Chapter Text
Gale was sitting at his desk in his study. The door to his balcony was open across the room, letting the morning breeze off Deepwater Harbor clear out the musty smell of old books. Gale rarely used this study anymore, he did most of his work in his office at Blackstaff Tower. He couldn’t really focus on grading papers or research notes at home, not when he had so many distractions living on the floor below him.
Today though he had time to himself. Everyone else was out and about in the city, except for Astarion of course, but the vampire didn’t like to disturbed while he slept through the daytime.
The study had been cleared out significantly since Gale’s return from the Absolute Crisis. In the months that had followed his homecoming Gale re-organized his entire home to accommodate the idea of new roommates.
At the time, he had worried his efforts were nothing but delusional optimism. Once he and his companions were separated from each other as they dealt with the personal consequences of what had happened, the bonds they had formed felt like a dream he wouldn’t be able to return too. But Gale had busied himself with trying to make his home somewhere they could all be together anyway, despite his fear he might never see any of them again.
Astarion had been the first to move in. Six months after the defeat of the Elder Brain, just after Withers had pulled the group back together for their strange little reunion. Astarion had been helping Cazador’s surviving spawn spread out through the Underdark. Gale had been most confident about Astarion moving in. Gale and Astarion had talked about the vampire moving to Waterdeep even when they were still traveling on the road to Baldur’s Gate. Gale plying Astarion with the rumor that one of the Masked Lords of Waterdeep was a vampire, so surely Waterdeep would be a fine place to live. And of course the allure of the academy helped the wizard’s cause, since Astarion had wanted to start learning magic again, after two hundred years of being a spawn. Astarion had been a fairly competent wizard in his life before Cazador. He even came from a long line of elven wizards. Gale had been stunned when Astarion had first showed him his old spellbook, one night when the group was camped in the shadow-cursed lands. Astarion had asked Gale to help him cast something and that had been the first night the two had sat down together and talked like friends.
Varan had been the next to move in. Gale had been terrified he never would. Gale had been so desperately in love with Varan when they were traveling together, when Varan turned the wizard away from Mystra’s edicts, when Varan had shown Gale he could live instead. But then so much had happened when the group reached Baldur’s Gate. Gale had struggled to process everything that had come out about Varan’s history in the city and about about his heritage. About Bhaal and about the Crassus family who had kept Varan like a loyal hound to hunt their enemies. About his role in the rise of the Absolute and everything else so tragic from his history. Gale had wanted to bring him to Waterdeep on the first night after the Elder Brain was defeated, but Varan didn’t give him the chance, telling him right away that he was staying in Baldur’s Gate, that he was helping with the rebuilding. Of course he would. That was his city, his home and with the rest of the Crassus family dead, Varan was the Lord then. Duke now. Varan had stayed in Baldur’s Gate for almost a whole year, helping Wyll to try and fix the corruption, to remake the Council of Four. Gale had been in denial for a long time, but when Astarion came to stay with the wizard, Gale decided he had to accept that whatever Varan and him had before was gone. But then there was a society event in Waterdeep, something political, with delegates from many of the Sword Coasts cities. Gale had gone with his mother, who worked for a guild in Waterdeep, and Varan had been there too. And Varan, it turned out, had been just as afraid Gale had moved on as Gale was that Varan had forgotten him. Varan still went back to Baldur’s Gate every few weeks to stay for a few days, but that was no real struggle for Gale to teleport him back and forth. Or for Rolan to come and get him from Ramazith.
That had been the end of Gale’s expectations. He had known that Varan would want to visit Halsin sometimes, so had Astarion. He had known Varan and Kalius would want to see each other, frequently. After the Absolute Crisis when he was rescued from the Crassus family, Kalius had left Baldur’s Gate with Halsin. The two had gone back to the Grove for a while, then Kalius had moved to Shadowheart’s — Jenevelle’s farm. Kalius had needed time to reconnect with Selune after being kept in a soul cage for eight years. Time to make sure his curse was settled again. But Kalius had been born and raised in Waterdeep and he wanted to move back anyway to be close to the House of the Moon, so when the opportunity for Halsin to create an orphanage in Waterdeep came about after his success with one outside of Baldur’s Gate, Kalius had convinced the Druid to move too. Gale had agreed to let them move in, though he had assumed they would only stay for a little while. Then Gale and Kalius started developing feelings for each other, and now here they were. All together, in varying degrees of togetherness. Halsin and Gale were the edges of their little web, the only two that hadn’t, and probably wouldn’t, move past platonic friendship. Though they still ended up in bed together — albeit with someone between them — a few nights a month.
