Disclaimer: the Inheritance Cycle is owned by Christopher Paolini. This story is of my own design, and is in no way canon.

Author's Note: Hey guys, it's me, William. You know what? I shouldn't even have said that this is "of my own design". I just took an idea that was given to me and made it my own, but all the credit for the idea goes to my little sister. She's only eight, by the way. So... yeah. That's a thing. In all honesty, she's smarter than me. Sad but true.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the product of someone else's imagination, because I sure have.

Just a Shade darker

Chapter 1: A surprise too terrible to want

Ten years. An entire decade since Eragon had left behind the land he loved so much, never to return.

Arya would never admit it to anyone but Fírnen, her dragon, but she had grown fond of the boy's presence. Now that he was no longer around, she missed him even more every day.

Well to be fair to the elven queen, Eragon had gone missing almost exactly a year ago. Not even his blue-tinted dragon Saphira could find him. Oh, and the recent sightings of a new Shade did nothing to alleviate the increasing worry she felt.

Arya felt as though she would explode like one of King Orrin's experiments if she kept the stress bottled up any longer, so she-

"MY QUEEN!" A young elf burst into the hall shouting, knocking the doors aside with a deafening THUD. "My queen, he's been spotted again, but he's in the forest and past the barrier!"

Arya jumped to her feet. "Tell me, who has?" she commanded, already making her way to the door. "Eragon or the Shade?!"

"The Shade, my liege!" the youth replied hastily.

Arya burst through the open doorway, and shouted with her mind "Fírnen, to me!"

A moment later, she was snatched by a glittering emerald paw, and from there deposited in the saddle on the back of her enormous dragon. They melded minds to the point where distinction between them was nearly impossible.

After learning the Shade was on the Crags of Tel'naeír , they sped off in pursuit.

If there's one thing elves don't tolerate, it's intuders. But Arya wasn't a normal elf, and the intruder in question was far from normal: She was the queen of the elves, and he was a Shade - an incarnation of pure chaos, rage, and evil.


The moment Fírnen landed, Arya unsheathed her sword, Támerlein, and leapt to the ground.

"Show yourself, monster!" she yelled out into the grove. "I know you're here!"

A soft, echoing chuckle sounded from inside Oromis' hut. "Monster, am I?" inquired the hollow-sounding voice. "Fine. I'll reveal myself. But you might not find me as 'monstrous' as you so clearly believe. Oh, and the name's Aeon."

Soft, almost silent footsteps made their way to the open door, and a figure appeared in the doorway. Arya decided that now was the best time to study the Shade's attire. It wasn't all that different from traveling clothes, but they weren't what caught her eye; on the Shade's hip rested a sapphire Rider's blade. The name set into the sheath was the true name of fire, Brisingr.

"Where did you get that sword?!" Arya yelled at the demon before her. "Who did you kill to get it?!"

To her surprise, the Shade called Aeon took a shocked step back.

"K-kill?" he stammered. "I would never k-kill for such petty things as a sword!"

"That voice..." Arya mumbled. "No... It couldn't be... Step into the light so I can see your face!"

With two quick strides, the man-turned-monster left the shielding protection of the shadows.

Arya fell to her knees so hard that she knew they would bruise, but she completely ignored that. "No..." The broken whisper tore from her throat as she registered what she saw.

His hair was spiked and scarlet, and his eyes glowed a sickening, bloody red. His skin was whiter than the marble city of Tronjheim. All of these changes couldn't mask the man he once was. From the scar on his left collarbone from eight years ago, to the way that he walked. Only when Arya looked into his eyes did she realize that her worst fears had come true.

It was no monster standing before her, but the one she missed so much. Tall and handsome, stood Eragon.

And he was a Shade.


A/N: That was surprisingly one of my favorite chapters to write so far. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, despite how short it was. Please leave a comment to let me know how you felt about the Shade concept so I can figure out where to go from here.

Thanks,

WillVanry.