Author's note: Well, after last chapter being depressing, here's some more interesting stuff! And a semi-secret snapshot that only one of my betas has read. Hope you enjoy it!
With thanks to my Patrons:
Regal Eagle, Drake Razgriz
In response to reviews and PMs:
Ultidragonlord: Nah. And he gets some help this chapter, so that's nice.
Br2nd66: Yeah, Cade was hit hard by that, but it did serve as a reminder that he's not the most powerful person in the multiverse, and he can't always get his way.
ThunderBasilisk: Well, we'll just have to wait and see! *evil chuckle*
d8rkforcen1ight7: Yeah, Cade's character is developing a lot. As for who the ghost guy is… you might recognise his form if you change the colour of his fire to green. Yeah, Jacob was that chapter's lifesaver, and Gem… yeah, Gem's worried. Okay, if you want to make a story in the Riftiverse, I cannot recommend enough that you join the discord server. There's like… seven of us doing Riftiverse stories now, and we all help each other out, and you might need to be aware of some lore. As for the form, I'm concerned about the bit where you said 'combined', but I think that everything else checks out.
Blaze1992: Okay.
Guest: Yeah, someone noticed!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Inheritance Cycle
Thanks to the betas for doing their stuff!
Chapter 17: Set a fire in our hearts
With a massive crash, our bedroom door was knocked clean off its hinges. It fell to the floor, hitting it with an equally loud boom, letting in the light. All three of us hissed and recoiled as one, throwing up our wings to shield us from the fierce glare of the sun.
Squinting, we could see a silhouette that stood in the doorway, dropping back to four legs and shuffling around, embarrassed. "...Oops."
We recognised that mental voice.
"Saphira?" We asked softly, lowering our wings as our eyes grew accustomed to the light.
She gave us a draconic smile and nodded. "Yes. Oromis and Glaedr have their operations today, so Amara asked Eragon and I whether we wanted to come back here too. And, of course, we accepted."
Subtly, we moved one of our tails to block our enlarged copies of the Inheritance Cycle. If Saphira saw those, that might be… awkward.
"It's good to see you." Kevin smiled, for the first time in… however long we'd been in here.
"You broke our door…" Driscol realised, looking down at it.
Saphira winced. "Sorry. I meant to knock, but when the others said that you hadn't come out in a week, I... was more than a little worried."
"It's been that long then, huh?" Sparta asked.
"Apparently so." the blue dragoness nodded. "And a little over two weeks since I last saw you three."
"How's the training coming along?" Kevin asked.
"How about you three come out and eat something, and I tell you?" Saphira offered.
Kevin wanted to go. But both Sparta and Driscol wanted to stay here. It was safe here in our room. Our small world made sense, and it didn't try to hurt us.
"We don't want to." we said sadly, retreating backwards into what little darkness remained. "We just want to be alone."
Saphira hesitantly stepped towards us. "But why? None of us understand why you three have decided to lock yourselves away. If you can't tell them, then at least tell me. Please, come out. We all miss you."
All three of us locked eyes with her. "You really want to know why we're in here? You really want us to explain what it feels like to be truly powerless, and why we're just that? You want us to explain what it feels like to have our emotions warped and manipulated? You want us to explain what it feels like to be caged by time itself?!"
"In somewhat objective ways, all three have happened to me." our friend said calmly, making our eyes widen in surprise. "Every time that Eragon was harmed when I couldn't be with him, I felt powerless. Being linked with him often puts odd thoughts and feelings in my head, although they are more often pleasurable than not. And I was trapped in my egg for decades as I waited for him. I refused person after person, waiting for the one who would be right for me, and although I was not aware enough to comprehend how much time had passed, I do remember what it was like. And finally, compared to you, I am the powerless one. I do not have the firepower that you possess, I cannot heal grievous wounds in seconds, and I cannot survive being struck by lightning."
We both sat in silence for a while, Saphira in the light, and us in the darkness.
"So how do you deal with it?"
"As best I can."
We shuffled over to sit next to her and opened the blind that covered the skylight, letting the warm rays of the sun stream in.
After propping the door back in it's frame and escaping through the skylight, Saphira and we just sat on the roof and talked. Well, it was more like us telling her about the damn mission, sighing, and wondering what the hell we should be thinking.
By the time we were done, Saphira just stared at us, her mouth hanging open in shock. "Let me get this straight. You three went with a gnome that is actually a dragon-"
"Yeah." Driscol confirmed.
"Met a living skeleton who managed to twist your emotions while your mental shields were up-"
"More of a lich, although he did do that." Kevin corrected.
