Disclaimer: The setting, most of the characters, and some of the plot and dialogue are from the Dragon Age games. They are the property of Bioware.

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Anders was enjoying his seventh successful escape attempt. He had been free for nine days, the longest he had ever elluded the Templars since he was taken from his parents at the tender age of twelve. He was almost getting used to privacy and fresh air.

"Maybe they gave up. Maybe they decided I'm not worth the trouble," he thought. And then he thought of Rylock. There was no way that bitch would give up. She would hunt him for the rest of her days just for the sheer joy of it.

For all of her talk about how worthless he was, she deemed him worthy of as much of her time as it took to keep him in captivity. He could still see the look of joy on her face when she had caught him last. She had only grown more pleased when Knight-Commander Greagoir agreed to a year of solitary confinement as Anders' punishment.

Anders had missed a lot during that year in solitary. It figured that after years of boredom, a blight and a blood mage rebellion would break out as soon as he was locked in the basement with no access to news. When he had finally been released back into the main part of the tower, he found it more dreary and repressed than when he had fled the year before.

The Fifth Blight had still been in full swing at that time, but no one made an effort to keep the mages informed. The Templars, however, could gossip like a knitting circle, and Anders learned to listen. He learned that the same Grey Warden who had crushed the blood mage rebellion had also ended the Blight. To top it all off, she had put her boyfriend on the throne and then announced their engagement. Anders figured it was only fair that she give herself a nice title after saving the whole nation from taint and despair.

The other mages were excited about King Alistair. They placed a lot of faith in the fact that, despite being a former Templar, he had kept a mage at court as an advisor. They seemed to think it was a guarantee of greater freedom and more rights in the near future. Anders was not impressed. No matter how the Circle Tower improved, it would always be a prison. He had promptly escaped again.

This time he planned to escape properly. If only he could destroy his phylactery and get out of Ferelden. It was this desperate goal that had him heading to Amaranthine. If a year of solitary was the punishment for the sixth escape attempt, he had no intention of discovering the punishment for a seventh.

He shuddered.

Anders shook his head to free himself from his thoughts. He would have enough time to think about the Templars when they caught him. "If they catch me. IF." For now he would enjoy his freedom, however long it lasted.

He had pawned a ring he had stolen from a Templar before he escaped, but his coin was running low. His body was as weak as his coin-purse. After nine days of running, his muscles were aching and sore. He wished he could take a straight path to Amaranthine, but he could not make his plans obvious to the Templars. It would be better to take longer and not get caught.

This evening, Anders was sitting in a slightly dingy tavern, eating supper and enjoying a new batch of gossiping patrons. He heard many people talking about a local soldier who had run off with a noble's daughter. A few patrons discussed a goat that was said to be possessed by a sloth demon.

He used a piece of bread to wipe the last of the gravy from his plate. As he chewed it, he stretched his back and leaned a bit to one side. He was straining to hear a woman at the next table.

"...doesn't seem right for a queen to be playing soldier. Never make an heir that way. Don't know why King Alistair didn't find a sweet quiet girl like my master's eldest."

"Maybe he doesn't like them sweet and quiet," Anders thought to himself. He had seen an announcement with a sketch of the new royal couple. If the picture was accurate, he would happily take either to bed. Or both. He savoured that thought for a moment, cursing his luck that both had been in the tower and he had not even known.

Bored with eavesdropping, Anders turned his attention to securing a place to sleep. He did not waste coin on inns. There were far more fun ways to spend the night.

"What shall I have tonight?"

He had already been flirted with by the barmaid. She had a nice face and was receptive, a definite possibility. He caught the eye of a handsome man with broad shoulders and muscular arms. "Farmer? Lumberjack?" The man smiled shyly before dropping his eyes. "Interested." Anders smiled. "Any other contenders?"

His eyes continued to scan the tavern, so he saw the Templars enter before they could see him. He slipped into the storage room behind his table and gently shut the door. In no time, he had climbed onto a barrel and slipped out the window into the woods behind the tavern. "Oh well, tonight will be spent running instead of tumbling. Tomorrow I will have to find two to make up for this." And with that thought he quietly sped through the thick wood.

o o o

He had been only a day's walk from Amaranthine when they finally caught him. He had fought as hard as he could, but with four of them using mana drain, he could not cast a single spell. His staff had bought him some time, but it was not enough to get away.

He cursed himself for having even hoped. So long as they had his phylactery, capture would always be inevitable. And now he was being carted back to the Circle Tower again.

He looked at the familiar faces of his captors. At least Garvey was not among them. He thanked Andraste again for that. Rylock and Biffon would be tempered by the presence of the other two. He would not be treated with respect, but it could have been much worse. He would probably get three meals and a stone floor to rest on, which was a lot better than what was waiting for him back in solitary confinement. He thought of Garvey again and shuddered. Biffon noticed and leered at him.

Anders had travelled a fair distance this time, and it would take a couple of days to return. They needed a place to rest and get food. The Templars decided to stop at a place called Vigil's Keep.

Vigil's Keep turned out to be a keep the Grey Wardens had filled with local guards and Orlesian Grey Wardens. One of the guards led them into a room with a cell. "Oh goodie. Here I thought I'd have to wait for the Tower to be thrown behind bars." Rylock left with the guard to secure supplies while the other three Templars settled in.

Biffon pulled Anders into the cell and knelt behind him. With the excuse of adjusting the mage's wrist bindings, he pressed up against him and groped his arse. "I can't wait to get you back to the tower, mage," he whispered in Anders' ear. "You've been gone too long."

Before Anders could respond, the door from the main part of the keep flew open and monsters rushed the room.

"Darkspawn!" one of the Templars screamed. All three Templars ran forward. Anders sat bewildered for a moment and then struggled to release the loosened bindings around his wrists. With his hands finally free, he surveyed the situation.

One Templar was already down, leaving four darkspawn, two Templars, and him. Anders took on two of the darkspawn, leaving two for the Templars. He found fire worked well and soon had two toasty darkspawn corpses at his feet. The Templars were still fighting their two.

"Bloody useless," he thought. One of the darkspawn lashed out at Biffon, catching him under his helm. He gurgled as he fell to the floor. "Useless, and now dead," he amended.

The last Templar turned to flee and was struck down from behind. Anders finished the third darkspawn before the last was on him.

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