4 days earlier…

Inquisitor Lavellan stood up from her desk and raised her arms over her head in a long stretch. Sighing in satisfaction, she looked back at her cluttered desk. She flipped books closed, tidied the scrap pages left lying about, and capped her ink pot. She picked up the paper that held her notes, snagged an apple from the otherwise empty tray that had held her lunch wandered out onto her balcony. Apple in one hand and notes in the other, she leaned against the wall and read while she munched.

She had found every scrap of information she could about Skyhold, the events of the kingdom of Ferelden when Skyhold was being built, and had tried to find out about the man who had been in charge of it's construction. There hadn't been much, but she was satisfied that she knew everything she could discover from here.

Finished with the apple, Lavellan grinned, took a couple skipping steps towards the balcony railing, and pitched the core as far as she could towards the peaks that towered around Skyhold. She hadn't wanted to let on to Solas what she was planning in case she failed, so she hadn't been able to consult him about his methods of observing history in the Fade. He had certainly made it sound as if he did no other preparation than simply setting wards and falling asleep. She wasn't capable of doing anything with so little planning, which was why she'd spent the first half of the day studying. Now, though, she was ready.

Lavellan made her way back into the bedroom, and settled herself comfortably on the low sofa that sat in her quarters. She took a deep breath and settled her mind into the particular combination of focus and drifting that allowed her to drift to sleep at will, and propel her consciousness into the Fade. Not surprisingly, it took a few more minutes than usual, but finally her eyes drifted closed.

…..

Lavellan opened her eyes in the Fade, and gasped. She wasn't standing, as she had expected, in the newly constructed fortress of Skyhold. She wasn't standing, as she had hoped, in the middle of some ancient elvhen ritual or ceremony. She was standing at what appeared to be the top of an impossibly high and snow covered mountain that she didn't recognize.

She wondered what had gone wrong, and was about to leave the Fade, when it occurred to her that even if she hadn't gotten when she had wanted to go, she certainly was somewhere she'd never been before, and it was worth exploring.

She set off through the snow, shivering slightly in a purely psychological response to the frozen world she found herself in.

The mountain was impossibly high, a strong breeze blew over it, creating deep drifts of snow in sheltered corners and bare scoured stone in the open areas. It didn't seem as if anyone had ever been here, though there were what appeared to be paths, or perhaps game trails, leading down one side. She was just starting to explore one when she noticed a roaring sound in her ears.

She was concerned at first, thinking perhaps something was wrong with her connection to this place, until she noticed that as she continued on, the sound became louder, and slowly more distinct. Rounding a bend in the trail, she found the source. Not internal at all, but an enormous waterfall pounding down the side of the mountain from some hidden source.

Lavellan grinned, and found a convenient rock to sit on and just watch the water go rushing past her. She loved waterfalls, had been thrilled to discover the one in Skyhold, and spent more time than she otherwise would have in the undercroft simply to watch all the water go pouring past her. Endlessly powerful, eternally magnificent, there was something magical about waterfalls.

Suddenly, the thought of undercroft gave her an idea, and she scanned the trail she'd been on. Was it possible…? Yes, it did look as if the trail led behind the waterfall. Grinning, giddy with a joy inspired by nothing more complicated than the wonders of nature, Lavellan stood and followed the path.

As she neared the fall, the wind of it's passing kicked up around her, blowing loose strands of hair into her face and covering her with mist. She carried on, and was finally able to duck into a natural cave behind the great waterfall. She stood there smiling with pleasure at having found a secret, even in this uninhabited place, for several moments before taking a look around the cave itself.

And nearly tripped over her own feet in her shock at what she saw. This cave was somewhere she'd been before. Wandering around the cave, dragging her fingers along the wall, she tried to settle this new idea in her mind. This waterfall wasn't just similar to Skyhold's, it was Skyhold's. The cave where she stood was - or, more accurately would be - the undercroft.

She hadn't come to the wrong place, only the time was off. She was standing where Skyhold would be built, at some unknowable time in the future. Lavellan wrapped her arms around herself and laughed out loud, grinning at the echoes in the cave. Laughing again, she threw out her arms and spun in a circle. She had done it! It may not be perfect, but she had traveled to the past in the Fade! Still snickering slightly, she left the cave, making her way back up the path. She couldn't wait to look around again with this new knowledge and see if she couldn't recognize something now that she knew what to look for.

In her excitement, she didn't notice that she took a different path than the one she'd come down. She probably wouldn't have noticed anything, since it also went back towards the peak, but when she reached a sheltered spot where the snow was thick, she saw footprints.

Lavellan frowned. How could she leave footprints? Looking back, she didn't see any sign of her own passage. Looking ahead again, she stepped forward and set her foot in the print there in the snow.

It was much larger than her foot.

Perhaps she wasn't as alone as she had assumed. Frowning, she looked around, and listened closely, but heard nothing more than the rushing of the waterfall and the unceasing howl of the wind.

For a moment, she was tempted to leave the Fade, but then she laughed at herself. This is what she had come for - to explore, to observe people of the past going about their business in what would be Skyhold.

Shaking off the momentary thrill of fear, she followed the footprints in the snow.