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Anders winced and leaned back against a low pile of saddles and packs that Fenris had arranged as a backrest for him. Cleaning and poulticing the seeping wound in his thigh had been painful, and it was going to continue hurting until he finally regained enough power to heal the damned thing properly. It had been aching before Zevran tended it; now "ache" didn't even begin to describe the pain of the wound. "Burning, stabbing, gut-wrenching pain" came close. He directed a few choice mental curses in the direction of the departed Seeker for not having let him heal it properly as soon as the arrow was removed, and another at the templar who'd put the arrow in his leg in the first place.

One of the guards brought him a plate heaped with an extra-large helping of stew, and some hard rounds of travel bread. He happily accepted the plate and began wolfing down the contents, sighing happily and slowing down only once he'd inhaled half of his serving. Plentiful food, friends and guards close at hand, free again – he was feeling much more relaxed than he had since Bridie had abducted him. Were it not for the hole in his leg and the physical distance between himself and Sebastian, he might even have felt reasonably content.

He noticed Antony and Guillaume collecting plates of food, accompanied by the guards who'd been assigned to watch them. When they turned away from the fire he waved and signalled for them to come over and take seats near him. Zevran and Fenris, seated nearby, quickly moved closer as well.

He shovelled another spoonful of stew in his mouth, chewed and swallowed, then gestured at the pair with his spoon. "So. You were going to explain?" he asked. "I was not aware that mages could be templars. Seems rather counter to the point of templars," he said dryly.

Antony smiled slightly. "In the chantry's view, yes," he said, then his expression turned grim. "You are aware that most templars come from the orphanages the chantry runs, yes?"

Anders nodded. Antony continued. "While informal training may begin as early as age 10, they do not begin formal training as a templar-candidate until age fifteen. Publicly the reason is that by fifteen it is usually apparent if they will grow to sufficient stature to become a good fighter. The real reason is that most mages have acquired their powers by that age. But occasionally there will be a person who successfully hides their power for a time, or someone who, like Guillaume here," he said, reaching out to touch the other man's arm, "does not manifest until some time later. Guillaume was a full templar, a man grown, in his twenties before his own skills finally made themselves known."

Anders frowned. "I would imagine the chantry is less than happy when they discover such."

Antony nodded, expression grim. "You would be correct. Such templar-mages usually meet with a regrettable 'accident' as soon as the chantry discovers their existence. It is one of the many tasks of the Seekers of Truth – to discover and eliminate such mages."

Fenris spoke up. "Yet the pair of you were in company with a Seeker? Why?" he asked.

"He was not aware of Guillaume's powers; if he had been, he would have killed him. As for why we travelled with him... well. It is a long story. Tell me, how much do you know of the history of how the templars came to be a part of the chantry, ruled over by the Seekers?"

Anders blinked. "I was under the impression the Chantry formed the order for their own purposes."

"Non," Guillaume spoke up. "The Templars... we were first. Before chantry. Before Seekers. By Andraste's grace, pour protéger les mages."(1)

"Even in Andraste's time, under the Imperium, not all mages were bad," Antony continued his explanation. "Some were terrible tyrants, cruel and unyielding masters, blood mages... and some were good people, or even slaves themselves, much as it is in the Tevinter Imperium even to this day."

Fenris shifted uncomfortably, then spoke up. "I have seen such," he agreed softly. "Mages in Tevinter are usually either predators or prey – magisters, magisters-in-training, or the slaves of magisters; there is very little middle ground, apart from skilled healers who are usually safe from predation... as long as they are careful not to offend any of the magisters."

Antony nodded. "Just so. It was the same in Andraste's time. There were those who wanted to fight on her side who were mages; the question arose of how to prevent her forces from being infiltrated by traitorous mages, and how to protect the mages from those were felt that the only answer was to kill all the mages. The answer they came up with was, of necessity, a compromise; mages had to be vouched for by a number of people before they were allowed to join the ranks, and then they had to be accompanied always by guards, who would both monitor what magic they used, and guard them from those who might harm them merely for being mages."

Anders frowned. "Why have I never heard of this before?" he asked.

"For much the same reason the wording of the Chant of Shartan is now largely unknown; the chantry suppressed the knowledge. But they started far earlier with the early history of the templars than they did with the dissonant verses; the knowledge was lost entirely for many centuries."

Zevran spoke up. "So what happened to change the guards into jailors, and the free mages into prisoners?" he asked curiously.

Antony sighed. "A combination of things. For the first few decades after Andraste's death things remained much the same as they had during her campaign against Tevinter; most mages remained free, and many of them continued to have a guard who remained with them to witness and vouch for their behaviour, and provide them protection from any who might seek to harm them for imagined crimes. The chantry as we know it began to form, mainly coalescing around three places; Minrathous, Val Royeaux, and to a much smaller extent around the Temple of Andraste in Ferelden. Much magic was used in the construction of the temple, and the mage guardians based their activities out of it, we now know. The very name 'Order of Templars' harks back to their role as guards of the temple."

