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Something Rook had missed since the moment Isabela sent her to travel with Varric, was traveling with her ship—and raiding Venatori and rich Vints ships. She had to pause her pirate activities first to let the Rivaini political unrest settle down, then to chase down Solas and then again to fight the gods that had escaped their prison.
Two weeks had passed since the defeat of Elgar’nan in Minrathous, and Rook was finally where she was always meant to be: on a Rivaini dock, admiring her crew as they brought boxes of supplies, cannon balls and barrels of rum on board of the Dragonfire 2.
Rook had almost forgotten how it felt—the excitement for a new trip, the thrill of setting sails and going into the unknown…
“It’s always good, isn’t it?”
She startled and turned around. She hadn't even heard Isabela.
The older woman was looking at her with a fond smile, and Rook couldn't help but smile back.
“It never changes.”
Isabela stepped next to her and looked at the one person on the deck of the Dragonfire 2 giving orders to the other crewmate. She frowned in concern.
“Isn’t Taash a bit too young to be your first mate?”
Rook looked at her friend, but they didn't notice her gaze. Taash was too busy telling the other crew members where to properly stock the stuff they were loading on the ship and giving them disposition.
“You know I had to make them my first mate to use the name Dragonfire 2, but they have grown a lot this past year,” she replied. “I think Taash is ready to be my second in command.”
Isabela pursed her lips and said nothing, but Rook heard her nevertheless.
If you say so.
“Trust my captain’s instinct,” Rook said. “In a few weeks you will hear tales about the fire-breathing qunari pirate from across the sea.”
Isabela chuckled, then she looked around.
“Is your beloved woman coming too?”
Rook grinned, despite the blush on her cheeks. She would never get tired to hear people call Neve like that, and, for how pathetic it was, it made her feel like a girl on her first crush.
“I hope so.”
Rook didn’t even have time to elaborate on her fears: she heard a familiar metallic clang. She turned around to see Neve walking towards her.
Her heart almost stopped, as any time she saw the other woman. She was wearing her white and blue Shadow Dragon clothes, and had a backpack on her shoulder. Neve was wearing around her neck the fish pendant she’d given her after they became officially a couple, where every scale was made of little emeralds, a joke that had turned into an important symbol of their relationship
“Neve! You’re here!”
Rook closed the distance between them and kissed Neve fiercely. She wasn’t as passionate as she would have been if they had more privacy—after she escaped the Fade prison, Neve had been more open with being affectionate in public, but it was still new for her and Rook didn’t want to push on her limits.
Rook could feel Isabela smirking, but she focused her whole attention only on Neve.
The Tevinter woman addressed her with a smile, a sincere one that always made Rook’s heart flutter. “Why are you so surprised I came? You know I’d follow you to the edge of the world, Trouble.”
Rook was sure Isabela would comment something to embarrass her about how corny and romantic that was, so she spoke first.
“But you love Dock Town too much to leave it.”
Neve reached out to her to give another kiss. “This is why I’m joining you just for a few weeks. I’ll be back home before anyone notices I left.”
One of the reasons why Rook loved her was how committed Neve was to help Dock Town. It didn’t matter if she got nothing herself, she would always try to make the neighborhood a better place little by little.
“Are you ready to blow up Venatori and slave traders’ ships?”
Even though the gods were now a distant nightmare and Thedas was safe from their threats, the world still had its problems—and she was ready to put an end to those, too. Rook had taken upon herself to use the Dragonfire 2 to chase every last Venatori or slaver.
“Of course,” Neve said. “I’m looking forward to free slaves before they even reach the shores of Tevinter.”
Rook couldn’t help but smile. She had been attracted to her from the start because Neve freed slaves, but her interest had quickly developed into infatuation and then love once she’d known Neve better.
She hadn't thought that the other woman would reciprocate her feelings, but Neve somehow did.
It hadn’t been easy to win her over, especially after Neve had pushed her away right after their first kiss outside the Hilt. But, since they’d kissed again on the harbor in Minrathous, they'd been inseparable.
Rook was beyond happy to have her partner on her ship, to have the woman she loved in the place she loved the most in the world.
“It’s going to be amazing,” Rook promised, and kissed her again.
“Oh, you two, please, get a room,” Isabela complained.
Rook smirked. “It’s not like you and Hawke are so subtle.”
“You never see my wife,” Isabela replied. “All you know about us is because the other Lords told you.”
Before Rook could reply, she heard a shout from the ship. Taash was waving at her from the deck of the Dragonfire 2.
Isabela grinned. “I think your crew needs you abroad.”
Rook turned to see her crew, took Neve's hand and raised it to she it to the other Lords, who shouted in approval.
She loved her crew.
“Let’s get on board,” Rook said.
Neve followed her on board and went to the captain’s quarters to leave her backpack. No one was surprised that she knew the way, and some of her crewmates grinned in Rook’s direction.
