While he had heard about Bellmare’s civil war, this was the first time Alistair had seen how devastating it was. “There are so many people,” he thought to himself as he watched countless refugees spill through the gates of the city. He was sat on an iron arch above the marketplace with his friends Elyan and Max, overlooking the flood of people flowing in through the city gates.

“I don't get why they have to come here," Elyan complained. She always spoke her mind even if her opinion could get her in trouble, and in many cases it did. "Why can't they stay in their own city? Don’t we have enough to de- OW!" Max pulled on her braid and shook his head. Max was her polar opposite, he almost never speaks up, but somehow he always manages to get his point across anyways.

“Max is right,” remarked Alistair,” These people don’t need any more grief.”

“Shut up you bobblehead!” Elyan yelled while sticking gum in his hair, “My dad told me that these people are just gonna take up space. Why can't they just leave?”

"Lance says there was a revolt in their city," Alistair said, picking at the gum in his hair. "If they go back there they'll be killed."

"So?" Elyan snapped. "How's that our problem? Doveport won't be Doveport if half the people living here are foreigners. They'll overtake us and get free money and food and houses and- OW!" Max pulled on her hair again, visibly angry with her.

Alistair thought hard and looked down at the refugees. "We're at war," he said. "Isn't having more people on our side a good thing?"

"They're not going to fight for us," Elyan said disgustedly. "My dad said that they're going to leech off our generosity, eat our food, steal our women and they'll expect us to keep fighting to protect our own AND them. Our resources are already stretched, we don't need them coming and taking what we earned for ourse- OW! STOP THAT!" Max grabbed her hair and refused to let go.

Alistair sighed as he watched another group of people trudge through the gates. They didn't look like trouble to him, they didn't even look that different from the average Doveport citizen. These people just looked tired and sad. There were only a handful of mages down in the crowd, the rest were just women and children. Alistair wondered why these women would steal our women. Max and Elyan slid down the side of the arch like firemen, Elyan landed on Max’s shoulders.