"I came from the nautiloid that crashed on the beach. I remember waking up in a dark place, unable to move or see. I felt a shock and then woke up in a swamp. I don't remember much of who I am."

Halsin seemed to ponder this. "An illithid ship. I didn't see it. I must have already been captured by that time. Did the ship have the ability to shift through planes?"

"I don't know."

"Didn't the mind flayers infect you?"

"No. I have no tadpole."

"You are a very lucky individual."

Alex shrugged, then looked Halsin in the eye. "I plan to destroy this cult of the Absolute."

Alex paused for a few moments. "I'm powerful, but I'm a single individual. I can't be in multiple places at once. I need allies. I'll give you some time to think about it. I need to make preparations for the trip. See you at the party."

Alex shifted back to his armored self and walked out of the sanctuary. He felt something at the edge of his mind radar. He looked around, sensing a mind slowly approaching another. He jumped up, startling all the druids around, and landed higher up on a stone bridge. He walked to a bush, and a bugbear sprang out of it.

Alex hit the bugbear with a psionic wave, disarmed him, and grabbed him by the neck.

A tiefling woman looked at them from a higher place, a bit further ahead. "What in the Nine Hells is happening?" she shouted, but stopped in her tracks when she spotted Alex holding the bugbear.

A pair of tieflings who were guarding the gate approached him. "What is happening here?" one of them asked, reluctant to get close. She saw how deadly the armored individual was, so she kept her distance.

"This one was hiding in that bush," Alex pointed to where he found the bugbear.

Alex tossed the bugbear to them, not before sending another psionic attack that made him pass out. The tieflings grabbed the bugbear by the arms and legs and walked away. Just as he was preparing to jump over the gate, he saw two familiar faces running towards him. They looked for a moment at the bugbear being carried away.

"Are you a bunny or something? How can someone looking so heavy jump so high?" Karlach said as she came closer.

"That was an impressive jump," Wyll commented.

"I'm Karlach, and he's Wyll. Thank you for the help."

"I'm Zeus. I helped as much as I could," Alex said.

"Yeah, you did. The carnage you caused made me feel like I was back in Avernus fighting the Blood War. " Karlach said, the flames around her glowing brighter.

"As Halsin said, you are invited to the party tonight. We have something to ask you. See you there, if you want, of course," Wyll said as they turned around and left.

Alex watched them leave, then jumped over the gate.

"Lump, Glut, report," Alex asked telepathically.

"I preferred to rest a bit, I'm a little wounded," Lump said.

"The surface is so beautiful," Glut said.

With nothing better to do, Alex made sure to find a quiet place and shifted back to his human form. Then he headed for the church.

...

Alex opened the old wooden door and stepped inside. The tents were still around. A faint smell of blood hung in the air. He could sense a single mind inside. Alex looked around and saw Gale, who was reading a book.

"Gale," Alex shouted to get his attention.

Gale blinked a few times, quickly stood up, and ran to Alex. His complexion was pale.

"Alex, you’re alive! How did you survive the fall?" Gale asked, looking at Alex.

"I was lucky. But what happened here? Why do I smell blood?"

"Ah... Tav... killed someone," Gale said.

Alex's brows furrowed.

"I would have the same expression if I heard the same thing, but I assure you, unfortunately, it's true."

"How did it happen?"

"That night after you fell, a tiefling called Alfira came to our camp to thank you for helping her finish the song and wanted to play some music for everyone with you. She was saddened when she heard that you fell through a giant hole. She said she wanted to help fight against the evil cult. Tav took her in. When everyone was asleep, Tav snuck up to her and stabbed her multiple times. Astarion was the first to notice the commotion and woke everyone up, but before we could catch him, he was already out of the camp, and we lost track of him."

"Where is her body?" Alex asked.

"In your tent. We didn’t even have time to bury her before we were attacked by the Absolute army."

Alex walked away to his tent. The body lay on the floor with a bloody sheet over it.

