A TALE OF BETRATYAL

Galbatorix's rise to power as told by a man who is both his old master and the last of the forsworn!

Disclaimer:Eragon belongs to Christopher Paolinini.

Close to the entire Varden as well as Du Vrang Grata had assembled. Dwarvish and elvish spell weavers stood side by side, ready to fight. Bows were strung ,spells were readied. Even Arya and Angela stood ready but neither of them looked as if they thought they were going to survive. "Tell them to stand down" said the voice in Eragon's head. Eragon glanced at Saphira who was looking excited. The green dragon landed. "Hold- Eragon began. Suddenly thousands of arrowws mixed with fire,ice shards and other magical blasts shot at the rider. He lazily flicked his hand. Every single arroww froze in mid air and fell to the ground. He raised his left hand, whilst his right hand glowed his left hand blazed with silver light. He yelled something in a voice so deep that Eragon couldn't hear and the magical blasts dissappered.He jumped of the dragons back without any form of grace. Eragon felt his intellect and felt it was as vast as Oromis's intellect. But while Oromis felt kind, good and pure this mind felt manuplative, caculating and ancient. Eragon noted that despite the fact that he was definitly a very old rider his ears were rounded. The rider walked towards him and said in a clear voice " Greetings Shadeslayer"

Eragon noted that Saphira and the green dragon were already playing some strange sort of game. Saphira kept trying to bite his tail whilst the green dragon kept singing his tail away. The rider noticed Eragon was looking. " I see Saphira and Eridor are getting along well. The game they are playin was genarrally played by master and apprentice Dragons. It improves fighting skill and it places the older dragon at little risk." Eragon was shocked. This rider just flew in here as if it didn't matter who he was! "Who are you?" asked Eragon trying to stay polite. "I'm known by many names and titles" the rider said calmly. "The betrayer, elvesbane, slayer of kings and my real name, Palancar II. But my fiends used to call me Karris." Eragon was considering his options. The rider wasn't hostile but if his titles said anything it meant he wasn't friendly with elves or kings. "What to you want?" asked Eragon his face a polite mask. "Several things but the reason I'm here is simple. My spell activated and that means only one thing. There is a new rider who is here to oppose Galbatorix. And I am here to train him." " Lets go to my tent" said Eragon leading the way , a slight amount of worry on his face.

When the two riders were comfortably seated. Eragon worked up the courage to ask "Why were you known by those titles?" The elves and several others were outside listening with magic. The entire varden could hear. "I know" said Karris in Eragon's mind. "Now to answer those questions you must first understand three things. The fall of the house of Palancar, the ancient plot against the riders and Galbatorix' rise to power as told by his master and a member of the old forsworn.Me. Now let us begin..."

Three thousand years ago the first human fleet arrived on Algaesia. We made a settlement in what is now Teirm. For ten years we prospered and spread out. In that time the empire was a triangle that formed between Gil'ead,Teirm and Ceunon. During that time we had an occaisional skirmish with the urgals but nothing else. King Palancar found his noble house in what is now Carvarhall. Then the wars started. Palancar had declared war on the "magical monsters" we now know as elves. In the first three battles we were crushed with ease. The strengh of the elves could not be matched. But we learned. We watched. We knew the war could be won. But we would have the be smart to do it. No fighting elves directly. No challenging them to fights. Why do that when you can kill them in their sleep? Poison their food? The elves used the same strategies against the dragons. Remeber the broken nests? Never mind. In any case when the war was turning to our favour (though it wouldn't remain that way for long) the elves had convinced the nobles to betray Palancar. Palancar's lost everything but his property in Carvarhall. He lived there for some time.Now the ancient plot...

Now who formed this ancient plot? Who formed a plot that managed to defeat the combined armies of three races and the dragon riders?The son of king Palancar. Me.

Now when I turned then ten was chosen to be the first human rider. Back then I was stil young and managable. Eridor hatched for me. I was by far the one of the most powerfull riders in those times. Yes , I'm three thousand years old. Anyway, after nineteen years I decided I was powerfull enough to begin my father's plan.He was so proud of me. I still remember his speech "My boy, you will rid the world of these elves, save humanity and continue my lecacy!" I smiled coldly at him and said "Don't worry Dad I'll take care of the the elves, I'll take care of everything" . Hmmm... he shivered just like you did. I raised my blade that is now known as elvesbane. "What are you doing my boy?" he asked without any fear. He thought I was his little lapdog. "Succeding you" I whispered and brought the blade down hard on his neck. My three sons then started living in the castle. When all was said and done I would return to Carvahall and fetch my desendends. Whatever I would conquer, they would rule in my stead. But Eridor changed me. I still wanted to crush the elves but instead of brutish obvious plans may plans were changed to become subltle and slower to a point. As you now when the rebellion started it crushed the riders swiftly. So for two thousand years I plotted and trained.

After two thousand years my plans were complete. Assemble a loyal brotherhood of human riders and crush thenelven riders. If the humans control the riders they would be invincible. No, it didn't take me two thousand years to think of that. It took two thousand years to perfect spells and strategies that would ensure victory. In the following eight hundered years I sowed disent and chaos in the ranks. I also convinced Vrael to send the angry riders on the most dangerous missions. Not only did it make them angrier it also made sure that only the strongest riders would be in the forsworn. Two hundred years ago I had assembeld six powerfull riders and two apprentices in the forsworn. I still knew all that we lacked was more power. And then I was assigned a new apprentice. A man named Galbatorix...

