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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Think nothing, feel nothing-

"I need to work," Lucanis said, calm, but his eyes were hollow and distant.

Intimidation having utterly failed- and he was in his full plate and everything- Davrin frowned down at Lucanis for a moment, realizing he wasn't reaching him at all. The man was half delirious and-

Assan bumped against his leg, causing him to glance down. The griffon stayed, head pressed against his thigh, looking intensely up at Davrin. Right. Well. He glanced at Lucanis again, chest tightening in concern.

Right.

He let go of Lucanis' wrist, grabbing him around the shoulders instead and pulling him in, blood coated armor against blood coated armor, wrapping his arms around his back and pressing his mouth next to Lucanis' ear.

"You can't fix this."

Oh.

Intimidation and force were both things Lucanis could shake off easily, especially right now. He had training for it, it was what he was used to facing, what he was used to ignoring.

This, though - so unexpected, it broke through the fugue that had settled over him, the same that had hit right after Treviso had fallen to blight the first time, when he temporarily left Rook's service to try to take care of things where he could. A brief sudden tremor ran through him and he berated himself for even letting that much emotion out. He should be better. He should be better.

His own hands came up, hesitant, wholly unfamiliar and unsure of the action, light against back.

"I have to try."

It was his city. His home.

"Yeah. We will. But you're going to die if you keep trying now."

And Davrin couldn't allow that. He was an ally, a verbal sparing partner, a good fighter, the most singularly stubborn ass he'd met outside of himself. And maybe important to him, for things beyond that. Davrin had consciously opted to not sort through a lot of things involving Lucanis, and he didn't break the trend now. Didn't stop and think or assess why, instead his just pressed a kiss into the other man's hair, just above his ear.

"I've got some potions. Let's patch you up and get you to the Diamond."

Maybe all the way back to the Lighthouse to fully heal him up, but he wasn't going to push his luck yet. At least at the Diamond there would be other Crows to remind him Treviso wasn't relying on him alone to shoulder it all.

The estate was closer than the Diamond, but - Lucanis still couldn't bring himself to go there. Without Caterina, what would change? He felt guilty, leaving the already too empty house to just Illario, but with the tension between them, it was probably a blessing for Illario to not have to deal with Lucanis, with the demon he carried.

He just felt numb, like he'd fallen into the canals in winter again. He was a blade - an blades did not feel hurt, did not feel anything, did not question or doubt.

Blades didn't get kissed so softly just above their ear.

"... alright."

"Alright."

Davrin pulled back slightly, just enough to try to get Lucanis to lower himself down to sitting on the ground. The potion would help, but he'd like to get some pressure on whatever gash was leaking out on his side before they started swinging from rooftops again. But he kept at least one hand on him at all times, encouraging the man to keep leaning against him even as he passed over the healing potion.

"They're worried about you, too, you know. Teia and them. You're not a one man army."

He was harping a bit at this point, maybe. But he needed to impress on the man, somehow, he wasn't still alone in some cell. He impacted those around him. Maybe more than some of those who had sworn to themselves not to form close connections were fully comfortable with.

"It's all I'm good for," Lucanis replied. No self-pity, no sorrow, a simple statement of fact. This was what he could do, better than anyone else. He owed it to them to do it for them. He still moved as Davrin directed, kneeling then sitting on the ground, the pain in his side sharp enough to mentally block out when he was active but annoyingly persistent when he didn't have a purpose to distract himself with. He took the potion, downing it in one go, hissed as he felt the worst of the injury knit itself back together, the bleeding slow then stop. Still tender, but no longer an open infection risk for the blight that surrounded them.

"You're too smart to be this stupid."

The blood flow seemed to have slowed, maybe stopped, but he still wanted to be sure before they started moving. He moved to undo the first few straps of Lucanis' armor, enough to pull it apart just enough to look at the wound first hand, trace lightly over the just healed skin if allowed. The second part was less medically necessary, but it was reassuring. Making sure his eyes didn't deceive him.

"And you're too old to be this naive," he shot back, but if he was feeling better enough to snipe back at Davrin that was probably a good sign? He wasn't sure sometimes. Their elven Warden always inspired an array of complicated feelings.

Like most of the more agile Crows, Lucanis favored hardened leather over metal for his armor, and it had been damaged. The straps were easy enough to undo and open up to get at his side, cloth under it soaked through and tacky with blood, but the skin whole under it if he was in desperate need of cleaning up. Still, it was the tender very literal thin skin of the freshly healed, and deep bruises marked where gouges once were. Lucanis drew in a breath as Davrin carefully touched the spot, but it wasn't wholly from pain.

"... Am I blighted?" he asked, because while Davrin might have the senses to be sure, Lucanis didn't. For all he knew he had that poison running through him already and his own days were numbered.

"No."

The answer was soft and automatic as he followed the line of bruises with his finger tips. He'd be able to sense it, if he were. The strange, gut-deep pulling towards a shared curse he felt towards every darkspawn. Towards the poor corpse in the corner. What called him to Lucanis was something much different and far less understandable considering how, even now, it would be terribly satisfying to strangle the man. Just a little.