It had been about eight months since Kalius and Halsin had moved in now, almost two years since the end of the Absolute Crisis. And Gale had still not technically told his mother, or any of his family, that his roommates were more than roommates. Morena knew about Varan, since the tiefling had proposed to Gale soon after moving in. But Morena assumed everyone else were just friends avoiding rent by living under Gale’s roof and Gale hadn’t corrected her. Gale was sure she’d be fine learning the reality, but didn’t enjoy the idea of the rest of his family learning about it. They tended to have opinions about such things better left unsaid, though often spoken loudly about. He was going to have to mention Kalius at some point, since technically when Gale and Varan were married, Gale would be married to Kalius too. Varan had thought Kalius dead for eight years, and so never bothered to dissolve their previous marriage. Now that he was rescued of course they wouldn’t want to anyway.
Gale heard the chime of someone starting up the third floor stairs. He frowned, wondering who it was with everyone else preoccupied. His study, and the adjoining bedroom, were on the fourth floor, in fact they were the entire fourth floor. No other reason to come up here except to see him. Or steal from him, he supposed, but the outside alarm hadn’t triggered so the visitor must be someone with a key.
The door opened by a mage hand. Gale had to lean around the edge of a bookcase to see who it was. He frowned when he saw it was his mother, and Tara. He glanced back to the balcony door to check the position of the sun.
“It’s not even nine, mum, I thought we were meeting for lunch?” he chided, slouching back in his chair.
“Sit up straight, Mr. Dekarios, you’re going to hurt your back.” Tara said as she drifted from Morena’s shoulder to Gale’s bureau.
Gale obediently shifted in his seat, but his attention was on his mother more so than the tressym who was pawing at the papers on his desk. Morena was wearing her usual finery, a purple and blue gown with silver threads, her dark hair streaked with gray was up around a silver pin the shape of a peacock. She looked put together, as she always did, but there was something about her expression that was disheveled.
“Is everything alright?” Gale asked, he reached out and scritched under Tara’s chin. The tressym purred contently.
Morena was biting the inside of her cheek as she studied Gale, it wasn’t concern, but it was a calculating expression that Gale didn’t really enjoy.
“Am I in trouble?” Gale turned instead to Tara, who was looking over the student’s papers, using mage hand to hold them up so she could read them.
“You might be.” Tara said, she plucked Gale’s quill out of the pot with the mage hand to correct something on a quiz and Gale had to grab it out of the air to stop her. “That’s my job, thank you Tara.”
“Something happened to Amelia.” Morena said. Gale laid the quill down, Tara bundled herself into a loaf to listen.
Amelia was Gale’s cousin, on his mother’s side, the daughter of Morena’s older sister Concetta. Amelia and Gale were about the same age and had been close growing up. One of the few members of the Dekarios clan that Gale didn’t wish misfortune on.
“What happened?” Gale asked, annoyed at his mother’s underspecification.
“That’s part of the trouble, little love. We aren’t sure.” Tara said, soothingly. Gale frowned at her.
“She sent a letter, to me and one to Concetta.” Morena explained, Gale waved his hand and a chair was dragged across the room so Morena could sit next to him, “Concetta also got a missive from Melled Amcathra.”
“Amelia’s father-in-law?” Gale clarified. Morena nodded. “Apparently there was some kind of attack on their house in Amphail.”
“Attack?” Gale repeated, “Was Amelia hurt?”
Morena shook her head, “No, she wasn’t, I don’t know if anyone was, but the family is coming back to Waterdeep for the time being.”
“Of course, that makes sense.” Gale agreed.
“Amelia asked to move in with you.” Morena continued.
Gale was baffled, “I would have thought the Amcathra would have more than enough room to house the wife of their patriarchs only son?”
“They do. They want her to move into their villa in the city. Amelia is the one refusing too.” Morena explained.
Gale thought about that, “I thought she was happy with Lennem.”
“As far as we know, she is.” Morena agreed.
Gale stared at her, considerately, for a moment before he asked, “So we don’t know why she asked to move in here?”
“She said in her letter to me that she wouldn’t feel safe anywhere else.” Morena said, tone softer.
Gale thought about that, “Well, I suppose I can’t blame her. My tower is certainly one of the more secure places in Waterdeep.” He ran a hand down his chin, “And we have no idea what happened at Amphail?”
