Before settling to their outside adventure, though, they still needed to find Nettie, the local healer and Halsin's apprentice. Wyll doubted that she would be able to help them, but they decided to meet her anyway, in case they could learn anything useful about Halsin or about their tadpole issue.
They encountered Nettie farther away in the grove, secluded in a natural cave and isolated from the other druids. She was a dwarven women of young age, with a soft but firm expression on her face ; and she was busy talking to a bird when they came into her shelter.
" - I see you. Just give me a moment."
Shadowheart sighed and crossed her arms, visibly impatient to get it over with. Astarion was already sneaking around the room, clearly intrigued by the equipment of the healer and the various glowing religious icons disposed across the place.
Wyll stood patiently next to Mereana, waiting for the young healer to finish her conversation with her familiar. The dwarf whispered to the bird a few more seconds, then let it freely fly through a natural window in the cave. She turned her attention to them as if being disturbed from more important thoughts.
" - Now, what is it you needed ?" asked the dwarf.
"- I need healing, and I hear you were the most competent healer in the grove", began Mereana.
" - Untrue. Halsin, my mentor, is by far better than me." The druid squinted her eyes, eyeing the lot of them with suspicion. " - Who needs healing in your group ?"
Mereana took a quick glance at her companions. Shadowheart was very pointedly looking at her back and very slowly shaking her head.
" - I do", the mage said, deciding to go with the truth. " - I've been feeling unwell lately."
" - Really ? Let's take a look at you, then. Do you want to keep your friends around or would you rather be alone ? " asked the healer very professionally, while taking her hands and leading her to sit on one of her medical benchtop.
" - Oh, they can stay."
" - Let me see you closer...well, I don't see any problem with you. You look maybe a little tired around the eyes", said the healer, leaning in to put her fingers around her face and touching various areas of her upper body to check if everything was all right.
My eyes are tired because something put a freaking illithid baby in it. Oh, that feels gross. Mereana shivered upon remembering the tadpole sliding its way behind her eye and into her brain.
There was something about the dwarf that was...trustworthy. She looked competent enough, and reliable. And mostly, she looked...good. Mereana had a feeling that Nettie had a kind heart and was the type of person to have values. And since she wanted to get on her good side, she decided to play along with her intuition and to act honestly. With luck, this would appeal to the healer's compassion and get them some answers.
" - I got captured by monsters. And they put a tadpole in me."
" - A tadpole ? A mindflayer tadpole ?" Nettie's expression changed as she backed away a little. She looked shaken, but quickly recovered her cool and regained her professional composure.
I don't know if this is good or not. But I told her, so I have to go through with it.
Wyll and Shadowheart seemed to notice the change of attitude in the healer, as they exchanged a quick glance behind her back. Shadowheart pursed her lips together, moving soundlessly towards the exit and checking that the place was closed to the other druids. Curiously enough, Wyll didn't seem to mind the cleric's sketchy behavior and positioned himself near Mereana, cutting into their conversation :
" - Is there anything you can do ?" he asked politely.
He didn't seem threatening at all, but clearly he was reminding the healer that her patient wasn't alone and defenseless. Nettie's eyes flickered with something Mereana could not quite read - fear ? pity ?
" - Yes. I think I can. At least there's something I can try, but not here. Come, follow me ; let's get to Halsin's lab. He was working on something that you may have an interest in", replied the healer, turning her attention back to Mereana.
The mage felt a surge of relief and inhaled deeply. " - Great", she murmured, as Wyll flashed a smile to the druid. Well, the druid didn't turn immediately hostile and had not screamed yet to ask her friends to kill them all, so maybe Mereana's intuition was alright after all. Sometimes in life, you just had to have faith in people.
The dwarf led them to a panel in the stone walls, which she manipulated quickly by chanting a few words to herself. Mereana could not make out what she was saying, but she knew Nettie was using the secret language only druids learned to speak amongst themselves.
Astarion whistled with admiration : " - A secret passage. Isn't it exciting ?" and confidently strided in behind the dwarf, following her closely.
" - I don't have a good feeling about this", whispered Shadowheart behind her shoulder. The half-elf looked nervously around as the panel of stone creaked and slowly opened, showing them to another secluded place. From the looks of it, they were entering an old library that was kept hidden here. The room was constructed in a circle and littered with old books and journals. But what immediately drew everyone's attention was the corpse of a drow elf, laying on a table of cold stone in the room, nearby a desk full of notes and potions. Astarion walked by to him and leaned over to examine the body.
" - Definitely dead, in case you were wondering. How unfortunate ", he sighed.
