Chapter Text
Rook gazed upon the city of Minrathous for the second time in the past week, eyes flickering to the buildings around them as she wondered how much damage the demons and Archon’s palace had done to the city the night of Solas’s ritual. From her current eye’s view, things seemed to be more or less intact. It didn’t seem like things had changed much since the night she’d fled Tevinter five years ago with Venatori on her heels.
She doubted that anyone here was going to confuse Warden Selene Thorne with Selene Thalrassian, the ungifted daughter of two Tevinter mages and lesser member of the bloodline due to such lack of talent. After her last night using the name Thalrassian, she was fairly certain she’d probably been expunged from family records. While her exile was technically voluntary, she knew after being connected to the disappearance of a Venatori mage, her family would not have readily welcomed her home.
A flight south and west and an unfortunate encounter with Darkspawn and rescue by Grey Wardens lead to her Joining and induction into the order, at which time she’d been added to the Wardens list of members as Selene Thorne, an unassuming ungifted woman from Minrathous. Since it was well known that mages were held in higher regard in Tevinter society, no one really questioned her departure from Tevinter other than where a message should be sent should she pass in service to the order. She’d given them the name of an old friend who’d let her few relatives who actually gave a damn about her know if something did happen.
Neve had already come to the conclusion that Selene was originally from Minrathous, but in a city this large, when Selene made it clear she’d been on bad terms with her family, Neve hadn’t inquired further, thank the Maker.
“Do the Shadow Dragons know we’re here?” Rook asked the mage as they walked through the maze of market stalls.
That question was answered by the voice of one Tarquin, as Neve introduced him, and Rook herself smiling slightly at the man’s snark regarding the treatment of non-mages versus mages in Tevinter.
“If that isn’t a familiar feeling,” Rook murmured to him as they were introduced.
Tarquin lifted a brow at her, taking in the obvious Warden uniform she wore. “You’re from around here?” he asked.
“Originally, family didn’t have much use for a child who wasn’t a mage,” Rook shrugged lightly. “The Wardens didn’t care though, so..”
Tarquin chuckled. “Well, welcome home, for what it’s worth.”
She felt a sudden rush of air as a man dropped from the rooftops to land beside Tarquin, his eyes piercing as he took in Neve and Rook.
Neve smiled widely and said, “Rook, meet the Viper.”
Rook tilted her head to one side as she regarded the man, taking in the cut of his clothing and the mask he wore to conceal his lower face. The coat he wore was one style favored by mages, and for just a moment she wondered what he was concealing behind the mask.
That was up until she met his gaze and realized she knew those eyes.
She covered that shock with a slight smile and inclined her head to the man, wondering for a moment if she’d see a flicker of recognition in his gaze before they moved on to business. “The name, the entrance, I have so many questions.”
“Most people do,” the Viper murmured in response.
There was no time for questions from either of them, however, as Tarquin reported an issue with red lyrium idols they’d recovered from the Venatori. Rook was more than happy to let those questions go unasked and unanswered as she found herself and Harding following Neve through the streets, following the trail of another red lyrium idol and the resonance it left on the Fade.
In the end the idol was recovered, but their culprit was released because of his connection to his father, so par for the course for Tevinter. She said as much to Neve as they left the scene, and Neve agreed, but told her to take the win they could get. At least Dock Town was a little safer now, and that was better than nothing.
Neve led her through the city to the Shadow Dragons’ safehouse and introduced her to a few other members of the organization, all of whom seemed to catch the hint of Tevinter accent still present in her voice, but none of them seemed interested in inquiring too closely about it. Rook guessed they all had their own stories, and she was just as glad to let hers remain unspoken.
They took their leave after a while, heading back to the Lighthouse to see what else Bellara and Harding had found, and made plans to travel to Treviso to seek out the Antivan Crows and the Demon of Vyrantium. Selene was certain business would drag them back to Minrathous soon enough, but for now, there were other tasks to deal with.
******
The morning after they’d returned from Treviso after securing the help of the Crows and recruiting Lucanis Dellamorte, Rook sat with him at the dining room table over coffee, discussing weapons preferences when Neve appeared in the doorway, an expression of concern on her face.
“Neve, something bothering you?” Rook asked as the mage joined them at the table.
“The Shadow Dragons have requested some assistance,” Neve told them, idly regarding the cups of coffee on the table.
Without her asking, Lucanis fetched a cup for Neve as well, and the mage sipped from it gratefully.
“Urgent then?” Rook asked, considering some of the other requests for help they’d received from the Veil Jumpers and the Crows.
“Urgent enough,” Neve replied, her tone indicating it was urgent enough to worry about, but not something that required them to go dashing on this very second.
Rook shrugged. “We’ll take a visit to Dock Town today then. Let’s finish breakfast then you two meet me in the Eluvian room in an hour or so?”
Since she’d started hunting Solas with Varric, Selene had rarely worn armor that denoted her association with the Wardens, though she carried her Warden badge of office in a pouch at her waist. Not being immediately identifiable by her armor had helped a few times in the past six months. Black and red leathers with steel chest armor gave little away as to where she was from or who she was affiliated with, and that suited Rook just fine for the moment.
Upon their arrival in Dock Town, the Viper informed them of Darkspawn in tunnels the Shadow Dragons used. “Kaffas,” she swore, glancing between the Viper, Tarquin, and Neve. “There haven’t been reports of Darkspawn this far north in over a year, and now they’re in the tunnels under Dock Town? This can’t be just chance, Neve.” She glanced at the Dragons. “We’ll clear them out.”
