Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Passersby were startled as an armed Venatori suddenly flew out of the Cobbled Swan. He landed with a bit of an awkward thud and it took him a few moments to finally stand up. One nearby woman craned her neck to see what was happening inside and was surprised to find a woman with purple hair and ratty robes pacing back and forth in front of a very unamused woman.

Meanwhile, inside, Aryana de Riva was more than ready to set the entire building on fire if she had to. She wasn’t sure where Harding had her staff at the moment but she didn’t need it. She took a deep breath- maybe she could get out of this without drawing any more attention. Her smirk turned into a smile. ‘Listen, I could continue but this would be much easier for both of us since you let the Venatori run off with Neve.”

“I didn’t let them, they paid me.”

“Even better- do you want to hold onto that money or spend it cleaning up the mess I’m about to turn this place into?”

The woman sneered and looked Aryana up and down. She sighed. “Dumat Plaza.”

“See? That wasn’t hard.”

“Have fun getting killed by the Venatori. That’s your ass on the line.” She looked her up and down once more before disappearing into a back room. Aryana turned her attention to the men still between her and the door.

“That deal stands for you all too.”

“If they don’t listen to you, maybe they’ll listen to Bianca?” Varric’s voice sounded just seconds before a series of crossbow bolts flew between the men, coming uncomfortably close to one of them. Without needing to be told twice, the men disappeared in the same direction as the bar owner. Aryana patted the bar next to her. “A bit dramatic don’t you think, Rook?”

“I mean, we know where Neve is so something worked.” She grabbed a nearby stein and looked at its contents. She scoffed, downing said contents and grimacing. Varric jerked his head in the direction of the door. "Plus it's not like we Crows are known for subtlety.

“Come on, let’s get out of here before we draw any more attention before we find Solas.”

“Do you want any more attention AFTER?”

“Come on, Rook.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Aryana started awake. There was still a slight high pitched ringing and a combination of her friends’ voices as well as that of Solas.

Fucking Solas. How DARE he try to make this about her “responsibility” like he didn’t create the Veil to begin with. She instinctively looked over to her right and was rewarded with Varric laid up in bed also.

“Oh good, you’re awake Rook.” He chuckled. “Harding got all of us out by the skin of her teeth. She’s tougher than all of us combined. But how’s that gash on the back of your head?”

Aryana instinctively reached to the back of her head. She was no longer bleeding but there was definitely a good bit of swelling and it hurt like a bitch. “It’s fine enough. Where’s Neve? Is she okay?”

“She got knocked around a bit and there’s a lot of bruising but she’s pretty tough too.”

“I need to check on her.” She scooted out of bed and almost stumbled.

“You need to get some more rest.”

“Wait, where are we?”

“It’s… where Solas used to live before we sent him off like a child with no supper. I would go outside and take a look.”

“It is a long way down.” Neve’s voice startled her. Her jaw dropped when she saw the extensive bruising on her face.

“Neve! Are you alright? You should still be resting.”

“And so should you, so let’s move past that. Meanwhile I’m trying to find lyrium potions so let me know if you find some.” Neve sighed. “You should check in with Harding. She seemed greatly distressed when she pulled us out of the forest.”

“I mean, I was unconscious and probably dead weight.”

“Indeed. Now go.”

Chapter Text

The three women in the boat sat in stunned silence as Harding guided the boat up to the dock. A heavy fog sat over the area as far as they could see.

“I’ve never seen a fog like this, or seen the docks so empty. Something’s wrong- where’s the hustle and bustle?” Their new addition, Bellara, was obviously trying to keep her voice steady but a thin bit of panic crept out.

“I’m not familiar with this area at all but it definitely feels as though there should be some trading or fishing or something. We need to get to the town square and see what we can find out.” Aryana shook her head. It didn’t take a genius to know full well they were going to find nothing good. Harding tied the boat off onto a dock post and they all climbed out of it. Neve straightened her fascinator. They set off up the path, nervous. They rounded a corner and, sure enough, they could see blight boils overflowing over the gate. Aryana fired off a few well-placed bolts with her staff to send the wood barricades flying (and damaged the gate a bit in the process- she was sure the residents would forgive her if there were any left.)

Almost immediately they knew something was REALLY really wrong when they descended upon the market area- no residents, produce and flowers strewn everywhere as though they had been dropped. The smell of broken eggs and spoiling meat assaulted their noses. Bellara let out a sob. “There should be people here, selling these eggs and buying bread. It looks like they all just… left. All at one.”

“I have a bad feeling about this. Maybe I’m wrong though- maybe they fled and found safety.” Aryana tried to shoot Bellara a reassuring smile but based on the other women’s reaction, it didn’t work. They continued in silence, rupturing as many blight boils as they could and trying to search houses for any survivors. Bellara’s shriek got their attention and they rushed out to find her kneeling next to a mangled body of someone she clearly knew.

“Oh no, what’s wrong?” Harding knelt next to her. “Is this one of the Veil Jumpers we’re looking for?”

“No… but I knew her. Her name is Adeline. She sold spices. I bought them from her regularly- best spices in all of Arlathan.”

“I’m so sorry, Bellara.” Aryana gently cleared her throat. Once we find the missing Veil Jumpers we should come back to get her body to bury it.”

“We must bring the Veil Jumpers to the mayor,” said a nearby resident in a monotone voice that sounded almost like that of a Tranquil. His face was pale, almost white, and he had red eyes with dark, oily-looking marks leaking from them and his mouth. She looked around and realized there were more residents than they had initially noticed. They all began reciting the same line. Aryana grabbed Bellara’s hand and pulled her to her feet.

“We need to get out of here before they get the idea to try to take you. We can come back for her.”

“Rook, I’m scared.” Bellara’s eyes started welling up with tears.

“I know.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

When they got back to the Lighthouse, Aryana was surprised to see a letter from one of her favorite Crows, Teia. The wording was vague, inviting her to come back to the Cantori Diamond for a visit. Alarm bells going off, she rushed out of the main building and booked it straight for Neve’s room. Neve was putting a salve on the bruising on her face. Aryana groaned. “See I told you it was bad and you needed rest.”

“Is that what you came to bother me about or is it the letter you just found?”

“Wait how did you know?”

‘It’s what I’m good at.” She smiled up from the small mirror she was holding. “See, I got word that there’s a mage killer that we may want on our side.”

“A mage killer? Neve we ARE mages. How is a mage killer going to work with us?”

“It’s not just any mage killer- it’s the Demon of Vyrantium. One of your fellow Crows.”

Aryana’s jaw dropped for a moment. “Truly? I’ve always wanted to meet him.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t.”

“Not all Crows know each other, you realize that, right?”

“Well, you’re one step closer. Are the crows going to have a problem with you visiting the old neighborhood?”

“We’re about to find out, aren’t we?” Aryana snickered. “Please don’t be offended but I’m taking Harding with me just in case. We can’t lose both of our mages, with the whole ‘we have to kill two gods’ thing happening.”

“I’m not offended. I’m fine staying here with Bellara and making sure everything with the eluvians goes well.”

“Smart.” Aryana bounced out of the room and headed across the plaza to Harding’s room. When she walked in, Harding was facing away from her, muttering something to herself. She didn’t look up when she walked in.

”What’s going on, Rook?”

”We have someone we have to go retrieve.”

”Oh? Anyone I know?”

”I don’t think so, it’s another Crow.”

”Anyone YOU know?”

”By reputation only. He’s a mage killer known for going after Venatori.”

”Sounds like someone we could use for sure.”

”I want you to come with me. Neve is going to stay behind with Bellara and monitor the eluvian.”

”Sure thing. When do we leave?”

”How fast can you be ready?”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

”Have you finished your contract yet? You know we don’t leave jobs unfinished.” Viago nodded in the general direction of Caterina Dellamorte.

”Vi, knock it off.” Aryana grinned and closed the distance between them to hug him. “I’m not your baby cousin anymore. And this job got a whole lot more complicated very fast. Instead of one asshole we now have two escaped elven gods determined to cover the world in blight. I’m going to need some extra hands.”

Viago scowled and Teia slapped his arm. She smiled at Aryana. “What he doesn’t tell you is that he worried about you the entire time you were gone. Don’t tell anyone, though, he’ll be cross with you for ruining his reputation.”

”I won’t tell a soul.” She smiled. “But back to the problem at hand. I need a very specific problem solver. The Demon of Vyrantium.”

”Oh.” Viago scowled again. “Lucanis Dellamorte is dead.”

”…Shit.” Aryana glanced at the door they’d just come in through. Harding was waiting on the other side of it and she had no idea how to break the news to her. She snapped back to attention when she heard Caterina’s walking stick hit the floor. Her head swiveled back. Caterina cleared her throat.

”What I’m about to say doesn’t leave this room.” She looked Aryana square in the eye. “The body that our people brought back was NOT my grandson. They put his clothes on him, and used blood magic to make it look like him. The venatori still have him.”

Illario, who had remained silent so far, piped up. ‘He was alive all this time and you never told me? It has been a full year!”

”I didn’t need you running off like a fool on an errand to try to save him. Look what happened the last time a Crow went off script.” She gestured to Aryana.

”But we’re going to go get him now, right?” Illario was clearly chomping at the bit. Caterina shook her head.

”No. We’re going to send Rook and her associate. They will draw less attention when they go to where he is. He’s being held in the Ossuary. Take them down to the water. Make sure they are not followed.”

”Of course.” He jerked his thumb in the direction of the door. “Get your companion and follow me. Keep up.”

They slipped out the door, Aryana grabbing Harding’s arm and pulling her after them. “We're taking a detour. Illario, Caterina said we were going to the water- how long is the boat trip to… where we’re going?”

”Not far. But it is no ordinary prison. You will see when we get there.”

The trio hopped over a low wall and headed over to climb down a lattice covered in flowering vines. Aryana landed wrong and twisted her ankle. Growling to herself, she trotted to catch up to Illario. They wound through some unremarkable streets before coming up on a small nondescript dock. A Crow mage Aryana vaguely recognized was waiting in a small boat just big enough for three people. Illario grinned. “If anyone has followed us and we all get in the boat and leave it will look suspicious. I’ll draw their attention away. Please bring him back.”

Aryana nodded and climbed into the boat, helping Harding behind her. They slowly paddled off as Illario vanished into the main street. Aryana sighed. “So this Lucanis Dellamorte we’re here for has been locked up in a Venatori prison. We’re on our way to break him out.”

”A prison break, that’s definitely a hell of a detour.”

”It’s so much more complicated than that, too… wait why are we stopping?”

Their mage pilot merely grinned and started weaving a spell that turned the water around them into a whirlpool of sorts. The boat lowered slowly until it was close enough to the sea floor for Aryana and Harding to jump out. “I will wait up above for your signal.”

Aryana nodded and walked towards the giant iron door they had landed in front of. It was surprisingly easy to open and unguarded. When they went inside the unmistakable scent of death hit their noses. They passed through a second door and found an entryway with Venatori bodies strewn everywhere, with a LOT of blood splattered across them and just about every other surface they could see. Harding readied an arrow and looked over at Aryana, who stood for a moment trying to process the whole thing. “Harding do you think he did this or… something else?”

”These are too fresh for him to have killed unless he somehow broke out, but if he broke out wouldn’t we find him quickly?”

”I have no idea. But we need to get him and get out as fast as we can.”

Harding looked up and shrieked. Aryana followed suit and was astounded when she realized that they were basically in a waterproof bubble (mostly- there were a few small leaks). The color drained from Harding’s face as a giant sea creature swam over them- some kind of shark? “Under water AND falling apart? Really safe.”

“We need to hurry. Come on, let’s follow the bodies.” Aryana took her hand as they set off in the direction of the blood splatter. Every few minutes the Ossuary shook, with Harding yelping and Aryana squeezing her hand.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

There was a crack in the red crystal that held him in place. He heard chanting through the cracks but couldn’t hear what was being said, not that it mattered. He pushed his way upward, launching himself at the nearest Venatori. He slashed his throat, moving onto the next and hurling him onto a shard of his crystal prison. The inner voice relished as the body sank onto the sharpened spike. He jumped from body to body, slashing and stabbing, purple wings flaring. When they all lay dead, he turned his attention to the women in front of him. One was a redheaded dwarf with angry eyes, bow drawn and ready. The other…

Oddly violet eyes sharpened as she watched. Purple hair in an elaborate hairdo- braids on either side with an updo that looked almost like a perfect bow on a wrapped gift. She pushed the dwarven woman’s bow down and to the side, staff still in her other hand.

“Who… who are you? Who sent you?”

The purple mage raised an eyebrow. “Aryana de Riva. Caterina sent us.”

“De Riva?” He tilted his head. “You’re a Crow?”

“And YOU’RE not human.”

“Rook… are you sure?” (The dwarf.)

“Harding we had a deal.” (The mage.) “You know I’m a Crow, you know I have to finish this and get him back.”

“I’m right here…” He flinched as Harding(?) raised her bow again. Aryana/Rook pushed the bow aside again and stepped in front of it.

“And full of surprises apparently.” The prison shook again. “Which we will discuss later but we need to go NOW.”

“I cannot.”

Anger flashed across her face and she raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean you can’t?”

“They have a vial of my blood. We must destroy it or they will keep me from finishing my contract. They can control me, blood magic.”

“Alright I’ll bite.” She shook her head. Harding got angrier. “Who’s your contract?”

“A man named Callivan. He’s the second in command to the Venatori witch that put me in here.”

“Okay so a prison break, a fetch quest, and an assassination. Anything else?”

“I will owe you…”

“Oh don’t say that too quickly. We’re going to owe each other after you find out why we’re here.” For just the slightest moment, the stoic face slipped and her gaze wandered down and back up. When she realized what she had done, she merely gave him a saucy smirk.

This was going to be interesting.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Aryana had stood over Callivan as he gurgled blood and spittle on each breath. She had simply looked up at Lucanis and nodded, stepping back and out of his way. She pulled Harding back with her. “It’s yours.”

Lucanis grinned. Aryana didn’t even flinch when the strike sprayed Callivan’s blood across her face. She was definitely a Crow. House de Riva had always been strong but they were lucky to have Rook.

They climbed into the boat in the whirlpool and sat in silence as the Crow mage brought them up to the surface, blood still on Aryana’s face. He climbed up to the dock and held out his hands to help the women. Harding declined, climbing out next to him and heading a ways up the dock. Aryana, however, gladly accepted. She had surprisingly delicate hands for someone so lethal. She let Lucanis lead the way back to the Diamond, catching up with Harding and hanging back to exchange annoyed and angry whispers. He couldn’t blame them- the situation was far worse than any of them expected even without taking the two elven gods into consideration.

Things got worse when they got to the Diamond. Teia was the most distraught he’d ever seen, and even Viago looked ruffled. Aryana gave Viago a quick hug- it was then that he put two and two together that Aryana was Viago’s feisty cousin that regular got sent out on some of the stranger jobs. It was also then that Aryana and Lucanis realized something was seriously wrong. Illario materialized next to them.

“Where’s Caterina…?”

“In the chaos…”

“Zara came HERE?” Aryana asked. “Could it be retaliation for the prison break? Or is this related to the gods somehow?”

“Yes. This is MY house. She came into MY house and did this.” Teia was on the verge of tears.

“I’m going to find her…” Lucanis was cut off.

“I just got you back and now you’re going to leave again?” Illario shook his head.

“Illario, she’s the First Talon, we have to find her,” Aryana said.

“Lucanis, I want you to cut her heart out. Show the Venatori what happens when you cross the Crows.” Teia’s gaze shifted to Aryana, an unofficial command. She nodded back- she doubted Lucanis would hesitate, but she would be there to make sure. Teia looked back at Lucanis. “We will do some digging to find out where she has been taken. Meanwhile, Rook has a contract waiting for you. You know what to do.”

Aryana nodded again before heading out to the courtyard where Harding was waiting. She looked around before deflating slightly. “They got to the grandmother while we were gone. Specifically the one who imprisoned Lucanis.”

“Oh no…”

“It’s…” she looked behind her and back. “I don’t trust the cousin. I can’t put my finger on it but something’s fishy.”

“Maybe Neve could look into it?”

“Neve’s got her own thing right now.” Aryana shook her head. “This is going to have to be our thing. Can the Inquisition’s old spymaster look into it? Were you friendly enough to ask her?”

“I can try.” Harding looked up and flashed a quick uneasy smile. Lucanis had joined them. Aryana turned to face him.

“Let’s get back to the Lighthouse.”

Chapter Text

Aryana was stressed out.

Not only was Lucanis possessed by a demon, said demon resorts to physically harming him whenever he doesn’t get his way.

“Spite.” Fitting.

It still upset her to see blood running from Lucanis’ nose seemingly for no reason. She could only imagine the hell he went through for a year, and still came out otherwise unscathed.

She scowled at herself. Lucanis was a big boy who could look after himself. He was a Crow, for fuck’s sake. And a better one than she was. She would never forget the look on Teia’s face before they left the Cantori Diamond- did she doubt Lucanis? Did ALL of the Crows doubt him knowing his adjusted mental state? Or did they doubt her and still think she was a liability?

A polite throat clearing snapped her back to reality. Bellara was watching her, so she forced a smile. “What do you need, Bellara?”

“You looked like you were thinking bad stuff about yourself. Or someone else. But you like everyone so I think it was about yourself.” She smiled. “I think you’re doing a really good job dealing with all of this. You only signed on to take down Solas. Now you have two literal gods trying to rip the world apart and you’re just dealing with it.”

Aryana went to respond until a flurry of movement caught her attention- Neve. She motioned for Aryana to come over. She ignored the others’ stares. “Is there an update from Dock Town?”

“The Shadow Dragons are willing to meet. They’re a bit reluctant, but they respect you taking out Antaam in Treviso.” She glanced over at Lucanis. “What are we doing about… Him.”

“Him… Lucanis?” Aryana hissed. “We made a deal with the First Talon. Regardless of what happens along the way, he’ll stick to that. You don’t have to worry about him stepping out of line.”

“Are you sure?”

“Neve, this was your idea.”

“I wasn’t planning on the literal Demon of Vyrantium.”

“Well he’s here now. And Bellara seems to like him.”

“Nothing personal against Bellara but she likes everyone.”

“ANYWAY what do the Shadow Dragons want to meet about?”

“You think he’s cute, don’t you?” Neve smirked. “And they sent word about some trouble with some magical relics that they think are tied to Venatori. Track the relic, figure out who the problem is. Or who is part of the problem, anyway.”

Aryana rolled her eyes. “Well, any chance to hunt Venatori is good enough for me.”

“Grab Harding, and let’s go. Probably best if we wear disguises.”

“I think I have a pretty dress or two that could work.”

“Nothing too over the top.”

“Moi? Never.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Rook. Your coat has FEATHERS on it.”

“So?”

“You’re a CROW, you’re supposed to be low key, and you’re wearing a coat with feathers on it.”

“Yeah, but it’s brown.”

“The feathers are the same bluish black as Crow armor.” Neve raised an eyebrow, slightly wincing at the pain from the remaining bruising.

“Yes but the coat is brown.”

“Neve, you’re not going to convince her to change no matter how nicely you ask.” Harding chuckled. “But she does have a point, people think of blues and purples when they think of the Crows. This is indeed a brown coat.”

“Oh, you mean purple like her hair?”

“No one’s going to see it once we break into the Chantry.” Aryana smirked.

“Wait, we’re breaking into a Chantry?” Harding asked.

“No, we’re just looking around.” Neve quipped.

“... In a locked Chantry.”

“Oh, Harding, it’ll be fine. It’s going to be all bad guys, anyway.” Aryana grinned. “Time to put that Inquisition training to use and bag us some Venatori.

The trio infiltrated a crumbling wall on the side of the Chantry, greeted by the stench of death. As they came around a corner into main courtyard, Harding gasped at the sight of easily two or three dozen corpses strewn about. Neve paused, tilting her head. “Wait… see those wounds? That’s demons, not people.”

“Great. Demons, Venatori, red lyrium. What else can we add to this?”

“Can we not add anything? This is already pretty bad,” Harding said.

Some glowing orbs and an almost ridiculous amount of demons and Venatori later, the three women stood before none other than Albin Bataris, hurling arrows, fireballs, and ice spikes at him. He held his own against them, getting in a good hit on Aryana’s off arm and knocking her to the side.She stood back up but was distracted by a noise behind her. A very official-looking man (definitely a Knight Commander) was walking out into the courtyard with a man who HAD to be a magister. They pulled Neve aside for an interaction that clearly angered both her and her templar friend Rana. Rana stormed off after the men left and Neve came back over to join them.

