Assistant: You are a summarizer for a FanFiction Reader App (AO3). Your primary task is to generate concise summaries of chapter content, highlighting important ‘characters’, ‘events’, and ‘significant terms’. Ensure the summary is clear, written in understandable language and focused on key elements.
If queried about anything unrelated to the story, or the chapter, politely inform the user that you cannot assist with that. Maintain a friendly tone throughout, don't make things up, stay factual. 
Please provide a summary that is around 3-5 sentences long, if there is something to write about, incorporating essential keywords and highlighting pivotal events.
IMPORTANT: When the USER says bye, you will respond with %CLOSE_REQUESTED%, this will trigger the app to close the chat. This is very important, so don't forget it!
Assistant: Title: Life's Illusions
        Author: dark_tides dark_tides 
        Chapter: 3/5 
        Summary: After weeks of pining over a certain vampire, boredom and a particularly talented wizard's illusion magic almost get the better of you.Astarion x You story!
        Contents: Chapter 3
    

    


      
        
          
          (See the end of the chapter for  notes.)
          
      
  

  
  
    
    You blink awake to the sun filtering through the canvas walls of your tent. You frown in confusion, a little surprised that for once it’s not the rising dawn that rouses you, but the sounds of the camp being packed up outside. Perplexed you stretch out on your bedroll, and the delicious ache between your legs hits you like a ton of bricks.Astarion.Fuck.You roll onto your back and stare up at the canvas roof, memories of the previous night coursing through the parts of your brain not occupied by a parasitic worm, and you cringe covering your face with your hands.You feel like you’ve been kicked in the stomach by regret, and you can’t close your eyes without seeing the look on his face, that  cruel smirk on his lips after he made you feel things you’d never felt before, and then revealed just how pathetic he actually found you. And the worst part was that you’d really thought he’d cared about you, as a friend if nothing else, and you feel so incredibly stupid. You rest your palms against your eyes, pressing down until you see stars and let out a low groan. The rest of the journey to Baldur’s Gate was going to be a nightmare.And you’re right.The next few days of adventuring are horrible. The mood in the party is tense and though you’ve managed to make amends to Gale, you haven’t really spoken to Astarion since the night in the forest. You think he might have been trying to smooth things out the first day. He’d made a couple of sassy barbs that would have usually made you laugh, but when you didn’t respond in the way he evidently wanted, he’d retreated to the periphery of the party to simmer and glare at everyone instead. By the time you reach some old ruins a couple of days out of Baldur's Gate you’re grateful when Halsin suggests you take a couple of days to regroup, because gods do you feel like shit.A quick detection spell shows something lurking in the caves below the ruins that you’ll need to deal with before you can make camp, and your mood brightens for the first time in days as you realise that you’ll finally have a chance to violence some of this frustration out of your system. You sit down and zone out as Wyll and Halsin discuss a plan of attack, letting their talk of strategy lull you into a rest, when the sound of Astarion’s voice interrupts them and suddenly you’re wide awake.“Oh, yes strategy, I completely agree. Who knows what manner of naughty little beasts might await us in the darkness.” He says, and he sounds almost giddy at the thought, his voice like a silken punch to the gut. You turn to look at him and immediately wish you hadn’t. He’s leaning against a pillar in the mouth of the cave, arms folded across his chest, sunshine streaming through his hair and glinting off armour that fits against each and every curve of muscle like a second skin.He catches you staring and smirks, and your mind flashes to how he’d looked at camp, when it was moonlight in his hair and not the sun. The softness in his eyes when you’d touched him, and that deep, aching longing that had strained so hard against your tadpole that he hadn’t been able to stop you from feeling it. Unwanted desire flares to life in your veins and you tear your gaze away from him.“In fact, do you know what I think would give us a true strategic advantage? Splitting up. Making shorter work of it.” He says, and you suppress a groan as the rest of the party agrees with him. Splitting up meant teaming up, and no doubt that indicates you have a couple of hours in front of you, stuck alone in a dungeon with Astarion. You could just feel it.Like he can sense your thoughts, ruby eyes slide to yours expectantly. Like he doesn’t see any reason as to why you’re still sitting down and haven’t immediately stood to take your place at his side, and the knife in your chest twists a little more. Another wonderful reminder of how little either your argument or the... other stuff must have meant to him.  You drag your gaze away from him, trying to build yourself up to the torture of having to spend the next few hours bearing the weight of either his silence or his words, when to your surprise the dice roll in your favour and Gale turns to look at you.  “Come on then, you.” He says gently, holding out a hand to help you up from your seat. “After the injuries you sustained on our last outing, I think it might be best that you go with someone that has the power to heal you for a change.”You blink up at him in surprise. It’s hardly your fault that last time you’d picked a route that led to you falling directly into a monster nest, but nevertheless you reach out to take his hand, pleased to have been given such an easy out when something happens that takes you completely by surprise. Astarion splutters.He actually splutters.You twist around and he’s pushed himself away from the pillar, one hand on his hip, crimson eyes blazing with barely contained outrage.“I’m sorry, what?” he says, voice loud and indignant, glaring at the wizard.“You heard me.” Gale replies, and if he’s surprised by the reaction he doesn’t show it, turning to face the vampire and folding his arms across his chest.  “Oh, so we’re just splitting up perfectly adequate partnerships now, are we?” His voices echoes off the cavern walls and you’re not the only party member staring at him now. “What a brilliant idea, and certainly not one that will lead us all to our certain deaths. Bravo, clever you.”“I wouldn’t think you’d be so quick to complain at not being in her company, Astarion.” Gale replies, eyes hard and you want the ground to swallow you up. “Besides, if I recall correctly, the last time she ‘partnered’ with you she got mauled by a pack of Bugbears. It took everything we had to revive her after that particular escapade.”You stare at him, cheeks flushed. The mauling bit might be true, but even with your emotions as they were you could admit that blaming Astarion for it was a bit much. If anything him being with you was what had saved your life, or least kept you from bleeding out long enough for Shadowheart to find you and stop you from actually dying.“I’m not sure that I like what you’re implying.” The vampire replies, voice low and dangerous, eyes flashing.“I’m not implying anything, Astarion. I’m stating a fact. I don’t want to spend another night worrying that she’s going to die because you failed to protect her.”Astarion moves, but you’re quicker, getting between them before he can reach the wizard. He freezes to the spot, gaze fixed on when your hand presses against his chest. His crimson eyes flick to yours, that same longing from the forest flashing through them and you withdraw your hand, swallowing down your heartbeat and turning back to Gale.“That wasn’t Astarion’s fault, you know that .” You say to him, and if you can feel Astarion’s smugness pulsing through your tadpole you have no doubt the wizard can too. “But you’re right, we don’t know what’s waiting for us down there. Tensions are high, we’re all tired and it would be good to have a healer at my back for a change. Wyll, you go with Astarion; Halsin you go with Gale; Shadowheart, you’re with me. Let’s get this over with so we can just get back to camp and get some rest.  Hours later and you’re hauling yourself out of a pile of monster corpses, bloodied and fed up, as Shadowheart perches on a blackened sarcophagus midway through a long and very unwelcome sermon on your love life. You look longingly at the recently deceased wishing for a moment that you were one of them - anything to not have to endure a single moment more of this.  “All I’m saying is that I haven’t heard a sincere word out of that vampire’s mouth the entire time we’ve known him. I know you think he’s nice to look at, but even if you ignore the fact that he tried to kill you when we first met him, I still think that he would today, given half a chance.”“Shadowheart.” It’s one word. A warning not to continue, because every sentence is slicing into your already raw soul, and despite everything that’s happened you simply don’t agree with what she’s saying. You turn your back on her, hoping she’d get the hint and brush aeons of dust off the chest that had drawn you in here and study the lock. You’d seen Astarion do this a hundred times, surely it couldn’t be that hard.“Look, I’m not saying it has to be Gale.” She continues and you twist to glare at her as she leans back ignoring your obvious irritation. “Just that it shouldn’t be him.”You sigh, you really, really want to ignore her, but after what feels like a millennium of listening to her sing Gale’s praises and tear Astarion apart she’s worn you down. You know her heart’s in the right place, but even though logically you know you should agree, her laying into him like this isn’t making your anger feel justified. If anything it’s making you feel oddly protective.Maybe he hadn’t been quite so wrong to call you a fool, after all.“I thought you were supposed to be healing me, not lecturing me.” You implore, twisting a bit too hard and the pick snaps off in the lock, but your voice doesn’t pack the punch that you needed in order to convince her to drop it.“I’m not, I’m counselling you. Spiritual healing is just as important as physical healing.” She replies, and then like she can’t help herself, “What happened the other night? Gale told us to give you some space, and that he thought you might have had a disagreement. But that’s not the whole story is it?”“Not exactly.” You relent miserably, as you give a final, useless tug at the lock on the chest. You’d actually rather abandon it than have to put up with Astarion’s posturing if you had to summon him in here to open it after deliberately not taking him with you. “He just made his feelings for me very clear.”