A/N: Hey everyone! I'm so sorry for the long delay between posts. I, unfortunately, had to have hip surgery a few months ago and it kinda killed the writing for a while. However, I am doing much better now and am back to writing every day so new chapters should be much more frequent. Hope y'all are doing well! (Just a heads up, I am not sure if I explained the speech difference. If speech is italicized and in quotes then a dragon is speaking to everyone gathered. If the speech is just italicized and not in quotes then the dragon is speaking only with the person whose viewpoint we are currently following.)

Previously:

"But how was it possible for a shade to overthrow your society?" Oromis asked. "Shades themselves are quite powerful, but no more so than a particularly powerful elf. They, by themselves, could not overpower an entire elven kingdom."

"You have been lucky with your history of shades Oromis," I replied. "Humans have been the only ones foolish enough to become shades in your history, and while they are powerful, they are the weakest form a shade can take. We learned many things on the darkest day in our history, and that is one of them."

"Who became the first shade then?" Asked the Queen impatiently.

"The most powerful magic user I have ever seen. High elf, and Prince of the elven kingdom, the King's right hand, and most trusted advisor. He was known as the Shield of the Kingdom, for he was the General of the entire elvish army and unbeaten in battle." I said much to the shock of the rest of the people gathered around the fire. Turning away from the group I felt Freyr bump my arm in support, letting me know he was always there with me. Sighing in resignation, I finished the introduction of the man who singlehandedly brought about the downfall of the most powerful societies this world had ever seen. "And he was my younger brother," I whispered.

Vidarr

A look of sympathy passed across the faces of the older members of our group, and I took a moment to compose myself. Even after all these years, and after the countless atrocities that he had committed, I still loved my brother. I always would. Sighing, I continued my tale, "Before we delve too deeply into that tale, you must understand some of how elven society was back then. The elves were born into different 'classes', although we called them guilds back in those days. There were four main guilds along with the low elves, together making up the five different classifications that one could fall under. Now, this was different from the system humans use to choose their monarchs. The elves were different, even on a biological level as we later discovered, depending on the guild they belonged to.

"Starting with the low elves, they are the only species of elf who remain, the only difference being the extended life." Gesturing towards the dragons I said, "bonding with the dragons prolonged the lives of even the low elves, although magic was always available to them, just not quite so easily. Low elves had much the same power they do today." Seeing the affronted look on the Queen and her daughter's faces, I quickly continued. "Their name was not derived from their position in society, and in fact, they were crucial in many different areas. Their name simply comes from the area where that species of elf originated, namely the lowlands southeast of the Beor Mountains. These elves were primarily merchants, traders, bankers, and held many other official positions, especially in our government. Many of our most renowned scholars also came from this group.

"The next would be the craftsman guild. It is fairly self-explanatory when looking at the title, however, there was more to it than elves simply deciding to become craftsmen. Any elf born into the craftsmen was unnaturally gifted in some form of craft, be that carving, singing, building, or" and here I stared pointedly at Rhunon, "smithing." I waited a moment for everyone to understand what I had just implied. It only took a few seconds before even the youngest caught on.

Blushing at the looks of awe and understanding that the others were giving her, Rhunon said, "Yes, yes, I am the last of the craftsman guild. There's no need to get all worked up about it."

Chuckling lightly I nodded and continued. "As she says, Rhunon is the sole remaining member of the craftsman guild. She was but a young child when our world fell apart and was spirited away from the conflict to ensure her survival. Back to the craftsman, they were responsible for the architecture of our great cities, artwork, music, poetry, metallurgy, and like Rhunon here, arming our military.

"Next we had the Mage guild. The members of this guild were born with an unnatural talent for magic and the mind arts. If what Oromis said about Galbatorix being talented with the mind arts is true, then that is impressive for a human. However, even a youngling of the mage guild would have been capable of tearing his mind to shreds. This guild functioned as everything from scholars to warriors, and everything in between; all revolving around magic. It is from this guild that the ancient language was first created, and members of this guild are the ones who named everything in this world, imbuing the language with power so that it could grow to encompass new things that would appear after the language was first developed. Along with the craftsman guild, many of our enchanted objects and heirlooms come from them, and the art of singing magic into an object was first discovered by the mages; although the craftsmen were the ones who perfected it.

