The Templers stand as an example that you can have plenty of learning and knowledge of something without actually understanding a damn thing about it.
- Malaina Surana
Hawke returned home mid-afternoon after spending some time with Theta at the Lowtown Library. Haze and Sil were chomping at the bit to turn part of it into a museum and were in talks to acquire the building next door so they could expand. Theta was helping with the plans, which also served to soothe her friends' worries about her being alone. If the Arishok was aware of her, he had not sent anyone after her. Likewise, the people grumbling about her seemed to be outweighed by the people who knew her enough to believe she was not working against the city but Hawke wasn't so certain it would stay that way. Her friendship with her drew comments from the nobles, but Hawke was startled to realize people who might otherwise go after Theta were wary about drawing her- Hawke's -ire. Having power was an odd feeling and she wasn't sure what to make of it. Except use it to protect her friends.
She was musing over such thoughts as she pushed the door open. She drew up short when she saw the group waiting for her. Anders was pacing back and forth in front of the stairs and Varric was sitting on the bottom step of the stairwell, his expression sober. Her mother was sitting on a bench against the wall, her posture rigidly upright and her hands folded tightly in her lap. Moose was sitting quietly at Leandra's feet. She looked over at Hawke as she came in, her eyes clouded with worry.
Hawke looked around at the worried faces turning toward her, scratching Moose on the head as he trotted up to her. "What's wrong?"
Anders moved toward her. "Do you remember the other day when we were talking about how many Tranquil have been in the Gallows lately?"
"Yes…"
"We were right, Alessa. I've seen at least two people I know passed their Harrowing selling their wares in the Gallows with that damned brand on their foreheads."
"I thought mages that passed their Harrowing weren't allowed to be made Tranquil. Unless they're proven to be blood mages."
"That's the official line, yes. But it's worse than the Templars abusing the Rite of Tranquility. There's a deliberate plan in the works to turn all mages Tranquil over the next three years." Anders' voice was grim. There was fear in his eyes that was echoed in Varric's, Leandra's, and she was certain in hers as well. That fear had a name that was in all their thoughts.
Bethany.
She looked over at her mother. "Has she mentioned anything about feeling threatened in her letters to you, Mother?"
Leandra shook her head slowly. "Bethany is among the senior enchanters, looking after the new mages brought into the Gallows. She's at First Enchanter Orsino's right hand so she's better protected than most. She has mentioned a couple people that make her nervous but nothing about being worried about being made Tranquil."
"Who is making her nervous?" Hawke's voice came out sharper than she intended. She hadn't known any of this.
Leandra frowned at her. "She hasn't mentioned this to you?"
"Most of what I hear from her is through her letters to you."
"She's only named one specifically. Ser Alrik."
"That's the one!" Anders burst out. "He's the one trying to push it through. His Tranquil Solution, he calls it."
"Nasty piece of work," Varric piped up. "Ser Thrask has mentioned him once or twice. Even the other Templars think he goes too far."
"He likes to experiment on mages. He's the one that made Karl Tranquil," Anders said darkly.
Hawke raised a hand to calm him down. "All right. What should we do?"
"I know a way to get into the Gallows." Anders' voice became careful now, and Hawke could easily deduce how he'd found out. Anders, Rhea, and several other free mages in Kirkwall were involved in what he called a Mage Underground. He wouldn't get her involved directly, she didn't know what they were doing exactly nor did she know anyone else who was involved with it. She had too many ties to the nobility…and the guard. "There's a tunnel that goes beneath the walls, through the Undercity. If we could get in, we could try and find proof."
"If you find it, I can help you present it to the Grand Cleric," Leandra said, rising to her feet.
Hawke moved to her and laid a hand on her shoulder. "I won't let Bethany be made Tranquil, Mother."
She didn't think either of their hearts could take that.
No one knew why Isabela was in Kirkwall. Not even Varric could weasel a straight answer out of her. Hawke had gleaned over the years from bits and pieces that she had freed a cargo full of slaves when she'd discovered she'd been transporting them. To compensate whoever she was working for, she'd agreed to steal and transport a relic of some kind. Judging from the fact it was her ship the Arishok had been chasing when both had been destroyed in the storm, Hawke had a deep suspicion that Isabela and the Qunari were looking for the same thing. Hawke wasn't the only one who had come to this conclusion. Aveline, Theta, Varric, and Fenris had all voiced suspicions about the pirate. What to do about it, however, no one had an answer for. Isabela hadn't been able to find the relic and deftly parried any questions regarding it.
