When I Look at You (a Dragon Age fanfiction)

Alienage

Una had never been in an alienage before, and walking through now, she wished she had. Surely that ought to have been part of the education her parents gave her, an exploration of how the elves lived. Could this really be what it was usually like? The piles of refuse everywhere, feral dogs snarling at them as they passed, sick elves curled in corners coughing? She hoped not, because otherwise she was ashamed of her people.

In front of a tumble-down shack in what appeared to be the center of the alienage, a crowd of people were lined up, and a robust-looking human in oddly fancy mage robes was looking them over, slowly and thoroughly, one at a time. Some were allowed inside the hut, others sent off looking either worried or disgruntled. Those waiting in the slow-moving line were complaining about the waste of time, to the vocal disgust of a red-haired elf standing off to the side.

"Grey Warden!" It was the elf she had saved from Howe's dungeons. "What brings you to the alienage?"

"I heard strange things were happening here."

"You bet your ass they are!" the red-head said loudly, coming over to them. "Especially when a bunch of nosy shems come down here adding to our troubles."

"Shianni, these are the people who saved my life. My name is Soris," he said, "and this is my cousin Shianni."

"Thank you for what you did." There was still suspicion written plainly on Shianni's face. "We didn't think we'd ever see him again."

Soris sighed. "You almost didn't."

"I'm glad we could help," Una said. She looked at the line of elves, watching as a pretty blonde girl was ushered inside the building. "What's going on over there?"

"Idiots," Shianni snapped. "These men came in and took over the infirmary, started telling us there was Blight here. Now everyone's lining up, leaving all their tasks, to have themselves checked over."

"Blight?" Alistair frowned, looking around them. "No one has Blight sickness here. We're Grey Wardens, there are ways we would know," he added for Shianni's benefit.

"Then what are they doing? People go in to be 'quarantined,' and they don't come out again."

"Why don't we go check out that infimary and find out," Una suggested.

"They won't let you in," Shianni said. "I've tried."

Una smiled. "I can be very persuasive."

Her charm and a certain amount of coin managed to persuade the elf guarding the rear door of the infirmary that he had a very important elsewhere to be, and to forget to take the key with him when he went. They used the key and went boldly in the back door, only to be immediately attacked by men in what appeared to be Tevinter armor.

The Tevinters hadn't been prepared for an attack from the rear, and hadn't expected any resistance other than that of unarmed elves, so they were fairly easy to dispatch. After the bodies had been stacked in the back of the infirmary, they searched the place. Leliana found a mysterious note asking for "six females and four males", and they all looked at each other, distressed.

"I was afraid of some such thing," Leliana said, sighing.

"That sounds like—the Tevinters are taking the elves as slaves?" Una frowned. "How can they do that? Surely ... wouldn't someone know."

Alistair said grimly, "Maybe someone does."

No one felt much like contradicting him. Whatever was going on in the alienage may have resulted from the chaos that ran riot in Denerim, with no proper arl and no proper king, but it was hard to imagine Tevinters moving into the alienage without someone knowing about it.