Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

In Trostenwald, six people met in a tavern in 835 PD.  Well, six people and the cat that had been following their goblin for nearly six months.  The group traveled together after a carnival, getting into and out of trouble, naming themselves after a joke from one of their members who happened to know a few words in Zemnian.

Mostly, he used the few he knew more after the cat, an orange tabby they learned, through much trial and error and a jokingly-suggested use of a Ouija board, liked being called Frumpkin, showed his appreciation for hearing the language.

The group as a whole became known as the Mighty Nein, gleefully leaving behind confused acquaintances who didn’t understand that there weren't actually nine of them.

But all told, the party spent about nine months together, picking up an additional cleric in the form of a lanky Wildmother-following firbolg, fighting off slavers, discovering plots to extend or worsen the war between the Empire and the Dynasty, setting sail, returning a Luxon beacon to the Bright Queen in Xhorhas, and defying some underwater monster hoping to be a god.  It was when they returned to the Empire to fight off a cult and rescue their barbarian that they uncovered something truly unsettling.

The Martinet Ludinus Da’leth was the one to bring them to the Vergesson Sanatorium, under the premise of showing them the remaining beacon that the Empire had in their grasp.  Beau, the party’s monk, had suspicions through the Cobalt Soul about the Cerberus Assembly, who were in charge of the research on the beacon, and shared her thoughts with the group before they went.

“Guys, we need to keep on our toes here,” she demanded after pulling the others away from the Martinet for a moment.  Frumpkin was twining between their feet, tail puffed and hair along his spine raising.  “These Assembly guys can’t be trusted, we already know they’ve been up to shady shit.”

“Doubt anyone here’ll trust ‘em, anyway,” Molly muttered back, “you’re the only Empire kid among us.  The rest of us weren’t raised thinkin’ the Empire can do no wrong.”

“You weren’t raised at all , Molly.”

“From the dead counts, don’t it?”

“ Guys ,” Fjord cut in before the two could go further.  “We’ll listen to what they have to say, see if it matches what we’ve learned so far.  We know they have a beacon, that they’ve had it for a while, and we know that we returned the other one that they had.  We stay focused, don’t buy into any bullshit—”

“And get the hell out of this asylum as fast as we can,” Nott grumbled, picking up Frumpkin to stroke in her own nervousness.  “I don’t like it here, and neither does Frumpkin.”

“Nor do the plants.”  Caduceus stood from where he had been checking in with the local fauna.  “Something is going on here, something unnatural.”

The Nein shared a worried look, but a simple call from the Martinet got them moving again.

They found themselves traversing through the courtyard and into the far tower, escorts staying with them while the Martinet made his way downstairs.  The group moved to one side, speaking quietly to avoid being overheard by their guards.

“This place is, like, super creepy,” Jester complained, rubbing her arms and shifting closer to Fjord.  “Do we really need to stay here?”

“We need to see that beacon,” Beau huffed back.  “You heard Ludinus, he’s claiming they only just got this one, which we know isn’t true.”

Caduceus was frowning still, ears twitching around and turning towards the windows and doors.  He glanced briefly at the guards, then mumbled, “This is not a happy place.”

“What do you—?” Fjord began, but footsteps cut him off as the Martinet came back up the stairs, followed by an Archmage they quickly recognized as Trent Ikithon.  The two Cerberus Assembly mages led the Nein down a spiral staircase and into an arcane laboratory, with a platinum-colored tripod holding the beacon in the middle, guarded by a female halfling and a tall, built human with dark hair.  While the human’s arms were covered in gauntlets, the halfling’s were on display, showing a series of geometric tattoos.

They had a short conversation with Ikithon about the discovery of the beacon, reiterating the story that they recently uncovered it in a dig in Pride’s Call.  There was an attempt to draw a mote of possibility from the beacon, but Nott was interrupted before she could finish the process.

As Ikithon was dismissing them, though, a messenger came running in, just inside the doorway to alert the Archmage that, “Sir, he’s broken through again.”

The human and halfling each grimaced at the information whereas Ikithon cursed in Zemnian before storming out, demanding, “Who left him alone this time?”

The Nein were unable to hear the response as the two left.  “Uh, what just—?”

“Master Ikithon helps with some of the patients,” the human replied before Beau could even finish her question.  He shifted slightly, almost as though uncomfortable to have given them that much information.

“I believe we have accomplished what we came here for, yes?” the Martinet reminded.

The Nein started towards the staircase again, Caduceus taking note of how Frumpkin was rapidly glancing around, prancing a bit and occasionally rumbling happily.  As they came back up to the courtyard, though, Frumpkin let out a sharp yowl and darted towards the main manor.

“What was—?!” the Martinet exclaimed.

“Shit, sorry!” Beau yelped, heading towards the cat, but Molly Misty-Stepped over and picked Frumpkin up before the monk could take more than a couple steps.

“Mind of his own, this one,” Molly excused, going back over to the Nein.  “Apologies, I’ll keep a better hold on him.”

“Right….”  Ludinus did not look very convinced, but he merely sighed.  “If you have any preparations to make, anything you need to do, the timeline is yours. I am not stringently pressing upon you the necessity of any due date for its arrival, but do know time is of the essence.”

“We–I feel like I would like a moment to talk amongst ourselves really quickly, but I don’t know if I feel comfortable having that conversation here,” Caduceus mentioned.

“Can you teleport us back to the city center?” Nott wondered, followed quickly by Molly and Jester also demanding of the Martinet.

“Or somewhere else, maybe?”

“Can you teleport anywhere? ”

Ludinus glanced between the two tieflings, very confused.  “I… can teleport many places.”

“Because you did it like really fast and like it looked really cool when you did it and stuff. You must be really powerful.”

“…Do you have a particular request where to be taken?”

“No, I’m just saying, seeing other people try to do it, but they almost like bamfed us into trees or rocks or something . And you were just like, whoosh , and we’re in like the grass .”

The Martinet blinked warily at the blue tiefling, but still answered, “It’s easier the more familiar you are with the location.”

Molly chuckled.  “I mean, y’know, it was really only one time that happened.”

“I think we still have business in Rexxentrum, no?” Nott interrupted before another argument or tangent could begin.

“Then we can return.”

There was another brief conversation about where to look to restock, and with a suggestion from Ludinus, the decision was made to teleport back outside of the Martinet’s tower in the Shimmer Ward.  They said their goodbyes, then moved to a quiet, secluded alleyway outside of the Ward and began to discuss what had happened.

“Ikithon didn’t—I’ve never—I’ve never seen another person walk so daintily around the truth,” Caduceus mumbled.

“Even I couldn’t sniff the truth from the shit on him,” Molly added, still stroking a softly whining Frumpkin.  He frowned down at the tabby.  “And what got into you in there, friend?”

The cat mrowled sadly back at him, rubbing his head against Molly’s chin.

“Something must’ve caught his attention in the courtyard, right, Frumpkin?” Nott commented, reaching up to scritch Frumpkin’s side gently.

“The patient, though,” Beau huffed, “the one Ikithon ran off to check on?  What was up with that?  What could a wizard do to help someone in an asylum?”

“Yeah, they totally should’ve asked a cleric , like Caduceus or even me! ”  Jester received a few incredulous looks from her friends, then quickly added, “I mean, I would’ve helped if they like needed me to, I’m totally getting better at healing people!”

“Of course you are, dear,” Molly consoled her, simpering a bit at her usual dislike for healing.

“They weren’t needing a cleric,” Caduceus redirected the discussion.  “In the courtyard, I could hear something going on in the manor.”

“What?” Fjord demanded, then his brow furrowed and he added, “How’d you even manage to hear anything?”

“Magic!” Molly gleefully replied, looking ready to launch into another of his tall tales.

“There was some sort of fight going on,” Caduceus continued.  “It sounded like the patient was trying to escape, and they were saying something about a spell.”

Frumpkin gave a keening meow, tail thrashing as he tried to both look around and wriggle free from Molly’s hold.  The tiefling shifted his grip, hugging the tabby to one shoulder as he muttered, “Really, what’s gotten into you?”

Beau frowned, staring hard at the cat before grumbling, “I think he heard the fight, too.  Something about it really upset him.”

“Oooooh, Frumpy!” Jester cried, snatching the cat to her own chest in a cuddle complete with belly rubs.  “Poor thing!  Were you worried for whoever was trying to get out?”

The cat let out another sad yowl.

“What sort of spell would they be using on an asylum resident that needs a wizard instead of a cleric?” Beau pondered, folding her arms over her chest with a huff.

“Nothing good,” Yasha mumbled.

“Especially one as powerful as Ikithon,” Molly added.  He rubbed at his chin a moment, then sighed.  “Much as I hate it, we might actually need to, ugh, research for this one.”  His nose scrunched at the thought of needing to read.

Fjord nodded.  “There must be spells wizards have that he was going to use, something high level given he didn’t send one of his students instead.”

“We can go to the Cobalt Soul Archives,” Beau offered.  “They should have books on, what, wizard mind spells?”

The group shrugged, none of them being very well-versed in the arcane.  After another moment of awkward shuffling, Fjord sighed and decided for them.  “Alright, the Archives it is.”

VERNICHTEN

Blue eyes blinked open, a spark reflecting from inside that had been missing for the last thirteen months.  It took a long moment for him to refocus, but a glance towards the window helped his mind recalibrate, bringing forth the exact time of day, as was normal for him.

Normal again.

He shifted to his feet, a harder task than expected with his arms wrapped in a rune-covered straightjacket.  Luckily, he wasn’t fully strapped in, and a few minutes (six minutes and twenty-three seconds) was enough to wiggle an arm free.  Thirty-seven rough scrapes of his fingers against the wall drew blood from the tips, which he used to start ruining the sigils drawn across the fabric he wore, hoping that enough could be destroyed to allow him to access his magic once more.

Evil man

A gasp escaped his raw throat, calling attention to the damage he must have done to it during nightmares over the past who-knew-how-long, as the voice of his familiar echoed through his head.

Frumpkin was near.

I’m here , he sang back, savoring the connection that he had missed—or, would’ve, if he’d been of his right mind before now.

Gemüt!   Joy filled him from his familiar passing along emotions through their link.  Come back to me!

I’m trying! he cried, rubbing a few more sigils into ruins before moving to the door, studying the lock with a sigh.  If he had his spell book, he’d be able to cast Knock, but as it stood, he’d need to use a cantrip instead.  His hands lit with flame, which he aimed at the door and released in a wild Fire Bolt that melted the lock enough for him to throw his shoulder into and roll out into the hallway.

Faster!

He stiffened, panic rushing through him even as he heard orderlies and clerics yelling about him being out of his “room”.  What?!  Did he—Are you—?

Freunde.  They take care of me, but they are nicht dich.

Relief flooded him.  Gut, ich bin froh.   He shoved a hand into his matted hair, wincing at the tangles he pulled, then nodded to himself and darted down the hall, hopefully towards a door.  Ich komme für dich.

Ra—We—tele—

Frumpkin?!   His feet pounded faster against the floor, the patient ducking and dodging around any that got in his way, hands aflame once more to discourage any from approaching him.

They’re—to—entrum….

Warte, I’ll be there in—

“Bren, Bren, Bren.”

The voice froze him in place as the connection slid through his fingers, an elderly man approaching him with hands clasped behind his back.  “Nein,” the patient breathed, heart pounding.

“Just had to cause trouble for yourself, didn’t you, Bren?”  The man was still moving closer, hands coming forward to start curving through the air.

“ Nein! ” he yelled at the man, throwing another Bolt that the man just stepped around.  The patient scrambled backwards, hitting a wall with enough force for his feet to slip out from under him, sending him crashing to the floor.  “ Bleib mir fern!  Ich gehöre nicht hierher! ”

“Oh, Bren,” the man mollified, pulling a handful of green crystal from a pocket as he knelt beside the frantic patient, “this is exactly where you belong.  Now, I think it’s time you calm down, and we both know the best thing for that.”  The crystal was held between them, and the man’s breath blew across it towards the patient as he murmured, “ Schwachsannig. ”

And the spark in the younger’s eyes faded away again.

VERNICHTEN

Molly huffed an overly dramatic sigh as he flopped back from the table, the book he’d supposedly been reading thudding back down and fluttering a few pages off of where he’d held it.  “This is ridiculous!   We’ll never get the answer just looking at this shit!”

“Research takes time,” Beau grumbled, steadily skimming through her own tome.  “We just gotta keep reading till we find something.”

“ Whyyyyy? ” Jester joined in with the complaints, having abandoned her reading ages ago and instead resting with her arms folded on the table and her chin digging into where her wrists crossed.  “None of us know anything about this wizard stuff!”

“And it’s not like there’s anyone we can ask about it, either,” Nott added, pessimistic as always.  “All the wizard-types around here are probably connected to the Cerberus Assembly.”

“Ohmygosh, do you think it’s some big conspiracy or something?!”  The blue tiefling bolted upright, energized by the idea.  “Like they’ve gotten rid of any books that could help!  Or hoarded them away like dragons, to keep allllll the information to themselves! ”  She gasped abruptly.  “And if we keep looking, they’ll have their spies here snatch us away into a dungeon! ”

Yasha merely blinked at Jester's enthusiasm for the possibility and murmured, “I doubt a town with such a big school would prevent their students from learning, even if they are experimenting outside the Academy.”

Fjord groaned as he pulled away from yet another book, stretching his back from leaning over for so long.  “I think we’re going to need to call this one.  We don’t know what we’re looking for, so we’re not going to find it.”

Nott’s nose wrinkled at the prospect of failing as Frumpkin curled around her, mewling sadly.  A green, bony hand reached down to run absently through the cat’s fur as she grumbled, “Shouldn’t there be someone around to help us look?”

“Yeah, Beau,” Molly cut in, leaning far enough over to shove his head between the monk and her novel, “you got another Dairon ‘round here t’help us out?”

The brunette shoved the purple tiefling out of the way, then blinked as his words sunk in.  “Wait, that’s an idea….”  She stood, stalking briskly away from the rest down the aisles, calling out for an Archivist to help them, reminding any who heard her that “Expositor Beau” was on “important, official business for Dairon.”

Molly chuckled under his breath, nudging Fjord in the ribs.  “She’s really improving with th’whole public speaking thing, i’n’t she?”

“Just a bit,” Fjord mumbled back.

It was the matter of a few minutes before Beau was back with an older, female half-elf in tow, who gave her name as Archivist Bael’Solrath.  She wore the robes they were accustomed to on their own monk, and used a quarterstaff as a cane.  “Now,” she spoke with a soft, craggly voice, one accustomed to story-telling but much-used to the point of loss, “what is it you needed help finding?”

“We’re looking into spells that a wizard might use to help an asylum patient,” Beau quickly summed up for the elder.  “Something clerics wouldn’t be able to use, and likely a higher level spell.”

The Archivist rubbed at her chin for a long moment, humming as she thought.  “There are many spells accessible to wizards, but to help with the mental….”  She wandered almost absently towards a shelf, unaware as Frumpkin hopped down from Nott’s lap and began winding about the woman’s legs, purring wildly.  Bael’Solrath’s hand skimmed across the spines of the books, hovering just a millimeter from touching anything until she made a triumphant noise and snatched a single tome off the shelf, rifling through it.  “Now, spells to affect the mind, used by wizards….  There’s Friends, of course, though you’re looking for stronger magic....  That puts Minor Illusion, Charm Person, Silent Image, and Sleep similarly out of play.  Crown of Madness would likely cause just as many if not more problems than letting someone run free….  Suggestion could be used, but there are some clerics that know this one, possibly Hypnotic Pattern just to restrain someone….  Remove Curse is well known to clerics, and some can learn Dominate Person as well….  Getting to the stronger spells, Geas is used by both wizards and clerics, so that rules it out, Modify Memory is a possibility, Mental Prison, if they’re needing the person contained, or Sequester, while Antimagic Field would be accessible to clerics….  They could be using Sympathy to calm the patient, Power Word Stun to hold them still, or… if the patient were too dangerous, maybe even Psychic Scream to stun or Feeblemind to incapacitate.  Worst case, Imprisonment.”  She snapped the book closed and looked to the shocked party that were still trying to absorb the information she had given them.  “Does that help you?”

There was a long moment of quiet before Fjord managed to croak out, “Y--Yes, uh, I believe it does, ma’am.”

The half-elf grinned at them.  “Of course.  Merely my job.”  She went to replace the book on the shelf, but Beau interrupted her.

“Uh, sorry, any chance we could keep that for a bit to make notes?” she rushed out.  “It’s just, you went through it too fast for us to write down….”

Bael’Solrath smirked, twenty years dripping off her form from the mischievous expression alone.  “Dearie, yes, you may continue your research.”  She handed the book over, the smirk never falling from her face.

Beau took the text gratefully, joining her friends in thanking the Archivist as she turned and hobbled away with her staff.  With the woman out of earshot, the monk spun to her party, flipping open the book again as Frumpkin danced around her in glee.  “Those spells she mentioned, what do they do? ”

As she rifled through the pages, Caduceus was the first to draw himself out of the information overload.  “Modify Memory does exactly as it says, while two of the others can stun.  And most can restrain someone.”  He frowned.  “But all of those are quite severe for a mental patient, wouldn’t you think?”

Nott scowled.  “But you saw how angry Ikithon got, he probably was harsh towards whoever he was after.”

“It must’ve been a restraining spell,” Jester thought out loud, tapping a finger to her chin, “they definitely said he ‘broke through’ again.”

Beau finally found the pages the woman had pulled her information from, skimming with a finger trailing down the paper as she mumbled, “So Power Word Stun, Sequester, Mental Prison, Psychic Scream, Sympathy, Feeblemind, or Imprisonment….”  She huffed, slamming a fist into the table as she sat again.  “That’s still a lot of options….”

“Look into each of their effects,” Molly offered, leaning over one of Beau’s shoulders as Jester and Nott hovered by the other.  “It’s likely something that would work for a while, if they’re keeping them under a spell for long periods of time.”

His comment received surprised stares from the others before he blew out a frustrated breath that shifted the hair hanging over his forehead.  “Yes, I can have decent ideas occasionally, mark the date!”

Beau flipped about a bit, quickly declaring, “That strikes Psychic Scream,  Mental Prison, Power Word Stun if you can shake it….”

Fjord frowned as he bent across the table to read, as well.  “Wait, there’s no time limit on the stun with that one, or with Feeblemind.  And Sympathy is ended once the caster’s out of sight.”

“Sequester would turn the patient invisible,” Caduceus pointed out from the end of the table.  “That would make caring for them difficult, and Imprisonment would create a cell or restraint that wouldn’t be able to shift with the patient back to wherever they stay, if they’re really under the effects for long periods.”

“So the Stun or Feeblemind,” Beau reiterated for them, clapping the book closed between her palms.  “They’d need to be weak for the Stun to work, but Feeblemind….”

“Feeblemind,” Jester echoed, leaning further onto Beau’s chair and worrying her lip as her tail swished behind her.  “It sounds like a really mean spell to use, especially on someone who is a patient ….”

“He had the Beacon down there,” Caduceus rumbled in his quietest voice, “I don’t think it was a patient he was casting on.”

Beau and Fjord caught on first, their heads whipping around to gape at the cleric.  “You think he’s experimenting on patients?” the monk hissed, not wanting to alert anyone else in the Archives to what they were discussing.

A pleased mrowl came from Frumpkin, and the group stared down at the cat as he pranced happily around them, giving a few extra chin rubs to Beau’s legs as he passed.

“...What if,” Molly mumbled, after a lengthy pause, “what if Frumpkin’s wizard isn’t dead like we thought?”

This time, Nott was the quickest on the uptake.  “What if they’re trapped?"

Chapter Text

VERNICHTEN

Master-Teacher-Monster was gone again.  The blank was back.  He sat in the silence, the white-robes having taken Him back to His closed-off.  He slumped, the movement-parts in Him not working to keep Him upright.  There was a hard-rough behind Him, and His seeing-hearing-tasting-part was lolled back against it.

Time passed.  He couldn’t clock it.

He should be able to clock it.

His shouldn’t-be-blank was throbbing, trying to force off the power-words that had dropped it back to this empty state.  He couldn’t stop it.  He wouldn’t be able to stop it, not for—for—

Time.  Time He couldn’t think.

He wanted to think.

He should be able to—

Time passed.

Smelly-taste-bad came into His stuck-place.  The movement-parts wouldn’t lift Him entirely, so instead He sort of wriggled towards the smells.  He was covered in a soft-scratchy-tight something, couldn’t pull His holding-things around to the smelly-taste-bad, so instead He dipped His eating-bit to the smells and licked up what He could.

It was too soft.  It was sharp on the tip of His tasting-part, with a tang in the back that would linger until the next smelly-taste-bad would come.  It covered His words-part and further along His top-bit.

Time passed.

A white-robe came in to take the hard-sheet the smelly-taste-bad came on, and to rub at the bits stuck to Him.  There was wet-but-no-smell on Him now.  He was a single line on the hard-rough below Him.

Time passed.

Time passed.

Time….

Time….

Time.

VERNICHTEN

The Nein gathered around Jester as she readied a Sending spell to the one wizard they felt they could trust at the moment.  Fjord took his now-standard place in front of her, hands balled and up to count off her words for her.  Caduceus was standing by, ready to play backup in case Fjord lost count.  Nott and Molly held Frumpkin between them, the cat having gotten louder and louder as the day went on with them discussing the possibility of his wizard being out there somewhere, in trouble.  The familiar seemed thrilled that the Nein had finally caught on to his wizard’s plight.  Yasha and Beau leaned against the walls nearby, stances ready in case they needed to break up their circle and run.

“Hiiii Essek,” Jester began, eyes locked on Fjord as he quickly raised two fingers, “we have some questions that we hope you can answer.”  She gave a slight wince as the tenth finger went up and he balled his hands again to keep going.  “What if someone casted Feeblemind on a wizard and kept him locked up?”  She wrinkled her nose as Fjord lifted the last finger and waved a hand to show she was out of words.

Everyone waited, barely drawing a breath in the hopes Essek Thelyss would respond.

Finally, Jester gasped, her violet eyes going a bit glassy and vague as she listened to whatever the wizard was saying.  She blinked back to them, excited.  “He wants to know more!  If we can get to him, or find a safe spot for him to teleport, he can listen to the whole story to help us!”

“He’d need a disguise,” Beau reminded quickly, knowing it would be easier for him to get to them but that the drow wouldn’t be welcomed in the area without hiding himself.  

“We’d need a safe place to do this,” Caduceus added in his customary murmur.  “Somewhere we can talk without being overheard.”

