A pause, where Ellis lifts his hand and carefully flexes his fingers before leaning back slightly in his chair. Wysteria understands some aspect of this, but he doesn't see the gravity of it in her face. He doesn't know how to say this, or if he wants to say it.

The silence stretches as he sets his left hand onto the table.

"Everyone was killed. Or taken. I didn't know until later that darkspawn had a tendency for that, but it means the same thing in the end."

A pause. A deep breath. Ellis doesn't know how to make it real for her without bringing something horrific into the warmth of this kitchen.

"I ran," is what he says instead. "They were in our house, they'd gotten hold of my mother, and my father told me to run out the back door, so I did. I left them."

Which is the point. He'd left. The opaque description of the thing is enough illustration.