A grim look crossed his face. "And then the Orlesian chantry began an order known as the Seekers of Truth; mainly hate-filled vigilantes, who travelled the countryside locating and killing or imprisoning the free mages; they freely used torture in their 'investigations'. It is this period of time that produced chantry laws such as it being an offence punishable by death to help an apostate mage. Even though it had been Maferath, Andraste's husband, who betrayed her to the Imperium, the Seekers and the chantry hierarchy of the time blamed mages for her death. They fanned the flames of hatred, and Orlais took advantage of any unrest they caused as grounds to invade and annex their neighbours. Between their expansionism and the actions of the Inquisition, the Orlesian Chantry and their Seekers were soon at odds with the Order of Templars."

Antony fell silent for a moment, staring down at his empty plate. "We do not know all of what occurred during that time. It was a dark period of history, and much was lost, including the knowledge of the true location of the Temple; Orlais wished to claim the ashes for themselves, but the templars hid the knowledge of the exact location. Eventually there was a great battle; Orlais won. The templars were given a choice; place themselves under the command of the chantry, and be allowed to continue guarding the mages in their charge, or see all mages killed. It was, by the few accounts that have been recovered of that time, a bitter choice. But the templars chose life for their charges, even if it meant a life walled away in great prisons; the Circles of Magi were born."

Antony looked up again. "And the Seekers were placed in authority over the templars. Within two, perhaps three generations they and the chantry had warped the purpose of the templars from being protectors to being jailors; there were few free mages left anywhere that the chantry ruled, and they were declared apostates, and lived in fear of their lives. The templars went from being the proud guards of the Temple of Andraste and the free mages, to being the lyrium-addicted strong arm of the chantry, their early history largely erased, the atrocities committed by the Seekers of Light blamed on them."

"How and when was this forgotten history recovered?" Anders asked suspiciously.

"During the Exalted Marches against Tevinter," Antony explained. "The chantry had seen to it that most records of Andraste's time and the early years of the chantry's establishment were destroyed, or... altered, to reflect the view of things that fit the agenda of the Divine in Val Royeaux and Orlesian expansionist interests. However, the Imperium has never had reason to follow the dictates of the Orlesian chantry, even before the two split and they elected their own Divine. Some records remained there. During the marches such came to the attention of a group of templars who were there fulfilling their original function; escorting mages on the battlefield."

He gave Anders a crooked smile. "The chantry has never been shy about using the powers of the mages when it benefits their particular goals. Anyway, as can happen in battle, a level of camaraderie had grown between the templars and their charges. So when they happened across some writings about the original role of the templar in the library of a magister who'd had a great interest in history... well, they were ripe for the realization that the chantry had been perverting their purpose for centuries. Especially since they had fallen out of contact with their supply lines and a number of the templars were suffering from lyrium withdrawal. More, they had noticed that many of them were still perfectly capable of using their templar powers even without lyrium; they realized that the story that we require lyrium to operate was a lie."

He frowned. "That group became the core of what I suppose can be termed the templar underground. A secret group within the Order of Templars dedicated to freeing templars and mages both from the oversight of the chantry. It has, of course, been a very slow and laborious process; there were several false starts, and on at least two occasions that we know of the Seekers became aware of the existence of branches of the underground; in both cases they killed or imprisoned everyone involved. But the underground has slowly spread and grown. And we had a particularly great boost during the Year of the Blight, which has brought us much closer to being able to accomplish our goal."

"The Temple of Andraste!" Zevran exclaimed suddenly, sitting upright. "There were many books there – I remember Wynne wishing we had the time to stop so she might read them. I know the chantry later sent an expedition to attempt to recover the ashes?" he added, looking questioningly at the templars.

Antony gave Zevran a startled look. "You were there...? Ah, of course! I should have recognized you from the descriptions... the tattoos are mentioned. You were one of the blight companions?"

Zevran grinned. "Indeed."

Antony nodded, and gave a small salute to the elf. "You are blessed to have seen Andraste's true resting place," he said. "And yes, the chantry sent an expedition to try and recover the ashes. They failed; they found the outer temple, but the routes to the inner temple at the top of the mountain have all been closed; some have filled with ice, others have collapsed entirely. Still, the outer temple itself is a place of great wonder, filled with fallen beauty and forgotten lore. Luckily the underground learned of the expedition in time to stack the deck; almost all the members of the expedition were part of the underground. Much written lore was recovered, filling in things we had not known, or had only guessed at. Including early versions of the chant that include the Dissonant Verses, and even some transcriptions of Andraste's own words; it is clear from them that the current form of the chantry, with their suppression of the mages and intolerance of the Dalish, would have been nearly as anathema to her as the Tevinter Imperium itself was."