Morena shook her head. “Maybe when they arrive, they can give us more detail. Their caravan should be here tomorrow night or the morning after.”
Gale took a moment to consider it, consider everything. He grimaced as he realized he was going to have to move someone out of a room. He was sure they would understand, but he also knew Amelia being here was going to immediately draw attention to the reality of his living situation. He also knew that Varan was going to be furious if he agreed to this. Not because Varan wouldn’t want to help Amelia, or didn’t want Gale to be close to his family. Varan wouldn’t like the idea of not knowing what had happened in Amphail. He would worry that whatever had attacked the Amcathra house could be something that would attack again. Gale worried about that too, especially since none of the details had been shared. But it could just be a simple fire, or bandits, or gnolls, there were plenty of dangers out in the world that didn’t lead to apocalypse events. This could be something simple, something that mundane peoples were scared of but Gale and his friends couldn’t be, not with everything they were capable of.
“I’ll talk with everyone tonight, but I’m sure it’ll be fine. I certainly don’t want to force her to go live at the villa if she and Lennem are having trouble we don’t know about.” Gale agreed. Morena smiled and nodded. “She can stay with me too, if you can’t make it work.” Morena suggested lightly.
Gale didn’t like that. If there was some kind of dangerous plot, he’d rather be the one to deal with it, instead of having his mother in danger too.
“I think Concetta is planning on throwing a party at my house next week anyway.”
Gale had been lost in thought, he took a moment to realize what his mother had said and frowned, confused, “Why?”
“Claudio is coming back into the city for a visit.” Morena explained.
Gale rolled his eyes, “Wonderful.”
“I was going to invite you to it at lunch.” Morena added.
Gale sighed.
“You can invite all your friends to come too, I know Concetta is planning on inviting all sorts of socialites. I’m sure they’d love to get their claws into a Duke from Baldur’s Gate.”
Gale had to balance the desire to show Varan off in front of his family, and the concern about Varan being exposed to his family.
“I’ll offer.” Gale decided. Morena nodded, a sly look on her features Gale didn’t like.
“Something wrong with offering?”
“Nothing dear, but news that you are engaged has gotten around. Everyone wants to meet him.” Morena said carefully.
Gale didn’t doubt that. But he also knew that his family wanted to meet his intended so they could gossip about it, not because they wanted to support it.
—
Morena didn’t stay long after delivering her news. She was always bustling around for work at the Watchful Order. Gale finished all his paperwork from the academy, giving in and allowing Tara to assist him in grading some of the student’s work.
Gale and his mother met again for lunch, as planned, at a tavern called Selune’s Smile. It had swiftly become one of Morena’s favorites in Dock Ward. Kalius had been the one to introduce it to Gale. Despite spending most of his childhood in Dock Ward, Gale hadn’t been to this tavern before that. Selune’s Smile, as named, had a long history of importance to Selunites, and Kalius was a rather high-ranking initiate of Selune. Gale had heard rumors about previous owners being related to the goddess herself, but not anything about the current proprietress. They served good food though.
Gale returned home around two in the afternoon. As he walked up to the second floor, he could hear dishes clattering through the wall that separated the stair landing from the kitchen and the dining area. The entire second floor was dedicated to entertaining.
Gale assumed it was either Astarion having gotten bored with his daytime torpor or Varan come home while Kalius was busy at the Temple. Either one would be nice to talk things over with before explaining the situation to everyone.
It was Varan in the kitchen. He was pulling dishes out from the cabinets and setting up the counter to prepare something, though the fire in the cooking alcove wasn’t lit.
Varan smiled brightly as he saw Gale enter the room. Varan was a purple skinned tiefling with long splayed horns dipped in ashy gray. He was quite tall. Technically even taller than Halsin, though only if he counted those horns, Halsin had an inch or two on him otherwise, both in height and width. Varan was a paladin, or had been. His strength was apparent in his build. He was broad, but still lean, though he had put on a little more weight since moving here. When Gale had first met him, he had the kind of physique a person only achieved though constant training and a diet that bordered on malnutrition. He still looked defined, but not sunken anymore and his cheeks were fuller. Maybe that was just because he smiled more now. He had tattoos on his neck and up his chin, thick lines only a shade or two darker than his regular skin color. They were there to cover some of his scars on his throat, but he had many more scars uncovered, including the one across his face in a diagonal. It had faded quite a bit now from what it had been when they had first met. Halsin had been helping him try and mute some of his worst marks with herbs and salves. He had bright green eyes on black sclera. One of them didn’t move as well as the other, it was an enchanted glass eye that he had gotten to replace the hag’s eye. The enchantment on it allowed him to see, though dimly, not a full replacement for his vision but enough that he couldn’t be snuck up on. At least that’s what he had said when he bought it.