" - Okay. What's going on here ?" asked Mereana, frowning down on Nettie. The druid raised her hands in sign of peace :
" - This one had the same problem as you. He attacked us, in the forest." She paused. " - We're in master Halsin's office. He was working on something to cure the people infected with the tadpole. That's how he disappeared. " She fidgeted uneasily and grabbed something on a desk nearby.
She was holding a sort of branch with thorns. She paused a little awkwardly, considering the branch, and turned to Mereana, purposefully ignoring the others :
" - Give me your arm."
" - Wait a second", intervened Wyll, eyeing the branch distrustfully. " - What's that ?"
" - A cure for your friend. The tadpole could crawl out of her head anytime soon and there's no telling when she's gonna end up like our drow friend over here. So, do you want to waste time playing games ?"
Wyll shrugged his shoulders and turned towards Mereana, whispering : " - It's your call, but I wouldn't do it if I were you."
" - Don't do anything dumb ", added Shadowheart. " - We can work with what we find here first."
Mereana inhaled and quickly held her arm over to the healer. " - If it can work, then I have to try. I trust you", she said to the dwarf.
Nettie's face froze when she said that and that's when Mereana knew she was fucked. She tried to put her arm back to her as fast as she could, but the healer was faster and stronger ; she held out her wrist in her hand and suddenly cut her with the thorny branch. Mereana looked down in horror, half-expecting her arm to turn green and fall down any second now. But nothing happened ; she just had a scratch from where the druid wounded her.
The few seconds were enough for Wyll to draw his blade and Shadowheart cursed between her teeth before abruptly seizing Mereana's arm to examine it closer.
She's stronger than she looks, thought Mereana, feeling the cleric's solid grip around her arm.
" - Poison", stated Shadowheart coldly. " - See, I told you. But maybe you have an audition problem I don't know about. "
" - Well, yes, but someone had to try something. We won't get anything done if we don't take a chance !" replied Mereana angrily, feeling that she was losing her temper. She had not expected Shadowheart to show any sort of consideration to her, but still her snarky demeanor was getting on her nerves.
Wyll was now threatening the healer with his rapier, and the druid had her back to the wall. Astarion loomed in closer, but didn't look worried at all about the situation. He had the look of a spectator watching a circus show. He only lacked the popcorn to complete his attitude.
" - It's painless !" cried out Nettie, looking at Mereana. " - I swear it's painless. I cannot do anything to help you, but...but I have to do something to protect the people around you." She turned her eyes towards Wyll. " - You have to understand, your friend could turn any moment. She could be a danger to everyone around her. It's just...there's no other way. You have to let her go."
Her appeal was met with a concerned silence, as Wyll purposefully avoided to mention that he was infected with a tadpole just the same as everyone in the room. " - How do you feel ?" asked the Blade to Mereana softly.
" - Nothing for now", she replied, getting her arm back from Shadowheart's grip. She closed in on the dwarf, cleared her throat, and suddenly felt a rush of vertigo take over her. She grabbed the desk before her legs totally gave way, and her eyes opened wide with incredulity.
" - That bitch really did poison me ! "
I should not have said that. Clearly menacing the healer wasn"t going to be helpful. She needed to appeal to her guilt or conscience or whatever. She felt a drip of sweat between her shoulder blades. How quick is the poison exactly ?
" - I'll be damned. Nettie, please. This doesn't have to go sideways. Just give us the antidote", demanded Wyll calmly, still threatening the druid with his blade.
Shadowheart was already looting over the flasks in the desk, looking for anything that might look like an antidote. But from her expression, she wasn't finding anything useful.
And as for Astarion, he was openly smiling, as if watching something fun, and not doing anything at all to help. Traitorous bastard.
" - I'm truly, truly sorry. But I can't do that."
" - You're signing my death warrant here", went on Mereana, inhaling sharply. Time to appeal to the healer's pity and be persuasive about it. With luck the druid would forget she just called her a bitch. " - The tadpole is dormant. I'm not even changing. Please - " she quickly brushed her eyes with her sleeve, pretending to hide some tears and let her voice tremble a little. " - I have promised to look after Halsin. We still have time to find him. We still have time."
" - Maybe, but that's a hell of a chance. It could be a matter of days, or seconds. No one can tell."
" - If no one can tell, then who are you to make the call ? You don't know either. If there's a chance - then we have to take it. Please. I trusted you, and told you the truth about me. "
Somehow her plea for help must have worked out, as Nettie's face cringed in various states of guilt and sadness. Finally the healer said : " - Fine. You're right. I'll give you the antidote. "
Wyll seathed his blade back to let the healer move, and flashed a brief smile of encouragement to Mereana. " - I'm glad we found a peaceful solution", he said solemnly.
