I do not own the Inheritance Cycle.
I haven't forgotten this story. I just needed to take a break and work on a few things, and to order my thoughts.
Fortunately this was written some months ago, and I did not post because I was uncertain if I would use this in the outline for the upcoming chapter. Apparently I am. Recently I found a lot of scenes I had written almost a year ago for this part of the story so it shouldn't bee too long until a real update (which is over half written). I just have to sit.. which is a problem with me because I'd rather be outside.
Anyhow, enjoy,


Confessions of a Story Teller

"Are you coming?"

Eragon blinked and focused on the woman standing in front of him. Selena, his mother- there were times still when he found that it still hard to believe- had moved a short ways away into the shadows of an empty doorway. He hadn't noticed. He was still thinking of what had she said about Arya and how hard of a time he might have trying to track her down. There so much he wanted to know- how she got captured, whether or not she knew anything about Saphira's egg, how she was healing- and these things only she could answer.

"Eragon," called out his mother, breaking him from his thoughts.

He hurried to catch up but he was so tired. Every part of him felt sore and slow, and he was glad that Brom hadn't pushed him to practice anything yet. He hoped that he would be given a few more days to rest before Brom did- he could use it.

"What did you want to talk about?" Eragon asked as she peered inside the house.

She waved him inside, and closed the door softly behind them. "I don't want anyone to overhear us," she explained pointing at the empty stone walls. "But what I want to speak is about what you told me last night. You still want to talk about it don't you?"

Of course, he did. The night before, Eragon had asked Selena about his father- Morzan. He had asked about what Rose had said, hoping, and praying that she might correct him and tell him a different truth. But she did not. Selena merely told him that they would speak of it later and sent him on his way without another word.

"What exactly did your sister tell you, do you remember?" Selena asked.

Eragon shook his head. "I don't remember her words exact words," he said and then muttered a spell so that they would not be overheard. "But is it true?"

"Try to remember for me, Eragon, please," said his mother disregarding his last question. "It's important that I know so that I can find a way to explain this correctly."

He stalled and looked around that the small, shady room. The walls were covered in dust and the corners heavy with cobwebs, tiny spiders hidden within their shadows. There was no source for light save the shuttered window, and that only gave faint, uniform lines of light across the earth floor.

"She said that I carry his blade," he supplied after a moment. "To be honest with you, I really don't remember too much about it. Just that she said that Morzan is our father and that I accused her of lying."

Her answer was a swift string of harsh words that made Eragon's eyes widen. He had never heard a woman curse as vulgarly as the men who came to the Seven Sheaves. "I need to speak with Brom, now," she said when she was done. "You're coming too. I'm not done with you, yet."

With a frown, Eragon followed her swift pace quietly thinking, until they rounded a corner and then he turned to glance at her. "How did you met?"

"Brom?" she asked. "We met in a garden. He was trying to right the mess of years of neglect, and I wanted to supervise and make certain that he was doing it correctly. I suppose that I had little faith in him then but we had only just met."

Eragon considered her words, more questions raising to his mind, but he put those aside. "No, not Brom," he said. "My… father."

"Oh." She slowed and glanced at him. "I met Morzan at the Seven Sheaves. It had belonged to Pate at the time but now I suppose one of his sons took over," she said softly. "I had spent quite a lot of time there as a young girl. I liked the attention the men gave me but your grandfather did not. He often forbid me from going into town without him or Garrow. One day your uncle and I were told of run a chore at the tavern, and so we did. Morzan was there, half-drunk, now that I think on it, and after Garrow stepped away for a short time he talked to me. He seemed so other worldly from the men I had met before. He was intriguing and I was immediately smitten."

"You didn't go with him willingly, did you?" asked Eragon feeling sick. He couldn't stop staring at her. How could she truly believe that she loved someone who worked for Galbatorix? When most of Carvahall reviled the king and his Forsworn? If Eragon had grown up hearing all the horrible things they had done, hadn't his mother heard them too? "He was horrible! He turned his back on his people and helped slay them all!"

Selena pulled him to a stop. Now they were near the gate where there was a string of people gathered. She pulled him to the side where there was no one about to over. "Of course I did. I was a young girl with delusional beliefs, Eragon. I believed that he loved me and I loved him. None of his past mattered to me then. I lied to myself so much that he was different than he was all those years ago that I saw it as the truth. It was only some years later when your sister was born that I saw him for what he was but by then it was too late," she said so softly that he almost couldn't hear her.

"What happened then?" he asked. "What did you do?"

"I fed information to the Varden," said Selena with a sigh. "I rebelled from my husband in every form I could without pulling Rose in too much risk. It was hard, Eragon, harder than you will ever understand, and I petrified that the next time I return home I would find that he had found out. He would not have just punished me for my crimes, but your sister as well. He would have killed her to teach me a lesson. He almost did kill her once." She took in an uneasy breath and then began to step away the statue that they were hiding behind. "We should keep walking. Hiding here will only attract unwarranted attention."

