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"I hear you go by Rook these days."
It's a simple comment, one that shouldn't shake her, and yet she's still thinking about it by the time they approach the Diamond. The comforting sound of crows cawing overhead, the ever present whirr of the zipline fading behind her as they make their way from the terrace to the stairs. She takes them two at a time, past the statue she'd climbed plenty, foliage and thorns wound tightly around it - they had grown since the last time she'd been here.
"We have arrived."
"A casino, nice set up." Neve comments, and Rook can't help the hint of pride that seeps into her voice as she responds.
"The Cantori Diamond." It's not even her house that owns it, but Viago had made his office there almost since the first day they stepped foot in Treviso all those years ago, it was home just as much as the de Riva estate was, by now.
It looks very much the same. Perhaps a little less busy, but with the occupation she was sure there had been more complications, more contracts. The velvet couches were clear of any occupants, but a new chair was placed between them all. Silver and purple and seated in it was one of the reasons the Diamond was less populated this evening. The sole reason for her return back to Treviso - and Rook would be lying if she tried to tell herself that she wasn't a little nervous to be in the presence of the First Talon.
With good reason, she thought, given that Caterina Dellamorte would have had a very large say in her exile.
And beside her was one of the very last people that Rook wanted to see right about now. The Fifth Talon hadn't taken his eyes off of her since she walked into view, and she was incredibly aware of the time that had passed since they had last seen each other.
"Did you finish that contract? To stop the Dread Wolf?"
Her jaw clenches for just a moment before she forces herself to relax. "Hello Viago." She says, sharp but ending with exasperation - an impressive feat for only two words. "And it's complicated." The rest of the berating would follow that comment, she was sure, but she didn't have time to go through it all with him here, now. Not that she wanted to at all.
"How many times do I have to tell you?" Viago's voice is raised, and she fights to keep her expression passive and neutral, hiding her surprise that he would do this in front of the First Talon. "Crows always finish the job."
Her expression may be neutral, but her voice isn't. "We just can't take initiative, right? My run in with the Antaam taught me that." There's an attempt to disguise the snap with a levity that she doesn't have, and if he doesn't care about their audience then neither does she. The tension is hard to miss, however, and it wasn't going to dissipate on it's own.
"Don't let him scold you too much. Vi was worried about you." Forever grateful for the Seventh Talon, Rook offers Teia a soft and brief hint of a smile while the man in question glares daggers her way before clearing his throat. Clearly the moment has passed, a relief for all parties, and he finally introduces their guest.
As if she truly needed any introduction. Caterina Dellamorte may not be in the public eye very much these days, but Rook would recognise her anywhere. There had been a trial, one year, where she very almost bested one of the Dellamorte heirs. In truth, the victory should have been hers. But in true Crow fashion, nothing was ever fair, everyone played dirty, and the First Talon had stepped in to declare her grandson the victor before he could drink the vial in his hand that was supposed to be harmless if he had truly won. Caterina had stared her down that day, gaze unwavering and knowing, and Rook had not been the one to look away first.
"The First Talon. I'm honoured. Which makes you..." Rook would not forget her manners when it came to the First Talon and the man beside her at least.
"Illario Dellamorte. Her grandson. What brings you here?"
Ah, the other grandson. She didn't have much knowledge of Illario Dellamorte - only that he had not done well in the trial she almost bested Lucanis at, and was known for being a charmer. The tone of his voice would lend some credit to that, if something about it didn't set her teeth on edge. Pride, ego. Something else a little thicker running under it.
"Right." She starts, taking a breath. "My target is a pair of elven gods-" Her eyes meet Viago's for a moment. Because he is at least partly responsible for this death-trap of a contract she was now on. But she doesn't let them linger for long, looking back towards Caterina. "Or at least that's what they call themselves. They're ancient blighted mages." Rook lets that sink in for half a second, before shrugging slightly. "I need our best. The man who brought blood mages and Venatori to their knees."
