The ivy-covered gate appears just ahead through a haze of trail dust. Tiefling guards line the parapets as usual. Barely armed. All of them green.

As I come into view, I see a tail disappear down the path toward the Hollow. I am welcomed with the rumbling of the gate as it opens for me. Zevlor is waiting just inside.

He beckons me, tipping his head. "Walk with me." He leads me up to the parapets and leans on the fencing. He squints, scanning the horizon, tail swaying thoughtfully. "There have been whispers of anarchy in the druid's grove."

"Whispers. There shouldn't be." I say with a faint smile.

He chuckles lightly. "So, it is true then." He rests his elbows on the wooden fencing. "I've been at this for a long time, but I can't say I've been caught in the middle of anything like this."

"Good experience for you then. As if this is something you need right now. What do you plan on doing after you make it to Baldur's Gate?"

"My time as a Hellrider is over. Though I've been a soldier so long, I'm not sure if I know anything else. I'm afraid I'll be quite the mess if I can't find something to do with my time."

"That's the real dilemma, isn't it? Not the goblins. Not the druids. The monotony of living without a purpose."

A gentle breeze passes over us, and I lean my hands on the fencing next to him.

"A curse that seems to have been placed on all of us." He says with a tired voice. "The people I lead had their purpose ripped from them the moment they turned."

"Turned?"

"Yes. In the hells. Nearly everyone that follows me became tiefling while in Avernus. Touched by the hells.

It was tragic to see so many change. It happened gradually, over the course of weeks. No one knew who would change next. An itch on the forehead, pressure on the spine, darkening of the nails. All signs that they were becoming tiefling."

"Did you turn in Avernus?"

"Me? No. I have always been tiefling. Through my military training and my race, being recruited into the Hellriders seemed only natural. Even after I served in the hells, it was difficult for me to give up the identity. I became a guard along the River Road outside of Elturel. That's where I met your friend, Bex, actually." He speaks of the memory with a wistful smile.

"Her father had a merchant caravan, correct?"

"Yes, though she spent little time with him. She and Danis had a bakery in Elturel before Zariel claimed the city."

I pause, focusing on Zevlor's words.

"They were quite popular, you know.

But they were some of the many to change while in the Hells. When the city was restored Bex couldn't rebuild her business. No one wanted to buy haunted cookies from hellspawn.

She lost the last piece of herself, then." Zevlor pauses, a deep pity reflected in his face. "There's a hurt that runs deep and scars every tiefling here."

"Quite the leap to go from Ranger to Baker." I say, watching him carefully.

He doesn't flinch. "It was a shame. As a wood elf, scouting came naturally to her, but when she and Danis met, she gave up everything for him."

Zevlor watches as one of the guards passes, and nods to her. "Good Morning, Kaldani."

She smiles politely, carrying herself to the far side of the gate.

"Zevlor."

He glances at me.

"Those whispers you've been hearing. Someday soon, I'll need you to take the caravan to safety. Your chamber in the hollow, perhaps. Either way, be ready when I give the word."

He stands straight. "I understand. I'll begin preparations right away."

"Do so quietly."

He leans back on the fencing, "Will you need backup for said whispers?"

"I will need six guards positioned just outside the entrance to the grove's inner sanctum. Let no druid pass into the hollow. That is all you need to know."

"I'll have them ready to gather, at your word." He gives a modest sigh. "The burden of a paladin's duty. We sacrifice ourselves so that we may shoulder the weight of the world's troubles."

"If we do not shoulder them, will anyone?"

He scoffs. "A bitter truth to know that few people would." He pushes off of the fence. "With that being said. I have much to discuss with Tilses, the other Hellrider that's accompanied us. We'll be ready."

I take a moment to myself before heading toward the hollow.

To the right of the parapets, a group of the tiefling guards commune around a smoldering campfire. There is a slight tension among them as I pass.

Finally, I hear the padding of feet coming up behind me. It's a man with dishwater-blonde hair. "Ser! We saw Bex run through here like a whirlwind. What happened out there?"