She led Neve and Lucanis down into the tunnels, swearing as she sensed not just Darkspawn but blight boils like they’d seen in Arlathan and at D’Metas Crossing. She was quite happy to slaughter Darkspawn, but the revelation of Venatori fighting with the Darkspawn had some very unsettling implications and got her mind turning, trying to find what the connection between the two was.
Reporting that the tunnels were now safe was only half the task,and she was unsurprised by the Viper’s question on why the Venatori and Darkspawn wouldn’t be fighting.
“Normally the Darkspawn would have been tearing through the Venatori as much as we were, but there’s something clearly not right here,” Selene scowled as she answered his question.
“You mentioned the gods controlling the Darkspawn,” Lucanis noted. “And what was it that Solas told you, to look for the corrupt and powerful?”
“Which describes the Venatori,” Neve muttered.
“That I might be able to help with,” Tarquin replied as he approached them. “There's a report of Venatori activity at a warehouse near the docks.”
“Then that’s where we go,” Rook said as she exchanged a glance with Neve and Lucanis.
Rook remembered the city, but Neve knew the shortcuts better, and the rogue was happy to let the made lead the way to the warehouse. The Venatori they fought through the streets and on the roof of the warehouse confirmed they were in the right place, but the discovery of Venatori summoning Darkspawn in the warehouse also confirmed the worst of their fears.
“This is a nightmare,” she told Neve and Lucanis later back at the Shadow Dragons safehouse. “The Venatori are bad enough by themselves. Being able to control Darkspawn though?” she shuttered.
“The Shadows will keep an eye on the Venatori and let you know if we find anything else,” Tarquin promised. He shook his head. “Venatori, Darkspawn, and ancient Blighted elven gods? I don’t want to consider what else we have to worry about now.”
“Not just any Venatori activity,” Rook told him. “If anyone sees any hint of the Blight anywhere in the city we need to know. It’s got to be dealt with immediately to keep it from spreading.”
“Bet you didn’t expect to see Blight when you came home, did you?” Tarquin snarked. “Convenient that we have a Grey Warden handy.”
Rook scowled at him. “We didn’t even know the Blight would be involved when we stopped Solas’s ritual,” she told him. “It’s just either terrible or very good luck you happen to have a Warden involved now.”
Tarquin held her glare for a long moment before he held up his hands in surrender. “I know. The timing’s just bad. I am thankful for the help you’ve given us. And I suppose it is better than Varric recruited a Warden to help since Blight ended up being involved.”
“Tarquin, why don’t you tell me how things have been for the Shadows?” Neve suggested as she felt some of the tension dissipating between Tarquin and Rook, and wanting to keep it that way.
Rook rubbed her forehead as Neve and Lucanis managed to pull Tarquin away and into conversation as she considered everything they’d found out in the past several days.
“Rook, do you have a few minutes?” The Viper’s request surprised her a little and she looked up at him then nodded.
“No time like the present.”
She followed the man through the rooms behind and beneath the pawn shop until they were in a corner tucked away from everyone else.
“So, Ashur was it?” Rook asked lightly, using the name that Neve had said she could call him, a name she already knew, but Neve didn’t need to know that.
“It’s been awhile, palumbulus,” Ashur said in a low tone, and Selene took a deep breath, because no one had called her that in at least five years, and the term of endearment confirmed his identity. “I’m glad you see you’ve stayed alive, Selene. Though it might have been nice to have received a letter to let me know before now. The Grey Warden bit was definitely a surprise.”
“The first year after it felt like too much of a risk to send any kind of word home,” Selene admitted as she met his gaze. “And I might not still be alive if I hadn’t been saved by Wardens about four years ago. I ran afoul with some Darkspawn in the mountains. The Wardens found me after I’d already been Blighted. If they hadn’t intervened, I would’ve been dead.”
She saw Ashur’s eyes darken with some emotion, but it was harder to read with the rest of his expression behind the mask. “Well, I’m glad they found you. After that?”
“I let my cousin know I was with the northern Wardens and alive,” she told him. “But given what happened with the Inquisition the only word he sent back was for me to be careful. And after my, er, exile, it didn’t seem like a good idea to try and get a hold of you.”
There was no other way to explain it to the man she’d been betrothed to during childhood, before it became obvious that she wasn’t a mage and the betrothal had been broken. Ashur had been quite literally bred for his position, and if she’d been a mage they might have continued a public association, but a non mage, particularly one in self exile due to disagreements with Venatori?
“I understand, though I do not have to be happy about it,” Ashur sighed.
“That explains the mask at least,” she told him. “Can’t exactly let the Shadow Dragons, or many people for that matter, know that you of all people are involved with an anti-slavery, anti-Venatori group.” She tilted her head. “Who else knows? Tarquin mentioned something but said it wasn’t his story to tell.”
“Tarquin, Neve, Marvis Talani, and our sympathetic ear in the Magisterium,” Ashur told her. “Telling anyone else is too much of a risk.”
Frankly she wondered if that many people knowing that the Black Divine was involved with the Shadow Dragons was too much. “I’d agree.” Selene gave him a bittersweet smile. “I am glad to see you again, though, Ashur, as bad as these circumstances are.”
She saw the answering bittersweet emotion in his own eyes as he spoke behind the mask. “I wish it were under better circumstances,” he agreed, “but at least I know Neve’s working with someone I can trust to get the job done.”
Selene heaved a sigh. “Maker knows I’ll try.” She could hear voices in one of the nearby rooms and jerked her head in that direction. Ashur nodded, indicating they should return to the central part of the shop for now.
“I do want to talk later, circumstances permitting,” he told her before leading her back into the more common areas of the safe house.
“Of course,” she agreed, hoping that perhaps, someday, they would simply be able to catch up like two old friends.