Peaceful ? She was ready to put my corpse next to our drow friend over there and cut me open ! But Mereana refrained from fulminating out loud, no matter how tempting it felt. She just needed to keep her calm a few more seconds.
Nettie launched herself towards the desk, pushing Shadowheart over. " - But first, take this vial of poison", suddenly said the healer, drawing a flask from her pocket and holding it out to Mereana.
" - What, again ? Is this a joke ? " Mereana asked incredulously.
Nettie looked at her eyes deeply, trying to see through her : " - It's wyvern poison. It's really powerful, really quick. Promise me you'll drink it if you begin to feel the symptoms."
Mereana was beginning to feel a bit numb, but she tended her hand to reach for the poison. She looked back at the healer, and felt herself a pang of guilt over how she just deftly lied to her. Nettie seemed like a good person. She didn't deserve to be manipulated this way. " - I can't promise that."
The druid's eyes turned to stone. " - Then I can't help you. Kill me if you have to. You'll never find the antidote. It's well hidden."
Shit. Why did I tell her the truth ?
Completely disarmed by how sour her situation was going, Mereana blinked blankly into space. She heard Wyll swear besides her as he drew his blade once more. " - I don't have time to play games, Nettie. Tell me where the antidote is, right now ! " he ordered aggressively.
" - I am not !" shouted the dwarf back, and she began casting a spell towards them - a spell she could not quite finish, though, as Astarion's daggers suddenly pierced her throat. The dwarf's face locked into an expression of shock as her body slowly slided to his feet, and she drew a few ragged breaths before gurgling herself to death in her own blood.
Mereana's head felt lighter still as she watched the healer's death, both feeling kind of satisfied that she got her revenge, and also horrified by the scene, and also desperate that Astarion's actions was depriving her of the antidote.
" - It was drawing on, don't you think ?" he said calmly as every one's attention turned to him. He crouched down to cleanse his blades against the druid's clothings, and stared at her corpse still gurgling with a curiously blank expression on his face. He passed an elegant hand to his face, hiding away his face for a few seconds.
" - You just straight up murder her", said Wyll coldly. " - How are we going to know where's the damn antidote now ?"
Come to think of it, it was weird from a noble parangon like Wyll to show so much pragmatism in this situation. He didn't seem really bothered by Nettie's assassination, and more by the lack of antidote. Wyll's interjection made Astarion snap out of whatever was going on inside his mind and the elf hastily got up and away from the corpse, heading towards Mereana. He seemed more distant than usual, but no one truly noticed or cared about his odd behavior, more concerned by the situation at hands.
" - I didn't find anything useful on the desk. But maybe she has it somewhere in her pockets", suggested Shadowheart.
" - Yes. Good idea", muttered Mereana, trying to get to the corpse. But she felt the world spinning once more and resolved to stay firmly attached to the desk.
" - Fortunately, I already found the antidote. I pickpocketed it out of her while she was leading us in. Didn't know what it was, but it seemed precious." Astarion smiled to them, and revealed a flask of translucent liquid he has was hiding all along in his pocket. He held the flask to the light in a flamboyant gesture, as if waiting for some applause.
" - You had it all along and didn't say a word about it ?" asked Shadowheart incredulously. " - Then why did you kill Nettie ?"
" - Why not ? She started it, after all", shrugged the elf, visibly disappointed that no one congratulated him on stealing the dwarf and saving the day.
Mereana hastily grabbed the flask he was handing her and gulped it down in a second, hoping from the bottom of her heart that it wasn't another trick or that Astarion had not confused the antidote vial with another poison. There were too many poisons in here. Hopefully, nothing bad happened and she felt her strength coming back to her.
" - Are you all right, dear ?" asked Astarion politely, scrutinizing her face for any sign of incoming death.
" - Better. It's working." She passed a hand over her face, trying to gather herself once more and chase the feeling of embarrassment coming over her. " - Thanks."
" - You owe me one", replied the elf in a low voice, so as only to be heard by her.
That tone is foreshadowing, she thought to herself. She had no time to dwell on it though, as Wyll took her by the shoulders and led her a little bit farther away, while Shadowheart and Astarion were busy searching the place for a way to exit the library.
" - You might consider lying next time", he said warmly. " - We don't have to tell the truth about our tadpoles to everyone we meet. Halsin is the only one we can trust. Just a thought to think about, eh ? You'll be all right."
He let go of her shoulders and joined the others, leaving Mereana to herself and to her creeping sense of embarrassment.