"Lucanis." Caterina fills in, and Rook nods in confirmation. "My grandson. They called him the Demon of Vyrantium." Hawthorne finds her lips pressing together just slightly at the use of the word 'called', a thin thread of disappointment winding around her fingertips. "He was the one who did those jobs."
The pride in Caterina's voice was hard to miss, and Hawthorne couldn't help but spare a glance for the remaining grandson at her side. Jaw clenched and posture less relaxed than it had been before.
"Sending a demon to take down a God. Sounds like a plan." Rook responds, and she swears she sees Teia almost break a smile at the first true sight of her levity since she'd stepped foot back in Treviso.
Viago on the other hand, is less impressed. "It's a nonsense plan, but that's not important." He mutters, as if 'nonsense' was a foreign word when it came to Hawthorne de Riva. It was almost nostalgic, hearing him say it. None of her actions had been referred to as 'nonsense' since she'd left Treviso. She didn't even realise that she sort of missed it. "Lucanis Dellamorte is dead."
Dead?
That explained Caterina's use of the past tense, and Rook feels some of her own posture slump for a moment. It wasn't the end of the world - but it was a setback. She was considering her options when Caterina spoke again.
"What I say doesn't leave this room."
Hope simmers inside of her for just a moment as Caterina pointedly looks at each one of them to make it clear that she means it. This was information that she had never shared, and didn't plan to before now.
"The body our people brought back was not my grandson. It was dressed in his clothing, but it had been altered with blood magic to have his face." Illario was looking down intently at his grandmother as soon as the words started to leave her lips, a fire lighting behind his eyes. Rook had as good an instinct with people as most Crows did, sometimes better, and her gut was not enjoying his presence at that moment, and it didn't dissipate when he spoke up.
"My cousin is still alive? And you didn't think to tell me?" There's an unnecessary urgency in his tone. Not relief.
"His ship was attacked. We knew someone sold him out... so you kept your suspicions to yourself." Viago understood, at least. It made perfect sense. A woman like Caterina who had been targeted time and time again? Why should she divulge this information to anyone? It was risky. If someone came after Lucanis and realised the jig was up, what would stop them from targeting her in panic?
"But you brought it up now. Why?" Rook asks, hearing Neve's prosthetic shift slightly on the wooden floors behind her. It seems the detective approves of the question. Caterina wouldn't just tell them this because they wanted the help of Lucanis. There must have been more to it.
"I've had eyes on the Venatori ever since they took my grandson from me." Caterina answers, looking directly back at Rook. "They were hunting your Dread Wolf." That answered part of the question, then. Although it seemed to her so far that neither her nor the Venatori had much luck in that quest. "And what you did to his ritual threw them into disarray." Silver linings, she supposed. "They made mistakes. And now I have a location. The Ossuary. Where the Demon of Vyrantium is kept. Find this Ossuary. Free Lucanis. You'll have your god-killer. And I'll have my grandson."
Illario didn't seem too pleased by the whole thing, and Rook could almost sympathise with him as he was clearly dismissed as even being there. But that didn't mean she trusted him, or even liked him. Slimy was a word that she would use to describe him.
"Illario will escort you to where you need to be." Caterina told them as she rose to her feet, her eyes briefly glancing between Rook and Viago. "Just let him know when you are ready to leave." She added, waving off her grandsons offer to at least walk her out first. That was when Teia pulled Rook into a hug that almost took her by surprise.
"Be careful." She told her softly, and Rook smiled in their soft farewell.
"Always." A lie, of course, but this was tradition by now.
"A moment?" Viago's voice cut through, and Hawthorne didn't even bother to hide the softness leaving her expression as she turned towards him. It was phrased as a request, but she doubted it was intended as one. So Hawthorne didn't respond immediately, weighing up her options. She had a new side-quest, it seemed, and it was better completed sooner rather than later. But even with everything that had happened, he was still her Talon.
"I'll just be a moment, Neve." She assures her companion.
Neve gave a pointed look between her and Viago before nodding. "You've got it."
