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One of the moments Rook would never forget was meeting Neve Gallus. Her father had mentioned working with her a few times, and he’d described her as the smartest detective and the most powerful mage he’d ever met, speaking about her as one of the most competent Shadow Dragons he’d ever met.
When Rook met her in the pawn shop, though, she discovered Flavius had neglected to tell her that Neve Gallus was gorgeous.
She was speaking with the Viper, and Rook stared at Neve, how she nodded, her focused and sharp gaze…
She needed to talk to her.
“I’m going to introduce myself to Neve,” she told Tarquin.
Her friend sighed. In the year she’d spent with thr Shadows, they’d gotten closer and sometimes Tarquin could read her intention precisely.
“Please, don’t do anything embarrassing.”
“I’m never embarrassing,” she replied.
She waited until Neve stopped talking to the Viper and she walked up to the other woman. Rook reached out with her hand and said, “Rook Mercar, it’s a pleasure meeting you in person.”
Neve took her hand, but she didn’t need to introduce herself. Everyone in the hideout knew her name.
“Mercar?” She repeated. “Are you a relative of Flavius?”
Rook nodded. “He’s my father.”
The older woman stared at her for a few moments, sending her heart to a rampage. “I would have never guessed, you two look nothing alike.”
If anyone else had said it, Rook would have replied with sarcasm, You know, adoption is a thing.
But it was Neve Gallus in front of her, and Rook wasn’t going to annoy the most beautiful woman she’d ever met.
She grinned. “I guess I’ve gotten all the family’s good look.”
Behind her, she heard Tarquin make a weird sound. It was something that resembled both a cough and Maker’s breath.
Neve smiled. She said, “It was nice meeting you.”
The way she looked at her, her dark eyes shining in amusement—
Rook’s heart skipped a beat. In retrospect, she would realize that her feelings for Neve started growing from that day, but for the moment she spent the rest of the evening talking with Tarquin.
***
Rook didn’t know what to expect when the Viper called her that night. The last job went a bit sideways because she’d prioritized saving a young girl rather than killing the Blood Mage holding her hostage, but Rook had then killed the man just before he could flee Minrathous.
The Viper hadn’t liked that, at all, and he’d told her she was going to be left in the hideout for a few weeks.
Rook walked up to her boss, trying not to show her curiosity. “Yes, boss?”
“I need you for a job. Yes, I know what I said last time,” he added in response to Rook’s surprised expression, “but I need a mage and you’re the only one available.”
“Which is the assignment?” she asked.
“You must help Neve Gallus to track down a dangerous artifact and destroy it.”
That got Rook’s full attention. In the last few weeks, the attraction for Neve had blossomed into a full-fledged crush for the older woman. Whenever the detective was in the hideout, Rook always found an excuse to talk to her.
Sometimes she even flirted, and for some reason that made Tarquin roll his eyes in annoyance.
Rook immediately straightened her back. “I accept the job, just tell me when I have to go.”
“Neve is waiting for you already,” he said, making her heart flutter. “Please, Rook, this job is of vital importance. Don’t mess it up.”
“I won’t,” she promised. “Bring the light.”
“Bring the light,” the Viper repeated, but she was already walking to the entrance of the hideout.
As her boss said, Neve was there already, talking with Tarquin. She took a few moments to admire the beautiful woman before announcing her presence. Both of them turned to her, and Rook was smiling already.
“Neve, the boss assigned me to your job.”
The other woman looked at her, her expression unreadable. “Aren’t you a bit young for such a dangerous task?”
If anyone who wasn’t Neve Gallus said so, Rook would have taken great offense. Instead, Rook saw an opportunity.
She reached the Fade and let the lightning crack on her left hand for a few moments, then dispelled them away.
“I’m the most capable mage of my age that ever lived in Minrathous. I’m more than able to defend myself.”
Tarquin said something she couldn’t catch, but Rook suspected he was mentioning Andraste’s underclothes.
Neve, instead, addressed her with a half-smile that made Rook blush. “Well, if you’re ready let’s go.”
Rook was about to follow her, but Tarquin stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder.
“Please, Rook, for the love of the Maker, stop doing that. I feel embarrassed in your place.”
She stared at her friend, confused. “Doing what?”
He rolled his eyes. “Your pathetic attempt to flirt with Neve. I’m asking you as a friend to stop, you’re just going to humiliate yourself.”
