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Viago wondered how Ivy did it. How the lost, scared little girl he found when he was still a boy and dragged into House de Riva became the woman who saved their home time and time again, from dangers that were larger than life. He was scrappy back then. He’d always wanted to prove himself. He took risks, acted out, got into fights he couldn’t finish. And then he’d found a tiny, enslaved orphan girl with big eyes and a terrifying glare. He was still a fledgeling, but he’d decided he would save her. The Crows fulfilled a contract, made a purchase, and Viago gained Ivy.
He missed her. He hated it, but he missed the idiot. She was a spitfire, and was the closest thing Viago had ever had to a sibling. A little sister. Of course, now she was Rook, not as commonly known as Ivy de Riva, and her choices shaped the fate of Thedas. His sorellina. The hero that ensured the fall of one of the risen gods– and who would save them all.
Or die trying.
“Viago,” Teia called, her voice soft yet urgent. He’d caught himself drifting in thought– a dangerous thing for a Crow. He’d distantly heard her approach, but he knew she’d done that purposefully for his benefit.
“Yes, Teia?” His eyes flicked over to her, his ever-present scowl softening ever-so-slightly. It did not last, however, once he saw the dark figure that followed her into the room. A figure that had no desire to amplify his steps to make himself known, no matter Viago’s comfort.
Lucanis.
Normally, it would be a pleasure to see his dear friend. The way the air twisted around him now, though– something otherworldly and unsettling– rattled his nerves. He knew about the demon, but this was different than the presence they’d begun to become accustomed to. Something was wrong.
“Where is Ivy?” He asked, the furrow in his brow deepening. Lucanis never came home anymore unless he was accompanied by Ivy. She must be with the requisitions officer– their visits were mostly business nowadays– but Ivy never passed up a chance to come home.
But Lucanis was coming to see him. She would have burst into the room before Lucanis could even turn a corner. His heart twisted in his chest. “Lucanis?”
Teia squeezed her eyes shut, turning her head away.
What was going on?
“Viago, she–” the rippling sense of otherness that surrounded him made the air heavy, and Viago swore the room grew colder. “Ivy is missing.”
“Missing?!” He stood abruptly, and it spoke to Lucanis’ trust in him that the other Crow did not twitch or reach for a blade. “Cosa intendi?! How does the leader of your entire team go missing?”
Viago’s height on Lucanis would not give him any advantage. There was a reason that the man was now First Talon, and in any other scenario, he knew never to stand over him like this. It was idiocy. Viago’s sense of self-preservation was perilously missing as this conversation continued.
But now… now Lucanis’ shoulders held a slump, the deep bags under his eyes growing darker and sunken. As Viago came closer, there was the smell of ozone and a buzzing in the air as those tired eyes were engulfed in blazing purple.
“Rook. Was. BETRAYED. TAKEN.” Viago’s blood ran cold– not in fear of Lucanis, but for her.
Betrayed?
“TRAPPED. HERE. In the Fade. We cannot FIND. HER.”
He supposed it was strange that they’d begun to find the actual demon inside the Demon of Vyrantium a familiar presence , but stranger things had happened in this fight against gods and the Blight. Lucanis was still Lucanis, and Spite seemed… tolerable. And yet? They let her be taken.
“Cazzo!” He turned, slamming his fist onto the desk below, the light plating on his gloves biting skin. He whirled back around, finding the purple replaced with the more welcomed deep coffee brown. Lucanis looked devastated.
Good.
“How could you let her be captured? Betrayed? ” He hissed, his eyes burned with the threat of tears– but he knew they wouldn’t fall. Not here. Not where anyone could see. “Who did this?”
“Vi, please–” Teia’s voice cut through, the soft touch of her hand on his arm making him step back. He forced himself to not flinch away from her touch.
“Solas. The Dread Wolf.” Viago threw his hands up, scoffing. Of course. The contract that became a begrudging ally, that haunted her dreams and threatened the world. Who else?
“Viago. I swear to you– we will find her. She is alive.” Lucanis stepped forward as Viago stepped back, sitting against the edge of the thick wooden desk behind him. His movements were demanding and pleading all at once, but Viago could not muster sympathy.
“How long?” he asked, voice hollow. “How long has she been missing?”
Lucanis squeezed his eyes shut, just too long to be considered a blink. Too harsh. He met Viago’s gaze. A strong man, to the end. Stronger than him.
