A/N: Bioware owns it all...I'm just borrowin'!
This story is intended as a companion piece to my story "The Rose Of The Alienage". Thorns covers the origins of Eruthiawen Tabris and the events in her life that made her the woman that she was, from the death of her mother to the birth of her daughter. I hope you enjoy and please please please review and let me know what you think!
As always I couldn't do it without my friends and betas/cookie tasters Ladyamesindy, Erynnar, and Piceron. Please check out their stories, they are all absolute masterpieces!
Oh and for all of my "Rose" and "Salvation" readers, there will be new chapters coming for both stories. Life has gotten a bit crazy as I have been trying to get two of my three kids ready to go to school in a couple of weeks. Once they are in school it will give me lots and lots of free time to get back down to the business of writing so stay tuned!
~Love One Another~
Flames licked the night sky as screams echoed off of the high stone walls surrounding Denerim's elven alienage. The purge had been going on for two hours and did not look to be ending anytime soon. The small huts were aflame casting ghostly shadows upon the bodies of men, women and children alike.
Earlier that evening an elven man who had a bit too much ale picked a fight with the wrong person…a human. A brawl ensued resulting in the death of the both of them, but the damage had been done. As soon as word spread across the capital city of Ferelden that a human had met his demise at the hands of an elf an army of men was formed. This group of a hundred men tore through the Alienage like a hurricane, leaving a path of death, blood and fire from one side to the next.
The sound of the first gate falling jarred Cyrion from his sleep. He ran and looked out the window of the small one room apartment that he shared with his wife, Adaia and daughter Eruthiawen. Upon seeing the wave of torches as they made their way across the Alienage he decided that they needed to get out of the house. Quickly he woke his wife and bundled his eight year old daughter up in blankets and they slipped into the alleyway behind their home.
Eruthiawen began to stir within her father's arms. "Wha…what is going on Papa?
Cyrion bundled his daughter tighter within the blankets. "Shhh…be very quiet Ruthi, it will all be okay."
As they neared the end of the alleyway Adaia ran ahead of her husband and daughter in an attempt to find a route that they could use to escape. She came back, a worried look stretched upon her face. "It is no good Cyrion, they are everywhere...what are we going to do?
"Pssst…"
A sound behind them caused Cyrion to turn quickly. There he saw the elven shopkeeper, Alarith peeking out his own backdoor. "Come in here…quickly. We can hide in the cellar."
Adaia looked at the man with confusion. "I didn't know you had a cell…."
"Do you want to stand here and debate it's existence or get inside where it is safe?" Alarith interrupted impatiently.
Adaia nodded as she, her husband and their daughter made their way into the shop.
Once inside Alarith pushed on a seemingly normal floorboard behind the counter, causing a trapdoor to spring open from the floor. "Get in…quickly."
Upon entering the cellar Adaia noticed a solitary window that faced out into the alley. She pulled a nearby crate to the wall and stood on it as she peeked outside. Though the window was half covered with the ground itself and the remainder of it was blocked by a large shrub, she had a fairly clear view of the back door of the apartment that her sister Vevina shared with her husband Anlon and their two young children, Soris and Shianni.
She continued to watch the house, intent on pulling Vevina and her family in to the cellar with her when they emerged. After several uneventful minutes she noticed the back door slowly inching it's way open. Adaia then saw her sister urging her children out the door, into the empty alley way. She could see her mouthing the words "Run, hide…I love you both." Before there was a loud noise and the door was snapped shut.
Soris grabbed his little sister by the hand and pulled her in to an empty merchant's cart that sat just behind Alarith's shop.
Adaia turned to face her husband and Alarith. "Quick! We have to help them! Shianni and Soris are hiding in the cart behind the shop."
Adaia jumped from the crate and began up the ladder before Cyrion grabbed her by the waist and pulled her down. "No Adaia…you can't go up there."
"I can and I will, now let me go Cyrion."
"No, your husband is right. You stay here with Eruthiawen. Cyrion and I will get the children." Alarith walked over to a stack of large crates that sat in the middle of the cellar. He quickly unlocked and threw open the lid to one of them and pulled two swords from within, keeping one for himself and handing one to Cyrion.
Adaia looked into the crate and noticed that it was full of different weapons and armor. "Why in the Maker's name do you…"
"No time to explain…we must get the children." Alarith turned and made his way up the ladder into the main part of the shop.
"You stay here…do not follow us." Cyrion looked at his wife, his voice half demanding, half begging. "Promise me Adaia…stay put."
"I will. Just get the children!" Adaia pushed her husband by the shoulder toward the ladder.
