It was a common held assumption amongst the surface dwellers that the Underdark was a collection of lightless subterranean corridors, a maze of etched grayish stone lined by rows upon rows of stalactites. Much of it was, but amidst the gloomy expanses were pockets of splendor so alien to the sun-licked plains of the overworld that they may have originated on another planet. Colonies of bioluminescent mycelia that hosted all manner of semi-sentient fungi, rivers of roiling lava, vast caverns dotted with pools of liquid mercury, and valleys of eternal shadow that housed creatures capable of bending reality around them all existed in places few surface dwellers would ever venture.
To Cordelia, this strange world of bitter survival was home. Her people had settled the unseen lands in a time long forgotten to all but the immortal races. The Dark Elf slithered between columns of thrumming dark quartz, slinking through shadows cast by crystals larger than a wyrm’s wingspan. She moved like an arrow, traveling with such speed that her feet never touched the ground. This was how her people traveled: gliding effortlessly across surfaces as though gravity was nothing more than a suggestion. Cordelia knew every twist and turn of the twisting tunnels she called home, having spent the last century traversing them for pleasure and prey alike. She was a predator, slaver, murderer, assassin and all other things abhorrent to more sentimental societies, to Dark Elves, she was a model upstart. A century was a milestone amongst her people, a transitionary stage from pawn to player in the great circus of Dark Elf politics. Her final trial was simple yet daunting, a rite of passage amongst many kin-sisters.
Cordelia stopped mid-stride, perched atop a spongy outcropping of porous fungal bodies. Droplets of dew clung to her blackened bodysuit and a cowl of spider silk shielded all but her sanguine eyes. It was close, her quarry. All around the young assassin, curved buttresses of alien composite dotted the otherwise untouched landscape. They pulsated gently with ethereal energy, throbbing like veins. Cordelia sniffed the air, drawing in a lungful of cold, damp air, tasting the minerals suspended within. Her target was nearby, somewhere amidst the tangle of organic architecture. Cordelia smiled beneath her cowl, baring perfect white teeth, each tipped with a razor sharp canine. She stepped off the ledge and fell into darkness.
The assassin hit the ground with a muted thud, landing squarely on the balls of her feet. Cordelia drew her dagger, a slender weapon made of blackened adamantine and edged with diamond dust. She crept along the wall, moving like a wraith towards a distant glow. The Dark Elf kept herself pressed against the wall, feeling the pulse of psionic energies coursing through its entirety in the constant thrum of a beating heart. While we would never admit it, the Underdark was home to another apex predator, a uniformly singular mind. Through its many tendrils, the great predator sought to consume all beings in sight, converting them to sustenance, peeling apart the delectable folds of consciousness as to make a glutton of itself. Cordelia shivered with excitement, knowing that her target could be anywhere at any moment, waiting patiently in ambush or hunting her from afar.
She rounded a corner and entered a small chamber lit by floating motes of blue fire. In the center of the room was a pedestal made of obsidian, it was unlike anything else she’d ever seen. The walls were moving sheets of fleshy tissue, pulsating with an undercurrent of synaptic tentacles. Cordelia approached the pedestal cautiously, eyeing the room for signs of ambush. Nothing happened. The assassin reached forward and grabbed the object atop the pedestal, a sphere of living metal that fit snugly in her palm. Cordelia examined the orb carefully, noting a single aperture in its otherwise smooth surface. She stuck her finger in the hole and felt something cold and metallic scrape against her flesh. The Dark Elf retracted her hand, seeing a drop of blood clinging to her fingertip. She placed the finger in her mouth and sucked the digit clean.
Cordelia felt a sudden wave of vertigo wash over her as the world seemed to shift violently around her. She looked up to see that the room was no longer pulsating, instead it had been replaced by a winding corridor lined with geometric patterns. Had she been detected? What manner of madness was at play?
“Gath ki’thar!” Oh shit, indeed. Cordelia attempted to regain a grip on her shifting perception, mustering what focus she could to ready her blade. Something was coming, she could feel its presence pressing against the veil of reality like a caged animal. Cordelia steadied herself against the wall, crouching low to avoid detection. She peered down the hallway, spotting movement in the distance. Two figures emerged from the darkness, a pair of strangely robes humanoids with slender digits pursed into contemplative gestures. The figures were tall and thin, covered from head to toe in segmented plates of jet black chitin. Their faces were featureless masses of cartilaginous tissue and a quivering set of suckling tendrils. Cordelia’s quarry, the mindflayers, had appeared.
