A/N: Standard disclaimer and such applies, Dragon Age does not belong to me, and I'm not planning on making any profit from this. Please enjoy.

"Tierne! Time to wake, today we'll have cake!" The sing-song voice rang out through the room as Tierne stirred on his bed.

"Huhn? What?" The young elf slowly pulled himself up into a sitting position. "Oh! Right! Soris' wedding." He turned to the smiling face that greeted him. "Thank you Shianni, I'll go talk to him."

"It's not just Soris, silly. Your bride arrived early, you're getting married too!"

"Are you serious!?" Tierne quickly pulled himself off the bed and stumbled to his feet. "Me? I'm getting married? Today?" He felt his stomach plummet. They had talked about his wedding for days, but he wasn't prepared, not by any stretch of the word. He had taken solace in the fact that Soris' wedding would be first, and he had told himself not to worry about his own engagement until his cousin's had been taken care of.

"Oh don't look so distraught, you'll be fine." Shianni put a hand on her cousin's shoulder to steady him. "You should go talk to your father, I need to get my dress ready." With that, Shianni skipped. Tierne waited until she had left to let out a groan. He didn't want this, he had never wanted this. Still, he couldn't just back out now. Soris, Shianni, his father, they were all depending on him to play his part in their family, in their community. If it meant he had to be tied down to a woman he had never met, well, so be it. He quickly washed his face in the basin of water near his bed, using a dampened hand to spike the front of his blond hair in the style both he and Soris preferred.

"Tierne?" He could hear his father's enquiring voice.

"I'll be right there." He called back before trudging out of his room and into the common area. His father, Cyrion, stood in the center of the room with a bundle of cloth in his arms.

"There you are, my boy." Tierne's saw a smile cross his father's worn features. "I've waited a long time for this day to arrive. Here you are, I want you to have these." Before Tierne could say anything, Cyrion pushed the bundle onto him. The younger elf found it to be a roll of elaborate clothing wrapped around a pair of boots. The clothes looked new, but the leather of the boots appeared worn.

"What's this?" Tierne asked as he looked down on the items.

"Your wedding gifts from your parents. I had the clothes made last week, I used one of your outfits as a reference for the tailors. The boots were made by your mother before you were born. I had to take them in to be tightened a little, evidently your mother thought you would have bigger feet by now."

"I see." Tierne said as he lowered his head slightly. "I'll change into these now, thank you father."

A few minutes later the young elf stepped into the sun-drenched Denerim alienage. All around him people were celebrating; quite a few had already started drinking. Amidst the revelers, he spotted one family packing up a cart in the distance. Ignoring calls from well-wishers, he darted over to them when he recognized one of the women as his friend Nessa, and the other two elves as her parents.

"Nessa, is something wrong, are you leaving?" He called out as he drew closer. Nessa turned to him to answer, but her father spoke up, cutting her off.

"The three of us are leaving for Ostagar. There is no place for us here, and plenty of jobs there. We are sorry we will not be able to attend your wedding, but time is of the essence now."

"What do you mean?" Tierne frowned as his conscience twinged. "There will always be a place for you here, this is your home."

"Not anymore." He said curtly, "Our landlord decided our house would be used better as storage. It no longer belongs to us."

"But surely there's something-" Tierne began.

"Please, don't concern yourself with us"Nessa's mother interrupted. "We can stand proudly on our own feet without your help. Now go off and enjoy your day." As she spoke, Tierne looked over the faces of Nessa's parents. They were set in their confident features, and he didn't think anything he said could convince them to accept his help.

"I see, I'll be off them. Nessa, I guess this is goodbye." With a quick wave to his friend, he turned around and started off, heart a little heavier.

"Tierne, wait!" It was Nessa. She chased after Tierne in the few long strides he had taken. "Please, listen to me."

"Of course, what is it?" Tierne asked as he turned back around.

"You have to help me. My parents are too proud to accept help but I'm too afraid. I don't want to be in that army camp surrounded by soldiers without another woman in sight. My parents would do their best to protect me but they wouldn't be a match for trained soldiers."

"Protect you?" Tierne asked as he raised an eyebrow. "Protect you from what?"