The corner of my mouth twitches. "Quite the gossip, aren't you?"

He leans back with a stiff lip. "No need for that, but if something's going on, we ought to know. This isn't just about our safety, but our children's as well."

Several more guards approach and I hold up a hand. "Please. If you have any concerns, speak to Zevlor."

Kaldani joins them. "Zevlor?" Her eyes peek through a sideswept fringe of red hair. "This isn't about Zevlor. What's this about you belonging to a cult?"

Another guard in the back calls out. "People have gone missing, and they say you were the last to see them!" I see Arka staring me down with a bitter scowl.

A few more voices call out.

"Where's Alfira?"

"And the druid, Nettie? Arron has been asking about her."

"What are we supposed to say?"

My head is on a swivel as I try to track the voices to no avail. The bodies press in. My breath grows shallow. My shoulders coil. "Can you please..." I gesture around me. "...space. Please. I cannot think."

Several tieflings look at each other, and a couple begin to step back. The man with dishwater blonde hair turns and begins herding the wretches back. The tension in my chest begins to release. "Thank you." I murmur.

I take a heavy breath and straighten my back. "Alfira joined my camp a few nights ago. When we awoke the next day, she was gone."

Someone mutters to a woman with a long purple ponytail. "She may still turn up." They clasp hands and lean into each other.

I continue. "Nettie was killed in a goblin ambush. It was only by her sacrifice that I was able to save you from the horde. Again."

My nose curls, raising my palm to show the emblazoned symbol of the Absolute. "I've asked for nothing, and yet the sacrifices I've made are met with bad faith."

A stillness settles over the waiting tieflings.

"The cult trusts me, and do you know what that trust has yielded?" I drop my hand. "I've found Halsin."

Murmurs rise around me and Kaldani speaks once more. "What does the cult want with us? We have nothing."

"They are looking for a weapon. One that neither you nor the druids likely have, but the cult is desperate. I have managed to stay their attack for now, but there is more work to do before the path is clear."

The pain in Kaldani's face seems to soften.

"Have faith. I cannot help you if you hang me from the gate."

There is a soft murmur that crosses the tieflings before me, and several begin to depart. Kaldani approaches, crossbow low. "You understand where we are coming from."

"I understand how exhausting hope can be. I just need a little more time."

She releases the tension in her shoulders with a breath. "Thank you for hearing us. I think I can muster a crumb of faith after everything we've been through, just please." She places a hand on my arm. "Keep your word."

I nod and she resumes her route across the parapets.

Arka remains, her tail low. She doesn't look at me at first but finally meets my eyes with lingering grief.

"Can you... walk with me?"

There is nothing I want to do less. "Please, lead the way."

I follow her down a narrow trail that passes the campfire and climbs up into a private sanctuary. Crude graves line the edge of the small clearing. Sticks lashed together into the crude shape of a hand, effigies to Torm, stand at the head of each grave.

She stops next to the freshest grave and folds her hands neatly in front of her.

I step next to her and look at the pile of stones, weighing down the body of the gateman. Kanon.

The wind passes through the leaves of the trees, making the light between the leaves shadows shimmer on the ground. The hush adds a breath to the silence.

"He told me this was our only hope for a normal life again. I told him he was foolish for thinking anything could ever be normal again." She finally drops down, picking up a stray rock and placing it back in the pile. She sinks to the ground, crossing her legs beneath her, staring at the stones.

I sit next to her and look up at the sky as a few clouds drift by. Then I shift my gaze to her.

Some broken things can't be fixed, and yet it takes courage to throw them away.

She tips her head down. "That's how it goes, isn't it? We take people for granted. Always taking people for granted..." Her voice becomes pinched.

My voice hums softly. "It makes it hard to keep going."

She opens her mouth but closes it again as tears begin to fall.

"Do you want to see him again?"

She looks at me sharply. "I could never..."

I nod toward the grave. The pile of stones sits unsettled.

