Elissa smiled and nodded, watching the way he moved about picking up journals and the like from his pack. She couldn't help but stare despite the rest of the room being available for her to gaze upon, but she had an affinity for people. She enjoyed listening to their stories, taking their input into account and rewarding loyalty. It was in her very nature. "I too found a group of people of whom I became quite close to during my journey," she replied, eager to meet as many people as possible while here as well. She said no more, falling silent so as to allow herself to fall into his story.
She saw it all in her head, the way he was being carted off to his execution, the steely courage in his eyes, the resignation to his fate. And then suddenly, the world around him changed, morphed into something so frightening that his entire demeanor changed. The bringer of the end of times. Elissa felt her breath catch in her throat. She had seen so much, had been through so much pain and suffering alone and with others. She had been able to hear the Darkspawn festering in her mind, tainting every innocent thought she'd ever had in her life. And still his story brought her chills. "By the Maker..." Elissa was never too keen on the Chantry's teachings. She wasn't much of a believer in the faith nor was she loyal to anything apart from her family, but even she knew in moments like this that there was something greater out there that needed to be feared and respected.
Without realizing it, he had her sitting at the edge of her seat. Just one scooch more and she would have ended up on the floor, but she was hanging on to his every word as if it was law. She barely noticed when he opened up one of the journals, blinking herself out of her own mind to glance down at it. His entire story, every little bit of it was leading up to this new threat he was informing her about, and her eyes narrowed at the book as if it was a Darkspawn itself. "There is no glory when there is no one left to rule over," she said by way of answer and finally looked up to meet his gaze once more. "With your permission, I will do what I can -- anything I can in order to help you pick up the pieces of this place. To build a better realm. To say that I have.... experience in that is a bit overconfident on my part, but please understand that you have an ally in me."
She leaned forward in part to familiarize herself with the journals, almost as if she could read the whole lot of them from where she was. It was probably also of note that she had no qualms about the tightness of her dress or the way it accentuated certain assets of hers when she did happen to lean in like that. "Tell me what to do, where to start. And...." She chewed on her lip, feeling a bit hesitant to ask this last part but taking a breath to steel herself. "How much danger are you in? Because if I have to chain myself to you to make sure you are protected, mark my words.... I will." And maybe she had gotten rather protective of him mighty fast.