Gale came up to the counter to look at what Varan was doing. “What are you up to?”
“Kal wanted me to get things ready for him to cook dinner. He had a few other things to do before the House would let him leave for the day.” Varan explained, “Where did you get too?”
“I had lunch with mom.” Gale replied, pulling a stool over to sit and watch Varan chop things.
“Ah. Did she invite you to the party?” Varan asked, innocently.
Gale reeled, “Yes, and she didn’t mention that you already knew about it.”
Varan shrugged.
Gale rolled his eyes, “Conspiring I see.”
“She asked if it was alright she told people we’re engaged.” Varan explained.
“When was this?”
“Last night, she stopped by while you were preoccupied.” Varan told him.
“Preoccupied with wha—” Gale realized he had spent a rather large chunk of the evening with Astarion, “—hm yes, well, I’m glad you two are getting along.”
Varan was smirking.
Gale just watched him for a moment. He didn’t really want to think about the party right now.
“There was something else we talked about.” Gale said carefully. Varan’s brow furrowed, the tiefling could always tell when something was worth worrying over.
“Don’t be upset.” Gale forewarned.
“Do I have such a temper?” Varan retorted, chiding. Gale decided not to recount the numerous examples of Varan’s temper leading to many an enemies violent ends.
“I just know you aren’t going to be pleased.” Gale rephrased. Varan stilled his work and leaned on the counter to listen to Gale.
“My cousin, Amelia, is coming back to the city. She had married into the Amcathra family, they have a villa in the city but also keep an estate in Amphail to the north. She moved with her husband to Amphail. Apparently, something — happened to the house in Amphail and everyone from that estate is moving back to the city for a while.”
“What happened?” Varan asked, he looked concerned, but disconnected.
“We don’t know, exactly, the word attack was used in the letter my mother received, but no details.”
“Attack.” Varan repeated and Gale saw his eyes darken in that frightening way, like he was already trying to deter the threat from existing just with his gaze.
Gale couldn’t do anything to soothe the vengeful warrior except to shrug, “We don’t have any details. It could have been anything. The Amcathra’s are a rich family, plenty of motive to strike at them.”
Varan, as Gale had predicted, didn’t look pleased.
“She wants to move in with me when she gets here.” Gale continued.
“Why?” Varan leaned his weight more on the counter, furious already.
“She said she would feel safest with me.” Gale explained.
“Safe from what?” Varan prompted.
“Perhaps she just would feel better staying in a magic tower.” Gale retorted.
Varan didn't look amused.
“I don't know any details.” Gale repeated himself, “But I know Amelia wouldn't ask for something like that for no reason.” Gale said.
“That’s the trouble, isn’t it?” Varan snapped.
“I know.” Gale agreed, “But I don't have the answers right now. I'm sure she'll explain more when she gets here.”
“Then she can stay somewhere else until she does.”
Gale sighed, watching the ferocity in Varan’s expression, “My mother offered to let her stay with her.”
“Great.” Varan looked down to the counter like the conversation was over.
“But for the same reason you don't want her here, I don't want her there. We're more than capable of handling whatever the threat is.”
Varan didn't reply, his jaw tensed.
Gale reached over and grabbed his hand, “I know you worry, but it's probably nothing more than a monster or bandits, or another family that has some political ambition. Amelia isn't going to be a target of another attack for any of those reasons.”
Varan held Gale’s hand but didn’t look up at him, or react.
“Amelia is family.” Gale continued, “She's always been there for me, when I let her. I'm not turning her away.”
Varan pulled his hand away from Gale and went back to preparing ingredients. Gale just watched him a moment. Letting him consider it. Eventually Gale carefully prompted, “Varan, my love—”
“I want details as soon as she gets here.” Varan interrupted. His voice was cool. Gale knew he still wasn’t happy about it.
“Of course.” Gale agreed.
They were quiet for a while.
“When is she arriving?” Varan broke the silence.
“Tomorrow night or the next morning.” Gale replied. “I still need to figure out where she’ll sleep.”
