AN: A huge shout out to all the people who joined us after that last chapter - color me pleasantly surprised!
Another nod goes to all my reviewers: KristyConspiracy, DROH, FieryRose00, Skidney and Umerue for taking the time to write such supportive (and helpful) comments. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts!
This here is a short one, but I'd rather post it now and keeping a fairly consistent schedule.
Enjoy,
Voi
He had been dreaming, had been in the Fade, when it happened.
From far off in the west the sky had darkened, to churn violently like a storm on the horizon. Pieces of the fade twisting into a thunderhead of noise, the sound carried across the landscape in a great rolling wave.
Screaming, hundreds of voices screaming.
The noise echoed in every hollow, every rocky canyon and embedded itself so deeply in the land that for a terrible moment it seemed as if the Breach had opened once more, driving the spirits away with a ferocity that few could match.
Men, women, it was the sound of such agony that even the ghostly noises of battlefields paled in comparison. Generations of people in pain.
And then it was abruptly, jarringly silent.
A vacuum so empty that it felt like he had suddenly lost the very sense of hearing itself.
There was nothing but the memory of that terrible noise ringing in his mind.
Haunting.
Solas stared at the direction of where the wailing had originated. Frozen, rooted to the ground as he swallowed past the unease that grew with each moment that the ringing in his mind continued. He knew who lay in that direction, had taken great pains to avoid her as much as possible.
He had recognized her voice among the masses. He knew he had.
But this storm, this screaming, was like all things in the fade. A memory of an event, something that had happened long ago.
He felt his skin prickle as a chill settled over him.
How long ago had this happened?
Days? Years?
Before he could think about what he was doing he began to move, towards the horizon, towards her.
If he could discern the location of where she had been, then maybe...
Traveling in the Fade seemed faster somehow, the land moving past more quickly. The result of his own desire to see the distance shrink, perhaps? Mountains rolled away, down into valleys, forested hills before flattening into the plains.
Closer and closer he came, and the nearer he drew, the more he could hear another noise, a humming, low and steady.
Around his neck, under the layers of clothing, the loop he still wore, the one she had gifted to him, seemed to do the same. But the resonance did not make him feel better nor assuage his concerns.
It seemed all the worse when he arrived at his destination.
He knew the space, the land.
There was no mistaking the grove, not in the Fade.
He had visited the grounds periodically over the course of his life, but it had been several years since his last visit. Still, the landscape seemed virtually the same, more like it's waking world than most because the veil was so thin.
Thin enough that spirits could cross easily between if they had the will.
Thin enough that those in possession of powerful magic could inject their abilities into the beyond.
And someone had, intentional or not, sent something through.
Scanning the terrain, the lush not-trees and pools of not-water, Solas sought out that item that even now hummed with purpose.
Sharp eyed and observant, it should not have taken him as long as it did. But when he finally saw it, the little bit of cord, his exhale was so sharp, so sudden that his lungs protested at the loss.
Blinking in rapid succession, trying to clear his vision, his lips twisted into a worried frown when the knot remained where it was on the silt strewn bank.
What was it doing here?
He bent down, fingers brushing what was left of the token, the unraveled mess.
And where was she?