“Or scryed on,” Molly added, sitting back and folding his arms over his chest.  Frumpkin purred his way from the tiefling to the goblin’s lap, kneading gently and settling in for a nap, still rumbling away deep in his throat.

Jester quickly cast again, calling out to Essek as Fjord rushed to hold up his hands to count again, “Okay okay okay, you can totally come to us when we get a spot but you’ll need to disguise yourself—” She took a glance at Fjord, eyes wide and rushed out “—and how to stop scrying—”

“That’s it!” Fjord called.

“—on us shit!”

Caduceus shrugged.  “You’re getting better,” he consoled, patting Jester’s shoulder.

“You got the idea to him, that should be enough,” Yasha added.

“Well, yeah, but—”  Her eyes clouded again as Essek replied.  When she blinked back to them, she quickly told them, “He’s concerned about the scrying, too, and he’s gonna look into it for us.  I need to tell him where and when to meet once we have a place.”

The others nodded, all shifting away slightly as each tried to come up with a safe spot to meet.  They tossed ideas back and forth, debating for nearly an hour before Caduceus drew attention to the time by bringing dinner around to them all.

Most hadn’t noticed him leave to prepare it.

With Frumpkin rumbling still in the middle of the group, they sat to eat, Beau mumbling to the cat through a full mouth, “Tho with Ethek, we’ll hab more ‘nfo on y’r wiz’rd, righ’?”

“He’d be our best bet on fixing whatever’s wrong,” Molly added, giving Frumpkin a few strokes down his back.

“We should be looking into how to fix these spells, too.”  Caduceus sat down with a fresh cup of his dead-people-tea, adding, “There’s lots of spells Jester or I could fix, maybe the one on Frumpkin’s wizard is one of them?”

“Oooooh, yes!” Jester happily chimed in, a pastry getting squished between her hands as she clasped them together in delight.  “We could definitely heal him up or cure him!  The Traveler’s shown me all sorts of tricks for curses!”

“Essek would be able to hopefully tell us which curses we’d be looking to cure, too,” Yasha added quietly, twirling the tip of Frumpkin’s tail with a finger.

“So we need a place to meet up that’s close by for us, out of the way enough that people won’t spook at seeing a drow, and inconspicuous enough that we can discuss this all without drawing attention,” Fjord offered up, pulling his map of the area out and laying it across the table as the others quickly pulled their food out of the way into laps or onto the floor.  “We never got the exact location of the Sanatorium, but we know it was in the Pearlbow Wilderness,” he pointed out the area of forest north of Rexxentrum, “and near the Dunrock Mountains.”

“That’s… a lot of land to cover to find this place,” Beau huffed, taking another large bite from her dinner.

“But Essek can teleport,” Molly reminded them, waving a hand about, “he just needs an idea of the area.”

“Oooh!  I can like totally draw it for him and he’ll be like ‘oh thank you Jester, you’re so amazing and talented’ and I’ll—”

“Drawing it out’s a good idea,” Caduceus applauded.  It both cheered Jester to have her plan complimented and distracted her from whatever long-winded story she was about to create.

“Lovely!” Molly added, giving a clap.  “So we just need a place for our clandestine rendezvous!”

Fjord and Beau rolled their eyes, but Nott simply pointed out, “The woods would be the best place for it, but we’d need to find a very specific spot so Essek can join us.”

“We’ll hunt out a spot tomorrow and message him,” Fjord decided, rolling up the map once more and tucking it away.

“I feel bad that Frumpkin’s wizard will have to wait another day at least before we can help him,” Jester murmured with a pout, gliding a hand over the familiar’s back.  “He must’ve been in there for so long already!”

“Nine months we’ve been together with Frumpkin, aye?” Molly thought, scratching at his chin.

Nott shook her head.  “He’d already been with me a while before that.  It’s been over a year since he helped me escape the jail I was in.”

The group took a moment to glance somberly at the cat, who was purring away as Jester and Yasha kept stroking him.

“We’ll find your wizard soon, Frumpkin.”

VERNICHTEN

Seeing-things blinked open, looking over towards the not-working-entrance.  Master-Teacher-Monster was there, with white-robes all around him.  The white-robes came forward, latching onto holding-things and walking-parts, lifting the groggy Patient up and dragging Him along with them as they marched down hall after hall.

Blue seeing-things blinked, noticing turns and doors and absently realizing He should be counting and memorizing them before the numbers slipped from His thinking-part again, but the thought faded before it had truly formed.  The white-robes simply hurried Him along when His moving-bits didn’t want to follow, and soon the group came to an opening-wood that led into the Pain-Room.

He did not like the Pain-Room.

He was sat on a hard-smooth, holding-bits strapped in place with rough-cloth, as were His moving-parts.  He writhed in place, but could not get free from the rough-cloth.  In fact, He hissed as pain cut through Him, red-wet dripping out from where the rough-cloth held Him down.  His thinking-part lolled back against a hard brace behind Him, and a last piece of rough-cloth wrapped just above His seeing-parts.

Master-Teacher-Monster paced before Him, staring down with his speaking-parts stretching wide in a look that sparked fear inside.  To one side, there was a holding-things-high full of sharp-metals and green chunks that made something cold slide down His back.

He didn’t want those chunks near Him.  They were Bad, this was all Bad, He didn’t want to be here—

[$ℏµ₶ ℏ៛₥ µ₱,] Master-Teacher-Monster spat, seeing-things looking hard down at the Patient.  [Ħ∄’₤₤ ₺µ$₶ ৳℞៛₦₲ µ₦₩₳₦₶∄₫ ₳₶∄₦₶៛º₦ ៛₣ ℏ∄ $₶₳℞₶$ µ₱ ₳₲₳៛₦.  Ħ∄ ₳₤℞∄₳₫¥ ₡ℏº$∄ ₶ℏ∄ ₩º℞$₶ ₶៛₥∄ ₶º ৳℞∄₳ℵ ₶ℏ℞ºµ₲ℏ ₶ℏ៛$ ₶៛₥∄.]

[₩ℏ₳₶ ₫º ¥ºµ ₥∄₳₦, ₥₳$₶∄℞?] one of the white-robes was asking as another strapped rough-cloth over His talking-part, even though He knew that question-words made Master-Teacher-Monster angry.

[₩∄ ℏ₳₫ ₲µ∄$₶$ ៛ ₩₳$ $₱∄₳ℵ៛₦₲ ₩៛₶ℏ ₩ℏ∄₦ ℏ∄ ℏ₳₫ ℏ៛$ ∄₱៛$º₫∄.]  Master-Teacher-Monster’s seeing-things spun as he moved to the holding-things-high and began sifting through the sharp-metals.  [₮ℏ₳₶ ₥∄℞₡∄₦₳℞¥ ₲℞ºµ₱, ₶ℏ∄ Ⓜ៛₲ℏ₶¥ ₦∄៛₦.  ₮ℏ∄¥ ₩∄℞∄ $µ$₱៛₡៛ºµ$ º₣ ₺µ$₶ ₳৳ºµ₶ ∄∀∄℞¥₶ℏ៛₦₲ ₳₦₫ ₫∄₥₳₦₫∄₫ ₶º $∄∄ ₶ℏ∄ ฿∄₳₡º₦.]

Something about that last word sparked in His head.  It was important.  He knew it was important, He’d seen it, He knew it, He should know why—

[₳ ৳µ₦₡ℏ º₣ ₥∄℞₡∄₦₳℞៛∄$ ₩º₦’₶ ৳∄ ₶₳ℵ∄₦ $∄℞៛ºµ$₤¥,] a white-robe murmured in a soft tone, a making-calm tone that grated against His nerves for how often it was used on Him whenever He was blank.

[₮ℏ∄¥’∀∄ ₳₤℞∄₳₫¥ ৳℞ºµ₲ℏ₶ ₶ℏ∄ ₡℞៛₡ℵ Ωµ∄∄₦ ₶º ₶ℏ∄៛℞ $៛₫∄, ₳₱₱₳℞∄₦₶₤¥,] Master-Teacher-Monster was growling, a sharp-metal in his holding-thing as he came towards the Patient, dragging the holding-things-high with him for easy access to the chunks.  He came up to Him, his talking-bits again stretching wide.  [₮ℏºµ₲ℏ ₶ℏ₳₶ ₩º₦’₶ ₥₳₶₶∄℞ $ºº₦, ₩៛₤₤ ៛₶,]

“Bren?”

That.  That was Important.  That was His!  His word, His self, His name, His Name!

He jerked against the rough-cloths, more red-wet falling from Him as He yelled through the rough-cloth.

Master-Teacher-Monster’s seeing-things spun again, and a simple move of his thinking-part brought white-robes forward to better keep Him from movement.  Master-Teacher-Monster moved up, sharp-metal coming down over His holding-things, red-wet swelling up and pouring faster as a new line cut across Him.  A white-robe reached over and spread the two cut edges from each other as Master-Teacher-Monster picked up a green chunk and lowered it to the slice.  It shoved inside, red-wet parting before it and pain-too-large-doesn’t-fit-hot-sharp-OW filled Him.

He howled into the rough-cloth keeping Him quiet until a white-robe swung at Him.  His thinking-part throbbed, mostly right by His hearing-bit, but it was shocking enough to stop His screech.  He panted through the rough-cloth, seeing-bits aimed hard up towards Master-Teacher-Monster.

Who just let out a choppy, happy-proud sound.  [₦º₶ ¥ºµ℞ ₡µ₱ º₣ ₶∄₳ ₳₦¥₥º℞∄, ៛$ ៛₶, ৳º¥?]  He moved back to the holding-things-high, sharp-metal in one holding-bit and green chunk in the other as he looked back at the Patient.  [៛’∀∄ º₦₤¥ ₺µ$₶ $₶₳℞₶∄₫ ₥¥ ₱₤₳₦$ ₣º℞ ¥ºµ,] his talking-bits spread wide again.

“Bren.”

VERNICHTEN

The Nein spent a good portion of the morning to find a clearing in the Pearlbow Wilderness about a mile in directly north of Rexxentrum.  Jester managed to communicate their area to Essek, using the most unusual-looking trees as landmarks and giving her best estimate of the perimeter of the clearing, eagerly reminding him to “bamf into the middle of the clearing, okay?  Not like the edges where you could bamf into a tree or something instead, okay?”

Needless to say, it took all her possible Sendings for the day to get the full message across.

The group set themselves up to wait as Jester relayed that Essek had another meeting before he’d be able to meet them, preparing an area in case they had to camp out that evening, depending on what help Essek could be.  Caduceus, as per usual, had settled in by the fire to make tea and a meal, having long since learned that with this group, it was best to always get a meal ready, as trouble found them quite frequently.

Frumpkin moved close to the fire, sitting just outside it and staring deeply into the flames.  It was a habit the Nein had noticed of the cat anytime they set their campfire for the evening.  Something about the flickering heat drew the familiar in, and they’d yet to find an explanation for it.  When he was like this, not even Nott could pull him from his thrall.  Once, he’d sat until the last embers had been put out the next morning.

Molly moved to sit beside the familiar, approaching gently but not stealthily, not wanting to spook Frumpkin into hurting either himself or the tiefling.  As he lowered himself down, he murmured, “Fire’s a thing with your wizard, innit?  That’s why you stare.”

The cat turned to him, giving a single, slow blink of bright yellow eyes.

The tiefling nodded back, keeping his gaze locked onto Frumpkin’s now that he had the cat’s attention.  “Aye, thought so.  Can you communicate with him at all?”  He blinked as he thought back to their trip to the asylum and added, “Or is it just when you’re near ‘im?”

Frumpkin tilted his head forward at the addition.

Molly huffed out an annoyed breath.  “That’ll make things complicated….”

“But that’s why you darted off when we were there, wasn’t it?” Fjord asked as he sat across the campfire from them.

Again, the cat looked towards the inquiry and gave another slow blink.

“Shit,” Beau sighed, flopping down with them.  She ran an apologetic hand down Frumpkin’s back from the slight startle he gave.  “You’re not gonna wanna do that again, it freaked people out there, and we’ll likely have to be sneaky with this shit.”

“Are we even going to be able to sneak in there?” Nott questioned worriedly, twisting her fingers and shuffling forwards to cuddle Frumpkin close out of nerves.

“Where are you sneaking to now?” an exasperated voice came from behind them.  The group turned to see a floating drow just inside the clearing coming towards them and lowering slowly upon noticing no one else could see them here.

“Essek!” Jester cried, launching forward to hug the drow.  “You didn’t bamf into anything this time!”

“Once, Jester, it happened once,” he grumbled in response, but patted the shorter tiefling on the head.  As she let go, he glanced over the group, nodding in general greeting to them all.  “What’s this about sneaking now?”

Immediately, seven voices overlapped in their eagerness to share all they’d learned so far in Rexxentrum.

The drow’s blue eyes widened at the influx of noise, causing him to wave his hands a bit frantically in front of him.  “Wait, wait, that’s a lot—one at a time, please!”

The Nein shared a quick look, then Fjord sighed and stepped forward.  “We had a meeting with King Dwendal, and we may have started to broker peace talks, but the issue is more about where they’re keeping the Beacon.”

“You spoke with—?  Wait, you’ve seen the Beacon?”

“We told them we needed to verify its existence to start the peace talks with the Bright Queen,” the half-orc continued, “so we were taken to the place they keep it, the Vergesson Sanatorium, and—”

“You saw it?” Essek seemed stuck on that piece of information.

“Yes,” Caduceus replied softly.  “They were experimenting with it.”

“But then Iki-thong ran off after some patient that was acting up, and Frumpkin totally freaked out, and we had to—”

“...Ikithon?”

The Nein all went quiet at the soft tone Essek had taken on, glancing over to see a terrified look on the drow’s face.  Again, Caduceus was the one to step in as a calming influence.  “Yes, Trent Ikithon was the one experimenting on it.”  The firbolg’s seemingly all-seeing eyes had locked onto Essek, gazing deeply into him and apparently catching onto something the others had missed.  “Do you know him?”

Fjord looked to be ready to correct Caduceus, but Essek cut in first with a sigh and quiet, shameful declaration, “I’m sorry, you all weren’t part of the plan.”

The group all turned back to Essek, who seemed to have shrunk into himself slightly at their attention.  “...What plan?” Molly finally asked, stepping forward with a hand hovering near one of his scimitars.

Essek winced, but held his ground.  “It’s... complicated to express.”

Yasha drew her own sword and came up beside Molly.  “We have all night to listen.”

The drow met her eyes sheepishly, murmuring, “It may take as much.”

Caduceus held up a calming hand to the others, moving in front and leaning a bit on his staff to be eye-to-insightful-eye with Essek.  “Go ahead.  We’re listening.”

The Shadowhand nodded.  “I—I have a lot I want to accomplish, and only one person who understood and believed in that idea, and that’s me.”  He glanced across the group, meeting each eye.  “I’ve done terrible things in my life... as I know many of you have as well.  Things you regret, things you think you’re doing for the right reasons.”  He sighed.  “I cannot say I regret what I have done, I just regret how things have changed since I made that decision.  And you weren’t part of that plan.”

There was a long moment’s pause, then Jester piped up, “Wellllll, number one, what did you want to accomplish?  Number two, just fucking explain the plan ‘cause we’ve been guessing, and we don’t know if we’re right—”

The firbolg shook his head.  “He doesn’t want to say it out loud,” he murmured to Jester.

She gasped and nodded, turning and asking Essek in quick succession, “Do you want to write it down?  Do you want to draw it?  Do you want to play charades?”

“No, he—”

“First word, world domination?”

Molly gave a sigh at Jester’s dramatics and explained for Caduceus, “No, if he says it out loud, then he’s going to have to hear what it is, and he’s not going to like who he is when he hears it, are you?”

Essek winced at the question, enough so that he didn’t need to answer.

Instead, Caduceus laid a hand on the drow’s shoulder.  “I know you’re a good man.”

“You are,” Jester added, “we know you, Essek.”

He frowned at himself, dropping his eye contact.  “I am but a humble, selfish creature.”

“But avarice and fear can often disguise themselves in a good man as strength and righteousness until he’s forced to unveil them in front of people he trusts,” the firbolg commented, releasing his hold on the drow.

Beau huffed when it looked like Essek was still trying to avoid them, “Just say it.”

The Shadowhand sighed.

Jester came up to him, patting his upper arm.  “We’re here.”

Essek sighed once more.  “I’m sorry.  Sorry that you’ve all been pulled into this web of lies.  When I first saw you arrive with the beacon, one of the two that I gave, I knew I had to be near you to protect what we had done.  I had to make sure that you did not get too close to the truth.”

There were several gasps and startled looks at that revelation, but it was Jester who finally broke the stunned silence.

“Backfiiiired….”

The drow’s head dropped, and he shook it slowly as he continued his story.  “If I could control the direction of your meanderings near this endeavor perhaps it would have been safer.  What I did not account for was... liking you all.”   He gave a near-silent chuckle.  “And there’s nothing worse than betraying those you come to care about before you even came to care about them.  At least not in my experience, and regret is a very new sensation.”  A self-deprecating smile spread over his face.  “The pain is somewhat comforting as I am my own punishment.”

By now, Yasha had stowed her weapon and Molly’s hand had fallen away from his scabbards.  The lavender tiefling glanced around at his friends as they took in all this information, then looked back to Essek, asking, “Do you still want what you started out wanting?”

“I’ve spent my life working towards it,” the drow replied.  “I think things got a little out of hand.”

Jester groaned, “What do you waaaant?”

“There are so many mysteries around these Beacons, around dunamis.”  He sighed, running a hand through his white hair.  “My entire life I have been propped up to be perhaps worthy of being one to break those boundaries, to find applications for it that could change everything.  And if I don't do it, the first person who does, I don't trust them.”

“Dunamis,” Fjord mumbled, casting his mind back, “that’s your time magic, right?  No one’s looked into it in the Beacons?”

Essek shook his head.  “They are seen as religious symbols, relics.  It’s practically heresy to think of them as anything else.”  His face scrunched in a grimace, then melted into something wistful.  “But there is so much untapped possibility in the utilization of dunamis. To answer your question of what it is I want to do, I want to unlock these mysteries. I want to dive as deep as I can into that ocean of the unknown, and see what is possible.”

Nott bit her lip, knowing this was the kind of person who may be able to change her back and wringing her hands in a fit of anxiety at the thought of bringing that up.  “Learning is not a bad thing.  But you put lives at risk by starting this war.”

The drow sighed with another sad smile.  “I know.  There is no path to redemption for me.  If—If what has been done comes to light, if what you are seemingly looking to correct is known, then I am a dead man.”

Caduceus shook his head.  “You have the chance to save yourself.  We can help you.  Your better self is still within you.”

Molly grinned, hands on hips.  “Redemption’s for the taking, anyway.  You can choose to do something and leave it better than it was before.”

Essek looked between the two with another sigh.  “You weren’t part of the plan, and now you’re all in terrible danger for the things you know.”

“So?” Beau huffed back at him, crossing her arms.  “We’re always in terrible danger!  Might as well be for something that can help us stop the war.”

The drow gaped around at the Nein, all of whom had adopted a similar determined stance that he’d witnessed when teleporting them off to battles.  He slowly shook his head at their stubbornness, then sighed when he remembered how that same stubbornness was what kept him coming back to them.  “...I have not cared for anyone but myself for the century I have been alive.”

“Who you are today,” Caduceus assured, “not then, right now.  That’s all that matters.”

Molly smirked, red eyes glittering mischievously as he slung an arm around Essek.  “Friends’re lovely, aren’t they?”

"They're certainly something," Essek mumbled, trying to keep down a smile.  

Fjord sighed, running a hand through his hair.  "We have to know what’s coming."

Caduceus nodded.  "We have to—We need to know what you paid, what you set in motion.  We—We’re gonna have to take care of it."

Essek sighed.   “It sounds like they are returning the right beacon, the one that I gave, and they are keeping the one that they found.  The research will continue, and we will likely correspond as the research progresses.  There is intent to end this war, it has run its purpose.  They have what they want, I’ll have what I want, and everyone out there will have what they want, an end to this conflict."

“So... what’s the bad stuff?” Jester asked, swaying in place nervously and making her skirt swish side to side.

“The bad stuff is if you tell anyone what I just told you,” Essek replied, finally managing to duck out from under Molly’s arm.  “The beacon I took will go back to the Bright Queen.”

Beau shifted uneasily, mumbling, “Just like that?”

The drow sighed once more.  “There is no great plan, there is no espionage, there is no anything.  We just... put the pieces back and hope no one notices.”

“Who all knows of your plans?” Fjord asked.  “You recognized Ikithon, but who else?”

“Besides him, there is Martinet Da’leth and another member of the Cerberus Assembly, Vess DeRogna.”

Caduceus blinked calmly at him, murmuring his own question of, “And you’ve met them all?”

“The Martinet and Trent, yes, not DeRogna.  She was commanding a period of experimentation with it.”

“And you all just agreed to share information across borders?” Yasha’s head was tilted slightly, likely remembering her own troubles when being recognized as a Xhorhasian in the Empire.

Essek gave a wry, bitter smirk.  “We hold a tense mutually-assured self-destruction.”

“Let me get this straight,” Beau huffed, moving directly in front of Essek and folding her arms over her chest, glaring hard.  “You all started this war, and now you’re going to finish it.”

“Yes.”

“And we’re just supposed to turn the other way and pretend like you’re not all a bunch of traitors?”

This time, his answer was a bit slower, more begrudging.  “...Yes.”

“I mean, I like you, but the other ones, we’re just gonna let them get away with it?” Jester demanded of the Nein, none of whom could quite meet the fairly naive girl’s eyes.

“Well,” Essek mumbled with another scoffing smile, “they always have.”

“Thousands have died, Essek,” Nott reminded.  “Thousands of innocents.”

“You may have had good intentions,” Caduceus added, “but your vision clouded along the way.”

Essek sneered, eyes down and obviously aiming the derisive grin at himself, “My intentions were never good, they were important.”

“Importance doesn’t make up for lives lost,” Yasha mumbled back, crossing her arms with a glance away from anyone’s gaze, her own guilt flaring at the similarities she was seeing between herself and Essek.  “They deserve penance.”

The drow merely nodded.

Beau paced a bit, trying to get her thoughts in order as she spoke, “You wanted to be able to study, but you had to have taken some thought as to what could’ve come from your giving the Beacons away.  You knew the tensions between the Empire and the Dynasty.  We were close to war before the Beacons went missing, it had to have occurred to you—”

“It did,” he murmured back, “but at the time, I thought the benefit would outweigh the risks.”  He finally lifted his head, locking eyes with Beau and Beau alone as she was their main Empire liaison.  “That was before I learned of Ikithon’s experiments.”

