A/N: Please keep in mind that this is a work of fiction where two universes are crossed over. Certain things may not align with one universe to fit in with the other, and timelines have been changed to suit the universes being parallel. With that in mind, I hope you enjoy the chapter!
She was falling. An infinite loop amidst the bleak, endless landscape. Nothing but featureless, dark slate surrounded her; sometimes forming hills, or mountains, or valleys, or strange floating islands. No sound was perceptible, she couldn't even hear the beating of her heart, or her own breathing, or the air whipping past her. Or did she? The moment she expected to hear these things, and didn't, sound returned with a violent rupture against her ears. What one moment was a deafening silence, was now an ear-splitting cacophony, blinding her senses and mind to any other thought.
"Land." A voice, commanding almost, reached her.
She could barely even register the sound of the voice, let alone decipher its meaning. Land? How can I land when I feel nothing beneath me? I'm lost, confused… I don't even know who I am...
As she opened her eyes, looking around her, the landscape was foreign: imposing black spires all around her, twisting pathways dropping off into voids, eyes seeming to peer out at her, cruel looks in them. Looking at herself, she saw changing shapes; one moment she was herself, the next, she was cloaked in red and black with pale skin, and then she was dressed in black and red, with bone-white skin marked with angry red lines. None of it made sense, and yet, some part of her recognised it was simply reflecting her inner thoughts and feelings.
"There is land beneath you." The voice returned, as sure and commanding as the first time.
"Huh?" Penny said, bewildered by the statement, but it was so certain that she believed it. As suddenly as she'd been falling, she hit the ground, and as with the sound, it took a moment for her to feel the impact after it happened. She grunted in pain and rubbed her head to clear her mind.
'Nothing in this place seems...right,' Penny thought to herself, looking around.
The landscape seemed shrouded in a strange dull brown fog which extended up into the sky. The only feature that wasn't ever-changing was a strange city in the far distance, starkly black against the browns and greys of everything else. It had what looked like impressive spires reaching up into the sky. Beyond what she could see there, she appeared to be alone.
"Hello, Penny," a quiet voice spoke from behind her.
Penny, startled, whipped around, eyes immediately focusing on the figure now before her. It was a man, about her same height and age, dressed in slightly tattered brown and green robes held together by a plethora of leather straps and ropes, carrying various items from potions to a pair of almost ritualistic daggers on either side. He wore a wide hat, nearly twice the width of his shoulders, and beneath it, she could barely ascertain his hair was a mixture of white and brown, with one eye which was grey and brown and the other being hazel. His only other defining feature was a staff located on his back, black on its bottom and the handle being silver, studded with metal-toothed circles and a lever of some kind, a floral, vine-like pattern wrapping around it decoratively.
"How... do you know my name?" Penny asked, cautious of this stranger's abrupt appearance. Though he certainly did not seem malicious, nor was his help unappreciated, she wasn't sure about anything in this strange place. Nor did it escape her notice that the edges of him...weren't quite there. It was as if she was looking at a reflection on water, and if she blinked or looked at him the right way... his appearance seemed to change slightly for a moment.
A soft, knowing chuckle followed her question, a chuckle that spoke ages of knowledge and experience. And she thought, for a moment of time, that instead of one voice, she almost believed she'd heard three."I know a lot of things. I know your name is Penny, I know you are facing a great deal of pain, and, for example, I know you have a great deal of compassion for others. In that way, we are kin," he said, his face as stoic and calm as his voice.
His words put her a little at ease, and Penny relaxed slightly as she looked around again before studying the strange person. "What's your name?"
He paused for a moment, almost unsure of how to answer the question, "I... believe I have been called different things at different times... Some of my memory is fuzzy; however, you may refer to me as Cole."
Penny blinked at the name, before giving him a beaming, close-eyed smile, "Well, friend-Cole, it's a pleasure to meet you!"
He chuckled again at her cheery manner and shook his head a little. Penny then looked around once more, trying to discern her directions. "Where *are* we?" she asked, watching distant paths change and morph. The area had a slightly brighter, friendlier, look to it now, and Penny started to wonder about that.
"We are in the Fade. A place of spirits beyond the veil. A place also known as the Connection," he replied, studying the landscape with a curious look.
"The Fade? I heard Solas mention it. Something about the rifts being connected to it... or something. He said it's dangerous," Penny said with a very matter-of-fact tone, her smile falling from her features. "But... I thought he said you could only get to it by dreaming? I... don't think I've ever had a dream before…."
Penny had no idea what gave her the impression she had never dreamed, but she was certain of it. She felt a rumble in the ground beneath her as her thoughts turned to anger and frustration at her inability to remember anything.
"Penny." Cole's voice was soft, almost pained as he spoke. She jolted as she looked up at him, having forgotten about him already. "You do not need to dream to reach this place. It is simply an easier way of getting here. It is not uncommon for people to not have dreams. However, what *is* extraordinary is that you *do* seem to be here." He walked up to her now and she had a closer look at his features as he studied her.
