In Search of a Wolf - The Elves of Fen'Harel Book 1 (Dragon Age)

Just Another Elf

            Other elves tended to avoid her. The Dalish were feared by many, and misunderstood. Among elves in the alienages, there were many who believed their Dalish brethren were a wandering myth. Laisa, quiet and tattooed, was an oddity to them.

         She wasn't so lucky with the humans either. The stable workers saw her toiling hard and left her alone with the horses, but a serving boy persisted in pestering her until she threatened to put a dagger through his eye...and almost went through with it.

            Almost six weeks had passed since her arrival, and she was tired. Her muscles ached constantly, and the loneliness was becoming too much to bear. She was heading towards the tavern, when she crossed the path of a group of Orlesian nobles. A man in particularly luxurious silks and velvet reached out and pulled her aside, his hand pawing at her while he laughed. "Knife-eared whores are everywhere!" He told his friends, who chuckled along with him. "Pretty little rabbits."

            "Let go of me. Fen'Harel ma halam!" She snapped angrily, slapping his hand away, and instantly regretting it. He was a noble, and she was elven vermin. The threat had flown from her lips without thinking, and though he didn't understand the language, he understood the threat.

            "Little bitch." He growled, slapping her hard about the face, the impact like a whip crack. His foot tripped her and she landed face down on the stony ground, the air knocked from her lungs abruptly.

           He simply stepped over her then, feigning a laugh beneath his beautiful mask, and his friends followed suit, ascending the staircase to the throne room. She could see Commander Cullen waiting at the top, his face like thunder, but he said nothing, and the nobles disappeared.

            Everyone was looking and yet for what seemed the longest time, no one came to help. Finally a gruff male voice said, "Need a hand, kid?" Varric helped pull her up. Her cheek felt puffy, bruised, where the man had hit it, and she'd skinned her elbow in the fall. It oozed a little blood. "I saw him hassling you from the battlements. Couldn't get here before it was over. Bloody Orlesians..."

            "Is she okay?" Malika asked, elbowing a Qunari out of the way. It had been some time since Laisa had seen her friend. "They think they can do whatever they want and get away with it."

            "Was I supposed to just let him get away with it?" She asked them, shivering as they led her to Malika's quarters. "I need to get back to work." She shook her head.

            "He has to get away with it, or the Inquisition loses him as a friend. Curly knows that." Varric said, referring to Cullen. "So they'll sweep it under the rug; maybe give you some meagre payment if you speak up. It's the same everywhere."

            "He's Lord Joffrey of Val Royeaux." Malika said. "I'm not letting him get away with it, I promise you that."

            "Malika, we're leaving in two days." Varric pointed out.

            "You're leaving?" Laisa felt like she'd been punched all over again.

            "Varric and I are both returning to Kirkwall." Malika seemed suddenly sheepish. "We have lives there still, and things are settling down again. But there's still time for that Lord to get what he deserves, trust me." She glared at Varric.

            "I'll see what I can do." He rolled his eyes. That day Lord Joffrey left the feast at Skyhold he had attended, drunker than expected, and had mysteriously fallen into a ruined part of the castle, where he spent the best part of twelve hours howling before being discovered.

            It made Laisa feel a grim sense of satisfaction. She just wondered. They'd gotten revenge without anyone knowing the noble's unfortunate circumstances even were an act of revenge. It meant that nothing would change. No one cared about the plight of the elves. They were disposable.

            Three days after Malika and Varric had gone, she discovered Solas's room. It was just off the throne room, a rounded solar that was usually kept locked, despite the many bridges and staircases coming from. There was a platform raised high and a desk. But what were most striking were the paintings that covered the walls. They were frescos, in an ancient style she'd only ever seen in elven ruins.

          It was only slowly that she came to realise the frescos were events that had occurred to the Inquisition. The final painting, however, was unfinished. It depicted a dead dragon with a sword plunged into its back by the wolf standing over it. Another wolf, she thought bemusedly. The creatures seemed to stalk the edge of her dreams these days. She wondered why it was unfinished, and why this room always seemed to be sealed.

            "What are you doing in here?" An imperious voice demanded. Laisa turned to find Inquisitor Ellana Lavellan herself standing there, hands on hips.

            "I'm sorry." Laisa apologised. She couldn't bring herself to address someone who should be lethallan as 'my lady'. "The door was left open and so I thought I would look."       

            "So you didn't know that this was Solas's room?" Lavellan asked sceptically. "I remember you, lethallan: you're the elf whose life he saved."

            "This was his?" Laisa asked them in amazement. "He painted them?"

            "Yes." The Inquisitor took a seat, gesturing for the younger elf to join her. "I never understood the final painting. Is the wolf me, or the Inquisition? Or someone else entirely?" She sighed. "What was your name again?"

            "Laisa."

            "I miss him, Laisa. He was my friend, and trusted adviser from the start. He was wise, and always had my back in a battle. Now I wonder what he wanted."

            "He seemed honourable to me, but so sad. He seemed like the weight of the world was on his shoulders. He wasn't going to help us, you know. He planned to watch and leave us all to die."

            "Why didn't he?"

            "I don't know." She shrugged "He was so kind to me."