AN: Chapter 6 is up! Thank you everyone for the reviews.. really appreciate them but would love to see more.. I always appreciate positive criticism of all forms. Moving on, the chapter introduces several concepts which are heavily borrowed from the elder scrolls universe which I will explain below.
The Aedra: divine beings who have helped influence and shape the plane of mortals: Nirn, in this doing of theirs, they lost much of their power and are thus unable to directly influence events. Worshipped by men, elves, dwarves and dragons.
The Daedra: otherworldly beings who didn't participate in the creation of Nirn, and are therefore not worshipped. Extremely powerful and regularly intervene in history. Most are evil and scorned upon by the mortals….. except a notable few who will feature in the story in later chapters.
The pantheon of the Gods will be covered later.
I'll introduce the two mentioned in this chapter…
Akatosh… Chiefest and greatest of the Aedra… father of all Dragons and God of Time. Worshipped by the Elves and Men to a smaller extent.
Talos: born in Atmora as Hjalti, a mercenary who migrated to Alagaesia and served in the Army of the North. Was among the earliest known Dragonborn… formed the Septim Empire, the first empire to unite all of Alagaesia and drove away the much hated Aldmer, High Elves to their home islands. Later, rose to join the Gods as the Ninth Divine.. Talos.
Atmora: a small frozen wasteland far to the north of Alagaesia, a separate continent, once home to the Nordic people who later migrated to Alagaesia under the leadership of Ysgrammor and his Five Hundred Companions.
That is it for this chapter… Read on and enjoy.
Chapter 6: Fate
3rd November, 1881 of the Third Era.
Doru Araeba, Capital of Vroengard Islands.
Heavy monsoon rains lashed down, as strong gusts blew through the wide streets, the eerie noise of whistling winds filling her ears as she strode confidently towards the Hall of Prophecies, the small bundle in her arms, squirming against her chest…. Her vision was strangely refracted by the bubble of magic that protected her and the child against the lashing rain.
'Bloody Riders! Why do they have to build such vast streets!' she cursed mentally, the strain of the last few days finally catching up with her. As she passed the massive buildings on either side of the massively wide road, curious draconic eyes peered at her, wondering at the strange sight of a mother risking her child in such ghastly weather….
Even the roaring rain and the thundering clouds couldn't drown the sound of a dragon's wingbeats as one flew down to the road to walk alongside the woman… She looked up gratefully and thanked the mighty being.
"Thank you so very much, Umaroth-elda," she spoke from the shelter of the white giant's right wing.
"My pleasure, Lady…. If I may ask, what drives you to risk the young one in such nasty weather?", the old one asked, his su'um, his breath coming out in great billows of steam…
"I had a terrible dream about the baby, my friend, and I wish to consult the Seer about him…. His horoscope is also yet to be made and I would request her to make his…."
"Hmmm.. I sense a great power sleeping in the child's breast… it would be very interesting to see what fate holds for him." Umaroth said, peering at the young brown haired babe….
"Please don't hold back, tell me what is it that you sense in him," the mother pleaded.
"Let me put it this way, this babe is not just your son, he is my Elder….and kin to all dragons…. We have reached the Hall of Prophecies and here I must leave you. Farewell Lady Selena and farewell, young one."
Without giving the woman a chance to reply, the great white dragon, stepped back and flapping his wings hard against the heavy moist air, flew off.
A few minutes later….
"Ah! Selena! Finally..! What took you so long? Bunnies stopped you?" the curly-haired herbalist asked from the archway leading into the Hall of Prophecies' main galleries.
Selena smiled, relieved to have something to divert her mind from what the dovah had told her…. She followed the mysterious witch into the main gallery, her breath hitching as it did every time she had the chance to gaze upon the magnificence of this particular hall… Built from soft-toned sandstone, the walls were covered by thousands upon thousands of ceiling-to-floor tapestries, each one the subject of one particular prophecy…. The ones which had been completed were the most beautiful, the people and events depicted in the tapestry were alive, in motion, describing the events and the lives affected by the prophecy…. The ones which were yet to fructify were darkened, its contents a myriad and cloudy mix of colors and shadows… Some whose predictions had come to light and yet incomplete were partially shown… perhaps the main people were revealed or perhaps the place concerned… while the rest would be in shadows. The witch was leading her towards one of the less-frequented galleries… prophecies so old…that they predated the riders themselves…some going as far back as the First Era or even beyond… the Mythic Era….
"Where are you taking me, Angela?" Selena asked.
"You'll see…." She said, giving her a coy smile.