"Were constantly reset to a certain position in time-"
"We were caged!" Sparta yelled, our anger spiking briefly. "And even when we went Rinjai, that got reset!"
"And on top of all that, you couldn't even talk to the person that you had to collect because evil beings from an entirely different realm were possessing him?"
We just nodded glumly. "And then Ragnar told us off for disobeying our leader. In retrospect, he had a point with that, but just after all that other shit? It really wasn't what we needed to hear. At all."
Saphira just shook her head in amazement. "I'm honestly surprised that you three are still sane after all that."
"You and us both." we agreed before sighing and staring up at the sky. "But now we don't really know how to feel, or what to do. We have no long-term plan for our afterlife, we don't know what we want to do after Galbatorix is dead, and we don't know how we can go up against opponents who are out of our league and win."
"You won't… leave... will you?" Saphira asked, evidently worried by the prospect.
"Nah, we're staying around in Alagaësia until… forever, I guess." Driscol said. "Even after the Eggbreaker is dead, we still have to make sure that Shadows stay out. That's our duty."
"But duty aside, we don't know what we want from life." Kevin said dejectedly.
There was a fairly long pause.
"Hey Saphira, what do you want from life?" Sparta asked. "Not what you have to do, or feel obligated to do, but what you want?"
The blue dragoness did her best to shrug, an action that she'd evidently picked up from us. "I do not know what I wish to do with my life yet, just like you three. We have to kill the Eggbreaker first, after all. After that… who knows where the winds of life will blow to?"
We nodded at that.
"I guess we should take the 'don't count your chickens until they've hatched' policy." Kevin said.
"Dragons." Saphira corrected.
"What?"
"It's 'don't count your dragons until they've hatched'."
"No it's not." Sparta protested.
"Not where you come from." Saphira smiled.
"Come on, nobody in Alagaësia says that." Driscol said.
"That you know of." The blue dragoness countered.
"We could say the same about you." Kevin smiled before changing the subject. "So, how's training going?"
"Well." Saphira said happily. "Eragon is progressing in his studies, and I too have learned much. It is odd how much one can tell from the sky, just by looking at it. You can see it's subtle dangers, and predict what it may do from a single cloud."
All three of us snorted in amusement. "We highly doubt that we'll have to care about all that. Although we haven't done it yet, being able to summon a category 5 hurricane at will and remain untouched kinda eliminates the dangers of the weather."
"What's a hurricane?" Saphira asked.
We showed her the various memories we'd had of seeing hurricanes on the news back on Earth, and watched her eyes widen. "It's like a whirlpool in the sky…"
"That description fits a tornado better." Sparta corrected.
We lapsed into a long pause before Saphira questioned "So what about you? How's your training going?"
"Well, the good news is that we now know how to not blow ourselves apart." Driscol said. "The bad news was that we blew ourselves apart before working out how to not do that."
"You what?!" Saphira cried, leaping to her feet.
"Relax, we got better." Kevin said.
"But… you just talk of your body exploding so casually…" our friend protested, locking eyes with our left head.
"We only talk about it casually because it happens to us a lot." Sparta said. "It hurts like you wouldn't believe, but we can recover from it as if it was a scratch. There's not even a scar left behind."
"You three are sure that it's safe for you to use your powers, right?" Saphira pressed.
"Well no, it's not safe at all." we joked before turning serious. "Although if you're talking about whether we can be harmed by it, we can, but we know how to prevent that."
"And you aren't just saying that just to placate me, are you?" our friend questioned.
"No. We can activate our Rinjai aura right here and now if we want to. Although turning it off requires a massive energy boost, and this is a nice enough day that we don't want to ruin it for everyone by summoning a thunderstorm."
"And it is that compassion that makes you three good people, even if you feel that you are powerless." Saphira said. "You care for others, and you'd gladly lay down your life for anyone here, even if you couldn't make much of a difference. And that's what makes you a hero."
"...Thank you." Kevin said, touched.
"I don't think that we'd lay down our lives for Felix or Chromie though." Sparta added.
Driscol smiled and shook his head. "Nah. Even though we've had bad experiences with them, they are on our side, and they do have people who care for them. We can't just stand by, let them die and say 'oops, sorry'. Yes, even as much as you'd like to, Sparta. That's not in our nature."
"Or is it?" Sparta countered. "What happened to the kid who played pranks and mucked around in class? The one who never put effort into stuff he didn't care about. The one who's cousin characterised as being a chaotic neutral-leaning-towards-evil rogue. We're no noble paladin. We're no knight in shining armour. We're not the person we started out as."
"And is that a bad thing?" Kevin questioned. "We've changed, both physically and mentally. And largely for the better. We can make a difference."
