Illithid behind the Curtain: Aftermath and Secrets (Patreon)

Every channel it was the same. The same clip of magic unleashed, of alien creatures, of a dragon going mano-a-mano with an elder grimm and the visions of the dead. All but buried beneath these stories would be tales of the police and fire department, the hunters and huntresses, fluff pieces that would give hope and renewed faith and keep the grimm away.

All at the cost of killing any chance of controlled narrative.

I sighed out, leaning back on the couch and into the warm, comfortable body of Taiyang as his arm wrapped around me and we watched it together, before I finally pouted. "I don't know whether to be pleased or not. On the one hand, it's obviously good that they were eager to help. That's a very good sign."

"But?" Taiyang asked, acting as my sounding board as he began to rub my arm and I sank further into relaxed bliss as I hummed, and closed my eyes. "But on the other hand, we just about exploded onto the world openly. It's not an entrance I would have wanted, but it was something nevertheless I have to live with now." That and everything else disturbed me all the more, small actions that they were.

The Breach in canon from what I remembered was a single tunnel. According to the news, they had branched off from the main track and detonated all at once, with the main breach being the most savaged and contested section. Add in the accounts of elder Grimm and I felt as though more than a few butterflies had been flapping hard. Absolutely nothing was as I remembered it and my knowledge of the future, I had to admit to myself, was now suspect.

Different teams, different breach, no Roman or Neo for Cinder and the White Fang was being systematically de-fanged by the actions of my council, offering up boons and removing their people from the Schnee Mines. The fanatics would still be fighting however, and for a moment in my head I saw an image of my Yang with her eyes terrified, and a red blur as her arm went flying.

Never.

I would have to deal with Cinder and Adam very soon, but in a way that wouldn't risk either going to ground. If I was to strike, I wanted to strike once and no more. It was very C'gorath of myself to think that way and I sighed out, burying my face into Taiyang's side before he spoke up kindly.

"It's going to be alright. You're smart. If anyone can deal with this, you can."

"There's a difference between being smart and wise you know. Also, you don't know how I deal with things, else you wouldn't be so cavalier about it."

"Sorry, those are a few big words for me to understand." He quipped and I smiled, hidden in his side despite myself as I felt his hand stroke my hair. More seriously, he began to explain himself.

"I know you came back utterly wrecked. I know you looked a few steps from death and I'd never been so terrified in my life before, save twice. All I know is that you did an action you regretted and that tells me more than anything that you're doing your best."

And he leaned in, quiet as he rested his chin on my head and spoke. "Monsters don't feel regret. People do."

.... I didn't deserve him. I wanted to cry again and I blamed the body, but there was something else that was making me afraid. That had me refuse to look up as I spoke, haltingly as I did so.

".... I'm not a good person, Tai. I never was. You say you don't care and that you understand, but you don't. Not really. Even this body is a lie and shaped for a purpose."

I could feel his protest shaping and I looked up, a finger pressed to his lips as I spoke sternly. "No. Not yet. You don't understand... But you can. I can show you. If you... If you're serious and want this to be anything more, then I'll show you who I am. What I am. All of who I was, before I came here. It may very well disgust you."

He stared and his eyes turned serious. There was a challenge there, one that had me look back as he considered and finally spoke.

"Show me."

I closed my eyes and pressed my fingers to his forehead.

"Sleep."

He didn't resist, leaning back as I made him comfortable and took a deep breath. Behind me, on the television the news reports continued, and I turned it off absently, the happenings of a Schnee convoy less than what I was doing now as I cast my next spell.

"Dream."

=====

"For their blasphemy, I will see the same people who imprisoned and condemned you suffer. I understand what you went through for I have faced it myself." With that, he pulls down the sleeve of his robe and reveals his own runic 'F' brand. It's a mark all of them bore, pressed down to denote their accursed status on this island and further, physical evidence of their 'crimes.' Not a single one was unaffected, as the sound of knuckles cracking echoed as Jorgen clenched his fist. Thorn announced with relish, knowing the hatred in their eyes as it mirrored his own now.

