Moving everyone out of the assembly house and into the estate had taken a couple of days of precise planning. They didn't dare move everyone at once for fear of arousing suspicion of the neighbors. Instead, they took small groups in the morning when it was normal for elves to be out on the street and heading to work, and a steady trickle of them continued to come in for the rest of the day. Another group entered in the evening when most other elves were heading home or returning to their masters from a day out shopping.

Though Aedan had offered the guest rooms for the elves, most of them had simply rejected the idea entirely, not knowing what to do with a room with so much space allotted. The rest who would have taken up on the offer shied from the idea when they learned that they were going to be the only ones, and so most of them wound up in the barracks in the basement. The Highever born ones however took up residence in the servant's quarters almost immediately. Aedan had tried to tell them that they weren't brought here to be servants, but the leader of the group had made an offer. Simply put, they would pledge their services to him in return for promising to return the Highever Alienage to its former state under Teyrn Bryce's command. He'd agreed readily, having intended to do that from the start and realizing that making such a promise gave the downtrodden elves some hope that there was good left in the world.

Rebecca had acquainted herself with her sudden influx of new staff members, and all of them were now downstairs in the kitchen meant to cook for the Teyrn's soldiers while they were there, serving dinner.

Kallian had blatantly refused to even enter the basement, readily taking up one of the guest rooms instead, which was proper given that she was the leader. Nobody questioned why she was so vehement on staying above ground, and the matter dropped quickly. Solona took the room directly next to her for moral support if nothing else, and Aedan went by himself upstairs. The Teyrn and his family had private rooms in the upper part of the estate, and as lord of the manor, he took his place there.

Currently, Kallian was pacing in Solona's room, looking for all the world like a caged animal while the mage sat and watched her from the comfort of her bed, having no inclination to get up and try to comfort her. The elf had been at it for around half an hour now, which is when the things that needed doing suddenly all dried up. Of course, there were things to be done downstairs, but she couldn't even look at the stairs without cringing.

"I mean it, Ammy! How can these nobles deal with so much space?" She was venting, ranting about everything that came to mind when it came to her.

"I don't know." Solona replied in a bored tone of voice. Her input wasn't really needed, after all. Kallian was managing the conversation just fine by herself.

"It's like living outside, almost." Kallian continued, apparently unaware that Solona had almost completely tuned her out. "And everything is just so… so… floofy! Have you tried to sleep in that bed? It's like it's eating you!"

"If you're so uncomfortable," Solona laid down in the bed, staring at the ceiling as the mattress did indeed conform to her body, though it wasn't nearly such a tragic thing as Kallian was making out to be. "…then why don't you sleep in the barracks? It's not as spacious down there, and I'm sure that the beds aren't nearly as comfortable as these ones are."

Kallian glared at her, stopping in her pacing. "Ha ha, very funny."

"No, I am being completely serious with you." With a sigh, Solona sat up and extended a hand. "Come, sit with me a while. You're going to wear holes in your shoes at the rate you've been pacing."

Kallian looked like she wanted to argue. Indeed, she had argued the last time that Solona had tried to get her to calm down, but the elf eventually came and sat next to her. She kept her back straight as a board, glaring at the floor hard enough that Solona was sure daggers would start spontaneously appearing any second. With another exasperated sigh, the mage folded her legs up onto the bed and got behind Kallian, pressing her thumbs into the tense muscles on her back. "Honestly Kallian, why so tense? We're safer here than we ever were at the docks. You've done nothing but keep yourself busy. Are you really that uncomfortable being here?"

The elf relaxed fractionally when Solona started working the kinks out of her shoulders, but didn't relax all the way. "I've never been someplace so… fancy." She replied, lifting her hand to encompass the entire estate in general. "Or if I was, it was in the dark, an' I was stealin' somethin'."

Solona had a hard time imagining the elf managing to sneak into the Gwaren estate, but managed to keep the giggle to herself. It was true that the Knifers had snuck into any number of minor noble houses in their quest to find food and supplies, but they had steered clear of the greater nobility. Most of them were surrounded by walls like the Highever estate was, which made them awkward or near impossible to try and break into. Instead she concentrated on trying to get Kallian to relax, using her magic to warm her hands and sooth the tense muscles with heat. "You should at least to try and go down there once."

"I can't." Though Solona couldn't see Kallian's face, she could imagine the restricted expression she wore, the two words she'd uttered containing a world of unspoken hurt and anxiety. "It's too… I just… I can't."

Giving Kallian a squeeze, Solona scooted to the edge of the bed so that she was sitting at the elf's side instead of behind her, their shoulders nearly touching. "You never talk about yourself." She stated, giving the elf a sideways look. "I know that I've told you some of my time in the Circle, and now you know who Aedan is. The other elves confide in you their hopes and fears, but I've never seen you once open up in return."

