BRISINGR
Questions painted Arya's mind.
Vizcelia's face swam within her psyche, rattling between clenched teeth like a jailed prisoner.
Who was she? But more importantly-
Does this mean Islanzadi and Oromis are dead?
Blood wept bountifully on the streets of her once peaceful realm. As Arya tore herself from the battlements of Gillendel, another, darker musing resounded within her- a dreadhorn's echo, reverberating behind eyes that wept burning tears.
Is this the end of Elfkind?
Gillendel was awash in flame. Vizcelia waited until the Laen were at their weakest point, pestering their lines with suicidal assaults as Arya's numbers wore down. Then, she denied hope of a war of attrition by bringing the Sealed and their Ra'zac directly within.
Toned legs bent as they landed on cobbled ground. Arya launched herself forwards, flashing a silver sword to her side as she ran.
Sealed Elves engaged with surviving coalition forces, corralling them deeper within the city's urban flats while they pressed their advance. Dark Elf screams petrified the wind, buffeting Arya's nerves while cutting down a broken army with spear and sword and axe.
"Arya!" Cambion's voice hailed from above while Saphira's shadow crept over the Queen.
Arya gritted her teeth, amplifying her voice with mana.
"Do you know where Roran is?" She asked.
It was Saphira who answered her.
I believe he's in the southern districts- along with the Xoshan girl and Orik.
"Saphira- you and Cambion regroup with Roran. Your abilities will compliment each other. I will handle things here."
Will you be safe?
Arya smiled upwards to Saphira.
Your worry is appreciated, Saphira. But we no longer have the luxury to concern ourselves with safety.
Hesitation welled from the Dragon, palpable emotion waterfalling within their shared mental link.
I'll be fine, Arya assured.
Just make sure Roran is safe. He might be instrumental in saving what little we have left.
Saphira began to rise in altitude as a final question fluttered from her to Arya's mind.
Do you have a plan?
The Queen furrowed a heavy brow.
Not yet. Though I will say careening into certain death without plan hasn't failed me thus far, Arya answered unabashedly.
Saphira purred.
You're starting to sound like Eragon.
Arya hid a grin within herself as a flap of leathery wings sent black hair billowing across a scarred visage. Arya paused, watching the Dragon's tail as Saphira whipped deeper into Gillendel's smoking flats.
"I know."
The Queen scanned the horizon. Sealed Elves choked Gillendel's streets, cornering isolated pockets of Laen Elves intermixed with Varden troops. She didn't see any Raz'ac- but she could sense them. The Letherbalka and their spawn seemed to be waiting above, hiding among the clouds.
No doubt they were looking for the most opportune moment to fell Arya together along with her most powerful allies.
Night encroached all around Arya, darkness painted a dire Kingdom. She needed to contact Orrin.
But to do that, she needed a scry pool. A powerful one.
Ahead, Gillendel's spellwork academy of Rethulianel stood resolute in the dark. The high, spearlike spire stabbed into churning skies.
Arya moved instantly. She swept downwards, gracefully moving through toppled marble pillars that lined the city grounds. On either side of her, flames crackled, beating against alabaster buildings that had stood the test of aeons-
Until now.
As she traveled towards the spire Sealed Elves clawed between Gillendel, chittering amongst themselves incessantly between yapping chants. Arya subdued her powerful mana, masking it so she wouldn't alert the invaders.
There would be time to fight- but before anything, Arya knew that she had to contact Orrin- contact someone. If all of her people were doomed here...
No.
The Queen bit sharply upon the outcome fate graciously waved before her.
I don't have time for such pitiful thoughts.
I am Queen.
Rethulianel's doors waited just ahead. Arya froze.
Bodies- human, Dwarib, and Laen hung from the outstretched hands of a statue bearing the face of her forebear, Aryan.
Slit throats seeped steady streams of blood into the fountains basin. As Arya approached, she saw a figure drinking from the maroon pool.
A thin and waiflike body stood before the fountain,wavering in the night. Tanned, leathery hands greedily dug through the basin, splashing blood across the ground as it brought up palmful after palmful of blood to a waiting mouth.
Raz'ac.
Foul mana spread from this creature, twisting and contorting the air.
"I know you're there, Queen of Elves." The Raz'ac susurrated.
"Then again, you know I am here as well." It said with a curt laugh as it turned.
The Raz'ac had onyx hair that was neatly combed down the sides of either cheek. Between its long locks, a slanted eye blinked at the crest of its head. Mouth-like slits lined the Raz'ac's tanned face, but only one mouth moved when it spoke.
