"The stories say that we were once immortal and worked magic as easily as breathing. Then the shemlen - the humans - came south, and we lost the ability to do both. The Tevinter Imperium attacked and enslaved us and we lost our calendar, our language, our culture. When Andraste rose, elves supported her under the leadership of an elf called Shartan. She gave our people the Dales - and years later, Orlais attacked because we refused to follow their Maker and we lost our second home, the place where we had tried to revive our culture."

It was a history lesson - a history lesson that not everyone even knew, or cared to know. The Dalish remembered, though, and Merrill had been trained to become a Keeper. It was her job, her duty, to remember. It didn't mean that it didn't hurt, though.

"Those who resisted, who refused to live under the humans, who refused to forget, became the Dalish. Those who did not are treated as second-class citizens or worse in shem cities. The alienage can be locked away from the rest of the city here in Kirkwall. In some places, humans kidnap us to sell to Tevinter as slaves. Elves cannot hold many jobs, can barely defend themselves."

One hand brushes through her hair. "And worse yet, the Dalish and the elves of the city often don't get along. Members of each group look down on the other - one is chasing dreams, the other has given up. Flat-ears and savages. It's all nonsense."