"What do you have there?"

"A letter from Cullen!"

"He writes to you?"

She gave him a look. "Of course he does. We're friends. And that old circle habit of checking the incoming mail of mages doesn't apply to him, he's the Knight Commander now."

"Is he writing you love letters? Because, you know, Lake Calenhad isn't that far away, and I've been practicing that new fireball spell Fiona taught us…"

She raised her eyebrow at him, a small smile playing around her lips. "I won't tell you if you're going to be difficult," she said.

"Difficult is it?" he growled, leaning over the desk and trying to snatch the letter out of her hands. She shoved it into the bodice of her robe, which only encouraged him, and he clambered over the desk and plunged one hand into it while she giggled and gasped.

"Got it!" he said triumphantly, and scooted back towards the fireplace to read it.

She made no move to follow him, which told him immediately that Cullen wasn't writing her saucy letters (and why wasn't he - for the sake of the Maker - the poor boy needed an outlet) but he caught one word on the first page that had him totally absorbed within seconds…

Phylacteries.

"Is he certain?" Anders said after a moment.

Neria was sitting behind her desk with one tiny foot propped on it and her arms folded across her chest. "Seems that way," she said, then grinned. "We can get them both. Oh, and we could probably get Branwen's and Armand's - sod it, we could get Maggie's at the same time.

"You want to do something nice for Maggie?"

"Why not? She'd owe me one then. Always handy to have an extremely powerful ex of your husband's on your good side."

"It would make a very nice wedding present," he said, grinning.

"Take Jowan with you," she said. "He loves seeing phylacteries smashed."

"Oh, I'm bringing them back here," Anders said. "Everyone gets to smash their own."

He crouched, with Jowan on one side and Zevran on the other, outside the warehouse in Highever. There were guards on the doors - guards on the roof, guards pretty much everywhere.

"Looks like this is the real deal this time," Anders said.

"What makes you say that?" Jowan asked.

"Well, last time there weren't any guards."

"You've done this before?"

"Just the once. Ended in the timely death of one Ser Rylock."

"You killed Rylock?" Jowan sounded impressed.

"Well, not exactly. The Commander did. But I certainly helped."

"Nice work."

"We do our best."

"If you two would pay attention to the task at hand," Zevran said, "we need to formulate a plan."

"Oh, come on Zev," Anders said, grinning. "Are you telling me you haven't already?"

The Antivan raised an eyebrow and Jowan chuckled. "Of course he sodding has," Jowan said.

He grumbled. It was winter. But he had to admit, it was the best way to do this. The Templars wouldn't feel the magic until it was too late to stop him, and as long as the initial transformation happened far enough away from the warehouse they wouldn't feel that either. Zev was kind enough to let him go back to the inn to go through with it, though. "We should have brought Neria," he muttered as he took off his shirt. Zev was standing in the doorway, although Jowan had stayed at the warehouse to keep watch. "Why are you still here?" Anders said. Zev lifted an eyebrow.

"I merely wished to be certain you didn't require any assistance, mio caro."

"You just wanted to ogle me," Anders said, grinning. The Antivan spread his arms.

"That too," he said.

"I'll tell Sigrun on you," Anders said, waggling a finger.

"Oh, she and I have been discussing this for years," the grin on Zev's face was wicked and Anders found himself laughing.

"It's a pity you weren't around before Neria joined us," Anders said, "I might have been more inclined to indulge you."

Zev's eyebrows lifted. "Oh il mio bel mago why did I have no idea?" he said.

Anders winked at him and removed his breeches. "Turn your back Assassin," he said. "Or you'll have a very angry Neria after you when we get back to Amaranthine."

"Pish," Zev said. "She need never know."

"She always knows."

"True."

Once Zev had turned around Anders removed his smallclothes and started to concentrate. The transformation process was difficult, but he'd been getting better at it. He didn't think he'd ever manage to master as many forms as Neria, however, but he was happy with his hawk form. The ability to roam free in the air around the Keep was something that never paled.

A moment later and Anders was gone, in his place, a fine, dark eyed bird. He let out the chirrup which was the only sound he could make now and Zev turned, nodding. It was time.

The window shattered with a satisfactorily small tinkling sound. Chances were with the Templars all in their bucket helms no one would even have registered it. Zevran checked to make sure there were no jagged edges that might impede the bird's flight, and Anders flew through as fast as he could. Even if the Templars had seen him enter, they would not make the connection between the bird and magic, at least, not until it was too late.

He had to remain in bird form to find the phylacteries. The transformation back to human would alert all the Templars to his presence. But hopping through rooms as a bird wasn't particularly easy, there wasn't really enough room to fly and hawk vision wasn't the best for seeing indoors. He could never get used to having to cock his head from side to side.

Typical, though, that the Templars had put guards everywhere outside the building, but bothered with none on the inside. He hopped from room to room and found no one.

Until he reached the room he wanted.

Crates and crates of them. He felt his beak drop. There was no way he would be able to discover his and Neria's phylacteries amongst so many. Maker's breath - it's ALL the Ferelden mages! He had to stop himself from squawking in excitement. Sure, the circle was less strict now. Sure, they'd probably just make new phylacteries for all the mages who were still imprisoned, but this THIS was a blow to the Chantry that felt almost as good as surviving his reaving had done.

He quickly transformed back into human. A good firestorm would burn this place to cinders. Jowan was standing ready to offer his services as a mage to put out the fire before it spread, but not before it managed to destroy all of these.

He lifted his arms and began to cast.

"What happened to your eyebrows?" Neria asked, after she'd given him a hello kiss that was enthusiastic and extremely pleasant.

"I was a little clumsy transforming back into a hawk," Anders said sheepishly. They were singed. His vanity hurt, but it had been worth it.

"You destroyed all of them?"

Jowan was beaming all over his face. Anders couldn't help but do a little jig of excitement.

"Consider it my wedding present to you, Neria," Anders said. She giggled and threw her arms around him.