Such a clever woman, his Rook, but there are moments…
Before the Ossuary, before Spite, before Rook and everything she brought with her—the man Lucanis used to be would have found it hard to believe how complicated his life was going to become.
After tonight, more complicated still. An open contract of this significance is as good an excuse as he’ll ever get, but he won't be able to dodge what waits for him in Treviso forever.
And he will, one day—probably sooner than he's ready to—need to figure out what to do about Illario. He can't lock him in the Villa indefinitely.
It doesn't matter. Right now, in this moment, despite the absurdity of their floating fade home and the demon in his head and the dagger that tore the veil on the dining table, things are…simple. He is alone, on a quiet night, with a beautiful woman, who (despite all good sense and reason) wants to be here, with him.
And Rook—brilliant, unstoppable Rook—seems to really think he only wanted to come back for coffee. Perhaps his reputation has gotten a bit out of hand.
so something occurred to me tonight about lucanis that the game pretty much does TELL you but nonetheless;
i know people like to play with this line he has to teia. why the hesitation? why 'colleague' of all things? is he shy? IS he jealous? is he a little in love with rook? is he recycling lines he's used to saying about his cousin? and i think each question is valid.
but tonight i remembered this exchange he has with rook if you forgive illario:
he's been around for about thirty-five years and never called someone else a friend before, and that friend in question is literally family. anyone else has been a colleague at best.
so he stopped himself from calling rook a friend because he's never really had one.
Notes: Written as an interlude to kindred spirits as a prompt response for the Lucanismancers discord (hi guys! 💜) featuring the same Rook and Lucanis, but it should stand on its own without having read all that.
Except below, full story on AO3.
- - -
In retrospect, okay, fine. On many levels, doing this with just the two of them was a bad idea. Not her worst, since boy is that a high bar to clear, but it’s up there. Top ten.
Eh… top fifteen. It’s been a weird year.
It’s just that it was supposed to be simple. Get to the port, leave the packet for Viago’s people it, get lost. Rook has no idea what the fuck Viago’s people are going to do with it; that little detail was need-to-know and they very clearly did not need to know. But, hey. Nice night, pretty city, company that was nominally tolerating her this week. What could go wrong?
A ridiculous amount of Antaam, to start, as it turned out.
They were supposed to be rotating back to the garrison. The hour leading up to midnight, a reliable gap in the patrols, that’s what Viago had said. Either it wasn’t that reliable after all or she and Viago have very different definitions of ‘gap’.
“They were supposed to be moving to the garrison,” Lucanis mutters, next to her.
Rook casts him a sidelong glance. He’s got one arm braced up on the window frame, staring down at the open square below like he can glare the Antaam out of existence. It would be handy, but she thinks they’re going to need a backup plan.
“Or we can’t tell time,” she offers. He flicks her a look, but it’s too dark to tell if that really was a crack of a smirk or she’s imagining things.
“Or that.”
Nope. Definitely a smirk. She got him after all. Not a waste of a whole night then, at least.
The job, though. Charming as this… what is this anyway, an old warehouse? Regardless, she’d rather not sleep here. There’s a shitty couch that smells like old paper with her name on it, just waiting.
“Is that where we need to go?”
A building across the square, three stories, green columns. Looks right. Lucanis nods. “The counting house. Yes. Top floor.”
Rook’s no Crow, but she think she’s getting a hang of the traveling by rooftop thing pretty quickly, and the first problem is immediately obvious. That great big open space between the furthest building on this side of the port and the closest one on that side, and not a single one of those fancy little ziplines in sight.
“And it has to be tonight?”
He shrugs. “That’s what they said.”
Well. That’s very inconvenient. It is what it is, though. They’d better just get on with it.
Ok I saw this picture way back when it was first published and it clearly carved itself a little wrinkle in my brain without my even realizing it because of how gorgeous it is. As I was writing a comment reply to the artist who is so ridiculously talented, please go look at their stuff, lkadsjkladsjklasdkjl, I realized that while the specifics are very different, the soft glowy-vibe here absolutely inspired some of the fireside conversations in kindred sprits, especially the ones in chapters 4 and 12.
Like, I can't. I can't. Her art is too much and I can't.
It becomes apparent very quickly that Lucanis has underestimated how rarely Rook stops moving. Significantly underestimated.
Even with the benefit of the eluvians, it borders on the absurd. Nevarra in the morning, Rivain by sundown. Some nights, not back at all—camped in Arlathan with Bellara, claiming a cot in a corner in Lavendel. He knew this. Knows this. They all know this. But all of a sudden it's… somewhat more noticeable to him.
