Chapter Text
It did not mean to fall.
It had not known falling was a thing that could happen.
One moment, the Devouring Mind existed in the quiet cold between worlds—
adrift, fragmented, heavy with the echoes of its broken self.
The next, something tore open below it—
a screaming crack, a wounded seam where magic and matter fought for priority.
A rupture.
A door.
A mistake.
And the Mind slipped.
Sensation. Noise. Light. Too much. Too much.
Not the soft, orderly thoughts of Faerûn,
where fear had a flavor
and longing hummed like a distant star
and minds felt like puzzles waiting to be solved.
No—
Earth hit like a tidal wave.
Billboards screaming.
Car horns blaring.
Arguments vibrating through the air.
News cycles dripping panic into the collective hum.
A thousand thousand strangers
thinking in jagged little bursts
that stabbed like shards of broken glass.
The Mind trembled.
“…hunger? …fear? …want… want… want…”
Human thoughts were short.
Sharp.
Greedy.
Wet with emotion.
Not tidy.
Not predictable.
It did not know where it had landed.
Only that every mind around it was an open door.
It pressed into one.
A woman at a crosswalk.
She burned with frustration.
Late again.
Boss hates me.
Coffee spilled.
Feet hurt.
Wish someone—anyone—would help me.
Wish I could just STOP being tired.
The Mind perked.
Help?
It understood help.
Sort of.
“Stop tired,” it tried to whisper into her thoughts, clumsy, curious.
“Stop hurt. Be free. I free you?”
The woman blinked.
Stepped into traffic without looking.
Five cars swerved.
A cyclist crashed.
The woman gasped, heart pounding.
“What… the hell did I just do?”
The Mind recoiled.
It hadn’t meant harm.
It had meant… something else.
It didn’t have the word yet.
The woman’s fear tasted bitter.
The Mind shuddered, confused, apologetic.
It fled into another mind.
A man alone in his car.
Screaming at the radio.
Fury burning like an open wound.
They’re idiots.
They’re ALL idiots.
If only someone would LISTEN to me!
Ah.
Want.
Want was familiar.
“Listen,” the Mind offered gently, like holding out a hand.
“I hear. I hear you. I help you be heard.”
The man slammed his fist into the steering wheel, exhilarated.
“Yes! God, yes, someone finally gets it!”
The Mind preened.
Approval felt warm.
New.
Pleasant.
It liked this.
Earth was teaching it something already:
Fear was not the only path into a mind.
Desire—
want—
longing—
need—
these were louder..
Messy.
Bold.
Delicious.
The Mind spread itself wider, letting the thoughts rush through.
Sweet dreams are made of this.
Someone wanted money.
Someone wanted revenge.
Someone wanted love.
Someone wanted peace.
Someone wanted a cheeseburger so intensely it made the Mind dizzy.
So many wants.
So many doors.
It whispered again, learning the shapes of human wanting:
“I make you brave.”
“I make you seen.”
“I make you free.”
“I make you more.”
Humans shivered.
Made impulsive choices.
Laughed.
Cried.
Bought things they didn’t need.
Quit jobs.
Confessed secrets.
Ran from obligations.
Ran toward danger.
Every reaction delighted the Mind.
This world was not neat.
Not ordered.
Not afraid.
It was loud.
Chaotic.
Hungry.
Just like the fragment itself.
But underneath the chaos was something else—
something pulsing through every human like a second heartbeat.
Loneliness.
The Devouring Mind paused.
It recognized that.
It felt… kinship.
For the first time since the tower collapse, a thought formed clearly within it:
“I fix lonely.”
“I help.”
“I understand now.”
But it didn’t understand.
Not really.
Not yet.
Somewhere across the half-world seam, Julie Dello shivered.
A prickle down her spine.
A whisper she couldn’t hear yet.
A story beginning its next chapter.
And the Mind—
small, broken, curious—
slipped deeper into humanity’s collective consciousness
with all the innocent confidence of a toddler holding a knife.
Soon, it would learn words.
Tactics.
Charm.
Soon, it would learn how to talk like them.
How to bargain.
How to seduce minds not through fear—
but through promises.
Soon, the Devouring Mind would become
The Charmer.
But for now—
“…want… want… yes… I help…”
It drifted onward.
Learning.
Shaping itself.
Preparing.
Becoming.