Most of the Hecatonheires giants had taken off immediately after Dee had set all the slaves free. That suited her goals just fine, as they could be a distraction that way. Maybe some of the Beholders would be busy trying to recapture them. She had been forced to fight the black skinned and furred wardens in the mine while setting the other slaves free, but the Rakshasa Rani she had released first had actually been the one to strike them down without any mercy. “The dark ones are only shells now. They have been subjected to countless domination and charm spells over and over again, and their minds are more or less gone. They cannot be saved even if the spells are dug out from their minds,” She had explained.
The Rani had given a shudder when describing the fate of her black furred kinsmen. There had been something else in her voice while explaining the circumstances as well. It seemed likely that she too had been subjected to the same spells. She had either been stronger and managed to hold out, or she had been subjected to fewer spells. Still, her voice made it clear that she saw her own future in the ‘dark ones’ as she called them, and was extremely relieved to have avoided it. Perhaps the spells had even taken their toll on her as well. All royal Rakshasa had not been as fortunate. “The strongest of our Raja succumbed to the darkness some years ago. Now we are leaderless.” The Rani shook her head, feeling the loss of those that were now beyond help.
There had been more Rakshasa royalty in the mine, though the Rani Dee had released first had been the strongest of the group. There were plenty of others in similar mines and the strongest of their kind were kept with the temporary headquarters of the Beholders to use as a weapon in case they were attacked. “These Four Winds you speak of, do they treat you well?” The Rani asked with a hopeful voice.
The question left Dee stumped for a few seconds. “I guess? I mean as well as any of their own I suppose.” She finally replied a little questioningly as she wasn’t entirely sure where this was going.
“This is good. It is always better when your masters are kind.” The Rani stated firmly as if it was some grand truth of life.
This one statement made Dee understand more about the Rakshasa than anything she had ever read. The race of Rakshasa had been created on several worlds to serve as warriors by wizards of great skill. Usually, the Rakshasa were not the only such servants, as golems, orcs and other various servants were also created or enslaved. Eventually some rebelled. In some cases, it was the Rakshasa and in some cases it was the other slaves and the Rakshasa were set free as an afterthought. Often they were sent to fight against the rebels. Still, most of them were either killed or eventually set free. If that had been it, then the Rakshasa would have become just another race among others, but that wasn’t quite it.
The problem was that everyone could see the ferocity of Rakshasa in combat, and they could also see their relatively small numbers which made them easier to subjugate without the support of the wizards that created them. Rakshasa had never been a widely spread race, as they had started as artificial creations, so even at best of times their numbers stayed relatively low. This lead to a cycle of others trying to enslave the Rakshasa. The race was split among those that would do anything to avoid suffering through another enslavement and throwing their lot with the demons, and those that came to terms with their lot in life.
Dee had little understanding of those that submitted since she had inherited the ferocity of those that fought back. She also had some of the pride that came with her dragon part. Though she still remembered her time under the heel of Zabaniya when she was powerless, but even then she rebelled at the thought of being subjected to it again.
In the minds of those Rakshasa that submitted, the life of a slave wasn’t all bad when they were valued slaves kept in top fighting condition. At least when compared to a life on the run. Rakshasa were elite warriors with great potential for becoming immortal when properly supported, so they were not mistreated like other slaves. They were more like prized pets with a penchant for slaughter. Still, even those that reached a level of acceptance tried running to Pantheon to avoid such a fate. They had met with some success and managed to raise their numbers to a respectable point over the centuries. That was until the Beholders appeared.
What Dee discovered was that the Rakshasa here had already adopted a sort of servant mentality over the many years under the domination of the Beholders. Even if they were free, as the Rani with her was, they didn’t stop thinking like a slave. Dee also realized that was partially because they lacked proper leaders to show them another way. The Rani had already told her that the most powerful Raja had become one of the dark ones, and the other powerful royalty were imprisoned elsewhere. This Rani certainly didn’t have the mentality of someone who could be a leader.
