The air was heavy and threatened to squeeze her lungs till she could no longer breathe, but she kept walking forward like a fool. Following a voice which sung to her a familiar tune, she could never forget the voice that would sing her to sleep as a child. But now the voice made her heart race as fear sunk in with each step she took, she couldn't stop herself for taking one step after the other. "Please no...I don't want to see it again." Through the fog the outline of a person formed and the voice became a booming rhythm that matched the pounding of her heart. "No no no!" The shadow turned to her and in a split second all the pain she had buried deep within the abyss of her mind surfaced to her eyes.
She bolted upright in her bed as a raspy scream escaped her dry throat, she clutched at her chest as her heart thumped away like the hoofs of a galloping hart. She slicked back her amber red hair as cold sweat dripped down her forehead. "Creators...Do not torment me with this nightmare anymore...I do not enjoy these games." She kicks the sheets off of her then stands up out of bed, stretching her toes along the cold floor she realized the sun wasn't even kissing the tops of the mountains. "Its still not morning...Bugger." She walks over to her desk as she tries to occupy her mind from the looming images of her dream. She starts to sift through the papers and documents strewn about the wooden desk until she found the map buried underneath, she sits down in the large and comfortable chair that rested in front of her desk. She then proceeds to take a ink quill and draws a circle on an area of the map that was all to familiar and frightening to her. The place was nestled in a valley just north of the Emerald Graves. "It would seem that time of year has come once more...Will we ever stop fighting."
In the tavern bellow a boy with sandy pale hair and bright blue eyes stared up at the distant window of the Inquisitor's quarters. Cole had heard the echoing scream in the dead of night as he tried to close weary eyes that still did not understand the basics of sleep, as he looked up at the window he tried he best to focus on hearing her thoughts, but they were faint whispers and barely understandable at best. He decided it would be best to pay a visit to her all but now deathly silent quarters for fear something terrible may have happened to his new dear friend.
As Cole made the long trip from the tavern to the stairs leading to the inquisitor's quarters he remembered how easily it would have been for him to simply teleport up to the room. Now he was more inclined to use the stairway then try and use all the energy his body could provide for a long distance teleport.
Once Cole reached the stop step he could hear her thoughts clearer, but they seemed to be a jumbled mess of knots. "Tightening, twisting, twining together different things. Trying to keep the memories away, trying to bury them once again under pain." His voice startled the young inquisitor as she looked towards the stairs with wide eyes, after a while though her expression relaxed to one of compassion and kindness as she slipped out of her chair and peeked over the railing that looked down to the stairway. "It is rather rude to sneak into a lady's room in the dead of night...Also the rumors would be outrageous!" She gave her ever adored smile to the boy staring up at her from the steps. "I di-didn't mean to intrude...I am sorry inquisitor...B-But I heard you scream and I became worried." Her smile slowly withered away when she realized once more whom she was speaking too, Cole is...or once was a spirit of compassion. Lately she had been forgetting that he once use to listen to the thoughts of everyone in Skyhold, now he only heard whispers at best unless he focused. She shook her head slowly and motioned for him to come up into the room. "I am fine Cole, it was just a dream...Nothing I cannot shake off. If I can fight dragons and handle Orlisian nobles, I believe I can fend off a few nasty dreams." Cole slowly finished making his way up the stairs and stood there looking at the girl whom he had become close friends with, the word friend has become a strange lingering sound in his ears. The inquisitor was only a small framed elf of eighteen years old, and yet she carried the world on her fragile shoulders. "Dreams are different, all of those things you can pierce with your arrows and blades...But dreams will forever haunt you..." The inquisitor looked back at him with a almost sorrowful expression. "No use trying to lie to you...I forget that smiles and honey words do not work on you like it does the others." She sat down at her desk once more and shuffled through more papers in the candle light. Cole watched her with curious eyes as he sat down on the floor with his arms wrapped around his knees. The inquisitor gave him a glance then sighed in defeat. "You're trying to read my mind again, aren't you?" Cole tensed up sharply at her words. "Hit the nail right on the head." She remarked well turning a page in a book that laid open in front of her. Cole lowered his head as to hide he face behind the long rim of his hat, he felt ashamed that he had tried to root through the inquisitor's mind without her permission. "I-I am sorry Inquisitor...I did not mean any harm, I simply wished to hel-" The inquisitor cut him off by mimicking what he was saying. "To help...I know Cole. I am not mad at you, I simply have begun to know you. Also you don't have to call me Inquisitor when it is just me and you talking. No fancy titles when it is just two friends speaking to each other. " Cole looked up at the girl from behind her desk with delighted eyes. "Y-Yes! S-Sorry...Kaida." Hearing her name felt refreshing, she hadn't heard it for months now. All anybody called her was ether Inquisitor or something type of title. She was growing use to it, but she still missed hearing her name once in a while. "See, not so hard is it?". She flashed Cole a genuine smile and in return he gave her a small playful smirk that made her forget about her nightmare.