Set in the Forgotten Realms (Dungeons & Dragons) universe. After a nautiloid ship crash, the sole surviving mindflayer is nursed to health by an unlikely hero, and begins a dizzying journey through the underdark, looking for a way to return to her hive. But the longer she's gone, the more her mind becomes her own. Can she truly return to be one of many? Or will she find herself too changed, and become an individual mind?
The extreme turbulence shook Mithrali to her very core, she clawed her way to the helm of the ship, in a full belly crawl, unable to stand from the forces pushing down on her. In her final moments of consciousness she finally grasped hold of the ship’s navigation device, using all of her strength to hoist herself along the console to reach the teleport tendrils. Below her out the shattered windshield, she could see nothing but stars and swirling aetheric clouds. It was beautiful, almost peaceful. For a moment drowning out the sound of the destruction around her… but then, as the span of a red dragon’s wings blotted out the sky she wondered. If she could look down and see stars, what would she see if she looked up. Turning her head upwards, the surface of the planet they orbited was hurdling closer at an alarming rate. She immediately shut her eyes and clung to the console in an attempt to brace herself. Gravity practically gluing her in the spot.
She had no time to scream, barely time to breathe before everything went black and was engulfed in a deafening silence.
With a gasp, Mithrali shot up in her bed, eyes wide open and pupils shrunk to pin pricks. The illithid woman looked about her room, breathing heavily, gill flaps along her neck flaring open and closed in rhythm. Her eyes adjusted to the dimly lit area surrounding her.
This was not her room, this was not her bed. She looked down, her normal robes lay folded in a pile at the end of the cot, and she was covered in a multitude of bandages, with a simple medical gown giving her only basic decency.
She looked around more, spotting a mirror nearby that bore her reflection. She was beaten and bruised, charred and scarred. The more aware she became of her body, the more everything hurt.
Where was she? Who helped her? Where was her crew? Her hive?
The squid-faced woman closed her eyes once more, focusing hard as she sent out a psionic pulse, searching for anyone nearby like an echo-locator.
“I’m here, hun, you’re not alone, you’re safe.” Came a voice in her head in return.
Soon, emerging from the shadows, was an elderly, alien looking woman. Yellowy toad-like skin. Wide slitted eyes, long, gnarled and pointed ears. Grey scraggly hair and a short and frail stature dressed in simple garb.
Immediately, Mithrali’s mind was filled with confusion and malice. For it appeared she was in the care of a gith.
Once a race enslaved by her kin, they rose against their oppressors, and now Mithrali's kind, the illithid, were a dying breed. Being hunted and slain in the thousands as a right of passage for the gith and their warmongering ways.
“Cool your fires, mind flayer. I mean you no harm, and you are in no condition to fight.”
Spoke the elderly creature to the other.
“Why help me?” Mithrali asked, eyes trained harshly still on the woman as she approached.
“I heal all broken souls who darken my doorstep.” She answered simply with a soft smile.
“And goodness, my dear, did you ever darken it.” She added with a small chuckle.
She came to the bedside of the weakened illithid, and slowly unlatched the nearby window. Opening it gradually so as to not blind the dark-sighted squid with the dappled sunlight that poured through.
Mithrali squinted, adjusting her eyes to the flood of light, and looked out the window.
Sprawling out was a horrific scene. The bio-mechanical carcass of her ship sprawled across a wide chasm. Exposing vast cavernous tunnels, filled with the tell-tale fungal growths that were prolific amongst the underdark.
“Daylight in the dark.” Chuckled the gith woman. “These are interesting times indeed.”
She rummaged through a pouch under her shawl and handed it to the illithid beside her. A small vial with a ruby red liquid, sparkling in the light.
“Drink this, my dear. It will ease your aching.”
The illithid woman reached out with one of the long tentacles that adorned her face. Taking the vial skeptically, and uncorking it. Sniffing at it, confirming it was safe before consuming it.
It smelled sweet of berries and honey with hints of fermentation underneath.
She recognized it as a potion of health. Though a very weak one. She brought the vial to the beak-like mouth hidden under her tendrils and drew it back like a shot at a bar.
She let out a sigh of relief as the effect warmed her insides and the pain overwhelming her senses became dulled.
“Thank you.” She said slow. Words she never thought she'd say to a gith. Then turned back to the window. Looking over the viscera outside.
“Was I the only survivor?”
The gith woman sighed. “I fear so. I've searched the ruin the best I can. Droves of drow and goblins have already looted most of it, as well as the bodies strewn through. I'm sorry I could not find others.”
Mithrali's alien heart sank in her chest. “I see.”