I woke up slung over the back of a donkey, with my face a foot from the ground. I tried to shift, and found myself bound tightly in rough hempen rope. A thick, slightly smelly cloth in my mouth, bound in place with more rope, kept me from crying out.
The last thing I remembered was bedding down for the night by the campfire. Apparently I had been ambushed while I slept. I had been on my way from one bardic school to another with a package. It hadn't been anything particularly important; otherwise they wouldn't have sent me, a mere apprentice bard, to deliver it. Therefore, it was unlikely I had been waylaid for the package. Perhaps it was... No, that had been over a decade ago. It was unlikely he still cared. I shuddered, and prayed to the gods I was right. He hadn't been the forgiving sort.
Perhaps I had been captured by monsters. Ogres, or goblins, or the like. Most of those, however, regarded a donkey as a source of food, rather than a way to transport prisoners, and were unlikely to keep said prisoners alive. Hmm...
Well, odds were I would find out who had captured me, and why, when we got wherever we were going, or when we stopped for the night. A bush smacked me in the face. Hopefully we would be stopping soon.
I hummed a few bars. If my captors didn't know they had a bard, they were going to find out the hard way. I began to plan what I would do when they removed my gag.
Soon the forest we had been traveling through gave way to scrubland. I welcomed this. It meant fewer bushes in the face. Then the scrubland gave way to rockier country. This was... Less welcome. There were few places in the area where the bones of the earth were so close to the surface, and all of them were bad news. The rocky mountains to the east were dragon country. To the north, a stony desert held little aside from scorpionfolk. We were, however, headed west. So be it, then. I resigned myself to my probable fate.
As we began to climb, I heard a voice in my head. -Who goes there?- it boomed. -And to what purpose?-
I heard my captor's voice for the first time. "I am the apprentice bard Thom, and I come to ask a boon of you. To this end, I have brought you a gift." Thom, I thought. The bastard. I'd never liked him, but I hadn't thought him capable of this kind of treachery.
I was the gift he had mentioned. He was going to hand me over to the lone illithid.
The lone illithid lived in a cave near the top of a small mountain. He was unusual in a number of respects. Firstly, unlike most illithids, he didn't live in a illithid community. Secondly, he didn't even live in the underdark, a system of caves, tunnels, and abandoned mines extending under the whole continent. All illithid communities were in the underdark, and all other illithids rarely left it. Thirdly, he was an accomplished wizard, while most other illithids relied on their formidable psionic abilities for fighting. Finally, most illithids were as sexless as worms, incapable of, and uninterested in, sex in any form. According to rumor, the lone illithid was not only capable; he enjoyed it immensely.
However, like other illithids, he ate brains, yanking them out of the heads of his living, conscious victims. I shuddered. No brain left no possibility of resurrection. In addition, the process was said to be incredibly painful. The only question was, would the lone illithid just eat my brain, or would he rape me first?
-You may approach,- the lone illithid's mental voice said.
As we continued to climb, I wondered what the lone illithid would do to Thom. Hopefully he would decide that Thom's request was unreasonable, and kill him. I would still be just as dead myself, but it would be satisfying to know that the traitor Thom was dead as well.
The trail leveled out, and we entered the mouth of a cave. I heard Thom swing off his mount, and, a moment later, felt him loosening the ties that held me to the donkey. I was lifted off, and Thom gripped me by the hair to show me to the lone illithid.
The lone illithid looked like most of his kind. He was tall, almost 7 feet, and dark purple. His hands were mostly humanoid, but with longer, more slender fingers than most people had. Black robes extended down to his booted feet. The top of his head was wrinkled and ridged, like a brain, and he had two catlike, piercing green eyes. Below where his nose would have been, if he'd had a nose, were four tentacles. They looked about a foot long at the moment, but I knew they could extend to up to four feet long if he desired them too. Beneath the tentacles, I knew, was a lamprey like mouth, dripping with mucus and digestive juices. I shuddered.
"Does my gift please you, my lord?" asked Thom.
The lone illithid looked at me critically. -Come closer,- he told Thom. -So that I might see her better.-
Thom approached cautiously. "She is the apprentice bard Kara, my lord. An accomplished singer and lute player, and a half elf. Quite attractive by both human and elf standards. Not as long eared or slender as a full elf, obviously, but-"
-Be quite,- the lone illithid ordered. He produced a knife from inside his robes. I felt Thom stiffen.
Delicately, the illithid cut through my blouse, exposing my breasts. -Large for a half elf,- he noted, prodding them with a tentacle. -Almost large for a human.' The tentacle coiled around my left breast, and tightened around the nipple. I whimpered. My nipples had always been sensitive. Though it was hard to tell, the illithid seemed pleased.
