's eyes darted to Rose and he suddenly wished the ground would open up and swallow him whole. The mage thumbed over at Dil'andau.
"He was there too." He tried. "It wasn't just me." Rose's eyes grew wide and she threw her arms out.
"WHAT?!" She shrieked then quieted down when Ka made a whimpering sound. "You lost the map?" She gave the males an evil look and turned away abruptly, running her hands through her hair in an effort to calm herself down. "I thought you knew where we were going, Zoe." She hissed at the mage, returning her smoldering gaze to Zojikoe. Zoe stuttered something unintelligible and gave Dil'andau a furtive glance; the warrior crossed his arms over his chest and smiled, gesturing to Rose with his open hand. Gritting his teeth, the mage faced Rose once more.
"I...well I...I did know where we were going..." He fumbled for the right words to sugarcoat the truth. He was kind of sure that they were headed in the right direction, but he couldn't, for the life of him, be positive about it.
"So we're lost, is that it?" Rose snapped angrily, terribly unimpressed with the situation. She sighed exasperatedly and looked down at Slayer. "We're jammed in the middle of nowhere at the mercy of the Underdark." She shook her head at the hopelessness of it all and flicked her pet's ear playfully, "Maybe I should have stayed in Ched Nasad and let Kirisstind kill me." She grumbled. With an evil grin, Dil'andau raised an eyebrow.
"I could kill you now if you'd like..." He offered in an attempt at ill humor. He lost his smile the second Rose's cold stare came upon him. Zoe sat back and licked his lips.
"Why don't we just turn around and go home?" He suggested. At this remark, Ka's head jerked up and her eyes widened.
"No!" She snapped decidedly. "We're not giving up now because there's no way I'm going home empty-handed!" She put a hand to her head and got to her feet, then blinked and nearly fell back down. Dil'andau hurried to her side and held her up. Ka frowned deeply and motioned to the path ahead with her chin. "Let's go." She urged the group. "I'll be fine; let's just get moving."
Despite themselves, Rose and Zoe got to their feet. Rose looked back at Ka and gave her a queer look. "But...we don't know where we're going." She pointed out, her voice soft now. At her side, Slayer paced impatiently. Ka made a vague gesture with her hand.
"Just go." She managed and rested her aching head on Dil'andau's shoulder. The pain wasn't going away...it was getting worse. Ka watched Rose turn unsurely and walk up ahead with Zoe at her side. Zoe looked positively heartbroken and Rose seemed at a loss...
"Are you dying?" Dil'andau asked of Ka when the two magic users were a few paces up ahead. Ka smiled weakly.
"Of course not, Dil." She assured him, then pulled at his arm so that he would begin to walk. "Let's just go now." She closed her eyes and let the warrior guide her on the path ahead.
Dil soon became acutely aware the fact that the psionicist was gradually leaning all her weight against him...
***
By mid afternoon, the group was forced to stop again; Ka had fallen unconscious without warning.
Dil'andau sat against a large rock, cradling Ka's head in his arms. His expression was one of pure helplessness. If only he knew what was wrong with the drowess... He misguidedly tried, now and then, to heal Ka's pain by thinking really hard about seeing her wake up from unconsciousness. Even though he had no idea how something of the sort could be done, it just made him feel better to be trying...
Rose sat near Zoe, absent-mindedly petting Slayer's muscular neck; she was singing, much to herself although others listened, and wondering about the fate of her and her teammates.
Zoe listened to Rose's song and thought quietly; his mind raced about a million different subjects. He felt incredibly guilty for not being able to hold up his end of the bargain and lead the group to the ice caves...and it pained him tremendously to have displeased Rose. The priestess was on his mind a lot more lately and he hoped to the Goddess that Ka hadn't been reading his mind for the past few nights... But then there was Ka's sudden pain; why was she getting these massive headaches? Was she coming down with some sort of tumor or disease?
Dil'andau sighed and examined the unconscious psion. He closed his eyes and focused on the picture of Ka opening her eyes; he clenched his teeth together and willed the image into the drowess' mind. He was no mind-mage but he could sure as hell try!
Zoe looked over at Dil'andau and managed to snap out of his dismal thoughts in order to crack a smile. "Look Rose," He commented flatly. "Dil'andau's having a shit." He chuckled at the concentrated look of the warrior's face and looked to Rose for a laugh. Rose stopped singing and shook her head.
"Be quiet." She snapped and Slayer growled. Dil opened his eyes to glare at Zoe, but a gentle moan diverted his attention; he looked down to see Ka's eyes flutter open. Instantly, the warrior swelled with misguided pride.