As leery as Hawke might have been toward Isabela's intentions in general, even she couldn't deny she had a genuine affection for Bethany. It would have been easy…so easy…to pretend it was a shallow thing that would only bring her sister harm, but Hawke just couldn't. Not when Isabela already knew about Ser Alrik and had been taking notes of his comings and goings, solely because he made Beth nervous. She had not asked to come with them when they stopped by the Hanged Man so Varric could pick up a few things; she had invited herself with an uncharacteristically grim look.
They were all grim, Hawke included. She wanted to stop this idiotic Tranquil Solution in its tracks. Anders claimed Alrik was planning on sending the proposal to the Divine herself. Hawke had no intention of allowing him to try. One way or the other.
Funny how you've gone from thinking of killing as a last resort to being willing to do it right off the bat, a voice in her head said mockingly. She winced and pushed it back. She'd protect her family whether they thought they needed it or not.
She wished, very much, that Fenris was with them, but he'd taken a quick mercenary job along the Wounded Coast and had left the day before. Hawke suspected he needed some time and space, which was a kind of pattern for him these days. At least where she was concerned. Varric had commented that they were dancing around each other like a couple of chickens doing a mating dance and while she'd wanted to whack him for that one, she had to admit it was accurate. Neither one of them was going to mention it to Fenris, though.
It was almost frightening how much safer she felt when he was with her. It had gotten to the point she half turned to see where he was even when he wasn't there, so common was it for her to be at her side.
The Templars might have considered the Gallows impenetrable and inescapable but in fact, the tunnel Anders had discovered was only one of many. Due to the city's many abandoned mines along with being occupied at one point both by Tevinter and Orlais- two societies that thrived on secrets –they could have spent an entire lifetime trying to plug up all the ways one could sneak from point to point by passing underground and still not manage to get them all.
Anders claimed that lyrium smugglers had built this particular set of tunnels, which made sense. Lyrium gave the Templars their ability to nullify magic and other useful abilities against mages. It was also highly addictive and a good lyrium smuggler could easily make a living feeding that addiction.
When Bethany had been younger, under her father's tutelage, she'd asked him about that. She had wondered, and still wondered to this day, if the Chantry had the right to do that. They couldn't claim ignorance at this point in time; everyone knew lyrium was addictive. True, the Chantry didn't force Templars into service, but the Chantry did officially control the supply and delivery of lyrium. The smugglers were proof that there were ways around this but even at a young age Bethany had pondered this: did they have the right to purposely hook someone on something they knew was highly addictive and then deny or reward them with the thing they were addicted to? Her father hadn't thought so. More, he'd pointed out no one was allowed to question it because it was the Chantry and the Chantry was doing the Maker's work.
Bethany wasn't as certain as her Father, although she did wonder if so many years of addiction was what made some Templars unstable. They could have taken a lesson from mages in that regard, she thought sourly. The line between mages and Templars had been drawn long ago, a hard line in the sand one side was unwilling to cross and one side was unable. And that line was more harshly drawn in Kirkwall than it was in any place Bethany had ever been.
She paused at a junction of three tunnels, her hand tightening around her staff. Parthalan's staff. Orsino had been so fascinated by it when she'd arrived and had taken pains to make sure the Templars didn't take any particular interest in it. Even now, she felt the power of it quiver through her hand. She'd found it seemed to vibrate when danger was near, so her movements were cautious. She found tracks near the left most tunnel and went into it. Ella was not a tracker, Beth thought with a twitch of her lips, and being sneaky didn't exactly come easy to her.
