The Pieces Move Faster

Ash tried to explain that his tentacle had not come from the Aboleth. Then the Void Edge Blade answered him. The moment Ash touched it, time froze. The inn suite fell away into a black corridor, and Ash saw two figures arguing where the rest of the party could not follow. One was Salvator, pink-tentacled and familiar from the shape of Ash's visions. The other was darker, named Soldier, and the conversation made Ash feel less like a chosen hero than a thing being discussed on a board. Soldier said Oskar was the chosen vessel. Salvator called Ash unstable. Then came the line that made the whole manipulation crueler: unstable pieces move faster when they think they are the player. The vision reframed everything. Ash's tentacle source was not the Aboleth, or at least not simply the Aboleth. Salvator and Soldier were involved. Oskar mattered to them as a vessel. Ash mattered as a volatile piece who could be moved by believing he was moving himself. When time returned, phantom pink residue stayed in Ash's perception. So did the knowledge that someone had been playing him.