VERNICHTEN

Chapter Text

VERNICHTEN

Fjord stepped between Beau and Essek, drawing their attention.  “What do you mean?”

“The Martinet was my main contact.  His goals were most inline with my own, and he was the only to have seen my true form.  The others knew me by disguise only, as Lord Dezran Thain, but Ludinus and I spoke frequently of our plans for experimentation and research.  He told me some of what Ikithon planned, and when I inquired of more of his work, he provided some… appalling information on the man with whom we were working.”

“Like what?” Jester asked in a whisper, almost too nervous to speak louder.

“He takes only a select few as proteges throughout their time at the Soltryce Academy, and trains them for years in his own residence until he deems them ready to ‘graduate’.  During that time, Ludinus says that Ikithon inserts residuum shards into his students to increase their magical capabilities.”

Amid the gasps from the others, Caduceus’ eyes went wide as he rummaged for something from his bag.  He pulled out the clump of purple crystal growing roots that he’d forged in the Cinderrest Sanctum.  “This came from residuum.  The Wildmother needed me to find some and cast it into magma at the Underforge, and it turned to this.”

Essek studied the crystal for a moment, then nodded.  “I can feel the traces from the residuum.  Yes, then you know of it.”

“But he put that in students?!” Nott shrieked.

The Shadowhand turned to her, blank faced, having already processed the atrocity they were speaking of.  “Yes.  Ikithon would do anything for power, a fact I mourn being unknowing of prior to giving him access to the Beacons.”

“What would he gain from that?” Molly asked, a hand rubbing at his chin and the other rubbing across the red eye hidden under a tattoo on his right shoulder.  Though the others knew the vague story of it, he still wondered at the nine eyes covering him from Lucien’s past.

“Power,” Essek responded.  “These proteges of his trusted him implicitly.  Ludinus mentioned they were also known as Volstrucker, or—”

“Scourgers,” Beau hissed, remembering the captive she’d interrogated in the Dungeon of Penance.  The woman had ignored her entirely until she used her abilities to force the truth from her, and even then, she attempted to shank her in the throat and would have succeeded if the monk weren’t so well-trained in missile snaring or the Shadowhand so quick with the graviturgy spell that ended the captive’s life.

"Yes. And Ikithon's residuum experiments only became known when one of them failed many years ago."

"Failed?" Fjord demanded, stepping forward. "Those were students, not test subjects!"

"To Ikithon, they were both."

"What happened to the one who failed?" Nott asked, worrying at her fingers again.

"His power overwhelmed him," Essek replied sadly. "He attacked his friends, his teachers, civilians. From what I heard, he needed to be taken down before he killed more."

“What did they do to him?” Jester gasped, distraught, hands cupping her mouth.

Essek shook his head.  “I know not.  The Martinet merely told me the issue was ‘dealt with’ by Ikithon himself.”  He glanced at Beau.  “Though if what you say of this… Sanatorium is true, he could have been simply hidden away.  Who knows how many… failed ‘experiments’ Ikithon has there.”

Nott couldn’t help but think of her son, the terror he was in when they were held by the goblins, the way that fear was still in his eyes upon first seeing her halfling form before the relief and joy kicked in, and she took a huge swig from her flask.  “...They were just children….”

The drow sadly nodded.  “From what I have heard, students are recruited anywhere between ten and fourteen years of age, and Ikithon will choose his proteges during their second year at the school.”

“So they could’ve been eleven when he started shoving residuum into them?!” Beau snarled, fists flexing as she wished Ikithon was in front of her to slug his smarmy face in.

There was a long pause after that, each member of the Nein stewing in their fury as Essek tried to determine if there was anything else they needed to know.  Then Frumpkin moved over to the Shadowhand and rubbed his cheek along the drow’s calf, rumbling deep in his throat.

Essek glanced down at the cat, bending to run a hand a singular time down the bengal’s back.  “...I’ve always wondered why you had a familiar following your group with no one who could have summoned him.”  He glanced over at the Nein, still doubled over to examine the cat further.  “He belongs to a wizard, doesn’t he?  One who cannot be with you in person?”

Molly moved closer, squatting beside the familiar to stroke him a few times.  “We can only assume at the moment.  He freaked out when we were at the Sanatorium, trying to get to something, so we think his wizard’s there.”  One more scritch, then he stood and looked around, locking eyes with each of the Nein and Essek.  “We need to rescue Frumpkin’s wizard and any others that are trapped there, then burn that place to the fucking ground.”

Surprisingly, it was Caduceus who agreed first.  “It’s a bad place, the plants said so, and anywhere that allows a man like Ikithon to supposedly ‘help’ patients shouldn’t be open in the first place.”

Beau nodded quickly, a grim look on her face.  “If even Deuces says this place is bad, we need to destroy it.”

Fjord took a quick look around, seeing the determination spreading through each of the Nein.  “We’re going to take this place down hard.”

A cheer broke out through the ranks, leaving just Essek shaking his head slowly, eyes wide.  “You all are insane….”

“We all are making up for the bad shit we see,” Jester corrected giddily.  “Like you said, we’ve done bad things, but we’re fixing bad things now to make ourselves better!”

Molly shot her a grin.  “Like I always say, leave places better than you found ‘em.”

“But there’s no way you’ll survive this,” Essek bit out, anxious for these ridiculous imbeciles he’d come to like, “the Cerberus Assembly is tight knit, powerful, and vengeful.  If they find out you’re even trying to go after Ikithon, they will—”

“It doesn’t matter,” Nott interrupted.  She commanded everyone’s attention as she continued, “They’ve done terrible things, for years, hurting students and children and causing them to go crazy!  It’s only right that, now that we know about this, we do something to fix it!”

“I—I agree,” Essek mumbled, hands raised defensively, “but these people, they’re cutthroat, vengeful, they’ll throw another into the fire if they think they’ll benefit from it.  Anything to defend their Assembly and keep their power.”

“So we’ll be ready for them,” Yasha declared, running a hand lightly over the sheath of the Magician’s Judge.  “You know about them, you can help us plan and be ready to take them out.”

“You all are insane,” Essek gaped at them once more.  As a few beats went by, he finally sighed and shook his head.  “...And somehow, I’ve become just as insane when it comes to your ludicrous plans.”  He ran a hand through his hair before lifting his head and huffing, “I suppose you’ll need a wizard in this preposterous scam?”

Fjord frowned a bit.  “You’ll really join us this time?  Not just teleport us somewhere then bamf away?”

The drow nodded.  “You need what I know, and these people, they need to be taken down.”

Nott walked right up to Essek, a serious look on her face as she studied the Shadowhand.  “...You are a broken person,” she finally stated.  She had to bring up a hand to stop Essek’s instinctual denials and continue, “You are a broken person, who had ill intentions and wandered aimlessly into a path that you had no intention or no idea how to complete.”  Her stern expression shifted, melting a bit into the motherly countenance that the Nein had recently come to know so well.  “And yet somehow on the way you found a heart.  You sound like all of us.  Welcome to the Mighty Nein.”

VERNICHTEN

Master-Teacher-Monster had the white-coats toss Him back into His closed-off.  Red-wet had turned to brown-sticky where the rough-cloth and green chunks had been.  He was slumped, unmoving, on the hard-smooth below Him, struggling for air as His top-limbs throbbed and the power He normally had built up and up but stayed just out of His reach.  He wanted His power, His magic, knew that it could help Him break out of the closed-off, if He could just access it—

[₺µ$₶ ₡₳₦’₶ ℵ∄∄₱ ¥ºµ℞$∄₤₣ ºµ₶ º₣ ₶℞ºµ৳₤∄, ₡₳₦ ¥ºµ,]

“Bren?”

He jolted, glancing over at the opening to His closed-off.  It wasn’t another white-coat or Master-Teacher-Monster.  Standing there, sighing and shaking her thinking-bit was Not-Love.

He flinched back as she moved closer, holding-parts stretching out towards Him as she echoed His name,

“Bren,”

[¥ºµ ₦∄∄₫ ₶º $₶º₱ ₣៛₲ℏ₶៛₦₲.  ₮ℏ₳₶’$ ₶ℏ∄ º₦₤¥ ℞∄₳$º₦ ₮℞∄₦₶ ₱µ₦៛$ℏ∄₫ ¥ºµ.  ¥ºµ ₦∄∄₫ ₶º ₤∄₳℞₦ ¥ºµ℞ ₤∄$$º₦,]

“Bren,”

[₤∄₶ ₮℞∄₦₶ ℏ∄₤₱ ¥ºµ.]

She came even closer, and He backed into a hard-smooth behind Him, not able to go any farther from her.  She bent down next to Him, walking-bits folding up to get her lower.  A holding-part rubbed against the side of His thinking-bit, and He scrunched up, terrified of what she would do to Him, now that she’d gotten close.

[¥ºµ ₩∄℞∄ ₶ℏ∄ ৳∄$₶ º₣ µ$ µ₦₶៛₤ ₲℞₳₫µ₳₶៛º₦.  ៛₶ ৳℞ºℵ∄ ₮℞∄₦₶’$ ℏ∄₳℞₶ ₶º ₩₳₶₡ℏ ¥ºµ ₣₳៛₤, ℏ∄ ℏ₳₫ $µ₡ℏ ℏ៛₲ℏ ℏº₱∄$ ₣º℞ ¥ºµ.  ₩∄ ₳₤₤ ₫៛₫.  ¥ºµ ₩∄℞∄ $µ₱₱º$∄₫ ₶º ৳∄ ₶ℏ∄ ₱℞៛₫∄ º₣ ₶ℏ∄ ∀º₤$₶℞µ₡ℵ∄℞, ºµ℞ ₤∄₳₫∄℞, ₦º₶—]

[₳ ₣₳៛₤µ℞∄.]

The new sound came from His closed-off, where a large man stood, leaning and folding his holding-parts over his middle.

Not-Love looked to him, talking-bit twisting strangely.  [∄º₫₩µ₤₣, ៛₶ ₩₳$₦’₶ ℏ៛$ ₣₳µ₤₶.  Ħ∄ ₩₳$₦’₶ ℞∄₳₫¥.]

Dark strands shook as Monster-Servant huffed.  [Ħ∄ ₩₳$ ₩∄₳ℵ.  ₮ℏ∄ º₦₤¥ µ$∄ ℏ∄ ℏ₳$ ₦º₩ ៛$ ₶∄$₶៛₦₲ ₦∄₩ ₥∄₶ℏº₫$ ₣º℞ 𝔐₳$₶∄℞ ៛ℵ៛₶ℏº₦.]  He came up next to the Patient and grabbed one of His holding-bits, twisting it to look at the new stains across it.  [₤∄₶’$ $∄∄ ℏº₩ ₩∄₤₤ ₶ℏ∄$∄ ₳℞∄ ₶₳ℵ៛₦₲.]

The two No-Longer-Friends looked over His limbs, turning them around and pressing against the reddened lines that had only been recently carved in.  The Patient flinched away, trying to pull free, but they held Him too well, continuing to get as much of a look as they wanted while He whined deep in His middle, unhappy sounds making their way out even when He wished they wouldn’t.

Not-Love’s talking-part turned down at the ends.  [Ħ∄’$ $º $₡₳℞∄₫, ₩µ₤₣.]  She turned to Monster-Servant, her sound getting higher and faster as something like pain flashed over her thinking-bit.  [៛ ₶ℏºµ₲ℏ₶ ₶ℏ៛$ $₱∄₤₤ ₤∄₶ ℏ៛₥ ℵ∄∄₱ ₶ℏ∄ ℵ₦º₩₤∄₫₲∄ º₣ ₩ℏº ℏ៛$ ₣℞៛∄₦₫$ ₳℞∄?]

[¥ºµ ₶℞µ₤¥ ₶ℏ៛₦ℵ ℏ∄ $₶៛₤₤ $∄∄$ µ$ ₳$ ₣℞៛∄₦₫$?] Monster-Servant demanded, still holding onto His top-limb, rubbing against a few of the slashes there.  The Patient flinched back, hitting the hard-smooth behind Him roughly.  [₳₣₶∄℞ ∄∀∄℞¥₶ℏ៛₦₲ ₩∄’∀∄ ₫º₦∄, ∄∀∄℞¥₶ℏ៛₦₲ ₩∄’∀∄ ₤∄₶ ₮℞∄₦₶ ₫º ₶º ℏ៛₥?]

[₩∄ ₲℞∄₩ µ₱ ₶º₲∄₶ℏ∄℞, ₩∄ ₶℞₳៛₦∄₫ ₶º₲∄₶ℏ∄℞, ℏ∄’$ ºµ℞ ₣℞៛∄₦₫!]

[₳₦₫ ₩∄ ₳℞∄₦’₶ ℏ៛$, ₳$₶℞៛₫!]  Monster-Servant huffed, a limb going up to rub at his thinking-bit.  [Ħ∄ ₫º∄$₦’₶ ₶℞µ$₶ µ$, ₳₦₫ ℏº₦∄$₶₤¥, ₩ℏ¥ $ℏºµ₤₫ ℏ∄?]

Not-Love looked down at Him, a sad noise coming from deep in her that He couldn’t help but echo instinctively.  […∫ ₺µ$₶ ₩₳₦₶ ℏ៛₥ ৳₳₡ℵ….]

VERNICHTEN

Frumpkin watched as the humanoids argued for hours.  They had been doing so since agreeing to go back to the Asylum for his other soul, debating loudly (as humanoids did) over their best path and means of entry.  Bright blue eyes glanced back and forth, following each being as they spoke, tail flicking amusedly.

Humanoids were so silly.

“It’s deep in these woods,” the half-orc was declaring, a map spread out before them all and a green finger jabbing into the forest section above Rexxentrum.  “We were teleported in before, so we don’t have an exact location or route in.”

The blue tiefling flipped her sketchpad around, showing off the landscapes she’d done of the Sanatorium.  “It looked just like this, though!  And there were a lot of people there, and a lot of them were wizards, I think.”

“Ikithon was experimenting there,” the human added, arms folded over her chest.  “We were taken down to see where he had the beacon.”

“We could possibly get both,” the drow mentioned, rubbing at his chin.

Purple hair shook out as the other tiefling answered, “No, the king agreed to send it back, stealing it would just restart the war efforts.”

A grumble went through the group, and Frumpkin tilted his head a bit, mewing gently in the lull left behind in the pause.  The goblin reached down to run claws through the fur on his head, scritching behind ears and under chin.  Frumpkin rumbled deep in his chest, remembering how that sound always made his other soul feel better and hoping it would do the same for these humanoids, too.

The tall one, the not-human, gave one of her small smiles down at him and mumbled, “Getting him out should be our priority.  They’ll send the beacon back themselves, they’ve already promised to, and they have another they’ll be able to study.”

“They shouldn’t have either,” Jester huffed, pouting.  “They’re obviously doing awful things with them, so we just can’t leave it with them!”

Frumpkin’s low rumble was met with a similar one, this from the firbolg.  “We’ll do what we can, but that patient needs to come first.”  A grey-furred hand gently rubbed over Frumpkin’s back.  “With the pictures Jester’s done, that should help Essek get there, but we still don’t know what dangers we’ll face.”

“They’ll have defenses, guards and orderlies monitoring the halls and the patients,” Beau mumbled, holding fingers up as she counted off the troubles they could face.  “We don’t know where he’s being kept or how well he’s watched.”

“If he’s truly being Feebleminded,” the drow continued, “he’ll not be able to do anything to help himself or us in this unless we break the spell.  It’ll be too soon after his last escape from it to break free on his own again.”

“Caduceus and I can totally break any stupid spell that Icky-thong might’ve put on him!” Jester exclaimed.  She cocked a hip out to one side, a fist landing on it and the other hand rising to point upwards as she gleefully added, “The Traveller and the Wildmother will definitely kick the ass of whoever’s in our way!”

“We’ll need to prepare,” Fjord added.  He looked around at the casters in their group, reminding them, “We’ll need our best spells, our strongest, and healing as well.”

Jester dug through her bright pink haversack, counting aloud as she examined their supplies.  “Weeeelllll, we’ve got three healing potions, two greater healing potions, and two superior healing potions, along with a diamond each for Caduceus and I, but I really hope we don’t need them, ‘cause that would be awful, and I think Nott had some special glue, and of course I’ve got a liiiiittle magic paint left!”

Essek rubbed at his chin, thinking through their options.  “You know, I think for once, your crazy plan might just work.”

VERNICHTEN

Chapter Text

VERNICHTEN

“This is a terrible plan.”

Jester scowled over at the drow, who was rubbing at his temples, head dropped down.  “You said our plan was gonna work, Essek!”

The Shadowhand’s head jolted back up, gaping at the tiefling.  “That was before I heard it!”

“You heard us planning before you said it, though?” Yasha tried.

“No, I heard you listing your assets, not planning to assault the laboratory space of one of the head members of the Cerberus Assembly head on! ”

Fjord winced at that.  “Okay, yeah, maybe the head-on part is ill-advised, but—”

“The entirety of it is ill-advised!”

“Most of our plans are,” Caduceus admitted.  “But they seem to work out for us.”

Essek scoffed.  “And yet you somehow became Heroes of the Dynasty!”

“Hey, man, that panned out much better than we thought it would at the time!” Molly disagreed, hands on hips.

“Especially since that was just a shot in the dark by you when you saw things going south for us,” Beau reminded him.  “I had to pull your foot outta your mouth yet again there, what with that speech you started to give about coming all this way to return the Beacon and shit.  We were fucking lucky the Bright Queen believed us.”

Essek's head was practically buried in his hands.  “... This is who we’ve trusted to stop the war….”

Jester stuck her tongue out at the drow.  “And we’ve started peace talks, so we’re obviously good at it!”

“What do you suggest, then?” Fjord asked, stepping between the two to stop further arguments.  “You’re involved now with this plan, where would you adjust it?”

Essek ran a hand through his short hair, thinking for a long moment.  “...We can’t go straight through the front, or at least not all of us.  A distraction or two would help, and you only know where his lab is currently, correct?  Not the location of this patient?”

“Frumpkin can lead us to his wizard,” Nott declared from where she was petting the familiar.  “He tried to last time, we’ll just need to be sneakier this time!”

“And the tieflings can run distractions,” Molly said giddily, wrapping an arm around Jester’s shoulders as she grinned and held up a peace sign.

“We can totally cause the best distractions!”

“Okay, that’s a bit better,” Essek mumbled, rubbing at his chin.  “So you two distract, Frumpkin leads us to the wizard, we’ll need to sneak and avoid guards and orderlies….  Who in your group is best at stealth or can cast Invisibility on others?”

Nott quickly raised her hand.  “I’m great at stealthing, and I have Invisibility, but not very strong….”

“And a few of us are good at disguising,” Beau added, “so we’ve got that, too.”

“Alright, this is coming together better….”

“Yeah, but if we’ve learned anything traveling together, it’s that plans don’t usually go as planned,” Fjord offered.  “Usually, first contact will fuck it up for us.”

“Lovely,” the drow deadpanned.  “Then what do we do if planning doesn’t work?”

Caduceus gave a slow, languid shrug.  “Plans help.  Gives us a baseline.  We just need to be prepared to improvise or switch tactics as needed.”

Essek sighed.  “If only Fortune’s Favor didn’t require concentration….”  He rubbed at his temples again.  “Even at its highest power, it wouldn’t quite cover all of us.”

“That’s fine!” Jester said happily, clapping her hands in front of her.  “You can save your super strong spells for later, and I can give us Blessings of the Trickster to move around better!  Oh, or Caduceus and I both can Bless us all!”

“That would help a lot,” Yasha murmured.  “So with Jester and Molly making distractions, a group to be sneaky, and a group to fight if need be?”

“I think the last two should be together,” Fjord added, “that way, the fighters can hold guards back while the sneaky group keeps going.”

Essek nodded along, looking a bit relieved that they’ve adjusted their plans.  “That is a much more sound plan, and allows for the improvisation you all say is necessary.  Now, tell me where exactly this sanatorium is and what it looks like.”

VERNICHTEN

He woke up in the Pain-Room again.  This time, He was alone at first, holding-things still strapped down by rough-cloth, but top-bit able to turn and look around some.  He was on a long-flat, held up from the ground-flat some, and other long-flats were scattered around the Pain-Room, circling him.  Tall-wood-holds went around the edges, filled with somethings, and a couple silver-wood-holds with bottles and bowls in them.  He knew these were where the green chunks came from, and He whined deep inside Him at the realization, not wanting more of them put in Him.  He turned from the chunks, trying to get anything else in His sight, and instead saw a grey Edged-Ball.

His seeing-things caught on It, unable to look away, even as the opening-wood swung and Master-Teacher-Monster came in with white-robes.  The white-robes did something more to the rough-cloth holding Him as Master-Teacher-Monster came up beside Him.  White-squares flashed down towards him from Master-Teacher-Monster’s face, then a voice came from him, [Ħ∄₤₤º ₶ℏ∄℞∄,]

“Bren.”

[℞∄₳₫¥ ₣º℞ ºµ℞ ₦∄⋈₶ ₶℞∄₳₶₥∄₦₶?  ₩∄ ℏ₳∀∄ ₳₦ ∄⋈₡៛₶៛₦₲ ₫₳¥ ₶º₫₳¥.]  Master-Teacher-Monster looked down at Him again, that sharp line across his thinking-bit again.  He turned away, going to the Edged-Ball and bringing It close.   [៛’∀∄ ৳∄∄₦ ₩₳៛₶៛₦₲ ₣º℞ ₶ℏ៛$ ₡ℏ₳₦₡∄.  ¥ºµ’∀∄ ₡º₥∄ ₳ ₤º₦₲ ₩₳¥ ₶º ৳∄ ℞∄₳₫¥ ₣º℞ ₶ℏ៛$.]  The Edged-Ball was set next to His top-bit, His seeing-things now locked again on the thing.  Master-Teacher-Monster noticed, and his talking-bit spread wide.  [¥∄$, ¥ºµ ℞∄₡º₲₦៛⪴∄ ₶ℏ៛$, ₫º₦’₶ ¥ºµ,]

“Bren.”

[¥ºµ’₤₤ ৳∄₡º₥∄ 𝜑µ៛₶∄ ₳₡𝜑µ₳៛₦₶∄₫ ₩៛₶ℏ ៛₶ $ºº₦.]

