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hydrangeapartridge · 2 days ago

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In Sickness and In Health

Summary: Emmrich gets sick but Rook and Manfred are here for him.

Part of my EmmRook post game short stories (Cross-posted here on AO3 or check the EmmRookvtag on my page for other stories)

Warning for potential end game spoilers and angst (but with comfort)

Enjoy!

Emmrich was an early riser. To her chagrin, it wasn’t often that Rook got to wake up next to him. There were still benefits to her lover’s waking hour of course, namely that she was often waken up by the lovely scent of breakfast and a gentle caress or kiss from her lover, all fresh and dapper and smelling of lotion and cologne.

Their morning routine was so unchanging that Rook was surprised on, one particular morning, to find Emmrich still sleeping beside her. Especially when she remembered he was supposed to meet with a student very early. One look to theposition of the sun outside and she knew Emmrich was late. Except Emmrich was NEVER late. He could, on rare occasions, be fashionnably tardy, but never hours late.

Emmrich grunted in his sleep, and Rook noticed his eyebrows were drawn together in an uncomfortable grimace and that sweat was perling down his forehead. He was probably having a nightmare. How sad that he overslept only to be faced with unpleasant dreams. Rook pressed a hand against his shoulder and gently called his name until he opened his eyes with a disgruntled noise. But his expression softened the second he saw Rook’s lovely face.

“Darling” He greeted her, voice hoarse from sleep. “Good morning” He groggily told her with a lazy smile.

“Good morning my heart” Rook chuckled before her smile dropped as she was saddened to inform him of how late it was. “I’m sorry I woke you but I thought you told me you were supposed to meet with a student in the morning? Have your plans changed?”

Rook was barely able to finish her sentence before Emmrich bolted out of bed. “Goodness! Why didn’t I wake up sooner!”

Rook watched her lover make one step barefoot out of bed before he wobbled and had to slow down. He caught himself on the nighstand and Rook was quick to rush to his side.

“Oh dear” Emmrich mumbled, out of breath from the bare effort of getting up.

“Emmrich are you alright?” Rook asked, worried, her hand coming to rest on his arm, ready to support him is needed.

“Well, I feel a little dizzy.But I’m sure it’s only because I didn’t take the proper time to get out of bed” He tried to reassure her.

However Rook started noticing his silken pajamas were drenched in cold sweat. She stretched until she was able to place a hand on his cheek, then his forehead to confirm her suspicions.

“Emmrich you are possitively burning up!” She exclaimed.

“Oh I do feel a little hot. And I have a headache from reading too much last night” He said. “And I’m not sure what we ate yesterday agreed with my stomach.” The more he went on, the more Rook stared at him in disbelief. “But nothing a good cup of tea can’t fix” He concluded.

He tried to take another step. “How sweet of you to worry for me dearest but I assure you I feel fine. Now I do need to hurry, I have to.. hum I need to…”

Emmrich seemed lost, his thoughts scrambled in his head. No doubt from the fever he was so sure he didn’t suffer. Rook stepped in front of him to prevent him from going any further.

“No no, you’re not leaving the bed today my heart” Rook told him as she gently pushed him back onto the bed.

Her light touch was enough to make him lose his balance and fall back onto the covers. Rook knelt on the bed and proceeded to unbutton Emmrich’s pajama shirt, aiming to rid him of the damp fabric and help him change into clean ones.

“Oh my, so bold in dragging me back to bed” Emmrich exhaled as he watched her nimble fingers undress him, mesmerized. “Darling as much as I appreciate your enthusiasm, I think I have somewhere to be.. “ He visibly racked his brain for the exact detail “I have many things to do… though I’m not sure what exactly”

“Emmrich, you are visibly sick and need to rest” Rook seriously told him. She was starting to feel like he would be a bad patient.

“Nonsense. I haven’t been sick in years. I exercise, mind my hygiene, and take tonics during the colder months to prevent disease”

While Emmrich blathered, he let Rook get him out of his pajamas and into new ones. Once she was done, she pressed him into the mattress with a hand splayed on his chest, placing one free finger to his lips to stop his rambling about prevention of infections and means of desinfection.

“Close your eyes and sleep my love” She gently ordered him, and when she moved her hand over his burning forehead, he complied with a tired sigh. “I’ll call for a healer and you will be back on your feet in no time”

- - -

The healer stopped by in the afternoon. He diagnosed Rossalia, a fever usually contracted by young children, that immunized them for the rest of their lives if they survived. The disease was often benine in children, but more severe in adults who never came in contact with it before. Given he was taken in by the Watch quite young, and lived most of his childhood in the aseptic environment of the Necropolis, without many contacts with children, Emmrich had probably encountered the disease only recently. It found him weakened by overexertion (from Manfred’s extra curriculars, to the three thesis he had accepted to supervise, and the approaching deadline for a publication of his recent researches), and now it was taking a toll on his body.

