Hi guys. So, um… I'm really sorry about the lack of update frequency! I've just applied to a college and am going through the motions of transferring from one site of my job to one that's closer to my college of choice. Coupled with recently getting said job and getting up at 3 am to go to it… I haven't had much time to write for any of my stories. I just remembered this chapter and had finished it before going to bed so I hope you all enjoy! Just know I have no intention of abandoning my stories at all, it's just that time isn't really on my side here. :P Anyways, enjoy the next chapter of Μολών λαβέ~!
Axel yawned as he leaned on a large rock near a rather sizable creek; while Eragon was a ways away getting a drink and washing his face Axel stretched his wings and rotated his shoulders to get rid of any lingering chances of stiffness or soreness. His and Eragon's sparring session had lasted a while- about an hour and a half- and afterwards Axel told him to walk off his fatigue. "It'll prevent soreness after a workout, kid." He'd said. "Trust me, it's saved my life to not be sore during a battle in the beginning- fighting through pain that was there to begin with will just distract you at the start." He had left Eragon at the campsite stretching out and walking off his soreness while he had done it and finished first, so he had time to himself. The sun was still high but by the position it would be at in Axel's world it would have been anywhere around three or four PM.
The spar had helped get Eragon's mind off of their current road block in tracking the Ra'zac but it was only a matter of time before the boy's frustration returned. Axel sighed and scratched the back of his head, stumped on what to do himself as well. 'I suppose we just take this one step at a time,' the Black Robin thought to himself as he pushed himself upright again. As he turned to call for Eragon so they could head back the younger yelped and fell face-first into the stream with a splash. Axel rolled his eyes and jogged over to the spluttering younger boy and hauled him to his feet.
"You good?" Eragon nodded, water dripping from his hair. "Yes. Strange, I didn't see anything that I could have tripped over." The group had gotten used to Axel's strange ways of phrase and speech, mostly translating them to their own way of speaking. "Well it is [pretty muddy over here- maybe you tripped over a rock?" red eyes roved over the riverside before falling on something a little too shiny, even when covered in water and mud. "What's this?" Eragon reached down and picked it up, using the river to wash the mud off of the surface to reveal a metal flask and a leather strap long enough to have someone sling it over their shoulder.
And on the lower left side of the flask was the Ra'zac's symbol wrought into the silvery metal.
Axel was silent as he eyes the flask but Eragon felt excitement take over his emotions- finally, their first clue was found! Eragon hurriedly unscrewed the cap and instantly a cloying smell, reminiscent of rotting fruit and the exact same scent that had hovered over Garrow the day he was found, wove its way through the air. "That doesn't smell friendly at all," Axel muttered. Eragon was about to tip it over and pour what was inside onto a finger when the older of the two stopped him. "Wait, kid what if it's corrosive?" Eragon paused before flushing lightly in embarrassment at his over-eagerness- for all he knew it really could be poisonous to the touch. "It could burn your finger away faster than what Saphira could do to dry kindling when she starts breathing fire."
The younger huffed. "How do we test it, then?" a contemplative hum was his answer before Axel turned around and pulled his shirt off. Eragon tilted his head at the array of much smaller and more purple tinted feathers that covered Axel's middle back, forming a carpet of feathery coating that showed where his wings met and melded to his skin. the muscles jumped as they were exposed to the more chilly air and the feathers rose slightly as if reacting to the cool, mimicking hairs on skin standing up in gooseflesh. "Pull one of the larger ones out- the size of a normal bird's primaries, if you can." With an aah of understanding Eragon plucked a feather on the very edge of the plumage, one that wouldn't be missed. It was about seven to nine inches long and narrow enough so if they dipped the feather into the flask it wouldn't get ruffled on the edges. Axel nodded at Eragon's selection and gestured for him to pour a small drop of the contents of the flask onto the avian growth.
"Holy shit! Drop it, dropitdropit!"
"By the gods-!"
"That was way too fast what the holy everloving hell-?!"