Ella was their newest mage, and Bethany had taken on her training personally. She'd been snatched right off the street and Ser Alrik had not allowed her to contact her family. Beth's hand tightened around her staff at the mere thought of the man. She'd watched with helpless rage in the past months as he twisted the power he wielded to his own sick ends. By that time, she'd already picked up on his pattern. Either a female mage would catch his eye or a male mage would do something, some petty insult or slight that Alrik would take personally. First he had the mage watched and then brought in for interrogation, claiming their behavior was threatening. Every single person he brought in ended up Tranquil. All of them. At first, Alrik had been discreet about what he was doing, but as his confidence grew, he didn't bother hiding it. In fact, to the mages in the Gallows, he would go out of his way to flaunt it, gloating over his control of the situation and their powerlessness. She would never forget walking into the Gallows' library and finding Alrik bending poor Helena, who had been made Tranquil just a few days earlier, over one of the tables. The only sound had been Alrik's grunts and the flat slap of flesh against flesh; Helena hadn't made a sound, her gaze blank, as limp as a rag doll. Beth had been too stunned to move, finally starting to back away to the door as Alrik finished with a low snort, like a savage pig. He'd turned his head to regard her then and Bethany's blood ran cold. She'd compared him to Ser Meran before, when she'd spoken to Sil, but at that moment the library seemed to darken, the scent of candles and stone surrounding her, drawing her back to that terrible day. That same sick expression, that sticky sort of smugness and dull triumph in his eyes. There was no guilt in Ser Alrik, though. Whatever he might claim to the Knight Commander, it wasn't fear that drove Ser Alrik. He liked having so many people who were unable to tell him no at his disposal.
First Enchanter Orsino had tried desperately to appeal to both Meredith and the Grand Cleric about him, but if any of his attempts to draw their attention to Alrik's abuse had reached their ears, those ears had been deaf.
The power struggle had started there. A few of the templars thought Alrik went too far, but they were few and far between. Ser Thrask made it a point to make sure he was always on duty around the female mages so Alrik wasn't alone with them, but he was only one man, and Alrik had a higher status and more followers. But the First Enchanter had spent his entire life guarding those who were under his care and he was far more adept at it than Alrik gave him credit for. When Alrik started to voice opinions on a mage, particularly a female mage, that mage was suddenly very hard for him to track down when he was on duty. Oddly enough, several other Templars found him or her quite easily, Ser Thrask in particular. But around Ser Alrik, his or her whereabouts seemed to elude anyone he demanded answers from. Sometimes he would literally spend hours going through the Gallows because someone vaguely remembered the mage he was after was upstairs, downstairs, in the courtyard, in the kitchens, in their cell, ect.
For all his power, Ser Alrik wasn't particularly bright. When all of the mages and some of the templars were united in an effort to keep someone from his clutches, they had started to succeed more often than they failed and it had enraged him. He'd gone quiet for the past few days. Ser Thrask informed Orsino that he was arguing something with the Knight Commander and spending long periods of time writing furiously. But it was a lull in the storm and they all knew it.
Except Ella, apparently. Bethany hadn't liked the way Alrik had been looking at Ella and had done her best to shield her. Maybe that had been a mistake. Maybe not letting Ella understand what danger she was in- what danger they were all in –had made certain the little mage didn't understand what was going on. She missed her family and worried about them so much, and Beth thought that was probably why she'd risked this today.
Bethany picked up the pace, wanting to catch up to her. She rounded a bend and let out a sigh of relief when she caught sight of the girl, only to have it catch in her throat when she saw why she had stopped.
Ser Alrik, who had been advancing toward Ella, stopped for a moment when he saw her. For an instant, she thought she saw a flash of guilty panic, was reminded sharply of that moment their eyes had locked when she'd caught him raping Helena. Then it was gone, replaced with a sneer. "Two little mage girls trying to escape." He almost crooned it.
Damn, how did he find out? Ella spun to face her even as Bethany crossed the distance between them and stood between her and Ser Alrik, never knowing how much she looked like her sister in that moment. "Keep back!"
"You know what happens to mage girls who don't toe the line around here, don't you?" Alrik said as if he hadn't heard her.
Ella started to cry. "No, please don't make us Tranquil!" She tried to push forward and Bethany held her back. She took in the odds coolly. Alrik and two other Templars she couldn't recognize because they had helmets on. Not good odds at all. "Bethany was just looking for me," Ella said, pleading with them. "Let her go! I'll do anything!"
"Yes." Bethany actually saw his pupils dilate when Ella started to beg and there was a black excitement in his voice that made her sick to her stomach. "Once you're Tranquil, you'll do anything I ask."
Bethany held her staff out in defense, ready to fight. Whatever punishment awaited her, she couldn't let him take Ella.
"Get away from her!"
Bethany had a moment of sheer confusion as she thought she heard her sister and Isabela's voices. Then it was all drowned out by a flare of light and an inhuman roar.
Anders. Bethany dragged Ella back as Anders bore down Ser Alrik, his skin cracked and glowing with Justice's light. Alrik, taken completely by surprise, barely had time to get his sword out before Anders was upon him.