The white-coats were moving around, gathering things and bringing them to Master-Teacher-Monster, placing them on a tall holding-things-high on the other side of His thinking-bit than the Edged-Ball.  He knew what was happening, it had happened before, this was done before, He watched it, He saw it, Master-Teacher-Monster had used other not-robes, blank-thinkers, like Him, they would be stuck here, like Him, and Master-Teacher-Monster would use the Edged-Ball to—to—

He shrieked.

[𝜑µ៛∄₶!]

Agony spread across His thinking-bit, just on one side.  He shook, shivering under the rough-cloths, where red-wet was covering His holding-things again, the brown-sticky flaking away as He writhed, trying and failing to get free, to get away, but He was stuck, He couldn’t move, ohgodswhycouldn’tHemove?!

Pain across His top-part again, the other side.  He shivered as the white-robes finished setting out things for Master-Teacher-Monster.  They bent before him as he looked over their offerings, talking-bit stretching wide.  [₩∄₤₤ ₫º₦∄.  ₲∄₶ ∄º₫₩µ₤₣ ៛₦ ℏ∄℞∄, ℏ∄’$ ៛₦ ₡ℏ₳℞₲∄ º₣ ₶ℏ∄ ₦∄⋈₶ ₱º℞₶៛º₦.]

[₳℞∄ ¥ºµ $µ℞∄, $៛℞?]

[¥ºµ ₫ºµ৳₶ ₥∄?]

[º—º₣ ₡ºµ℞$∄ ₦º₶!  ₩—₩∄’₤₤ ₲º ₲∄₶ ℏ៛₥ ₦º₩!]

The white-robes ran out of the closed-off.  Master-Teacher-Monster leaned in over Him, that terrifying stretch across his thinking-part once more as he checked over the rough-cloths, the offerings, the Edged-Ball.  Once sure that the rough-cloths wouldn’t let Him move, Master-Teacher-Monster grabbed the Edged-Ball and placed It on His chest.  [₳₤º₦∄ ₶º₲∄₶ℏ∄℞,]

“Bren,”

[₣º℞ ₺µ$₶ ₳ ৳៛₶, ₶ℏ៛$ ₶៛₥∄.]  Master-Teacher-Monster patted His thinking-bit, then traced one holding-things across the Edged-Ball.  Blue seeing-things were locked onto the Edged-Ball, a crazed gleam in them as he murmured to himself, seeming to forget He was even there.  [¥ºµ ℏ₳∀∄ ৳∄∄₦ ₲℞ºº₥∄₫ ₣º℞ ₶ℏ៛$, ∄∀∄₦ ৳∄₣º℞∄ ₶ℏ∄ ৳∄₳₡º₦ ₩₳$ ₣ºµ₦₫.  ¥ºµ ₳₤₩₳¥$ ₩∄℞∄ ₥¥ ₣₳∀º℞៛₶∄, ₳₦₫ ₦º₩ ¥ºµ’₤₤ ₲∄₶ ₶ℏ∄ º₱₱º℞₶µ₦៛₶¥ ₶º $ℏº₩ ₶ℏ∄ ₩º℞₤₫ ₩ℏ¥.]  Another flash of Master-Teacher-Monster’s white-squares sneered down at Him.  [º₣ ₡ºµ℞$∄, ៛₶ ₩៛₤₤ ₶℞µ₤¥ ৳∄ ₥∄ $ℏº₩៛₦₲ ₶ℏ∄₥, ৳µ₶ ₶ℏ∄¥ ₦∄∄₫ ₦º₶ ℵ₦º₩.]

The closed-off opened, and Monster-Servant approached.  [₥₳$₶∄℞ ៛ℵ៛₶ℏº₦?  ¥ºµ ₡₳₤₤∄₫ ₣º℞ ₥∄?]

Master-Teacher-Monster’s talking-bit spread even further.  [₳ℏ, ∄º₫₩µ₤₣, ₲ºº₫.  ៛₶ ៛$ ₶៛₥∄ ₣º℞ ºµ℞ ₤₳$₶ ₣∄₩ $₶∄₱$.]  He clapped his holding-things together before aiming one towards Him.  [℞∄₳₫¥ ℏ៛₥, ៛’₤₤ ₫º ₥¥ º₩₦ ₱℞∄₱₳℞₳₶៛º₦.]

Monster-Servant’s looking-bits turned to Him, a strange tint to them as they locked onto Him.  [¥∄$, $៛℞.]

[₩µ₦₫∄℞৳₳℞!  ₳₤₤ ₩៛₤₤ ৳∄ º∀∄℞ $ºº₦,]

“Bren.”

VERNICHTEN

Jester and Molly were definitely ready for their part in the plan as everyone gathered in the middle of the clearing.  Caduceus and Fjord were gathering the last of their things and putting the fire out as Essek studied Jester’s drawing of the sanatorium’s grounds once more while Beau gave detailed descriptions of the buildings and orderlies they’d seen.

“Okay, I think we’re ready,” Essek murmured.  He glanced around at the group, mentioning, “If anyone wants to use Disguise or Invisibility before we go?”

Caduceus Disguised himself as Fjord put on his Mask of Many Faces, both becoming orderlies, Caduceus a tall Elvish man and Fjord a stout human.  Nott handed Yasha Frumpkin to hold then used Invisibility on them, and Jester Disguised herself as a half-elf patient while Molly quickly removed his jewelry and swapped his bright coat for a dark, hooded cloak.  His red eyes were about all that could be seen, and he dug out a symbol of the supposed Angel of Irons to toss around his neck.  “Team Distraction is a go!” he happily declared, Jester giving a thumbs-up as she wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

Essek nodded to them, Disguising into an Elf orderly as well while Beau flipped her coat to brown side out.  “Let’s go, then.”  They gathered together as he spoke a few words, and the world twisted and bent around them.

They blinked and found themselves on the grounds of the sanatorium, behind a small copse of trees.  Molly, Nott, Beau, and Yasha stealthed away, Molly far less efficiently than the girls, but that was why he was on the distraction team, anyway.

Jester gave a quick last reminder to the infiltration team.  “Okay, okay, okay, so, remember, my spell will only last ten minutes , okay?  I dunno how long we can stall before I cast or how long people will stay distracted after , but it should be pretty cool and totally attention-grabbing!”

“Got it, Jessie,” Fjord replied with a slight grin.  “Good luck.”

“You, too!”  She waved at them, then skipped off to an open area near to the main mansion.  She could hear the boys make idle chat as they headed towards Icky-thong’s tower, and she spotted Molly tracking her through the bushes.

Once she felt she would be well-seen by the most possible people, she threw a quick wink towards Molly, who dashed out and grabbed her, pulling a fake dagger that looked to be dripping with something.

The distraction had begun.

She shrieked , using a Thaumaturgy cast to add volume as Molly pretended to slice her, using one of his own claws to leave enough of a cut to start bleeding some.  His Angel of Irons symbol fell from his cloak as orderlies started to rush towards them, pulling up short at the sight of the blade and allowing the approaching Crownsguard to move forward instead.

Molly shoved Jester to the ground, tucking the blade away and calling out in a gruffened voice, “The Angel of Irons shall free us all!”  His Enthrall fell over the guards that had come forth, but even those who shook it needed to chase him as he dashed off.

Meanwhile, the orderlies started to close in on where Jester lay on the ground, writhing and screaming.

“Please, miss,” one said, “it’s fine, just let us—”

“ They’re in me! ” she wailed, digging her nails into her skin, Tiefling claws making cuts under her Disguise to further concern and draw in the orderlies.  She scratched madly.

“Miss, you’re fine,” another orderly tried, “there’s nothing inside of you, please stop hurting yourself!”

Jester came up to her knees, still clawing at her arms and sending up a quick, silent prayer to the Traveler for their crazy plan to work by tweaking one of her spells.

As she finished describing how awesome this prank would be, she heard a familiar voice chuckle in her ear.  “Oh, my dear,” the Traveler purred, “this sounds absolutely delightful. ”

Just as another orderly reached out to touch her, Jester screamed, “No, no nonono NO! ”

And cast Spirit Guardians—with a special twist from the Traveler.

Instead of her normal hamster unicorns, rancid-looking insects were summoned, not around her at first, but from within .  Bugs seemed to burst out of her skin, wriggling and exploding into the air, swarming around the orderlies that had gotten too close.  Four collapsed, and a fifth managed to drag the others just outside of where the insects hovered and gnashed at any getting close.

Immediately, panic ensued.  Orderlies screamed in a frenzy, trying simultaneously to call for help and avoid the monsters that seemed to have cursed the girl after she was stabbed by the cultist.

Meanwhile, inside the swarm, Jester smiled in glee as she continued to scream and thrash about, all the while counting down the ten minutes of spell time in her head.

VERNICHTEN

It wasn't Frumpkin's first time being turned invisible.  He knew to hold still in Yasha's grasp, to wait for her to break it first to avoid ruining their plan.

But the Nein couldn't hear his other soul like he could.  They didn't have to listen to his wordless cries of terror and pain.

Scared stop pain hurt don't anxious stay away help

The Nein could hear the chaos breaking behind them, though, and had to just hope that things were going well for the tieflings while they continued on their own task.  The tower they had visited previously to check on the Beacon loomed before them, somehow more ominous now that they had a better idea of some of the experiments Ikithon did in there, both with the Beacon and to his students.

Frumpkin knew all too well what Ikithon did, from his other soul's memories and dreams and having to follow orders against other students or Empire "traitors".  He wished to be face-to-face with the monster, just so he could claw that smarmy look off the man's face.

And all the while as they walked and sneaked, Frumpkin could hear his other soul scream.

Pain scared help get away terror anxious stop stay away help get away

Fjord was the first through the door of the tower, holding it open as Essek and Caduceus spaced themselves out enough for the stealthy ones to sneak in. As they did, Fjord distracted the few guards inside, assuring them, "Hey, just got some supplies for Master Ikithon. He's downstairs, right?"

There was a tense moment before one orderly huffed.  "Yeah, he's been working on something all day.  Kicked some others out a bit ago."

The half-orc in the human Disguise rolled his eyes.  "That sounds like him. Thanks, we'll be—"

STOP PAIN GET AWAY PAIN TERROR HELP PLEASE LEAVE PAIN AGONY HELP

Frumpkin dove out of Yasha's arms, too panicked by his other soul's fear to worry about breaking their stealth.  The door to the basement was just in front of him, he would make it, he would save his soul—

I'm here, Gemüt, I'm coming!

"What the—?  What's a cat doing in here?!"

"I don't—" Fjord started to try a cover, but the orderly was already moving.

Frumpkin could feel the man approaching, but he just needed to reach the stairs, to get his soul, to save him—

PAIN HORROR AGONY HELP GET AWAY PAIN GET AWAY GET AWAY HELP—

Frumpkin's paws came down on the vibrant blue-purple flowers and grasses of the Feywild for the first time in two and a half years.

His other soul was gone.

VERNICHTEN

Chapter Text

VERNICHTEN

Not for the first time, Molly found himself wishing he knew a Message spell or Sending as he dove through the woods just outside the Sanatorium’s grounds.  Hopping the fence was all too easy for the ex-circus performer, and keeping his tail just close enough to stay frustrated was simple with most of them Enthralled.  He’d give anything at the moment to be able to check in with Jester or Beau on how their parts of the plan were going, just to know how long he’d have to weave through all these bloody trees.

“Stop in the name of King Dwendal!” one of the Crownsguard yelled from behind him.

A smirk stole across Molly’s face as he spun and quickly tossed his dagger back at them, not really caring if he hit with it, but using the distraction to use his Ethereal Step and vanish from the Material Plane and dodge back and behind the Crownsguard who had been chasing him.  As he felt himself coming back, he ducked behind a tree and ditched the dark cloak he’d been wearing as speeding footsteps trailed off into the distance.  He gave it another few seconds, then snickered and started back towards the Sanatorium, eager to see more of Jester’s half of the distraction.

VERNICHTEN

The moment Frumpkin turned visible, Caduceus knew they were on limited time.  He and Fjord continued to distract the orderlies in the room as Essek moved towards the stairs, covering Nott and Beau’s sneaking down, and likely Yasha’s, too, as she was still Invisible.  Fjord was easily assuaging the others, claiming that, “We’ll make sure it’s gone and inform Master Ikithon, don’t worry.  Likely our fault it even got in, seeing as we’re the last through the doors and all.”

The sheer relief on the orderlies’ faces was concerning to Caduceus.  He couldn’t help but think of how terrible a boss must be to horrify his employees like that, that the mere mention of escaping his notice in this instance should provide them with such comfort.  He had listened, of course, when Essek had explained some of his knowledge of Trent Ikithon, but it would appear some portion of him had not quite believed it until the proof was in front of him.

Still, he followed Fjord and Essek down the stairs, and just in time, too, seeing as they arrived at the landing, the door opened already, and, with a single glance over the situation in the room, Nott fired off her crossbow with a yell of, “You hurt our cat, asshole!”

The bolt thudded harshly into the elderly man who was slumped by a bookcase along the wall to their right, sending him groaning and stumbling where he’d just begun to stand as Nott dove behind another bookshelf in the corner.

With their cover well and truly broken, the three Disguised beings dropped their magic, readying for the inevitable fight and taking a quick look across the room to prepare.

While the shaking, white-haired man attempted to recover from Nott’s attack, a dark-haired young man was just ahead of him, leaning backwards and shoving himself up off of a table, glaring around at the Nein as they entered, and a red-haired man to the Nein’s left was studying his hands, a staff held in one, before looking up with dark blue eyes.

Beau lunged forward at the red-haired man, knowing she’d be able to make it the extra distance to him and leaving the closer two to those who couldn’t move as quickly.  She went into a flurry of blows, the first of which was about to hit before the man threw up an arm, a shimmer of blue deflecting each of her punches.  She cursed vehemently at the reaction, readying for whatever he might do and to help her team as much as she could until her next opening came.

The redhead growled across the room to the others, “Get the group!”  He moved, staying within Beau’s range to snag the Luxon Beacon off the table in the middle of the room and stowing it in his bag, then turning and latching his free hand onto Beau’s shoulder, lightning coursing through her and causing her to twitch in place.

Nott ducked back out from her corner, shooting once more at the old man with a yelp of, “Oh, no, you don’t!” before hiding again as the man dropped to a knee and a quivering hand, barely keeping himself from crashing to the floor.

The dark-haired man’s eyes widened as he glanced between his two fellows, then stretched a hand towards the elderly man, who blinked out of existence.  Then, he spun towards the doorway, hands up placatingly as he called out in a panicked, thickened accent, “Stop!  You don’t understand vhat’s going on!”

A yell echoed from nowhere before Yasha’s invisibility dropped just in front of the dark-haired man, swinging Magician’s Judge at him twice, the second breaking his concentration enough for the elderly man to suddenly reappear.  The brunet grunted from the pain, eyes locked towards where the whitenet was practically vibrating on the ground, blood dripping from his two wounds.

Caduceus studied the room once more, taking a long, insightful look at the brunet before blinking and murmuring, “We should listen to him.”  A quiet Healing Word caused the elderly man to look in confusion at him as the bleeding slowed.  The firbolg moved out from the doorway, crouching behind another table so his teammates could move more freely.

The elderly man scrambled up just enough to cower into the corner while Fjord gaped at Caduceus.  “Are you sure about this, Cad?” he demanded as he summoned the Star Razor.

“Yes!” was called back immediately, causing the half-orc to stifle a curse and move to flank the redhead, casting his Hex and swiping once at the man, landing a hit where Beau hadn’t.

Essek took just the smallest step in, flinging a sparking hand towards the redhead and knocking him prone before huffing, “What in the hells is going on?!”

Beau took advantage of the redhead’s prone status and unleashed another flurry of blows, this time landing two hits and yelling out, “He’s not too hard to hit without that spell!”

As the man shoved himself back to standing, he snarled at the dark-haired man, “Verräter!”  Then, he waved the staff he held and unleashed a Fireball at the door, managing to catch Caduceus, Essek, Beau, Yasha, Nott, and even the dark-haired man in the blast.  While the flames died down, Nott dove out and fired across at the man with the staff, but the Tinkertop Boltblaster backfired, exploding on her and forcing her to duck down behind tables to hide once more.

“Help Bren!” the dark-haired man shouted, hurling a dark, sparking something towards the redhead, who simply waved a hand to negate it.  “Ve need to switch them back!”

“What the fuck does that mean?!” Beau growled in response.  Yasha didn’t seem to need an answer herself, though, as she launched herself across the room to swing recklessly at the redhead three times.

The firbolg considered what the brunet said, then cast a quick Detect Magic and looked to the three humans that had been in the room prior to the Nein’s entrance.  Each had a faint glow from various items they held, but an odd silvery aura hovered around the redhead and the elder—Bren?—, twirling among the shades of transmutation, enchantment, illusion, necromancy, and the color of dunamis he’d only seen in Essek and other Xhorhassian casters.  “There’s a lot of different magics on him!” he called to the others.

“That’s part of the problem!” the brunet yelled back as Caduceus sent another Healing Word towards the elder.

The man in question suddenly darted past Nott, hands shivering and body quaking still—from fear? adrenaline?—and ducked behind the goblin, tucking in between two bookshelves.  Something glinted in one hand as he trembled, and Caduceus blinked to realize the man had snatched the Dagger of Denial from Nott when he ran by.

Before he could comment, the firbolg was watching Fjord lunge again, sinking the Star Razor into the redhead twice more with Beau flanking.  The man snarled at him, flames licking at his palms as his knuckles whitened on his staff.

Essek took a couple steps back to be between a shelf and the door and launched a spell just ahead of the table the Beacon had sat on, managing to catch both the redhead and the brunet without affecting any of the Nein.  “My spells are mostly over ares, move or you’ll get hit!” the drow demanded.

Beau cursed.  “Shit, fine! ” and jumped back, knowing the redhead couldn’t turn on her in time.  She slammed her fists together, the Maelstrom Gloves flashing with the crackle of lightning as she activated them and settled into a defensive stance.

The redhead smirked over at the dark-haired man, declaring, “Easiest way to solve this,” and moved away from the scrum, hissing as Fjord slashed once more at him.  The redhead held his staff in both hands as he crept towards a corner, then slammed the staff down, a huge blast of cold wind and ice driving hard through the Nein and the other two men, dropping Beau and Nott to their knees and knocking the elderly man out entirely.  With that done, the man took a large vial of red liquid from his bag and downed it, shaking his head as the effects swept over him, knitting wounds closed and lightening bruises.

“Caduceus,” Nott shrieked as she dug in her own pouch for a healing potion, “we’re in bad shape!”  She drank her vial, then fired again with the Tinkertop and dodged between some shelves along the far wall.

“Spread out!” the brunet ordered, raising a hand to a circlet he wore.  “He’s a strong caster!”  A blast of heat launched across the room at the redhead, who strengthened his glare as he raised a hand to deflect the three rays with another shimmering blue Shield.

Yasha ran towards the cornered human, calling back to the others, “I can take a hit, Essek!”  She took up a position just next to the redhead and hit him twice, the third swing glancing off the Shield that surrounded him.

The door beside Essek suddenly crashed open as five newcomers ran in.  The first two, wearing the usual garb of the Crownsguard, went straight for Caduceus and Beau, both of whom dodged out of the way of their spears.  Next, the orderlies who came behind them flanked Essek, the first managing to land a hit as the drow Shielded against the other, three slashes glancing off the spell rather than wounding the drow.  The last of the newcomers was dressed in robes similar to the brunet and elder, rushing towards the redhead to place his hand on his shoulder with a mumbled word.  The brunet barked out his own spell and countered the attempt, but the new mage settled in front of the redhead as a further defense.

Even with the guard on him, Caduceus knew he needed to be on the defensive without Jester around to help with healing, so he sent a wave of his magic out to the others, managing to bring Nott and Beau back to their feet and leaving the elderly man gasping back to consciousness.

The man flailed as he came awake, clutching tightly at the dagger he’d stolen and moving just in front of Nott to attempt a throw at the redhead in the corner.  The dagger bounced harmlessly away, and the shaking man ducked back to a corner once more.

Fjord moved back a bit, tossing his Eldritch Blasts at the redhead, but the mage in front of him Countered the green rays out of the air.  “Shit!  Get rid of these guys!”

Essek scowled at the thugs flanking him and Misty Stepped away, reappearing behind Fjord and launching a blast of thunder to hit both orderlies and the guard on Caduceus.  “The mage is the most worrisome, go for him first!”

Beau glanced between the guard attacking her and the redhead tucked behind the mage.  “ Shit, ” she hissed before turning on the guard and swinging twice.  When neither landed, she huffed another curse and launched into a flurry of blows, only managing to land a single hit.

The redhead rubbed at a jewel set into a ring he wore, then called out across the room in a voice with a sweetened tone, “Heal me and protect me!”

A wave of magic washed over the room, eyes glazing over in all but Caduceus, Essek, the brunet, and the elderly man, who cowered even further into his own corner.  As the redhead smirked and took another potion, the brunet hissed another curse when Beau, Nott, Yasha, and Fjord turned away from the redhead.

Nott moved to the redhead, feeding him an additional potion before settling into a defensive stance to protect him.  Seeing this, the brunet cursed even louder, “ Scheisse!   They’ve been charmed!”  He swirled his hands around his head before throwing them outward, pointing a wand towards the table by Beau.  A large stormcloud appeared above the area, air whipping around and pulling at the clothes of those caught inside the developing storm.  “We need to knock them out of it, or he’ll keep healing!”

Yasha forced her way through the wind to swing the Magician’s Judge at the brunet, cutting deep gashes across his chest before a blue arcane Shield stopped the third hit.  She stayed in front of him, ready to attack if he so much as twitched wrong, but he managed to maintain his spell.

The guard by Caduceus stabbed forward with his spear again, and this time, Caduceus pulled up his Shield of Retribution to knock the guard unconscious just as the other ran up at him to also take a swing and miss.  One of the orderlies moved over to the brunet and swung his mace twice, glancing off the brunet’s glimmering shield both times.  The other orderly came up to Caduceus and landed both of his attacks as the mage Misty Stepped to the edge of the brunet’s Storm Sphere and turned to throw a large blast of cold at all he could reach.

The brunet was knocked out, along with the elderly man, and the blast rocked the orderly who had been attacking the caster.  With him down, the stormcloud dropped, the sudden lack of wind nearly knocking half the room over as they were suddenly overcorrecting their stances.

Caduceus just managed to avoid gaping around at the destruction that had already been wrought upon the room, at his friends who were suddenly either against him or severely wounded.  Then, he pursed his lips and swung his Blight Staff around, summoning the glowing insects that were his Spirit Guardians.  The other guard who had been attacking him dropped, and the orderly next to him was knocked to a knee.  “We’ll get you out of here,” he mumbled, sending yet another Healing Word at the elderly man, who awoke and panicked, cowering into his corner and raising jittering hands to cover his head.

