The following morning, Mattox awoke early to arrive at the great hall prior to start of the morning meal. As he readied himself for the day, he couldn't keep the smile from his face. After successfully completing her Harrowing, Sabrina would be moving to the second floor that day. His floor.

As he ran the straight razor across the scruff of his jaw, he wondered if he would finally be able to work up the nerve to speak to her. Their conversations, if they could be called that, always consisted of her talking to him and him stuttering through inane babbling in response. Maker, she probably thought he was a complete idiot.

He rinsed his face and stepped back. Puffing out his chest and flexing his biceps, he took a long look at himself in the mirror. What was he so afraid of? He wasn't a bad looking sort, after all. In fact, over the past year, he overheard many conversations between both mages and the sisters attesting to that fact. He was no longer the awkward boy Sabrina bumped into all those years ago. Why wouldn't she find him attractive?

His shoulders slumped. Maybe it was because he always acted like a bumbling fool whenever she was around. He was still totally inexperienced when it came to women, not to mention completely awkward and painfully shy.

At one point, some of older templars suggested that he go down to the tavern during the weekend and find a girl to give him a tumble for fifteen silver, but he just couldn't do it. Most of the men in the Order weren't raised in the Chantry the way he was. Abandoned at the doorstep of the monastery when he was still a baby, Mattox never knew his mother or father. For whatever reason, the sisters took pity on him and raised him themselves instead of dumping him into an orphanage.

The value of piety and virtue was ingrained in him at a very young age. Although he never officially took the vow, to better serve the Maker's will, it was his intention to remain chaste for the remainder of his life. For sixteen years, he never questioned that decision…until he met Sabrina. Of course, he didn't just want to bed the girl, although the idea of lying with her crossed his mind daily. He wanted to love and cherish her, to make her happy. He wanted to spend a lifetime with her and only her.

After a glance at the nearby clock, Mattox dressed quickly then made his way to the dining hall where he wolfed down his food within minutes. When he was finished, he hurried to his post outside the second-floor dormitory. The man he was to relieve seemed genuinely surprised to see the young templar arrive so early, since he normally made it to his post with only minutes to spare.

Once the previous guard was out of sight, Mattox leaned against the wall to wait for Sabrina to arrive with her things. He spent the next few hours rehearsing what he would say to her, eventually settling on a heartfelt congratulations for a job well done, followed by asking if she needed help settling in.

When he finally heard her voice from the second-floor library, he assumed she was speaking to Jowan. He was nearly floored when he spotted Anders walking next to her with a large trunk in his hands, leering like a spider with a fly caught in its web. At the sight of the healer, Mattox's heart sank into his stomach, which lurched so badly it forced him to gag. Why hadn't he thought to help Sabrina carry her things?

Anders flashed a toothy grin. "Well hello again, Matty boy. I thought I'd give our newest mage a hand moving to her new room in exchange for her having breakfast with me this morning." The healer gazed into Sabrina's eyes with a lascivious smirk. "Which I hope will convince her to have dinner with me tonight…and maybe a little dessert afterward."

Mattox caught the double entendre immediately. His heart sank upon hearing Sabrina's coy giggle, making it abundantly clear she was more than open to Anders' licentious invitation. She didn't even glance at Mattox as she followed the older mage into the dormitory.

As soon as she was completely out of site, the templar pressed his head against the stone wall at his back and closed his eyes. He was going to be sick. Why in Andraste's name would she be with Anders? Shortly after meeting Sabrina, Mattox became aware of the apprentice's attraction to the roguish mage, but he thought she had to be aware of his reputation by then. Maybe she didn't care. Maybe Anders was the type of man she wanted. But why would any woman want to be treated in such a manner, to be used and then tossed aside like rubbish? While trying to even his breathing as he attempted to sort it all out, he flinched when he felt a hand on his arm.

"Hi Mattox."

He opened his eyes and pushed himself away from the wall. She was alone. He peeked into the open door behind her, but didn't see Anders.

"Oh…uh…h…hi S…Sabrina," he mumbled. "I th…thought you would be headed to breakfast w…with…"

"Anders?" she asked with humored surprise. She shook her head as she chuckled. "Oh no, I'm not that stupid. I know his reputation all too well. We're friends and we flirt a little, but it will never go any further than that. He would like for it to, and, of course, he's tried on several occasions, but he's just not my type."

Mattox's brow furrowed as his heart leap back into his chest. Her answer surprised him so much, his anxiety was completely forgotten at that moment. "So, what is your type, then?"

As soon as the words left his mouth, his shyness returned, and he could feel his face and ears turn crimson. Fortunately, Sabrina didn't seem to notice the affect. She simply shrugged her shoulder and presented him with a smile.

"Actually, I prefer the strong silent type. If truth be told, I find a bit of shyness to be quite an endearing trait in a man."

Wait…what?

"R…really?" he asked.

"Without a doubt," she replied.

Beads of perspiration began to form on his forehead. He felt hot and dizzy and began to seriously question if he could retain the fortitude to keep his breakfast down through the remainder of the conversation. He had to change the subject.

"Con…congratulations on completing your Harrowing, b…by the way."

"Thank you, Mattox. I saw you in the Chamber. You were the one that was supposed to put me down if I became an abomination, weren't you?"

"Y…yes," he stammered. He knew where the conversation was headed and would have given anything for the ground to open up and swallow him just then.

She took a step closer to him and cocked her head to one side. "And would you have struck me down?"

His face couldn't mask his remorse. "It would have been…difficult and I wouldn't have taken any pleasure in it…but y…yes, I would have done whatever was necessary."

