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She dreamt of it again.
For so long she had been. Dreaming a dream that wouldn’t end.
She paid it no mind first. Then she thought it a riddle. But now she knew it was something more, something that transcended the confines of the fade itself, slowly seeping into the fabric of the waking world like ink bleeding through canvas.
Once it was just a dream. A long lone hallway with a grand set of wooden doors. The low light taking on green hues of the endless ceiling of the swirling wisps of the fade, hissing its silent song into her ears.
She walked in a body that wasn’t hers, touched with hands that didn’t belong to her limbs yet she saw with her own eyes and felt with her own skin. Over and over again, every night for months, she dreamt of the hallway. She repeated and corrected every mistake, yet she never saw past the door. It all vanished in a flash of hot white and hissing green before she awoke only for the coming night to find herself in the hallway unchanged.
Even now she could nearly feel the sting of the white light behind her eyelids, like a headache come to pass as soon as she’d open her eyes. At least it didn’t startle her awake anymore.
Months passed and nothing changed. She thought it would, thought it would get worse the closer she ventured towards the snow capped mountains. But it didn’t. Only dread crept up her spine like cold gripping at her bones with its unseen tendrils, the very same dread that has been a steadfast companion on her arduous journey. The one she felt as she heard the words fall from the Keepers mouth no longer than a month ago.
She remembers that morning like it was just yesterday, how her heart sank so deep within the confines of her own ribcage she thought for just a moment the costal arches caved into a void. She knew in an instant that if her brother, the First of their clan, went to the Conclave he would die. The blinding light from her dreams would consume him and the green would hiss and snarl as it took what was left of his body and soul.
She didn’t sleep that night, yet still she saw the hallway as she chased towards the Vimmark Mountains.
Over a million times she had dreamt of it, and yet there was still a place she wanted to reach. A wish she wanted to protect. She hoped he’d forgive her.
In any case he wouldn't be able to set foot on Ferelden soil, she took solace in that knowledge. The last ship departed four days ago from Kirkwall, the waking sea tinged a deep green, the skies grey and foreboding. Luckily no one, no mage or templar nor simple merchant paid mind to a Dalish taking to the bow, secluded and eyes schooled on the horizon. Not when a band of Qunari had taken their company. Nor did they pay any mind when she had vanished, gone with the sway of the waves as Highever came into view through a thick haze of sleet.
Days had passed and nothing changed. Or at least she thought it didn’t, yet as she finally opened her eyes, preparing for the scorching light to singe her sight, she was met with grey Ferelden skies. Before her lay an unfamiliar sight and underneath her unfamiliar soil. How strange it was that her dream brought comfort as dread beckoned her to the mountain top.
Brushing the snow off her overcoat she looked upon the abandoned tower in the distance, protruding from the lake's calm surface. She had passed it just yesterday, yet she had seen the spire long before she reached the shores of the lake and she would leave it behind long before she trudged up the winding path to Haven.
Unlike the lake however, the snow lay in disarray. Footsteps and beaten paths, lit brasieres melting away the glistening white. The old wooden markers with intricately etched letters had become obsolete as the path was carved through softed snow by mages and templars before her.
The skies cleared up and pale orange light graced the Temple atop the flattened peak, grand statues looming over the small valley, watching her every step.
She took a breath, steeled her gaze.
And just for a moment, as her heel crushed a piece of mirrored glass lost among the glistening snow, she thought to have seen green wisps swaying in the dusking sky.