I do not own The Inheritance Cycle.
I've had this written for ages, and I've wanted to posted since the moment I finished it.
Enjoy,


Heritage

"All of it is my fault," Selena said. Her words were muffed as she had her head buried against his shoulder. "If I hadn't left her…" She trailed off unable to continue.

Brom gently rubbed her back. He had felt the same emotions before. Just like losing Saphira had been his worst nightmare, he knew that she was living her worst nightmare as well. Knowing that her daughter had been murdered by her late husband was ripping her apart from the inside. The only peace that she had- that they had- was that Morzan was dead.

Brom clearly remembered killing the Forsworn, his blood as it splattered onto his blade, his mismatched eyes as they faded of life and became unseeing, glass-like. He was supposed to feel the contentment of vengeance but he had felt nothing at all as he picked up the red blade from off the street and drove it into Morzan's chest. Morzan's strange eyes had widened as the blade pieced him, he was already dying but Brom wanted to ensure that he would never breathe another breath. The Forsworn muttered something softly and blood had bubbled from his mouth, staining his lips. Then he fixed his gaze on Brom, and stared at him with his laughing eyes. "Don't you see it?" he had said, between spats of blood. "You've killed, I've killed. We're the same, you and me. Don't forget that." With that Morzan, Forsworn Rider of the slain nameless dragon, son of Maurgh, had died, and leaving his last words to haunt Brom as he walked away down the streets of Gil'ead without a single glance behind him.

Brom had left the city in haste and rode hard to the castle that once belonged to Morzan, where he found a few servants trapped inside bond to never leave. He had questioned the servants but none had heard from Selena for many months, and so Brom left and by some profound miracle crossed paths with her only hours ago. She had been in a bad way but after he healed her, which took a long time and much of his energy, she told of a pair of bandits who caught her by surprise, how she had already been weakened and where she had been these past months. Most important of all, she had told him of their son and how he was a father.

He took in a broken breath. "It wouldn't have made a difference," Brom said. "It's likely she'd still be died, and our son as well." He paused, and looked down at her curiously. "What's his name? You haven't told me."

She sighed and he could feel a breath of air as it passed his skin, raising the hairs on the back of his neck. "Eragon," she said, raising her arms and clasping them tightly around his neck. "His name is Eragon."

"'Eragon'," he repeated. "Eragon was the first Dragon Rider."

"I know. I had to give him something of his heritage, as he'll grow up believing Marian and Garrow are his parents, and know nothing of us." She swallowed. "That is my final wish for him, to grow up happy and safe, to get married to some nice maiden and have babies of his own, and grow old with many grandchildren to terrorize his farm. But he cannot do that if we raised him," she said shifting herself closer into his embrace. "You and I, we find danger in safest places." Selena sniffled, but she did not weep. She would not, not now when the emotions were still so fresh, but despite the hard-heartening lessons of her past, he felt the wetness of tears through his tunic. "I didn't want to leave him but I had to. He was so tiny, Brom. Oh, so tiny and helpless and I knew that I had to protect him. You should have had a say in his raising. I shouldn't have taken that from you."

She pulled away and looked at him. Her eyes were reddened and puffy from her tears, and there were dark half circles under them. Her face was paled and blotched with stains of red, and her lip was bleeding from where she bit it. Still, she was the most beautiful person he had ever known. Soft skin touched lightly by the spring sun, nimble shoulders hardened with wiry muscle, narrow waist and curved hips, round face with high cheekbones and flashing eyes. He pulled his eyes away from her, and swallowed roughly.

He knew she had done their son right, but he couldn't help but wish that they could be the ones to raise him. He ground his teeth together. His head was still spinning with the news that he was a father though he may not know his boy, the information was nonetheless hard to imagine. Neither of them were fit to bring up a child but, he knew, that they should be the ones the raise their son, Eragon. And Selena's girl, Brom thought after a moment, we should be to see her into adulthood as well, alas, some things are not met to be. Morzan had found a way take even more from them- Brom and Selena. Now that Morzan was died from this world, Brom began to doubt that the damage the dead Rider had carved into the world would ever end.