#meridan zavrai

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Guys I am IN LOVE with this commissioned tarot that @point-maitimo has made of my Tav Dani 😍 if you’re interested in tarot-style/watercolor artwork of your OCs you should definitely check her out!!

She was kind enough to match Dani’s card to her official Gale tarot art. Look at them side by side 💕

I just love it (but click on them for better quality, naturally)

Anyways please check her out! She’s very pleasant to work with and is consistent with giving you timely updates on the progress of your commissioned work. Plus her work is just so lovely!

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 art #commission #not my art #dani #meridan zavrai #gale dekarios #gale

[mumms-the-word]

A Little Boat Voyage

Pairing: Gale x Tav (Dani) Summary: Immediately after defeating Cazador and stopping Astarion from ascending, Gale and Dani need to discuss Gale's own ambitions. She agrees to a little voyage on the Outer Planes to hear what he has to say, preparing to fight him about his plans. ao3 link Tags: Angst, fluff, teeny tiny bit of implied smut, mostly angst A/N: This is a rewrite of the Act 3 romance scene that reworks a lot of the potential dialogue for that scene to fit what I actually think would have happened for Dani and Gale. I combed through the datamined file for all the dialogue that Gale and Tav could say, depending on all the possible situations for this scene, and stitched together a lot of game dialogue with Dani's own convictions about Gale's plans. So in my head, this is canon for them lol

Astarion’s words echoed in Dani’s head as she left his side in the group’s Elfsong Tavern suite. He was sitting by the window, looking out onto the moonlit streets below, contemplating the aftermath of his decision to slay Cazador rather than ascend, trying to process and make sense of it. She had gone over to speak quietly with him, knowing he needed her more than Gale did in this moment, and in the midst of the conversation, he had looked up at her with a kind of uncertain awe mixed with tired gratitude.

“You believed in me,” he’d said. “Believed I was enough just the way I am.”

There was more that was said between them, mentions of newfound freedom, new futures, more words of gratitude. But for some reason, those words stuck with her. Enough, he’d said. As if it were a novel concept to him.

She could relate. There were days when she never felt like she was enough, for some person or some challenge or another.

She paused to lean against one of the columns in the room, her eyes unconsciously searching for Gale. She found him sitting in an armchair by the fire at the center of the suite, staring into the flames. He’d been wanting to speak to her all day, but between all the drama of that morning and the difficulty of getting to Cazador and battling him, she’d almost forgotten about it. Now, she was almost too worn down to approach him. It would be all too easy to just go to bed and tell him that whatever he had to say could wait until morning.

But even she wasn’t that heartless. She sighed to herself and moved around to the lowered center area of the suite, approaching him from behind. He looked up as she  stopped next to his chair.

“Gale,” she said coolly, one hand on her hip.

“Ah.” He gave a kind of grimace, as though he were wincing yet trying to twist it into a sheepish smile at the same time. “You’re still talking to me then?”

Dani pursed her lips and crossed her arms, waiting for him. She had no idea where this conversation was supposed to go, and part of her didn’t want to make this easy for him. He rubbed the back of neck, self-conscious. 

“I suppose you have questions…related to a certain book we read together,” he said. She arched an eyebrow and he winced. “Well. That I read,” he amended. “And I do mean to discuss it but…” 

He trailed off, his eyes wandering over to where Astarion still sat near the window, staring pensively out through the glass. “You’ve given me quite a lot to think about today.”

She sighed softly through her nose. She wanted to be angry. But honestly, she was just tired. 

They’d started the morning off with a visit to Sorcerous Sundries, thinking it would be a relatively innocent visit. But her anger had been tested at the sight of poor Rolan, beaten and bruised by Lorroakan, and her fears kindled by the hunger in Gale’s eyes once they had found the Annals of Karsus. Then Gale had sparked her anger again, boasting to Lorroakan about his plans for the Crown—none of which he had disclosed to Dani at all—so Dani had retaliated by petulantly revealing his plans to Elminster when the old wizard had popped up unexpectedly outside the shop. Then there was her and Gale’s argument in the street, all before it was even noontime. 

That would have been enough for the day, except that they had spent the afternoon and evening infiltrating Cazador’s mansion to stop his ritual. That experience had been draining for everyone and the resulting conclusion of the events was bittersweet at best. Dani had stopped one of her best friends from giving in to his dark ambitions, but she still had her work cut out for her when it came to her own lover’s ambitions. 

She just wished everyone around her would stop being so damned power hungry. Was it so wrong to wish for nothing more than a warm home and for one’s friends and family to be safe and comfortable? She knew she could be greedy too, but her greed didn’t test the limits of reality or threaten thousands of lives all at once. It just emptied a few pockets. Maybe a few bank vaults.

At her silence, Gale shifted uncomfortably in his seat before at last giving a soft sigh of his own. “In truth, I wouldn’t blame you for giving me a wide berth. I thought the orb’s ever-present censure had tamed my wilder ambition, but that wasn’t the case. Obviously, as evidenced by all that I said and did today.” He shook his head. “There isn’t anything I can say that would excuse my reprehensible behavior. I’m sorry.”

She pressed her lips together this time, wavering between wanting to stay irritated and wanting to say that there was nothing to forgive and move on. But there were concerns she still had, questions he had yet to answer. She didn’t know where to start and so, after a moment, she simply pulled another chair over to the fire, near him, and sat down, watching the flames in silence. It took her another moment to finally put to words what she wanted to say.

“I’m not mad anymore about anything that happened today,” she said quietly. “I’m just…scared.”

“Scared?”

“Of losing you. To the orb. To Mystra. To your own ambition…” She shook her head, unable to look at him. She didn’t want to explain all of her fears right now. Some of them felt utterly stupid.

She couldn’t deny that she loved Gale, ambitions and all. What else could it be but love that kept her at his side? She’d abandoned relationships for far less in the past. No, she was certain with her entire being that she loved him more than she had ever loved anyone. But this path of godhood that he kept hinting at…if he was determined to follow it, it was a path she couldn’t take with him. She just wasn’t interested in abandoning this chaotic, colorful world just yet. Not for the Fugue Plane, not for an illithid life, not for godhood, not for anything.

But if she wouldn’t follow him…what then? The thought of leaving him or of him leaving her threatened to break her heart. She felt as though she’d never recover.

But she couldn’t say all that to him now. It felt petty and selfish to admit that the only reason she didn’t want him to become more powerful was because she was scared he’d leave her behind. She was petty and selfish, but Gale inspired goodness in her. It was ironic, truly. The very qualities that had inspired her to become a better person were the same qualities that he would give up if he continued to pursue the path of godhood for the “betterment of all,” as he’d boasted to Lorroakan that morning.

But what did she know, she thought bitterly to herself. She had never intimately known a god nor harbored ambition enough to actively plot to dethrone one.

Still…if she could at all sway him…

“Listen,” she said, eyes still on the fire. “I believe you’re capable of so many great things, Gale. I believe in you. Always have, always will. But when it comes to this plan with the crown…”

“All I am asking is that you consider it,” he said.

She made a helpless gesture with one hand. “I don’t even know how I could. How can I respond to something so…immense? It’s beyond comprehension. I want to understand, but I don’t.”

He was quiet for a moment before chuckling softly and shaking his head. “I don’t think I deserve you at times.”

“Gale,” Dani said softly, his name almost a resigned sigh as she said it. She didn’t want to hear this again. But Gale held up a hand.

“Please. Let me finish.” He paused, seeming to gather his thoughts, before taking a deep breath. “I watched how you handled the events with Cazador and Astarion today. You showed nothing but compassion and courage. Your heart bled for the victims in their cages. You sought a way to save as many people as you could, despite impossible odds. And you didn’t allow Astarion’s desperation or impassioned speeches to sway you or change your mind.”

“I didn’t want to lose one of my best friends,” she said. “If Astarion had ascended…he wouldn’t be Astarion anymore.”

“I know. Yet it could have been so easy to give in. To let him have his way, simply because you are his friend. But you didn’t. You appealed to a nobler part of him, risking your friendship to keep him from changing. From transforming into something more. Something sinister.” Gale paused again, glancing back at Astarion across the room. His expression softened into a thoughtful, yet sorrowful look. “I can’t help but wonder. Do you see the same kind of choice when you look at me?”

She didn’t answer, but her silence was answer enough. She looked back at the flames, watching them crackle and spark, letting them fill the silence. 

“I hope that isn’t your final judgment of me,” he said. “I hope that you can give me another chance to earn your faith. I want you to continue to believe in me. I want to show you the wizard I am capable of being, rather than the poor excuse for a man who’s kept you company thus far.”

“Gale, stop,” she said, finally turning to face him fully, twisting in her chair. “Stop calling yourself a poor excuse for a man. That isn’t what I think of you. I know I get frustrated with you, but it’s because I see so much good in you.” She reached for his hand and enveloped it in both of her own. “I don’t want to lose you to the Crown any more than I wanted to lose Astarion to Cazador’s power. You mean everything to me, Gale. Worth more even than music and magic.”

“You won’t lose me,” Gale said, tightening his hold on her hand. “If anything, you’ll gain so much more for being with me. Please. Let me show you.”

“Gale—”

“Even if a permanent place in the heavens isn’t for us, at least allow me a chance to show you what it would be like. Indulge me. Close your eyes. Allow me to take you on a little boat voyage.”

She frowned, wanting to resist. But she could tell this was important to him. She breathed a small sigh and closed her eyes, keeping one hand in his. 

She heard him murmur a spell and felt the aura of magic shift around her, the warmth of the Elfsong Tavern room giving way to much cooler air. Her skin tingled all over with the touch of magic, while Gale’s hand remained solid and warm in her own.

“Few mortals ever glimpse what you’re about to see. But don’t be alarmed—I’m here with you.” He gave her fingers a gentle squeeze. “Now…open your eyes.”

When she opened her eyes, she found herself seated in a glowing blue boat with Gale sitting across from her. All around them, the sky, the space below, all of it was filled with scattered stars and clouds of purple, pink, and blue stardust. The galaxies and starfields stretched on infinitely around them, swirling peacefully in silence. Their boat drifted easily along a current of shimmering magic and when she lifted her free hand over the edge of the boat, her fingers caused tiny motes of starlight to drift and float through the air.

“Quite the view, isn’t it?” Gale said, looking around them. “The Outer Planes are a place of profound, sometimes overwhelming possibility.”

“It’s beautiful,” she whispered. She gazed out over the infinite expanse, waiting to feel that reeling, terrifying sensation of being suspended over a void, but it didn’t come. She was safe in Gale’s little boat, his hold on her hand grounding her and keeping her steady. 

“The home of the gods,” he continued. “Where they observe us from afar. Where they make play-things of us. Such power…infinite possibilities…how could I not crave this?”

She fell silent, focusing instead on the specks of starlight that fanned out behind her fingers, watching them dance briefly in the atmosphere and fade. He said it so simply, as though it were natural to crave such wondrous power. And maybe it was. Maybe she was the fool for limiting her desires to the Material Plane.

Not for the first time, she burned with jealousy toward Mystra and hated all that she had gifted Gale. All that she had made Gale capable of. How could a mere bard compare to a goddess who allowed him to tap into the mysteries of magic itself? And even now, with Gale hardly interested in reconciling with the goddess, who was she compared to all the power of the crown? Who was she compared to all this?

Gale could have this again. This and more. And she, with her small dreams and her fragile love, a love that would only last a mortal lifetime…she would fade into obscurity. Even if she managed to secure a legacy for her name, her body would rot in its grave and her soul would wander the Fugue Plane for an eternity until some god took pity on her and accepted her into their domain.

Perhaps if Gale became a god, he would be the one to take pity. She’d dwell forever in his domain of stars as one among a million other souls. One more copper in a vast bank, utterly forgotten by him, yet unable to escape him. The thought churned her gut and threatened to make her sick.

She swallowed, half-preparing herself for the worst outcomes for the rest of this conversation. “Is this really, truly what you want? To ascend? To claim godhood?”

“No, not like that,” he said, squeezing her hand. “I don’t want to join them, I want to better them—with you at my side, willing and wholehearted. Together we could become better than gods. We could have all of a god’s power with a mortal conscience, a mortal heart. I can think of no better candidate for redefining godhood than you.”

“I don’t want godhood,” she said. “I know you think it sounds insane that I don’t, and maybe it is, but…” She shook her head. “I’ve read too many stories, too many tragic ballads about what happens to mortals who ascend to godhood. They change, Gale. And they leave the ones they love behind.”

Gale sat back, a little surprised. “Is that what you think I intend to do to you?”

“Not immediately. But who knows how you would change once all that power was coursing through you. You saw how Cazador was—you saw how hungry Astarion was to claim that power. You know it would have changed him. Think how much more godhood would change you.”

“But it wouldn’t be true godhood,” he said, tightening his hold on her hand. “The power of gods would be at our fingertips, yes, but we could be—we could find a way to—”

“Stop with the bullshit,” Dani snapped, snatching her hand from his. “You can’t even articulate it because there’s nothing else to call it. You want to use the power of the crown to become a god. That kind of power corrupts, Gale. And if that’s what you want then—then—“

Her throat tightened suddenly with the threat of tears and she looked away, struggling to compose herself. She hated crying, especially here, where there was nowhere to hide, but there was no stopping the emotions building up inside her. She hid her face briefly behind her hand, but it was no use. The wide expansive of pink and purple starlight winked back at her and illuminated the flood of tears that welled up in her eyes.

Gale reached for her hands again. “Dani, I—”

She shook off his touch. “Don’t. I can’t—I can’t let you do this,” she said, the tears spilling down her cheeks. “Please. I know what you’d become and it would be nothing like the man you are now. And no matter how you would try to justify things or convince me to join you, I could never bring myself to abandon my family like that. Never. So in the end you would leave me behind, because nothing about me is enough to convince you to stay. So you’d leave, I know you would, because that’s how power works. It corrupts, it—“ She was rambling now, not making sense, her words a tangle on her tongue.

“Dani, please,” he begged, getting on his knees on the floor of the boat, taking both of her hands in his. “None of that is going to happen.”

“Isn’t it?” she asked. “Look me in the eye and swear to me that the moment your humanity is stripped away in your ascension that you won’t forget tiny, insignificant, mortal me, the lover you’re leaving behind, the moment I refused to ascend with you.”

He hesitated for just a fraction of a second, but it was enough to confirm her fears. She snatched her hands from his again and used the heels of her palms to wipe the tears from her cheeks.

“Gods, I hate you,” she mumbled, but it was a complete lie. The fact was she loved him too much. Desired him too selfishly to let him reach for godly power. She swallowed and amended her statement. “Not you. This. I hate this. Sorry.”

It was his turn to be silent in the face of her confessions and her tears. She pressed the heels of her hands to her eyes and breathed softly through her nose until at last she felt calm enough to speak. Then she took a shaky breath and reached out to cradle his face in her hands. 

“Please, Gale,” she said quietly. “Don’t do this. I don’t need the stars. I don’t need eternity. I just want you. For all that you are right now. I love you for the man that you are, not the god you’d pretend to be.”

He stared up at her, stricken but amazed, his hands resting on her knees. There was a faint glimmer in his eyes that could either be tears or the reflection of the stars around them, but when he blinked the glimmer was gone.

“You…you would really prefer me as I am?” he asked softly. 

“Yes,” she said. There was no room for doubt in her heart, nor any in her words. “You’re already everything I need you to be and more. Just…please. Let me be enough for you. Let me find a way.”

“Oh Dani,” he breathed. He rose to one knee and slipped one hand behind her head, guiding her down into a deep kiss that stole her breath and made her a little dizzy. She clutched the fabric of his shirt, trying to bring him closer and steady herself at the same time, trying to convey all the desperate longing and fear she couldn’t put into words silently through their kiss.

He pulled away, breathless, cradling her cheek in his palm. “I used to believe Mystra’s forgiveness was worth dying for. Or that the only way forward was to challenge her. But I was wrong. You showed me just how much I have to live for, here, on mortal soil. With you, I forget my goddess. With you, I want to live. With you…I even forget my greater ambitions. You put the very stars to shame, Dani.”

She felt her breath hitch as her eyes widened slightly. Of all the things she was expecting to hear him say, those words were not it. She searched his face for signs that he’d changed his mind, and found him staring back at her earnestly, dark eyes full of love and longing. For the first time that day, she dared herself to hope, just a little.

“I don’t deserve you,” he said. “And I could never leave you behind. Godly power, I can live without, but you? You’re everything.”

She stared, half-disbelieving, but his gaze was sincere and warm and so full of love she couldn’t help but be convinced. She curled her fingers around his wrist, not sure what to say next, but he merely smiled, grateful and tender, and brushed her cheek with the pad of his thumb. 

“I love you,” he murmured.

“I love you, too,” she whispered, leaning in to kiss him again.

He guided her off the seat of the boat down onto the floorboards, dismissing the benches with an idle wave of his hand to make room for them to lay down at the bottom of the boat. There he kissed her, breathing her in as naturally as if she were air, and she lost herself in his warm touch. The galaxies above swirled dream-like and slow overhead as their fingers found each others’ buttons and laces, their clothes slipping off with practiced ease, until both lay bare beneath the infinite sky, her pale blue skin tinged a faint shade of lavender by the light of the pink-purple stardust.

She combed her fingers through his hair as he kissed all over her, sighing and arching her back as he worshipped her body more than he’d ever done before, as if he were making up for a litany of mistakes. She could scarcely think straight yet she tried to encourage him with her words, breathing out her love and pleasure in half-lucid lyric fragments and shaky swears alike. He lavished love on her with his mouth, his teeth, his tongue, his hands, until at last he joined their bodies together and she unraveled. Every tangled thought and emotion unwound itself as pleasure coursed through her veins until they were both left spent, lying on the floor of the softly glowing boat, and she was left with nothing but her love for him and a dazed sense of amazement that here, amid the infinite expanse of stars and magic, he had chosen her.

Some time later, as they lay gazing up at the stars, with Gale fingers threading idly through her long, loose hair, he turned and brushed a kiss against her head. “I’m sorry for upsetting you,” he said quietly. “I had no idea you felt so strongly about…well.”

She wrapped her arms more tightly around him. “I love you, Gale. I don’t want to lose you to anything. Not even this. As pretty as it is. You’ll have to forgive me for being so selfish with you.”

He chuckled, kissing her hair again. “There’s nothing at all to forgive, my love. Be selfish with me.”

They contemplated the stars and auroras that surrounded their little boat, words lost between them for a moment, until at last Gale, trailing gentle fingers down her arm, began to speak again softly.

“I conjured this illusion often during my confinement in Waterdeep,” he said. “An escape for the mind, where there was none for the body. It was easier to stare at the celestial abyss than recognize the emptiness within myself. Easier to pretend my destiny lay among such stars, than work to salvage a life on solid ground.” 