"I am going to burn Talingarde to the ground and from the ashes I will build a new nation that knows its rightful master. I cannot do this alone. I seek servants worthy of our Infernal Father's majesty. Have I found them in you?"

He rises and his eyes flash with hellfire and divine purpose. "Join me! Serve me well in this holy endeavor and I will raise you up in the eyes of gods and men. I will make you princes and princesses of the new Talingarde. Today, swear fealty to me and to Asmodeus."

His eyes glittered in malice as he spoke.

"Put aside forgiveness and I shall give you vengeance. Put aside mercy and be made powerful. Put aside peace and become my harbingers of war. What say you? Will you swear your allegiance, or will you burn with the rest of the blind fools?"

"Who is he?" Taiyang asked and for a moment, there was a sigh as Esmerelda stepped into view. One moment she was there, next she was not as the entire scene froze as if suspended in time. As she walked to the man speaking, Taiyang looked carefully at her. She was wearing her ice face again, that little impervious mask that was a sign of her emotions swirling as she seemed to shrink in on herself and spoke haltingly.

"He called himself Thorn. And he was a lich of incredible power. Most of what I discovered of his backstory I found through his journals, and then in discussions with his only friend. He was a man of great faith, rejected by his family and his father in particular for his choice of joining the priesthood. But he was happy enough, resigned to never being good enough compared to his brother."

The scene faded and swirled, becoming a scene in a garden. Thorn, with much stress and none of the malice present in his gaze or brow was reading poetry, to a smiling woman of great beauty as Esme continued.

"Because he had her. Bronwyn of Balentyne was her name and she was ranked among such names as Helen of Troy or Marilyn Monroe." Taiyang nodded, getting the gist as Esme went on. "She was his friend, confidante and his entire world. And when the time came, he sought to introduce her to his family... And she fell for his brother instead."

She sighed out heavily. "To him, it was betrayal of the highest order. He found no sympathy from his family, and compared to a knight of the highest order, what good was a humble priest? Despair turned to hatred and he invoked darker powers, cursing the union and killing off Bronwyn in childbirth. One of his deepest regrets..." Her voice trailed off, before she continued.

"That was the start of his darkness and later on, when revenge was all he could think of? He began recruiting some of the greatest, up and coming villains in the lands. And I was one of them."

The scene shifted, green light flashing and screaming, wailing from a mountain as the visage of the Illithid chanted and roared, arms extended into the air as the sickly visage of something ripped into reality, prompting Taiyang to cry out as Esme immediately rushed for him, grabbing him as she spoke sternly.

"Look. You have to look. This is what I did. I was the wizard! The smartest, the most cunning save perhaps for Jorgen. It was my plans that gave us victory, it was me who planned it all down to the smallest factor."

Taiyang looked.

He saw a barbarous army of monsters, led by one who roared and raised a flaming axe as a great wall shattered and exploded from within.

He saw sickness in the streets, plague rotting and affecting all as the Illithid weaponized it, studied it.

His heart leaped to his throat, he felt sickened as the screams of noncombatants rose up, the still bodies of children laying in the snow as the looming form of C'gorath and others watched in some burning valley.

One scene after another, one sin laid upon another, adding to the horror and disgust of Taiyang till it all came down to two last scenes.

A ring that fell from the shattered hand of Thorn, snatched up greedily by C'gorath and then...

Darkness.

Darkness and gold.

"You see?"

Taiyang turned, seeing the red eyed features of Esme as she sniffed and spoke. "You were only ever in love with a doll."

She turned and faded into the dark, Taiyang letting out a yell as he tried to stop her only to bump into Dr. Rincewind, who looked at him pityingly.

"A shadow."

