#two rooks

"Then perhaps the three of you should go back to bed after breakfast," Neve suggested.

"Ooh, we're getting towards a big plot point in the book I think?" Bellara said excitedly as she settled into her chair across from Rook.

"It's been better than I thought it would be," Taash noted. They smirked, "It has as lot more fight scenes than I expected. Thought it was going to be all balls and shit."

"What else do you expect from a romantic adventure?" Lucanis asked as he refilled his own coffee and poured a second cup.

"I can't wait until this afternoon," Bellara chirped. "When the Merchant Prince's daughter presents the Crow with the dagger? It's so romantic!"

Lucanis set the second cup of coffee he'd poured in front of Rook and the Warden smiled up at the Crow through the veil of his thick dark hair. "Thank you," he murmured.

"Romantic?" Neve smirked at Bellara, "I suppose giving your lover a weapon to propose marriage might be romantic, if you're from Antiva."

Lucanis took his seat beside Rook as the team began serving themselves breakfast. He cradled his coffee, inhaling the pleasing scent before he reached for a piece of fruit.

"Oh...Shit." They all heard Rook's curse and the sound of shattering ceramic as he dropped his coffee and spilled it on himself and the floor.

"Meirda," Lucanis swore and bolted to the kitchen to grab a cloth to help Rook wipe coffee off himself and the floor while the Warden stood, now fully awake and wide eyed, between Neve and Bellara.

Emmrich was already up and checking Rook, ensuring that he hadn't burned himself badly while Lace grabbed a broom and began sweeping up pieces of shattered pottery.

Sunshine took one look at her brother and began to laugh, a laugh just this side of hysteria, as she remembered the day they'd accompanied Lucanis to the Treviso markets and Rook had purchased and given Lucanis the wyvern dagger.

"No serious burns, thank goodness," Emmrich said as he stepped away from Rook. Lucanis quickly took his place, fussing over the tall Warden.

"It's alright, I'm...fine, dear," Rook found himself murmuring.

Rock.

A pleased hiss from Manfred whispers across the balcony. Radas is paying no mind as he continues. At his side, Assan trills as he watches, and listens.

“We’ve been together for over a year now–” he makes a fist, or rather, leaves his fist clenched.

Rock.

Another happy hiss. A griffon’s congratulations chirrups alongside it.

“–not, together, together but I mean. Friends. Close. Everything was great. Confusing, sometimes. But great~” His free hand scrubs at his face, pinching the bridge of his nose. “And then I kissed him at Weisshaupt–”

Rock.

A victorious squeak and the rattle of bones. “–and he kissed me back! There was something. It felt–” his hand falls from his face and he sighs in frustration.

“But it's like he's avoiding me now. Taking extra supply runs, spending more time away from the Lighthouse… and there's a distance when we talk. Not always, but sometimes. It was never there before. Even when we didn't know each other at all yet. What if I forced something he didn't–”

Manfred taps his foot on the ground and hisses impatiently. Assan clicks his beak and presses it against Radas’ hanging fist.

“What? Oh, sorry.” He focuses on the two for a minute while other thoughts run through his head. One, two, three.

Scissors.

A SCANDALIZED hiss erupts from Manfred, holding his head in his hands and sinking to a squat. Assan squawks in shock, and spins excitedly at the sudden upset before looking back and forth between the two in anticipation.

Radas chuckles at the pair and hums in thought.

“I should talk to Teia. Maybe she has an idea for how I can apologize to him.” He starts to move towards the library and the Vir’Revas, pausing and leaning down to kiss first the feathery, and then the bony heads.

Nico’s heart sinks. Not for the fact of being denied the righting of his past mistakes, but at the idea that Radas might sacrifice himself for this. Nico’s free hand grips Radas’ wrist, and it’s his turn now to inspect the other’s face. The jumper watches the crow study him and a small smile creeps to his face. For a split second it was Treviso again, before the blight. Before the gods. He could almost feel the sun warming him, even here. 

Nico wants to lean in and touch Radas; To whisper comforting promises to him, but with both of his hands occupied, the ticking of the clock, and some egotistical mage masquerading behind a literal head in the clouds, he can only offer one last chance for Radas to let him shoulder the blame.

“You don’t have to do this.” Nico's whisper is urgent when he unknowingly squeezes Radas’ wrist. Distress weighs heavy on his brow; This was his contract and his burden to bear, “We both don’t have to die.”

Radas doesn’t trust himself to speak just yet. His hand squeezes back to buy an extra breath to compose himself. Exhaling, he leans forward and presses his lips to Nico’s before taking half a step back. But Nico doesn’t let him get away from him, stepping forward with fervor to pull Radas back in. His hand releases the other’s wrist to press his palm against the back of his neck instead. If this were to be the last impression Nico leaves with Radas, he was going to make it count. 

Finally, he pulls back to let Radas speak, ignoring the adrenaline rushing through his veins and the way he’s made even himself a little breathless.

Radas has to steel himself before he replies.

“I’d die a little either way.” His hand drifts off of the dagger and he moves, not behind, but beside the warrior. He looks to Nico and nods. “Let’s take our shot. For Treviso.”

“Rook!” Lucanis shouts, his voice laced with just enough frustration to shatter their dreamland, “The big cloud face in the sky? Remember?”

