A/N: Soris needs a little love here. I decided to expound on the fact that he'd always seen the City elf PC as his hero. Heavily rephrased some of the conversations, especially towards the end (since I only took screenshots until the wedding ceremony).
Disclaimer: Dragon Age: Origins is not my baby. It's Bioware's.
And then a hero comes along
With the strength to carry on
And you cast your fears aside
And you know you can survive
-----Hero, Mariah Carey
Hero
She had always been his hero, from the day they first met.
Soris was but a mere lad of twelve when he was introduced to his cousin. Tabris was two years younger, but she practically exemplified maturity beyond her years. Her emerald eyes shone with a childlike curiosity, and her courage he sometimes teased as foolhardy, but Soris wouldn't deny that she deserved to be his hero. She deserved his admiration, hands down.
He was a wimp, if he would admit it himself. When humans stormed into the alienage, he was the child who would throw all talk of "community" and "standing up for each other" to the wind. He would turn and run as far as he could. Escape usually worked better than fighting, or so he thought.
The day they were introduced to each other was also the wedding anniversary of Adaia and Cyrion. The alienage was in a festive mood, and Soris was only starting to learn the art of being a warrior. He was astounded to learn that Tabris had been training with her rogue mother since she could hold a dagger. Some elves seemed to believe that she was the best fighter they had, without contest, exempting Adaia herself. Soris wondered if it was true. He felt a stab of jealousy – weren't the older ones supposed to be better than their younger cousins? It wasn't fair, he thought, when he saw how personable Tabris was. When Adaia introduced them, she laughed and held both his hands. "So you're Soris. Mother's told me so much about you. I couldn't wait to see you – you're everything I ever dreamed my elder cousin to be!"
Taken aback, Soris could only smile and nod, returning the greeting in kind.
Then a wealthily-dressed man stormed into the alienage, forcing the gathering elves to scatter. Adaia protectively took Tabris' hand, while Cyrion wrapped his arms around Soris and pulled him to the corner. Soris felt the familiar compulsion to flee as the human's eyes swept across the terrified elves, settling on him.
"I'll take him, then," he announced to the four scary bodyguards surrounding him. "A scrawny boy will do well to be a messenger for me."
"No, no!" Soris wailed, his knees quaking in despair as Cyrion released him shakily, "father, mother, cousin – don't let me go! I don't want to leave this place!"
"You'll shut up if you know what's good for you, fool!" barked a burly bodyguard. He slapped him, sending the poor lad sprawling to the ground. That was when he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Tabris break free from Adaia's grip in rage.
Soris was dragged to his feet. Tears trickled down his cheeks as he stared pleadingly at the elven community. No one moved to help, or even stop them. Even Valendrian shook his head sadly at him. "I don't want to go..." he whispered bitterly as the human noble grabbed his arm roughly and yanked him along.
And suddenly Tabris was in front of them, dagger in hand. It was Adaia's – Soris felt sure of it – she had probably nicked her mother's blade. "You'll release him if you know what's good for you, human," the elven girl snarled, brushing her hair out of her face. She pointed the dagger unwaveringly at him. With the sunlight streaming into the alienage and illuminating her features, Tabris was almost like a knight in shining armor – except her scraggly clothes weren't glittering, and she looked nothing like a warrior. Still, the steely determination in her posture and eyes was hard to miss.
The noble stared incredulously at this scrawny elven girl. "Hear that?" he grinned at the bodyguards around him, "the pathetic knife-ear threatens me! How miserable, that your kind has dropped to such worthlessness. Out of my way, knife-ear." He brushed past the girl, whose gaze locked onto him and hardened.
"Sweetheart, no!" Soris heard Adaia's cry first.
Then the human stopped with a gasp, and Soris twisted around to see the expression of disbelief blossoming across the nobleman's face. His cousin had stabbed the man in the back. In the time it took for the four armed guards to draw their weapons, Tabris had run round to Soris and cleanly severed the human's arm, releasing Soris of his vice-like grip. Then she slipped the now-bloodstained blade into the clueless human's chest mercilessly. The movement was so quick and silent that Soris – for all the oddity of the moment – had to commend Tabris' skill, and Adaia's teaching.