He turned his head and she lifted her chin so she could meet his gaze again, her heart aching for him. She could all too easily imagine him locked in his tower, conjuring images of these galaxies and planes, desperate to be outside the walls that enclosed him for a year. Longing to be back among infinite beauty, rather than confined and seemingly trapped in a small set of rooms on the mundane Material Plane. She had thought the illusion he had conjured of his home in Waterdeep was charming and wonderful…but she could see how it must have felt like a prison to him.

“You changed all that,” he murmured, gazing down at her. “You see me as I am, and do not find me wanting.”

He seemed a little awed by that, but not disbelieving. She smiled and sat up, straddling his hips and taking his hands, lifting them up to her lips for a kiss to each one. Her long hair trailed down around her, the ends brushing against her thighs, against his bare chest and stomach. She held his hands, weaving their fingers together, and pushed his arms up so that they stretched over his head, leaning in to kiss him sweetly, her lips lingering on his.

“I will never find you wanting,” she murmured against his lips.

“Nor I, you,” he said. He freed one hand from her grip to move her hair from her face, gathering it all over one shoulder so the light of the galaxies and stars beyond could shine on her face again. “With these stars as my witness, I swear—you will always be enough for me.”

She stilled at those words, letting them wash over her and settle into her skin, into her chest, processing them. His words, the emotion behind them, the loving determination in his eyes, all of his was genuine, heartfelt, and deeply, deeply meant. It threatened to reduce Dani to tears again, but this time she swallowed them back and kissed him again, letting him know with every ounce of her being what that promise meant to her.

She thought she could never love him more than she already did. But hearing that promise from him—that she would always be enough for him—made her heart practically ache with love for him. She smothered his face with kisses until she was breathless, and he in turn tried to catch or return every one until he gave up and allowed himself to be smothered with a chuckle.

“I love you, Gale Dekarios,” she said at last, still hovering over him, her hair a curtain on one side of them both. 

He smiled up at her and reached up to brush her cheek. “And I love you, Meridan Zavrai. I always will.”

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #gale #gale dekarios #gale x tav #dani #meridan zavrai #my fic #oc #the order of events is actually what happened in my game #from rolan to the annals to lorroakan to cazador #like it was a wild day #and then when gale said 'i don't think i deserve you at times' #i thought ht had like...learned his lesson #nope #so anyway here is a rewrite #no edits we die like men

[mumms-the-word]

Forearms

Pairing: Gale x Tav (Dani) Summary: Set immediately after this fic about Dani settling into a new life with her companions on the road, Dani offers to mend Gale's robe. Which involves him having to take it off, naturally. (no smut, just Dani being ridiculous about Gale's forearms) A/N: This is 100% the moment where Dani is like "oh no he's hot." She thinks everyone is hot, but this is the moment where Gale starts to rise above everyone for her. It's silly, it's stupid, and I wrote it like months ago, but y'all asked for it lmao also yes this does adhere to the Gale Wrap Shirt Theory (I just borrowed Astarion's shirt because I don't have mods)

Dani stretched out her back and got to her feet, leaving behind her now-sorted camp supplies to make her way over to Gale and his cooking fire. She peered down into the pot before looking at Gale. “What’s for dinner tonight?”

“Stew,” Gale said, smiling apologetically. “I hesitate to give it any more of a descriptor than that. Oh, and a few leftover loaves of bread, too. Might as well use them up before they go bad. I think one of them was starting to mold…”

He said this last line to himself, turning to rifle through the box that contained most of their food. He pulled out a small, torn half-loaf of bread and examined it, turning it this way and that before tearing it and peering inside. Dani reached over and plucked the smaller half from his fingers, claiming it for herself. She tore off a bit and popped it into her mouth.

“Seems decent to me,” she said.

Gale looked briefly alarmed before shaking his head, amused. “You’d probably eat it even if it had mold on it.”

“Not true. I’d scrape the mold off first and eat around it. Wouldn’t be the first time.” She raised her eyebrows at him as she pulled off another bite of bread to eat, silently challenging him to judge her.

Gale made a face but didn’t respond, turning back to his stew and flicking his wrist. The spectral mage hand that was stirring the pot lifted the ladle for him to inspect. He picked up a small spoon from his utensil set (of course he had a utensil set wrapped in leather, a hodgepodge set he’d collected over the last couple of days, but that he kept packed away like it was some sort of adventurer’s kit) and used the spoon to taste the broth in the ladle.

“Hmm…nearly there, I think,” he said. He let the mage hand go back to stirring while he wiped his spoon on a bit of cloth he had tucked into his belt. “Gods, what I wouldn’t give for my spice shelf. Or just some extra salt.”

“Just add it to the list of things we’ll buy as soon as we see any,” Dani said, still eating her bit of bread piece by little torn piece. “I know I have a running list of my own.”

“Far be it from me to add to your growing shopping list of potentially expensive and ever practical items,” Gale said dryly, “but if you do happen to find a small case of salt, or any spice really, I think we’d all be a little better for it. It shouldn’t detract too much from your funds. I know you’re careful with your money.”

She arched an eyebrow. As the team’s craftiest barterer, she was in possession of most of the money, and her companions had already watched her haggle and cajole until a price was a bit closer to where she’d prefer it to be. Sometimes it took a minute.

She thought about pointing out that she was “careful” with her gold for a variety of reasons, including stocking up an emergency fund for magical items should his arcane hunger trigger and she find herself without something to give him. But she stayed silent, watching him pull a few herbs from their food box and set them on a flat rock he’d taken to using as a cutting board. He sat with the rock in his lap, cutting the herbs up with a dagger that he kept on hand for food preparation. As he turned to hold the rock over the cookpot and brush the chopped herbs into the stew, she noticed a bit of white peeking through his purple robe sleeve, right at the shoulder seam. A tear in the fabric.

“Take off your robe,” she said.

He jolted, nearly dropping the rock and dagger directly into the stew. “I beg your pardon?” Maybe it was the firelight and the darkening shadows of dusk, but Dani could have sworn his face was suddenly pinker than before.

“Your robe,” Dani said, tossing the last bit of bread into her mouth and holding out her hand. “Take it off. You’ve got a tear.”

“Wha—a tear?” Gale looked all down his arms and the front of his robe before twisting his neck to spot the rip in his shoulder. “Argh, damn. This was one of my better robes, too…”

Dani snickered and gestured for him to get on with it. “Come on, hand it over. I’ll fix it for you.”

“What—now?” 

“Why not? You’re busy. Everyone else is busy—well, except Astarion. And I can mend it for you.”

Gale looked a little surprised. “I didn’t know you could mend.”

She shrugged. “My mother is a seamstress and I used to help her out every now and again. Plus, when you’re on the road, you have to keep up with a few skills. You’re just lucky we have a bit of needle and thread on hand. So.” She gestured again with her hand.

Gale squirmed as if uncomfortable. “I’m sure it can wait. The stew is nearly ready and we’re all about to dress down for the night. I can give it to you then.”

Dani rolled her eyes. “Oh come on, Gale. If it was armor Lae’zel would be hounding you until you gave it up for her to fix. If it was your spellbook you’d want to mend it as soon as possible. Just take it off and let me do it.”

“Fine, fine.” He held up his hands, his face still a little flushed, but he acquiesced. He undid the belt around his middle and tugged off his leather bracers before finally untying the robe and shrugging it off. He still looked a little sheepish, but he willingly handed the robe over to her. 

The moment the robe was off, something shifted in Dani’s mind. She realized only then that she’d only ever seen him either fully dressed in his robes or in his velvety lounge clothes, but never in just his white wrap shirt and high-waisted pants. She paused a moment, her eyes roving over his form. In just his shirt, pants, and boots, he cut a trim figure, looking a bit like one of the handsome men drawn on the covers of tawdry romance novels she used to read back in Baldur’s Gate. Especially when he set one hand on his hip and frowned faintly at her, his earring glinting in the firelight.

“I hope it won’t take too long,” he said.

She blinked. Oh right, the robe. “It’s a simple tear, super easy to fix,” she said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

She turned and hurried away, her own face feeling a little warm. Was she honestly thinking…no. Well—maybe. Gale was handsome. No point in ignoring otherwise. But Gale in just a shirt and trousers? Or, perhaps, Gale in just his trousers…or, going further, Gale in nothing but—

Gods, Dani! She mentally shook herself and sat back down at her bedroll, digging her sewing kit from her bag. Now was not the time. She said she’d mend his robe and she would, so she had better get started.

But mending was mindless work for her, leaving her alone to her thoughts, so of course her mind drifted back to the subject of Gale as she dragged needle and thread through the purple fabric of his robe. Why was she only now struck by how handsome he looked? Sure, she’d flirted with him before, but she flirted harmlessly with everyone in camp. It wasn’t her fault she was surrounded by attractive companions. But Gale…

She glanced surreptitiously at him as he worked by the cooking fire, his focus on the food. He’d rolled up his sleeves to his elbows to keep his cuffs away from the food, which was honestly worse for Dani. Rolled up sleeves and forearms? She could just swoon. She watched as he packed away unused food items and utensils, muscles in his forearms flexing, the dark hair on his arms made darker by the dusk and firelight. He stood back and rested both hands on his hips as he watched the stew, his white shirt stretching a little more tightly across his chest.

She bit her lip and focused back on the robe. Just get it done, girl, and then give it back so you can go back to thinking he’s just a fun, quirky wizard nerd and not the hottest guy in camp.

Oh gods, if only.

...was he the hottest guy in camp? 

She glanced around quickly at Astarion, still lounging with his book. His lips made a pretty pout as he read and his hair was damn near perfect, but he didn’t make Dani’s heart flutter in quite the same way the sight of Gale in his wrap shirt and rolled up sleeves did. She searched for Wyll, walking around in his ragged black tank and black trousers, his biceps glistening with a fine sheen of sweat as he carried the last of the firewood over to Gale. Even with his devil horns, he was an attractive man. Dani was tempted to think he was even hotter than Gale—until Wyll set the fire down near Gale and Dani was forced to compare the two of them again.

…damn. What was it about Gale?

Gale glanced her way, raising his eyebrows at her questioningly when he caught her staring. She felt her heart go ba-dump like some cliche heroine in a romance novel and she quickly lowered her gaze back to her work.

Damn it. It was his eyes wasn’t it? His big, stupid, wet brown eyes, made darker and richer in the evening light. That and those stupid forearms she’d never seen before.

She almost wished she could go back to fifteen minutes ago, when she thought Gale was “handsome enough” but not exactly tempting. Not with Astarion smirking at her from across the campfire and Wyll flirting with all of them, not to mention all the flirting she’d done with Karlach and Shadowheart and Lae’zel too. She forced her attention back on the final stitches, determined to get this robe fixed as soon as possible.

She finished the last stitch and knotted the thread, giving the fabric a little tug on either side of the mended seam to test the strength of her work. Not bad, she had to admit. It almost looked as good as new.

She looked back at Gale and then down at the robe. She should give it back. Right now. Immediately. But…then again…if she kept it longer, he’d have to walk around without it longer. Which meant more eye candy for her, in theory. She pursed her lips, glancing back at Gale again.

No! She had to give it back. Now or never, Dani!

She got to her feet and walked back over to the fire, his purple robe tossed over her arm. He looked up from the cookpot again as she stopped near him.

“All finished?” he asked. “You do quick work.”

“Thanks,” she said, holding out the robe to him. Be casual, Dani girl, don’t be odd. “I’m famished. How much longer until dinnertime?” Success!

“Any moment now, I suspect.” 

He took the robe and examined the seams, running his thumb over the stitches. She was caught up watching his hands, admiring the perfect shape of his nails and how long and slender his fingers were. A pianist’s hands, she thought idly. An artist's hands. The kind of hands she'd want drawing patterns on her skin, fingers curling into her softer parts, sliding up her thighs to—snap out of it!

She sucked a short breath through her nose, trying to distract herself. Her gaze traveled up to his wrists, and then his bared forearms. There was a faint hint of ash lingering in his arm hairs from standing so close to the fire. Without thinking, she reached out and brushed it away. He looked up, surprised and she snatched her hand back, hiding it behind her back like she’d done something wrong.

“Sorry,” she said. “Just some—some ash. You should probably put that robe back on. As soon as possible, probably.”

Oh gods, she could just die.

Gale stared at her a moment before glancing at his arms again and then the robe. She saw something shift in his expression as his eyes came back up to meet hers, but she dared not interpret it. That, she thought, would be a dangerous mind game and her imagination was already working overtime.

“Well,” she said, and hated how weirdly breathless the word came out of her mouth. She cleared her throat. “I’ll go fetch the others, then, shall I?”

Without waiting for him to respond, she turned on her heel and hurried away, intending to go after whoever was the furthest away from the cook fire. Surely she’d cool off in the time it took to gather everyone. Fantasies were for bedtime, not right before dinner when the object of her fancy was right there.

But when she finally returned after all that, he was still standing in his wrap shirt with the sleeves rolled up. He hadn’t even put the robe back on. He laid it off to the side.  She glanced at the robe and then up to Gale, who was ladling stew into bowls and passing them around. He caught her eyes and gave her a faint, intentional smirk meant just for her before turning his attention back to the stew.

That’s when Dani knew, with a rush of realization that struck her a bit like lightning and left her sitting, silent and dazed and a little offended and a little impressed.

She’d been as obvious as day, and now he was teasing her about it. And that smirk? He was being a bit of an arrogant bastard…but gods, he was suddenly all the sexier for it.

She was doomed.

#bg3 #bg3 fic #bg3 fanfic #my fic #my tav #dani #meridan zavrai #gale #gale dekarios #please enjoy this nonsense lol

[mumms-the-word]

The Art of the Night

Day 27 of the BG3 Fic February Challenge

Did I already have this scene written? Yes I absolutely did. I like Gale's romance scene but I was so disappointed when the game created a mashup of the Kama Sutra and One Thousand and One Nights and DIDN'T let us read passages from it.

So made up some passages for myself.

Check out my masterlist of BG3 fics!

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27. Choose any scene in the game and write it with your headcanon

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How about the perfect night in Waterdeep? Yes…let’s imagine how it would be. The scene is this: you and I stand in the room that is the centre of my universe. The sculptures, the paintings, the walls enlivened by the spines of a thousand books. The grand piano plays the Lliirian Suites all by itself, and as we look out beyond the arches that lead to the terrace, we see the weary sun take its daily dive into the sea.

———

Dani moved to the railing of the terrace, placing her hands on the wood and leaning her weight against it. It felt as real as any she’d touched in Baldur’s Gate, worn smooth by craftsmen, time, and weather. She closed her eyes and soaked in the warmth of the setting sun and the salt of the briny sea air. Just like home…

She knew it was all illusion and fantasy, that the magic was merely tricking her mind into feeling the weight of the wood and smelling the scent of the sea. But for the moment, she wanted to exist in that illusion. After so many days surrounded by decay, the warmth and light of even a setting sun was like a balm to her spirit and body.

She felt Gale join her at the railing and she opened her eyes, turning to look at him. But his gaze was on the horizon, a deeply thoughtful, almost sorrowful expression on his face. Despite the obvious concentration it must take to make and maintain this illusion, his mind was clearly on the future and the choice he felt was all but inevitable. He gazed at the horizon like a man who knew he would never see such a sight again.

She wanted to reach out and caress his cheek, turn his face back to hers, kiss him until he forgot all his worries. But she settled, for now, with taking his hand.

He glanced down, as if surprised, and then met her gaze. He gave her a soft smile. 

“What do you think?” he asked.

She gave his hand a squeeze. “I love it. I could spend every evening watching the sunset here, with you.” 

“Could you?” He seemed surprised by her words, lifting his head to gaze out over the ocean again, as if looking at it a little differently than before.

“Once all of this is over, yes. I’m a sucker for a good sunset.” She tilted her head, waiting for him to smile at her little remark, but he was lost in thought once more, his eyes scanning the world around them. Memorizing, she realized, or perfecting the memory. As though this might truly be the last night his eyes beheld the scene.

She couldn’t let him stay lost in his thoughts. She tugged on his hand, leading him back to the cushioned bench that sat off to one side. There, she sat down and patted the space beside her, inviting him to join her. He smiled faintly. 

“My favorite spot,” he said, gesturing toward her. He settled beside her, body close, shoulders brushing. “Many times, evening turned to night and back to daybreak once more while I sat here, lost in words.”

She raised her eyebrows playfully at him. “Oh? Up all night reading? I do love that rebellious streak of yours.”

He gave her a teasing, half-mischievous look. “Allow me to live dangerously while I still can.”

His words, though said with humor, made her smile falter. She didn’t want to think about that now. His possible death. Not while they were, for the moment, surrounded by the comforts of home, his home, far, far away from the Absolute.

“What sorts of books did you read?” she asked. “It can’t have all been spell tomes. At least, I hope not.”

He chuckled. “No, not all spell tomes or magical theory, though there was plenty of that as well. I’d read just about anything I could get my hands on, if it interested me. History, philosophy, literature, poetry…romance…”

He shifted to reveal a book on the side table behind him. “This,” he said, reaching for the book, “might just be all of that wrapped in one.”

Dani glanced at the cover and instantly recognized it. “Is that…?”

“The Art of the Night,” he said, running his hand over the cover. It depicted a man and a woman in sensual embrace, their bodies fluid and ethereal. Around the woman’s head was a round halo of divinity, like a thin crescent moon in the starry sky that surrounded them. “It details the first thousand nights of a newlywed king and queen. They turned everything they did into an art. The art of conversation. The art of taste, time-honored and newly acquired.”

His thumb idly traced the halo of divinity around the woman’s head. “The art of the body. The exploration and acceptance of the self and the other. The art of the night itself.”

“I’m familiar with this story,” Dani said, reaching for the book. He gave it willingly, watching as she traced a finger along the curving lines of the woman’s body.

She recalled what she knew…what she had memorized, back when she’d gotten her hands on a version of the king and queen’s story a couple of years ago. She hadn’t kept it long, because her troupe had to travel light and books were heavy, so she had only memorized a few pages to entertain her fancy when she could no longer read the physical copy. It wasn't much, but what she did remember was that this tale was more than fairy tale. It was sheer, poetic eroticism, beautiful and haunting, alluring and sensual.

She stood and wandered a step or two away, opening the book and flipping through the first few pages, her eyes skimming the text. It wasn’t precisely the same as the tale she’d read. In the margins of the text, on nearly every page, there were magic symbols and words. Each night was embellished with the markings for a spell or a ritual, accompanied by poetic instructions on how to recreate the experiences and lessons the noble couple gained in their first three years of marriage. And, more than occasionally, the pages contained diagrams of the couple in the various ways they experienced their pleasure, drawn in the same fluid, ephemeral style as the cover. 

This copy, this version, wasn’t just the tale itself, she realized. It was both the romantic, erotic tale and a magical Quarta Sune, both poetry and sex manual, mixing in magic and making the hypothetical romance of the king and queen entirely possible, if one knew how to manipulate the spells.

She turned to a passage she knew well, almost by heart. She was quiet a moment, reconnecting with the words, before she began to speak them softly, a note of fondness in her voice.

