Author's Note: Hi guys. Sorry for the late update as I had to drive from one city to another on Sunday for business purposes. Thank you for all the reviews. From now on at the bottom of each chapter I will respond to reviews regarding speculation or feedback. I know you have a lot of questions that need answered. New chapters will be uploaded every Sunday.

An Arya chapter will be coming out soon.


The New Order

I - Eragon

As the wind howled outside his balcony Eragon downed another cup of wine as he contemplated using the scry mirror. Ever so faintly he heard Saphira's deep breaths in the bedroom. He used the opportunity to send her phantom thoughts, claiming he was asleep beside her and dreaming. He didn't want her to know. I promised I would try.

There was a dull ache in his chest, a constant pain which reminded him of Durza's blade that had struck his back long ago. For a moment he sat in contemplation, gritting his teeth, while laying his chin upon his knuckles. His eyes were sore from the lack of sleep, his body smelled of sweat, while his hair was tangled in a mess. He poured himself another cup of wine from the jug and skulked it down. No matter how hard he tried his thoughts lingered inside him like some incurable disease.

Finally, Eragon knew he had to make a decision. Try now, or never try again. He threw the wine cup away in anger he didn't know he felt. Stepping closer to the scry mirror his heart beat so fast it was sickening.

He touched the cold surface of the scry mirror, sending shivers through his body, even though his study was adequately warm. Closing his eyes, feeling something trickle down to his cheek, he said the words. The mirror distorted into swirling smoke, taking a lot longer than usual as the distance was so far away.

The image settled upon a palatial room with the sun shining straight at him through red curtains. Upon the wall next to the curtains was a painting of Eragon and Roran smiling together. The smiles upon their faces were of such hope, youth, and mischievousness. It symbolized the naïve hope that they would somehow be reunited again.

Eragon wiped the sweat from his brow and temple, straightened back his long, matted hair, and breathed steadily to settle his aching chest. Ever so faintly he heard laughter, then a silhouette of two figures appeared behind the curtains. They were dancing together.

"Roran," Eragon whispered, realising the taller of the two was his cousin. At the back of his mind a loud voice spoke. You cannot change your fate. No man can. It played in his mind over and over again, until he gave in and let the magic that powered the scry mirror slip away. The image of his cousin dissolved into smoke and showed Eragon's haggard form in reflection. Tears streamed down and his breathing turned shallow and labored. He closed his eyes, disgusted at himself for not being brave.

"I can't," Eragon whispered. I can't hurt them seeing me after a long time and knowing I can never return. With that thought he closed his eyes, evaporating his thoughts of home in a forever-lost memory.

####

Saphira landed hard upon the paved courtyard on the first level of the city, issuing a resounding force through Eragon's chest. Clapping thrice upon her fine scales Saphira lowered her body and Eragon slid off. He tightened the leather threads on his scabbard then straightened the loose hair away from his eyes.

It was early in the morning but not enough so that the fog blinded everything. The wind last night had scattered twigs, large branches and rocks everywhere upon the courtyard. What had happened last night, Eragon needed to forget.

I loathe review day, Saphira said.

Eragon smiled. I have a feeling we might find some actual improvements. But don't tell your pupils that.

You don't have to worry. I never allow them to boast in front of me. And how can they?

You're right.

As neither had much time Saphira ascended and headed towards the Erona Mountains. It was a sight to behold seeing her scales ripple with the sunrise. In no moment she was but a shadow the size of a butterfly.

The Rider Institute seemed an ageless structure even though it was completed a few years ago. It wasn't built to impress in terms of grandeur — a lofty stone building with wide balconies and tall windows — but the isolated location and the wide courtyard humbled anyone living inside. Seeing the mountains tower over them, listening to the wild dragons roar all day, smelling the variegated aromas around them, reminded even the most naïve that they were nothing compared to the power of the land.

As he neared the front entrance of the Institute the wide oak doors – large enough for even Saphira to enter – opened of their own accord and he stepped inside.

