"Some elves," Lillie began softly. "Are more used to being hated or disgusting to humans. They do not expect kindness. And the ones you met were most likely afraid of you, as much as you or I realize you'd have done them no harm."
She listened to Jill's words about the elvish boy that had stayed with them for a time, the boy who was running away. "I don't know," she murmured softly. "Sometimes it's a bad home life, sometimes the loss of a family member. Sometimes they are just looking for something better, for some measure of freedom an elf can never really find in the city."
Lillie was quiet a moment, trying to think of how to explain what it was like to grow up in an alienage. She probably wasn't the best person to ask. Living there she'd always been other, she'd been human. It wasn't the same sort of community it might have been if she'd been an elf. Perhaps some of them resented her for her race, for how it would make things easier for her come later in life. "It was dirty, and the houses barely shacks. It got so cold in the winter. People rarely had enough food but they learned to make do with so little. And there were the nobles. When I was a girl the ruling family of Denerim was the Kendells. The eldest son... I heard that he later crashed a wedding at the alienage, absconding with the bride and several other women for his own pleasures. Nothing was ever done about it. Nothing was ever done about many of the horrors that occurred in the alienage. And that is the worst thing about living there. My mother's people cannot count on justice to protect them."
The subject had made Lillie sad to speak of, and all thoughts of sex and pleasure waned. She could understand Jill's viewpoint, perhaps. But as someone who'd made her living out of sex, it was usually seen as a big deal, most especially by men. But thoughts of the Pearl and the alienage and no justice for elves made her think of poor Tamrith, and it made her sad, so she laid her head against Jill's shoulder quietly.