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Here’s the thing. They all do try to tell Rook that Varric is dead.
Neve’s the first one to bring it up. Of course, the detective of the team realizes something strange is going on almost immediately. Between Rook never mentioning Varric’s death, and the way that she repeatedly returns to the infirmary to talk to herself, it doesn’t take long for Neve to put the pieces together.
“She thinks he’s still alive, Lace,” Neve whispers to Harding, voice insistent. They’re at the centre of the rotunda in the Lighthouse, sitting at the meeting table. While it’s not an official meeting without Rook present to lead it, it feels as good of a debrief spot as any. “She thinks that she’s talking to him. That’s why she keeps going back to the infirmary.”
“No- no way. That’s ridiculous,” Harding frowns, and Neve can tell that even the mention of Varric’s name is still painful for her. It hasn’t been that long since he passed. “She’s talking to him, sure, but she knows that he’s- that’s just how she’s coping with it.”
Neve shakes her head, grimacing. That’s what she’d thought at first too, but it had just kept nagging at her- that something wasn’t right about the whole situation. Now, she’s sure. “She doesn’t know. Remember how Rook spoke about him after? Telling us that he ‘knew the risks’? I think that she thinks he was just injured in the fight, not killed. Think about it. She’s not nearly as angry with Solas as she should be, either.”
Harding gapes at her, completely at a loss for words. Neve can see the wheels turning in her head, see her going back over all of their interactions over the past few days. And at that moment, Rook enters the room.
“Hey guys, what’re we talking about?” She asks, cheery. Neve looks at Harding, and Harding looks at Neve, and Neve clears her throat.
“We’re talking about Kirkwall,” She says, stealing her voice, “Someone will need to act as Viscount now that Varric is dead.”
Rook frowns, her brow pinching as she seems confused by the words. It takes her a long time to respond, and when she does, her eyes don’t seem to focus on either of them.
“He’s- yeah, someone else will need to fill in for a while,” she responds, her voice wavering, and her gaze not meeting either of the women in front of her. Neve shoots an alarmed look at Harding, who’s staring at Rook with an expression of mild horror.
“Forever, Rook. Someone’s going to need to fill in forever, because Solas killed Varric.” Harding looks like she might just be on the verge of tears again, but Neve isn’t letting up. They need to get this cleared up as soon as possible. So far, Rook’s shown herself to be a pragmatic and steadfast leader, but it’s cause for concern if the woman spearheading the attempt to save the world is talking to ghosts.
“He- he-” Rook is struggling, and she leans against the doorframe, appearing wobbly. She presses a hand to her forehead, which is damp with sweat now, “Oh, oh I- what were we talking... sorry, I really don’t feel good, all of a sudden. I think I need to lie down.”
Rook stumbles out back of the room, retreating away from Harding and Neve and cementing now for them both that something is very wrong with their leader.
“Holy shit,” Harding breathes, pinching the bridge of her nose.
Rook seems to have no memory of the conversation the next day. She’s as friendly as ever, with no mention of the strange sudden sickness she’d felt. When Neve asks her, “Feeling better?” Rook looks at her with a confused smile, simply nodding.
Neve’s best educated guess is that this is some kind of weird magical side effect of whatever is going on with the ritual dagger. It killed Varric, it’s made of pure lyrium, and it seemingly had a strange effect on Harding as well. Who knows what the artifact is actually capable of?
Besides this odd memory quirk, Rook seems to be completely fine. She fights fiercely and gives no quarter, she’s quick to lend a hand if someone is in need, and she appears to genuinely enjoy all the weird little magical puzzles they stumble upon. So far, Neve has seen nothing that indicates- apart from this one issue- there’s anything wrong with her mental faculties.
“...So that’s it. We’re working on figuring out what’s going on,” Neve finishes telling Lucanis quietly, a short time after they recruit him. “Bellara’s in contact with a professor from Nevarra who’s an expert on the fade. We’re hoping to have him examine Rook and the dagger, to see if he'll have some answers.”