The great hall, or more generally referred to as the common room, had grown more personalized since the new riders had joined. It was massive enough and tall enough to host a family of dragons, while having enough room for other residents to roam about. The tall windows insured that no one needed lanterns in the day as light filtered through in plentiful amounts. The far end of the common room had a grand winding staircase that led to various living chambers upstairs and to the arena below. Within the common room Eragon had given free reign to the first riders to decorate the place however they liked. His students had definitely wasted no time in taking advantage of the opportunity.

Next to the fireplace was a large marble bust of the first urgal rider, Kallurga — crudely made however, with the nose a bit too flat and the lips a bit too fat — and ingrained below it said: The first rider. Make our race proud. Leaning against the bust was Kallurga's axe, the face of the blade reflecting the haunting light from the fireplace. Within the large glass case, pushed against the wall next to the velvet sofas, was Dorrin's bronze armour. He was from Tronjheim and had studied under Orik. Dorrin's father had fashioned the armour for him as a parting gift, and Dorrin thought it appropriate to have it facing the marble bust as if sizing Kallurga up. The bookcase set against the back wall was filled with Orrios's books and his alone, stating quite clearly his elvish nature to pursue knowledge. Of Avelin's belongings — the human rider — Eragon didn't find anything, but then deceptively hidden at the far left corner was a small carpet. Upon inspecting it the carpet showed a waterfall set behind a small house next to a riverbank. It was Avelin's home.

Eragon smiled. That is Avelin alright. Apart from personal items the common room was furnished luxuriously – thanks to Yaela's decorative sensibility – to allow the riders comfort in times of hardship.

What was interesting about the hall was that everyone had clearly marked their territory with their belongings. No one shared space with everyone and everything was separated quite a distance apart. It was small details like these that affirmed Eragon's belief that the riders were not getting along. Some used this as proof that Eragon should not have deliberately meddled in having the first riders be from individual races.

As he made himself home in the common room his solitude was cut short by quick, fast steps coming down the winding staircase. Turning back, he saw Nimel race down the steps.

"Is that who I think it is?" Nimel said, as Eragon stood up to meet her.

Everything about Nimel spelled adventure. Her tilted smile, her long brown unkempt hair, a sword and bow at the ready, muddy shoes, and of course her enthusiasm for meeting new friends and old. She raced up to Eragon and embraced him, the smell of fresh grass, mud and rain assaulting him all at once.

"Nimel. You should have told me you were arriving this soon," Eragon said.

Parting slowly Nimel's expression turned into a curious frown. "I thought we agreed on Nim."

"Sorry, Nim."

"As for my arrival. Didn't you find the book?"

Eragon chuckled. "A touching gesture. On top of all the reports there is now a giant book I have to get through."

Nimel raised her right brow, nodding. "You better read it. I put a lot of thought into what might cheer you up."

"Ah, the winter depression. How many other exaggerated claims did Saphira report to you?"

"Give her credit, Eragon. She looks out for you. Is it really that bad she reached out to me?"

"You have your duties and I have mine." Eragon said with a smile.

Nimel sighed, realising the conversation was leading nowhere. "We might have our separate duties. But not when it comes to them." She emphasised the them by jerking her head upwards.

Eragon's smile faltered. "How do they look?"

"Nervous. What do you expect?"

"I expect them to improve. Alagaesia needs them sooner than I thought. As far as the people at home are concerned I abandoned them."

"No," Nimel stated, for the first time her expression turning serious. "Whatever it is that is stopping you from going back, fix it…as soon as possible. But don't put your student's lives in danger because of what you think your people in Alagaesia feel towards you. Your students still need time."

"They had four years. I had less facing the greatest threat in existence."

Nimel raised a finger, "Well technically only Orrios has had four years. Avelin, Dorrin, and Kallurga have only been riders for two. But anyhow in your case destiny had a big part to play. Their paths will take more time. And you understand that more than I do."

She was right, but then again she was always right. He had to bury his fears of what Alagaesia thought of him and had to think about what was right for his students.

"Oh, and by the way," Nimel said. "Lord Lorofell wants to meet you this late afternoon."

