THE SCATHACH
"It has been some time."
Alauinel's eyes opened, but they only saw a bright and blinding light. Warmth passed over her face in steady intervals. The wind sung as it softly parted her long locks.
The banished elf princess felt the soft and meadable earth take in her slight weight. Sightless, she groped her arms and chest, checking herself for her wounds. But she felt none.
Alauinel smiled as she rose to her feet. Naked toes flexed between wet dirt, and she felt the slight tickle of newborn grass nestling underneath her heels.
"The Eldeena are nearly depleted. We must hurry."
"What do you see, Osorion?" Alauinel asked. Her dragon, guiding her by hand in his human form, hissed.
"Your sight will be back soon enough. It is best we don't waste energy speaking here. If we run out of magic before we reach him, we'll both be dead in the real world."
So Alauinel followed silently. The bright whiteness that graced her was beginning to take shape and color. She believed she could begin to make out a deeply purple sky, peppered with blinking stars.
The ground seemed to turn from cool earth to cold stone as they walked. As they traveled she felt no magic, no residual ebb and flow that had always been aware to her, even as a child.
She thought of Islanzadi, chuckling as she remembered her surprise at Islanzadi's feint.
She had meant to die- but not at that point. The sealed elves had collected almost enough blood to unseal him, but she could tell from Osorion's hurry that they hadn't gathered enough yet.
Arya is doing a good job defending the capital, then. Alauinel smiled as she blinked newly formed eyelids, hazily making out Osorion's back as she pulled her hand free from his.
He turned to her, face pale as it slowly was chipping away. He was her anchor to the spirit world, as his body was still in the material one. But the longer they stayed here.. the more strain it put on Osorion's mind. If his mind broke, it would result in his death- and Alauinel's own final demise.
They walked between rows of black trees, organized neatly as they guarded the stone path as it curled upwards into a glowing and cavernous maw. Small bubbles of opaque spheres rose from a soup churning from within the maw. Alauinel's blue eyes flexed as she regarded the pool.
"The seal." She said simply.
Osorion offered nothing but a grave stare. Alauinel lowered her head with a smirk, and stepped forward. She raised her hand over the maw, stretching fingers out to their full length.
Then, she saw darkness.
Hello, Elf Girl.
"ALAUINEL!"
Wind flew past Osorion as he was pushed backward. White smoke billowed from where Alauinel had previously stood- but she was nowhere to be seen.
The maw bubbles even more violently as the ground began to shake. Cracks threatened the stone path below him, while trees shrieked as trunks splintered and ebony leaves engulfed in flame.
A clawed hand burst through hissing membrane of inky coal. Curling into a fist, it slammed onto the still cracking earth.
Osorion's eyes widened as he heard a low groan emanate from the widening cracks that webbed the earth below, revealing gushing streams of steaming blood.
The hand pulled at chunks of stone as it attempted to free the rest of its body. Haunting groans, as if from the gods themselves, grew louder and louder, until a shrieking crescendo filled the inside of Osorion's head.
The maw exploded in a violent bedlam of blood and fire, and an ensuing quake shook Osorion to his hands and knees. Dark mist spurred forth like an advancing ghost, and in its wake the earth cooled and calmed- fissures closed while the trees righted themselves, and their leaves waved softly within the soothing embrace of the vile smoke that doused their flames.
No sound could be heard, and Alauinel was still unseen.
A pale figure emerged from the smoke ahead of Osorion. Pointed ears poked from a veil of black curls. The figure was naked, but from the waist down, it's legs and feet were bathed in a shadowy and wispy material that almost seemed like fire. A long tail whipped from behind it, bearing the head of a serpent-like dragon.
It stepped forward unsteadily, wavering from side to side. It fell over, and Osorion watched, transfixed, as this creature pulled itself into a seated position.
It looked at Osorion with a blank face, dark eyes devoid of recognition.
"SO this is where you're keeping him." The human named Roran said as his brown eyes regarded Eragon and his dragon, trapped in a catatonic state within a circle of seals.
Arya's boots clacked against the floor as she circled the seal. She paused, placing her hand on her blade's hilt.
"I felt it, you know."