"Hey, I did it!" He cooed, positive that his ridiculous efforts at 'healing' Ka were the cause of her return to the realm of the conscious. He grinned and brushed a loose strand of hair from the psion's face. "Are you okay now?" He asked as though he were talking to a child. Ka stared up into the warrior's face and frowned.
"Somewhat..." She breathed hoarsely. The pain had left in the most part; it was comparable to background noise now...
Zojikoe and Rose came near and curiously examined the drowess in Dil's lap. Zoe put a slender hand to his sister's forehead, "What happened?" He asked at once. Ka reached up and pushed Zoe's hand away.
"At first it was like a normal headache, and then it got really bad." She suddenly realized that she was still laying in Dil's lap and got up. "While we were walking...the pain kinda..." She hesitated. "It kinda changed into something different. It was like a hundred voices all talking at the same time." She shook her head and looked over at her brother and Rose. "The voices got really overwhelming and I passed out...I guess my mind couldn't hold that many tenants." She smiled at the explanation. Zoe became thoughtful and Rose spoke up.
"But the voices are gone now, right?" She asked, hoping that this would be the end of the team's holdups. Ka nodded to Rose.
"In a way, yes." She tapped her head with her finger. "They're still there, but they don't hurt anymore." She explained and Rose frowned.
"Did I heal you?" Dil'andau asked, grasping Ka's hand in order to get her attention; he grinned hopefully when she turned to face him. Ka raised an eyebrow.
"No, Dil." She promptly answered. "You did not." She noted the sad, defeated look on the warrior's angular face and searched out his gaze. "Did you try anything?" She asked curiously. Dil'andau gave her a sheepish look and shook his head.
"No." He muttered boyishly and pouted.
In his own world now, Zoe was beginning to understand what was going on with his sister. At the mention of voices, a disturbing thought came to the mage's mind. He knew for a fact that his sister wasn't crazy...well, most of the time anyway...and so it had to be something from the environment that was giving her trouble. The only thing he could think about that could disrupt a psionicist's psychic field like it did to Ka was another, massive, psychic field. Now, the only other beings that Zoe knew could create a field of the sort were the shunned illithids. Had Zoe really lead the group so off-course that they had ventured into illithid territory?
"What's wrong, Zoe?" Rose asked suddenly, snapping the mage out of his horrified daze. The others looked to Zojikoe in curiosity and the lithe mage cleared his throat.
"Well," He kept his eyes down. "You're not going to like this, but...I think I know what's causing Ka's headaches." He looked up meekly and ran his fingers through his hair; all the others were staring at him. "I do believe that we've ventured into illithid territory." He braced for the verbal and physical lashings he would surely receive. Rose's jaw dropped.
"You're not serious?!" She cried. Dil'andau rolled his eyes.
"We're screwed." He chimed. Ka's lower lip trembled and two big tears streamed down her cheeks; she closed her eyes and clenched her fists.
"Lloth, no..." She moaned and hung her head. If they had indeed ventured into illithid territory, then that meant that their presence was already known to the mind flayers. They could have been anywhere within five miles of the illithid city and still have been found; the mind flayers' psychic reach was a type of defense against predators of the Underdark. They could be surprised only by non-intelligent beings when their defense was up...
Rose wrapped her arms around herself and shuddered. "So we're basically sitting ducks?" She asked ominously. When no one answered, she whirled on Zoe and grabbed his arms, shaking him as she spoke. "You lead us into our deaths?!" She screamed at Zoe, her eyes wild and her spider tiara tipping as her hair shook. Zoe pulled the priestess away from him and blinked idly.
"Not really our deaths as per say..." He tried. "More like slavery." He winced when Rose's hand flew up and smacked him. He clutched his cheek and stared, wide-eyed, at Rose. Rose remained silent a moment, her mouth open and her hand poised to strike again, and then she grabbed Zoe by the front of his robe and hauled him to his feet.
"Come on." She declared suddenly. "I'm getting as far away from this place as I can possibly get before the mind flayers come for us." She didn't wait for Zojikoe to answer before storming off in the direction that the group came from, dragging the mage behind her with Slayer in tow.
Dil'andau watched the priestess and the mage go, then looked to Ka. The psion was on her knees, staring blankly in the opposite direction. Dil looked back at the retreating Rose and Zoe, then returned his attention to Ka. Promptly, he got up, grabbed Ka, slung her over his shoulder and took off after the two others. "Wait!!!" He yelled at them, his voice cracking. "Wait for me!!!" Against Dil's back, Ka was limp.
