I do not own the Inheritance Cycle.

Edited 1/30/22

Please let me know your thoughts throughout the story, I'd love to hear for you :)

Enjoy,


Tales of an Order

They followed a path that led into a messy flatland, walking at their ease through a flowering meadow that slumbered beneath occasional broad strands of trees. The turf off the path was poor, thick with burrs and small thistles, and everywhere grew long thin stems of wildrye. The sun shone warmly, and Rose thought that it would not be long until the last remains of winter ebbed away.

As Selena had predicted, Rose soon found herself under Brom's tutorage, him beginning roughly where Selena had left off. She found him to be rather severe and demanding, and his lessons even more so, but everything else about him confounded her expectations. Rose had thought that he would concentrate on the Ancient Language, and in that first lesson he rode next to her. As they rode in silence, Rose felt a strange reluctance, she hadn't spoken much to the former Rider since they began traveling together. She felt apprehensive, not knowing what to say, and Brom took no care to put her at ease.

"Selena had told me what you know," he said gruffly. "And what you don't. There is much you should know about the Riders and their skills. To be a Rider and to be ignorant of what it means is a terrible thing. Which leads me to telling you some of what you already know." He leaned back on the white horse he was riding and glanced towards the sky, pausing for a moment, as if waiting for Rose to speak. When she did nothing, he began to speak in an oddly formal, steady tone, almost like a chant.

"When The Dragon Riders were established it after Du Fyrn Skulblaka, the war between dragons and the elves. It was after the elf Eragon helped end the war, and an assurance was born, that a few dragon eggs were given to the Riders each year and the Riders were able to grow. For the Riders to bond with dragons, a spell was cast over those eggs to ensure that the baby dragons inside would hatch only when touched by the human or elf whom they wanted to bond with. The moment a dragon egg is laid the dragon inside is ready to hatch, yet many dragons waited years to do this, waiting for their Rider or, if they were not meant to be bonded, the right circumstances."

Brom halted in his speaking again, and glanced at her. Rose nodded at him, waiting for him to continue. "And when the dragon hatched?" she said when he remained mute.

"When the dragon hatched it would make contact with its Rider for the first time," he said stirring slightly. "As a Rider and dragon made contact for the first time, it left behind a mark called the gedwëy ignasia, or shining palm in the Ancient Language, on the Rider's hand. A bond is then formed between dragon and the Rider, which melds their minds and bequeaths the Rider with magic."

"What would happen if someone else came in contact with dragon before the Rider had the chance to so?" Selena asked, turning her saddle. Before then she had been silent, watching the trail ahead of them as Brom talked.

Brom looked at her sharply, and then looked down. "I've only heard of such a thing happening once," he said. "The bond between that dragon and Rider was greatly weakened. I never heard what happened to the man who touched that dragon. It's likely that no one cared enough to find out what happened to him. It's probable he went mad."

The woman nodded, seemingly satisfied with this information, and turned away. Selena had been riding ahead of them, appearing as if she were not listening, the reigns of Eragon's horse held firmly in the woman's hands. Eragon had, the moment they came enough to the woodland to do so, flown off with Saphira for the remainder of the day, promising to return to them at sunfall. Where they had flown off to, and what they were doing was unknown, but Brom seemed completely untroubled by the occurrence.

"In the beginning the Dragon Riders were merely ambassadors, but they later grew into something greater. It was near the time that humans were in included in the spell that bonded a dragon and Rider that this happened. The Riders became peacekeepers, and charged with the keepings of the laws, and skills, and knowledge. Under their law many people slept with their doors unlocked, there were no hungry people, and so people were not forced into desperate acts. The law was that the hungry must be fed, and the homeless must be housed, and the sick must be healed. That was the way of the Riders." Brom paused again, and glanced at her before shrugging, turning away again to continue riding.

Rose was silent for some time, digesting these new ideas. She felt frankly, quite skeptical of the efficacy of what Brom had said but she kept her doubts to herself.

Brom looked at her steadily, and added, as if he caught the tenor in her thoughts, "Many things have changed under Galbatorix's Rule. You wouldn't recognize the land you now if you saw what it a hundred years ago. Places that were once governed under noblemen and Riders are now only overseen by the Empire's men, and there is corruption in places there should not be. The Laws then were not often broken. If they were, there were punishments and the law breaker would be tried in a court of Riders and townspeople. They would decide what was best. Usually it was some kind of restitution, if a man murdered, say, they would serve that family for a number of years. There were no prisons." Brom paused in his speaking again, listening to the thrilling of the birds around them.

