Despite Renato's warning, the priestess of Lolth insisted on standing up, Serpent-Head Whip in hand, ready for battle.
Her fingers tightened around the whip's handle. The three venomous snakes hissed in the female drow's hand, their eyes fixed on Klauthsura.
"Don't trust this mind flayer, Renato," Tristana said quietly in Elvish. "These aberrations don't think like normal people. To them, teammates are nothing more than living food reserves. We're in poor shape right now, so we have to stay ready for a betrayal..."
"Making baseless accusations behind someone's back only undermines your own credibility, Tristana." Klauthsura slowly descended to the ground and stood before them. "And you seem to underestimate my command of languages. Plotting in Elvish is pointless in my presence."
The tall mind flayer turned to Renato and said:
"I conducted some routine reconnaissance. Aside from that Githyanki starship that arrived through an Astral Plane portal, all the other psionic signals below the cavern have disappeared."
After spending some time with Klauthsura, Renato had gained a rough understanding of some mind flayer terminology.
"The other psionic signals disappeared?" He rubbed his chin, frowning slightly. "By a conservative estimate, there were still nearly a hundred mind flayers in the hive. How could they all disappear in an instant?"
"Are those toad-looking Githyanki really that powerful?"
"Impossible." Klauthsura stroked his tentacles thoughtfully. "The Githyanki are troublesome enemies, but they are nowhere near an unmanageable threat to our kind."
A trace of uncertainty entered the tall mind flayer's voice:
"Perhaps, with the Elder Brain dead and the colony badly damaged, the Eternal Thinker decided to lead the others away from the Githyanki's assault for the time being?"
"That must be it. Noesis's psionic power is sufficient to conceal an area several kilometers across. It would make sense that I cannot sense