This was definitely one of my favorite chapters to write. One of the scenes was actually inspired by some fanart I saw of Solas and Inky. Maybe you'll recognize which one?

On a different topic, any of you guys play Hollow Knight? My husband and I recently discovered it and OH MY GOSH! It's by far the best side-scroller I've played in ages! It's so frustrating but SO good at the same time! Ugh :(

36 - Vulnerable

When I open my eyes, I know immediately I've done it. The world around me pitches and swirls. Spirits drift in and out of view.

My heart races. Never before can I remember dreaming so vividly. At least, not like this.

Solas is not with me. The cave where we slept is empty. Not even the fire crackles behind me. I get up, walk outside.

It doesn't rain here. I walk through the trees, down the small hill. Spirits still flit in and out, giggling, whispering. I find myself utterly and completely unafraid of their presence. It seems natural, as if this is all it could ever be.

I wander aimlessly, following the spirits as they dance around me. I spot the area where our main camp had been set up but find the clearing empty. Down below, the lake is gone, Old Crestwood whole. I sigh, drift through the empty houses, taking in every detail.

Is this what it's like? Walking the Fade every time Solas closes his eyes?

Then I wonder. Where is Solas? Why am I alone?

I don't know how, but suddenly the world around me shifts, melting. When it stops, solidifying under my feet, I'm in a completely different area. Two great Ghilan'nain statues stand on either side of a small pond. Standing with feet barely touching the water, is Solas.

He turns, eyebrows raised. "You are a natural, it seems," he says.

"What do you mean?" I walk toward him, look around the small grove. "How did I get here?"

"You were searching for me, were you not?"

"Well, not really to be honest. I just wondered where you were."

He laughs. "It appears you really are a dreamer. You are in my dream, now."

"Oh," I breathe.

He smirks, cocking his head to the side as his eyes travel down the length of my body. "As much as I enjoy the view, I highly doubt you meant to come here naked?"

My eyes widen and I look down. How long had I been wandering the Fade like this? Instantly, clothes appear, covering me. "Sorry," I mutter. "I hadn't even noticed."

He laughs again. "Do not apologize. I enjoyed it while it lasted."

My face burns despite this. "Why are you here?"

He looks back over the small pond. "It's quiet here. And the Veil is thin. Can you feel it on your skin, tingling?"

I reach up, let the mist swirling around us caress my fingers. "Yes. It's marvelous."

He steps back so he no longer stands in the water and then sits. I join him, lean my head against his shoulder. He kisses the top of my head, then reaches out with his hand.

Mana pours from him. Instantly, brightly glowing shapes start to dance through the air, spinning, twirling. Fish, halla, ram, bears. All of them move together, leaving trails of light behind them as they bound through the air.

I don't know how long we sit there, watching the animals move. Long enough for spirits to start fading in and out around us, watching the strange dance as well.

"Freckles?"

Solas and I both jump up, suddenly back in the small cave, our fire long-since burned out. Light is filtering into the cave and the figure silhouetted at the mouth of it is small.

"Sweet Andraste's tits, this was way more ass than I wanted to see this morning."

I groan, grabbing for the blanket that had slipped away in sleep to cover myself back up. "What are you doing here, Varric? Seriously? Can't we have a few hours of peace?"

Varric laughs, turning his head so I can grab my cloak and slip it on. Solas remains motionless beside me, eyes closed but mouth pursed in annoyance.

"The Seeker was getting ready to send out a search party. Just be glad it was me who found you and not Sera, or Iron Bull for that matter." He reaches down, grabs Solas's pants on the floor next to him to toss them at him. "Here, Chuckles. Might want to put these on before the rest of them find their way up here."

Solas growls but takes them.

"I knew there was something kinky about you, Chuckles. Didn't I say so?"

"Twelve year olds," Solas mutters.

"What did everyone need, Varric?"

He has his back to us to let us dress. His voice bounces back to me. "Oh, we just got word that the dam has been cleared out, so we can go there anytime to drain the lake."