“Meirda,” Lucanis looks disturbed, leaning against the wall of the pantry, “How many times have you tried to tell her?”
“Four times. Once through a letter, to see if that would work, instead of telling her directly. As far as we can tell, it didn’t have any effect on her whatsoever. It’s like she forgot the contents of the letter completely the second she finished reading it,” Neve sighs, running a hand through her hair. “It’s worrying, but besides being bizarre, it doesn’t seem to be affecting her negatively at all. Rather, she seems to be getting reassurance from it. And I don’t want to keep pushing it, if exposing her to the truth results in her becoming confused and sick.”
“Fair enough. But... could this be some kind of brainwashing from the Dread Wolf?” Lucanis asks, voice low, “He is in her head, isn't he? Or...could a demon of some kind be doing this? Some kind of...spirit of ignorance?”
Neve gives a tired shrug. “No idea. But there’s unfortunately not much we can do about it, except to keep an eye on her.”
Lucanis shifts from one foot to the other, clearly uncomfortable with the idea that there’s nothing that they can do to fix this.
But unfortunately, there is nothing they can do. Neve and Bellara spend hours reading about the fade, spirits and demons, to no avail. Spite doesn’t have any helpful suggestions (he wants to try talking to her, but he always wants to talk to her). And when they recruit the fade specialist Emmrich Volkarin, even he is at a loss.
“Complete and continuous memory obfuscation, but only for the specific fact of Varric being killed?” Emmrich asks, sounding perhaps a bit too excited by the concept, “Well, I’ve certainly heard of memory wisps, and of ways that blood magic can interfere with the mind to erase certain memories. But something that affects Rook’s mind in this specific way, not only targeting her past memories but the generation of any new ones, would be an incredibly delicate work of art. And for what purpose? Perhaps it is her own denial behind this, in combination with whatever blood magic connects her to Solas and the dagger.”
“Is it going to hurt her?” Lucanus nearly snaps, arms folded in front of him, “Can someone use it to hurt her?”
“It’s hard to say. There’s been no sign of it beginning to spread to other concepts, from what you've told me. Besides hiding the truth, it doesn’t seem to be harming her directly,” Emmrich replies. The group is quiet, all sitting around the Lighthouse meeting table in pensive thought.
“I don’t like it either, but there’s not much we can really do, it seems, except to keep looking for an answer. Has anyone tested how much her memory of a conversation is impacted if you mention Varric dying in it?” Davrin asks, and Bellara nods.
“Yep. Usually, where possible, her brain sort of... filters out any mention of Varric being dead with him being hurt. I tested it out! We had this long conversation about romance serials, and she mentioned that Varric had written one once. And then she said that she wondered if he’d ever publish another chapter. I tried to break it to her gently at that point, and she got confused and moved on without acknowledging what I said, like she always does. Then the next day, I quizzed her on our conversation. She remembered everything, except she’d thought I said that his injuries might prevent him from writing anymore of the series,” Emmrich looks fascinated, nodding along as Bellara speaks.
“Incredible,” Emmrich murmurs, “I will continue trying to find an answer, but once we figure this out, this will be an enthralling topic for a research paper.”
“I don’t like this,” Lucanis murmurs, his hands balled into fists at his side, “Leaving her under this influence.”
“Neither do I,” Bites back Davrin, voice firm, “But unless you have a solution, we’ve got no choice. Even our magical experts here don’t know how to fix it.”
“I will ask her for permission to examine her, to make sure that the dagger use is having no ill magical effects on her,” Emmrich concludes, “That may yield some further information which can help us understand why this is happening.”
True to his word, Emmrich looks into the matter further, and does a magical medical on Rook. It yields nothing, beyond confirmation that she doesn’t appear to be under the influence of any kind of demon or spirit. They seem to be back at square one, when it comes to understanding why and how this is happening.