Intrigued, she followed her for the next few minutes, walking deeper into the hall, keenly observing the tapestries. In a way, they were travelling back through time, going through the events of previous eras, the fall of the Septim dynasty with Martin Septim's sacrifice, the creation of the Shrutu'ugal, the Dragon War and Alduin's banishment among many, many others. But they didn't stop, in fact, the hall seemed to continue so much farther, that the end wasn't even visible…..
How far does this hall go? How old is the oldest prophecy in here? Selena wondered.
Her wondering was interrupted by Angela. "Have you agreed upon a name for the child?" she asked.
Selena smiled, "no, not yet…Brom wants an old Atmoran name while I prefer an elven one, they sound so much better!"
Angela laughed heartily, "you'll decide on a good one eventually, I'm sure. Ah! Here we are!"
She opened the double doors to a side room and gestured at her to follow. The room inside was large and roomy, the walls not covered in moving tapestries, but paintings of various Lords and Warriors of the last two ages…. The furnishing were rather informal, the room was clearly intended for relaxation and casual discussions, something that suited their purposes. Angela had already set up on a low table between two comfortable sofas. She sat on one of them and silently waved Selena into the other.
"So, what is it that made you ask for my help, and so urgently in this ungodly weather, might I add?"
"I'm worried for my baby, Angela; strange dreams have recently filled my mind and now Umaroth himself said something very cryptic. All is ask is you read his future, so that, at the very least I can prepare for it."
Angela could see that the mother was extremely worried… whatever these dreams were and whatever the white one had said had her panicked and that was no easy task…. Selena was not known as Nightshade for no reason. She had done horrifying things in her years of service and had things which would have made most riders piss in their pants… for her to be so worried….
Sighing, she nodded, "I will write his horoscope, but do not ask me to use my dragon knuckles…. It is extremely dangerous to read those for someone who isn't even a year old…..the effect of the reading would be far reaching and harrowing in their result." She said this quite sternly, refusing to budge on her position.
"I wouldn't have asked you for that, anyway….they certainly inverted my life upside down when you read them for me," Selena said, smiling ruefully.
"I won't say 'I told you so' but I damn well did," the witch added with a small sad smile.
"When was he born and at what hour?"
"The 22nd October of this year….just before midnight."
"That is….. that's interesting to hear. How long before midnight?" Angela said, an odd spark glimmering in her dark eyes.
"Fifteen minutes or so, why?"
"We'll get to that later. First, I must refer these," she drew a large astronomical chart from her satchel and unfolding it, spread it upon the table.
The chart was beautiful, filled with the various constellations as they appeared in the night sky. Selena could see the elven runes carved into the sides glowing a light blue. "An elven starchart! Why doesn't this surprise me? Only you can be bold enough to borrow an elven starchart from the library at Ellesmera, Angela!"
She didn't reply, focused as she was on arranging the runes as per the child's birth time. "The babe's birth constellation is interesting. Most people are born under one constellation…. He is born under the confluence of two… the Warrior and the Lord constellation! Unusual, but not unheard of… moving on…hmm… any person's birthtime is of vital importance because it tells me about the aedra or perhaps daedra who have influence on the said person's life…. Your son was born fifteen minutes before midnight on the 22nd of October, right?"
Selena nodded… unsure of where the curly-haired seer was going with this.
She smiled, "he is blessed indeed, he was born at the precise moment when Akatosh was reigning over the Lord Stone while Lord Talos ruled over the Warrior Stone. It is extremely rare for this particular combination to occur simultaneously... so very rare that it has occurred precisely nine times before with him," she gestured at the peacefully sleeping babe, "being the tenth one."
"But what does it mean?" Selena asked, I've heard of how Lord Akatosh ruling over one of the signs is an indicator that the child would almost surely be a rider, but what about Talos? And both of them together on two signs as powerful as the Lord and the Warrior?"
"If you must know, the presence of Lord Talos is an indication of a ruler of some kind, of a leader, especially in conjunction with one of the more powerful signs… but this particular combination means only one thing…..Lord Akatosh in the sign of the Lord means that HE will be the Divine who will dictate the life of the child… he is the spiritual child, if you will, of Akatosh and Talos' presence in the sign of the Warrior means that the child will be a great one, one as gifted as Talos had been when he was Tiber Septim."
Selena's eyes widened as she realized exactly what Angela was saying, "but that means, that means that he is… he is"
"Aye, he is Dragonborn, just like Tiber Septim had been, he is Ysmir, Dragon of the North and heir to the Stormcrown…! Selena, take him away from here, hide him somewhere where the world won't find him, there are many others, especially dragons, who will recognize him the moment they see him."