It was a rare occasion that Anders actively called on Justice. Usually, he was unable to control him. Alessa, bless her heart, had done research on everything she could think of to try and help him. Meditative exercises, potions, breathing techniques and every medical solution she could find short of cutting his head open. It was no use. He did what he could to control the spirit, hoping it would be enough, hoping that they could find some sort of equilibrium in this body they shared.
But never had he just opened himself up and called Justice forth until the moment he'd seen Ser Alrik reaching for Bethany Hawke, who was shielding another young mage. One look at Ser Alrik's face and he'd dragged his soul open for Justice. That look might not have been familiar to Bethany but Anders had seen it all too often. That arrogance that came from living a life oppressing and humiliating people. That surety that he could act on whatever sick indulgences came upon him because they were acted upon people cursed by magic. He assumed he could do whatever he wanted to mages and no one would punish him for it and with Meredith in charge he was right.
Not another mage, Justice thought.
Not Bethany, Anders thought at the same time.
"When you're Tranquil, you'll do whatever I ask." Those were the last words he heard before he called Justice in, the two of them united in fury.
It was like nothing he'd ever felt before this time, perhaps because for the first time he was working with Justice rather than struggling to keep it from taking him over. The air sang around him, humming with the power of the Fade and the world took on the perfect, ringing clarity of the utterly fanatic, sure of the rightness of his cause.
There was fear on Ser Alrik's face now, possibly the first true fear the man had ever felt in his life. Anders/Justice wrapped hands around his throat and Ser Alrik flailed at him ineffectively. Savage satisfaction rose through them as they poured power into the man, invisible fingers tearing deep into his throat even as physical ones did. Now he knew what it was like to be helpless. Now he was the one suffering in silence.
Alrik was a big man and weighed down further by full plate armor, but Anders/Justice picked him up like he weighed nothing, the stench of singing flesh in the air as his body sailed, his throat sealed shut by magic so he could let out little but a thin wail. It was cut off a moment later as his head cracked against stone and he tumbled to the ground, lifeless.
One of the other Templars cried out in horror, which brought Anders back to the battle around him. Hawke threw one of her concoctions at the Templar and his cry grew into a scream as he was suddenly covered in flames.
Why not add to them? He thought, sending flames rippling out from his hand. The Templar's shriek grew higher in pitch, the metal of his armor so hot it was cooking him alive. Varric put him out of his misery, stepping close and firing a bolt from Bianca close enough it pierced the armor of his helmet, taking his life.
He turned to find the other Templar dead already. It wasn't enough. They all had to suffer. They all had to die to make sure this never happened to…
Bethany
…any other mage!
"They will die!" The haze started to lift and Anders realized Justice's words in his head were also coming from his own lips. "I will have every last Templar for these abuses! Every one of them will feel Justice's burn!"
He heard a gasp and turned to see the younger mage cowering behind Bethany, staring at him with wide eyes. It broke through Anders' rage but not Justice's. Anders tried to take a step back and regain control even as Justice forced his feet forward. Bethany shook her head. "Don't, Anders…"
"Get away, demon!" The young mage's voice was shrill with terror. Anders could only imagine what she was making of what she saw.
Justice didn't care. The term threw him into an affronted fury. "I am no demon! Are you one of them that you would call me such?"
"No!" Bethany pulled the girl back. Anders realized with growing horror that Justice wanted to kill them both.
"Betrayers and weak willed cowards are just as wicked!" Justice howled in his head, images of tearing the two mages apart filling both of them.
Anders physically threw them backwards, stumbling away as he wrestled with control. Someone seized hold of his arm and he turned to find Alessa's mismatched gaze burning into his. "She's a mage! She's an innocent!"
"She's theirs!" Justice snarled, ready to destroy her too. "I can feel their hold on her!"
"She's the reason you're fighting, Anders! Anders!" Alessa kept saying his name forcefully. "Anders! You don't want him to do this!"
"Anders…" Bethany's voice was softer. She held a hand out to him, those gorgeous eyes, almost gold in this light, locking with his.
Anders could feel Justice drawing on the magic in him, ready to strike out and with a mental wrench, he threw the spirit back. NOT BETHANY!
Protesting, Justice was pushed back, driven back by Anders' will. Anders fell to his knees, panting, his body wracked by pain. He focused on making sure Justice was subdued, unable to look at any of them for the moment.