“‘That night, the king met his beloved once more in their chambers,’” she read. 

“‘Dearest one,’ said he,  ‘Gold I have given thee,  and jewels from my store;  chains for thy neck  and bands for thy wrists;  and still, thine eyes shine more brilliantly  than any treasure in my kingdom. 

‘What gem in all the realms  can be more precious than thy gaze?  What more can I give to you,  my beloved, so that you may know  the ardent depths of my heart?  What more, when thine eyes alone  make all riches seem as dull iron?’

‘Tender-hearted king,’ said the queen,  ‘I need neither gold nor gems;  my love is not so cheaply bought  nor so willingly sold.  And yet, already thou possess  that which I long for most.  Thy steady gaze, my love,  and thy faithful hand are all I ask.’”

Gale stood and joined her, brushing nearly against her back as he looked over her shoulder and spoke the next few lines softly in her ear.

“‘Come, take my hand,  and look beyond this simple visage. I will bare my soul to thee, this night,  and gaze boldly at thine. For more than bone and blood are we, but spirits merely housed in flesh.’”

Dani’s breath caught, her mind distracted by the way his breath stirred her hair, by how close his lips were to her neck. She turned her head slightly and found his dark eyes watching her. He hadn’t been reading the lines, but reciting them from memory.

She was at a loss for words. He was barely touching her and yet she felt like her entire body was slowly kindling aflame, warmth spreading from her core to her toes and the very tips of her horns. She clutched the book a little tighter, casting about for something to say.

“My, um…my copy didn’t have pictures,” she breathed. "Or spells."

He blinked, as if processing her words, and then chuckled, shaking his head. “You were missing out, then. Some of the later diagrams can be quite…fascinating.”

When he looked at her again, his smile was half-apologetic and half-admiring. “You know…I must have read that passage a thousand times, but never have I heard the words expressed so beautifully as you did now. You have a gift, Dani. You are…” 

He trailed off, his gaze slowly taking in the features of her face, lingering a moment on her lips before meeting her eyes again. “You are wonderful,” he breathed. “So wonderful I can scarcely believe any of this to be real.”

Dani didn’t know what to say to that. She felt lost in his brown-eyed gaze, trying to discern shades of deep amber from chestnut and mahogany, enchanted by the flecks of bronze that appeared in the light of the setting sun. She had never considered herself a fawning romantic, but staring into his eyes, she felt she could all too easily become one.

After several heartbeats, Gale dropped his gaze to the book, gently taking it from her hands. “Can I show you?” he asked, turning the pages. “What they mean? To experience love and pleasure in more ways than just the body?”

“You mean…like the gods do,” she said, turning to face him, the book between them. “Like you said before.”

“Precisely.” He smoothed flat the pages of the book, showing her two diagrams of hands, magic symbols and poetry surrounding the sketches. “Why confine ourselves to the pleasures of mortal flesh? It is but one stitch in a vast tapestry. Let me show you more.”

Something about the brightness in his eyes made her hesitate. He would know more than her what pleasures could exist outside the body, she supposed, and she trusted him. And yet…

As if sensing her hesitation, he closed his eyes in concentration. Dani felt herself grow lighter, floating apart from her body. The sky around them darkened and then shone with a million brilliant stars, draped with purple, blue, and red stardust shimmering in clouds and galaxies, appearing both within reach and endlessly far away. The more she turned her head to look, the more the structures and objects of Waterdeep fell away, leaving them in the expanse of beautiful, eternal space. Even their bodies were left behind. They existed now as spirits only, shining and translucent. 

“What do you think?” he asked again. “Beautiful, is it not?”

It was, but already she missed the real Gale. As a spirit, his eyes glowed with magic and she could see the stars through his body. But while the swirling galaxies and glittering stars were stunning, she missed his rich brown eyes. When she reached out to brush his arm, she found his body simultaneously tangible and intangible, as though a mere thought could allow her to phase through him completely. 

She had no doubt that if they stayed like this, Gale would reveal a hundred avenues of pleasure she had never experienced before, but her selfish little heart didn’t want to be impressed by magic. She just wanted the man himself.

“It’s our first night together, Gale,” she said. She could still sense her body, somewhere in the material plane, and focused there, reaching out to it like an anchor. Outside of the galaxy illusion, she placed her hands over his and closed the book. The visions of galaxies melted away, their spectral bodies becoming physical and visible once more, though the illusion of Waterdeep remained. “Shouldn’t we start somewhere closer to the beginning? I want to experience you first. We'll have time to try all the rest later.”

He looked doubtful. “Are you sure?”

“Gale,” she whispered softly, pressing her hand to his chest, over his heart. Her touch silenced him in an instant, though he still looked uncertain. “I’ve never been more sure. Tonight isn’t the end for us.”

This was what she wanted, more than the beautiful illusions or spectral experiences. She felt his heart beating beneath her palm, felt the warmth of his body. She wanted more of that. More of the real, touchable Gale, with his soft brown hair and his gentle, dark eyes. She wanted to slip her hands beneath his shirt and touch his skin, feel the way his muscles twitched or tensed when her fingers grazed over them. She longed to taste his lips and feel the weight of him against her and watch his face flush and see how far that flush traveled down his neck and chest.

With her other hand, she gently slipped the book from his grip and set it on the railing. She stepped into the space between them, filling it with her body, pressing her palm more firmly against his chest. “You are what I want, Gale. The real man in front of me. Not the illusion and not the fantasy."

"But—"

"You don’t have to worry about impressing me. I’m no goddess.”

“Yes, you are,” he said, placing his hand over hers. He said it as though it were a fact, irrefutable, and with such warmth that it made her breath hitch. 

She was used to admiration, entertainer that she was. She was used to praise. She was used to flattery. But the deep sincerity of his words and the way he looked at her was new. He spun poetry from mere words without even trying, and she was always caught off balance by the beauty of it.

But then his clever smile was back, and he said, “Trust me, I would know.”

She scoffed and gave him a light shove. He swayed on his heels but didn’t budge, chuckling at her feigned irritation.

“That said…" He kept ahold of her hand, threading his fingers with hers as he lowered them away from his chest. "Will you meet me halfway?”

“Halfway?”

He snapped his fingers and the balcony and sunset shifted, bookshelf-laden walls enclosing around them once more. But rather than his study, this room was a little smaller, a large canopied bed taking up the majority of the space. Stacks of books sat precariously on beside tables and spots on the floor while a fireplace burned cheerfully on one wall, a cushy armchair angled in front of it. Dani half expected to find Tara curled up in the armchair, though she hadn’t the faintest idea what Tara might look like.

“Your bedroom?” she asked, tilting her head. "In Waterdeep?"

“Indulge me,” he said. “Unless you’d like a canopy of stars once more.”

She shook her head. If this was a true, or mostly true, reflection of Gale’s room in Waterdeep, she was in no hurry to leave. She looked around with interest, but some of the details, like the words on the spines of books, shifted and blurred beneath her vision, as though Gale didn’t want her looking too closely. 

Not matter. She wasn’t here to read anyway.

“I’m sure you’ll find the bed more than comfortable,” he said. “And, should I soon find myself a little too distracted to maintain the rest of the illusion, the bed will remain. For a few hours, at least.”

She arched an eyebrow at him and he shrugged, offering no further comment. She grinned and hopped onto the bed, flopping back with her arms spread. He was right. It was solid beneath her, not at all an illusion, and it was certainly comfortable. Better than the bedrolls on hard ground that she’d been sleeping on this past month or so.

“Oh, I could get use to this,” she said, settling right in. “You’ll have to teach me this little spell.” She lifted a hand and gestured like she was revealing words on a banner. “Conjure Bed. School of…er…”

“Conjuration,” he finished, the humor obvious in his voice. “As the name implies.”

“Right, I could have guessed that.” She propped herself up on one elbow to find him watching her again, that same fond, enchanted look he’d worn the last few days, especially tonight. She held out her hand to him, an open invitation for him to join her. “Well? What are you waiting for?”

He opened his mouth as though to answer, paused, and then shook his head fondly. “Nothing. Nothing at all.”

He reached out and took her hand, climbing onto the bed with her. She lay back, cradling his face in her hands as he rested part of his weight against her, gazing down at her with a look so filled with love she could only smile and stare. 

There they were, those dark eyes she loved so much. There, too, was the oddly pleasant scratch of his beard against her palms, the softness of his hair as her fingertips sank into it, the heat and weight of his body as it pressed her into the downy mattress. Exactly as she wanted it.

“I love you,” she whispered.

His smile was gentle and loving, reflecting her words before he even spoke them. “I love you, too, Meridan Zavrai.”

He bent his head to kiss her and she let the world around her fade into a hazy blur, until at last the only thing she could see, the only thing she could hear, the only thing she could touch, was Gale himself.

#bg3 #bg3 fic #bg3ficfeb #gale #gale dekarios #my fic #oc #dani #meridan zavrai #i am not a poet don't judge me for my bad poetry #i just wanted to give 1001 nights vibes #also dani didn't vibe with the psychadelic tantric astral projection sex thing but she doesn't mind illusions so yeah #thats how we ended up here

[mumms-the-word]

lingering looks you'll never see stolen glances meant just for me

#bg3 #bg3 screenshots #gale #gale dekarios #my tav #dani #meridan zavrai #gale x tav #don't come for me and my lame poetry lol

[mumms-the-word]

HEY FRIENDS GUESS WHAT

I have been ✨doubly blessed✨ with art of Dani!!

my awesome friend @elspethdekarios is a talented artist and she made this for me 😭

this is Dani my current favorite Tav look at her she is so cute and adorable and I love her

anyways a little birdie told me that commissions for Tavs and other OCs will be opening up soon 👀 so keep an eye out~

#bg3 #tav #my tav #not my art #dani #meridan zavrai #baldur's gate 3

[mumms-the-word]

A Macabre Masquerade - Ch. 4

Ch. 4 - The Gang's All Here

Characters: Tavs (multiple), Gale, Astarion, Karlach, Wyll, Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Halsin, Minthara + other OCs Plot: One year after defeating the Netherbrain and saving the city, Dani and Gale receive a mysterious invitation to a masquerade ball. The invitation specifically invites them to participate as the Heroes of Baldur's Gate. However, when they get there, they soon realize they aren't the only Heroes of Baldur's Gate that got invited. A/N: All the crew is back together again! And strange things are afoot on their way to the masquerade. Things are looking more and more like a trap... Also, I'm very aware that I'm a slow writer lol more action to come very soon!

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | BG3 Masterlist | AO3

Dani turned away from the empty street—away from the blank stretch of city wall where a masked servant and a stall of enchanted masks should have been—to face Gale and Astarion, her expression a mix of resignation and annoyance.

“Typical,” she said. “This had better be a bloody practical joke.”

“Which part?” Astarion asked, examining his gloves in a feigned show of disinterest. “The permanent mask feature, or the disappearing servant act?”

“Both!” Dani tried to move her mask once again, but the results were the same as before. She couldn’t even peel it away from her face enough to wedge a piece of paper beneath the mask. She dropped her hands back to her sides with a sigh. “Come on then. We might as well go see this Lord Dormire and ask him what the big deal is.”

“Oooh, delightful,” Astarion said, dropping his bored act to clap his gloved hands together. “It’s been too long since I’ve held someone at dagger point. Almost a full twenty-four hours, in fact.”

“Let’s not get too hasty,” Gale warned. He’d tied back the ribbons of his mask again, even though his mask was clearly going nowhere even with the ribbons loose. “There may yet be some…sensible explanation for all this. Perhaps it’s a temporary spell that lasts only until we’re inside this lord’s manor.”

Dani gestured toward the blank wall. “Then explain the disappearing servant and disappearing mask stand, love. No one packs up that fast, not even the Lower City merchants at the Wide when the curfew bells ring.”

Gale pursed his lips, clearly casting about for an explanation. He admitted defeat with a shrug. “All right, fine, something nefarious is afoot, but—” he held up a finger as Dani and Astarion exchanged gleeful looks, “we should proceed with caution. It wouldn’t do to land ourselves in worse trouble than we’re already in, hm?”

“I see married life with our darling Dani hasn’t robbed you of all your prudence,” Astarion said, smirking. 

“Only out here in the streets, Astarion,” Dani said, patting his arm as she swept past him to head toward Dormire’s estate. She seemed to know on instinct which street was best, further proving that there was indeed a navigation spell in place. “In the sheets, however…”

“Dani!” Gale protested, sounding exasperated. But he didn’t deny it. He simply shook his head and fell in step beside her, and Astarion joined her on her other side.

Dani linked arms with them both, happy to be between her husband and one of her dearest friends. Despite the suspicious situation, they chatted amiably as they walked, catching up with Astarion, inquiring about his life as a roguish clandestine hero and complaining in return about Baldur’s Gate politics. They spoke, too, of Gale’s latest finds in his research about sun sensitivity cures, infernal engines, and mysterious Sharran wounds.

“We’re planning a trip to visit Candlekeep soon, to make use of their archives in our research,” Gale said. “When I say I am beyond thrilled at the idea—“

“But first a trip to Waterdeep to have tea with Morena and Tara and collect a gift for the gatekeepers,” Dani added. “We don’t have anything suitable here at home.”

“Or rather, nothing you are willing to part with,” Gale said wryly.

The gatekeepers of Candlekeep refused to let anyone inside the halls of wisdom without first presenting a seal of a renowned wizard and offering a gift of knowledge to add to the collection. Gale had suggested that his own name might be “renowned enough” to grant entry past the gates but, lacking an official seal, he had asked Elminster if he could offer his seal instead. Elminster happily agreed. As for the gift of knowledge, Gale had told Dani this usually meant a very rare, very expensive tome, but the gatekeepers had recently relaxed their rules to accept other artifacts as well. She was a little too attached to the arcane (and mundane) treasures they had accumulated over their adventures pre- and post-Netherbrain, so they agreed to select something from his old tower in Waterdeep. Or ask Tara if she knew of anything suitable. 

The journey overall was meant to be their next big adventure, made up of several days spent away from Baldur’s Gate. But it seemed now that adventure had come seeking them out much sooner and much closer to home.

“Ah, Candlekeep,” Astarion said. “That great big library fortress to the south. Sounds like more your thing than mine. Still, if they know anything useful…”

“You’ll be the first to know, I promise,” Dani said. “One way or another we’ll have you back in the sun. Without burning to a crisp.”

Astarion opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, Dani gasped, her eyes landing on another familiar figure just up ahead. The swept streets of Manorborn were relatively empty of people, aside from a few late-evening strollers who seemed eager to keep to one side, well away from the three of them. But a solitary figure was waiting for them at the end of their current street, gazing at them patiently behind a silvery mask, her shell-pink lips curved in a teasing smirk.

“That can’t be Shadowheart behind that pretty mask, can it?” Dani called, breaking away from Gale and Astarion to rush forward.

“The one and only,” Shadowheart said, laughing and opening her arms. 

Dani embraced her quickly in a tight hug before pulling back to glance appreciatively over her outfit. Shadowheart had opted for a black dress with silver and pearl accents, sewn and embroidered in gentle leaf and vine motifs, her sleeves nothing more than sheer black drapes of glimmering chiffon. Her mask was made of curling silver filigree in a familiar style that reminded Dani vaguely of Dame Aylin’s helmet and armor. She’d styled her usual braid, still silver-white even a year later, in a coil near the top of her head, crowning the bun with a silver circlet.

“What do you think?” Shadowheart asked. “I thought about going for all white and silver, but it just seemed like overkill, especially with my hair.”

“I think you look gorgeous. But you’d look gorgeous in anything, Shadowheart.”

“You flirt,” Shadowheart laughed. “You look stunning too, as usual. I’ve missed you.” She nodded smilingly toward Gale and Astarion. “Gale, Astarion. It’s good to see you both again. You’ve both been keeping out of trouble, I hope?”

“Naturally,” Gale said, while at the same time, Astarion grinned and said, “Of course, darling.” An obvious lie for one, if not the other.

“Shadowheart, have you noticed anything strange about your mask?” Dani asked, pointing toward her own golden bird mask. Better to get it out of the way now. “Anything…er…magical?”

“You mean like the fact that it’s telling me where to go and the fact that I can’t remove it?” Shadowheart set one hand on her hip, her fond amusement sobering into a more serious look. “I asked the servant about it, but he told me that it’s all just precautions to protect me out here in the Upper City. I say he’s lying, or at least withholding a great deal of the truth.”

“Protection from who, the City Watch?” Dani asked. “They’ve always been a sort of ‘arrest people now, ask questions later’ type of organization, but gluing masks to our faces to prove we have a reason to be on Upper City streets seems a bit much.”

Shadowheart nodded. “There’s definitely something else going on. I’m just glad I convinced my parents to stay behind at our cottage. The last thing I want is to drag them into something like this.”

“Have you met any of the others? Karlach or Wyll? Lae’zel?”

“Lae’zel is coming. I was waiting for her here, actually.” She swept her gaze over their surroundings. “We were supposed to travel together from my cottage but she said she had to shake off some pursuers, so we agreed to meet up in the city.”

“Does she still visit you every now and again?” Dani asked, grinning. Shadowheart and Lae’zel’s relationship had shifted since the early tense days over a year ago. Dani was convinced that part of Lae’zel’s decision to stay on Faerûn rather than join in the liberation of the githyanki empire was because a certain half-elf cleric wouldn’t join her in the Astral Plane. Her suspicions were all but confirmed by the rumors that Lae’zel allegedly made frequent stops by Shadowheart’s cottage on her way to or from a githyanki outpost.

“Once a tenday, if she hasn’t wandered too far abroad,” Shadowheart responded with a faint smirk. Her hazel-green eyes lit up as she spotted someone just over Dani’s shoulder. “Ah, and speaking of…”

Dani turned her head just as Lae’zel herself walked forward. Dani didn’t know what she expected Lae’zel to wear to a masquerade ball, but whatever her expectations might have been, they were surpassed by Lae’zel’s choice of outfit. She’d donned an indigo long-sleeved dress, the skirt little more than a drape of fabric in front of and behind her legs, which where encased in githyanki-style boots all the way up to her thighs. That would have been enough, but over top of the dress, she wore pieces of armor, bits of fine chainmail and githyanki pieces, all silver and purple, with more indigo fabric draping from her shoulders like two thin capes. Her mask was a simple black fabric thing that barely covered her eyes, so slim that Dani had almost mistook it for more of the black shading she usually wore around her eyes.

“You were supposed to dress for a party, not for war,” Shadowheart teased. 

“Chk,” was Lae’zel’s telltale response. “It is better to always dress for war. That way you are never surprised by it.” 

Lae’zel ignored Dani, Gale, and Astarion and instead went straight for Shadowheart, pulling her by the waist until their bodies were flush, their lips meeting as naturally as if they’d done this a hundred times. As they kissed—and continued to kiss for several seconds—Gale coughed slightly into his fist and looked away politely while Astarion rest an arm on Dani’s shoulder and watched with glee.

