Origin of the Alienage Bride

Vaughan and his two fellow noble cohorts cared little for the deaths of the guards. The son of Denerim's Arl merely waved his hands in front of himself as if to say this was all no big deal. "Alright, let's not do anything hasty. Surely we can talk this over." he said in a calm tone. Before anyone could say anything more, a sniffle and a whimper came from the downed form of Shianni. "*Sniff* A...Aerith....Please...just....get me out of here....I wanna go home." she whimpered in a weak, terrified voice. Gone was the spirited cheer she greeted Aerith with this morning, replaced with sheer terror and broken abuse. Torn was the nice dress she wore for her little cousins' weddings, worse still, everything she wore underneath had been torn and tossed in an unceremonious heap. Shianni had been brutalized. Vaughan however forced Aerith to focus on him. "Think for a minute. Kill me, and you ruin more lives than your own. By dawn the city will run red with elven blood." Vaughan warned smugly. The alienage had been purged once before. His death would be just the excuse needed to put these elves in their place. "Think carefully. You know how this ends. Or, we could talk this over."

Vaughan let out a pitiful whimper as he suddenly lost that which made him a man. If he could even have been called a man in the first place. Just as Aerith turned to leave, when she thought he was done, he shouted to his noble buddies, "KILL HER! KILL THEM ALL!" Brandishing his own blade, he refused to let an elf humiliate him in such a way. The two charged toward Aerith as she tried to help Shianni up. "Aerith, lookout!" Soris screamed as he rushed into the room, throwing all his body weight into an intercepting strike with his shield.

As Vaughan staggered to his feet, he glared furiously at Aerith, sweating and panting with pain. "You...damned, knife-ear harlot! You think people care about elven whores!? You think that my father will simply ignore this offense because I used some animals as they were meant to be used!?"

With a broken and brutalized Shianni as well as a rescued Valora in tow, Soris and Aerith guided the two down out of the palace. There was no way the son of the Arl was going to survive such an injury. But there was no point in Aerith doing anymore. Enough had been done, and he wouldn't live long enough to send word of what happened to the Arl. The four elves soon found themselves greeted by the sight of Valendrian and Duncan. "You've returned!" Valendrien exclaimed with relief. He looked around finding that the company of women was....lessened. "Where is Tormin's daughter, Nola?" he asked. Valora nearly broke down in tears as she recalled that gruesome moment, the sight of Nola getting her throat slit without a thought. "Nola didn't make it. S-She resisted a-and...." "They killed her." Shianni gasped out, her voice cracking from the waterfall of tears in her eyes. Seeing her horrid state, Valendrian and Duncan didn't need to guess to know what happened to the poor woman. "I see....Valora, would you please take Shianni home? She needs rest." She needed much more than that, but it was the best they could do for her for now. "Now, Aerith. Tell me. What happened in there?" he asked, nodding to her bloodied daggers.

Duncan unfortunately stopped her in her tracks. "Even if you did not take his life outright, such a wound will not be easy to recover from. He will most definitely die soon regardless." he said with a rather cold, calculating tone. Though he helped Nelaros and Soris reach her in order to save the others, he knew the gravity of what was going to happen. "If that happens, then the garrison could already be on their way here. You have little time." he finished. Valendrian lowered his head sadly. "Oh, that it has come to this." She had every right to strike him down, but even so, the humans didn't seem to care a whit for their plight. They were content to view them as rabble rousing criminals. The alienage might be purged again. "The guards are here!" Shianni's brother yelled out with a fearful tone. "Don't panic. Let us see what comes of this." Valendrien responded calmly. All they could do was wait for the captain and hope for the best.

Duncan merely nodded, an understanding look on his face. That desire to protect he saw within her eyes....He knew right then and there that he truly did find what he sought within the Denerim Aleinage. And he would not lose it to petty politics favoring a corrupt son of an arl. It was at that time that a contingent of guards entered the alienage, fortunately not with weapons drawn or torches ready to put the alienage to the flame. "I seek Valendrian! Elder and administrator of the alienage!" the aged captain called out. He carried himself with an air of dignity and duty, not like the bribed guards who sauntered in with Vaughan to steal the women. "Here, captain." Valendrian called out, announcing his presence. "I take it you've come in response to today's disturbances?" The guard glared at Valendrian, unamused by his attempt to avoid the issue. "Don't play ignorant with me, Elder. You will not prevent justice from being done here." Turning to the crowd of elves, Aerith included, he announced the reason he was here, which fortunately wasn't to purge the alienage. "The Arl's son lies dead in a river of blood that flows through the palace! I need names, and I need them now!" Soris looked over at Aerith, wondering if it would be best to turn themselves in or not. He didn't know if they would be executed or simply imprisoned, but he didn't want the alienage to be purged. Yet, he couldn't muster the will to speak up. He was too afraid.

Hearing the voice of Aerith confess to the crime, the captain gave her an incredulous look. And Soris gave an audible gasp hearing her confession. She...purposely left out his involvement. Cyrion however, he only just learned the news that his daughter returned alive, only to discover....she was as good as condemning herself for the sake of the alienage. He would have been proud of her selflessness, but he was more horrified with the fact that he was as good as losing his daughter as he had his wife. "You expect me to believe one woman did all THAT?" the captain asked with disbelief. While she looked capable indeed, and was the most armed among everyone, he simply couldn't fathom how one woman could cut a swath through all those men to get to the Arl's son. "We are not all so helpless, captain." Valendrien interjected, managing to support Aerith's story without having to lie. He knew she was doing what she was doing to save everyone. And Maker's fortune, the captain bought it. "You save many by coming forward, young lady. While I do not envy your fate, I applaud your courage." the captain said, genuinely impressed. Not at her bloodletting of course, though the fact she managed to cut through so many men certainly was no small feat. Turning back to the crowd, the captain gave a final announcement. "This elf will wait in the dungeons until the Arl returns! The rest of you, back to your houses!"

"Captain. A word, if you please." As the guards prepared to restrain Aerith, the smooth, powerful voice of Duncan spoke up. The captain turned toward the veteran Grey Warden with a quizzical look. "What is it, Grey Warden? The situation is well under control, as you can see." So he said, but to Duncan, seeing such a brave, valorous and mightily skilled heart taken away because of the actions of a corrupt noble did not sit well with him at all. He knew some among the nobility would be angry if they caught wind of his decision, but he refused to remain silent here. "Be that as it may, I hereby invoke the Grey Warden's Right of Conscription. I remove this woman into my custody."