Now Galbatorix was my greatest apprentice since Oromis. Yes , I was also Oromis' master. That is the reason he is stil alive. But more about that later. Galbatorix's training went quickly. Under my supervion he had ,in weeks attained the power many cannot get in years. I had planted a seed of hate in him. He hated the elves with a great passion. His home city was burned due to an elvish accident. At the age of eightteen he was deadly. I firmly believed when his dragon was grown enough we could crush the riders. Unfortanetly my training had a bad effect on him. It made him overconfident. He and the other two apprentices decided to test their powers in the Spine. And though he was as deadly as any rider his dragon wasn't. When he returned he was a shell of what he once was. But I alone saw into his hart. Power blazed there.The spine didn't kill him. It only made him stronger. Later that day I spoke to him. I reawoke the old idea of a plot. I knew a new plan was needed. Unfortanetly an elder overheard us. I managed to convince him to stay quite for the time being.In the night Galbatorix came back and killed him and the elf who helped him do it. The fates were probably against us because at that moment a large amount of riders came. Galbatorix fled and continued his training while I improvised.By now the size of the forsworn had grown to ten.Myself included. Me and Galbatorix made a plan with Morzan and we ended up with a black dragon named Shruikan.After ten years I decided their training was going perfectly so I decided it was time for the forsworn to be unleashed.

Now the forsworn had three things that made us close to invincible. One was a technique I invented for breaking into minds. People thought Galbatorix was a master at it but he was just using my little skill. The second was that for every rider we defeated our power grew. That took me the longest to design but when it was finished it was my masterpiece. Third, we had the ability to lie in the ancient language. Now on their own those abilities are pretty useless. Remember the spell to increase power took an ten minutes. If Vrael threw everything he had at us immedietly we wouldn't have stood a chance. But we were ready. My plans to get riders alone were perfect. I had worked on them for two thousand years. For most part we used our ability to lie in the ancient language. I'll explain how the spells and techniques work later. We acted as though we found the forsworn and trapped them. This was done by me and Levain. We were stil trusted. We took the riders too our base in groups of elven or ten. We took over four hundred riders that way. We then openly began our attack on Vroengrad. Our powers were so great, and with no way of keeping us out of their minds they fell before our onslaught. Only three riders managed to truly stand against us. Vrael,Brom and Oromis. Vrael because of his great power. Brom because his sheer rage stopped us from reading his mind. And Oromis Because he helped me perfect some of our techniques. But other than that everything was going perfectly. Two more riders had joined the forsworn. After Vrael was wounded by Galbatorix, Morzan killed Brom's dragon and I severed Gleadr' leg ,Vroengrad was ours.

But we couldn't rest. There were stil three people left with the power to resist us. We made our way to them when we saw that the elves had gathered a massive army.We also noted that next to the elvish king Evander stood Oromis. I smiled. My hour of wrath had come. I had no time for a speech like my father would have done. I just cried "For Vengance!" and flew at their army. The rest of the forsworn were shocked. They never before had seen me with bloodlust in my eyes. Galbatorix and Morzan were at my side immiedietly. They may have been evil but they were dead loyal. The rest of the forsworn charged afterwards. Morzan fought Oromis, while me and Galbatorix ripped their army apart. We were winning when Evander made his stand. With thirteen spell weavers at his side. One for each of us. We had crushed their army so we dismounted and walked towards them. "I want Evander" I said before jumping into the battle without any thought of protection. I would have died if not for Galbatorix. He killed their spell weavers before the could hurt me. I slashed hard. Evander blocked but was forced to step back. I swung with every move I knew of but it was for naught. We were almost completely even. I knew what he was doing. In my rage I was tiring quickly. He would wait until I was tired enough for it to make a difference and strike me down. I relaxed. He slashed at me which was what is was waiting for. Calling fire to my blade I slashed right through his and kicked him in the stomache. Laying on his back he asked me "Would you kill a defencless opponent?" trying to look brave. "Yes". I stabbed him through the hart. Three thousand years of plotting had borne fruit. We now only had the leader of the riders left.

We found Vrael at Utgard Mountian trying to recover from the previous battle. We didn't give him that chance. Galbatorix asked the right for single combat so that he could "revenge himself on the riders." Only I knew his true agenda. He wanted to fight Vrael so that he could absorb his power. He knew the one who took Vrael's power would be the strongest one of us. During the fight Galbatorix kicked Vrael between the legs and used that to gain the advantage. He put on the spell for draining power. The spell is complete once the person it's used on dies. With a blazing sword he killed the leader of the riders.

Afterwards we went and killed the head of the Broddring Kingdom. It was in the beginning agreed that my desendants would rule the empire. When the "king" died Galbatorix stared into the red jewel on top of the crown. "Well ,gentleman this was fun" I said. "Three Thousand years is a long time to wait for vengance. Well for what its worth it was worth all the while.If you will excuse me I have a noble house to reform." I turned and started to walk out. "No" said Galbatorix. I turned. His sword was drawn. "What to you mean no?" I asked appearring calm put my hand rested on my blade. "I mean no, I worked to hard for this, I killed Vrael, I bled,I suffered and I still find no peace! This empire belongs to me! Nobody will take it from me! Not you, not the elves , not the dwarves! Nobody!" For the first time I saw the madness in his eyes. I drew my sword. For three hours we fought but in the end there could be no victor. Pouring all of my magic into a single spell I rid myself of him for a few minutes. I ran out and me and Eridor left. On that day Galbatorix disappeared and King Galbatorix came in his stead. And since that day he has ruled us.