Solona wasn't sure if the look that Kallian gave her was one of fear or disdain, but the elf snorted, her fists clenching in the bed sheets. "It's not a story that's worth tellin'. I grew up in the Alienage, what more is there to say?"

"Well, how did you learn to fight?" The mage prompted, undeterred by Kallian's stubborn show of resistance. "The elves that I became friends with in the Circle always told me that weapons were not allowed in the Alienage at all, unless they were in human hands. You are no novice at the blades, so you must have gotten training somehow from someone."

Silence stretched between the two for a long time, then Kallian finally drew a breath, folding her hands in her lap and twisting the ring on her right hand in a nervous gesture. "My ma. It was my ma who taught me. She wanted me to grow up strong an' able to defend myself, like her." A sad smile crossed her face as she looked across the room without really focusing on anything, her thoughts elsewhere. "Pa hated it. Said that she was gonna get herself killed, an' if I learned to be like her, I'd get myself killed too. He's only been half right so far."

"I'm sorry." Solona said automatically, placing a hand gently on Kallian's arm, her voice soft. "I don't remember much of my mother, so I can't imagine what it was like to loose her."

"Don't start getting' weepy on me Ammy." Kallian shot back, shooting a mild glare at her. "I still had my pa, an' he looked after me just fine by himself. I had him an' Soris an' Shianni for family, and you didn't have nothin', so don't be feelin' sorry for me, or I'll have to whack you good."

The mage chuckled. "If you say so. But I wasn't entirely alone. There were other mages in the same predicament as I was in."

"But it ain't the same." Kallian said quickly before Solona could explain the dynamics of the Circle's social accepted norms. "My neighbors in the Alienage were family too, but it ain't nothin' like havin' blood on yer side. Yer a free mage now. Maybe after all of this is over, you can settle down somewhere an' have little Ammy's runnin' around the 'ole homestead."

Solona had the grace to turn scarlet in the face, and Kallian had a good laugh at her expense. "I was almost a housewife." The elf admitted, twisting the ring she had been playing with off her finger and handing it over. Solona inspected it carefully, the warm metal ring looking completely ordinary to her. It was crafted well enough she supposed, but was obviously not some expensive thing a noble would offer as a ring to his intended. She handed it back, and Kallian rolled the loop of metal between her fingers absently. "He was a blacksmith, a good match, everyone said. Havin' a trade is rare in elves, so we woulda had a decent life it things worked out."

"Did you not like him?" Solona asked, watching the elf's face carefully, searching for information that she wouldn't volunteer verbally.

"Wouldn't have mattered if I liked him or not. I only knew him for a few hours 'afore we were supposed to tie the knot."

"That's-"

"That's how it works." Kallian sighed, leaning back slightly on the bed, tipping her chin up to look at the ceiling instead of glaring daggers at the floor, though she still refused to look in Solona's direction. "Yer parents set ya up, an' you don't get a say in the matter."

"So, what happened?"

"Humans happened." She shuddered visibly, clenching her fists tight enough that the pressure of the ring in her palm began to hurt when it dug into her flesh. Kallian took a moment to master herself again, vaguely wondering why she was talking about this at all. "Right before I was gonna meet my fiancé, the Arl's son came trompin' in with his noble friends an' decided he was gonna crash the weddin'. They started grabbin' at us, but my cousin Shianni and me… well, we're a little too similar. I distracted the rich bastards an' she bottled the Arl's brat over the head. Knocked him out cold."

She was gratified to see a look of utter wonder on Solona's face. "I would never have thought… Did you get in trouble? Is that what happened?"

Kallian shook her head. "No, I doubt he woulda ratted us out. He had just got knocked unconscious by my drunk cousin, an elf and a woman to boot! His noble pride probably wouldn't 'ave let him tell anybody about it." She let herself have a chuckle at that, the look of astonishment on Vaughn's face when he was cracked over the head rising fresh in her mind. "After everythin' blew over, the Chantry sister came an' started the ceremony. It wasn't just me getting' married, either. My other cousin, Soris, had his betrothed shipped in at the same time. We didn't get to actually say our vows, though. The Arl's son came back with a vengance an' friends, an' started grabbin' women and haulin' them away. I struggled, so they knocked me out good, an' when I woke up, I was in his estate with the others, with two doors leadin' out an' both of 'em locked."

"So you didn't break in as a thief." Solona said softly with narrowed eyes.

"Tch! You really think I coulda got in there by myself?" Kallian shot back without remorse, having no qualms at all about lying to the mage about how she'd got into the estate in the first place.

"It did sound extraordinary but…" Her voice trailed off, then she shrugged, apparently coming to the conclusion that it didn't matter anymore since she knew the truth now. "But didn't anyone stop him? Somebody must have seen you getting kidnapped. The other elves? The city guard? The Chantry sister?"