Alex removed the sheet from the body and inspected it. The chest was riddled with holes, and her abdomen was slit open.

"Good, the brain is intact," Alex said as he put his hand over her where the stab wounds were.

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Gale ran to him but stopped when Alex's arm shifted into dozens of tendrils and sank into the body. The tendrils burrowed deep in the flesh and started to work, repairing all the damage to her body. At some point, Alfira's eyes opened, but they were empty—living but with no one inside.

Alex retracted his tendrils , a few moments later Alfira's eyes fluttered a few times, then turned to Alex.

She weakly put her hand over her chest.

He turned around and looked at Gale. "Do you have a health potion?"

Gale nodded and offered him one. Alex gave Alfira the potion to drink and stood next to her for a few more minutes. Gale stood next to him. He could tell Gale wanted to ask what had just happened, but he didn’t.

"They told me you died," Alfira said, still too weak.

"I was lucky to survive the fall and find a way to the surface."

"I had this strange nightmare that someone came and stabbed me in the heart again and again until I died. What a horrible nightmare."

"Yes, truly terrible."

Alfira closed her eyes, and her breathing slowed.

"She is sleeping" Alex said to Gale who was staring at Alfira.

Alex stood up and waved for Gale to follow him to a corner.

"What in Mystra's name did you do?" Gale asked, barely holding back his shout.

"I healed her body."

"You revived her. He said pointing to his tent. What are you? Are you a shifter? An escaped illithid experiment?"

"Yes, I’m a shifter. I just woke up with these powers. I didn’t even know I had them until I fell through that hole with the spider monarch. That’s how I survived."

"I see.... I’m sorry for my outburst."

"Apologies accepted."

"Where is everyone?" Alex asked.

"At the grove. I'm here to rest a bit in silence."

Alex looked at Gale, examining him. His skin was paler than usual. His heart was beating slower, and his breathing was irregular.

"No, you are not," Alex commented. "You are suffering from something."

Gale reluctantly nodded. "I’m sick, but pay me no mind," Gale said.

"You’re lying," Alex said.

Gale sighed and slowly opened his robe to reveal his chest. Alex spotted a black tattoo on the upper part of his chest. The tattoo looked like a circle with lines like flames up to his left part of his neck. It seemed to pulse from time to time.

"This is making me sick," Gale said.

Alex nodded. "How do we cure it?"

"We can't. All I can do is stop it from killing me."

"How do we stop it then?"

"I need to consume enchanted items."

Alex walked out of the church and, a few moments later, returned with a pair of shining boots and tossed them to Gale.

"Take those," Alex said.

Gale eyed the boots and was prepared to say something, but Alex raised his palm to stop him. Gale show him a small smile, nodded and walked inside his tent.

Alex walked back to his tent, halting when he spotted Withers standing next to it. Withers raised his sunken eyes from the still sleeping Alfira and looked at Alex. Both stood silently for a few seconds, staring at each other.

"Thou dost continue to astonish me. Thy souls have ripened, albeit not greatly, yet sufficiently for me to discern. They are like a mural crafted from a million shards." Slowly, his gaze fell upon Alfira. "Thou hast summoned her back from the Fugue Plane. Many have endeavored, yet few have triumphed. Her soul appears weary from its arduous journey back to the material realm. Grant her a few days, and she shall regain her strength." When he finished speaking, he walked away. Alex wanted to ask him more about his souls, but he had a hunch he would get no answer.

He walked to Alfira, who seemed to still be sleeping. Deciding to let her recover, he walked to the grove to see what the others were doing.

He spotted Astarion at the gate, helping clean up. "My, my, guess who is back from the dead. I'm surprised you're back; that hole looked pretty deep," he said as he spotted Alex.

"I was lucky that I fell on the spider queen, but even that hurt like hell."

"If you say so." Astarion shrugged.

"Do you need help?" Alex asked, pointing at an ogre body.

Just as he said that, tree roots enveloped the body, forming a cocoon.

"That's why I see no bodies around," Alex commented.