The fever was high, but the healer was not worried, it was a natural mean of defense agaisnt the infection. He gave Rook embrium to ease the breathing, and a potion of garlic and spindleweed to lower the body’s temperature; both to take thrice a day and into the night if needed. Emmrich was barely conscious during that exchange, too tired to move or talk. The fever was supposed to alleviate overnight, and the healer asked Rook called for them again if Emmrich didn’t get better in the two following days.

Rook diligently applied the prescription, part of her wishing she had studied healing magic. Nevarran medicine had similarities to that of the dalish, but wasn’t exactly identical, and she wished she could ask a dalish keeper for advice. But she couldn’t; she was far from home, had been for a long time. Yet her roots still called to her in times of doubt.

In the evening, Manfred came back from the Necropolis and immediately asked about Emmrich’s condition. In the morning Rook had convinced the spirit to leave without Emmrich so he wouldn’t miss any lessons. She thought that was what Emmrich would have wished, but she now realized that Manfred had been preoccupied all day.

“Sick?” He asked, not quite grasping the meaning of it while Rook prepared some tea mixed with embrium. Emmrich hadn’t been this sick since she knew him, and probably since he took Manfred as his assistant, which explained the skeleton’s suprise. It was one thing to learn about the theoretical aspect of illness, but it was another to be confronted with a sick loved one.

“Yes. It’s an infection. There’s something attacking his body but he’s fighting it off with fever” Rook explained as best she could. But she didn’t have Emmrich’s patience and knack for teaching.

“Like blight?” Manfred asked and before Rook could reply, he added. “I learned sick people die”

Rook froze, then turned to the skeleton.

“No Manfred, he’s not going to die. It’s just Rossallia. I caught it as a child and I’m still here! The healer said he would be fine” She tried to reassure him, coming closer and placing a hand on his scapula.

“Good” Manfred perked up. “Don’t want him die”

“Me neither” Rook said, a strained chuckle escaping her. It seemed Emmrich’s fears were contagious, and bled on them as the years passed.

Rook went back to the tea when Manfred called her name.

“Rook?”

“Yes Manfred” She distractedly replied.

“What do I do when Emmrich die?”

The cup she was holding escaped Rook’s grip and crashed onto the floor, the porcelain breaking in a million pieces. She barely heard Manfred announcing “I’ll clean” because of the ringing of her blood beating in her ears.

While Manfred used the broom to dispose of the debris on the floor, she took a few shaky breaths. Deep. Slow. Like he told her she should when distressed. Emmrich. Her sweet and patient Emmrich. Her older, mortal Emmrich.

“Rook?” Manfred came to stand next to her when he was done. “What about tea?” He asked, unphazed, like he didn’t just ask a simple and innocent question that sent her spiralling into a near panic attack.

“Yes, yes I’m on it” Rook told him, gulping back the dread struck in her gut and around her heart.

“I help!” Manfred offered, pouring the tea from the teapot into another cup and placing it all on a tray.

Together they climbed the stairs to the bedroom and tended to Emmrich without another word.

- - -

That night, lying on the couch to leave the bed for Emmrich, Rook couldn’t sleep. Her lover’s condition hadn’t improved but it hadn’t worsened either. She knew healing took time, but there, alone in the silence of the huge empty living room, an irrationnal fear seized her heart. It was stupid, but uncontrollable. A fear that was unjustified, but that she understood came from the conversation she left unfinished with Manfred. It was less a worry for the days to come than an anguish for much later; for gloomy occurrence that she couldn’t forsee and yet was inevitable.

In the darkest hours of the night, Rook found herself fearing for Emmrich’s death more than she ever did. More than when the world was ending. More than when they directly risked their lives facing dragons and gods.

She remembered Emmrich had described it well, that fear, back in the Necropolis’ gardens. Back then she had been smitten with his humanity, touched by his words but too distracted, too young and bright to truly grasp their meaning. She hadn’t tasted the peace of their domestic intimacy yet; the true bliss of living by the side of a kindred spirit.

This fear that couldn’t be reasonned with, or soothed over, plagued her rest; raw and strangling, nested somewhere deep past her heart.

She did her best to control it, but spent the night in its company, like Emmrich probably did many times before her.

