Elera was giggling uncontrollably at the memory that filled her like a cup suddenly. The remnants of the locked magic floated around her face and dissipated on her skin as she reclaimed yet another lost moment in her life.
"Another happy one?" Solas asked from his perch against one of the larger trees.
Elera looked at him and grinned. "Don't ask. It's almost embarrassing how silly it is." She breathed deep as the last of the orbs contents faded into her consciousness. She'd managed to open several more of the glittering gems that held her memories. Some had been of arguments. Some of hugs and gossip. Each, tiny moments that helped shape her.
She gazed around at all of the shimmering baubles surrounding her in the forest of her dreams. She was in the thickest section and she could scarcely turn around without bumping into one of the glass ornaments.
"I wish there was a way to figure out what was what." She murmured breathlessly. Why did she feel winded all of a sudden? She stood with her hands on her hips, knuckles down in fists. "There's so many of them."
"A lifetime's worth." Solas offered.
Elera looked at him where he rested against the trunk of one of the massive trees. Several of the glass orbs hung around him, cascading light across his beautiful face like a prism. Elera looked away and down the path that lead to the smaller trees and the vast field of tall grass.
"Yeah, but they don't seem to be in any order." She spoke to the wind, not wanting to stare at the bare-faced elf for too long.
"Are you sure of that?" Solas asked, pushing away from the tree he'd been leaning against. He came to stand beside her so that he could motion toward the pathway where the trees grew smaller and sparser. "All of the memories you've uncovered where we are now have been fairly recent, correct?"
"Yeah, all seem like they took place in the last few years or so." Elera answered, trying to follow his logic.
"Perhaps the size of the trees is relative to your own age?" Solas offered thoughtfully.
Elera felt the realization hit her like lightning cracking across her head. "So the sapling in the front…with the single orb..."
"Probably your first memory." Solas shrugged. "A Mother's face or Father's voice perhaps?"
Elera began walking toward the edge of the tree line, feeling Solas following a few steps behind her. She paid attention to the density of the forest, how it thinned the closer she came to the end of the path. The trees were shorter, with less branches and less of the sparkling baubles.
"So that's why there are less memories on the smaller trees. Less trees even." Elera stated absently as she moved out of the canopy and to the dappling of adolescent fauna. The sun felt warm against her skin. The wind smelled slightly of ozone, like there was a storm somewhere close by causing the rapidly shifting breeze, but the sky remained a blaze of sunset, never changing, forever constant in that last magical hour of light.
"I suspect it is because older memories are more difficult to recall. Even if you did not suffer from amnesia, it would be easier for you to remember what you did last year as opposed to ten or twenty years ago."
Elera arched one thin eyebrow. "Just how old do you think I am?"
Solas blinked once, twice, his face growing blank as he calmed his expression. "If I've offended you…"
"I'm just kidding!" Elera said quickly, her hand clasping him on the shoulder. "Hey, what's that over there?" She could see something reflecting in the distance. It looked close, but it was hard to gauge just how far exactly with the horizon stretching out forever.
"I do not know." Solas answered, following her pointed finger.
"Could there be more than one forest?" Elera asked, her hand sliding away from his shoulder. She was already moving toward the flickering light. Her bare feet sinking into the cool grass as it rose up around her the deeper she moved into the valley. She was wearing the little gown again and Solas was once more in what amounted to pajamas. She knew it wasn't what they'd fallen asleep in, but it was how her mind shaped them.
She walked ahead, not looking back to see if the other elf was following her. The grass gave way to rich earth and colorful flowers. They were wild and bright and Elera could smell an almost sweet perfume climb up into the breeze. She felt something snag her dress an instant before a thorn cut across her foot. The Dalish elf hissed as she jerked away from the small bush that had attacked her. Its flowers almost shimmered in the blazing sunset.
"Are you injured?" Solas asked, picking his pace up ever-so-slightly. Elera pulled the hem of her dress aside and stared at the crimson line blossoming across her bare foot.
