Out There (The Hunchback Of Notre Dame) – Anders

The sound of footsteps echoed up the narrow stone stairs of the tower. Two mages wandered past, whispering about how an apprentice had tried escaping the Templars. Then, a boy appeared on the staircase, no older than fifteen, wearing torn and dirty apprentice robes. A man walked behind him, clad in Templar armour and his hand clasped tightly on the boy's shoulder.

The Templar seemed to be preaching to the boy. "The Fade is cruel," he recited. "The Fade is wicked. It's us alone whom you can trust to keep you safe there – we are your only hope." The boy seemed to be torn between rebelliousness and fear. Seeing this, the Templar continued. "We who keep you, teach you, feed you, dress you; we, who look upon you without fear. How can we protect you, boy, unless you always stay in here? Away in here?"

The boy looked down at his feet, keeping his gaze away from the Templar. The man sighed. "Remember what you have been taught, Anders," he warned, turning the boy roughly by the shoulders to face him. "You are a mage."

"I am a mage," repeated Anders, quietly.

"You are a danger."

"I am a danger."

"And these are crimes for which the Chant shows little pity," explained the Templar, walking forward and pushing the boy in front of him. "You do not comprehend!"

"You are my one defender," replied Anders, as if reciting from a book.

"Out there they'll revile you as a monster," said the Templar, motioning to the window.

"I am a monster," mumbled Anders.

"Out there they will hate and scorn and jeer."

"Only a monster."

"Why invite their calumny and consternation?" asked the Templar, dramatically, standing by the window and looking out on Lake Calenhad. Anders was watching the horizon, wistfully. "Stay in here, be faithful to us." A threatening edge crept into the Templar's voice.

"I'm faithful," promised Anders, fearfully.

"Grateful to us."

"I'm grateful!"

"Do as we say – obey," commanded the Templar, his eyes boring into Anders'. "And stay
in here."

"I'll stay in here," repeated Anders, scared to meet the man's eyes.

As the Templar walked away, Anders stood, shaking, by the window. That was the second time he'd tried to get out. He hated the Templars. And the Templars hated him – especially that one. Greagoir. He thought that one day, he'd be a big shot in the Order. Anders shuddered at the thought of Greagoir one day being in charge of the tower. In front of the other mages, he was all words and warnings. Alone… Anders had come from their 'meetings' a few times with bruises and cuts that he hadn't gone in with.

Turning to the window, his eyes traced the horizon, longingly. "Safe behind these windows and these parapets of stone," he murmured, "Gazing at the people down below me. All my life I watch them as we hide up here alone, hungry for the histories they show me." He smiled lightly as he saw the owner of The Spoiled Princess dealing with a few drunks outside his pub. "All my life I memorize their faces – knowing them as they will never know me. All my life I wonder how it feels to pass a day, not above them, but part of them…!"

He ran up the next flight of stairs, all his fantasies of the outside world that he'd lost all those years ago playing freely in his mind. He reached the next floor, flinging himself to the window. "And out there, living in the sun," he breathed, leaning on the stone wall and stretching to reach the fresh air whirling past. "Give me one day out there! All I ask is one, to hold forever."

"Out there, where they all live unaware – what I'd give," Anders cried as he watched the drunkards outside the tavern topple over into the lake, "What I'd dare, just to live one day out there!"

He felt his feet carry him up yet another flight of stairs – the tower was practically made of them – with the same force that his daydreams were made of. "Out there among the travellers and merchants and their wives, through the trees and forests I can see them," he mused, a smile on his face as he saw the small light square on the ceiling of the next floor. "Ev'ry day they shout and scold and go about their lives, heedless of the gift it is to be them!" He pushed with his mind – his magic flowed through him, lifting the ceiling hatch with ease.

"If I was in their skin," he shouted, uncaring if anyone heard him – he was so close. "I'd treasure ev'ry instant out there, strolling by the sea." He inhaled as the air came rushing through the hatch that led to the roof. "Taste a morning out there, like ordinary men who freely walk about there. Just one day and then, I swear, I'll be content," he laughed as he pulled himself up onto the roof, "With my share. Won't resent, won't despair, old and bent, I won't care."

He stood proudly on the roof of the tower looking over the lake and the forests that surrounded it, feeling the wind whipping around him. "I'll have spent one day out there!"

If there was one thing that Anders wanted more than to master healing, it was to be free of the Templars. And he'd be damned to the Void if that wasn't going to come true.

-0-0-0-0-

Next up: Zevran decides to help Alistair get the girl.