"But we aren't strong or powerful enough to make said difference!" Sparta protested. "We have a pathetic facsimile of strength compared to Primordials! Take Chromie. She managed to cage us in time, and we could do nothing about it."
"But compared to what we were…" Driscol said quietly, letting the connotations silently run on before finishing, "we've come far."
And we had. From 'just another guy' to a superpowered inter-dimensional, ass-kicking, evil-busting, mercy-giving, draconic kaiju. Looking back on everything we'd done, we were proud of what we'd accomplished. We were ready to fight, so others didn't have to. We were ready to protect, so others were safe. We were ready to be a sacrifice if need be, so that others could live.
In other words? We were ready to go to work.
"Thanks for the pep talk." we said to Saphira as we stood. "We really needed it."
"I'm happy to have been able to help." our friend smiled up at us. "So, what are you going to do with the rest of today?"
We glanced between ourselves and came to a decision. "We're going to make up for lost time. We kinda let the ball drop from training, and we need to pick it up again."
"May I come and watch?" Saphira asked eagerly.
"If you want."
"Graww!" Shell said, which his dialogue box translated as 'Okay, and go!'
Our Rinjai aura blazed, orange light blasting out from between our scales. Once again, the sheer amount of power we had was exhilarating. We felt as if we could take on pretty much anything and win, although that had already been proved wrong. We weren't the most powerful person on the block by any means.
What was next? Oh yeah, harnessing our Rinjai to destroy a target, a large rock in this case, without activating any of our usual powers. Okay, so we wanted to destroy-
A thick, orange laser shot out of our chest with a very satisfying pyoooom noise. It burned through the rock, vaporizing whatever was in it's way, and turning the rest to newly molten lava. Then the beam cut off, leaving us to stare in shock at what we'd done- just by thinking.
Amara whistled from where she, Saphira, Eragon, and for some reason, Rosa were standing, watching us. We didn't really know how the others had known that we were going, but we didn't mind them being here. "Now that's a lot of power you have right there."
Shell nodded, then said "Raarg!", which meant 'Good job. Now, moving targets.'
A small avalanche of flying rocks stayed in the air for about ten seconds before what we can best describe as the opening cutscene of Smash Ultimate happened. Streams of orange light burst out from all over our body, seeking out the rocks and pretty much erased them from existence on contact. Nothing survived the barrage.
It would have been a little more impressive if they'd blown up or something, but oh well.
Our teacher looked suitably impressed before nodding to himself. "Gorar!" 'Well, I'm slightly traumatised by that, but let's see how well you can duel. Follow me. This place is too small for us."
We did as Shell asked, Sparta smiling at the prospect of a good fight as Driscol wondered how exactly our Rinjai was picking up what we wanted to do, and how it chose the way of doing it. With a single target, we'd released a single, powerful beam. For smaller, multiple ones, we'd had multiple attacks. Were our powers detecting what we thought that we needed, or was it guided by an intelligence of its own? Not necessarily a sentient one, but one that could at least make logical decisions based on our requirements.
"Rar graw." Shell said, making us glance at his dialogue box. 'So, duelling between Rifthearts is basically just just acting and reacting. We don't do it to see who's the stronger fighter. We do it because a lot of our abilities unlock while we're in danger, and it's good practise for when we go into battle."
"Makes sense." we nodded. "So, non-lethal measures?"
Shell just chuckled and nodded. "Snaw." 'I'd appreciate you not disintegrating me, especially with an audience.'
Our spectators chuckled as we smirked and shrugged. "Meh, no promises."
We advanced through rift-coloured fire, a knight-like shield of orange light allowing us to pass through it unharmed. As the fire cut out, replaced by a massive fist, we used our shield to bat it aside and give a punch of our own, flames of rift energy flowing over it. Shell turned and used his giga form's green carapace to tank the hit, swinging his tail into our wingarm in the process.
His thagomizer penetrated our wing membrane, making us cry out in pain. Our Rinjai aura flared, blasting out a shockwave that blasted Shell backwards. He kept his footing though, creating two long, torn up furrows in the ground as we checked our wing was regenerating. It was, but slower than usual, as most of our energy was going into our Rinjai. Nodding to Shell that we were okay, we shot glowing orange lasers from our three pairs of eyes.
And yeah, it felt as awesome as it sounded.
Still, our teacher seemed to have been expecting something like that. He didn't raise a shield or anything, but instead chose to put up his hand in a 'stop' gesture, halting our lasers a few meters before they hit him. Then, as we cut off that move and repositioned ourself, we saw that Shell had taken our attack and remade the rift energy from it into a crude-looking hammer shape.
