Page 60 of Astarion

Den Suriel frowned, but he didn’t press the matter. “What lies have you told me?”

Astarion actually had to think. Apparently, the spell did not include sudden knowledge. “My name. The bird that eats hedgehogs. The reason I climbed that wall.”

“Ah. I abjured you, did I?”

“Yes, and it was extremely unpleasant.” The magic didn’t compel the last part; he just felt like adding it.

“Do you plan to kill me?”

“Not at the moment.” When den Suriel’s eyes narrowed, Astarion spread his hands. “I can’t say I wouldn’t try to kill you in self-defense, but I have no immediate plans to do so. You’re far more useful to me alive.” He paused, then added, “Besides, you’re far too good-looking to be murdered on a whim. I don’t smash priceless vases or burn exquisite paintings, either.”

When the aasimar flushed, his skin acquired a deeper copper tone. He cleared his throat several times. “Did you become a vampire willingly?”

Astarion’s bark of laughter was too loud in the enclosed space. “Trust me, I had no ambitions of becoming a vampire’s spawn. Some bastards beat me to death in an alley, and as I was bleeding out, someone showed up and offered to help me.” He didn’t know how much truth the magic required, but his anger was no lie. “The next thing I knew, I was clawing my way out of a coffin, in thrall to a sadistic bastard who could bring me to my knees with a thought. I didn’t choose this. No one would choose this if they knew what it was like.”

“Then I pity you.” The aasimar drew himself up. “But I would kill myself rather than live such a life.”

“Do you think I haven’t tried?”

Astarion’s cry rang off the stone walls and woke echoes that skittered mockingly in his ears. Den Suriel stared at him. The aasimar’s eyes might be impossible to read, but the tiny muscles of his eyelids were the same as any other man’s. Astarion watched his astonishment twist slowly into horror. “Your master prevents you?”

“Of course he does. He’s spent over a hundred years breaking me. Why waste that?”

All the best lies were true. Astarion saw the exact moment that the paladin’s loathing was subsumed by sympathy. Be the kicked puppy you want to see in the world…

“I’m sorry,” den Suriel said quietly. “I did not know.”

“No reason you should.”

“Is it…do you wish me, then, to release you from your bondage? That would lie within the terms of my oath to the Order.”

Astarion’s breath caught in a laugh that made his ribs ache. “No. No, I am afraid that I want to live, no matter how inconvenient it may be.”

“But if the vampire lord torments you so…”

“That’s why I want to live. It’s been a very long time now. If I simply drop dead, what was the point of all that agony?” He shook his head. “For a decade or two, yes. I only wanted it to stop. But it never did. Now I want to outlive the miserable old bastard.” He drew a meaningless pattern in the dust with a fingertip, then wiped it away. “Don’t you see? If I die now, then everything I’ve endured for the last hundred and fifty-odd years was wasted. I might as well have died in that alley. But if I live…” He spread his hands. “He can’t last forever. And you’d be amazed at how long spite can sustain me.”

“It appears we are trapped, then.” The paladin laughed again, soft and bitter.

“I’ve been trapped for many, many years. You get used to it.”

“My oath is not the same as being a vampire’s spawn.”

“Perhaps not, but from where I am sitting, the difference is currently negligible.” He waited long enough that he heard the paladin’s teeth grinding, then added, “May I offer a suggestion?”

“Go ahead,” den Suriel said warily.

“You aren’t technically an oathbreaker until you allow me to walk free, correct?” At den Suriel’s nod, Astarion smiled again. The old feeling was coming back to him, the rush of prying a rule apart so that he could sidle through it. It had been a very long time. “So don’t. Keep me in your sight at all times. We are allies until we’ve escaped and the blood has been acquired.” He held up his empty hands. “I don’t have the blood. Do you?”

The paladin narrowed his eyes. “You know I don’t.”

“Once we have that vial, we’ll no longer be allies, and you can kill me with a clean conscience.”

Den Suriel tilted his head. “And you’ll just stand there and let me?”

“No, of course not. I imagine it will be…” The truth spell let him choose his words, at least. He settled on “…interesting. But as long as you plan to kill me, you haven’t broken your oath, have you?”

The paladin shook his head slowly. “I do not think the gods are impressed by legal trickery.”