"Then we have the Warrior Guild. Again as the name suggests, these were our primary soldiers within the elven kingdom. These elves were physically superior to any other race, apart from dragons, and served as soldiers, military advisors, trainers, adventurers, guards, and several other lesser roles as well. The reason I threw the dagger at Glorfindel earlier is that I had the suspicion that he was of this class. Like Rhunon, there were a few other children at the time of this conflict, and so it was not completely implausible that Glorfindel could have been one of them. Acting as the master of war simply led me to believe he was from this guild, hence his ability to catch that dagger when the rest of you could barely even register its movement." A soft clearing of the throat caused me to pause.

"Ah, actually, I was nearly fully grown when the conflict happened," Glorfindel said. "My father simply hid me away in the case that the war was lost, which it essentially was so that at least one person with the knowledge of our people would survive."

"Did he now," I responded. This was most curious as every able-bodied warrior was ordered to fight when the time came. "Who was your father?"

Blushing slightly, Glorfindel cleared his throat once again. "Well you see, your majesty, you sort of knew him."

Frowning I stared more closely at the Master of War. He was dancing around the answer, and I could only hope it was because of nervousness, and not because his father was someone I had despised. "What was his name Glorfindel?" I asked more forcefully.

"His name was Haldirion," he replied with a slight flinch.

I was gobsmacked. The others in the group all looked amused at what I am sure was a comical expression on my face, but I ignored them and turned towards Freyr. Did you know?

Of course not! I would have told you if I had known who his father was.

Turning back towards the master of war I stood and walked over to him. Some of the group, namely the queen and her daughter, tensed up when I moved closer to them, but I continued until I was positioned directly in front of Glorfindel. I studied him for a moment, searching for any hint of Haldirion in him. Then I smacked him.

"Why in the hell did you not tell me who you were you foolish, idiotic, child?" I questioned. "I cannot believe I was unaware you were alive this entire time. If your father were here I would ensure that he took you over his knee for keeping your presence a secret from us. I thought you were dead along with nearly everyone else, and I have always regretted the fact I never got to meet you, and now I find you have been alive and well for the last eight thousand years and yet you never thought, 'Hm, maybe I should tell my father's BEST friend that I am alive'. Nope, you are by far the most stupid elf I have ever had the misfortune to meet. I swear you must have been dropped on your head as a child. I have half a mind to let Freyr here…"

"You're rambling Vidarr," Freyr said to the group with a laugh.

Composing myself, and ignoring the awkwardness of the situation I now found myself in, I pinned Glorfindel with my most intimidating stare. "When we are done here, you and I are going to be having quite the discussion youngling."

Gulping in apparent fright he simply nodded. Moving back to my seat I addressed the rest of the group who was slightly stunned at my outburst. "His father was my Master of War and my best friend. He's lucky there are others present otherwise I'd be tempted to hit him again." Taking a deep breath I decided to get back on topic.

"Anyway, those are the guilds, and they all lived together within the elven society. Many of them even…"

"Uhm Vidarr?" The youngest present interrupted. "You forgot to mention the last guild."

Sighing in annoyance I said, "They are irrelevant, there is no need to go into it."

Here, Freyr let out a low growl. Vidarr, tell them or I will.

Turning to glare at Freyr I snapped back, Why? It does not change anything if they know or not. I have no desire to bring up things from the past, and you know as well as I do that if I explain our personal history it will bring up questions that I know we will not want to answer.

It will be nothing that we would not have eventually told them anyway, what with us agreeing to share the past with them. I am no fool Vidarr; I understand that you do not like talking about your past. Who would with everything we have had to live through? However, that is no excuse to refuse to give them information.

I sat there fuming for several minutes, glaring at the massive dragon next to me. You know, sometimes I hate you.

It's because you know I am right, little one.

Ignoring that last bit I turned to face the young rider and sighed, "I guess you are correct Eragon. I do not enjoy speaking about my past, but as Freyr so politely put it, you all probably need to know.

"The fifth guild were the High Elves, although unofficially they were known as the Royals. This group was by far the smallest, only comprising the ruling family of elves. At our biggest, there were 37 members, but that number had started to fall long before the doom of our society."

"And what made that group special? Why were you chosen as the rulers?" The queen rudely interrupted.

