Crossing the Waterfall Portal
Elsa's body lay before them, perfectly healed, but she was not waking up. Varric frowned.
"Is this the same thing that happened to me? Can you go and find her?" As he spoke, his silver eyes began to glow as his senses began to look deeper into Elsa's condition.
Ardyn shook her head, her amethyst eyes sparkling with a mystical light. "There is some sort of disconnect or break in her magical pathways. It seems she is already trying to heal it by creating a new route."
Ardyn silently watched Elsa's magic slowly knitting together a new pathway. There were two areas of disconnection: one heading to her soul sea and one heading to her mental faculties. Ardyn frowned; she didn't actually see any breaks, but Elsa's magic could not make it through.
Elsa was a being of magic and she needed it to survive. These two disconnects were breaking a vital cycle that she needed to survive.
"Will she survive until she is done?"
Ardyn gave a noncommittal head motion. "I don't think so, but I am also not sure."
As the words left her lips, an odd ethereal moan came from Elsa and a wave of her magic moved from her in a wide ripple. Her body shimmered, and Varric quickly shifted them to a vast valley near the Serpentia cave system. As soon as they reappeared, Elsa shifted into her massive tortoise form.
"Her magic is not being contained. It is leaking." Varric's voice was tight with worry.
Ardyn nodded in agreement.
"We need to help her. I will go in and see if I can help her."
Varric grabbed her hand tightly. "Maintain our connection, Ardyn. Take what you need from me."
Ardyn smiled and kissed him gently. "I will go in and do what I can. You need to try and help teacher maintain her magic. Stop the leakage."
Varric nodded, determination flashing in his eyes, and he got right to work doing just that. He kissed her passionately as he stood. For a moment, they connected in a way only intimate soulmates could. Their bond shimmered between them and tightened again. It integrated within them even more as their magic mingled and began to slowly combine.
Varric looked at Ardyn with a sweet smile as he began etching runes around them. A containment spell rose around them as Ardyn sat down before her teacher. Her rainbow soul gem rose to her forehead just as her vine battle staff appeared beside her.
A dense cage of vines rose and surrounded her. A thin beam of violet light shone through the gem, was refracted through the rainbow soul gem, and then was refocused through a large bloom in the front of the vine cage. The beam shot forth and hit Elsa in the center of her massive forehead. A large looping rune formed on Elsa's forehead, then slowly sunk in.
Ardyn breathed in deeply and her spirit stepped forward. She rode the beam directly into Elsa's forehead. She felt the rune pull her, and her consciousness fluttered as she moved across to the dream plane.
Ardyn blinked several times. She moved forward as if moving through several waterfalls set very close together. She finally stepped forward onto a plain of green. The hues were vibrant, cool, and calming all at once; the edges had gone grey. The plain actively moved as if it were fighting against the grey encroaching upon it.
Ardyn moved forward, and she felt the plain embrace her as if it had known her all her life. She reached out for Elsa with her mind and the plain grabbed her and pulled her to her left. Elsa sat in an emerald pool. She was beautiful. Her green skin glistened in the vibrant light. Her hair fell down her back in luscious green ombré waves. Her body was in her beastkin form and she was wrapped in a tight ball.
Ardyn sat next to the emerald pool and reached out to Elsa. Immediately, she was dragged in. As soon as she opened her eyes, she knew where she was. Her heart swelled and her senses tingled with electricity. She smiled and drank in her surroundings.
Ancient white marble structures surrounded her and moved out in seven perfect concentric circles. The land was lush, green, and full of life. Flowers, fruit trees, and animals seemed to all turn and look to her as one. The sky was the lightest blue, streaked in wisps of rainbow-colored clouds, and above her like clear water.
She looked up and saw her reflection, but it was as the realm saw her. This was the form that Sidus Serpens knew. Ardyn had entered into Sidus Serpens through Elsa's dream plane—now she needed to understand how to reconnect her teacher to their plane and preserve her existence.