Chapter Text
Treviso was blighted.
Teia and Viago had organized their Houses to aid the city, clearing blight boils and fighting both lingering darkspawn and Antaam alike. In the two and a half months following the defeat of the elven gods and Solas walking willingly into the Fade to repair the Veil, there were fewer enemies terrorizing the citizens of Treviso. Progress was being made, thanks to the Crows, but there was still a long road ahead.
Lucanis felt the bone-deep exhaustion with each passing day. Spite pushed against his mental walls constantly, searching for cracks to slip through. Through everything — breaking out of the Ossuary, the blighting of Treviso, the fall of the elven gods — Lucanis and Spite had learned how to work together in combat. Lucanis had become stronger through Spite, and had admittedly grown used to fighting with the demon's wings at his back. But he could not trust himself with what little remained of his family. Caterina was in her eighties, and he had work to attend as First Talon. Any sign of weakness — and being an abomination was a weakness — would paint a target on his back.
So Lucanis still slept as little as possible. He shackled himself to his bed on the rare occasions he knew exhaustion would overtake him. He drank more coffee than was probably healthy. There was a constant ringing in his ears and an itch behind his eyes that had nothing to do with blood magic.
I want. OUT!
It was what Spite raged about most often.
"No. Where would you even go?" Lucanis sighed and scrubbed a hand over his eyes. It was getting harder to deal with Spite's demands. The demon may have learned what it meant to work with a team when they were busy saving the world, but their work in Treviso must have felt idle in comparison. It hardly seemed to matter that they spent most nights fighting, pushing away what remained of the blight in the canals. Davrin had sent what aid he could, but it was still slow business.
A sharp knock rapped at his office door, and he bade them enter. A messenger from Teia — his presence was requested at his earliest convenience. Knowing Teia, that meant now unless he was actively dying. Lucanis put away the book he'd been scanning — something Neve had found for him on possession in his search for a way to separate Spite and himself — and made his way across the rooftops of Treviso toward the Cantori Diamond.
Spires of twisted, dead blight tendrils warped the profile of the city, casting an eerie orange and gray hue over his once beautiful Treviso. His chest felt tight as he gripped the handles of a zip-line and swung over the canals far below. Beneath his skin, Spite bristled at the sight of the diseased rot. Something they could agree on, at least. As his boots met the stone on the Diamond's rooftops, Lucanis became all-too aware of the eyes that fell on him. The First Talon of the Crows had arrived, and every fledgling and assassin wanted to see the man who supposedly led them all. Of course, Caterina was still truly making decisions; there was little he could think of that would make her actually retire. But they didn't need to know that. Lucanis kept his shoulders back and his gaze ahead as he ascended the stairs, ignoring the stares that followed in his wake.
"Valle found you quickly," Teia noted with an pleased smile when she caught sight of him, as though she expected nothing less. "Tell me you weren't locked away in that office of yours again." She would only tease if he affirmed, so he ignored the bait.
"Your message said there was someone here who wanted to speak with me," Lucanis said instead. He pointedly ignored the uncomfortable feeling that settled in his gut at the thought of his mystery visitor being Rook, and the way Spite rattled in his rib cage at the prospect of seeing her.
"It is so good to see you again, Lucanis." The proper tone of Emmrich's voice carried ahead of him as he stepped into view, a pleasant smile on his lips. The magical glamour he used to hide his true form made Lucanis' eyes itch just a bit more, the constant tugging of magic through the Veil to keep up appearances for those outside the Necropolis. Lucanis knew this was what Emmrich had wanted, but he still didn't understand it. In the back of his mind, Spite recoiled — he had never gotten over the loss of Manfred.
"You as well, Emmrich. What brings you to Treviso?" Emmrich steepled his fingers in front of him in that animated way he always did when he was trying to be persuasive. Lucanis braced himself.
"I know you are looking for a means to separate yourself from Spite. I believe I may have found someone who could aid in this endeavor: another Mourn Watcher like myself, Astrid Ingellvar. She specializes in working with spirits and has spent the past two years doing field research in Rivain with their seers. From my understanding, she is a bit of a prodigy in her field."
"And you think she could help?"
"I believe if there is anyone who may be capable of aiding you and Spite, it is her. She has written academic papers on her findings where she has extracted maligned spirits from their hosts. They haven't been reviewed by the other Watchers yet and therefore aren't yet substantiated in academia, but—"
Emmrich was beginning to ramble, Lucanis knew. But he considered the proposition. The Mourn Watch mages of Nevarra were among the most educated in all of Thedas, perhaps more so than those in Tevinter, and if the woman worked with spirits, she was likely a mage. That she purported to remove demons from other hosts, substantiated or not, was a better lead than Lucanis had gotten on his own.