“It’s about time the two of them made things public,” he said in Dani’s ear. She giggled. It had been an open secret for so long, none of them were particularly shocked.

At last, Lae’zel and Shadowheart separated from one another and turned to face the others. “Well,” Shadowheart said, somewhat breathlessly. “Shall we get going? After you.”

“Just don’t fall behind, you two,” Dani teased, taking Gale’s arm. “We’ll need all the backup we can get should this turn into a fight.”

“Are we expecting a fight?” Lae’zel asked.

“Maybe? We’ll explain on the way.”

Dani and Gale took the lead, with Astarion, Shadowheart, and Lae’zel following. Lae’zel was irritated but not entirely surprised to learn about their masks’ unique, magical qualities as the others explained what they knew. She muttered something about Faerûnian wizard antics, but otherwise was content to walk hand-in-hand with Shadowheart as they navigated the Upper City. They were no closer to figuring out the point of the masks, however, so topics turned to Lae’zel’s latest adventures and the ever-increasing numbers of githyanki loyalists she’d killed so far in Faerûn. If the party proved to be a trap or a bust, at least Dani was content to catch up with her friends as they made their way through the Upper City.

Lord Dormire’s estate was deep within the Manorborn district, almost on the edge of the district itself. Though the masks had granted them all an innate ability to know which turns to make and a general sense for how close they were getting, Dani was surprised at how far into the district Dormire’s manor actually was. Most of these elegant houses belonged to the oldest families, the ones who’d been here so long that their names were as familiar as Balduran’s own. These manors were larger and had lush gardens and tall, wrought iron or stone fences surrounding them, often with the family heraldry over the gates or hung in banners all over the buildings.

Once upon a time, Dani would have greedily rubbed her hands together and giddily plotted a grand heist to break into one of these estates and abscond with a pack loaded with valuables. Now, in the past year, she’d been inside at least half a dozen of these estates for parties and balls, often with a fake smile fixed to her face until she could turn her head and whisper her biting remarks about puffed up nobles to Gale as he fought to control his expression into something neutral.

But it seemed they wouldn’t be attending another event in these larger homes. Soon those grand estates fell away and they were heading to the far reaches of Manorborn, very nearly to the massive wall that made up the edge of the city itself, where the manors became narrower and more numerous, the gardens and fountains now shared features rather than individual hallmarks of wealth and prestige. As they turned the last corner, they stepped out onto a street lined with well-built, newer-looking manor homes, their windows burning brightly with candlelight and torch-glow. Several carriages lined the streets, parked and inert, more than they had seen on other streets. A relatively short distance away, one building was twice as bright with torchlight as the others, illuminating colorful banners hanging from windows and drapes of fabric framing the doorway. Distant strains of dance music wafted over to them. Dani recognized the tune and the beat as a popular court dance.

Their destination at last.

“Finally,” Astarion said. “I was beginning to think there would be no party at all.”

Dani glanced at the carriages as they passed, trying nosily to guess which noble families would be in attendance based on the heraldry on the doors, but to her surprise, she didn’t recognize any. No Portyrs, no Hhunes, not even an Eomane, and they were famous for their cruel masquerades. She expected to see at least a Jannath, because they showed up everywhere, whether they were wanted or not, but she didn’t see the Jannath heraldry either. 

“Curious,” Shadowheart said.

“What is curious?” Lae’zel asked.

“The carriages. They’re empty.”

“Is that so strange? The party isn’t out here in the street.”

Dani turned her head to respond, but Astarion beat her to it. “Normally a patriar’s driver will at least stick around for a short while to tend to the horses, or secure the carriage, or be on hand just in case their patriar master wants to make a hasty escape because they saw their spurned lover across the ballroom floor,” he said. “That sort of thing. But I don’t see a single driver or footman.”

“Maybe they all nipped off to get drinks at a nearby pub,” Dani suggested, but she didn’t believe it. A few drivers and footmen, maybe, but all of them at once?

“Or maybe Lord Dormire is a liberal-minded fellow and invited them all inside to enjoy the party too,” Gale suggested, with an equal lack of conviction. He shook his head. “At this point, if we step inside and there are no guests, I suggest we turn around and leave.”

“And have these masks glued to our faces forever? I think not. Party or no, we have to find this guy and get these masks off.”

“Agreed,” Shadowheart said. “I don’t relish the idea of having to peel off a few layers of skin just to get this thing off my face. It’s pretty, but it’s hardly suitable for everyday wear.”

They paused just outside the manor itself, looking up at the building in all its finery. Though it looked like every other manor building on this street, the stone clean, the architecture and design reflecting a newer, nouveau riche style, the banners and draperies that flowed down or fluttered gently from the windows and down from the roof elevated the facade and created an extravagant yet mysterious aura about the place. To her pleasant surprise, Dani saw figures moving inside, blurred and shadowed forms passing in front of sheer-curtained windows, some swaying to the beat of the music playing inside. The music had shifted to a bouncier courante dance tune and Dani was transported suddenly back to memories of dancing a courante with Wyll, her singing the tune and Wyll teaching her the steps, both of them grinning wide.

“Pity that Wyll hasn’t seemed to make it,” Dani said. “I can just picture him out on the dance floor to this music, showing everyone up with his moves.”

“It’s like you’ve read my mind, my friend! The Blade of Avernus would never turn down a dance.” 

Dani turned with a gasp at the familiar voice. Wyll stood several paces away just up the street, sweeping a low, courtly bow as a greeting. Beside him stood Karlach, grinning brightly and practically bouncing on her toes.

“Wyll! Karlach!” Dani voice rang out exuberant and loud, her heart fit to burst seeing two more of her dearest friends once more on the Material Plane. She let go of Gale and ran to grab them both in a hug. They both laughed and wrapped their arms around her until the three of them were more a tangle of limbs than anything else. “I can’t believe you made it out of Avernus for this! Gods, I’ve missed you.”

“We’ve missed you too, Dan,” Karlach said, giving her as tight a squeeze as she could with Wyll also tangled up with them. They both reeked of brimstone and ash, like the very Hells themselves, but Dani couldn’t care less. She held on as long as she could, trying to make up for months of missed hugs and scarce messages.

When she finally pulled away, Wyll was trying to discreetly wipe his good eye free of tears around the eyeholes of his wolf-shaped mask and Karlach was burning with blue flame. She was also starting to sweat a little, her face glistening around the scaly, dragon-like mask she wore. 

“I have so many questions,” Dani said. “How did you get out of Avernus? Where the hells did you get those clothes? Have you found a blacksmith to fix your heart yet? Do you have to go back?”

“Hang on, soldier, I haven’t said hi to everyone else yet,” Karlach said, laughing. 

Dani stepped to one side as Karlach went around hugging everyone in the group, including Astarion, who relented much the same way he had with Dani, with a look of surprise and a little fond pat on Karlach’s back. Wyll, too, was eager to hug or shake hands with the others, and soon the group, finally back together again, was abuzz with conversation, with Shadowheart and Lae’zel catching up with Karlach and Wyll, and Lae’zel comparing kills with them, and Astarion quipping now and again with his usual humor. Dani stood back with Gale and watched with a smile. It felt as though all the little pieces of her heart, the pieces that her friends had carried away with them the moment Withers’ party had broken up six months before, were once again made whole. She almost felt like she could cry. The old crew, back together again. Or mostly so, since Jaheira, Halsin, and Minsc wouldn’t be joining them.

By and by the details came to light. Karlach and Wyll hadn’t had much luck with a blacksmith just yet, which meant Karlach’s heart was still in disrepair. She was certain it would hold for one night, though, since it had done just fine at Withers’ party six months ago. Despite the danger, they both agreed that trying to go to the party was worth the risk, so they had visited the House of Hope to catch up with Hope and see if she had any clothes left over from Raphael’s closets for them to borrow. It seemed they had been quite lucky sifting through Raphael’s old things, as Wyll was now sporting an elegant red and silver doublet with trim leggings to rival any Upper City bard in style and Karlach had found a black, red, and gold low-cut sleeveless dress with two slits all the way up to her hips. She’d paired it with black leggings and thick black boots that looked like they had probably curb-stomped a cambion sometime in the last two or three days, yet went with the dress surprisingly well. As for how they got here, they said that a portal had opened up for them nearby while they were traveling, not unlike Withers did for them six months ago.

“You don’t think the old bag of bones is behind this party, do you?” Karlach asked.

“No. I wish, but Withers has a more casual style than this,” Dani said, gesturing toward the decorated building they were all loitering in front of. “Plus, Withers wouldn’t enchant our masks to get stuck to our faces like this.”

“Hang on. What?”

Karlach and Wyll exchanged shocked glances before they simultaneously tried to remove their masks. They had just about as much luck as the others, with exactly the same results. Their masks were stuck fast.

“By the Triad,” Wyll said. Karlach only groaned and said a long, drawn out, “Fuuuck.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry, we have a plan,” Dani said.

Gale shot her a surprised look. He wasn’t the only one, as Shadowheart and Astarion both looked doubtful, but it was Gale who spoke. “We do?”

“Sure. Go in, find this Lord Dormire guy, get him to talk, get him to remove our masks, steal the booze, and leave. We can iron out the details as we go.”

“Oooh, I volunteer for ‘get him to talk’ duty,” Karlach said, cracking her knuckles. “Astarion and Shadowheart can steal the booze.”

“Just like old times,” Wyll said, shaking his head with a smile. “And here I was hoping for a dance or ten.”

“I’ll dance with you after we know we won’t be spending the rest of our lives perma-masked,” Dani said. “Deal?”

Wyll’s smile was infectious. “Deal. It would be a sin to waste a party, after all, since it’s been so carefully coordinated for us.”

The seven of them, once more reunited on the anniversary of their defeat of the Netherbrain, turned as one to look up at the manor once more. There was no servant on the steps to greet them and the double doors at the front were firmly closed, but every window was lit with cheery light and the sounds inside certainly sounded like a patriar’s party, with music and the low murmur of chatter. Strange events aside, it didn’t seem any different than any other Upper City party Dani had attended in the past year.

So why did her body seemed to buzz with anticipation? The masks, the empty carriages, the disappearing servant, they all hinted at some adventure to come. But what kind? Would there be twisted party games, like the Eomanes liked to do with their masquerades? Was this all an elaborate trap, intended to lure them in and attack them unawares? Was Lord Dormire an enemy, a practical joker, or a harmless patriar, well-meaning but strange?

Dani looked at Gale and found his eyes already on her, patiently waiting for her signal. She took his arm with a little grin and nodded toward the doors with her head. “Let’s see what all the fuss is about.”

Together they stepped through the gates that separated the manor from the street and went up the three steps that led to the double doors. Dani was prepared for magical shenanigans, so she was unsurprised when the doors opened of their own accord the moment she reached for the handles. Golden candlelight spilled out over them as the doors swung inward to reveal a grand foyer, several masked attendees milling about inside and one central figure in black and white standing at the bottom of a carpeted stairway. 

The masked attendees quieted and turned to look at them, all curious glances, fluttering fans, and glimmering finery. But it was the centermost figure who had Dani’s attention.

“You,” she gasped. “The servant from the gates!”

The masked servant bowed low as he had done before and then gestured for them to enter. “Welcome, Heroes of Baldur’s Gate, to the masquerade. Eat, drink, dance, mingle, and...enjoy the party. Lord Dormire will begin the official celebrations shortly.”

“Wait—”

But the servant didn’t wait. With another bow, he disappeared in a flurry of swirling ash and embers.

#bg3 #bg3 fic #my fic #oc #bg3 companions #bg3 fanfic #dani #meridan zavrai #gale #gale dekarios #astarion #wyll ravengard #shadowheart #lae'zel #karlach #long post #we're trying to keep this up lol

[mumms-the-word]

A Faerûnian Masterlist

I write mostly SFW fluff, angst, and adventure fic. Below you'll find plenty of cute moments, witty banters, angsty arguments, action scenes, and the occasional slightly NSFW hint that fades to black.

Contents:

Popular One Shots

Tav/Durge-Specific Fics + Tav/Durge bios

Random Short Fics

Deep Dives in Lore

Ongoing Series (multi-chapter fics)

Click here to read my works on AO3 (where they are also slightly better organized).

Enjoy!

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Popular One-Shots

The things that have been Doing the Notes the most

Choosing to Live - Gale x You/Reader in which Gale struggles with the complicated emotional fallout of not obeying Mystra's command to self-destruct in Moonrise Towers (AO3 link) he is enough - Gale x You/Reader but it's poetic thoughts about how Gale doesn't have to earn your love (AO3) Ascension, Return - Gale x You/Reader where you're witness to Gale's ascension to godhood before he leaves to give the Crown of Karsus to Mystra...and you're a little scared he won't come back. (AO3) Close - Halsin is playing hide and seek with the tiefling children, and Ardynn gets roped into the game. TLDR: trapped in a closet with Halsin (AO3)

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Tav/Durge Fics

Fics arranged by Tav or Durge in mostly chronological order (they're better organized on AO3)

Meridan "Dani" Zavrai

A blue Mephistopheles tiefling bard who prefers her fiddle and a few handy spells over combat. Dani was briefly part of a band of bards called the Merry Rovers, led by a human named Brann who she views as essentially her father figure. She loves to talk her way into and out of trouble, making her silver tongue just as much an asset as it is a hindrance, and she finds it hard to resist the allure of a few gold coins in almost any circumstance. She is deeply devoted to her friends, however, and will defend or support them at the drop of a hat. You can rely on her for a good song, an encouraging word, a hearty laugh, and a healthy dose of Vicious Mockery heaped upon your enemies. Dani fell in love with Gale and the two spend most of their time in witty banter.

AO3 Link to all of Dani's fics in one place! New Friend - 10yo Dani meets a lifelong best friend Abducted - Dani is abducted by the nautiloid Settling In - Dani reflects on her companions and her new place among them Signs Part 1 + Signs Part 2 - Dani teaches the companions a new game (with some light romance angst) The Art of the Night - Gale invites Dani to spend a perfect evening in Waterdeep and Dani reads poetry from The Art of the Night (Im)possible Odds - Gale contemplates fulfilling Mystra's command in Act 2 Reunited Part 1 - Finally back in Baldur's Gate, Dani brings her companions to meet her mother Reunited Part 2 - Several days later, Dani finally finds the Rovers at last An Argument - Dani and Gale do not see eye to eye about the Crown of Karsus A Little Boat Voyage - After their argument, Dani agrees to listen to Gale's plan for the crown...begrudgingly... Siblings -Dani is not pleased at how Rolan is being treated at Sorcerous Sundries (half of this takes place both before "An Argument," and half of it after) New Normal - Dani thinks back on the last six months after their victory over the Netherbrain

Ardynn Harrow

A half-elf ranger whose mother, a wood elf, abandoned her heritage to marry a human man, raising three children in a small clearing in the woods far from society. Ardynn grew up attuned to nature but with a marksman's talent for hunting. She views the world as an extension of nature's laws, of survival, and of balance, and she views herself as just one tiny part. To her, all life (animals, mortals, and otherwise) has value and should be treated with respect, but she also believes in survival and is a crackshot with a bow after years of hunting to feed her family. Just because you respect something doesn't mean you have to kneel to it and bare your neck, after all. She is unused to being in highly populated society but her desire to help others overcomes her anxiety about large crowds, busy streets, and labyrinthine cities. Ardynn had a crush on Halsin as soon as she met him and to this day is amazed that out of everyone in the camp (or the world), she was the one to catch and keep his attention.

AO3 Link to all of Ardynn's fics in one place! Starstruck - Ardynn meets a certain very famous Archdruid Close - Halsin is playing hide and seek with the tiefling children, and Ardynn gets roped into the game Healing - Several scenes over the course of the game of times that Halsin has healed Ardynn More That I Want... - Ardynn emerges from the Ketheric-Myrkul fight to find Halsin waiting for her in the throne room Release - Ardynn struggles to cope with the stress of events in Baldur's Gate, but Halsin has a solution Drowning - Ardynn faces her worst fear in the underwater prison of the Iron Throne New Normal - Ardynn has some news to share with Halsin (part of the same post as Dani's, Ardynn's is second)

Freyr

A bloodthirsty human fighter who gets as much pleasure out of cleaving his greatsword through someone's skull as he does supporting his best friends in their endeavors. Freyr is a tall, buff, handsome Dark Urge who thinks with his sword before anything else. He doesn't talk much and is often mistaken for being morbidly stupid thanks to his irrational behavior and terse words, but he knows who to rely on when making difficult decisions and he's a surprisingly adept strategist on the battlefield. He also happens to be Faerûn's biggest hype man, that is, if you're pursuing personal dreams that lead to you having loads of awesome power. Just tell him who to murder on your path to success and you can consider it done. It was love at first sight for Freyr when he met Minthara, and whether he decided to rule the world in Bhaal's name or defeat the Netherbrain instead, he's making it his life's mission to make sure Minthara is there to rule beside him.

AO3 Link to all of Freyr's fics in one place! Clarity - Freyr seeks Minthara fight in battle, and if he wasn't in love before, he sure is now Slayer - Freyr tests out a new power Hope - Freyr likes exactly one NPC in the game and her name is Hope In Your Name - Freyr and Minthara discuss their future and Minthara gives him a new name

Invi

A high elf storm sorcerer, she is a mystery even to herself. At the start of her story, she knows almost nothing about her past, not even her own name, using the initials she finds carved on a pendant as inspiration for what people should call her. Plagued by dark urges that tempt her to kill and maim others, she has a hard time determining what is the "right" thing to do, resulting in more than a few mistakes with big consequences. She is a quiet, observant woman who frequently seeks others' wisdom on matters, viewing everyone's opinions and suggestions equally, and she has an uncanny knack for scientific study and realistic art that hint at some of the dark past she has yet to remember. She fell easily to Astarion's charms early on, but over time the bond they share deepens into a rich, enduring love as they seek answers for the mysteries in their lives and put an end to the forces that would seek to control them.

AO3 Link to all of Invi's fics in one place! Awakening - Invi awakens on the ravaged beach and gives herself a new name Together - Invi reflects on how nice Wyll is (it's a Wyll appreciation post okay) Devil's Deal - Invi makes a deal with Raphael: one name in exchange for another

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Posts with short fics for all or most of my Tavs/Durges on this list

Four Shared Baths - Dani, Ardynn, Invi, and Freyr share a bath with their LI...results vary Songs and Lyrics - A few songs/lyrics that inspired little bit scenes for Ardynn, Dani, and Invi First Confessions - The first time my Tavs/Durges said "I love you" to their LI

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Deep Dives

Long posts that sparked my hyperfixation and had me red-string-theory connecting lore dots until I landed on a narrative that made sense in my head

Gale and Mystra (and Mystra, and Mystra...) - Meta post that dives into Forgotten Realms lore to discuss Mystra's multiple lives/deaths, how Gale fits into the timeline, when Mystra visited Gale, etc Shadow Curse Events series - Meta posts that dive into Ketheric's descent into Sharran zealotry (Part 1), his war against the Harpers and Druids (Part 2), and the first 40 days of the shadow curse (Part 3). Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3

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Ongoing Series

Below are the multi-chapter fics I'm currently working on, along with a short summary.