The black that had been swirling around the redhead shifted, moving to encircle Essek instead as Fjord turned and slashed at him, surprising the drow enough to land a hard slice across his front.

Essek winced back, but hissed out, “Sorry, Nott….” and threw out a hand, a sucking wound of dark energy opening up in the space around the redhead and crushing, pulling him in towards it as Nott got caught in its pull, too.  She stumbled to a stop beside the redhead, breathing heavily and barely able to keep herself upright.

It was then that Beau shook herself, hard, her monk training kicking in to drop the spell.  “ Motherfucker! ”  She ran over to flank the orderly still haranguing Caduceus.  She glanced around at the room, seeing how half of her friends had turned.  “What the fuck did he do to us?!”

“A charm spell!” Essek huffed, holding tight to his wound and readying to fend Fjord off again if necessary.

“ Shit! ”

The redhead snarled at them, grip tightening on his staff until his knuckles turned white, then cursing loudly and throwing his arms forward, another blast of cold sweeping through the room.  The two orderlies dropped, as well as Nott, and the brunet’s body rolled slightly where it was pushed further from the sheer force of the wind.

Caduceus winced, struggling to stay upright and thankful for the table in front of him that he clung to.  Fjord and Yasha were blinking back to themselves as the Suggestion broke from them, and Essek slumped slightly into the half-orc before managing to get his feet back under himself.

A look around the room easily showed how desperate things were getting.  Half their group were either down or near it, there was still an extra mage with the redhead, and they had no idea how much more it would take to drop him, let alone how many more spells he could use.

Seeing Nott limp on the floor was the last straw for Yasha.  She snarled, a vicious scream bursting from her as she dove at the mage, slashing wildly until he slumped, useless, lifeless, to the ground.  Then she turned towards the redhead, still seething, eyes nearly red in her rage.

Caduceus swiped a hand through his long hair, ensuring it was out of the way, then moved forward to get as many of his friends as possible in range and sent another wave of healing across them.  Nott and the brunet gasped deeply as they came back, Nott scrambling to sit up while the brunet coughed a bit and blinked before pushing his way back up.  As the others were catching their breath from his magic, he sent a quick radiant burst at the redhead, who just shrugged it off.

Fjord ran forward as the elder man continued to tuck himself into as small a target as possible in the corner.  Once more, the blackness of his Hex swirled back around the redhead and Fjord sent three rays of Eldritch Blast at him.  Each flung wide, and Fjord cursed as he held position, trying to cut off any possible exits.

Essek used another Misty Step to dart to the other side of the room, readying to send some necrotic energy at the redhead, but a quick Counterspell cut off his attempt as Beau ran forward to unleash one more flurry, landing three punches that knocked the redhead back into the wall, panting and looking rough.

With Beau on one side, Nott in front, and the others moving in, the redhead huffed, drawing his cape tighter around himself.

“ NO! ” the brunet shouted, throwing out a hand to Counterspell whatever the redhead was up to.

“Unverschämtes Kind!” the redhead growled, then held up a hand anxiously and called out, “Wait!  You need me alive if you plan to free him!”

Nott readied an attack with her Tinkertop, huffing out, “Do we really need him?” as she disengaged and ducked back five feet.

“Yes,” the brunet grumbled, “he’s the only one who can reset his and Bren’s souls.”  Seeing the others taking up positions to stop the redhead from running, he turned and ran to the elderly man, pulling out a potion and trying to help the other take it, calling back, “Anyone have Greater Restoration?”

Yasha moved into the spot Nott had vacated, directly in front of the redhead and holding the Magician’s Judge before her, ready to attack if he so much as twitched in a way she didn’t like.  Caduceus, meanwhile, nodded in response to the brunet’s question and moved over next to the two in the corner and laid a hand on the elder, casting his restoration spell.

A glaze that none of them had noticed faded from his eyes, and he blinked in confusion at them both, moreso at the brunet, before gasping out, “D—Dank—ke….”

And promptly passed out.

VERNICHTEN

Chapter Text

VERNICHTEN

“What… the actual fuck?! ” Beau finally spat, darting glances back towards the other corner, where Caduceus and the dude who helped them were barely not-panicking over the old guy.

“It’s a long story,” the dude grumbled, shooting some pretty impressive glares back at the redhead they’d cornered.  “Do any of you haff some rope or know a Hold spell?”

Fjord nodded, already moving forward and pulling a set of manacles from his Bag of Holding, latching them onto the redhead and making sure to force the man’s arms behind his back and stacked so any somatic parts of spells would be near impossible for him to complete without breaking free.  With that done, he turned towards Caduceus, dragging another set out and holding it up, unsure.  “Should we get those two, as well?”

Caduceus was still studying the two intently, so all went quiet for a moment.  Finally, “Not yet,” Caduceus murmured, “we need more information.”  He stood, sighing as he brushed his hair back.  “Jester’s truth spell would’ve come in handy about now….”

Beau cracked her knuckles, tossing a predatory grin over her shoulder.  “I could take care of that for ya.”

“I’d prefer you didn’t,” the brunet replied with half a wry grin, still focused on the unconscious man below him.  “I vish to help Bren, and you all seemed the best vay to do that.”

“So oldy is Bren, who’s the redhead?” Beau demanded, glancing sidelong at the tied individual that Nott and Yasha seemed to have cowed between them.

“Vell, not exactly…?”  The brunet sighed.  “My name ist Eodwulf, und at ze moment, ze redhead ist Ikithon, mein Lehrer , ah, wie sagt Mann , my teacher.”  Eodwulf’s accent was getting thicker as he spoke, obviously trying to focus his thoughts and get whatever he was trying to say across convincingly enough that the Nein didn’t kill him.

Good idea on his part; Beau, at least, was still on the fence.

“What do you mean, ‘at the moment’?” Fjord asked, folding his arms but keeping the Star Razor out, just in case.

“Ikithon, he did a ritual, one he has been developing for years,” the man continued.  “He has been vorking mit den Beacon to access its ability to reincarnate.  He vas nicht so—ah, less zan thrilled about ze vait betveen death und remembering oneself.”

“He wished to negate the need for anamnesis?” Essek asked, eyes widening at the thought.  Beau could practically hear the gears turning in the nerd’s brain, so she decided to step in for his own good, tossing a light jab at his shoulder and ignoring his responding wince.

“Oy, he’s the bad guy , remember?”

“Yes, it’s simply an interesting line of experimentation—”

“Not vhen ze test subjects haff no say in being a part of it,” Eodwulf growled back, hands clenching and unclenching at his sides.

Caduceus piped up before anyone else could rabbit-trail further.  “What do you mean?”

“His experiments.  Zey vere on ze inmates here.”  Eodwulf glanced down at the man he was now sort of cradling in his lap.  “Past students, who did not pass his tests.”

“Wait,” Beau cut in, “you’re saying a bunch of kids went mad from failing?  And no one in the Empire heard about this?!”

A bitter, scoffing laugh echoed from the brunet before she could work herself into a proper indignant rant about that.  “ Nein .  He merely insured none could tell ozers about his methods.”  He raised a hand, gesturing around to encompass the tower they were in, a sneer twisting his face.  “Vhy else haff his laboratory on ze grounds?”

“Easier access to guinea pigs,” Essek realized, a light sound marking where he lost the hold on his levitation due to shock.

Eodwulf nodded at the drow.  “He vould break zeir minds if zey became too rebellious or failed in a mission.  Ikithon is a master Enchanter,” here, he shot another vicious glare across the room at the still somewhat suspiciously quiet redhead, “ und vould use his charms to negate any vorry from ozer teachers und officials.  Very few outside his students know ze truth about zis place.”  He gave another dark chuckle.  “A prison that vas ‘repurposed’, but neffer truly abandoned its roots.  Zere are many here sent by ze Crown as vell as ze hospitals, und no one looks too close once someone is declared mentally diseased.”

Beau winced, all too able to see how that could have worked out in favor of the Crown rather than the Empire as a whole.  Seemed she had another thing to talk to Dairon about….

“So, this ritual you spoke of, the one he’s done with the Beacon?” Fjord prompted.  “What exactly was it for?  What did it do? ”

Eodwulf glanced down at the man he held.  “Zis body is Ikithon’s und zat,” he nodded across towards the redhead, “is Bren’s, but ze ritual let zeir consciousness transfer through ze Beacon.  Ikithon now walks as Bren, but mit his full abilities und artifacts.”

“A method for eternal life, provided there’s a body to slip into,” Essek murmured, moving closer to the redhead and darting a hand into his Bag, freeing the Beacon he’d stashed there at the beginning of the fight.

“A body he has groomed for zis,” Eodwulf snarled.  “He alvays vas fond of Bren, of his potential und growth, und vhen Bren failed his Graduation, it only made sense for him to become the vessel Ikithon had searched for.”  Another short laugh escaped him.  “Only reason Ikithon neffer had him killed vhen he vould break free von ze spell….”

“What spell?” Beau and Essek demanded simultaneously, each darting a startled look at the other.

“The one I Restored,” Caduceus answered.  “A strong charm, that muddled his mind.”

“Feeblemind.”

The drow and monk shared a grimace, both knowing the spell’s effects.  “Gods,” Beau hissed, “he was Feebleminded and broke free?”

“ Ja ,” Eodwulf murmured, a proud grin vaguely splashing across his features.  “He shook it seven times over ze past five years.”

Essek blinked in shock at that.  “ Five years of that curse?!”  A glance around at the Nein showed that, other than Beau, they had no idea what this particular spell did.  “It steals your mind from you, leaves you in a place where you are practically an animal, relying on instinct and unable to communicate or understand others.  You can’t cast spells or ask for help or even explain what the trouble is.  You can recognize friends, but if he was trapped here, he’d know he was surrounded by enemies with no way to fight back other than scratching or biting, like an animal.”

“Five years trapped in his mind…?” Fjord muttered, obviously thinking back to the dreams Uk’atoa had sent him, the closest thing he could relate to a Feeblemind curse.

“No wonder he’s out cold,” Nott mumbled, her bright eyes flashing ever-so-briefly away from the redhead to shine a motherly concern on the elder.  When she looked back to Ikithon’s current body, her glare had hardened even more.  “And this ritual’s what killed Frumpkin, isn’t it?”

Eodwulf blinked, surprise bringing his gaze up from staring at his friend.  “ Was?   Sie wissen —You know Frumpkin?!”

Beau crossed her arms.  “He followed Nott around for a while before she met us.  Helped her outta a jail cell, apparently.”

The brunet’s face went soft, and he glanced back down, murmuring, “ Deine verrückte kluge Katze ….”

“How do we reverse it?” Fjord finally demanded, allowing the man a moment of quiet before getting everyone back on track.  “This ritual?  How do we put these two back in their own bodies?”

Eodwulf swiped a quick hand across his face before looking up again, eyes suspiciously wet.  “I know the spell, it needed a third party to cast as, technically, ze two it is cast upon are dead for ze casting time.”

There was another moment’s pause, then six voices at various volumes and levels of concern or indignance, “Wait, what?! ”

VERNICHTEN

The world swam around him.  Faintly, he had the thought that it was way too soon to be cognizant again, but the conversation floating above his head distracted him from that before it fully formed.  He was missing most of what the largely unfamiliar voices were saying, but the snippets he caught were cause for concern.

“ — ensure Ikithon vill be unable—full minute—sit und vatch—”

“—tie him—table—”

“—Beacon—touching zem—casting—kill zem—”

“ Nein! ”  He jolted upright at that, launching into a frenzy and clawing at the two hovering over him.  A spark of pleasure lit inside him when he realized Eodwulf was one of the two he’d managed to hit, rage burning within at the sight of one of his ex-friends-come-torturers being the one hurt for once.  “ Geh weg von mir!  Lass mich raus!  Ich gehöre nicht hierher! ”

“Bren,” Eodwulf was gasping, hands flailing to try to catch onto his own and keep him from attacking again, “ Ich versuche zu helfen, ich möchte dir helfen! ”

He fought against the grip, writhing and lashing out however he could, but Eodwulf had always been larger and stronger than him.  “ Lügner!  Du hast ihm geholfen!  Du hast mich jahrelang gefoltert! ”

“ Ich wollte dich nie verletzen!  Ich habe versucht, dich rauszuholen, ich habe jemanden geschickt, der dir hilft, deine Geist zu klären! ”

Pale eyes went wide, not noticing as the group had finished strapping his body down to the table and were now turned to him—and he just now realized he was not actually in his body, but the thought passed quickly as he mumbled, “ D — Du?  Hast du sie geschickt? ”

“ Ja , Bren, mein Freund, ich hoffte, sie würde dir helfen.  Und sie tat es, aber es war einfach nicht genug, um dich rauszuholen. ”  Eodwulf had latched onto his arm by now, an arm that lacked the scars he’d gained over the years, that was covered in liver spots rather than freckles, that was thinner and weaker than his own.

Then Eodwulf tugged him in close, wrapping him in a hug that felt as warm and comforting as the ones his parents—

“Bren, weine nicht, bitte, weine nicht, wir bringen dich hier raus.  Diese Leute kamen hierher, um Frumpkin zu folgen.  Sie sind für dich hergekommen, nur um dich für deine Katze zu finden. ”

Pain filled his heart at the name, tears slowing but not quite stopping.  “Frumpkin?  Sie haben Frumpkin?”  His gaze turned to the group, a small hooded goblin walking forward, her fingers twisting together and her jagged teeth biting into her lip.

“We—We had Frumpkin, but the ritual—”

“He disappeared,” the tall woman with the large sword murmured.

That explained the pain, then.  His other soul had been torn from him while he was trapped here.  Honestly, he was surprised it had taken five years for Frumpkin to have been sent back to the Feywild.  As a cat, Frumpkin was quite squishy, but, apparently, he was still more fragile than his familiar.

“—sorry,” the goblin was nearly shrieking, coming even closer, glowing yellow eyes desperate.  “We’ve tried to take good care of him, and he’s helped us so much over the years, but he just vanished right before we came down, and we wanted to get him back to you, but—”

“ Mach dir keine Sorgen, ich kann ihn zurückbringen, ” he mumbled, patting her head gently, feeling a faint echo of Frumpkin’s care for this goblin consuming him.

“Okay, what the hell is he saying?! ” the Cobalt Soul monk burst out, finally seeming to give in to the frustration of not understanding him.

“It’s Zemnian,” Eodwulf replied for him, “our native tongue.  Bren has not had much chance to speak Common as of late.”  He watched as the brunet’s lips pursed, thinking back over their conversation to translate.  “He vas unhappy to see me, believed I vas still helping Ikithon, und I explained zat I did not vish to hurt him, und zat you all followed his familiar here.  He vanted to tell you he can bring Frumpkin back.”

“ Wer sind diese Leute? ”  For all he didn’t trust Eodwulf, the brunet was the only one at the moment who seemed willing to give him any answers.

“ Sie sind die Mighty Nein.”

Of course, those answers might not make sense.  “... Sie sind nur sechs. ”

The drow off to one side chuckled, having at some point cast Comprehend Languages.  “It’s a joke, apparently.  The Zemnian word nein , not the number.”

“ ...Sie nennen sich die mächtige Nein?  Warum? ”

“They’ve made a habit of being both excessively dissentient and unpredictably successful in their exploits, both here and in the Dynasty.”

At this point, Eodwulf had persuaded him to his feet, nudging him slowly towards the table he’d been chained to mere minutes ago.  Seeing his body laid out there, strapped down but smirking the sneer he knew all too well, he dug his heels in.  “ Warte, nein!  Ich werde nicht dorthin zurückkehren!  Du kannst mich nicht dazu bringen! ”

“ Es ist nur, um dich wieder in deinen Körper zu bringen, Bren , das verspreche ich, ” Eodwulf pleaded, still slowly herding him towards his body, towards the man who had kept him trapped here for a decade and a half, towards the Beacon that had taken him from his body and put him in that of his greatest tormentor.  His hands were laid on top of the Beacon, which rested on Ik—on his body’s chest.

Again, that smirk looked up at him, twisting his lips in a look he hoped to never again see on his own face.

He tried to look away from that vile expression, but Eodwulf had already begun the ritual, and he felt the stretch, the pull as the Beacon swallowed him in, and he blinked from the laboratory into the black, endless nothingness full of possibility and potential that was the Beacon.  Ikithon floated there before him, and, for a split second, he was sure this would be the same silent, painful exchange it had been before.

Then a hand shot out and latched onto his throat, dragging him in close as Ikithon grinned that smug smirk.  “ What a fortunate turn of events for you, Bren , ” he hissed in their native tongue.  “ First these mercenaries, then Eodwulf.  Do you think they’ll lose interest when they realize you’re not worth their efforts? ”

“ L — Let me go! ” he gasped, hands up, trying to fight off the clawed grip Ikithon had on him and failing.  “ They’re going to put us back, and you will have to answer for your crimes! ”

“ How, child?  I’ve left no trace of any wrongdoing.  It will simply be the word of a few mercenaries, friends of the Dynasty , versus a trusted official and advisor to the King. ”

“ The King you’ve been quietly working to overthrow for decades, ” he spat back, struggling further but feeling his air cut off as Ikithon’s fingers dug into his throat.

“ Ah, so that brain of yours is finally working again, is it? ”  Cold eyes studied his face as he choked, writhing in the steel grip that held him.  “ You remember our last foray into this space? ”  Those eyes turned to glance about at the endless nothingness of possibility around them, then back with that vile smirk splitting the elder’s face.  “ It takes a full minute to complete from the outside, but time works differently in here, Bren.  And that gives me enough time to enact the next portion of my plan for you. ”

And Bren shrieked as the man began to cast upon him.

VERNICHTEN

Chapter Text

VERNICHTEN

Jester could feel her spell starting to fade, the orderlies still giving her a decent berth as she spasmed and screamed.  Thaumaturgy had saved her voice to a point, but now she dropped it as she slowly “faded out”, rolling her eyes back and flopping to the ground like a marionette with cut strings.  The remnants of her spell, the “bugs” and gross insect-like critters the Traveler had created for her dove down as they faded out, looking as though they had burrowed down and spread out into the grounds themselves.

The ground was hard under her as she listened to the orderlies’ mumbled argument over whether it was finally safe to approach.  They seemed to have just come to an agreement when a voice broke out over all of them.

“Fiona?  Oh, gods, what happened to you, Fiona?!”

Suddenly, a violet hand was patting her down, just in sight of Jester’s mostly-lidded eyes.  Molly was leaning over her, dark cloak abandoned and acting the part of the concerned friend, ensuring no one else could see her face at the moment.

“Sh — She was attacked by a madman!” one orderly responded, quick to pass blame.  “We tried to help, but anyone who got close was attacked by these—these things! ”

“Will she be alright?” Molly kept his hands fluttering, glancing back and forth among all the orderlies and generally causing a whole new sort of chaos and distraction so no one saw how Jester couldn’t quite stifle all her near-silent giggles.  “She was just visiting for a bit!”

“If—If that was truly it, we—we’ll give her a look over, but whatever that was—”

Another orderly, older and seeming to be higher up the proverbial food chain, stepped in, arms crossed.  “We’d prefer she be removed from the premises if she is well.  We do not need trouble of this sort here.  Gods only know how many of our patients have been affected by and regressed from this… outburst.”

“O—Of course, sir,” Molly simpered, gathering Jester up in his arms before glancing back down at her.  “Fi?  Fiona, it’s me, it’s Marty.  Please, wake up, dear.  We must be going now.”

She fluttered her eyelids, playing it up for a few moments longer before shifting and groaning in his arms.  She swatted lightly in the general direction of one of Molly’s arms, attempting a vague pat to show off her return to consciousness.  “Marty?” she slurred, blinking and squinting up at him.  “You weren’t gonna pick me up ‘til later.”

“It’s later, love.  You’ve had quite a day and made a bit of a scene, it seems,” Molly murmured back to her in a stage whisper, making sure to be just loud enough for the head orderly to hear and be appeased at their apparent remorse over the whole situation.  Jester stood, leaning unnecessarily on Molly to keep up appearances.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, catching a few eyes to try to come across more sincerely.  “I didn’t mean to upset anyone.  We were just going to visit a bit, see what the place is like.”

“She’s been looking for a place to help her mother,” Molly added, a small grin tracing across his face.  “We’ll, uh, keep looking, I guess.”

The head orderly seemed to appreciate their consideration, and with a simple gesture, the group of orderlies dispersed.  “Finish your tour of the grounds, then please head home.”

“Of course, sir,” both Tieflings—one disguised and one in all his colorful glory—agreed, angling away to continue their walk.

Once they’d gone out of earshot, the two let out a few small chuckles each.  “Oh my gods, Molly, that was brilliant! ” Jester hissed to him, taking a quick glance around and dropping her disguise as Molly flipped his coat inside-out to a more subtle pattern, unclipping some of his jewelry and adopting a slight limp to his gait.  “We should definitely be teamed up more often, probably, since we are obviously so good at it!”

“Aye, love,” Molly replied, swinging an arm over her shoulder as they turned towards the tower the others had gone inside, “we make a great team.”

Jester grinned brightly at that, already imagining the panic they could create for their next distraction, when she noticed something a bit worrying.

There were more people heading towards the tower.

“Molly, do you see—?”

“Aye.  Think we’d best be giving the others a bit of backup now, yeah?”

“Oh, definitely .”

VERNICHTEN

The Nein had taken the time while Eodwulf explained the spell and calmed his friend down to bandage wounds and, in Caduceus’s case, say a quick Prayer to heal up a bit more.  As the time approached for the ritual to take place, they gathered up around the table Bren’s body was laid out on.  Eodwulf kept a tight hold on the wrists of the body Bren was currently in, mumbling assurances to him but ready to tighten his hold once Ikithon was back where he belonged.

With the group ready, a nod from Fjord let Eodwulf know to start.  With the Beacon resting upon the redhead’s chest, Eodwulf moved his friend’s hands to lay atop it, then began to chant, eyes beginning to glow a bright violet with the energies of dunamantic and transmutative magics flowing through all three.  Both bodies slumped, Eodwulf having anticipated this and adjusting his hold on the elder to keep him in place for the remainder of the ritual.