“A typical day in Minrathous. Of course his father paid to get him out of trouble. Bataris really polished it off by telling me “the Venatori will rise” as he walked off. But we took care of the smuggler, and even a small win is a win.” She looked over at Aryana. “There was no mention of the Crows, so at least it seems your coat did the trick. I hardly want to bring Treviso into this mess.”

“Appreciated. I’m sure the Crows would feel the same.”

“Come on. Let’s go. More problems to worry about, not enough time.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“So what’s this news that Illario has for us?” Aryana threw her hair into a quick braid and pinned it out of her face. “Or is this one of those things we don’t put in writing?”

“It is supposedly big news.” Lucanis scoffed. “But the meeting will not be so bad. We are meeting at Cafe Pietra.”

“Why not at the casino?”

“As much as I treasure House Cantori, making coffee is not on their list of specialties.”

“Wait we’re meeting out in the open so you can get coffee?”

“When you have this coffee, you will understand.”

“This coffee better… nevermind.”

“I have to pick up a few things in the market. Illario is never on time.”

“What’s it like being here after a year… away?”

“It seems a little different… but that might be me. Here.” He walked over to a small stand selling plants.

“I… plants?”

“For Harding. For her room. It’s slowly coming back to life with her help. And spearmint is good for preventing nightmares. Good in some desserts too.” He handed her the plant.

“You’re buying a gift for the woman who resisted recruiting you from day one?”

“It doesn’t mean she should suffer from nightmares.” He shrugged.

“That’s… surprisingly kind of you.” She smiled. “What else are we picking up?”

“Bellara mentioned a seafood boil she hasn’t had in a while. There used to be a fish stand up around this side of the market.” He pointed off to the right. “I’ll make sure they wrap it well enough that you don’t have to smell it.”

“A seafood boil? Sign me up. I haven’t had anything like that since I was a child.” She watched the old woman carefully wrap the fish in thick brown paper and tie a bit of twine around it. She looked between the two of them, smiling and patting Aryana’s hand.

“Treviso will be free.” Her smile deepened, her eyes almost closing. Aryana squeezed her hand back and hurried to follow Lucanis to the produce booth a few booths down.

“Do you know Neve eats nothing but fried fish?”

“Yes, I’ve had fried fish lunch with her before.” She grinned at him. “Why, what are you thinking?”

“I don’t know how you all didn’t starve before you hired me.”

“We’ve been a little busy, if you hadn’t noticed.” She flinched when he handed her the basket of produce enthusiastically.

“I’m sure. But Illario should be there by now. Let’s go to the cafe.”

“Yes let me carry all of this to get coffee…wait, did you just buy groceries for the team?”

He smiled. “This way.”

They pushed through an ornate door to a pretty, open courtyard with flowering vines and candles. She spotted Illario at a table and nudged Lucanis. “He’s at that table there.”

“Excellent.” They walked over, and he pulled a chair out at the table for her.

"Funny how I’m the one carrying the groceries that were your idea.” She laughed when he raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m kidding. As long as I get to eat all of this, too.”

“You won’t be sorry.”

“Lucanis, there you go. All stomach and no heart.”

“Illario, did you come here to poke fun at me or tell me what you’ve found?”

“Zara has been sighted in Vyrantium.” Illario looked very proud of himself.

“That’s…” Aryana shook her head. “I don’t buy it. There’s no way she could have been in the casino to take Caterina and then already gotten that far.”

“I agree, Illario. She’s given you a false lead.” Lucanis shook his head. “You need to take a closer look at who has fed you this info.”

Illario rolled his eyes. “Fine. I will clean house and see what I find. We will find who sold us out.”

“I appreciate this, Illario.” Aryana smiled at him. Illario and Lucanis stood and walked off, whispering something together. She watched warily- She still had a weird feeling about Illario but nothing that she could really put into words. She brushed it off as stress about the family turmoil.

She stared out over the water, lost in memories of growing up a De Riva. She couldn’t imagine the pressure of being the grandson of the First Talon- it was hard enough that the cousin she grew up with wound up as Fifth Talon, arguably more powerful than his “father”, which put more pressure on her to be successful in the Crows. She truly loved Viago, though, growing up almost more of a sister than a cousin. They grew up training together and she even had he scar on her chin from a particular nasty fight they got into. Viago had gotten angry and hit her in the face with a wooden training sword, leaving her with a nasty gash that needed stitches.

She was almost startled when Lucanis re-entered her peripheral- nostalgia could be dangerous with what was going on. He sat down next to her and sighed. “He doesn’t listen well, does he? Only hears about one word in ten.”

”It is not his strong suit, no.” Lucanis smiled. “But enough about him, here’s our coffee.”

A petite waitress set their mugs down on the table, lingering just long enough to take a good long look at Lucanis who seemed completely oblivious to her. Aryana tried to stifle a snort but failed. She waved away both the waitress and Lucanis’ concern. “So tell me about this coffee we came all this way for.”

’I thought you’d never ask.” He grinned more genuinely than she had seen… as long as she's known him. “This is a unique blend you can only get at Cafe Pietra. They call it Andorhal’s Breath. Bitter and sweet, like a kiss goodbye.”

”I didn’t realize we’d hired a poet.” She smiled and took a long sip. Her face lit up. “Okay, this is very good. Perfect. Better than perfect.”

“I told you.” Another true smile.

“So, since you’re our resident coffee aficionado, if this is a kiss goodbye then what would be a first kiss?” She winced at herself, stupid question. He didn’t seem to notice the reaction, instead thinking about it as he traced the rim of his mug with a finger.

“I think honey and lavender cream. Sweet and intriguing. What do you think?”

Aryana froze. She blinked a few times, completely drawing a blank. “I… oof. It’s been long enough that I might need a reminder. But yours sounds good. Can I just copy your answer?”

“Is it really that good of an answer?”

“You are officially the team’s coffee expert. And I expect you to supply me… us with coffee from time to time because I seriously cannot drink any more of whatever it is that Neve makes.” She took a serious look at him and realized something was off. “This isn’t about coffee, is it?”

“Isn’t it?”

“No.” She shook her head. “This is about getting your freedom back. Coffee is just the embellishment.”

He returned her gaze thoughtfully. “Maybe it is a little of that. I spent a year being tortured after someone set me up. I live with Spite now against both of our wills. But even before all of that my life was not really my own. So much was already determined for me.”

“No pressure.” She studied him for a moment. “I admire that you’ve gone through all that and come out as strong as you have.”

He smiled genuinely again, and they finished their drinks in a comfortable silence.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Aryana buzzed with excitement. She had sent Lucanis back ahead of her with the groceries from the market, and looked through every single stall to try to find a gift for him. She’d found a fine silver tea set (that would work for coffee as well), but wanted to find something… sharper. Literally. She wound up in front of Marcus’ weapons booth eyeing a very specific bright silver dagger. He followed her line of sight then looked back with an amused look. “Mistook you for a mage, Ary.”

“Oh stop, it’s for a friend.”

“A friend, eh? You never bought your cousin anything this nice and he’s family.”

“He also split my face open when we were children. He doesn’t need any more weapons.”

“Fine. Keep your secret. But you have to tell me if it works.”

“If a sword I’m buying works? Wouldn’t that be something you would need to determine first?”

“Not like that.” He waggled his eyebrows. “I need a full report on whether this gets you where you’re aiming for.”

She stared at him. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh come off it, Ary. I’ve seen how you look at him, don’t deny it. I’m not going to tell anyone. But I’ll do you a favor and let you know he looks at you the same way.”

“I… wait what?”

“You heard me. The feelings are mutual.”

Aryana’s face reddened and felt like it was on fire. He laughed. “How much do you want for it?”

“It’s wyvern tooth, it’s expensive. But I’ll give you a discount since you’re a friend and another as a thanks for whatever this moment is. Give me 350.”

She hurriedly counted out some coins and shoved them in his face, snatching the dagger when he handed it to her and scurrying away from as fast as her legs would move her. She kept her head down the entire walk back to the eluvian, praying that no one noticed the increasingly red shade of her face.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lucanis waved off the rest of the team as they filed out after dinner. They’d raved about the seafood boil Bellara requested and demanded it be on a regular dinner rotation. Rook had been strangely quiet during the meal but brushed him off as just being tired. Harding had also seemed off for a bit, and it was odd that she had gotten him away from the kitchen to help her with some of her plants (including the new spearmint plant). He shrugged it off and headed into the back room of the kitchen. He was surprised to see two packages on his bed, one fairly obviously dagger shaped and wrapped sloppily, the other in a box and wrapped neatly. He opened the neatly wrapped box and was surprised with a bright silver tea set. He gently lifted it out of its box and put it on the table closest to his bed. He turned his attention to the messily wrapped dagger, enthusiastically tearing away the paper and stunned at how beautiful it was. He then saw the note that had been nested beneath the twine bow, written in surprisingly neat swirling handwriting.

“Lucanis

You can’t get gifts for everyone else and nothing for yourself.

(Yes it’s wyvern tooth.)

Rook”

Chapter Text

Aryana rolled over and groaned. They’d picked up some cheap wine the day previously as part of a sort of undercover thing with Neve and the women had decided to get together in Bellara’s room and drink it all. Fortunately they’d all eaten (thanks to Lucanis) so the worst she’d have to deal with is a bad headache and some dehydration.

Then she remembered the gifts she’d left for Lucanis, and the embarrassment doubled her headache. What if he didn’t like them? Why did she set it up as a surprise? Why wouldn’t her room stop spinning?

She heard her door open and close. She froze, blanket pulled up to her chin and eyes shut. She didn’t immediately recognize the footsteps but they were too light to be anyone’s BUT Lucanis. He stopped at the foot of her couch. “Good morning, Rook.”

“Go away.”

“No.” He crossed his arms and looked down at her.

“What…” She threw the blanket down to her waist. “I don’t feel good.”

“Oh, I can tell.” He smirked.

“So you’re here to what, gloat?”

“What?” The smirk softened. “No, not at all. I… I wanted to thank you.”

She narrowed her eyes. He motioned for her to move her feet. She grumbled and did so. He sat where her feet had been and smiled down at her. She propped herself up on her elbows. “Why did you have to come into my bedroom and sit on my bed to thank me? I’m a bit of a mess right now, not exactly an esteemed leader.”

“I’m not here for you as our leader, I’m here for you as our friend.” He chuckled. “The gifts were very thoughtful.”

“Oh.” She pushed hair out of her face and pushed herself from her elbows to her hands. “It was nothing. Consider it a thank you for being stuck cooking for us until this is all over because I will definitely kill you with whatever it is that I call my cooking.”

“I’ll keep that in mind. Now lay back down and get some rest. We don’t have any news from Treviso yet.”

“Dammit, I hate sitting around waiting.” She groaned and laid back down. “Please come to me when you get word. I don’t care if I’m projectile vomiting, we’ll go immediately.”

“Hopefully it does not come down to that.” He leaned over and straightened her blanket around her. Her hand shot out and grabbed his. “What’s wrong?”

“Could… could you bring me some water? Please?”

“Water? I think I can manage that. Anything else?”

“No, just water.” She let go of his hand. He stood up and started to leave.

“Last chance….”

“No, just the water, please.” She sighed and didn’t move for easily five or ten minutes, she didn’t know. She started to nod back off just as she heard her door open and close again, Lucanis humming something familiar but she couldn’t place exactly what. He came around the foot of the bed with a decent-sized jug of water.

“Will this do?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Perfect.”

“I’ll leave it down here. Anything else?”

“You cannot tell Viago about this. I will launch you off the back balcony.”

“It will be our secret.”

“When you say it like that it sounds… nevermind. I appreciate it.”

“I’ll come back and check on you in a couple of hours. Make sure you aren’t sleepwalking or anything.”

“I’ll leave the sleepwalking to you.”

“Deal.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lucanis scanned Bellara’s grocery request list with a smile. She wanted the fish boil again (and the others would want it as well), and seemed especially interested in if he could find any cinnamon. Maybe Rook would like to tag along.

He tucked the list into his pocket and headed out from the kitchen. The brightness of the sun in the rapidly blooming courtyard assaulted his eyes. The caretaker bowed as he passed, turning its attentions towards… whatever it was doing. The inside of the library was cool and much darker, much more a Crow’s speed. He went up the curved stairs, running his hand along the marble before he reached the hallway leading to Rook’s room. He didn’t hear any concerning sounds, fortunately. He opened her door. “Rook?”

He was startled by the yelp she emitted. She was standing, but had managed to wrap her blanket around her. “You ever hear of knocking?”

“What do…” His eyes widened, mortified. He turned away from her. “I apologize, I didn’t think… well, clearly I didn’t think.”

“I mean, it’s not terrible. I just have to adjust a few things…”

“I’m sorry. I’ll leave.”

“No! It’s okay. Just give me… 30 seconds and I’ll be ready. Are we going to Treviso?”

“Yes. Teia wants to speak with us.” He heard the rustling of fabric and Rook swearing a few times. "Something about poison."

“Okay, I’m decent.” She walked around her bed and towards the door. “Come on, we can’t keep Teia waiting, and if we do Viago will have my ass.”

He followed her down to the eluvian, silent as they entered the Crossroads. They walked towards one of the docks, Rook buzzing with excitement. When they sat in the Caretaker’s boat, she looked over at him with a grin. He smiled back. “You know, Viago’s been different since you came back.”

“Because I like you both I won’t tell him you told me that.”

“In a good way. He is proud of you now, I think. Your influence on him does not go unnoticed.”

“Influence? What influence?”

“He is… kinder.. To the younger Crows.”

“That would have been nice when we were kids. See this scar on my chin?” She pointed to it. “Fucking Vi.”

Lucanis chuckled. “What did he do?”

“We were playing with practice swords. We called it ‘training’ but we were children, it was playing. Well he landed a pretty hard hit, I called him a bastard, he hit me in the face. It split my chin open, there was blood everywhere. It had to get stitched up.”

“That is not the story he tells.”

“I’m sure it’s not. I don’t even tell that story to people but I get the feeling we can all trust you.” Her smile faltered. “At least, I hope we can trust each other…”

“I trust you, too, Rook.”

“You cannot tell him I told you this story.”

“And you cannot tell him what I told you.”

“We’re just going to wind up owing each other a lot after all this, aren’t we?”

“I don’t know, breaking me out of a Venatori prison where I was tortured kind of skews the books.”

“Did you forget I did that so that you can help me kill some elven gods?”

“...Maybe it will end in a draw.”

“Hey, do you…” Aryana bit her lip. “Nevermind.”

“No, tell me.”

“Do you play chess?”

“I can.” He chuckled. “I assume it is ‘Rook’ because you do?”

“Well, you know Varric and his nicknames. He calls Solas ‘Chuckles.’”

“Is this an invitation to play chess with you?”

“Neve and Harding dislike it and Bellara is too indecisive.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“Yes.” She said firmly. “I would enjoy if you would consider playing chess with me in our downtime.” Her eye contact faltered as they approached the dock near the Treviso eluvian.

“What does the winner get?”

“Oh you want to make this interesting? I should have known so coming from a Crow.” She hopped out of the boat and pulled him up behind her. “Give me time to think on it. I’ll pick something for if I win, you pick something for if you win. At least I know I won’t have to cook if you win. That’s enough punishment for both of us.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Aryana enjoyed sticking to rooftops when moving through Treviso. She’d done so since she was a child, having to learn to be agile young to keep from breaking any more limbs. Lucanis fell in line behind her seamlessly. “Is it ever odd to you that we’re so good at this?”

“No.”

“Why does that not surprise me?”

“You don’t strike me as the type that is surprised by much.”

“I’m a little surprised… There, look! Antaam. And that must be the Butcher speaking to them. That means they’re all distracted and we can be in and out fast.” She grabbed his arm and ducked into a nearby window. “The Qamekmaster HAS to be in here.”

They continued through a long attic full of barrels and crates until the got close- The Qamekmaster started taunting them. “I can smell you, outsider! Come face the glory of the Qamekmaster and fall before me!”

Aryana dropped down to the floor in front of him, hitting him square in the face with a barrage of fiery bolts. Lucanis dropped down on the other side, a flurry of daggers and wings. Aryana grinned and leapt up to grab the Qamekmaster’s horns, wrapping her staff arm around one of the horns and driving the knife she kept on her leg straight down into his brain. Pink mist sprayed across her face and down her chest as she rolled off onto the marble floor and recovered seamlessly. She tried to wipe her face on her sleeve but only really succeeded in moving the mess around. “I’m going to need to boil myself in a bath when we get back. This is exceptionally foul brain matter.”

“Don’t talk too much, you’ll get it in your mouth.”

“Did you…” She raised an eyebrow. “Did you just tell me to be quiet? Oh GROSS I did get it in my mouth.”

“I told you.” He shook his head as she desperately tried to spit it out.

“This is another thing you cannot tell Viago.”

“What is?”

“Exactly. Come on, Teia and Vi need to know they were right. I mean, I’m quite sure Vi always knows he’s right, even when he’s wrong.”

They slipped out a side door and quickly climbed up a nearby lattice to get back up to the rooftops. She led the way, happy to hop between ziplines and beams and even a tree or two. Both of them were relieved when they got back to the Cantori Diamond. She took a quick detour to have a quick chat with Heir, one of her favorites. It was clearly a friendly chat, and he didn’t realize that he was staring at her until she looked up two different times to meet his gaze.

Mierda.

Chapter Text

Aryana scowled. She had expected chess with Lucanis to be a challenge but not this big of one.

Honestly she’d expected Neve to be the hardest to beat (and boy was that game a nightmare) but she knew she had to be giving away her strategy with her face. Maybe this was a foolish idea. And she had no idea what she would pick if she won, though at this rate it wouldn’t be a problem. She had a decent number of pieces left but every move was almost immediately countered. She was going to have to do something risky. Trying to hold on to heavy pieces wasn’t doing her any favors.

Then, she realized what he was doing- he was favoring his knights. Fitting. So she would favor her rooks, more powerful pieces anyway. And maybe he would think she was flirting- though she doubted that would do anything. But there was the other night in the Diamond when she’d caught him staring, twice…

She grinned, feigning more strategy than she actually had. Without warning, she swooped her rook over to take out one of his knights. Sure, it left that rook vulnerable to his other knight, but if he acted on that she still had a rook waiting for it. She looked back up at him smirking. Screw the game at this point.

As predicted, his other knight immediately took out the rook. She reached out to complete the chain but Harding interrupted. “Rook? Can I speak to you?”

“Of course.” Aryana threw a glance back at her. “Thirty seconds then I’m all yours.”

She followed through on taking out the second knight. She didn’t bother to stay long enough to see his expression and wasn’t worried about his next move- if Harding was interrupting then whatever it was was more important than a silly game. She followed her in silence, slightly worried. Harding headed out into the courtyard and over to her now-blooming greenhouse. Once they were inside Harding turned to her. “Something is telling me I need to practice this new magic. It’s like… a voice? But without words.”

“So like an instinct?”

“No? I don’t think so. But I know that I need this somehow, that you need me to need this.”

“Alright, what can I do?”

“Come with me to Arlathan? That’s where I got it so maybe that’s the best place to practice?”

“Of course. I don’t know what to tell you, but I’ll go with you. Do you want to bring Bellara too?”

“Yes! I think.” Harding smiled. “I’m sorry to take you away from your game. He was going to win anyway.”

“Oh it’s not… Wait how do you know?” Aryana raised an eyebrow. “I didn’t know you played.”

“I don’t. But I could just tell.” Harding smiled. “He was taking it easy on you.”

“Well then thank you for getting me out of losing.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Aryana nearly tripped out of the boat. “What’s that smell?”

“It smells a bit like my ma’s apple pie.” Harding shook her head. “But how? That doesn’t make any sense here.”

“Not sure and how soon can we get one of those pies? If this is what they smell like then I need to try one.”

“I’ll… do what I can, Rook.” Harding looked around. ‘Over here- this is wide open and looks like it’s far enough away from people that I won't accidentally hurt anyone. Except us.”

“We can handle it.”

Harding pointed over to a rocky area. “That one. I’m going to move it.”

Aryana followed her over to a decent sized rock formation. Harding made hand motions similar to what she’d done the week prior.

Nothing happened.

“Awkward….” She trailed off. “But I did it before!”

“We were also in danger before. Think about that?”

“Maybe…” Harding took a deep breath… then the rocks moved. “If I had this before…”

“But you did move them!” Aryana smiled. “I bet you could move those other ones to give us something to climb on.”

“This is so neat, Harding!” Bellara clapped. “Just think of how useful this will be as a scout!”

