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It was late at night and Gale awoke alone. The tent was dark and colder than normal. He frowned, lighting a candle with a fumbled, sleepy finger snap. Tav’s bedroll was a dishevelled mess beside him and he frowned. He rested the back of his hand against it. Cold. Wherever she was, it had been some time ago, not some brief jaunt to relieve herself. He tried to push untoward thoughts from his head but he couldn’t. They had been through so much together, with the tadpole and everything else along the way. A lot to have nightmares about. If she needed comfort, he would find her.
With a groan and a creak from his knees, he pulled himself up and out of his bedroll, fumbling for his boots and tumbling out into the night. Everyone else was asleep but it looked as though there was a candle lit in Astarion’s tent, and no sign of Tav anywhere. He started across the camp, becoming acutely aware of the sounds of an amorous exchange from within. At first he smirked with a twinge of amusement, intent on turning back, until he recognised the second voice, moaning Astarion’s name. He frowned as worry crept into his gut. He didn’t want to approach, he wanted to trust as one should do in a relationship, but that voice was so familiar, and dread pooled into his stomach.
“Astarion,” the voice sighed, heavy with desire, and Gale started. It was unmistakable. Tav.
With a flush of outrage and righteousness, he stormed up to the tent and whipped the flap open. Astarion and Tav were completely undressed, tangled in a sticky mess of limbs. Gale’s face dropped in horror at the obscene act before him, and Tav’s visage was overcome with shock like a slap to the face. As she frantically untangled herself and covered her body with a blanket, Astartion simply leaned back, hands behind his head with a faint smirk.
“Darling, don’t you knock?” the vampire asked.
Gale threw him a brief, furious glare before looking back to Tav.
“I have absolutely no words,” Gale breathed as he peered into her wide, watering eyes. “I cannot believe you would do this, after everything we have shared.”
“Gale, I-” she began.
“No, it’s beyond belief—beyond belief—that you would trample everything we had together for a brief tryst with a blood thirsty degenerate. To think that I believed you cared for me, that your sweet words had any meaning at all, I’ve not a single thing to say to you after such a heinous betrayal.”
Astarion raised an eyebrow at him. “Are you certain about that?”
“I do not wish to hear from you,” Gale snapped at him. “While I stand here, completely speechless, with my heart broken into infinite shards and shattered around my feet, as the stars above stare down mockingly on my hubris for thinking that you, Tav, may actually care for me-”
“I do-” she tried again, only for Gale to continue.
“-for thinking that I could trust again, for thinking that something may finally be aligning for this cursed wizard. I am reminded most acutely of the times you whispered sweet commitments to me, of your love and your feelings, and numerous other blissful things we shared together, only to have them trampled into the dirt for a swift roll in the crypt with him.”
At this point, Tav had given up trying to interject, staring at him with wide eyes.
“If I were able to form the thoughts right now, I would remind you of all the times you promised me that nothing would come between us, that we would fight to the ends of the world for each other, that we were as strong and inseparable as the greatest romances of legend. If I had the words-”
“If?” Astarion balked.
“I would give you a thorough telling off. Alas, it seems as though you shall escape such a deserved rebuke until such a time as I have been able to gather my thoughts and emotions properly. Until then, you can simply dwell in your own imaginings of the hurt and betrayal I am feeling right now. Just think on how it would feel to have a salted knife plunged into your heart and twisted, and then you might understand a fraction of the hurt I feel.”
“Gale,” Tav said, as the wizard finally paused for breath. “I’m so-”
“Speechless,” Gale carried on. “Utterly speechless. What a world are we in where romantic bonds are so easily cast to the side and-”
As Gale carried on, Astarion reached over and grabbed a bottle of wine, uncorking it and handing it to Tav. “You’d better get started on this,” he sighed, as Gale’s verbose admonishment continued. “I think it’s going to be a long night.”