"Not from lack of trying on your part. You have any idea how hard it is for the rank and file get to our hands on the ingredients for a joining? Don't pull this again."

Not to mention how few survived the initiation- but he bit that part back. Warden secret and all. But, okay, maybe he wanted to strangle him a bit more than a little, as he thought how easily this could have gone another way. He tucked Lucanis' shirt back down, then moved to pull the both of them up to standing.

Edited 2024-12-25 21:58 (UTC)

"Here I expected you would simply let me suffer the ultimate consequences for my actions," Lucanis said, which was half true. If he could finish the job before it made him too weak to go on, no point in subjecting yourself to his constant company, right, Davrin? But if the job was still ongoing...

He stood - he probably didn't need Davrin's help but he accepted it anyway, just to keep touching him. He still felt... unmoored. He worried that if he stopped using the other man as an anchor he'd float away again, and Lucanis was just enough back to himself to know that would be bad.

After all, he didn't promise not to pull this again.

"Back to the Diamond, so I can pass on Fio's apologies as well as my own."

Davrin was relying on the fact that, hopefully, Lucanis would have some idea of a more stealthy way back to the Diamond than Davrin had tried to carve through the Blight to get here. They still had Assan to scout and attack what he could, but he was equally unwilling to stop supporting Lucanis. He glanced back at the body of the boy, frowning. There was no point in bringing a blighted body back- in fact, as a Warden he'd strictly forbid it if asked.

"Is there...I don't know. A special dagger or pin or something we should being back?"

Lucanis wanted to bring the boy back. To have him not be just another blighted corpse, even if he was one that got to see the sky one last time. So he could get a proper cremation. There were far too many bodies for that anymore, though. Too many bodies and not enough fuel and they burned through the night and the blight kept spreading.

"Heir gave daggers to her favorites," Lucanis said softly "I think he was one of them."

He moved smoothly, leaving Lucanis to Assan's constant presence against his leg for a moment as he patted down and retrieved the daggers. It didn't get easier, just leaving people behind. Even if he followed no particular god and held no specific form of burial sacred, there was always the twist of wrongness in simply leaving a person to rot like carrion.

"It doesn't seem like it, I know." He murmured as he offered to take Lucanis' weight again and start heading out. "But it's good it still hurts. It means they're still people."

To him, as a Gray Warden that saw little but the aftermath of a Darkspawn attacks and could simply chalk such deaths up to being unavoidable and unnoteworthy, and to Lucanis, a Crow that, at least in Davrin's eyes, could far too easily slip into seeing all lives as little more than names on a ledger. It was good people still mattered to them both.

While Davrin retrieved the daggers, Lucanis brought a hand down to rest against Assan's feathers. He timed his own breathing to match, in and out again.

"The Grey Warden lecturing the Crow on being a lesson? Interesting," it wasn't one of Lucanis' better jabs, but it was an attempt. He took one more look at Fio - so young, was he ever that young? - before nodding not towards the street but farther along the balcony. It was one that wrapped around the whole building.

"Zipline on the other side, we can get to another roof from there. It should be a clearer route back to the Diamond."

He was just assuming Davrin went straight ahead and through all the bad spots to get to him. Like the arrow he'd named the griffon for.

"How did you find me?"

"Depends. You going to pull this again?"

He'd served long enough and seen enough wounded soldiers pull themselves out of impossible situations that he didn't fret when Lucanis needed to take the zipline in his current state. Fretting was just worrying without action and served no purpose. The man survived torture. He can handle this. But Davrin still signaled for Assan to fly alongside the man, just in case he needed to be caught midair.

See, that was an action. Not fretting at all.

"I might," Lucanis admitted. He would try not to, but saying it for certain... he couldn't be. Not fully.

Assan was a welcome surprise of company for the zipline. He recalled when the griffon happily flew next to Rook, apparently surprised and delighted to see a person flying through the air like him. It had certainly helped settle Rook's nerves over being so high up. Lucanis had yet to figure out if it was heights in general or just moving through them at speed without ground under them that was an upset. Lucanis had no such problems -- he loved the feeling, and was well enough to not fall off of the line... though his landing was perhaps a little harder than it normally was, a slight stumble on the leg of the side that got injured rather than a seamless graceful touching down like normal. He would be fine.

Davrin landed with the grace of a sledge hammer. Nothing to be done about it, not with all the armor and the shield strapped to his back, but he landed on his feet all the same. Then immediately went forward to grab Lucanis' arm again, if he'd let him as they got closer to the Diamond. Crow pride and all, he wasn't sure if the potential First Talon was allowed to be seen at less than fully under his own command.

"In that case? Warden secret."

He had a demon in him, the ship had sailed for Lucanis never being seen not fully under his own command. Sure he had managed to keep Spite contained when out so far, but much like not promising to never do this again, he didn't think that would never have a chance of happening.

Things kept going to shit, after all.