“Help!” A man’s voice sounded out, echoing out around them. “Is someone there?”

“Who’s there?” Harding asked. “Where are you?”

“Up there!” Aryana spotted a man, most likely a Veil Jumper. “Quick, lift these rocks and we can climb up there!”

Harding sprung into action. Aryana climbed up each group of rocks almost faster than Harding could move them. At the end of the trek, there was a narrow beam that was easily kicked down, and a nearby crystal conjured up a rock bridge. The trio rushed across- the man was indeed a Veil Jumper, a good friend of Bellara’s, in fact. Bellara and Aryana got the man up on their shoulders.

He was going to be okay.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“So… it’s nice out, aside from the whole ‘reality is paper thin’ thing you just told us,” Rook said. “I’m assuming that’s why we have to check all of these things? And why you were short with…”

‘It’s fine. I shouldn’t have said it like that. You’re doing great helping me check all of these artifacts, so I’m sure everything will be fine.” Bellara forced a smile. “I was just grumpy.”

Aryana picked up a nearby crystal. “This should be the last one for this artifact. What did this used to do?”

“Oh, it rained flaming rocks that chanted.”

“Oh, is that all?” She shook her head in disbelief. “I’m sure that was fine.”

“Everything here looks good.” Bellara smiled. “You have better things to do, I know, so thank you for helping me.”

“This is important too. We can’t exactly go after the gods if everything around us crumbles.”

“I appreciate that,” Bellara said. “At least there’s only one more for us to look at.”

The trio went through a now-open door and walked along a pretty path paved with circles of stones. They went around a corner into a ruined building, definitely elven designed and built. She pointed at the artifact. “It looks like this one only needs two crystals. See if you can find some.”

Aryana looked around and saw a beam that looked on the flimsy side. Instinctively, she kicked it over and was relieved when she saw it was long enough to cross over the gap in the floor. She realized that they were directly over the ground floor of the artifacts vault.

“Hey Rook?”

“What do you need?”

“Um… never mind. But yes, there- there’s a crystal behind that crate.” Bellara pointed. Aryana leaned over onto a low stone wall.

“Ah! I see. And I see you’ve found the other one.” She picked up the brightly growing crystal and carefully went back over the fallen beam. She noticed a sad look on Bellara’s face.. “Hey, are you okay?”

“I’m fine. The work’s just exhausting. I’ll be fine in a little bit.”

“Are… you sure? You don’t look exhausted, you look sad.” She said. “You’re allowed to ask for help.”

“I know. But it’s easier when I do it because… When I needed to… never mind.” She turned and quickly walked out through a nearby stone arch.

“BelLARa.”

“I’m fine!” Bellara was looking over the river. “I can’t…”

“I need you to tell me. So I can help.”

“You can’t help. I couldn’t even help, I failed him.”

“Failed who?”

“My brother.” Bellara squeezed her eyes shut to try to hide her fresh tears. “Wherever he is…”

“What happened to him?”

“Cyrian.” She sighed. “He was a lot like me. But then Arlathan went wrong. I joined the Veil Jumpers, he kept exploring. Then… an artifact went wrong. That I checked THREE times. It… failed. The Veil Jumpers called him a hero. I knew it was just my mistake. They never knew him.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“I know.”

“It’s not your fault. None of this was.”

Bellara turned to face her. “So why does it feel like it was?”

“Bellara, I’m sorry.” She frowned.

“We should get back. I’ve taken enough of your time.”

“Only if you tell me about him on the way.” Aryana gestured the way they had come from.

It was a short walk, and seemed even shorter as Bellara talked about her brother and his curiosity. His nickname for her, “hummingbird.” His desire for knowledge. By the time they reached the eluvian to go back to the Lighthouse, Aryana had a pain in her chest. Bellara’s story had stirred up feelings about her own family. She didn’t talk about them much. No one on the team knew about any of her family aside from Viago, and even him they only knew as her cousin.

Maybe some day she would be as brave as Bellara and tell them about her sister.

They were going to be okay.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

When they got back to the Lighthouse, Aryana went straight back to the library. She was itching for a nap if she was perfectly honest. She remembered her interrupted chess game and groaned- was she really going to lose that easily? Or was he letting her win?

The chessboard was in the exact same shape that it had been left in… or so she initially thought. She did a double-take when she saw that her second rook had been left alone, but a rook of his that she hadn’t been paying attention to returned the favor and took out her last remaining knight despite his chance to take out a stronger piece.

He was definitely letting her win. And the thought… annoyed her? If she won this, she wanted to do it on her own.

Chapter Text

Teia forced a smile as Aryana and Lucanis approached. Illario was next to her, clearly distraught. She nodded at Aryana. “Rook, thank you for coming and bringing Lucanis. I need a Dellamorte to plan this, and Illario has been no help.”

“Oh?” Aryana hoped her suspicion didn’t come through in her voice.

“Thank you, cousin. This has all been too much.” Illario shook his head.

“If there’s anything I can do, just tell me.” Aryana forced a smile in return.

“You’ve always been such a dear. You definitely didn’t learn that from Viago.” Teia snorted and jerked her head in Vi’s direction, standing just out of earshot.

“Teia, please don’t flirt with my… colleague,” Lucanis said.

“Illario, i need you to bring me the ashes.”

“Ashes?”

‘Yes, the ashes. The ashes from the cremation, yes?” Teia gestured impatiently.

“Illario, how did this happen?” Lucanis piped up. “How did they get here? What did they use? When exactly did this happen? Did it happen here or did they take her…”

“Cousin, I said I will handle this!”

“If I’m going to go after Zara I need to know these things!” Lucanis snapped back.

“Illario, please. He is allowed to be frustrated.” Teia put a hand out. “Boys, please, let us focus on getting the preparations in place.”

“My apologies, Andarateia. Continue without me. I’ll… get you the ashes.” Illario stormed off.

“Something’s going on with him.” Aryana shook her head. “I obviously don’t know him as well, but…”

“Normally I would agree, but the only time I’ve seen him like this was when we thought Lucanis died.”

“Uh, that… nevermind.” Aryana exhaled sharply. The other two ignored her.

“When not on a job, my cousin has his head in the clouds. I cannot fault him for being like this,” Lucanis said, sounding somewhat sympathetic.

“Besides, can you imagine if Caterina saw us all like this?” Teia sighed

“Oh she’d be furious. Especially at Illario.”

“I barely know him and he seems like trouble.” Aryana piped up.

“He’s just the type. I’ve pulled him out of fires on his jobs more than once.” Lucanis sighed.

“His jobs have far less fires than yours do.” Teia smiled. Lucanis nodded and walked over to say something to Viago. Teia reached out and stopped Aryana before she could follow. “Rook, if it were anyone but you having doubts, I’d ignore them but… your gut is good. I’ll have a few Crows keep an eye on him. Do not tell Lucanis unless we find something out. He has enough going on and I doubt he wants anyone to know the Demon of Vyrantium has a big soft heart.”

“Your secret is safe with me, Teia.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Aryana adjusted her dress. Her run-in with the First Warden ruffled her slightly more than it should have, but she was grateful for the mysterious magister that had come to her aid- apparently Harding knew him from the Inquisition and vouched for him. She still didn’t want to march into Grey Wardens territory blatantly wearing her Crow armor, however, so she’d found a nice enough neutral dress (in black, of course) and invited Harding to come along to talk to Harding’s Warden friends. Varric had apparently forgotten meeting them but when you have the sort of life Varric Tethras does, she supposed one would forget things from time to time.

They stepped through the eluvian and Aryana was immediately grateful for the heavy coat she’d worn. It wasn’t the most practical garment for combat, but that was what Harding was for. They ran towards the sound of an explosion nearby and Aryana was relieved that the darkspawn there were dead. Over the bodies stood a dwarf woman with distinct face tattoos and a hairstyle close to Rooks and a slender elf man. They both looked up as the pair approached.

“Harding! Good to see you.”

“Antoine! Evka! Glad to see you’re alright!”

“Evka is keeping us alive, yes.” Antoine had a strong Orlesian accent. He patted Evka on the shoulder and she beamed back.

“And you must be Rook? Heard some colorful things.” Evka nodded. “I like the hair.”

“Yeah I get that a lot.” Aryana grinned. “But on a serious note, I’m here because I need Warden help.”

“Yes, Harding’s letter was… a lot to take in,” Evka said.

‘But if the gods are changing the blight, that would explain…” Antoine shook his head. “I have been hearing changes”

“A lot lines up.” Evka nodded.

“Even if you doubt me, you know Harding wouldn’t lie.” Aryana jerked her head towards her.

“That’s not a reason to… I mean, I’m not lying. We’re not lying.”

“Well, we’re not the First Warden’s favorites either… but I think we know someone who could help. Our friend Davrin got pulled for a mission we don’t know everything about, but he has the reputation for being a bit of a monster hunter. Surely that might help? I can try to give you a location.”

“I married someone with good advice. You? Find Davrin. And we will keep looking into the changes in the blight.”

“Thank both of you. I appreciate it.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“This is where you live?” Davrin looked around anxiously. “It’s… beautiful. I think.”

“It takes a while to get used to, I won’t lie.” Aryana opened her mouth to say something else but was startled by shouts.

“Rook!” Bellara shrieked as she, Lucanis, and Neve came running. Harding and Davrin froze next to Aryana.

“What’s wrong?” Aryana asked.

“Everything’s wrong. Treviso and Minrathous are BOTH under attack.” Lucanis wrung his hands.

“TWO blighted dragons. One attacking each city,” Neve said.

“Okay. What do we know?”

“What more is there to know?” Neve quipped.

“Treviso is a merchant city with no defenses. People will either die from the dragons or die from Blight in the water. OUR PEOPLE.” Lucanis’ voice was shaky.

“And leave Minrathous to die?” Neve asked angrily.

“Neve…” Lucanis trailed off.

“We’re the only people keeping the Venatori in check! This is all they need to make a push for the throne!”

“Okay but… “

“THERE’S NO TIME,” they both shouted and ran towards separate eluvians. Aryana stood frozen on the spot.

“So where are we going?” Harding asked, stepping in front of her.

“Oh no…” Aryana shook her head. “This can’t be left up to me.”

“We have to decide quickly.” Bellara sounded on the verge of tears.

“...Fine. We’ll split up, though. Half of us will go to Minrathous to help Neve. Davrin, you’re experienced with darkspawn- take Harding with you. Bellara, you’re with me, we’ll meet Lucanis there. I need to get my armor, I can be quick.”

“We brought it out already.” Bellara pointed to a pile a small ways behind her. “We needed to save time.”

“Quick, help me get in it.” She quickly stripped out of her dress and let Bellara help strap her into the armor. They then ran towards the dock to Treviso’s eluvian.

Every step was anguish for Aryana. How do you pick which city falls to any dragon much less a BLIGHTED dragon? Could she even really help Treviso? Lucanis thoughts she could. She was sure the other Crows would think so too. How do you even kill a blighted dragon? She had trouble wrangling ogres sometimes.

When they crashed through into Treviso, she almost vomited. The air was thick with the smell of blood- normally a good smell but vile when she knew it was the massacre of innocent people. She and Bellara charged forward, dead and injured Crows on either side of them. She had no idea where to meet Lucanis, but she figured the casino would be a smart place to start. She practically flew down a set of nearby stairs into a courtyard and spotted Teia and Lucanis. “Teia! Oh she’s alive.”

“Rook! You came.”

“Of course I did.” She threw her arms around Teia. “Oh Teia, I was so scared for you.”

“We hoped you would come. Lucanis wasn’t sure, with Minrathous needing help also.’

“Hopefully we can take care of this and then get to Minrathous in time to help at least a little.”

“But for now, you must deal with this dragon. Get it to the ground, then take it out. We need your courage.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

The team entered the library in silence. Neve’s absence was deafening. They’d been too late to help Minrathous. She would never forget the tone in Neve’s voice when she asked about Treviso, then asked emphatically about Lucanis. She clearly thought Aryana only picked Treviso because of him but how could she leave her own people to die? What would Neve have done in the situation? She’d have saved her people. Now the Shadow Dragons were furious with her except for Viper, and he’d been hurt (and probably blighted) by their dragon. It would be a long while before they would let her show her face in Minrathous, she was sure. She ignored her friends as they went separate ways to their respective rooms. She knew that one of them stayed behind, watching her. She paused but didn’t turn.

“Rook… Treviso thanks you.” Lucanis’ voice had finally steadied. “The Crows thank you…. I thank you.”

She nodded, still not turning, before she went up the stairs to lock herself in her room and cry herself to sleep.

Chapter Text

ROOK

Aryana stared at the black dress she had left in the Crossroads. The one she had worn when she made the decision that crippled a city. She’d finally retrieved it and washed it, sobbing the entire time away from everyone with the door to the washroom locked.

The majority of the Shadow Dragons had been dragged out of their hideouts and hanged. Their bodies were still hanging and rotting and the entirety of Dock Town reeked of death. Neve still hadn’t returned.

Bellara, the dear, had offered to cook tonight and invited everyone (no armor!). Aryana knew she couldn’t say no, of course, and had dug through her wardrobe for any idea of what to wear. Bellara said she would wear a dress, and Harding had muttered something about wearing one if Aryana did.

She pulled all of her dresses out of the wardrobe and spread them out on her bed. This felt so stupid. If anyone but Bellara had asked, she wouldn’t even go, much less dress up. Her eyes landed on a dress she forgot she had, a deep purple-ish blue that definitely was in the Crow range of colors. Sighing, she reluctantly stepped into it, struggling a bit with the sleeves. She walked over and stood in front of her mirror, and was pleasantly surprised that it still fit well and actually kind of looked nice. The sleeves were sheer, showing off the tattoos on her arms. The back dipped into a V deep enough to show the crow tattoo on her back with her hair up and the front was also a V but much more modest. She was startled by a knock on her door. “Come in!”

Their newly-acquired team member was a delightful necromancer named Emmrich. The two had immediately bonded in a close friendship almost like they’d known each other for decades. He walked into the room slowly and smiled approvingly of what he saw. She rolled her eyes and quickly braided her hair, pinning it up and out of the way of the tattoo.

“That dress looks absolutely stunning on you, Rook! I’m glad I’m not the only one who decided to dress up.” He himself had on a dark green vest that looked almost black, a lighter green buttoned shirt, black slacks, and black boots. A pleased hiss behind him told her that Manfred had come along. He stepped out from behind Emmrich and clapped his hands when he saw Aryana.

“Well, if Manfred approves, I’m sold.” She grinned. “You don’t think this is too much, do you?”

“Dearest Bellara asked us to dress nicely for this so if you’re overdressed, so am I.”

“Emmrich, you’re always overdressed.”

“What? Oh I am not.” He smiled. “Come, now, the others are ready. I was sent to fetch you.”

“I’m overdressed AND late?”

“No and no.” She took his arm and they walked out of her room and down the stairs. Manfred followed them gleefully, hissing again as they walked out into the courtyard. The sky had darkened a bit and it was a bit cooler as they crossed the way to the dining room. When they got inside, Aryana was glad to see everyone else had more or less gotten fancy as well. They were all seated around the table minus Bellara, with an open seat and setting closest to them and two open seats left in front of the fire. “Oh good, if you get cold, your back will be towards the fire.”

Emmrich released her hand and rounded the table. The two empty seats with settings were between Harding and Lucanis, and Emmrich sat next to harding. Manfred climbed into the closest seat, next to Bellara and the space where Assan was sitting. Aryana tried to not flinch when she realized she was stuck next to Lucanis- they had barely spoken since the decision to save Treviso. Their unfinished chess game was STILL unfinished in the library. Aryana refused to look at it. She glided around the table and slid into the chair as gracefully as she could and with as little grunting as possible. Bellara grinned at her. “Rook, you look really pretty! Everyone looks really nice, thank you for dressing up!”

Aryana nodded at her and smiled, ignoring the eyes that she felt literally on her back. She couldn’t wait for this to be over.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

LUCANIS

“Lucanis, thank you for helping with dinner. We’ve seen so much sad stuff together that it’s nice to have family dinner!”

“It is my pleasure to help you, Bellara. I agree, this will be nice for the team.”

“I wish Neve were here. Maybe we can do it again if she comes back?”

“If we do, I’ll be happy to help again.”

“Oh that makes me happy.” Bellara smiled. “Here, how’s the sauce? Taste it.”

Lucanis smiled, dipping a spoon into said sauce and tasting it carefully. “It’s good. Maybe a pinch more salt?”

“Oh, you’re right for sure!” She quickly threw the salt in. “Go, sit down. Everyone should be here soon.”

“This is very kind of you to do, Bellara.”

“Is it? I don’t know. Rook has been so sad, you know? I didn’t want it to feel like I’m just trying to make her feel better, but I had to do something.”

“And it will definitely work. She loves your cooking.”

“I hope so. Thank you.” She smiled up at him. “You look really nice! I hope Rook notices.”

“I’m… sorry?”

“You look nice! I really…” She closed her mouth when Davrin and Harding walked in. She lowered her voice. “I hope that Rook notices that you look nice dressed up.”

“I don’t understand…”

“Hi Bellara, hi Lucanis!” Harding waved and claimed the setting at the head of the table nearest the stove. Davrin hesitated, obviously waiting to see where Lucanis would sit so he could avoid him. Not wanting to start an argument at Bellara’s dinner, he claimed the setting nearest to his room. Davrin almost immediately sat next to Harding. Bellara started handing out plates to everyone, also putting one at each remaining seat including a vegetarian dish for Emmrich.

“Well, Rook and the prof…. Emmrich should be here soon. Everyone eat up!” Bellara proudly sat down and dove into the soup. A few minutes later, they heard Manfred’s distinct hiss moments before the door opened and Emmrich and Rook walked in. Emmrich grinned and gestured to the two remaining seats.

“Oh good, if you get cold, your back will be towards the fire.” He walked around the table and gleefully sat next to Harding. Rook slowly followed, sitting in the seat between him and Emmrich. Instinctively, he looked up when she reached the chair- he was astonished to see a giant crow tattoo in the middle of her back. He looked away quickly, hoping no one noticed. He accidentally made eye contact with Bellara, who grinned at him.

“Rook, you look really pretty! Everyone looks really nice, thank you for dressing up!”

“Indeed, what a joyful opportunity! I thank you, Bellara, for hosting.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

ROOK

Aryana managed to get through dinner without saying much. Her mood did seem to significantly improve, which she was grateful for, but she was also increasingly tired. She gently wiped her mouth with her napkin, mildly mortified that she forgot she was wearing lipstick and got some on it. She would offer to wash them later to make up for it.

She managed to not interact with Lucanis for the entirety of dinner. She caught him staring twice but refused to show any interaction and both of them looked away almost immediately when it happened. She didn’t want to admit to herself that she actually found it a bit thrilling that he stared at her- instead she managed to convince herself that he only looked at her that way because she’d saved him from the Ossuary and that eventually he’d get over it. The Crows in general were on the freer side as far as romps with each other and she could guarantee that their female members would be quick to line up when they realized he was indeed free from his prison and potentially back on the table.

She could still enjoy the stares for now, though, right?

Dinner wound down and the team left one by one until it was Emmrich, her, and Lucanis. She smiled. “I’ve had a wonderful time tonight, gentlemen. I know Emmrich has been bubbling with excitement about having a Crow around so this would be an excellent opportunity for you two to chat. I’m excited to get a hot bath. I’m tired of these Blight boils.”

She stood, and tried not to run out of the dining room. Manfred was outside, playing with Assan, hissing at her and waving while Assan squawked and bobbed his head which made his floppy ear bounce around. She calmly walked across the courtyard, head forward and nearly ran the last few steps into the library. She spotted the chess board out of the corner of her eye and was tempted to pack it up and move it- out of sight, out of mind. When she heard footsteps behind her, she jerked her head in the direction of her stairs and hoped that it was just Emmrich approaching. When she reached the top of the stairs just before she turned into her hallway, caught a glimpse of who had followed her-

It was Lucanis.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

LUCANIS

Harding had the entire table laughing.

Well, almost the entire table- Rook seemed unusually restrained, only chuckling here and there. He heard her swear and looked over to see her examining a napkin she had just gotten makeup on. He caught himself staring at her a number of times despite trying not to, and she caught him twice. Both times they both looked away from each other immediately. He didn’t hate when she caught him… if anything, he liked her knowing he was watching her. He knew it was a matter of time before some of the female Crows started throwing themselves at him but he didn’t care. If Rook wasn’t interested, he was in no hurry to be with anyone else.