I quickly run my fingers through my hair, brushing and fluffing it out, trying not to make it look so obvious. Solas leaves before me, throwing Varric a look as he passes him. I step in front of Varric when I leave, point my finger at him.

"Speak to no one about what you just saw."

He laughs. "Oh, don't worry your pretty little head about that. I don't want you baring down on my ass if I told everyone. You're scarier than the Seeker when you're angry." He pats my back as I groan. "Your secret is safe with me."

"Yeah, I definitely doubt that. I know you're writing down everything you see. I've seen the papers. If I come across a page about finding us in a cave—"

His laugh cuts me off. "Don't worry. My lips are sealed." He falters under my glare. "And my pen."

It takes only a few minutes to get back to the camp. Indeed, it does look as if everyone is a bit worried about my absence, although the look on Dorian's face says all I need to know about his assumptions…no matter how correct they are.

"Well, let's head to the dam. Varric? Blackwall? Solas?"

They all nod.

The rest head to Crestwood to help the villagers fend off the corpses. We make our way back to the fort we had helped take back. The door to the dam section opens easily and leads out to a section of land behind the fort. Ahead of us, the dam separates a deep chasm to our left from the lake on our right.

Above the entrance to the dam hangs a sign that reads "The Rusted Horn."

"A tavern?" I ask, looking at it in confusion.

"It seems so," Varric says.

The door is unlocked. We walk in, down a long hallway.

I can hear giggling coming from farther in. I turn the corner in time to see two young shemlen there, laying under a large blanket, clearly in the middle of some…intimate activities. They both gasp as we walk into view, pulling the blanket up to cover themselves.

"What in—!" The girl squeals.

Varric shakes his head. "Andraste, not again," he mutters. "Wonderful."

"The Inquisitor! We didn't know you were here, ser. Please, don't tell anyone!" The boy says.

I cover my mouth, barely hiding my laugh. "How did you two manage to sneak past all the guards to get here?"

"There weren't any when we got here," the girl moans.

"We just heard you killed the bandits, Your Worship. We didn't know you were moving in, we promise." The boy answers. "Please, don't tell anyone we were here!"

I bite my lip. "Don't worry. My lips are sealed."

He sighs in relief. "Thank you! Lonnie's mum and dad would've have my head."

"But, I can't imagine that this place really sets the mood at all…" I say.

"We can't head back now. Your father will be awake." The boy sighs. "We'll need to wait at least another hour to head back."

The girl sobs. "I knew this was a mistake. We should just go home."

"We could try the caves?"

I glance at Solas and Varric, who both smirk at me.

"But you hate spiders," the girl sobs.

"You find somewhere next time!"

I finally let my laugh go. "Don't worry. We saw nothing. We'll be out of here shortly, I promise."

We all walk to the back of the tavern, to a door covered in cobwebs. The key the Mayor had given me opens this door.

The controls for the dam sit in the middle of the room. I look at my friends with raised eyebrows. "I thought the Mayor said these controls were destroyed by darkspawn ten years ago?"

"It looks like there's more going on here than what he let on," Blackwall says.

All of us work together to turn the giant wheel. Deep, booming clanks issue from the ground beneath us, letting us know it's working. Once the wheel stops, we walk back outside—as promised, ignoring the young couple—and we all lean over the dam to watch.

Great mouths shaped like lions spew water from their depths, sucking it from the lake to drop it into the valley below. We watch as a dragon sleeping in the deepest recesses of the valley takes to the sky, flying overhead and off into the distance.

"A dragon," Blackwall groans. "Do we ever have uneventful days?"

I laugh. "I've just come to accept that we never will."

"Freckles?"

I turn, look at Varric leaning over the opposite ledge. He points down.

Below, the lake has dropped a good few feet. Already I can see the points of decayed roofs and buildings starting to peek above the water's surface.

"Looks like this will take awhile," I say, sighing. "Let's head to the fort and wait for it to drain completely."