The Dark Elf waited patiently, tracking the alien’s movements as they drifted past her hiding place. She leapt from her position and buried her dagger deep in one of the mindflayer's skulls, severing the top half of its face with a single swipe. There went the advantage of surprise, the would-be assassin supposed, knowing that she needed to act fast. The shadows had been her only advantage. At the edge of a hive such as this, it was only a matter of time before a legion of mind-shackled thralls and Lolth only knew what else rushed to her position. The second mindflayer was not as slow as its kin, dodging a successive blow with a graceful sidestep before retaliating in kind.
The attack was not physical, no, the ascended species was much too enlightened for that. A wave of psychic resonance sought to sweep the young Dark Elf into the undertow and drown her in its brackish depths. There were none so supreme in the realm of the unknowable Ilithid mind. Cordelia’s font of arrogance was a trait shared by all Dark Elves. She was perfection. The ideal feminine. A future matriarch supreme and a dominator of wills, but as the squid-thing’s magnanimous intellect washed over Cordelia, she realized just how woefully inferior she truly was.
In that fraction of a second, the Dark Elf found herself confronted by the true scope of the hive. A sprawling metropolis of towering spires and labyrinthine architecture housing millions of sentient slaves. She saw the minds of their servants, countless threads of thought interwoven into a collective consciousness that served as fuel for the pale collective. Cordelia witnessed firsthand the machinations of the elder brain, a colossal mass of exposed neural tissue that saturated the entire colony with its influence. An impossibly ancient being that had transcended its physical form in search of a higher plane of existence. She saw worlds beyond her own, planets that orbited stars far away, even further still, Cordelia saw the cosmos as it stretched into ungraspable infinity.
‘Such a succulent specimen.’ A voice boomed throughout Cordelia’s mind, drowning out her own thoughts. The Dark Elf felt her knees buckle, driven to the onyx floor by an avalanche of crippling terror. She clutched at the sides of her head, attempting to fight back against the telepathic barrage with whatever meager defenses she possessed.
'A futile endeavor.' Cordelia’s eyes bulged as rivulets of hot tears crawled along her honeyed cheeks, feeling her very essence begin to unravel as the willowy Ilithid tore through her mental shields with relative ease. 'Your hubris is delicious.' The Dark Elf screamed, unleashing a torrent of primal rage against the squid-thing’s intrusive probe, even as it violated the deepest depths of her psyche.
'That won't do.' Cordelia felt her limbs seize up, locked in place by invisible shackles. She struggled in vain to break free of the unseen bindings, watching helplessly as the mindflayer drifted closer. Its taloned toes hovered above the squelching earth, 'Your mind holds great promise. So young, so vibrant. Ripe with sensation and longing.' The Dark Elf could feel her anguish rising, could feel it rattle through her vocal cords in a ragged cry, but it all felt so distant now.
'Such spirit! Your mind shall make for an excellent addition.' Cordelia felt a tentacle brush against her forehead. Cold and clammy, slick with viscous ooze, seeking for access along the rim of a pointed ear. She bit down hard on the appendage, sinking her fangs into soft flesh until she tasted the sweet flavor of copper on her lips. The Ilithid let out a guttural hiss and withdrew its limb, cradling the damaged extremity.
‘You will pay tenfold. Allow me to show you.’ Cordelia felt a sudden jolt in her cerebral cortex followed by a burst of pain so excruciating that she thought she might pass out. A torrent of eldritch knowledge flooded her mind, images of eldritch horrors and cosmic entities beyond mortal comprehension flashed behind her eyes. She saw the birth of worlds and the deaths of stars, watched civilizations rise and fall, all while being subjected to a mental torture so extreme that she prayed for death. All the while, the connection was a two-way street, Cordelia’s darkest desires and most secret sins poured into the Ilithid’s roaming conscious. As meager as it was, the creature had been infected by the maiden’s lurid thoughts. Its intentions warped at the intrusion, knowing what it had learned.
