"Look me in the eyes
Tell me what you see
Perfect paradise
Tearing at the seams
I wish I could escape
I don't wanna fake it
Wish I could erase it
Make your heart believe...

But I'm a bad liar, bad liar
Now you know
I'm a bad liar, bad liar

Now you know, you're free to go..."

"Sorry about Scion, he didn't mean to-" Del began to say, but Jaheira cut him off. Del was uncomfortably reminded of the confrontation back at camp earlier that morning – except that this woman was an unknown quantity rather than a friend he'd traveled with for nearly a month already.

"Be silent," the High Harper said with such a steely expression that Del clamped his mouth shut on reflex. "The dragonborn isn't my primary concern – it's you. I've seen others that look like you, but never up and walking around. I have my theories on the origin of your condition, so let's run a little test, shall we?"

She reached into her pocket and pulled out a jar containing a tadpole much like those that Del and the others had been infected with. It was still alive, and began to writhe furiously once in close proximity to him.

"As I thought," she said grimly. "If there's one thing we know about those creatures, it's that they know their own kind."

"Now wait just a moment," Astarion said from behind Del. "He may be infected, but he's not a True Soul. We have a way of resisting the Absolute."

"The rest of us are infected too," Karlach said, eliciting a groan from Astarion, who clearly didn't want that information shared. "And none of us have turned yet, or started following the Absolute."

"They took care of the drider," offered one of the Harpers who had led them here – Del thought Branthos was his name. "Broke the convoy of cultists headed for Moonrise before we even got there."

"I'm still not convinced," Jaheira said, shaking her head as she considered the evidence. "That could have been staged. Perhaps the drider displeased them, and this was a convenient method of execution."

"Come on, listen to us," Karlach pleaded. "At least give us a chance. Maybe we can work together?"

"And what's wrong with that one?" Jaheira asked, indicating Scion. "He tried to attack me. Clearly there is dissent in your ranks. I'll speak with everyone except these two," she said to Karlach, indicating Del and Scion as the two party members she was most suspicious of. "They will stay under guard in the stable while I hear your story."

Del looked to his companions to see if anyone would protest this treatment, but none of them wanted to meet his eyes.

"Sorry Del," Karlach apologized. "It's just for a bit, until we can figure things out with the Harpers."

"I'll put in a good word for you," said Shadowheart. "Or at least… a word."

And so, Del and Scion were led to a squalid stable while the rest of their companions went to speak with Jaheira over drinks in a cozy inn.

At least one of their guards was the Branthos from the drider fight, and he convinced the other guard to let them be relatively comfortable rather than restraining them.

"I know Jaheira seems intense," he said to Del once they were settled in the stable, sitting on bales of hay and listening to the lowing of oxen in the stalls nearby. "But she just has to cover all her bases, you know? I'm sure she'll let you in any minute now."

But the time passed, and there was still no word from Jaheira. In the interim, Del tried to talk to Scion, but all the dragonborn seemed to want to do was dissociate from reality and stare at a wall. Del hoped this was just a quirk of Scion's personality or even due to his brain damage, rather than some lingering effect of the mind control that Del himself had caused.

After half an hour of this, Del could take it no longer. "Hey," he said loudly, approaching his companion. "Scion. Snap out of it, man. Are you okay?" He waved a hand in front of the dragonborn's face.

Scion blinked slowly up at him. "Sorry about the knife earlier..." he said to Del through their mental connection. "I just... panicked. Those vines. Thought the elf was someone else for a second, so I did what I've been wanting to do for as long as I can remember – throw a knife right in her stupid face. But you stopped me," he said, sounding oddly disappointed. "I suppose I'll save it for the real one."

"Oh... that. It's okay, I guess," Del said. "Just please, please try not to do it again... Like you said, save your knife for the people that actually hurt you, not potential allies. You're half the reason the Harpers don't trust us now."

Scion looked sheepish, and Del decided to leave the matter alone for now. No use making him feel even worse about an incident sparked by fear and trauma rather than genuinely malicious intent.

Instead, Del tried to reach the Emperor in his thoughts, hoping that the illithid was listening.

"Are you there, Emperor?" he asked. "Are you still connected to the others? Can you hear what they're talking about in there?"

"Ah, Del," the illithid said fondly, once Del had repeated his question several times and managed to make contact. The Emperor must have been distracted by something, since his voice seemed as if it came from a great distance away. "It's good to hear from you. I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at how things went with your companions this morning... As well as they could have, under the circumstances. As for your current situation, you hold the Prism at the moment, and I can only perceive things within a short distance of its location in the Material Plane. I can still protect the others, but not see or hear them."