Eragon sighed, "Well, let us tackle one battle at a time."

####

Upstairs, gathered on the first floor balcony, was hopefully the New Order to be. The sun shone with all its wonderful glory on the grimmest looking individuals on the face of the world. Leaning against the main stone column was Kallurga, gently punching the stone marble, and not realising he was creating cracks. Dorrin had a small pocketknife out, scraping the mud off his boots while Avelin was biting her nails, muttering something low in her breath. Out of them Orrios was the only one who looked calm, he was simply leaning against a column watching the others.

Once Eragon and Nimel made their presence known everyone straightened up in attention. Avelin stopped chewing, while Kallurga tried his best to hide the dent in the column by placing himself at the front.

"If you haven't prepared," Eragon said, "you would do abysmally. You had the whole winter."

Everyone nodded.

"Cheer up, everyone," Nimel said. "Master Eragon brings forth some hope." It was clear that Nimel played to the student's emotions and that she was closer to them than he was. In her presence they were always calm and open but with him they seemed unsure, and always a little distant.

"Well…yes." Eragon said, seeing Nimel's smile turn to a grin. "I can tell you now what you can expect in the demonstration."

"I want to see Roselin, Ebrithil" Avelin said.

"Your dragons have been separated for now with good reason," Eragon said. "You would have to manage without their knowledge."

"I thought the point of being a rider was you always had someone by your side," Dorrin said.

"Not always," Eragon said pointedly. "Sometimes you have to manage by your own without the vast knowledge of your dragons. Believe me, I know."

"In other words it is your abilities we are testing," Nimel said. "Your dragons depend as much upon your experience as you do theirs. If…" Nimel tapped the side of her head. "…there is an imbalance of experience you are only going to hurt each other."

"That is why armies keep their veterans together," Eragon said. "Experience on both sides makes you formidable."

"Understood, Ebrithil," Orrios said, in his soothing voice. "You were about to reveal to us our tasks."

"Your first task will require you to demonstrate the techniques regarding the correct use of linguistic naming," Eragon said. "Remember, the proper accent is required to call upon the various elements in the ancient language." He chuckled as he thought about Elva, and said, "I learnt that the hard way."

Nimel then spoke. "Your second task is pretty much showing how you control the amount of energy you expend in a single incantation. Make your incantation as precise as possible, while expending the least amount of energy. Yuron plans to award the student who shows the most efficiency."

"Ha," Dorrin said, "Yuron will probably keep the award to himself. He never seems pleased either way you put it."

"The third task is difficult," Eragon said. "You will attempt to penetrate the minds of one of our elite guards." As he explained each task the students began to fiddle.

"Next, all of you will attempt to beat me in a sword duel," Nimel said with a wink. "Teamwork is essential here. And I won't go easy." The expression on everyone's faces turned to shock. They looked at each other as if noticing for the first time that they lived together. Eragon had a feeling that the sword fight would end up being a disaster. Nimel was a master at what she did and several times she had even given Eragon a hard time in the arena.

"The last two tasks will require you to first demonstrate the anatomy of your dragons," Eragon said. "Finally, the hardest and last task. You will attempt to locate where your dragons are within the Erona Mountains through mental communication. To make it interesting it will be a competition to see who locates theirs first."

Avelin's expression changed to worry but Eragon gave her a gentle smile "Rest assured they are completely safe. Master Saphira is giving them flight drills, as far as they are concerned."

"Alright," Nimel said, clapping her hands. "That seems wonderful, don't you think? You've studied for this I am sure." Avelin, Dorrin and Kallurga nodded awkwardly while Orrios smiled with confidence.

"In two minutes you will head down to the arena," Eragon said.

Of all the shocks and confusion that came their way this was the greatest. Eragon had no doubt that they had trained to face these sorts of tasks. The issue was implementing that knowledge into practicality in front of all their masters.

Eragon and Nimel left their students and headed down the winding staircase at the far end of the hall. Every ten steps the sconces adjacent to them lit up of their own accord, lighting the grey stones in a bright blue light, all the way to the bottom.

