"One more step and I'll make you eat that knife," Eirina despised being taken advantage of. There was no way should would let this pale elf take advantage of her. She could feel Shadowheart move behind her, slowly drawing her own weapon. Eirina kept her own dagger lowered, but in front of her just in case.
"I saw you on the ship - free, scuttling about," the accusatory tone bit into Eirina. She had hated that she had been free while others had been trapped. "You're in league with them, aren't you?" His voice grew sharper, "Those tentacled - argh!"
Eirina could feel her mind twist, connecting with this man's mind. She was looking out of unfamiliar eyes, prowling dark, busy streets. A raw, base hunger clawing at her sides. A hunger she had never experienced before. She tried to hold to the memory, but it faded to the worm. The hunger. The light. The fear. And not just the fear of the environment. A fear so deep that it all but choked her.
"What was that? What's going on?" the man had lowered the dagger in his hand, clutching at his head the way Eirina was clutching at hers, their actions mirrored.
"Put the knife away and I'll tell you everything," Eirina wanted to see just a hint of trust from him before she lowered her guard. He was less hostile, but still a threat. It was warming to feel Shadowheart at her back, knowing that she wasn't actually out numbered. But violence wasn't the answer here, this man was also a victim.
"I'm not an idiot," he slipped back into a practiced stance, "It has to be those tentacled monsters. Something they did..." Eirina sheathed her own weapon and stood facing him, palms slightly out. She felt her mind press against his again, willing the last memory she had to him: sitting and staring up at the raw beauty of the night.
"They took you too," he spoke slowly, stepping forward with less malice and more curiosity, "I saw it during... whatever just happened." He stood up and started to move his weapons away from Eirina.
"And to think, I was ready to decorate the ground with your innards. Apologies." His words came out honest and contrite, making Eirina smile warily.
"Apology accepted. I might have done the same were the roles reversed." Eirina probably would have too if a pair of armed strangers had happened upon her too.
"Ah," he gestured a partial bow, "a kindred spirit." Fully sheathing the daggers, he gave a familiar hand gesture of the courts of nobility in Baldur's Gate. "My name's Astarion. I was in Baldur's Gate when those beasts snatched me."
"Eirina, also of Baldur's Gate," she smiled. If he was from the Gate then he likely knew her family. That would be a tidbit she would give him in a less volatile moment.
"Is that so?" Astarion gave her a coy look, like his social circle was one to be coveted. She had seen that look before. "We clearly move in different circles." Eirina gave him a once over. Not that different, judging by the cut of his clothes, but different enough that he likely came from new money like that Gortash fool making waves with the Patriars.
"So do you know anything about these worms?" Well, Eirina guessed the trust was there and he wasn't pulling any punches. Not that he had since their first moment.
"Yes," she said slowly, "unfortunately." Eirina drew in a breath and looked over her shoulder to see Shadowheart nod in silent approval, her own weapon now tucked away. "They'll turn us into mind flayers."
"Turn us into..." Astarion's shocked look held for a moment, "ha. Hahahaha!" He clutched his sides as a tear slipped out, mirth coloring the air. It was the laugh of someone who couldn't believe the hand fate had dealt him. "Of course it'll turn me into a monster. What else did I expect?" The last few words had a hard edge to them.
"Although it hasn't happened yet," Astarion seemed to be thinking even as he spoke, "If we can find an expert - someone that can control these things -there might still be time."
"You should travel with me," Eirina felt the lingering guilt over leaving him in that damned pod filter through her soul, "our odds are better together."
"You know, I was ready to go this alone," Astarion gave her a genuine smile, "but maybe sticking with the herd isn't such a bad idea." For a man that seemed to play with words, he was very well practiced at dropping his guard. When it suited him, "And you seem like a useful person to know." Bowing low, yet with eyes still raised, his words moved from genuine to polite acceptance with a hint of servility, "All right, I accept. Lead on." The tone he used at the end made Eirina cringe internally. There was something about the bow and acquiescence to being led that rubbed her the wrong way.
"Honestly, I didn't think anyone else survived that crash," Shadowheart was tucking her own weapon away, having raised it to come to Eirina's defense. Eirina felt her heart warm and could barely keep a smile off her face. Despite the fact that they should be enemies, she liked Shadowheart. There was something about her that made her feel balanced. At peace.
"Well, not everyone is rewarded with a stroke of good luck after such an ordeal," Astarion sheathed his own weapons with absolute silence. Eirina realized that he would likely be as silent as a cat in the night if he decided to slit their throats. She needed to make sure that trust was built between them all, and quickly.
"Yes, well," Shadowheart gestured up the hill, "we still need to pick out way through that and find a place to camp." She tossed a reclaimed bag at Astarion. He held it between two fingers and scowled at it distastefully.
"What, exactly, do you intend for me to do with this?" He made to drop the bag but stopped at Shadowheart's scowl.
"You said you were a magistrate, so you're probably unfamiliar with wilderness survival," Eirina bent down and picked several berries from the bush in front of where the boar had been hiding. Giving them a once over, she shoved them into a tin cup and wrapped an edge of cloth over it before handing the whole thing to Astarion, "we forage while we walk. Water, fruit, berries, mushrooms. If we find anything of value that we can sell or trade, we grab that too." Astarion perked up at that. Shadowheart scowled at him.
"No light fingered antics! If it belongs to someone, you leave it be," she snapped at him. Astarion began to pout prettily.
"Well, that's no fun," he drawled, "alright, I guess I'll have to carry my weight around here somehow." He reached down and picked up a mushroom, looking it over with a look of disgust and tossed it in his bag.