It takes a few hours. All of us take the time to restock, check out how the fort is now being utilized by the Inquisition. Once the water stops flowing from the dam, we all gather back together and make our way toward Old Crestwood.

The ground squishes under my feet. Seaweed splays out in random places, spread across the ground like some strange many-legged bug no longer able to hold its weight. The skeletons of the houses I had seen hints of now stand freely, wood rotted and dripping. The closer we get to Old Crestwood, the more I can feel the Veil thinning, dancing across my skin and making my hair stand on end.

For a moment, confusion makes me stop. Spirits are flitting in and out of view, just like in the Fade. But the ground beneath me does not pitch, the sky clear aside from the rain pouring from the clouds. I look back at Solas, raise my eyebrows.

"I can feel the weakness in the Veil, even above ground," he says. "Spirits are being called here like moths to flame."

I walk through the town, recognizing certain aspects from my journey in the Fade. Most of it is unrecognizable due to the decay. Eventually, I find a spirit yelling at a bookshelf long since collapsed in on itself, commanding it to move. I listen to its desire to have one thing listen to its command, bow my head as I offer to complete a task for it so it can go back across the Veil.

The Mayor's old home still stands in the rubble. I can't help but notice that it's almost empty of all furniture, unlike the rest of the houses.

"Strange," Varric says. "He managed to find time to pack up all his things before the town flooded?"

My stomach starts to drop. Maybe my suspicions when talking to him are correct. Did he know about the flood beforehand somehow?

We find the entrance that leads down to the flooded caves, which is where the rift seems to be. We crawl farther and farther down, finding many bloated and decayed bodies, along with signs of long-since destroyed camps.

"Were people living down here when Crestwood was flooded?" I ask myself. I cringe at the thought.

Spirits still float up and down the spiraling stairs leading down deeper into the caves. Many of them scream, groan in agony and fear. My stomach falls, heart growing heavy at the words they whisper to themselves.

So much despair down here. I have no doubt anymore that people had been living in these caves when they were flooded. The spirits make it all too clear.

At the bottom of the deep chasm, we find an extremely old dwarven thaig.

"What's an old dwarven thaig doing way down here?" Varric asks.

Solas's eyes roam over the walls, lingering on the glowing red light filtering in through them. "The dwarven magics are strong. They still sing."

Finally, deep in the thaig, we find the rift that has been causing so much trouble. High above, the ground opens up to the sky. That's how we could see the green light of the rift drifting through the lake, I realize.

We work together, take down the demons roaming the large room. The demons down here are strong, fueled by the despair tainting this place. By the time we're done and the rift is closed, all of us are exhausted, breathing heavy, sweat and moisture from the air pouring down our faces.

"The townspeople will no longer have to worry about their dead rising from the lake," Solas says with satisfaction.

Outside, the rain has finally stopped. The sky above is a bright and clear blue, blindingly so after so much darkness. I sigh in relief.

Immediately, we head toward Crestwood to confront the Mayor. Too many things have added up to point the finger at him instead of the darkspawn. The rest of my companions wait for me there, relaxing with the villagers and passing around rations.

A few of the villagers whisper to each other, talking about the Mayor disappearing.

"He rode out an hour ago. I spotted him from Beyer's Field. He didn't even stop to wave."

Just as the villagers said, his cabin is empty, a note laying on his desk.

He's fled.

"A letter of confession from the Mayor," I say after I read it. "It says he was the one who flooded Old Crestwood ten years ago. To stop the Blight from spreading."

Varric shakes his head. "I knew he was nervous about more than the undead."

Sera, who had followed us up to the house, looks at me with eyes wide in shock. "He drowned them…in the muck?" Her face contorts though her eyes are now bright. "Oh, 'Mayor' is having an arrow for tea."

I put the note in my pack. Leliana can take care of this. "Back to Skyhold, then, to prepare for the journey to the Western Approach. There's nothing more we can do here."