As the elf yanked it out, blood splashed across her clothes and face, but she remained unfazed. Soris, just barely a foot behind her, received some of the gore. He stared at his spotted hands in mortification. The guards now moved as one, surrounding the two cousins and moving cautiously. Tabris' surprise murder had shaken them; they hadn't thought knife-ears capable of swordplay, it seemed. For several heartbeats, neither side moved.
And then Adaia and Tabris acted unanimously.
The skilled rogue backstabbed the guard nearest to her, while Tabris simultaneously made a feint at his companion. At the same time, Cyrion slid a blade under the stunned guards' feet, which Soris swiftly caught. With one guard felled, Adaia moved to claim her next victim, and Soris whirled round to face the final guard.
He was aware of a flurry of attacks, which he parried almost instinctively. The whirr of clashing blades filled his ears. Some part of him knew that his clothes were spattered with blood, but it didn't matter. The guard was more than a match for him; he was soon fighting to avoid being killed. The broadsword in his hands felt incredibly heavy as he swung it to parry the confident strikes of his opponent. Despair threatened to overwhelm him as he tried to put every inch of his warrior training to use.
Suddenly, the guard froze. Soris spotted a head of fiery orange behind him, and knew who had come to his rescue. Seizing the opening, he sprang forward and decapitated the warrior. As the guard fell in a spray of blood, he saw his younger cousin, dagger in hand, and smiled.
He would've thanked her, but somehow the words stuck in his throat. "You're all bloody, cousin," was all he managed.
Tabris grinned back. "As are you, Soris."
Adaia approached them and took both her broadsword and dagger back. She looked at Tabris and sighed. "Both of you are going to regret this," she grumbled. "If I knew you were going to be this foolhardy, sweetheart, I wouldn't have taught you my skills."
But there was no mistaking the pride in her gentle tone.
She saved my life, Soris realized as the duo were herded into Cyrion's home, where Shianni waited with a sponge in hand, she's the reason I'm still here.
She's my hero.
Two weeks later, the city garrison stormed the alienage and slaughtered Adaia.
xXx
Soris leaned against the wooden pole, closing his eyes and inhaling the scent of the alienage. Five years had passed since the abrupt death of his cousin's mother. The city garrison conducted a massacre under the guise of avenging some wealthy human's death, but Soris knew they could easily do so even if he, Tabris and Adaia hadn't killed the human. Besides, though the deceased looked to be of nobility, Soris had worked in the Denerim port long enough to know that he was a merchant, not a noble. Merchants were of little importance to the garrison. They just needed an excuse to kill some of them off. Tabris had never quite forgiven them.
He now turned as she approached him, five years older and infinitely wilder and more beautiful. Her fiery orange hair – inherited from her mother – flew free in the wind as she came to him. "Well, if it isn't my lucky cousin," Soris grinned, "care to celebrate the end of our independence together?"
Tabris smirked. "Getting cold feet, Soris?"
"Are you surprised?" Soris sighed. He paced a few feet away from her and then exclaimed, "apparently, your groom's a dream come true. My bride sounds like a dying mouse."
"Then you'd better hope you get a cage for a wedding present."
"Ha! That's just plain mean. Anyway, let's go find them," he said, striding past her. She obediently followed. Soris often tried to lead, as an older cousin would, but in times of danger it was Tabris who rose to the challenge, while he cowered away from the threat. He didn't doubt that she was an inspiration to the more courageous elves of the alienage – and she could handle herself more than sufficiently well in case of danger.
After all, she's my hero. And heroes are always strong.
His train of thought was abruptly cut off when they approached the commotion near the alienage tree. Tabris stiffened beside him, and he tensed as he saw the human pick on Shianni.
"Touch me and I'll gut you, you pig!" she was shouting.
"Please, my lord, we're celebrating weddings here!" pleaded another.
"Silence, worm!" the human snarled, giving him a tight slap as he did so. Tabris went even stiffer, and Soris' heartbeat accelerated. The man spoke as the nobility did, and he didn't doubt for one moment that this one was royalty.
"I know what you're thinking, but maybe we should stay out of this..." he whispered uneasily.
"Objection noted. Now get out of my way," she responded, tight-lipped.