"If I may your highness," Glorfindel interjected before I could respond to the queen. Giving my nod of assent the Master of War turned to the queen and explained what exactly separated us from the rest of the elven groups.

"My queen, you are of course familiar with the way our system of monarchs works, but allow me a moment to explain it to our newest rider to ensure he has no confusion about the vast differences with how our government now functions versus the way it once did." Turning to the young rider he gave a brief overview of the current political system in place. "Our government is headed by the queen and the royal family, young rider. However, there is a council of elves that have the power to unseat the monarch and veto any overreaching that may occur should we have a monarch who either grabs for more power than is right, or in the case that they may be unintentionally stepping outside of their authority. This was put into place because all elves in our current time are essentially equal. Baring riders, the only differences you see are just the innate talents that differ from one person to another. However," and here Glorfindel paused seeming conflicted on how he wanted to word the next part, "the Kings and Queens of old were simply different than the rest of us. It is something that has never been fully explained, even by our most successful scholars, but when elves were created there were three who were simply different. The rest of the species simply knew that these three were born to lead, and so lead they did." Glorfindel took a minute to sip from his cup, again appearing to decide how he should explain the next part. I was looking forward to hearing his explanation as I had never heard someone try to explain why we were the high elves before. This promised to be amusing.

"The reason they were special, your highness, is because, unlike the other guilds, excluding the low elves, they were not bound by a single extraordinary ability. For example, Rhunon is by far the best smith that we have today, however, should she attempt to fight, numerous elves could best her in combat. Similarly, there are no living elves, save Vidarr and now Oromis, who would even stand a chance of beating me in a fight, but ask me to smith a sword and I would be as inept as an untrained youngling. The Royal Family, they could be born with talents far surpassing even the greatest of those within the guilds, and still have other talents besides. Truthfully, the full extent of the Royal Family's power was never known, but it was supremely unwise to ever get on the bad side of one of them."

As Glorfindel finished his quick review of the high elves, I waited to see if anyone would have any questions or comments about what I had told them so far. The others all looked to be deep in thought, except the two who already knew this history. The Queen's daughter actually appeared to be having an internal debate on whether or not she wanted to speak up about something. Deciding to make it easier I said, "Speak what is on your mind Princess, I will not be offended by anything you wish to ask."

Straightening in her seat, the princess spoke quickly as if in a hurry to get the question out, "If what Glorfindel said about the original Royals is true, then shouldn't we be able to feel something different about you since you supposedly belong to this group?"

Chuckling slightly I responded, "Yes, typically you would be correct. The first three royals, my grandfather and his two brothers, did in fact have a presence about them. In truth, all of the Royal family did. However, at the time of the awakening, I decided that it would be counterproductive to the future of this country for me and the two others who survived to be so easily recognizable. As such, I have been hiding my true presence every single day for a little over eight thousand years."

"Will you let us feel it?" Eragon asked eagerly.

Laughing out loud, I took a minute to appreciate the enthusiasm of youth. The young rider was eagerly awaiting my answer, completely ignoring the exasperated looks he was receiving from the elder members of the circle, and I could not help but be amused by it. "Now is not the time youngling. As a matter of fact, it is getting late as it is, and I still have much to tell you all about the fall of our great society." I took a deep breath preparing to share the horrors that caused the end of our once mighty kingdoms. Freyr gave me a reassuring flick with his tongue, sending comforting feelings through our bond, knowing that this was going to be a difficult tale to tell.

"As Glorfindel explained, the Royal family was different from others. We were close, valuing family above anything else. We always supported each other, and in times of trouble, the ruling monarch could lean on any in the family that he needed to. For thousands of years, our family presided over a society largely at peace, dealing with any minor problems quickly and efficiently. We had the power and the will to enforce the few rules there were, and any dissenters did not last long. Unfortunately, it was this era of peace that cost us everything. We became complacent and believed that none could challenge the power that we as a family possessed. At the height of our power, even the entirety of the warrior guild would have had trouble besting my family."

Smiling slightly I mentally prepared for the next part of the telling. "Unfortunately, like most problems, the trouble started small. About fifteen hundred years after I took the throne, small problems started to occur with more frequency. At first, it was a band of urgals attacking a small village or a group of northern men attempting to overthrow their local ruler. However, over the span of about a decade, the problems were steadily increasing in both number and severity until one day I was made aware of a much larger problem."