"Just a scratch. Be careful, some of these flowers have thorns." She warned him and continued forward, careful now to watch her step.
The flowers seemed to grow thicker the closer they came to the light, but Elera noticed that the bloom with the thorns was becoming the most prominent among them. It slowed her stride as she carefully maneuvered around it. It grasped at her dress and threatened the bare skin of her legs and feet. The grass was almost a memory as they neared what appeared to be another collection of trees. The earth seemed darker here, richer. The thorn bushes, with their lovely flowers, grew up and around trees whose trunks twisted and curved into strange shapes. The bark was white and held a kind of pearlescent shimmer to it. The leaves were deeply crimson, the way autumn could sometimes turn them and Elera could just make out something dark handing from their branches.
The Dalish woman gazed around at this new forest of memories, a strange sensation coming over her. Emotions churned in the pit of her stomach and she stifled a shudder as she moved past the first few rows of small saplings and moved deeper into the thicket.
"How many of these forests can there be? I don't understand." Elera murmured as she neared where the trees began to grow so tall and dense they threatened to block out the light.
"Perhaps these are buried memories? Repressed thoughts you'd rather not remember?" Solas offered, his voice closer now than it had been before, and Elera knew he had to be right behind her.
Elera reached out to one of the dark orbs swaying gently in the breeze. It was cold against her fingers. It felt similar to the glass, but denser, like a stone and Elera wondered for the first time what was holding them to the branches.
"These are so dark. So cloudy. I'm not sure how I could have even seen that reflection since these don't seem to have any light coming off of them."
Solas came up beside her and gripped another of the orbs. He tilted his head as he inspected it closely and finally let it go to sway gently.
"These aren't made of glass, like the others." He stated evenly. His voice had taken on that professorial tone it got sometimes when he was about to start lecturing.
Elera wrapped her fingers around the bauble she'd been touching. "You know what it is?"
"Veil Quartz. A very rare mineral. I do not believe it even exists outside of the Fade any longer. Much like veilfire."
"And you think these are repressed memories? Bad memories?" Elera asked, staring at the sea of dark stones hanging from the strange trees.
"Not bad, but emotionally weighted, yes." Solas glanced at her and back toward the way they had come. "Perhaps this forest should be saved for another time?"
Elera looked at him fully. "What? No, I want to know what's here. What if this is where the accident is? What if that's the one memory I need to have to open all the rest. Like a ripple effect?"
Solas studied her face. "You are doing well enough at unlocking the memories yourself. You believe a particular memory will act as a catalyst for all the rest?"
"Solas, there are thousands of memories. So many moments to relearn and sort through. How long will it take to go through them all? If one memory could be the key to all the rest, why wouldn't I try to find it?"
"A short-cut." He said and Elera couldn't figure out if he meant it negatively.
"Yes, a short-cut." She admitted and turned her focus back to the orb in her hands. She listened to the magic singing in her blood and concentrated on the center of her palm. She imagined that ethereal fire coming to life in her hand and encompassing the memory much the same way her fingers were. The veilfire slithered to life, engulfing the orb and Elera opened her palm to give it room to breathe as she narrowed her vision down to a single point. Almost as soon as the pale blue-green flame appeared she saw the dark ornament shimmer with a kind of inner light. The mineral shimmered a strange mix of green and gold the way oil could sometimes appear to have colors fading in and out from its murky surface. Inside the stone Elera could see a ghostly light beginning to glow until she and Solas were bathed in that strange light as more of the orbs lit up around them.
Elera waited for the body of the little ball to fall away and the memory to fill her, but nothing happened. She huffed a sigh and the flame extinguished. Slowly, the light inside the orbs began to fade until they were left in the dim light filtered by the canopy.
"I don't understand. That worked for all the others." Her voice was breathy and labored. She had to drop her arm back to her side as the muscles began to tremble from the exertion.