Leading up to the arena was a hallway lined with statues on either sides, depicting various basic stances in a duel – both aggression and defence – of a rider and dragon. It enforced the student's mindset to focus on their basics, rather than focusing too much on the advanced lessons. The maxim went: the one who masters the basics already commands the initial stage in a duel.

Just like the staircase the hallway lit up in progression as they walked forth. The smell of steel, ash, and an odd aroma of melted wax permeated in the air. The stronger the smell, the more recently one could tell the arena had been in use. By the strength of the smells the students had been down here last night. It gave Eragon some hope that they might be a few surprises than last year's demonstration, which to his recollection, was a nightmare for all but Orrios, who had shown great promise.

At the end of the hall stood Blӧdhgarm; the fur on his apparel waved in the air due to the constant airflow that was fed into the arena.

"Morning," Nimel said, her voice echoing as if she had announced it to the whole city.

That caught Blӧdhgarm off-guard as he expected someone else at Eragon's side. His whole regal composure was lost in one awkward hand wave towards Nimel. Eragon barely managed to smother his laughter.

"I didn't expect you to be here," Blӧdhgarm said, watching Nimel intently as if Eragon was an apparition in the room.

"I surely hope not," Nimel said, tilting her head slightly in question. "Did you think I would be mauled by a bear along the way?"

Blӧdhgarm shifted in his place uneasily.

Nimel continued. "Or did you forget that I am a master as well?"

"Of course not," Blӧdhgarm said. "Master Eragon made it clear that all the masters have to be-"

"-present during the yearly demonstration," Nimel finished, drumming out the words slowly to make an obvious point.

"Yes," Blӧdhgarm said calmly, his emotionless elvish mask back in place.

"Shall we?" Eragon said, pointing at the open double doors behind Blӧdhgarm.

The arena ran under the courtyard and was wider. In the centre was an elaborate hoist powered by magic, which elevated dragons from the arena and into the courtyard, or vice versa. All manner of weapons, armour, and obstacles was available in the arena to practice against any situation. The walls were high enough to allow the dragons to practice climbing and even flying, given a certain age, which Saphira was past. At the far end was an inclined podium from which instructors or masters could observe with a magical barrier to protect them from dragon fire. A nice touch, which Nimel had put into the design of the arena, was to have it ringed with lit torches, and to have the symbol of the first free dragons laid upon the ground in a vibrant mosaic. Of course the effect of the mosaic lessened because of the scorch marks on it, but it gave it a nice, gritty edge, which seemed appropriate for the venue.

The rest of the masters sat in their comfortable seats in the podium, organising sheafs of papers while quietly murmuring to each other. They all stood, to Eragon's honour, once Yuron recognised who was walking towards the podium.

Yuron was the head of scholarly studies and ran the library of Drovengard. He had long silver hair that reached to his shoulders and wore a red robe threaded with gold at the seams. One never found Yuron without a book and his writing equipment in hand. The other masters on the podium was Master Yaela, who was head of weapon craftsmanship and also helped Nimel with sword combat training. The Eldunarí, along with Eragon and Saphira, were head of the Rider Institute, while Blӧdhgarm was the head of mage combat. Saphira was also tasked with flight training. All in all it was an elite group of the most talented teachers Eragon could assemble.

He entered the podium, which was narrow and long, lit under sconces of white lights, and lined with writing desks and velvet-cushioned chairs. The door behind the podium led to a small room for mostly refreshments and general meetings between each task to discuss the new curriculum for the year. At other times the room was mostly a throwaway space for old weapons and armour. From the podium the height of the room provided the perfect vantage point over the whole arena.

Eragon sat between Blӧdhgarm and Nimel and took out a sheaf of papers, quill and ink and organised it in on the smooth oak table. Shortly after, the riders entered the arena and stood in front of the podium with their heads held high before bowing respectfully.

Eragon stood up and read them their first task, and said. "May the stars guide you today."

Blӧdhgarm made final adjustments to his notes and read out the specifics of the first task. "The torches that you see around you – extinguish them all at once. I am looking for creative incantations. Focus on the elements available to you in the arena, and do not expend more energy than you have."