Nessa promptly slapped her hand to her face. "Sod it, are you daft?" She gently grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him close to whisper in his ear, concern in her eyes. "I'm afraid they will take from me that which … they have no right to take.""

Tierne's eyes widened as the full weight of her worries dawned on him.. He stood stunned for a few seconds before shaking his head and snapping into action. "Right, wait here, I'll talk to father, to Cyrion. Don't worry, I'll protect you." He whispered back before turning around and sprinting back to his home. He meant every word he said to her, and they echoed in his head with every step.

"Father! You have to help me." Tierne said as soon as he rushed through the door. "It's Nessa, her parents were evicted and she'll have to go to Ostagar and be alone with soldiers and can she stay with us please?" He took in a sharp breath as his lungs ached from the running and spurt of speech.

"Calm down my boy," Cyrion held up his hands as he spoke. "What exactly do you need?"

"Could Nessa stay with us? Please?" Tierne repeated.

"Of course. We need to look out for our own, after all."

"That's wonderful!" Tierne felt his expression lighten. "I'll tell her right away!" It probably took him less than a minute to rush back to his friend and her parents.

"She can stay? Really?" Nessa's father asked after Tierne explained himself. "It would be safer for her, for sure. Thank you, and give our thanks to Cyrion as well."

"Of course!" Tierne said as he beamed. His joy quickly gave way to nerves. "Oh, I almost forgot, I should probably meet Soris. No, I need to meet my bride!"

"And I need to get ready, now that I have a wedding to attend." Nessa said, smiling. She took a step forwards and pulled Tierne into a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you so much. Now go, go and get ready for your big day." She playfully pushed him away and waved, signaling him to head off.

He walked at a leisurely pace until he saw Soris leaning against a post. Before Tierne could speak, his cousin called out to him.

"Took you long enough, where were you?" Soris asked.

"I just had to help out Nessa, no worries." Tierne replied. Soris laughed. "Nessa? My friend, this is our day, your day! Oh, don't look at me like that, I'm sure you did the right thing if it was urgent. Now, let's go meet our brides before they think we've run away."

"We can still do that?" Tierne asked, only half joking. He had never felt ready to completely commit to some one he had never met before, and now that the commitment was staring him in the face he felt he was coming up short.

Soris just laughed again. "Where would we go? We might as well just grin and bear it. I met the brides already. You're lucky, you got the pretty one. Come on." With a quick wave of his hand, Soris beckoned Tierne over and the two walked through the streets, accepting gifts of coin and well wishes as they did so. Soon, Tierne spotted two elaborately dressed elven women he didn't know talking to Shianni. The one with darker hair smiled to Soris and walked over to him while the other smiled politely to Tierne.

"You must be Tierne. Soris has told me quite a bit about you." Her warm smile seemed inviting and put Tierne's scrambled mind just slightly at ease.

"Really?" He asked, "Even about that time with the mabari when he- ow!" He was stopped abruptly as Soris elbowed him in the chest. The woman laughed.

"You'll just have to tell me that one later." She smiled as Tierne caught a glimpse of Soris' scolding expression out of the corner of his eye. "My name is Nesiara."

"Tierne Tabris, at your service." Tierne found himself chuckling slightly despite the situation. He would still back out, if given the chance. But this Nesiara seemed kinder and a better match than he had hoped. However, his smile soon fell as he noticed three well dressed men walking towards the group.

"Well, what do we have here?" The one in the middle asked as he grabbed Soris' fiancée by the arm.

"Leave her alone!" Soris protested, sounding as brave as Tierne wished he felt.

"Hey, this is a party, we wanted some women, and we won't leave until we get some. What can you do, knife-ears?" Another one of the men asked.

"This!" Tierne heard a familiar voice call out. In a flash, Shianni brought an empty liquor bottle onto the head of the man who had a hold of Soris' fiancée. His eyes immediately rolled back in his head and he dropped to the ground.

"Shianni!" Tierne called out, stunned.

"You bitch! You'll pay for this!" The last human sputtered. "Do you know who you just brained? This is the arl's son, Bann Vaughn."

"He, what? Oh..." Shianni slumped and covered her face with her hands. "Maker, what do we do?" She asked as the other two men carried their friend away.

