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The Diamond was uncharacteristically silent when Rook walked through the Eluvian, making her pause just outside the window. Even in the aftermath of the Venatori attack Illario used as cover to hide away Caterina, the place was abuzz with activity. Silence was not a good omen.
Rook slowly crawled through the window and mentally sighed in relief when she saw Crows still scattered about doing their tasks for the day. They were all quiet - not a single whisper murmured - but none of them appeared to be in any kind of distress. If Rook didn’t know any better, she’d think she somehow went deaf the moment she stepped foot back in Treviso. But the sounds of the city outside welcomed her home. Something was off within the Diamond, not her. When she rounded the corner in preparation to ask Viago and Teia what was going on, Rook was startled to see Teia standing stiffly by herself. Viago had pawned off and delegated all his minor tasks for the day to allow himself a somewhat relaxing day everyone had been bullying him to take, and Rook had fully expected him to spend that free time in Teia’s orbit.
“Teia!” Rook greeted as she approached. In the corner of her eye she saw a few Crows jump from the sudden break in the silence, and it unnerved her. “What’s…”
“Frederica,” Teia greeted back tersely, interrupting Rook’s question. Both the tone and the use of her actual name over her nickname had Rook freezing mid-step. Teia had never spoken to her in such a way before. “Viago is not here.”
The look on Teia’s face made it clear her statement was also a dismissal. ‘They had an argument ’ was the only thing Rook could think of, but it didn’t explain why Teia was acting coldly with Rook or why the Diamond was so deathly silent. Teia had never let her ire with Viago affect how she treated everyone else.
“Thank you,” Rook said with a slight nod of her head, showing Teia she heard the dismissal. Rook spun on her heel and immediately made for the stairwell out of the Diamond without another word. The silence behind her was the loudest thing she’d ever experienced.
—
Viago was sequestered away in the smallest lab they had in Villa de Riva here in Treviso. ‘Lab’ was being generous, though, as Rook was pretty sure she’d seen prison cells larger than this. Viago set it up for solo projects and two people in the room guaranteed they’d be in each other’s way. Thinking back to the Diamond, though, had Rook not caring. She stepped into the lab and closed the door behind her. Viago froze for a brief moment as he was writing out notes in his primary research journal, but he continued writing after a breath.
“What happened?” Rook asked.
“You’re back early from Minrathous,” Viago commented, blatantly ignoring Rook’s question. The corners of Rook’s mouth curved down slightly in the beginnings of a frown.
“An urgent issue for the Shadow Dragons popped up. The Viper and Tarquin had to run off. We already rescheduled lunch,” Rook explained quickly. She regularly represented House de Riva as part of a developing relationship between the Crows and the Shadow Dragons in the aftermath of Elgar’nan’s defeat, and Viago hadn’t expected her to be back for several more hours. “What happened with Teia?”
“We argued. She said I was being mendacious. I said she was being unreasonable. You know, the usual,” Viago said evenly.
“About what ? I’ve never heard the Diamond so quiet,” Rook pushed. This was bigger than any previous argument they had before if Viago was hiding away in Villa de Riva.
“Nothing you need to worry about.”
“But…”
“Mijita,” Viago interrupted softly, finally turning to look at Rook. She shut her mouth with a click of her teeth. It had been ages since he last called her that. Being his daughter was a very well kept secret - known only by the Crown because Viago wasn’t that stupid - so his usual term of endearment when they were alone was ‘querida’ in case they were overheard. ‘Querida’ could be explained away as him being overly affectionate in private. ‘Mijita’ could not. “It is nothing you need to worry about.”
“Okay,” Rook said, her frown fully forming. Whatever the argument had been over, Rook saw she wasn’t going to get an explanation any time soon. If at all. Seeing in her face that she wasn’t going to push any further, Viago turned back to his journal to finish writing the sentence he was on.
“Both of us had our plans for today change unexpectedly. Let’s use the opportunity to go see that opera you were talking about last week,” Viago suggested. It was obviously a small offering to make up for Rook wasting her time hunting him down to question him and receiving no answers, but she wasn’t going to call him out on it. She’d go regardless of his motivation for taking her because it was a rare chance to spend time with him without anyone else tagging along. Rook couldn’t remember the last time they did that.
“I’ll go change. Are we also having dinner?” Rook asked.
“Yes.” Viago set his quill on the page of his journal to mark where he left off before closing it. “I shall meet you in the front foyer after changing, as well.”
Rook nodded before turning around and opening the door again to head for her quarters. Hopefully dinner and the opera would be a good enough distraction to keep her from wanting to ask more questions the rest of the night.