“You can give her Kal’s room.” Varan said simply.
Gale frowned at the statement, he had thought there might have been more discussion. “Why?”
“He never uses it. All his stuff is in my room anyway and he’s always with one of us otherwise.” Varan said. “When you bring it up to everyone else, I’m sure he’ll offer it up.”
Gale smiled at the thought.
“What are you going to tell her about … Kal?” Varan asked.
“I hadn't thought that far into it.” Gale replied honestly.
“And Astarion?” Varan added. His voice had an edge to it Gale didn’t like. It was accusatory.
Gale decided to divert, slightly, “Amelia is my favorite cousin. I’d like to think I’m hers too. We are very close in age and we spent a lot of time growing up together. She was always supportive of me, even when the rest of my family wasn’t. That being said, her mother has most of the crueler opinions I had to listen to in my youth. I don’t really want my current relationships to be subjected to her venom.”
Varan had finished what he was doing and leaned down on the counter more just to listen. He had an insightful look in his eyes as he watched Gale. Like a dog watching a lure.
“You haven’t told Morena yet either.” Varan pointed out. Gale was surprised at the callous quality of his voice. “I’ve told her about you.” Gale corrected, looking at Varan assuredly. Varan didn’t look assured and Gale shrank a little at the expression. “I know I should.”
“Astarion thinks you’re embarrassed of him.” Varan said, flatly. Gale winced at the confession. “I’m not. Not in the slightest.”
“If she’s living here, I’m sure she’ll realize anyway, unless you plan to enact a curfew and a code of conduct on us.” Varan continued.
“I’m — ” Gale sighed, “I know.”
Varan was still studying his expression and Gale felt very exposed under his gaze.
“If you don’t want to tell your family about our arrangements, no one is going to force you to. But you can’t just ignore it and pretend it’s fine. That’s all. It’s not fair if you don’t at least explain why you aren’t saying anything.”
Gale ran a hand down his face. He couldn’t argue that. And he hadn’t intended for his lack of communication to become a long term facade. When Astarion had first moved in Gale hadn’t been sure if Astarion even wanted to be romantically involved. Introducing him as a friend seemed most appropriate. And Gale hadn’t anticipated Kal being anything other than a roommate when he first moved in either.
“You’re right.” Gale agreed, “I’ll figure it out.”
Varan smiled at him, the dispassion cleared from this eyes. Varan leaned over the counter and kissed Gale’s forehead gently.
—
Morena stopped in again with a list for Gale to get ready for Amelia’s arrival now that he had agreed to host her. They had talked a little over lunch, but Morena had checked in with the Amcathra villa in the city for clarification. Apparently the family hadn’t brought much, if anything, from their home in Amphail. That worried Gale too, it sounded more and more like the family had fled Amcathra in a hurry. Gale couldn’t find answers until Amelia arrived, so he worked for a little while, planning with Tara and pulling items he already had out of storage to move into a bedroom later, then went to have dinner with everyone as they always did. Gale and Kalius usually alternated dinners to cook, it had worked out that today was Kal’s day.
Kal and Halsin were arguing about something when Gale came into the kitchen/dining room. That was normal, especially during the waxing moon. Gale suddenly realized that was going to be another complication and shuddered.
He came up behind Astarion, who was sitting at the counter Gale had been seated at earlier. Astarion was smiling as the two werefolk snapped at each other with an expression that made Gale sure the vampire had provoked the argument. Varan wasn’t there, Gale realized. He frowned at the air as he laid a hand on Astarion’s arm and slid into the stool beside the vampire. Astarion laid a hand on his thigh.
“Why are they fighting?” Gale leaned over to ask.
Astarion shrugged. “It’s been about ten things now.” Astarion told him. Gale chuckled, running his hand across Astarion’s shoulder to hold him. He remembered what Varan had said, about Astarion thinking Gale was embarrassed by him and gave the vampire a little squeeze.
“Where’s Varan?” Astarion asked, turning to Gale. Gale shrugged, “Not sure.”
“He went out to get a couple things.” Kal answered, his voice still stained with the frustration of the fight he and Halsin were having. The knife on the cutting board was unnecessarily forceful.
