Dame Lillith Zalfura, a captivating, intelligent but unwise Baldurian highborn Wizard Mephistopheles Tiefling must escape the possessive relationship with her vampire master, ascended Astarion Ancunin at any and all costs. Lillith faces her greatest...
I grab the dirty thing before it could scamper off and bite off its head. I have not fed since the day before last, and having newly awoken, I let the headless vermin's blood run down my throat and chin with no precision and all desperation.
I pass the time by meditating to save up my strength considering the uncertainty of when my next meal will be. A random spawn visits me several hours later—how many I couldn't say for certain—informing me that Astarion had not decided what and where my scars will be, but he had decided that he won't deliberate on the matter at all for another four weeks as he would be away from the palace for business. Upon his return, my punishment would be seen through. Additionally, I would not receive feedings until his return, just as I had suspected. With that, the spawn left with a smile, and the halls were silent once more.
This must be the reason for my imprisonment. He isn't just having fun playing with me as usual, but rather he is escalating his game, turning the spawn against me, lengthening the blood deprivation, planning ahead my crimes and punishments to wither me down further and further. I had been preparing myself for a few days of starved contemplation and the sear of the scars, but there is no preparing for a month without blood, just as there is no preparing for madness.
I have to escape while he is away. The moment the spawn discover my disappearance, he will come for me. I have to do this right the first time, and if I do not succeed and risk recapture, I hope the sun finds its way back to my skin once and for all.
As I begin to formulate an escape plan, the thought occurs to me that Astarion has no one so distant whom he would visit for four weeks. Certainly, I have not been entirely privy to his dealings as of late, but what business constitutes a multiple-week stay unless that business is on the other end of Faerûn or in an entire realm entirely, like the Hells.
The Hells.
Of course, of course the bloody Hells! If he wants to scar me like him, he has to make use of Infernal, and since he knows nothing of my people's language, he has to find a new devil to show him how. Having slain Raphael in order to procure the Orphic Hammer, guaranteeing Orpheus' freedom, there is one less sly devil to strike a deal with Astarion, but not zero. Not only that but Astarion also has easy access to the hells through the portal in The Devil's Fee shop in Baldur's Gate; after Raphael's death, the halfling cleric Hope had become the sole proprietor of the House of Hope, and owing to him taking part in gifting Hope her freedom, there is no doubt that she will welcome Astarion to Avernus bereft of any idea of the monster he's become since then. He must be there now, fit with a month's supply of living corpses, enjoying a feast while forcing me to starve. If news of my disappearance reaches him soon enough, he might not acquire the information he seeks before returning to the surface in search of me; on the other hand, the downside of that is how limited my movement will be during the daytime until I access the Underdark and travel the rest of the way to Chult through there.
And once I'm there, all I have to do is survive.
Alone.
In the Underdark.
But that won't be for some days from now, so I will cross that bridge when I get there. And what I receive at the end of the bridge will be the greatest gift I have ever been given: Damrius.
To begin the escape, I first must wait a couple of days to ensure enough distance has amounted between House of Hope and wherever Astarion is headed in Avernus. That should give me enough of an advantage to elude him above ground. Undoubtedly, he will send the spawn after me to the Underdark, knowing well that it is the only safe place for me to cover a considerable distance. But I will be swift, rare to stop, feeding on anything and everything in those depths to keep my strength. And if all else fails, I am a wizard—a great wizard, even—and my arsenal flourishes with limitless possibilities. I saved the fucking world, so now there's only myself to save.
~~~ Author's Notes
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Cazador's Infernal Scars, one of seven thousand keys to the ascension ritual.
