I was four, I think. I hardly remember a thing about her, except that she liked flowers.

( Quiet, a reassurance of sorts. It didn't hurt the way it would hurt another person, who had the chance to grow up with someone and have memories of how they had adored the one they lost. )

She was a servant to Lady Cecilie, an Orlesian noblewoman. Lady Cecilie might have turned me out in the street, but she... kept me. Raised me as her ward. She was very kind but very old. She ordered tutors to teach me history, and dancing and singing and how to play the harp and lute and piano. It was all very grand, but I was...

( Her expression twinges guiltily. ) I fancied myself a bird in a guilded cage. A nightingale that belonged to a wider world than the house of an old woman and should be doing more than acting as a pretty entertainment for her guests.

( Her gaze drops. )

I was ungrateful, I think. But, when I was sixteen years old, I had the-- the privilege of entertaining Marjolaine, a wealthy widow of Lady Cecilie's acquaintance. She was so grand and beautiful and--

( Leliana shakes her head. ) Everything about her was exciting. She began to mentor me. She was a bardmaster, and I became her favourite bard - the favoured weapon of players in the Grand Game. Bards are masters of spinning tales and of deception. She taught me how to spy and sabotage and... seduce. And kill. And for years that was my life. I followed her commands without hesitation, and I adored her. She taught me that when the opportunity to strike presents itself you must always take it. That we were ready blades, and the rest of the world bared their throats to us.

( hi Leliana's ex is a sociopath )