Paint smeared his fingers and decorated his sleeves with blue and golden streaks. The elf sighed as he set the brushes aside and sat down, legs dangling over the wooden mast. Solas had been up for days after the battle at the fortress with the wardens. Swords clashing against stone, the smell of smoke in the air, the screaming, and he hadn't seen so much blood since… He shook the thought from his head angrily and threw his tools on the floor below, regretting the mess only after a surprised squeal echoed through the chamber.
The Inquisitor stood with her arms outright in shock and a confused grin plastered on her face as sparkling paint dripped from her limbs.
Solas slid down to the floor on the ladder and began to wipe the paint from her face with a rag from his pocket. "Lavellan! I apologize, I did not notice you were-"
"It's fine, Vhenan" She chuckled and wriggled her fingers, spitting blue and black drops across the floor. The other elf bent over and grabbed a few of the brushes to hand over to Solas. "Couldn't sleep I see?"
Solas turned his head with a weary sigh. "Neither could you?"
Lavellan laughed softly. "No, the giant spiders and tombstones have that effect on people after visiting the fade." She walked past him and stared at the half painted mural, a woman in a blue dress and golden crown towered over the wall on a solid black background. "It's extraordinary."
"Thank you, I have yet to finish it."
She waited a moment, staring intently. "The Fade wasn't always like that right? It's not all just some smokescreen hiding those horrors?"
Solas set aside the supplies, carefully this time, and took her hand to gain her attention. "Why do you ask? To make sleep come easier?"
"To understand how you love it so." Lavellan replied as she faced him. "It seems so tragic, something that you say once was so beautiful. Now it is in ruins."
Solas led her to his chair in the center of the room and went back to the drying paint on his vast canvas. "The Fade is a state of nature, had there been no veil nothing there would have been so fearful and all you saw would be commonplace and less rugged."
The Inquisitor sat and began running the rag down her neck to clean herself with. "We've discussed this before, Solas."
"Yes, but not completely," he sighed as he stroked the wall with a brush, drawing blue flares along the dress he painted, "before the battle I'd only ever seen it in dreams. The mania, the chaos; those are what should never be. The fade should be a wonder, a common fascination, not that nightmare we found."
Lavellan gave a nervous chuckle as she wiped a golden blob from her wrist. "I find it funny how you believe that is a comfort."
"I do not say this to bring you distress, ma Vhenan. The fade is a marvel beyond compare, as are you." Solas smirked as she threw the rag at the back of his head. "We just need to see it for what it truly is meant to be, and not the power that gives us fear."
The two sat in silence for a moment, he assumed the other was asleep until she spoke once again when he returned to the desk to clean up his mess. She looked up at him with gleaming eyes that shone brightly in the firelight, trust and love blinking up at him. He could tell her. Solas wanted to. This horrible secret burned inside and her bright smile unknowing was prying him open.
"Tell me about a dream you saw in the fade."
"I better understand?"
She shook her head no. "To make sleep come easier."
He took her up in his arms and carried her towards the couch against the wall, as he walked he began his tale. "I once dreamt at a ruin, an old elvhen temple, where the spirits there reflected the lives of young families and children who came there to pray..."
Solas told her dream after dream of soldiers returning home and lovers running away to build new lives together. Lavellan kept her eyes on her sweet talker, watching his lips move as she fell asleep. The mage glanced down at her and kissed the top of her head gently, then waved his hand and the fire went out in a thin puff of smoke. Leaving the two to sleep happily in the dark.