"You forget…" Kallian drawled meeting Solona's gaze for the first time since she'd started her story, a cold look of acceptance in her eyes. "We're elves. And he's human, an important one at that. Nobody gives two shakes about us anyway, an' the other elves? They were afraid of bein' punished fer standin' up fer themselves. It's always been like that. The shems come an' take what they want, an' if we try an' stop them, then we get the sword." She drew her thumb across her throat to emphasize her point.

"It's not right." Solona said immediately, her cheeks coloring slightly with indignant anger at the plight of the city elves. "Somebody should do something. Nobody should be completely helpless like that, not elves, not mages-"

"It ain't right." Kallian agreed readily, stopping Solona before she could start off on a tangent. "But that's the way it is."

"I'm sorry." She replied after a moment. "Please, continue, if you're up to it."

For a long few seconds she was sure that Kallian had decided to close up again, the retelling of her story obviously a painful one, but the elf continued, her gaze lingering on the floor once more, rolling her wedding band between her fingers. "Some guards came an' tried to take away one of my friends. She didn't want to go, an' told 'em as much, so they killed her. The guard slit her throat clean open an' laughed when she fell, going on like nothin' at all had happened.

"They took the others an' my cousin an' left me with a couple of guards who didn't look like they were fixin' to play nice. I was gonna play innocent, see if I could get 'em close enough to snatch a sword an' stab one of 'em in the back, but Soris just barges in then. An' he's not even sneaky about it! Just walks in an' says "Hello" then tosses me a sword when the guards turn their back. Well, I didn't wait fer 'em to realize what was goin' on, an' took one out right away. The other one fought back, but me an' Soris had him as well. He an' Nelaros, the guy I was supposed to be getting' married to, had come in through the back doors. Soris told me that Nelaros wasn't happy to sit back an' hope for the best like the others were, an was comin' to rescue me an' the others whether the others helped or not."

"He was very brave, then." Solona murmured, her respect for the elf man increasing the more that Kallian talked about him. Despite having admitted that she'd only known this Nelaros for a few hours, she could tell by the way that Kallian spoke when she mentioned him that she respected him greatly as well. And who wouldn't? From everything she knew about Alienage elves and everything she'd heard from Kallian, he seemed to be truly courageous.

"He was. Foolhardy, but brave." She nodded, her voice sad, but continued. "We didn't find him right away. He'd gone a different direction than Soris to try an' find the others, an' I think he was the better fighter, so he was holdin' off the Arl's men. By the time I found him it was… The guard got him. I watched him fall. He'd gotten all that way, an' then I couldn't even help-"

Solona could feel her trembling, the elf's voice suddenly choked off by a wave of emotion. Carefully, she slid her arm over Kallian's shoulders and pulled her close, hoping to offer the elf some comfort.

"If I'd gotten there sooner, maybe he wouldn't have… and Shianni…" Kallian didn't resist Solona's hug, but neither did she relax into it, remaining tense as ever with her knuckles turning white. A sudden knock at the door startled her, and she immediately pulled away, her eyes going wide and hand unconsciously dropping to where she normally kept a dagger at her belt.

Frowning, Solona rose from the bed and opened it to see who was there. Keran immediately wormed his way through the door, pausing momentarily to lick her hand before bounding in the room and setting his big head on Kallian's lap. The elf kept her face turned from the door, not daring to look up and see Aedan standing there.

"I brought dinner." He explained, a look of concentration on his face as he balanced two bowls of stew on one arm, a third held in his free hand and three spoons dangling precariously in his fingers. It took him a second to realize that Solona was scowling at him, and immediately became confused by the expression. "What? Do you not like stew?"

The mage sighed and pulled two spoons from his fingers then took the two bowls balanced on his arm from him. "No, it's not that."

"Alright…" Keran, having had his head petted and ears scratched trotted back out into the hall to go do other things, and left Aedan still standing awkwardly outside the door. "I thought since you and Kallian wouldn't be going downstairs that I'd come up here and eat with you-"

"No!"

Aedan cocked his head at the blatant denial. "Why not?" He looked over Solona's shoulder into the room and saw that Kallian was in there, though she didn't look up or give a greeting call. "Did I do something…?"

"No…" Solona sighed heavily, standing squarely in the doorway so that Aedan couldn't get through and make himself at home. "We'll eat with you another time, alright? I promise."

He really wanted to argue the point, seeing as it was no fun eating alone and Rebecca was already having a fit since he'd served himself dinner instead of waiting for her to bring it to him. She'd simply die of rage if he went downstairs and ate in the mess hall with the other elves. But Solona had that stubborn look on her face, and something was obviously wrong. "Uh, alright. I'll… uh, hold you to that, I guess?"

