Arya closed the door behind her and smiled. Alone. She was finally alone. The whole morning messengers had gone in and out of her residence. People from all over the woods had questions about everything. When Arya grew up she never saw that part of the throne. She saw her mother smiling and helping where she could but she never saw all the stressing decisions that she had to make. Her mother had always said that when she was old enough she would show her. She would show her every part of the life as a queen. But Arya had left the woods just before her mother thought her to be old enough. And that had been the last time she spoke with her for seventy years. And now when she really needed her advice she weren't there. She was dead. As she did almost every day, Arya damned herself for being so foolish. Wasting all that time trying to do something good, wasting all the time she could had had with her mother. But at the same time Arya knew that she couldn't have done anything else but what she did. Hadn't she been out there with the egg it would never have come to Eragon, and this country would still be at the mercy of the black king. But still… she couldn't help feeling like something was missing, something so, s important. Or more likely: someone.
Arya sat down on the bed. The smile from before, the happiness f being alone had suddenly turned into something else. This sadness, this emptiness was killing her.
-Close your heart, princess, so you can open your eyes.
-And then what will I see?
-The love you have, the love from the people you have pleased, the love from your friends whom you have helped in so many ways, and the love from your dragon that will never let you fall into the emptiness of loneliness.
-Kind words, Fírnen.
-Not just words, my princess.
He was right. Arya would never be lonely again. Yes, maybe alone, but never lonely.
Someone knocked on the door, and Arya put on her most patient face before she called them in. It was Eldrun, one of her guards.
-My queen.
-Eldrun.
-We had reports about a dragon egg that have hatched for a young elf.
-Where?
-In Osilin, my queen.
-What egg?
This was great news. After they had found all of the eggs after the war had ended, Arya had together with the king of Surda and the queen of Alagaësia made the decision to only send out two eggs at a time. These eggs would then be taken down the countries and then if they didn't hatch be taken back to Ellesméra where they would be changed with other eggs, which then would go on the same journey and so on. As far as Arya knew, then in the moment there were a brown and a dark blue egg on the road. The brown had only been sent out a few months earlier when the white egg hatched for a human in the cast city Narda. The new rider had then been taken to Ellesméra where he and his dragon had been until they were ready to make the journey to Eragon in the faraway lands.
-The brown one, or cobber as the messenger says. It hatched tonight if we are to believe what they are saying, just before they were to leave with a ship to the south.
-Why were they still in Osilin?
-They had had some trouble with the boats. Two of them were lent to the dwarves three weeks ago, and it has taken the last two weeks for another to be brought to Osilin for them to use.
-Who is this elf that the egg has chosen?
-A young girl, 23. Her name is Oulí daughter of no one.
Arya raised her brows.
-Daughter of no one? How?!
-She will have to tell you that herself, because the messenger did not dare to ask.
-Did not dare? She's a girl!
-I'm sorry, my queen
Arya wanted to say something but knew it would be unwise. At this point she had already shown too much. Never show them how you feel. That was what her farther once told her. Before his death, he had told her to always keep her emotions in check, because if they could see them, they could use them. Better hold them to yourself, better you use them, than they. And that was a discipline that Arya had mastered perfectly. Until last decade. During the war she had opened up. She had let people get in to places she had kept secret to everyone but (ham kæretse der). She had let herself become woundable to the people around her. Nasuada, a strong woman, who had a mind like an elf and a tong like silver. Orik, the dwarf king, a funny little man that in his time in Ellesméra had turned out to beneath his clear mind and strong arms, have a heart as loyal as the sun that rises every day. If first you made your way into that heart of his, he wouldn't let you down even if it meant the curtain death. And Saphira the dragon. The elves had always praised the dragons, at least after the war between the two species, but Saphira had become so much more than just a dragon to Arya. In all f the battles that they fought together Arya knew that Saphira would have her back at any time. Not that she heeded it of cause. And last but definitely not least, there was Eragon, the human boy, the farmer, that over three years turned into a strong man, a warrior of heart and soul, and a friend dearer than Arya had realized before it was too late.
-You are forgiven, Eldrun.
-Thank you, my queen.
Arya knew that she needed to see this girl. This was the second rider in a very short time, and she didn't even know if Eragon were up to the job of training not only one but two riders. After all he weren't even thirty.
-Maybe not in age, my princess, but he is much older in mind, and you should not doubt him.
-I know, Fírnen, I know, it's just so hard.
-I've noticed. Trust is really something you should work on, princess.
-And you should work on being quit!
Arya cut him off and returned to the room and Eldrun.
-I need to see this girl. Arrange it for her to come here along with her dragon. And find out the name of the dragon.
-There will be a problem with that, my queen.
-What?!
- Oulí doesn't want to make the journey to Ellesméra before her dragon has grown to a size were it can defend itself and her, and she wants the connection between them t be way stronger before she bring him here.
-A girl does not want to do as her queen asks?
-No, my queen.
Arya started to wonder if everyone around her just simply enjoyed to see her angry, or if this really just were the cruelty of the coincidences.
-Fine, and if there is no more I would like to be left alone for the rest of the afternoon, Eldrun.
-As you wish.
And with those words the elf closed the door behind him and Arya returned to her moment of freedom. It was kind of funny. The whole war had been about getting freedom to the people within the borders of this empire, and after the war was won, then yes, everybody was happy, everyone but her, who had ended up creating her own prison, by becoming the leader of this silent people, because that was what they were, always silent. No one ever lied, but that didn't mean that they told the truth. Every elf in the world were masters of the art of spinning words so they told no lei nr gave away any truth. There were no trust between elves, no friendship in the way she had experienced it during the war. And most importantly, there were no love. Love was a word that elves never used, because when it was, it always brought along the greatest pain.