Shianni rolled her eyes as she heard the stumbling steps of the knight Brian as he made his way through the forest, she should have expected Jarvis to send someone out behind her. It didn't matter though, he would be easily enough to lose in the thick forest, especially with his thundering footsteps.

She felt a slight pang of sympathy at the thought of leaving the poor man running in circles looking for her, but she had something important to do, and it was best done without an awkward guard.

She ducked through the trees following the way she had seen Elissa take through the trees, she had duck out of her sight but Shianni guessed she would eventually stumble upon her. She didn't have to wait long until she could hear soft whispering and the quite wines of the Mabari Drake.

Elissa looked up as she approached, Elissa cheeks where wet with tears and her eyes were glazed and tinged pink Shianni saw the flicker of surprise and confusion that crossed her face as she seen who it was that had ventured in to the wood after her. They both had not spoken much since they had escaped Denerim; they hadn't really had much need to speak.

Shianni sat down beside her and waited. If it had been anyone else that had come to find her, Elissa probably would have sent them away, but she was curious why Shianni had come, and what she was going to say. They sat quietly for a while looking ahead while Elissa scrubbed the fur behind Drakes ears.

"I am sorry about your family." Shianni said breaking the silence.

Elissa took a deep breath bracing to speak, "I should have been with them."

"I think they were happy you weren't, you would have died as well. I'm sure they were glad you where some place safe with people they knew would keep you safe and alive."

Elissa let out a small humourless chuckle, "Yeah; it was only meant to be me, Brian and Jarvis, Aeden told Ruari to go with me, Aeden hates Denerim, always complains that the Nobles there are fall less than Nobel," she glanced over at Shianni remembering everything that had happened at the Arl estate. "I suppose he was right."

"Can I ask… Why where you in Denerim?"

"Arl Howe" she sneered in disgust as she said his name, "Would usually bring his daughter Delilah, or one of his sons, usually the younger one, Thomas. Howe would spend his time hinting at marriage between either Aeden and Delilah or Thomas and myself. It was uncomfortable… So when I asked to go to Denerim for a while when I knew he was coming." Elissa hands clenched in to fists as angry tears began to form in her eyes.

"Tell me about them." it wasn't a question or a demand, Elissa could her the curiosity lacing Shianni's voice.

"They're amazing," Elissa said smiling slightly "My mother is fantastic, I never knew anyone that could best her with a bow. She tried to teach me once but I was terrible, I never had the patients for it. She could make the fiercest man cower with a glare, though it was usually directed at Aeden and Ruari. I remember they both started a prank war with each other when they were younger, it started when Aeden put grease on the bottom of Ruari's boots and the hilt of his sword, Ruari got back at him by putting spiders in his bed, he woke half the castle up screaming, to this day he's still terrified of them. My mother was so angry at them they had to help out in the kitchens for a week."

"What did your dad do?"

Elissa's smile grew as she laughed at the memory, "He laughed, he may have been the Teyrn but he's as much of a child as my brothers and Ruari, he's always sneaking up behind one of them and pushing them in to the pond in the summer, or dropping snow balls down their shirts in the winter. He started a huge snow ball fight one winter, he tried to throw a snow ball at Fergus, but he ducked and the snow ball hit my mother instead, we all ended up running around for hours, we only stopped because Oriana thought Oren was going to catch a cold, she's from Antiva, still complains about the cold.

"She's always dragging us out to parties, she said they always threw really elaborate parties in Antiva, so when someone was throwing a party we had to go. Aeden hated it, he's not that great when it come to talking to women, which is ridiculous, he's nineteen and should of grew out of that by now, but show him a pretty girl and he'll start stammering all over the place, blushing and spouting stupid facts that he's read in some weird book. I'll be honestly surprised if he ever manages to get a woman." Elissa smiled faltered, "Not that that matters now." She huffed out a deep breath pushing her hair away from her face.

"And I know, I know that killing him will not bring my family back, and I will still have to look Fergus in the eye tell him his wife and son are dead. But it would make me feel better." She said pressing her hand in to her chest. "It would make me feel better"

"It won't." Shianni said dropping her head down to look at the ground. "You think that it will, so you'll do everything, lose everything to get justice, vengeance, thinking it will ease the hurt, but it won't."

"How would you know?" Elissa asked her voice quiet and horse.

"I've seen it, my mother and Kallian's mother were sisters, when I was fifteen and Kallian was thirteen, humans killed my mother, of course the guards did nothing, and even though everyone knew who they where and what they had done no one punished them for it. A few days afterwards Kallian mother disappeared and the men that had killed my mother began to show up dead around the city. She died when she killed the last one." Shianni sighed deeply before she continued. "She was gone and all we had left was more grief. I am not saying that Arl Howe shouldn't be punished, but do not think that doing so will fix how you feel."

They both grew quiet again, the sounds of the surrounding wood echoing through the trees "We should probably head back to camp, I am supposed to be collecting firewood," Shianni twisted looking around, "Brian is probably still stumbling around looking for me."

Elissa simply nodded mutely as they stood and began their walk back, they found Brian not that far from the camp, firewood already collected, as they made their way in to camp, Elissa stopped lightly brushing her fingers over Shianni's arm to get her attention.

"Thank you; I haven't really been able to speak about them since I heard what happened."

Shianni smiled "You should talk about them, they sound like amazing people, I wish I had gotten to know them."

"They were." She said as she smiled at the memory of her family.

So are we surprised at the Shianni and Elissa interaction? I hadn't really written much about her so far but i thought she'd fit in nicely here, in the game you never see or hear anything about her mother or father so I decided to make up my own little story about her origins and I kno the city elfs mother is killed by humans so I thought I'd mix it up a bit. It was also an opportunity to talk about the Cousland family, give you a little bit more information on Aedens character. Honestly this chapter was the hardest to write so far, so reviews would very much be welcome, want to kno what you thought of it?