She murmurs. "He won't look like himself."

"It will be him. Perhaps you can apologize to him."

"No. I want to see him the way he was."

"It is possible. It's only been a few days. He is still waiting in the fugue plane."

Her eyes become vacant, fixated on the stones. Then she winces and her jaw quivers. "No, I... this is what he wanted for us. To have a normal life. But..." She looks at me. "...what is normal, Vash?"

"Normal is being with the people you love, no matter where you are."

Her chest begins to heave, and her head drops into her hands. Her sobs are heavy and unrelenting.

I place a hand on her back, rubbing gently.

After a while she wipes the tears from her face. "I want to see him."

I carefully pull the rocks from his body. Day 3. His skin has started to turn green. The rocks that pressed his skin have left him looking pockmarked. The smell hits me like a wall of memories.

"Gods... you look awful." She says with a sobbing laugh. She strokes his cheek.

I step behind her and slide my dagger into the bend of her neck. Within seconds she goes limp and falls into his grave. I pull her body over his, then return the rocks to their pile.

I finally see her.

She's gotten out of her gear and is sitting on her bedroll, eating, drinking, staring. Danis is sitting calmly, splicing fibers into cordage. He glances up, then carefully sets the rope aside and walks over to Bex, resting a hand on her shoulder.

She falls still, watching me. I stop below them, looking up. "Bex, there must have been some sort of misunderstanding. May I come up and speak with you?"

Her voice is slightly shaken. "I've barely had enough time to process what I witnessed, and you've come stalking after me. Leave me be, Vash."

Her words hit me like a hammer to my chest. "Sometimes, in war..."

"It wasn't just the violence, Vash! You didn't even hesitate." She lowers her voice and mutters, "you were so calm." She reaches up and grips Danis's hand. "How long have you served the Absolute? What were you planning to-" She stops herself, her eyes shifting toward the grove.

Her voice grows cold. "I can't imagine what you could say to redeem yourself."

"I have answers, but it's complicated. Very complicated. If you're willing to listen, then come to my camp when you're ready, and I will explain everything." I lower my voice and cast my eyes down with a nod of humility. "Please."

"No!" Danis barks. "She's not going to your camp! We're not going to be tricked by you!"

He focuses on his wife. "You've seen the truth, Bex, you cannot trust this man! There's nothing more that needs to be said."

Bex bristles at Danis's declaration, but answers patiently. "I understand you're trying to protect me, Danis, but it's not your decision to make." She turns back to me, exasperated. "I'm not in the headspace to entertain your invitation. Just-" Her chin curls in frustration, as she searches my face. "Just leave me alone, Vash."

She turns her back to both of us, cross-legged on her bed roll, tail dragging with agitation.

Danis watches her with a mild dread on his face before glancing down at me. I see his hand flex, but he says nothing more.

I take my leave, at the mercy of what faith she may have left in me.

Astarion sits next to me, as if his presence is enough to coddle me in my embarrassed state. "Look at it this way. The only thing you really did was scare the goblins too well. Gods, I wish I had been there to see it." He sneers at Shadowheart. "If only someone hadn't gotten their boot stuck in the mud."

Shadowheart doesn't dignify him with an answer. She's too busy reworking her braid, using an assortment of fragrant oils. The most she gives him is a raised eyebrow.

"Hmph." He looks over my shoulder and his cool red eyes narrow. "Well, well. Looks like she couldn't keep away long."

I turn to see Bex and Danis walking down the path, their fingers locked together. Danis is watching me intensely as I quickly stand, meeting them at the trail head. "I'm glad, if not surprised, you decided to come."

Bex glances at me. "Thank you for giving me space to collect myself, I'm ready to hear you out."

"Of course, but..." I look at Danis's burning stare. "May I speak with you, privately? There's something I'd like to show you. It will make everything I want to explain a lot clearer."

Danis steps up to me. "There's nothing you need to say to her that you can't say to both of us."

I look down at him, flatly.

