"Mira- leave us a while. I'll call you when it comes to dinner. Go fetch your mother from Odele's and ask her to come in here. If you find Carn, tell him to go grab Uiko and tether him to the stable post. When you get back go up to your room and practice your lyre."
Mira's eyes flashed with annoyance at having been left out.
"Yes, Father." She replied coldly.
Once she was gone Arya smiled, " Your daughter much takes after you, Roran. You ought to be proud of her. She has a proud heart."
"Yes, that she certainly does. Unfortunately. It always leads her into bother."
Mira had come in and at his request made them some tea and offered food. They talked of trivial matters for a while, dusting upon topics with much brevity. Once she left the smiles disappeared from the Riders' faces as they settled down to talk of more solemn matters.
"So… You have come. Thirteen long years I have awaited your visit, Eragon, but it hasn't arrived until now. Do tell me, dear cousin why you have graced us with your company."
Arya's face blackened with anger.
"Roran you forget yourself. You know fine well that Eragon has been incapable of visiting. It was well believed he wouldn't return at all. But he has, and you should be grateful. In the last thirteen years he has re-established the Dragon Riders, reared and taught many and discovered new lands. You should be ashamed of yourself for speaking so out of place!"
"I believe not! This man is my kith and kin yet only once has he deigned to contact us. My daughter is almost an adult and she has never even met her blasted uncle! Family and land are what I care most about. Shadeslayer here has ignored Delmor's attempts to scry him on my behalf! What is this? An insult or not?"
Eragon's eerily unlined face crumpled as though he had received many a blow, he held his head in his hands, rubbing the pointed tip of his once rounded ears. These words pained him. They cut deep and wounded his heart. For many reasons- but most of all because they were true. He reached out with his mind to hear Saphira's thoughts, but with a pang remembered that she wasn't with him. He had left her with their less advanced students on Domia abr Celöbra - Dominance of Honour- an Island off the coast of the other lands to the East, often referred to as Celöbra, where they had settled and built the City of Riders- Dras abr du Argetlam. Not the most creative name as Angela bluntly pointed out. "Eragon have you an affinity for the boring?! You are duller than a wood-louse, you pea-brain. You build a wonder-filled city for the riders and call it "City of the Silverhand"! Why not Towering Peaks Of Majestic Flame, or The City Of Smokey Dreams, or The Unchallenged might of the Shiny Scales mad Claw Gut Reavers And Their Pathetically Uninteresting Witless Specks Of Rubbishness? City of the Silverhand?! Bah!" Saphira had found this very funny and reminded him of the last conversation upon naming Eragon had before with Angela. Eragon had not seen Arya since he left Alagaësia, and nor had Saphira seen her nest-mate. Fírnen had flown over to Saphira (much to their delight) leaving Lord Dathedr to attend to Elven affairs.
"Roran; I have wronged you. I have tried to avoid contact with you so as to lessen the agony of keeping myself separate from my family. I can say honestly that it was never intended as an insult; I did not believe I could return to Alagaësia, from Angela's knuckle-bones and the last words of many under Galbatorix (cursed be his name) it was fore-told I would not ever make it back!. Nasuada summoned me here for reasons which I was about to inform you of, and if not for she I would have never come home. She pointed out that if my true name had changed since I left Alagaësia my old self- whom the men and Raz'zac cursed, would never return! One of the men must have been a magician of sorts, and imbued the curse with energy- thus using magic without the ancient language, without even realising it. A last lash out at the bringer of death. But since we discovered Celöbra, and started teaching the younglings and hatchlings, our personalities have changed. Not drastically, but enough. We still know who and what we are."
"Blast you Eragon! If it were anyone but you I would have smashed your nose in. To imagine a foster son of Garrow would speak so eloquently!? Bah! I accept your apology out of necessity. Tell me why you have come."