Author's Note: Because I am bored and have nothing better to do, a simple drabble of dribble to tickle the fancy.

Disclaimer: I do not own Galbatorix, Eragon, the Ra'zac, or any other characters that will be appearing in these pages.

Apologies

Galbatorix stared at himself in the mirror. His robes and flowing blue cloak were neat and colour coordinated. His hair was combed, and his beard neatly trimmed. The crown upon his head tilted just slightly to hint at his underlying desire to appear somewhat casual to the crowd of commoners outside.

How do I look? He asked Shruikan, he asked the dragon. Disturbed from his afternoon doze the black dragon fixed a groggy glacial eye on him. You look dashing. Quite dashing.

The king nodded, glance at himself once more in the full length mirror, before turning toward the door. Please wait for me in the throne room.

Passing down the corridor, he stopped. His favourite concubine Salvia was walking in his direction with a servant girl. Both curtsied when they were a few feet away. Salvia's distended stomach apparent beneath the thick bodice of her dress.

In an uncharacteristic display of adoration for the only woman who cared for, he wrapped his arm around her. While on his travels many years before he'd found her being sold as a slave on the black market, as the Riders had made slavery illegal. He'd bought her freedom, because she'd stolen his heart. One look into her dark onyx eyes had been all it had taken.

Just as he pulled away, her lips brushed his cheek, and his hand gently caressed her stomach. Soon they would have child, and he would have an heir to his kingdom, and perhaps he would sire a new order of Riders.

"Stay safe. I will return shortly."

He backed away from her, giving her a light smile, and he departed.

Rounding a corner, he found the Ra'zac staring rather hungrily at a servant. The stiffened before bowing as he approached. Breezing past them he tossed over his should, "Come."

Seconds later the decisive click of their metal soled boots fell into step behind them.

The Varden were camping outside his walls. He could see the tendrils of smoke from the distant fires as he scaled the city walls. They blamed him for the destruction of the Empire. An accusation without merit, but he was human so by default people would hate him. Had he been an elfin rider everyone would have loved him and no one would have stopped him from building his magnificent kingdom. Why? Because there was a double standard for humans elves. Elves could get away with shit and humans were mindless bodies, bumping into things as far as the rest of Alagaesia was concerned.

In the city, commoners, soldiers, nobles, and the Ra'zac gathered at the base of the wall to see what their king planned on doing to the enemy horde. On the opposite side a great army with its trebuchets, ballista, towers, and other siege equipment stirred, marching in a great mass of shining silver beacons toward the city's walls.

"I have," he amplified his voice with a short phrase in the Ancient Language. "After several years I have spent reading a thousand years of history and I now have the power to heal this land and save each and every person in this land today. I wish to offer my apologies to the world, and all the people who live in it. I will take a responsibility for all the problems in this world a hundred percent.

I would like to apologize to my fellow human beings; Slavery is all MY fault. I apologize, but I had this country to build and I couldn't ask the dwarves for help because I tried killing them all." The king froze, capturing the attention of friend and foe alike.

"Knurlan, Dwarves, I would like to start off by saying I love red sapphires, and that I also eat chicken. Now that we have found some common ground, I would like to say I apologize. I don't know why the Hell I wanted to conquer Tronjheim. It's a city with none of its own food sources, and built on a bunch of tunnels so it can someday cave-in on itself. A bridge had just been blown up, my wife to be died in childbirth, and I was drunk off my ass. I apologize, and I apologize for the clan I destroyed. And Urgals, I'm sorry I got you involved in that."

He paused taking a minute, as if to collect his thoughts, although he already knew what he was going to say. He'd been practicing this speech for months already.

I would like to apologize to the elves. I admit you do dance better than us humans and I also hate trash on the ground; now that we have found some common ground… but we humans, we get fired up. We're coming from a far away country. "Woo hoo, we get our own country! Yea! Wait a minute who the f*** is that guy? Who's that guy on the beach singing and dancing,! Oh hold up, hold up, he's smoking a pipe, he's probably high."

"No let him keep smoking. Then he won't mind if we take his entire country Idiot! Sorry," he winced.

"And Elves I apologize, for the way things went down, but taking the throne was throwing a party when the parents are out of town and the football team was doing crystal meth. We didn't mean to trash the place. Sorry! And I promise that from now I will plant ten thousand seedlings on the border of your forest every year. And I mean my God!" Galbatorix buried his head in his hands. "We took everything from you! We could have at least left you Palancar Valley! Hell I cleared out all the Urgals!" He fell silent, his mouth open in shock.

After a moment he shifted from his frozen stupor. No one was moving, everyone watching him, waiting, to see what he would say.

"Urgralgra, moi, apologetica? I don't know what the Hell we're fight so hard for Palancar Valley for anyways. Anyone here been to Palancar Valley? Palancar Valley is a Hellhole: dirt, rocks, grass, snow, dirt, Eragon, dirt, rocks, mud, come on! It's not like we were fighting for Illerea. Again elves, really sorry about Illerea."

And to the Dragon Riders, about The Forsworn and Vroenguard and The Fall- Fu**** that, that was your fault! I was chilling in a farmer's house when you guys came along and all Hell broke loose! However, I will admit, I overreacted."

Galbatorix raised his arms, reaching out to the crowds. "So to every race that is here today that I have jacked-up , I sincerely apologize for taking your land, for the abuse, for the torture, the wars, the slavery, the high taxes, and the loss of the dragons, and Ra'zac-" to turned to meet the hooded gazes of his assassins, "I apologize for Eragon."

"And I want every person who is a citizen or soldier of The Empire to on the count of three say, 'We're Galby's and we apologize.' One! Two! Three!"

A chorus of voices rang out from within the city walls and the entirety of the Varden was stunned.

"Oh Gods!" The king exclaimed, rubbing his stinging wet eyes. "That was beautiful. And anyone who isn't a soldier or citizen of The Empire should accept our apology, because you just saw how quickly we got organized."

With that he climbed down from the wall and returned to his palace, with the stunned but happily smiling Ra'zac in toe.

The End