Ellana woke up and realized she was on the couch in the rotunda. As she went to sit up a tome slid off her lap onto the floor. When she leaned down to pick it up she noticed some paint on the floor. Ellana looked up expecting to see Solas on the scaffolding painting but he was no where to be seen.
"Solas?", she asked into the empty room.
Something felt off… Solas was not the clumsy sort to spill paint, and he was certainly not so careless as to leave it if he had. Just as she finished her thought, she noticed a slight movement from the corner of her eye. The paint on the floor had started flowing under the couch where she was sitting. Ellana's eyes followed the path of the blood red paint to the mural nearest her, the mural depicting the massacre at Haven. Ellana recalled when she first saw it and how it had filled her with such awe and sorrow at the same time. But this mural had changed, it was streaked with the same blood red paint from the floor. Ellana's mind started to reel as she witnessed movement throughout the mural. People… people were running… running for cover and… and burning. Just then, she started to hear screams, the screams of those being burned alive. Horror was quickly taking hold of her and she didn't even realize she was trying to get up and move away from the gruesome scene until the back of the couch prevented her retreat. A thunderous screech echoed in the room piercing her ears, the screech of the Corypheus's dragon as he swooped down, pouring molten death over all of Haven. As Ellana witnessed Haven burn, again, right before her eyes, fire spilled out onto the floor and started to flow along the blood trail on the floor to where Ellana was helplessly paralyzed. As the flames started to lick up her sides, she tried to scream but no sound came out… at first.
"VEHNAN!", Solas cried out as Ellana woke up screaming and thrashing her arms and covers about while moving back away from the fire she was certain would consume her. Solas grasped her arms and tried to gain eye contact as Ellana's eyes continued to sweep about the room in a horrified panic. "It's not real vehnan, you are in no real danger, it was just a test. Do you recall, you are training to protect your dreaming mind?", he asked, still holding her arms. It took a moment but Ellana started to come out of the fog the dream had left her in.
"I understand, and yes, I remember.", she said and took a deep breath. "I failed again."
"This will be easier once you have the somniar arla from you mother. You will be able to focus and build your mental strength, and resistance while dreaming. It takes some dreamers a lifetime to master the skills you are trying to learn in a very short time.", Solas informed her as he released his hold of her, setting his hands in his lap. Ellana nodded and she felt tears fall from her cheeks… she hadn't realized that she had been crying.
Solas reached up and wiped her tears away, "Ir abelas, vehnan."
Ellana could feel the warmth of where his hand had been on her cheek. She placed her own hand there to try and prolong the feeling.
"Are you certain this will work?", she asked sitting up and crossing her legs.
"As certain as I can be with anything regarding the mark you bear. It has challenged much of what was "known" prior to its existence.", he said and stood up.
"Do you have to go?", Ellana asked looking up to where he now stood by the bed. As soon as she had said it, she saw it, that same sadness that would sweep across his face. Although, for a slight moment beforehand, she saw the same desire she felt in her own heart.
"I should leave you to prepare for your journey.", he said as his stance straightened, demonstrating his resolve to leave.
"You're right, there is still quite a bit left to do.", she agreed and rose to stand on the other side of the bed.
"Will you see me off?", she asked.
"Yes, I will.", he replied, turning and walking towards the stairs.
Once Ellana had heard the door close, she sighed and sat down on the floor with her back against her bed, placing her arms across her knees to support her chin. She looked out her balcony windows and tried not to think about her dream, but mostly, she tried not to think about Solas.
"Take all the time you need.", she had told him following their first encounter in dreams. Would she have tried to kissed him if it hadn't been in a dream? She couldn't say. At the time, she didn't even realize it was a dream.
They had walked around Haven and Solas had explained how he had struggled to study the mark on her hand and it's connection the the breach in the sky. With no answers in sight, he told he had nearly resigned himself to leave… until she stabilized the breach.
"It seems you hold the key to our salvation. You had sealed it with a gesture… and right then, I felt the whole world change.", he told her turning to face her.
"Felt the whole world change?", she asked with a smirk moving across her lips.
"A figure of speech.", he replied with a very slight smile of his own.
"I'm familiar with the metaphor, I'm more interested in "felt".", she said as she stepped closer to him only stopping when she could feel his breath on her face.
There was a war of control waging in his eyes. "You change… everything.", he said locking his eyes with hers. She gave him a moment to make the first move before she made it herself.
"Sweet-talker.", she said and grabbed his neck and pulled his face down to hers. As their lips met she felt a jolt like lightening shoot up her body and back down to settle in her stomach. Before he could offer an objection, she pulled away and turned to leave. Solas caught her arm and pulled her back to him, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her in for a kiss that had a force of passion behind it that Ellana had never felt before. All thoughts left her mind and she melted against his body and every nerve from her lips to her core burst to life. He pulled back and their eyes locked. For a moment, she saw right through him, as if every wall he had carefully erected had been obliterated. With a quick gasp escaping her lips he pulled her in for another deep kiss before pulling away.
"We shouldn't. It isn't right. Not even here.", he told her.
"What do you mean, "even here"?", she asked.
"Where did you think we were?", he replied.
That was the first time she really "looked" around and acknowledged a nagging feeling she hadn't previously noticed in the back of her mind.
"This isn't real.", Ellana replied with a growing awareness of her surroundings.
Solas smiled and said, "That's a matter up for debate… probably best discussed after you wake up."