As the wizard droned on, the rest of the group shifted uneasily, not quite sure if they could help or if they’d just be in the way.  Beau bounced on her toes, throwing a couple punches just to keep herself moving and ready, Yasha next to her taking the moment to swipe a whetstone across Magician’s Judge, one eye kept on the wizards.  Fjord stood on Beau’s other side, hand resting on the pommel of his falchion, tossing wary glances between the table the wizards were using and the door the Nein had come through.  Essek eyed the ritual keenly, attempting to pick out what he could of the magic for use later and for reporting to the Bright Queen exactly how much of dunamancy the Empire mages had discovered.  Nott hovered near Bren, lending the occasional hand to keep him standing when Eodwulf couldn’t quite manage alone, and Caduceus stood behind her, keeping an eye on each of his friends in case someone needed more healing.

The flowing energies seemed to coalesce into a stream between the two bodies and the Beacon, Eodwulf guiding them but mostly letting the magic direct itself.  As the ritual progressed, the bodies began to twitch and spasm, radiating from the energy and glowing all over, the majority focused on their cores.  The light started to pulse, going from steady streams to a beat similar to a heart during an adrenaline rush, picking up speed and increasing in brightness to the point it was nearly too difficult to see—

Then a Fireball blasted just behind Yasha, tossing everyone a bit as the light disappeared.  Eodwulf was the first to turn towards the door, where a woman about his age with a burn scar tracking down her neck stood, glowing red staff raised and a curious mage just behind her.

“Astrid.”

“...I take it she’s a friend?” Beau snarked at the Zemnian.

“You could say zat.”

The woman’s eyes went black as she lifted a hand, the five bodies from the Nein’s earlier battle lifting as well like puppets.  “Kill the intruders,” she ordered the newly-created zombies, then moved to cover along one wall.

Two zombies each flanked Fjord and Essek, slashing at them while the fifth moved to be on the opposite side of Caduceus as the now-returned-to-his-rightful-body Ikithon.  All their attacks landed, given the shock the three were still in from seeing the corpses brought back into the fight.

Yasha wouldn’t stand for it, snarling her anger as she turned on the one between her and Essek, smashing it nearly to bits, but it pulled itself back together to continue fighting.  The firbolg, seeing this, mumbled, “Oh, that’s no good,” and sent out a wave of the Wildmother’s energy, attempting to destroy the undead that surrounded them.  Only one succumbed to the blast.

“Well, shit ,” Beau grumbled before vaulting the table (and the redhead still attached to it), diving at Astrid and swinging wildly once before landing the second and trying to stun her, but the older woman just shrugged it off, continuing to focus on her undead thralls.

“I am tired of this!” Essek shouted, eyes glowing the violet the group had come to expect of dunamancy, a wave surging around Essek but not seeming to affect any of the Nein.  “Get rid of them!”

Nott took a moment to disengage from Ikithon before moving back and firing at the newcomer mage as she ran, managing to knick him before she ducked behind some tables.

Ikithon himself had already pulled himself from Eodwulf’s grasp during the Fireball and now sent lightning through Bren, Fjord, and Essek, though when he went to move back from the rest, he seemed incapable of going as far as he should.  Both Caduceus and Eodwulf tried to hit him, a burst of sacred light just missing as Eodwulf slashed at him with a rapier.  The bolt itself tore through the three, nearly knocking out Fjord, who only managed to stay on his feet due to his orcish lineage.

The half-orc then spun to flank one of the zombies, casting his Hexblade’s curse on it before slashing.

CLANG CLANG

“Uh, what was—?”

“A problem,” Eodwulf cut off Caduceus’ question as the mage moved up and began casting, only for Essek to throw a counter.  With a demented giggle, though, Astrid countered back, allowing the Cone of Cold to blast through the room, taking out a zombie and Fjord both.

Bren was lolling on the table as Eodwulf moved to unchain him, casting Mage Armor on the redhead and calling to the newcomer, "It's not vat you think, Astrid!"

The smaller wizard stumbled to his feet, throwing a glowing hand towards his teacher, who burst into flames that raged across his body, licking up his arms and neck.  " Brenn in der Hölle, Arschloch! "

"Bren, was hast du getan? " the woman yelped, glancing horrified between the two recently-revived wizards before throwing her hands out towards the Nein.  The air turned arid around them, moisture drawing up and out of their skin and dispersing.  Essek and Bren joined Fjord on the ground, curling in pain as their spells dropped and Eodwulf threw his ward to Caduceus to prevent him also collapsing from the violent barrage.  Astrid drew her arms back in, a black energy coalescing from the spell and being drawn into her body.  She sighed happily, the few knicks and bruises from Beau's attacks healing in an instant.

Two of the zombies shambled to flank Yasha, landing a pair of blows that she tried in vain to shrug off. The last swung wildly at Caduceus, who ducked the arm just barely as Yasha began slashing at the two around her. One dropped from the sheer violence of her attack, the other just barely holding together after her third swing of the Magician's Judge.

The firbolg looked over the battlefield, sighing out a worried, "Oh, dear..." before sending a mass Healing Word towards the worst off of his friends, bringing Essek, Fjord, and Bren back to consciousness as he flung another burst of radiant energy at the zombie attacking him.

Beau punched rapidly at Astrid, snarling out as she did that, "She's not taking as much damage as she should be!"

"There's a reason for zat," Eodwulf growled back.

Essek groaned as he fumbled his way back to standing, huffing, "For the record, I really dislike fighting with you all." He moved to get the remaining zombies in a line as he downed a greater healing potion, then brought his hands together, dragging one forward and the other back as a line of violet energy crackled out from him, through the zombies, then drew Bren, Caduceus, Yasha, and Nott in towards it, knocking the first two unconscious again. The drow winced, murmuring, "Shit, sorry, Cad!"

Nott darted between some shelves for cover, then shot Ikithon, who immediately raised his staff, it glowing an icy blue before Essek shouted a counter at it.

Fjord made his way to Caduceus, laying his hands on him with a mutter of, "C'mon, Cad, we need you right now!"

The firbolg inhaled sharply, coughing once and mumbling a, "Thanks," as Fjord shifted his hex to Ikithon.

The door behind Caduceus burst open, a large, stone construct lumbering through and moving towards Astrid, who snickered giddily upon seeing it. Caduceus, and Fjord both attacked as it passed, but the falchion and radiant blast barely seemed to affect it.

While the group was distracted by the new opponent, the unknown made at the door sent a Fireball at them. Nott and Eodwulf dodged the worst of it, Fjord and Yasha just barely hanging on while Caduceus fell again and Bren's body rolled slightly from the blast. Eodwulf shifted to be behind the cleric and called out, "Everyone, gather around me!" He slammed his hands to the ground, a shimmering globe forming around him as the redhead winced and curled tighter in on himself.

Astrid's glare moved from the shielded group to the monk harrying her, blowing a piece of hair out of her face. "Well, that's rather annoying."  She reached a hand towards Beau, then pulled it back, black vitriolic energy drawing from the monk to the wizard. When she saw that it didn't drop Beau, she snarled towards her construct, " Ungeheuerliche kleine Wanze …. Kill her!"

As Yasha got ready to move, the door burst open behind the mage, and Jester ran in, panicked and yelling, "Oh, wow, holy shit, okayokayokay!" She grabbed hold of her symbol of the Traveler, and buff, glowing unicorn-hamsters flew around her, slashing at the mage and Astrid with radiance. "What the fuck is going on , you guys?!"

Yasha swung at the construct from her new spot flanking with Beau, landing all three hits as she called back, "The brunet and the redhead are on our side!"

A glow came from the locket around Caduceus' neck as his Periapt stabilized him. Beau took advantage of the slight distraction, throwing herself at Astrid as she yelled, "Just. Fucking. Go. Down, bitch! "

Essek moved towards Eodwulf, stopping just behind Bren, throwing a ball of thunderous energy at Ikithon that gave off a near-deafening sound as it landed. The noise gave Nott the perfect opportunity to fire again at the eldest wizard.

Ikithon reeled back from the attacks, then waved a hand that glowed bright before splitting into more than half a dozen different colors that launched straight at and through Eodwulf's Globe of Invulnerability, Essek's attempt at a Counterspell falling this time. All but Astrid and Ikithon himself were hit, some even by more than one of the rays. Beau and the construct managed to come out unscathed, the monk from her evasion and the creature being immune to the poison that hit it. Thuds sounded around the room as Yasha and Fjord joined the unconscious on the ground, Eodwulf tossed his ward over to protect Jester some, but both still lost their concentration on their spells, the shimmer and the unicorn-hamsters disappearing. 

But it was the way Bren went absolutely still and silent that drew everyone's attention. Before anything else could be said or done, Astrid drew out a tiny cage and spoke a word, and a spark of light jolted out of Bren's body and into the cage. Jester retaliated with a Hellish Rebuke sent at Ikithon as Fjord winced, even in his unconscious state.

Astrid's guardian construct seemed to repair a few cracks on its body then moved to flank Beau, swinging hard at her twice. The monk flinched, sending a desperate look to Jester for healing.

There were no reactions available this time when the mage cast, two missiles firing at each Nott, Essek, and Beau, the last of whom fell to the ground, out cold.

Eodwulf's gaze was locked on the cage his friend held,a glowing light inside frantically seeming to batter at the walls of its prison. " Was hast du mit Bren gemacht? " he demanded before digging out a potion and feeding it to Caduceus, causing the firbolg to cough and have as he came back to consciousness.

The woman merely smirked back at him.

A second tiefling busy into the room, taking a look around before huffing, "Well, shite." He spun one of his scimitars, nicking his own arm before turning the now-iced-over blade on the mage before him, cutting him down in two moves.

Astrid grinned down at the light in the cage, subtly squeezing the bars in on it, causing some light to drain from it into her body, healing over some of her wounds. Then her gaze snapped to the tieflings as she snarled, "Well, aren't you two bothersome?" She shot a hand out, ribbons of dark energy spiraling out from her and at Molly, who grunted from the pain, struggling to stay standing.

The circus man just smirked back, taunting, "That all you got, bitch? Beau punches harder than that!"

Jester took immediate offense, marching right up to Astrid while yelling, "Ooooh, you are not nice! " She latched onto the other woman's arm, casting just about the strongest Inflict Wounds she could. The construct crumbled to stones and gravel behind her.

Yasha's muscles relaxed slightly from their tensed position while Caduceus shoved himself up to standing, another healing spell sent out to revive the barbarian, monk, and half-orc as well as lending some aid to Essek, Nott, and Caduceus himself. Then the firbolg's eyes flashed a deep violet-black that reflected in Astrid's as he called out, "Get her, Beau!"

The monk nodded with a smirk, cracking her knuckles before throwing her next two punches, the first landing much harder than normal thanks to Caduceus' help. She channeled some of her last remaining ki into a flurry of hits that finally took the female wizard down.

As Beau demanded a celebratory first-bump from Yasha, Essek sent another thundering Shatter spell at Ikithon, who countered it desperately. The drow saw that flash of panic in the elderly human's eyes and recognized it for what it was. "He's almost down!"

A crossbow bolt flew from wherever Nott was hiding now, landing hard in the man's shoulder and ripping free a chunk of flesh.  The wizard snarled, a hand reaching up towards the wound, then he began to chant something.

“ Du kommst nicht so leicht davon! ” Eodwulf growled, throwing out a hand and freezing Ikithon’s spell in its tracks.

Fjord ran up to the man while he was still distracted, digging his falchion into whatever skin he could reach.  After the second hit, the elderly wizard dropped, unconscious and bleeding out.  The half-orc slumped against a bookshelf, looking out over the others and locking eyes with Eodwulf.  “That’s it, right?”

“No,” both the Zemnian and the drow replied, tossing each other a glance before aiming their gazes on Astrid and the tiny cage that had dropped beside her, still glowing from the light trapped inside it.  Realizing both wizards knew what spell she used, Eodwulf motioned for Essek to head over while he stayed with Bren’s body.

The drow moved to the cage, picking it up delicately and looking it over before taking it to the table near Eodwulf and Bren, smashing the cage against the metallic table.

“Shit, what was that for?” Beau demanded, startled by the violent move from the normally-stoic wizard.

Essek didn’t bother to answer as the now-freed light dashed straight back into Bren’s body, a glow hovering around him before fading.  The drow turned quickly to Caduceus and Jester.  “One of you can revive him, right?”

Caduceus shook his head sadly, but Jester darted forward, nodding eagerly and digging out a large diamond.  “Yeahyeahyeah, I can, but are we sure he’s ok—?”

“ Yes , please,” Eodwulf replied immediately, locking desperate eyes on the tiefling.  “The others, they said you haff come here following Frumpkin, zis ist Frumpkin’s wizard.  Please, help him .”

Her violet eyes went sympathetically sad, then she shook herself to ready the spell and sat beside the redhead.  “Okay okay okay, here we go.  Traveler, please, help Frumpkin’s wizard, bring him back to poor little Frumpy!”

Nott and Fjord winced slightly, not exactly wanting to explain to the excitable tiefling just yet that “poor little Frumpy” wasn’t around at the moment.  Hopefully, the wizard really would be able to bring the fey cat back.

Green light flowed around the young woman, encircling and breaking the diamond, the dust seeming to melt into the redhead’s skin, followed by the shimmering green glow.  There was a long, quiet moment before Bren inhaled sharply, jolting upright.  He seemed to jerk forward, trying to move, but Eodwulf and Jester both stopped him, holding him in place.  Blue, glazed eyes searched out the room, darting to and fro before landing on the body of Ikithon.  Again, he seemed drawn towards the body before Eodwulf tightened his hold, concernedly begging, “Bren, was tust du? Er ist tot, er wird dich nicht —”

Bren shrieked, fingers digging into his scalp as his eyes rolled into the back of his head and he went limp once more.

There was a shocked moment of silence, finally broken only when Molly burst out with, “What the fuck was that for?”

Caduceus kneeled beside the unconscious body, mumbling a prayer to the Wildmother as he ran searching hands over the man.  “I don’t know, but I think Ikithon may have cursed him.”

VERNICHTEN

Chapter Text

"What do you mean, Ikithon cursed him?" Beau demanded. "There wasn't any time for him to have cursed him!"

The group thought it over, trying to figure out when and how the elder human was able to curse his former student, then Essek gasped, eyes widening. "The Beacon."

Confusion met him from the Nein, but Eodwulf was matching his realization. "They vere avake in zere," he murmured, accent thickening again from the shock. "Who knows vhat all Ikithon could haff done to him."

Jester and Caduceus shared a glance. "We could Remove it if it's a curse," the tiefling offered, "but if it's not, that won't do anything…."

"I don't have it prepared today, and I can't cast a Greater Restoration until I rest."

Jester's tail flicked a bit as she worried at her bottom lip. "I've got Lesser prepared, but not the other two…."

Fjord cut in, eyes locked on the twitching bodies of Astrid and Ikithon. "I think whatever we decide, we best get out of here first."

There were nods from the group as Essek did a quick headcount. "I can Teleport us still. To the Xhorhouse?"

It was the monk that brought up a certain concern, turning to Eodwulf and demanding, "You're not gonna stab us in the back if we bring you along, right? "

" Nein ," he mumbled, still holding tight to his friend, "I just vant to see Bren safe."

"Alright. We've got manacles if we need 'em. Let's go, Essek."

The drow had them gather around, casting quickly as the two wizards on the ground began to twitch and blink their way to consciousness, but the group was gone before either could cast a Counter.

VERNICHTEN

Eodwulf didn’t have the time to take in his surroundings before the blue tiefling was next to him, patting somewhat harshly at Bren and casting to heal him up some.  As the redhead inhaled, the brunet wizard winced, expecting another scream of pain from his friend.

Instead, things were silent.  Bren simply breathed deeply for the next few minutes as the group worked to calm themselves from the perpetual state of fight or flight that they'd been in since their arrival at the Sanatorium.  The Nein began to spread about, dropping weapons or running to rooms to gather things (something about pillow forts and sleepovers? Eodwulf wasn’t sure) while the clerics took the time to scan over the redhead further and the wizards contemplated what could have caused Bren's reaction.

"...Geas," Eodwulf finally murmured.  The others glanced over at him, a bit surprised to hear him at all, really.  He continued, explaining his thought process, “It’s the only thing zat makes sense.  He vas trying to do something, to accomplish whatever task Ikithon had set for him, but ve—ve kept him from it, so the penalty set in.  The pain he felt, it vill only happen once a day mit Geas whereas other spells either force him to the task regardless of ability or vould continue to hurt him vhen he voke again.”

“So, when he wakes up tomorrow, he’ll be trying to do whatever Ikithon ordered him to do?” Beau verified.  “And he’ll basically be tortured again if he can’t do whatever it is?”

Eodwulf nodded, leading the monk to curse out his former master.

“And what will happen to you?”

He blinked over at the barbarian that spoke to him, still surprised at the soft voice from one so easily consumed by rage.  “Ah, nothing?  I am not ze one Ikithon cursed.”

“But you did sort of turn on your teacher back there,” Fjord reminded.  “Doubt he’ll welcome you back with open arms.”

Eodwulf winced at that, finally having a moment to truly think through the repercussions of his decisions in the two fights.  “Ah… I vill… manage.  Zere are ozer places I can go to study, ozer teachers I could apprentice to.”

One of the orc’s brows rose at that.  “Who won’t just turn you right over to Ikithon for whatever punishment he’ll dream up?”

“ Also , I’ll—I’ll find somezing….”

“You could stay with us.”

It was obvious none of the group expected Nott to speak up, especially to say something like that, but she simply stared hard at Eodwulf and Bren, the former of whom was still wrapped around the latter, cradling and rocking him gently.  When she realized she’d drawn everyone’s attention, Nott added, “He can stay here in the Xhorhouse, care for Bren when we’re on a mission.  Keep the place nice and clean while we’re gone since Dairon’s no longer here,” she said with a wry smirk for Beau, who returned it.

“I can speak with the Bright Queen about him being a refugee,” Essek offered.  He locked eyes with the other wizard, informing him that, “You’ll likely be questioned a bit, maybe under house arrest to ensure you’re not a spy for the Empire, but between the Nein and my testament, it should be a reduced amount of each, just as a precaution.”

“That… may be my best option.  I do not mind informing on Mas—on Ikithon, but I vould hope to avoid doing so on myself or Astrid.  She—She has merely followed his orders, ve—ve all did,” he mumbled sadly.  He seemed to brush absentmindedly at his friend’s hair, sweeping it off the brow and tucking the longer strands behind an ear.  “Ve vere children, und he had us—”  He sighed deeply before looking back to Essek.  “Yes, I vill tell her vhat I can.”

Essek nodded back as the redhead groaned, twitching a bit and trying to sit up.

“ Vorsicht, bewege dich langsam.  Du werdest schwer verletzt, ” Eodwulf murmured to his friend, helping him upright and leaning them both against the wall behind them.

“ Wo — Wo sind wir? ” the redhead stammered back, bleary eyes darting around.  “ Dies ist nicht Meister Ikithon zu Hause. ”

Eodwulf’s face fell at the statement, hugging the smaller man close to his side as he responded, “ Doch , Bren, nein, wir — wir haben dort seit einiger Zeit nicht mehr gelebt. ”  He glanced over at the Nein and Essek, then back to his friend.  “Bren, Bren, ve are not in ze Empire anymore.  Ikithon has— er hat uns nicht mehr kontrollieren. ”

Bren blinked hard at the group, then focused in closely on Eodwulf.  “Wh—Who are zese people, Wulf?” he demanded, attempting to back further into the wall behind him.  His accent was thicker than his friend’s, his voice cracking a bit, obviously unused from his time in the Sanatorium.  “Who are zey?  Vhere—Vhere are ve, if not in Meister Ikithon zu Hause? ”

“You’re in the Xhorhouse!” Jester happily replied, crouching down beside the two.  Bren gave a short yelp and jolted back in surprise at her sudden appearance.  “Oh, sorry, sorry!  But this is our house, the Xhorhouse, in Rosohna!  The Bright Queen gave it to us for bringing back one of the Beacons she was missing!  Oh!”  She turned sharply to the others, commenting, “We probably should give the other back to her, too, right?  I mean, technically it’s hers, so she should really have it, y’know?”

The redhead was staring, blue eyes wide at them, as the group fell into discussion about what to do and when to go.  “Ze—Ze Bright—?”  He gaped at Eodwulf.  “ Wir sind in Xhorhas?! ”

“Yes, Bren,” the other answered, “ve vill be safe here, mit ze Mighty Nein.”

“Mighty No,” the redhead mumbled, “zey—zey vere in ze Sana—zey f—fought M—Master Ik—”

“Yes.”  Eodwulf hugged his friend closer as he shook, fear and panic fighting for dominance on his face.  “He has no more hold on you.”

“ N — Nein, er wird mich immer haben! ” the redhead was frantic, words stumbling and tripping over themselves in their haste to be set free.  “ Er hat immer, er wird immer!  Er kontrolliert alles! ”  His hands scrambled at his friend’s clothes, digging in, gripping, searching for something to hold tight to in the midst of his anxiety.  “ Die Leuchtfeuer, das Sanatorium, das Residuum!  Alles fällt in seinen Platz, so wie er es will! ”

It was Jester who cast the Hold on Bren.  As he suddenly went still, she clasped her hands before her face.  “Sorry, he just—he was going to make himself sick, probably, going on like that, so it was the best I could think of to help calm him down!”  She rocked on her heels, glancing about at the others.  “Was—Was that okay?”

Caduceus’ large hand patted her shoulder.  “It will be, don’t worry.”

Molly and Nott moved close to the Held man, Nott even going so far as to sit in his lap and rubbing gentle patterns into his arms as the spell slowly faded.  Bren blinked down at her as he went lax, brow twisting in confusion.  “ Warum tust du das? ”

A glance at Eodwulf had him translating softly, “He’s asking why you’re doing zis.”

She nodded her thanks before briefly meeting Bren’s eyes, then focusing again on the movement of her hands against his arms.  “...It helps my son after he has a nightmare.”

Quiet fell around the room, the Nein rarely hearing anything on Nott’s past other than a fondness for a man named Yeza, and the two Empire wizards merely following the motion.  Over the next few minutes, Bren’s breath shifted to match Nott’s movement, inhaling as her hands went up and exhaling as they moved down.

A faint grin passed across Eodwulf’s face.  “...It’s like mit Frumpkin,” he realized.  Sensing the others’ gazes on him but not willing to look away from his now-calm friend, he added, “Bren could alvays use Frumpkin’s purr to calm himself.”

“ Frumpkin ist die beste Katze ,” Bren mumbled as one of his hands came up, moving slowly, but eventually finding its way onto Nott’s head, brushing gently through her rough, matted goblin hair.  Only Molly was close enough to see the bright smile she shot up at the wizard, briefly, distantly, met by his own hesitant, shaky twitch of his lips.

