With all his belongings with him, Anders once again got started with his manifesto, one that he had labored on for ages… although one of his copies seemed to be missing. Using Lily's table in his room, he started writing, not realizing that it was late in the evening.

There was a knock at the door, and Anders' head snapped up, but when it did, his back and neck cracked in protest, as he had kept his bent-over posture over his papers for hours. He seethed a little as he rubbed his neck. "Come in!"

Lily came in, pushing the door with her foot, her hands full with a tray of food. She grinned at him and lifted the tray, and Anders' blinked at her.

"Did I miss dinner time?" He asked, and she nodded before walking to his side. He groaned, "Sorry, I was… distracted."

Lily shrugged as she lowered the tray in front of Anders, looking at what he was writing. Her head tilted left again, and Anders lifted the book.

"It's a… manifesto I've been working on." Anders said as Lily lifted a page, "Hawke wasn't convinced about how the mages deserve freedom from the Chantry. So I made this to show to her. I never got the chance to give it to her, though. But I thought I might continue it, just in case."

Lily nodded distractedly as she poured over the pages, reading it, making her green and blue eyes move side to side. Anders looked down at the dinner Lily gave him, seeing bread and lamb stew, and took a spoon to start eating. "What do you think? Are my arguments wrong?"

But Lily raised a finger without looking up, concentrating in reading his writings, her brows furrowed. Anders chuckled as he began to eat.

He continued to watch her as she read, remaining silent as her eyes moved over the pages. And it wasn't until he had finished his dinner that Lily sighed and lowered it, looking at him.

"So, what do you think?" Anders said as he wiped his mouth with a cloth that Lily placed on the tray.

Lily shrugged and took a piece of blank parchment from his desk, scribbling on it. He sat beside her to read, You make good arguments. But for someone who has intensive knowledge, there are still some points you are missing.

Anders' brows furrowed at her written words, "Such as?"

She sighed and started writing again, Mages aren't the only one who deserve freedom. A lot of other people need it too, like slaves and even Templars. She had written. Haven't you ever noticed that all this… this life that we have now… is fueled by a chain of fear?

"A… chain of fear?" He asked, bending down beside her, "How do you mean?

All of it… it is just a chain of fear… a cycle, if you will. Mages fear the Templars because of their ruthlessness. Templars fear the Mages because of their power. Common folk fear both Templars and the City guard due to their authority. The City Guard and Templars fear the Common Folk because they know they could be overwhelmed by them if there is a revolt. All humans fear the Qunari. All beings fear the darkspawn. All of it… from the start… is because of fear. And there will be no end to it. Not ever.

Anders blinked. Her reasoning did make sense of everything. Even though he himself wasn't afraid of Templars, that fact that the soldiers could capture him and return him to the Circle caused him to be afraid. In fact, it recently dawned to him that the Circle was like a prison because people feared the mages, and it was the only place where they could be "contained".

Lily was still writing on the parchment now, and he bent over to read again. Although what you did to the Chantry was wrong, I could see the reason behind it. It was a revolution that had turned into a rebellion. The people's fear caused your message to look like it was a deliberate attempt to throw chaos, when all you wanted was to show the world that the Chantry needs to crumble in order for change to happen.

"Yes. That is exactly what happened." Anders said, looking up at her, surprised that she had understood his reason. "So… you… do you think that what I did was right?"

She shrugged and wrote again, No, it's not. Murdering hundreds of people is still wrong, Anders.

He sighed and rubbed his fingers on the bridge of his nose, "I know. I know what I did was wrong. But I thought that, with the Chantry gone, mages who had to go through their rule would be free… free to live and not fear to be captured ever again."

The Chantry itself is not the problem, Anders, but rather the system in which they used to confine mages and Templars. She wrote, For you, the Circle was a prison that you wished to escape from. But for many others, it was a place of solace and peace, someplace where they belong. Look at the difference between you and this Sebastian. The same goes for the Templars. There are people who wish to escape from it, but not all of them want to. The Chantry, as a religious place of worship, is fine as it is. The system of taking mages away and locking them up in the tower, and teaching Templars that mages are always capable of danger, is the problem.

Anders sighed, "I guess you're right. I was too blind to realize that… too full of Vengeance. I thought that Justice was right, the mages do deserve to be free. But what I did… was wrong. Too many died, not just mages, but innocents as well. By the Maker, I was such a fool."

He bent his head in his hands, and Lily merely watched him as he thought of his actions, her hand warm against his shoulder as a sign of comfort. Finally he raised his head, "Thank you. You gave me a lot of things to think about. Although… I still don't know how to make up for it."

Lily laid a hand on his cheek, before returning to her parchment, That is a question only you can answer now, Anders.

He nodded, "I know. I just don't know how to… start, really."

She smiled at him and wrote again, In time, you will. I know it.

Anders smiled at her, "How is it that you have so much faith in me, Lily?"

Sometimes, it's easier to think about the good in people, Anders, she wrote, If we focus too much on the evils that people contain inside them, then we never really understand them. Sometimes, it is that good that they do that defines them, not the evil side of them. Kind of like you.

He blinked hard at her written words, and he looked up to see her smiling at him. She stood up and touched his cheek again, before taking the tray that contained his dinner, and heading for the door.

He sighed and looked down at the parchment that Lily had written on, thinking about her reasoning. He had to admit, she was very smart to have thought of it that way, and that he had been too stubborn to see things the way she had. He looked down at his own manifesto, and scowled when he realized that his own judgment was biased. He put away his old manifest, grabbed a couple more parchments, laid out Lily's writing, and started rewriting everything he had ever made.