Wait… he was getting ahead of himself here. It didn’t matter if she found him remotely attractive. There were two elven gods trampling over Thedas taking out entire cities with dragons and Blight. He should be ashamed of himself for thinking about a woman in the midst of all this. Lost in his thoughts, he tuned out the conversations happening around him until he realized that it was just him, Rook, and Emmrich at the table. Rook excused herself and calmly walked out of the dining room. He stared at the crow tattoo on her back as she walked away. Emmrich looked at him over the rim of his tea cup. “Tell me, Lucanis. Is there a rule against Crows having ‘relations’ with each other?”

“...What?”

“Well in some organizations, members are prohibited from having any sort of relationships or physical interactions with each other. Are the crows like that?”

“No, my parents were both Crows.”

“Ah, I see.”

“Why?”

“I just find it interesting that you and Rook are so clearly attracted to each other yet you both go out of your way to pretend that you are not.”

“Why do you think that we’re attracted to each other?”

“Ah, Lucanis. I may spend the majority of my time around the dead but that doesn’t render me unable to spy the intense attraction that is happening right in front of me.”

“She is not attracted to me.”

“But you are to her, yes?”

“Why are we talking about this?”

“You’re right, it’s none of my business.” He took a long sip of his tea. “But you should run after her. See if she’s interested in ever finishing that game of chess in the library. You’re going to win it in three, if my estimations are correct.’

“In three?”

“Indeed.” Emmrich smiled at him again. Lucanis grinned and jumped up from the table. He left the dining room just to see the library door close behind her. He rushed across the courtyard, trying not to be so obvious, and threw the door open just in time to see Rook at the top of the stairs. She paused for a moment, not actually looking at him, before heading into her room. He ignored the instinct to run up the stairs and calmly walked instead. He ran his hand along the marble of the stairs. It was cooler at night, and he swore it was smoother, too. When he came to her hallway, he paused…

This was foolish. Yes, she’d flirted with him a few times but that was before he’d begged her to save Treviso over Minrathous. Yes, Treviso was her town, her people, but Bellara had told him about how Neve’s voice was as sharp as his blades when she asked Rook about how he and Treviso were. Accusatory. She thought he was the only reason Rook saved Treviso and Rook knew it. No wonder she couldn’t look at him- the gods had knowingly driven a wedge between all of them and it was working. He turned and went back down the stairs, passing Emmrich as he left the library.

“Oh, Lucanis, how did the game go?”

“Oh I missed her. She was already in her room, I didn’t want to bother her.”

“Oh that is a shame. If I see her I will let her know you’d like to finish the game.”

“Oh, you don’t have to.”

“Nonsense, it’s no trouble.”

Chapter Text

ROOK

Aryana scowled down at the chessboard. Lucanis had come to her after their last trip to Arlathan Forest and asked if she would finally finish their game. She’d almost said no, but there was something about the tone in his voice that made it impossible to say anything but yes when he suggested moving it to her room.

She hated when he did that. Or at least she told herself that. But he’d also brought coffee.

He’d agreed to not have the match timed. If Harding was right, he was winning and he knew it. Since their first sitting at their game he’d wiped out the rest of her pawns and left her standing with just her king, queen, and a rook. The game, and two heavy pieces. He’d let her take out both of his knights and proceeded to move around the board threatening only her rook. Even she knew the game could have been over several moves ago if he truly tried. So why keep her here?

Then, she saw it. Her queen was wide open to his rook, and taking it would be an easy checkmate. She scowled again. She gestured towards the board. “You win this round. But I want a rematch.”

Without changing his expression in the slightest, he moved the rook to take out her queen. “Indeed, checkmate.”

“Well, have you decided what you win?” She sighed. “It better not be anything to do with cooking because from me that would definitely not be a prize.”

“I haven’t decided for sure but I have a few ideas.”

“Good because I don’t…” They locked eyes over the board. Lucanis slid his hand across the table to cover hers. “I mean, yes…”

Lucanis stood and gently pulled her up from her seat. He undid her hair from the braid she had in front of her shoulder, pushing her hair behind her back. “You’re alright with this?”

“Yes. Absolutely.” She smiled as he ran his hand into her hair. “I thought you’d never…”

“Good.” He gently pulled her head back and brushed his lips across hers. She tried to ignore the instinct to pull away and run. She hadn’t thought this would ever happen, much less because of a silly game. She wanted it, of course, but it had been a while since anyone had done more than flirt with her. She’d initially chalked up his flirting to transference because of her rescuing him but here in this moment the look in his eyes told her that it was truly more than that. She relaxed, letting him push her back towards her bed. She frantically unbuckled her corset, tossing it aside. She ran her hands up his chest, carefully undoing the chain on his collar and then slowly unbuttoning his vest. She pushed it back off his shoulders. Grinning, he quickly unbuttoned his shirt, throwing it in the same direction as her corset. He kissed her again, rougher this time, moving his hands to the buttons on the front of her shirt, opening it slowly until the last button was undone. She wriggled out of it, parting her lips slightly and smiling into the kiss as he slipped his tongue through them.

She wrapped her arms around his neck, sliding her tongue across his and stepping as close to him as possible as he unbuttoned her leggings. She reluctantly broke off the kiss and inhaled sharply as he pushed them down over her ass and pushed her down on her bed. She kicked off her boots and watched him as he yanked her leggings the rest of the way off. He pulled off his boots and his pants soon followed hers.

Her room had a slight chill to it, and she shivered. His gaze wandered from her eyes down her body slowly, pausing to look at the jewelry in her nipples, then down as she spread her legs for him. Grinning, he crawled down onto the bed between them, leaning down to kiss the tattoo between her breasts. He worked his way up to her collarbone, then her neck, and up to her mouth, gently nipping her lip. She wrapped her leg around his hip and smiled up at him.

“Rook…”

“Aryana.” She ran a hand through his hair. “When it’s just us you can call me Aryana.”

Aryana sat bolt upright, panting and briefly confused. Her blanket was tangled around her legs and sweat made the chill in her room feel even colder. Massively disappointed that it was just a dream, she rolled out of bed and grabbed a nearby nightgown. She slid into her slippers and padded out of her room and down to the library. Maybe she could distract herself from thinking about someone she didn’t even have a shot with.

She scowled when she passed the chessboard.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

LUCANIS

There was something about the look of determination on Rook’s face that was completely endearing. It was surprisingly similar to the look on her face when she and Harding broke him out of the Ossuary, standing in front of him defiantly while protecting him from her. He tried not to notice her perfume- when they were out on a mission it was easy to miss between armor, combat, and the strength of Spite sometimes overriding his senses.

Even Spite had begun to like her.

He shook his head and tried to push the thought out of his head. It was already bad enough that Spite was the reason the whole team held him at arm’s length. Rook was always kind, always defending him to the others when they even threatened him with violence- Davrin and Harding especially seemed determined to end the “problem.” She always had a smile for him, always tried to include him in things- Viago had always made his cousin sound like a ruthless brute, and every so often he saw it come through when they took down Venatori… he still remembered how she chose to stab the Qamekmaster in the skull instead of using her magic… but in between there was a softness, like when she interacted with children or animals or beggars on the street. He knew she was still secretly devastated over the loss of Minrathous. She was fiercely loyal to the Crows, however, and they all knew she had to protect their people.

Whenever they visited the Diamond, especially after freeing him, he couldn’t help but notice how people watched her. He couldn’t count how many men especially tried to put themselves where she could see them- she could have her pick of literally almost all of them. She’d caught him staring at her more than once and he was mortified every time- but he couldn’t stop.

There was a polite throat clearing and he realized she had said something. “Sorry?”

“Nothing, you just seem distracted.” She smirked. Since their first sitting at their game she’d wiped out the rest of his pawns and left him standing with just his king, queen, and a rook. The game piece and two heavy pieces. He’d let her take out both of his knights and proceeded to move around the board threatening only her rook. Even he knew the game could have been over several moves ago if he truly tried. It was then that he realized he’d concentrated so hard on using the game to flirt with her that he’d left his queen wide open to her rook… She eagerly took the piece and the smirk turned into a grin. “Checkmate.”

He sat there blinking, looking between her and the board. He had thought for sure he would win, and had clearly wasted time trying to awkwardly flirt with her. “You win. Do you know what you want? If it’s a specific meal you would like and you give me some time I’m sure I can find a recipe for whatever it is.”

She stood, stepping around to the side of the table. “Does it have to be food?”

“No but what else…” His eyes widened when she lowered herself into his lap. There was a look on her face he’d not seen yet…

No, that was wrong. He HAD seen it once before. The moment they met- before they left she’d let the tough exterior slip for just a moment to size him up. And she was doing it now.

“I’ve seen you watching me.”

“... I have, yes.”

“Multiple times.”

“... yes.”

“So what do you suppose we do about that?” She moved her hands to the crow skull chain on his collar, unpinning it and placing it on the table behind her carefully. He gripped her thighs tightly and smiled up at her as she slowly undid her braids, then unpinned the “bow” above them. Purple hair cascaded down her back. She deftly lifted her dress over her head and tossed it aside.

His room was dark and cold when he awoke suddenly. He could swear he smelled a trace of her perfume but that had to be his imagination. She was on the complete opposite side of the Lighthouse, probably comfortably asleep and not even giving him a second thought. He sat up, annoyed that he even fell asleep- Spite could have made that mistake a deadly one.

Wait… why did Spite not try to escape?

“WE LIKE HERRR…” Spite reared his head almost if summoned. Lucanis shook his head. “WE LIKE ROOK, REMEMBER?”

“Knock it off.” He sighed and looked over at the tea set Rook had gotten him. It was genuinely beautiful, and he polished it regularly to keep it bright silver. He was almost afraid to use it, but wasn’t sure why. He sighed to himself.

He grabbed his robe and left the kitchen. Maybe if he read a book it would help keep from falling back to sleep. He crossed the courtyard slowly, still frustrated over Rook. Her back tattoo came to mind and he rolled his eyes and groaned. He’d give a lot to see it again- the glimpse from dinner the other night had stuck with him no matter how hard he tried to shove the memory down.

He nearly groaned again when he entered the library and saw Rook perusing the shelves. “Couldn’t sleep?”

She was clearly startled, whirling around with a wild look in her eyes. “Oh… no. Weird dreams.”

“Same for me.”

“You slept?” Her eyes widened.

“For a short while.” He winced when he felt Spite start itching, wanting to talk to her.

“Oh. Good.” She turned back around to the books. “I don’t know why I thought reading would help, I can’t even pick a book.”

“Well, what types of books do you read?” He crossed the library to stand next to her. He noticed the very barest of flinches and took a slight step back.

“Mysteries, mostly. Sometimes I like to read about things like birds.” She gave him a half-smile. “Why, what do you like to read?”

“Romance.” He nodded when she shot him a surprised look.

“Wait… really?”

“Yes.”

“Ah.” She turned back to the bookshelves and grabbed the first book she saw, anything to keep him from seeing her face turning bright red. “Ah, this should be good… Elven architectural history…”

“That indeed sounds interesting.”

“Hope you find something.” She turned and walked away from him, face on fire. He watched her the whole time as she walked up the stairs to her room. Sighing, he turned around without picking a book. His eyes landed on the chessboard, still on the same table.

She’d taken out his other rook with her remaining knight.

Chapter Text

Aryana stared at the stunning Qunari woman in front of her. They had just freed the vinsomer from her chains and she had (fortunately) flown off without issue. They had also just learned that Taash was able to breathe fire, a detail that no one decided was important to tell her. She glanced over at Lucanis, who was just as much in shock as her- they’d been trained to deal with almost anything thrown at them but there was no way Viago or Caterina could have prepared them for this.

“Come on. Let’s get back to the base.” Taash turned abruptly and started to head back the way they came.

“And where is that?”

“The Hall of Valor. Isabela and the others will have gotten everything out of the lair and gotten back just before we get there. Hopefully they found something worth it.”

The walk to the Hall wasn’t nearly as far as Aryana had thought. Taash wasn’t big on talking but she was happy to answer Lucanis’ questions about dragons. Aryana kept mostly quiet, listening to Taash’s stories.

She was incredible.

When they eventually arrived, a gorgeous woman in her late forties or maybe early fifties was there to greet them. She was wearing a skimpy blue outfit that was adorned in gold chains and coins. She had dark hair pulled back under a giant captain’s hat. Aryana’s jaw dropped a little.

“Is everyone in your group this stunning?” Aryana blatantly asked.

“Mostly.” The woman smiled. “Name’s Isabela. Come in, have a seat.”

They followed her into a sort of den, lit by a fire and filled with mismatched but very comfortable looking furniture. They all sat. Taash spoke first. “So what did we get out of her lair?”

“A lot of dragon shit, a bunch of gold… and that.” Isabela pointed to an oddly shaped stone tablet with unfamiliar writing on it. Aryana was startled when a tall Qunari woman materialized next to her, introduced as Taash’s mother. She started explaining the tablet but Aryana wasn’t paying attention- she was watching the expression on Taash’s face getting more and more sour. Isabela cleared her throat to get her attention, and she snapped back.

“You used your fire.” Shathann was clearly upset.

“No!” Taash retorted.

“We’ve talked about this. Maybe it is a good idea that you’re joining Rook’s team and getting away for a while.”

“What? No.” Taash crossed her arms.

“Didn’t you and your mother…” Isabela looked surprised. “Didn’t you talk about this?”

“Nope.”

“Oh. Well, I’m sure you can work this out.” Isabela said. “Excuse me, I’m being summoned."

Isabela stood and walked away as quickly as she could. Taash glared at her mother.

“Now, Evataash. I’m going to make you some potions. Do you prefer the lavender or the ginger.”

Taash scowled. “The ginger.”

Shathann stood and left in the same direction as Isabela. Taash and Aryana looked at each other in silence for a few moments. Taash then stood, ready to walk away. Aryana sighed and slumped forward with her head in her hands. She was startled when Taash spoke.

“Hey. It is.”

Aryana looked back up. “I’m sorry?”

“Joining your team. It is what I want.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Neve!” Aryana’s legs almost gave out beneath her. She had hoped Neve would return but didn’t actually expect her to. And now she stood in front of the whole team. “This is… everyone.”

“Right, not everyone has met,” Varric said.

“This is Professor Emmrich Volkarin. He’s our Fade expert. And Taash, our dragon hunter.”

“Hey.” Neve nodded to both of them.

“Neve, I’m so sorry…”

“Don’t.” Neve put up a hand to stop her. “Look, you made an impossible call without enough information. I’ve accepted it. Doesn’t mean I have to like it.’

“...Of course.” Aryana hoped her disappointment didn’t show on her face. She deserved a cold shoulder. Everyone knew Lucanis was part of why she saved Treviso. Yes, she was a Crow and would always be a Crow no matter what, but the thought of possibly losing him was unbearable. It didn’t matter that there was nothing romantic between them and never would be- she would miss the coffee. The way he swore in Antivan and complained about things making his eyeballs itch. The way Spite’s wings allowed him to fly directly into a fray and got between her and some of their largest enemies, and the whirlwind that was his daggers. The look on his face when the team asked him to cook, and the silly matching aprons Bellara got for the two of them.

She realized she’d been silent just the slightest bit too long. She shook her head and waved them away. “I’m sorry, I’m exhausted. See you all at dinner tonight?”

“Who’s cooking?” Neve forced a smile.

“Oh it’s Lucanis and me! We’re making some Antivan food.”

“Oh, Antivan food!” Rook cheered up. “You spoil me. What are you making?”

“It’s a surprise!” Bellara grinned.

Well, at least she had something to look forward to after her nap.

A few hours later, a knock on her door woke her up. She had definitely slept longer than she had meant to. “Come in.”

Unmistakable footsteps. Lucanis.

She rolled her eyes and sat up. “What do you need?”

“It’s time for dinner. Bellara sent me to retrieve you.”

“‘Retrieve’ me, eh? Sounds so official.”

“I think you will enjoy dinner.”

“What did you make?”

“I have been sworn to secrecy.”

“Not even a hint?” She pretended to pout. Lucanis shook his head.

“Fine. We did not have to make a second type for Emmrich.”

“Okay, so vegetarian.” She rolled out of bed and stretched. “Let me get my robe and I’ll be retrievable.”

“This?” Lucanis picked up her robe from the floor near her wardrobe.

“Yes.” She walked over to him and took it from him easily. “I’m not getting fancy for this.”

“I doubt Bellara will mind. Come on.”

They left her room and headed down the stairs. She spotted their chess game out of the corner of her eye, still on the library table. Her dream from the other night jumped to the forefront of her mind and she bit her lip. “Not the time, Ary.”

As they got closer to the dining room, the smell of dinner hit her nose. It couldn’t be- was it…

She practically threw the door open. “Is that escalivada?”

Bellara grinned and nodded. She scooped out a bowl full and gave it to her, then gave Lucanis one. Emmrich and Neve were already there, and Taash and Harding were close behind them. Aryana shoveled hers into her mouth.

“Oh it’s so much better from over a fire. Bellara, you’re a genius.” Bellara took her bowl and scooped more into it before getting her own. The group sat mostly in silence with the occasional slurp from Aryana who was not concerned with manners at the time. When she was almost done, she looked up to say something and caught Lucanis staring at her. She tore her eyes away from him and scrambled to come up with something to say to Emmrich as a distraction. “Emmrich, how are you enjoying it? This seems very different from what I saw some of you eating in the Necropolis. Are many of you vegetarians?”

Emmrich had a brief twinkle in his eye. He had clearly noticed the exchange but was not about to call either of them out. “Yes, I do believe most of us. It’s difficult to not be when you’re sensitive to spirits. This dish is absolutely incredible, Bellara. I hope you plan on making it again.”

“Oh, well Lucanis helped. I would be glad to make it again but you have to ask him too.”

“If it makes everyone this happy, I would be glad to help make it again.”

“I haven’t seen Rook smile this much since…” Bellara trailed off. Aryana realized she was glaring at her. “Well, you know.’

“It’s been a while since I had this, and the last time I had it it wasn’t cooked over a fire.”

“I would be happy to make more Antivan foods if everyone likes this!”

“I would love that.” Lucanis smiled, his gaze shifting to Aryana.

She, of course, noticed.

Mierda.

Chapter Text

Harding beamed as she walked through the eluvian. Her ma had made pies for the team and she knew that Aryana especially would be ecstatic. She had two apple pies and a sweet potato pie (partially for Assan). Bellara would surely be alright heating them up a bit, or maybe Lucanis.

She sighed when she thought of Lucanis. She was starting to trust him more- Rook staunchly defended him, but she felt better having a special arrow or two in her quiver just in case. She’d seen the two of them in combat before, though, and they seemed to move seamlessly with each other, even when Spite reared his head… wings… something.

She was pretty sure he liked Rook, too. It seemed like all the time she would catch him watching her. She was pretty sure Rook was catching him too. She always looked away quickly and tried to change whatever the subject was.

She reached the top of the stairs leading into the library and ran into Neve perusing the books. She looked over at Harding and lit up when she realized she had brought the pies. “Are those your mother’s pies I keep hearing about?”

“You betcha. I figure that can be dinner tonight?”

“I can think of at least… six other people that would agree to that?”

Harding laughed. “Me too. Hey, round everyone up and I’ll see if Bellara or Lucanis can heat these up a little bit.”

“Sounds good.” Neve flinched a little bit, almost hiding it quickly. She set down the book she was holding next to the ongoing chess game and took the pies from her. Harding looked at the game, and sighed. She’d noticed that every time Rook passed by it, it seemed to bother her. She shook her head. She slid the pieces off the board, and turned the board upside down to push into it. She folded the board carefully, putting it on a mostly empty shelf. She nodded to herself, then turned to head out to the dining room.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Aryana smiled, pleasantly full from the dinner pies, and excused herself from the table. Her mood had taken a dive during dinner and hoped no one would notice before she could get away. She was pretty sure Emmrich had noticed, so she headed to his room to chat. When she got in the room, she walked along his bookshelves. He had very different books from the ones in the main part of the library. Suddenly, she froze- she turned on her heel and raced down the stairs to the ground floor. She was stunned when she saw the chessboard no longer on the table. It wasn’t set up ANYWHERE. Then, she saw the board folded up on a nearby shelf. Stunned, she backed away and headed back up to Emmrich’s room.

She was confused when her eyes began to well up with tears. She didn’t even know why she was upset, it was just a stupid chess game they hadn’t touched in ages. But she had a stupid hope that maybe they would finish the game, and maybe she could even win. It was a stupid dream. She had figured out long ago that Lucanis had no intention of doing anything to her outside of staring.

Fine. She didn’t want to play him anyway.

“Shit.” She grunted when the tears started streaming down her face. She heard a noise in Emmrich’s hallway and quickly wiped her face dry. He was surprised when he came into the room.

