"So what has happened in five months?"
Eragon and Roran were sitting in a small tent next to the edge of the forest. And Eragon was eating his first real meal in what seemed like forever.
Everything was normal for the most part about Roran. He had his usual hair, usual stubble of beard; all in all he seemed like the same Roran that Eragon had not seen in five months.
When Eragon demanded meat with his meal Roran was surprised.
"You don't eat meat, right? I mean like through your training you came to hate killing."
"I realized that I don't give a damn anymore. Everybody is gonna die someday, besides their better of dead than in this hell-hole we call home."
Roran was obviously shocked at Eragon's appearance; anyone would be if their cousin came home only to look like a monster. Roran thought Eragon would be dead but at least he was alive.
"Well," Roran started. "Life hasn't gone that great when you were gone. Nasuada practically went into depression after she found out what happened to you, especially who did it."
Eragon stared at the floor. He once thought of Nasuada as a person who get through anything. She got over her father quicker than most people would.
"She thinks of you as a brother, Eragon. Eragon are you listening?"
"Yeah, yeah," Eragon mumbled. "What about everyone else?"
"I was promoted to Captain of the 472 battalion. Arya went back to tell Islanzadi about you personally with my crew and me. I told you about Nasuada. Lance is the same as always. I saw Oromis and Glaedr, they're doing fine."
By this time, Roran was counting off his fingers. But one thing still remained.
"What happened to Saphira?"
"Oh, I guess that nobody got around to telling you about her, huh?" Roran asked.
"No."
"Well. I guess I better tell you then. You know most of the story, like when Murtagh took you and Arya went ah…" he said. "But anyway, Saphira, or the one you were talking to, was Thorn. Murtagh copied what she looked like after seeing her once. So after you were taken, we found Saphira in some coma out in the desert. The elves confirmed that she was in this state and could only be woken up by her rider, which didn't help because you were…"
Eragon was overjoyed after hearing that Saphira was safe. It was the best news he had heard in so long. Eragon couldn't think of life without her, being separated for so long was enough torture. Yet still Eragon had to tell Roran something in return.
I have to tell him… He- he deserves to know…
"Roran…" Eragon began.
Roran looked away.
"She's dead, isn't she?"
Eragon turned away to look out the tent flap to see that the bodies had been reduced to ashes.
"It's okay, Eragon, I knew that she was going to die in there. I just wish…"
There was a long pause in the talking. Eragon saw the soldiers spar with themselves. He admired the way that they trained for the next battle even after finishing one only hours ago. Eragon, wanting to change the subject quickly asked, "What were the casualties?"
He pretty much hit his own head after the comment. The worst thing to talk about after conversing about death is death.
Roran seemed to notice Eragon wince after he spoke.
Well...I guess being threatened for months makes one think of death a lot, Roran thought.
Katrina dying was not very hard on Roran. It was as if he already knew that she was going to die. It wasn't a secret that no one has ever come out of Helgrind alive…well, almost nobody.
"We didn't lose any men," Roran responded to Eragon's comment earlier.
"How?"
"We used these devices called mines," Roran said.
"Mines?"
"Do you ever stopping askin' questions? But the thing is that these mines cause explosions that can take out three men at once. You just lay some in the ground, cover them with grass or leaves, and then wait for the enemy to go boom. King Orrin developed them, and my God, do they help..."
"So he's still an inventor?" Eragon said.
Eragon had met Orrin before on more than one occasion. The King had almost always been coming from his lab when Eragon would see him. He had heard stories that Orrin used magic in his work to create something called chemicals. He said chemicals made up almost everything, even the air we breathe. At one point Eragon was present at one of his more dangerous experiments that ended up with Eragon saving Orrin from disappearing along with half of the table.
"Yeah, I swear, he's gonna kill himself and leave us with an even heavier burden."
Lucifer and his battalion of Sellfar and regular soldiers were at the edge of the Du Weldenvarden forest.
Because of the cloaking spell that Galbatorix personally constructed, they were not detected.
"We shall wait for sunset then attack at sunrise."
A chorus of "Yessir" was heard followed by the soldiers setting up a small camp.
Lucifer would much rather attack during the night, when he was the most deadly. He was not called the Graceful Assassin of the Imperial Army for nothing. Lucifer could use the dark to its full advantage, he could kill numbers of elves without breaking a sweat, but even numbers mattered.
The dark could conceal anything from lies to death. Naturally, normal people were frightened of the dark. Pride got in the way of telling the truth that we did fear it. But a man who had true wisdom could realize that it was not the dark that man was afraid of…they were afraid of what was lurking in it.
Men told stories of missing people who then reappeared, only to take revenge on all because nobody looked for him. People's imaginations told them that the stories were real, so they were scared of that missing person, not the dark itself.
You could stand in a room filled with light and have one small corner covered in complete darkness. You were not scared of the darkness because you were not in it.
But man's imagination never imagined what could hide in the light.
We are used to the twilight for we want to have both light and dark to reveal all things that we cannot see or understand.
The twilight rests between the two powerful entities. It uses the light to reveal what is in the world while also using dark to give the world shape and value.
Man is a cursed race. We say that we are superior to all animals yet we live in constant fear of each other. Foxes do not hunt each other yet humans kill one another because of fear and greed.
That is why humans deserved to die in Lucifer's eye.
"Sir, when would you like to travel into the forest?" a soldier asked him.
Lucifer looked the man in the eye, causing the soldier to shudder. This man deserved to die like all the others, but until the Day of Judgment, he was an ally.
"We will travel in groups of ten through the forest at night and enter the palace. We are not to attack anyone until the Queen is in our hands. She will be in the clutches of Galbatorix within days."