“Three days.”
Viago stood, suddenly and angrily, before he stormed to the window. He was restless. His eyes darted around the room, out across the rooftops, waiting for a quick figure with a mess of curls to bolt past in the darkness. “How do we find her? I will go. She is a de Riva, she will not be left behind. In the Fade.” He spat the word, “Idiota. How could this happen? My–” My sister. My Ivy. My uccellino.
“She would want you here, Vi, protecting the Crows.” Teia said, firm. Her voice held sadness, but she wore it so much better than he ever could. Not when it came to Ivy. “Her team will find her, if they know what is good for them. We will not mourn her today.”
His hand clenched into a fist as it sat atop the windowsill. “What do you need from me?” he asked, turning his gaze to the First Talon. Lucanis. His friend. And something… something more, to her.
“I had to tell you in person. I could not send word of her being missing– to prevent anyone finding out, of course, but–” he saw his fists strain at his sides, his jaw clenching, “But I also would not wish for you to hear of this from anyone but me. I did not see it coming. I should have, but I did not.” Viago wasn’t so sure that anyone could have seen that coming, but a small part of him agreed. He should have somehow known. He should have protected her.
A step closer again, “But Viago. We have a plan. We are making a dagger, and searching each day. Spite feels her presence, somewhere– I only need you to be prepared to come to the lighthouse. When we find her–” Viago’s eyes darted to his, urgently testing the honesty in the other man’s face.
“ When we find her. The Crows will stand beside her in full force.”
“How will this dagger do anything to find her? This Solas–” he hissed, “We must find him.” People die, people fail. Crows die. But Crows… Crows demand retribution. He knew that her becoming this “Rook”– becoming something bigger than them all, that it would put her in danger beyond what any of them could imagine. He also knew that if anyone were stubborn enough to figure it out anyways, it was her.
He also knew that if she did die, he would ensure the suffering of all those involved. But Teia was right. She was not dead, Lucanis trusted this… demon to confirm that. And he trusted Lucanis. They would not mourn her today.
“The dagger we are aiming to replace has the power to free her from her prison, and it was the dagger that I used to kill Ghilan’nain. It can kill Solas, as well.”
“Ours. We will FIND HER. SAFE. She. Found US.”
Teia stepped forward, unflinching, and glared into the now glowing eyes of their friend and fellow Talon. His face was twisted in agony. Viago’s chest grew tight, seeing him this way. “You. You will bring her home.” Her voice was low, dangerous. “You will find her, and we will kill these risen gods.”
“Home. KIND EYES. HEART. We will find her. Bring her HOME.” He blinked, eyes clearing. “I… will keep you up to date on any movement.” He turned to leave, and Viago approached him from the window before he cleared the doorway.
He saw the shorter man stop, turning to face him as he came closer. Lucanis was exhausted. She may have slipped from his protection once, but Viago knew that it would never happen again. Not if this man still breathed. And even then, his demon would certainly pilot his corpse to strip their enemies of their spines and gift them to her in recompense.
He clapped one hand onto an armor-clad shoulder. He reminded himself of Illario, embracing his lost cousin in shock as he came back from the dead. But this was not the same. The only betrayal here was against Ivy–against Rook. His hand was covered quickly by another, and Viago would never mention how tightly he squeezed, or the minute tremor he felt in Lucanis’s fingers.
The First Talon left the room– departing through the eluvian in the Cantori Diamond. Alone.
Viago’s knees trembled, and he landed hard into the plush chair of the office. Someone closed the door. He hadn’t realized he buried his face in his hands until he felt softer, smaller ones brush them away.
“Vi, tesoro–” He felt a tear fall, landing on his lap as his head hung. “Mi dispiace tanto. We will get her back. Lucanis will save her. Whatever it takes.”
Here, in this room, he could let himself feel. With Teia. The rage, the sadness, the fear. “I know he will. I only fear that we will not like how he finds her. If anything happens to her–”
“We will move on.” Teia said, soft, firm. “Because we must.” She tipped his head up with a crooked finger under his chin, and he knew his face was crumpled in despair.
“But we will not mourn her today.” Viago choked, eyes flicking between hers.
She shook her head. “We will not.”
