"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. 

"Quite. But. They're all dead, and we remain. Take from that what you will."

“Humans triumph over god. I find myself liking that a lot.”

For more reasons than one. 

"It's odd how many humans need the gods to be the undefeatable ones. Our last medic was one of them. And thought I was further blasphemous to say I'd already walked through hell and survived with what little sanity I can claim."

"Gosh, you're cheerful today."

"I'm not going to argue that, I can very much believe that you would survive hell," Anders says. "I happen to have some skill as a healer myself, and I can promise there will be no cries of blasphemy from me."

"We could use a medic," Circe agrees thoughtfully, leaning back in her chair so it tilts onto two legs. "I assume Tana showed you the medbay?"

"She did." Anders shows her the sewing kit. "I'm going to perform life-saving surgery on my coat."

"Good. I'd never trust a medic who can't stitch his own coat back together."

"You'll be shocked to know I don't need to stitch people back together," Anders says slyly.

"Heard weirder. We'll see whether words and actions stack up."

"You do strike me as the kind of person to respect actions more."