“I assume that’s generally how it works. Most people don’t have a come-to-Jesus—” Strange pauses, banks the phrasing sideways, adjusts, “come-to-Andraste moment of sudden sharp awakening overnight to change a worldview. Instead it’s presumably a piling-up of evidence until it hits critical mass.”

Humming along beneath this entire conversation is the running question on his mind: how does he reproduce Orlov’s journey with other templars. How can he sever that thread of loyalty and obligation and duty? It seems such a colossal task, chipping away at them for years.

“So when was the crisis point, when you finally left, or considered yourself to have left? The new Divine’s election?”