‘You are the matriarch’s daughter, yes?’ His hive had been at war with Cordelia’s people for millennia, a constant tit for tat struggle over resources and slaves. Aurelia, Cordelia's mother, was a cunning adversary who had bested the hive on many occasions. She was a woman worthy of respect. The Ilithid stroked his chin thoughtfully, considering his options. ‘If I deliver your body to her, perhaps a ceasefire could be arranged?’ He could taste the Dark Elf matriarch's essence in Cordelia's mind, a flavor he desired to experience firsthand. Aurelia was known for her prowess both in battle and bed. To have her would be an honor.
Cordelia didn’t respond, lost in a delirious haze of agony and ecstasy. She was drunk on power, intoxicated by knowledge. Her body burned with eldritch energy, saturated by an arcane force so potent that it threatened to consume her entirely.
'Perhaps not.' The Ilithid sighed, thinking through the myriad possibilities. Like her mother, Cordelia was a shapely thing. No, that was insincere, nigh insulting. A backside plumper than a Myconid’s bulbous dome tested the limits of her bodysuit’s elasticity. It was absolutely boggling, reminiscent of the celestial phenomena so prevalently seen beyond a nautiloid’s viewport, a universally desired slab of fleshy delight. No wonder such creatures were ruled by debauchery. When possessing such weapons of ass-destruction, the use of seduction and subterfuge was a forgone conclusion. The Ilithid licked his chops, envisioning the Dark Elf matriarch bent over her throne, thick thighs spread wide, presenting the holy grail of posterior perfection to him alone. Such thoughts were dangerous, verging on blasphemous, but Cordelia's mind was a Pandora's box of sin, a breeding ground for illicit fantasies. 'I am curious.'
The squid-thing reached down and gripped the Dark Elf by the shoulders, lifting her off the ground as to bring her to eye level. Cordelia groaned weakly, fighting against her restraints as she tried to wiggle free.
'I desire your mother.' The mindflayer began, speaking directly into Cordelia's mind. 'But if I cannot possess her, I suppose you'll suffice. Fret not, you will enjoy every moment.’ Pain subsided to relief in an instant. In truth, the Ilithid race was perhaps one of the more misunderstood. Sure, they dominated the will of their prey with absolute authority and crushed all semblance of freewill or resistance, yet they induced such submission through psychic manipulation. Compliance through pliancy. Pleasure was tenfold the motivator that pain was if utilized properly.
‘I’m not a savage, Cordelia, come.”
⁂
Cordelia awoke in a dimly lit chamber, lying on a velveteen mound of organic pillows and the alien approximation of a bed. It was not the apparatus that Ilithids commonly slumbered in, rather a space where they could further indulge in their more debased acts. The Dark Elf groaned softly, feeling a dull ache spread along the base of her neck. She rolled over onto her back and gazed up at the ceiling, admiring the way the ambient light danced along the smooth stone, not so similar to the glittering gems that lined her own bedchamber. Where was she? How did she get here? Memories came flooding back in a dizzying blur. The mindflayer hive, the mission, her capture. Cordelia bolted upright, feeling a fresh wave of panic wash over her as the weight of her situation became apparent. She was nude, her clothes stripped away to leave her bare as the day she was born.
‘You’re awake,’the mindflayer emerged from the darkness, stepping into the light clad in a flowing robe of opalescent silk. Cordelia recoiled instinctively, scurrying to the far side of the unearthly mattress to put some distance between herself and the squid-thing. It was grotesque, hideous, and disgusting. Revulsion should have ruled her senses but it didn’t. A strange, unnatural warmth blossomed at the sight of the membranous alien.
'There is no need to be afraid, my dear.' His voice was a whisper, a promise. It was familiar yet exotic. Cordelia felt her apprehension melt away, feeling a strange sense of calm wash over her. 'What you perceive as ugliness is beauty. You will see in time.' The Ilithid stood at the foot of the mattress, gazing down at his captive with four glassy eyes. 'Come here.'
“Curse you, fell-thing. You are an abomination!”
‘To some.’ The Ilithid conceded, unfazed by Cordelia's venomous words. 'Yet I know what you desire, my pet.' He extended a slender digit, beckoning the Dark Elf forth. 'I've seen it, remember? Every lascivious detail, I know exactly what makes you tick. Come, allow me to demonstrate.' Cordelia rose to her hands and knees, crawling along the mattress with a mixture of fear and lust swirling behind her crimson eyes. She wanted to resist, knew she should, but couldn’t. All she could do was emit a throaty growl.