Eragon followed after her, wishing that he hadn't ate his supper. He now felt like it was going to make a reappearance in a very unpleasant way. "How did he?" Eragon asked after they passed under the gate's arch.

"Nearly kill her?" Eragon nodded, and Selena sighed. "He threw Zar'roc at her and nearly carved her in half. If there had not been a skilled healer living under his roofing you would have never have met your sister. She had to be healed in secret without Morzan ever finding out."

"Why didn't he heal her himself?"

Selena shrugged. "He believed that only the strong survived. If magic was used to make her like it meant that she was weak and undeserving of life."

And he was the son of that man?

No, 'man' was too kind of a word, monster was more accurate. Eragon knew Morzan was terrible but to use Zar'roc as a tool to splice a child and not heal the damage done… That was monstrous.

Again he wished that Rose had never told him about his father. He wished that he had never encouraged her honesty because now that he knew, he wished he could not undo that knowledge. And to think that months ago, when he was still living the farmhouse overlooking the fields and mountains, he would have given anything to know something about his parentage. He should never have wished to know. His ignorance had been better, safer, and far less painful.

His hands were shaking by the time they reached the staircase. All he wished to do was punch one of the stone walls and smash it to bits. You'll only hurt yourself, little one, came Saphira's voice. Do not think or act too rashly.

Morzan was horrible! Eragon nearly said out loud. How can I be related to such a monster? What if I become like him?

But Saphira said nothing for a time, not calming the worst of his fears. After a long moment she said, I would have never have hatched for you if I did not know that you had a kind heart, Eragon. Keep talking to your mother, I believe that she has more to say. Talk to me when you find out what it is. And then Saphira withdrew herself completely from his mind, leaving him alone with his angered thoughts and Selena.

Eragon groaned in complaint and looked up from his feet. Selena halted, spinning around at the sound, a wicked looking blade held in her raised hand. "What's wrong?" she asked, a sharp edge to her voice. She leaned and looked behind him.

"Nothing," Eragon said, his eyes on her knife. He didn't even see her pull it out. "What did you mean by saying that you afraid whenever you left? Where did you go?"

"I offend ran errands for Morzan that kept me away for months at a time."

He swallowed. "What kind of errands?"

"Eragon," said Selena turning away, "I was his assassin."

Eragon felt his head spin and nearly fell. To steady himself he leaned against the wall and took a deep breath. "You killed for him!" he breathed. "How many did you murder?"

For a time Selena said nothing, but moved closer to him. He flinched when she reached out for his hand. "I lost count," she said, a flash a pain crossing her face. "Don't judge me too harshly, son. At that time I had thought that was doing what was right. I cannot change the past but I can help those around me now. I'm a different person than I was twenty years ago."

"Do you still kill?"

She hesitated before answering; "There are times when that cannot be helped." She straightened and took a step back, allowing Eragon a moment to compose himself. "Take a breath, Eragon, and hold it, count to five and release. After you do that a few times we'll go and talk to Brom."

He did as he was told, and afterward he felt the jittery, uneasy feeling inside of him calm slightly though it did not fade completely. "Why do we need to speak with Brom?"

She gave him a long look and shook her head. "We are going to see him because he is going to agree to tell you something you must hear."

Eragon was about to ask another question but he decided against it. He wasn't sure what to think or say or do, so he just silently followed after Selena until they reached her apartments. He heard Brom before he saw him, snoring loudly on the divan. Selena shook him awake, and dragging the still half asleep man out onto the balcony, she ordered Eragon to stay inside. The door shut loudly behind them.

Eragon looked uselessly around, and then walked over to a long woven basket, he knew from the night before what it held, and opened it. Inside was a pile of rolled bread each wrapped carefully in undyed cloth. He pulled a small bun out and walked over the paintings on the walls, studying them as he chewed and his mind wondered. Once he reached out and tried to hear what Brom and Selena were talking about, but could hear nothing. There was only silence.

He picked up another bun and ate it too.

It was sometime later before they returned, both very red in the face. Neither of them said anything but Selena wiped at her eyes before sitting beside him. "You've helped yourself to the bread, I see," she said, plucking the cloth from his knee.

"I was hungry." Eragon shrugged and looked between them. "I don't understand, what is this about?"

"The matter of your parentage," Brom said huffily, seating himself in a ragged chair. He looked up at Eragon and began to speak in the Ancient Language; "Morzan is not your father. I am."

Eragon gasped and looked at Selena but she offered no contradictions. Suddenly he found that he could not sit anymore, and stood up, his mouth agape. "How?"

"How were you conceived? Is that what you're asking?" Brom gave him a measured look, a hint of a smile half hidden under his beard. "Sit down," he said gently.

"No." Eragon continued to stare between them. "I- How is it possible? I thought you were married to Morzan."

