#(I am fully dancing around potential spoilers here so apologies if this is somewhat vague)

[yesistolethisurl]

thinking back to gale and atavian's argument back at the tabernacle, specifically gale's jab about him lacking "ambition"

between wizards, i would think that this is a fairly serious insult, but between these two? it feels far more personal. because gale got to go to a school like black staff, he got to have that education and the support from his mother and tara. he had connections, even if he didn't truly have people he considered to be truly close friends.

atavian had a half-baked apprenticeship from an absentee uncle that ended in tragedy. everything after that point came from him trying to teach himself. and when he found some way to use his gifts that helped people around him and fed his family? what more could he ask for?

apparently he asked too much. in the span of fifteen years, his calling, his love, and his life as he knew it were all taken from him. all for stepping out of bounds too far, in his mind, for his ambition.

so for gale to say he lacks ambition, the insult is two-pronged. that the pain of the ambition he had backfiring on him isn't even worth acknowledging, and that the ambition he did manage to succeed at (keeping his kids safe and relatively happy) isn't a "real" success in his eyes.

i think gale would regret saying it immediately after, but the pain that stray remark caused was still deep.