It was a bright sunny day. The kind that burned her eyes. It made her appreciate the yellow umbrella Markus bought for her. She wore her favorite sundress for the occasion.

Despite the sun, the air was nice and cool. An easy breeze blew through her ribbons. She decided to divide her tentacles to either side of her head, they came back together midway down her back. Thankfully, they stopped midway down her back now.

It was irritating knowing that she was only this powerful because the knights of Gilver wanted to kill Markus during the only time he’s vulnerable. They were cowards deserving of nothing but to be food. It was her honor to put them down the hatch, where they belonged.

A knight’s mind was a valuable meal. Each one gave her an immediate power boost. She wouldn’t need to eat them, if they attacked during the day. Markus could kill them and toss their bodies in a ditch. There would be no need for a cleanup.

That wasn’t completely true. She looked over to see her Markus lugging a cart full of artefacts from the pestilence dungeon. He farmed it everyday now. Some of the peasantry walked around with fungal proof socks and disease resistant pants. Markus knew he was destroying the value of the artefacts by flooding the market. He was doing it out of spite by this point.

When a point can buy a beggar an entire wardrobe from a dungeon, well there was plenty of finely dressed men and women despite their station. A smile crossed her face when she saw the nobles. They had to dress more extravagantly to compensate. Their hair was up in vastly intricate shapes and their cloths were enchanted to flutter without wind.

She did wonder what they would do, when Markus collapsed the market with artefacts from other dungeons like war, death, and famine. Could this market survive such an increase of supply?

Enchanters had to make more intricate enchantments for less pay. The quality of enchantments increased because no one would buy them, if they were less than what the beggars wore. Merchants had to get rid of their supplies and clothiers went out of business. Markus was oblivious of it all.

He was a storm and these people could either make use of the rain or drown in it. Though, most were caught flat footed.

They circled through the market as Markus looked through various outfits for her. Why he wanted to dress her in so much yellow, she didn’t understand. A quirk perhaps, though one she didn’t mind.

“I don’t believe we will find anything worthwhile today.” Markus said after their third trip through the clothier merchant district. Many were packing up shop. Though, a few remained. The ones who sold custom jobs and armor were able to survive the market change.

“If you’re that set on dressing me up. Why not hire someone?” She asked. Markus paused. And took on a look of consideration. She watched his eyes sweep across the clothier district and spot someone who was busily sketching something.

She had seen these types before. Every time they traveled to the market district together one always appeared. They seemed harmless enough. Drawing sketches of her and then vanishing before she brought their attention to Markus.

“It seems you’ve gained some admirers.” Markus said. She looked up at him mortified. A smile crossed his face. “I know someone who may be able to track them down for us.” He said with a wink. Oh, no she was dealing with playful Markus.

They made their way to the academy library. Great rows of books lined the walls. Some with a psychic signature strong enough that she felt it long after their deaths. If Markus recognized this accomplishment he made no mention of it. He was like that quiet and focused on the next goal.

After passing by rows of books, two tables full of arguing lore warden, and an adventuring party discussing what group could have filled the market with so many high-grade artefacts, they arrived. Tristen was sitting at a table writing down sources for a paper on uses of number rating for enchantments and why they were useful.

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She knew for a fact Markus hadn’t started on the paper and looked at him pointedly. “I’ll get to it when I get to it. This is more interesting.” More distracting he means.

“Tristen, I need to know something about a group who sketch Trixie.” Tristen paused and marked his place. He looked up to see them and frowned.

“I’m here to learn in peace, not answer inane questions about a cult.” Markus raised an eyebrow then smiled like a mirror of her. She also smiled for dramatic effect. Tristen paled, and they had him.

Tristen took a breath and she could taste the fear in the air. Just licking her lips made him give into his Leonidas instincts and chuff in exasperation. “Fine, they meet in the old potions dungeon below the academy. No, before you ask it isn’t an actual dungeon with monsters and traps. It’s a really big basement.” Tristen said.

“Thank you, Tristen, you’re a good friend. I’ll tell you all about our findings.” Markus said with a shark like smile. Trixie was feeling excited. They were on an adventure. After which she would make sure he did his paper.

They made it to the academy in record time. The towering academy building had thousands of rooms. Students walked about chatting and under a grove of trees some debated on topics of import. Politics, mathematics, history, and culture were discussed under the trees.

They made their way down the winding staircase to a hallway labeled club rooms. Walking through they saw dozens of clubs until they came upon one club. The Secret Mind Flayer Cult. No one answered when they knocked, so they went inside.

The club was filled with drawings of Trixie. One was a play by play of her when she entered the academy and the growth and changes in her tentacles. Another part of wall was devoted to a chart detailing her weight. Through a series of complicated formulas, they were able to judge her weight. This was disturbing.

There were life sized clay models of her dressed in assorted styles of clothing. Even some life like enough to dress her tentacles. This disturbed her on a personal level. Markus opened his mouth and let out a loud obnoxious laugh at her expense. “It isn’t funny.” She said.

He ruffled her tentacles. “Yes, it’s very funny. You have a group of humans worshiping your image and you didn’t have to mess with their minds at all. This is every mind flayer’s dream, I can imagine.” She looked at him and as humans say the gears in her head moved.

“This is because of the role play jokes.” Trixie said. A smile crossed his face. She felt like she was about to explode then he touched his head against hers. His head was like a boulder in weight and durability. If they were trapped here he could easily headbutt their way out.

“Well at least the mind flayer cult wasn’t anything to worry about.” Markus said and put his hand against a wall that caved in. She ran up and saw what lay beyond the wall. Markus picked himself up and had a proper human expression. “What the fuck is that?”

It was an enormous brain in a jar. Alchemic circles covered this portion of the room. There was a statue of her the jar was labeled offering. Candles of were burning in a corner and more provocative artwork of her covered the walls. Over to the side there were the bodies of the beggars used to make the giant brain.

Humans, an elf, two goblins, and a lot of rats littered the floor. Their skulls were ripped off and bloody tools covered the floor. “Hello there.” They turned to where the psychic presence came from. The giant brain had talked to them. “I’m lonely here just being myself here in this jar.” Markus blinked and looked at her. She shrugged her shoulders.

Trixie had eaten a lot of brains in her life. She was a mind flayer its what they did. But she wasn’t about to eat this thing. She found herself looking over the alchemic formulas and picking apart memories of certain alchemic dabblers from her memories. The formulas were simple in how nearly anything could happen. Normally, nothing would but somehow, this fluid had some synergy with the formulas.

“Did they take people off the streets, rip their brains out, and make this?” Markus said like he didn’t believe what he was seeing.

They waited there for quite a while for any of the cult members to show up. No one did. The cult was still out there somewhere. The academy security and the knights of Gilver got involved. The giant brain was taken for academy research and Markus was given a medal for outstanding assistance to the school.

Trixie didn’t like that there was a cult out there worshipping her and making some sort of giant mutated brain for her to eat. Her only solace was making sure Markus finished his paper on time.

He sat at his desk for most of the night flicking through pages siting sources and writing. His thoughts were blunt as ever more like hammer blows that the wispy thoughts of most humans. For a moment she wondered what that big brain would have tasted like. No matter how human she acted she couldn’t put off her nature. She could only direct it in as positive a way as possible.