Nico’s focus is jerked away from Radas as the other crow calls out. He turns to look at Lucanis, and when he meets his eye, Nico’s adrenaline floods into anger. For everything that the dragon had done to their home, right now they were wasting time. He turns back to face Radas, sucking in a steadying breath and nodding back, “For Treviso, courtesy of House de Riva.”

There’s a bounce in Nico’s step as they turn to confront the aforementioned cloud face. As he raises the dagger up towards the sky, his shout carries all of his grief, anger, and hatred for the ancient elf in it.

As Lucanis wandered through the Treviso markets while waiting for the appointed time when they would meet Illario, he observed the Wardens as they admired the market. Both were enthusiastic when he suggested picking some items up for the team, each making idle comments on the choices Lucanis made.

"Monster bones?" Rook asked with a raised brow.

"Consider it a bribe to keep Assan from chewing on the Eluvian," Lucanis replied.

"Or the furniture, or our shoes, Brother," Sunshine chuckled softly.

Rook laughed and shook his head in amusement, and Lucanis realized that both siblings seemed more relaxed today than almost any other time he'd observed them.

They picked up mint for Lace, fish for Bellara, and a set of Antivan cups for Emmrich. When Lucanis picked up peppers to season food for Taash, Sunshine suggested a few other spices that might go well with the pepper and bought a few herself.

He picked up bag of almonds, which both siblings expressed their approval of. He'd learned that they were both very fond of certain dried fruits mixed with nuts.

"Citrus, for Neve," Lucanis said as they reached the last stall on his list. "She only eats fried fish. You think she would have discovered scurvy by now."

"At least she doesn't claim rum will keep the scurvy away, not like Isabela always did," Sunshine snorted.

"Don't remind me," Rook told his sister and rolled his eyes. "Though she says she does actually eat fruit nowadays."

That was another interesting thing about the siblings. They were both over 40 and seemed to know a wide variety of people for two Wardens who'd gotten banished for insubordination.

Rook paused beside Lucanis as the assassin handed the oranges he'd purchased to Sunshine to put in one of the bags they carried. "Is that everything on the list?"

"Yes, Illario should be at the cafe by now," Lucanis replied. "Let's go.

Lucanis guided them through the market stalls near Cafe Peitra. Sunshine walked beside him, glancing at her brother as Rook paused at a stall and appeared to be looking over the items there. Lucanis paused when he noticed and gave her a curious look. "Do you know what he's looking for?"

Sunshine shook her head. "No, but something obviously caught his eye. My brother doesn't usually window shop."

Coins exchanged hands, and then Rook turned towards them with something in his hand, a knife of some kind Lucanis noted. Rook rejoined them and offered the knife to Lucanis, a soft smile on his lips as he did. "You can't just buy something for everyone else and not get something for yourself," he told the Crow. "Here, this is for you."

Lucanis felt himself freeze as the Warden offered him the knife. Spite hissed in delight as the demon caught the Crows spinning thoughts. Among Antvian Crows and their families, one often gave a knife to their lover as a way of proposing marriage. Lucanis admittedly was somewhat smitten by the tall, black haired Warden. It just seemed very early to be proposing given that they weren't even in a relationship.

"A wyvern tooth dagger," Lucanis murmured. "I loved wyverns as a boy. Caterina would never let me have one of these."

A slight grimace passed over Rook's expression but vanished as quickly as it came. "Well, you can have one now," he told Lucanis firmly.

Lucanis found himself reaching out to accept the knife while his emotions swirled like a whirlpool inside his head.

"We should probably get to the cafe?" Sunshine suggested after she'd watched her brother and Lucanis stare at each other for a moment too long.

"Ah, yes," Lucanis shook himself, grateful for the distraction. "Yes, let's go meet Illario." He hurried towards the cafe, Rook and Sunshine following behind.

Bellara glanced over at the brother and sister, her brow furrowed as she realized they hadn't contributed anything to the conversation about Lucanis's possession. "Rook, Sunshine, what do you think?" the Dalish elf asked.

"Hmm?" Rook glanced up from his mending and shrugged. "It's not like we can separate the two of them, not without killing Lucanis, which really rather not do after we went to all the trouble of rescuing him."

I like him! Spite declared as the demon manifested beside the Warden. He's fun!

"Yes, but shouldn't we take precautions?" Lace asked seriously. "Sunshine?"

Sunshine gave an annoyed sniff and closed her book. "Lace, the best that we can do is keep an eye on him. Lucanis isn't the first possessed person that Rook and I have worked with." Her expression turned thoughtful. "Though he is the first possessed person we've worked with who isn't a mage."

"At least in your case, Lucanis, it isn't by choice," Rook snorted.

I want to talk to Rook! Spite demanded of Lucanis.

No, Lucanis replied silently to the demon. You need to leave him alone.

I WANT TO TALK TO ROOK! Spite snarled, jerking Lucanis's head and causing his nose to start to bleed.

Lace, Bellara, and Neve all looked alarmed, half getting up out of their seats.

Rook and Sunshine exchanged a look and Rook sighed, pulling a handkerchief out of a pocket and carrying it over to Lucanis. "Here. I assume Spite is acting up because he isn't getting his way?"

Lucanis looked at Rook in mild astonishment. "Yes. How did you know?"