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weaveandwood · 8 days ago

Text

Overcome

Pairing: The Viper x Rook (Bianca, ex-Antivan Crow mage) Words: 3.5K Rating: NSFW

For @veilguard-appreciation-week! Prompts for today were: Minrathous, Justice, "I think you might be trouble."

(This is set after the events of the game)

Read on AO3!

“Got a missive about an underground slave sale happening this evening, feel like causing a little trouble?” Ashur said as he leaned against the wall of his office, watching Bianca read through some reports while lounging on his sofa.

“Another one? I thought we were really making progress,” she said with a sigh. She sounded disappointed. He went to sit by her on the sofa, and she stretched her legs over his lap.

“We are. Minrathous is changing. It’s hard to let go of over thousands of years of ‘tradition,’ no matter how awful that tradition is. But think of it this way—we’ve gone from having to choose which of many markets to disrupt any given day to only having one a few times a week. We will get there,” he said, threading his fingers through hers. If he could prevent anyone from what she experienced as a child—sold by the only family she had left and taken away from her home to be trained to kill—he would do whatever it took. He had to.

“You know patience has never been my strong suit,” she said.

“One of my favorite things about you,” he smiled, remembering how he went from kissing her one afternoon to being buried inside her just hours later. She laughed, clearly thinking something similar. “If you had patience, I’m not sure we would be us.”

“I suppose you’re right. Okay, let’s go free some slaves. I’m in the mood to beat up some slavers anyway,” she said, sitting up before leaning to his ear. “Besides, you are always so sexy when you’re fighting. We’ll see if I’m patient enough to get you back home,” she whispered, her warm breath sending waves of desire through him. Would this be how it always was between them? As they stood up, he watched her move across the room in her tight leather pants and shirt, running the risk of getting distracted. He hoped beyond all hope that it would always be like this.

“You know, I think you might be trouble,” he said as he began to clasp his mask, becoming The Viper once more.

“I am, and that’s why you love me,” she said with a smile before fixing her own mask across her face, a new addition to her wardrobe after their reunion. While their relationship wasn’t secret anymore, being masked during Shadow Dragon duties helped prevent crowds of people who recognized Bianca as Rook. After a few disastrous missions, they decided it was best. It had the added benefit of making her look even more dangerous. She joked about not having patience, but most nights it took every ounce of his willpower not to pull her into a secluded alleyway and take her then and there.

He knew tonight would be the same.

The slave market would be an easy mission—a small amount of slaves, not many potential buyers. Bianca didn’t know if it was because they had taken down so many that she was becoming desensitized, or if this was a sign of Minrathous changing, like Ashur was so optimistic it would. Looking at the line of slaves for purchase, their ears pointed, eyes hollowed, and clothes soiled, she could feel Ashur’s anger growing from their vantage point on a dark balcony above. She settled on one small elven girl, slight and scared with dark wavy hair, and she was taken back to a dim room not unlike this one all those years ago when she was a small girl surrounded by so many other small girls, all of them scared and shaking, knowing their fate was up to the people in the room in front of them. She thought herself lucky when she was purchased by the Crows. This young girl would be luckier—she would never be purchased. Her life would be her own.

She looked over at Ashur. His eyes had settled on the same girl and she knew he was thinking about her. He had always been fierce about emancipation—the slave trade disgusted him, but ever since he learned her past, he became more angry, more righteous, more intently focused on destroying this specific part of Minrathous’s story. She rested her hand on his, drawing his attention away from the girl.

“That girl will never go through what you went through,” he said softly, his voice tinged with the beginnings of rage.

“Of course not, she has The Viper on her side.”

She could feel the static from his magic pulling at hers. He had worked so hard to regain his strength and Bianca was convinced he was stronger than before, somehow. As if being cured of blight had concentrated it, coalescing his frost into the strongest blizzard, his sparks into lightning storms the likes of which the world had never seen. She knew how things worked here, that he was the product of a long line of powerful mages, all selected to breed a mage more powerful than the last. She couldn’t imagine anyone more powerful than him at this moment, and couldn’t wait to see him unleash on these men in the room below them. She couldn’t wait to join him, beat them, and then have him afterwards.