"But why, do you think he is in danger, here? In the city of the Shrutu'ugal?"
"He is at the greatest danger here! The riders have grown far too fond of their power and dominion over others… the return of the Dragonborn would mean an abrupt and absolute end of their supremacy. Many would welcome the return of Akatosh's heir, but many more would do anything to prevent his rise…. Can you imagine the like of Formora and Kialandi welcoming his rise?"
Selena shook her head, suddenly overwhelmed by the threat her child faced. She gazed at the paintings around her, her mind wandering, seeking a place where she could raise her babe in peace and seclusion…. Carvahall, with her brother. The Legate would make sure nothing ever happened to him…. Her eyes fell on the painting of the First Rider, Lord Eragon who had brought peace between Dragon, Elf and Man…. In a way, her son would be like him, the first Dragonborn of the Third Era.
Her beautiful blue eyes hardened as she gazed upon her child, "I'll take him to Carvahall, to my brother. I know you won't speak of this to anyone…", Angela nodded, "but I have decided on a name for him; he is Eragon Bloodborne."
"Bloodborne? I don't understand?"
"My blood is that of old Ysgrammor himself…. We are the descendants of the ancients who came here from Atmora thousands of years ago…. We have always been gifted, our magic stronger, our hands and feet faster, our lives longer… and now he bears the soul of a dragon and carries the same blood that once beat through Hjalti…. So, yes, he is Bloodborne!"
Angela could only nod, "aye, Bloodborne indeed." Angela closed her eyes before raising her hands, palms facing towards the newly christened child, glowing with soft white light, "Eragon Dovahkin, Bloodborne and Ysmir, I bless thee, may you never face an insurmountable challenge, may all your difficulties only make you stronger and may you have a bright and happy future."
The glow intensified for a moment, growing so bright that to an outsider, it would have seemed that a small sun had descended into the room… before it faded, leaving a visibly tired witch and a giggling brown haired babe. Selena would often later swear that in the fraction of a moment before the glow had intensified, she had seen something else in Angela, not the curvy, irrepressible witch that she had known, but a beautiful, majestic lady, with pointy ears and hair like starlight.
"What is fire, my friend?"' the seasoned warrior asked, his unseeing grey eyes staring unnervingly dead straight into his own brown ones. Eragon was confused, 'what is fire indeed?'.
"I wouldn't know…. Fire is fire, I suppose, a forest fire renews life, burning away the dead and rotting vegetation, so it is a cleansing agent… but fire also destroys…. I don't know." Eragon concluded lamely.
The old warrior laughed heartily, his shape morphing, changing, flowing into that of a large, ancient grey dragon…..the wings tattered, his horns broken and his scales weathered and yet the eyes…. They remained the same.
"Yol," the great dragon began, "in your tongue, the word simply means fire- it is change given form, power at its most primal. That is the true meaning of yol- sulyek-power. You have it, as do all dov. But power is inert without action and choice; think of this as the fire builds in your su'um- in your breath- su'um arkh morah. What will you burn, what will you spare?"
Eragon opened his eyes, the world inside the dark, musty cave was just as it had been for the last week or so. He was a captive of his own fear, of his own weakness…. But he was Dovahkin- Dragonborn! A dragon fears none for what is stronger on earth than the mighty dov.
A great anger surged from within, his eyes blazed with a desire to avenge his men, his brothers in arms, to free himself and to teach this pitiful birds the true meaning of fear. Eragon rose from his hunched up position at the corner and strode forward determined to end this immediately.
One of the Ra'zac was asleep while the other stood guard facing the cave's entrance. It heard him, or perhaps smelled him, Eragon knew not nor did he particularly care, for it turned to face him and screeched in angry surprise, its high pitched screams driving Eragon angrier. The creature's black breath which had paralysed him only a few days previously had no effect on him.
It drew a wickedly curved sword and approached him, waking the other. Eragon smiled, a cold, cruel smile as the two lined up perfectly…. Eragon unleashed the fire within opening his maw as he roared, "YOL TUUR SHUL!"
A blazing inferno consumed the pitiful creatures, drowning their screams in the roar of power….
The dragon language is called Dovahzul, literally the Dragon-Tongue
The following words of the Dovahzul were used in this chapter
Su'um: breath
Docahkin: Dragonborn
Yol: Fire
Sulyek: power
Su'um arkh morah: breath and focus
Dovah: dragon, dov: dragons
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