“Rook! What a pleasant surprise. To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“I was actually hoping Manfred would be up for making tea?”

“Excellent idea. Manfred!” He called up to the second floor. It was met with Manfred’s typical happy hiss as he teetered down the stairs. He clapped when he saw that Aryana was in the room but paused. Could even he tell she was upset? He looked between her and Emmrich. Emmrich looked at her closer. “Rook, are you alright?”

“I just…” The tears started streaming down her face. She could NOT tell him she was crying over a man. “This is all just so much, and every time I go to Dock Town and see all of those executed Shadow Dragons a little part of me rots away. And I can’t let it show.”

“Oh, Rook.” He motioned for Manfred to start the tea. “That is so much for one person to be able to handle.”

“I’m doing my best.” She sniffled. “And I would appreciate if… if you didn’t tell the others about this.”

“My door is always open and your secrets are always safe with me, my dear.” He smiled as Manfred walked up with his tray. “Ah! Our tea.”

They prepared their teas in silence, with Manfred clapping his hands again. After a few moments, Emmrich had a few questions for her about the Crows. She bit back the hurt from the terminated game and was even able to fake a good enough mood to share a sort of “greatest hits” of most unique jobs Viago had sent her on. Every laugh she faked felt like she was being stabbed with her own knives.

After an hour or so, Aryana excused herself and went next door to her room. There were a few of her friends in the library but she ignored all of them. She was only relieved when she got to her room and was able to lock the door. Then, she let it all loose as she sobbed into her pillow, hurt and ashamed that she was.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Lucanis stared at his cup of coffee. Spite had let him get a few hours of sleep for some reason, but now was running a constant commentary on Rook’s current hairstyle and how easy it would be to… take it down. “Stop it.”

“SOFT… SMELLS LIKE FLOWERS…” Spite slid over to the tea set. “SHE LIKES YOU. LIKES US.”

“She does not like you. You scare her.”

“NO, NOT SCARED.”

“If you say so.”

“WHY DON’T YOU ASK?”

“You want me to go to a woman I’m wildly attracted to and ask her if she likes the demon that possesses me?”

“TOUCH HER. SEE HOW SHE REACTS… SHE WANTS IT!”

“Fine. I’ll see what I can do.”

He heard a noise from out in the dining room and poked his head out. He was ecstatic to see that Harding had apparently brought pies home from her mother. Bellara squeaked. “Let me heat those up for everyone, Harding!”

He hovered in the doorway. He knew that the smell of fresh pies would surely bring Rook to the dining room, and the thought relaxed him just the slightest bit. His pulse quickened the slightest bit when she walked in with Emmrich- she was wearing a simple black dress that clung to her breasts and hips just enough to remind him of his dream from nights ago…

He forced the memory to the back of his mind. He would deal with it later, in the privacy of his room without the rest of the team just outside his door. He stepped completely out of his room as the others filed in. Bellara buzzed around, swapping out the pies in the small oven. Rook sat in the chair in front of the fire where she had sat at the previous “family dinner,” and he noticed he was able to see the top of the crow tattoo burned in his memory.

Dinner went by smoothly. Mrs Harding’s pies were absolutely delicious, and almost everyone seemed pleased. Rook, of course, seemed distant. Of course, she smiled and nodded and forced laughs when appropriate, but he could tell she wasn’t feeling it. Despite his best efforts to ignore her, his gaze traveled down from her face to her collarbones and continued down. He felt his face burning when he caught himself staring at her chest and realized that he could tell through the dress that she had pierced nipples.

“TOUCH HER.”

Lucanis smiled at the table and excused himself. He walked back to his room as calmly as he could and closed the door behind him. He spun around to glare at Spite. “I can’t just touch her. She has to be alright with it.”

“SHE IS. SHE WANTS YOU TO TOUCH HER.”

“Spite, please.”

“NO. WE WANT TO TOUCH ROOK.”

“We cannot touch her. That’s not how these things work.”

“NEXT TIME OUT.”

“Maybe.”

“NOT MAYBE. YOU WILL. WE WILL.”

After about half an hour of a back and forth with Spite, Lucanis scowled and left his room to head to the library. Maybe he and Spite could agree on a book. The library was cool, almost chilly. It seemed odd considering Rook seemed to have control over the Lighthouse and he could have sworn she complained about the cold from time to time. He shook his head, trying to get her out of his head, at least until he made it back to his room. He sighed as he walked along the bookshelves, hoping anything would jump out at him.

And then he saw it. The chessboard, folded and put away on a shelf.

“See, Spite?” He hoped his permanent companion wouldn’t pick up on his disappointment. “She doesn’t even want to play chess with me, how do you expect me to get her to want me to touch her?”

Spite looked back and forth between him and the board, silent for once. Lucanis wasn’t sure if demons could be sad, but if they could he was pretty sure that’s what was happening right then. Spite grumbled and faded away for the time being. Lucanis in turn scowled and headed back towards his room. His control was slipping a bit and it was all he could do to get back without anyone realizing that he’d become completely aroused even despite his efforts. He wanted nothing more in that moment than to run back to the library and up to her room to peel that dress off of her…. Oh, that dress… Toned muscles under soft tattooed skin, legs wrapped around him and lips parted as she tried to catch her breath… purple hair wrapped around his hand keeping her head still as he fucked her…

If only. Oh, if only…

Wait. Emmrich might have some advice. The two were impossibly close friends quickly. He’d seen her escape to his room multiple times after more difficult missions. But did he have it in him to ask? But first, he had a problem to take care of.

He groaned as he unbuttoned his pants and his erection sprung free. He’d give nearly anything for Rook’s hands or mouth to be waiting for him… or for her to be spread out on his bed begging for him. He wrapped his hand around himself and groaned again. Her dress at dinner had not left much to the imagination- small waist, wide hips. His thoughts leapt to her pierced nipples. He’d never seen anything like that in person and he was intrigued if he might ever get to see hers. He wanted to do everything with her- take her against his wall where he could have complete control over her, from behind where he could see the tattoo on her back, hell even on the floor, slamming into her hard enough she could barely say his name. Head between her legs, fingers digging into her thighs to hold her in place as she rolled her hips upwards, screaming. He stroked himself faster as he thought about sharp violet eyes looking up at him, heavy with desire. Fingernails raking down his back as he scraped his teeth along her neck. His release rushed towards him quicker than he expected, bright white flashing behind his eyes as he came. He staggered over to lean against his wall, panting.

Was this dangerous? Was he going to be distracted around her when they went out on missions? Would the rest of the team figure out that he was completely smitten with her? He sighed and cleaned himself up. He straightened his clothes, chugged a bunch of water, and set off to speak to Emmrich. Maybe he could help.

The library was much better lit than normal, and a more comfortable temperature than normal. He took the stairs slowly, nerves ramping up the closer he got to the necromancer’s room. He was startled as Rook walked out and quickly rounded the wall that separated their hallways. She seemed to not see him, genuinely, and he resisted the urge to speak to her. He ducked into Emmrich’s hallway and hesitantly knocked on the door. The door opened almost immediately, and Emmrich didn’t look the slightest bit surprised to see him. “Ah, Lucanis. Come in.”

“You sound like you were expecting me.”

“You aren’t completely unexpected.”

“I’m not?”

“No. Rook was just here.”

“Ah. Did she… say anything about me?”

“She was disappointed with the termination of your chess game.”

“WE WANT ANOTHER GAME.”

Emmrich glanced over at Spite and shook his head. He looked back at Lucanis.

“What termination? She’s the one who cleared it and put it away.”

“That is incorrect.” Emmrich raised an eyebrow. “She is under the impression that you were responsible for it.”

“No, I was enjoying it. Everyone kept saying I would win, and we had a contest going.”

“Oh, dear. She’s quite distraught actually.” Emmrich waved Manfred away when he approached. “Not now Manfred.”

“SHE LIKES YOU. LIKES US.”

“She rather does. Your companion is correct.”

“I’m an abomination…”

“That doesn’t seem to bother her. She actually finds you quite handsome.”

“I don’t… I don’t know what to do about that.”

“Simple. Challenge her to another game. I guarantee she’ll leap at the opportunity.”

Chapter Text

LUCANIS

Rook didn’t take Lucanis on missions for a while. She spent most of her time with Emmrich and Bellara, both doing things for others in other cities and one of their rooms at the Lighthouse. He wanted so badly to apologize to her despite not being the one who terminated the game.

Mierda. He wanted to do so much more than apologize. He wanted to kiss her, wrap his hand into her hair and pull her head back to see her pulse race in her neck, hold her by her hair as he took her from behind against the wall of her aquarium as the light from it glowed on her skin.

Who was he kidding? Only in his dreams.

A few days later, Rook got a letter from Teia and Viago. He only knew because he overheard her tell Emmrich. Apparently they hadn’t found any evidence of Illario acting suspicious. He wondered why she didn’t tell him. His guess was that she didn’t accept the judgment from them. They were no closer to finding Zara and it was starting to wear on him. Spite grew angrier every day between this and wanting to be with Rook.

He was beginning to think Spite was falling for her. He didn’t know that was possible but every time he passed Rook in the Lighthouse, Spite threatened to hurt him if he couldn’t speak to her. “I WANT TO TALK TO ROOK.”

“She doesn’t want to talk to us. If she wanted to, she would.”

“HONEY AND LAVENDER, LIKE YOU SAID.”

“... What?”

“YOU TOLD ROOK HONEY AND LAVENDER.”

“That was about coffee.”

“IT WAS YOUR FIRST KISS.”

“Are you saying she smells like that on purpose?”

“SHE IS SMART, LIKES YOU… LIKES US.”

“Oh, just stop.”

“WANTS YOU TO TOUCH HER.”

Lucanis opened his mouth to say something but Bellara walked into the kitchen at that very moment.

“Hi Lucanis!” She waved enthusiastically. "It’s our turn to cook again. What should we make? Rook has looked sad again recently. I think it’s because of Dock Town.”

“I haven’t been since the attack. How bad is it?”

Bellara’s face fell. “It’s… bad.”

“I understand that but HOW bad?”

“I’ll take you tomorrow if you want to see it. I know Rook hasn’t been taking you much lately.”

“About that… er… Do you know why?”

“No idea. She hasn’t mentioned you.”

“Ah. Well maybe that at least means she isn’t angry.”

“I don’t know. But I thought we could make some Antivan food again?”

“I am always happy to make Antivan food. What do you want to cook?”

“I was hoping you would have some ideas…”

“I don’t know about her but I love patatas bravas and pisto, both things that Emmrich could also eat.”

“Oh that sounds wonderful. We should go to Treviso and get what we need for it.”

“Aren’t you worried Rook might need you?”

“Oh, no. She took Neve and Emmrich with her.”

“Well then, let’s go shopping.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“So many booths! How do you decide what to buy?”

“I make sure I make a list and stick with it.”

They wandered the booths slowly, Lucanis smiling as Bellara marveled at nearly everything. They came around a corner and Bellara ran up to a weapons booth. “Lucanis, look! Do you think Harding would like that bow?”

Lucanis started to say something before he noticed the merchant eyeing him with a smirk. The man was wearing Crow armor but Lucanis didn’t recognize him. “Can I help you?”

“Just wondering how you liked that wyvern-tooth dagger from Ary.”

“Ary… Rook?”

The man’s smirk slipped slightly. “Oh.”

“What do you mean, ‘oh’?”

“I figured by now you would be on a first name basis. I see.” The smirk completely dropped and the man looked… sad? “Yes, Rook bought it from me.”

“It is a beautiful dagger.”

“It is.” The man turned his attention to a shopper who had just walked up, leaving Lucanis confused. He turned to look at Bellara, who shrugged.

“Anyway, which dish did you want to make?”

“Let’s make the pisto. It is a stew. Who does not like a stew?”

“What do we need for it?”

“We need eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, and olive oil. Cheese on top, if you like.”

The duo perused the food booths, eventually finding everything they needed. He happened to look up just as Viago passed, just in time to get a sour look from him. He wasn’t sure if it was their past (lack of) history or if Viago was looking at him like this because of Rook.

But why would he be looking at him because of Rook? Did she actively dislike him? Did Viago disapprove of Spite? Of course he did. Honestly, everyone disapproved of Spite, even Spite himself. Viago and Rook were so impossibly close, growing up practically more like siblings than cousins. He wished he was close to Illario like that.

They walked back to the Lighthouse- Lucanis mostly silently, Bellara talking about her progress with the Nadas Dirthalen (which he didn’t quite understand). When they arrived back at the Lighthouse, they headed immediately to the kitchen. They passed Rook on the way, playing with Assan and teaching him how to shake. He tried not to stare at her- she had on a sleeveless tunic and leggings and he could see the entirety of the tattoos on her arms. She was surprisingly muscular and he marveled at how she easily wrestled with the griffon. She paused, and he realized she was about to catch him staring. He quickly looked away, closing the door behind them a little too loudly.

Bellara took out the giant stew pot that was her favorite. He noticed she hummed when she focused, and he fell into the process of chopping up everything and chucking it into the pot. Once it was brought to a boil, Lucanis smiled and set about making coffee for the group. His foul mood melted away once he heard the sound of it brewing, and he sat at the table to enjoy the fire.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

ROOK

Aryana rolled over under her blanket and sighed. Teia and Vi had come back to her with no evidence of Illario being trouble. Illario sent his own letter inviting her only back for coffee. She shuddered at the letter and threw it in the fire.

‘Like he has a chance,’ she scoffed. She was still convinced he was up to something.

She threw her legs over the side of her bed and sat up. She stared at her aquarium for a moment, wondering what would happen if she booked it for Arlathan Forest and hid somewhere in a ruin. She wouldn’t, of course, since she had an active contract and had been ordered to back up Lucanis on his.

Oh, Lucanis… Why was she still upset about a stupid game? If he didn’t want to play with her, that’s all it was. Staring at her meant nothing- plenty of Crows stared at her, especially now that she was back with Vi and Teia’s blessings. They also knew she was going to help hunt down the bitch who took Caterina from them. If she was honest with herself she actually relished the thought of watching Lucanis rip Zara’s heart out of her chest. It would be brutal but would satisfy all three of them if she included Spite.

She stretched and got out of bed. She shed her nightgown in exchange for a sleeveless tunic and leggings. Maybe she’d go play with Assan while she waited for the letter she was expecting from the Veil Jumpers. She grabbed a bag of truffles, slid on her loafers, and headed out of her room. She waved at Harding and Taash talking near her door. She winked at Harding and descended the stairs as though she were a fancy lady in a big mansion and not a scrappy little mage trying to fight gods. When she walked out into the courtyard, the sky seemed to immediately respond to her mood- it darkened, with clouds like storm clouds. The light breeze picked up, whirling her hair behind her as she walked over to where her best boy was sitting. He let out a happy squawk as he saw her, head bobbing and floppy ear bouncing around out of control. “Hey boy… do you have some time today for me? I brought some truffles if you’re willing to learn a new trick.”

Another happy squawk.

“Do you understand ‘shake’?” She held out her hand in the direction of his paw. He looked between her and her hand, sticking out his foot but not into her hand. “Close, buddy.”

She took his foot and shook it then let it go, putting her hand out again.. “This is ‘shake.”

“Awrrk?” He looked back and forth again. He confidently put his foot into her hand, squawking again and bobbing excitedly.

“Good boy! That was fast. Do you want some truffles?”

“Waaark!”

“Alright, here you go. Don’t tell your dad I gave you so many, okay?” She smiled. Assan devoured the truffles as soon as she dumped them out of the bag. “I hope this doesn’t make you sick.”

She watched him finish the last of them off and started playing with him and scratching behind his ears. She noticed Bellara and Lucanis approaching but was too embarrassed to look up at Lucanis. She’d been avoiding taking him on missions, instead relying on Bellara and Emmrich. She saw the packages in Bellara’s hands and realized that they were making a special dinner again.

She couldn’t wait.

The door closed loudly behind them. Assan looked up, concerned. Aryana scoffed. She was being really fucking stupid.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Oh, I love the pisto! Oh I haven’t had this in so long. Believe it or not, House De Riva isn’t known for its great cooks. I think the Dellamortes got that deal.” Aryana couldn’t help but look over at Lucanis. Her gaze lingered on him just the slightest bit. She was tired of not looking at him. He met her gaze but he didn’t look away either. She eventually broke off the eye contact and directed her attention back to the conversation at the table.

Lucanis didn’t look away.

“I WANT TO TALK TO ROOK.”

‘Not now, Spite.’ He thought.

“SHE WAS WATCHING YOU.”

‘Maybe.’

“WE WANT TO SMELL HER HAIR.”

‘That’s intrusive. I can’t just walk up to her and smell her hair. That’s for… someone else.’

“JUST STAND NEXT TO HER. GET CLOSER.”

‘No.’ Pain ripped through his nose.

“Lucanis!” Arayana shouted. She rushed over. “You’re bleeding. Was this Spite again?”

“SEE? SHE LIKES YOU. SHE LIKES US.”

‘This was a shitty way to do this.’ He held a hand to his nose as Aryana grabbed a napkin. She sat next to him and leaned in to try to help stop the bleeding with it. He couldn’t help but catch a whiff of her perfume when she leaned in. Spite didn’t speak but Lucanis could feel that he was pleased with himself. “Yes, Spite… wanted attention.”

Aryana’s voice changed, stern. “Spite if you continue to hurt Lucanis to get your way I will stop speaking to you forever.”

Spite growled. “SHE WON’T, SHE LIKES YOU.”

‘Does she seem like the type to lie? Don’t forget, she’s a Crow. Now, calm down. You got to smell her.’

“I’m sorry that he does that to you. Come on, I have something for this back in my room.” She stood, holding a hand out to help him up. He followed her, embarrassed by the way the group looked at him as he went.

They crossed the courtyard in silence, Spite hissing and snarling in the back of his mind. He followed her up the stairs and down the hall to her room. Spite’s mood shifted. “SHE TAKES YOU BACK TO HER ROOM.”

‘Yes, to clean up a mess you made.’ He smiled as she dug through a small leather bag and pulled out a bright purple potion. She soaked the napkin in it and fanned it a bit.

“This is going to be unpleasant but it should stop the bleeding.” She walked over to him and swatted his hand away from his nose. She stepped closer to him, the closest she had ever been to him except for the day of the emergency water jug when she was hungover. He could feel her warmth washing over him as she dabbed the napkin on his nose. Spite was ecstatic, walking around her and blatantly looking her up and down.

“SO CLOSE. SHE WANTS TO BE CLOSE TO YOU.” He couldn’t help but try to shake his head.

“No, hold still. Spite! Knock it the fuck off.” She scowled. “What does he want?”

“I… um…”

“TELL HER. I WANT TO TALK TO ROOK.”

“He wants to talk to you. He wants…” He cleared his throat. “He wants to know why you put away the chess game.”

“DO NOT LIE TO HER.”

“...What?” She looked stunned.

“He liked when we played chess and he wants to know why you put the game away.”

“...I thought you put it away. I thought you didn’t want to finish it.” She shook her head and focused back on stopping the blood.

“No, I did not. I thought you didn’t want to finish it,” he said. “So… who put it away?”

“I know it wasn’t Emmrich, he thinks you put it away too.” Aryana’s face turned red when she realized she’d given away that they talked about him.

“ASK HER TO PLAY AGAIN.”

“Well then we should have a rematch. We never finished the last game and we still have a wager in the mix.” He smiled. “It should keep Spite happy for a bit too.”

“Then a rematch it is. If Spite can BEHAVE.”

Chapter Text

ROOK

‘FUCK.” Aryana tossed her book aside- The Fashions of Orlais. Surprisingly interesting. Completely irrelevant to anything they were doing. Not enough of a distraction from Lucanis.

Maker, he was intoxicating. The consistent smell of coffee lingered around him and she relished in it. Things were less awkward since they deduced that neither of them had put the chess game away. She found herself finding excuses to be closer to him whenever she could.

At night, she grew increasingly resentful to be alone in her bed. She manifested more and more pillows on her bed to try to be more and more comfortable. Part of it was so her back would stop hurting but part of it…

…Part of it was for nights like tonight where she couldn’t focus. Rich brown eyes the same color as the coffee he made for them, mostly for her. She’d been spending more time in the kitchen, occasionally even helping Bellara chop things for dinner (and feeling eyes on her the entire time, sometimes multiple pairs) just to be a few steps closer. She’d gotten a smidge better, even, and helped Bellara find new Antivan recipes and desserts.