She ignored them and went to check in with Taash, her navigator and the helmsman that everything was set to leave soon, and then she walked to a lonely corner of the dock to pray.
Rook prayed to Andraste for fair wind, but she also thanked her and the Maker. She expressed her gratitude for meeting such an extraordinary woman as Neve, for having a great group of friends which wasn’t destroyed once the threat of the gods was gone, for the fact that most of the Lords of Fortune survived Elgar’nan and for having such an amazing crew that would follow her anywhere.
After she finished praying, she noticed that Neve had reached the deck and she was talking with Taash.
Rook walked towards them, and told Taash, “Gather up everyone here. We’re going to sail.”
They nodded and left to go talk with the other crewmates. Despite Isabela’s doubts, Taash was a good first mate, and they would only get better with experience.
Rook wondered if, in a couple of years, Taash would be the captain of their own ship.
“They’re good,” Neve said, as if she was reading her mind.
“I didn’t have doubts when I named them my first mate,” Rook replied.
Since the deck was still half-full, Rook gave the other woman a quick kiss before addressing the rest of her crew.
Only once everyone was gathered in front of her, and Taash took place at her side, Rook started talking.
“Lords, the world is now safe from the threat of two gods and the Blight, but our task is far from over. Venatori still roam the sea, and we will chase them.”
Her words got even more passionate now. She remembered, about twenty years ago, when she herself was a slave in a Venatori galley, and when the Lords of Fortune, led by Isabela, had freed her.
Rook was looking forward to being for someone else what Isabela had been for her—a beacon of hope, that a future as a free woman was possible.
“We’ll board their cargo ship and free all the slaves they captured. If they want to join us, they’re more than welcome, otherwise we’ll take them to the closest safe landing.”
Her crew roared in approval and Rook waited for them to get quiet.
“When we see Venatori warships, we’ll rain fire on them—or ice,” she added, winking in Neve’s direction, who shook her head. Rook noticed, though, that she was smiling.
Another roar of approval came from her crew, and Rook looked at them. All of them—men, women, and people who identified as neither—had absolute trust in her, and would handle the ship following her orders.
They would follow her in uncharted lands and unknown seas, and that gave Rook a sense of confidence she hadn’t felt in years.
Rook drew her sword and pointed it to the sky.
“For gold and glory!”
“For gold and glory!” her crew shouted back.
It was an inebriating sensation, but no alcohol or drug could ever replicate it. The pure adrenaline that preceded a new adventure backed up by fifty other people.
“Weigh the anchor and set sails!”
Rook saw Taash walk among the crew members shouting, “You’ve heard the captain! Set sail!”
Several people walked to the masts and soon the white sails were catching the wind. Rook was about to order the helmsman which direction to go, but Taash was faster.
“Show our jolly roger!”
On the top of the main mast, Rook saw a black flag waving. She squinted her eyes against the sun to see the symbol on it: a skull and a light blue dagger—shaped exactly as the lyrium one she used to fight the gods.
She laughed, and told everyone in earshot, “Thanks everyone. That’s an amazing surprise!”
“It’s an honor to be here, captain Laidir!”
Rook smiled, unable to contain the joy that the devotion of her crewmates meant to her. She would prove herself worthy of that faith.
She walked to the helmsman and gave the direction to follow. The Dragonfire 2 left the harbor, and for a while Rook stared at the Rivaini coast as it got farther and farther.
Then, she walked on the bow and admired the horizon in front of her, the point where the deep blue of the sea met the lighter blue of the sky. She knew the track she was going to follow, but that sight gave her the feeling of jumping into the unknown.
Wasn’t it what she was doing, after all? Sailing to a new adventure without knowing where it would take her?
“That was great.”
Rook startled. She hadn’t noticed that Neve was next to her, too immersed in her own thoughts to pay attention to the cling of her metal leg on the wood.
She turned to her partner, who was looking at the horizon as if to understand what she found so fascinating about it.
“It’s always amazing,” Rook confirmed. “I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it.”
Neve took her hand, and said, “Just them—I’d follow you anywhere.”
Rook kissed her. She knew, and it was the same for her.
They admired the horizon in silence for a few moments, then Neve asked, “When will you start singing? I’m curious to know if the man from your song gets his liquor.”
Rook laughed. “We’re not far enough from the coast for sea shanties, nor drunk enough.”
“I know you sing when you’re sober,” Neve replied.
“Because you spent weeks eavesdropping on me,” she replied, but her tone was playful. Rook could never be truly angry with Neve.
The other woman chuckled and kissed her lips. “Listening to you made me feel at peace. It felt like—like home, in a weird way.”
“I know,” Rook replied.
And it was the truth.
It didn’t matter if she was on the Rivaini coast, the Lighthouse, Dock Town or even the middle of the sea.
As long as Neve was at her side, she was home.