- - -

The following day brought no progress towards Emmrich’s recovery. In the early sunrise, Rook found her lover drenched in sweat again, tossing and turning in an agitated fever dream.

He hadn’t spoken to her since she put him to sleep the previous morning, and she was already missing it.

With Manfred’s help she changed his clothes and helped the medicine down his throat. Rook stayed by the bed a few hours, hoping the treatment would lower the fever, but by noon Emmrich was still burning up and started coughing too. Rook kept encouraging him as she caressed his hand between hers, telling him how strong he was, and how he would get better soon. After a particularly dire coughing fit, she pondered calling for the healer again. But she decided against it, reasoning with herself, grasping onto her limited scientific knowledge. Emmrich was is no immediate danger; she had seen people on the verge of dying, and he was not in that state.

Rook was carefully wiping Emmrich’s sweaty forehead when Manfred entered with afternoon tea and biscuits. She realized then that she had missed lunch. She wasn’t feeling hungry anyways.

She thanked Manfred for the tea but left it untouched. When another coughing fit seized Emmrich, wheezy and painful to hear, Rook stood up and rummaged through the drawers of her dresser until she retrieved a small cream jar.

Manfred curiously looked as she opened it and proceeded to spread its content on Emmrich’s bare chest. The strong mint and camphor scent reminded her of her childhood, when her mother would sing her hushered lullabies to get her to sleep despite her sore throat and muscles.

“What this?” Manfred asked.

“A poultice. A recipe from my clan. It helps breathe better” She explained, focusing on the task at hand. She felt less powerless as she applied the treatment, and hoped the medicine from her people would help him like it once helped her.

Emmrich’s coughing visibly receeded, but he was still agitated, his sleep non-restorative.

“I help too” Manfred said, and Rook soon felt flickers of magic prickling her skin.

Light emanated from the spirit’s hands, and he slowly moved them over Emmrich’s face, careful and focused. Rook recognized a basic healing spell. She often forgot that necromancers of the Watch were almost as apt at healing as they were at handling corpses.

Emmrich’s contorted features relaxed under Manfred’s spell, and he fell back into a peaceful slumber in a deep relieved sigh.

“Well done Manfred. Thank you” Rook praised him with a genuine and pure tenderness, coming from the bottom of her heart.

“Don’t like sick” The skeleton declared and Rook sighed in exhaustion.

“Me neither…” She told him, her shoulders hunched under the weight of her worries and the lack of sleep.

She turned to look at the spirit that she sometimes liked to playfully call their son, just to make Emmrich flustered. She liked to jest about it, but she truly felt an indiscriptible affection for this curious being. She couldn’t rival the bond Manfred shared with Emmrich, but she loved the skeleton none the less. With all her heart.

“Manfred, about what you asked me yesterday” She started, hands tightly clasped together. “I think it is best you discuss it with Emmrich directly. When he’s better of course, don’t go dropping this on him too soon, or you’ll truly end him” Her jest had always been a protection, but right then it felt weak and wobbly. Rook’s vision blurred. She couldn’t look Manfred in the eyes as she whispered “But for what it’s worth, I’ll be there for you if you want me. For as long as I can”

Two bony arms drapped around her. It felt weird to be hugged by a skeleton she thought; but in that moment, it was all the comfort she needed.

- - -

In Rook’s dreams, she was with Emmrich. Always. She was faithful to him, and drawn to him even in her nightly escapes. He was calling her name, gentle and sweet; sleepy, like they had just awakened together on the lazy morning of a blissfully unbusy day.

“Darling” He said as he pat the top of her hair, scratching the way she liked it. She never wanted him to stop.

He hissed in delight then.

Wait. Emmrich did not hiss.

Rook opened her eyes and found herself kneeling by the bed, her cheek resting on her folded arms, drool on the corner of her mouth.

“Darling you’re awake. Good morning”

Upon hearing his voice, she straightened up at lightning speed and surveyed her surroundings.

Emmrich sat on the bed, dishevelled and still coughing, but his complexion looking far better than the day before. Beside him, Manfred was placing a tray full of breakfast material: tea and bread, butter and fruits.

“Emmrich” Rook could only sigh his name in longing, so happy to see him better that it brought her to tears. Her worry had been such that her relief was crushing.

“Dearest, are you alright?” Emmrich asked, tone laced with worry, but Rook shook her head and smiled.

“I am now that you are” She replied, and climbed onto the bed to nestle by his side.

Emmrich took her in his arms and kissed her forehead. “Thank you for watching me dearest”

She pressed closer against him and he chuckled, the sound turning into a small coughing fit. The Rossallia access was receiding but not over yet and he musn’t overdo it.