Rapidly screwing the cap back on Eragon and Axel eyed the remains of the feather, now nothing more than a murky discolored colored puddle of foul-smelling slime on a rock- which was not melting away, the boys noted absently- and felt the miniscule tremors wracking their bodies and twitching paled faces. "Eragon you were about to pour that onto your finger…" Eragon didn't answer in his shock but he nodded haltingly. "My feathers are laced with an organic crystal-metal alloy, harder than steel and diamond, it's living metal and living crystal, Eragon. Not even yours or Brom's blade could get through my defense with only one strong hit, but that ate through it like-like…! Holy shit…!" Axel ran his fingers through his hair and breathed deeply, unnerved by the display of corrosiveness- this was on par with things only used in a controlled laboratory setting back on his world. A place as primitive as this one, regardless of the magic it held, shouldn't have any of that yet. Sulfuric acid was something he hadn't seen here yet!
"I am extremely glad you didn't pour that on your finger," Axel continued, wings twitching in unease. "If that ate through an adamantine feather with no problem-." "Then what can it do wo a creature of flesh-and-blood?" Eragon finished for him, looking at Axel with wide eyes. Axel nodded before heaving a breath and forcing himself to relax, the ruffled feathers on his back and wings smoothing out gradually. "I'm just glad I was here to keep you from possibly drinking the stuff." Eragon winced at the implications and looked at the gooey remains of the feather, feeling ill. "C'mon, let's get this back to Brom. I know he'll want to see this."
"Well, you two seem to have had an adventure. Just be glad Axel stopped you from pouring it all over your hand, Eragon. If you even tried drinking it only a puddle would have been left of you." Axel, having calmed down in their trek back to camp, snorted and elbowed the younger and shorter boy beside him. "Sometimes I feel like I'm eighty-five percent of his impulse control, I swear." Eragon blushed and muttered something incomprehensible as he looked away. Saphira snorted from her place on the far side of the camp, sapphire eyes glittering with amusement. «Thank you for keeping an eye on my Little One, Winged One.» the winged man huffed and crossed his arms. "Who else is gonna keep him from killing himself when no one else is around?" Saphira seemed to laugh before she tucked her head into her foreleg's crook and let her eyes close. Even if she looked asleep her mind was as alert as ever.
Brom chuckled before re-screwing the top of the flask, the two boys having already told him of the content's abilities and scent before he opened it himself.
"What you just found is called Sethir oil. Very rare. It's made using the Sethir plant which grows in the far north." Axel hummed and crouched down, wings spreading slightly to accommodate the position. "Kind of interesting, a plant that has acidic oil…" Brom's eyes gleamed as he looked at Eragon and Axel. "That is the issue, though. In its natural state the oil isn't corrosive- in fact it's used to add an extra sheen and to preserve pearls." Eragon tilted his head, thinking on the answer before his eyes widened. "Magic?" Brom nodded gravely. "Yes. With a blood sacrifice and dark ritual it can be turned into a lethal torture device." Axel frowned. "Wait, but when we used a feather to test it, it had eaten straight up the thing. Eragon dropped it on a rock before it got to his fingers and the rock didn't turn into goo."
Brom turned his eyes to the younger man and nodded. "ah, but that's the grim beauty of Sethir oil- it eats through anything that was part of something living that was an animal or human. Bone, skin, fur, feather, or hair while leaving non-animal or human objects untouched. Assassins could drip it over a pile of linens on a bed so that it could burn through the next person to get into the sheets with the victim being none the wiser." Axel chewed his lower lip, careful of his sharper and longer canines as he furrowed his brow. "Efficient, effective, stealthy and cruel…" he glanced at Brom and Eragon before standing, ruffling his wings. "From the experiences of a fellow hunter, even if in different ways from these things, I admit that this is a weapon I'd want to keep close at all times- anyone from my world with half a brain would want their hands on something this versatile."
