Anders suddenly felt a certain closeness to Altair that he hadn't before. It sounded as if his experience wasn't so different from that of many mages, and even Anders's own to some extent. In a manner of speaking, Anders had been a slave too, much like all mages within the Circle. Even if Altair hadn't come from this land, he knew injustice when he saw it.

"You sound a lot like someone I once knew. He was a mage too, and when he got out, he wasn't sure what to do with his freedom. He found it thanks to his friends." Sometimes he missed the Warden-Commander. "And he never stopped believing in freedom for those like us. Actually, one time, we ran into one of his old traveling companions, this old Circle mage biddy who was all too willing to accept her leash, and he told her off. It was nice."

At the time, Anders had been against the idea of mages breaking away, but only because he'd been concerned about his own safety and felt that rocking the boat would only make things worse. He knew better now.