#shadoweave

had to do over my Karlach origin run from forever ago (version incompatibility)

and i am obsessed with this position Shadowheart and Gale ended up in during a battle it's giving hot goth mom and hot geek dad i'm in love with them

Intextus Umbra

Chapter 1: Et Alibi

Excerpt:

In the campsite behind them, Karlach let out an ear-splitting roar of laughter as Halsin lost his battle with sobriety, wildshaped into a cave bear, and collapsed in a heap of fur and claws next to the central fire, fast asleep.

At Astarion’s insistence, the morose bard Withers had hired for the occasion struck up a tune livelier than the weepy ballad he’d been playing for the last hour, and Wyll started circling the grounds, recruiting dancers.

With a singular goal, Gale and Shadowheart huddled together behind the nearest rocky outcropping, concealing themselves from Wyll’s immediate line of sight.

“I’ve nothing against dancing in principle—” Gale began, at the same time Shadowheart muttered, “I’ve had both too much and not enough wine for that sort of frivolity.”

They stared at one another, eyes shimmering in the moonlit night.

Before the silence could stretch from common amusement into shared awkwardness, and before Shadowheart could decide she would rather participate in a Baldurian Waltz, after all, rather than endure his company any longer, Gale reached for her.

His fingers brushed against the back of her gloved hand, and she went very still, her eyes the same glinting obsidian of volcanic glass, her lips pressed into a pale, tight line.

Slowly, she pulled her hand out from beneath his, her fingers curling in against her palm. But she didn’t leave. She sipped at her wine, and tipped her head back, and looked at the stars.

At long last, it's here!!! Chapter 6 of "The Will To Live".

After ruminating on his current precarity, Gale decides to confess his feelings for Shadowheart. I took heavy inspiration from Gale's Act 2 romance scene, of course :p (This is a smutty chapter)