A shuffling in the room drew her attention. It was about to start.

“Shall we?” he whispered, the only hint of the smile she knew he was giving her the small creases by his eyes. “The usual plan?”

“You mean the one where I do all the work getting the slaves to safety while you get to have fun freezing all the slavers?”

“That’s the one,” he said, hoisting himself effortlessly over the balcony railing to land in an inconspicuous area.

“Show off,” Bianca muttered to herself, smiling and shaking her head though the familiar feeling of desire began to hum within her, mingling with her fire and sparks and stoking her magic. She’d get the slaves to the waiting Shadows outside, then come back in to play.

All those years of assassin training had proved useful in her new life, she had found. Being able to sneak soundlessly and avoid being spotted by keeping to the shadows served her well once more and she was in position by the slaves. She made eye contact with Ashur and nodded, knowing that all of his beautiful divine fury was about to be unleashed. When she felt the first wave of cool air hit her, she knew that was her signal—the slaver nearest the slaves had been incapacitated. It took everything within her not to turn her head to watch him, but she knew if she did, she’d never look away.

Slaves first, then you can watch your hot boyfriend, she thought to herself as she reached the front of the room, finally noticed by the first of the slaves in the line, a middle aged male, face weathered with exposure. She wondered what his story was. What all of their stories were. She knew they would be as varied as there were stars in the sky. There was no shortage of ways to oppress people in Tevinter.

“We’re here to help,” she said to him as the sounds of chaos reached her ears. “There are people outside who will take you to safe houses. You will not be slaves any longer.” She saw him glance at her pointed ears, as if they were the deciding factor if he would trust her or if this was all some trick. She took care to make sure her hair was tucked behind them on missions with slaves involved for this very reason, and knew this was why Ashur always had her go to the slaves. There was an ancient bond of generational oppression that he would never be able to breach even though he tried the hardest out of all the Dragons to help slaves, but Bianca was instantly trustworthy just for the shape of her ears. She didn’t know whether to be proud of Ashur for being so in tune with what their charges needed over his own pride, or to be bitter at the hypocrisy that he was regarded with suspicion just for the shape of his ears.

“This way,” she said once they were all focused on her. She led them out the side door where four other Shadows were waiting. She nodded at one of the waiting members of her new faction before turning to the man she had made the de facto leader of this slave group. “There will be food and baths and a change of clothes at the safe houses. Then you will get to decide what your life will be,” she smiled. The small girl from before looked up at her with watery eyes. Bianca knew she would be taken in by a family and never experience any of the hardships she was forced to endure. That was the goal. That was why she left the Crows.

That’s not to say her desire to kill was dampened when she quit being an assassin. No—her fingers itched at the thought of forming her orb, of using her sparks to incapacitate those who would place a low value on a life, of using her mage knife to slice the throat of anyone who got too close. She was good at it, and when directed at the right target for the right reason…she loved it. She nodded to one of the Shadows currently leading the slaves out of the area before slinking back into the shadows. She needed to join Ashur in making sure these monsters would never leave that room again.

Ashur was holding back, toying with his prey as he waited for Bianca to return. The room was freezing, ice forming around the bodies of the slavers and the would-be buyers that didn’t manage to escape in the initial chaos. He didn’t mind if a few escaped—they would either never return or they would make the grave mistake of attempting to buy a slave again, only to meet the sharp end of Bianca’s knife. He wondered sometimes if the face of the man who sold her took the place of the men she killed. A question for another time, he thought to himself with a smile as he felt the temperature in the room start to rise, the first sign of Bianca’s magic.

Now the show would begin.

The two of them fought like a well-oiled machine, their magics combining to make the perfect storm of frost, fire, and sparks. When their targets thought one deluge was over, another would begin. They would find no safe harbor in this room. One by one, they fell—either through death or scared surrender, it didn’t matter to Ashur. Those who left the room trembling with fear would know The Viper and The Crow could appear at any future slave market, and they were unlikely to take their chances a second time. It was how they managed to partially decimate the slave trade in such a short amount of time.