Del sighed . "Thanks for trying, anyway."

"In the meantime, I will continue to peruse the mind of your... Most interesting companion here. I have been protecting him from the Absolute along with you and the others, though he already has a partial resistance to its control. I am not sure of the source of his immunity since his mind is so fragmented. But the more of the fragments I piece together, the more I wonder if associating with him is the wisest idea."

Del was about to defend his decision to let Scion join them, but his concentration broke when someone new entered the stable.

"You can come in," said the tiefling woman from the gate, interrupting Del's internal conversation. "Jaheira wants to talk to you two."

Del and Scion followed her into the oasis of light and warmth that was Last Light Inn.

"Fidelius, is it?" Jaheira asked as Del sat down next to her at the bar inside the inn.

"Yes ma'am, though I prefer to go by Del."

"And you are...?" she asked the dragonborn.

"Scion."

"Then drink up, Del and Scion," said the stern older woman as she handed each of them a goblet of wine. "To your good health."

Del took the wine gratefully, though he would have preferred a tankard of ale to quench his thirst. He drank from the goblet, a bit disconcerted by the intensity with which Jaheira watched him take the first sip. Why was she so interested? Had she slipped something into his drink? If so, it was too late to do anything about it now – he'd already swallowed the wine.

"My apologies for making you wait," Jaheira said. "But I hope you won't begrudge me a healthy measure of vigilance. It's what has kept me alive for all these years."

Del shrugged, trying to stay neutral despite his suspicions. "I understand. But I hope my friends have calmed your fears, at least a little?"

Jaheira took a long sip of her wine. "Ah. This vintage is over a century old, and it hasn't lost any of its flavor. Still not so sure about you, though – even after talking to your friends. They've said some interesting things about you."

"What do you mean?" Del asked.

"Unlike wine, men tend to lose more than just flavor once mind flayers get their tentacles into them. And it seems they've gotten to you more than the others. Is it true that you served an illithid colony for more than a decade?"

"I can explain," Del said quickly – maybe a little too quickly. The words tripped over his tongue in a rush to get out as fast as possible. "Yes, I was a thrall in Oryndoll. That's the city of the Loretakers. You know, in the Lowerdark under the Shining Plains near Ormath?"

He felt himself going into a lot more detail than usual. Why would he disclose the secret location of Oryndoll? It wasn't even like Jaheira wanted to know... But he didn't think he could stop the flow of words even if he tried. "I was captured sometime around fifteen years ago; I don't remember exactly. Whoever did my intake erased pretty much all my memories of my life before. And then Eldriss – that's my master – did even more on top of that, so who knows what really happened?" He tried to smile and make light of it, but it came out more like a grimace. Great, now she wouldn't believe anything else he said, now that he'd established himself as an unreliable narrator...

"What did you do there?" Jaheira prompted. "How did you serve the mind flayers?"

Del shrugged, trying to feign nonchalance despite his rising alarm. Again he wondered what exactly had been added to his drink. It must be some kind of truth serum…

"I fought in the arena, at first. When Eldriss bought me, I was their favorite in dominance tournaments for a while, until they started letting me fight on my own again because they liked to watch. But then they promoted me, so I was their personal thrall. Did basic tasks for them at home, ran errands in the city, went with them on missions to tr-ts-st-" he was trying to say trade, but a different word came out of his mouth instead. " steal books and magic items."

Del jerked his chin sharply to one side, wishing he hadn't admitted to theft on top of everything else since he didn't think that was something Jaheira would approve of.

The High Harper chuckled briefly. "When the stakes are high as this, do you think I care about a little petty theft?" Then her eyes narrowed, all business once again. "Did you serve the mind flayers willingly, or did they compel you?"

Del gripped the stem of his half-full wine glass so hard it nearly shattered, and he set it down on the bar with shaking hands.

"I don't know. Both?" he said uncertainly, as two conflicting ideas fought for supremacy in his mind, confusing even the truth serum. "I - I was willing, but only because they made me want it. I didn't remember anything else, so I didn't know any better. It's not just regular mind control with illithids, there's all these layers to it..." He pleaded with his eyes, hoping that Jaheira would understand.

