MUHAHAHA! I told you no one be able to guess that!
AdurnaBrisingr: :) Indeed I will. :) Thank you.
Alyana O'Reilly: :) Have patience. Their time will come.
Adurna Nightstar Evanshade: :) You'll just have to keep reading.
mmd8280: Did you get the pm I sent you?
kmc995: I know, right? Yes, yes she is. :) There's very good reasons for this that will be explained later in the story.
FlexManSteel: :) I could tell.
Prince of Madness 54: Very good point. She won't be any use to the Varden; or the Empire for that matter, for well inside thirteen years, at least. And she couldn't have expedient growth since both her parents are human. I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out about that. :)
Leonineus: Well, quick side note, Shruikan isn't theoretically bonded to Galbatorix. As you said the way in which I have set up the Dragon eggs is not plausible if delved into. But, think about it. There are two dragons, Saphira and Shruikan, three if you count Glaedr and two Dragon eggs, the one Galbatorix has and the one Eragon has, in Alagaesia. Since Dragon's don't age until they hatch it's reasonable to believe that both dragons in the eggs are of the same age. Following this line of logic it's no more impossible to believe that Shruikan and Saphira could mate than Saphira and Glaedr because of the age difference.
Antclift: I know! I'm sick of it too, so I decided to throw in some flare. :) Very true. She won't matter at all in the battle against the Empire. She'd have to be older in order to matter worth anything. Very excellent point. I guess you'll have to keep on reading in order to find out. :)
Obliterator1519: All shall be revealed as to Aesire's knowledge of the Katelyn being the next rider. As for Eragon's, I assume you mean Eragon, son to be he will be heavily used in the second and third book. More in the second than third.
Katrina and Roran looked up at them. Katrina's face registering weariness and Roran's confusion. "What," Katrina said.
"Your daughter," Aesire said to the both of them, "is going to be the Rider of a silver dragon egg that was transported to the Varden some weeks ago." Eragon pushed Aesire back.
"Why didn't you tell me this?"
"I just did," Aesire said calmly.
"Before now!"
"I told you all you needed to know. That the Rider wasn't in the Varden, or Empire. Theoretically, she wasn't. I didn't know the exact date of her arrival, since Katrina wanted you to speed it up and I didn't know if you would or not. The Rider had very few skills. It would be overly complementing to say that the unborn have any skills at all. I told you everything I knew, Eragon."
"You didn't even feel it worthy of note that the Rider was going to be Katrina's and Roran's daughter?"
"You told me on our flight back to the Varden that people see you for your being a Rider and Shadeslayer. I didn't want to press that onto the baby."
"Katelyn," Roran said defensively.
"My deepest apologies. I don't understand why you're getting upset with me for telling you far more than you needed to know. And there is very little I don't understand. Why does it matter?"
"Because as soon as this war is over, maybe in the next month, Katrina is going to go back to Carvahall and..."
"No," Katrina said. The eyes of everyone in the room went to Katrina, including Saphira's. Her eyes were locked with those of her daughter.
"No?" Roran said.
"Roran and I may return to Carvahall, but Katelyn will stay with Eragon."
"What," Roran said.
"She's going to be one of the people to aid in the resurrection of the Riders, Roran! Do you mean to tell me you want our daughter to, instead, go back to a small village and spin knitting nettles for the rest of her life? Her life will be so much grander than ours and I want that for her. Do you not?"
"Yes, but you're going to leave our daughter with Eragon on the word of a man you don't even know?"
"Eragon trusts him and that is good enough for me. If Eragon, who wants nothing but the best for us, trusts this man then I do as well. Do you need more?"
"No, but..."
"Then it is settled. You and I can always come and see her, but her life has to be the priority, Roran." Roran looked ready to protest but he sighed and murmured, "You are right." She nodded and looked up at Eragon and Aesire. A small tear was in the corner of her right eye. "If you would, please; I would like to get to know my daughter as much as I can before we part." Eragon dipped his head and backed out of the room, followed by Aesire.
Outside Eragon shut the door and turned to Aesire. "Alright, enough of this. Tell me who you are and how you know what you know."
Aesire shrugged. "Tell me all the secret powers that the Riders hid for millennium and I will tell you all my secrets."
"That's ridiculous!"
"No more ridiculous than what you asked for."
"How do you expect me to trust you when you go and pull a stunt like that?"
"I'll tell you like I told Nasuada. Not trust, just believe. If you don't want to trust me that is your business."
"Why should I even believe you? How do I know you aren't just a fraud?"
"Do you doubt me?"
"How can I not?"
Aesire face grew dark. "I have shone light on a deathly weakness of Uru'baen. I have stayed my hand over a man I wanted to kill at your word. I forsaken the comfort of this house and the wealth it entails. I have, in my right eye, more power than is containable in your entire body. If you believe yourself to have the right to such information as you are inquiring, you are far out of your mind." He took a step closer so that he and Eragon were less than a foot away. "If you believe yourself to have more intellect than me, I will gladly step aside and let you take all the credit for my strategic ability. If you want to be written about in the histories with my powers, than I will joyfully allow it. My single goal is to attain what you have promised me in return for my services."
"What do you want?" asked Eragon, pronouncing each word distinctly.
"I have told you this before and I will tell you this again. When the time is right, I will tell you and you can decide then whether or not you will go through with it. Until then, I offer every facet of my ability to you unyieldingly. Ask it of me and it shall be done with all the power at my disposal."