“Are you sure you want to cling to me like that, I’m all sweaty, it is positively appaling” Emmrich sighed but Rook didn’t move an inch.

From the corner of her eye, she noticed Manfred leaning towards the bed, knees bent, brushing the bedding but not quite climbing on it; hesitant.

“I’ll help you clean up soon, but for now, you must indulge us” She told her lover, and then motionned for Manfred to come closer. “Come on Manfred. Time for cuddles!”

A thrilling wistle escaped the skeleton before he pounced on the bed and hugged Emmrich from the other side, where despite an outraged sigh, he was welcomed with opened arms.

The fear was gone for now. It would return, and it would be fine. The happy moments easily outweighted those of doubt. And in the end, what was fear of a loved one’ death if not only a side effect of a love too deep, too strong for such an imperfect creature as a mortal being.

#emmrich volkarin #emmrich x rook #emmrook #rook x emmrich #veilguard fanfic #dragon age fanfiction #dragon age veilguard #da veilguard #dragon age : the veilguard #emmrich the necromancer #emmrich romance #emmrich dragon age #manfred the skeleton #manfred dragon age #da manfred #rook dragon age

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hyperions-light · 1 hour ago

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*** Hello again, bonus round

Varric: your best friend in the whole wide world is letting you pick but if it’s bad he’s going to be That Guy and critique the movie while it’s playing. I do think he’s magnetically attracted to tragedies, though. Marathoning all of Breaking Bad in complete silence. Do you guys remember the movie Logan? He loves that

Solas: your spectral dog is giving you depression. You have never heard of half the films on his list but they are all esoteric and sad. Grave of the Fireflies is light work to him. You will have the most fun with him if you pause the movie and talk with him about the implications of pivotal scenes so you’re definitely only getting through one in an evening but maybe it’s worth it if you like analysis. Why do I think he’d like Princess Mononoke.. the melancholy, perhaps.

Manfred: 12 hour YouTube compilation of tea making asmr

Assan: it’s cat enrichment videos + whatever Davrin wants

Okay so clearly the Lighthouse book club is kind of like movie night except those haven’t been invented yet

But hypothetically

Here’s movie night with the crew

Harding: you know it’s a complete gore fest. Every single Saw movie you’ve ever heard of, plus the ones you haven’t, Hostel, Terrifier, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, etc. you definitely lose some people before the night is over bc it’s just TOO bloody but at least Harding and Taash are having fun. Lucanis and Davrin sit there complaining about how that’s not what it looks like when you draw and quarter someone

Neve: It’s all noirs, murder mysteries and psychological thrillers. Maybe some Blade Runner for diversity. She solves the mystery 5 min into the movie but won’t tell you the answer. Bellara is taking notes on everything and Neve looks over occasionally and nudges her in the right direction. The tragic antagonists make Emmrich sad

Bellara: Think she’d do a little bit of everything? But there’s definitely at least four documentary feature films on wildly variable subjects. She’s going to put on like Planet Earth, and then an Elvhen history one, and then like How It’s Made for some number of hours and then you look up and you’re halfway through the extended edition of Lord of the Rings

Lucanis: oh man. You’re watching Atonement, The Notebook, 50 First Dates, When Harry Met Sally, Sleepless in Seattle; whatever corny romcom you can think of. And then he’s playing the entire catalogue of Hallmark movies. You thought this movie marathon was only one night? Ha! This guy is mainlining caffeine and hasn’t slept in four days, you’re going to exist in a haze of sleep deprivation interspersed by emotional confession scenes. Have fun

Davrin and Taash: they are teaming up to make you watch the entire Fast and the Furious franchise, all the John Wicks, the Independence Days (I think it has sequels?), the Expendables, the Top Guns, I don’t know any more action movie franchises. Things are going to explode, preferably with a lot blood so that Harding is happy too. When everyone falls asleep Davrin puts on Marley and Me to watch with Assan

Emmrich: Mr Art House Cinema over here. I hope you love reading subtitles because at least 50% of it is in other languages and involves people soliloquizing for three minutes at a time and then staring at barren landscapes forlornly. Also at they’re all preoccupied with death in some way. What was that movie where Daniel Day Lewis was a clothing designer and his wife was poisoning him but he was into it? You watch that. You only watch a movie per week though because you have to have time to think about the artistic merit of each one

*I forgot Bellara would love Mythbusters

#veilguard #dragon age: the veilguard #dragon age the veilguard #varric tethras #solas #assan #manfred the skeleton

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