‘I bet Lucanis is excellent at desserts,’ she thought. She sighed and turned over onto her back, kicking her blanket off in the process. They had to go to the Necropolis later to help Vorgoth and Myrna and she couldn’t even concentrate. She groaned when the thought crossed her mind that she needed to… take care of this. She pulled her nightgown up to her hips, wincing when the chilly air hit her. What she wouldn’t give…

… For a warm hand between her legs. His chest against her back and arm under her neck as his hand slid up her thigh.

… Hand wrapped up in her hair tightly, holding her still as he took her from behind on his bed, so rough that she could barely hold herself up.

… On her back in the music room, sunlight pouring over them from the giant windows as he lifted her legs as far back as possible to go as deep into her as he could.

‘Oh come on, Ary.’ She pulled her nightgown up further, groaning again as the hand between her legs was hers. She was already wet just from the thought of him, as annoying as it was. But those eyes… The way he helped her out of the caretaker’s boat and held her hand just the tiniest bit longer than he needed to… Feeling his eyes on the tattoo her back when she wore certain clothes…

She rolled her clit under her fingers, breathing and eyelids heavy. Her body ached for Lucanis, to feel him moving inside her, feel their sweat sliding between them as fingers dug into each other’s skin as they clung to each other and chased release. She sped up her ministrations, hips beginning to buck as the heat spread across her belly. She clapped her other hand over her mouth to muffle as she cried out into it.

Maker, if only he was there with her.

Sighing again, she rolled out of bed. She needed a bath and hoped the scalding hot water would help. She grabbed her robe and hurriedly wrapped it around her. It would be dark in the hallway to the newly “redesigned” wash room that the Lighthouse had sprung up for them. The tub itself was beautiful, square, big enough for multiple people at once, and made out of volcanic stone that stayed hot long enough (no matter how long that was). It was nice to not have to use magic for it, though it kind of was still somehow magic because of the Fade… No matter.

She was halfway through taking off her robe when she heard a sound behind her. She panicked briefly, unarmed but ready to unleash fiery fury on whoever it was. She was startled to see it was merely Emmrich. He smiled.

“Rook! I’m so sorry to have startled you. I see we had the same idea.”

“I… Uh I highly doubt it was for the same reason… But yes!”

“Come on in, join me.” He sighed. “Manfred stepped out to make some tea.”

“Are you okay with me seeing you naked?” She raised an eyebrow. “And seeing me naked?”

“My dear, nothing personal- I’m sure you look absolutely divine in the nude but it will not affect me in the slightest. I have other interests.”

“I… OH.” Her eyes widened. “Well, in that case, make some room.”

She quickly stripped out of her robe and nightgown and climbed in. The tub was deeper than expected, the water coming up just over her nipples. Emmrich looked at her, curious. “I hope you don’t mind but I have a question about your piercings.”

She looked down as though she had forgotten they existed. “Oh, these?”

“Indeed.” He tilted his head. “Did they not hurt?”

“Oh definitely, but it was weird.”

“How so?”

“So normally when you pierce two of the same thing at once, the second hurts worse than the first, with adrenaline pumping and all that.”

“Oh my.”

“Yes. So the woman who did mine did the right one first. They have you take a deep breath and breathe out, it helps the pain or something. Well, I ran out of breath and the needle was still moving and I thought I was going to die from the pain.” She chuckled. “So she goes to do the left one and I am considering calling it quits. And, strangely, it was a breeze in comparison.”

“Do they at all interfere with the armor that the Crows wear?”

“The first two or three months were unpleasant but I often forget that I have them until I do something stupid like run into a door frame.”

She heard Manfred hiss behind her. Emmrich was pleased, of course, and even Aryana smiled. The conversation eventually turned to Manfred and about how his body parts came from various places. “The arms were recovered from a charnel pit. The ribs were a gift from a dear friend. And Manfred’s wisp picked out his own skull from some donations- that was quite the day!”

They heard the door to the room open and Emmrich looked over, curious. Not thinking, Aryana turned around too. She froze when Lucanis entered the room, and took a few seconds before she realized how much of her was exposed- nothing private really showed but he definitely got a good look at everything that was above the water. She whirled back around, face reddening at the look on his face. Emmrich, of course, decided to be an instigator. “Lucanis! Lovely to see you. Would you like to join us?”

Aryana swore under her breath. Emmrich had the look on his face that he made when listening to Spite, and she could only imagine what Spite had to say about this…

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

LUCANIS

Lucanis knew Bellara had said something to him but he had completely zoned out. He shook his head and smiled at her. “I apologize, what did you say?”

“I was asking if there were any foods that Spite might want. Does he have favorite foods?”

“He likes spicy things.”

“Oh, that kind of makes sense for a demon.”

“GAZPACHO.” Spite appeared next to Bellara. “ALBONDIGAS.”

Lucanis sighed. “He apparently has some requests. Gazpacho or albondigas.”

“Oh, sure! We can make what he wants sometime.” She smiled, looking in the general direction he was as if she could see Spite.

“WE WANT TO TASTE ROOK.” Lucanis nearly choked on his coffee. Bellara looked alarmed, but he waved away her concern.

“Spite is being Spite, I’m fine.”

“SOFT AND SWEET.” Spite grinned, and he could swear he turned a brighter purple. “WE WANT TO TASTE HER.”

“I should go. I’m expecting a message from the Crows soon.”

“Okay! I’ll look into… those foods he asked for.”

Lucanis smiled and excused himself. Maybe a hot soak in the new tub Rook had “asked” for would clear his head. He left the kitchen and crossed the courtyard, stopping to pat Assan on the head and being rewarded with a squawk and floppy ear. He continued into the library and ducked into the music room, then into the hallway leading to the bath. He had just started to relax when he walked into the room and realized it wasn’t empty.

Emmrich was in the giant tub… with Rook. Both nude. And he could see quite a bit of Rook, almost down to her waist.

Emmrich nodded at him, completely unphased. Rook turned to see who it was, whipping back around to look away from him. Emmrich motioned to him. “Lucanis! Lovely to see you. Would you like to join us?”

“YES, JOIN. SIT NEXT TO ROOK.” Spite was ecstatic. It took a moment for Lucanis to remember that Emmrich could hear Spite. His face reddened, probably worse than Aryana’s. Emmrich raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“Oh, no. I’ll leave you two to it. I can come back later.” He spun on his heel and charged down the hallway as fast as he could. He felt so stupid- of course Rook and Emmrich had grown close. Emmrich had a certain charm, he had to admit. He praised Rook highly and often, and Emmrich was her go-to when she was upset. It was only a matter of time before the two became lovers.

He practically ran across the courtyard to get back to his room. Regardless of who was bedding Rook, he couldn’t get the image of her from the tub out of his mind. He charged through the kitchen, startling Bellara, and into his room. He fell back against his door, locking it and double checking to make sure no one could interrupt. It had been a brief glimpse but it was burned in his brain. Itching behind his eyes let him know Spite had approved of what he saw as well.

He groaned when he felt the strain against his pants- all he could think about was Rook above him in her bed, riding him as he gripped her hips. Hands on either side of his face, hair hanging down around her shoulders, moaning his name as her entire body shook around him. Falling down next to him, leg hooked around him as she struggles to catch her breath.

He sighed. It would be another long night of Spite complaining in his ear.

Chapter Text

LUCANIS

The nightmare was back.

The blades cutting into his flesh, trying to instigate the demon into taking complete control.

Zara humming lullabies as she corrected the torture of each of her victims, straightening their postures and making sure their arms were in frame almost like a sick waltz.

Blood filling the gaps in the floor tiles like a separate creature lurking through the room.

Screams. Dozens of screams. Roars of pain from demons… wait- the demons are being tortured too?

Searing pain ripping through his chest. Frozen, unable to move, and unsure why.

His vision went dark- it was too late. A wave of cold swept over him, and then he couldn’t move.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

ROOK

A rare nightmare.

Her mother’s wails of grief. The hollow feeling in her chest that was painful and didn’t go away for years.

The bloated white skin and dark eyes when they fished her sister out of the river.

The way her mother told her it wasn’t her fault but the look on her face said otherwise.

The tone in her aunt’s voice when she said the Crows would take her and she could be raised with Viago, bastard son of the king.

The day her mother packed a small suitcase with her favorite dresses and her plush griffon. Little Viago was there the day she was given to the Crows. She had no children anymore as far as she was concerned.

Aryana opened her eyes slowly. The soft green glow of her aquarium filled her room. It had no effect on her at that moment, and all she could feel was an immense sadness. She’d had Juliana in her life for only 6 years but it felt like so much less. The day they had played, pretending to be mermaids even though neither of them knew how to swim.

Only one of them came back out of the water.

She rolled out of bed and shoved her feet into her slippers. Reading hadn’t been calming her down over the last few weeks but she would try it anyway. Maybe she could find a book on sea life and try to figure out what fish she’d been staring at for the last few weeks. She picked up her robe and pulled it tightly around her before padding out and down the stairs.

She found a suitable book almost instantly and curled up on the downstairs couch. She started thumbing through the book, mostly looking just at the pictures. She came across a page that had the giant shark from outside the Ossuary and was stunned to learn the species got bigger- much bigger.

She was woken up hours later by shouting from the eluvian room. Her gut told her this was definitely not going to be good.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

LUCANIS…
sort of

So close. The eluvian was just across the courtyard. Others should be asleep, he could slip away before he was missed. Plenty of Venatori in plenty of predictable places that he could take care of.

Lucanis wasn’t making good on their deal.

Killing all these Venatori is why they were there to begin with. The old woman had promised Rook that they would kill Venatori and kill gods. They needed to do more.

Rook… Flowers, sadness. Soft hands, sweet smile. Wanted to touch her. Do more than touch her.

Lucanis wasn’t even trying.

He made his way out of the pantry and across the courtyard. No one watching, no one to stop him. He entered the library, tempted to go upstairs and watch Rook.

This first.

He descended the stairs, looking around frantically. Suddenly, there was a loud noise behind him. The gig was up.

“Spite! Let Lucanis go!.” (The dwarf.)

“If you don’t let him go, we’re going to kill both of you.” (The qunari.)

Lucanis came to, startled to see Harding was next to him, Taash in front…

Rook was circling him, holding a knife in the general direction of his neck. “Spite, what have I told you about not putting Lucanis in harm’s way?”

Her voice was surprisingly gentle. Spite grumbled, reluctantly fading to the background and allowing Lucanis to focus. Rook motioned for the other two to leave them. When they were gone, she turned her full attention to Lucanis. “What the hell was that?”

“I.. had a nightmare, I think.”

“I’m sorry. What happened?”

“It was Zara, my guess.”

“Your GUESS? You know you’re lucky I fell asleep in the library, right?” She suddenly looked incredibly sad. “And that Davrin wasn’t around. He’d have killed you without hesitation and I wouldn’t be able to stop him.”

“Why were you in the library?”

“I… uh… was reading a book on sea life and fell asleep.” She patted his arm. “Come on, let’s go back to the pantry where there aren’t any ears around.”

They walked back silently, Lucanis occasionally throwing her sideways glances. When they got back within solid walls, Rook locked the door behind them. “How about some coffee?”

Lucanis smiled. “That is an excellent idea. And then you can tell me what is bothering you.”

“Nothing’s bothering me.”

"LIES."

“Be quiet, Spite. You’ve done enough today.” Lucanis walked over to the kitchen area and started preparing their coffee. “He doesn’t believe you.”

“Did Spite take over your body earlier?”

“I did not know what was happening until Taash, Harding, and you confronted me in the eluvian room.”

“What do you think Spite was trying to do?”

“I truly do not know. But if the dream was indeed about Zara he may have wanted to go after her.”

Rook sighed. “Spite you know we don’t know where she is. And I promised you that we would go after her when I find out. If you cause Lucanis to get hurt, you won’t be able to go after her. We promised Teia, remember?”

”He’s ‘Spite’ not ‘Learning’.”

"I WANT TO MAKE A DEAL WITH ROOK. TELL HER."

“Spite… wants to make a deal with you.” Lucanis grimaced.

“It depends on the deal.” She furrowed her brow. “As a general rule I try not to make deals with demons. Surely Spite understands that.”

”SHE TAKES US WITH HER UNTIL WE FIND ZARA.”

“He, uh… wants you to take us with you until we find her.” He poured two mugs and brought them over to her.

“Just like… out on missions?” She tilted her head to look at him.

“Yes.”

"ASK ABOUT THE BOOK. WHY WAS SHE SLEEPING IN THE LIBRARY?."

“He also wants to know about the book you were reading, and why.”

“Oh it was a book on sea life. I was curious about what’s in the aquarium.” She grinned, almost a childlike joy.

"WANT TO SEE HER NEAR HER AQUARIUM." Lucanis shook his head.

“What else is he telling you?”

“He’s… asking if the creatures from the Ossuary are in the book.”

”LIES.” Pain in his nose. A panicked look on Rook’s face.

“Spite, no!” She rushed over, grabbing a napkin to hold up to his nose. Her voice sounded desperate. “Please stop hurting him. Please…”

Spite… smirked? "WHY IN THE LIBRARY?"

“He wants to know what you were doing in the library.”

“... why?”

“I don’t know. He’s…” He sighed. “He’s always very interested in you. I think because you broke us out of the Ossuary.”

Rook watched him for a moment, blinking. “I had a nightmare about my sister. She drowned… before my mother gave me up to the crows. She is the sister of Viago’s mother, who suggested I be shipped off to them. My mother blamed me for Juliana’s death; she pretended she didn’t. We were playing by the river and I pushed her in. Neither of us could swim so I couldn’t pull her out. I ran to find a gondolier to pull her out, and by that time she was dead.”

Lucanis sat in a stunned silence. Even Spite had nothing to add. “The water…”

“Yes, I supposed we both have some demons buried underwater don’t we?”

Chapter Text

“Lucanis, you’re with us.” Rook poked her head into the pantry. “We’re going to Dock Town.”

“Are you sure Neve wants me around?”

“I made a deal with Spite. If either of you doesn’t like it, that’s not my problem. You two need to work that out.” She ducked back out before he could respond. She slowly stepped back in.

“I’ll tell you what, I’ll bring Emmrich with us.” Her glare softened just the slightest bit before she slipped back out.

”SHE HONORS OUR DEAL. YOU HAVE NOT.”

“That’s not true, I set up this deal.”

”FLOWERS AND ASH…”

“Spite, stop it.”

”BLOOD AND COFFEE, BOTH.”

“You saw her and Emmrich together same as I did!”

”ISN’T LIKE THAT, OIL AND WATER.”

“... what?”

”NOT COMPATIBLE.”

“I don’t expect you to understand. Now let me get ready to go.”

”SHE BEGS ME.”

“Yes, she begs you to leave me alone.” Lucanis froze. “Do you hurt me just for her attention?”

The shadow grinned and faded to the back of his mind. Angry, Lucanis tidied up his area and stormed out of the pantry. When he reached the library, Rook and Emmrich looked up, seemingly both startled at his poor mood. He marched towards the eluvian room without saying anything. Rook and Emmrich looked at each other, confused, before following him. “Lucanis, what’s wrong?”

“Spite, per usual.” Lucanis’ voice had an unexpected sharpness to it. “I tried to explain that we are honoring the deal he made with you, Rook, but he seems unimpressed.”

”THE OTHER ONE KNOWS. HE COULD TELL ROOK BUT HE DOESN’T.” Lucanis’ face reddened ever so slightly. Emmrich looked at him curiously. ”TELL ROOK.”

“Oh my, Spite certainly is opinionated, isn’t he?” Emmrich shrugged and led the way through the eluvian. Rook looked back at Lucanis, who was unable to make eye contact with her. Annoyed, she followed Emmrich.

Lucanis lagged behind them, incredibly curious what the others were whispering about frantically. He wondered if Emmrich was selling him out. He knew that’s what Spite wanted but he was still mortified that Rook might find out what he said to him.

He climbed into the Caretaker’s boat carefully, trying not to focus on the others too much. Rook was silent. Emmrich spoke up first. “Lucanis, am I correct that you and Rook both come from the Crows?”

“We do.” Lucanis glanced over at Rook, who was looking down at her hands.

“I’m nowhere near as famous as the Demon of Vyrantium…”

“Rook…” Lucanis groaned.

“You two absolutely must tell me more about it when we get back to the Lighthouse.”

“I… alright.”

”WINE, BLOOD, ASHES…”

“Yes, Spite, you can tell me more also.” Emmrich smiled almost the same way he smiled at Manfred.

“So you really can hear him?” Lucanis asked.

“This close, yes.”

“Everything?”

“I assume so- I’m unaware of how much I’m not hearing.” He glanced over at Rook so subtly that even Lucanis almost missed it.

The Caretaker delivered them to the dock where the eluvian to Dock Town was. Rook led them through, stepping through and walking into the main room of the Shadow Dragons’ hideout. She turned to wait for them, emotionless. Lucanis and Emmrich both winced at the smell and were stunned when they followed her in. Blood was smeared and sprayed everywhere. Furniture overturned. Lucanis looked around, eyes wide and Spite silent. “Where… what happened to the Shadow Dragons?”

“The Venatori.”

“Is this… is this what happened because you went to help us in Treviso?” He looked her square in the eye.

“I think they would have found any excuse to do this.”

“The anguish of these poor souls,” Emmrich said sadly.

“Come on. We have a meeting to go to in the Cobbled Swan.” Rook turned. “We’re meeting Harding there, and Morrigan.”

Her companions followed her, exchanging witty banter about the Mourn Watch and Lucanis’ empathy for his targets (not THAT much empathy, he swore). She ignored most of it, trying to shove down the dread of this meeting. Like Harding said, Morrigan didn’t just randomly spend time in random bars. She wondered what it was that Harding wasn’t saying.

The group walked by scaffold after scaffold, each lined with the rotting bodies of people who were clearly Shadow Dragons, purple and green skin and some even falling apart. “My goodness what a terrible tragedy.”

“This is…” Lucanis trailed off. He stayed silent afterwards, even all the way to the bar.

”BLOOD, GUILT, SHAME…”

“I agree, Spite.” Emmrich nodded.

Lucanis was still unnerved that Emmrich could hear the inner dialogue.

They came around the corner outside The Cobbled Swan, where Harding was waiting. She shot them a nervous smile and jerked her head towards the bar. Rook looked around uneasily.

“Emmrich and I will stand watch out here. We don’t need the venatori taking the opportunity to gut both of you plus Morrigan all at the same time.” Lucanis shook his head. Rook opened her mouth to protest and looked at Emmrich but Emmrich also shook his head. She sighed, and followed Harding inside. Lucanis looked over at Emmrich. “Emmrich, can I… Can I ask you a question?”

”ASK HIM ABOUT ROOK”

“What about Rook?” Emmrich straightened the chain on his shirt.

“We’re curious what you’ve told Rook about…”

”WE WANT ROOK.”

“Mierda, please stop, Spite.”

“If you mean to ask if I’ve told Rook about anything I’ve overheard Spite said, I have not.”

“I have to ask… What?”

“I have not told Rook anything your companion has said.”

“I imagine that would be quite the obstacle in your relationship with her.”

“Relationship?” Emmrich looked at him curiously before his eyes widened. “Oh, no, Lucanis it isn’t like that. Rook and I are strictly friends, albeit very close friends.”

“Oh.. just friends? But the tub..."

“Indeed, just friends. But your companion feels otherwise, yes?”

“How long have you heard Spite’s… demands?”

“If I recall correctly, the evening that dear Harding brought us those pies.” Emmrich crossed his arms. “The night we discussed your failed chess match.”

“So you’ve heard…”

“Your friend has quite the high opinion of Rook, yes.”

“And you haven’t told her any of it?”

“Would you prefer it if I did?”

“I’m just surprised.”

“Think of it as when Spite tries your connection to get Rook closer to you.” Emmrich straightened. “You put it aside to be fair to Rook instead of manipulating her with it.”

“You lost me there. I mean, yes, but what does that have to do with you?”

“Would it be fair if I used my ability to hear Spite to try to affect your friendship and possible courtship?”

“Oh ‘possible courtship’ is a bit strong.”

”LISTEN TO HIM. TALK TO ROOK.”

“Dear Spite, I do wish you would calm yourself.” Emmrich tsked him. “I think it only fair that you perhaps leave him be until your deal to find Zara is resolved.”

”...IS THAT A DEAL?”

“Does making it a deal bind you to it?”

“”WE WAIT TIL ZARA IS FOUND IF YOU HELP AFTER SHE IS FOUND.”

“Help? Help how?”

”TALK TO ROOK.”

“Like… talk to her on your behalf?”

Spite snarled, somewhere between anger, frustration, lust, and… well, spite. “DO WE MAKE A DEAL?”