"Well, I wish I was the Maker, but I'm just your big brother Soris."

"How can you joke at a time like this?" Shianni gasped. "We need to figure out what to do if they come back. The wedding is supposed to start soon and-"

"Um, excuse me?" Nesiara spoke up, "but there's a human over there who's been watching us for some time."

Tierne felt his heart plummet at her words. He turned in the direction her pointing hand indicated and sure enough there stood a human. It wasn't just any human, but an armored and armed human with confidence in his posture that radiated throughout his very being.

"What should we do?" Soris' fiancée asked.

"Don't worry, Valora, we'll talk to him and see if we can't convince him to leave." Soris replied. "Come on, Tierne, let's go."

"Right," Tierne said with a nod before setting off in the direction of the human. He turned back towards the women, and seeing Shianni's face seemed to strengthen his resolve. Although she was a few years younger than Tierne, he had always looked up to her and seen her as a mentor for as long as he could remember. She just seemed naturally gifted, and always stood up for Tierne when he had faltered. Now it was time to repay the favor.

"Can I help you, gentlemen?" The human asked as Tierne and Soris drew near. Soris gave Tierne a nod, so he spoke up.

"I don't know how much you saw, but you really shouldn't be here." He managed with a fair bit of confidence.

"Really now?" The human asked, "Why would you say that?"

"This place really isn't for your kind. Please, leave peacefully. I really don't want another scene." Tierne was able to look the man in the eyes as he spoke, though he felt his will wavering.

"Tierne! Soris!" Tierne jumped as he heard thefamiliar voice call out. He turned around to see Valendrian, the head of their community, walking towards them. "Duncan, are they bothering you?"

"This human is a friend of yours, Valendrian?" Soris asked.

"Indeed. Now you two need to get going, the priest from the chantry just arrived and we're trying to get the wedding started soon. Hurry on."

"Right," Soris said, "Tierne, let's go."

"Ah, one moment," Tierne stopped before turning to the human, "I wanted to apologize. A friend of Valendrian's is a friend of the alienage. Okay, Soris, I'm ready." With that, he took a deep breath and joined his friend to go see his betrothed for the second time, the time that would unite them as husband and wife.

"There you are!" Nesiara said with a warm smile as Tierne and Soris joined the women on the dais. "I thought for a bit that you wouldn't come back. Nervous?"

"Of course I am," Tierne replied quietly so only she could hear, "But I guess I'm happier knowing it'll be you, or some one like you, or I'm not sure. I am sure, however, that you've figured out I'm no good at times like these. In fact, with the heat and these stuffy clothes and the nervousness it wouldn't surprise me if I hit the ground unconscious during the ceremony."

"Oh don't be silly." Nesiara said with a small laugh. "Now hush, our wedding is starting." Tierne nodded and tried to stand up straight, but his muscles tensed as he noticed three tall figures dressed in a familiar red making their way towards the wedding.

"Everyone, wait!" He called out, "We have visitors."

"Well, I suppose that's one way to describe us." Bann Vaughn leered. "We're here to take what's ours and have a good time, isn't that right boys?"

"Please," Tierne began as he started to step forwards, but Nesiara grabbed his arm.

"Tierne, don't, can't you see they're armed?" She pleaded.

"You should listen to the girl." Vaughn said with a laugh, "At least she'll know you'll be safe when she has a good time with us. We'll be taking the other bride too, and the rest of the women."

"No," Tierne turned back to his bride and saw Nessa and Shianni behind her in the crowd, huddled in fear. They were his friends. He had promised to protect them, he couldn't fail now. He turned towards the guards again and spoke, "Leave them alone!"

"Oh, so scary. If I was a mouse I'd be quivering in fear at the big strong knife-ear and his mighty words." Vaughn chuckled. "Looks like this dog needs to be put down." He nodded to one of his cronies who stepped forwards, sword and shield in hand. As the lackey swung with his sword, Tierne wanted to run away, to just leave this mess behind, but his body wouldn't obey. He found himself stepping forwards to take the blow as he shielded Nesiara with his body. He heard Nesiara scream, he fell to the floor in a heap, his head crashed against the wood of the dais and his world turned black.