twoforsurprise | One Short Day In Antiva City

One Short Day In Antiva City

Davrin might have forgotten Lucanis' offer about the tailor, but he had not. Not all of their excursions were for fighting demons or cultists or darkspawn, and eventually Rook was going treasure hunting on the Rivani coast with Taash and Harding. And just them. Quite adamant that only Taash and Harding were needed, in fact.

Andraste preserve them, Rook was apparently becoming interested in matchmaking.

It worked out, though. The timing. Lucanis ever so casually mentions that Davrin promised to assist him in some errands in Antiva and Rook is just so happy they're not at each other's throats that they're told to not take however long they need. Lucanis makes a mental note to pick up something nice for Rook when they're in Antiva City.

Ah, Antiva City. A less beautiful Treviso, Lucanis used to say. That was before the Ossuary, before the occupation, before the blight. Now it's hard to not see everything that's been lost. He doesn't insult Davrin by assuming the man can't keep up with the Crow routes along the rooftops and across ziplines, so much faster than the weaving crowded streets up the hill the city is built on overlooking the harbor the few times they need to duck down to street level.

"Should be right around - ah, there it is," Lucanis declares once they're half way up the hill, the financial district of the city settled between the Palace at the top and the harbor and all the wealth the shipping industry brings. This time when he drops down to the street level it is where they'll stay for the time being, heading to an understated store front with a simple hanging sign that looks like an embroidered rose carved into the wood of it.

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Davrin has the patience to at least wait until they're out of the shop, burdened with meat that would need to make its way back to the Lighthouse sooner rather than later, before picking at that particular thread again. He wasn't trying to open a wound, but in his experience groups in turmoil were groups dangerous to be a known ranking member of as people saw their chance to skip up the ranks. And between the death of the first talon and the blighting of Treviso, the Crows were in turmoil.

"And who exactly is that now? The First."

It would. Which meant there would be no lingering in Treviso on the way back. Need to get this to an icebox sooner rather than later.

He bites back a sharp comment that it is neither Davrin's concern nor his business. It was neither of those things, but he could already hear Rook's chiding tone prompted by another fight to stay his tongue.

"No one. There's other matters taking everyone's attention right now," he said. Like the blighting of Treviso. "Illario will probably make a move for it. He's always wanted it."

And with Lucanis not a viable option thanks to Spite, he had his chance.

"And you didn't?"

He's pushing hard at the edge of the peace they've made, and he knows it. But when the opening was that clear, he couldn't force himself to stay his hand and leave his curiosity unsatisfied. He's wondered what Lucanis would have been if allowed to make his own choices. Now, for better or worse and at a terribly high price, the man may be facing a dark version of that very opportunity. He wanted to know what he thought, earnestly and honestly, even if it was enough to reignite a real argument between them.

"I would have done as Caterina asked," Lucanis says, and that's the sad truth of it.

He didn't want it, at all. But if she'd told him to take it, he would have. It was entirely possible her favor would have shifted to Illario anyway with Lucanis now being an abomination. It probably would have been. That would have been the ideal scenario - everyone got what they wanted, more or less. Illario might be happy then. Him and Caterina could finally come to an understanding.

"That's not an answer."

It was, though. It really clearly was. But Davrin couldn't help pushing further, encouraging (demanding) the man say the actual words. Sometimes half the battle was just acknowledging there was one to fight.

"It's the only one that matters," Lucanis said - with more force and snap than intended, drawing at least a couple stray looks from others at the raised tone. He spared none of them a second glance, his eyes wholly focused on Davrin. "I thought you were supposed to understand 'duty'."

"I chose my duty. And lost the right to go back to my family for it."

It's not a holier than thou sentiment- he made the choice right for him, not for anyone else. Placing that kind of expectation on another would be no better than when his parents demanded he stick to the old ways at all cost. It an ideal world, there would never be a choice between who you were and what your family would accept. But both of them knew they lived far from that kind of life, and he couldn't fault Lucanis for picking the latter.

They weren't walking anymore. They should duck down an alley or put a pin in this, but what were they if not stubborn, immovable objects?