"Things then were not impeccable but they were certainly better," he continued, after a time. "There are many places you will see that were once cultured that are, now, no longer. The land that we travel on now was once a region known as Anial. The land we pass was once a countryside filled with rich pastures and abundant fertility, rows of vines stretching as far as the horizon. This dilapidated path was a road to a grand city that was overwhelmed and raved in battle. Many Riders and dragons fought here and died in one of the first battles against Galbatorix and his Forsworn. The land was lain in waste, and its people were slaughtered without mercy. What you see now is now a dim memory of what it was before."

Brom stopped speaking, and Rose sat in silence for some while, caught in her own thoughts. It seemed to her as if the armistice Brom spoke of was not possible. It would a very large amount of effort for there to be no crime. However if people were housed and feed and health, what reasons were there for crime? Rose didn't know.

To have no prisons and to keep the population from attacking each other was quite a feat, one that must have taken much patience and skill. The idea seemed far too miraculous, and she would not help but wonder if there was any real venality in the Order of Dragon Riders, enough to warrant each of their deaths and their dragons.

Surely the Riders were more than diplomats, charged with keeping peace and order, they were also warriors. The tales she heard of them as a child, told her that their forces were great and proved to be deadly to those who were foolish enough to pin theirselves against them.

History had told her that the King had mustered up a small army in his rebellion to take down the Riders. For a people, such as the Riders, being as powerful as they were, how was it they fell so quickly, in a matter of years, to fourteen Riders and a small troop of warriors? Or was the only reason Galbatorix won was because of the element of surprise?

She glanced across at Brom; his eyes were remote and sad, as if he were gazing up at a living memory. "What reason was there for the King to destroy this region so?" she asked. "Do you know?"

"Nay," he said. "I do not. Gabatorix's reasoning can only be guessed at. It could be that the city was one of the few built by the Rider's, and so it was treasured by them, or it could be that he simply disliked where the citadel sat." Brom fell silent once more, and said no more, lost in his own thoughts.

They traveled in silence for a time before lunching briefly in a corpse of ash, and had a quick, cheerless lunch. The horses ambled about cropping grass, and seemed averse as to stop for a short time. However it was dangerous to tally, and they were soon off again.

For the rest of that day they rode through the valley, listening to Brom as he talked about the ethics and history of the fallen order of the Riders. The land they passed soon gave way to a thin woodland, which bore very little sign of former society. Once they saw a rumbled wall at the base of the road, on which a growth of creeping vines grew, but they saw little more. When the wind blew, Rose thought that at certain times she hear the saddened cries of the dead, and the foul reek of rotting vegetation tainted the air.

After a while the path they were following took a sudden dip and shade fell over the riders as they the path they followed faltered and then petered out completely. They continued through the wood, battling the undergrowth until they passed out of the woods into empty grassland in which there was evidence of a farmhouse long abandoned; its walls crumbling, it roof collapsed, overgrown with ivy and weeds so it almost looked like a small hill, a line of trees that once served as a windbreak, and orchard grown wild. The land fell away from them to the horizon, bordered by trees, pocketed by frequent dips and hollows and by outcrops of huge rocks, looking as if they had been tossed there long ago by giants, which now and again gathered in tors that casts long shadows away from them. Above them were huge swags of grey clouds, and the wind was turning chilly. The sun was low in the sky, bleeding long streaks of orange along the horizon.

They had gone about five miles when Brom called them to a halt. They set up camp under one of a wooded hallows, in the shelter of a fallen tree that was leaned against an oak at a rough angle, its leaves still green. Brom had studied it for a long time before deciding that it was a safe place to set up camp, and it was not long after camp was set that Eragon joined them, looking rather winded. He hurried down off of Saphira and rushed to the bag filled with their rations, dragging out a roll of hard bread, he sat on ground heavily.

"You didn't join us for lunch," said Brom, glancing at him quickly before looking away. "Where were you?"

Eragon shook his head, and took another bit out the bread. "There are ruins everywhere around here," he said. "Saphira and I decided to explore them. I believe the runes are what's left of a city."

"They are." Brom pulled out a pipe from his bags, and studied it for a moment.

