thinking about how vala had to constantly stick to the shadows and hide while they lived in minrathous, scrapping by with digging through the trash and begging on the streets and stealing what they needed to survive until the next day. getting found by a shadow dragon, being shown kindness in a place where elves and non mages are looked down on as lessers. deciding that they wanted to help people like them, too. finding a home within the shadow dragons, wanting to fight for a better tevinter and a brighter tomorrow. how they were so confident in the shadow dragons that they believed that minrathous would be okay if they aided treviso first. how they saw so many friends and people they knew, people they helped before, back on the streets and dying and suffering. seeing the only place they ever considered a safe spot ruined and broken. the anger and distrust and frustration that the remaining shadows felt towards them. only ever going back to dock town when they had to because they couldn't bear to see what the venatori had done. the countless days they couldn't sleep because all they saw when they closed their eyes was the ravaged city they failed to protect. their city. their home.