"There's nothing wrong with recognizing you have duty to yourself, too. You don't have to follow it. But you should know what it would be."

He did have a duty to himself - to stay alive. That was all that mattered. Every other want was just a want, and those could be lived without. Some were weakness. No matter what ~~his cousin~~ Davrin said.

{{ WANT OUT! }}

Lucanis flinched at the sudden shout in his ear, but did not look at the demon, did not acknowledge him. He had plenty of out time these days, he had no place to complain.

"My family is not so easily set aside-" it was a low blow, one he would regret likely in just a few minutes. "Even moreso as the already small number dwindles further."

"Right. So you're going to replenish the bloodline instead of taking first Talon, now? Is that the plan? Keep twisting yourself in knots to find new ways to leave all your choices to the Dellamortes."

This was definitely going past where he'd intended, but Davrin didn't care. They both had pride, a temper, and an undying loyalty to their respective sacrifices. Lucanis may not wanted to have been an assassin, or maybe he did. But the fact he wouldn't admit he made a choice to follow that desire, or to give up on his independence instead of his family desires chaffed in a way Davrin didn't understand. Like looking through a mirror that twisted everything just wrong enough to make his stomach turn.

It was simply not an option for him right now - to admit what he had given up. He was willing to accept that his life was mostly others (Caterina) making his choices for him, but if he admitted why he simply followed orders instead of fighting then he would have to look at why he made that choice. Why he had decided to fall into line. It would mean acknowledging more about Caterina than Lucanis could handle. And she was dead now, anyway, so what did it matter? Why bring up that pain all over again when he had figured out how to survive it?

'I don't need time, I need a target' he had said, immediately after finding out she had been killed, mere hours after escaping where he was imprisoned and tortured for a year.

He did not need to think, to feel. He needed to work.

"Right now, I am going to finish the contract I was given," he said, harsh. "And I am going to get my revenge on Zara for what she has done. The rest does not matter."

Maybe he would die in the process of one of those. That also didn't matter. Spite screamed and howled and Lucanis wiped blood away from his nose again, turning on his heel to go to the nearest alleyway where he knew there was a handhold back up to the roofs. The fastest way out of the city.

Spite was going to have a rant and rave ready next time, Davrin could tell. If Lucanis slept again. If he let Davrin help for a few weeks after this. If Lucanis went It alone he was pretty sure Spite would bloody more than the crow's nose. It was the other man's own choice of suffering, sure. And Davrin wasn't one to bite back his opinions even if half of the suffering would have ended up being his own.

"Damned fool."

He muttered, loud enough for Lucanis to hear, as he followed begrudgingly behind.

Lucanis had every intention to go it alone for at least a little while. He knew how far he could push himself, how much he could take. He endured Spite before Davrin had started helping, he could endure on his own again.

Endure. Always the watch word. He did not respond to Davrin's comment, because Davrin simply did not understand. It helped his own anger, though. Let it burn rather than feel guilt over his own harsh words. Seeing Treviso again helped that, the sullen burn of anger and shame that took over everything else. That somehow he should have been better enough to stop this from happening to his city.

There was no ignoring the Crows, the eluvian was in the Cantori Diamond, shot through with thick tree-trunk like tentacles of blight like so many other buildings now. So the first words Lucanis did say to Davrin again was after hearing Teia call out to him. He held the bag he was carrying out to the Warden.

"Go ahead - I'll follow when I can."

Davrin grabbed half of Lucanis' hand when he took the bag in hand, meeting the other man's eye with unwavering certainty.

"If you're not back by the morning, I'll find you."

After Lucanis had gone missing following the attack, Davrin wasn't going to risk the crow sulking back into the shadows because of a spat. He'd drag a blighted Spite screaming back to the Lighthouse if need be, but hopefully it wouldn't come to that.

"Warden, remember. I have my ways."

((Maybe next day Davrin has to keep his word and hunt down Lucanis in the blight?))

Edited 2024-12-25 02:42 (UTC)

Lucanis met Davrin's eyes, his own dark ones unable to completely hide the regret he carried over his city.

"Assan needs your care more."

(He would not be back by the morning.)