“I plan to set the others of your kind free.” Dee stated. “After that you can decide what you want to do, but I can introduce you to the Four Winds if you like. You can see if they would be someone you’d like to join forces with.” She quite pointedly avoided saying serve, but that was how the Rani took it.
“I’d like that. However, I don’t think we’ll get the chance.” The Rani stated a little sadly.
“Why do you say that?” Dee asked, suddenly apprehensive. She had known this had been too easy.
“The one with the deep mind will force us back.” The Rani said sadly. “The collars allowed the many-eyed ones to control us, but they were not the ones who enslaved us. The one with the deep mind will reassert his hold over us sooner or later.”
“Is that so?” Dee asked with suspicion. “Come here, would you?” Dee reached for the Rani’s head. The Rani was a little unwilling, but for some reason still complied. Dee sent her own mind towards the mind of the Rani. She wasn’t sure what she was trying to find, but she didn’t need to search for long until she found what she needed.
Someone had entered the Rani’s mind before and left behind traces. Those traces would make the Rani more compliant and would allow an easier entry for the being that had originally done it. This might have also been partially responsible for the ease at which the Rani seemed to submit to others. Something had tampered with her mind. Tampering like this was way beyond Dee’s capabilities, and she suspected it was outside Moirai’s and Nyx’s as well. This was the work of someone who was an expert in the mental part of psionic powers, and specifically the domination aspect of it.
The Rani had been right. If the being managed to reach the Rani’s mind, it would have no trouble reasserting control. If Dee went on to free more slaves and take them to the Four Winds, that being would be able to turn the freed slaves against the Four Winds and attack them from the inside. It was unlikely that someone had concocted a plan like this, as it assumed someone like Dee would be interested in infiltrating the mines, freeing the slaves, and bringing them back, but it seemed like a contingency just in case. Plans within plans. That did not bode well.
‘It seems we need a new plan. We need to contact the Four Winds, as this changes things.’ Dee silently said to Croestia.
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Dee, Razark, the representatives of the four main races, and Amarog from the wolf tribes met inside the flying ship. Dee had quickly gathered everyone with her portals and the ship made it harder for anyone to observe them secretly. It also made a couple of the representatives uncomfortable, which was purely a bonus in Dee’s opinion. She quickly explained the situation she had found out from the Rakshasa. She had taken the Rani along so the others could ask questions, while the other Rakshasa were marching towards the other mines where their kind was kept. They were a diversion for now.
“Ok, it seems you have a plan with this whole thing, so just tell us. It seems you’ve thought this through and I admit I’m a little lost in all this, so it’s your show for now.” The Anshar representative stated. He was the most powerful among the representatives so usually he was the one to lead. He also knew he was not quick enough to keep up with the mind games of psions. He knew his limits.
“I think the current situation might actually work to our advantage. The Everseeing Eye has heard about our attack on their ally by now, and whatever being is holding the Rakshasa captive most likely felt me releasing a part of them from slavery and sending them towards the other mines.” The Everseeing Eye was the name of the Beholder community. Not a very inventive name in Dee’s opinion. “I’m guessing they’re assuming we intend to release all the slaves and once we’re done, they will turn them against us.”
“That’s a lot of assuming, but seems reasonable so far.” Amarog stated calmly. Plans based on assumptions had a habit of going wrong. Then again, most plans didn’t survive contact with the enemy. Flexible thinking was the key in his opinion.
“I think now would be the best time to try and catch them by surprise. Let’s have most of our people continue the assault on their ally and have Razark and Amarog lead attacks on the other mines. We won’t be able to catch them by surprise anymore anyway, so we can make the attacks a bit more obvious. I can give you the master rod that works in the other mines as well, according to what the Rakshasa Rani told me. The enemy should now be basing their plans on the Rakshasa dealing us a surprise blow, and with our forces already divided that blow could be crippling. And they only need to let it happen. So, we’ll instead strike at their temporary headquarters with a small group of our strongest members and take out the being controlling the Rakshasa. That’ll leave the Beholders in a lurch as we just gained a new ally willing to take revenge on the ugly bastards.” Dee detailed her plan.
