"From now on, you will be denied the honor to call yourself a templar and fight for our worthy cause", the new Knight Commander of the Gallows told him, watching him coolly out of dark eyes. "Your dishonorable discharge is a great courtesy by the Divine. You have failed in protecting Kirkwall, you haven't seen the corruption of Knight Commander Stannard, and worse, you have allowed the Champion and her companions of apostates and apostate supporter to flee! Only the years before in which you at least tried to fullfill a templars duties, as well as your experiences back in the Fereldan circle, saved your life!"

The words could not haven been crueler or the judgment harder, but still Cullen felt nothing but a strange hollowness inside of him. Looking back at the last years, this day somehow seemed to have been inevitable. No matter what he had done, no matter how hard he had tried, no matter where he had gone, corruption and betrayal to his naive beliefs had followed him. Knight Commander Duvais was right: He HAD failed.

It was time to face the truth: He was probably the most incompetent templar in the whole world.

Taking his small bag, he handed Duvais his Knight Captain insignia, nodded one last time and turned to leave. There were no other words being addressed to him, neither by the Knight Commander nor the tranquil servant standing outside and accompagnying him through the Gallows to the exit.

When he followed the stairs downstairs to the main square on which recruits, senior templars and new arrived ones were just training, some of them were pausing and looking up to him, others started to murmur quietly.

He sighed and fought the impulse to lower his gaze. Instead, he returned their looks, eventually meeting Kerans blue eyes and Moiras regretful gaze. There was anger in the young templars eyes, but Cullen slightly shook his head and saw how Moira moved closer to Keran and put her hand on his arm. Looking at him again, the two simultaneously stood at attention, giving him a last sign of respect which immediately earned them an annoyed glance by their new superior.

They shouldn't have behaved like this, not in front of all those new arrived templars who thought Kirkwall had fallen to magic due to the incompetency of the present templars, not to mention the frenzy of the former Knight Commander.

But nothing of all this mattered anymore. When the gates of the Gallows closed behind Cullen, he was for the first time in nearly 30 years on his own again... and felt completely lost.

Robin pulled her capes' hood deeper into her face while she was wandering through the streets of Kirkwall. Below the material and pressed to her neck, she felt Feather who was completely motionless. The little owl obviously felt as uncomfortable as she did.

Well, who could blame her? The city was full of templars who were more than a bit vigilant after what had happened with the chantry. And although her status made sure that she did not have to fear them, she would have preferred to be back in Vigils Keep and take care of her newest offshot, a rare herb she had imported from Seheron and somehow managed to cultivate in Ferelden. A plant able to make the fields of Amaranthine vertile again which were still hard to cuture after the contamination through the Darkspawn...

But she shouldn't allow her mind to wander so far. The reason why she had come to this city wasn't to think about plants, but to look for her Second in Command who had been last seen here in Kirkwall. Rumor had it that he had been fighting at the Champions side against the crazy Knight Commander.

She wondered what had come into his mind to behave in such a crazy way. Normally Nathaniel was stoic and calm and did never ever react irrationally...contrary to herself. It felt strange that suddenly SHE had to behave responsible and take over all the responsibilities resulting from being Arlessa of Ameranthine and Warden Commander of Ferelden.

She neither liked the one, nor the other task. Fighting during the Blight against the Darkspawn had been a necessity to survive, but she hated all the politics and dealing with Anora, the bitch queen. Normally Nathaniel and Alistair were taking care of these kind of duties, but both weren't present at the moment: Alistair was on a journey to Weißhaupt and Nate... well, obviously he was on his honeymoon, involving fighting against insane Knight Commanders and than disappearing into knowwhere. Sometimes she simply forgot that he was only a man... and her cousin had this whole doe-eyed, sinuous body, beautiful but sad face package...

Feather made a small noise against her ear, and than she heard it as well: The sound of heavy boots which were soon replaced by the presence of three templars at the end of the street. They were chasing a young woman in mage robes who was trying to escape into a side street. When one of them grabbed her, she screamed and tried to free herself. Her attempts failed because the templar striked out and let his fist crash against the side of her face. She immediately crumbled to the ground, blood seeking from her temple.

"That was harsh!" one of his fellows said, but he only shrugged.

"They better learn sooner than later that the times in which they have been let by a crowd of incomptetent templars is over!"

Robin did not listen to his next words anymore . She also did not try to stay inconspicious anymore under her cloak.

Instead, she cast a spell.

For the templars the swarm of insects which was suddenly lunging at them seemed to come out of nowwhere. From one moment to another they were surrounded by them, and the little beasts found their ways through slits under their armor. Soon the men were cursing, ripping the helmets from their heads and scratching themselves bloody.

Robin used their inattention to cast a second spell, and this time the men were falling asleep from one moment to another and crumbling next to the poor girl to the ground.

"That won't help", a male voice suddenly said behind her, sounding oddly familiar. "She will be caught sooner or later and than be made responsible for what YOU have just done!"

Without looking at the stranger who had disappeared silently, she crouched next to the girl and answered: "I don't think so."

"Why not?"

"Because she is dead."

That was the moment when the first templar started to free himself from his magical sleep... and she to change her form to show them how to treat a mage...