Beside him, Selena sighed. "I was. Brom and I met only after I married that man. Brom, your father, is the one who helped me set up contacts with the Varden."

There was a long, painful silence.

"You lived in Carvahall for years. Why did you hide from me?" Eragon stared at Brom with a hostile intensity and he looked away.

"Eragon," he began, in a gentler voice than he had ever heard before. "I always wanted to claim you as my son but I could not. It was a joy like no other to watch you grow up and a torture not tell you. The danger it would put you in-" he shook his head "-I could not do that to you, but you seem to find danger with every step you take. When you became a Rider perhaps I should have told you perhaps… and perhaps I did not like the idea of claiming you so soon after the loss of your uncle."

"We traveled for months together," Eragon said. "You could have found a convent time then!"

"Perhaps your father did not believe that you were ready to hear the truth," Selena snapped. "Even I saw how absorbed you were about capturing the Ra'zac and bringing them to justice, when you should have been focusing more on learning about your father had to tell you. And then later you're your dreams of the elf! You cannot question him before you understand what his past and the risks he took to keep you alive. If he had died during your foolish adventure, it would have been so that you could live."

None of what I did was foolish, he thought. "What about you?" Eragon said, turning to Selena, his hands clenched into fists. "You could have come to Carvahall and the two of you could have taken me and left and lived somewhere safe. We could have been a family!"

Selena flinched. "Don't think that that thought hasn't haunted me for years, Eragon," she said. "There are many actions that I could have taken but did not. I feared too much for your safety to return to Carvahall and claim you. I thought that if I did then Galbatorix might hear something of my survival and chase after all of us. I thought also that you would want nothing to do with me. It was safer for me to stay here, away from the people that I could harm."

Eragon moved away, and sat a cushioned chair far from them both. He looked back at Brom. "If you want to ask something then just do it," Brom grumbled. "Your mother made to promise to answer all your questions truthfully."

"I did not make you do anything." Selena turned to him. "I said that it would be in your best interest to do so."

Brom gave her a quizzical look, and leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes. "There's not much of a difference," he muttered. "Whatever you do not ask now, I will like tell you in the morning providing that it's important. There is much you should know and now might not be the best time for it."
"Tell me how you know so much about dragons and Riders," Eragon said instantly drawing on the two questions that had bothered him for months on end. "And how you met Selena."

Brom groaned, opening his eyes to give Selena a dark glare- she smiled slightly at him. "When I was younger, younger than you are, I was chosen by a dragon to be her Rider. I joined the ranks of the Riders and was trained by them," he explained, sitting forward. "While I trained, I met many great men, many great Riders and I became friends with quite a few. One of them was Morzan but this was well before he joined Galbatorix and became a Forsworn. When Morzan betray us… my young dragon was killed."

"Why didn't you tell me before?" asked Eragon softly.

"There was no reason to," he said. "You knowing might have put you in even more danger. I am a Rider no more, Eragon, and that, I want you to know." Brom sighed and looked up from his hands. "After my dragon was killed, I was broken in a way I cannot describe, bent on avenging her death. I worked hard to destroy the ones who killed her, and ended up killing a number of the Forsworn, before I moved on to Morzan who was responsible for everything." He paused and looked at Selena questioningly.

She nodded and said, "I told him already of what I did for that man. Go on."

"At the time he had an assassin who did his bidding, a woman, we only knew as the Black Hand. I tasked myself with going after her and finding out all I could about her. I traveled to Morzan's castle in the guise of a crippled gardener and met Selena there. I had planned to seduce her, perhaps kill her, and I started out that way but in the end I could not pull through with my plan- like an idiot I fell in love with her." He glanced at her haughtily, and she made to smack his leg but he pulled away before she had the chance.

"Your father will talk to you about the rest of this another time," she said turning to him. "It's late and we all have an early morning tomorrow. I suppose that I best find a way to talk to Rose before I leave in a few days. Please, do not mention anything to her until I get the chance to do so."

"I won't." Eragon looked up. "Where are you going?"

"There's something I must attend to," she said dejectedly. "It will only take but a handful of days to travel there and back. I don't plan on being gone very long, and spirits know, that the last thing I want is to go anywhere. Not to mention on an unintentional trip."

His body ached at the mere thought of it. He wondered about what she going to do and was about to ask when he thought of something else. "Rose is Morzan's daughter, right? We're only related through you?" he asked. Selena nodded stiffly, and he turned to Brom. "Did you ever succeed on killing him?"

"I did," said Brom in a flat voice. "He and his dragon were killed in Gil'ead."

Eragon nodded and stood up. He wasn't done with his parents yet, there was so much he wanted to know. Not to mention that he had more to ask but found that he needed to speak to Saphira first. She has been stubbornly ignoring him since he walked into the apartment, and he wondered if it was because she already knew. A flash of anger coursed through him, and he bid them a good night and with the promise to be careful and to talk to no one, he hurried down the staircase alone.