The violet tiefling nodded, gently patting Nott on the back as he moved, drawing everyone’s attention away from the quiet scene.  “Alright, then,” he declared, clapping his hands in front of him, “how best we go ‘bout ingratiating these two to the Bright Queen, hm?  Pull another ‘look who found your precious Beacon’?”

Essek gave a slight chuckle at his antics.  “Something to that effect, I think, though a bit more subtle this time.  Perhaps not after being arrested and brought before the entire court?”

“Yeah, that’d probably be best,” Fjord admitted.  “We can ask for a private audience, bring the two of them with us and explain while handing over the Beacon Ikithon had.”

“And pass along the information of what he was using it for,” Beau grumbled, arms folded across her chest.  “Should probably mention at least parts of this to Dairon, too.  Bit unnerving, someone finding a new way to lichdom.”

There were nods all amongst the group before Fjord turned to Jester, fisted hands up by his face.  She fluttered a moment, briefly debating, “Okayokayokay, how many should I—?  Right, Dairon, Bright Queen, save just in case.”  She gave her own nod to Fjord and twisted a copper wire in her hand.  “Oh hi, Dairon, it’s Jester, we’ve found out some creepy stuff about one of those Assembly wizards and Beau says you really need to know—”

Fjord winced as he dropped his hands.

Eodwulf blinked over at them.  “Was—Was that supposed to be a Sending?”

Jester held up a finger to silence them as she listened to whatever was being Sent back to her.  “Ah, Dairon wants to know more, whoops.”  Then she turned more towards the brunet, hands on hips, “And yes , that was a Sending, why, what was wrong with it?”

Seeing the majority of the Nein behind her making cutting motions across their necks, Eodwulf stuttered out, “Ah, n—nothing?  Just… different from Ikithon’s… standards.”

She turned in another whirl of skirts and Fjord hurriedly lifted his hands again.  “Okayokayokay, try this again.”  She took a deep breath and twisted her wire again.  “This Icky-thong guy was using a Beacon to try some kind of ritual to take over one of his students’ bodies and it actually worked—”

Fjord shook his head.

“—for like a minute!  Ah, shit,” she grumbled.  There was a pause as an answer came through once more, and she spun to Beau.  “She wants you to send her a report or bring one into a Cobalt Soul place next time we’re near one.”

The monk huffed but nodded.  “Course she does.  I’ll work on that.”

“Great!”  Jester tapped a finger against her lip, thinking for a long moment and mumbling something about phrasing before clapping her hands together.  “Alright, to the Bright Queen next!”  There was a soft sigh from Fjord and Essek that they each quickly covered as Jester glanced at them.  Fjord brought up his hands again.  “Hiiiii Bright Queen!  It’s Jester, we found out some stuff that you’ll want to know and a couple people you’ll want to talk to!”  The half-orc still had a finger up, so Jester quickly yelped, “Pooping!”

Essek slapped a hand to his forehead, and Eodwulf raised a brow at the odd ending.  “She does that,” Beau mumbled.  “Likes to make sure she uses every word she has for the spell.”

“But… why? ”

Any response he may have received was interrupted by Jester declaring, “Okay!  We’ve got a meeting with the Bright Queen in the morning!”  She grinned brightly around at the group, rocking on her heels again as she stated, “Sleepover time!”

VERNICHTEN

His eyes snapped open at 2:53 that morning.  The world was dark around him, but he could sense nine hearts beating, nine sets of lungs breathing in and out in the rhythm of deep REM sleep.  He sat up, looking around, glad to see that a single, faint light from the moons was coming in through the windows.  The only person he recognized was his fellow student, and there were orcs, tieflings, goblins, even a drow surrounding him.  His lip curled up into a sneer as he eased his way out from the group, moving away and towards the window, glancing outside to get an idea where he was.

The world outside was dark, like someone had stretched out a Darkness spell to encompass the entire city—which made sense, given his internal compass telling him he was far southeast of his home.  He was in Ghor Dranas.  Somehow, these people had brought him straight into the lions’ den, likely to torture and either interrogate or kill him.  That was fine, though.  He was trained to withstand torture, trained to hold out against interrogation, trained to kill or be killed.  This was merely another test for him to pass, and he excelled at tests.

“...Bren?”

The goblin had woken.  He turned towards her, blue eyes darting over her form and taking in the body posture, the rubbing at her eyes, the hidden weaponry and lockpicks, kept close even in her sleep.  This woman was a fighter and a thief, someone not to be trifled with, a sneak, a survivor.  Yet, when she caught his eye, he felt something deep in him crack at her soft expression, the same something that cried pathetically for his familiar and felt the need to scratch insistently at his arms.

“Are you okay, Bren?” she murmured, obviously trying to keep quiet so as to not wake the others.  “It’s late; you should be asleep.”

“Yes,” he whispered back, “sorry, I just—I woke up and there were too many people.”

She gave him a smile, unnerving sharp teeth jutting out at all angles.  “It’s no trouble,” she offered as she came closer, soft footfalls skirting around everyone else as she came up beside him.  “We’re a lot to handle at the best of times.”  Bulbous yellow eyes blinked up at him.  “I can set up a bedroll for you further away, or even on a couch?”

She offered him help.  He studied her, trying to parse what she would ask in return for her help, her wasted time.  As a goblin, who knew what depraved things her mind could conjure to demand of him, what horrific dismemberments or injuries she would force him to commit on others.

He figured none could be as bad as what Ikithon had made them do for his lessons.

“...Yes, that—that may be best.”

She nodded happily.  “I’ll grab you some blankets.”  The green woman darted off, dashing about to grab up the loose covers that her friends were not currently using.

He likely had only a few short moments before she would be back.  He took the time to study the room more, seeing that the group was spread across the floor, half curled up over or against others, all still out cold, even with the goblin rushing around and moving things.  A part of him wanted to scoff; these fools would never survive in a war or out in the wilds.

“Here we go!” the goblin said happily, handing over a pile of blankets and sheets and covers of all types and colors and textures.  He blinked at her blankly as they were shoved into his arms, the goblin patting him surprisingly gently given her claws as she maneuvered him towards the couch.

He was still gaping as the whirlwind of a goblin got him laying down and wrapped up in no fewer than a half dozen blankets.  She tucked in the edges, starting by his ankles and quickly making her way up to his chin, then gave a quick peck to his cheek before wishing him a goodnight and scuttling back to her own spot, flopping across the two tieflings’ legs without waking either.

There was a long, quiet hour and a half as he lay there, mind spinning in the stunned shock of a gentle goblin and a motley group that his master would have condemned if not outright killed as traitors that had actually shown him kindness and care.  No one had given him something without naming a price in years, even his own friends asking for favors in return upon lending aid, but here….

This "Mighty Nein."

They were a mystery, and he did so love a mystery.

VERNICHTEN

Chapter Text

VERNICHTEN

There were no words when he woke up.  There were no white-robes or his closed-off, either.  He sat up, noticing there was noise, noise he didn’t have in his closed-off.  He could move, too, his holding-things weren’t wrapped up in the soft-scratchy-tight.  He lay on something soft-firm, back up against an edge to protect it while he faced out into the room.

There were others.  None wore the white robes or Master-Teacher-Monster’s style of robes, and they seemed to be waking slowly, mumbling things and moving around.

The words he knew, but he couldn’t process.  They flew into his thinking-bit and back out without the meaning staying.

He knew the time.

He knew the time.

Something was wrong.  No, everything was wrong.  Everything from before was bad-wrong, this all seemed… good-wrong.  Better-wrong.

He curled tighter against the soft-firm at his back, clutching the warm-fuzzy wrapped about him.  He liked it much better than the soft-scratchy-tight he normally was in.

“Oy, look who’s up!” a voice called and suddenly a top-bit was leaning in towards him, looking-parts bright red and unblinking.  Fangs peeked out as it’s talking-part stretched wide.  “Morning, mate.  Think Nott and Cad are working on breakfast if ya’d like some.”

A small whine was building up inside him.  He didn’t know.  The words made no sense even though he could hear them right, and he couldn’t find his own to answer.

The red looking-parts finally blinked, the talking-part shrinking down again.  “Mm, seems we’ve got a bit of an issue, eh, mate?”  The being knelt, sitting before him and simply continuing to talk, voice quieting.  “It can be hard sometimes, finding the words.  Took me a while to have any when I first woke up, but the carnival and Gustav and Yasha helped with that.  Nightmares of how I woke up’ll bring me back to that place sometimes, leave me without the words again until Yasha can pull me out of it.  The others are picking up on how she does it, too, so sometimes they can help in their own ways, but mostly it’ll be Yasha or Caduceus to sit with me until I’m myself again.”  There was a slight pause, then the person spoke even faster, words rushing to get out, “Not that you’re not yourself or that there’s anything wrong with not having the words!  I just mean, I’m more comfortable when I can talk and prance around like I usually do, I mean, obviously,” here he waved a holding-things towards himself, pointing out the dangly-shinies on his hearing-parts and twisty-bone-bits that twirled off his top-bit.  “But getting to the words can be the hardest bit,” he continued, “and it’s hard to find them on your own, is what I’m trying to say.  So, y’know, I’m here, if you’d like help or just someone around.”

There was a stretch of quiet, then the being sighed and started to stand.

He didn't want him to leave. He didn't want to be alone again, alone in the silence, alone with no words. A holding-things darted out from the warm-fuzzy to link onto one of the being's own. There were metal loops on the pointing-things with little specks of color across each. They sparkled as the holding-things shifted.

The being stopped, turning back and settling into his sit again. He twisted their holding-things around to be the one holding, then his backwards-pointing-thing began rubbing circles and patterns into the skin. "Okay," he mumbled, I can stay here with you for a while, yeah? Oh, I know!" His fangs flashed again as his talking-bit went wide. "We haven't really introduced ourselves yet, have we? I'm Mollymauk Tealeaf, or just Molly to my friends, and our group here is called the Mighty Nein. None of us speak Zemnian, but it was my idea as a joke when we started out." The red latched onto his own seeing-things. "It was actually ‘cause of Frumpkin that I thought of it, since he seemed to like hearing Zemnian the few times we heard someone speaking it."

Frumpkin. They knew Frumpkin! Where was—?

"Ssshh, hey, it's okay," the being was saying, both holding-things now cradling his. "We took good care of him, but whatever happened to you, it made him poof away. Eodwulf said you'd be able to bring him back."

He blinked up at the being, sad drowning him as he saw no Frumpkin. He’d need time, and things, to bring Frumpkin back, things he definitely didn’t have.

“Anyway, we can help you with what you need for that once your words are back.  So, the big goth one is Yasha, my best friend and definitely the best person on the planet, the other tiefling, the blue one in the frills, is Jester, who’s gotta be the happiest being I’ve ever known, the goblin is Nott, who is super suspicious of people when she first meets them but is basically our mom friend, then Caduceus is the tall pink one, he’s always cooking or making tea for us and knows way more than you’d think given how chill he usually is, then the half-orc is Fjord, who’s kinda our defacto leader no matter what Nott says ‘cause Beau’s still working on her manners, and finally the Unpleasant One herself, Beauregard, the human in the blue robes, and she’ll totally fuck people up if they fuck with any of us, but gods forbid she actually have to state her feelings to anyone.  She’s also a huge disaster lesbian, but don’t tell her I told you so.”

“ I fucking heard that, Molly! ”

“Fuck you, too, Beau!” the purple being—tiefling?—called back to her before looking back at him, still rubbing at his holding-things and showing off his fangs.  “Anyway, that’s us, the Mighty Nein!  Though honestly, we’re usually more the Trash Fire Nein, but our luck wins out in the end.”

The words still weren’t there, but he felt pleased at the being for his company, so he squeezed with his holding-things and tried to mimic the talking-bit stretch that seemed to be the being’s go-to expression.

“Hey!  He can smile!”

Smile.  That was the word.

VERNICHTEN

Eodwulf turned at Molly’s exclamation, having allowed the often-rambling tiefling to fade into white noise and now regretting it as he saw his friend awake on the couch.  “Bren!  Du bist wach! ”

Glazed blue eyes blinked slowly over at him, taking a long, silent moment to study him before murmuring, “ Du bist immer noch hier. ”

“ Ja ,” the wizard mumbled back, crouching beside the couch to be at eye level with Bren, “ wir werden eine Weile hier sein, denke ich. ”  He turned back to Fjord, Beau, and Molly, who were standing by in various levels of suspicion or concern.  “Right?  We’ll be staying here for a bit?”

The half-orc glanced at his friends, then sighed.  “Yeah, I suppose you will be.  We’ll discuss that more after we eat, though, so everyone can state their opinions.”  He looked instead at the redhead on the couch, adding, “Wanna come get some breakfast?  Caduceus is a really good cook.”

Blue eyes darted between the group in the doorway and the wizard sat just before him.  “... J — Ja , Frühstück klingt gut. ”  As Eodwulf turned to provide a translation, the redhead shook a bit and corrected himself, “B—Breakf—fast sounds good.”  His accent was even thicker than Eodwulf’s, obviously having not spoken Common in quite some time.

The purple tiefling grinned at him brightly, clapping his hands together.  “Great!  I’ll tell Cad to pour out another cuppa, shall I?”  He happily flounced off through the doorway, apparently going to tell their colleague about the small exchange.

Bren’s focus turned back to Eodwulf, not quite meeting his eyes as one hand moved to scratch absently at his other arm.  “ Was —ah, vat are ve doing hier? ”

The brunet’s expression softened, concern washing over him along with fondness.  “These people, ze Mighty Nein, zey have helped us escape ze Sanatorium.”  He glanced down, reaching out with a hand to stop Bren as he started to dig small trenches of welling blood into his arm.  “Ve need not go back.  You are safe here mit den Mighty Nein.”

“ Und du?  Wirst du bei ihnen sicher sein? ”  For a split second as he asked, Bren’s eyes actually met Eodwulf’s before drifting away again as he curled tighter into the blanket he’d been wrapped in overnight.

There was a long quiet moment before Eodwulf sighed.  “I should manage on my own.  I shouldn’t bother these people mit my troubles.”

“ Aber ich sollte? ”  The redhead clicked his tongue in a sharp tsk noise at the larger wizard.  “ Das ist nicht gerecht , Eodwulf.”

“ Das Leben ist kein Ponyhof , Bren,” he responded, “I’d think you’d have realized zis by now.”

“ Ja, ich habe. ”  Unkempt fingernails dug into the skin of Bren’s forearms, curling in and rubbing the skin raw where he didn’t break through it entirely.  Once more, Eodwulf reached out to stop him.

“Hey, you vill be okay, ja? ”  He ducked his head, trying to force himself into Bren’s line of sight.  “They vill get you back on your feet, und you vill be casting like you used to before you even know it.”

The redhead flinched back at that, mumbling something unintelligible as he shook his head desperately.

Eodwulf leaned in closer, trying to hear his friend, and barely managing to catch enough to piece together what upset him.  “Shh, shhh, Bren, it’s okay, you don’t haff to cast.  I just—I thought you might like to get Frumpkin back, ja? ”

Watery blue eyes flicked towards him then away.  “I—I could haff Frumpkin?”

A grin met his query.  “Of course.  I haff ze herbs, incense, und brazier, ve just need some charcoal.”

“Oh!  We have charcoal!” the blue tiefling exclaimed as she skipped into the room with a tray of bowls and cups and food.  She set the breakfast on the table Eodwulf was leaning on and clapped her hands together in glee.  “How much charcoal did you need?  What’s it for?  Are you going to do maaaagic!?”

The redhead had flattened himself against the back of the couch upon her entrance, but Eodwulf instead just started looking over the meal Jester had brought and gathering together what things he remembered Bren liked most onto one of the plates.

“ Danke , Jester,” Eodwulf replied, holding the dish out to Bren and handing him a fork.  “Here, es sind Eier und Speck , eat slow.  It has been a while since you had anyzing stronger zan oatmeal oder gruel.”

A single hand stretched just far enough to latch onto the plate and drag it in to curl around it protectively.  Bren poked briefly at the eggs and bacon before nibbling quickly at one strip, hand still wrapped around the plate and eyes darting around at the room and the two hovering by him.  There was a long, awkward silence as he ate voraciously, ignoring the fork he’d been given and instead enjoying the ability to actually touch and maneuver with his own hands and fingers.  Once the food was gone, Bren slowly uncurled from his hunched position, holding the plate back out to Eodwulf and darting his eyes past the tiefling as he mumbled, “ Danke schön .”

Jester blinked at the unfamiliar term and the way his eyes didn’t seem to want to meet hers, but smiled anyway.  “Did you like it?  Caduceus makes us the best food, but I was in charge of the bacon since he doesn’t like to cook with meat.  We sorta try to have bacon as often as possible ‘cause it’s easy to keep while we’re on the road, plus Beau absolutely loves pocket bacon, so we have it a lot.”

The scratching started again, but instead of stopping it, Eodwulf decided to take the blanket Bren had been curled in and maneuvered his hands to rub through the soft fabric instead.  Bren clung to it, squeezing and running his fingers through it, before bringing it close to his face and nuzzling into it so he didn’t have to meet any eyes.

Eodwulf gave a slight smile before turning back to Jester.  “Charcoal vould be helpful, yes.  He vill need about ten gold vorth.”

There was another blink at the curled form, then violet eyes met Eodwulf as the tiefling grinned widely back at him.  “Oh, right!  Yeah, I definitely have a lot of charcoal that you guys can use!  I thought I’d be doing more charcoal drawings on the road, but I actually wound up finding this really cool paint instead, so I’ve got all this extra charcoal in my bag, so you guys can totally take it if you need some!”

This time, it was the Zemnian who blinked blankly, then gave a barely-audible chuckle.  “ Danke .  He vill be very glad to haff Frumpkin back.”  He sent a fond glance down at his friend, who was still buried into the fuzz of the blanket, then looked back to Jester, adding, “It vill be some time before he is back to who he vas, if he even does make it back to that point.  But already I can see zat you all vill be good for him.”

“Aaaawwww, thanks, Wulfy!” Jester cooed back before grabbing the wizard in a quick hug.  “We’ll take good care of your friend, but you can’t be a stranger, okay?  You are definitely allowed to visit whenever you want, or sleepover, or have dinner, or stay with us!  We have enough rooms, we could totally set up a nice bedroom for you and for Bren, too!”

Eodwulf’s eyes widened at the rambling invitation, but he managed to slip from the tiefling’s deceptively strong grip to reply, “Zat is very generous of you.  I vill keep zis in mind, but it is probably going to be best if ve are not togezer if Ikithon is after us.”  He reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out an amulet that he gently clasped around Bren’s neck and tucked into his shirt, patting it twice and murmuring, “ Das wird dich beschützen. ”  His knees creaked a little as he stood, dropping a quick peck in Bren’s hair, one of the few places not covered in the blanket, and nodded again at Jester.  “ Bitte , take good care of him.”

“Of course we will!” the tiefling replied, confusion twisting her face a bit.  “But you can stay here, too, Wulfy, there’s no—”

But the man had already cast his spell and vanished, leaving the cleric alone with the currently-nonverbal wizard.  She glanced between where Eodwulf had been and where Bren was curled tightly on the couch and sighed.  “ Ohhh , boy, okayokayokay, this will be fine , we can definitely take good care for you, we did a good job with Kiri, and you’re at least an adult and probably know how to take care of yourself once we show you where stuff is, so, um, welcome to the Mighty Nein, I guess?”

VERNICHTEN

Chapter Text

VERNICHTEN

It was Fjord who brought up the obvious problem.  "Uhhh… weren't we kinda banking on him helping out with his friend, here?"

Beau huffed a breath, folding her arms over her chest and leaning back into the doorway of the kitchen.  " Course he buggered off, we had no guarantee he was even really on our side!"

"He fought with us," Yasha reminded from her spot at the table, already digging into the meal Caduceus had made.

"He just wanted to force the two back into their own bodies!"

"I mean, that's still a pretty nice thing to do, Beau, 'cause he could've totally just left them inside each other, which sounds sexy but totally wasn't ," Jester offered as she rocked back and forth on her heels, hands clasped behind her back.

"Hey," a gentle, deep voice rumbled right in front of the wizard.  Blue eyes blinked up at the firbolg towering over him, smiling loosely.  "I've got breakfast set if you think you'd be able to eat.  I understand they may not have been feeding you the best, so it's fine if you're not able to finish or take more than you end up able to eat." A furry grey hand stretched into his line of sight, and, after a long moment studying both it and the firbolg, a shaky, scarred limb reached out to take it.

Caduceus helped slowly raise the redhead to his feet, then tucked his arm inside an elbow to guide him to the kitchen table, offering descriptions of the various dishes that were available.

" Wa—Warum machst du das? " the wizard mumbled before remembering to switch to Common.  "Why are you doing zis?  You do not know me, you do not know if I vill be a threat or a boon to your group."

“I know you were locked in that place.  I know you had your mind taken from you.  I know that older wizard was experimenting on you and others.  I think that’s all I really need to know, don’t you?”

By this point, they had reached the kitchen, and the still-smiling firbolg helped the redhead into a chair at the table.  A bowl just seemed to appear before him, full of something that was deep brown and smelled like chilled air and falling leaves and faint spices he could see his mother using to make Franzbrötchen .  There was a spoon to the side, and a mug of bright-smelling, steamy liquid, but his focus rested solely on the bowl and its contents, breathing the scents in deep enough to have shifted forward in his seat to hover directly above the memory-sparking food.  A tentative, trembling finger dipped into the bowl, gathering a smear of the brown and raising it to his lips in a careful move, savoring the warmth and flavor that burst across his tongue before removing it from his mouth to dig in with all four fingers the second time, curling a large mouthful into that hand while the other dragged the bowl in close in a guarded move when he realized how close others were sitting to this wonderful meal.

A clamor started but was quickly nulled by the furred creature, the one who made this miracle of seasoning and texture he could actually enjoy now that he had words again.  No one approached him, and he made fast work of the rest of the bowl, lifting it to lick at the bits his fingers hadn’t quite caught.  He only released the bowl when nothing else could be scavenged, letting it fall back into the place it had originally appeared before starting to inspect the mug’s contents.

“ Dude ,” the monk was whispering now, at least, “seriously, what the fuck have we gotten ourselves into?! ”

VERNICHTEN

Caduceus smiled in his gentle way at the redheaded wizard they’d taken in, knowing the man was too far gone into relieving his obvious hunger and thirst to notice it but that it would be comforting to both him and the Nein to see.  “It’s fine, Beau,” he finally murmured, a sideways glance showing that she was the only one holding onto the annoyance of Eodwulf disappearing and using that as a mask for her obvious concern over the man before them.  “We’ll just take a little extra down time before our next mission.”