She smiled up at him and took another step toward him. "It's alright, Mattox," she whispered. "I understand."

He tried to back away, but the stone wall behind him prevented further retreat. She moved forward again until she was practically stepping on his toes. He could feel her hot breath on his face as she looked up into his brown eyes, her own bright blue ones shining like polished sapphires. Her full, plum lips parted ever so slightly, begging to be kissed.

"Mattox, I was wondering…Is there any way we could speak privately."

His eyes betrayed his sadness. "I'm a templar and you are a mage…I…I don't think that it would be appropriate for us to be alone together."

What was he doing? She was obviously making a pass at him and he was blowing it. There was only an inch standing between their lips. More than anything, he wanted to close that tiny gap, but he just couldn't do it. His sense of duty and reason was overriding his desire for her.

He turned his head away and cast his eyes to the floor to the right of him. "I have duties to attend to, and I don't think it would be wise if we were seen in this…position."

"Of course," she whispered with a disappointed frown. She placed a light kiss on the cheek that was turned to her. "Thank you, for carrying me to my bed last night." She backed away. "Anders told me."

When she began to walk away, he put a hand to her shoulder. It went against everything his head was telling him, but he couldn't just let her go thinking her advances were completely unwanted.

"Um…may…maybe we can talk again later…if you, uh, want to."

She turned around and beamed at him. "I'd like that." She pointed over her shoulder and began walking backward. "I need to go to the First Enchanter's office right now. Maybe I'll see you when I'm finished."

"You can, um…come talk to me anytime you like," he told her, relieved she wasn't angry or put off by his rejection.

She bit the right side of her bottom lip, holding back a coy smile, then batted the lashes over her flirtatious eyes before circling around and heading in the direction of the First Enchanter's office. He followed her swinging hips with his eyes until she disappeared around the bend in the corridor. Once out of sight, he put his head against the wall again and drew a long, deep breath.

Nearly half an hour passed before Sabrina crossed his path again. She was accompanied by a stranger with graying ebony hair and a dark, heavy beard dressed in a blue and grey uniform, Mattox didn't recognize. Sabrina gave him an apologetic smile as she passed, and Mattox assumed the man must have been a visiting ambassador Sabrina was escorting to the only guest room in the tower.

The templar waited in vain for the mage's return until the end of his shift before making his way to the dining hall for his afternoon meal. Most everyone had already cleared out of the hall before he got there, so he sat alone picking at his food. He wondered why she didn't come back to talk to him. From the way she said goodbye, he was nearly certain she would. He tried to tell himself that something important must have come up, but deep down he knew she was simply trying to be nice when she departed from him. Maybe she was just toying with him as a joke. That thought put him off his food completely.

He was just getting ready to leave, when two more templars walked through the door speaking in hushed tones. Normally, he tried to avoid eavesdropping on his fellows' private conversations, but he heard one of them mention Jowan's name. He put his fork to his plate and pretended to concentrate on his food while straining to discern their words. Sabrina and Jowan were almost always together. Maybe they were privy to her whereabouts.

Apparently, Jowan was attempting to escape after finding a missive that said he was to be made tranquil and a trap was being laid for Jowan and his accomplices. The news caused Mattox some concern, since Sabrina and the mage were so close, but the templar knew in his heart she would never be involved in such a scheme. He wondered if she knew, if she tried to stop him.

When one of his fellows named Sabrina as Jowan's coconspirator, Mattox's breath caught in his throat and his stomach turned a somersault.

After a few more minutes, he learned the Knight Commander and the First Enchanter would be waiting at the top of the basement stairs for Jowan to emerge. Mattox tried to be as nonchalant as possible as he hurried from the dining hall and made his way to the first floor. He got there just in time to see Greagoir ordering his men to take an initiate named Lily to Aeonar prison for her involvement in the scheme.

The Knight Commander then turned on Sabrina. Even though the First Enchanter tried to explain that she had been following his orders, Greagoir berated her for her collusion. He was just about to announce her punishment, when the strange soldier that Mattox had seen Sabrina with earlier brushed by him to interrupt the scene.

It turned out that the mysterious dark-haired man was a Grey Warden named Duncan. To help Sabrina avoid punishment, the Warden used his power of conscription to take charge of the young mage. Apparently, Duncan was on his way to Ostagar where the king was holding off battalions of darkspawn. He seemed to believe that it was the beginning of a blight and he told Greagoir that both the army and the Wardens needed all the soldiers that they could get. The Knight Commander refused to allow it at first, but Duncan reminded him that he had no choice. Wardens were allowed to conscript whomever they wanted by act of the previous king, Maric.

Sabrina was going away – forever. Mattox tried to tell himself that it was the Maker's will. He saw the temptation she caused, so He was removing it. Even if that were true, it brought the young templar no comfort. No more would he see her roaming the halls or hear her voice. No more would his day be brightened by her smile. There would be no more hope of feeling her touch as she accidentally brushed by a little too closely. He instinctively touched the place on his cheek where she had kissed it earlier that morning. There would never be another chance for her lips to caress his skin. His eyes began to burn as he felt the sting of tears trying to form in them. He was lost in his misery when he heard Greagoir call his name.

"Mattox." The Knight Commander ordered angrily. "Escort this mage to her quarters so she can gather some personal items. She is not allowed to take any more than can fit in a pack. Do not let her out of your site until she walks out of the great doors. This is no longer her home. She has no business roaming the corridors alone."

Mattox clapped his fist to his heart and bowed his head sharply. "Yes Knight Commander."

At least I'll get the chance to say goodbye, thought Mattox wearily as he followed Sabrina to her room.