Kalius was a tiefling, with red skin and black hair. His horns were straight and curled. He wasn’t as tall or as broad as Varan, but he was still quite strong. He had been in the same order of paladins as Varan for a while, however he served Selune more as a cleric. His eyes were black sclera with bright golden yellow irises. Gale often wondered if his eyes had always been that color, or if they had changed when he had been bitten. He was a werewolf, but blessed by Selune he had unique control over his shifting. Gale had been rather afraid of him when they had first met, when they had first found him during the Absolute Crisis. He had been locked in a soul cage, similar to how they had found Dame Aylin, for eight years. He had been quite wild then. He had tempered himself now, at least for Gale and Astarion’s sake. Varan and Halsin liked to provoke him. Varan had been with him for five years before Kalius was imprisoned, so they were comfortable with each other. Halsin and Kal, well Gale wasn’t sure how much they really cared about each other, but they both loved Varan and they had found some kind of unique kinship both being werefolk blessed by their deities. They were almost always together, and Gale was sure it was nice to not have to hide the bestial parts of themselves to each other.
Halsin stopped provoking Kalius now that Gale was in the room, letting the tiefling cook without interruption. Gale and Kal both liked to cook, and were both pretty good at it. They both liked to say that was just how it was to be raised in Waterdeep. Waterdhavians certainly prided themselves on their cuisine.
Gale thought about mentioning Amelia, but he decided to wait for Varan to get back. He didn’t need to, having already shared the news with the tiefling, but Gale never felt half as confident as he did when Varan was in the room with him.
It wasn’t very long before Varan returned from the market. Fresh fish seemed to have been his main objective. He had also bought a bouquet of flowers, several different varieties were bundled in his selection, but lilac hyacinths were the majority. Gale’s favorite. Astarion clocked the flowers right away as Varan put them into a vase.
“Oh, did you two have a fight?” the vampire teased as Varan put the flowers on the dining table.
“Undecided.” Varan answered. Gale decided not to retort, but that had stung a little. He thought the flowers were obviously a kind gesture, so he assumed Varan wasn’t that upset. But it was clear the tiefling was still on edge after the earlier conversation. Gale realized with a slight chill that Varan had a sword on his waist. It was one of his nicer, more decorative blades, nothing like the beast of a greatsword he preferred to wield in real combat. But it was still a weapon.
Varan was, for lack of a nicer word, paranoid. Gale couldn’t blame him. His upbringing, his entire life had been nothing but a fight. From the moment his father was lost at sea to the moment the Elder Brain crashed into the sea, he hadn’t had a moment to breathe. Bhaal had no doubt orchestrated it to be so. Gale felt guilty now, that he had given him something else to worry about. But Gale also didn’t doubt his ability, or his companions abilities, to handle whatever this was.
Astarion had turned in his seat to look at Gale, waiting for a response no doubt. The vampire had a casual smile, but Gale wasn’t fooled. Astarion was worried. He hated when any of the group argued — actually argued, whatever Kal and Halsin did didn’t count — he didn’t like anything coming between them. Astarion had grown a lot in the past two years, but he still had a tendency to get defensive if conflict came up. He fell back into sarcasm, into divisiveness and walls sprang up in moments when he felt something threatened the stability he had fallen into.
“There is something, I need to tell all of you.” Gale admitted.
Kalius finished putting a pan on the bricks by the cooking fire, testing the heat with his bare hand in the way only a tiefling could, and came back towards the counter to lean next to Halsin and listen.
“My cousin, Amelia, had moved to Amphail with her husband, some years ago now. Something happened to their family home and everyone who lived there is coming back to the city, for a while at least.”
“What happened to the home?” Kal asked, concerned.
“I don’t know. There weren’t any particulars in the letters we received, but the word attack was used.”
“An attack?” Kal repeated, his gaze immediately jumped to Varan, then back to Gale, like he expected the other tiefling to react. Varan was just standing with his arms crossed listening to the news he already knew.
“I really don’t have any specifics. But Amelia asked to move in with me when she gets here.”
“Not with her husband?” Astarion pointed out.
“I don’t know what’s going on there.” Gale told him earnestly, “As far as I know she and Lennem were happy together, but she told my mother she’d feel safest with me.”
“Hm. Well your tower is quite impressive.” Astarion agreed. “I’d want to stay here too.” The vampire’s voice sounded lightly, but Gale knew he was bothered by something. Astarion wasn’t looking at Gale, he was looking out at Varan.
“Hold on, did you say her husband’s name is Lennem?” Kalius asked, sounding confused. Gale nodded.
“As in Lennem Amcathra?” Kalius prompted.
Gale nodded.
“Oh, her husband is famous is he?” Astarion teased.
