Ell awoke on what she approximated to be the third day of her journey with a sense of cautious hopefulness. Today marked the furthest she had ever traveled from the clearing. Bobbing in her periphery was a wisp. It and others had continued to follow her, and rather than gradually wander off as she had expected, they were joined by still more wisps. They had become some bizarre entourage as she splashed through streams and slashed paths through thick vegetation. This morning they gathered around her like a rapt congregation awaiting a sermon as she cooked a stew of herbs and a squash she had found on yesterday's leg of her hike. She disrobed and extracted the herbal soap from her pack, and she had to wave a stray wisp out of her face as she waded into a nearby stream to bathe. "If you all insist on coming, you could at least endeavor to not make nuisances of yourselves," she said as yet another wisp emerged from the bottom of a pant leg just before her own foot did. To her surprise, they did seem to give her a wider berth as she went about readying herself for the day's journey. Still, they bounced with anticipation as she packed away her bedroll.

As she walked westward, her pace better than that of the previous two days, quickened by the promise of escape, she tried to recall a dream from the night before. She knew it had been of the Dread Wolf. That was not all that unusual, she supposed, given recent events. It was also not unusual that she had been increasingly tempted to remember him. Them. She even allowed herself to wonder if perhaps she had been wrong. What do you dream of, old Fadewalker?

...

They had been walking in a memory, though she had not realized it at the time. His eyes pinned her where she stood as he said, "I felt the whole world change." She was sure he fancied her. He was very adept at maintaining his cool composure, which made her doubt her assessment often. But she did not doubt her friends, who were all too eager to share their observations of the reserved hedge mage.

"I caught him staring at you for nearly a minute during the breakfast this morning," Cassandra had told her with a smirk at Skyhold. She'd nearly choked on her tea, then cast her eyes about the hall for others within hearing range before finally settling her gaze sternly upon Cassandra. Her smirk only widened.

One morning, Sera had burst into her quarters, cackling maniacally and clutching a fistful of parchment. "The One Most Elfy has a crush on our Inky." Ell reluctantly took the parchment Sera had shoved toward her. She could feel the heat in her cheeks immediately as she looked down at an uncanny sketch of a close up of her face, and beside it, another sketch of her. "See how he even did your tits?"

"Sera-where did you find this?" Ell sputtered as she hastily flipped the page over, only to find another sketch of her.

"In his little bureau with all his weird elfy trinkets. Had to pick the lock to get the bees in there. That there's just one, there's more!"

"You picked the lock? What bees?"

Sera just giggled and grabbed the sketch, which sent her into a fit of laughter all over again. "Stop it!" Ell snatched the page back and hurriedly walked across the room to the fireplace where she promptly flung the parchment into it. She turned back to Sera. "Please do not mention this to anyone, Sera. Especially Solas."

"Pfpbft, no fun in that."

"Sera." Ell eyed her, trying to elicit compliance with her request. It had been a risk to make the request at all, as Sera typically delighted in doing the opposite of whatever was asked of her. "Fine," she finally said before sticking her tongue out at her and snickering her way out of Ell's room.

Another time, out in the field, Iron Bull had pulled her aside to apologize for a tactical mistake he had made during a particularly treacherous entanglement with two Pride demons the day before. "Solas tore me a new asshole. And while I didn't appreciate him telling me how to do my job, I can admit when I'm wrong."

"We are only people. People make mistakes." Ell assured him. Bull had been an enormous asset since joining the team and she was grateful for the skills, and for the Chargers, he brought to the Inquisition.

"We are people, and people should never reject an opportunity to improve. Just know that I fight because you are the Inquisitor and, at least so far, a good person, and not because our resident anti-slavery advocate wants to tie you up."

A squeak of amusement emerged from her, embarrassingly, and a wicked grin spread across her face, "Tie me up?"

"Ben-Hassrath, remember?"

Though she specifically didn't ask, he continued, "He was watching you when you were wrapping your wrists for your bracers the other day. Licked his lips. Trust me, I would know."

Solas looked at her now with such intensity. It had been his magic that had saved her from being swallowed whole by the anchor after the explosion at the conclave. Since the earliest days of the Inquisition, she had come to rely on his advice. She took it more often than not, but he did not begrudge her when she did not. Sometimes he would even acknowledge when her approach to the problem proved to be a better one. Few could match her skills with the staff, yet he was a master of his magic, perhaps the most adept mage she had ever witnessed. They had developed new and innovative spell combinations which proved efficiently lethal in the field. These were met with complaints of "leave some for the rest of us" from Varric. After the fall of Haven, something seemed to change in their dynamic. There was an apprehensiveness now where there was none before. And though he had developed a rapport with other members of the Inquisition, he never allowed his austere composure to waver as he did when alone with her.

"You change everything." She knew she had feelings for him, but had never found herself so tempted to act upon them as she did at that moment. Before the moment passed, she swiftly turned his cheek toward her and pulled him into a kiss. His lips were soft, and unexpectedly warm. She felt him go still and inhale sharply through his nose. She released him, suddenly unsure of what she had been so certain of only seconds ago. Before the heat of embarrassment could take hold, his lips were on hers again, hungry this time. She felt the slick warmth of his seeking tongue, readily parted her lips to allow him in. His long arms wrapped around her waist, and she could feel his body practically vibrating, as if straining to maintain a barrier spell on the verge of breaking against the force of some beast. As suddenly as he had embraced her a moment ago, he pulled away. She could see the cogs of his mind turning over behind his eyes. "We shouldn't. Not even here."

When she awoke, her heart thrummed in her chest, at once exhilarated and terrified.