A.N. Though kind of cheating to get it, I did not specify that you could only review once in order to receive the dedication and because of that, this chapter is dedicated to thegayperson for sending the 300th review to this story.
Here is the chapter. Read!
Arya walked into Eragon's cabin and took a seat beside him on the bed. He glanced up and then sighed, returning to tying knots in a piece of string he had. It kept his mind off of everything else.
"Are you alright, Eragon?" Arya asked quietly, unsure of how he would react.
"Fine." He said tersely.
She let it drop, watching his grim expression as he returned to tying knots, keeping his hands busy. Nothing had managed to make him smile since his return. There was silence for a long while.
Eragon. Glaedr's voice called him and he set down the string, drawing out the pouch the eldunari was in as Arya watched curiously.
Yes, master?
I am no longer your master, Eragon. You may call me by my name.
I am honored. He said seriously, amazed that his former teacher could consider him an equal. Eragon looked down at the spiraling strains of golden light inside the heart-of-hearts and was transfixed by the lack of pattern. For what did you call me?
There was a long pause. I know you have suffered much in a short while, but you are only hurting yourself further now. And you need to stop.
Hurting myself? He asked, startled.
Yes, yourself and Saphira.
How?
He heard a mental growl from the dragon. Keeping things from the partner-of-your-soul is harmful to both rider and dragon. You need to let her in. There was silence and then Glaedr spoke again. Eragon?
Eragon was staring at his hands at the small cuts and burns that stood out against his skin. He then thought of everything the king had done to harm him and of the girl he had been forced to murder and how he had chosen her death, making the decision that death was better than what Galbatorix would have had him do. Her blood was on his hands. He had left Murtagh to the king's fury, knowing full well that he would take the fall for Eragon's disappearance. The multitude of those he had killed that watched from the Vault. Everything he had not let her see.
Yes, Glaedr. I will.
Eragon stood, placing Glaedr's eldunari with Arya and then left the cabin without a word to the elf that was watching him closely. Eragon walked out into the snow covered gardens and then knelt before Saphira who was sleeping.
He reached out and touched her snout gently, causing her to flinch away and open her eyes. Saphira, once she had seen who had snuck up on her, laid her head back down and observed him with glittering eyes.
Welcome, Little One.
It once would have made him smile, but eragon only returned the greeting. Saphira. Then he ducked his head. Glaedr called me out on hiding what happened from you, and he is right. You are my dragon and I shouldn't keep anything, let alone things as important as what happened.His hand rubbed the scales of her nose and she suddenly pulled back with a strange snort.
You're going to make me sneeze. She said, shaking her head. He watched with slight amusement and waited for her to return to her former position before he moved to lean against her side. Almost reflexively, she curled around him, her head placed where she could observe him easily.
Eragon took a deep breath and lowered the barriers around his mind with difficulty. It was a challenge not to slam them back up and hide, but he would have to face his past.
Saphira's touch was gentle at first as Eragon flinched, almost blocking her again. He was breathing heavily as she sifted through his memories, trying not to dwell on them as Eragon was becoming more upset. When she reached Lily, a growl rippled from her throat. She did not comment, however, but laid her head on his leg and continued.
She lingered on the encounter with the Grey Folk and the discussions with their teacher's and Galbatorix's first dragon. Finally she observed his journey and his own encounter with Saphira. She withdrew slightly, but maintained the connection with his mind.
I will tear him to shreds. She said, her tail flicking dangerously back and forth.
Eragon reached out a hand to her. You aren't angry?
Of course not. She growled. Nothing you did was your fault. Saphira blew a bit of smoke from her nostrils. I suppose I owe you the same. I already know I was wrong.
Her mind opened completely to his. Eragon could not help feeling slightly angry as she spurned arya and was a bit surprised that she had actually been considering attacking Nasuada. She would have if Wyrda hadn't stepped in. The attack on the elves was the worst as he could sense her precise knowledge of what would and wouldn't kill. But for the first time he knew why she had acted as she did.
The sense of loss, knowing she might end up fighting her rider, or that Eragon could be ordered to kill her was overwhelming. And she had been aware of his torture and pain the entire time, a dragon helpless to save her rider. As her emotions hit him, Eragon suddenly wondered if he wouldn't have acted the same.
When the images stopped, he reached out to her through her shame. All is forgiven, Saphira. I understand. She nodded her head and the two sat together for hours, minds completely bared to their partners.
After a while, Eragon walked to his cabin where Angela was standing by the door. She smiled at him and then went inside, waiting for Eragon to close the door.
"Sit." She commanded, pointing at his bed.
Eragon raised his eyebrows and obeyed, choosing not to argue with the witch as he knew she would get her way in the end.
Angela unbound his arm first and frowned. The cut was still an angry red and the wound was filled with pus. Eragon turned his face away as she began to work, draining the wound and treating it with a new poultice.
"How are your ribs?" She asked.
"Hurts, but otherwise fine. It's expected."
"It is." She agreed. Angela bound his knee in cloths to support it and then moved on to his less serious wounds. After a while, she had finished. "Do you still wish for the pain reliever or are you alright?"
"If it is all the same with you, I would take the pain reliever."
She nodded. "I'll have to make more, but I'll bring it here in a few hours." She shook her head. "I think I have put more hours into tending your injuries…"
"But I do have more proficient enemies."
"Bah. You need to defend yourself better. Especially if we cannot heal you with magic. A bad wound that leaves you unconscious and then- well, just avoid that, will you?"
"I'll try." Eragon said dryly, shaking his head as she left. The herbalist never ceased to be interesting.
With a sigh, Eragon grabbed his bow and quiver and went outside to sit near Saphira as he fletched more arrows.
