Illithid Boyfriend Rudissk (special preview)

You see a giant stone statue before you of the Goddess. She is naked and kneeling, her arms open as if greeting a child from play. She has no face and she is missing some fingers. She is worn, nearly featureless all over. You can see the spots where she was repaired once before.

“Do you think you can save her?” Rudissk asks from behind you.

You turn and glance back at him. “I know I can,” you reply.

Rudissk sighs with relief, placing his hand on his chest. “That is all I want.”

You soon set to work. Everyday you fix a little more of the Goddess statue. Her loving and welcoming stance becomes a little more angelic by the day. You replace her fingers, you smooth the cracks and crags. You even make the old repairs unnoticeable. You smooth her face and polish it so it shines. It takes you a few months, but soon, the Goddess is like new.

“She is lovely,” Rudissk whispers as he gazes up at her.

You see tears run down his cheeks and you go to his side. You take his hand, kissing the center of his glove. In the months you have been repairing the goddess, you have come to know him and grown close together. 

He has served the Goddess since he was a child, having been saved as a baby by the woman he called mother. His people had been ravaged and attacked, and it was the Cult of the Goddess who came in and protected the survivors. He was rescued from the rubble of a burning building, but because of his wounds and burns most thought it would be best to put him out of his misery. But it was Mother who took him and bathed him in lavender water and kept him fed from her own breast that he was able to heal.

Rudissk showed you his scars one day, removing his gloves to show you the melted and pocked skin there. The dark blue was now a faint lavender color.

“It is the Goddess who gave me life,” he tells you. “It was her power that saved me, her kindness that rebirthed me. All because Mother took pity.”