"Really? Are you sure?"

"...uh, yeah? Look," he turns to count, "one, two, three, four, five, six, seven... wait no that's wrong. One, two three, four... uh..."

Astarion holds out his left hand where he's holding a second ring. "Missing something?"

"...bloody hells, mister."

    "Mattis, I don't like this anymore..."

Astarion offers Mattis both rings.

    He takes them, frowning.

"How'd you notice me?" asks Silfy.

"Decades of practice, kid. I've been doing this since before your parents were born."

"—wow, really? Can you teach us?" asks Mattis, switching from upset to excited in the blink of an eye.

"Not here and not now. Hate to rain on your parade but you should not be doing that here."

"What? Why not?"

"—the lucky ring was not real?"

"It was not."

"If someone attempted this at crèche K'liir I would have cut off their hands."

Astarion looks at the tieflings again, hiking a thumb over his shoulder at Lae'zel. "That, kids, is why you should not be doing this here. This isn't a city. You have a lot more to worry about. You don't want to get in trouble."

Mattis's eyes are huge and round like saucers and Silfy looks like she's about to start crying. "We didn't mean it! It was just a joke! We swear!!"

"Save these jokes for when your people aren't refugees at someone else's camp. Someone else who is about to kick you out, I add."

    "They won't, Arabella stole their totem—"

"Silfy, shut up!"

    "—oh."

...oh no. Ohhhh nononono this smells like plot and he already has a plot he does not need any more plot.

"That was probably a monumental mistake, my dears. One I am loath to see the consequences of. Now if you'll excuse me..."

But the world is, alas, not always so kind as to only allow one to have only one plot. Indeed, if one is the sort of person who has "plots" at all, they often tend to come hand in hand, add, and multiply.

...okay but he can just ignore the plot, can't he?

He can... but will he?

...damn it. Damn it. And damn him.

Fine, fine, you win, what is this gods forsaken plot he's about to be dragged into?

He will have to find out for himself, but the form it takes is shouting coming from the direction of the henge.

Now back on the correct side of the fourth wall...

"We've no time for this, you have been wasting enough of it—"

"I said I wanted to see whether the druids had any way to help us, and people are more likely to help you if you help them first, darling. So I am going to go see what the commotion is about."