Roran walked to the door with Alia on his heels and eyed the six guards –two humans, two dwarves, and two urgals– that always stood guard outside of Nasuada's door. They looked at him for a long moment and then stepped aside, opening the doors.
Nasuada glanced up from a table where she was holding a conversation with a girl that looked about her age if a little older. She stood.
"Roran Stronghammer."'
He smiled. "Lady Nightstalker."
A faint smile touched her lips and then she leveled her expression. "This is Vea. She will be second-in command on your attack of Tilgrim."
Roran scowled. He had seen the girl around Angela's tent often, but he had never spoken with her.
Dark brown, nearly black hair fell to her waist, captured in a braid, loose wisps held away from her face with a leather headband. Her face as round, her skin fair, and her eyes a clear blue. She was tall for a women, but she was not near Roran's height.
Roran turned back to Nasuada. "I need to be able to trust thos beneath me, my second-in-command especially. I do not know her at all nor has she led a mission before."
Vea stepped forward, anger flashing in her eyes. "If Lady Nasuada had assigned me and I were a man, you would not bat an eyelash at her choice."
"I would have." Roran stated. "Nasuada would not have chosen you if she did not believe you could be of use."
"She would not have chosen me if I she did not trust me."
"really." Nasuada cut through their bickering, glaring at them both. "You will fail if you keep up this arguing. Roran, Vea was the one to get Wyrda's egg from the king. Vea, Roran will challenge anyone he does not agree with. If you were a man, he would not have agreed any quicker."
Roran paused as Alia crossed the room to sniff curiously at Vea. Then she returned and threaded her way in and out of Roran's ankles.
She can be trusted, I believe. The werecat Thitan has chosen to accompany her, and he would not join with her unless he knew her to be honorable and support the Varden.
He glanced at the werecat and then nodded. "I can trust you." He said. He then returned to address Nasuada. "I am ready to depart unless there was more."
"Your men await outside the city walls. The magician Carn is among them as well per your request."
"Very well. I must see Eragon before we depart though. He bid me stop by and get something though I am not sure what."
"Good luck and do not take foolish risks."
They left through the door. "Alright." Roran turned to Vea. "I need to go and speak with Eragon, you can go and wait with the other men."
"No." She said, drawing a bottle from her sleeve. "Angela asked me to deliver his potion to Eragon. I'll need to stop by as well."
"fine." He began to walk through the halls of the castle. "How do you fight?"
"mainly I am a magician. I use poisoned throwing knives at a distance and a sword in close combat."
He nodded, cataloguing the information for future use.
Vea glanced at the werecat. "She is your companion?"
"No. She has chosen to accompany Eragon, but she is coming along. We have fought together before and there is no one I would rather have at my side." He glanced at her. "Will Thitan be coming?"
"How-?"
"Alia can smell him on you and she recognized the scent. So is he coming with us?"
"I'll ask. He only joined me yesterday." Her expression went blank for a moment and then she nodded. "He will fight."
They walked in silence to the gardens and Roran approached Eragon who was crouched on the ground by Saphira's head, whittling wood into shafts. When Roran was still twenty feet away, he raised his head and then stood, turning.
"You're leaving then?"
"Aye. You told me to stop by, not that I wouldn't anyway. Arrows?"
Eragon looked at the arrows he had made. "Yeah. I don't have all that many, and every battle I lose more. My bow doesn't work with the arrows the humans use here."
Roran grimaced.
"What?"
"I have it when you do that."
"Do what?"
He shook his head. "When you refer to 'humans' or 'men' as if you are not one of them. I know you have changed but…"
Eragon met Roran's eyes. "I don't belong. I do not fit into any of the species on Alagaesia."
"Does it bother you?"
"I admit it used to, but not anymore. It doesn't really matter anyway. Alia or Arya is not really much different that you or I, whatever we are called. What's it matter?"
"I suppose." Roran shifted uncomfortably on his feet, uncomfortable. "Anyway. You said you had something for me?"
Eragon nodded. "It's in my cabin. Let me-" before he could even take a step, Saphira cut in.
Your leg is bothering you. Arya will get it.
Eragon shook his head in slight amusement. "I guess Arya will get it then." He said, rolling his eyes at his overprotective dragon, but thankfully rubbing her head at the same time.
Arya came over and handed Eragon the ring with a small but pure diamond he had called up from deep within the earth and mounted on a ring. "A magician may store energy in gems to draw on it later. As you can now use magic, I made this for you and helped to fill it with the dragons' help. It is not a large gem, but it will help."
Roran took it and placed it on his hand. "Thank you."
Eragon nodded. "Also, if you have the time and are about to cast a complex spell, check the wording with Alia first. You do not wish to make mistakes with magic or it could cost you your life. Be careful."
"I did not know what I was doing last time." He admitted. "I got lucky, but I know now that I should never have attempted what I did. But since then, I have more knowledge." He smiled ruefully. "Angela took that as a sign to try and force as much common sense and knowledge into my mind as she possibly could."
Vea walked over. Eragon looked at her. "You are going with Roran?"
She nodded sharply. "Here. Angela bid me give this to you." She handed him the stoppered vial and then withdrew.
Eragon cast several wards around Roran as the old had worn off and then nodded. He looked to Arya for a minute and then turned to Alia.
"Alia, may I put wards around you as well?"
Yes. She said simply, sitting on her haunches as Eragon designed wards to place on her to protect her from harm. He finished quickly and then nodded.
Thank you, Eragon.
"You used my name." eh said in surprise as she had never done it before.
Good to know you recognized it. She said dryly, cocking her head to the left. Don't get used to it, rider. Good bye.
With that the group departed and a small smile came over Eragon's face, the first smile since his time in Uru'baen. The healing process had begun.
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