He faded and the voice whispered in the dark. A sinister, twisted hum in his mind that sent shivers down his spine.

"A wraith."

He wasn't standing on the ground anymore. Gold began to gleam in the darkness, the outline of great tentacles seen as Taiyang stared up. He was in the palm of the mind flayers hand, the light gleaming from a golden ring around a tentacle that Tai had seen severed and capped.

"There was and had only ever been C'gorath. Lord of Talingarde, Master of the Ninth Knot."

".... You're wrong." Taiyang declared and for a moment, it seemed as though time froze again as the hunter smirked and added. "But you seem awfully set on trying to convince me otherwise. I'm no one important." He admitted freely, extending his arms to himself as he added.

"I'm just one person. I have no great magic, I'm pretty much average and the only thing I feel I've ever done, is raise those girls. And even then, I didn't do it alone. Compared to all these things around me, I barely rank on the scale. But you don't think that. You never had."

He crossed his arms, staring challengingly into those purple, glowing eyes as he raised his chin. "I think you ARE sorry. That you want so desperately to be forgiven, but never thought yourself worthy of it. That maybe, you feel there's something holding you back from it. Some quality or imperfection... I can tell you that's horseshit."

There was a faint tremble to the world and Taiyang pressed on. "Whatever you have done then, you're doing your best to make amends now. Monsters don't do that; tyrants don't do that. You've spent so long as both those things, you think you don't deserve to be anything else. But you do."

"GO DAD!" Both glanced to the side, a faint mirrored reflection showcasing a boxing ring in Chult. Taiyang going ten rounds with an orc, as Yang bounced and screamed, Ruby cheering from Esme's arms as she smiled indulgently.

Another memory. Ruby, older now rushing to Esme as she began to excitedly cast prestidigitation, pride and fierce joy reflected in her eyes as another came by.

Yang, braiding Esme's hair.

Ruby, floating in midair happily as Yang sat on Rincewinds lap, memory after memory hitting the giant monstrous C'gorath like physical projectiles.

"I know what you are. And it has nothing to do with what you were before." Taiyang said as he added. "And if you can't trust yourself, then trust me. Do you trust me?" He stared at the features, the eldritch face of evil.

And evil could not stand it, shattering as the world turned to white, and a single voice spoke out, chokingly.

"Yes."

Taiyang woke up.

He woke up warm, glancing down at the much calmer, blissful features of Esme cuddled into him. And with a faint smile, he kissed her forehead, checked the time and settled back into a nap.

They could talk later. They had all the time in the world.

All, the time in the world.

=====

Cinder let out a scream and the television exploded. Her minions, wisely left her presence and she panted, anger flowing through her body. Failed! Another failure, and this time from the most stupid of reasons. Magic! Magic, monsters and the visage of a new power from that nothing-island of Patch.

Well, this showed well enough how much of a threat they were and with this new force in the wings, she wasn't sure if the original plan would work. And then there was the absence of Roman and Neo, assets that she'd deal with personally as soon as she thought of what to do.

And then suddenly, there was a brief flare of pain and then suddenly, there was someone else in the room. A hooded figure, with the claws of a Grimm which was the only reason Cinder didn't attack. She sniffed, brushing her hair to the side as she spoke wryly.

"Another of the Mistresses little beasts?"

She would be utterly surprised as the Grimm spoke. "Of a sort." Its voice was masculine, a little deep and quite collected as he chuckled and continued.

"Think of me as a proof of concept, Lady Cinder. My skills and powers are far above that of even Elder Grimm, though the body was a gift by her Majesty to allow me to walk this plane."

Cinder eyed it, before she asked. "And what do you call yourself?" The Grimm seemed to be amused by this, laughing low before the eyes began to glow beneath the hood.

"What need have the Grimm for names? But, if you must call me something?"

His eyes met Cinder and for a moment, she felt a flicker of uncertainty as the beast spoke.

"I'm rather fond of Jorgen."