Taash is the most unsettled of the team when they learn about Rook’s issue.
“What? What do you mean, she’s under some... magical spell? And no one can break her out of it? That’s crazy,” Taash looks stunned by the news, like they almost can’t comprehend it.
The next time Taash sees Rook, talking to Neve in the dining hall, they stride over to her, putting their hands on Rook’s shoulders and shaking her.
“Taash? Everything alright?” Rook asks, tentative.
“Varric is dead. Solas killed him. Hey, you get that right?” Neve takes a step back and watches with interest as Taash shakes her again, curious to see how this will play out.
“Yes, I know that Solas injured him. I’m not trusting him, Taash,” Even with her legendary patience, a thin reed of annoyance underlines Rook’s tone.
“He’s dead. Varric is dead. He is not coming back, he’s not coming to dinner, he’s currently not in the infirmary. You need to accept it,” Taash continues. Rook pales, her eyes unfocusing, looking at a spot in the distance somewhere around Taash’s shoulder.
“He’s... not... Varric is-” Rook places a hand on Taash’s arm, wavering and attempting to push them away from her. Taash doesn’t let go and squeezes her shoulders, like they’re trying to wake her out of sleepwalking. Like they can force Rook through whatever haze is affecting her mind.
Taash repeats it again. “No, you’re not walking away until you hear this and don’t block it out. Solas killed Varric-”
Rook’s eyes roll into the back of her head and she crumples to the ground. Taash yells, stepping back with their hands up like the touch of Rook’s skin had burned them. Neve’s detached interest turns to sharp distress as she quickly kneels down beside Rook’s body, checking her vitals.
“She’s fine. She’s fine. Just... unconscious,” Neve breathes a sigh of relief, and shoots a severe look at Taash, who’s staring down at her in open guilt, “I know why you wanted to try, but... I should have stopped you.”
“It’s not your fault,” Taash mumbles, grabbing Rook under her arms and dragging her unconscious body to a nearby chair.
“...Now we know what happens if we press the issue,” Neve supplies, trying to be positive even though her heart is hammering, “Not a bad thing to know, Taash.”
They share the news with the rest of the team at the next What’s Wrong With Rook meeting, to mixed reactions. Bellara and Emmrich feel that the extra information on what happens if they press her too far is good to have, while Lucanis is upset with them both that they tried to push Rook to the point that she passed out.
“We don’t know what is happening in her mind. What if she had some kind of a seizure...? For all we know, if we continue to mess with this, it could kill her,” He says to the group, voice low with worry.
An unhappy silence falls over them. They agree that they won’t try something like this again, and then turn to arguing about whether they should tell the Inquisitor and Morrigan something is going on with Rook’s mind. While Morrigan could be a boon when it comes to learning about weird spirit stuff, they all conclude that none of them really trust her. And the last thing they want is the Southern resistance to question whether Rook is fit to lead. Harding is the most resistant, but they all agree to keep this quiet from the Inquisitor, as well.
Eventually, they all talk about it less and less. It becomes something they all know about and live with. The Lighthouse is in the fade. The ground floats. The strange spirit caretaker ferries them all around the crossroads. And Rook can’t grasp that Varric’s been killed.
All they need to do, as a team, is watch her blindspot. Everyone has them, even force-of-nature team leaders who can solve every other problem thrown their way. They accept it, they adapt, and they move forward. If someone outside the group mentions Varric has been killed, someone else quickly and deftly steers the conversation away from the topic, so that her affliction doesn’t show. They cover for her, and hope that she'll figure it out on her own, somehow.
Besides, they have plenty of other worries and revelations to think about. By the time Rook gets trapped in the fade, they haven’t had a meeting about Rook’s affliction in weeks.
And when the remaining Veilguard members pull her out of the fade prison, it's a mix of relief and exasperation that they feel when they hear her first words:
"Why didn't anyone tell me Varric's dead?"