The wind was warm against her face. Something was ticking her skin like fingertips caressing just above the surface, touching only every now and again. Elera opened her eyes and stared up at a sky on fire. The clouds were almost glowing against the backdrop of pink and gold burning a sunset into the horizon. It was breathtaking. The elf sat up and found herself in a field of tall grass bending to the will of the wind as it rolled through the valley. The grass stretched out for miles, it seemed. A dress she didn't remember putting on pooled around her legs and she stood, letting the fabric fall around her bare feet.

"Hello?" She called out, hearing her voice echo back to her from somewhere to the right. Elera turned slowly, looking for a change in the endless sea of grass. In the distance she thought she saw something reflecting back at her. A flicker in the golden haze of sunset.

She took a step toward the glittering reflection and then another. Her feet sank into the soft grass. It was cool against her skin and tugged at the edges of her dress as she passed through it. Her hands drifted out to her sides and she let the tallest blades graze the tips of her fingers as she moved across the field. She let the wind blow her hair in a wild trail behind her as her pace quickened. Before long she was sprinting across the valley and toward that single flicker of something.

As she grew closer to the strange light, the grass seemed to recede. It was not as tall here, more worn down as if in a path. A path that lead to a single, small sapling. The trunk had barely begun to darken and only a few leaves budded from its small branches but it managed to hold the weight of a small, glass bulb. It was a small thing, glittering like a blue star in the warm light. Elera knelt down and touched the little bauble with a single finger. She heard a sound like chimes or a baby's laughter echoing from somewhere deep inside and her breath caught in her throat.

"What sort of magic is this?" She asked absently. There were more glints in the magical hour of sunset. More reflections ahead of her. A few more saplings, slightly larger. A few of the glass baubles scattered on their branches. Then, ahead, small trees, barely two feet high holding more. Elera looked up and saw the trees spreading out like stair steps. Each row filled with larger trees and the larger the trees grew, the more glittering glass jewels they seemed to hold from their branches.

Elera walked forward into the forest of shimmering glass until she was surrounded by trees on all sides. Each on casting beams of every color against her skin as the breeze shook the leaves and caused the ornaments to gently sway from their branches. She closed her eyes and listened to the faint voices tinkling from the beads of glass. Some were like children singing, others were the whispers of lovers in the dark. Some sounded joyful and others cried in pain. There were so many. Too many.

"You have beautiful dreams." Solas' cadence cut through the hum of other voices and Elera felt herself gasp as her eyes shot open, looking for the other elf. He emerged from beneath one of the larger trees. His eyes were cast toward the sky, his hands folded carefully behind his back as he observed the glass dangling all around them. "I did not mean to startle you." He apologized. He looked like something formed from magic with the lights of the sun and glass dancing along his skin. Elera felt her heart ache suddenly and she couldn't explain why. It was as if seeing him like that made her long for something she'd lost so long ago she couldn't even remember what it was now.

Solas edged closer to her, his bare feet gliding over the soft grass as if he were floating rather than walking. "I am sorry it took me a moment to find you. The Fade can be a difficult place to navigate, especially when you are trying to find a part of it tied to a specific person." He looked around again. The perpetually setting sun made his eyes seem lighter than they were, his skin warmer, and the darkness of his hair almost glowed. Elera licked her lips.

"What are all these?" She asked, her eyes gazing around at the sea of baubles shimmering all around them. Solas took a healthy look around and spoke to her without meeting her gaze.

"Your memories, I would imagine." He looked closely at one of the glass bulbs and then to Elera. "Have you tried to open one?"

Elera shook her head. "How would I even do that?"

"That is for you to decipher, I'm afraid." Solas inspected one of the wide trunks of a nearby tree. His long fingers splayed out against is bark and he trailed it across the intricate surface. Elera tried not to imagine him trailing that same hand across her naked body, but it was a losing battle. "Does any of this seem familiar to you? Significant even?" He asked, not facing her.

Elera looked around at all of the, almost ornamental, memories. They looked very similar to the ones she'd seen hanging on the sad little tree in her living room. The ones Cassandra had told her she made.

"I think I made these. Uh, not these specifically, obviously, but something like this."

"How?" Solas quipped, turning to face her.

"What?"

"How did you make them?" He pressed.

Elera shrugged. She had asked herself the same question and had even tried to research it via the internet. "It's blown glass, I think. You heat it up with a torch to make it soft then blow in it to shape it. At least, that's what I've read. I don't actually remember how I did it."

Solas looked at the glass hanging closest to him as if seeing it for the first time. He inspected it with a critical eye and Elera watched the thoughtful expression shifting on his handsome face.

"Were you proficient in any particular sort of magic?" He asked, still focused on the glass. Elera shrugged.

"If I was, I don't remember. I haven't even used any magic since I woke up." She confessed and Solas lifted his eyes to her at that.

"None?"

Elera shook her head while Solas crossed the space between them. He stopped just out of reach where a single bulb hung at eye level between them. "Humor me?" He asked, tilting his head just a little to see her fully from around the bauble.

The Dalish elf was biting her lower lip, her insides suddenly twisting as she prepared for what he was going to ask her. "Okay." She agreed softly.

"Many cultures and literatures reference fire as being a means of baptism and rebirth. Perhaps it is the key to your memories as well?" He offered and Elera felt an ache starting at the base of her spine. "Touch the orb." He instructed and Elera clenched her fingers into a fist at her side. Reluctantly, she unfurled her right hand and slowly lifted it to the glass. It was warm against her fingertip where she touched it. "Take it into your hand." He urged gently and Elera slowly cupped the thin glass into her palm. She glanced at Solas from just past her outstretched hand. He was watching her intently, like some great bird. The gentle breeze lifting the ends of his dark hair where it hung loosely over his shoulders.