"Alright," Lucanis said, interrupting Emmrich mid-thought. The smile that pulled at his lips felt only slightly more forced than he meant. Emmrich was well-meaning and still a friend, even if Lucanis didn't understand the man's desire to live as an undead for the rest of time itself. "You've convinced me. We'll see what she can do."
"Oh, splendid! I'll travel back to the Necropolis and inform her straightaway!"
And that was how, just over a fortnight later, Lucanis was greeting the woman who arrived at Villa Dellamorte with a pack slung across her back and tiny gold chains glittering in her thick, tawny hair. She introduced herself politely, and Lucanis found himself thinking that, had she not been recommended by Emmrich, he would not have guessed she was a member of the Mourn Watch. She honored her order in the color of her clothing — deep purples with green accents — but the cut and styling did not resemble the multi-layered robes he had seen in his few excursions into the Grand Necropolis.
"Professor Volkarin sent me with a letter of introduction, but I have a feeling I wouldn't be here if you hadn't already taken his recommendations on me already," she said easily, her smile still reaching her storm-blue eyes despite the reserved nature of it.
"I trust Emmrich's judgment," Lucanis answered.
The Seer smells like… Spite inhaled deeply. Incense and sea-water. He manifested beside Lucanis, a copy of himself in shades of purple. Lucanis watched Astrid's eyes dart to his left, focusing clearly on the place where Spite had formed.
"Determination?" she asked. Perhaps Lucanis should not have been surprised that she could sense Spite's presence — the other Seer in Rivain he'd come across, Rowan, had been able to do as much — but that she seemed able to see the demon was unexpected. "I'm surprised the smell of the ocean still clings to me."
Spite, the demon corrected, and she nodded. Like Emmrich, she could hear him without the use of Lucanis' mouth. A blessing, as far as Lucanis was concerned.
"My apologies, Spite. Your form has changed and I should not have presumed." Astrid turned her gaze back to Lucanis. "Where shall we begin?"
"Let me walk you to your room, in the guest house," Lucanis answered, and offered to take her bag. Caterina did not raise a man without manners. Astrid's smile grew easier as she declined with a wave of her hand and bade him to lead the way.
Once Astrid had dropped her few belongings in the room that would be hers for the foreseeable future, she asked to see the space they would be working in. Lucanis appeared taken aback, surprised by her willingness to get started as soon as possible.
Straightforward. I like her, Spite commented.
Professor Volkarin had told Astrid very little of the situation with Lucanis and the maligned spirit possessing him, at her own insistence. She preferred to enter a possession case without any preconceived notions. It made it easier to see what was really happening with the spirit and host without any outside influences guiding her thoughts. All she knew was that Lucanis Dellamorte, newly-named First Talon of the Antivan Crows, had a maligned spirit forced upon him after being imprisoned by Venatori cultists. Since their forced union, the two had learned to live together well enough to fight effectively and save all of Thedas from the elven gods who had unleashed the Sixth Blight, but now Lucanis sought a way to separate himself from Spite. That was where Astrid came in.
Since childhood, she had always been particularly attuned to the spirits of the Necropolis. Where some mages, like Professor Volkarin, were gifted with the ability to call spirits into a corpse and command them to speak the truths known to the flesh, Astrid's talents lied in communicating with spirits directly in their most natural state. She enjoyed the company of Wisdom, Compassion, and Purpose. She spent her childhood dancing with wisps, singing with Revelry and listening to the stories of Memory. Her heart broke for the maligned spirits who became Pride and Rage and Despair, and so her studies focused on the way spirits became bound to the material world.
Spending the past two years in Rivain, learning from seers from various cities and villages across the beautiful country surrounded by the sea, Astrid had learned the nature of possession; the way the spirit wrapped itself around the mortal host and took control. She had seen willing possessions of the seers, speaking for spirits who could not otherwise be heard, and observed the threads of energy that wrapped delicately around spine and shoulders to allow movement, a tender embrace that was released with care. She had also seen unwilling, unfortunate possessions, where maligned spirits tangled themselves into knots, binding their host to their will and forcing the body to move with unnatural, unpracticed impulses.
The relationship between Spite and Lucanis was unlike either type of possession she had seen in the past. Spite seemed to exist within Lucanis, tied to him for certain, but did not impose his will on the man. Lucanis did not appear to twist Spite into the form he took now, the way another mortal's unresolved anger might have turned Justice into Vengeance. Whatever had been done to them with this forced possession, they had each retained their own sense of self. It was fascinating, but not what had drawn Astrid to Antiva in the first place.
It had been Professor Volkarin's request, earnest in voice and body language as he told her about his friend who wished to separate from the spirit sharing his body. The professor, though now lich and beyond the bounds of death, hoped for a means of aid that would not bring Lucanis to an untimely end. The circumstances that brought Lucanis and Spite together had been forced upon them, undoubtedly violently if she knew anything about the Venatori. More than anything, she simply wanted to help.