The bright glow of lightning and the sound of static erupted from across the room. Bianca was facing down the slaver, sparks circling her knife as her orb flickered with both brilliant violet and orange light. He knelt down to the bloodied and freezing buyer he was currently dealing with.

“You know, you’re lucky you got me instead of her,” he said, cupping the man’s chin roughly with his gloved hand and forcing him to watch as Bianca alternated sending bolts of lightning and plumes of fire across the slaver’s body. He couldn’t hear her over his shouts of pain, but he knew she was giving him a verbal lashing to match the magical one, her face a beautiful combination of rage and righteousness.

“Knife-eared bitch,” the buyer spat, eyeing Bianca’s pointed ears. Ashur cocked his head. He never understood the hatred of elf ears. He thought they were magnificent. Especially hers, given the sounds she made at night when his lips touched them.

“That was the wrong thing to say, my friend,” he said, feeling his magic grow ever and ever more impatient inside him. “I was going to let you go, to spread the word that the slave trade in Minrathous was over.”

“But now?” The man said, his dark eyes fixed on Ashur’s blue ones.

“Well, that ‘knife-eared bitch,’ as you called her, happens to be the love of my life and I can’t let you get away with such disrespect,” he said as he stood up, cold indifference coloring his voice as frost began to swirl around the man on his knees in front of him.

“Wait, wait—” the man said, attempting to beg, though it was to no avail. The frost circled him faster and faster, his own personal blizzard. It pressed in on him, freezing him slowly, agonizingly. Ashur could make this fast, and the thought ran through his head that he probably should, but the disgust on that man’s face while he looked at Bianca…there was no mercy left within him to give.

He kicked the frozen corpse over once the room was silent once more.

“Hey…you good?” Bianca asked as she walked over, sheathing her knife and wiping her brow. He put his hands on her waist, pulling her close to him.

“Better now,” he said, unclasping one side of her mask and then his own before kissing her deeply. “Have I ever told you that watching you fight is incredibly sexy?”

“I’ve picked up on it,” she smiled and laughed before continuing their kiss, no doubt remembering the early days of their relationship when she was still Rook and fought alongside the Shadows before the dragon attacked Minrathous. He always made sure to show his appreciation and approval of her fighting multiple times when she came to him those nights.

Need threatened to overtake his senses as she pressed her hips against his. He groaned into her mouth, reluctantly pulling away.

“As much as I want to pull you into a dark corner and take you right here and now,” he said while looking around at all the bodies on the floor, “the ambience is a bit of a mood killer.”

“Well, then, you better get me home quickly,” she said as he fixed her mask before taking care of his own.

They had barely made it back into Bianca’s apartment before masks were quickly discarded and his lips were on hers once more. He pressed her against the wall, his tongue sliding against hers as his hands made quick work of the buttons on her top. She pushed his jacket off, the heavy leather thudding unceremoniously on the floor before shrugging her shirt off. She grabbed his hand and led him down the hall to her bedroom, not wanting any delays in getting what she wanted most.

Patience never was her strong suit and she needed Ashur inside her after tonight. Slave rescues brought up things she would rather forget, and there was no better way to do that than to have him between her thighs while she chased her pleasure and called his name out to whoever was listening.

They both wasted no time in removing the last of their clothes before kissing each other once more—fiercely, desperately, without abandon. His arms wrapped around her, his fingers threading through her curls and pressing her tightly against him. She could feel him starting to get hard against her as she scratched her nails up and down his back. He kissed his way from the corner of her jaw to her earlobe, biting it gently before running his tongue along the shell of her ear to the delicate point, making her knees buckle and a soft moan escape her mouth.

“Need you,” she said breathlessly as he took the point of her ear into his mouth, sucking lightly. Waves of pleasure crashed through her, stoking her desire for him to even higher peaks. She pushed him onto the bed, eyes raking over his body as she crawled next to him. Sometimes she still couldn’t believe that he was here, that he was hers, that for once everything she wanted worked out. She kissed him, wrapping her hand around his already hard cock, his sharp intake of breath and soft curses in Tevene as she stroked him only made her want him more.