“That’s bold, but also very risky. We’d be stretched horribly thin everywhere, and if the squad striking at their headquarters fails…” Shioko pointed out.
“With great risk comes great rewards.” Kawhena, the Dagon representative stated boldly. “We can afford to relent on our pressure against the Qiraj for a while. I’ll take this ship to that front as well to keep up the appearances. Even if we have to let the Qiraj recoup and retreat, that’s a small loss in the grand scheme of things. The Beholders are a bigger problem.” Qiraj was the name of the Day city community working with the Beholders and the community that used to own these lands.
“This sounds just like something you would have attempted on your own and with stealth. It would certainly be easier for you to get in there alone.” Nyx suddenly pointed out. “Why didn’t you?”
Dee gave a small shrug. Nyx was right, the thought had occurred to her. “Two reasons really. For one, I don’t know how strong the being we’re hunting is, and mental psionics isn’t my strongest suit. Besides, if we’re doing this anyway, we might as well go for the kill and try to take out the leader of the Beholders as well. I’m confident in my abilities to deal with lower level immortals, but taking on an immortal with a Hero Authority sounds a bit too much to me. So I’ll need help.”
“So that means Dee, Nyx, probably Moirai as well to make sure we have the upper hand in psionics. Shioko and me for the leader of the Beholders.” The Anshar representative stated. “Who else?”
Amarog signaled that he had a suggestion. “I think it might be useful if my son Shunkaha came along. He might not be an immortal or a psion, but it might be useful to pit an Authority against an Authority. His should be the stronger one, even if he can’t utilize the full power of it yet just yet.”
The others looked at Dee for some reason. She shrugged. “Fine by me, as long as he realizes the risks. I know he is capable, and he’s damn sure stealthier than any of you lot.”
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Dee was already regretting agreeing to Shunkaha coming along. They had barely even gotten to the temporary headquarters of the Everseeing Eye, and he had tried to hit on her at least eight times and tried flirting with her at least twenty times. It didn’t help that the others were not even bothering to hide their amusement at the situation. Apparently it was no secret among the Four Winds that Shunkaha quite liked Dee. And it really shouldn’t be considering the wolf tribes had tried setting up a marriage between the two during the alliance negotiations. As his feelings were out in the open anyway, he didn’t bother holding back anymore. She, on the other hand, was doing her best to ignore his advances, though with limited success.
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‘You have to give him points for being persistent.’ Croestia pointed out.
‘And why would I credit him for that exactly?’ Dee replied grumpily. Earlier Shunkaha’s advances had been mostly amusing, but now they were a little distracting. It was not a good time to be distracted.
They were waiting for the signal to strike while being hidden by Shioko’s magic. They would only strike when their distraction attacks on the mines had started. That said, Shioko’s spells couldn’t hide them in case the enemy psion was using Mindscape to find them, so their cover might already be blown. There had been no reaction from the other side, so either they were still safe or the other side was very confident in dealing with them.
As the agreed upon time came, the group dashed towards the enemy. They knew there was little chance that they could remain hidden for long, so once they got inside, they were not too careful about dealing with any enemy they came across using full force. Unfortunately that meant they didn’t have time to be gentle with any Rakshasa they came across. On the positive side, most of the Rakshasa here were the ‘dark ones’ that they could not save anyway. There were still some that weren’t, but they didn’t hesitate. Dee especially took the responsibility of dealing with those Rakshasa, trying to end their lives with as little suffering as possible.
The headquarters themselves were rather confusing. They were a network of tunnels that seemed to follow no logical plan. It also seemed like the walls were made of flesh and were alive. The fleshy walls had something like veins where unknown liquids were transported around like blood. The whole place was filled with traps too. Dee had been trained to detect traps, and her sight allowed her to spot magical traps especially easily. Usually magical traps were harder to detect, but to her sight they glowed in an obvious way as if someone had set warning signs over every trap. Surprisingly Shioko was rather good at spotting traps as well.
