replaying the mountain pass and…. the fact that elminster tells gale that mystra said only he could stop the absolute, and gale immediately knows that what she actually means is only the orb can stop the absolute.
because he’s fallen so far in her eyes as to not be a person anymore. he’s not even a run-of-the-mill nameless wizard. to mystra, he’s just ribs and flesh around an old artifact waiting to detonate. ougghhhhh
also, both 1) elminster referring to himself as an errand boy and 2) elminster’s residence being inns around waterdeep… because he was sent there by mystra some decades ago to find and help train an exceptional young boy. who she has now tasked elminster with finding again, only this time to tell him he has to die (and will be rewarded with a not-quite forgiveness). oughGgHGGGHH
(also also elminster needing to tell gale in indirect flowery verse not to kill himself, because he’s afraid to so brazenly defy mystra. he’s 13 centuries old and has saved the world over and over again and is terrified to directly tell the man he helped raise he doesn’t need to die, all because she might be listening. god.)