A Macabre Masquerade

Plot: One year after defeating the Netherbrain and saving the city, Dani and Gale receive a mysterious invitation to a masquerade ball. The invitation specifically invites them to participate as the Heroes of Baldur's Gate. However, when they get there, they soon realize they aren't the only Heroes of Baldur's Gate that got invited. Characters/Pairings: Yes. All of them. Jk, but the core 8 companion + Tav/Durge romances are featured, also with some companion + companion romances implied or referenced A/N: This fic brings together multiple Tavs/Durges in one place, including Tavs designed and played by some of my friends, but is written from the perspective of my current favorite Tav, Dani. AO3 Link Ch. 1 - An Invitation Ch. 2 - Getting Ready Ch. 3 - Donning the Masks Ch. 4 - The Gang's All Here Ch. 5 - Mirrors Ch. 6 - For My Next Trick... Ch. 7 - A Danse Macabre

#bg3 #bg3 fic #bg3 fanfic #bg3 fanfiction #my fic #oc #gale #gale dekarios #astarion #halsin #minthara #bg3 companions #dani #meridan zavrai #ardynn #ardynn harrow #invi #freyr #baldur's gate 3

[mumms-the-word]

Signs, Part 1

Part 1 of Day 6 of the BG3 Fic February Challenge

I wrote something completely different and hated it and then started writing this and wrote...well, too much. So it's in two parts for you! Part 2 is here!

Check out my masterlist of BG3 fics!

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6. Teaching each other how to do something

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It had taken some convincing, but Dani had finally managed it. After days of hard work, preparation, coaxing, cajoling, bribing, blood, sweat, and tears…

She had finally gotten everyone to agree to participate in Game Night.

“It doesn’t have to be every night,” she’d said, “but come on, aren’t you bored some nights? Wouldn’t a game or two be better than whatever else we do?”

Wyll had pointed out that none of them had a deck of cards with them, which was true, and a source of constant disappointment for Dani. She always had a deck of cards back when she was a roving bard. Her fingers were itching to shuffle and cut a deck again, and play her companions for all the money they had.

But until then…

They all sat around the fire, dinner finished and their dishes collected to one side (where of course everyone ignored them and pretended not to know who was on dish duty tonight). While Wyll poked the fire into a warmer blaze, Karlach leaned over to Dani, eyes bright and eager.

“So, soldier,” she said. “You mentioned a game you wanted to teach us?”

“Yes,” Dani said. “It’s a game I used to play with my troupe. We used to play a bunch of games all the time, but this is really the only one I think everyone here would like.”

“Speak for yourself, darling,” Astarion said, crossing his legs and leaning back one on hand. “If it doesn’t involve ritual torture or a dramatic beheading, then I’d be loathe to call it fun.”

“Ha ha,” Dani said, each syllable dripping with sarcasm. “I know for a fact you enjoy a good game of cards, but since we don’t have any…”

“Chk. This is a waste of time,” Lae’zel complained, looking sour. “We could be doing something productive.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Gale said. “Whatever it is, you might enjoy yourself. Or do githyanki not play games for fun?”

“In Creche K’liir—“

Dani held up a hand. “Wait, hold that thought. Let me explain the game before you judge whether you’d hate it or not.”

Lae’zel looked irritated, but no more than usual. She crossed her arms but remained silent, waiting.

“Okay,” Dani said. “I don’t know what other people call this game, but my troupe always called it ‘signs.’”

Karlach gasped, sitting up straighter. “Hang on, I know this game! Where you pass signs around without getting caught?”

Dani grinned. “Exactly.”

“Passing signs?” Shadowheart asked. “What, like secret messages?”

“Kind of. One person will be the hunter, the person on the lookout for where the sign is. Everyone else will try to pass the sign to one another without the hunter catching them. The thing is, everyone has a unique sign, so you have to remember everyone else’s signs too.”

Lae’zel narrowed her eyes. “These…signs…do they serve a purpose? Do they have meaning?”

“Not really? I mean, they determine who has the sign.”

“Bah, you are confusing me.” Lae’zel huffed.

“Think of it like secret messages,” Karlach suggested. “That’s what we did as kids. One person is trying to intercept the ‘message’ before it goes to another person. But you can only send the message, if you have it, by signing to someone else without the first person seeing you. And you can only accept the message by signing that you’ve received it.”

“Like this,” Dani said, facing Karlach. “Here, this will be my sign.” She twisted the spiral earring in her left ear. 

“Got it. I’ll use this.” She held up her thumbs and forefingers, crossed to look like two tiny hearts.

Dani giggled. “I love it. Okay, so if I have the message, and I want to send it to Karlach, then I do her sign.” She made Karlach’s little heart gestures. Karlach responded by mirroring her gesture. “So now Karlach as the message. And if she wants to send it back…” Karlach fiddled with her left ear, as if twisting an earring, which Dani then matched. “Now I have the message again. Make sense?”

“Clear as mud,” Gale said, though he looked amused. “But I suppose any game is best learned by doing, yes?”

“Right. So first things first, what are everyone’s signs?”

It took some thinking, but eventually everyone came up with a sign. Karlach kept her tiny hearts. Wyll mimed making a toast. Gale patted his chest three times. Shadowheart made prayer hands. Astarion wanted to put two fingers spread in a V over his lips and flick out his tongue between them, to the groans of a few of their group. Lae’zel glowered for a moment before settling on her gesture, which was to point to her eyes with her forefinger and pinky, and then point outward, to whoever needed the sign next.

Dani shrugged. It was certainly efficient. “Everyone ready? Karlach, are you fine with being the first hunter?”

“Absolutely, soldier. This’ll be over in a flash!” She rubbed her hands together excitedly and then covered her eyes. Dani stifled a giggle and put a finger over her lips.

She sent the ‘message’ first to Gale, patting her chest three times. He received the message and sent it to Shadowheart, who then sent it to Astarion, who then sent it back to Dani, and so on until at last Dani said, “Okay Karlach, start guessing.”

As Karlach scanned the group, they continued to swap signs, the “message” constantly on the move. Dani, Astarion, and Shadowheart kept themselves aloof, but Lae’zel’s piercing gaze seemed to always follow the “message” no matter where it was.

After two incorrect guesses, Karlach finally whirled on Wyll, pointing right as he made his sign to receive the message. “Wyll! You’ve got it!”

Wyll threw up his hands. “Ah! You got me. That’s was clever, Karlach.”

“Game’s pretty easy when you can trust someone to always keep their eyes on the prize,” she said, hooking a thumb at Lae’zel.

Lae’zel turned her face away. “Chk. Again. I will not be so obvious next time.”

Dani giggled. “Okay. Wyll, you’re the hunter. Let’s go again.”

They played two more rounds before things began to unravel a little. It started with Gale suggesting they spice up the game and add a real message.

“Telepathically, of course,” he said. “We can speak with the tadpoles. What if we come up with a true secret message, and pass that around along with the signs? When we’re found out, we have to reveal the message.”

“If we can remember it,” Shadowheart said. “No doubt it will get warped in all the passing around.”

“Ah but that’s what will make it fun!”

And then Shadowheart suggested making the losers take a swig of alcohol, whatever they had on hand, if they get caught with the sign and the message, to which Astarion and Karlach laughed and agreed. The results soon became chaos.

Messages that began as innocent as “The stars are out tonight” eventually twisted into something like “These farts are out of sight,” which had Karlach laughing so hard when she heard it she immediately gave away that she had the message. And it only got worse from there. Shadowheart and Astarion were the source of many messages that would have made even Dani’s blue-tinted ears turn pink, including messages about the color of someone’s underwear that day and fake confessions about each other’s various “preferences.” 

One message in particular had Gale turning so red Dani thought he’d combust into flame like Karlach. When Dani called him out for having the sign and asked him what it was, he only shook his head. “I-I’m sure I misheard. I can’t even remember it now.” 

No amount of poking or prodding would get him to say it, and everyone else kept smugly quiet as well. Dani admitted defeat and took a second turn as the hunter.

After several rounds had Dani wheezing from laughter, clutching her sides, she finally had to call it quits. “Hells, I can’t breathe,” she gasped, wiping tears from her eyes as the others continued to chuckle or try to catch their own breath. “And here I thought you all would hate me for the game.”

“Nonsense, my dear, there’s nothing more fun that making your friends look the fool,” Astarion said, his own pale cheeks ever so slightly flushed with his amusement.

Wyll wiped a tear from his good eye, still chuckling. “Gods, if we do this again, I hesitate to think what scandalous messages might reach my ears next. Or brain, rather.”

“This is dangerous, using these ghaik tadpoles for mere games,” Lae’zel said, but she didn’t speak with as much conviction as usual. “The signs, however, could prove useful in battle.”

“Oh yeah?” Dani asked. “The next time I see you using your sign in a fight—“ She used her first and last fingers to point to her eyes and then Lae’zel’s, “—I’ll know to connect my tadpole to yours.”

She meant it as a joke, but Lae’zel nodded. “Good. Perhaps we will find some practical use for these signs after all.”

“Just don’t forget me, of course,” Astarion said, once more placing his fingers over his lips. He winked at Lae’zel and flicked his tongue between his fingers. “I want to stay in the loop too.”

“Change your sign, spawn, and I will think about it.”

Dani shook her head, standing to go get herself a drink of water at the river, hoping to cool her laughter-flushed face and body. The others began to break away and return to their tents, too. They looked happier, Dani noticed, which made her happy. She hoped they wouldn’t say no to more game nights in the future. They all deserved a bit of fun.

-----------------------------------------------

BONUS: What would my other Tavs teach??

Ardynn would teach surviving-the-wilderness skills. Trapping, hunting, identifying edible plants and poisonous plants, how to track animals, how to find water, that sort of thing. Listen, the team does pretty good out in the middle of nowhere with Withers to conveniently resurrect them if they eat the wrong berries, but with Ardynn on their team they survive much, much better.

Freyr doesn't teach things, he just assumes you already know everything, and probably know it better than him. If pressed, he can show you how to do random things like one-armed pushups or where to aim if you want to make a clean decapitation on your next victim. He is capable of teaching sound battle strategy, but he probably won't, because he and Minthara are in charge of directing their allies anyway.

Invi...poor child remembers NOTHING. The OG version of this post was going to be all the things the companions teach her, from identifying rotten food vs. good food to Lae'zel fixing her battle stance to Wyll teaching her history, and so on. Ironically one of the few things she does remember, or that is at least ingrained into her body as muscle memory and instinct, is how to draw. Her sketches are precise and very realistic, and she could probably teach you a few art tricks if you asked her. What she doesn't remember is that her particular art skillset is drawing anatomically accurate bodies based on her time as a durge before the tadpole...

#bg3 #bg3 fic #bg3ficfeb #my fic #oc #gale #gale dekarios #dani #meridan zavrai #wyll ravengard #karlach #lae'zel #shadowheart #astarion #bg3 companions #baldur's gate 3

[mumms-the-word]

Settling In

Day 4 for the BG3 Fic February Challenge. The Faerûnian February challenge? The write-BG3-fic-for-29-days challenge. That challenge.

This one was tricky for me, and honestly I could have picked any Tav for it. But I chose Dani for today, with some bonus notes about other Tavs at the end.

Check out the Masterlist of my fics here.

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4. Camp chores

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Dani stretched her arms high over her head, letting every inch of the muscles in her arms find sweet relief from the tension they’d been carrying since early that morning. At least, for a brief moment. The second she dropped her arms, all the aches came back and settled in, as if they planned to stay for good.

Typical. You’d think that after nearly two weeks of adventure, her body would have gotten used to it, but no. Then again, the alternative was ceremorphosis, a fate she was miraculously escaping for some weird reason. So maybe a few muscle aches weren’t so bad, compared to the alternative.

This was her life now. Days on the road, wandering the wilderness, following leads, getting into trouble, getting out of trouble, and then setting up camp to get a good night’s rest, only to start it all over again in the morning. 

She set her hands on her hips and watched her companions a moment. Like her, they had all fallen into a kind of rhythm for camp each night. Almost without fail, everyone sort of ended up doing the same things, half-consciously assigning chores to themselves and making sure that everything that needed to get done actually got done. 

Gale was on cooking duty, as he was every night, a duty he would probably never sacrifice. Subject myself to the culinary whims of the likes of Lae’zel? Or worse, Wyll? No thank you, he’d once told her when she suggested he let someone else cook. I’d sooner attempt to sink my teeth into a live worg than suffer one of their dubious dishes.

Dani had thought about suggesting Shadowheart as a potential replacement for cooking duty, but Shadowheart probably considered a bottle of wine and half a pastry as dinner. And besides, Gale was a good cook and no one was complaining. Once, he'd turned a few smoked links of sausage, some cheese wedges, and some fruit into a damn charcuterie board. Lae'zel had mocked him for it, but Dani had never had anything so fancy in her life, even in the city.

Wyll had gotten the firewood for the fire and was already back on the prowl for more sticks and bits of wood for later that night. They’d only recently discovered that Wyll was a duke’s son—specifically Duke Ulder Ravengard’s son—and the knowledge made so much of his behavior make sense for Dani. Like the fact that when it was his turn to do the dishes, they usually came back half-clean, because Wyll’s version of a clean dish was dunking a dirty plate into the river until it came back looking free of crumbs. Or the fact that his shirt was actively unraveling and he barely seemed to notice. Or the fact that when Dani opened their drink chest—because of course she liked to keep things organized, Brann would have killed her if she let her stuff just rattle around in various containers in camp—he had to have a thorough discussion with Gale about what was on the menu before choosing his wine to pair with it.

Oh Wyll. He made her laugh. At least he could be relied upon for a good story at night, something he and Dani could talk about for hours.

Dani’s gaze flicked over to Astarion, who had already set up his tent and was lounging against his faded, embroidered pillows, reading a book with a telltale bored expression. He abjectly refused to do any camp chores on principle. He didn’t eat regular food, he didn’t need the warmth of the fire, and the one time Gale suggested he clean the dishes (since no one in camp liked to do the dishes and it was only fair that they all take turns), he threatened to toss the dishes in a wooden crate and float it down the Chionthar. Out of sight, out of mind, he’d said. Shadowheart had done the dishes that night instead. 

But he did his share, too, Dani reminded herself. As a high elf and a vampire, the man didn’t sleep. As long as he wasn’t hunting for blood to keep himself strong, he was their most reliable watchman. Strange as it seemed to trust a vampire, she slept better at night knowing he'd be keeping watching for most of it. Though she wished he would stop reading the Necromancy of Thay at night. They were all starting to hear the whispers from that damned book by now.

“Hey, Dan.” Karlach walked by with one of the camp crates hefted easily on her shoulder. Scratch followed at her heels, tongue lolling out, happy to get some exercise following Karlach around. “Where do you want this?”

“Which one is that?"

"Spare clothes, I think."

"Oh, right” She looked around the camp for a moment before shrugging. “Just set it next to the library rock. I should probably go through it. We’re low on funds.”

“You got it, soldier. Want me to do the same with the armor and weapons?”

“Sure. I’ll see what needs sorting.”

She watched Karlach walk off, Scratch once more trailing behind. Karlach set down the crate before crossing to the other side of camp to grab some other heavy thing. No matter where they set up camp, Karlach was there to heft things from one side to the other, helping everyone set up their spaces. Some of the companions had heavy belongings and Dani was glad she wasn’t the one having to haul stuff like Astarion and Shadowheart’s whole ass potted plants or Lae’zel’s whetstone or Gale’s ever growing book collection out of the magical chest of holding. Just tell me where to drop it, soldier, was her common refrain. Karlach was happy to move stuff around camp, especially if it meant escaping dish duty.

Although, the more Dani thought about it, the more she wondered why they weren’t asking Withers to just wave his hand and set everything up for them. Then again, she knew what he’d say if she asked him.

No.

Grumpy old bag of bones. She hoped he wasn’t lonely while half their camp was galavanting off on adventures. She wondered if anyone that stayed behind in camp talked to him. Half the time she sort of forgot he was there, he was so quiet. 

Pushing that thought aside for now, she went over to the library rock and sat down in the chair beside it. The big old rock served as the camp desk, more or less, heaped with books and maps and notes she (and Gale) had collected and used to plan their next move. It had sort of become her space, even though anyone could use it. 

Opening one of the crates that Karlach had set down by the rock, she started to sort the items into three piles. Stuff she wanted to keep, just to have extra supplies, stuff she wasn’t sure she wanted to do yet, and stuff she wanted to sell. She’d reorganize everything back in their respective crates once she was done, but she wanted to see everything she had to work with and plan out what needed to stay and what needed to go.

Old habits died hard. She’d learned to keep up with her belongings and travel light when she was part of the Merry Rovers. Now, out here as a ragtag band of adventurers, the last thing they needed was stuff to weigh them down. It was much, much better to have coin instead.

So every night, or almost every night, she went through all their extra stuff and made sure everything was organized in the correct boxes, crates, and chests in the camp. It made everyone's lives easier, and she found plenty of things to sell for a bit more coin in her pockets.

She could never have too much gold, after all.

As she was frowning over some of their extra weapons, daggers and javlins and the like, Lae’zel came over to stand nearby, arms cross. “What do you intend to do with all of those weapons?” she asked.

“I haven’t decided yet.” She looked up at Lae’zel. “I don’t think anyone needs a replacement weapon, do they?”

“A replacement? No. I’ve made sure that everyone’s current weapons are sharp and ready for battle in the morning,” she said. “Except for your rapier. I will take that now, if you don’t mind.” She said it not as a polite suggestion, but as if she expected no argument. She even held out her hand expectantly.

Dani reached behind her and pulled her rapier from her sheathe, handing it over hilt-first. This was Lae’zel’s preferred chore, and Dani wasn’t about to argue. T’chk, she’d say. What do you know about maintaining a sharp edge on your blades? Dani’s answer was absoutely nothing. She barely knew how the spin the grindstone. 

But Lae’zel abhorred bad weapon maintenance, and she also trusted absolutely no one with her grindstone, so she was inevitably the one who kept everyone’s weapons sharp, oiled up, and clean. She might have sharp words to say to everyone for the state of their weapons and armor, but Dani was endlessly grateful she kept them all battle-ready.

“Do you need any extra blades?” Dani asked. “If not, I was planning on just selling the lot. Maybe keep a few daggers on hand.”

“One can never have too many daggers,” Astarion said across the way, turning a page in his book. Sometimes it was uncanny how good his hearing was.

Lae’zel rolled her eyes, but otherwise ignored him. “Do what you want with your blades. I will return shortly.”

She left Dani to her sorting. Dani crossed her legs beneath her in the chair and began packing away the things she wanted to keep. As she was folding the extra shirts, Shadowheart walked up with an armful of fabric. Clothes, blankets, even tent material.