With the focused strength of their group, they managed to cut through the opposition fairly easily. Still, the continuous battles took a toll on them eventually. If the information Dee had extracted from the Beholder’s mind was correct, the whole community of Everseeing Eye had a little over a hundred Beholders, and they had already killed a full third of that number during their attack. Few of them had been immortals, while most had been around ranks eight and nine. As an average for a single race, that was rather spectacular. Most of the resistance came from the slaves though. Interestingly it seemed that while the Rakshasa were easier to control as a group, the giant Hecatonheires were easier to turn into the so-called ‘dark ones’ that no longer needed slave collars. As they were more reliable as a defense of the headquarters, most of the dead came from the giants as well.
The longer the fighting went on, the more Dee and the Anshar representative took charge of the battles to allow the others to recover their strength. The Anshar representative was an obvious choice because his strength was by far the highest and Dee was chosen because she was able to replenish her strength rather quickly by taking it from those she killed. She didn’t get to make that power her own, but it did keep her at full strength constantly. That allowed the others to recover some of their strength, but the fights had taken their toll on the group as a whole.
Finally, after a rather arduous battle with three immortal Beholders, four immortal Hecatonheires and two immortal Rakshasa Rajas, the resistance seemed to come to an end. The group felt that they had broken through the guards protecting the deepest part of the enemy lair, and they were right. However, their advance came to a halt when they entered an enormous circular room that was filled by a single large tank of what looked like water. The tank was so large that it left only a small open passage around it on both sides. The water inside the tank seemed somehow murky, so they could not tell if there was anything in the tank.
The whole situation seemed like a trap, so they had their guard up as they sidled along the edge of the room. It was good they had kept their guard up, as when they reached about halfway around the tank, they all felt a sudden heavy pressure trying to invade their minds. The non-psions in their group cursed and quickly fell to the ground as they failed to resist the pressure. Normally Dee, Nyx, and Moirai would have tried protecting the others more thoroughly but they were now too busy protecting their own minds from invasion. They were actually glad that the others were drawing away at least a little bit of the enemy attention as the enemy had to keep up the pressure for the others to stay down.
Dee had reacted the fastest and thus was in the best position, but she was not the best when it came to mental psionics, so she was being pushed back faster than Nyx and Moirai. “I can’t let it continue like this.” Dee mumbled and suddenly her Domain flared into existence around them all. Her Domain was unable to hurt the creature in the tank directly, but it did suppress some of its abilities, so a stalemate of sorts had been reached. Dee was no longer being pushed back, while Nyx and Moirai managed to push the enemy’s invasion back a little.
Suddenly a deeply disturbing mental laughter sounded in all their minds. A strange shadow was seen in the tank, as it approached the side they were at. The three that were still standing could see a mass of tentacles connected to a dark fishlike being. The tentacles made up most of its length, and on its forehead was a vertical line of three small eyes. “Your struggle is futile. How long will you be able to keep up your Domain, as impressive as it is? What will you do when Vritra gets here, as he is already coming? Do you think you can fight a rank twelve Beholder while struggling to keep me out of your mind?”
Nyx and Moirai placed their hands on Dee’s shoulders. The trio combined their powers to push the mental invasion back a little further. As the enemy seemed to be struggling the most against Dee’s powers now that Dee’s Domain was suppressing it, the two more skilled psions allowed Dee to take control of their psionic powers. Suddenly the resistance against their push vanished. Before she even registered what had happened, Dee pulled their combined strength back. Her training as an assassin had kicked in, and it recognized the sudden lack of resistance as what it was, a trap.
They felt mental jaws snap shut in the place where their minds would have pushed to without Dee’s quick reaction. Those jaws would have snapped away a fair chunk of their power, dooming their struggle. The direction was now reversed. It seemed like a great vortex was trying to draw the three into the mind of the enemy, and to the waiting jaws, while the three tried to pull away. The pushing match had turned into a pulling match. The laughing voice returned. “How nice. Most people can’t avoid that little trick. You’ve had some decent training. Most psions can’t avoid the instinct to move forward when given the opportunity.”