"There's no use running, Dil." She called to the male. Dil'andau kept running.
"Oh yes there is!!!" He argued. Ka sighed.
"No, there isn't...the illithids are already here." She wriggled in the warrior's grasp so that he'd put her down. Dil'andau stopped dead in his tracks and slowly put Ka down, staring at her in disbelief.
Ahead, Zoe and Rose screamed simultaneously as a group of three illithids descended from the dark ceiling above.
Rose threw herself at Zoe and the mage clutched her in a death grip. The priestess had just enough time to catch a fleeting glimpse of the slender, six foot, tentacled creatures that appeared from the darkness above before she and Zoe were both paralyzed by the creatures' spells. Her last coherent thought was a dry comment about being attacked by yet another monster with tentacles...
Ka and Dil'andau whirled around to find a pair of illithids standing behind them. Dil'andau ripped his halberd from his back and darted for the creatures, but he dropped to the ground in seconds -- there was no way Dil's brain could survive a psychic blast.
The second illithid sent a blast of the same nature at Ka, but the drowess blocked it out and sent another one back.
Startled, the illithid's voice entered Ka's mind. Resistance? Its telepathic, watery voice remarked. Interesting...
Ka blinked. She had never been spoken to by an illithid before... Unfortunately for her, her moment of hesitation cost her the fight. The illithids before her sent out a simultaneous attack that knocked her out cold.
***
When Ka regained consciousness, she was in a small, unadorned room.
"Wow..." She mumbled to herself, as she slowly sat up. "I've passed out twice in one day!" She chuckled at the notion and suddenly felt very dizzy. She put her hand down on the pillows beneath her in order to stabilize herself and looked around. If she had been taken prisoner by the illithids, then why was she still thinking straight?
Awake so soon, Ka? A familiar, watery voice entered her mind.
Ka sat bolt upright and then unsteadily got to her feet; Dil was not around to stabilize her this time. The thought of the warrior sparked concern in her mind and she wondered where Rose, Zoe and Dil were.
They've been taken care of, little one. The voice answered her unspoken question.
Ka looked to the door and watched as it opened, revealing the owner of the telepathic voice. It was an illithid, of course; the slender, six-foot creature with an octopus-like head, tentacled mouth, and mauve skin stepped into the room soundlessly.
Ka knew what illithids were and knew what they were capable of. These creatures were an incredibly intelligent, evil race of beings that enslaved members of every other race and used them for scientific, nutritional or entertainment purposes. They were masters of the mind -- gods of psionics. They fed on the brains of sentient beings, which was their most disturbing trait. Not one other race dared to cross their path, lest they hold a death wish.
Unable to think of anything else to do or say, Ka waved idly at the illithid. "Vendui." She greeted it in drow, unconsciously taking a step back. The illithid drew closer, its elaborate, flowing robes hissing in the silence of the room.
I was told that you showed resistance upon capture. The illithid said calmly. This struck me as interesting so I bought you at a slave auction a few hours ago. The illithid stared at Ka with its white, pupil-less eyes. I promised to find a good use for you. Ka smiled a nervous smile and suddenly felt her knees shaking beneath her.
"Oh?" She asked weakly, her voice coming out as a squeak. "And what would that be?" She asked. She could just as well speak to the illithid telepathically, but she was bluntly unable to concentrate enough at the time to pull it off. The illithid made a kind of gurgling sound in Ka's mind and the drowess assumed that it was a laugh.
You will see, Ka. The illithid answered. It moved to the doorway and gestured with its four-fingered hand for Ka to follow. Will you come? We've some things to discuss.
Ka swallowed thickly and walked towards the mind flayer. The creature wiggled its fingers -- an action that Ka recognized as being something illithids did when they were content -- and walked out of the room.
When Ka exited the little room she had been passed out in, she arrived within a much larger, richly-furnished chamber; it was here that the illithid lived. From studying the creatures back in Menzoberranzan, Ka knew that this chamber was one in maybe a hundred others just like it; illithids lived in massive structures that served them as a type of apartment...it made social contact easier for them to be nearer to their neighbors. The 'apartment' complex was a single building among many others that formed the city; Ka also knew that somewhere in the city, there was a gladiatorial arena...which was where the illithids went for entertainment. In the center of the city was what the illithids called the "elder brain"; the elder brain was composed of all the brains of deceased illithids -- it served as a central network that allowed the illithids of the city to know just about everything. It was the elder brain that permitted the illithids to have a five mile 'intruder radar' outside of their city.
Now where in this city were Zojikoe, Rose and Dil'andau?