“The entire Amcathra family is well-known in Waterdeep.” Kalius said slowly, as he considered it, “So the Amcathra estate in Amphail was attacked?”
Gale nodded a third time.
“Brazen, whoever it was.” Kalius commented, quietly.
“Why? What are they known for?” Halsin asked, looking down at the werewolf.
“Horses, mostly.” Kalius replied, “But that’s all the families with business in Amphail. Amphail ponies are infamous up and down the Sword Coast. But the Amcathra’s also make weapons. Amcathran blades, are their specialty, some of the finest swords in the city. They stopped forging for a while in the last century, but started up again a couple decades ago now.” Kalius sighed a little, standing up and crossing his arms.
“Also Mourngrym Amcathra was the Lords of Shadowdale sometime ago, he rather famously defended the dale from Bane’s army during the Time of Troubles.” Gale added.
“Well, sounds like your cousin did alright for herself, with a husband like that.” Astarion commented, sounding amused. He was still looking at Varan though.
“So why wouldn’t she want to stay with her husband’s family? They sound well and wholly capable of defending her.” Halsin mused.
“Wonderful point.” Varan agreed, quietly.
Gale ignored that, “I don’t have any details.” He was tired of saying that, “We’ll just have to ask her when she gets here.”
“She can have my room.” Kal said, going back to cooking like the conversation needed nothing further. “I never use it. All my shit is in Varan’s room anyway.”
Gale smiled at the statement, remembering Varan’s words. “Thank you. I think that would be perfect.”
Kal looked like he had accepted whatever the situation was, but Gale noticed that Astarion was still looking at Varan. Varan and Astarion were holding each other’s gazes, clearly communicating in silent words. Almost like they had the tadpole again.
Gale knew he had to say something. He knew what it was Astarion was saying to Varan, what Varan was saying to the vampire. Astarion asking if he would have to be hidden away like a broken thing when guests came over. Varan assuring him that wasn’t the case. But that assurance wasn’t enough, Gale was the one threatening to stash him away, not Varan.
“Amelia has always been very supportive of me. And my mother. Even when the rest of my family wasn’t, for all the different reasons they weren’t. I don’t know exactly when, obviously her situation is a bit complicated at the moment, but I want to introduce you all to her, the way I should have already introduced you to my mother.”
Astarion was looking at him now and Gale didn’t want to catch his eye.
The rest of the room was quiet. Gale was focused on the counter by his hand so he didn’t have to read anyone’s expression.
“I know my mother will be happy if not slightly bemused to know all of you better.” Gale said then, something he hadn’t expected to say, but he remembered Varan’s colder voice and thought maybe he had to. “I haven’t said anything to her because I know that she will want to share all the news with the rest of the family. She has never balked at them, at any of the ways they might try to tear others down. She always preferred to force them to look at the things they might criticize. And I have always appreciated her courage, but often times that courage meant she was putting me on the pedestal in front of them to scrutinize. While she could ignore their criticism I never could. I didn’t want to tell my family about all of you not because I’m embarrassed or unsure, not in the slightest. I’ve had to listen to their hateful opinions my whole life and unfortunately I’m very used to it. But I didn’t want those words to be directed towards any of you. I thought if I just said you were friends, or colleagues then my family wouldn’t feel entitled to share their judgments, if they had any. I know the moment I would position myself in an equation with you, I know that they are going to have — shitty things to say, because they always do when it comes to things I care about. I thought I could spare you, all of you, that.” He was still looking at the counter. He didn’t think anyone else had even moved. “And maybe I thought if — if you had to hear some of the things they will say about me, maybe being with me wouldn’t be worth it.”
There was silence that went on a little too long for Gale’s liking, he still didn’t want to look up.
“You’re an idiot.” Astarion snapped.
Gale had to laugh a little at that. He heard some shuffling around him and felt strong arms he knew to be Varan’s wrap around his waist. He leaned his back into the tiefling’s chest.
“All of us come from shitty situations, especially shitty families. If anything, I hear one of your family members saying shitty things, it’ll be more worth it to love you.” Kal said. He sounded bored with the conversation and Gale smiled at the way he never seemed to balk at drama when it sprang up.
Gale glanced up finally and was caught by Astarion’s gaze. The vampire was looking at him with a very sad look, but it was also very loving and Gale smiled at him. “You really are stupid sometimes.” Astarion said, softer this time. “I know.” Gale agreed.