Elera lowered her arms when the strange breeze had died down. As she suspected, Solas was gone.
"Well, that was dramatic." She huffed.
He'd left her at the edge of the white trees. With the sun shining brightly above her, the bark seemed almost iridescent. The crimson leaves glittered with unseen depth in the new light. She could see the glinting of veil quarts along the branches as the bulbs of memory caught the sun. She felt like she heard music wafting in from somewhere deep within the forest and occasionally she saw a flicker of blue, like a wisp peeking out from between the trees.
Elera sighed and took a step toward the strange forest. Solas hadn't been lying about the orbs being over ripe. She could see that many of them had fallen to the floor, while others shone more brightly than they had before.
Just like the woodland she'd created to house her own forgotten memories, the pale forest began with a few sparse saplings before giving way to the thicket of larger trees. Elera passed through these small trees first, but stopped when her toe grazed the edge of a fallen orb.
The Dalish elf glanced down at the tiny ball of glass and reached for it. Her fingertips had scarcely grazed its surface before light swelled inside it and the barriers surrounding it fell away to reveal the magic within.
A little girl with hair the color of blood soaked earth gazed at her from a reflection in a rain puddle. Her ears stuck out from beneath her fall of thick hair. Freckles dotted her dirty cheeks and across her nose and eyes that were a strange mix of violet and blue gazed back at her from the water. She wore a simple shift, laces pulled neatly at the top of the dress.
"Da'len." A warm, feminine voice called softly. "Don't stray, lest the Dread Wolf catch your scent."
Elera felt the hair at the nape of her neck stand on end at the sound of the woman's voice. The child bolted at the gentle threat, calling out as her bare feet padded across the wet earth.
"Coming, Mamae!"
"Mother…" Elera echoed as the image faded before her. She caught a few of the blue wisp-like figures peeking out deeper into the forest and when she met their curious light they shifted quickly from view.
The mage continued onward, careful to avoid any fallen baubles as she walked. The forest seemed so different than the last time she'd slept and she wondered how Solas had changed it. How had he chased back the thorns and the nightmares? He'd left it glittering before her like magic.
There was a larger orb, at the edge of the main cluster of trees. It pulsed as she drew nearer and once again Elera reached out and it dissolved as easily as the first. It had been so difficult to unlock these orbs before. Why was it so simple now? As if they wanted to be freed.
There was little to see inside the orb. Just the face of an older, female elf. Her face was focused and covered by the full branches of Mythal's vallaslin. She made no sound as she worked, but Elera could almost feel a deep sense of pride behind the wizened woman's gray eyes. She was staring back at her for what felt like the longest time before Elera felt it.
Pain.
A deep, burning sensation running across her forehead. She felt it cutting deep as blood welled to the surface and Keeper Istimaethoriel carefully etched the symbol of June into her skin. She made no sound, as that would have been a sign of weakness to her clan and she was not weak. She steeled her expression, willed her nerves to dull against the pain as she undertook the right. She was the First of her clan. She would one day lead them as their Keeper. This step was one of many that she had taken and would take. She welcomed the sting of the needle as it cut into her flesh. Was proud to accept the blessing of the Creators.
The image faded and Elera found herself touching the lines on her face. The vallaslin. The blood writing. It was the same and it wasn't. That wasn't how it had happened for her…and yet…it felt as if that very moment she'd witness had been happening to her.
"What is this?" She asked no one as she looked around the pale forest.
How many hours had passed? She had no real way of knowing. The sun never seemed to move and there were no clocks in the Fade. How long until she could wake up? How long until Solas came back for her?
Elera sighed as the last shimmer of magic and light faded from the newest orb. She'd touched so many now. So many images of people who felt familiar but she knew there was no way she had ever met. So many moments filled with emotions she swore she had felt, but knew were impossible. They were dreams. Just strange dreams.
That is what I told you. What was easiest to say at the time.
Solas' words whispered through her and she shook her head.
"What in the void did you mean, Solas?" She asked aloud.
There was a sound just ahead of her. Like a rock landing in soil. She glanced toward the intrusion to see a glittering orb rolling lazily toward her. It pulsed as if it were alive and Elera heard the wisps around her drawing close. They whispered to one another like the curious spirits she imagined they were.
"You want to see this one, huh?" She asked them, not expecting an answer. She wondered if maybe she was starting to go mad. A kind of Fade cabin fever.
She reached for the fallen jewel, muttering to herself as she went for it. "Alright, but this is the last one. I need to—"
One caress of her fingertip sent the glass into a thousand sparkling slivers. They sang like chimes as magic curled out from their surface, twisting and forming into a cohesive image. The eerie green light reached for her, caressed her, until she'd been drawn into a circle of near blinding light.
Elera blinked frantically, her vision full of spots. She could hear water rushing close by. The untamed roar of a waterfall. She could feel the mist caressing her cheeks with moisture. The earth felt cool beneath her legs, her knees bearing her weight into the stone. Her clothes felt tight and heavy. They were sticky with blood and gore and she could feel old wounds and new hurts biting into her body.
Searing, white hot pain lanced through her hand and up her arm. It burned and sang of madness in her ears. She glanced momentarily at the source and was blinded by the bright green energy consuming her left arm.
A face gazed down at her in concern and something like regret as she cried out in pain.
Solas!
He was adorned in form fitting, glittering armor. The pelt of some long dead animal wrapping down from his shoulder and across his chest. His scalp was bare and smooth but his face was the same sharp eyes and chiseled angles.
He looked like a god.
"Solas, var lath vin suledin." The words were out of her mouth in frantic pleading. Even as she struggled past the pain wreaking havoc through her body.
"I wish it could, Vhenan." The look on his face broke her heart.
Another wave of pain tore through her and she couldn't keep from crying out.
"My love…" He leaned over her, kneeling to be within reach. She watched as his eyes filled with a strange blue light and his hand slid over the green chaos of her arm.
Then, he kissed her.
She felt the first tear slip down her cheek as the pain dulled away beneath the feel of his lips against hers. There was such sorrow in his kiss. It felt like the end. Like the thing he'd meant it to be.
Goodbye.
He stood and gave her a final, lingering look. The pain in her arm had ebbed away to nothing. Numb. But the pain in her chest felt almost unbearable. She wondered briefly, if the pain in her arm had simply moved into her heart.
"I will never forget you." He murmured.
She did nothing. Could do nothing. Simply watched as he turned from her one final time and slipped away into the eluvian.
Elera's hands fell into the earth as she collapsed on all fours. The ground was no longer covered in stone but in the rich soil of her dream forest. The spirits that had been eagerly watching her were close enough to touch as the magic faded around her. Though it was another figure that stood out among the pale trees and glittering orbs of misplaced memory.
The Dalish mage lifted her tear-stained face toward Solas as he stood looking so much like himself and yet suddenly so much like a stranger.
Her breath was thick, heavy and she had to heave the words at him to free them from her lungs. "What. The fuck. Was that?"