"Graw! Snarg gral narg! Gnall rarrg varr." Shell said, slowly shrinking from his giga form back to his regular size. 'Okay, stop! Stop. I'm out of juice. If you'd shut your Rinjai down now, then we can talk about what you did well, and what you need to do better on.'
Letting our shield dissipate with a cheerful bloop, we focused on our connection to the rift, and our Rinjai aura. Through a titanic effort, we started to force the connection closed. We felt energy building and building behind the wall we were trying to create, and we could feel our own energy reserves draining scarily fast.
"Cuz, we need a boost!" Kev said, not wanting to rely on how fast we could summon a storm.
Thankfully, Amara understood what we wanted. We felt a surge of energy from the lightning that she was pumping into us; just enough for us to slam down a barrier that cut more of the rift from pouring into us. The glowing orange light that shone from between our scales slowly receded back towards the point where it always seemed to start, fading away until it disappeared.
We sagged a little, feeling tired, drained, and worn out. Parts of our body were actually steaming slightly, even though we didn't feel warmer than usual. It was probably from channeling so much power, although we just felt exhausted.
Vaguely understanding that the boxes that were materialising in mid-air meant that Shell was talking, but not really processing it, we turned to Amara and said "Thank you. Sleepy now. Tired."
"You guys want to go back home?" She asked, concerned.
"Yes." we said slowly. "Rest and… recharge."
"But you three are okay?" Amara pressed.
Kevin could barely keep his eyes open, but nodded. "Your boost... got us through safely."
We swayed a little, all three of us yawning before trying to start the long walk back to Bluepeak. It might have been rude to Shell, but we just wanted to snooze.
We made it maybe three steps before we'd lapsed into unconsciousness. A few days later, Amara told us that she and Rosa had managed to catch us before we hit the ground, and between them, carried our sleeping ass all the way back home. Saphira and Eragon had followed, asking whether we'd be okay, which we were. No parts of our body had been cannibalised to create energy, but we were just drained.
We were fine the next morning, although everyone had left before we'd woken up, and someone had been kind enough to fix our door. There was a note on the fridge that said we were out of chocolate milk, which Kevin took particularly badly. Despite that, we made ourself three different breakfasts, sat down on the couch, flicked the TV on, and got into an inevitable argument about what to watch. Some things never changed.
Snapshot #29A:
"Come, friend."
The former Plainswalker with the form of Jörmungandr stirred from within his sleep on the seafloor, slipping from muddled nightmares of fear, truths and Shadows to a lucid dream. The world twisted and spun around, becoming a beautiful autumnal forest that was either large enough to scale around him as if he was a human's size, or it was its normal scale with him having shrunk to fit it.
As he slithered through the piles of leaves and over the roots of the trees, his tongue, large enough to be mistaken for an oddly coloured country, flickered in and out, tasting the sweet aromas of this forest. Damp leaves and moss, the thick scent of wood, and the not-so-far off un-smell of water.
It was odd, being so small again. But he would enjoy this while it lasted.
Snaking around a bush, the former Plainswalker came across an odd, moss-encrusted sculpture. Looking at it, it seemed impossible that it existed. That part there was the top… but it was the side over there, and there had been no turn in the surface. The small piece on the side was in front of another piece in one position, but behind it in another. Once again, the face of the shape was flat, and did not bend, yet it somehow fit together.
Curiouser and curiouser.
He was tempted to try and twist himself around it, just to see what would happen, but then he heard a voice said "Welcome to The Dream, friend."
Warily looking around, the former Plainswalker couldn't see a speaker, but he couldn't be dreaming up someone with a voice which held that much power.
"Thisss… iss a vission?" he asked, looking around for the source of the voice while forcing the larger number of 's'es than usual out of his own. Just because he was a snake didn't mean that he had to speak like how people expected one to.
"Kind of, Snorri Birgerson." the voice said, though not unkindly. "Please, come to the house, and I will explain why I wish to meet you."
"Are you… Rift?" Snorri asked, reeling at the fact that this was the first time in a millennium that he'd heard his name.
"No, I am not." the voice said gently. "I am no agent of the Plainswalkers, or the Shadows, although… well, come to the house. And please, keep an open mind to what you see. You know better than most what it's like to be wrongly judged."
"Will I go back to my body after this?"
"Of course. Nobody in The Dream is here without their consent."
"There are others here?"
"Yes. Please, come to the house so that we may talk face to face."
"Why?"
"...One of us brought hot chocolate, and I don't want you missing out."
That threw Snorri for a second. It had been… too long since he'd last had food in general. He was too big to properly eat anything, and his body just somehow kept on existing. But that didn't mean that he didn't miss food.
"Who are you?" the former Plainswalker asked.
"I am Null."