Hawthorne didn't stop to wait for Viago after that confirmation, just turning on her heel and walking towards his office in the Diamond. If she knew anyone, it was Viago - at least that's what she had thought once upon a time - and she knew that he wouldn't have re-arranged his office arrangements in the year that she'd been away. So she didn't hesitate to let herself into the fourth room on the right hand side of the second corridor, leaning back against his desk as she waited for him to follow her.
"So will the shouting resume now, or...?" She asked as soon as he'd stepped inside and closed the door behind him.
It was incredibly hard to be here again after everything. And it was even harder when the weight of the world was on her shoulders and all she could feel was the anger and hurt bubbling inside her chest. Because this had been the first time that she'd seen him in over a year. An entire year - the longest they had ever been apart since they had met, and all he cared about was the contract.
The contract that was putting her through hell, and that was looking more and more like a death notice by the day, and she hadn't even gotten a fucking hello.
"You haven't responded to my last missive."
Still no greeting, then. No apology or softer acknowledgement now that they didn't have an audience. It hurt, but she refused to let that show now. He'd just ignored the question, his arms folding over his chest.
She shrugs in response, knowing that it was something that always got under his skin. "I had nothing to report."
"Updates on your location. Anything to allow me to gauge your progress with locating and stopping the Dread Wolf." Viago offers, his eyes narrowing in irritation.
"I had nothing to report." Hawthorne repeats sharply. "We had nothing. We were on a wild nugchase until Minrathous. And I know for a fact that as soon as we stepped foot in the city, you knew about it. Why would I waste my time telling you something you already knew? Telling you we had nothing? For the pleasure of getting scolded and called an idiot who was unfit for the contract?" She spits out, fingertips sparking with her rising fury, reflecting the anger in her eyes.
That at least seemed to make him pause, even if just for a moment. "If I did not think you were fit for the contract I wouldn't have put you on it." Even as the words came out, she scoffed. "I'm sorry, about V-"
"Don't apologise. You would do everything exactly the way that you did it if you had to do it again and we both know it. Don't waste your breath." She mutters. As if he put her on this contract in the first place. It was an easy out to get her away from Treviso, that was all that had mattered. Hawthorne closes her eyes for a moment, trying to calm herself. As much as she would love to scream at Viago, she knew that it wasn't worth it this time.
She felt as he moved closer to her, hearing his step secondary to feeling him enter close enough for her rampaging mana to feel. A shift in the static, and her eyes opened just as she felt the brush of leather gentle on her cheekbone all the way up until her brow.
"When?" Viago asks quietly, brows knitted together in an expression that looked too much like guilt.
Rook swallowed, having forgotten about the new claw-shaped scars deep in her face. It was such a foreign concept for Viago not to know everything about her that she'd forgotten that he would never have seen these before. There was a lot that he didn't know now, and that was a strange feeling to process. Likely for both of them. There was never a time where he didn't know everything, and now she had scars he'd never seen, stories he'd never heard.
"A month after you sent me away." She answers after a moment, voice flat. He didn't ask how, but she continued anyway. "We made it to Ferelden, but got ambushed on the road. Mercenary group with about ten Mabari between them. I wasn't exactly on top form." She mutters. "One got me into combat while another took me down from the right."
It had taken that attack, nearly bleeding out in the dirt on a road in the back end of Ferelden for her to realise that she couldn't afford to wallow. She couldn't spiral into despair, into uncertainty, into heartbreak. Otherwise she would die out there and forever be the disappointment, remembered only by that. Her determination returned after that and she'd kept it ever since. Determination and spite walked hand in hand to power her onwards. She was no longer welcome in her home, but she wouldn't let that take her spirit. So she locked all of the emotions that distracted her from that, from surviving, away as tightly as she could.
Clawing herself up from the place she'd succumbed to hadn't been easy, but she knew she would never willingly end up there again.
Being sent away from here had broken her heart. Made even worse because it was Viago that had done it. It was Viago who seemingly hadn't even spoken up on her behalf, hadn't defended her at all. So that heartbreak was intertwined with her anger, and she had every right to feel that way. Even if the anger wasn't as consistent.
