Doom Upon All The World

Chapter 57: Fade Phantasm

Screaming.

There was much screaming.

He could not drown it out. It was as if it was there permanently. The voices, from which the yells emanated, never tired. Then there was light. Bright, green, ugly light. It was impossible to close his eyes to the sight of it. 

Then he saw them. 

It pained him, like pins in his eyes, daggers in his heart, ice in his soul. He could not shake the image. 

The halls of Skyhold wrought with demons of all sorts. Nicolynn, Mythalus, Anthony, Claude, and all the other children huddled in a circle, their backs to one another. In their small but firm grips were weapons of various kinds and aimed were they to strike at the monsters threatening them. 

Then he discovered that something was different. Something was off, odd, not... as he expected. There was something about them, the children, that was not right. They are different, taller, stronger,... older. He realizes what this is and he panics. Never before has he walked the Fade in this fashion. Never has it shown him a dream of this sort. 

A pride demon cackles his heinous laugh and swings, striking with his whip. it comes down but he cannot see where. 

Solas wakes up. 

His breath is heavy and labored and he sits up. His hands go to his head and brush back the sweat from his forehead. He tries to calm himself for Maeve's sake but it is no use. She sits up beside him, just as panicked, just as tired and labored. She doesn't ask. She doesn't have to. Maeve simply reaches for him and pulls him close, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him gently, peppering his exposed shoulder with feather light kisses. He lets out a slow, deep breath, attempting again to control the nervousness, the fright in him. 

"It was just a dream, Vhenan." She whispers to him, her voice strained. He can feel the strain in his own throat as well. Her hand lies over his heart. She can feel it beating like the stamping of a horses hooves as it rages against the plains. Her words may seem true to herself but Solas is not soothed by what she says. 

He knows it to be false. 

It was not just a dream. 

Never before has the Fade allowed him to walk in the future.

He was not even aware that it was possible. He always assumed that one could only walk in the past and the present. Now he sees this is not such. He was wrong. Sometime, not soon by any means, but in the distant future, their children will face a battle here, in the halls of Skyhold. 

And as in the vision, they will not be around to stop it.