Letting it find him, it sounds like Alan's asking, and that's... complicated. Anders looks off to the side. He's not one for opening up, much of the time. He'll use details to make a case, certainly, tuck something into a joke to soften the truth of it, but it's only rarely that he voices something that strikes close to home.

His lips press together, and he shakes his head after a moment. When he speaks, his voice is hushed.

"In some ways, yes." Another breath, and then he's looking back at Alan.

"There's a fair chance, with the world as large as it is, that none would have found me. That I could have taken up residence as a healer in a small village somewhere warm, and simply avoided the world." Grown a full beard, kept his hair short, few enough survived that had known him that he could have made it.

"But I couldn't. I'm only one of the multiple causes of the war, the mage-templar war, but I am one of the causes. I've a responsibility to help, and I knew it. That awareness... I couldn't step back from that. I couldn't become non-aware, non-involved."

A shrug, as if to suggest walking into an outpost where people knew him and others were likely to discover him had been nothing.

"I didn't think I'd long left, when I walked into Skyhold. But I knew I had to use it the right way, and so yes. It's better to take a stand than slip away, even if it's far from easier."