#it does however mean rakha may end up making some Bad Choices before she's through

[blackjackkent]

Rakha, being the genius at extrapolation that she is, figures everything out almost as soon as the details of the situation becomes clear. And she doesn't like what she sees. She doesn't want to see it, doesn't want to understand.

But the conclusion is inescapable.

There are intellect devourers here. They are fighting the githyanki - and dying, because the githyanki are far more terrifying fighters.

One of the githyanki, as they turn towards Rakha with their fists raised, bellows: "Friend of ghaik! You will be cleansed!"

And the damning final fact - in the skull, there is no sign of the guardian... only a hulking illithid figure in ornate black-and-purple armor, engaged in a battle for its life with the swarming monks.

As Rakha watches, it lifts an enormous boulder in a telekinetic grasp and hurls it towards one of the monks. The woman dodges aside in a flipping leap and slams her boot into the illithid's chest.

It sprawls backwards next to Rakha's boots. Another wave of intellect devourers surges forward in its place, and the monks look at each other, then vanish in a burst of light.

Dimension Door, Rakha thinks - absently, automatically, a by-the-way understanding of the magic at work. Regrouping for another push. They will be back.

But for a moment she can't think about that, because the illithid is staring up at her. She feels its voice resonate in her head - and it is not the guardian's voice, but the magic is the same, the channel it pushes through her mind is the same, and everything is terribly certain after all.

"Before you do anything--" it rasps. "I am your ally."

She knows. Damn it.

"We are in DANGER," it insists. Its voice is a basso rumble, distorted and strange - but the intensity of its agitation is unmistakable.

"Ghaik abomination!" Lae'zel cries out. Her eyes have gone wide and her hand is on her greatsword; Rakha can see the trembling in it. "By the One True Sky - what is this madness?!"

(A/N: Whoo boy. I've never had Lae'zel actually here for this interaction before. She sounds maaaaaaad. D: )

The illithid jerks its head to indicate something behind it; Rakha lifts her eyes to fully take in the room for the first time.

At the far end of the stone chamber is a globe of pure energy, within which is trapped a single gith prisoner, bound by chains of lightning. Instinctively, Rakha recognizes the magic at work here too; it is tied to the illithid, who has been maintaining this prison and siphoning power off of the gith. With the illithid's brief incapacitation, though, the power is fading; the prisoner inside is moving, starting to struggle.

"The githyanki is the source of our protection against the Absolute," the illithid says sharply. "I must subdue him or everything we've worked towards is lost."

It pushes to its knees, then to its feet - its eyes remaining locked with Rakha's the whole time. "Don't let my form deceive you," it growls. "I am the one that's been protecting you. I am the one that came to you in your dreams."

She knows. She can feel the truth of what it says in the way its voice resonates in her head. She can even feel the flickering brush of the peace it's brought her in the past.

It drifts a few inches towards her. "HELP ME," it says insistently.

KILL IT, snarls the beast in her head.

She remembers with visceral clarity the first day that she awoke on the nautiloid. She remembers hunting down the illithid that put the worm in her head and hurling herself at it with fire in her hands, wanting nothing other than to rip its throat out for what it did to her. Part of her wants nothing more than to do the same to this thing in front of her now.

Imposter, the beast points out, squirming and roiling with rage. It tricked us. It used us. It is illithid. It is the enemy. Its blood will spatter like paint. Kill it. Kill it. KILL IT!

She shudders all over with the effort to think clearly. Illithid - yes. But it is the guardian, too. It is (somehow) the woman who has protected her. Who has brought her relief and peace.

In a practical sense, the critical point is that this illithid somehow has protected them from transforming. But if she is honest with herself, that is not the first thing on her mind. The idea of losing those moments of peace fills her with a desperate panic that overrides everything else, even the beast. Even if it comes from an illithid. Even if she has been tricked, all this time.

"What do you need me to do?" she asks hoarsely.

There is no emotion in the illithid's face, and yet she senses relief in its voice. "The honor guard!" it says sharply. "Eliminate them! My forces are weakened by their assault - but with your help, we can turn this around. Destroy the guard. I will subdue their master!"