This is one of the aspects of Astarion I love the most - how convinced he's become that you just say the right thing to make people do what you want on your own terms and then being confused when that doesn't actually work for him as far as anything more than a casual "feed you to my boss" relationship. I can practically see the beautifully-etched ivory gears in his head turning through this whole thing (and then abruptly stopping before resuming at the end there) and it's beautiful. Also your Tav is great and I hope you do write more fic about her, including that postcanon one you were talking about ft. all the spawn.