Chapter Text
She tried to pick her head up and open her eyes but couldn’t. They were too heavy.
I know. It’s the poison. It’ll wear off.
Something was pulling her up from under her arms. It was clumsy, awkward. Her head lolled back and a hand caught it and clumsily shifted it and set it down.
It’s been over a day. You need water. Can you swallow?
Her eyes managed to flicker open. She saw mottled blue skin in long ropes. Her ear was pressed into it’s shoulder, her forehead into the side of it’s neck. Oh, for fu-
She lost consciousness again.
Somehow they’d expected that. It would need to drink at some point but they had more time for the poison to wear off. The priestess, Rhea, had undone some of it. They might be able to get her to do more.
Even a little sylph was heavy as dead weight, not that strength was their best quality to begin with. They tried to shift back out from under it but changed their mind and flopped back against the corner of the wall they were sitting against. They were just so tired. The sylph was poisoned, but they were just exhausted. They were sitting here worrying about it drinking when they had no idea where they were going to find a pool to sleep in. They’d just have to rest here for a second until-
-the sun beat down on cracked earth. The air rippled as it rose off the ground but that was the most it could do under the heat. She was face down in the dirt, the skin of their back being ripped off in quick sharp movements like working sinew off of bone—exactly like that, actually. Her hands were behind their back but not tied. Their hands were wrestling with a knife.
We’re dreaming. They hadn’t dreamt like this since before the dragon. It’s words bubbled up in their thoughts. At the time it was a reassurance. No control by the collective. But this time they could feel the reflection underneath the words.
dragons don’t dream
qɹɐɓouƨ oulʎ ǝɐʇ
She felt the weight of them on her back. Her hands weren’t moving. Her hands couldn’t move. Their skin prickled with static. They jerked awake but she only made it halfway back to consciousness..
Nonono you’re ok.
get off me
I’m not–! You’re on ME.
She was managing to summon a little energy, but her hands were stuck at her sides. She could feel it’s weight bearing down on her. get off. GET OFF.
They managed to worm their way out from under her. They kept a hand under her head to keep it from hitting the wall. Trying to protect her head landed their shoulder roughly on the floor. She jolted almost back into full consciousness.
She could feel a hand threaded into her hair in a way that was comforting except it she knew that it wasn’t. He’d drugged her. He’d drugged her and pinned her down under the sun to make rain. The blue of it’s face swam into focus instead and that thread of thought fled. Their own consciousness settled in enough for them to think more clearly. They carefully started picking their thoughts apart from it’s, like untangling threads.
Their skin stopped prickling as the energy dissipated. It’s head dropped heavily onto their hand. It ineffectually sulked while grudgingly savoring the sensation of being held.
I’ll kill you, it petulantly brooded.
I know. In the meantime can I get you to drink some water?
The dryness in her mouth gave her the willpower to push her head forward to meet the bottle of water. In the same moment it chastised her hasty gulp (SLOWLY!) she choked and sputtered on it. She fell back and began wheezing and it grabbed her by the collar and shoved her forward.
If you’re going to continue needing this much support to not kill yourself, you could at least stop trying to kill me.
“Where are we?”
…Eryndlyn.
“We made it?”
Correct.
She looked around at the bare stone surroundings and the solid wooden door. There was a bucket in one corner and a torch on one wall. They were sitting on a pile of ratty blankets. Those seemed to be the only significant furnishings. Oh, wait, no. If she craned her head backward there were chains hanging from the wall behind them.
“Not much nicer than where we were.”
Well now we’re both in a cell so arguably worse.
“How did that happen? I thought you were going to beg for mercy or something.”
The drow are not typically merciful.
This seemed like it might have been a bad plan.
Well you didn’t seem to have a better one.
Their eyes fluttered open to the sight of her half open mouth lazily shoved up against their tangled mass of tendrils. They saw teeth and jolted fully awake. Their back pushed into the wall as they shoved it in the other direction. It jolted awake itself, rolled onto the stone, and jumped up onto it’s hands and knees, snarling.