Next, he opened a slit over my pussy. I closed my eyes as a tentacle probed my insides, but opened them in surprise as another one prodded my asshole. Instantly I clenched tight. -Resistant,- the illithid murmured, -but that is to be expected at this stage.- The slit was opened further, until the illithid could reach in and grab my ass. -Nicely round and firm,- he noted, -but not too firm.- The illithid stepped back, and added, -A worthy offering. I will hear your request.- As Thom began to speak, he raised a hand. -But not here. You must be tired from your journey. Come.-
The illithid turned and led the way deeper into the cave. Thom fumbled with the rope around my legs, and then, when I could just barely walk, shoved me forward ahead of him into the cave.
There were lights along the walls, I noted with surprise as we went deeper. Not enough to see properly, but some. Odd. Most illithids prefered darkness.
The ropes around my ankles were loosening. Soon they were loose enough for me to run. I kicked backward at Thom. A yell, followed by a groan, told me that I'd connected with my intended target. I turned and bolted.
I'd barely made it a few steps when I felt something akin to a blow against the back of my head, except it was inside my mind. An illithid mindblast! I struggled to remain conscious...
When I came to, the first thing I noticed was a distinct chill. Cold metal against my arms and legs. Cold air brushing against my private parts. I opened my eyes.
I was naked, chained at the wrists and ankles, still gagged, and sitting in the illithid's lap. A tentacle coiled delicately around my neck, and forced me to look up into the illithid's eyes. -If you try to escape again, things will go hard for you,- he told me. -In fact...-
Suddenly I felt a pressure inside my mind, an incredible, impossible weight. It increased rapidly until I couldn't think, couldn't move, couldn't do anything except watch the darkness rise behind my eyes...
As abruptly as it had come, the weight lifted. I gasped in relief. -Interesting,- the illithid noted. -She won't break.-
Thom shrugged from his seat on the other side of a small table. "She is trained as a bard, my lord."
-I've broken bards before,- the illithid said. -Bards, wizards, monks, many others. This resistance is... Odd. Still, if I cannot make her my thrall, perhaps I can make her my puppet.-
I felt the pressure in my mind once more, but it was different, this time. Instead of trying to crush me, it seemed to surround me. Without me willing it, my hand lifted, and my fist clenched. My body rubbed up against the erection I could feel at my back.
The illithid's chuckle echoed through my mind. -She has no resistance against this, I see.-
Fucking bastard! I struggled against the pressure, feeling like a butterfly in a jar. It abruptly released.
-Enough games,- said the lone illithid. -What do you wish of me?-
"I wish simply to hear your story," said Thom. "Why you are different from other illithids. How you came to settle here. All the bits in between. I wish to write it into a song."
The illithid leaned back in his chair. -A song... - he mused. -Yes, I think I can grant this request.-
A scantily clad, blank faced woman entered, carrying a tray. On it were two glasses of wine. She served her master first, and then brought the other glass to Thom. Another woman entered, bringing silverware and napkins. A third came bearing two plates of food.
-You must be hungry,- the illithid told Thom. -Dine with me, and I will tell you my story.-
After they had both been served, the illithid began. -My name is Serasis. The story begins with my birth. I assume you know about illithid reproduction?-
Thom shook his head.
The lone illithid sighed. -Every twenty years or so, an illithid, by a hermaphroditic process, produces about a hundred eggs. These eggs are placed in a special pool, where they hatch into tadpole like creatures. After ten years, each of the surviving larvae is placed in the ear of a host, usually a human, drow, elf, gnoll, goblinoid, or an orc. The larva consumes the brain of the host and transforms the body in a process known as ceremorphosis. When the process is over, you end up with a physically mature, but mentally newborn, illithid.-
"Interesting," said Thom. He looked a bit green, I noted. I knew I felt a bit sick.
-My ceremorphosis went normally, save for one thing. My host body's transformation was not complete. I still had genitalia.- Serasis shrugged. -Sometimes it happens. Occasionally, due to some failure of the process, you get a being that looks exactly like the host, but with an illithid's mind and powers. My situation was unusual, but not unheard of.- The illithid took a sip of wine. His other hand stroked my breasts. -Had the illithids supervising my ceremorphosis realized the genitalia was still functional, I have no doubt I would have been killed.-
-For the first 18 years of my life, I had no inkling I was different in any significant way from any other illithid. Then, one morning...-
I listened for awhile, and then closed my eyes. This was an interesting story.
Serasis paced in his quarters, staring down at the thing extending from the join between his legs. Panic filled his mind, dulled slightly by the soothing resonance stones set into the ceiling of his small apartment. He had always known he was a bit different from other mind flayers. None of the others had genitalia. What he had not known, however, was that genitalia could develop a mind of its own.
Should he contact another mind flayer? Or the elder brain? No, he decided. Young as he was, he knew there was only one way of dealing with a mind flayer with something so badly wrong with him. And Serasis didn't really want to die.