((lol yes absolutely. Sorry Lucanis has gone AWOL. Again.))

Edited ( ) 2024-12-25 02:51 (UTC)

Forget those old scars he'd spotted yesterday, Davrin was going to beat a brand new collection into the man. He'd warded off Rook's concern, saying he and Lucanis had made plans to meet back up today in Treviso, then return to the Lighthouse. Technically true. The question was just how conscious the Crow would be at that point.

Back in his full armor and with Assan at his side, he cut a far more formidable figure this morning than he had the previous afternoon when he'd left Lucanis behind. He didn't know much about the layout of the city, but knew where to find those Crow lieutenants that should tell him where their defacto leader had scampered off to.

Those lieutenants were easy to find - the Eluvian let out right in the hideout of the Cantori Diamond, which was their base of operations. It was just the elven woman at this time of day though, leaning against the desk and reading what were likely reports, brow furrowed with bad news after bad news. The heavy footsteps had her looking up - even the fully armored Crows (for there were a few) walked softer, and she recognized the Grey Warden that Rook had recruited. No Rook though, strange. But worse... she frowned. Sighed.

"He didn't come back last night, did he?"

No need to clarify who that 'he' meant.

"I didn't think he would."

Secretly hoped? Maybe. But he was a practical man. He was here because if he didn't drag him back, he was sure Lucanis would throw himself into this blighted city until Rook mounted a rescue or it killed him.

As usual when Davrin was on the job, Assan stayed by his side. Silent, alert, a deadly storm waiting to explode on order. Not unlike the crow's themselves, he couldn't help but think. Or at least like Lucanis.

"Got any leads?"

Teia cursed under her breath.

"I'd hoped he'd just returned to your lighthouse place without letting us know. The last time we heard anything was six hours ago," she said, setting the papers aside to dig through a drawer of the desk where a few sketched out maps of Treviso's current state of being was. She took out out and a piece of charcoal, making a few marks across it before rolling it back up and holding it out to Davrin.

"We had Fledglings go missing on scouting missions and sent him to check on them. Most came back thanks to him, but these were the last locations of the ones still unaccounted for."

And those areas were...ah, naturally. Blight, blight, blight. Davrin offered a small salute of thanks and was off. No fancy acrobatics or clever passages for him. Using the map he cut straight through from point A to point B the best he could, skirting only the stronger Darkspawn he knew better than to take on his own.

Oh, naturally, full of fucking blight. And some Antaam. Probably blighted Antaam too. Why not?

Going straight through was a little easier said than done. Treviso was a a city that grew up around it's canals, a sprawling maze of buildings and narrow streets choked off at points by the invading Antaam. And that was before the blight had hit said canals, cutting off several easy routes and forcing people to find other ways around them. Even the locals were having trouble these days. The first two spots were no luck for Lucanis. There were signs he had been there, though. The particular scorch marks that came from Spite's wings flaring up against stone, a bunch of dead darkspawn. Some dead Antaam.

A few dead fledglings, veins black from the blight that got inside of them first. They all looked so much younger with the life gone from their eyes.

The third location...

The whole city had been covered by blight, it was Hossberg Wetlands mark 2. This, though- the whole building was choked with it, the stonework barely visible between the tendrils that crawled and wove over the sides, through broken windows, pulsed with their own unnatural life as boils of it spotted the outside. It was like the whole building was made of it now, it would probably fall apart if it receded.

And there were blighted Antaam on the ground - two who fell from what looked like a window four floors up, one of the only broken ones not choked by blight tendrils. They were still warm. Very recently dead.

Did abominations have resistance to the Blight? For once in his life, Davrin sorely hoped there was an upside to being possessed by a demon as he raced up the tendrils to climb his way to Lucanis. This much blight- gods. The chances of a non-warden trudging through all of this and coming out clean...

Davrin had taken his oath in between Blights. There were always Darkspawn crawling out of some hole or another, of course. Enough to make him a tried and true Warden. But he usually arrived in an already dead village, or where the worst had already come to pass. He hadn't seen enough people corrupted by the Blight first hand, watched as their minds faded and the darkness took hold, to have grown numb to it yet. He hoped he never did. But the idea of racing this fast, of getting to his target, only for Lucanis to be lost-

Damn it why did he give him so much time? He should have set a midnight curfew.