“Does any of that need washing?” Shadowheart asked. “I’m about to take this batch to the river, now that we have a bit more soap to work with.”

Dani had been surprised when Shadowheart first took on the laundry as her preferred chore. But when she’d asked Shadowheart about it, Shadowheart merely made a grimace. Is that so surprising? No one else in the camp can be trusted to do it properly, and I absolutely refuse to stay in a camp that reeks of goblin guts and swamp water. Underwear was off the table, though. Everyone still had to clean their own underwear. 

Dani had pointed out that she, Astarion, and Gale were all pretty decent at keeping up with their clothes, but Shadowheart wouldn’t be swayed. The only downside to Shadowheart on laundry duty is that once something was dry, she just tossed it into your tent without folding it. I said I’d clean it, not fold it. I’m not your housekeeper. 

Dani supposed she couldn’t complain. She hated doing the laundry. It had been her job for as long as she was tall enough to reach down into a washbasin, at least when she was living with her mother. She hated how raw it made her hands and how wrinkled her skin would be from all the water and soap. She hated the smell of lye and she hated having to wring out all the water and she hated how it made her back ache. So if anyone in camp wanted to do laundry, and all she had to do was fold her own clothes, she was happy to let them do it.

“It’s all clean enough for now,” Dani said. “You look like you have plenty to work with.”

“Suit yourself,” Shadowheart said, and disappeared toward the river. 

Dani leaned back with her elbow on the back of the chair, surveying the camp again thoughtfully. There was Gale, bending over the cookpot on the fire, conjuring a mage hand to hold the spoon. There was Wyll, coming back with an armload of branches and sticks, whistling a tune as he went. There was Karlach, setting down a straw target dummy and doing a brief bit of shadowboxing before patting the dummy on its canvas shoulder and walking away. There was Lae’zel, running Dani’s blade against her whetstone and testing the point with a finger, frowning at her work. There was Shadowheart, kneeling at the edge of the river, scrubbing suds into one of their shirts, her back to all of them. And there was Astarion, lounging at his tent like a Calishite pasha, seemingly absorbed in his reading.

Strange to think that just over two weeks ago, her entire world was held within the walls and streets of Baldur’s Gate, her family made up of a few roving bards and her mother. Now her world was expanded, exploding out into the wilderness along the Chionthar and beyond, and full of seemingly endless danger. But there were moments, like now, where everything just felt sort of…right. 

In just a handful of days, she’d come to trust these six companions with her life and more. They argued, teased, and poked at each other, but they also had each others’ backs in battle and even here in camp. They helped maintain each others’ weapons, and cooked, and washed the laundry, and kept watch, and checked in on one another, in their own little ways. 

Soon, once Gale announced that dinner was ready, they’d gather around the fire to eat. And there they’d bicker and joke and laugh and get on one another’s nerves, like they did every night. Dani and Wyll might tell stories while the others listened, or Dani might play a bit on her fiddle, assuming she had finished eating first and the others wouldn’t be too annoyed at her music. Or Karlach would try to tell corny jokes and Gale would laugh harder than anyone else at them, whether they were clever or not, and even Lae’zel would crack a smirk at one or two of them. Then they'd argue about whose turn it was to do the dishes before breaking off to go to their tents and get some sleep.

Such was the way they lived these days. Like a strange little family.

The thought gave her pause. Family. Two weeks ago that word encompassed a total of five people: her mother, Brann, Liara, Kellen, and Paraxxel. Now it included Gale, Wyll, Karlach, Astarion, Shadowheart, and Lae’zel.

Oh. And Scratch, of course. Couldn’t forget him.

As if on cue, Scratch bounded over and sat himself right by Dani’s leg, setting his head on her knee. She smiled down at him and gave him plenty of good scratches around the ears before glancing around the camp again.

Yeah, they were all family. For better and for worse. Even Withers, she decided. Maybe it wouldn’t last, she didn’t know. But she knew right now that she wouldn’t have it any other way.

——————————————————————————

BONUS - Other Tav duties

I generally think that all the companions kind of fall into the same chores for most Tavs/Durges, with a bit of shifting depending on who is or isn't present. So with that in mind...

Ardynn's main chore would be hunting and gathering herbs for Gale to cook with. Honestly, their group probably eats the best out of all my Tavs because she also knows how to cook and she makes sure they always have fresh food, if she can manage it. Obviously the Shadow Cursed Lands make that task a lot harder.

Invi struggles to figure out what chore she's best at, so she just does whatever someone else doesn't want to do. That doesn't mean she's good at it. She's officially banned from doing laundry or dishes because her lightning magic doesn't mix well with water, and she may have ruined a few shirts or lost utensils down the river even when she keeps the lightning magic in check.

Freyr is the Firewood Guy. But in that "hauls a whole ass log into camp and chops it up while shirtless, occasionally rips wood apart with his bare hands" kind of way. Do not trust him to cook or clean.

#bg3 #bg3 fic #bg3ficfeb #my fic #oc #dani #meridan zavrai #tav #wyll ravengard #gale dekarios #karlach #lae'zel #astarion #shadowheart

[mumms-the-word]

A sneak peak!

I’m not one to like…pat myself on the back for good writing because good writing is subjective anyway but I’m a little obsessed with this moment in the upcoming chapter of my masquerade fic soooo

just wanted to share an angsty moment for y’all who might be interested 😌 warning tho I haven’t edited it fully because I’m still working on finishing the chapter lol

~*~*~

She whirled and ran to the larger mirror in the room, the one that took up nearly a whole wall of the gallery. This was the mirror where she’d seen that woman, instead of her own reflection. She pressed her hands onto the glass, staring hard at it, almost through it, her eyes nearly crossing with her efforts to shift the perspective of the reflection.

Everything looked the same. The paintings depicted in reverse, the room empty except for her and the green-clad Gale and the woman who was watching her with a guarded expression. But Dani continued to look, desperate for a sign that she wasn’t crazy.

She saw movement in one of the doorways. A figure stepped into the room, looking around, and when Dani looked over her shoulder, there was no one in the doorway behind her. She turned her attention back to the mirror just in time for the figure to step into the light of candles.

“Gale!” She practically screamed his name. She pressed her hands harder against the glass, as if by sheer will she could sink through it to the other side. “Gale! Can you hear me? Gale!”

She banged on the mirror, the glass shuddering beneath her fists. In the reflection, her Gale, clad in blue and purple, owl mask glinting in the candlelight, stepped further into the room, seemingly unaware of her. She called out his name and banged on the mirror again. But it was no use. Nothing she said or did drew his attention.

“What the hells?” Behind her, the other Gale and the half-elven woman drew closer, staring in shock and alarm at the mirror. “Is that—me?”

“Yes that’s you,” Dani snapped. “That’s my you. And he can’t fucking hear me! Gale!”

She stopped as she saw him turn his head toward her, toward the mirror. He stepped over, frowning and examining the glass, his dark eyes trailing over almost every inch from the top of the frame down toward where her face stared out at him.

In the reflection, he seemed to be standing just behind her shoulder. Dani lowered one hand from the mirror, reaching into the space behind her to try and take his hand.

But her hand only met empty air.

“Gale,” she mumbled, her throat closing up. “Please, look at me. Tell me you see me, please.”

But he only continued to frown and study, his eyes roving slowly over the surface, passing over her several times without seeing her. Finally, after a long moment, he took a few steps back and started to turn away.

Another figure burst into the room from the same doorway he’d entered from: Karlach, in her black dress and thick leather boots. She leaned into the room, holding onto the doorframe with one hand. When she spoke, her voice was silent, but Dani could read her lips easily.

Any luck? she asked. The blue-clad Gale shook his head, turning away from the mirror. Karlach swore and straightened up. We’ll keep looking. Don’t worry, Gale. We’re gonna find her.

They left together through the magic show room, never once glancing Dani’s way.

~*~*~

anyways have a picture of Dani and Gale as thanks/reward for reading lol

#at this point I’m only writing this because it makes me happy #and because my friend likes it and her Tav is in it #her Tav is actually in this scene rn 👀 #bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #gale dekarios #gale #my fic #sneak peek #my tav #dani #meridan zavrai #bg3 fic

[mumms-the-word]

Reunited, Part 2

Day 15 of the BG3 Fic February Challenge

I'm behind on fics so I wrote three in a REAL hurry and posted them all on the same day. Can you tell? Maybe you can't tell (but you probably can)

Ignore the fact that Dani is hugging Halsin here, we're pretending she's hugging Brann, who is like her foster/adopted dad.

Check out my masterlist of BG3 Fics!

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15. Any character is drunk/high

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“Here’s a health to my company, and one to my lads,” Dani sang, lifting her mug high. She stood with one foot planted in her chair at their shared table in the Blushing Mermaid, about three or four drinks deep by the time she’d burst into song (not for the first time). “Let us drink and be merry, all out of one glass! Let us drink and be merry, all grief to refrain, for we may or might never all meet here again.”

She tipped her head back to gulp down the rest of her ale, the burn pleasant as it traveled down her throat and settled, warm, in her belly. Around the table, Karlach and Wyll had joined her song, toasting her as she sang, and they drank with her. Gale and Shadowheart merely shook their heads, amused, as their took sips of their wine. Astarion had long since disappeared and the others had remained at camp.

Spoilsports, Dani thought cheerfully as she reached across the table to top off her mug with whatever was left in the bottles there. They’d just killed a hag, and freed a child from her gullet (gross), and saved Captain Grisly, and a few other feats besides. Captain Grisly had basically offered them several rounds on the house as a reward and a room in the ‘Maid any time they needed it. 

Mug full, she draped her self across Gale’s lap, holding onto his shoulders with one hand, grateful of his arm around her as he attempted to keep her steady. “Here’s a health to my dear lad that I love so well,” she sang, grinning as his face seemed to warm and grow ruddy under her theatric performance. She shifted the words slightly on the fly, hoping to tease him further. “For his style and his beauty, sure none can excel. There’s a smile on his countenance as I sit on his knee, there’s no man in this wide world as happy as he!”

“Dani,” Gale murmured, still looking quite pink, but Dani laughed and clinked her mug with his glass and took another gulp. Gale kept a hold of her as she tipped back, draining every last drop before righting herself and slamming her mug against the table.

“Enough!” she exclaimed. Her head was starting to spin. She held onto Gale for steadiness, pressing the palm of one hand to her forehead, trying to force a bit of soberness into her skull. How many drinks had it been? Karlach had asked her to sing and she’d said she needed two more drinks in her before she sang in public, so Karlach had brought over several more bottles. It was all over from there.

The ‘Maid was twice as rowdy as usual, though, so Dani’s voice was just one of many in the room randomly bursting into song. Grisly had made the hag’s death a celebration, throwing open the doors and enticing as many patrons inside as she could. The poor barman could barely keep up.

“Something tells me you’ve had enough, my dear,” Gale murmured, brushing a kiss against her cheek. 

“Normally I’d disagree but…” She lowered her hand to peer at him, and then got distracted immediately by how close he was. Hells, but he was gorgeous, wasn’t he? Those deep, brown eyes and his rich, soft hair. She couldn’t help but sink her fingers into his hair as she cradled his cheek. “You’re very pretty, you know that?”

"Am I?" he asked, laughing slightly. "I dare say you're the prettier one between the two of us."

"Nooo, nope, I disagree," Dani said, tapping his nose. "I do disagree with that one."

Wyll chuckled. "Ah, young love. Always a little more public when you've had a few drinks.

“Don’t worry, Gale,” Shadowheart said, smirking from across the table. “She’s a little sloshed, but that’s nothing a little restoration spell won’t cure.”

“Aww, let her go a bit longer,” Karlach said. “She’s fine. Look at her!”

Dani giggled and guided Gale’s face down to hers for a kiss. A kiss that she would have deepened and probably taken to dangerous levels had her stomach not suddenly rebelled. She grimaced and pulled back.

“On second thoughts,” she said, untangling herself from Gale’s arms and his lap. “Lesser restoration sounds…”

She trailed off, a sound of an instrument catching her ear, distant and faint, but the refrain instantly familiar. She knew that song. She knew every note of that song. Her heart began to pound in her ears, obscuring the sound. It—it couldn’t be, could it?

“Dani?” Wyll asked.

She turned to Shadowheart. “Quick. Lesser restoration, on me. Please.”

Shadowheart looked surprised, but she cast it. Dani felt the healing magic settle over her like a light frost, instantly sobering her. She shivered and then patted her cheeks, hoping to sober up even quicker.

“I’ll be right back,” she said. “Don’t go anywhere.”

“Dani?” Gale started to stand from his chair but Dani didn’t respond, dashing for the front doors of the Blushing Mermaid.

Surely the music she’d heard wasn’t a drunken hallucination…

There! She heard it again. A lute and a flute, playing—yes! The Rovers’ first song of their set! She gasped and turned down the alley on one side of the ‘Maid, following the music. They had to be somewhere near the back door, practicing. She recalled in an instant all the old habits of the Rovers. Tune up the instruments outside while Brann went in and negotiated the time and pay. Wait for Brann to come back, hopefully with good news. Set up on stage and play through their set. Hope they had a bed at night when all was said and done.

She turned a corner in the alley, looking this way and that, her eyes on the hunt for a young blonde woman and a half-elf man with nut-brown hair, hopefully—gods she hoped—with an older man and a dragonborn nearby. 

“Come on, come on,” she whispered to herself. “Where—“

She cut herself off with another gasp, her hands flying to her mouth as she found them. There. Not a trick of the light. But actually there, in front of her, flute and lute in hands, playing a few bars of a song. Liara and Kellen, their bags at their feet, looking none the worse for wear than when she saw them months ago.

She couldn’t find her voice to call out to them, but in the end, it didn’t matter. Liara lifted her head just in time to see her, too. She stopped strumming with a jolt, her pretty face paling, her eyes flying wide. She covered her mouth with her hands, her shoulders heaving, and then suddenly—she screamed, sharp and piercing. She dropped to her knees, hands back over her mouth. Kellen could only stand there in shock, looking back and forth between the two girls.

Dani’s voice unstuck. “Lee! K!” 

She ran over to them, nearly tripping over them both as Kellen helped Liara unsteadily to her feet, setting the instruments aside. Liara snatched Dani up into a hug immediately, her hands digging into her back as she held her tight.

“Dani!” she sobbed. “Oh my gods, oh my gods, Dani. I’m—I’m not dreaming, am I? Oh my gods!”

“No, you’re not dreaming, Lee,” Dani said, rocking her back in forth and never letting go. “I’m as real as they come. I swear.”

Liara pulled away and took hold of Dani’s shirt, giving her a little shake. “Gods damn you, Dani, do you have any idea how scared I’ve been? Where the hells were you? Why didn’t you write? What the hells—“

“Lee—“

“Lee, give her some room to breathe,” Kellen said, setting a hand on Liara’s shoulder. Liara seemed to struggle to calm her self but she swallowed and nodded, letting go of Dani’s shirt but taking her hand instead, holding it tightly. He looked at Dani, relieved. “It’s good to see you again, Dani. We’ve been so worried. Lee and Brann especially.”

“I know,” Dani said. “I'm sorry. I’ve been worried about you guys, too. Trust me, if I could have sent a message, I would have. I would have tried everything I could to get word to you and my mum.”

“Where’ve you been?” Liara asked. She leaned back slightly to give Dani a full once-over, looking a little amazed. “Is it just me or do you look…”

“Don’t say it, whatever it is,” Dani said, shaking her head and holding up her hands. “Good or bad, I don’t want to know. And it’s a long, long story. ” She looked around, up and down the alley. “Where’s Brann?”

“Inside, trying to get us a gig,” Kellen said. “He should be—“

“Liara! What in the hells do you think you’re doing, screaming like—“

The three of them turned as Brann stormed out of the back door, expression thunderous, only to stop short. In very nearly the same moment, Dani saw her friends come running around the ‘Maid, stopping just at the start of the alley. But Dani couldn’t pay them much attention. Not when Brann was looking at her like she was a ghost.

He stood frozen in the doorway, one hand gripping the frame, his blue-gray eyes staring. All color had drained away from his face and he swallowed several times, not saying a word. 

“Hey boss,” Dani said, smiling uncertainly, using her old nickname for him, back when she’d first joined the Rovers at fifteen. She suddenly felt unsure of how he would react to seeing her. Would he scold her? Take it in stride? Would he cross his arms and say nothing? She didn’t know what to expect, and he was giving her no clues.

“I’m…it’s…” She swallowed too, suddenly finding words difficult. She shrugged as the first threat of tears started to prick her eyes, made worse by his continuing silence. “I’m back,” she said helplessly.

He continued to stare as if his eyes were deceiving him. Liara and Kellen kept quiet, their faces tight with anxious watching. Brann took a heavy step forward, and then another, reaching out a hand. His fingers seemed to tremble slightly before his hand landed heavily on her shoulder.

Then something in him seemed to break. She saw his face twist, felt his fingers grip into her shoulder, before he pulled her roughly into a hug. Her ribs threatened to creak under the strength of his hug, but she didn’t care. She wrapped her arms around him too, burying her face in his worn shirt.

He didn’t say anything at first. He just seemed to breathe a little harder at first, a little erratically, and it took her a moment to register that he was holding back tears of his own. She heard him sniff and clear his throat a few times before he managed to rasp out, “Welcome home, Dani girl.”

That did her in for good. She clutched him tighter and shook with her tears, not quite sobbing, but not far off. She thought she had gotten most of her grief out when she’d reunited with her mother, but she realized now that seeing her mother again had only healed part of her broken spirit, which she hadn’t even realized was broken until she’d set foot back in Baldur’s Gate. Brann, Liara, and Kellen, they held other parts of her, other pieces that needed to be put back together. She wasn’t whole until she saw them again. And there was still one piece missing. Paraxxel, wherever he was. 

Still. Holding onto Brann, crying like a baby into his shoulder, with Liara and Kellen patting her back and holding one of her hands…she felt a little more put-back-together than before. She loved her new family—all her companions, the tiefling refugees, Gale, who was something more than family—but this was the family that raised her, shaped her, molded her, made her who she was. Brann was as good as a father—better than a father. And gods, had she missed him fiercely. 

The Rovers finally untangled themselves from the weepy, sniffling huddle that they’d become, wiping their eyes and noses, laughing a little at each others’ red eyes. Dani shook her head, a little in awe that she’d finally found them at last.

“I can’t believe you’re in Lower City,” she said. “Mum said you were looking all over Outer City for me and Axxel.”

“We have been,” Liara said. “Every single day. But no one knew anything in the Outer City.”

“Eventually we heard that there’d been some kind of commotion at Wyrm’s Rock,” Kellen said. “Word on the street is that there are armies on the march. We thought it best to move into the Lower City to do our search there.”

“We even thought about using some money to put in a notice in the Baldur’s Mouth Gazette,” Liara said.

“Fat lot of good that would have done,” Brann said. “Needle’s a bastard on a good day, and he doesn’t have many good days.”

