Chapter Text
"What the fuck, Viago?"
"You heard what I said, Kalais."
"You... You're blaming me?!"
"Yes." The bluntness of that one word stung. A lot. Her pale skin took on a red tint, visible even in the dim light of the Cantori Diamond's attic where the Crows of Treviso operated from. "Your impulsiveness ruined weeks of planning. The other Talons are calling for your head."
"Of course they are," she sighed softly, crossing her arms over her chest. "Can't share your plans, but you expect us all to follow them anyway."
"Hold your tongue!" he snapped, crossing the remaining space between them with just two steps, and pinning her against the wall with a dagger through her Crow cape dangerously close to her neck. Shit, she should've been able to see that coming. He was pissed at her, but under that she could see little twitches here and there that told her he had been worried too. They had been trained together, after all. Had both been adopted into house de Riva.
She would never tell him, but she missed how things were before he ascended to Fifth Talon. Back when he was free to just... Be her big brother. Sure, they weren't blood related, but after suffering through the Crow training together? He had looked after her in ways that only a brother would, regardless of their shared legal name.
"You just wanted me to let those people be sold by Antaam slavers?!" she shouted at him, drawing the attention of several others nearby. "Those were our people, Viago! Not just Treviso citizens, some of them were Crows too." She couldn't make the Viago from back then match the one who stood before her now. And she hated it. This Viago was not her brother.
"I wanted you to report back here!" he responded, his voice dangerously soft. "As you were trained to do."
"You know there wasn't time," she objected, not for the first time, keeping her voice at a more neutral volume. "Those people were scheduled to be shipped out tonight. To be sold. There wasn't time to organize a more effective way to free them."
Her armor still had Antaam blood on it, turning the cold metal a stark crimson. She hadn't even been home long enough to clean the knife she preferred to a proper mage's staff.
Viago sighed softly, then carefully pulled his dagger free. "I was able to convince the other Talons to let you live, as long as you are outside of Treviso. A contact reached out to us just after your... adventure. Wants your help, specifically." For just a moment, she saw him. The Viago who had spent so much time keeping an eye on her. Pushing her. The Viago who was her big brother in more than just legality.
"This contact of yours knows enough to ask for me by name?" she asked, skeptical. She crossed her arms over her chest and took a step away from the wall. Belatedly, she hoped their little shouting match hadn't been heard downstairs in the main casino.
"He was one of the people you saved. The dwarf," Viago admitted. "It will get you out of the city, out of Antiva. Hopefully, long enough for the others to calm down again."
He wasn't giving her a choice. "Varric? Varric Tethras is your contact?" There was no way this was real. She just happened to save a bunch of people that were about to be sold as slaves, one of them a personal contact of the head of the house, and Viago was still sending her away?! "Fine. Whatever," she said coldly, glaring at him. "When and where?"
"At the city gate. You leave at dawn."
At least he was giving her enough time to clean up and get some provisions, even if it wasn't enough to get any good sleep.
She went back to the de Riva estate. For now, she was still considered an official member of the main family. Until Viago decided to have kids. A previous Fifth Talon didn't have any kids of his own, so he'd adopted the fledglings who showed the most potential for survival. Including both Viago and herself. There weren't very many of them left, now. Viago would need to do something about that soon...
Shit, she knew she did this to herself, but she didn't want to leave him here alone. At least Andarateia was here to keep an eye on him.
She knew he was sending her away because it was the only way to save her life. That didn't mean she had to like it. She was trained to use death as a message, not to abandon people who needed help.
Stupid armor was too damaged to repair in one night, even with magic. Maybe she could modify it instead... She pulled her shirt off over her head, glancing down at her left arm, and the words she saw there.
She'd heard the legends of soulmates. It was one of those things that everyone secretly wanted to be true, but nobody would admit they felt that way. The Chantry called it blasphemy, though they didn't have much influence this far north to begin with. The Antaam were just afraid of anything that smelled like magic.
But this...
You're not telling her the Carcosa story, are you, the words that had simply appeared, in a weirdly elegant script, a few days ago.
The legends said that if a spirit paired your souls, the words would appear on your arm. The first words you were supposed to hear that person say. The colors were supposed to be the same too, when you found the right person. She had no idea who, or what, Carcosa was, but this sounded like something that would be said to Varric. He was known for having all kinds of outrageous stories.
The legends said that the spirits would watch people, and rarely a spirit of Love would connect two souls in the Fade when they were destined to meet. That waking up with the words on your arm meant you were about to meet someone who would change your life forever. Once you met them, you began to sense them, but none of the legends ever specified how or what you could sense about the other.
The legends all agreed on one thing, though.
That once two bonded souls met, losing one would destroy the survivor.
She was a Crow. Even if she was still only recently promoted to full assassin status. Her life was too dangerous for something as... as altering as a soul bond. Not only was she more likely to be killed than the average person, but this could be used against her if she climbed the ranks. Or it could be used against her as a way to get to Viago. No, she had to keep this hidden. For house de Riva. For the Crows.
For herself.