Anders touches it gently, this piece of home. It still holds a soft smell of elfroot, despite everything, and maybe that means Anders can go home. Eventually.

"I wonder what my family thinks of my sudden disappearance."

"I'm sure they're trying to figure out what happened," Tana says quietly. "C'mon, sewing kit's in the medbay."

Anders smiles gratefully over his shoulder at Tana. He then grabs his coat and follows her out.

"So, why isn't your wife aboard?"

"Ri's people sailed the surface of the ocean. She grew up under the sun. Add to that she's nearly seven foot, and well... Subaqua ships are not really designed for people her height. And she gets flinchy away from the sun."

“So she’s my height then,” Anders says, with a grin. “I don’t blame her. I much prefer the sun myself. How did you meet?”

"Actually Ri's taller than you," Tana says off-handedly. "Met while I was still trying to fix myself. She was trying to find work on land, barely spoke the language, and was hopelessly lost. We hit it off."

"Must be hard being away from her for so long."

"It is," Tana agrees as they step into the medical bay, "but she doesn't do well under the waves, and I don't do very well on land. We make it work."

She rummages around in a cupboard.

"Very star-crossed lovers. My friend Varric would write a book about you two."

"Rii says one of the guys she travels with is. Or is trying to. Something like that."

She straightens, holding out a small case. "Sewing kit."

"He like telling grandiose stories of heroes too?" 

Anders accepts the sewing kit. "Thank you. I'd be lost without this coat."

"More like he likes penning revolutionary tales to scandalise the rich and powerful."

"He sounds so much like Varric," Anders laughs. Part of him aches to think that, but it's rather comforting to know that Varric has a sort-of twin in this world. 

Tana smiles. "Who knows? You might get to meet him and Rii. C'mon. Medbay is not a place I tend to hang out."

"I, on the other hand, live in my clinic, but you're the boss," Anders grins.

"Hey, maybe you can take over that. We don't have a medic right now. Last one...let's just say him and Circ had too many differences."

"Ah, yes. Circe did warn me about that. I'll be sure to only have minor differences with her," Anders says, only half-joking. "You all did fish me out of the ocean, anything I can do to pay you back I'll gladly do."

"I don't think you'll have the differences he did. He had no love of the Lord Protector, but damn the man was fucking devout."

She's leading the way back to the wardroom.

“I wouldn’t even know what to be devout about,” Anders muses. 

"Oh good! You won't tell Circe's she's going to burn in hell for saying the gods are dead."

“You won’t find me arguing the finer points of that with anyone. You want one about the freedom and equality of mages in Thedas, I’m your guy. Otherwise, happy to not. Out of curiousity though, dead gods?”

"The gods went to war with themselves and drowned the world," Circe says from the other side of the room. "None of them survived. Anyone who says different is deluding themselves."

Anders looks at her curiously. “What did they go to war about?”

"How to divide the world up? How they should be worshipped? Fuck knows, but the wars of gods are ten times more damaging than the wars of man and we're still paying for their ire."

“And woe to those who do not fear a god’s ire,” Anders says, nodding in agreement.