His chest is out. He does not break his stare, but his tail sways low.

I glance at his feet. "Are you standing on your toes?"

His heels hit the dirt. "No!"

Bex steps between us, pushing us back. "Stop it, the both of you!"

She locks onto Danis. "What did I tell you? I'm not interested in you speaking for me, Danis! I know you mean well, but you need to stop looking past me and actually see me for once!" There is a soft quake in her voice as she finishes her thought, before turning to me, exasperated. "Vash, you're asking to speak to me alone without having offered any reason why I should trust you. I'm not a fool. Show me."

I notice the tension coiled in my shoulders and breathe. I finally give her a soft nod. "You're right, of course." I look into her eyes, brow tight as she waits. "When in our travels together, have I ever acted against you?"

Her face twists at my words. "The violence you demonstrated was enough to tell me what I needed to know."

"I acknowledge that my handling of the goblins was distasteful."

"Distasteful."

"I apologize for the tactless spectacle."

Her eyes go wide. "Tactless spectacle? Is that what we're calling it? You're very good at choosing your words."

My cheek creases with a faint, albeit guilty, smile.

"Gods..." She looks skyward as if to say a quick prayer before putting a hand on Danis's chest. "Give us time. This shouldn't take long. Right, Vash?"

"A moment is all I need." The corner of my lip twitches as I turn back to Danis. "You're welcome to join the others."

He stiffens. "How far is this place?"

"I'm sorry," my nose curls, "are you her keeper, now?"

"No, I just..."

I point sharply down the bank. "It will be just down the river. Less than a kilometer away."

"That way!?" He stiffens.

"Yes, Danis. That way."

"I see... I..." He looks at his wife; a shadow of dread falls across him. He steps into her and gives her a gentle kiss on the cheek before walking over to the campfire with my company.

I watch him leave before beginning to walk. Bex follows.

The sound of the river creates a hush that fills my mind. A slight breeze sends a mist from the rapids that cools my skin.

"I heard you told the others about your station as a True Soul." She clasps her hands behind her back. "I wasn't expecting that. It was good of you to be honest with them." Her voice warbles softly, threaded with serenity. Like she isn’t meant to be sad. It makes moments like this, when I've hurt her, even sadder.

I step over a stone in the path. "I wished to make the truth plain. I know I lost your faith, but it is a cruelty, given the faith I still have in you."

"Of course you have faith. I'm not the one playing games, Vash."

The lie lands heavy, and my voice grows sharp. "Why in Hells' name did you confront those goblins alone? You forced me into a position where I either had to watch you die, or intervene, potentially getting us both killed."

"What do you mean? He needed help, and the strong have a duty to protect the weak. It was the right thing to do. Had I known you were going to be so heavy handed with them, I wouldn't have been so bold."

"You expected me to step in?"

"I... well, we're a team, aren't we?"

"We're supposed to be a functioning unit."

"What is the difference?"

"Life and death."

She grows quiet.

"You don't run off like that, especially if you expect me to intervene."

We walk, and the sands shift with every step. My legs burn from having carried Alfira's body down this very shore.

Whispers rise inside my mind that bid me 'drown her.'

She bites her lips, before speaking softly. "I wasn't trying to-"

"You were trying to be a hero."

The wind shifts, filling the path with a faint, stinking haze.

"What have you witnessed on our little adventure together?" My nose curls. "A heroic monster hunter, who was going to drag Astarion back into slavery." I tuck my hands into my pockets. "An apothecary, who was going to resurrect his lover against her will." She looks up at me and my voice softens. "Bex, the hero who is going to save the hollow, by turning a druid circle against itself."

She stiffens, a line forming between her brows. "That isn't fair."

"Isn't it?"

"It's not my intention to hurt anyone. It's unfortunate that it's come to this."

"Exactly."

Her back straightens and we slow to a halt. Her brow is tight and her fingers flex. "I'm sorry, Vash."