"Wait -"
"What's this?" The man smiled, walking over to Tabris. "Another lovely one to keep me company?"
She folded her arms and glared at him unflinchingly. "Dream on, human."
He held her gaze for several seconds, and then averted his stare, unable to meet the ferocity of hers any longer. "Ha! Do you know who I am?" he exclaimed as he did so. Tabris' eyes flicked briefly behind him. His suspicion aroused, he turned, only to be knocked out by Shianni's blow.
Immediately his two goons leapt to their feet. "Are you insane?" one of them barked, "this is Vaughan, the arl of Denerim's son!"
"W – what? Oh, Maker..." Shianni whispered, her hands covering her mouth.
"Take him and go," Tabris ordered, "make no mention of this, and we won't."
Always the cool one, Soris thought with a faint smile, nothing ever fazes her.
"You've a lot of nerves, knife-ear!" the goon growled, "this'll end badly for you!"
"You'll keep your mouth shut if you know what's good for you!" Her favourite catchphrase. Soris had to grin despite the situation. As Shianni fretted over her deed, the elven male soon realized that it was up to him to settle the simmering tensions again. For all her courage and strength, Tabris was horrible at comforting someone. Protecting she could do, but comforting was out of her league. It wasn't that she couldn't do a decent job, but sometimes she just fell short of the ideal dose.
But that's alright. She's still my hero. And every hero does have flaws.
With Shianni comforted and their betrothed introduced, Soris turned towards the alienage entrance. Big mistake. He saw another human – armed and observing the place – and made another major error.
"Don't look now, but we have another problem." As soon as the words came out of his lips, he realized it was a blunder. Tabris immediately whirled round and found the source of his worry.
"Vaughan's?" she asked, glaring at the bearded man.
He sighed. Soris, you should've kept your mouth shut. "Could be one of his, or just another random troublemaker... either way, we need to move him along before someone does something stupid."
Tabris stalked towards him, not bothering with an answer.
"He – hey!" he ran after her.
The man turned as they came towards him, and bowed slightly. "Greetings. I am aware that congratulations is in order, as you are having multiple weddings?"
Tabris folded her arms and jumped straight to the point. "Let's talk about your impending beating, human."
Soris waved his arms haplessly at her side.
The warrior lifted an eyebrow. "I am armed, while you are not... is it not clear how this will end, should we resort to that?"
Tabris studied him a while longer, and shrugged. "Fine. Let's compromise."
Soris' shoulders sagged.
"She keeps her composure, even when faced with an unknown and armed human... isn't that a gift, Valendrian?" the bearded man said with a smile.
"I say the world has more use of those who know how to stay their blades," the elder replied. "It is good to see you again, Duncan."
Before Soris could speak, Tabris beat him to it. "I'm sorry. I didn't know he was your friend."
"That's alright. I was hardly forthcoming, and for that, I apologize."
"Shouldn't you two be preparing for your ceremony?" the hahren inquired.
"Yes, of course!" Soris practically squeaked, dragging Tabris away before she could protest. My hero she might be, but she still can be so reckless indeed...
xXx
"Here's the deal," Vaughan began, pacing the ground nervously. His eyes flicked from Tabris' bloodstained armor, to Soris' equally deep red equipment, and to their crimson blades. Following the interruption of their wedding, Soris and Nelaros – his cousin's betrothed – had gone to the arl of Denerim's estate to save the elven girls. Along the way he had revealed Tabris' swordplay knowledge to Nelaros, and he'd asked Soris to pass her a broadsword. She'd put it to good use when cornered by the guards. "I give you 40 sovereigns, and you leave Denerim tonight. Go where you like... no one will follow you. I'll make sure of that."
"And the ladies?" Tabris asked curtly.
"They stay. In the morning they'll return, a little worse for wear."
His cousin's entire demeanor – initially relaxed – underwent a radical change. She stiffened, and glared at him, tightening her grip on the blade. "Not accepted. I want your head, Vaughan."
And she meant it.
Soris sighed, and raised his blade.
"Bah! I always regret talking to knife-ears!" The man hissed. "Now I'll just gut your ignorant carcasses instead!"
