[The sharp, nervous laugh Astarion gives to that question is perhaps more telling than anything else leading up to this moment. ]
Oh come now, why would I—
[He snaps his lips shut, suddenly remembering who he's speaking to. Gale's loving mother, the woman who indirectly brought them together but also who drove a wedge into their early relationship. Because even as cast aside and doomed as Gale Dekarios might have been, he never lost his mother's love.
He purses his lips into a tight line, looking sidelong at Morena as his thoughts race in an unsteady tumult.]
no subject
Oh come now, why would I—
[He snaps his lips shut, suddenly remembering who he's speaking to. Gale's loving mother, the woman who indirectly brought them together but also who drove a wedge into their early relationship. Because even as cast aside and doomed as Gale Dekarios might have been, he never lost his mother's love.
He purses his lips into a tight line, looking sidelong at Morena as his thoughts race in an unsteady tumult.]
I—don't. I haven't. Not for many years now.