His words irritated Rook more than she expected. She took his hand off her and said, “Neve is going to be impressed with me. She’ll give me a chance, once she sees my valor.”
Tarquin didn’t lose his serious expression.
“Do you realize she’s twenty-five, while you’ve turned eighteen less than two months ago?”
“It only means we’re both adults,” Rook replied. “Now, if you excuse me, I have a job to do with Neve.”
Tarquin was going to say something, but she left the pawn shop. Rook’s steps were faster than usual, almost close to marching than walking, frustrated by her friend’s words.
He was wrong, she told herself. Tarquin was just exaggerating, there was no way that Neve would reject her since they were both adults, both mages and both Shadows.
Neve just needed to know her better, and Rook would start from tonight, helping her find the dangerous artifact she was chasing down.
She was lost in her thoughts, but not enough so that Rook wouldn’t notice Neve. She stopped dead in her tracks.
The other woman was gorgeous, even when only illuminated by the mage light of the alley, and she was doing something Rook didn’t understand with her magic. Neve then looked at her, and her heart fluttered.
“Are you ready?” the detective asked.
Rook tasted the pocked where she kept the potions, and then she took her hand on the handle of her mage knife.
“Ready,” she confirmed.
Neve guided her through Dock Town.
Even though she’d been with the Shadow Dragons for one year already, Rook still struggled to orient herself in the undercity, especially at night. She admired how well Neve navigated those narrow streets, how at ease she was.
The detective stopped often to check some tracks, and she stopped to ask some questions to people. Rook saw how all of them seemed to know Neve and respected her enough to talk to her, and she felt a kind of pride she couldn’t explain.
Was she proud of Neve for being admired by so many people in Dock Town? Or of herself, for falling for such an amazing woman?
She didn’t know, but she followed Neve through a few more streets. The detective stopped to ask to a beggar, “Have you seen a tall man wearing a red and black robe?”
“I saw nothing,” he replied.
Rook saw how Neve’s body stiffened slightly and decided to intervene. After all, she needed to show Neve how good she was, and which best way than to help her with her case?
She took a step forward and knelt in front of the beggar.
“Name’s Rook, you can trust me,” she said, taking a few gold coins from her purse. “Or, if you prefer, you can trust this.”
The beggar’s eyes shone, and he told them, “The man you’re looking for walked that way.”
Rook shot a look at Neve, but the older woman was staring at her with her lips pursed.
That immediately worried her. What had she done wrong?
Neve waited until they were out of earshot before saying, “You shouldn’t tell your name that lightly to strangers. You could put yourself and the other Shadows in danger.”
Rook couldn’t help but feel a twinge of irritation, especially because the woman she had a crush on was telling her so.
“I’m not an idiot, I don’t walk up to Venatori saying, Hello, I’m Rook Mercar and I’m a Shadow Dragon.”
“I don’t mean to Venatori,” Neve countered. “You shouldn’t say your name even to regular people or hostages or slaves. They may be tortured or forced with Blood Magic to say everything they know.”
It was a possibility she’d never even thought about. “Oh. You’re right.”
“Don’t beat yourself too much over this mistake,” the other woman said. “For next time, just make sure to have a couple of fake names ready.”
Rook nodded, taking note of that advice. She’ll follow it in the future.
They walked in silence for a few moments, Rook’s heart racing. Was Neve thinking she was offended? Or was she upset because a younger fellow Shadow Dragon wasn’t as good as her yet?
She felt the need to say something. “So, what are we looking for exactly?”
Neve looked at her, surprised. “Hasn’t the Viper told you?”
Rook felt her whole face on fire. She hadn’t asked any detail to her boss, too excited to finally be on an assignment alone with Neve Gallus.
“He said you’d give me better details,” she lied.
Rook knew well that the Viper wouldn’t cover for her, but she hoped that Neve wouldn’t confront him about it.
“Venatori have a necklace that can be used to perform Blood Magic spells,” she said. “They want to ship it before dawn, and we have to destroy it before it leaves Minrathous.”
Rook’s own necklace felt heavier at that, but she nodded. “Understood.”
They turned a few more corners before Neve asked, “How long have you been with the Shadows? You’re very young.”
“One year,” she announced proudly. “I’ve been on a few assignments already, doing my job like any other adult in the Shadows.”
Neve’s mouth twitched upward. “You would be an adult?”