It was a tall order as there were more than a thousand torches ringed around the arena. The riders were issued into the preparation room under the podium and were called once the previous rider had finished their demonstration. In the end of the first task only Orrios managed to convincingly expunge the torchlights in one simple incantation, by redirecting the air being pumped into the arena and blowing it outwards. Avelin used a sound as loud as a thunderclap and managed to blow out most, but not all the torches. However, Blӧdhgarm smiled while writing Avelin's comments down, meaning he was impressed by the creativity she showed. Dorrin's idea of draining the torch fuel was ambitious but ultimately the incantation he issued had pronunciation flaws and managed only to inflame the torches rather than extinguish them. He was given a second try in which he used a method similar to Orrios' and was more successful with it. Kallurga was the surprise no one expected as he noted that the air was pumped down through open vents. He blocked the vents to snuff the oxygen from the room. However the podium had to wait a long time for the air to drain out and in the end it took too long for the torches to finally extinguish, ultimately being ineffective. However that was not the surprise. Kallurga had managed to pronounce his incantation perfectly, and was direct in his approach.

The second task led on from the principles of the first where the riders had to levitate as high as they could into the air with an incantation of their own choosing which did not drain their energy too much. Everyone performed well in this as the principles of levitation was drilled into their minds by rote. However, Kallurga initially cast an incantation that threw him violently forward, however before he crashed into the podium he cast another which stopped his movement and simply held him in the air. Everyone in the podium sighed in relief.

Yuron smiled at the results. "Looks like all of them will be invited to the Enia Tathriel celebrations." Eragon chuckled. So much for Dorrin doubting Yuron's reward.

The mind reading challenge, was well, a challenge. Only Avelin managed to extract some useful information from the guard but ultimately it was not enough to impress. Eragon wasn't happy with the result, he and Glaedr had spent a lot of time teaching them about the power of their minds however it seemed their lessons were ineffective.

The sword duel, in summary, was an entertainment of mishaps and egotism. It was clear the riders hadn't chosen a leader from among them in their planning time when discussing how to defeat Master Nimel. In the end a fight broke out between Dorrin and Kallurga while Orrios and Avelin gave up on even trying to work together. Nimel danced through all their attempts, ultimately tying them up in a neat tangle before Eragon had seen enough and ended the task.

Nimel came back to the podium with a broad smile. "That went wonderful."

"For you, you mean," Blӧdhgarm said.

Nimel laughed. "Of course. They didn't stand a chance."

"This can only mean you will have to train them harder," Eragon said. "It reflects you as a teacher as equally as their abilities shown today."

"And I shall do that Master Eragon," Nimel said with a slight scowl.

The riders were given a small break before the last consecutive tasks commenced. Everyone had a perfect score with the dragon anatomy challenge to which Eragon smiled. Saphira will be proud her work has paid off. The last, and hardest challenge, was the long communication the riders had to establish with their dragons in the Erona Mountains. Orrios did it instantly due to his background in magic however for the others it took a lot longer. After all the tasks were complete Eragon stood up, and spoke out loud. "I want to congratulate our riders. You have shown some remarkable skills today."

The riders breathed out in relief, collapsing to the ground after standing for a long time.

"The clear winner of today's demonstration is Orrios, followed by Avelin, Dorrin and Kallurga," Glaedr said. "This year we can finally teach you some advanced courses, but there are some basic courses you shall have to revise."

As Glaedr drummed on with his criticisms and praises Nimel gently elbowed Eragon on the hip.

"What is it?" Eragon whispered.

Nimel glared at him. "Lord Lorofell. Or did you forget?"

Oh no. Eragon contacted Saphira. Saphira?

Yes, little one.

Do whatever you need to prepare. We have a long ride to the Elmdore Forest and not much time.


End Note: Read and review :).

Brobe kyant: There was a hint in the Drovengard chapter as to something stopping Eragon. Something which he fears (more will be revealed later). Because of that he feels the prophecy told by Angela was right all along and he cannot return.