"I had hoped to meet you here, my liege."
Arya readied her blade.
"So then you hope to die?" Arya pushed her legs against the ground, propelling herself forward as mana fueled her muscles. The Raz'ac pressed two palms together, releasing them as a smoking chakram swirled into reality.
The demon brandished its new weapon with a flourish, meeting Arya's blade comfortably behind a veil of black hair.
"Death? Such a mundane understanding you carry. I have lived, but I have also died. It is because of the Prince that I am here."
Arya snarled, pushing her sword against the Raz'ac's circular weapon. It stumbled backwards, allowing Arya to recoil the point of her blade as she ran her palm against the length of its edge.
"Trenya Obdhulorian!" She bellowed as a laser-thin point of electricity shot forth from her cutlass. The Raz'ac's body twisted, evading Arya's magic as the fountain erupted in an explosion of smoke, sparking with residual mana.
"You're not the only one here. I sensed the others." Arya waved her hand across the ruined courtyard, forcing dark clouds away from the Raz'ac.
It stepped forward, two chakrams in each hand. The creature opened its palms, allowing the four disks to freely float above it.
"Ah yes. There are many. I want to enjoy you- if not for a short while."
Arya smirked.
"You'll regret not begging for their help."
The Queen pooled mana within her. The discs jerked in the air suddenly, spinning with vicious abandon as they rounded towards Arya. The young Elf sidestepped one disc as it churned the ground at her feet, easily cutting into cobbled stone.
Three more advanced as the first rolled backwards. Arya slashed at the chakrams while they harried her, zipping across her eyes as she deftly evaded.
Their weapons clanged together in a dulled symphony, accompanied only by the splash of blood as Arya moved.
"Help? Help?" The Raz'ac chuckled.
"I can see it on your face. The fear, the confusion. Vizcelia.. Vizcelia graced you. You know more than I that between the both of us, it is not me who will need help."
Arya gasped as a spear of blood squelched into existence, hardening in seconds as it sprung from its maroon pool. She stepped backwards, swearing as the spear cut the corner of her forehead. As she hopped backwards, the four chakrams circled her.
Arya summoned her mana.
"Wëgschzieben!" A pulse of air flowed forth, carrying the chakrams away as they skipped back into the waiting hands of the Raz'ac.
The demon hissed playfully.
"You are skilled, Queen of Elves. I am not surprised that Vizcelia wanted to meet you. I'm sure that she would've lingered with you, had she not other pressing matters." The speaking slit curled into a facsimile of a smile, embedded in leathery skin.
"Though perhaps I have said too much.."
Arya saw Islanzadi's face once more- familiar yet alien, she felt again the magic, bountifully stored by her mother and Oromis, slip from her as it fled to Vizcelia.
Her eyes hardened.
"Where is Vizcelia?"
The Raz'ac threw the chakrams into the air, jumping backwards as four tendrils of blood each snaked around the curve of the circular weapons. The tendrils swung them into a deadly arc as the Raz'ac muttered.
"Vizcelia has gone chasing dragons. I imagine it won't be long now.. all the pieces have fallen into place. She will return."
Arya leapt above two spinning saws as they attempted to bifurcate her neck and legs, spinning vertically in the air. Two more chakrams fell from above-
The Elf harnessed mana within her arm, calling stone to her aid. Natural earth broke forth from Laen Elf industry, curving around Arya's body as the Ra'zac's disks bounced away harmlessly.
Arya pressed her attack- raising the edge of a silver blade as she sped through the courtyard, Closing the distance between her and the Raz'ac within seconds.
The creature fell backwards in surprise as Arya released the full extent of her mana.
"Vrifften Dên Erden!"
Two hands erupted from either side of the Raz'ac, capturing it in a double fisted grip. The Raz'ac howled in surpise as Arya leapt above it, balancing her legs on the stony fingers she summoned.
The Queen thrust a shining blade downwards, cutting into the Raz'ac's clavicles as it cried in equal parts pain and delight. Fecal matter and blood poured from the wound, snaking up Arya's blade-
Arya slapped the palm of her free hand against the pommel of the cutlass.
"Brisino Auf Aulen!"
Crimson red flame sputtered from within the blade's edge as Arya somersaulted backwards. She landed on her feet, sliding away from her enemy as the Raz'ac combusted in a popping arc of orange and cardinal fire.
The Elf exhaled deeply, smoke passing between white teeth as slanted eyes leveled on the crumbling corpse before her.