A hand touched his brow and healing magic, heightened by the Fade still swirling around him, flowed through him, familiar and foreign at the same time. "Anders."
Maker's breath, was there any other woman in the world who had such a beautiful voice? Such tenderness that shouldn't have been able to survive in the face of all she'd been through. He lifted his head slowly to look at Bethany. Her brow was furrowed with worry. She touched his cheek and Anders closed his eyes, unable to stop himself from savoring that warm touch before he made himself pull away. "If you had not been here…" He backed away when she said his name again. He couldn't look at her. He wasn't even worthy of being in her presence.
Anders turned and stumbled away, even knowing there was nowhere in Thedas that he could run. All he knew was he had to get away from Bethany before he poisoned her worse than he'd poisoned his own soul.
Oh, Anders. Bethany watched him stumble away and felt a swell of gratitude when Varric winked at her, patted her hand reassuringly and went after him. "Got to make sure he doesn't throw himself into the bay or something!"
"Thanks, Varric," Alessa said as she came up beside her.
Bethany looked over at her and felt a swell of irrational anger. She knew Alessa had no way of knowing she was going to be here but it still seemed like she was hovering over her. As she always had except for the moment Bethany had really needed her. Anders had treated her like someone worthy of respect, Isabela treated her like an adult, but Alessa…even now she was staring at her with concern, opening her mouth to deliver one of her lectures. What right did she have? She'd gone gallivanting off so sure she was going to secure their family's future in the Deep Roads but who had been the one to give everything up? And Alessa had been angry about that even though she hadn't been there to stop it!
Bethany felt Ella touch her arm hesitantly and clamped down on the surge of conflicting emotions, turning away from her sister. Ella was frightened enough as it was. She had to keep steady and strong for Ella now if she was going to get both of them back to the Gallows without arousing suspicion. She put an arm around Ella's shoulders, looking at Isabela, who gave her a smile. "Causing trouble again, are you, sweetness?"
"Hey, I was trying to keep her out of trouble." She glanced down at Ser Alrik and gave his body a hard kick. "Bastard."
Isabela smiled approvingly. Bethany was surprised when she reached out and took her free hand, squeezing it lightly. "I've missed you, sweetness. Have those books been helping to keep you warm? Or have you found someone to do that?"
"Isabela!" Bethany couldn't help but shoot a glance at her older sister. Alessa was crouched by Ser Alrik's body, searching through his satchel.
"What books?" Ella said, starting to get over her fear.
"Nothing. Nevermind." Bethany felt calmer now, taking a deep breath. "We'd better get back."
"We've got your back if you two want to run," Isabela said.
Bethany shook her head when Ella looked up at her. "I don't think so."
"Beth..." Alessa rose to her feet, giving her sister a troubled look.
"If we disappear at the same time as Alrik, they'll take it out on our families. Even if they don't, we'd have to leave Kirkwall because they'd never stop looking for us. And…I can't leave. The other mages need me." She gave her sister a significant look. "I've spent my whole life being looked after, but I don't need to be looked after anymore."
She looked at Ella, who sighed and nodded. "I don't want to get my family or yours in trouble. I'll go back."
"Now that Alrik's dead, I think we can get a letter out to your family. Ser Thrask will help us, I think." She looked at Isabela and her sister. "Thank you. What will you…?"
Isabela made a dismissive gesture. "I'll loot the bodies and drag them somewhere. I could nail his cock the door of the Knight-Commander's office, maybe? Eh, she probably wouldn't get the statement."
Bethany started to guide Ella back down the tunnel and paused, looking back. "Alessa? Will you…make sure Anders is all right?"
"Yeah. I have something to show him anyway." Alessa's voice was subdued. She was already turning away, moving toward the tunnels back to Darktown, without a backward glance. There was something so defeated in her posture that Bethany started to call her back and realized she had no idea what to say; or if she wanted to say anything.
In the end, she just guided Ella back to the Gallows, not even sparing Ser Alrik another glance. As far as she was concerned, his end had been far more merciful than he deserved.
Leandra found her eldest daughter sitting by the fire in the library later in the night. She was holding a piece of paper in her hand and staring into the flames. The light dancing over her features and the sad, haunted expression on her face made her look so much like Malcolm in that moment it made Leandra's breath catch.
