Mistress of pain
“Well I’ll be godsdamned- I didn’t know you’d actually do it!”
Mol breaks out in a surprised ear-to-ear grin, snatching the idol out of Itachi’s hands and looking it over with wide-eyed wonder.
“You’ve come through for us- that’s more than I can say for most of the adults I know.”
She grabs Itachi’s hand and shakes it, then Orochimaru’s then Kisame’s.
“Pleasure doing business with you. I won’t forget what you did- I always take care of the people who take care of me.”
Her cheeky demeanor falters a bit, giving way to more genuine emotion.
“Seriously. I won’t forget it.”
Orochimaru only smiles, giving the girl a pat on the head.
“I look forward to seeing what trouble you get up to next.”
“Lemme give you something for your trouble- I think I figured out where all the goblin are comin’ from, but none of the adults wanna hear about it.”
“Is that so? We’ll be happy to listen.”
Mol puls out a map, circling where they’re standing, then drawing a path and circling another area about ten kilometers away.
“Right here. Just past that abandoned village. You can’t miss it- goblins aren’t exactly stealthy.”
She hands the map over, looking proud of herself.
“Thank you for that,” Orochimaru says, folding the map up to tuck it away. “This will be helpful."
“My pleasure. But if anyone asks, you didn’t get it from me.”
“Understood.”
What an absolutely delightful girl. He hopes he gets to see her again.
As it turns out, Mol was correct.
Thick smoke chokes the air as they approach the camp she directed them to, though the reek of bonfire doesn’t quite mask the stench of filth and body odor and other things not typically mentioned in polite company.
“Gods, goblins are such disgusting little beasts,” Astarion groans, looking down to make sure he doesn’t step in anything unsavory. “There better be something worth having here.”
They approach some sloppily thrown together gates, where a few goblins and a handful of wargs stand guard.
“Not a step further!” the largest one says, holding a spear out as a warning.
“We just need to get past,” Kisame tells them, trying to keep pleasant. “It’s not a big deal.”
“We ain't expecting no visitors.”
“Yet here we are anyway.”
“Ye look more like supper for Klaw here, if you ask me.”
Orochimaru has half a mind to make this creature pay with his life, but he spies an all too familiar symbol on the goblin's face.
As the symbol glows, that familiar feeling runs through Orochimaru.
Power.
Authority.
“You are going to let us through,” he says, in a sickly sweet tone, “or you are going to regret it. I don't have time to argue.”
The goblin shrinks back. A shiver runs down Orochimaru’s spine- something like euphoria.
“Oh- I-I didn’t know you was a True Soul-”
He elbows the warg standing beside him, making the creature yelp and recoil.
“Down, Klaw! Bad girl!”
Offering a nervous smile, the goblin gives his best attempt at a bow.
“S-sorry about that. I’ll let you be on your way, then.”
Orochimaru ushers the others along the threshold, eager to not spend any more time around these wretched things than he can help.
“I wonder what we'll find…”
“Hopefully answers, if we can get the right people to talk.”
The proper entrance to the camp is just up ahead.
Just before they reach it, however, he’s dragged to a halt, as if an invisible hand has grabbed him.
He drops to his knees, the tadpole in his head thrashing about, causing the worst pain he’s ever known.
He clutches at the sides of his head, feeling like his brain is coming apart at the seams. The pressure builds to a throbbing crescendo, images flickering behind his closed eyelids.
A tall, well-built man with gray hair and a beard to match, clad in heavy armor, bearing a warhammer and shield.
A woman with skin as pale as death, clad in red, wielding a jagged red dagger.
A younger man than the first, with a confident demeanor and an easy smile, gauntlet-clad hand held toward the air.
The overwhelming, unignorable command to obey.
A voice that speaks, commanding, demanding.
Aid their search for the weapon. Aid me. Obey. Obey.
It’s horrible, unbearable, reaching a fever pitch that might just burst his head clean open, then-
-As suddenly as it happened, it abruptly ceases, blessed silence, their tadpoles going still once more.
Picking his head up out of the dirt, Orochimaru looks around.