I paused here, trying to figure out how best to explain this next part so that everyone would understand. "Glorfindel mentioned that the extent of our powers was unknown to everyone outside of the family. This is true, but one of the powers was the ability to feel each other. What I mean by that is that we could feel the well-being of the other members of the family; we knew when serious harm or death fell upon anyone in the family. Another thing you should all know is that all the members of our family were very rarely in the same place at the same time. Most members lived a fairly nomadic lifestyle, helping those they met on their travels, but for the most part simply exploring the world. At the time I finally was made aware that something more serious than some minor skirmishes was happening, only five members of the family were at the capital with me. My brother, Caed, was not one of them. He had left the capital some fifteen years prior, intent on studying some abnormal magic that had been discovered far to the north of the country. This was a fairly normal occurrence; Caed, being the strongest and most accomplished mage alive frequently left for years at a time to study the mysteries of the world." Sighing, I rubbed the bridge of my nose, once again feeling the sharp pain of a loss that I had avoided for years.

"I still do not know exactly what Caed found upon his journey, nor do I know what exactly caused him to become the first shade, but I do know how he accomplished his attempted coup. Over the years of his absence, Caed had traveled the country, imprisoning the members of our family that were traveling. The rest of us remained unaware of this since no serious harm came to any of them. Once Caed had the family imprisoned he started turning them into shades as well, including the few dragons that had bonded with members of the family."

The color drained from his face, Oromis whispered, "What do you mean the dragons?"

"Caed had somehow figured out how to make any living creature into a shade," I responded, taking in all the horrified looks around the fire. "By the time he launched his assault on the kingdom, Caed had a literal army of shades. The only reason we managed to triumph is that he had very few members of the warrior guild within his army. His main forces were made up of a species similar to humans, who lived far in the north, urgals, and animals that had all been converted to shades. Even then, it took the combined effort of elves, dwarves, and the ancient dragons to defeat his army, and we only barely won. Less than one hundred dwarvish warriors survived, and of the elves, only the low elves and the children who had been sent away survived. Of the Royals, only myself, one of my younger brothers, and a cousin survived." Falling into silence, I stared at the flames as images I had long thought suppressed flashed through my mind. The horrors of fighting legions of shades, and being faced with family members who had been perverted by dark magics. Freyr continued to send comforting feelings across our bond, but he too was faced with the memories of the atrocities we faced.

"We should break for tonight, and in the morning we can reconvene and discuss plans when we are all freshly rested," Oromis interjected. "You have left us with much to think about."

Nodding in agreement, the rest of the group all stood, some stretching after having been stationary for so long. I moved over towards Freyr, leaning against his neck as one by one the group left the clearing. After a few minutes only Glorfindel, Freyr, and I remained, Oromis and Glaedr having helped take the others back into Ellesmera.

"Do you wish to speak more tonight your highness?" Glorfindel asked, somewhat reluctantly.

Sighing I turned my gaze towards the stars. I have always been fond of the night sky, and tonight was perfectly clear, giving a completely unhindered look at the heavens. "Not tonight Glorfindel. I am tired. Funny to say, I know, seeing as I just awoke from a two thousand year slumber, but what I speak of is not simply physical exhaustion. I am old Glorfindel. Even by our standards, I have endured longer than most, and I have seen and done more than any left alive today. I think for the rest of the night, I wish to just lay under the stars, and dream of better days."

"Of course, your highness," He responded. "But Vidarr," and here I turned away from the sky to look at him once more, "I know I am not as old as you, but I have seen many years myself. Do not forget, not everything deserves to be remembered with sorrow. Remember fondly our better years, but do not forget to dream of what may yet be possible given a little bit of hope."

With that Glorfindel turned and walked into the trees, not once looking back towards either me or Freyr. I stared after him for a few minutes before Freyr bumped me on the shoulder to gain my attention. Nodding towards a comfortable-looking patch of grass, I lay down next to Freyr and allowed my mind to wander, waiting for sleep to claim me.

Vidarr?

Yes, Freyr?

Glorfindel is right. It has been many years since we took an active role in the shaping of our world. Perhaps the time has come to once again help this world to be great.

I think you may be right, brother of my heart. And with that last thought, I drifted into the land of dreams.