Disclaimer: Christopher Paolini's works are not mine.

A/N: Piece on Murtagh. Can be addressed to Eragon or Nasuada. Review please!


Do you know me? Do you wish you did, do you think you do? Am I just a Rider to you, a tool to be manipulated? Am I worth something to you, something more than the body that I possess and the sword that I wield? Do you want me? Do you want to know me more than anyone else does or do you want me to not think, obey orders, be your right-hand man?

I'm not like that, you know. I never have been. I never will be. No matter that no one knows me, no matter that I am only valuable to either side because of what I am, not me. I've almost forgotten who I am myself, nearly been caught up in the hype over a new Dragon Rider, very nearly given up my defenses because only I value me anymore.

Then I met you. And you valued me after you knew what I was. And you trusted me. I don't think anyone has trusted me before. I don't know that I have ever trusted myself. You gave me back to myself when I had been drifting away.

Now I am lost again in a maze of tools and pawns in which I always seem to be either the prize or the enemy—or both. Which am I to you?

Do you know me?