"You need to work on your landings," Lucanis said rather than argue, using Davrin for a little bit of support when the route allowed for it. Sometimes it was a single-file plank over an alleyway, but he waited on the other end for Davrin to make it across to take hold again before continuing on. And maybe took the easiest route he could that avoided the worst of the blight, rather than ones that required a lot of leaping or using weak points in the fade for Spite to summon something to function as a bridge. Soon enough the Diamond was right there across a canal, lights glittering like the gemstone it was named after in spite of the red from the blight now added to it. There was still something hauntingly beautiful about it.

"Try wearing some real armor and see how you do."

Davrin hovers back once they reach to inside of the diamond, letting the crow's tend to their own without ever quite leaving a five foot radius of Lucanis. But still watching, in the terribly non-subtle way of a hunter learning about a new species. He placed a lot of judgement on Lucanis' relationship with the Crows, but he hadn't really given much to actually seeing what he was like among them.

Teia was probably one of the more healthy relationships he had. When the two return - Lucanis pale and clearly worse for the wear but upright and moving under his own power she lets out a "Thank Andraste-" and goes over to embrace him without hesitation. Lucanis accepts the hug with only slightly less awkwardness than he did with Davrin's.

"I couldn't save three of them. Teia, I'm sorry," Lucanis says, voice full of grief as he pulls back so he can hold out Fio's daggers to her, not quite quiet enough for Davrin to miss with him being so close.

"And I am just happy we did not lose four today," Teia tells him, taking the daggers and bringing a hand up to place against Lucanis' face. "Don't do that, Lucanis. We cannot lose you too. Thank Andraste your Warden came looking for you. I don't want you going back out there again without him, do you understand?"

"Teia, I don't need a minder-"

"Apparently you do. I am going to tell Viago the same and if he ignores that I'm going to give him hell," she says, voice firm and just this side of angry, bringing him back in for another embrace. "Go. Get some rest."

"I can go out again."

"You can go back to the Estate or to your place in the Fade, but you will be going to one of them. Caterina would agree with me if she were here."

Teia is not above using the specter of Caterina to her advantage against Lucanis, and it's clear she has a right to or at least knew her well enough that Lucanis folds like a house of cards at the order.

"...I have some things being sent from Antiva City to the Estate - when you see Illario next, could you ask that he forward them here? I can pick them up next time I'm through."

Teia frowns, but does not push this, giving a nod instead. She looks behind Lucanis to Davrin.

"Thank you for bringing him back. Caterina would never forgive us if we let something happen to him now."

Davrin had his own thoughts on this Caterina, but what good would raising them do? She was a powerful woman that had made her own choices and, notably, died by them. If the ghost of her still kept these people moving in such bleak times, it wasn't his place to question it here and now. It was enough that he could see, regardless of the old woman, Lucanis had a few people concerned about the state of his neck.

Still, he can't quite place how he feels about your warden. Other than the kneejerk reaction to make light of it.

"At least someone appreciates the personal service. Next time I'm collaring him to Assan."

Assan, bless his feathery heart, did nothing but cheerfully perk up and chirp at the idea. Permeant access to his winged playmate would probably be a plus in his book.

"I'll give you the leather for it!" Teia says with a grin. Lucanis rolls his eyes. Clearly any protest would be found as an excuse to push more, so-

"As long as it's black."

That gets a laugh from Teia that has the edge of one that was desperately needed. She pats Lucanis on the shoulder and gives him a gentle shove towards Davrin and the direction of the Eluvian.

"Get some rest! I better not see you for at least a few days!"

Lucanis gave a wave, and much like with Davrin, did not make any promises. When the two were halfway back to the Eluvian though, he spoke up - quiet, to just be the two of them. Well, and Assan.

"It was just you and Assan," he says. No Rook. No other backup.

"I was the one that lost you."

It wasn't exactly true. Davrin was more than happy to confirm that all of Lucanis' choices were fully his own. He didn't feel guilty about their argument, wasn't going to blame himself if Lucanis got killed and pretend it was because of something he said. He was a grown assassin that had survived more than most people could dream of, Davrin wouldn't do the disservice of acting like he wasn't capable of making up his own damned mind.

But that didn't mean he really wanted to tell Rook the two of them had argued like stubborn asses and he'd said nothing as Lucanis marched off into the Blight alone. That was just between them.

"And I told you I'd come looking. But, if you've got a preferred rescue party, I'll take it into account next time."

Because, clearly, there was going to be a next time. Regardless of threats of black leather collars.

"If you need the back up, I would not deny you that."

... He actually kind of preferred that it wasn't this big deal. That it had just been Davrin and he didn't need to explain himself to Rook who would surely treat this as more of a Thing than it was, and probably would be concerned any time he tried to leave on his own in the future. Letting it stay just between him and Davrin (and Assan, and Teia) was ... better.

There was always the chance Teia would say something to Rook, but he'd burn that bridge when he got to it.

"I am not a pet, I did not wander off and get 'lost'."

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cannot wait for Live Warden Reaction for Caterina still being alive.

is it against the code to shake an old woman if she's an assassin queen

I think the code has exceptions for that reason but also look out she will stab you