Chapter 9: The Nonmaterial Realm

Ialana blinked her eyes open. Or did she blink? She couldn't tell - she could barely feel her own skin. The things she was seeing looked odd and distorted, as if she was viewing them as a reflection in a rippling creek or a glass wine-bottle. She felt as though she were flying - no, flying wasn't the word. More like floating on a river. I must be existing in nonmaterial form. I remember Durza spoke of it. It happens to a Shade who receives a so-called "death blow" anywhere but directly in the heart. Hm. It was funny - an arrow in the back seemed to have put an end to her violent episode, and now her human side was ruling again. I want to get back, she realized. Back to the real world, to real life, to...

To Eragon.

Ialana scolded herself for this last thought. She had no idea why she continued to think of Eragon that way...enjoying his company, longing for his touch, missing him when he was not around. She tried to ignore it. She had felt that way about Durza...and look where it got her.

She isn't sure where to go now. She has no family to go back to, no home. Her transformation into a Shade grows more and more complete with each passing day, and no one is willing to take in someone who they clearly regard as a monster - this much she knows. She isn't naive. She knows that now she will have to learn to survive on her own, without family, without friends, without love. "I don't need them", she whispers. "I don't. Need. Love."

Ialana was able to make out the place where she was "standing"- somewhere near the Varden headquarters. In the forest. On a mountaintop. And...she thought she heard the very loud flap-clap, flap-clap of a dragon's wings. Saphira! "Eragon!", she cried out. "Eragon! Hello!" Four seconds after the words were out of her mouth, she was scolding herself for the idiocy of it. Of course Eragon couldn't hear her. Yet another way Eragon is like Durza - I completely forget everything else when talking to him. Well, she must, if she had forgotten that she - to him, at any rate - did not even exist.

There has to be a way to get out of this form, she thought. I've never heard of any, though. Durza said it happened to him once, and it took him months to return fully.

Months?! Ialana mentally panicked. I cannot remain like this for months! If I do not return... Then, something occured to her. But if I simply return...just like that, with no explanation...who knows what might happen? Better to let them believe I have been killed, then when I have recovered and returned, seek out Eragon in secret.

Then Ialana remembered something. It is quite the long shot...but it is possible that I might make contact with him in our minds. She took a deep breath - figuratively, she was not actually breathing - and sent a thought into his mind. Shadeslayer? Argetlam? Can you hear me, Master Eragon?

"Whoa! Ialana? Are you...talking to me?"

Yes. Obviously.

"Well...alright. You aren't dead?"

Of course not. If I was dead, I would not be talking to you.

"Well...where do I start? Last night, after you ran off -"

That was night? I assumed it was morning.

"Irrelevant. Anyway, these elves went after you, and then one came back about two hours later, saying you'd killed Blodgharm, and...oh, hellfire! There was such an uproar, and I am fully confident no one was upset that elf said he had killed you..."

Slow down, Argetlam. I can't hold this connection for very much longer, and it exhausts me to receive such a message.

Sorry.

I will try to return. Meet me...on the mountaintop I assume you are still flying over.

"I'll be there. Two o clock. Tomorrow...morning."

Agreed.

(A/N: Five chapters to go, and I now have 5 favorites, 7 follows, 12 reviews, and...whoa...1,009 views! Keep on going, guys!)