Eragon shot the older man an alarmed and outraged look. "How can you say that?! This is the tool those bastards used to kill my uncle! They tortured him and left him in agony amidst the wreckage of my home and you think you can stand there and approve of that?!" Glowing red eyes with thinned draconic pupils were leveled at Eragon but the boy didn't back down. "You have no idea of what my world is like aside from what I've decided to tell you, Eragon," Axel said lowly. "The things I've had to do would make you piss your pants with nightmares at night- what I meant was that from the standpoint of a hunter and interrogator, Sethir oil would have been helpful to get what information I wanted and rid myself of any evidence of a body… I don't approve of their actions, kid, far from it, but I can respect a fellow hunter's ingenuity with such a versatile tool."
Eragon's eyes lost some of their anger when he began to understand what Axel meant. I suppose he's right, the boy thought. With an oil as rare as this used as a weapon of that caliber it would only make sense that he would respect how sparingly and wisely another would use it… then a gleam began to form in those brown irises as he thought. Wait… the oil was from a rare plant only found in the far northern lands…? Turning to Brom, Eragon licked his lips before venturing with his train of thought. "The Sethir oil… Brom, how rare is it, exactly?"
The old man gave a snort and rolled his shoulders. "About as rare as diamonds in a pig pen." Then he thought for a second before reassessing the supposition. "Actually the normal oil is used by jewelers for their pearls, but only those who could afford to buy the product."
"So then there are people who trade in it?"
Brom nodded. "One or two, perhaps."
Axel watched the duo's interaction like an amusing tennis match. They were starting to sync up in terms of brain and it amused the older boy to no end at how alike the elderly man and youngest human on their team were at times.
"Good," Eragon said with a definitive nod. "Then do the cities along the coast keel records of their shipping cargo?" Brom's eyes brightened and Axel smirked, having caught on when Eragon questioned those who traded in the deadly oil.
"I'd recon they'd have to it they want their product intact," the Black Robin said, wings twitching in the mounting excitement. "And if we can get to those records," Brom began. "Then they would tell us who brought the oil south and where it went from there-." "And records of the Empire's purchases will tell us where the Ra'zac live!" Eragon finished, fist smacking into his palm with an enthusiastic shpac sound.
Brom grinned and shook his head in amazement. "It's genius! I wish I had figured it out years ago- would have saved myself many headaches and sleepless nights if I had." The old man hummed in satisfaction. "The coast is dotted with port cities and numerous towns where ships come to land. I suppose Tierm is the best place to begin since it controls all of the trade going in, out, and around the Empire." Brom paused. "Last I heard I had an old friend, Jeod, living in Tierm. We haven't seen each other in years but he may be willing to help us- it is a stretch though… however because he's a merchant it is highly likely he will have access to the records we seek."
Axel curled his lips into a joking crooked smile. "Okay, well not to crash the party but how would we get to this Tierm? Since the place is a port city, and with how high I fly on the daily I can barely see ocean over the mountain range, I doubt we can get there though that." Brom let out an ahh of understanding. "Well, we'd have to take a southwest approach until a high pass in the Spine. Ponce we pass through we can just head up the coast until we reach the city."
Axel hummed. "Well, you are the expert of this weird world I'm in, so you'd know best."
«How long would it take us to reach the pass?» Saphira finally piped up, snaking her head over to the males of the group. "Easily within the week if we angle away from the Ninor River. Take the travel paths to our right and we'll be at the foot of the mountains by tomorrow."
The dragoness nodded and Eragon mounted her saddle. Axel leaned against a tree trunk and pulled out his scythe, looking over the edge of the blade with a critical eye. "You coming?" Glancing at the younger male, the Black Robin shook his head. "Nah, I'll stay here. Enjoy some alone time with Saphira." Eragon nodded. "If you're sure… In that case we'll be back by dinner." With a rush of wind and a thud, the dragon and rider duo had taken to the skies, shrinking in sight until only Axel's enhanced vision could pick them out easily among the blue and white of the world's roof.