She felt Solas' fingers gently touch her shoulder. "Perhaps that is enough for tonight."
Elera shrugged his hand off as she lifted her hand beneath the orb once more. "No, I want to try again." She squared her shoulders and took in a deep breath, exhaling as she conjured the fire to her palm once more. She narrowed her eyes at the orb as it began to shimmer in the light of the flame. She willed that flame to grow brighter and tried not to pay attention to the other ornaments as they shimmered to life with that ghost light swirling inside them. She grabbed hold of the orb with the hand that called the veilfire. She imagined pushing that flame inside the quartz and she saw the light shift from something between blue and green to white.
"Elera…" Solas' voice was a breath behind her.
She was squeezing the orb so hard her hand hurt but she didn't let up. She was breathing hard, her heart suddenly racing. Her skin tingled and felt feverish. She thought the veil quartz might be burning her and with one final agonizing push she felt the mineral splinter inside her hand.
Light exploded from her hand along with the shards of the orb. Mist and flame spread out in arcs of ghostly light, touching nearby orbs until the forest began to glow in that same eerie light. Elera could hear voices, laughter, shouting, cheers and screams. She heard a blood curdling screech in the distance and the boisterous laughter of a room full of companions from somewhere closer. She watched as the dust and fragments of the orb danced in a ribbon of magical light.
"What's happening?" Elera heard herself ask. Her chest felt tight as she struggled to take in a full breath. She felt Solas' hands on her shoulders, bracing her as her legs turned to jelly in the wake of her exhaustion.
She expected the memory to fill her suddenly like all the others, but this one was shaping itself in front of her. Those same scattered particles shimmered into an image she could see through, like a movie projected onto mist.
She saw faces, smudged with dirt, noses and cheeks reddened by the frost. They were dressed in clothes from another time. They were farmers and priests and warriors, men and women young and old. There were injured and dying being tended. There were tents strung up around a snowy mountainside, fires burning to hold back the cold. Furs and skins lined the ground in makeshift beds. The mood was grim, as if something terrible had just passed them by and had left little for them to cling to. Even hope.
Elera thought she recognized some of the faces staring back at her as a voice warbled inside the memory:
"Shadows fall, and hope has fled
Steel your heart, the dawn will come
The night is long, and the path is dark
Look to the sky, for one day soon
The dawn will come"
A shiver raced up her spine and prickled gooseflesh along every inch of her skin. Another voice rang out, joining in with the first. Elera swore she knew the voice. Like it belonged to someone she spoke to all the time.
"The shepherd's lost, and his home is far
Keep to the stars, the dawn will come"
More voices chimed in, slowly, their cadence gaining strength as the song progressed.
"The night is long, and the path is dark"
Elera gasped softly as she heard what she was certain was Cullen's voice. She saw a man with his eyes closed as he sang out into the night. He looked like Cullen, but he was dressed like an ancient General, all armored lines and steel reserve. More and more voices joined in chorus until the elf felt herself holding her breath against the weight of their song.
"Look to the sky, for one day soon
The dawn will come"
Elera stared at the shimmering image as it played out before her. Hovering in the air like some sort of phantom. She could have reached out and touched them, but she didn't dare. She felt those faces staring at her from behind the veil of magic. Those same farmers, clerics, knights, men and women, elves and humans all came to kneel down before her and she couldn't stop the shudder from shaking her bones.
"Bare your blade, and raise it high
Stand your ground, the dawn will come
The night is long, and the path is dark
Look to the sky, for one day soon
The dawn will come"
"What is this?" Elera whispered as the image began to fade along with the melody of voices. When Solas didn't answer she turned, feeling his hands fall away from her shoulders as she spun in his arms. His face was ashen and pale and he was staring past her at the fading magic of the memory behind them. "Solas?" Elera asked, instinct moving her hand to touch his cheek, to focus his gaze.
He turned his face out of her reach and breathed a single word. "No."