The others raise their heads as well, looking dazed, almost hungover.
“What the actual goddamned, cocksucking, shitfucking hell was that?!” Hidan demands, rubbing the back of his neck like his tadpole had been gnawing on his spinal cord.
“...more importantly,” Wyll says, looking around anxiously, “why did it stop?”
As if answering his question, a strange device hovers before them, emitting a gold light as it rotates in the air.
“What-”
Shadowheart, wide-eyed in shock- snatches it out of the air, struggling to keep hold of it as it continues to thrash about.
“...there is Tir’su script on that,” Lae’zel says. “The language of my people. Where did you get it?!”
“More importantly,” Orochimaru says, “what is it?”
“I’m…I’m not sure,” Shadowheart replies, cradling the artifact in her hands. “All I know is that I was part of a group from my cloister that was sent to retrieve it. I’m supposed to take it back to Baldur’s Gate. that’s all I remember.”
“Be sure to keep hold of it,” Gale says. “It looks like we’re going to need it.”
“Trust me, I will.”
Shadowheart tucks the artifact away in her pack, while Lae’zel glares daggers at her all the while.
“I wonder what it did to get rid of that thing,” Kisame remarks, more to himself than anyone around him.
“Powerful magic, no doubt,” Gale says, giddy at the possibilities. “Maybe Netherese, like the kind infused in our little friends. I’d be fascinated to study it closer.”
“Not now.”
“Of course, of course.”
The goblin camp doesn’t smell any better than the way in; thick smoke fills the air, and everything is unbearably, obnoxiouosly loud.
Itachi covers his ears, though it does little to spare him from the cacophony.
“...Let’s not linger here any longer than we need to.” he mumbles, yanking his shirt up over his mouth and nose to try to avoid the stink.
“I couldn’t agree more.” Kisame says. “It smells like something died in a brothel.”
“Ugh,” Shadowheart groans. “Sounds like they captured themselves a bard.”
It seems so- the man perched atop a precarious makeshift stage is making an impromptu ballad that they can barely hear over the shouting.
They split up to do what needs to be done. Itachi finds himself separated from the others, and is about to be worried before he finds himself distracted.
He hears a squeal, and sees a familiar ball of fur and feathers run past him, pursued by one of the goblins.
“It’s you again.”
The poor owlbear cub lets out a stressed hoot, big eyes darting around as he skids to a halt.
“Hurt me- run- hide- where?!” he whimpers, cowering and shivering.
Itachi’s heart aches for the poor creature. It’s just a baby, and obviously scared to death. If he could, he’d scoop the unfortunate creature up and carry him away from here, but he can’t do that. Not yet, anyway.
“Oi, you!”
A stout female goblin with her hair thrown back in a sloppy bun points at him, a cocky grin on her face.
“Hm?”
“You look like yer a guy that knows what’s what.”
Itachi blinks a few times, confused.
“...I know how to handle myself, if that’s what you’re talking about.”
“Handle yourself? This ain’t some kinda game, mate! This is chicken chasin’!”
Again, Itachi blinks a few times, as if that could reassure him that he’s heard correctly.
“...what exactly is chicken chasing?”
“Only the best thing since chickens sprouted legs, mate! Why don’t you give it a try?”
Itachi wants to point out that the creature between them is an owlbear and not a chicken, but he figures it won’t do anyone any good.
“I have some work to attend to first,” he says. “But I'll be back.”
“Yer loss, mate.”
The goblin turns away from him, wandering off while grumbling something under her breath.
The owlbear cub lets out a pained hoot.
“Mother gone,” he whimpers. “Hungry!”
Itachi knows he has to be quick, and that he just can't remain here.
“How about you come with me?” he asks. “We have a camp. You'll be safe here.”
The owlbear seems anxious to leave, but shivers with fear.
“New home? Maybe?”
The poor thing sounds hopeful, but so very afraid.
“Got to get away from here first…”
“Just leave it to me,” Itachi reassures the creature. “I won’t be long.”
“Please,” the sad owlbear hoots. “Hungry…hurts...”
Itachi takes his leave, determined to get this cub out of here somehow.
