Face your daylight horrors!

There are different kinds of escape; not just the one you make from a tower, persuaded by templars sent to rob you of more than physical freedom.

From some things, the slight comfort of closed eyelids is not diversion enough.

But for now, he presses his knuckles against them, hard enough to see colours and sparks. Against his own darkness, they are similar to a night sky scattered with stars, but moving and with so many different hues of light. It is a sight far better than dull stone and old tapestries. Nowhere near as grand as the real thing, but for now it will have to do; a brief escape is better than none at all.

The library is another, with books to devour and be drawn into. While they are meant for studies they still describe the world, and he desperately needs more of it, in any way he can, to be reminded of better things and better places. Descriptions and drawings of plants are not even close to being adequate substitutes for walking through fields and forests, but recalling how doing it felt with the help of old pages will have to do, for now.

Karl is the best one; escaping the cold reality for a while to hide in warm arms can be dangerous with hearts so close together, but to Anders it is a danger that would be even more dangerous to go without. They share touches that are intimate not due to the places touched but the intent behind them, the not so well-hidden care. He needs that care so much that it hurts sometimes, just to feel that he is somehow still needed in this world, no matter what the Chantry says about him being cursed.

Because there is one final way to escape, one that no one could ever bring him back from. The comfort of Karl, no matter how dangerous, still has to be better than that.