It had been 15 days since Lucanis came to them. That meant 18 days that she has been stuck there, in the Fade. He had been receiving steady updates from Lucanis, vaguely written to avoid issues if they were intercepted. But he could sense the urgency in them, the near desperation. The longer Ivy–Rook was missing? The angrier Lucanis became.
And Viago himself? His fellow Crows had been treating him differently. Delicately. It drove him mad.
Teia was the sole reason he was standing. She kept him steady– reminded him that no matter what, they were Crows. They were Talons. They must stay alert, and work hard to continue preparations for defeating Elgar’nan. They would protect Treviso to the last.
There was no body. No corpse to mourn. She’d just… disappeared. Lucanis insisted she was alive, but being lost in Thedas because of a bad contract, a job gone wrong, was something Viago was prepared for. Being betrayed during the end of the world and being locked away in an ancient elven god-prison somewhere in the Fade? No one could be prepared for that. He certainly was not.
If she was dead– or was to die before being freed– how could he find a way to move forward? Caterina had not been dead– there were fake ashes, but Viago never saw her. Because she was not dead. How could he accept losing Ivy if he was sure to never have his proof? His closure?
He heard urgent steps race down the hall towards his little corner of the world, and he glanced up in time to see Teia come into view. She was breathing quickly, eyes wide and hands raised in an aborted movement to reach for something, someone– or perhaps whatever was getting to her simply would not let any part of her body relax.
He stood quickly enough to knock the chair he’d been sitting in onto the ground, the clatter being graciously ignored by any nearby Crows.
“They found her.”
Rook’s heart was broken. Varric was dead. Davrin and Assan were dead. Bellara was likely not far behind them. She’d sat there, settling into the silence of her chambers to absorb this information, before Lucanis had come to her.
She sighed. Lucanis.
She loved him, and he loved her in return. How could it be that they found each other now, when they had so little time together? Could it not be that they’d met before, perhaps grow close when their lives weren’t falling apart? When their home was not under occupation and constant threat? But no, that's not how her life goes. It’s not how Lucanis’s life goes, either, bless him. And who could say that they would have ever learned to love each other as they have now? She wishes that he had never encountered the horrors that he’d endured– and she knew he felt the same for her.
But she would never trade him for anything in the world. She’d never give this time back, never wish for anyone else to be who she stood beside and worked through their demons with. No pun intended. Spite was along for this ride, as well– and she had even come to care for him. She knew that Lucanis was far more in sync with him now, and they both somehow found ways to dote on her– they sought out her safety and joy in tandem.
Spite had been over the moon when they’d pulled her from the Fade. He gave them space once everything had calmed, but the outburst of “ROOK, SAFE, OURS, HOME” and its variants was something that made her heart squeeze with affection.
“Cuore mio, you are here. You are really here.”
If anyone had told her that she would fall in love with the Demon of Vyrantium just two years ago, she may have tried to scoff and call the idea ridiculous. She’d seen him in passing, his being a Talon and a friend to Teia and Viago ensured that, but she’d never had the opportunity to know him. She would not have been entirely quick to brush aside the idea that she could fall for such a man. She was a romantic, at heart. And he was very nice to look at.
What she would have certainly laughed at, of course, was that he could love her back. The First Talon’s heir– as if!
How could she have known that he would be like this? He was shy in his own way, a kind and considerate lover, a romantic man that remembered her favorite drink and cooked meals to bring her and their team joy.
He’d apparently shown interest in Viago, once. Of course, Vi was an ass, and a little oblivious, but Teia sorted that situation out in short order. Teia was too headstrong to let Viago miss her cues– she could see how he may have missed any that Lucanis attempted in comparison. She couldn’t say she was disappointed– she’d found sisterhood with Teia, and the way all their lives aligned had left her and Lucanis to find each other when they needed it most. She knew that no matter what the world threw at her, the Crows had always been there and always would be.
Her nose burned with the urge to cry. She felt like a child again– a snuffling little fledgling that had no idea what to do and sought her surrogate brother for answers to every problem. She would infuriate him by never listening to his advice, but she knew that no matter what, he would have plenty for her anyways. He would never let her falter.
How was she supposed to do this? How had she even gotten this far? The team believed in her, Varric had believed in her. Ghilan’nain was dead. But how could she celebrate such a monumental accomplishment when she was expected to do it again, two times over?
She heard footsteps approach her doorway, so she roughly wiped away any almost-tears and shook herself to alertness. Those were Lucanis’s steps.
