For a moment, Arcturus kept looking back at Anders with that anxious expression, unsure whether there was something he should do to try to help despite the reassurances. The trouble was, though, that Arcturus didn't know what, exactly, might be helpful. Eventually, he just settled himself on the floor next to Anders, tucking his robes neatly around him.
'I didn't realise…' he said slowly. There was no need to be more specific. There were a few things that he hadn't realised, and as awful as it was, Justice's effect on Anders wasn't the most shocking of them.
'I thought that the Chantry forced it on mages they were afraid of.' Arcturus, upon first hearing about the Rite of Tranquility, had promptly labelled it a fate worse than death, and taken it for yet more evidence of the danger and cruelty of muggles. 'I thought – Merlin, how could anybody choose that? It's not any better than being possessed by a demon. Either way, you're not yourself, you…' Arcturus' own fingers were digging into the fabric that covered his lap, but he seemed quite unaware of it.
He took another breath, tried to look Anders in the eye. 'What you're saying is that if you witnessed something awful that made you irate, or if some horrid muggles scared you, then Justice took over, and he made sure that justice was done. That people trying to hurt mages didn't get away with it. That's what you're saying, isn't it? Because in those situations there was someone monstrous there, but it wasn't you.' Another deep breath. 'Justice isn't the same thing as being kind and merciful. Some people don't deserve another chance, and anyone who makes a wizard so terrified of his own magic that he'd rather be...that he'd rather not be himself, at all? They're the monsters. Don't you think so?'