It certainly works for the Avvar and the Rivaini and the Dalish. [His tone is even, agreeable.] But they've many fewer mages than we do, and even their mages aren't free to shape themselves into whatever they'd like to be. Not at first--not until they've learned the place that's been made for them and how to control their magic. The Circles are the Chantry's answer to the problem of keeping us and everyone around us safe.

[A brief and thoughtful silence. Then:] I lived my first seven years in an alienage. My father did his best to provide for us--but we didn't always have food, and I'd barely learned my letters by the time I first came to my magic. If I hadn't been a mage, I'd've lived out my whole life there--if I weren't kidnapped and sold into slavery in Tevinter or killed by a shem for not knowing my place.

It wouldn't have been the worst life, if it was the one the Maker asked me to lead. But it might not have been a long one, and I'd never had the opportunity to learn what I have.

The Circle gave me chances the world wouldn't. It gave so many of us chances.

[Quietly,] It came at too high a cost. But I had a chance.