At long last, another chapter.
I am really, truly sorry about how long it has taken me to get this chapter finished and uploaded. I started in early July and promptly ran face-first into really bad writer's block, and then I started school again and ever since I've been battling through the most busy semester I've ever had. On top of having no time to even sleep, much less write, this chapter has been singularly difficult to finish. The version I'm posting here is the sixth complete rewrite and seventh draft I wrote, and I literally only finished it last night. I did finish, though, and the semester ends next week, so I am determined to write as much ahead as possible over the holiday. And the long hiatus did me some good; I fixed the last big plot hole for this fic, and now the only thing left is for me to actually write the chapters. I plan to go back to a regular update schedule from now on, and if I can I may even post more often. Until then, thank you so much for your patience while I was writing this chapter, and I hope you enjoy!
Unlike Yaela, Invidia held her lessons out on the paving stones of the Court, with the dragons and their Riders sprawled in a loose semicircle around her. Corrin was sitting in the hollow of Kiera's neck, keeping a hold on the spines to either side for balance. Leah was reclining on the ground parallel to her dragon, propping herself up on an elbow, and Varog sat on a coil of Galzra's tail. Saphira had chosen to absent herself from this lesson, though Eragon and Murtagh both stood by Thorn, a little ways behind the six apprentices.
Invidia herself, the dark-haired elf woman who Corrin had met in the mirror room the previous day, was seated comfortably on a padded stool. "Good morrow. As about half of you already know, we are picking up the lesson cycle about where we started when I first began teaching this class, with the history of Vroengard and the Riders. Corrin, Kiera, I believe in a discussion-based teaching method, and since you two are the newest I'll be picking on you first. Can either of you tell me just what it was that the Riders did?"
Corrin gulped and sat up straighter. "Well," he started hesitantly, "they were warriors, of course. It was their job to stop wars and to protect people against…" Kiera stopped him from saying 'Urgals', and Corrin belatedly remembered that Varog was sitting only feet away. "Ah, against creatures like the Ra'zac."
"That was very good," Varog commented from his seat, "almost no pause at all. But you can say also that they were defending from my people. I am not ashamed."
Corrin felt himself flush red with embarrassment, but Invidia rescued him. "Were the Riders only warriors, then?"
No, Kiera interjected. They were also scholars, and messengers, and… healers, maybe?
"They were indeed," Invidia agreed, before looking around. "Anyone else want to contribute?"
"Linguists?" suggested Leah.
Invidia frowned thoughtfully. "True, to an extent, but don't forget that in those days Riders only really needed to learn the ancient language and perhaps the human tongue."
Judges, rumbled Galzra.
Invidia nodded. "All good answers, and all true, but also all things that could just as easily be done by those who weren't Riders. I'm looking for something that only the Riders could do effectively across nations and races. It has to do with why the Riders were created in the first place."
The apprentices were all silent for a moment, glancing at each other in hopes of a hint. "Think it through," Invidia suggested. "The Riders were formed in the wake of…?"
The Rider War, Kiera filled in, clearly struggling to make the connection Invidia was looking for. And, the Riders were formed to connect the two races, and… to.. prevent another war? Between elves and dragons?
"Exactly." Invidia said quietly. "The Riders, first and foremost, are peacekeepers.
"The order of the Riders was created in the aftermath of what we elves still consider the most devastating war in our history, by the two individuals who, against all odds, brought it to a peaceful close. The job of a Rider is to pick up a sword in times of war, yes, and also negotiate their endings and to judge those who are guilty when the conflict subsides, but most of all it is their duty to stop the wars before they happen. They may fight, or study, or heal, or judge, but they do so for the ultimate goal of preventing conflict in the land.
"That is why you six must study history. How can you negotiate a peace between two groups, whether of differing races or the same, if you haven't bothered to learn their beliefs and point of view?" Invidia pinned Varog with a sharp eye. "Varog, rulers of human nations often enforce peace after a conflict by ordering the belligerents to surrender their arms; how do you think your tribe would react if someone tried to deal with them the same way?"
Varog snorted with harsh amusement. "We would kill them, of course, and perhaps if they died with courage we might not seek revenge for the insult."
"And Leah," Invidia continued, shifting focus, "if your people heard of a human tribe doling out such a punishment to an envoy, what would they do or think?"
"They'd want to punish the ones who killed the herald," Leah replied, glancing sideways at Varog, "probably by executing them in turn."
Invidia nodded. "You begin to see my point. Leah, Varog, Corrin, all of you grew up inundated in a certain culture, and your dragons, to an extent, have picked up the traits of those cultures from you. However, you are Shur'tugal now, and in order to do the job that the Riders were created for, you have to learn about and empathize with the cultures of all the races you administer to. And I say 'empathize' with a specific intent, just as I have this talk at the beginning of the lessons on Vroengard for a specific intent, because in some ways the Riders of Vroengard failed in that task."
It took Corrin a moment to process that, and then he sat up so quickly he nearly slid down off Kiera's back. "What?"
