Ok, so this was just something that popped into my head the other day and I just wrote it down. At first I wasn't planning on posting it, but then I thought, why not? I know it's not very good and didn't exactly put a lot of work in it either so I'm just asking you to keep that in mind

Read and review. Let me know what you think!

Disclaimer: I do not own Eragon or any of the characters in this story.


"I dont have a scar on my back anymore "I dont have a scar on my back anymore!"

Searing pain shot through Murtagh's entire body as he dropped to the floor. For a while he refused to scream, but after a long time under the curse he couldn't help it. He screamed until he had no voice left to scream with. Then finally, when he was at the brink of passing out, the pain stopped. He just lay there, face down, shaking. For a moment there wasn't a sound in the room, then there was someone walking slowly towards him. He didn't bother looking up. He knew exactly who it was. It was the same man that had made his life a living hell, the same man that had inflicted this kind of torture on him, the man he hated the most. The man spoke and he was right.

"Look at me, Murtagh.", said a cold, emotionless voice. Slowly he rose his head from the floor and glanced up at the man before him. Galbatorix. The king of Alagesia. The traitor. The damn bastard that forced him into this state.

"This was just the beginning of your punishment, Murtagh. You have failed me. I told you to bring me the boy, I told you to find him, capture him and bring him back to me. And what did you do? You came back emptyhanded. I own you, Murtagh. You are to obey me, and only me. By failing to bring Eragon back, you disobeyed a direct order and that makes you worthy of a severe punishment, don't you think?"

Murtagh laughed in his face.

"First off, I didn't disobey you cause you said that I was to try and capture Eragon, and I tried.", Murtagh said with a voice barely above a whisper. " And secondly, I really don't give a shit what you order me to do anyway. I'm owned by no one. So, " This time he looked up at the king with victory in his eyes. He looked furious and he knew he would be punished, but he could care less. " – So, I dare say that no matter what you say or do you can't deny that I won this time." At the end of that little speech, Murtagh met Galbatorix's eyes and smirked at him. He was sure he would flip any second now. He was right.

"You – ", the king roared before another spell was thrown at him and he was once again engulfed in pain. This time the torture didn't stop before he was too weak to move and soldiers came into the room. He was almost uncounciouss at the time. As they lifted him up he heard Galbatorix say: "You will obey me, Murtagh. I have your true name. You can't escape from that and you know it."

Murtagh just glared at him and let himself be dragged out of the room and down to the cells before he passed out.

When Murtagh woke up he found he was still in the cell. The pain from last night was still lingering in his body, but now everything else came back as well. Yesterday he hadn't been given much time to think about the conversation he and Eragon had had at the battlefield, but now it came rushing back and the pain that came with it was much worse than what Galbatorix could do to him. There was one sentence that hurt more than the others and it was ringing in his head over and over again.

"I dont have a scar on my back anymore!"

That one comment had hurt more than a hundreds hours of torture. He didn't exactly know how. It just did. Then he remembered the look of betrayal he saw in Eragon's eyes as he revealed himself. He just didn't understand did he? Of course he didn't join Galbatorix of free will! He would never do that and he was hurt over the fact that Eragon even thought that was a possibility. How could he think that? 'He knows me!' Of all the things that could hurt Murtagh it was not the pain and torture Galbatorix could inflict on him, but the fact that Eragon thought he had betrayed him by free will! But that last comment was what he just could not forget.

"I don't have a scar on my back anymore!"

Galbatorix could never hurt him like that. Never. He didn't know what real pain was. There is only one person who can give him a pain that hurt so much he couldn't bear it, couldn't forget..and that is the same person who said those words:

"I don't have a scar on my back anymore!"