He looked around the room, suddenly feeling as if the inn's lights were too bright, illuminating him like a spotlight. His surroundings blurred, and everyone else seemed very far away all of a sudden. His companions at the other end of the bar, the Flaming Fists and refugees drinking at tables in the corners... They may as well have been on another planet. The only people who seemed real right now were himself and the elven woman who insisted on interrogating him.

It's fine , he told himself, trying to tamp down his rising feeling of panic. This is just a normal security measure...

But he was unable to convince himself that everything was all right. The feeling of being forced to speak against his will was familiar enough to bring up an old deep-seated dread, which was sharpened further by the fact that he now lacked the protective barriers set up inside his mind to soften his emotions and prevent him from hurting himself.

Speaking of which... Del reached for the wine glass again, this time meaning to shatter it in his hand deliberately in the hopes that the pain would somehow break this awful spell.

"Is all this questioning really necessary?" Gale asked, appearing beside them. Del set the glass back down, instead hiding his hand under the bar and clenching his fist until his nails dug into his palm.

The world sharpened around him once more, but with the return to reality came the realization that his companions had been listening to the whole conversation. His face grew hot as he realized how stupid his involuntary babbling must sound.

At least his friends didn't seem angry at him anymore, but instead were growing increasingly concerned at Del's obvious distress. "I'm all for caution myself," Gale continued, "But we've already assured you that our friend here doesn't pose a threat. He's had dozens of opportunities to betray us and taken precisely none of them."

Karlach looked like she wanted to say something too, but Jaheira held up a hand. "Five minutes more," she assured everyone. "I just have a few further questions for him."

Del's heart sank. Why was she doing this? What more was she hoping to gain?

"And now," Jaheira asked, turning back to Del, who snapped to attention again. "Are you still reporting back to them? Are you currently in touch with any mind flayers?"

"Y-yes," he said reluctantly, his heartbeat pounding in his ears and his breath beginning to come in short pants. Shut up shut up shut up, he pleaded with himself. "My old master is probably dead, but there's this other illithid. He's in the prism we carry - it's a portal to the Astral Plane. His name is the Emperor. He... he stays there while protecting us from the Absolute. He's not like Eldriss or anyone from Oryndoll - or the rest of the Absolute's colony. He's a renegade."

Jaheira frowned. "A rogue mind flayer, somehow trapped inside a Githyanki artifact? Shadowheart told me of this 'Astral Prism,' but you must realize how bizarre this seems. Your secret weapon against the True Soul parasites is just... another parasite?"

"Technically he's a predator," said Del's stupid truth serum-driven mouth. "But he would never eat us."

shut UP!

The corners of Jaheira's mouth twitched in a barely suppressed smile. "Predator, then. That doesn't exactly reassure me."

"We still need him," Del pleaded with both Jaheira and his companions around him, since he still wasn't sure they had been fully convinced by their conversation that morning. "At least we need his help until we defeat the Absolute. Who cares if he's a mind flayer, as long as he's on our side instead of theirs?"

"As long as this Emperor is telling you the truth about his motives," Jaheira pointed out. "Based on what you've told me, I know you've been fooled before." She cupped her chin in one hand as she considered the situation, her suspicion seeming to finally give way to exhaustion. "Yet our situation is dire... And this prism of yours is the first glimmer of hope we've had in a long time. If we are to triumph against the Absolute, I may have no choice but to trust you and your pet mind flayer. So I ask you one last time. Can I?" She lifted her head and gazed into Del's eyes once more.

"Yes!" Del said emphatically, the truth serum cooperating with him for once. "You can trust me and my friends. We all want to destroy the Absolute and its colony. I'll help however I can."

"All right, then. I still have my eye on you, but you pass muster for now." She frowned as something else occurred to her. "You called the Absolute a colony. What did you mean by this? Are the illithids themselves driving this cult, or merely being used as a means to an end?"

"The Absolute isn't really a god," Del explained. "It's an Elder Brain, but there's something going on with it. Someone's tampering with the tadpoles it puts out; casting magic on them to limit their influence so the Absolute can control them, but their other effects aren't visible. That's why we're all infected but haven't yet turned."

He could breathe more easily now that the topic of conversation had switched away from his past, but the world still seemed to buzz and blur around him. Must be a consequence of all the adrenaline that the conversation had inspired, pent up with no place to go. Del leaned forward until his forehead was nearly touching the polished wood of the bar, trying to banish the feeling of lightheadedness that washed over him now that the worst was over.

