Fadewalkers.Adaar and Solas actually manage to walk in the Fade, and are easily distracted. (Takes p

Fadewalkers.

Adaar and Solas actually manage to walk in the Fade, and are easily distracted. (Takes place in the spring following Sleep, so a few months later.)

#feral verse, 700 words. on AO3.

Solas’s feet hardly touched the ground as they delved deeper into the ruins that weren’t nearly as ruined as they had been in waking; his cloak shimmered, whole, as if new.

“Come, this is but a mere fraction,” he said. “There is so much I want to show you.”

Adaar couldn’t help but smile at the poorly hidden excitement in his voice. She easily kept pace walking beside him, watching the way his eyes practically shone.

“You’re such a liar,” she said.

Solas made a very small, strangled noise. “What… what makes you say that?”

“Remember when we met, and you said you weren’t suited to teaching? And now you’re actually floating with joy.”

With a thump, his feet settled firmly on the ground again, and Adaar cackled. He gave her a haughty look as he straightened his cloak.

“If you were accosted by some unreasonably tall, horned creature in the woods, you would hold your truth rather flexible, too, wouldn’t you?”

“I—first of all—that’s—unreasonablytall?”

His gaze wandered pointedly from her feet to her horns, which took a while. Adaar rolled her eyes. “You’re just miffed you’re so short.”

“I will have you know I am actually rather tall for an elf.”

“And petite,” Adaar continued with a grin, undeterred. “Downright delicate. Practically waif-like.” She ambled closer, and once she got within arm’s reach, grabbed him by the waist and scooped him up to tip him over her shoulder. She held him up with one arm wrapped around his warm thighs; the other hand she propped demonstratively against her waist.

“See? You’re an absolute featherweight.”

Solas let out a noisy breath; he made no move to get out of her hold and his fingers dug into her shoulder as if he was loathe to let go. That was different, but no less welcome. The light was changing rapidly, drowning them both in ruddy pink like a new dawn. Adaar glanced about, unsure if the change in the Fade’s manifestation was due to either of them, or because of sudden company.

“You’ve made your point,” Solas said quietly. “You can set me down.” He didn’t sound like she had expected, either—none of the fond annoyance and amusement he usually displayed when she did something like this. She looked up at him and found an expression staring back at her that she’d have called relief on anyone else. But with him…

“Do you… want me to set you down?”

“No, I prefer to be carried like a sack of flour.”

Adaar hesitated. Her heart, dreaming echo or not, beat quicker inside her chest. She didn’t want to let him go. Not while she hadn’t figured out what made this time so different than everything before, when he had only sought her out in his sleep. Maybe it was selfish, wanting more from someone so clearly wounded…

“In that case,” she said, and set off walking.

“Adaar.”

“Yes?”

Only silence followed. Why couldn’t he just tell her? He’d done it before, and she had always let him go, it had practically become a game between them. Why couldn’t he use his fucking wordsanymore?

“Adaar,look.”

She came to a stop, blinking. The would-be ruins opened up into a courtyard that was utterly filled with spirits. With memories. They gave shape to the ruin’s spectral inhabitants, countless translucent figures playing out scenes from ages past.

Huge halla were being herded by elven figures along paths that shimmered in and out of existence, blue and golden fires billowed from forges, cookfires, signal braziers. Dwarf-shaped spirits mingled with ones in human form, crossing through one another. They recreated arguments, laughter, song, speech. Language piled upon language upon language created a sourceless, mesmerizing din. Even though little more than crumbling stone remained now, hundreds, thousands of people must have called this place home through the ages.

Slowly, Adaar let Solas slide down to the ground, holding him close to make sure he wouldn’t fall, but she couldn’t tear her eyes away from the spirits.

“Is this what you meant?” she asked, breathless. “What you could show me of the world?”

Solas let out a thin, soft laugh; she could feel his shoulders shake with it.

“Yes. And as I said… this is only the beginning.”