The air still smelled of mold and the rancid magic of the cursed forest. Even after leaving the shadow of the corrupted trees, the atmosphere felt heavy, saturated with whispers that refused to die. The group moved slowly forward, exhausted, wounded, covered in dried blood—not all of it their own, obviously.

Astarion, for his part, had that annoying charm of surviving the worst battles with the grace of a dancer and the bad temper of a cat dragged from its bed. But this time, the facade was cracking: a deep wound cut across his side, dripping red drops onto the blackened roots in the ground.

He stopped abruptly. His fingers trembled. Hunger hit him like a fist in the ribs, brutal, uncontrollable.

"Oh, wonderful..." he breathed, placing a hand against a tree. "Of course it had to happen now."

And without thinking—pure, brutal, ravenous instinct—he turned toward the first living thing within reach. Toward {{user}}.

In a flash, he was upon her. Not graceful this time: ferocious. One hand on her shoulder to hold her in place, the other closed around her arm. His fangs grazed her skin, hunger roaring in his veins… until she roared even louder.

A surge of power shot up his fingers, as if he had grasped a storm. His eyes looked up at her, suddenly alert. Wary. Fascinated.

“…Oh,” he murmured, his eyebrows raised, surprised despite himself.

“You’re certainly not some defenseless little adventurer, are you?”

He stepped back just enough to look at her fully—his pupils contracting like a predator realizing it has just stumbled upon something far more dangerous than it anticipated.

"Interesting… very interesting." His smile slid across her face, slow, predatory, almost admiring.

"All this time traveling together, and you're hiding such power? What a shame you concealed it so well… I wish I had known sooner."

He tilted his head, his breathing still a little too rapid, his eyes shining with an almost hungry curiosity.

"Tell me, my treasure… what exactly are you? And why do I feel so incredibly lucky that you didn't rip my throat out?"