"My cousin and fiance came to rescue me and the others. My fiance is dead. As far as I know my cousin hasn't killed anyone but if he has you tell no one, understood? I was the only one who did anything illegal. As long as everyone else is safe, I'll join the Grey Wardens."

"That can definitely be arranged. I'm sorry about your fiance; what was his name?"

"Nelaros. He was from the Highever alienage, if you could--send word--"

"—I knew him," she says, surprised. "He was a carpenter. Made my - my mother a new set of cabinets for her birthday last year." There's a slight catch in her voice when she mentions her mother. "He did good work. I'll write to his family before we leave town."

Lord Vaughan sidles toward the far corner of the room. Elissa looks at him. He stops.

"I barely knew him. Elves do arranged marriages, it's--one of the only times we move alienages. I only met him today. All I knew about him was his name. But he thought I was pretty and he died for me, and--he seemed nice. I think we could have been happy together." She flicks her blade warningly when Vaughan moves. "Does it bother you, hearing us 'knife-ears' talked about as people? Or do you not care at all."

"I'll - I have money," he says desperately.

"You tried bribing me already." She glances at Acara. "And Warden Duncan's new recruit doesn't look very bribeable from here."

"I'm open to the idea of not killing you, but I really doubt there's an amount of money you were planning on offering me that's more appealing than gutting you."

"Fifty sovereigns?"

"You tried to rape Shianni. That's. Not. Even. Close."

Lord Vaughan opens his mouth.

"Whatever you're about to say will almost certainly get you killed," says Elissa. "Please just think."

He shuts his mouth.

After a moment: "A - a hundred sovereigns?"

"You don't get it. I don't want your money. I want my family, my people, safe from you. I will be happier if I can get that by killing you, but I am open to other options. If they're very, very convincing. I think I'm going to get what I want, but her ladyship over there is the first shem I have ever actually liked--congratulations, by the way, I had begun to wonder if your entire species was irretrievably terrible--so I'm listening."

"Thank you, I try," says her ladyship.

Lord Vaughan looks between the two of them a few times. Then he turns to Elissa and says hesitantly, "...I - won't do anything like that again."

"How sure are you of that?"

He mutters something unintelligible.

She raises her eyebrows. "Didn't catch that, sorry."

"I said - it's not worth all this," he repeats. "From now until my dying day, anytime I look at a girl I'm going to half expect one of the two of you to pop out of the ground and ruin my family's name or take my head off. Are you satisfied with that?"

"Yes, I believe I am," says Elissa. "Thank you."

Acara looks at him. She looks at Elissa. She looks at the blood on her dress and the wedding ring on her finger.

She sighs and sheathes her blades.

"I'm going to be back. And if I ever find you've lied about this, I'm going to make you wish I had killed you here and now."

"He's not lying," says Elissa, standing up.

Lord Vaughan glares at both of them, but doesn't say anything more.

"Goodbye, Lord Vaughan. Pleasant dreams."

"Ugh."

She ignores him and turns to Acara as they leave. "My name's Elissa, by the way, I don't think I mentioned when we met earlier."

"You know mine's Acara--Elder Valendrian mentioned it. We need to stop by the room the guards dumped me and the other girls in, Soris should still be there with them."

"All right. If we run into any excitable guards, please allow me to do the talking."

She stops in a side room on their way back to pick up her sword and daggers, which it seems she was not allowed to wear to her meeting with Lord Vaughan.

"Yeah--oh, I managed to knock one out instead of killing him, he wouldn't let me in but he offered to let me escape. We should make sure he's alright."

"Good idea."

He is right where she left him, unconscious but alive.

Good. Acara still isn't sorry about the ones she did have to kill, but--that's enough.

Back the way she came. There are corpses.

The man in the dining hall is still finishing his meal. He looks up when they come through.

"Back so soon?" he says mildly.

Elissa blinks.

"Sadly, Vaughan Kendalls made it feasible not to kill him," Acara explains.

He snorts.

"What's your name?" asks Elissa.

"What's yours?"

"Elissa Cousland."

"Strongarmed the young lord, did you?"

"Maybe a little."

"Well, I'm Delmar, your ladyship."

"I'll remember that. I prefer to hire guards who have something resembling principles."

"How do you know I'm not just very lazy?"

"I have a knack for this sort of thing."

He tips an imaginary hat to her, and then they're across the room and out the door on the other side.

Acara knocks on the door. "Soris! It's me!"

The door opens cautiously. "Who's the shem?" Soris asked.

"This is Elissa. She made it possible to not kill Vaughan Kendells, but I promise she has redeeming traits."

"...Right, she was with the Grey Warden."

"Yeah, about that. I'm joining. So as to avoid hanging for killing all those guards."

He looks unhappy, but he can't argue that that's the fate that would have awaited her had she stayed.

"Can we come in?"

"Yeah, 'course," he says, and opens the door wider.

Shianni runs forward to hug her cousin. There are a lot of hugs. They're going to have to last a good long while.

Yeah. Elissa is glad Acara still has all the family she started the day with. Even though they might not get to see each other again.

"I'm going to miss you so much," Shianni says.

"Me too. I promise to think of you all the time while I'm saving the world."

Shianni snorts. "I'm sure you'll do great at it."

"Yeah. Meantime we should--get everyone else home, and let everyone know I'll be gone and why."

"Poor Nelaros, getting left behind. Do you think he'll go back to Highever?"

"Nelaros is dead."

"Oh."

"Elissa's from Highever, she'd met him, she promised to send his family a letter."

"That's better than nothing, I guess."

"Yeah."