"But what is Ketheric doing with a mind flayer Elder Brain?" Jaheira said, almost to herself. "Anyways. Your friends haven't turned," she corrected, looking closely at Del again. "You, however… There is something alien in you. Tell me, why is it that you have begun the transformation but the others have not? Is it expected to progress any further? Has this 'Emperor' failed to protect you?"

"Don't worry, my transformation's been stalled," Del said quickly. "The Emperor didn't fail at anything. Can you imagine how stressful this is for him? He's doing his best." Del swallowed, trying to banish the softness that crept into his tone as he defended the Emperor, lest he accidentally reveal the extent of his relationship with their guardian. "Anyway, he and another illithid in the Underdark helped me stop the ceremorphosis, but now I guess I'm stuck halfway."

"A pity," Jaheira said. "I hope your condition can be corrected once we deal with the Absolute. I have someone staying here who has experience in the matter… A fellow druid, actually. He's with a patient now."

"Wait," Shadowheart interjected. "Is his name Halsin?"

"How did you know?" Jaheira asked. "Are you acquainted with him? I could send for him to join us once he's finished."

"I'm sure he'd tell you about us," Del said. "We met him at the Emerald Grove when we helped the druids and tieflings. He said he was headed this way."

Jaheira quirked one of her narrow eyebrows. "The defense of the grove was your doing? You are the heroes the refugees speak of? I can bring in some of the tieflings who have made it here to confirm your story."

"That would be amazing," Karlach said gratefully. "Thanks, Jaheira. I knew you'd come through." She looked at Del apologetically, clearly not having expected her hero to put him through such a rough interrogation.

Halsin and several familiar-looking tieflings arrived shortly. Del thought he recognized one as Rolan, an amateur wizard, and another as Alfira, a lilac-skinned bard.

"You made it!" Halsin boomed in his deep voice as he approached. "All in one piece, and I see you've picked up some new friends."

"Oh yeah, we found Scion in the shadow lands," Del said helpfully, the truth serum still working its way out of his system and making him more talkative than usual, despite the fact that all he wanted to do was lie down and hide under a pile of blankets until morning. "Some creatures were chasing him, and he didn't have a lantern or a weapon or anything."

The white-scaled dragonborn looked up from where he'd been sitting on a barstool several seats away from everyone, idly picking flecks of dirt from under his claws. "Hello," he said coolly, then went back to ignoring them.

"Do you know these travelers?" Jaheira asked the two tieflings.

"How could I not?" Rolan said sardonically, while Alfira looked genuinely excited to see them.

"You made it!" she said excitedly. "What am I saying, of course you would! I'm already writing a ballad about your deeds back in the Grove… And who's this with you?" She looked toward Scion.

"We saved him from the shadows," Del explained. "But then he was a huge help to us with the drider outside."

"You fought a drider?" Alfira exclaimed. "You'll have to tell me all about it so I can add it to my song..."

Jaheira looked briefly reassured to see the tieflings' response to Del and his companions, but her gaze grew worried again when she looked at Scion. Between Del's loose tongue and Alfira's question, she clearly realized that Scion hadn't been with them for long.

"Perhaps later," Jaheira said to the exuberant tiefling. "I still have a few more questions for them."

Del audibly groaned at that. "Don't worry," Jaheira said with a twinkle in her eyes. "Your part is done here. Feel free to go get some rest."

Del didn't move, and neither did anyone else.

"If you talk to one of us, then talk to us all," Karlach asserted, warming Del's heart at her renewed support of himself and their newest companion.

"Well, then," Jaheira visibly steeled herself for another interrogation. "Scion. The others say they found you in the shadow-cursed lands. What were you doing there? And how did you survive?"

"Running. Away," the dragonborn said slowly, his face screwed up in concentration as he tried to find the words. "Moonrise Towers." He didn't look particularly thrilled that the truth serum he must have also ingested had made him say that last part... Del could definitely sympathize.

"Scion doesn't talk much, and he has amnesia anyway," Del explained, seeing Jaheira's confusion at the dragonborn's manner of speech. "I think he got hit in the head really hard sometime before we found him. You couldn't get much out of him if you tried. Sorry he pulled that knife on you, by the way. I don't think he much likes being restrained."

Scion nodded in agreement with that sentiment.

"So you understand everything I'm saying, correct?" Jaheira asked the dragonborn.

He nodded again.

"All right..." she sighed. "That will make things a bit easier, at least. Though, I do want to try something before going any further. Halsin?" She called to the druid who had sat down nearby to listen and drink a pint of beer. "Do you think you can heal him?"