“But then we saw your name in the paper!” Liara said. “A whole article about how you and a bunch of other adventurers defeated the general at the head of the army. General, oh what was it, K?”

“General Thorm,” he said. He looked uncertainly at Dani. “That…wasn’t true, was it?”

Dani laughed. “Well…” She shrugged, not offering a clear answer, but the three of them knew her well enough to glean what they needed out of it. They looked at her with a renewed sort of awe, Liara especially.

“Dani,” she breathed, taking her hand again. “Gods, you’re a hero now. Like in all the songs.”

“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Dani said, shaking her head. “I mean, I wrote that article, sure, and most of it is true. Some of it is embellished. But come on, you know me. I’m hardly a hero.”

“I think your friends would beg to differ,” Brann said, looking beyond her down the alley. Dani turned to see her four drinking companions, Gale, Karlach, Wyll, and Shadowheart, finally approaching from the start of the alleyway. Brann looked down at Dani, then, his face for a brief moment warm and proud. “It sounds like you’ve been busy while you’ve been away.”

“‘Busy’ isn’t the start of it,” Dani said. Keeping a hold of Liara’s hand, she took one of Brann’s hands and gave it a squeeze. “We have a lot to catch up on. Come on, meet my friends. Let’s all have a few drinks and just talk. And don’t worry about finding a room for the night. I’ve got that covered.”

She smiled at all of them, her Merry Rovers, though they were still missing one person. “Let me take care of you guys, for once.”

They gave in readily and soon Dani was fielding introductions between her friends and her family, leading them all back inside for food and more drinks. She laughed as Liara took an immediate interest in Gale when Dani introduced him as, “Gale, my love,” and proceeded to pepper him with questions under the guise of deciding whether he was “worthy” of Dani or not. Brann seemed wary of Gale at first but when Dani quietly asked him what he thought, later, he only shook his head and said that Gale was a good man. Which, coming from Brann, was high praise, since it didn’t come with a single critique of his character or noncommittal shrug, which is what Dani had gotten in the past when she ventured to go out with guys in the past.

Kellen and Wyll became fast friends over a shared love of hero legends, especially stories about Balduran, while Shadowheart slipped out early to make it back to camp for some early shut-eye. Karlach seemed to love everyone, and everyone loved Karlach, which was no surprise to Dani. If Paraxxel were there, the two of them would probably have become immediate best friends. Dani could see a lot of what she loved about Paraxxel, in all his jittery drummer energy, his quick humor, his protective nature, in Karlach. If she weren’t in the middle of trying to get Dammon and Karlach to recognize how much they clearly liked each other, she would have been plotting to get Karlach and Paraxxel together.

They were all still looking for him, she realized, as the conversation inevitably turned to him. But he was harder to find. Dani told them of her theory that he must have been returned to Baldur’s Gate. It was likely that he was out there looking for them, and they were all just missing him by being constantly on the move. It didn’t take much convincing to ask the Rovers to keep looking for him while she handled matters in the city. She knew they would have done so without her asking anyway. Paraxxel was family, after all.

She just hoped that the Rovers, Paraxxel, and her mother, all of them, could stay out of trouble. She hoped that the mess that the Gortash and Orin seemed eager to make would never touch her loved ones.

Because, she thought to herself, watching as her old family bonded and befriended her new family, these were the people she loved. These people were home, just as much as Baldur’s Gate was. These people made up all the pieces that created Dani, each one of them carrying a small part of her when they left her side. When they were all together in one room, all her pieces were reunited, together, whole. When they were apart, they cared small pieces of her love along with them, so that she would always be with them, and they always with her. That's just how it was.

And so, she resolved her oath to herself, which she had made a dozen times over already since returning to the city. She wouldn’t rest until she knew that all of them were safe. Every last one of them, old family and new. 

#bg3 #bg3 fic #bg3ficfeb #my fic #oc #meridan zavrai #dani #gale #gale dekarios #karlach #wyll ravengard #shadowheart #astarion #this is rushed but its fiiiinnnneeeeee

[mumms-the-word]

so, funny story

when I was trying to get a picture of ascended Gale that I liked for my fic about, well, him ascending, I decided to speedrun the last half of act 3 in my Dani saves. I knew if I just launched from the morphic pool save I had and went to the end, Gale would reject godhood, because Dani was like “I don’t need the stars I love you as you are” AS SHE SHOULD and he was so smitten that even trying to be like “but power?” at the last minute would result in him being like “haha no are you crazy I’m a better man now” AS HE SHOULD

so I had to go with an earlier save

and in that save I decided I would just encourage him to go with godhood and skip very quickly through conversations and skip all the stuff I had to do to run to the morphic pool. we’re talking ZOOMZOOM through act 3 to the epilogue, sorry Wyll, sorry Shadowheart, there will be no Ansur or House of Grief, like bitch we didn't even talk to Raphael or crash his house we had to GO

I didn’t zoomzoom through Gale’s confrontation of Mystra because tbh god-path Gale’s spat with her in the Tabernacle scene is worth a watch, it’s very cathartic (and I think she explains things better when he’s mad at her but I digress)

but essentially the plan was to do the boat scene with Gale, go yell at Mystra, kill Orin, bop over to the brain, give it a good smack, boom epilogue

Problem: I hadn’t encountered Sarevok yet, so I couldn’t make it to Orin

now, Sarevok isn’t a super tough fight but he’s a pain and I was in a rush. so the quickest way to get the amulet of Bhaal was to…well, become an unholy assassin and kill Valeria

(Which I hate Valeria so like on the one hand, cathartic, on the other, Dani would never and Gale was AGHAST)

(Side note #2: he did immediately follow up the mention of him not approving by saying that Dani’s eyes were capable of tenderness while she was still covered in blood from the unholy assassin baptism so…………yeah)

anyways now that we’re unholy assassins (sorry Gale) we bop over to Orin. I’ve got this all planned: we’ll just blow her up.

well, no, we won’t because when Orin jumped over to where Karlach was waiting with 8 barrels of smokepowder and runepowder bomb, Orin still had 2 unstoppables, and I, like a FOOL, didn’t think to use Gale’s turn to cast magic missile to get rid of them, because I’m thinking “these barrels are going to all explode, that’s multiple hits, it’ll be fine”

reader it was not fine

I blew up the barrels and you how much damage Orin had received?

8 smokepowder barrels and a runepowder bomb took one ONE UNSTOPPABLE. BITCH WAS STILL INVINCIBLE.

and then she killed Karlach dead dead and it all went downhill from there and we all died I was out of saves so I had to reload back to the boat scene with Gale

thus began Dani’s villain era

we go yell at Mystra, we go stabbity stab Valeria (Astarion ends up in the baptism because, idk, reasons, but good for him), we bop over to Orin, we fight Orin the old fashioned way (aka with magic missiles and cloud kill and stuff), and then Dani steals her armor and turns it black and puts it on and I’m like “wait a minute she’s looking, like, really hawt”

so I put Gale in Gortash’s fit and then we went and dominated the world

temporarily of course because I did need my epilogue but like look at her

of course I was going to let her dominate the brain for a bit

so we did

and anyway I guess the lesson is let your ocs become villains together for a minute??

anyways thanks for reading please enjoy my two OOC villain babies kissing like ten feet from Orin’s dead body I guess

what if we kissed inside the lord murder’s temple

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #gale #gale dekarios #dani #meridan zavrai #my tav #and her wacky adventures

[mumms-the-word]

I love that after 163725 tries to get good Gale kisses with Dani, I finally get it right after I randomly make them both goth for a day

Poorly edited PS5 screenshots as per usual

#bg3 #gale dekarios #gale #baldur's gate 3 #my tav #dani #meridan zavrai #bg3 screenshots #the lesson here is that you should make your Tavs and companions goth every now and again #embrace the random evil night or temporary villain era

[mumms-the-word]

New Normal

Day 28 of the BG3 Fic February Challenge

We're almost there guys :') I can't believe I've posted 28 fics about BG3 content here

I have Thoughts(TM) about what all of my Tav/Durges are doing after the game ends, after the epilogue, etc., but I wrote two for today (one was already written lol). If you're curious about what my Durges get up to, I've speculated in the tags since I haven't finished either game yet

Check out my masterlist of BG3 fics!

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28. Describe your Tav/Durge's life after BG3 ends

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Nearly six months had passed since Dani and her little company, as she liked to call them, had defeated the Netherbrain, but her work was far from over. The brain had wrecked her beloved Baldur's Gate, and while she could shrug off the damage to the Upper City districts, she couldn’t ignore the rest of the city. So just as soon as the celebrations were over, she rolled up her sleeves and got to work.

She’d half expected Gale to tire of Baldur’s Gate and ask her to leave it for Waterdeep, but to her surprise, he’d also rolled up his sleeves and offered his services wherever they were needed. She might have been the one dragging him hither and thither, finding new projects to tackle alongside Jaheira’s Harpers and Nine-Fingers’ guild and the Flaming Fist loyal to Ravengard, but Gale’s spellwork was invaluable in every circumstance and he was quick to offer solutions when others struggled to think of any. When he wasn’t researching a way to salvage the crown from the river and reforge it to give to Mystra (or, having completed that, ways of cooling down Karlach's heart, ways of granting Astarion the ability to walk in the sun again, a cure for Shadowheart's Sharran wound, and much, much more), he was following Dani, lending his magical strength to her and those she sought to help.

She only loved him more for it. 

Together they worked to make sure the tiefling refugees were cared for. She knew the city well enough, even as damaged as it was, to know the best place for Danis and Bex to set up their bakery, or find shelter for the tieflings kids, who all seemed content enough to stick with Mol. Dammon was more than all set at his forge, Lakrissa and Alfira had already found a place on their own which they were turning into a music school, and Rolan had his tower, of course (and she would always be grateful for the fact that he opened up the tower’s resources to help with city’s reconstruction, too). It was only all too convenient that, apart of Rolan’s tower in the Upper City, the bakery, the forge, the music school, all of the homes and businesses of the tiefling refugees happened to be in the same district, even the same neighborhood. The Lower City had become a new home for the tieflings, with new families just waiting to take root.

She wasn’t entirely altruistic about her aid, however. As the savior of the city, she negotiated first pick of a house for her mother and another for the Rovers, both in good parts of the Lower City, before finally choosing a property for herself and Gale. Her mother and the Rovers would live near the new tiefling neighborhood where they could join in that community (if they so desired) while she and Gale secured a modest property overlooking the Chionthar and the hills beyond. The balcony didn’t quite offer the same sunset as Gale’s balcony in Waterdeep, but it was close.

It was in her little balcony that they sat now, six months since their victory, a bit tired from their day’s work but satisfied. Dani had decorated her balcony with a comfy loveseat similar to Gale’s in Waterdeep, and it was there that she loved to stretch out, her legs in Gale’s lap as she read a story or wrote down a song or, as their current personal project had become, jotting down notes and passages detailing their adventures in order to turn it into a book someday. Better to get a head start on Volo before he published his account with all the details all wrong. On evenings like this, Gale usually balanced a book on her legs or held the tome gingerly in one hand while his other hand absently smoothed up and down her calves. They spent many an afternoon like that, lost in their own little worlds, reading or writing.

At the moment, however, her legs once more in his lap, she was writing a letter to his mother, the slightly intimidating, dauntless Morena Dekarios. She remembered their first meeting all too well. Gale had insisted they take a break from their work in Baldur’s Gate to pay her a visit and break the news to her of their engagement in person. Dani agreed—after all, fair was fair. He had already met her mother, and her mother positively loved Gale. But Morena was another story entirely.

She was certain Morena would disapprove of her. Dani was hardly an elegant, well-educated woman of class or substance. And though Dani was rarely one to feel shaky nerves or stage fright, something about meeting Gale’s mother had made her palms sweaty and her brain second-guessing every decision that had led up to their meeting. She honestly, truly would have preferred to take on the Netherbain again, alone, than face Gale's mother and suffer her judgment.

But to her surprise, aside from a sharp once over the moment that Morena’s eyes had landed on her, she found Morena nothing but warm and welcoming. Morena was delighted that Gale had finally found someone to love him as much as she did and made Dani charmed and at ease in her lush Waterdhavian home. The only negative emotion Dani could discern from her was that she was a little sad that her boy had decided to live so far away...for now.

“It won’t be forever, right, my love?” Gale had said, turning to look at Dani. And though she wanted to protest a little—Baldur’s Gate was her home, after all, the place that had made her, had shaped her—she always had a hard time saying no to his warm, brown eyes. Or to adventure, when it called, and Waterdeep seemed like a place where adventure came in spades.

“We have work to complete in Baldur’s Gate,” she’d said, “but once that is done…I wouldn’t mind seeing what the City of Splendors has to offer.”

Of course, they were married in Baldur’s Gate, not Waterdeep. That part she had insisted on, feeling as though she might risk Morena’s ire to do so. But Morena had merely waved her hand, unflustered, and said it made sending invitations easier. Not every Dekarios liked to travel, it seemed.

The wedding itself had been quite small, by Waterdavian standards (so Gale had said) but she thought it was perfect. Her mother had made her wedding gown entirely from scratch, hand-stitching the embroidery along the hem of the skirt and around the neckline. Each member of the Merry Rovers had given her a sash to tie around her waist, as was customary for Baldur’s Gate bards. Brann had even gone a little misty-eyed when he put his sash, a soft, worn, light blue linen thing, in her hand. Liara had given her one in pinkish-red, insisting that she had been saving it for her own wedding day, but Dani clearly deserved it more. (Dani of course disagreed and promised to find an exquisite sash for Lee’s wedding, which was, they both agreed, long overdue.) Kellen had chosen a pleasant gold color, while Paraxxel, finally safe and recovering and back with the Rovers, had gone with a dark blue. The day of her wedding, Dani wore all four sashes from all four Rovers, arranging them so that each color was visible. 

Brann had insisted he and the Rovers play for the festivities after the ceremony, but Dani pointed out Liara would very disappointed not to dance, so Brann had relented and said they would only play half the time if Dani and her “fancy wizard fiancé” could conjure up a band to play the other half. Gale had gone one step further and learned a spell to conjure spirit instruments just for the occasion, though Dani and the Rovers had to teach them the music beforehand (not that she minded a reason to play with her old troupe again). 

She and Gale held their ceremony in a park overlooking the river, with tents and rugs and pillows and pieces of furniture scrounged together to make a half-decent ceremony and reception space for all the guests. Gale wanted to cast an illusion to create an entire palatial venue, but Dani told him to save his energy. She didn't care about the venue. She just wanted him there, and she wanted her friends there, and she wanted there to be music and dancing and food and wine and fun.

It didn't have to be perfect. She wasn't perfect. She didn't mind if all they did was pay a priest to say some words in the middle of the street, so long as she was well and truly married to him. Besides, the conglomeration of tents and furniture reminded her of the camps where their love had first formed. It may not impress her wealthier guests, but it was special to her.

They married at sunset, exchanging a kiss as the sun dipped down behind hills. Gale always did look best with the orange-gold light of a setting sun to make every warm tone in his face, eyes, and hair that much warmer. And he’d been swooningly handsome in his wedding garb, a gift from his mother and Tara, carefully selected to match Dani’s hand-made outfit without outshining it. She'd been all too giddy to show him off, to be on his arm. The Gale Dekarios, her new husband.

Nearly all their friends had made it, to her surprise. Astarion had to watch the ceremony from a safe, shadowy distance until the sun was set enough for him to join properly, but Shadowheart, Lae’zel, Jaheira, Minsc, Halsin, and a whole host of friends she’d made along the way—nearly every tiefling she’d bonded with, Jaheira’s kids, Florrick and Duke Ravengard of all people, and several others—they’d all been able to sit to view the ceremony itself. It was made all the more perfect when Gale surprised her with one of many wedding gifts, conjuring a scrying eye that allowed Karlach and Wyll to watch from Avernus and allowing Dani to briefly converse with them. She'd broken down in tears, missing two of her best friends, but she'd been grateful they would witness her wedding at all and that she could speak with them, even for a short time.

The post-ceremony festivities were a bit of a blur, now, a few weeks after all was said and done. Dani remembered getting Gale to dance not just once but several times, and dancing with plenty more people besides. Lee, Paraxxel, her mother, Brann, Shadowheart, even Astarion had deigned to join her for a brief turn. She remembered laughing often, kissing Gale often, hugging everyone she loved often. She remembered thinking that Baldur’s Gate had never looked so beautiful than it did in that park, surrounded by her friends and family, the trees hung with lanterns and fairy lights floating blissfully through the air.

And then it was over, and she and Gale had fallen into bed that night exhausted, only to rise the next morning with plans to return to the restoration of Baldur’s Gate.

That hadn’t happened, of course. They’d both slept in until around noon, and by that time they’d decided to just stay in for a day. Dani had promised Gale they’d go on a honeymoon trip as soon as they could be freed from a few obligations, but Gale had other plans. Since they were just going to stay at home for the day, why not make the most of it?

He’d spent hours conjuring illusions for her, starry galaxy skies and seas of stardust, as he used to do, but also grassy fields to lay in, mountain peaks to gaze out from, views from the deck of a ship sailing to far and exotic lands. In his visions she’d walked hand in hand with him through colorful markets and stood at the edge of canyons and valleys that took her breath away. And when his illusions started to wobble as he yawned and grew tired, she wrapped herself around him and kissed him a hundred times as thanks.

Alas, no rest for the wicked after that. They still had a city to rebuild. Books to write. Letters to answer. Patriars to ignore.

Dani smiled to herself as her pen paused on a sentence to Morena, glancing up at Gale. He was tracing idle circles in her leg with one hand while concentrating carefully on the book in his other hand. The setting sun glinted off his wedding band.

Like hers, it was made of two metals, a simple silver that had formerly been one of her many earrings and a beautiful gold that Gale had carefully selected from his mother's jewelry collection (which she was very quick to offer) to match the gold of Dani's eyes. They'd gotten Dammon to make two simple rings out of the metal and then found a jewelry smith to cut each ring in half, then join opposite halves together, and then engrave them. It was a Waterdhavian marriage custom, one that Dani had fallen in love with as Morena and Gale explained it to her. She flicked her gaze down to admire her own ring, appreciating the craftsmanship and what it meant to her and Gale, before looking back at him. He read on, absorbed in his own little world.

She took advantage of the moment to watch him, admiring his profile, the shape of his lips, how soft his hair looked. Her husband. Every time she thought that word she got a little giddy.

She shifted and reached out to brush her fingers against his shoulder, not wanting to disturb him too abruptly. But whatever had captured his attention, her touch had easily broken. He lowered the book immediately to turn and give her a smile, as if he'd been waiting for her to seek his attention.

“Yes, my love?”

She giggled slightly and sat up, shifting to sit comfortably in his lap. “I just wanted a kiss,” she said, weaving her fingers loosely together behind his neck. “Nothing much.”

“You know I am always willing to oblige you, my love,” he said, matching her smile. He set his book aside and wrapped his arms around her waist, leaning in to brush his lips against hers once, twice, several times.