“Go sleep on the fucking floor then.”
They stared, indignantly at it for a long moment.
If you think I’m going to go lay on that cold rock save us both the trouble and just kill me now.
They rolled towards the wall and tucked their face safely sideways and down into their chest.
She was on her back under the sun this time. She should have known. He had insects in his study pinned just like this. Channeling enough energy to cover the sun with rainclouds pushed her frail corporeal manifestation to it’s limits. Instead the sky turned black behind the sun and they walked into view. Blue tint, large wide set eyes. It had thrown it’s two longer tentacles over it’s shoulder to pin her down while it’s friend leaned on the bone saw. Everything is fine. You’re at home, in your bed! You’re resting. Everything is FINE.
FUCK THAT WHAT THE FUCKING FUCK–
It huffed in annoyance. Just do your best to relax. Trust me, you won’t remember this. It shifted it’s weight over her shoulders for leverage and shoved her back down.
Her eyes snapped open and she rolled on top of it, her left hand burning as she tangled it in it’s face. It’s eyes snapped open then fell back to half shut when she picked it’s head up and slammed it into the floor.
It had to remember that NOW? Not even maybe a day ago when it was still paralyzed?
I DIDN’T KNOW. I ACTUALLY DIDN’T KNOW.
They locked their arms straight against it so it didn’t have leverage to keep slamming their head against the floor. It’s right hand clawed into their ribs where their shirt had ridden up on their left. They felt the prickle of electricity.
They remembered that day in the lab, the day they just let it out and left it out. They remembered not caring what happened next. To a certain extent, they still didn’t. Honestly they were surprised it hadn’t. They had genuinely failed to live up to that promise.
…I–I’m sorry. I–
It was the confusion that stopped it, more than anything else.
–I actually thought you wouldn’t remember.
It screamed and punched and clawed at their face with both hands until it’s voice went raw. They threw their hands up to deflect as much as they could. Somehow it felt like both hours and yet just seconds before it all but collapsed on top of them. It sobbed and punched them in the shoulder one last time.
It’s never happned before. Sometimes they wake up but they never remember.
They sat along the opposite wall until it managed to cry itself back to sleep.
She… condensed, somehow, almost like a water spirit. She was the sky and yet somehow she pulled together into one droplet and fell out of herself. As she streamed down towards the ocean waves, twin tails of her droplet whipped up towards the roiling clouds. They looked up (she shouldn’t be able to see) and instead of trailing off the tails of matter pulled on her and they had …..toes? Her newly formed hair whipped over her face as she crashed into the waves. As she sank down away from the surface …the sun came out? That never happ–
–she started choking on the water. No, not on the water. They were being strangled. They clawed at the hands around their throat as she shoved herself back up towards the light. They got their feet under them on the bottom of the pool and their fingers found the edge. As she broke out of the surface of the water under the heat of the incubation lamp they took a blow to their face. When their hands reflexively flew up to protect her face the thing around their neck unlooped itself. The attending illithid threw Xotchtil’s’ tentacles off to the side of them with a splash. Xotchtil shoved them away and the illithid answered with another slap to the face.
The illithid standing over them looked disgusted Are you serious? Are you actually serious. I’ve literally never seen anything that stupid.
Sitting halfway out of their incubation tank, Xotchtil was frozen in shock.
It’s actually a good thing we didn’t have time to let you finish incubating. You were literally choking yourself to death ON YOUR OWN TENTACLES. Decades I’ve been doing this and I have never, EVER, seen someone THAT stupid.
They stayed frozen.
Ulitharid my ass.
Their eyes opened to find it already staring them down from across the cell.
“Not much has changed.” It rolled back towards the wall.
It was a bad idea not to give it space, but the stone was hard and cold and they were just going to use the end, near it’s feet. Just to sit on. Just to get off the stone. It sighed loudly before pulling it’s legs around and throwing them over their lap.