Rook nodded. “Yes, I’ve turned eighteen on the tenth day of Matrinalis.”
Neve seemed amused by that answer—it was surely the sign that she realized Rook wasn’t a kid, and they could have a chance since they were on the same level.
It set Rook on a good mood, but that didn’t last long. They followed the tracks, but they ended up in an empty abandoned building.
“Venhedis,” Neve cursed, and started inspecting the empty room.
Rook, not too far behind her, started getting a bit frustrated.
“Are you sure this is even the right lead?”
Neve nodded without even looking at her. “Yes. A templar told me.”
Rook scoffed and immediately regretted it the moment the older woman glared at her.
“You know from Tarquin that the templar order isn’t a reliable source. We can’t trust one of them.”
“She is clean,” was Neve’s sharp reply. “She’d never give me a lead if she wasn’t sure it’s true.”
Not wanting to upset her even more, Rook let the subject fall.
Kaffas, she had the chance to spend some time alone with Neve and she was wasting it. Upsetting the other woman was the last thing Rook wanted, so she nodded.
“I will trust her, too, then.”
That seemed to calm Neve down, and it was a great sign. She had the chance to flirt with her, if only she found the right words—
“Step back,” Neve said.
Obedient as she’d never been with the higher-ups of the Shadow Dragons, Rook did what she was told. Neve took her staff to use her magic and—
Rook gasped. In front of her there was a weird, translucent image. It looked like a ghost, but she was ready to bet it wasn’t it.
“What’s that?”
“A memory,” Neve replied, gesturing her to back down. “Hush now.”
Rook closed her mouth and let her do her thing. The hooded person of the memory looked around, and then said, “I will give it to you personally. On the last bell before dawn.”
Neve made a gesture that dispelled the image. “Kaffas, they’re on the docks already.”
They bolted out on the streets, and Neve told her, “I will fight Venatori, you think about destroying the necklace.”
Rook nodded and followed her to the harbor, where they saw men wearing red and black uniforms load some boxes on a ship. She knew that outfit too well: Venatori.
As if that wasn’t proof enough, she felt the unpleasant sensation that she associated with Blood Magic—a nauseating feeling of wrongness that arrived from the Fade.
She took her mage knife, but Neve was faster. Three ice rays hit Venatori, freezing them on the spot.
Rook ran and used her mage knife to slice throats and she shot chain of lightnings to the cultists. Both together they killed a few Venatori, and Rook lunged to another one with her knife charged, piercing him through the belly and—
“Rook!”
Neve attracted her attention. She was surrounded by five Venatori, bus she was using her staff to point at the ship that was leaving the docks.
With a move, she froze the water and Rook rushed in that direction. She ran on the ice, careful not to slip, and climbed into the ship.
Rook found a Venatori there, she rolled away and used her lightning to stun the man. She then slit his throat with her mage knife.
Another cultist noticed his fallen companion, and she charged the knife before throwing it. The cultist was hit in the belly and Rook shot other lightnings to kill him.
She used her mana to call back the mage knife—a recent trick she’d learned from an older Shadow Dragon, and that she regretted not showing Neve—and caught her breath. She then ran to throw the anchor overboard, which cost her enormous effort.
Rook then checked the bridge of ice that Neve had made for her, and she was relieved to see that the ship was at a reasonable jumping distance. She then took a look at the harbor, but she only saw red and white-blue lights.
Worry and concern made her heart pound fast, but Rook shook herself out of it. Neve told her to destroy the necklace, and she would do what her fellow Shadow ordered her.
She wasn’t an expert in tracking Blood Magic, but the feeling of the necklace was so strong that she didn’t need to actively look for it.
Rook walked below deck, following the source of that wrong sensation, and opened a door. The room was empty if not for a box.
She cautiously walked towards it.
Rook was going to open it, but the feel sheer of power on her hand a few inches from the box made her change her mind. She used her mage knife to lift the lid and, when nothing happened, she moved closer.
In front of her, on a purple velvet cushion, lay a red necklace.
Rook needed a while to understand that those pearls were entirely made of blood, solidified by some dark enchantment. It gave her chills: that was why she needed to destroy it, having an external source of blood made the use of Blood Magic so much easier.
Rook gritted her teeth. She wasn’t sure of which enchantments were on the necklace, but she didn’t feel safe in touching it.
She walked out the small room and drank a lyrium potion to restore her mana. Rook then walked as far as she could, took aim and she charged her mage knife.