Tabris drew both her sword and dagger in response. A thin smile played about her lips as Vaughan's two minions charged. Soris instantly took on both of them, leaving her free to handle Vaughan. He parried a blow to his chest, his armor holding against a second strike that he failed to block. His enemy launched a horizontal swing, which he ducked. Soris replied in kind. He'd trained himself in those five years, sometimes watched by Tabris, and was proud at the improvements he'd made. He could probably not match up with his cousin, though. The exchange continued until his arms started to ache, and still he held firm, shield in hand and sword poised for attack.
Then he heard Vaughan grunt, and one of his two opponents collapsed to the ground, an arrow stuck squarely in his back. Tabris nicked another arrow and let it fly before Soris was even aware of it. The tip pierced the second noble's shoulder. Then she switched weapons at a speed that he was incredibly envious of, leapt onto the fallen one and stabbed her dagger into his neck, at the same time running her broadsword through the second. The dual-weapon fighting style was impossibly hard for Soris, and it made him admire her skill at it so much more. Tabris fought as if controlling two weapons was a breeze, and yet she was also no rookie at using bows and arrows.
With the three nobles dead, Soris knew they didn't have much time before the garrison came after them. "Go to Shianni. I'll check the back room for the others," he said hurriedly, and left.
xXx
The city garrison caught up with them just minutes after they'd reached the alienage with the elven ladies.
"I need names, and I need them now!" the garrison captain barked. Soris blanched, and stared at his cousin, his hero, wondering what was running through her mind. Tabris wore an unfathomable expression on her face.
Without the slightest bit of hesitation, she stepped forward. "It was my doing." The four words rang with so much conviction, if Soris hadn't been there, he would've believed his cousin.
As it was, he couldn't believe it.
"You expect me to believe that one knife-ear did all of that?" he said cynically, eyeing Tabris.
"We are not all so helpless, captain," Valendrian cut in quietly.
"Well. I don't envy your fate, but I admire your courage," the captain said coolly as he looked her up and down. Tabris held his gaze with equal calmness. "You save many lives by owning up. Take her! This elf will wait in the dungeons until the arl returns! The rest of you, back to your homes!"
Soris would've moved, but his legs felt glued to the spot. He watched in indignant horror as the guards wrestled her arms behind her. Tabris struggled, but only briefly. She smiled at him wanly, but he couldn't find the heart to grin back.
"A word, if I may, captain," Duncan interrupted suavely.
"What is it, Grey Warden? As you can see, we have the situation perfectly under control now."
The more Soris listened to Duncan, the more he couldn't believe his ears. And the more Duncan spoke, the more furious the expression on the captain's face. "... I hereby invoke the Right of Conscription. I remove this woman into my custody," Duncan finished.
"I tire of the Grey Wardens' ceaseless need for recruits, but I cannot contest that," the captain hissed, his face livid, "I have only one condition, Grey Warden: take this elf out of the city. By tonight."
"Agreed."
"Let's move out, men!"
"You're with me now," Duncan said to a visibly surprised Tabris, "say your goodbyes, and we shall be off." With that, he wandered away.
Tabris came to Soris. "Guess I'm not rotting in the dungeons now, am I?" she asked with a thin smile.
"Cousin..." Soris gulped, and plunged ahead, "you were really brave, you know, taking the blame like that. I couldn't have done it if I were you."
She snorted. "I was only doing what was right."
Oh, cousin, if only you could see the depth of my admiration for you... Soris clammed up at his next words. For all his blunders, he still had a man's pride, and it was difficult for him to swallow it. But he forced himself to. It was now or never... who knew if they would ever meet again, now that she was a Grey Warden? "You've always been my hero, cousin, since we were little kids." He paused, astonished at himself for having gotten it out in a single breath. Then he continued, "it's just official, now." He beamed.
Tabris stared at him, shell-shocked. And then her lips curved into a grateful, sincere smile. To Soris, this one smile was the most beautiful of every grin she'd thrown his way since they'd met. "Thank you. I mean it."
And as Soris watched her leave with Duncan from the safety of his home, he smiled again, despite the tears running down his cheeks. He was proud, ineffably proud at being the cousin of one who would most certainly perform great works in Ferelden.
But no matter what titles you acquire for yourself, whether good or bad, I hope you know that you'll always be my hero, cousin. Forever.