"Thank you, and sorry." She gave him a quick apologetic smile, then closed the door.

"Women." Aedan shook his head and Keran huffed as if in agreement, then the two left the women to their scheming.

Kallian was silent when Solona handed her the bowl and spoon, only nodding her thanks before digging in with much less gusto than she was used to seeing from the elf. Normally, Kallian inhaled anything that was set in front of her, a habit that was a direct result of being starved in prison. Now she picked at her food, lost in her own thoughts. Even so, Solona wanted to hear the elf's story out, even if she already knew what the tale included. She had heard similar tales in the Circle, more times that she would ever like to admit, and knew that it was hard to divulge such secrets.

"You found your cousin, Shianni?" Solona asked tentatively after a few silent moments of eating, and placed her bowl on the floor.

"Yeah…" She chased a chunk of potato around her bowl for a little bit, then with a resigned sigh set her bowl on the ground as well, her appetite gone. Folding her hands in her lap, she leaned forward with her elbows resting on her knees, seeming to shrink in on herself a little. "There were three guards in the room. I was tired, an' Soris was never much of a great fighter. We fought 'em an' somehow killed 'em, not rightly sure how, an' I went to Nelaros, to see if maybe I could save him but… There was too much blood, an' he was bleedin' from his chest… He handed me the ring an' died. I was so angry that he'd died to save me, an' I wanted Vaughn's head on a pike for it.

"They had Shianni on the floor, her clothes ripped up and face bruised from bein' beat. Vaughn wanted to talk, wanted me to let 'em go, but I wasn't goin' to hear none of it. He threatened that his father would burn down the Alienage if I hurt 'em, but I didn't care. He'd been terrorizing us all for so long, and I just went mad. I don't know if I actually hurt 'em or not. The bloody coward stood back an' let his friends at us first, an' damn they teach those nobles how to fight! But I was so angry I didn't care that we were outnumbered. I just wanted 'em dead. There were more guards that came in behind us, an' we were beaten. Vaughn laughed at us when the soldiers put us on our knees. He ordered Soris to the dungeon an' had my weapons taken, then threw me on the floor an'…" A shudder of revulsion wracked her small frame and she hugged herself tightly, squeezing back tears. "Shianni tried to stop him even though she was hurtin' too. He hit her, hit me, called us horrible things, an' his friends helped. When he was done he sent Shiannia an' the others home, but didn't want to give me up. I'd killed half his guards, an' he wanted me to pay, wanted to make an example of me.

"The guards took me to the dungeon, laughed at me an' spit on me. I tried fightin' them off at first, but there were so many of 'em… I had to give up 'cuz I was tired, and I knew that I'd die down there. Vaughn wasn't gonna let me out, an' the soldiers would probably kill me 'afore I died of hunger, on accident if not on purpose. They liked tormentin' me. Thought it was grand fun since I couldn't defend myself, an' they visited when they were drunk, or mad. After the rebellion, they didn't come around no more. I think they all got killed, or reassigned by Howe. The new soldiers didn't pay me much mind, an' I was grateful for it. Then the rest is like I told you. They sold me to the slavers for pocket change, an' you two rescued me."

"Kallain…" Solona couldn't help the wealth of sorrow in her voice, unable to take her gaze off the forlorn elf. Without pausing to think about it she pulled Kallian into a tight hug, and the elf finally gave in, wrapping her small trembling arms around the mage in return, her face turned down to hide the tears that flowed freely down her face. "Something needs to be done. We'll change it. We'll make it change. You didn't deserve that, nobody does." She gave the elf a squeeze, and the first sob escaped the elf, finally able to release all the grief and sorrow and anger she'd been inflicted with ever since that terrible day.

A/N: Poor Kallian would freak out if she actually had to become a Warden after her time in the Arl's estate. Anything that even vaguely resembles a dungeon gives her claustrophobia. Anyway, slight change of the story regarding the city elf origin sequence. If you're any other origin, you can still find Soris in the dungeons of the Denerim estate, despite the fact that Duncan was obviously not present for the city elf's wedding. My thought on this is that Nelaros/M!City Elf would have tried to save the elven women with or without Duncan giving them weapons, and Soris would have come along, just like he does in the origin sequence. Obviously, circumstances would decree that the city elf origin either wouldn't survive, or would be imprisoned like Soris was. The M!CE has a greater chance of being killed by Vaughn, but there's incentive in keeping the F!CE alive, which is why Kallian is here. Sorry it took so long to get everything aired out in the open, but tada! Here it is; THE GRAND REVEAL!

PS. I'm going on vacation! :D Unfortunately, I won't be able to update for the next week and a half, so the next update will be next Friday. Don't worry, I'll be writing lots while I'm down there, so everything will get back on track when I come back. Thanks for being good sports~