Spite walked beside her as they crossed the courtyard of Villa Dellamorte, closer than one with a physical body might stand, his gaze intense as he studied Astrid. She noticed that he took the time and energy to mime walking, rather than floating like other spirits might. She offered him a smile, and he grinned back, all teeth and a touch of malice that didn't seem to be purposeful.
You're not afraid, he noted, glee in his tone.
"You've given me no reason to be," she answered. Lucanis glanced over his shoulder at her, a frown pulling at his lips.
"Spite, give her space." Spite grumbled and, true to his name and nature, moved even closer to Astrid. "My apologies. He isn't used to people being able to see him, besides me."
"Spirits often don't have a sense of space in general, given the nature of the Fade. I don't mind."
Lucanis hummed in acknowledgment, but said nothing else on the matter. He led her through the doors of another building on the villa grounds, smaller than the rest, though that was saying little when compared to the sizes of the guest home and family home. The public gathering rooms appeared largely unlived in, and it became clear to Astrid that this was a place for business. Lucanis opened a door at the end of the hall on the second floor and held it for Astrid to enter.
It was an intimate space, a small reading room with a fire already lit in the hearth and one wall lined with filled bookcases. Two densely cushioned chairs lined in a deep purple fabric sat across a knee-height table from a similarly styled couch. Lanterns hung in the corners of the room, though the only light currently came from the fireplace. It was cozier than Astrid expected, given the opulence of the guest room she had been provided.
"Will this space work?" Lucanis asked, sounding a bit uncertain for the first time since she had arrived.
"Will you be comfortable here?" she countered.
"Well enough."
"Then well enough." There was an easy smile on her lips as she entered the room fully and crossed to take a seat in one of the plush chairs, the velvet material smooth against her skin as she leaned against one armrest. Lucanis sat across from her, on the couch, back straight and hands placed loosely on his lap. She watched Spite fidget where he stood, just to the left of Lucanis, his fingers twitching with unspent energy.
"How did the two of you come to be like this?" she asked.
"Didn't Emmrich tell you?"
The Venatori witch.
"Only a bit, but I prefer to hear it from you. Who was the Venatori witch?"
"Zara Renata. She's dead."
We should have killed her. It. Was. Ours. Stolen by the traitor! Lucanis' eyes snapped to Spite, and though Astrid couldn't hear what he was thinking, she had a strong suspicion that it was to tell Spite to stop. Spite, for his part, grumbled in return. The tension between the two was clear, even if they had been able to set differences aside for the sake of defeating the elven gods.
"Would you allow me to see the point where the two of you are joined?" Astrid asked. "That will give me a clearer picture of what we are working with. It's usually along the spine."
"How do you see it?" Lucanis inquired, tension leaving his brow as he turned his attention back to her and irritation was replaced by curiosity. Astrid stood from her chair and stepped around the table to sit on the opposite side of the couch from him.
"If you turn your back to me, I'll be able to read the energy around you. If there are entanglements, as there often are with an unwilling possession, I'll be able to see where they are." Lucanis' brow pinched, but he turned his back to her. Astrid drew in a breath as she reached for her own magic, eyes focusing past cloth and skin and sinew to see the etheric transfusion as it passed between Spite and Lucanis. She had been expecting the tangled knots she found there, wrapped tightly around the spinal column like a bundle of thread that had been left in the bottom of a bag, but she hadn't expected the sheer size or complexity of it. Her breath caught in her throat, searching for any threads that might pull easily loose and finding few.
He does not LISTEN. He breaks our deal. Spite's voice cut through her thoughts, and she watched as threads pulled tighter around Lucanis' spine.
"What do you think we are doing?" Lucanis retorted, tone biting. "All of this is so we can be separated. You'll finally be free."
"Over the course of our work together," Astrid began, "I'll work at untangling the knots that tie Spite's spirit to your physical body, Lucanis. This will involve me touching you, mostly reserved to the spine and shoulders. Often, pulling these threads will draw up memories from one or both of you. It will not be an easy or painless process, but I will not let anything I do endanger either of you." She blinked and ended the spell, and stared at the finely tailored vest fitted over Lucanis' back and shoulders. "I won't start that process tonight, but do you both agree to continue this work?"
"Whatever this takes," Lucanis answered, without hesitation. Astrid looked over her shoulder, to where Spite still stood watching her with narrowed, exacting eyes that glowed with a purple energy.
You'll let me out? he asked.
"I will do everything in my power to help you be free," she told him. A grin broke across his face, and he looked to Lucanis.
I like her.
"That's a yes," Lucanis muttered.