She'd heard rumors that Dulci de Launcet had suspicions Alessa had been fathered by her husband before Leandra had run away. It was a shame she didn't have a picture of Malcolm to show them. All she would have had to do was hold it up beside Alessa. Carver and Bethany had both taken after their mother but Alessa…Alessa was the spitting image of Malcolm.
Leandra pulled up a chair beside her. "Bethany sent me a note. That nice Ser Thrask delivered it. Is Anders all right?"
"Yes. I checked in on him before he came home. You can tell her he's doing better now when you write back to her."
Leandra wondered why Alessa wasn't going to write that herself. She didn't elaborate, simply handing her mother the paper in her hand. Leandra scanned it, her eyes widening as she read:
To Her Excellency, Divine Justinia,
I am well aware both you and Knight-Commander Meredith have rejected my proposal, but I beg you to reconsider. The mages in the Free Marches are past controlling, their numbers have doubled in three years, and they have found a way to plant their abominations in our ranks. They cannot be contained!
The Tranquil Solution is our answer. All mages at the age of majority must be made Tranquil. They'll coexist peacefully, retain their usefulness—a perfect strategy! It's simply the best way to ensure mages obey the laws of men and Maker.
I remain, as always, your obedient servant,
Ser Otto Alrik
"'Plant their abominations in our ranks'? What idiocy is that?"
"I told you about that. About a year ago a blood mage found a way to turn some Templars into abominations. I guess it's easier for him to claim they were working with the mages than to admit it's possible not only mages are open to possession." Alessa shrugged, looking pensive. "Anders didn't expect the Divine or the Knight-Commander to reject that idea. It'll give him some food for thought, I hope. He even talked about going to talk to the Grand Cleric."
"She would never have allowed this," Leandra said, folding the letter and handing it back. The idea that such a man had been near her daughter made her blood boil. "Is he dead, Alessa? Tell me that much."
"He's dead, Mother."
"Good. It's not charitable to say so, but neither is insisting all mages need to be made Tranquil. Like it's as easy as branding cattle."
"His Tranquil Solution never went as far as his own twisted ideas; it was dead before he was." Alessa's voice was cool, dismissing the man's death with an ease that chilled even Leandra. A quiet sense of grief filled her, because Malcolm had also had that tone of resigned finality in his voice. He had never told her what he'd had to do to become free but she'd coaxed him through the nightmares and knew he never would have wished the same scars on his daughter's soul. But they were there anyway.
Alessa tapped the letter against her palm. "That's not the first time I've heard someone mention there are many more mages around than there used to be. Do you think it's true?"
Leandra considered that for a moment. "I don't know."
"That would be interesting to run by Zek and Haze. Maybe there's a way to track it."
Leandra chuckled, unable to help herself. When Alessa looked at her in confusion, Leandra brushed a lock of hair away from her face. "Sometimes you sound so much like your father that I could swear he's speaking through you."
Alessa looked back at the fire. "I miss him so much."
"I know, darling. So do I. The pain has been dulled by the years but it never quite goes away." Leandra took her hand.
"Bodhan mentioned…well…" Alessa cleared her throat, another habit she'd picked up from her father. Malcolm had always done that when he was trying to talk about something that embarrassed him. "He said you had some admirers. Suitors, maybe? And I just wanted to say that…you deserve to be happy. So, I mean…I'll approve of anyone who makes you happy. Not that you need my approval, but…"
Leandra squeezed her hand, trying her best not to laugh. "Alessa, your father was the love of my life. No one will ever replace him. I've had a few men express interest, but no one has really caught my eye yet. But I will admit, I've been open to the possibility." She gave her a sly look. "The way you and Fenris have been looking at each other…ah, well, you won't want your old mother hanging around all the time."
Alessa blushed, averting her gaze. "I'm that obvious, eh?"
"So is he, my darling. Every time I've seen him in the past few months he's only had eyes for you."
Now the color in her cheeks was more pleasure than embarrassment. She really did love him, Leandra thought. She felt hope rise through her heart. Neither one of her girls had ever truly had the chance to experience love. She had her doubts about Fenris- he seemed to be a very troubled man. But if Alessa had found something in him to love, she didn't care about the talk centered around her because he was an elf.
Privately, Leandra also hoped Bethany would find someone now that she had so many others like her around. Although Anders was clearly in love with her daughter, he wasn't in any position to make Bethany happy at the moment, and she thought both of her daughters deserved a chance at happiness.
It was long overdue.