A clearing throat drew the Nein’s attention then to Essek, who looked as slightly perturbed as ever to suddenly gain all their eyes on him.  “Ah, given that mission has something to do with the upcoming peace talks, you may not have that extra down time,” he reminded.

“Fuck,” Beau huffed, finally slumping into a seat of her own.  The noise startled their new wizard into gripping his mug tightly to his chest, wide blue eyes darting between it and the monk who now sat beside him.  She flapped a hand his way.  “Shit, sorry, not your fault—er, not your problem, dude, mine.  Kinda.  But, seriously, we’ve still got fuckin’ peace talks to worry about knowing this bullshit with the Assembly?  Or maybe just Ikithon?  Shit, we don’t even fucking know , do we?!”

“ N — Nur Ikithon,” a soft, ragged voice came from the spooked man, directed into his mug but clearly meant for the group as a whole.

“No,” Jester cut in, “it’s pretty obviously Ikithon, we just don’t know who else —”

“I think he means it’s just Ikithon,” Fjord interrupted, laying a hand on the tiefling’s shoulder before glancing at the redhead.  “How positive can you be, given where you’ve been for the past—uh, actually, how long have you been in there?”

The man’s eyes were dashing about as people talked, nerves obviously getting to him, but he seemed to soldier through the fear, mug twirling in his fingers.  “Ah, Ich war —I—I vas—vas just over seventeen when I vas— Welches Jahr ist es? ” he mumbled into his mug.

Nott was the one to answer, a hand gently cupping around the man’s wrist and nudging to have him put the mug down.  She took a moment to add a bit of sugar and cream into the mug, answering him while steadfastly observing her own work.  “I don’t think any of us understood that, really, but if you’re asking when it is, this is Yulisen, the 15th of Thunsheer, 836 PD.”

Because she was studiously not looking at the young man, Nott missed entirely the way he seemed to freeze up at the year in particular.  “ W — Was?!  Wie kann das — Nein, das ist nicht möglich, es ist —It’s not—It should be 820 at the latest?”  The yelp he’d started with had stuttered its way to a whisper by the end, wide blue eyes now hunting out as many other pairs as possibly to see if one would blink and end what seemed to be a particularly awful joke.

There was a long, silent moment before Yasha broke it with her soft, calm voice, “You’ve been there quite some time, then.  Your friend told us as much, but I don’t think any of us realized exactly how long.”  She gently placed down her spoon in her own bowl, adding, “If that’s truly your last memory, it has been sixteen or so years for you.  The year really is 836, we’ll talk some more later if you’d like to know of major events you’ve missed.”

Another pause met this before he locked eyes with her and gave a faint nod.  He quickly returned his glance to the doctored mug Nott had nudged back into his hands and tugged it upwards, taking a few quick sips.

The group went back to discussing the upcoming peace talks, deciding the best course of action would be to contact the Martinet with what they saw at the Sanatorium and essentially have him determine how those events would affect the Assembly’s say in the peace talks.  The Nein and Essek both agreed that Da’leth would be the simplest to maneuver to their side as he already seemed perturbed by Ikithon’s methods.  With him on their side, hopefully the Empire would cull the unsavory members from the Assembly for the good of Wildemount as a whole.

“I’ll send my notes to Dairon, too,” Beau declared through a mouthful of her breakfast, several notebooks spread before her.  “Between what we saw, what you’ve been told, Essek, and the Martinet’s obvious disdain for Ikithon, we can get him, at the least, chucked.”

It was a good plan, all told.  The Nein felt confident in their endeavors for the first time in a while.

VERNICHTEN

They had a good plan, that was true.  The group certainly had made powerful allies on both sides of the war.  He had studied them over their meal, then begged off into one of the many guestrooms they seemed to have with the stuttering excuse of wanting quiet.

All it took was shaking hands and darting eyes to convince them.

Blank, blue eyes stared into nothing as he sat on the bed, the fingers of one hand idly curling a wire as he spoke.  His native tongue slipped from him, words forgotten nearly as soon as they were spoken, “They are trouble for you, only if they can convince their friends.  Da’leth, Dairon, they know the Shadowhand.  Discrediting them would be the best option, if not execution.”

The wire fell from his fingers, and as it hit the floor, he blinked, shivering and glancing about the room, a hand digging through his hair.  He rocked a moment as he gnawed at his lip, seeing a window, a desk, a chair.  He stood, stumbling towards the desk and running a hand over it reverently before sliding open one of the drawers and leaning to look in, taking care not to touch anything else or actually dig into the contents.

At least, not until he saw there was a book inside.  His hands twitched, sweat beading up on his neck as his heart raced in a completely different way.  He licked nervously at his lips, feeling them dry and crack as he anxiously darted his eyes around again, focusing on the door.  He managed to pull himself away from the book and to the door, leaning against it and pressing an ear up against it.  His eyes fell shut as he struggled to listen with his human ears, mentally cursing his subpar senses with no material components on him to make up for it.

But he couldn’t hear anyone.  No one was coming.  No one was checking in on him.  He forced himself to take his time moving back to the desk, noting each and every loose floorboard for creaks as he stepped across them, then carefully lifted the chair to pull it back from the desk, making sure it wouldn’t scrape against the ground before he gently placed it and sat, practically hovering over the drawer as he dipped his fingers in.

He traced over the binding, eyes slipping shut as he breathed in the scent of paper and ink and leather.  His fingers curled, catching under the cover and lifting his prize out for further inspection.  No title was on the cover, nor the side bindings, and the leather was dark but not black.  He flipped to the back cover, then back to the front before cracking it open.  He couldn’t help but take a deep breath in, senses overwhelmed for the first time in, apparently, sixteen years, and it took a long moment to focus enough to actually absorb the letters scrawled across the page.

It was an alchemy book, simplified a bit, for amateurs rather than professionals, but too advanced for true novices.  Someone in their group must dabble in the art, which means they likely had a laboratory somewhere in the building, maybe even close to his current room, given the placement of the book.  His mouth started to water as he began to read, feeling the building need in his chest and his mind to compare notes, to study together, to work together, with whomever owned this book.  The purest form of companionship in his memory, partnership in the development of something new, something they’ve created together, something tried and tested and perfected until it fit their standards, until it surpassed them.

He missed his fellows, his colleagues, and he missed sitting through trials and analysis, the experimentation of magic and components and language until they found the ideal combination of all three.  While he had recognized Essek as a fellow wizard, he knew the drow was not a true part of the Nein, thus not around frequently enough to experiment with, one who could, at most, check in occasionally rather than assist with the creation of something new, something uniquely theirs.

Shaping new magic was a high he hadn’t realized he’d missed.

It was late into the night before his head pillowed onto the book as sleep struck him.

VERNICHTEN

Essek had to leave them after lunch, needing to report in to the Bright Queen, both on their findings in Vergesson and the misuse the Assembly, or at least Ikithon, was making of the Beacons.  As such, the Nein found themselves one short for dinner.

Well, make that two.

“Should we go knock or something?” Molly wondered, red eyes darting towards the door their new friend was behind.

Surprisingly, it was Nott rather than Caduceus who shot the idea down.  “He’s probably exhausted,” the goblin explained, “and we’re a bit… much , y’kknow?  We overwhelmed him at breakfast, you must’ve seen that.”

The tiefling shrugged.  “Well, I mean, yeah, but he skipped lunch.  He needs to eat, right?”

“A place like Vergesson, any meals he had would’ve been small, routinely set out at certain times of the day,” Beau grumbled to them as she started spooning food onto her plate.  “He’s probably just not used to being able to decide for himself when and how much he eats.”

“We might need to monitor his intake, you mean,” Caduceus simplified.  At Beau’s nod, he gave a slight grin.  “I had that feeling.  I’ll keep track of it, much as I can.  It would probably help him if we just remind him.  He’ll need to be careful not to overeat at first, but he may not recognize when he needs to eat, either.”

“Defined meal times for a bit,” Fjord suggested, glancing around at the group.  Everyone was engaged to various levels, but he could read concern from all of them.  He gave a slight smirk, nudging Beau, who was sat next to him.  “I think we can manage that for a while, right?”

“Pastries don’t count as a meal, right?” Jester practically whined, hugging her bright pink haversack full of her collected baked goods close.

A chuckle reverberated through the group, picked up and extended by various members at the blue tiefling’s antics, Beau cutting through enough to say, “I doubt any of us could pry them away from you if we tried, Jess.”

She smirked back in reply, pulling something fluffy and sweet-smelling from her back and munching into it.

The group resumed eating, Caduceus and Nott working together to set a plate aside if their new friend decided to join them.  Chatter continued, mostly about the upcoming days and plans to get to the peace talks.  It didn’t take long for them to remember the Ball Eater as an option, and their discussions turned instead towards where to leave from, Nicodranas or the Kryn Dynasty.  A long conversation ensued over that choice, opinions flying back and forth, Jester interjecting frequently about both her mama and TravelerCon, though a reminder from Beau about timing settled her about the latter.  No matter where they left from, they could definitely get to TravelerCon after the peace talks.  It wound up being the concern over whatever contingent of the Assembly was attending that made their decision for them.  Friends close and enemies closer became a quick agreed mantra among them, Beau and Molly taking up the call the quickest.

“With what we found out about just one of the Assembly,” Beau huffed, “I don’t trust any of the others to let this war end simply.”

“Best we keep an eye on them the whole way there,” Molly added.  “Just in case they try something.”

It was Fjord that played devil’s advocate.  “And if they don’t?  Or if they decide to tell how they got the Beacons?”

“They’re being returned,” Caduceus murmured.  “We’ll need to make that the important part, hopefully distract them or prevent it from coming up.  Focus on the peace, the return of the two prisoners, the return of their Beacon, the end of the fighting.  No more bloodshed, that should outweigh the incident from years ago.”

“That ‘incident’ is basically what caused the war,” Nott reminded, Beau nodding behind her.  “We need it to stay quiet, or it’ll start a whole new war instead of ending this one.”

VERNICHTEN

Chapter Text

VERNICHTEN

It was the next morning when the Nein started to have concerns.  Nott had knocked gently at the wizard’s door, entering when he didn’t answer and creeping quietly about.  He was asleep at the desk, head slumped onto one of her alchemy texts.  She smiled at the sight, her own son coming to mind and making her remember the way this young man had seemed to regress at times.  They found him in an asylum, it wasn’t hard to imagine he may have some mental issues.

Something poked into her foot as she moved across the room.  She stepped back, glancing down to find a twisted wire.  Something about it made her inspect it further, bringing it up to her face and feeling out the twists and tangles.  A thought came to mind, and she pulled a similar wire from her own pocket.  She compared the two, seeing the one from the floor was of higher quality but they were bent in the same fashion.  It was almost exactly like the components she and Jester used for messaging spells.

Bright gold eyes darted from it to the wizard, confused.  Who would he have contacted, and why wouldn’t he have told them?  A thought came to her mind, about the curse they’d yet to Remove from him, the one Eodwulf said could continue for days.

The one cast on him by Ikithon, who definitely had the opportunity to plant the necessary components for Sending on the wizard.

The Nein needed to know.

VERNICHTEN

“Who would he’ve Messaged, though?” Beau demanded, arms crossed over her chest.  The Nein had gathered in the War Room, about as far from the spare room they’d set Bren up in as they could get.  “Or, who would’ve Ikithon had him Message?  Fuck, that’s a confusing sentence….”

“Eodwulf said a Greater Restoration should get rid of it, yeah?” Caduceus asked, somewhat rhetorically.  “I have it ready today, so I could go cure him of that?”

“Probably for the best,” Fjord agreed, “especially if it hurts him again.”

“Or if he’s fucking spying on us! ”

Molly sighed, coming down from the handstand he’d adopted upon deciding the conversation was too boring to join in, but if the group was moving into conspiracy theories, things might be starting to get interesting.  “Best to err on the side of caution, I think.  Maybe he’ll be able to explain it afterwards?  Like, when it’s not psychically torturing him anymore?”

"Alright, so we have to do a Restoration, then he should be better, right?" Fjord stayed, fingers tapping on his crossed arms. "Cad, you've got it prepped, go try. Hopefully that'll fix things. But we'll need to be careful what we say around him until we know for sure. Hell, he may not even know he's Messaging someone based on this curse."

The Nein nodded, Caduceus ducking out to try curing their newest addition. Beau turned to Fjord once the firbolg was gone. "We need someone who knows this stuff here. With Eodwulf MIA, Essek is our best bet."

The half-orc sighed. "We can't pull the Shadowhand from his work without good reason, and if we tell them Bren may be a spy, they'll lock him up. That's the last thing he needs right now."

There was a long pause, broken finally by Yasha. "We use our leverage, then. We know he's the one who handed over the Beacons to the Empire. We'll tell the Bright Queen if he doesn't help."

Jester bit her lip. "I dunno, you guys. Won't that just make him mad at us?"

"I'd rather have him mad at us than not know what's going on with Bren," Molly admitted. A glance around showed the others in various states of agreement. He patted his fellow tiefling on the shoulder. "I know it's not something you like, but it's kinda necessary, Jessie. We'll make sure he knows you were out-voted, okay?"

She huffed but agreed.

VERNICHTEN

He woke on a hard-flat.  His seeing-things darted, taking in the hard he was on, another he was sat upon, and the closed-off as a whole.  There were papers, so many, packed into hard-leather, with scribbles across each, and he knew he loved those, but for all he tried, he couldn’t tell why.

“Bren?”

the tall-gray called, a tap ringing out with the words.  “₥₳¥ ៛ ₡º₥∄ ៛₦?”

A high-pitched whine resonated out of him as he realized he’d lost his words again.  He didn’t know what the creature was saying, and he knew all-too-well how angry that made Teacher-Master-Monster.

“ºℏ ₦º.”  A soft, soothing sound came from the creature, who knelt in front of him and murmured more.  “₫º₦’₶ ₩º℞℞¥, ៛’₥ ₦º₶ ℏ∄℞∄ ₶º ℏµ℞₶ ¥ºµ.  ៛ ₩₳₦₶ ₶º ℏ∄₤₱.”  The creature started to twist its touching-things, talking, and pulling glittering dust from a leather-bag.

He blinked.

Bren blinked.  His mind cleared.  He was still sitting at the desk he’d fallen asleep at, the book propped open where he had been reading.  A hand sifted slightly through the pages, then Bren looked up at the creature—the firbolg.  “I, um, ich bin —I’m sorry, I—what has brought you here?”

“I was attempting to break a curse laid on you.  Your friend, Eodwulf, told us that a Greater Restoration would heal you of whatever attacked you psychically the other day.”

The words brought back the memory of Ikithon’s enchantment on him.  “ Ja , uh, yes, that—it was a Geas, to make me protect Master Ikithon.”  He blinked, looking around again as a panic fell on him.  “He—He’s not—He can’t— Lass mich nicht vom Meister nehmen! ”  His hands sought out the firbolg, grasping at his robes and clinging in fear.

“Hey, hey, hey,” the creature soothed, one large arm coming up so he could rub circles into Bren’s back, “he’s nowhere near us.  We are in Xhorhas, in safety across the border.  If he were to come, he would likely provoke a break of the current cease-fire until the peace talks can occur.  It would be a political suicide, and something tells me he doesn’t lack for self-preservation.”

“ N — Nein , dass hat er —Erm, that he has in spades.”

“Then you have nothing to fear with us.”  The firbolg stood, bracing Bren to help him to his feet as well.  “Now, it occurs to me we haven’t introduced ourselves very well in all the fuss, or, even if we did, there’s a lot of us to remember.  I’m Caduceus Clay, a cleric of the Wildmother.”

“ Das ist verboden ,” the knee-jerk reaction burst out from Bren’s mouth before he flushed and stammered, “ Entschul —sorry, I shouldn’t—there’s nothing wrong with—”

“Shhh.”  The calm sound was joined by another twisting of his fingers, and a rush of serenity washed over Bren.  “From what your friend told us, it’s going to take quite some time to undo the brainwashing Ikithon subjected you to.  We won’t take offense from anything you may say, and we’ll work with you as much as we can to help break you from those thoughts.”

“I— Danke .”

“Oh, that one I can guess at!  You’re welcome.”  A grin stretched across the man’s face.

“ Was —what—what will happen to me here?” Bren wondered aloud, fingers coming up to scratch now at his bandaged arms.  He blinked and glanced down at the realization that the wounds from Ikithon’s experiments had been cared for and wrapped.

“Ah, yes, we took care of that as well we could, Jester and I, please try not to scratch.”

Bren shook his head desperately, the calm from before dropping away and the self-hatred swelling back up within him.  “They—I do not deserve such kindness.  I am a disgusting person, a murderer, a— Ich bin verabscheuungswürdig, ich sollte nicht am Leben sein, wenn sie es nicht sind, sie verdienen so viel besser, ich bin besser dran, tot —”

“No, no, no.”  Caduceus spun his fingers once more, Bren understanding this time that it was a Calm Emotions spell being cast on him.

“ Nein! ” he yelped, darting backwards into a wall and sliding down to huddle into his knees, arms wrapped around himself.  “ Ich werde keinen anderen mit meinem Verstand spielen lassen!   You will not send my mind away!”

The firbolg’s eyes went wide, and he immediately dropped his hands.  “Oh, no, I definitely don’t want to do that, either!  I just wanted to help you calm down.  Is there something else I could do?  Get you some food, or tea, or blankets?  Would getting onto the bed be better?”

The wizard’s breathing slowed, the hitches fading away as he eyed the firbolg suspiciously.  Kindly pink eyes gazed back, concern and hospitality being the only things he could see in them.  “... Ja , das Bett —bed would be good.”

Caduceus nodded back.  “Would you like me to help you up and to the bed, or would you rather move on your own?”

“I’m fine—”  He wobbled, knees buckling as he attempted to stand, then sighed roughly as he found himself back in the same position.  “... Ja , please.”

The firbolg was gentle as he guided Bren up and over to the bed in the room, rolling back the covers and pulling them back over the wizard once he was horizontal.  “I’ll make some tea and something light to nibble on for you and bring them back.  Would you like me to tell the others to let you rest?”

But Bren had already drifted off.

VERNICHTEN

Essek had arrived by the time Caduceus was leaving Bren’s room, so they all met up in the main room as Caduceus went about preparing tea and snacks.

“What is this about?” the Shadowhand wondered aloud, glancing among all the anxious faces before him.  “We spoke just yesterday.  What new information could you have possibly gleaned since then?”

“Our new friend was under something he called Geas,” Caduceus offered.  The drow’s eyes went wide as he stiffened while reflexively taking the cup and saucer the firbolg handed him.  “I managed to Restore him, but it is apparently what caused him such pain when we were getting ready to leave the Sanatorium.  It was forcing him to prioritize protecting Ikithon over anything else.”

“Shit,” Beau hissed.  “We’re sure it’s gone?”

“He verified it in a way, plus there was a definite personality change when I cast it.”

Molly’s ears twitched at that.  “Personality change?  Is that a part of Geas?”

As every eye of the Nein turned to Essek, he answered, “It depends on the wording and intent to the spell.  You can order your target to do nearly anything, and it lasts a minimum of thirty days, depending on how much energy the caster puts into it.”  He frowned a bit as he considered.  “I suppose if the command is sufficiently counter to the target’s usual acts, it could come across as a personality switch?”

The group collectively thought that over some before Beau added, “I mean, we also picked him up from an asylum , so….  Who’s to say he’s not just a nutcase?”

Caduceus laid out a tray of snacks on the table everyone had congregated around.  “He spoke coherently, if in another language half the time.  We spoke, I could understand him just fine, and he could answer most of my questions.”  The gray-furred man’s brow furrowed.  “Though from the tone, I believe he was being unnecessarily self-critical….”

“How so?”

“He was trying to tell me he didn’t deserve to have his wounds treated before he slipped into that other language,” Caduceus replied.  “He called himself disgusting and a murderer, and panicked when I tried to Calm him.”

“Shit.”

Jester nearly vibrated in her obvious desire to go coddle the man.  “Poor thing!  I can’t believe those assholes and that Icky-Thong guy would make him think all that about himself!”

Beau and Fjord shot each other slight winces before a quick, subtle Boulder-Parchment-Shears game commenced between the two.  A scowl showed Beau to be the loser as she sighed and placed a hand on Jester’s shoulder.  “Jessie, he, uh, he may just feel that way on his own?  I mean, he’s been in there for a while, and we don’t really know why, it could be he’s not in the greatest place mentally, even before Ikithon’s mind-fuckery.”

The tiefling’s eyes went wide.  “But, how could he feel like that?  He didn’t do anything wrong!  Icky-Thong was the one who did everything awful!”

Another look passed between the monk and half-orc, this one more panicked from the former, so the latter came over, gently tugging Jester towards himself and away from the group.  His soft murmur could be heard as they headed elsewhere, “Hey, Jessie, sometimes people have trouble with placing guilt….”

Molly was the one to refocus the others.  “So, Geas?”

Essek shook his head to clear it and looked at the tiefling.  “Right.  It allows a spellcaster to force a target to follow a command for a minimum of thirty days.  If the target goes against that command, they suffer from a psychic attack once per day.  The only times it doesn’t take is if the command would lead to death or if the target can’t understand the caster.  Or if you manage to fight it off when it’s first cast.”

Beau folded her arms over her chest, hiding a shudder.  “You said a minimum of thirty days.  What’s the max?”

The drow frowned, ears drooping a bit.  “If the caster uses their strongest magic, it can be permanent until a restoration or curse removal is bestowed upon the target.”

There was a quiet moment as the Nein processed that, grumbling a variety of curses against asshole wizards.  It gave way to Nott, who stepped forward.  “...What are the chances there was more than one of these cast on him?”

The group blinked at her, all in states of shock or confusion.  Essek bit his lip as he slowly murmured, “...It… would depend on the amount of magic he still retained….  It takes a minute to cast, but Bren should remember if he was—”  The drow cut himself off with a hiss, eyes going wide.  “— enchantment .  Shit. ”

“Um, mind filling those of us who don’t speak wizard in?” Molly demanded.

“I’d assume that Ikithon’s school of focus is enchantment magic, and if so, he likely is strong enough to—to charm people without them remembering.”

“What’s that mean? ” the violet tiefling whined, but Beau managed to field that question.

“It means, even if we asked Bren, he might not know he’s been charmed.  He’s basically a sleeper agent, and we’ve got him in the middle of enemy territory.”

VERNICHTEN