Invidia opened her mouth to reply, but Kiera beat her to it. I think you must explain further, Ebrithil, for I do not understand you in the slightest. Her words were polite, but there was an edge of tension in her thoughts that told Corrin she was upset.
"Certainly," Invidia answered. "If the duty of the Riders was to maintain the peace, then the rise of Galbatorix and the Forsworn is indisputably a failure, because the events that followed were arguably the most destructive war since Du Fyrn Skulblaka."
Corrin gaped. "But that wasn't the Rider's fault!"
Invidia cocked an eyebrow at him. "Wasn't it? They failed to empathize well enough with Galbatorix to know what he would do when they denied him a new dragon. They also failed to notice the seeds of madness in him before his dragon's death if they were present."
Leah raised a hand to object. "But he can't have been mad before, or else Jarnunvosk would never have chosen him."
"They do not do it often, Leah," Invidia corrected quietly, "but the dragons can choose wrongly. Or they may be just as flawed as any human, elf, dwarf, or urgal. Take the Wyrdfell, for instance, if we set aside Galbatorix for a moment; they all, Riders and dragons both, chose to betray their order without even the excuse of grief over such a terrible loss as Rider or dragon. Some did it for cruelty or greed, all flaws which the Riders had overlooked and allowed to fester among members of their ranks, and others did it because, as they claimed, the Riders had already lapsed in their duties."
Had they? interjected Galzra, strangely calm in the midst of the rapidly heating debate.
Invidia tilted her head to one side, thinking. "It's possible," she conceded lightly. "Certainly even the scholars of the time had started to notice that with Alagaesia relatively at peace, most of any Rider's time was spent either on Vroengard or being entertained in lavish fashion among the free races, and some elder Riders never left the island at all in peacetime. And, sad to say, there is a little truth to that claim Galbatorix always made, that the Riders hoarded their knowledge in their strongholds."
Thuviel snorted. But even if the Forsworn's cause might have been valid, their methods certainly were not! There should have been a solution which did not involve wholescale war and genocide.
"That is sentiment of weakness," Varog said firmly. "There are problems which are not to be solved with diplomacy, especially if the opponent is too arrogant to listen, which I strongly suspect the old Riders would be."
"So you think the Forsworn were justified?!" Corrin demanded.
"No. But Thuviel spoke of a hypothetical, where the Forsworn truly believed that the Riders were failing in their duties. Among my people, to challenge those you believe to be in the wrong is… an honor, a… agh, I do not know the word," and then he turned to Invidia and growled a short phrase in the urgal tongue.
Invidia frowned. " I know the concept," she said. " Civic duty might be a good translation, or civic responsibility."
Civic responsibility, then, Thuviel acceded, but the application of violence, particularly on the scale the Forsworn used, is at the least straying into unreasonable reaction.
From a certain point of view, rumbled Galzra.
'From a certain point of view' does not and should not excuse an issue with the moral weight of the actions of the Fall, Kiera stated flatly.
"Agreed," Invidia interrupted, "and let us stop there for now. I suspect the subject will come up many more times, but at this moment let me simply repeat that understanding and empathy are necessary in Shur'tugal; understanding and empathy not just for the free races you are bound to protect, but for each other as well.
"You are the guardians of Alagaesia, but there is no one to guard you but each other. Galbatorix and his Forsworn weren't born evil. In the beginning they, humans, elves, and dragons alike, were students, no different that you all. So it is you six and those who come after you who must ensure that the next Galbatorix is not sitting at this moment before me. History has patterns, and if you study them hard enough, you might just be able to help avoid the consequences when time brings them round again."
Three points about this chapter.
First, I know that at the end there Varog was very articulate compared to how I've previously written him, so keep in mind that this debate goes on in the ancient language and that Varog speaks that language way better than he does the human tongue.
Second, Corrin has a reaction to Invidia's lecture pretty much identical to when Oromis first plays devil's advocate with Eragon, but that was purposeful. I decided that since this story is going on only five years after Galbatorix's death, there wouldn't really have been time for public opinion to mellow, so characters, especially those not from the Empire, would still have the knee-jerk reaction that Corrin displays.
Third, on top of being the devil's advocate, Invidia is also arguing a common phenomenon after wars called the Revisionist argument. This usually occurs a few years/decades after the conclusion of a war, in which historians start to question the history written by the victors of a conflict and to consider the victor's culpability. Although the main scholarship of Alagaesia hasn't reached that point yet, Invidia is centuries old and has seen the phenomenon enough times to predict it and guess what it will say about the Fall and the Rider War. One example in the real world is the Cold War between the USA and the USSR, where the American historians originally placed all responsibility for the Cold War on the USSR, but then after the Vietnam War had turned public opinion against the US's interventionist policy, historians started to question whether the US might have shared responsibility for the hostilities. On an unrelated note, guess what I've been learning in my history class! :P
As always, I appreciate every word of constructive criticism, so if there was something you liked or didn't like in this chapter, or you noticed any mistakes in editing or consistency, please feel free to let me know!