She climbed on top of him, straddling his hips as she lined him up to her entrance. She had been ready for him since that first blast of cool air that evening and didn’t want to wait any longer. His hands went to her hips, both of them moaning as she let herself sink down onto him, sheathing him fully within her body. The initial burn of entry giving away to some of the most intense pleasure every time he entered her never got old, and she hoped she would always feel this way.

She looked down into his eyes as she rested her hands on his strong chest, using her thighs to lift and lower her hips, slowly at first so she could feel each hard inch of him dragging against her before speeding up, his hands on her hips helping her grind down against him each time. Sometimes it was easy to forget that this man underneath her was the highest ranking member of the Chantry, especially with the words coming out of his mouth at that moment and the way his hand reached around to squeeze her backside as she rode him.

The room filled with the sounds of their frenzied lovemaking—cries of “more”, “harder”, “please”, the bed hitting the wall, curses in both Antivan and Tevene followed by praises to the Maker. Bianca loved nights after missions, both of them putting the atrocities they see behind them with what she regarded as the best sex of her life. Truthfully, she put sex with Ashur on a completely different level from every other person she had been with, something that had been evident from the very first night they were together and had only gotten better each time since. But something about the way they grasped at each other after missions was so intense, as if they were proving to each other that things could still be good in this world, as long as they had each other.

She leaned down to kiss him, suddenly overcome with emotion. He wrapped his arms around her, pressing her to his chest as he thrust up into her. The change in angle, the depth of each thrust, the way his tongue slid around hers—they all sent her racing to her peak, threatening to send her over the edge. She knew he could feel her tightening around him, her body tensing and going still as she let him fuck her thoroughly. He knew all her tells, and she knew his—the way his fingers dug into her skin, his normally measured rhythm becoming erratic, the moans he released into her mouth each time their bodies hit together. She could tell he was close.

“Come for me,” she whispered in his ear. She needed it. “Come for me now.”

His answering groan and hard thrusts were enough to send her over the edge, crying out as she finally reached her peak and shattered around him. Her nails dug into his skin as he thrust one more time, spilling into her and holding her even more tightly.

Moments passed, the two of them remaining entwined, sweaty and panting as they came down from those blissful heights. Once she caught her breath, Bianca climbed off Ashur, laying beside him. He turned to the side to face her, his fingers playing with her curls before tracing the outline of her ear once more.

“You’re magnificent,” he smiled softly at her, his eyes raking over her face, full of emotion.

“Is everything ok?” Bianca asked.

He shook his head, pulling her in close to him and pressed a kiss to the top of her head.

“Something someone said about you at the slave market got to me more than it probably should have.”

“Let me guess, a slur about me being an elf?” When she heard his hum of agreement it all started to make sense—his attention to her ears, the way he was looking at her, even the way she felt his anger from across the room during their mission. “I suppose it’s different hearing it directed at someone you care for. I was wondering why you killed that man, he seemed relatively harmless.”

“I was planning on letting him go, but after he said that—” Ashur tightened his grip on her shoulder, rage starting to color the edge of his voice again before he caught himself. “I was overcome with anger on your behalf. I couldn’t let him get away with that, though maybe I shouldn’t have let my emotions get the better of me.”

She sat up, her hand on his chest. “This is part of the package of being with an elf. I have not been immune to hearing slurs directed my way, why do you think I always keep my ears covered with my hair?” she laughed. “But thank you. For letting your emotions get the better of you.”

“I promise never to stop when you're involved,” he said, laying his hand on hers.

“Freeing slaves and killing racists? Sounds like justice to me,” she laughed, leaning down to kiss him once more before curling up against him.

“I agree,” he said with a laugh.

#viper x rook #ashur x rook #datv the viper #veilguardappreciationweek2025 #veilguardappreciationweek #viperook #datv #dragonagetheveilguard #ashur vesperian #Bianca de riva #the snake and the crow #my writing #listen I tried not to make this smutty I really did

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