The Sentinals watched, and waited.

When the Inquisitor and her companions went through the eluvian, destroying it, Corypheus had withdrawn from the temple and left the Arbor Wilds altogether. With Corypheus' troops gone, the Inquisition and their allies also left.

The Sentinals watched the orderly retreat of the Inquisition forces. They were methodical and efficient, and they were quickly gone, leaving little trace of their passing. The Sentinals approved of this, and turned their attention to the red templars.

This retreat was much less orderly. With Samson dead, the command structure was nonexistent. With Corypheus gone in a rage, the control was equally nonexistent. Though the leaders among the former templars made an effort to hold their troops together, they had no way of controlling the abominations among them. The troops fought among themselves, and the Sentinals added to the confusion, provoking the templars they judged to be the ones closest to losing control over themselves, and watching the ensuing chaos.

More Sentinals had died in this fight than at any point since the sealing of the temple, and they harried Corypheus' troops to the very edge of the Arbor Wilds in retaliation for those deaths.

Finally, all the surviving Sentinals returned to their temple and gathered in the great hall. They were quickly arguing about what they should do now.

Some felt that, with the well gone, their purpose was also gone. These wanted to go out into the world, and see if any of the other temples had survived, if any of their elvhen lethallin still guarded other temples. They felt that even the followers of others of the pantheon would be preferable to the shemlen who currently called themselves elves.

Others among the Sentinals argued that although vir'abelasan was gone, the temple remained, along with much that was valuable and sacred. This group urged as much reconstruction of the temple as was needed to make it defensible once more, then a return to their long vigil. They believed that only Mythal could free them from their sacred trust, and that anything less than their proposed path was blasphemy.

Abelas watched and waited.

Eventually, everyone who had an opinion had spoken, and as a few of the more strong willed among them began repeating their favorite points, others began to notice that Abelas had not said a word. As their leader, the choice would be his, and they finally managed to silence their neighbors until every face was turned to him.

Abelas stood on the high balcony overlooking the hall, his arms crossed over his chest and his head bowed to allow his hood to obscure his face. He finally noticed the silence, and nodded an acknowledgement.

"Ir'isala dirtha vir'dar. Dar'atisha, lethallin. Dirtha souveri, Mythal solasan. Shiral'arla, lethallin."

Abelas bowed to them all, and in the silence, leaped from the balcony and strode out the temple.

It was several moments before any of the Sentinals reacted. Abelas was leaving? With no other warning than this? Finally, two of the hunters raced out of the hall, but Abelas was nowhere to be found. The baffled Sentinals stood and stared at each other for several moments before those who were charged with maintaining the temple began the long process of repairing that which had been destroyed by Corypheus.

…..

Abelas took a little used shortcut through the temple, and stopped in a quiet chamber near the entrance. There, he bowed to a statue of Mythal and whispered a prayer before leaving the temple; for the first time, he had no idea when or if he would return, and this left him feeling giddy.

Abelas knew his duty, and always had. He always had a plan, the better to fulfill that duty. These two qualities had defined and contained his life through the uncountable years that he had protected vir'abelasan. The years had followed a strict pattern; even the interruptions from the occasional intruder had followed a plan he had laid out for them. It was the way he liked it.

He was fully aware that not all the Sentinals appreciated the security that could be found in unswerving attention to duty and unyielding plans. It was not a surprise that they often stayed awake longer or woke earlier than he had ordered, and used the time to interact with each other. Abelas didn't care, so long as those interactions didn't interfere with them performing their duties.

He had, occasionally, been invited to join them. He always refused these invitations, and eventually they others stopped asking. Abelas had no interest in fraternizing with the Sentinals under his command. He trained them during their scheduled waking periods, led them during the unscheduled intrusions, and directed their studies when they were awake and he wasn't.

Abelas preferred the simplicity of uthenera, but protecting the temple required maintaining the fitness of the Sentinals, and he did not shirk this responsibility.

Now though, events had removed his twin comforts; without vir'abelasan, his duty was unclear and not even his plans had included the recent events at the temple. With no information he had no way to see the path ahead, and no way to plan for what might lay on it. So he did the only thing he could think of, he left the temple and headed to Tarasyl'an Te'las.

The Inquisitor had shown respect for the temple, and for himself. Surely, she would be able to tell him what was happening in the world. She had not drunk of the well herself, but he felt she could be trusted.

It was with this unusually thin plan that Abelas left his temple with nothing more than his personal gear and some of the coins taken from the fallen invaders, and turned his steps toward Skyhold.

* "I need knowledge of the path before us. Be at peace, brothers. I know you're tired, but Mythal is proud of you. May my journey bring me home to you."