Strangely, they seemed to shift between a few different people who looked similar enough that unless you looked closely, you wouldn't even notice the changes. She bit her lip a little as her heart rate picked up. The last few times someone had been this close to her had all ended badly. And now, she stood somewhere between dream and reality, faced with an unknown man, in a volatile and harsh landscape, weaponless and powerless. "What do you mean?"
"I mean, only spirits can enter here. Yet here you are. Whole. Physically standing here," he replied with a tilt of his head, eyes filled with compassion and curiosity.
"How... How do I get back? My friends need me." The last statement Penny put such force and passion behind that it made Cole step back, and then smile after a moment.
"I believe it is as simple as finding the place through which you entered," he replied with that age-old and knowing smile of his that brought some comfort to her now.
"But, I woke up here. How will I find a place I've never seen?" Penny asked, tilting her head to one side and thinking back as hard as she could. *I don't **remember** getting here. I thought it was like the last few times, where I had those strange visions… what is happening to me?*
Cole retained a bleak expression as they stood there in comparative silence for a few moments before he spoke, "Thoughts here are everything, Penny. Though I do wish there was privacy, unfortunately thinking is as loud as speaking, but far more powerful here."
Penny tilted her head again at his cryptic words. "You like to puzzle people, don't you?" she asked, brows furrowed slightly.
He chuckled softly and shook his head. "No, but, I will try again." He smiled and looked at her, and she heard his voice, though his lips didn't move at all, *"Our thoughts are painfully heard here."*
He clasped his hands gently and politely behind him, as he waited patiently for Penny to compose the chaotic and wild thoughts in her head.
She was aware now that this place was definitely every bit as magical and changing as Solas had mentioned, and more. When she finally looked up at Cole, he was gazing around them, taking in the scenery in an almost boyish way. His gaze seemed to linger on an object in the distance, which drew her attention.
What seemed like a million miles away, lay a dark, ominous outline of a city. She remembered seeing it before, but something about it seemed to be attracting Cole's attention. The closer she inspected it, the more familiar it seemed, though she couldn't place it at all.
Cole's voice now softly broke the silence between them. "That's the Black City. Home of Gods, and home of the largest deception in Thedas' history." His voice seemed ageless again, tinged with something like regret. "Many ages ago a group of mages stormed that city. No one knows what happened, as none returned from the Fade. But since then, it's been as black as night, where once it gleamed golden and white."
"Were they friends of yours?" She asked timidly, noticing how grim his voice was as he spoke of the event.
He chuckled in a saddened way and shook his head before looking up at her, eyes hazel and kind. "No one has called me 'friend' in so long, I forget the meaning of the word." This was spoken in a jesting way, though the sadness seemed to remain. "We should get moving, before we attract the attention of the demons who roam here."
Penny felt a shiver curl down her spine at the thought of demons in this place where everything was already so uncertain. She had to stretch her legs to keep up with Cole's surprisingly fast pace. One of the hardest things, she discovered, was remembering he was there. He was so quiet that it was easy to forget he existed.
As they walked in a seemingly random direction, he spoke more of the Black City, telling her how it used to gleam white and blue and gold, how it seemed to defy gravity itself, as a floating island city, and how it kept all the demons and bad at bay with hope.
"Why would someone seek to destroy it?" Penny asked, saddened at the thought.
"I don't think the plan was to destroy it. Sometimes, plans fail. And bad things happen," Cole replied. Penny heard that deep, ageless sadness in his voice again, as if he had seen ages and ages of the same sad destruction.
"Why didn't anyone protect it?" Penny nearly fell over a rock suddenly and had to pay closer attention to the ground where they walked, as it was now littered with pointed stones and debris, all arcing with green energy.
"I… believe one of those who destroyed it was a protector. But, it's all in history, and to history, details hardly matter," he replied, shaking off his brevity as he pointed forward. "We are close now to a rift. We should be able to get you back from there."
Penny looked up and saw pillars, walls, and statues, all fallen in debris and crumbling from time. Among them were many, many demons, some like the ones she'd seen before, and new, bigger ones lurking about. "What…. is this place?"
"This is a reflection of the actual world, a place there known as the Temple of Sacred Ashes. Destroyed at the heart of the blast that caused the many rifts. There are a few places like this, where the veil between the Fade and the real world has been ripped open. Demons and spirits lurk in these places, fighting for a chance to reclaim life. This is what we need to prevent, a tidal wave of demons and spirits causing destruction and death." Cole's voice was sad, as if feeling for the spirits.
The weight of what he said stung Penny's heart and weighed heavily on her shoulders. She had to stop the rifts. Stop the destruction of everything. For a moment, sadness and darkness threatened to envelop her, but a soft, reassuring hand on her shoulder drove that away, and she felt determined to help and protect. "How do we get back?"
Cole mused silently, looking over the demons before them as he removed his hand from her shoulder. "I think we will have to get you back to your body through this rift, letting you out of the Fade, but we need to do so carefully, as the demons will be hot on your tail."
As they gazed out on the rift and ruins, demons and spirits alike fought tirelessly against each other to try and secure a point near the rift. Their screams and cries echoed about them, their blood and essence scattering over the landscape and each other.
"I… actually have an idea…." Cole said, a sly grin on his face as he turned to Penny, dagger in hand.