He scans the surroundings to try to locate the others, cursing his failing vision as he does so.
He catches a blur of familiar blue, and heads in that direction.
“I think that guy’s gonna be in here, if anywhere,” Kisame says, as Itachi approaches him. “Let’s go.”
Itachi nods, sticking close to him so they don’t get separated.
A rather large ogre stands in front of the doors to what must have been some sort of temple before.
“No go in there,” the creature urges. “It boring in there- party out here!”
“We won’t be long,” Kisame assures him. “We’ll get back in on the fun in a bit.”
“Yeah save us some beer, I wanna get fuckin’ hammered!” Hidan chimes in.
With that they enter the remnants of a temple, looking around in befuddlement.
“Oi!” a female goblin snaps, the second they’re across the threshold. “Whaddaya think you’re doin’ in here?!”
There it is again- that strange symbol that’s all over the goblin camp, branded onto her face.
And again, that strange stirring within him that Itachi has ignored until now.
“We’re going to head in.” he says, with a confidence he is far from familiar with, and an authority he has no business possessing.
Something in his mind lurches, as if he’s been bitten, causing a vague nausea that he brushes aside.
The goblin shakes her head, suddenly becoming nervous.
“...Ah, another True Soul. My bad- didn’t mean to intrude. So- you here to see Priestess Gut, the Drow, or Dror Ragzlin?”
“The drow,” Itachi says, without allowing himself the time to think it over.
“A guy like you, seein’ the drow? Good luck, mate. You’ll find her in ‘ere, workin’ on plans for the next raid.”
Itachi nods, and heads forward.
“Well it ain’t so loud in here,” Hidan remarks. “Think we’ll find whatshisface in here?”
“Halsin,” Kisame reminds him. “And I mean, if he’s still alive I don’t know where else he’d be.”
They look around aimlessly for a short time, before stumbling upon a man who seems out of place amongst the goblins.
He looks human- or, well, human enough. He has a flogger in one hand, muttering prayers in a breathless whisper.
The man is absolutely covered in bruises and gashes in various states of healing- seemingly all self-inflicted.
He stands up when he senses them watching him, wearing a friendly smile that seems totally out of place with his dress and appearance.
“Ah, are you here to assist with the prisoner?”
Itachi’s confusion must be evident on his face, so the man smiles and shakes his head.
“I was invited to teach these creatures, but they insist on being so…primitive. See- I live for pain and its intricacies, guided by my mistress Loviatar.”
“Ha! Bet your god and mine get along just fine,” Hidan laughs, which the strange man returns.
“Pain without purpose is such a horrible thing, don’t you agree?”
“Pain is pain,” Hidan answers. “It’s all fun for me in the end.”
“Hm. And who would you be, child?”
“Name’s Hidan. Who the fuck are you?”
“My name is Abdirak. Cleric of the mistress Loviatar.”
Itachi looks around the room, at the whips and floggers and other implements for inflicting pain, with a morbid fascination.
He doesn’t notice the man is watching him until he’s addressed directly.
“Pardon me, but-” the man says, his voice soft, and pained. “That look in your eyes. Something terrible has happened to you, hasn’t it?”
The question catches Itachi off guard, so all he can think to say is “how could you tell?”
“Because I see those same eyes when I look in the mirror.”
He takes both of Itachi’s hands, not heeding the way Itachi flinches.
“Please. Allow me to alleviate this pain.”
“How would you do that?” Itachi asks, concerned but also desperately wanting to know where this is going.
“Through penance, dear one,” Abdirak answers. “Administered by my hand.”
Before Itachi can ask what the hell that actually means, Hidan slaps him on the back, sending him surging forward.
“Don’t you even dare say no,” he cackles. “I would pay money for a show like that and he’s offerin’ for free!”
Itachi gives Hidan the most wicked glare he can muster, but then catches the curious expression on his partner’s face.
Of course, he still has the option to tell this man to keep his grubby paws to himself, and half of him wants to do so.
But the other half is still curious. Wanting.
This man speaks in such a kind, reassuring voice- it’s hard to ignore it.
Hidan pushes him forward.