He still had that expression of guilt on his face. Concern visible in the angle of his brows as he pondered over her answer. She didn't allow him time to formulate a response.
Hawthorne leaned back onto her hands, attempting to try and collect herself a little more. "That brings the total, permanent marks on me that have an indirect tie to you, up to three. Impressive, I think." There's a lightness to her voice that might make the barb a little softer, but not to Viago as he winces. She takes that as a little victory. All of this was down to her actions against the Antaam, and the scars on her face were her fault too, but they were also down to him. To his orders to send her away and not to defend her. Sometimes she wonders if a swift termination from the Crows would have been a mercy, a blessing. Especially now, with the Dread Wolf in her head and the weight of the world on her shoulders.
"Three?" He questions after a long moment, pulling his eyes from the scar to meet hers.
"The tattoo. I didn't say all three were scars." She clarifies, a forced smirk on her lips as he nods. He's tense, and so still that she knows he must be battling himself over something. Then he steps back.
It's unsurprising. It had taken years for him to even acknowledge the complicated emotions between them, let alone act on them. And now it seemed he had been able to move on entirely. All it had taken was a year.
She was happy for Teia, at least. The two of them had never had an issue with sharing, but it did sting to know that she'd lost everything. Her reputation, her home, Viago. Even her name.
Perhaps that was best. To leave it all behind.
There was a box, gilded and lockable that she forced those thoughts back into. This wasn't the time for reflection. Emotions had no place here, where he could read her like a book. Those were best saved for the quiet of the meditation room where there were only the fish, and the lingering presence of the Dread Wolf, to witness. She couldn't let Viago see that this was wearing on her. Couldn't let him think that she wasn't capable.
"You should have told me. I-"
"You what? Would have brought me home? With a contract unfulfilled and a mark still on my head?" Rook scoffs. "Don't make me laugh. You didn't say a damn word to defend me, you wouldn't have gone through the trouble to drag me back across Thedas in the aftermath." She bites out before taking another breath.
"Is that all? Because I'm short on free time these days. One contract for three Gods, plus no less than five other peoples messes to try and fix. And that's not counting the seven other people who have asked for my help across the continent. And now I have a Demon to find. As much as being scolded by you isn't a pleasant trip down memory lane, I have things to do."
She wondered if he'd say anything. Anything in regards to missing her, rather than just about the decision he had been a part of and the contract she was burdened with. Teia had said that he missed her. That he was worried. The worried part she could believe, but whether it was out of honest feelings still held for her wellbeing or a concern for the reputation of his House if she failed, she couldn't be so sure. All of it was mostly yet to be seen.
"Biancospino..." Viago starts and she immediately shakes her head.
"No." There was no room for argument in her tone. "I think you've lost the privilege to call me that. To call me anything after you forced me to leave." Her voice was even colder than she'd expected and seeing Viago wince and take a step back shattered a small part of her. The part that refused to stay angry, to stop being upset and wanted to reconcile so badly. It was a small part of her, but it was there. Locked away once again in that little box.
"I..." Viago glances to the side as he hesitated, clearly at a loss for words. Rook sighed, ignoring the ache in her chest.
"You don't have to say anything. I understand how it is now, Viago." She assures him, pushing herself off of the desk and standing straight. Then her feet are leading her out of his office, pausing only for a moment at the memory of the last time she'd done that in this office after an argument. This time she knew that he wouldn't reach for her though. This time he wouldn't try to stop her from leaving.
"I will respond to any missives with updates on our progress, and I'll be checking in a lot more. If the other Talons have any issue with my presence in Treviso, they can keep it to themselves. Feel free to let them know that, and if they complain a second time my response will be far more colourful."
And with that, she brushed past him. Her magic betraying her as the electricity crawled across her skin to try and reach him, shocking him without her meaning to. He didn't stop her as she left, and she let that acceptance sink in as she headed back to Neve.
They had a Demon to find and a world to save.