I lean down, gently taking her shoulder. "I need you to understand something. You are far more valuable to me alive. I intend to keep you that way."

We begin to walk again, pebbles crunching beneath our steps. The shore bending toward our destination.

"If there's anything I'd like to pass to you it's this: Survival is never guaranteed," I glance down at her, "and heroes don't exist."

A scene of devastation unfolds before us. Vast, arching shards of a spiraled shell are sunken into the sands of the river's shore.

Her pace slows, eyes wide as I bring her to the center of the nautiloid's wreckage.

The smell of burning chitin and decaying ship-flesh assaults the senses. Waning hues of sunlight cast beams through smoke that weaves around the wreckage. The sound of lapping water echoes against the walls, amplified more so by the dreaded silence.

Awed by the looming ruin, she steps away from me and carefully touches a sunken landing. A chitinous chest bolted firmly in place, lid askew.

She takes in the catastrophe that surrounds her. "What is this place?"

"This is the crash that rattled the hollow. Do you know what this structure is?"

She scans the grand hull, shaking her head. "No. I've never seen anything like it."

"It's called a nautiloid. An illithid warship."

She's focused. "Illithid?"

I gesture toward a few scattered mind flayer bodies lying in silver pools of blood. Shriveled, peaceful, and empty. "Illithids travel the realms, functioning as a collective. They rely on psionic powers for control and communication. They are insidious and parasitic."

Bex steps toward me, her eyes lingering on the corpses.

"My companions and I are survivors of this crash. We don't know how we survived, but we remain united under a common cause: to find a cure for our infection."

"Infection." She says sharply.

I reach into my cloak pocket for one of the vials. The parasite inside swims frantically, biting at the glass. The tadpole in my head flexes vaguely at its presence.

She recoils, nostrils flared as she studies the abomination.

I turn the vial in my fingers. "Such a small thing to be the source of so many profound problems." I mutter quietly. "An illithid parasite absorbs the memories of their host, gifting in return psionic powers." My gaze shifts to Bex briefly. "My infection is what makes me a True Soul. Nothing more."

"How can that be? It's a cult, why would your infection matter to them?"

I tuck the tadpole back into my pocket. "The Absolute uses the power of the tadpoles to enthrall her cultists."

She stares at me with a look of horror. "...Gods," her voice barely a whisper. "Do you hear her now?"

"No. Through some strange cosmic fate, I've happened upon a device that protects me from her influence. I am not a thrall." I give her a subtle smirk. "Well, I'm fairly certain I'm not."

"Vash, this is no joking matter!" She says, though I see the corner of her mouth pulls briefly.

"Halsin has been studying the tadpoles. This is why it was imperative that I find him."

At that, she hesitates. "I thought you were getting him to help the grove."

"Of course. Reasons that are mutually inclusive."

"Vash..." Her face twists into a focused scrutiny, "why are you trying to stop the Rite?"

"Bex."

Her focus is unwavering.

"...because it must be done."

"That's it?" She suddenly looks exhausted. "Survival is not guaranteed, heroes don't exist, and yet this must be done? Why? Why risk yourself for them?"

"Because I am a man who woke up right here four days ago with nothing.

I need to build something."

She studies me carefully, a subtle disquiet filling the space between us.

"I hope the respect I've shown you makes up for my transgression." I murmur.

She shakes her head and scans the wreckage. "You know... the respect you've shown me has brought me more comfort than I've felt in a long time." She turns back to me with a diminutive smile. "Maybe the shape of a hero simply isn't what we thought it was."

My eyes linger on her. "Bex..." I step closer, and her hand gently lands on my chest.

"Thank you for trusting me, Vash."

I release a breath I didn’t know I was holding.

Her fingers drag slowly against my chest as if fixated on the texture of my tunic. Her hand suddenly drops, smile falling, brow creased. She steps back and almost speaks. She leaves me rooted to the moment, heading back toward camp. Her cadence slows, and she glances back.

My body moves, closing the distance between us.

She walks, and I follow.