He's thankful to hear Aleron laugh like that, even if to most it wouldn't seem like much of a reaction. It's funny, really, how he's always thought himself reserved. And he is, truly, but Aleron is something else entirely. His passions may run deep, but so too are they hidden deeply. If Cassandra is the rushing, flooding river, then Aleron is the dam.

Malcolm isn't so sure what that makes him, but he's glad he can understand both of their different temperaments.

He's likewise thankful that his fellow Seeker is broaching the subject, even at an odd angle, a roundabout way. Malcolm considers for a moment how best to reply, but in this case, honesty must be the best of policies. "Often." How different their lives would be. "No one really sets out to be a Seeker when they're growing up, do they? It just becomes a natural progression of faith and skill under the right circumstances. The right people. I began training as a Templar early, to appease my father." And the less said about his father's ambitions... "Had I never been given the chance...had I perhaps joined a Fereldan army..."

He shakes his head. "It doesn't do much good to dwell on it, but I think of it nonetheless. Perhaps I would have been slain trying to keep a Circle in line. Perhaps darkspawn would have taken me in the battle of Denerim. Maybe I'd have a wife and fat children, resting easy on the family land." In an attempt at levity: "Our lives would not, I think, be so exciting as they are now."