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galebrainrot2024 · 4 months

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GalexTav Enemies to Lovers Part 20

Read on Ao3. Shout out to @thelittlepinkwitchblog for helping me source :)

Gale's Perspective. LOT of important plot in this one, dear readers. It's a little heavy. Enjoy!

Ten days. It had been ten days since they entered the accursed lands and it was taking a grave toll on all of them, despite Isobel’s protection and despite the Pixie’s blessing bestowed.

Gale felt fragile, more fragile than he had even with the orb. Now with it unlikely to destabilize, the appetites of man came roaring back to him like a lion stalking its prey. All he could think about was Tav. How he wanted her. How it would feel when their bodies were join together, weaving together in visions of celestial.

It had to be perfect. He had too much to make up for.

He was sat beside Karlach who was on dish duty. She dunked each plate in the stream, gave it a quick swipe with the smallest speck of soap she could manage, before putting it back on the cloth.

“Nothing like washing in the murky waters of the shadowlands to invigorate the spirit.”

“Doing all right, Gale?” Karlach asked, elbow deep in muck. She groaned to herself.

“Oh you know.. still alive and kicking, despite being surrounded on all sides by an endless manifestation of darkness and decay.”

She snorted. “That's one way to put it. MAN!” She threw up her hands in exasperation, “I fucking hate dish duty,” she stared down her hands, disgust contorting her face. “I hate it when my hands get all pruny like this. You’d think all that time in the hells and I would delight in this stuff. But, I always hated dishes. It was the one chore I threw a really big fuss about at home.”

“You’re showing remarkable guile and courage, pushing on through the perilous task of dishwashing!” Gale said teasingly, “That doesn’t surprise me in the least,” Gale chuckled at the image of a smaller Karlach refusing earnestly to comply with dish duty.

“You know,” she paused, thinking and looked up at the sky, “I didn’t throw massive tantrums. Not often, anyway. Certainly didn’t conjure myself up a Tressyum when my parents refused to get me a kitten.” She rose a brow at Gale knowingly, “There wasn’t so much able to rile me up in that way. Mom and pops were always going on about how the glass is half full, even when it seems half empty. Even when shit is really, really bad. There is always a little good you can find in that.” Her voice was hushed and had the slightest tremor. Gale put a hand on her shoulder and noted the mist that collected in her eyes. She turned away, as if to conceal the emotion. “What a mess,” she said to herself, wiping her hands on her pants. “What about you?”

“What about me?” His voice stiffened and his body tensed, concerned for the question to follow.

Karlach, “Come on,” Karlach read his dumb expression and rolled her eyes and smiled. “You know - any chores you hated? Any massive events that rocked your little world? Other than Tav of course.” His cheeks blazed red and she started to laugh harder. “Very iconic of you to tell her you wanted to smash by citing a book. Not really my thing, but good for both of you.” Gale’s stony silence forced her tongue, “I mean, listen, she was obviously into it. You two book-worms are made for each other. What’s holding you back?”

A short puff of air left Gale’s nose and he looked down and ran a hand through his hair. While fingering his earring, he whispered, “Everything.”

“Oh my gods,” Karlach groaned, continuing with the dishes. “Everything? Everything?” Gale didn’t answer. “Fine. Keep your secrets.”

Gale weighed the scales carefully. If he told Karlach, the crushing force of his secret might be alleviated, if only just. If he told her, he risked Tav finding out second hand. His voice was barely audible, “I’m not sure I can tell you.”

Karlach’s eyes widened and she rose her brows, “Sounds serious. If you don’t want me to pry-“

“A little late for that,” Gale scoffed, though not with hostility. “Might as well address the holiphant in the room. It might do some good, to tell someone about it after all this time.”

There was a faint rustling in the bushes and Gale snapped his head, scanning the darkness. Nothing. He was just being paranoid. Karlach gave him her rapt attention and he felt his stomach cave in on itself. His throat was sickly hot and viscous saliva filled his mouth. His heart threatened to pulse out of his chest, the thunderous roar drowning out the rest of his senses.

“I did something… unforgivable.” He said at last. Karlach, ever impatient, shook her head a bit and her eye brows rose more as if to say ‘go on, then.’

So then he told her. “It is, without doubt, the most wicked, cruel act I’ve managed. Thinking about it makes me bitter… full of regret.” He sighed heavily and rubbed his cheek. He gave Karlach a brief overview of Blackstaff’s presentations, where students in their final year would demonstrate their research and abilities to the finest Wizard’s in the realms, seeking both Mystra’s favor and a prime apprenticeship. She followed, with few questions. Once he clarified that with her, the words stuck.

“Gale… whatever it is, your secret is safe with me. How bad could it be?”

“Oh,” Gale whispered. “Worse than you could imagine, I’d wager. The amount of time I’ve spent mulling over how I would tell her, what I would say… how I would beg forgiveness…” he closed his eyes, the words taking on a life of their own. “I sabotaged her presentation, a cold fact I have been ashamed of from the day it happened.”

