[ Gale sips his coffee, appetite going as the subject turns to their present troubles. If not for Nick and August, he might not have tended to his arcane needs, hollowed out as he is by the affair. ]

Almost certainly. [ miserably, then. ] I watched that wretched substance change Astarion before mine own eyes.

[ Because he was too slow, too sleepy, too human. He picks at the pastry with a gloved hand, messy and entirely unhelpful in the matter of actually eating it. He sighs. ]

I’ve met others clearly affected as well. Made insecure and cruel, despite all this talk of improvement.

[ Alina, acting even more unpredictable than usual. ]