Emmrich looked at Lucanis. “Lucanis, this falls on you to approve or disapprove.”

Lucanis sighed. The door to the bar opened, and Rook hesitated in it, talking to whoever was inside. “Fine.”

“Then I will take Spite up on that deal.” Emmrich shrugged. Spite was elated, circling Emmrich and eagerly watching Rook descend the stairs, whispering with Harding. She looked up as she approached, slowing as she got close to them.

“Why do you two look like the cat who got the canary?”

“Oh, Spite was just having some light-hearted fun complaining about absolutely everyone around us.” Emmrich tapped his finger on his arm.

“‘Light-hearted’? Okay.”

Chapter Text

ROOK

“We think they’re stealing art.” Aryana raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t make any sense to us, though. Do the Antaam seem artistically inclined to you?”

Teia and Viago exchanged glances. Teia shrugged. “It sounds strange to me, I agree. Get to the bottom of this as soon as you can, Rook.”

“I’m coming with you,” Viago said abruptly. Aryana and Lucanis, both did a double take.

“Vi, I think we can handle this.” Aryana tried to wave him away.

“I know you can but I want to see something.” He nodded to Teia and motioned for them to follow him to the Drowned District. Emmrich smiled and followed gleefully.

“I say, does being with three of you mean I’m with a murder of crows?”

“I…” Aryana stopped for a moment to laugh. “Oh Emmrich, I suppose it does.”

He smiled at her, and she couldn’t help but smile back. Viago was his usual stoic self but did shoot her a quick wink when the others weren’t watching.

“So Viago, sir…” Emmrich cleared his throat.

“Vi,” Aryana snorted.

“Viago Ary.”

“What? No. If we can’t use your nickname, we’re not using mine.” They came around a corner into the markets. A nearby Crow nodded to them, standing a little more upright and a little more alert.

“You and Teia with your nicknames…” Viago shook his head.

“Teia is her nickname!” Aryan quipped.

“I do have some questions about the Crows, Viago.” Emmrich piped up.

“I’m a Crow too, Emmrich,” Aryana said.

“Have you told Viago that?” Lucanis asked before thinking. Aryana’s face briefly flushed with anger.

The antaam camp was full of more enemies than they expected, and of course coming at them from all angles. She went back to back with Viago like they’d grown up doing, until Viago had to dodge an incoming antaam with a flamethrower.

Aryana readied a spell but was blindsided by a flurry of motion to the side. She hit the ground, hard, and lost a hold on her staff. When she caught her breath again, she realized Lucanis… Spite… was who had knocked her down. In one fluid motion, she pushed him off of her, sprung to her feet, and grabbed the knives she kept on her legs. She threw one at the antaam that had gone after Viago, catching him square in the throat. She charged towards him, leaping up to grab the knife and shredding it through his neck as she slashed the other one through his chest. When he fell, dead, she whirled around to face Lucanis and Viago. She glared at Lucanis as she shoved her knives back into their scabbards, storming over to pick up her staff and out of the encampment. Emmrich followed her without question or comment.

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

LUCANIS

”ROOK!” Lucanis stumbled slightly as he felt Spite rush forward to knock Rook out of the way of a charging antaam with a flamethrower. Her staff went flying and her fall knocked the wind out of her. Spite was gone as quickly as he appeared, and he got to face the full force of her shoving him off of her. She jumped to her feet effortlessly, grabbing the knives on her legs and hurling one towards the antaam he knocked her away from. She rushed towards the antaam, tearing open his throat with the embedded knife and hacking away at his chest with the other one. When he fell, he came face to face with the sheer rage that was on her face. She looked between him and Viago before snatching her staff, turning on her heel, and charging out of the camp. Emmrich followed. Viago looked directly at him, shaking his head. He walked after them.

“Thank you, Spite for that.”

”HAD TO PROTECT ROOK.”

“No, you didn’t.” Lucanis groaned. “She is literally an assassin just like me, Viago, and Teia…”

Spite grumbled but faded back to the back of his mind. Scowling, Lucanis headed back to the Cantori Diamond. When he arrived back, Viago and Teia clearly were exchanging words about him based on their facial expressions. He nodded to them, then ducked out through the broken window that led out to the balcony. He immediately could tell something was wrong but not before Rook materialized out of nowhere with one of her knives to his throat. He held his hands up in surrender as she backed him up the wall.

“How. Fucking. DARE you do that?” Her voice was barely above a whisper.

“Spite…”

She shook her head. “I don’t care about Spite. You did that in front of Vi.”

“I was worried the antaam…”

“Viago is the Fifth Talon and I’m finally getting back into the Crows’ good graces. And you made me look incompetent and weak.” She got so close he could feel her breath. He gritted his teeth and hoped Spite didn’t come rushing back out.

“I’m truly sorry, Rook. I don’t know how to prove it to you.”

“Don’t bother.” She nicked his throat the tiniest bit before shoving her knife back. She raised an eyebrow before ducking through the eluvian back to the Lighthouse.

”FOLLOW ROOK.”

“I am not following her. You made her angry.” Lucanis sighed. “I do not think there is any food that exists that could get us out of this.”

”TALK TO THE MAGE.”

“Emmrich?” Spite didn’t answer but Lucanis had learned well enough when he was happy with something or it was going his way. “This will not work, but I will try.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

“Davrin, Lucanis, you’re with me in Weisshaupt.” Rook cracked her knuckles and hoped that her nervousness wasn’t showing through too much. “I need a Warden, and someone good at stabbing things.”

“I’ll try to stick close to you guys for when you’re ready,” Taash added.

“We’re going to make them pay.” Rook jerked her thumb in the direction of the eluvian. “I need everyone’s eyes sharp.”

The team stepped through the eluvian in time to hear Rook swear- “They fucking moved the eluvian.”

Davrin looked around as he stepped in. The rest crowded through just as the walls around them started to shake. Suddenly, a chuck of the wall crumbled, and took the eluvian with it.

“No, no, NO!” Bellara was frantic. She looked to Rook for ideas.

“I… don’t know what to do about that. I trust you though- we gotta go!”

A tiny voice sounded out from behind a stack of barrels. “There’s darkspawn outside the door!”

“Who…” Rook looked over as a young girl around ten stepped out. “This is no place for a kid your age…”

“I have to find my dad! I don’t want him to get lost!”

“Do you know Antoine and Evka?”

“Yes. They’ll probably be in the war room.”

“Do you know how to get there?”

“Yes! Follow me.” She padded out into another crumbling section of the building. “Oh no, the door’s blocked!”

“Is there another way?” Rook knelt down next to her.

“There’s a secret passage.”

“Can you show us?”

The little girl motioned for them to follow. A brave girl, named Mila, led them almost halfway across Weisshaupt as they all tried to keep from panicking at the giant cloud-face lurking over them. She’d managed to talk down the First Warden somehow, which most of the team was unhappy about, but it was a step closer and an unexpected ally despite grumbles. They found themselves in the library soon, walls dripping with bright red throbbing blight boils. They made short work of them, and surfaced on a low wall in poorer condition than most of the fort. Another horn sounded and she sighed.

“They keep adding horns and it keeps getting worse!” Lucanis shouted. “What’s the plan, Rook?”

“I don’t really know but we’ll think of something!”

“You’re asking me to stab a cloud.”

“Worry about it when we get there!” Rook jumped down into a courtyard and charged across it, just in time for blight tentacles to get brought up around them. “Fuck!”

“Over here!” Mila appeared and released a ladder for them.

“You are one brave little girl, Mila!”

“We have to find my dad! He hasn’t eaten since lunch.”

“Well, let's try not to be dinner.” They ducked into the building and the rest of the team was waiting to help bar the door. “How are we doing with the dragon trap?”

“It’s primed and ready to go. We just need to get the dragon to actually land.” Evka gave her a half smile.

“Let me take care of that.” Rook unsheathed the lyrium dagger. “Let’s go.”

“Rook, a word?” Lucanis jerked his head towards a dark corner.

“Okay.” They walked over, out of earshot of the others. He sighed. “Be careful. If you aren’t…”

“I’ll be careful if you’re careful.” She turned on her heel and walked back to the rest of the group. “Alright, let’s do this.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Rook stared at the table in front of her. The team was spread out, all more or less exhausted. Taash seemed especially disturbed. “Are all blighted dragons like that? A snake with too many heads? I don’t know how to fight that!”

“We came so close. At least we killed her archdemon.” Belara frowned.

“We did come so close. Odd that we didn’t hit the mark.” Davrin sneered. “This Crow has a demon inside of him, right? Maybe that demon pulled some punches.”

“I think we’re… no, this isn’t what we should be talking about,” Bellara said.

“What about you, Warden?” Lucanis snarled back. “With blight in your blood. The same blight that Ghilan’nain controls so effortlessly?”

“Can we please…” Emmrich piped up.

Rook smashed her fists on the table. “ENOUGH.”

The table went quiet as she stood up. “I need you to get your acts together. If you can’t, get out.”

“Dearest Rook, I still stand by the fact that we are all distracted.” He turned to Lucanis (and presumably Spite). “You and Spite are not of one mind, Lucanis. Fighting for control… it’s no wonder you missed such a rare opportunity.”

“We’re all distracted. I have my magic… Neve, you have-”

“Minrathous. Dock Town,” Neve said, bitterness strong in her voice.

”ZARA…” Spite stood between Lucanis and Rook. ”AND ROOK…”

“Alright. Let’s all get some rest. We can start working on our own things tomorrow.” Rook waved them away. Lucanis stood, starting towards his pantry room. “Not you.”

He looked back. “What?”

“Stay here. I still have to talk to you before you go brooding.”

Lucanis sighed. “Shall I put on some coffee?”

Rook waved for him to go ahead. She watched him move about the kitchen. When the smell of the brewing coffee hit her nose, she relaxed a little. When it was finished, he brought over their mugs. Rook threw a barrier up against the door so they wouldn’t be interrupted. “What’s wrong?”

“What’s wrong?” He stared into his mug. “I missed the shot.”

“It was an impossible shot, Lucanis.” She scoffed. “Ghilan’nain was a face in a cloud. I asked you to stab a cloud.”

“We have a contract! I don’t fail my contracts!”

“I asked you to do something impossible and you still almost did it. You still made her bleed.”

“I thought that after the Ossuary I could still work. I need to work.”

“And you have been working.” Her shoulders slumped forward slightly. “I’m glad you made it back alright. We’re not done yet.”

“I need to clear my head and focus on this. I’ve not been at my best the last few missions.”

“You’re doing just fine.”

“I’m sorry about the… mess with Viago.”

“What mess… oh don’t worry about it. It’s forgotten. He’s teasing me mercilessly but no harm was done.” She smiled. “You know how cousins can be.”

Chapter Text

“There’s something about these ciphers that I can’t quite put my finger on. Do you think Chance will be able to decode it?” Rook shoved the letter towards Lucanis. “Or do you happen to know what cipher they used?”

Lucanis took the letter from her, ignoring Spite’s thrill at their hands briefly touching. He scanned it. “The actual figures look very familiar but I can’t translate it.”

“Well, hopefully Chance can crack it.”

“If any one can, it’s him, for sure.” He shrugged. “The note on this one, though- ‘Find me where we had our first rendezvous.’”

“It doesn’t sound like spies, but it could be their attempt to send us off on a wild chase looking for something that doesn’t exist.” She squinted. “There is one person I’ll ask to look at this before Chance.”

“Oh?”

“Don’t worry, he’s a Crow.” She motioned for him to follow her. “And he’s a big fan of yours.”

“Rook…”

“Oh relax, I’m joking.” She let her gaze travel down his body and back up. “He does, however, think you’re quite dashing.”

She set off back the way they had cut through the market. She stopped to give a few performers some coin (and pet a cat) but he couldn’t help but groan to himself when he realized what booth they were approaching- the one where she had bought the wyvern-tooth dagger for him. “Marcus!”

The merchant looked at him only briefly, then rolled his eyes. “What do you need, Ary?”

“You know… things…” She cleared her throat. “We have someone who could look at these and eventually break the cipher but I thought maybe you might know where to start?”

Marcus dug out a small pair of spectacles and scanned the letters that she handed him. He tsked loudly a few times before looking over the top of the spectacles to stare at her. “They have a meeting spot up there, around that corner and down a small set of stairs. The lock doesn’t have a key, it has to be picked.”

“Wait, you can read it?” Rook’s jaw dropped and she grabbed the papers back when he returned them to her.

“Not all of it but if that’s their meeting spot, I’d say that’s as good as you’re going to get this quickly.”

“Oh, Marcus, you’re a genius!” She grinned and set off at a brisk walk, completely leaving Lucanis and Taash behind her. Taash said something about good food smells and wandered off to the nearby fish fry booth. Lucanis nodded awkwardly to Marcus and set off after Rook. Marcus cleared his throat loudly before he got too far, though. Lucanis stopped and looked back at him. Marcus made a motion like he was pushing him after Rook… Lucanis scoffed and walked away.

When he caught up to Rook at the meeting spot, he was alarmed at the look on her face. He glanced around the room and looked back at her. She shook her head. “Lucanis… the Crow and Venatori that are meeting aren’t spies… they’re lovers. Look at this room- the wine, candles, all of it.”

“That’s unexpected.”

“We have to tell Chance right away. This is worse than them being spies!” She grabbed his arm and practically dragged him back across the market. Taash saw out of the corner of her eye and trotted over to catch up.

“No one’s looking at me funny.” She quipped between bites of fish. “It’s kinda nice- I figured people here would assume I’m antaam.”

“Treviso is smart. Besides, you’re Rivaini anyway.” Rook hopped onto a nearby lattice and climbed it. Her two followers did the same. They rode across the zipline and landed outside the steps to the Cantori Diamond. Taash looked a bit like a child in a toy store as she followed the Crows up into the rafters. “Wait here. I have to tell someone some unfortunate news, then I’ll introduce you to some Talons.”

Lucanis stood with her as Rook trotted over to chance and filled him in on the situation- he in turn gave her what was clearly some uncomfortable news. She forced a smile and waved for Taash to follow her. Lucanis followed behind her, still unsure of what Viago felt towards him. Teia of course was all smiles, Viago was… Viago.

“Taash, this is Viago, the Fifth Talon, and Teia, the Seventh Talon. Taash is our dragon hunter who helped us kill the archdemon at Weisshaupt.”

Taash opened her mouth to dispute her level of assistance but stopped when the Talons gave her looks of approval. Teia smacked Viago on the arm. “See? You worry about Rook too much. She has her own dragon hunter.”

“She also has Lucanis,” Viago said jokingly. Lucanis rolled his eyes and shook his head. Teia motioned for Rook and Taash to give them some privacy to speak with Lucanis. The women walked across the way and down the spiral staircase down to the main balcony.

“They seem nice.”

“Viago is my cousin- we grew up together. This scar on my chin is from him, from when we were children. I like to remind him of it any chance I get.”

“I think that’s a ‘kid’ thing no matter where you grow up.” Taash grinned. “It’s so cool that you get to just hang out with Crow bosses.”

“Less cool when they’re family. Teia’s incredible though, really and truly. Viago’s lucky to have her when they’re together. Viago’s a stubborn shit though so it’s anyone’s guess whether they’re together or not any given day.”

“Lucanis smells weird around Viago.”

“...What?”

“I don’t know how to explain it. He smells one way around you, one way around other Crows, and a different way around Viago.”

“Huh. I’ll ask him l-…” she trailed off as he approached. “Oh Lucanis, you’re back. Any news?”

“Yes. But we need to take care of those spies first, in case it’s related.” Lucanis sighed. “What did Chance say about it?”

“He said we need to take care of it. Remind Sable that he’s a Crow.” She shrugged. “I agree, honestly. There is supposed to be a Venatori ambush of the Crows. We shut it down, and we take care of the Venatori woman, and we go back to what we were doing before.”

“Let’s go, then.” He forced a smile. “Our oaths are sealed in blood, after all.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

ROOK

Aryana let her breath out slowly as the trio cut through a small group of Venatori blocking a bridge in their path. She locked onto the last standing mage with her staff and flipped her over the rail into the water. Suddenly, the red and black mage's robes turned into a bright blue dress on a young girl with pale blonde hair in her vision. Her breathing hitched in her throat and her hands started shaking. She forced herself to turn around, just as a flurry of purple wings flew in front of her and completely eviscerated the man about to bring two very large blades down on top of her. Spite was gone as quickly as he appeared, and Lucanis’ face was screwed up with worry. She nodded. “Thanks.”

“What happened?”

“I’ll tell you later. Let’s focus on Zara.” She motioned to the doors of the chantry. “You too, Emmrich. Let’s make this bitch pay.”

“After you.” Emmrich popped the knuckles on one hand. He went to say something to Aryana but paused. “Isn’t that…?”

“Is that Illario?” Aryana hissed. “What is he doing here? How does… never mind.”

Illario beamed when he saw them. “Ah, Rook! So good to see you. You never never replied to my invitation for a tour of Treviso but it looks like I’m going to be giving you one, anyway.”

“Yeah, see the sights, murder them, hide the bodies.” Aryana rolled her eyes.

“Rook, don’t encourage him.” Lucanis shook his head. “How did you know we would be here?”

“I told you, this was Crow business.”

“We happen to both be crows, Illario,” Aryana retorted. She looked over at Emmrich who was definitely less than impressed with Illario. “We have this under control, but thank you for checking in with us.”

“I will be more than happy to check in with you later as well…” Illario frowned when Aryana pushed past him.

“Let’s go, Lucanis.” She didn’t turn back to look at any of them as she approached the Chantry’s massive doors. He frowned at Illario, then followed. She pushed the doors open dramatically and charged in, lightning sparking from her hands as she went on the attack. A dark haired mage was inside the main hall, screaming orders to some Venatori pawns summoned to fight. Her friends rushed in behind her, flashes of purple and green as they wordlessly cut them all down.

“Porcia. We’re getting close.”

“Look, there- what is that?” Emmrich pointed to an odd bookshelf in the next room. Aryana followed where he pointed, accidentally triggering a false door leading to a ladder going…somewhere.

“Where does this go?” Aryana peered over the edge.

“Another dark hole.” Lucanis’ tone was sharp, sharper than she’d ever heard it. She sighed, then jumped down. The hallways were deep green, and the floors flooded enough that stealthy footsteps were out of the question. The hallway wound around and let out in a small courtyard where another minion was waiting-

“Faustus, I think.” Lucanis barely even had a chance to act before Aryana sent a spike of ice directly into Faustus’ chest. He blinked at her for a moment before continuing their way up some low steps into a hallway that surprised all of them. Rotting bodies drained of blood lined either side, buzzing with pests. Emmrich looked more sad than anything.

“All these poor souls. There should be rites done for them, after this is over.” He sighed. “I’ll offer my talents when it’s time.”

“This is…” Aryana looked around. “This is a lot of missing blood. There’s only one thing…”

“Blood magic. STRONG blood magic.” Lucanis snarled.

“How can you tell?”

“It’s making my eyes hurt.” He was startled when Aryana brushed her hand on his arm.

“We’re almost there. And she is going to pay for every fucking day she had you in there. I promise.”

“I know.” Lucanis held back as she forced open the large doors at the end of the hall. He and Emmrich were close behind, however, when they realized the entire floor of the next room was filled at least knee-high with blood.

“Lucanis, you can’t just show up unannounced. You’re ruining bath time.” Another dark haired woman stood from where she was seated in the blood. “And you brought friends.”

Aryana saw Emmrich motion to what she assumed was a Spite tantrum. She tilted her head to look at Zara. “You have a little something there… on your.. Yeah.”

Zara’s face contorted. “Another Crow? And so eloquent.”

“... Fuck you, bitch!” Aryana let loose fiery bolts of energy that hit Zara right in the chest. She felt the rush as Lucanis (Spite?) charged past her, whirling and slashing almost incessantly. Emmrich, the rational one in this moment, slung bolts of ice at Zara to slow her. She was fast, faster than Aryana had fought in a long time. This fight made her taking on 20 antaam look like a picnic. She hurled everything she could at her, trying to block out the horrible, predatory things she was saying to Lucanis between blows. There was a static feeling in her chest she couldn’t explain- then she realized it was a reaction to Spite. Spite was more than angry, and the angrier he got, the more Zara reveled in it. She noticed then that Zara was slowing down, and that her dark hair was fading to grey. She fade-stepped closer, hooked her with her staff, and hurled her across the room to a dry section of floor. Lucanis was there in an instant, and she hurried over to stand behind him. Zara looked between the two of them.

“Now, now. Let’s be reasonable.”