"It's not glamourous, but it will keep us alive," Eirina was used to this, having spent the last couple of years with various adventuring parties. At least she had stories to tell that were not like the completely terrifying ordeal they had all just survived. One day, decades from now, she would tell the story to some bard, maybe the infamous Volo, about this whole thing. But first, they needed to find a healer. Someone to help them get rid of the tadpoles squirming in their heads. Eirina was tempted to name hers, but she absolutely did not want to get attached to a parasite that would ultimately strip her of her mind and soul, turning her into one of those vile creatures.
As the thought of the mind flayer who had infected her crossed her mine, she felt the tadpole flare violently behind her eyes, a voice weakly calling her forward. Shadowheart and Astarion also clutched their heads, but Eirina held a hand up to hold them back. If one of them got hurt, the others would have a chance to defend or flee. It was Eirina that stepped forward, finding the half crushed Mind flayer under some of the rubble. It was dying. She didn't need to be a cleric to determine that this creature wasn't long for the world. But it was pulling her towards it with some unseen force. Eirina grimaced as unwelcome emotions of affection, even love, coursed through her. It took everything in her not to gag at the thought of loving this creature. She walked up to it, fighting the connection the whole time. As she looked down at it, she realized that each mind flayer was slightly different from one another. This one had the higher collar and lighter purple psionic mass. This one. This was the one that infected her. Gritting her teeth and letting out a scream of rage, she raised her booted foot and drove it as hard as she could into the soft mass of the mind flayer's head. She raised her boot one more time and drove it down with just as much violence, ensuring that all parts of it's brain were smashed to a pulp.
"Disgusting!" Astarion's voice sounded gleeful at the act of violence. Shadowheart walked up behind Eirina, careful not to touch her.
"Are you okay?" Shadowheart's voice was filled with genuine concern.
"This one..." Eirina choked on her words, forcing herself to swallow the hot tears fighting the edge of her vision, "this was the one that put the tadpoles in our heads. I recognized it." Giving her head a shake she turned, deliberately grinding her boot into the pulpy mass under it as she twisted.
"Oh really?" Astarion frowned, "and you didn't think to share with the rest of us?" He tutted playfully. "Let's find a healer to ensure that they don't get to replenish their numbers with us." Both women nodded and they turned to continue up the half destroyed mountain trail.
They were both pretty, but the black haired woman had an air of "touch me and die" about her that Astarion would not dream of messing with. If anything, he respected it. The red head, however, Eirina, she was an easy mark. He had sat and watched them for hours as they had carted the bodies from the wrecked village and piled them up to burn them. He felt a slight pang of guilt that he didn't go down and help, but until their minds connected, he had thought them both to be mind flayer thralls, enslaved to the creatures that had taken them on the ship. That tiny baby she had plucked from underneath the crushed roof of a hut had even brought a tear to his own eye. Ugh. People are meant to be used, to taken advantage of, to achieve your own ends. You're not supposed to have feelings for them. But it was that compassion Eirina had right there that would make it easier to manipulate her.
Or was she one of those celibate clerics? No, she obviously worshiped Selune, and their clerics were some of the more liberal and adventurous. Not into the more hedonistic fun that he enjoyed, but still more into the pleasures of the flesh and satisfying whatever little itch they might have than say, a cleric of Tor. He shuddered at the thought of trying to seduce a cleric for one of the war gods. Or a member of a barbarian tribe. He liked his bed partners slightly more delicate. And both women he now traveled with were definitely more delicate than some of those he had been sent to seduce in the past.
Shaking the thoughts from his head, Astarion plucked another couple of mushrooms from the roadside, a disgusting task, before asking Eirina where she was from.
"Born and raised in Baldur's Gate," she listed a respectable residence in the Upper city, "I'm the only daughter of house Virren." Astarion's eyes went wide. Well. This changes the plans slightly. He was moving from seduce her to use her to destroy Cazidor to seduce her, destroy Cazidor, and then use his connection to her and her family to take the power that his master had in the city for himself.
"A closeted child rebelling against her parents and setting out to see the world instead of being the precious little debutante they raised?" His voice dripped with a saccharine venom he reserved for the spoiled little rich types. Make them feel vulnerable and then build them back up. What he wasn't expecting was her snort of derision.
"Hardly," she responded, slowing down to look ahead, "my parents were thrilled when I told them I wanted to see the world and to help people. We don't believe in missionary work beyond that of helping people in our goddess's name." Ah yes, the Virren family funded the Selunite cloister in Baldur's Gate. They had for centuries. She was fucking royalty.
"So you wanted to sleep on the hard ground, eat food barely good enough for livestock, and risk your life for people you don't even know," he schooled his features into a bored look, "was there really so little for you to do around the city that you had to leave to find adventure?" Shadowheart just glared at him, but he ignored her.
"Actually, it gave me a chance to explore the Sword Coast and meet interesting people. I was never happier than when I was helping people," Eirina looked over at him with a sad look, "all my parents ever wanted was for me to be happy," the expression morphed into a grimace, "and so many suitors sought my hand because of my family's wealth and connections that it was just easier to leave the city and explore the world." He watched as she wiped her boots on the edge of the road, using some coarse weeds as if they were the finest of boot scrapers. Astarion's plan was ever changing, but the goal remained the same: manipulate her feelings for him so he could get what he wanted and needed from her. He was well versed in games of manipulation and seduction, only this time it was a couple hours in a tavern, he had days, maybe weeks to wear her down.
"Come on," Shadowheart's clipped words broke through his thoughts as Astarion realized he was watching Eirina with open interest. Shadowheart seems to have grown closer to the elf, something that would prove a challenge in the future if he wasn't careful.
"Of course my dears," Astarion gesticulated graciously, indicated for the two of them to precede him. This was a long game. He noted the wriggling sensation in his head as his tadpole writhed about. A long game with a deadline.
