Tor's First Dream

Tor, you're floating on your back in a pond. The sky above you is obscured by a canopy of green and pink leaves. The air is warm and saturated with sweet floral scents. You are calm and comfortable, and you close your eyes for a moment to drink it all in.

When you next open your eyes, you feel as if you've dozed off and an indeterminate amount of time had passed. You flounder in the water as you find it can no longer support your weight, and you're forced to find footing in the mud several meters below the surface. The air has become sour, the trees sickly and purple, and the pond is covered in a filthy layer of scum. You are assaulted by fetid smells as you trudge to solid ground, falling to your hands and knees on the coarse, blight-ridden dirt. The many unpleasant sensations overwhelm you, despair grasping at your heart.

Suddenly you feel a familiar hand touch your back, and your heartbeat slows. It feels like Solas, you think, but you're scared that if you turn to look, he won't be there. Your eyes stay trained on the ground and you hold your breath, waiting, hoping for him to speak. When his voice eventually reaches you however, you find no comfort in his words.

"You have a void within you, Tor. You allow it to grow, day by day, eating away at your soul. You have to allow the pain of the world in, or someday you will be emptied entirely."

Finally you turn around, maybe to ask for clarification, maybe to argue, or maybe just to see your old friend one last time, but the only presence you can perceive is that of a single, blighted tulip, shriveled and sagging. It speaks to you now in a woman's voice: "Willst thou accept my burden? Willst thou do what thy must, for the good of all?"

You feel compelled to reach out and grip the flower tightly in one hand, and as you do so a searing pain shoots up your arm. Still, you squeeze it until the pain stops before tearing the head from the stem. Your arm, now numb, shimmers with tiny scales of deep violet.

You feel the world around you fading, and as you scan your surroundings one last time, trying to commit what you can to memory, you notice that you are now kneeling in a circle of harmless sand, and a small bud has appeared on the decapitated tulip plant.

You wake up.