He'd almost wonder if she was avoiding him. Might worry she'd come to her senses, realized what a tremendously bad idea this was. Run. He wouldn't have blamed her, if she did.
I get so annoyed with posts that ignore that Bellara is also out there feeding these people. Like Lucanis shows up and discovers that BELLARA is the only one who understands what food is. Stop lumping her in with Fried Fish and Burned Coffee Gallus and Culinary Abominations Harding. Show this woman some respect! She was holding the line.
Okay I’ve been pondering this and I think I’ve found the divide.
Bellara is on record as being able to make a competent dish out of pretty much nothing. Like, you give her some roots and a weird onion? You’re gonna be fed and it’s going to be as tasty as she can make it. So when the Veilguard team is first heading out and they have, like, 17 coppers, whatever Harding can bring in with her bow, and Neves good name in Dock Town? Bel is making it work.
Lucanis is bringing a couple of things into the kitchen- trained technique (because I’m sure that anyone in the Dellamorte kitchens would have been Highly trained, likely in a highly formalized manner- the Antivan equivalent of Cordon Bleu trained) and a HUGELY expanded budget.
I know there’s the common fandom idea of the two of them not having compatible cooking styles- Bellara highly free form, Lucanis with a ruthless mise en place setup that Cannot Be Changed- but I like to imagine them bouncing off of each other in the kitchen; Bellara going “wait, there’s a name for that techique?”, mentioning that she’s always wanted to try cooking beef bourguignon (or the Thedas equivalent) but never being able to afford the wine for it and Lucanis bringing her a bottle; or Bellara showing Lucanis the spices she uses for red sauce and him being amazed at not considering those before, because it’s rare he needs to make changes or substitutions for a recipe
imagine being illario and finally finding the resolve to kill your cousin right. you seduce and fuck a blood mage venatori magister to get her to do this for you. you figure you’ll eventually kill her once you are first talon, tie up the loose end and make it look good for you. a vengeance story! except when your cousin’s body shows up your grandma retreats into herself presumably out of grief and you’re like jesus christ he’s a corpse and still the favorite. at this point you start feeling some regret and at the wake you’re beside yourself. it helps to be really feeling some of that to fool everyone else. but months pass and your grandma still isn’t even discussing the inheritance and you have to be normal because you don’t want to incriminate yourself. and then a year later some random guy (worse if its a de riva tbh) shows up saying they need your cousin to kill an elven god (what.) and he’s the only one who could (insulting). and its at this point your grandma is like “lucanis died… but he is not dead!”. record scratch freezeframe. while you juggle with the fact that the freak woman you fucked specifically to get her to kill your cousin didn’t even kill your cousin AND your grandma didn’t bother telling you (for good reason ofc but she doesn’t know that), you have to lead these assholes to go save him and unravel your hard work. so plan b. you kidnap your grandma and push your (now possessed) cousin away (and then get mad when he actually walks away. because you’re like this). and when your cousin comes dangerously close to figuring out what’s happened with you and the magister, you kill the magister. you ally with those elven gods and venatori (you aren’t sure how you’re going to get out of this one but it’s fine. that’s a hill for future illario) to make sure you have enough backing to stand up against the other houses if they challenge you becoming first talon. you continue to gaslight your cousin into staying away, because if there is one thing you can count on, it’s his literal inner demons and total lack of a support group, you’re certain he’ll fuck it up by himself. you know this because his support group used to be your grandma (dubious) and yourself (lol). you’re almost home free. and caterina will definitely acknowledge you as a player on the board. which isn’t important but it would be nice, right. BUT THEN IT TURNS OUT. YOUR COUSIN HAS RECENTLY MADE 7 FRIENDS. one of whom can speak to the fucking dead because of course he can. and then some of those friends show up to publicly humiliate you at the dinner party that should have been YOUR crowning moment. your grandma ALSO shows up to tell everyone you have gathered that your cousin is first talon. your cousin gapes at her because he doesn’t actually even want it so it’s kind of awkward for everyone. and then when you’re sure he’s about to ask viago de riva to poison you to death, he actually tells him just to take you away. because OF COURSE he’s being the bigger person. anyways the point is i’m surprised illario just lets himself be taken away because if i were him i would have started biting people and then bombed the villa
dailybridgerton
stormborns
turnnoffyourmind
tangentwithtanner
origamiaround
jbbartram-illu
germansingergirl
snowghoul
areudirty