Alex left Astarion walked past the broken gate and meet Lae'zel, who was cleaning her silvery armor. She glanced at him and scoffed.

"I see you are back," she said, not taking her eyes off the armor.

"Yeah, I survived somehow."

She tsked. "Dying by falling into a hole, such a dishonorable way to die."

"I heard you fought to protect the gate. I doubt you’d be the type to help others."

"No, I'm not, but I did it because it was necessary. I didn't have any way to outrun the army, so I decided to fight against it with other lesser species. Better to die a glorious death in battle than die running."

"Even that armored creature? It looked pretty superior to me."

She tsked at him and threw him a glare. "Powerful doesn't mean superior, and stop blabbing. I need to take care of my equipment."

Alex found Shadowheart healing some injured tieflings. "Look who is back from the dead. How was the fall? I bet it hurt a lot." Shadowheart said with a smirk on her face. Suddenly, the smirk faltered. "Thank you for saving me from that spider matriarch."

"No problem," Alex responded.

"Good, now leave. I need to concentrate," Shadowheart said, shooing Alex away.

Karlach and Wyll were talking with Zevlor, so Alex decided to walk to the nautiloid, finding Glut already there, eyeing the dead ship.

"All this flesh. With it, I could raise dozens, maybe hundreds of myconids," Glut spoke, looking around.

"Sorry, I need every bit of it intact," Alex responded.

"What do you plan to do?" Glut asked, following Alex inside.

"You will see." Alex said with a smirk

...

Everybody was inside the grove, partying and drinking to their hearts' content. From time to time, a group of people would stop and look around.

"Do you think he will come?" Karlach asked.

"I hope not. His presence will scare everyone away," Astarion commented while drinking from a bottle of wine.

"I have to admit, Astarion is right. His presence is kinda intimidating, and knowing that he could kill everyone around doesn’t help," Gale said.

"Hey everyone, what is with those faces?" Alex suddenly asked, making everyone stare at him.

"Yaaa!" Karlach screamed as she tried to punch Alex, but he swiftly dodged. "When did you get here?" Karlach asked.

"Just now. What are you talking about?"

"About Zeus, the armored person. I think it's a person. We invited him to the party, but it seems like he wouldn’t come."

Halsin walked to the group and put his hand on Alex's shoulder. "Hello everyone, why are you sulking?"

"We were expecting a special guest, but it seems he won't come."

(Don't even try,) Alex telepathically said to Halsin.

"Well, the night is still young," Halsin said as he walked away to dance with a group of tieflings.

"Where is Shadowheart and Lae'zel?" Alex asked.

"Shadowheart doesn’t like partys like those, and Lae'zel is... well..." Wyll rubbed his head.

The armored individual didn't appear all night, but that didn’t stop them from having fun. Alex told them how he survived and got out from the Underdark, heavily cutting some parts. He showed them Phalar Aluve.

"That's a beautiful sword," Wyll commented while admiring the masterwork.

"I can feel magic from it. Does it have a special enchantment?" Gale said.

"Yes, let me show you. Sing," Alex commanded.

The sword started to sing a cheerful song, making everyone around smile. People started to gather around the sword to better listen to it. Seeing this, Alex put the sword on the table where he was standing and let it sing for everyone to hear. They didn’t have a bard, so this would do.

Gale did a small light show with another mage. Astarion left the party at some point with a tiefling man. Wyll left after drinking a little, saying that he wanted to be well-rested tomorrow. Alex, Karlach, and a few brave souls fought in a drinking contest. Karlach and Alex were the only ones standing as the rest were already sleeping under the tables or throwing up in some corner.

"You *hic* bottomless *hic* prick. I'm *hic* not stopping until I beat you," Karlach said, heavily drunk, before she took another sip and passed out falling on the floor.

Alex took another sip and leaned back in the chair he was sitting on, closed his eyes, and just listened. The music had already stopped. Just a few groups were around, chatting. The night was winding down, but Alex felt a sense of peace .