"What happened to it?" Eragon asked, shoving the rest of the bread into his mouth.

"It was sacked," the man said, looking into a small sack, "years ago when Galbatorix began his campaign against the Dragon Riders." He shook the bag, and grumbled as he shoved his pipe inside it before tossing the sack and pipe into his saddlebags. Looking over to Selena, he said, "We'll need to find a town to replenish our supplies before long."

Selena didn't look away from the fire as she turned over the cut meat that had been caught earlier that evening. "I had forgotten that you and Eragon hadn't the chance to restock," she said. "You are right, we are getting low on food. It won't be long before we run out of preserves completely, and some greens would very nice, however, it'll be some days before we reach a town. We will simply have to survive with what we have and what we can gather until then."

Brom did not answer, poking keenly at the fire instead. They munched, not long later, on a hot meal in silence, listening to crackling of the fire and the horses as they huffed, and the sounds of the night. Then Selena took Brom's place as Eragon's sparring partner. Rose watched as the woman easily blocked his blows, but then, after a time she called it to an end. Selena then fixed Eragon with a pinning glare, and told him if he wished to better his skills he best give it his all, before demanding he try again. After that it was a hard-pressed match as they seemed to be equaled in skill, though it was Eragon who disarmed her.

"You're no elegant fighter, but you're fast and strong," said Selena, breathing heavily and picking up her sword. "To think that you only begun you learning so recently. I wonder where your skill would be had you learned earlier in your life."

Brom grunted and stood up, startling Rose from her spot. "I've been thinking on that myself," he said causing Selena to frown at him. "We need more wood for the fire. I'll be back."

Selena watched as he walked away, then sat down. She looked at Rose in a silent question, pointing to Eragon with her thumb.

Rose shook her head. She had been quite thankful that she hadn't been forced to practice swordcraft with Eragon as of yet. She didn't wish to face him for as long as he held that blade, the same blade that she had night terrors about as a child, and had left a distorted scar down her back. No, she did not wish to spar with Eragon.

Rose was on first watch, and sat at the edge of the dell, leaning against Thorn. She was very tired, and thankful that Thorn was thumping the ground with his tail, keeping her awake. To pass the time, the two of them played a mind game, sending mental pictures through their mindlink. Over everything was a huge silence, save for the sounds of slumber and the cracking wood from the heat of the fire.

Three hours after sundown the half-moon rose and cast a chilly light over everything. She shifted on the hard ground; it was becoming very cold, and the dew was falling, and her legs cramped with stiffness. She was thinking that it was time to wake Selena, when she heard something. Immediately she sent out her mind and looked over the landscape, and relaxed when she saw it was Eragon shuffling through the encampment. She started however, when she saw how wan he appeared.

"Hard time sleeping?" she asked.

He looked at her for a moment, before he walked over and sat down a little away from her. "Yes," said Eragon, almost petulantly. "I got bored of just lying there. How much longer is your watch?"

"Not long," she said.

Eragon didn't answer. He was staring over the plains, and Rose glanced in that direction, watching two shadowy forms, likely deer, shoot across the empty grassland. She stirred uneasily, and he turned suddenly aware of her.

"Have you been having dreams about a woman in a cell?" he asked abruptly.

Rose met his eyes. In the darkness she would hardly make him out, he appeared to almost to be a complete shadow. "No," she said. "It seems as if you have."

"Yes." He looked away.

"When did they begin?" she asked, after a silence. Eragon looked briefly taken aback. "You wouldn't have asked me if your dreams weren't recurring."

He nodded, or at least Rose thought that he nodded, and was quiet for a moment as he thought it over. "Not long after I found Saphira's egg," he said.

A silence seemed to overtake them, as Rose thought about his answer but her mind was too heavy and her thoughts were sluggish. "I'll go wake Selena now," she said softly. "Unless you wish to speak more about your visions."

He shook his head. "I'll keep watch," he said. "You don't need to wake anyone."

Rose leaned forward and glanced at him for a moment. She was too tired to inquire after him. Standing up, she walked towards the fire, and ran her fingers along Thorn's snort. "Have a good night," she said to the both of them.

Thorn playfully whacked his tail down near her foot, nearly tripping her, but Eragon chose to say or do nothing, his cloak wrapped tightly around him against the wind. Rose watched his stillness, and it seemed to him as if the dreams, if they were indeed that, were truly haunting him.