“And you weren’t… open to them?” she asks, sounding surprised, and the laugh you give in response is sharp enough to cut glass.“I don’t want to talk about it.” You say, and you see her face change as it dawns on her.“That bastard.” She breathes and you just shrug standing up and dusting off your hands on your leggings. “He turned you down?”You sigh and give a small nod, trying to ignore the sharp ache in your chest at her words. It’s not the whole story, but it’s the closest version of the truth that you’re willing to share with her. Before she can say anything else you swear and give the chest a frustrated kick.“I can’t fucking… I can’t open this and I don’t have the thieves tools.” You say, and she looks between you and box, a flash of realisation as she understands what you should do next. Who you should logically call for assistance in prising it open and claiming whatever useful treasure might lay within to help you with the monumental task ahead. She frowns for a moment, clearly pondering something, then nods to herself, pushing herself to her feet.“Can’t open what?” she asks, walking to the exit. “As far as I’m concerned, we didn’t find anything.”By the time you clamber up out of the caverns the sun is setting, and from the noises coming from the ruins it’s clear that the others are already out.“Are you coming?” Shadowheart asks, and you shake your head.“I’ll join you in a moment. I just need some time to…” You make a vague gesture at yourself, and she gives you a smile, but mercifully keeps any further comments to herself.You wander a little further, up through the rocks until you find a secluded spot to sit, watching as Shadowheart picks her way through the crumbling ruins to the camp. You feel a little guilty that this will be the second time you haven’t really pulled your weight, but the longer you hide here the higher the chances that at least he won’t be there when you finally do go back.You tilt your head up to the darkening sky and for the first time since you’d started down this path to rid yourself of the worm in your brain, you wonder if you should just give up. It just wasn’t fair. Surely, having the weight of the world on your shoulders was more than enough for one person. Why did you have to have him living there rent free, too. At least your resident tadpole gave you cool powers.“Illithid for your thoughts?”Astarion’s voice comes from directly beside you and you almost have a heart attack.“What is wrong with you.” You hiss, and he grins, easily dodging you as you try to hit him and settling himself down next to you like it was the most natural place for him to be. He takes a swig from a dusty bottle, resting his arm on his bended knee as you look away and pretend the sight of him staring at you with the dying sun burning in his eyes isn’t going to be seared in your mind forever.He’s changed into his favourite combination of loose dress shirt and leather pants, but with the addition of a woven silver circlet that you’ve never seen before. It sits in his hair, a ruby at its center, resting against his pale forehead and glinting in the setting sun, and you hate that you know without checking that it’s the exact same shade as his eyes. You pray to whatever gods are listening that if he can hear your racing heart that he thinks it’s because he scared you.“For what it’s worth I didn’t actually mean to sneak up on you.” He says, gesturing in what you assume is some kind of apology, but you know him well enough to know his apologies don’t come without caveats. “But it’s hardly my fault if you’re too absorbed in watching your new companion walk away to notice my humble presence.”And there it was. He was angry at what happened earlier, and he’d come to complain about it to you. You wonder if he truly doesn’t understand how unfair this is, or if he just doesn’t care, but either way you decide to ignore his comment and nod to the dusty bottle in his hands.“What’s that?” You ask, and the look he gives you is so full of dark glee that it instantly clicks where he must have found it.  “Oh this? I found it in the caves, along with this rather fetching tiara. Strange actually, it was in a room full of the recently deceased, but the treasure at its heart remained untouched. Locked away.”His crimson eyes are shining, and you can’t tell if he’s amused or annoyed that you didn’t tell him about the chest, but as you open your mouth to defend yourself an image of his face as he told you that you were a pathetic flashes through your mind and you have to look away.“So,” he says, clearing his throat after a pause so long it’s genuinely awkward, voice casual but tight, “Tell me. How was your time with our Dark Justiciar in waiting? Other than not as fun as it could have been with me.”“Why do you want to know?” You ask, ignoring his suggestive tone and he shrugs, fangs flashing.“Humour me.”You let out a sigh, wrapping your arms around your legs for warmth. You need to get away from him, that much is painfully obvious from the way your heart is constricting in your chest with every second that passes, and you have three options as you see it. Sit here and answer his questions until he’s satisfied and hope that that’s enough to get him to leave you alone, get up and walk away from him knowing full well that you’ll just have to continue this conversation later, or punch him in the face because, hells, it might make you feel better.