Adaia took a moment to comfort her visibly shaken daughter. "It will be alright Ruthi...it will be over soon." She smiled sweetly as she tousled the girl's red hair.
She then quickly jumped up on the crate and looked back into the alleyway just in time to see Alarith pulling Shianni from the cart and handing her to Cyrion. Soris jumped out after her and the group made their way back inside the shop.
Adaia then felt a gentle tugging at the hem of her dress. She turned to see her daughter's dark green eyes staring up at her. "Mama, what is going on? Are Shianni and Soris okay?"
Adaia gave her daughter a reassuring smile. "They are fine love. Papa and Alarith are coming back with them right now."
"What about Aunt Vevina and Uncle Anlon?"
Before she could respond, the sound of breaking glass pulled her attention back to the alleyway. She gasped loudly as she noticed bright orange flames dancing from the windows of her sister's house; a mob of humans stood outside watching it burn…laughing.
Suddenly the door that Shianni and Soris had just come out of swung open. Vevina and Anlon emerged from inside, gasping for air. Before even a word could be uttered one of the men grabbed Adaia's sister by her hair, throwing her back inside the burning house. He quickly grabbed a nearby plank and jammed it up against the door; trapping her inside.
Anlon ran at the man, hoping to knock him down long enough to be able to free his wife. However the human was too quick for the elven man. By the time Anlon got to him he had already unsheathed a dagger from his boot, jamming it into the elf's chest upon impact. Laughing he pushed Anlon off of the dagger and into the arms of another human who laughingly slit his throat.
All the while the screams of Vevina echoed through the alleyway as she burned within her own home.
Adaia felt a lump set itself within her throat; she quickly leapt from her perch by the window and ran straight for the crate that Alarith pulled the swords from. She grabbed a set of daggers that rested at the top of the stack but before she could move two steps past her current position Cyrion and Alarith came down the ladder with the children.
"They killed them. Those bastards will pay for what they did!" Adaia pushed past the group, making her way toward the ladder.
"Adaia stop!" Cyrion grabbed her by the arm. "Going up there will accomplish nothing but getting yourself killed."
"Let go of me Cyrion! You did not see what they did to her!"
During the argument Alarith led the children over to a small sofa on the other side of the cellar. When he came back he grabbed Adaia by the shoulder and turned her to face him. "As a matter of fact we did."
"The humans came along the side of the house just as we were walking through the door to the shop." Cyrion gently turned her cheek so that she would look him in the eyes. "We could not risk opening the cellar door as the movement might alert the humans to our hiding place. We took the children behind the counter to wait it out. We saw everything."
Adaia gasped. "You mean the children saw…"
"We were able to get Shianni out of eyesight before anything happened. Soris on the other hand saw Vevina being shoved back into the house." Cyrion replied.
Adaia glanced over to her nephew who was sitting on the opposite side of the sofa as his sister and cousin. He looked pale, his mind seemingly distant as he stared off into nothingness. "No nine year old….or any child for that matter should see that happen to their parents."
Cyrion squeezed his wife's arm. "All the more reason for you to stay down here; there is nothing you can do for Vevina or Anlon…nothing, but Soris and Shianni are going to need you more than ever."
Adaia nodded in agreement as she stole one more glance out the window at the burning house.
Eruthiawen gasped as she sat straight up in bed, finally able to pull herself from the nightmare of a memory that played in her head. She had these dreams frequently and wished that they would stop. The events of the purge occurred over twelve years ago and though she was quite young at the time she could remember them like it happened only yesterday.
That one solitary night changed her life…so many lives forever. She was never able to see her dear Aunt and Uncle again, Soris and Shianni went to live with their father's mother on the other side of the Alienage, and though Adaia was never fond of humans to begin with she hated them even more now.
Adaia worked tirelessly for three years trying to find justice for her sister. She sought out any human that she thought even remotely had anything to do with the purge, pressing them for answers, threatening…until one day she threatened the wrong person.
In an alleyway she ran across one of the men that stood in a crowd laughing at her brother-in-law as his throat was slit. In an instant she had the man pushed against a stone wall, her own dagger pushed into his throat. "I'm going to enjoy this…" was all that she was able to mutter before she was grabbed from behind by a group of guards and was dragged off; never to be heard from again.
Eruthiawen took a deep breath, doing her best to push the memories to the back of her mind where she felt they belonged. "I have got to get some sleep, Soris' wedding is in a few hours…must…get…some…" and with one more deep breath Eruthiawen drifted back off into a deep slumber.