Roran gave Arya a quizzical look.
"Felt what?"
Arya gripped her pommel tighter as she grit her teeth.
"Release this child from your trickery, Morzan." She demanded.
Roran lurched forward as his mouth opened in a silent gasp. A spider familiar crawled between Roran's white teeth, before dropping harmlessly onto the ground.
Roran's body followed.
I'm impressed.
Morzan's voice rang through Arya's head as the spider slinked into the shadows of the crypt.
"Don't play coy. You made yourself known to me." Arya said.
"And I wanted to see what you'd do. Thus far, I'm impressed."
"Islanzadi and Oromis are gone." Arya said softly. She looked at Eragon, suspended in the air above her.
"He's too weak."
Arya's eyes narrowed towards the darkened corner.
"So are you here to help me stop Alauinel?"
"I'm not here to stop Alauinel. But it seems our interests do align at the moment. The boy named Roran is of kin with your precious Rider. And they are both the key in preventing my visions from coming true."
Arya's brows furrowed. She held her hand over her stomach, touching the life that grew with each passing day.
Morzan, the foremost of the forsworn and destroyer of the dragon riders. Morzan, the Dark Rider who instructed Alauinel. A warlock of terrifying power.
Eragon's father.
Arya placed both of her hands against the ethereal blue wall of the seal. She gradually released magic from the pores of her skin, moving her lips in tandem with ancient incantations.
"Verroffeśchenda." Arya whispered. Eragon and Saphira both alighted softly. Eragon landed on his feet, eyes still closed. Arya approached the circle leaning her head forward as Eragon's own nodded.
"Eragon." Arya roughly tapped him on his forehead, and the young rider jolted awake. At the same moment Saphira wriggled awake, uncoiling her wings and causing Arya to jump backwards as the dragon began to take up her full height.
Confusion visibly passed between them, and Arya could almost hear the conversation that Eragon and Saphira were having with one another subconsciously.
Eragon's eyes settled on Arya.
"So you put me to sleep."
Despite herself, Arya felt a pang of defensiveness.
"To protect you."
Eragon grinned.
"So I suppose I don't need protection anymore then?"
Arya closed her eyes in annoyance, stretching her arm to Roran, laid out on the floor.
"Is this human your brother?"
Arya had seen Eragon's eyes. She saw them when they first met, in what seems like a millennia ago. They had been childlike and naive. She then saw them after he had killed- a wild fire was within them- vindication mixed with sadness and fury.
She had seen his eyes when her reasoning had lapsed, allowing him to be with her. She bit back the regret that haunted her decision, remembering how his eyes looked that night then, too.
But here, something was different. It was something akin to dumbfoundedness. He said nothing as he approached Roran's body. Arya watched Eragon's back begin to shudder as he slowly collapsed into the heaving body of the much bigger man.
Arya did allow herself a small smile then. It very may well be the last happy thing she would see.
The only thing Islanzadi could think was how.
She was doubled over, still hidden within Ra'zacul's dunes. The seal that had been in place since before the Riders was gone. But she had won- Alauinel's corpse was right before her-
"Gholobhor.." she rasped as wind began to spread ash over her body. Closing her fingers around her blade, she forced her body to continue.
She wasn't done yet. Especially not now.
I'm all that's left. I won't allow my failures to ruin this world.
Islanzadi pooled magic from within herself, latching onto the tethers she left behind at the battlefield. Blood poured from her wounds, and despite her pain, she continued. Licking the blood that dribbled from the corner of her mouth, Islanzadi transcended realms, snapping into existence high in the night sky. Sighing, Islanzadi's lungs breathed in the crisp air greedily. She floated above swaying evergreens, safe from the burning orange flames that engulfed Gillendel's perimeter.
The seals that fueled her strength would soon give out. If need be, she needed to preserve just enough for her people to escape. If it came to it.. she would give her life. But before she could do that, she knew she had to finish what she started.
With the seal broken, she knew that somehow; Alauinel had eluded her. And before Islanzadi could leave this earth, she had to ensure that her daughter was dead.
NEXT CHAPTER: APRIL 2, 2019 "Eragon and Murtagh"