"Now what?" She asked. She could feel a soft humming against her hand, a vibration of memory trapped inside its prison of light and glass.

"Now, heat the glass with your magic."

Elera felt her dark brows shoot up. "I—I don't…I don't know if I can." She stammered. "Solas, I told you, I haven't used magic since I woke up. I don't know if I remember how."

The bare-faced elf looked at her and the expression on his angular face was thoughtful. "It is not a matter of remembering how so much as trusting your instincts. Magic is a muscle memory, Elera. Your body will remember how to do it." He sounded so sure, she wanted to succeed for him. She felt like it would crush some small part of her to fail when he put so much faith in her abilities.

Solas took a step toward her and then another. She started to let go of the orb when he spoke, "Don't let go." She swallowed hard but did as he asked, suddenly aware that he'd walked completely behind her. She could feel the heat of his body as he came to stand directly against her back. His front was a solid weight behind her and she resisted the urge to lean into him. He was still wearing the same loose fitting pants and shirt, his hair tickling the exposed skin of her shoulder. He was so close she could smell the old books clinging to his skin and deeper than that, the scent of magic. Like ozone, before a storm sets rain and lightning down onto a meadow.

Solas' hand slid down her extended arm to cradle her hand where she still held the bauble. The feel of his skin against hers made the tiny hairs at the nape of her neck stand on end and prickled gooseflesh down her arms.

"I want you to concentrate on the orb. Think about how it would feel growing hot against your skin. Think about holding a flame in your hand and letting that flame envelope the orb."

"But wouldn't the flame burn me?" Elera asked, her voice a little too breathy.

"No." Solas' voice held just the slightest inkling of humor. "The flame is a part of you. It bends to your will. It will do as you command." He murmured against her hair. Elera stifled a shudder. "Hamin." He cooed in elvish. Relax she understood the word now. It unraveled itself in her thoughts as easily as common tongue did.

Elera closed her eyes. She had to or she would keep staring at his long fingers where they curled over her own. She tried to imagine a flame in her hand. She thought about how that flame might wrap itself around the glass ball in her palm and how the heat would turn the glass a bright, molten orange in its wake. She imagined how soft and malleable the glass would become beneath the heat of her flame.

She felt something tingling against her skin. Solas' hand felt so warm against her own and suddenly she wasn't sure where the heat began or ended. Elera opened her eyes and a little gasp escaped her lips as she stared at the ghostly green glow of fire enveloping both their hands.

"Interesting." Solas breathed behind her and she felt the consistency of the orb in her hand shift. It felt as if it were shrinking in her palm or breaking down. Little flickers of light drifted out of the flames like ash and embers and suddenly she heard laughter. It was the loud, boisterous sound of Qunari she called Bull, but it was also her own. Joy and humor filled her. There were steins and a terrible tasting ale. Sera was under the table. The memory left Elera laughing out loud with tears threatening to spill over from her eyes.

"I remember." She said absently. Solas' hand dropped away and she unclenched her own to find that the orb was gone. Dissipated into sparkles of light on the breeze. She turned swiftly, nearly bumping into him in their closeness. "I know when that picture was taken in my room." She blurted, realizing only after she'd said it that Solas had no idea what she was talking about. "It worked. It's just the one memory, but…it worked." She was grinning so wide it hurt and she hugged the elven man in front of her suddenly. "Thank you!"

"It was your magic that called the veilfire to unlock the memory." Solas said encouragingly. Elera drew away from the hug but didn't lower her arms from where they rested on his shoulders. She stared into his considerate face and ignored the caution gnawing at the back of her mind. Her hands braced him and she pulled herself toward him, crushing her mouth against his in a sudden kiss. His lips were warm, his mouth inviting and she felt it move against her own an instant before the kiss broke and he stepped out of the circle of her arms, breathless and unable to look her in the eyes.

"We can't." He blurted, eyes still downcast. "I can't." He corrected and when he lifted those steely eyes to hers there was pain in them. There was a rawness in his eyes like she'd just ripped a wound wide open.

Elera took a step back. Baubles of memories tinkling like chimes as she brushed against them.

"I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression." Solas apologized.

"Oh…uh, that's okay, um…" Her face flamed. She was tripping over her own tongue to speak. The rejection felt like a slap in the face. Her stomach flipped and then turned until she felt like she might be sick.

"It's not you."

Elera's back hit a tree and she turned to brace herself against it with one hand. She couldn't breathe suddenly. Nausea rolled through her. Why had she done that? What had she been thinking?

"Its fine, Solas. There's someone else. Got it." She assumed, waving him off with her free hand.

She heard the singing of the memories surrounding them as the breeze picked up.

"Yes, there was." He said softly and she could almost hear his heart breaking as he said it. Elera looked at him then but his eyes were unfocused and glassy. The Dalish stared at him and her eyes started to burn as she put it altogether. It was almost too romantic to stomach and she hated herself for being so quick to assume.

"I want to wake up." She blurted, averting her gaze before he saw the first tear fall.

"Elera. You've made wonderful progress, very quickly. Don't let this—"

"I want to wake up, please!" She tried to keep her voice even, but it came out shrill. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. It was so hard to breathe.

"…please." The word was still on her lips when she sat up on the chaise. Solas lifted his head from where it had been resting atop both their hands. Elera jerked her hand back and scooted quickly off the cushions, not waiting for Solas to climb to his feet.

"Elera." He said her name gently. She was already stuffing her feet into her boots and pulling her arms through her coat.

"I'm fine. It's fine." She blubbered. "I've got to go." She was texting Cassandra furiously at the door. "Thanks for the help. Really. Thanks." He was coming closer and she felt like she would suffocate if she didn't get away from him. Her hand was on the knob and she pulled it open.

"El—"

"I have to go."