dream part 1;

[ Astarion may not have been the most sympathetic person to have wandered into this. A nicer person might have intervened at any point with the families. Might have tried to stop her from being dragged along. But Astarion is not a nice person--he's a pragmatic one, at best, and mostly he's just very aware that intervening in what is clearly a nightmare isn't going to make it end any sooner.

So they end up together in the basement (with the rats skittering about). He examines their surroundings with a respectable amount of detachment before turning to her. ]

Shall I just start guessing about all of this, or do you want to tell me?