“I love you,” she murmured against his lips.

“I love you,” was his ready response. Always on his tongue, that little sentence. Always full of warmth and sincerity. He must have said it a thousand times already.

She looked forward to him saying it a thousand times more. Here, in Baldur's Gate, their new home, and beyond, in Waterdeep, on the road to new adventures, in the dark of the night, in the first hours of the morning.

She was happy to be in her city, seeing to its recovery, making sure everyone she loved had a warm home and that the city would be back to normal soon. But she knew deep down that it didn't really matter where she was. She was a Merry Rover, used to roaming. But now she was also Dani Dekarios, and she was content to be with Gale, her husband, wherever their adventures took them.

———

Ardynn gazed up at the stars, her head pillowed on Halsin’s bare arm as they lay, unclothed, on a threadbare blanket in a small clearing in the woods. Withers’ party had come and gone and they were on their way back to Thaniel’s lands, to the community they had built, together. Halsin was eager to regale the children with new stories for their bedtime tales and Ardynn was eager to settle once more into the life she had fought so hard to earn. A home of her own. A life partner to spend her days with. Children to care for and people to help as they built new lives in Thaniel’s recovering lands. 

Halsin had been shocked when she responded to his plans of leaving Baldur’s Gate to build a refuge in Thaniel’s realm by insisting that she would go with him. He’d been quick to mention all that she would be leaving behind, but she shook her head, pressing her hand to his heart and reassuring him that she was certain of what she wanted. She wanted him. She wanted to join him in his new purpose. She wanted to build a refuge with him, away from the city, where nature and society could live in a healthy balance. It was Halsin’s dream, but it had become hers, too.

So for the last six months, they’d worked together to build their little village, taking care of an entire gaggle of children, restoring buildings so that they could become homes for weary refugees, slowly but surely creating a home for themselves.

They had chosen a cabin that had been ripped in half by the destruction of the shadow curse, but had since been made whole again through Thaniel’s intervention. A living tree now grew up from the floorboards to hold part of the ceiling. Thick vines patched the holes in the walls and mossy rocks made up part of the new foundation. They tended their home as if it were another living thing in their care, because it was. 

She couldn’t wait until they were back home again.

The owlbear was coming with them, too. He slumbered deeply several feet away, curled up in the grass. She would have to figure out where he would sleep once they were back home, but she didn’t mind. She loved the big, silly creature.

And he wouldn’t be the only new addition to their community, before long.

She turned her head to watch Halsin. His eyes were closed in meditation, his breathing deep and even, but she knew that he would awake with the barest touch of her hand. She didn’t disturb his meditation just yet. She simply watched, smiling to herself, cradling close the news she would have to give him soon. Perhaps tonight. Perhaps in a few days.

It was easy to keep it a secret for now. For one, the idea terrified her as much as it thrilled her. For another, she didn’t know how Halsin might react to such news. It was still so new to her, it barely felt real. But even she couldn’t ignore the flutters in her body anymore, and after Shadowheart’s subtle comment at the party…

You feel a little more substantial than before.

There was no denying it now. Shadowheart had been teasing, had chalked it up to Ardynn’s new settled lifestyle, but Ardynn knew better. And after a few more moments of conversation, Shadowheart had gleaned part of the situation for herself.

“Swear to keep it a secret?” Ardynn asked her. “I haven’t told anyone else. Not even Halsin.”

“You don’t want to announce that kind of news at a party like this? You never know when we’ll all be gathered together again.”

“I’ll tell everyone in time. In my own way. Once I’m sure I’m not imagining things.”

Shadowheart had relented and kept her silence, but it had been a little thrilling, finally having a friend that was in on the secret. Finally feeling like she wasn’t just imagining the changes she felt. She’d almost asked Shadowheart to do some kind of diagnostic magic, just confirm her suspicions, but she’d held back. 

Now, though, she was absolutely certain. She pressed a hand to her belly and held her breath. There was a new, subtle firmness beneath her fingers, but that wasn’t what she was seeking. She closed her eyes, concentrating.

There. A tiny fluttering, almost so small as to be missed, deep within her. Unnoticeable by her fingers alone, but felt nonetheless.

Hello little one, she whispered silently in her mind.

She opened her eyes again, her face still turned toward Halsin’s. He remained deep in meditation, oblivious to her thoughts, her worries. She didn’t have to worry that he would be a terrible father. That part wasn't necessarily her concern. He lavished love and affection on the children that had accompanied them to live in Thaniel’s realm. She recalled the thought he had shared with her, spoken softly and mournfully, back when they were still in the city and had finally met Jaheira’s family.

I was never afforded a chance to start a family of my own. Serving nature always had to come first.

Now he had his family. He had dozens of children to share his love with, and a community of others who were helping to heal the land and tend to it. He had Thaniel, too, and he had her.

She just hoped there was a little bit of room left over in that big, fierce heart of his for one more.

She couldn’t wait any longer. She reached out and gently brushed the backs of her fingers against his cheek, whispering his name. He turned his head, seeking more of her touch, as his eyes opened slowly. She waited until he was looking at her, fully awake, before smiling and cuddling closer into his side.

“I could stare at you for a lifetime,” he murmured, before she could say anything. The arm around her shifted and she felt his fingertips brush down her side. “Is there something wrong, my heart? I thought you would be asleep by now.”

She shook her head. “No, nothing is wrong. I was just thinking.” She took a deep breath and decided this would go better if she could more easily see his face. She sat up, shifting to settle on her knees and turning to face him. “There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you for several days now.”

“Oh?” He propped himself up on one elbow, looking pleasantly curious. It helped settle the bundle of nerves in her stomach a little. “Tell me, my love.”

She opened her mouth to say the words but found she couldn’t at first. She swallowed and tried again, her words coming out in a small whisper. “I think I am with child.”

She saw the change in his expression immediately. He stared, his lips parting slightly, and then his gaze flicked down to look at her bare middle. A look of sudden, avid, almost boyish curiosity stole over his features and he sat up, pressing one large hand to her stomach, golden nature magic glowing from his palm and sinking into her skin. She held her breath, watching his face as it changed from curiosity to baffled wonder to misty-eyed joy. She panicked a little when he dropped his head down, pressing both hands into the fabric of the blanket beneath him, only to feel her heart wrench when he lifted his head again and she saw the tears gathered in his eyes.

“You are,” he breathed. “You’re with child.”

“Your child,” she said, cradling his face in her hands. Tears were threatening her eyes too now, especially when the first teardrop tracked down his cheek. She rubbed it away with her thumb. “Our child, Halsin.”

He whispered something she didn’t catch, some prayer or praise to Silvanus, and gathered her up in his arms, hugging her fiercely to his chest. She wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders and hid her face in his neck, fighting the urge to laugh and to cry all at the same time. He laid back with her still held tightly in his arms before finally letting her go.

She pushed herself up on her hands, gazing down at him and finding his face wet with tears even as he grinned widely, elated. She laughed slightly and wiped the tears from his face. “You’re a bit big to be crying,” she said, recalling the words Oliver had said to him all those months ago. Halsin laughed too, wrapping his arms loosely around her middle.

“How could I not? I am not ashamed.”

“And you’re not upset?” she asked, still brushing her fingertips against his cheeks. She paused to lay a hand on his chest, gazing earnestly down at him. “We have so many children to look after already, and much work to do besides.”

“Upset? Far from it. A child of my own blood…” He caressed her face with his hand, sinking his fingers into her hair, and she couldn’t help but nuzzle into his palm out of habit. “It was a distant dream. I never assumed anyone would wish to stay with me long enough to make that a reality. And yet…here you are. Choosing me again and again.”

“I will always choose you,” she whispered. She pressed her hand more firmly against his chest, over his heart. “Always, Halsin. For as long as you’ll have me.”

He smiled, his face beaming with joy and love, and guided her head down so that they could kiss. She lost herself in his kisses for a moment, happy to be pressed against him, skin to skin, with only the moonlight as their witness. But then she felt his smile against her lips and his laughter against her body.

“I shall have to take better care of you once we are back home,” he murmured.

“And you shall have to be careful not to spoil our child more than you spoil any of the others,” she teased, pulling back to grin down at him. She knew he wouldn’t. Halsin loved all the children equally. It didn’t matter whether they were his blood or not. 

“Our child,” he breathed, still caressing her cheek and gazing lovingly up at her. “I can scarcely believe it.”

She smiled and bent forward for another kiss. “I love you, Halsin,” she whispered.

“And I love you, my heart.” He pressed his hand to her belly again, turning his head to direct his voice downward toward it. “And I love you, little one.”

She giggled and rolled to the side until she was curled up against his side again. She guided one of his hands to rest on her belly and snuggled in close, closing her eyes. “I can’t wait to meet them.”

“Nor I, my heart. Nor I.”

#bg3 #bg3 fic #bg3ficfeb #my fic #oc #halsin #gale #gale dekarios #dani #ardynn #ardynn harrow #meridan zavrai #these are the only epilogues i've played so far :') #but I imagine that freyr is probably off trying to conquest cities or whatever with minthara #they've got big plans #unless he took over the world for bhaal in which case he's just killing people everywhere #as for invi i actually dont know any astarion romance epilogue content #ive kept myself mostly spoiler free for astarion #so i have no real idea what they're doing #but i imagine that she's dedicated a lot of research time to finding a cure for vampirism #and in the mean time finding ways that let him walk in the sun

[mumms-the-word]

First Confessions

Day 21 of the BG3 Fic February Challenge

How could I not write first confessions for ALL my Tavs/Durges?

Each little flash fic below is the first time my Tav/Durge has said "I love you" to their LI. Some confessions happen really early! And some, surprisingly late. I had a fun time trying to think how each Tav/Durge would confess and what the LI's might say or do in that scenario. Hopefully you guys will be enjoy one or two of these as well.

Check out my masterlist of BG3 fics!

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21: Love confession (by any character)

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Dani 

“Gods, I love you.”

It fell out of her mouth in the middle of a laugh, her nose slightly scrunched, her sharp teeth flashing, her eyes misty with mirth. They’d been swapping stories around the fire, telling jokes, sharing funny memories, until at last Gale had sent half of them into fits over a tale about a student at Blackstaff who’d convinced him to play a prank on a much-despised instructor, resulting in a marble bust of the instructor spouting a colorful variety of insults thanks to a well-cast magic mouth spell. 

She said it casually and instinctually, the way she did when she was with her Rovers. Without thought, but also meant with her whole chest. Affectionate and warm and light. It didn’t strike her until a moment later, wiping her eyes, that it was the first time he’d heard her say those words to him. The first time she’d said those words to anyone other than the Rovers. His face had seemed warmer after she said it, but that could have been from his laughter too. If he thought anything of it, it didn’t show on his face.

She couldn’t have known then that it would be the first many I love you’s between the two of them. But even so, in the moment, she wouldn’t have taken it back for the world. He often made her smile, often made her laugh, and she loved him to bits for it. 

So the words came easily. They always came easily, meant with as much affection on that first utterance around the fire, with all her friends as a witness, as they did one thousand reiterations later, when she spoke the words softly into the crook of his neck as they lay together alone in their bed. 

But she had no way of knowing what lay in her future that night around the campfire. That night she said the words with a laugh, bright and affectionate, falling a little bit in love with him but thinking nothing of it. 

She didn’t know, of course, that at the very same moment he was falling a little more in love with her too. It would only be a handful of days before those words returned, murmured softly under a starlit sky, carrying the weight of a different, deeper kind of love. 

But for now, as a far as first confessions go, the words were out there, but her love remained a fledgling little secret, tucked away in the back of her heart to grow over time.

———

Invi

“I love you.”

She whispered it into Astarion’s blood-flecked hair, sinful red on bone white, holding him tightly as he shook under the weight of his world crashing down around him. Cazador was dead just a foot away, the ritual ruined, seven thousand and six spawn alive but with nowhere to go. And one broken, shuddering spawn who was shattering in her arms.

She probably shouldn’t have said it. It was probably the worst thing she could have said. She didn’t even know if he could hear her over the roar of grief and pain in his skull. She could sense it in his body as he pressed his hands into the blood-soaked stone of the ritual platform, his chest heaving with choked sobs. She could sense it in his mind where they were connected by the tadpoles, all barriers gone. His thoughts were a whirlwind of emotions, relief mixed with sorrow, anger mixed with frenzied joy, and grief, so much grief. It was too much for his mind alone so his body has responded for him, releasing the energy in a torrent of tears and wailing cries.

Still she held on, embracing him as best she could, grounding him the only way she knew how. She understood what it was to lose control like this. She remembered all too well the night she’d struggled against her bindings, every cell in her body urging her to break free and kill Astarion, while the person inside, the girl known as Invi, screamed in the prison of her mind that she loved him and fought with all her strength to resist. He’d stayed with her the whole night. She could do no less for him now.

Still. Maybe she should have saved the words for later. Maybe they would have been better said in a quiet room where it was just the two of them. Maybe this confession would be another mistake in a long road of mistakes she’d already made. But the words were out there now. And she said them again, pressing a kiss to his hair as he struggled to regain composure. 

I love you. I love you. I love you.

She wanted to say so much more, but she didn’t know how to communicate it. Those were the only words she had, and in the end, those were the words that calmed him.

He didn’t say them back. She didn’t expect him to. She didn’t even know if he had really heard them. But now that the words were out there in the world, she could deny them no longer.

She had wanted to say them the morning she woke up, still bound, and found Astarion safe and well by the smoldering campfire. She had wanted to say them before they entered this room to fight Cazador, just in case she never got the chance to again. Both times she had choked on them, unsure of the timing, or how he would respond, unsure if she even really knew what love felt like.

No more. She said the words now, because they were the only words she could say. Whether he was ready to accept them or not, she had said them, and she refused to take them back.

———

Freyr

“I love you.”

He murmured it softly into Minthara’s ear as they lay together in a shared bed at the Elfsong, the darkness of the room interrupted only by a few sputtering candles. He traced his fingertips lightly across her nightshade skin, slowly up the curve of her spine, following the paths laid out by scars, pausing at old wounds as his fingers brushed against them. She lay against him, cheek on his chest, fingers at the pulse of his neck, dozing lightly. But at his words, she stirred. 

He didn’t know why he said it. He didn’t know what had possessed him. Or perhaps, that itself was the problem. Nothing possessed him. He was free of his dark urges at last.

It was the first night his mind had been quiet, the first he could easily remember. In the dark of the room, with Minthara drifting away into a meditative doze, there was nothing whispering in his mind anymore. The only voice in his head was his own. 

And so, unable to sleep because of the quiet, he had contemplated the woman in his arms. Turned every drifting thought back to her. Admired her beauty, her strength. Replayed the words she had spoken earlier that day, the words she had whispered as she had guided him to lay back on the bed, trying to commit them all the memory now that he had a mind to remember things. And in his contemplations of her, the words had simply fallen from his lips.

She turned her head, resting her chin on his chest, blinking sleepily at him. He waited for her to scoff, tell him love was a weakness, or even ignore his words entirely. But instead she smirked faintly and traced the curve of his lips with pad of her thumb. 

“I know,” she murmured, her voice a gentle rasp. 

Of course she knew. How could she not? He’d been drawn to her from the moment he met her in that ruined temple months ago. He’d devoted himself to her the moment he’d watched her fight. Sworn to protect her when he saved her from Moonrise. Vowed to kill Orin as vengeance for her as much as for himself after hearing how Orin had tormented her. Now with Orin dead and his madness at an end, he saw his actions for what they were, what they had perhaps always been. The actions of a man madly in love.

Yet he didn’t feel any weaker for having said the words. If the dark urge were still a part of him, it would have churned his gut with revulsion. But there was no more dark urge. There was only him and the woman in his arms.

Perhaps he would say it again, another time. Perhaps it would be a phrase that came easily to his lips, and perhaps one day she may even say it back. But for now it was a simple truth that they shared between them. No more need be said. 

———

Ardynn

“Halsin? I love you.”

She said the words as casually as she was able, trying desperately to ignore the pounding of her heart in her chest or the way her hands trembled with fine tremors. They were walking hand-in-hand through the newly cured lands around Reithwin, the air quiet but for the sound of a few intrepid birds that had been among the first to return. She spoke the words into the still air and held her breath, trying not to look as scared as she felt when Halsin turned to look at her.

She must have said it a hundred times in her head before this moment. A fleeting, silly thought when she’d had too much to drink at the tiefling party. A yearning plea when she was in the depths of the shadow cursed lands, clutching a token infused with his nature magic to her chest. A whispered prayer as she lay across from him with the campfire between them. 

When they’d lain together for the first time, under the stars with the river drifting lazily by, when his lips were on her skin and his hands on her body, the words had laced together in a pattern in her mind, locked behind her teeth as she clenched them together and arched her back with pleasure. When she fell asleep in his arms each night since then, it was the last thought she cradled close to her heart before drifting away. When she woke with her body against his and opened her eyes to find him smiling gently down at her, it was the first thought that sprang to her mind. 

She screamed it in her head in the midst of battle, urged the words to form on her tongue in desperate moments where he was hurt or in danger. But she hadn’t said them. She had nearly choked on the words several times, at the Iron Throne, at the Netherbrain, when she had run and jumped into his arms a tenday after the defeat of the brain, having reunited with him in Thaniel’s lands, each time nearly letting them escape only to bite them back in a hurry. These days she felt the words fill her mouth when they were doing nothing of consequence at all, sitting in silence over a meal or contemplating the landscape together. But she had never once said them out loud. 

Because he had never said them, either.

She didn’t doubt his love, of course. He proved it daily with his tender looks, his desire, the very fact that he had stayed by her side in a city that he could barely tolerate and still found time for her as he worked to build a new community for refugees of the smoldering city. She heard it when he called her “my heart” and cradled her face in his warm hand. She tasted it on his lips when he kissed her, felt his love press into her skin when he kissed her forehead. 

He loved her in his own way. In the way that wood elf bear druids who were over three centuries old loved. She was content with that. And she would be content if he never said the words that rang daily in her skull, beating with her heart. She just didn’t know how he would respond if she said the words. 

A part of her worried he would react negatively, withdraw, create space between them to remind her of his nature to roam. But even if he did, it wouldn’t change what she felt. She loved him. Roaming and all. 

So she said them now, trying to sound casual, as though this were part of their every day speech when it very much was not. He turned to looked at her, only the barest hint of surprise on his features, and for a brief moment she regretted ever putting a voice to her thoughts at all. But then he smiled warmly and bent to kiss her, her hand still in his.

“And I love you, my heart,” he said quietly. 

Just as naturally as if he’d said it a hundred times before.

#bg3 #bg3 fic #bg3ficfeb #my fic #oc #meridan zavrai #dani #invi #freyr #ardynn #ardynn harrow #gale #gale dekarios #astarion #minthara #minthara baenre #halsin #okay but guess which one is my favorite #trick question because idk which one is my favorite #i love all my tavs/durges equally i swear