"Alright. Please explain."
Aesire sighed. "Eragon. I ask one thing of you. Please believe me. My condition will only benefit you, but it could be catastrophic if I tell you now. So please, may we move on?"
Eragon stared at him for a long moment. Saphira?
If his condition was intended to harm us why would he want to wait for a specific time?
I still don't like being in debt to this man.
But he agreed to your stipulation that if you do not like his condition you can withdraw your agreement at anytime. Why would he agree to that if he meant us ill?
I like it not, but I will trust you on this. "Fine," he said to Aesire. Aesire relaxed.
"Thank you."
"Now then, when I fought Murtagh, he mentioned you knew where Galbatorix hides his Eldunari. I would like to know where."
"I know where to find out," Aesire corrected. "Or at the very least a strongly backed idea."
"Let's hear it."
"At the base of the citadel there is a small passageway that was guarded by at least twenty men at all times. I never managed to get through it, but on the outside of the passageway there was one of the Ra'zac's sigils."
"That makes a reasonable amount of sense. Go on."
"Now that the city is empty of soldiers we can get down there and look around. Who knows what's down there."
"It's a library," a smooth voice said from behind them. Eragon turned and saw a large wolf with its paws tucked in lying behind them.
"Hola, what are you doing awake?"
The wolf blinked lazily. "As you can see, I barely am."
"Did you say it was a library?" asked Eragon.
"Indeed."
That sounds worth checking out, he said to Saphira.
So far we've found not a single trap set by the King.
Perhaps he is going to keep to his promise
Saphira scoffed. I don't see him being truthful by any means of the word.
"Do you feel up to showing us this library," Eragon asked Hola.
"No," she said, curtly. "I don't believe I am. Aesire can show it to you himself." She turned and trotted away at a slow pace. Eragon looked back at Aesire to see him faintly smiling.
"As I said- never one solid personality; one day she'll be as kind as a new born bird and the next she'll be as irritable as a drunken dwarf. Shall we go then?" he asked, raising an arm out to one side. Eragon nodded and Aesire led him outside.
It was growing dark by this time, with long shadows that stretched through the entire street. As they walked, Eragon would hear the laughter and cheering of men in the houses on either side of the street. "It's been quite awhile since they slept in anything that could be called a house." They passed a side street and Eragon was reminded of how the people of Dras'Leona had pressed themselves up against the walls when they saw him coming. He thought to ask Aesire about. The face Aesire made could have been called grotesque.
"What they do is their own business."
"Yes, but they must have had a reason."
"Whatever reason it was, it was none of mine and it had nothing to do with me."
"I find that hard to believe."
"Then find it as such."
Eragon forward and stopped Aesire. "I will have Nasuada disband you from our ranks if you do not stop hiding everything from me."
Aesire crossed his arms and tapped his index finger of his right hand against the skin of his left arm. "I was assigned to help the troops that were being sent to the Burning Plains in my house and people got the idea I was their leader. So they naturally feared me; that is all." When Eragon appeared dissatisfied with his response Aesire said, "Do you want to see what's in this library or not? We're almost there."
"Fine," Eragon said, stepping aside. "Lead the way." When they reached the citadel, Aesire stopped and crouched down, murmuring. A crack appeared in its base and opened up into a stairwell. Cob webs clung to the walls in so many numbers that Eragon had difficulty seeing past them.
"You want to go down there first?" Aesire asked dryly. Eragon drew his sword and said, "Brisingr." A column of blue flame flickered up Brisingr's length. Eragon stepped into the enclosed space.
"Eragon!" Eragon stopped and looked back and saw Arya hurrying towards them. Her waist now stretched out a bit farther than he could remember, evidence of the child she carried. "You were going to go down there without me?"
"It might be a bit dangerous and..."
"More dangerous than fighting two Shades? We have overcome that together, I'm sure we can overcome a deserted library together. Besides, I have searched for the answer of how to free the Eldunari for long enough that I would not miss the answer when it sprung up to present itself."
Oh just let her go, Saphira said.
But it might be dangerous.
And as she said the two of you have overcome far worse.
As you say.
Eragon continued down the passageway, using Brisingr's flame to clear a path through the cobwebs and darkness. The stairwell led into a long passageway, down three more flights of stairs and over a chasm of inestimable depth. Finally they came to a dark room that even Eragon's eagle eyes could not see with, even with Brisingr's light. Aesire stepped over and dipped his fingers into a pool then took them out and placed them on his tongue. "Candle oil." Eragon reached out with Brisingr and light with its writhing flames. It burst into flames and a line of fire ran down a waterfall of the oil and lit the room as it hit the bottom. A chamber a bowshot long was revealed, books lining every wall in hundreds of thousands. That was not what demanded Eragon's attention. Where the candle oil had fallen and taken up route again with its fire was a raised platform with three large books adorning it. Each book had two large Ancient Language glyphs. The left most had the glyphs for Shadow and Light. The right most had the glyphs for Lunar and Mist. And the center had the glyphs for Blood and Fire.
Welcome to the place of our birth, a dark voice said in the chamber, whispering into all three of their minds. The place of Shadowlight, Lunarmist, and Bloodfire.
Most or all of the things that will shape the base of the story have now been put into play. Can't wait to hear what my awesome reviewers have to say about this one. Oh yeah, sidenote, I'm goning to get my hair dyed. :)