She is, down to her core, a practical and suspicious woman now. A survivor, who trusts only her own people in the entire world, because the entire rest of the world is out to take what she needs to survive at best, to kill her or worse at worst.

But Astarion is her people, and something in her eyes softens.

"Astarion," she says, softly, and offers a gloveless hand to him. "D'you remember what I said? That I'd hear anything you could say to me?"