"Shadowheart's already tried," Del said, but the druid came over anyway. He looked startled and concerned when he caught a closer look at Del's face in the process – he must not have been close enough to notice the black veins earlier - but Halsin was a tactful man and decided not to ask in front of the others.

Instead, he switched the focus of his examination to Scion, looking over the dragonborn from head to tail with an appraising gaze, lingering for a while on the visible dent in his skull. Scion, who had not seemed intimidated by anything mere moments before, now hugged his dark cloak tighter around him. Del was suddenly reminded of the way Scion had been wandering through the shadow-cursed lands half naked, and of the long fresh-looking scar that had bisected his body vertically from chest to abdomen. Ah well. What Halsin didn't know wouldn't hurt him, and any healing magic powerful enough to cure his old head wound should work on that as well.

"Don't worry," Del reassured Scion instead. "Halsin is really good at what he does. He healed me after... after I was attacked, a while back."

Halsin completed his examination and muttered an incantation. "Per matrem naturam et patrem quercus... Sanatum te annuntio." His eyes briefly glowed white with the force of the energy he channeled, and Del realized that this spell was something more than what their own cleric was capable of. Maybe he'd been too pessimistic about the chances of Halsin being able to help his new friend...

Scion jerked back as if electrocuted, standing straight up and sending his barstool flying with a clatter.

Halsin began to apologize for not warning him more thoroughly before casting the spell, but after a moment Scion seemed to recover. The expression on his face was one of surprised dismay.

"I remember," he breathed. "Something. A little."

"What did you remember?" Jaheira asked, with Halsin and the others hanging onto every word.

Scion's wide red eyes fixated on Del. "Del... help me," he pleaded silently. "I can't stop talking and I'm about to say something awful."

Del frantically looked around for a way to distract Jaheira and Halsin, though some darkly curious part of him wanted to hear what the dragonborn would say. Plus, it wasn't as if Scion had helped him a few minutes earlier when Jaheira had forced him to open up all his half-healed scars in front of everyone...

"My... childhood," Scion began, his speech impediment slightly less evident but still definitely present - though it seemed to be working in his favor for once.

"Hey, Halsin!" Del said loudly, pretending he couldn't care less about the proceedings. "Who were you healing upstairs?"

Jaheira's looked up in annoyance. "Can you keep it down for a moment?" she asked. "I'm not yet done here." But her focus on Scion was momentarily broken, and the dragonborn was able to choke out the rest of his words in a sibilant whisper that no one heard.

Halsin looked a little perturbed at the sudden request, but he soon warmed to the topic and began to explain the mysterious case of Art Cullagh, who like Scion had been found wandering the shadow-cursed lands alone. Unlike Scion, however, his mind had been broken to the extent that he now lay in a coma, unable to awaken. "So far I've had no luck in getting him to wake up, though he did say something rather interesting in his sleep today. But shouldn't we discuss this further after getting our friends here a room? They must be exhausted from their travels."

Jaheira nodded reluctantly, clearly interested in questioning Scion further but seeing the wisdom of Halsin's words. "All the private rooms at the inn are full, but we can find a place for you. Lassandra," she said to a female Harper. "Show them to the dormitory, will you?"

As Del turned to leave with the others, Jaheira beckoned him over. She must have seen the look of dread return to his face at the gesture, because her stern mask cracked for a moment to reveal a look of sympathy. "I know that was far from pleasant, but I hope you don't fault me for what I did back there. One can never be too cautious these days."

Del choked on his usual nonchalant reply. "I did-n-nt – not – Okay fine, I did mind. But I hope you can finally trust me now."

Jaheira chuckled. "Clearly the potion is still working – I have the feeling you are usually more reserved. I'll still be keeping my eye on you to make sure you don't grow any tentacles... And I'll be watching your addled friend there just as closely. But you've gone a long way toward convincing me you mean no harm. Now, go rest and wash up with the others. Later tonight, we can compare notes and plan our approach to Moonrise Towers. We have tried many times to understand what General Ketheric is doing there, and how he has cheated death time and time again – but to no avail. When it comes to unlocking his secrets and defeating the Absolute, you and your friends may be our last hope."

Author's Note: Whew, this chapter ended up being a whopper! I went through like three different drafts/versions of it, since it was tough balancing Del and Scion's stories and how Jaheira inadvertently triggered the hell out of both of them. My boys have been through some shit, okay?