"C'mon, it'll be a good for ya!"
Itachi glances at Kisame for a moment, who shrugs in a do what you want sort of way.
"Alright."
"Excellent. Please face the wall, and we can begin."
Itachi’s skin crawls with discomfort, but he faces the wall as instructed, staring at the stone and not allowing his eyes to wander.
Abdirak’s hands are rough, well-calloused, but they touch him gently as they remove the clothing from his upper half to prepare for...whatever this is.
(Discomfort aside, he’s curious about where this might go. And he certainly needs penance…)
The air is cold, raising goosebumps on the back of his neck as his skin is exposed.
The man lets out a low, sympathetic hum.
“You are quite familiar with pain already, aren’t you?” he asks, running his fingers along the patchwork of scars marring the porcelain skin of Itachi’s back.
“...You could say something like that,” Itachi answers, hesitantly.
“Heh, this is gonna be good,” Hidan laughs. “Whaddaya think?”
He doesn’t hear Kisame answer, but he has a good enough imagination to take a guess at his expression.
“Yes.” Abdirak mutters to himself. “Yes, this will do nicely.”
There’s a pregnant silence, then-
There’s a pain, white-hot, blinding, landing right between his shoulder blades, sending him surging forward and nearly knocking him off-balance. A sharp cry of pain escapes him before he can bite it back.
“The pain you suffer will cleanse you!” Abdirak encourages him. “Do not fight it!”
“Not a bad hit,” Hidan giggles. “I could do better, but I appreciate the enthusiasm.”
Kisame makes a vague sound of agreement.
The next blow lands on the small of his back, bringing him to his knees as spots pop into his faded vision.
He hears a cry of agony, and it takes a second to realize the sound had come from him.
(He wasn't even aware he could make such a sound…)
“Your voice sounds so sweet, dear one!” Abdirak encourages him.
“You ever get into any freaky stuff like this in your private time?” he hears Hidan ask, though he sounds a thousand miles away and muffled by the blows that don't seem to end.
“Oh wouldn't you like to know,” Kisame says, with a playful laugh. "You don't kiss and tell."
"Or whip and tell, eh?"
All Kisame does in response is laugh.
Itachi makes a note in the back of his mind to get annoyed at Kisame for that later.
Another blow, and he tastes iron in his mouth along with a scream that tears his throat.
“That's it, dear one!” the man encourages him, sounding absolutely euphoric. “Let Loviatar hear you!”
He swears he can feel the pain in his throat- a cross between burning and freezing that somehow doesn’t feel unpleasant.
Another blow. Another cry that doesn’t feel like it could possibly come from him.
And another.
And another after that.
“I-it’s too much!” he manages to gasp out. “I can’t-”
“Yes you can, dear one!” Abdirak urges him. “Offer your pain to Loviatar- offer it all!”
And maybe he’s right.
One final blow lands across his back, and it feels like the caress of a long-time lover. Familiar. Almost…comforting?
He swears he can hear a soft voice in the back of his mind whispering at him to be calm.
He is loved.
He is seen.
He is known.
It’s an oddly peaceful feeling, considering he’s pretty sure he’s bleeding quite badly, and the last time he hurt this badly was when…
Well.
He gets shakily up to his feet, taking shaky breaths and trying to gather himself.
Abdirak greets him with the warmest smile when he turns around to get his clothing.
“Child, you bore that pain like a true believer. Loviatar has seen fit to grant you her blessing.”
Itachi feels an unfamiliar warmth fill him, accompanying that comforting feeling of being seen in a way that he hasn’t been seen before.
Phantom hands caress his face, and he swears he catches a glimpse of a beautiful woman clad in black, smiling fondly at him.
It's only for a blink before she's gone, but somehow he feels like her presence lingers.
“On a personal note,” Abdirak says, “thank you. That was very gratifying.”
Itachi nods, not sure what else to do as he throws his clothes on over his wounds.
“It was…interesting,” he admits, barely above a mumbling whisper.
“As fun as that was, we’ve got places to be n’ bitches to see so-”
Hidan jerks his head towards the exit.
“Let’s get a move on.”