When she thought it was enough, she threw the knife. It rotated on itself, full of lightnings, and destroyed the box and—
Rook quickly summoned a barrier the moment the necklace exploded, the force of the broken enchantments pushing her against the wall. Magical barriers had never been her strongest spells, but that was enough to save her from serious damages.
Her back and elbow shot painful lances through her body, but Rook quickly drank an elfroot potions to heal.
The room where the necklace had been was covered in blood, but there was no more dark magic coming from there. Rook called back her mage knife, but nothing came to her.
“Kaffas,” she said.
Her weapon was gone, but, at least, so the necklace was. She walked into the room, just to be sure, but all the blood was plastered on the walls, floor and ceiling—the smell of that much blood giving her nausea.
Rook left the room and jumped towards the ice corridor that Neve had left her. Pain shot through her ankles the moment she landed, but, at least, she hadn’t landed in the water. Rook came back towards the harbor, where no one was fighting anymore.
She was concerned but—just for a moment, because she saw that the only person standing was wearing a white light armor.
Her heart made a backflip as Rook admired Neve. She was gorgeous even right after a fight, and Rook barely spared a look for the five dead Venatori.
Neve Gallus was amazing.
As she approached, Neve wiped a stream of blood from the corner of her mouth, and then looked at Rook.
“Have you destroyed it?”
Rook nodded. “Yes. The necklace is gone, and so is my mage knife.”
“I’m sorry,” Neve said.
She took a step towards her, but she winced. Rook immediately took another healing potion from her satchel.
“Here, if you need it.”
Neve looked at her with gratitude, took it and knocked it all down. “Thank you, Rook.”
Her heart went crazy at that. Neve Gallus was thanking her—
“I’ll always give you all the potions you need,” Rook said.
Neve nodded. Was she impressed with her? Was she realizing she felt the same way that Rook felt about her?
“I need to tell my source that she was right and that the necklace is destroyed,” Neve said. “Can you please report to the Viper?”
I will do anything for you, Rook wanted to reply. “Yes, of course. Will I see you soon?”
Neve addressed her with a half-smile.
“Of course. When I’ll have another case for the Shadows, I’ll ask the Viper to have you as my support.”
Neve Gallus wanted her help for another case. Rook couldn’t hide her smile.
“Thank you.”
“You did a very good job, Rook,” Neve said. “I’ll see you around.”
Her heart was beating so fast that she was sure the older woman could hear it.
“See you around,” she repeated.
Neve left, and Rook stared at her for a few moments more. Then, when the other woman was gone, she realized that she had no idea of how to navigate Dock Town alone.
“Venhedis,” she murmured.
***
Rook needed an embarrassingly long time to go back to the Grand Market by herself. She had needed to ask people for direction, because the undercity felt all the same to her.
Maybe she would need to learn it.
Neve could make her learn the streets of Dock Town, she realized. She could also teach her how to detect Blood Magic, so that Rook could do it by herself.
Those thoughts made her smile, even if she was completely lost in the undercity alleys and streets.
Somehow, she reached the Grand Market, and she walked immediately into the pawn shop.
Rook’s first stop was Lorelei’s booth. She chose a new mage knife and said, “I don’t have that much money with me, put it on Father’s account. He’ll pay for it when he’s back from Nessum.”
The merchant rolled her eyes and sighed. “You’re lucky I know Flavius personally.”
Rook smiled. “Thank you, Lorelei.”
She went to meet the Viper, to whom she told what happened. He looked impressed by the fact that she had followed orders for once, and dismissed Rook for the evening.
Now that all the adrenaline was gone, and the assignment completed, tiredness came over Rook. She wanted nothing more than going back home and go to sleep, but she saw Tarquin.
She walked towards him and said, “Tarquin, you have no idea what happened.”
He sighed. “I am scared to ask—”
“Neve told me I did a very good job,” she announced with a wild smile. “She clearly feels the same for me.”
“Yeah, I am sure she never said it anyone else,” Tarquin replied.
“You didn’t hear her tone,“ she countered. “And she also told me she wants to work with me again.”
“Ah, well, this changes everything. I’m sure she is crushing on you.”
Rook would need weeks to understand that her friend was sarcastic, but in that moment she didn’t even care.
She was just happy that Neve had seen her in action, and had been impressed by her.
She would declare her feelings soon, Rook decided.
Nothing could go wrong.