'Yes, good girl.' The Ilithid purred, stroking Cordelia's cheek with the back of his hand. She shuddered at the touch, feeling a spark of electricity dance along the curve of her spine. Why did it feel so good? She was a Dark Elf, bred from a lineage of sadists and tyrants, yet the mindflayer's touch filled her with a heat so intense that it threatened to engulf her completely. This was a trick, a sign of a pervasive taint. Yet how could she ignore the undulating excitement that slithered along her spine? It was purely cerebral and overpowered the physical repulsion she’d previously clung to.
'Allow me to indulge you,' The Ilithid cupped Cordelia's jaw, running his thumb along the Dark Elf's lower lip. She opened her mouth obediently, allowing the squid-thing's digit entry. He slipped his thumb inside and ran it along the length of Cordelia's tongue, feeling her muscles coil reflexively around the intruding appendage. Cordelia closed her eyes and moaned, tasting the saltiness of the Ilithid's skin. Her lips curled into a faint smile, finding a certain enjoyment in the lewd act.
'See, you want this. Do not lie to yourself. I am called many things by your kind, monster, devil, demon, but I am not cruel. My name is Quxoth.' Cordelia suckled hungrily, bobbing her head along the Ilithid's thumb. Her tongue lapped at the underside of his digit, coating it in a layer of saliva. She was intoxicating, so ripe with sensuality. Her mind was a festering cesspool of illicit desire, an endless wellspring of carnal urges. 'How could I deny such a beautiful creature?' How indeed. Quxoth was a patient intelligence, yet even he sought to explore his newly acquired conquest with a zeal to match her own. He had deciphered the cryptography of a once guarded mind and knew of Cordelia’s follies almost better than she knew them herself; Quxoth targeted a particular weakness.
Cordelia’s vice was sweets. A childish addiction, really, but she was a saccharine slave nonetheless. It drove her libido, did things to her body that no narcotic or touch could. She craved sugars in all their forms, from the delectably dense confections of her homeland to the foreign delicacies harvested from the surface. Cordelia was hooked, unable to go more than a few hours without indulging in an oral fixation. Quxoth grinned wickedly, withdrawing his thumb from the Dark Elf's mouth with a wet pop. He reached into the folds of his robe and produced a vial of violet fluid, the color was unmistakable. Cordelia licked her lips, eyeing the bottle greedily.
'You recognize it.' Of course she did, the substance was coveted by her people, highly prized for its euphoric properties. It was a potion brewed from the nectar of a rare flower that grew deep within the bowels of the Underdark. Cordelia had sampled the extract many times before, relishing in its ability to saturate her system in an orgasmic rush. Quxoth uncorked the bottle and brought it to his captive's lips. 'Drink.' She obeyed, opening her mouth obediently. The Ilithid tilted the vial, allowing a stream of shimmering elixir to pour onto Cordelia's tongue. She swallowed greedily, drinking down the contents with a series of messy gulps. It was divine, ambrosial, better than anything she'd ever tasted. Cordelia cooed softly, savoring the sweet aftertaste that coated her pallet. She was beginning to feel the effects almost immediately. The Dark Elf's pupils dilated, becoming a pair of glossy red coins surrounded by a sea of sanguine. She felt a familiar warmth blossom at her core, a surge of endorphins that radiated outward along her extremities in waves. Quxoth capped the empty bottle and discarded it along the floor. He turned his attention back to Cordelia, watching intently as the aphrodisiac worked its magic.
'So beautiful.' The Ilithid was ready to claim his prize, eager to explore Cordelia's curvaceous frame with meticulous precision. Quxoth discarded his gossamer robes with a single flick, revealing the true nature of his alien form. Cordelia stared slack-jawed, taking in the mindflayer's impressive stature with a mixture of shock and intrigue. Quxoth towered above her, standing at least seven feet in height. His body was long and lean, devoid of fat, and covered from head to toe in plates of glossy chitin. The Ilithid had four arms, each ending in slender digits tipped with curved claws. His waist tapered slightly, narrowing into a pair of muscular thighs. Twin cock's twitched impatiently, monstrous poles of ridged flesh that stood erect at nearly a foot in length apiece. Cordelia had seen Ilithid's before, but never so close, never so engorged. Quxoth reached down and stroked the Dark Elf's cheek lovingly, 'Do you wish to proceed?'