"With these records, we have won many additional converts. We have also gathered true copies of the Accords of Nevarra, which include the terms under which the templars surrendered to the rule of the chantry; it is clear from them that the chantry has been breaking the terms for centuries."

Anders blinked several times. "Are you saying that the templars are prepared to split with the chantry?" he asked.

Antony nodded. "Oui. Oh, there are a last few holdouts to try to convince before we go ahead and make the move, but we have people in many of the highest positions within the templar hierarchy. This leads to why the pair of us were accompanying Seeker Reynard; he stands high within both their organization, and the Divine's favour. We are aware of some of the goals the Divine has in regards to uniting Thedas under chantry control, beginning with the Free Marches; we have been seeking written evidence of such, but she is a canny woman and most of the business related to it is conducted only verbally, and mainly through intermediaries who can be... disavowed, if it proves necessary."

"Like Grand Cleric Odile's approach to Prince Sebastian," Anders said grimly. "A vocal offer, leaving him with no way to prove such an offer was ever extended to him."

Antony nodded. "Exactly. However, there are some things that must be written down; anyone who did agree to the Divine's plans would likely require more evidence than just a verbal agreement before continuing. We knew that Seeker Reynard was often used as a courier by the Divine, and knowing that he was being sent here at the same time as the Grand Cleric – though independently, ostensibly only with the purpose of arresting yourself," he nodded to Anders. "Well, we suspected he might in fact have two missions and that he was being used as a courier for such documents. So the Knight-Vigilant included one of his most trusted men among those provided to accompany the Seeker in his mission here."

"You?" Fenris asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No," Antony replied, and grinned. "Oh, he trusts me quite well also, otherwise he'd never have allowed me to accompany his brother Guillaume here," and gestured at the larger templar.

Guillaume grinned at their obvious surprise.

"The Knight-Vigilant's brother is a mage!" Anders gasped. "Maker's tits...!"

Guillaume's grin widened. "Oui. We are twins – not identical. Me, I have magic. Rémi, he does not. And he is not so big. And he is," he paused, waved one hand near his head, and looked questioningly at Antony.

"Blonder," the younger man supplied, then smiled. "And more heavily bearded. Anyway, Reynard could hardly refuse to bring Guillaume along, even if he didn't like it, and he was busy enough keeping a suspicious eye on Guillaume to completely ignore me. Not being aware that the two of us are a team."

Guillaume nodded. "Oui. Antony, he look so young – people ignore him. He and I, we make a good pair," he said fondly, and reached over to ruffle Antony's hair, drawing a tolerant smile from the youth.

"So what is your mission, then? Recovering whatever papers Reynard carries?"

Antony nodded. "If possible, yes. Especially any evidence about the Divine's goals in regards to gaining secular power," he said, and his expression turned grim. "The Knight-Vigilant will not tolerate another Knight-Commander Meredith on his watch, nor any similar grab for civil authority from elsewhere in the chantry. Nor will he allow the chantry to use the templars, or the mages in their charge, in any war of expansionist aggression. He is prepared to remove the templars from chantry control the moment we have sure evidence from documents or deeds that the Divine has such intentions. Even if such evidence is not produced, we of the underground are determined to force such a split within the year; the evidence would just make it that much harder for the chantry to rally any secular support against such a move on our part. We will at the minimum remove from chantry oversight all those templars are willing to still acknowledge the Knight-Vigilant's authority once he has done so, and all areas they control."

"And how many is that?" Anders asked.

Antony shrugged. "Only time will tell the exact numbers, but I can tell you that the majority of Knight-Commanders he has assigned since taking office are members of the underground, as are many other templars in key positions throughout Thedas. Most of the circles still remaining in Thedas will follow his lead."

His expression hardened momentarily. "This is a goal we have been working towards for centuries. We will not let it pass by, now that we are finally in a position to accomplish it. The intolerable things done to mages and templars alike in the name of controlling magic must come to an end."

"You'll get no argument from me on that point," Anders said firmly.

"Nor me," Fenris said softly, winning him a warm smile from the healer.

"Well. I suppose we should search through all of Seeker Reynard's belongings in search of useful evidence, then," Zevran said, then frowned at Anders, who was looking pale and sweaty again. "But first, I suspect it may be time to tend to Anders' wound again. Are you able to heal yourself yet?"

"I think so," Anders said. "Better to get it done sooner than later. At least we didn't need to get Fenris to remove this one; that's an experience I can happily live without ever repeating."

1 – To protect the mages.