“You… what?” Karlach tilted her head, her mouth falling open.

Gale sighed. “You remember the sussur flowers from the underdark?” She nodded. “Marvelous capabilities. Their magical properties were often a topic of debate in our classes, their existence unconfirmed by many scholars and clerics outside of the underdark. They have the ability to create an anti magic aura, which you saw first hand. I managed to get my hand on one through some rather nefarious channels… and I slipped it into her pack, not before ‘accidentally’ spilling a cup of water on her.”

“Accidentally?” Karlach murmured.

“No.” He whispered, the words choking him. “Unfortunately, it was neither an accident nor water. It was wizard’s bane. A backup plan, in case she didn’t have her pack within close range during her presentation. I was on track to be one of Mystra’s chosen and I was so… terrified that Tav would take my place. She was - and is - remarkable with the Weave. I was blinded by jealousy and… none if it matters, now. It was a cowards choice. And, as it so happened, she was imbued with both.” His face was hot, his palms coating with slick sweat. He wiped them on his robes, unable to look at her. “Her face haunts me. The riotous laughter of our peers… I cannot erase it from my mind, no matter how hard I’ve tried. It is engrained into every cavern, every crevice of my memory. She couldn’t so much as conjure a simple mage hand. She fled the stage, and I….”

He stopped, folding in on himself. It was the first time in quite some time he admitted this out loud, let alone to another person. The pregnant pause drowned them until Karlach broke the suffocation with a lifeline. “Was this the first time you saw her since then?” He nodded. “Holy shit Gale…this is… a lot. A lot to take in. I appreciate you telling me, all the same. I can see the toll it’s taken on you - you were a kid at the time.. weren’t you? You never told her?”

Gale sneered, “Eighteen is hardly a child.”

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s still a child. You made a mistake. A really fucked up mistake, don’t get me wrong, and a mistake all the same. You can’t keep beating yourself up for something you can’t change. I should know that better than anyone.” She sighed and stood, taking his hand to give it a gentle pat. “Gale… you have to tell her.”

“I know,” he sighed, bowing his head. “I know. And I will… I just need time. To get it right. To figure out what to say.”

“You have to be prepared for her -“

“I know.” Gale cut her off. He knew he had to prepare for her to hate him, to want nothing to do with him. Yet, a sliver of him held out the impossible hope she would understand. “Thank you… for listening. I hadn’t told anyone that. Not even Tara.”

“I’m sure if she knew she’d give you an earful.” Karlach sighed and returned to the dishes. Gale was prepared to leave, embarrassed and uncomfortable from sharing his darkest memory. Karlach looked up at the sky, bringing him back to solid ground. “You know, I was just getting used to the sun again.”

“Fear not, Karlach,” Gale said, though his voice was still dejected, “Sun, moon, and stars are still there - waiting for us. Veiled just behind this evanescent darkness. No book or painting could ever do this strange land justice. But perhaps our stories might.”

“You’re not really going to do what Mystra said, are you?”

“There you go, cutting right through the ephemera to the heart of the matter. Your finest quality, I think. Though, there’s no point in debating what I’ve been tasked with,” he murmured, looking at his hands. “I’m sure you’ve seen it - the wall of the faithless.” The sigh she released was laced with crushing somberness. “I cannot concede to such a fate.”

“I know,” she said and squeezed Gale’s shoulder, “You’re the first friend I’ve had in a really, really long time soldier. It would be a damn shame for it to end so soon. Quite the peas in a pod, the two of us - if anyone is going to find a way to survive, it ought to be us.”

Gale ran a hand over his face. “There’s no use conferring about it one way or another. We’ll have to cross that bridge when we come to it. Stranger things are happening to us… what festers in our minds threatens to impel our bodies. We mustn’t loose focus of that.”

“How does it feel, to have the orb… settled?”

“Well, mother always taught me to be a gracious host.. whether to the parasite, or the orb.” Gale turned to grin at Karlach, staring at him gravely. His smirk erased itself. “It feels rather strange, if I’m being honest. I lived so long with its incessant hunger, to have it quiet… sickness has a nasty habit of making you feel trapped, if only within the confines of your own body.” Gale paused, before continuing. “I once spent weeks convalescing in the Hospice of St. Laupsenn after a nasty bout of ruddy pox. For all their kindness, leaving that place behind felt like freedom to me. Having the orb stilled… it feels very much the same.”

“What are you two whispering about?” Shadowheart’s voice cut through their conversation and Gale tensed. How long had seen been there? Had she heard everything?

Before Gale could respond, Karlach jumped in. “The horrors of doing dishes,” she laughed, waving a soiled plate at Shadowheart. “God’s favorite princess want to give it a try?”

“Oh… no thank you,” she tossed her hair over her shoulder and sat beside them. “Just looking for some company.. and a bit of gossip. So, Karlach, you and Dammon?”

Gale slipped away as the two chatted, feeling both relieved and terrified that someone finally knew the truth. Now all he had to do was figure out how he could possibly tell Tav the same thing.

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