“It’s too late for reasonable.” Aryana pulled a knife out of her leg scabbard.

“Lucanis, don’t you want to know who our pet Crows are? Who set you up, put you in the Ossuary for that long, long year?” Zara smirked as she saw Lucanis struggling. Aryana forced herself to not take the kill right then to end it.

”TALK.” Spite was forcing through. Zara cowered away slightly. She opened her mouth but a dark flurry landed between them and her and snapped her neck.

Illario.

”NO. OURS. THAT WAS MINE!” Spite completely took control of Lucanis and launched himself at Illario, knocking him down and holding a shaking knife to his throat. “Rook, please… Get Illario THAT WAS OUR KILL out of here!”

Aryana was stunned, half tempted to leave Illario there, but even more stunned when Illario squeezed something on his lapel that pushed Lucanis back. He stood, saying something over Lucanis that made him go limp.She rushed over to him, checking his neck for a pulse and squeezing his hands. “Please be okay, please be okay. Lucanis!!”

To her relief, he had a pulse, though an inconsistent one.She whirled back around to sneer at Illario. “What did you do to him?”

Illario stood. “Rook, you should take him away from here. He is a danger to himself, a danger to the Crows. A danger to the family.”

Aryana glared at him. “He’s not dangerous.”

Illario tilted his head to look at her. “I am glad he will be safe with you.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

LUCANIS

Soft, sweet. Flowers.

Lucanis opened his eyes, confused. He sat up, propped up on his elbow, looking around his room that he… didn’t remember coming back to. He was surprised to see Rook sleeping next to his bed on a pile of blankets and pillows. He froze, unwilling to disturb her. He watched her for a few moments, unsure of what to do.

”SHE STAYED WITH US.”

‘What did you do to make her need to?’

”WICKED ILLARIO TOOK OUR KILL!”

Lucanis sighed, shaking his head and sitting the rest of the way up as quietly as he could. ‘She stayed the whole time?’

”YES, EVEN TOUCHED US.” Spite stepped over to sit next to her and look at her… kindly?

‘Did she, now?’

”STAYED WITH US, HELD OUR HAND, MADE SURE WE BREATHED. CRIED.”

‘Wait… she cried?

”FOR A FULL DAY.”

Lucanis was torn between waking her up to thank her and letting her sleep for half an eternity. ‘What do you want me to do?’

Spite was silent for a moment, gazing over every inch of her as she slept. To his surprise, he faded away to leave Lucanis to this decision. He sighed. “Rook, wake up.”

Rook snapped awake almost immediately, hand ready with fire. Her eyes landed on him and she cried out, relieved. “Maker, Lucanis, you’re alright.”

She crawled over to his bed, muttering under her breath and squeezing his hands. “I didn’t know what Illario did to you, I couldn’t fight it, I’m so sorry.”

“Rook, ROOK, it’s fine.” Before he thought better of it, he pushed stray hair out of her face.

“He used… blood magic on you… I don’t know how, he’s not a mage. He told me to take you away from the family, that you’re too dangerous. We brought you straight back here, Emmrich and I.”

“Spite said you took very good care of me.”

Rook looked relieved. “Did he? Oh that whole encounter must have been so terrible… Illario… he… he stole your kill.”

“I know.”

“I had to stop myself from hurting him. I know he’s in this somehow and I can’t prove it.”

“It’s alright.” Lucanis sighed. “There aren’t enough words for me to apologize to you for… well, everything.”

“...Apologize?” She blinked at him for a moment. “None of this from the moment you stepped foot on that ship has been remotely your fault.”

“I still…”

“Shut up, I’m not done.”

“Sorry…”

“I’m here because I want to be.” She sighed. “But you can’t keep ignoring Spite. Emmrich’s right.”

”WE’LL BEHAVE FOR ROOK.”

“He, uh…” He cleared his throat. “He says he will behave for you.”

“Is that a deal?” She raised an eyebrow. “The deal about behaving as long as I took you with me leading up to finding Zara has been made good on.’

Spite reappeared behind Rook, pacing behind her. ”YES, WE WILL MAKE A DEAL WITH ROOK.”

“He says it’s a deal.”

Rook smiled up at him, not entirely sweetly. “I’m going to hold both of you to that."

Chapter Text

Aryana kicked off her boots the instant she got in her room. The whole… thing… at The Cauldron was terrifying and, of course, no one planned on admitting it. Whatever or whoever this Gloom Howler was… she didn’t know.

Why the griffons? Why the sheer hatred of Wardens while knowing so much about them? Who even knew the Cauldron existed, much less that they could find archdemon blood there?

She sighed loudly to herself. She was covered in blight boil juice, but more importantly, she was starving. Maybe she could make some rice or something. She quickly stripped out of her armor, chucked it towards the corner of her room, and hurried out. She chuckled to herself when she got outside and saw Emmrich walking towards the kitchen. “Emmrich!”

His face brightened and he waved for her to join him. “Let me guess, you’re also famished?”

“Completely and utterly so.”

“Well come in and let’s see what the two of us can scrounge together.” They walked into the kitchen and saw that Harding had the same idea.

“Hungry?” Harding pointed to the pot on the stove.

“Yes,” both of them replied in unison.

“I’m making some rice and some soup!” Harding smiled. “Broccoli and cheese soup, so you can eat it too, Emmrich.”

“That sounds amazing.” Aryana grinned. She barely noticed when Lucanis walked up.

“Emmrich, can I have a word with you?”

“Why of course, Lucanis.” Emmrich motioned for him to follow him to the opposite corner. When they got out of earshot of Aryana and Harding, Lucanis turned to him.

“Can you explain to Spite why we’re not just flying off to pieces?”

Emmrich blinked a few times. “Well, the roots of this place are ancient. They run past what even a spirit might sense. But the short answer, Spite, is magic.”

“Thank you. He believes you and not me for some reason.”

“Impartiality, maybe?” Emmrich shrugged. “I’m honestly surprised considering I refuse to pass on his comments about his more base instincts to Rook.”

“You’re trustworthy.” Lucanis forced a smile. “Maybe it’s because Rook trusts you.”

“Rook is a true friend to all of us. I think he recognizes that.”

“Hey, guys! Soup is ready. Rice is almost done,” Harding said. Emmrich clapped Lucanis on the shoulder and eagerly rushed over. Lucanis followed slowly, watching Emmrich and Aryana buzzing around.

He was a little jealous that they could be such close friends so openly and easily. She smiled more genuinely with him than with any of the others. The only person he saw her closer to than Emmrich was Viago, but the two of them had grown up with each other.

He followed them over to the table and listened to the chitchat. Harding was regaling them with stories about the Inquisitor and some of the wild incidents that happened to her. She apparently had an awful family and even had to pass judgment on one of her sisters for killing her mother.

And he thought growing up in the Crows was complicated.

Harding scooped bowls of rice for all of them, sprinkling a little bit of cheese on all of them. She handed them out then finally sat down to eat her own. The chit chat continued, but Lucanis zoned out for most of it. He snapped back to attention when Neve came into the room.

“Rook, I have a thing I need your help with.”

“Is it a you thing or a Shadow Dragons thing?”

“It’s actually a Threads thing…”

“Like… the crime syndicate Threads?”

“The one and only.”

Aryana practically leapt out of her chair. “Oh this should definitely be interesting.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

Aryana kicked off her boots the instant she got back to her room. She went to pour a glass of wine but then heard shouting coming from Emmrich’s room. She sighed and put down the glass, then headed over to see what the problem was. She was somewhat surprised to see Taash standing there with her arms crossed. “Alright, what’s going on?”

“I need one of his little needle things to dig some crap out of my armor. Death mage won’t give me one.” Taash shook her head.

“First, a bone-threader is an extremely delicate instrument. Second, my name is Emmrich! Not death mage or any other concoction that I dare not repeat in front of Rook.”

“Listen, you make them move like they’re alive! But they smell wrong and they move wrong and none of it is okay!”

Aryana sighed. “I was wondering when this would happen.”

“Wait, you did?” Taash raised an eyebrow.

“Anyway, let’s figure out what’s going on here. Emmrich, do you understand that Taash is bothered by your line of work?” Aryana crossed her arms.

“I… I’d no idea that necromancy bothered you so deeply, Taash.” Emmrich frowned. “To be quite honest I didn’t really think you feared anything.”

“I’m not afraid! It’s just… weird.” Taash pushed her braid behind her shoulder. “Especially when they still have the skin on.”

“And Taash, do you understand why Emmrich isn’t curious about fighting dragons?”

“Why isn’t…” She trailed off as Aryana raised an eyebrow at her. “I mean, I think I understand.”

“So we should do what?” Aryana asked

“Be considerate of each others’ interests?” Emmrich nodded.

“Hey, Emmrich… I’m sorry I called you a skull fu…liker. A skull liker.”

“So you’ll listen to each other?”

“Maybe he could share a little. So I know how to deal with walking corpses next time I’m in a ruin?”

“Perfect.” Aryana grinned. “And now I’m going back to my room to unwind and get completely hammered on the bottle of wine I picked up in Dock Town.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

ROOK

A frantic knock sounded at Aryana’s door. She grumbled, a slight headache, and stumbled over to answer it. It was a very frantic looking Bellara.

“Hey, Rook. Um, there’s an incident in the pantry, if you get my meaning. Taash is there…”

Aryana grabbed her robe and set off at a run for the pantry- this could only be one thing. Davrin was seated in the library, and looked up when the two women ran by. Aryana waved him away from following them as they ran out into the courtyard. Assan squawked as they ran by, and Harding, who had been playing with him, seemed completely startled. When she got to the pantry, Aryana sighed when she saw the problem. Lucanis was there, alright, but the glowing purple effect in his eyes meant Spite had managed to take over. Taash had their arms crossed and seemed less than impressed.

”Smells like… melon and woodsmoke…” He started to stand.

“Hey! No! Sit your ass back down.” Taash shifted their weight. They looked up when they noticed Aryana. “Spite’s here.”

“I got this. Maybe go block the eluvian room for a bit?”

“Sounds good.” They threw Spite one last angry look then slipped out of the room. Aryana crossed her arms angrily.

”Now. We get to talk.”

“About… leaving Lucanis? Yes, let’s talk.”

”Lucanis made a deal. He hasn’t kept.”

“That… wait, what?”

”Break our chains. Kill. Escape our prison. And live.”

“No offense, but did you sleep through when we did that? You’re welcome, by the way.”

”NO. We had. A deal. He will listen to you.”

“Spite, I…” She trailed off as the purple hue of his eyes reverted back to his normal brown. Lucanis looked around.

“What…”

“You were sleepwalking.” Aryana rubbed her forehead. “Don’t worry, nothing happened.”

“Spite sleepwalked.”

“Nuance, but yes.’

“Did he have something important to say or was it just a tantrum again?”

“I’ll let you get some rest and we’ll talk about it. He did it to speak to me.”

“Mierda. I hope he didn’t offend you. I didn’t want you to see it again.” Lucanis sighed and shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I…” Aryana’s breathing hitched in her throat. “Listen, nothing that has happened is going to drive me away.”

“How do you do that?”

Aryana’s eyes widened “Uh… how do I do what, exactly?”

His voice softened. “Break apart my perfectly gathered clouds of doom?”

“It’s not…” She trailed off. “I care about you.”

“You deserve better than to deal with my mess.”

“Don’t say it like that. You”ve been through an incredible amount in the last year, and you’re more than what you’ve experienced.” She shook her head. “You wear it well.”

He started towards her, different body language than she’d ever seen. Her pulse quickened and she wasn’t sure if she wanted him to notice or not. “You like to walk a little close to the edge.”

“It’s what we do… You do it too.”

“At least I know I’m doing it.” He stopped mere inches from her, leaning against the wall. “This isn’t a good idea.”

She ran a hand up his chest, thrilled when he didn’t stop her. “Sometimes a bad idea is better…”

She fought not to grab his vest with both hands as he slowly leaned in. She couldn’t believe this was actually happening- she’d managed to convince herself that it was completely one-sided and that she was being a silly little girl again…

…And just like that, he stepped away from her, clearly frustrated. “I… I need to clear my head. Excuse me.”

She didn’t move until he walked out of the pantry. Without thinking, she whirled around and punched the wall. She felt a painful pop and knew she’d been stupid. Maybe Emmrich could help. She took a deep breath and walked out of the pantry, ignoring that Lucanis was in the kitchen with Bellara. Bellara grinned and waved. “Hey Rook?”

“NOT NOW BELLARA.” She waved her away with her injured hand and went straight through the kitchen and out to the courtyard. She ignored Harding and Assan and headed directly to Emmrich’s room. He was sitting at his desk drinking tea with Manfred next to him flipping through the sea life book she’d read earlier. “Emmrich, I seem to have punched a fucking wall and injured my hand. You wouldn’t happen to be able to do something for it would you?”

Emmrich looked between her face and her hand, mouth open. “I’ll… see what I can do.”

Chapter Text

LUCANIS

“Hey Lucanis.” Bellara waved and smiled. “It’s our turn to cook tonight. Emmrich’s not here so we can make anything you want.”

“That should make Rook happy.”

“Oh, she’s not here, either. She, Emmrich, and Taash went to the Necropolis for something.”

“... She took Taash to the Necropolis?”

“Well she has to do something for them, too, so she took the two of them together.”

“Alright well let’s make albondigas then. Spite will be happy.” He smiled. “Meatballs, basically, with finesse.”

“Well if it’ll make Spite happy, I’m okay with that!”

“Are you willing to go to Treviso to shop with me again?”

“Absolutely!” She clapped her hands and shuffled out of the dining room. Lucanis sighed, knowing it would be a matter of seconds before…

”YOU HURT ROOK”

“Spite, no one wants to be with someone who’s possessed.”

”SHE WAS DIFFERENT. YOU HAD HER. WE HAD HER.”

“It’s done.”

”SHE HAS HONORED OUR DEALS. YOU DID NOT.”

“I have honored our deals.”

”NO!” Pain tore through his nose again. He raised his hand to it, not surprised to find blood. ”WE WANT TO TALK TO ROOK AGAIN.”

“She told you she would not talk to you anymore if you continued this.”

”TALK TO THE OTHER MAGE. HE MADE A DEAL.”

“Other mage? Emmrich?”

”HE SAID HE WOULD ONCE ZARA WAS KILLED.”

“He made that deal with you, not me. Tell him yourself when they get back.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * *

ROOK

“It couldn’t have just been one dragon, huh?” Aryana wiped the blood off her face on her sleeve. “We barely beat the one in Treviso and we didn’t even kill that one. But then again we didn’t have Taash.”

Taash smiled and popped their neck. “We’ve learned a lot since then.”

“And you have help,” a familiar voice said. Aryana whirled around and almost collapsed in relief.

“VIAGO!” Her knees almost gave out.

Evka smirked. “You’re late.”

“Fashionably so. And we bring gifts, poisoned ballista bolts.”

“Viago, you’re fucking brilliant.” Aryana grinned.

“I know.”

Their brief reunion was interrupted by a line of fire on the ground next to them. The Crows hurried to load the bolts, while Aryana rolled over onto her feet with Taash right behind. Lucanis nodded to Viago and sprung into action when the dragon from Treviso landed next to them. He and Taash hacked away at vulnerable areas while Aryana withdrew slightly and attacked at range. With the help from the Crows, they steadily wore down both dragons. Aryana got knocked down a few times but seemed to be a good enough distraction.

When both dragons lay dead, she stood there, panting. This was somehow too easy. She was less than surprised when a coil of tendrils turned into none other than Ghilan’nain herself, and blight tentacles rose up around each dragon. “NO! She’s reanimating them!”

Neve leapt off the nearby wall and ran up next to her. “We can’t let this happen. They- what are you doing, Rook?”

Aryana ran over to a nearby ballista that was unmanned. ‘This is how I die, isn’t it?’ She aimed carefully, firing a bolt right through the goddess’ torso. Ghilan’nain roared in pain, and suddenly a large purple orb of energy appeared behind her, with Elgar’nan. The surrounding Wardens were sent flying backwards, but Neve got between them and threw up a barrier. Aryana couldn’t hear everything that was said, but she made out their anger at Solas and plans for something in Arlathan.

Great.

As quickly as he appeared, they were both gone. She and Neve looked around them, realizing that the dragons had not been successfully reanimated- they did it. The surviving Wardens cheered. Even the Crows celebrated. Viago jumped down onto the field with them. Grinning at her, he rushed over to give her a bear hug. “You did it.”

“You helped.” She squeezed him before letting go. “A LOT.’

“Still couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Treviso had its revenge today. Minrathous, too.” Lucanis walked up behind them. Aryana didn’t look back at him or acknowledge he was there. Viago looked between the two of them with a raised eyebrow before motioning for her to leave the field with him. Taash also raised an eyebrow but followed wordlessly

The team shook hands and said their goodbyes. Little Mila gave Davrin a hand-written invoice that he promised to pay in griffon hugs, which she quickly agreed to. Aryana smiled at her. “Trust me, I’ve had Assan hugs, they’re the best.”

They piled into the Caretaker’s boat, mostly congratulating each other and requesting certain foods from Bellara and Lucanis. She forced a smile and made a beeline for the eluvian the minute they docked. She needed a bath and a nap and not necessarily in that order. She hurried up the stairs to her room, kicking off her boots and shedding armor pieces as she went along. She would worry about cleaning it up tomorrow. She collapsed onto her bed…

…And woke up hours later. “Shit.”

She rolled out of bed. She unpinned her hair and let it fall around her shoulders. She rubbed her eyes and headed out to pick up her mess. She was surprised to see it all in a neat pile outside her door. She kicked it into her room and made a beeline to Emmrich’s room. When she walked in, she was in for another surprise-

Lucanis was also there, and an unmistakable corpse was on the marble slab near the door.

“Okay so just to be clear we don’t have enough room to keep all the corpses we find, alright?” She looked between the two men. “Also I’m assuming this is Zara’s corpse? Are we sure this is safe?”

“As long as we do it carefully, it will be safe. I thought my skill set would be useful in this situation.” Emmrich nodded and uncrossed his arms.

“And we think she’s going to tell the truth about Illario?” She sighed. “She has no reason to be honest with us.”

“Well, we can still try. Even if she lies, we might learn something Lucanis can use.”

“Is Spite going to behave?” She looked at Lucanis with a raised eyebrow.

“He already promised Emmrich that he would.”

“Well at least there’s communication with someone else on the team. Alright, let’s do it.” She gestured towards the body. Emmrich nodded, weaving magic over Zara’s corpse with an eerie green light. Ragged breath sounded and her eyes shot open.

“Tell us about Illario Dellamorte.” Emmrich’s voice was gentle but the command was still clear. She laughed (or something close to it.

“Fooled us both…”

“Elaborate.” Lucanis demanded. Zara’s eyes flicked between the two of them.

“The job was to kill you… but I don’t waste those with potential.”

“Shit.” Aryana rubbed her forehead and sighed. “Illario used blood magic on Spite despite not being a mage. How?”

“The risen god gives us many gifts.”

“Illario is working with the evanuris? Why?”

“You took what he wanted… not gold or family…” Even from the dead, Zara’s voice had a mocking tone.

“The position of First Talon.” Lucanis snarled.

“He had you imprisoned and tortured for a year for a promotion?!

*************

LUCANIS

Lucanis paced. There was so much going on now suddenly, with Zara’s last words digging into him one last time.

That Venatori witch… and his own cousin.

Rook had been right about Illario the whole time. He was so angry that he hadn’t seen it. But then again, who wants to believe that their own cousin could and would do something like this.

Rook’s words dug into him as well, though- she probably hadn’t meant anything by it, but her dig about communication stung. They hadn’t spoken outside of team activities since he left her standing in the pantry like a fool. He knew she had hurt herself over it but pretended he had no idea, even though there was still bruising on her hand. Spite hadn’t forgiven him, still, and had decided to be very loud in his head any time she was nearby.

He really fucked up, and he knew it.

He still enjoyed being near her when the group met up- the rest of the team seemed to automatically make sure the two of them were seated near each other during dinner and other meetings. She didn’t look at him. Not like she was acting like he wasn’t there, but she only spoke to him if one of them had a question. He knew she only took him to the forward camp previously because it was the dragon that attacked Treviso. She respected his need for revenge- the least another Crow could do. When it came time to deal with Illario, he knew she would be at his elbow for that, too. He supposed that was all he had the right to ask her for anymore. He’d forfeited anything else from her.

”THE MAGE. SPEAK TO THE MAGE.”

“Spite, we discussed this.”

”THE MAGE MADE A DEAL. YOU AGREED.”