A black haze slowly rose from the body, escaping above into the clouds.
Silence returned to the courtyard, save for the yips and howls of distant Sealed Elves as Arya made her way to Rethulianel's doors.
ERAGON's eyes shot open. Cool air kissed his cheeks, while a dull pain scratched at his throat.
"Murtagh, he's finally awake."
Thorn loomed over the boy, giving him space as Eragon rose to a seated position. Ahead of them, Murtagh stood before a sea of dead. There were no sealed in sight- only corpses.
What happened?
Eragon saw Vizcelia within his mind. He had felt her using his body- but there was something else. The creature hadn't been able to fully possess his consciousness, and Eragon was sure he had only the Shade within him to thank.
But as he lifted himself to his feet, his senses licked at grim mana that still held the air.
Oromis.
"Tell him what you saw, Thorn." Murtagh said harshly.
Eragon's brown eyes met Thorn's.
"Vizcelia.. it had been inside Murtagh, and then it jumped into you. Once it did it ignored us entirely."
Murtagh's heavy footfalls pounded within Eragon's ears as his eldest approached.
"It then took the body of the Queen. The one called Islanzadi." He finished.
Thorn resumed.
"But that's not all. It was different- it felt different from when it had taken you and Murtagh. It seemed to be.. looking for a Laen body. Once it had one, Islanzadi.. she changed."
Eragon felt a chill slink forth from the back of his mind, felt dread press against the roof of his mouth.
"And Oromis.."
Murtagh stiffened as Thorn regarded him.
"Oromis is dead. Vizcelia seems to be able to evade injury by somehow transmuting the wounds to those its corrupted. When I fought it, I assumed I landed a death blow- only for Vizcelia to rise unharmed. The wound was replicated on Oromis's corpse."
Eragon stared ahead, watching the moon while it lazily hung within a ebony painted sky.
"We tried to locate his body but we couldn't find it. Morzan and Murtaghen are still missing."
Eragon heard them, but he couldn't move.
Oromis.. dead?
First Brom.. now..
"We need to return to Gillendel. We need to regroup-"
Eragon laughed bitterly.
"Oromis is dead. Glaedr is gone, more than likely dead as well. Morzan too."
"...if Morzan was dead, we would've both felt it. For whatever reason, I think he fled" Murtagh said.
Eragon leveled his eyes on Murtagh, a scowl painting his usually pleasant face.
"What can we do? We failed. And if Islanzadi's body has been taken.."
"Thorn felt Arya use the Laen runes. But there was something wrong with it- a hastily made adjustment. We won't be able to confirm anything until we return to Gillendel but.."
It was Thorn who spoke next.
"Vizcelia used the runes on itself. That's why you may feel a dark ebb within the air. Wherever it traveled, it is a great distance away."
No hope.
"This..Dark Lord Morzan had been confident of his success. You all where. How could this happen?" Eragon gritted his teeth together.
They had been soundly outplayed. Every single one of them.
Separated.
deceived.
It was then Eragon's eyes widened.
"Vizcelia is going after Morzan."
Murtagh nodded.
"Thorn thought so as well. I.. saw Glaedr and Murtaghen fighting- and then they vanished. Vizcelia must've used its power on them- knowing that Morzan would follow Murtaghen. Then it waited until Arya attempted to transport her people- and used that mana to chase Morzan."
Eragon's mind still felt numb. He rose to his full height, tired eyes finding the moon yet again. He yearned for the past- yearned for the ignorance of Carvahall. He missed Garrow. He missed how he and Roran were before Brom's fateful arrival.
He wondered if it would be better to end his life here, already among the dead, as opposed to waiting for whatever death stalked outside of Gillendel's walls.
Arya's frown flashed before his eyes. He couldn't.
He owed it to her- to Roran, to everyone else depending on him. They had no hope- but they still had their lives.
"I promised Thorn I would die fighting to find you, Murtagh. We all live- and at least for the moment, Vizcelia is gone. The Sealed probably aren't expecting our return."
Thorn smiled- it had lost the vivacious he had worn previously, but it warmed Eragon's heart all the same.
"So it's agreed. We'll die within Gillendel's walls?"
Murtagh offered a sly grin, looking equal parts Eragon and Morzan.
"We'll let Eragon die first. Then if we can't escape, we'll follow him."
Eragon gripped his new blade, brushing dirt and ash off of the hilt as he held the broadsword at his waist.
Saphira. Arya. I'm coming.