At least Assan wasn't slowed by climbing. He was up and at the window in a heart beat, ready to track the rogue assassin down.

It didn't look good. But maybe there was a silver lining to the abomination thing.

Spite's eyes burned bright in Lucanis' body, wings flashing and burning off any of the blight that got close enough. They were trapped in a partially collapsed room in the upper floor - stairway fully gone, most of the second and third floors now gone, blight spiderwebbing him into a corner with only a few feet of breathing room, tendrils dripping red and viscous with the sickness it was ready to spread. The weak points to break them were not within reach of him - on the outside of the building, or under the floor entirely. Something a griffon might be able to destroy, though. In his trapped corner, Spite was half collapsed on the ground, holding a young trainee close as their breathing was uneven and raspy, black veins spreading out from their eyes, from their mouth, a wet cough bursting from lungs every now and again. Lucanis' body was injured too, though it was hard to tell how badly. A mess of blood against his side, but the dark of the clothing and armor made it difficult to tell how much. Maybe it wasn't even his. The way he'd gone paler than normal spoke of blood loss. When the bright purple of Spite's eyes faded his own were weary but alert as he still tried to look for ways out.

He almost didn't believe it was the griffon when he saw the beaked face poke in through the window across the room.

"--Assan-? What-?"

Assan knew his assignment already: save the idiot. He didn't have to wait for Davrin to finish his climb to start shredding at the weak points he could reach, the screeching and subsequent squelching of popped pustules informing Davrin what was needed. He watched for any as he climbed, struggling to cling on with legs alone to slash and hack at whatever he could reach.

It would be another minute before he could reach the window himself, given the side quest of slicing through what he could. But Assan was there. Assan that had spent enough time playing and flying with Spite by now that he could read the demon's intentions, like any predators hunting in a pack. He didn't need orders, but he would follow the lead of a friend to get them all out safely.

Lucanis had been fighting off Spite here and there for the better part of several hours as his own focus faded with the weakness of the injury. Seeing Assan, knowing the rapport the demon had with the griffon...

"Get the kid back to the Diamond. Please."

He was already blighted. Already dying. But Lucanis did not want to leave another one to die alone if he didn't have to. With that, he gave himself over to the demon.

Spite hissed, howled - finally in full control that he didn't have to fight for. He still felt the pain Lucanis' body was in, but it affected him differently. He pushed himself up, hoisted the young trainee into his arms with as little jostling as possible.

The floor lurched under their feet, the stone groaning as the load bearing blight tendrils were now being destroyed. As soon as the cage of blight was destroyed Spite was pushing through, out of the corner, wings snapping out once more ready to go and running for that window.

And just as he was about to enter- there went Spite. Or Lucanis. Both. A body in their hands, and Assan rushing after them. The griffon circled back now that the demon and his cargo were free, talons and beak ready and willing to take on more of the darkspawn in the area. Davrin watched Spite fly, trying calculate based on the rough information he had of the lay of the land, if the demon was going back to the Crow headquarters. If so- well. Mission accomplished. But he was still a Warden. He could clean this area up a bit with Assan before heading back. Even if Lucanis was infected, he should have a window to get there in time and try to shove the Joining on him.

Though clean up was a strong term. No matter the noble intentions, the area was well and truly lost to the Blight. Even he could see that. The clean up was less saving the building and more stopping anything fleeing from the collapse from making it to less blighted ground. If left to his own devices, it would be an hour or so at most, and he would be (significantly more bloody and worn himself) heading back to find out just what had becoming of the assassin.

If Spite wasn't heading there and didn't stay to help- well. Assan would have to follow, leaving Davrin to cleaning up on his own.

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(rip treviso, blighting it today)

at least blight black and red are still fashionable colors >.>

TT_______TT

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I did not expect Lucanis to just be SO FUCKING SAD.

His giant bleeding murder heart

THE BIGGEST SOFTIE.

It is crazy how differently neve deals with her city burning

IT IS! I was not expecting this.

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