DA:I | Simply Solavellan: A Timeline ✔️

That First Kiss

[Soundtrack: "Dreamseer" by Adrian Von Ziegler"]

My inner circle insisted I took the master chambers upstairs since they had announced me as their Inquisitor. Every morning, I would wake up to beautiful scenery outside my window: snow-covered mountains glistening in the rising sun. There was easily a hundred-foot drop below my balcony because the back edge of Skyhold's walls aligned almost perfectly with the edge of the mountaintop.

We were so high up, I was surprised that the air wasn't a bit thinner and colder. Something was strange about the comfortability of this keep. Old magic, perhaps? In fact, the courtyard never seemed to keep snow for long -- it tended to melt after a day or two. Skyhold's inner walls were the only place I could see vegetation thriving on these mountain peaks. Whatever magic kept this place livable didn't stop me from being cold, however. I was used to the warmer climate of the low forests of the Free Marches.

I found myself thinking of my home often enough to stay homesick, but not often enough to dwell on it. I wondered if my clan was getting along all right with the ongoing chaos, but I hadn't heard anything from them since the day I left. I wondered if word had even reached them of the explosion at the Conclave. Or perhaps they thought me dead.

I walked through Skyhold's halls, taking in all the work we had done. The ceiling in the throne room had almost collapsed by the time we found it. It was drafty with all the holes in the roof and splintered boards lying on the floor. Loose bricks had fallen out of the walls, further exposing the building to any wildlife that may have crept in. Josephine wasted no time contracting a group of talented dwarven masons and builders to fix this place up.

It had been two weeks since I was announced Inquisitor, and the title still felt extremely foreign to me. How did I go from being a hunter to a spy, to a prisoner, to a savior, then to an Inquisitor? The pressure of such a title tended to make me weak in the stomach.

My hands absently traced the stone interior of the walls as I wandered into a rotunda. Solas had taken over this room and even began to paint the walls inside.

The paintings were more like murals. They spanned from the floor to the ceiling -- or rather the balcony of the library that overlooked the rotunda below. These murals were both beautiful and frightening, a mixture of good and evil. I saw depictions of the Dread Wolf with black fur and red eyes, and the goddess Mythal with her blonde hair and white gown.

Much of the wall was still uncovered on one side of the room. He had begun to flesh out an image in one section, but I wasn't sure of what it was. It was too early to tell. 

Solas stood there by the wall with paint covering his hands, the sleeves of his cotton tunic rolled up to his elbows, and trays of oil paints scattered about the floor. In the center of the room, he had left a book open with the spine up on his cluttered desk.

I didn't want to disturb him. He seemed content with his pastime. I instead walked through the doorway in the rotunda that led to the library's staircase. I stood overlooking the rotunda and watched him work, resting my elbows on the balcony railing. 

"Ah, Inquisitor. Enjoying your new castle?" asked Dorian who was browsing a bookshelf behind me.

"Oh, hello, Dorian. Yes, I suppose I am. Though I'm bored out of my mind."

"Josephine spearheading every operation in existence?" he asked with a hint of humor.

"Of course."

I turned my attention back to the murals. After Solas painted a few more strokes onto the wall, he suddenly looked up at me. Our eyes met, and he smirked. He motioned me down.