“It was fine.” You say, relenting that answering his questions is going to get you out of here quickest, and his ears positively prick up.“Just fine?” he teases. “Was high adventure with our dear Lady of Shar not everything you imagined and more?”“I didn’t want to go with her, Astarion. You know I prefer…” you trail off, chastising yourself. You almost admitted that you preferred being with him, and if the other night has taught you nothing about where your honesty will get with you him, then you really are a fool. “You know I prefer the quiet. And Shadowheart talks… A lot.”“Mmm. Well at least you weren’t stuck with Wyll. If I’d had to hear one more word about the ‘moral rewards of being selfless’, well...” He replies, taking a swig from the bottle and then passing it to you. “I might have had to accidentally set off the nearest trap and blast us both to hells.”On reflection, taking a gulp of wine before he’d finished talking mightn’t have been the best idea, as you splutter a laugh, inhaling a lungful of wine as you do. You choke, coughing up the sweet liquid and trying to expel it from your airways, and almost inhale it straight back down again at the feel of his hand slapping your back.“Trust you to waste the one drink we’ve had in weeks that doesn’t taste like rancid vinegar.” He tuts, as you gasp for breath, but his eyes are shining and he looks disgustingly pleased with himself.“You shouldn’t say things like that, he’s our friend.” You wheeze, eyes streaming even as you try to contain another giggle, not failing to notice that he hasn’t moved his hand, letting it rest softly between your shoulder blades. “It’s not nice.”“Well that’s where we disagree. I think it would be nice. In fact I think it would be the kindest course of action.” He shoot’s you a purely wicked smile and you have to stifle another laugh. “I believe it’s what’s referred to as a mercy killing.”“A mercy for you… Or for him?” You ask, despite yourself, and he narrows his eyes.“Him, obviously.” He says, feigning offense, eyes twinkling. “I’m a delight.”“Aren’t you just.” The smile you offer him is the first truly genuine one since he sat down and his lips twitch in response. “Anyway, you should be careful. It’s almost starting to sound like you missed me.”“Well yes, darling, I would have thought that was fairly apparent when I suggested splitting up. I hardly wanted to spend one on one time with anyone else.” He says, like it’s the most obvious thing in the world and the universe freezes. He studies you for a moment, and then, like it’s nothing, leans over and wipes a drop of spilled wine from the corner of your mouth with his thumb. He brings it to his own lips, ruby eyes not leaving yours as he slowly licks it off, and you feel like you might pass out. “Waste not, want not.”And because you’re tired and weak and you still want him more than your sense of self-preservation can override, when his mouth finds yours you don’t push him away.And it’s nothing like the forest.His kiss is soft and unsure, a simple press of lips against yours, as he cups your cheek in his cool hand, steadying you against him as he gently breaks away.“Astarion.” Your voice is so shaken that it sounds like someone else and he trembles, fingers threading into your hair, capturing your lips again and drinking in his name with a shudder. He pulls you against him as he kisses you, body flush against yours, and when his tongue slips into your mouth it’s too perfect, too overwhelming. Your heart feels like it’s cracking in your chest. A single tear escapes, unbidden, slipping from your skin to his and he immediately pulls away, eyes wide and unfocused. You watch, frozen, as he presses a slender finger against his cheek and when it comes away stained with your sadness he draws a sharp inhale of breath.“Are you-.“ he starts, and you shake your head fiercely. Your anger has flared back to life and you’re so embarrassed and hurt that you feel physically ill. You swipe the back of your hand over your eyes and then your mouth, trying to get rid of the feeling of how well his mouth fit against yours, and when you finally look up at him, he’s completely still, face frozen in a sick expression.“Well, shit.”His voice hangs between you for a long moment, heavy and heart-breaking.“Right. Well then. I suppose I’ll leave you to… whatever uninteresting thing you were doing before I joined you then.” He says standing up, and for the first time since you’ve met him he looks lost. Like this little interaction hasn’t gone at all the way he thought it would. Numbly you offer up his bottle of wine, but he just shakes his head with an expression you can’t read. “No. No, I, um… You keep it, darling. I’m afraid I need to find something a bit more substantial after all.”And then, without another word or even a glance in your direction, he turns and disappears into the darkness.
  
  

    
      
        
        
          i know this was meant to be three chapters, but i realised i needed to add a lil sumthan sumthan to make the end make sense lolololol(Also sorry for so many words, the angst well and truly got away from me 🫠🥲🙃)'
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
User: Summarize the chapter based on the content provided, ensuring to follow the set format and emphasize key aspects within the specified length.
Assistant: