Legend (Dragon Age Origins)

Chapter 32: The Unending Pain Of Eternal Love

Five Months Earlier...

Dru Tabris sat on the edge of the rooftop and considered throwing herself off.

She wasn't suicidal, but when the lute player on the stage below missed yet another crucial note, she considered herself at least capable of taking another's life.

It was a warm summer's day and a light breeze was wafting through the ghetto, rustling the tallest branches of the Elder Tree. Tied around the lower boughs were garlands of soft pinks, blues, and yellows. A group of children were scaling the thick roots that carved a path through the broken cobblestones. They each took a turn to leap into the air, stubby fingers outstretched to see who could tear the most ribbons down from their perch.

A group of men filled the stage, pleasantly ignoring their children's mischief as they sang along to the off-tune music and drank from overfilled metal pitchers. Meanwhile, their wives busied themselves with setting up the decorations for the impending wedding, carrying chairs from their shanty homes and bringing them into the clearing before the stage.

Dru picked at the moss that covered the roof tiles, ignoring the dirt embedded beneath her bitten nails. It felt like so long ago that she had been one of those women, rolling her eyes at the nonsensical gossip traded amongst her friends while they set the decorations, but all the while filled with curiosity at what gown the bride would dorn. It was even longer still that she had been as frivolous and carefree as the children were. She often yearned to return to that age, back to when her mother's soft lullabies were enough to carry her worries away.

It felt so strange to be doing this now without her. Here she was. Finally eighteen and to be married, and the most important guest would not be attending.

"I thought you'd be up here. Care to celebrate the end of our independence together?"

Her cousin, Soris, was making his way across the rooftops, his arms outstretched to keep his balance along the high beams.

She couldn't help but laugh at the sight of him. She had never seen him dressed so formal before, in his father's handed-down suit; a satin tunic of bright green that contrasted the scarlet of his trousers. The hems of both garments were embroidered with gold in a leaf-like pattern, and it was almost bright enough to take the attention away from the mud-stained leather boots he wore to work.

Soris leapt the small gap between the neighbouring roof to hers, and let out a shrill yelp as his feet slipped against the few remaining clay tiles. As he scrambled to regain his footing, a tile flipped off the gutter and shattered on the road below, just as Elder Valendrian exited his home.

Dru and Soris quickly rolled away before the Elder could sight them. Valendrian was the unofficial leader of the alienage, though he insisted that he was more of a surrogate uncle to the denizens. He had made it very clear on more than one occasion that he held very little patience for the rambunctious cousins. So it was probably best if he didn't catch them playing on the rooftops on the day of their double wedding.

"Careful, you're going to tear your dress." Soris bent down to help Dru untangle her skirts.

"Oh, and what a dreadful shame that would be." Dru flashed him with a mischievous smile but nonetheless was careful as she brushed away the moss that clung to the fabric.

Her gown was different to that of the stark white that the human brides wore for their weddings. It was a baby blue dress with multiple lace skirts that reminded her of a doily. A silk ribbon was fastened tightly around her waist, attempting to create the illusion of a shapely body. Her long copper hair was pulled up into a plaited bun, accentuating the neckband that dipped beneath her collarbones.