For once Dee was thankful for the instincts the assassins had hammered into her. Still, she realized this could not continue. “Well, even if we are being suppressed when it comes to this battle, we can gain the victory if we strike at your body.”
The creature laughed again. “Good luck with that. The tank is extremely strong and I doubt you can spare enough of your psionic powers to crack it. It’s too bad your other members are already unconscious. That fire elemental looks strong enough to do something.” There was also the obvious fact that this was a creature of water, an enemy of those that had the blood of fire elementals.
“Who said we can only use psionic power?” Dee asked in a half bluff. The room was suddenly filled with the holy power inside her, making it clear just how much of it she possessed.
Dee and the other two could feel the apprehension in their enemy, but it was still strangely calm. The reason became obvious rather quickly. “Even if you strike me down, all you’ve managed to do is to buy time. Did you know? My kind cannot be killed by the likes of you. Each and every one of us is one of the oldest beings in the universe. If you destroy my body, all that will accomplish is that my soul will return to the elemental plane of water, and my body will be reconstructed in a year and a day. Getting on the blacklist of an Aboleth can be a scary thing, you know? Even if you get strong enough to resist me, I can still come back a thousand years later and strike at your family and friends. How would you like to have one of your children and grandchildren eaten in every generation for the next ten thousand years? Or how about them becoming my slaves?” The creature made a rather calm threat. Still, the situation had changed. Now the Aboleth was no longer able to calmly wait for reinforcements, as it had no desire of being forced back to the plane of water.
They knew it was speaking the truth. Even if the Beholder community was destroyed, the Aboleth would be able to come back. Suddenly Dee burst out in laughter of her own. “What’s so amusing?” The creature asked, suddenly wary.
“Oh, I’m sure normally that would be a very frightening threat. The only problem is that you made it against the exact wrong person. First of all, I’m completely unable to have children. Secondly, I’m perfectly able to kill your kind.” Dee knew she had the upper hand now. Those most assured in their immortality tended to be those that were most afraid of death.
“I don’t believe you. Only a handful of our kind has ever died. Even the gods have stated that our kind was one of the biggest mistakes they ever made.” The Aboleth stated rather self-assured.
“Sounds like a deal can be made here. If I can convince you, I will allow you to retreat to that plane of water of yours and you will remove all your influence from the Rakshasa. Or you will face death at my hands.” Dee suggested. While she was pretty sure she could kill the creature, she was less sure about being able to put up much resistance against the leader of the Beholders and their helpers afterward if she really had to throw all her power at this creature. She was already having trouble maintaining the Domain while keeping the mental assault on them at bay.
The creature only looked at her, urging her on. They both realized it wasn’t really the kind of situation where there was much room for negotiation. Dee would play her hand, and the creature would react. Alternatively if Dee didn’t have the power she claimed, they were back to where they had been before Dee had said anything. Suddenly the holy symbol of Death floated out of Dee’s forehead. The crow standing on the tombstone locked eyes with the Aboleth and seemed to find a worthy prey. The Aboleth hissed. There was one deity perfectly capable of killing their kind, and that was Death. Normally the Goddess of Death didn’t care enough to do so, but the few of their kind that had faced their end had done so at the hands of this goddess and her heralds.
“Just to hammer a point home.” Dee stated and suddenly a ball of black flame floated on her palm. The feeling of wrongness made even the Aboleth’s stomach twist. It knew the flame was truly dangerous. Even if the flame did not kill it permanently there would be dire consequences. Its rebirth would not be as simple as it usually was, and Death’s symbol made it clear that no soul would be escaping from this place. “Have it your way then. Let us both hope we never meet again.”
Suddenly the tank was empty and the pressure on their minds was gone. Dee almost collapsed to the ground, only held up by the two other psions. Keeping the Domain up this long had been really tiring, considering most of her powers were locked in a struggle with the Aboleth. Dee pointed at the others. “Wake them up! We’re still waiting for company, and I don’t think any of us is in the condition to fight the enemy currently.”