[The way he speaks so passionately about his people and way of life entrances her, for all that she's used to endless battle herself.] You have a good sales pitch, I'll give you that. Dwarves are hardened, too, but since we don't have weather below it's more about lava, darkspawn and each other.

[She snorts in amusement at the typical dwarf assumptions, though. It's tempting to let him think that, but she'd never be able to keep up coming from wealth even if she wanted to.]

I can pay for them, sure, but usually being a dwarf doesn't mean you're rich unless you're a noble. I didn't even have a caste, so I was nothing to them. Everything I have, I fucking earned. [And yes, she is smug about that.]