“Ivy?” He asked, gently. He was one of few that still used her actual name, and hearing it come from him felt like a prayer. She sniffed, looking up to where he stood. His face held a genuine smile. The real ones came a little easier now, even with what they faced on the horizon. She didn’t take a single one for granted.
“Hm?” She hummed, unsure of what to say. She would not question or begrudge his company now, but he had said he needed to speak with their contacts not that long ago. She would be surprised if everything was settled so soon, and only hoped his quick return didn’t mean something was wrong.
“There is someone here to see you.” He started, walking over to where she sat. And just like the night before, he knelt in front of her to look up into her eyes. “How are you feeling?”
“Homesick. Stressed. Wishing for another quiet night in your arms, rather than whatever it is I need to do next.” She reached her hand to cup his cheek in her palm, and he leaned into it, as soft as a cat. “Even spending the time teaching Spite Wicked Grace would be nice right now.”
Lucanis chuckled. “Don’t encourage him. I may not be able to provide all of that yet, but we will get there soon enough. We are so close, mi vida.”
“Hmm. And after that, I am all yours.” Her thumb brushed across the skin of his cheek, down to his lips as his smile widened. A part of her warmed at the purple haze that formed around his eyes at her comment.
“Ours?”
She knelt down, kissing him briefly on the lips. “Yours.”
Lucanis’s eyes remained shut after the kiss, that sweet smile still in place. She remembered what he had come to tell her now, and straightened in her seat. “You had mentioned someone was here to see me?”
“Ah, yes. We must go to the common area before he decides to start bursting through doors.” Lucanis stood, reaching out his hand to assist Rook. She didn’t need it, but it felt nice to place her hand in his. She assumed that was the true motive, anyways. He was so distracting when he was like this. Sweet, soothing, affectionate.
She quirked her brow. “Bursting through doors?”
He only smiled, shaking his head. “You will see.”
They made their way to the stairs, and Rook belatedly recognized the sounds of footsteps below. They were pacing, impatient and restless. They were familiar. It took her no time to put the pieces together as her own pace quickened, her visitors finally coming into view.
Viago paced, hunched in on himself with his hand over his mouth. He heard her come down the stairs, and his eyes snapped to her.
He looked tired. They had been separated for far longer periods than this in the past, whether it was due to contracts or Rook’s time-out adventure with Varric. But something about her imprisonment, working through her regrets and finding her way out of something that held gods? She may have been more homesick than she thought.
He crossed the room in what seemed to be no more than three quick strides, and Rook quickly found herself scooped into the arms of the much taller man. It took her by surprise. It wasn’t that Viago wasn’t affectionate– sure, he complained and lectured her constantly, but he remained the older brother figure that gave her a home and a family. There was affection there. But this? He hadn’t held her like this in years.
“Uccellino.” Her feet lifted slightly from the ground, and the tears that had threatened earlier came back in full force. She hugged him back, tightly, and didn’t miss the small tremble in his shoulders. “You are here. You are alive– Thank the Maker.” He spoke quietly, his face buried in her neck as he held her close.
He was never this public with his affection. He– he was terrified.
“Viago, you can’t tell me you believed a Fade prison for ancient elven gods would hold me , did you?” She smiled, never once loosening her grip. Her joke was betrayed by her tone, and the small tremor in her voice as she held the worst of her tears at bay.
He only squeezed her tighter, “idiota,” his voice was a whisper. She took it as her cue to fall silent.
He set her down, carefully, and she saw his eyes skim over her, scanning her for injuries or for something amiss. He always made her feel so small. It didn’t help that he stood nearly a foot above her. Teia came to stand to their side, putting her hand on Rook’s shoulder. Viago’s hands remained clasped on her arms, before they both drew away. “Welcome back, dear.”
She saw Viago nod to Lucanis, his eyes shining.
“Of course, Teia. A Crow never abandons a contract.” She smiled as Viago scoffed, and she knew they would be alright.
They had plans to make, a battle to win, and a world to save. If she spent a little extra time before they departed to speak to Viago as they were last to leave the room, no one made comment. If those treacherous tears fell– from her eyes and his– when she whispered “fratello mio” in an iron-clad embrace, no one batted an eye.
And if, when the dust had settled and her team walked into the sunset, she had three Crows to welcome her home?
Well, then, she had absolutely won the day.