Where in the world is Silvari

"So" said Arya, in an even voice, not betraying her uncertain state of mind, "what do you think we should do Dathedr?"

"Well" Dathedr said shortly, "There is not much that we can do, Arya."

Through the scrying mirror, his face appeared deep in thought, eventually after a suitable moment's pause, he lifted his head.

"What" started Dathedr, "exactly did Rhunon say? If I know the exact details, or at least the general gist of the conversation, I might be able to help."

"Well" she admitted, "We didn't actually talk about much, but I gathered from her that she intends to, sooner or later, leave Ellesmera and settle at wherever place Eragon decides is a suitable place. Oh, and also that Eragon is unusually interested in Silvari, despite hardly even knowing of her."

Dathedr frowned slightly as he heard the last sentence that came out of her mouth,

"Interesting" he said, without giving any further indication on where his train of thought was heading. "The first part, about her settling down somewhere else, whilst a problem that should be attempted to deal with, is not what concerns me. After all, we do not have much need of her here in Ellesmera, and Eragon's motley crew will need all the help they can get."

She frowned at the use of the word motley; it was as if he would always be in need of the most skilful people, how many more elven geniuses it would take before he could accomplish his goals. He had already taken 9 of the best spell casters in the land, who were sorely needed now, in the process of expanding their borders. At this moment she chose to interrupt, her brain working at top speeds to come up with justifiable arguments for Rhunon staying here,

"But" she interjected, in a slightly aggressive tone, "it just does not seem right."

"Try to calm down Arya" said Dathedr gently, but in an otherwise firm tone. She didn't feel like calming down but at the straight out request she did, and immediately she felt better and more in control of her emotions. "We cannot chose whether she can go or not, it her choice, and hers alone to make. We can influence her by all means" said Dathedr, with only the briefest hint of a smile, "but other than that, we could, and should do nothing else.

We must not play parlay with our desires, for they will seek to destroy the foundations of the rock we so rightly stand on, and if the base cannot hold, then neither can us, and all will be lost to the relentless procession of time. We must be brash in our actions, as to get things done, and mindful in our thought, of doing the right thing, but not to the extent of restricting freedom for others, I might add, who have definitely deserved it.

Hold close the principles that you have so dearly held over your life, for there, by your side, whether heart, soul or brain, you will process, think and constrain, the wild ideas that are so often engrained."

Arya paused to think at his wisdom. Eventually, after reflecting on what he had said, she realised that he was right. She was throwing away her principles simply because a wild idea had taken root in her fancies.

"That was quite a bit of ardent speech work, Dathedr" she praised, he acknowledged her comment with a small nod of his head, but other than that, he remained quiet and still. "What exactly prompted you to say that?"

He appeared quite surprised at the question, but nonetheless, the response was very short in coming.

"Well, your Highness" said Dathedr with a grin, for the first time in the conversation acknowledging her status, "I thought you needed some advice. You were looking a bit misguided, and so I took the liberty to take the task upon myself, and grant you what you sorely needed most, a bit of old-fashioned wisdom."

"Ok" she said, flashing a mischievous grin, "I'll take your word for it, but also take mine, that someday I will repay the deed, and you will experience what it is like to be lectured too, as if you were a child" she jested, only a twinkle in her eyes betraying the fact that she was joking.

"Anyway" continued Dathedr smoothly, "what I was saying, oh yes, I remember now. Well, what I was going to say was that his interest in Silvari was entirely unusual."

"And why" she challenged, "would that be unusual."

"Well" he countered quickly, "I am guessing that he doesn't know much of her history."

"I think you are quite right" she agreed. "He didn't mention her at all when he was here in Alagaesia, although that is not too say that he does not know who she is, just that he never cared enough to bring her name up in our discussions. He might have even thought that she was dead."

"That is part of the reason why it is unusual" he said, "In the past thousand years, what has Silvari done that is that momentous."

"Aah" she said, not wanting to betray her ignorance of one of the elves greatest spell weaver's history. She was thankfully interrupted by Dathedr, who took her ignorance as contemplation,

"Nothing to be precise" he said.

She gasped, a little too loudly, for Dathedr spared her a strange glance.

"A thousand years" she wondered, questions crashing around her head, "how did she possibly last that long without doing anything of noteworthy value at all?"

Dathedr looked sheepishly at her,

"Well" he stammered, "That's not quite true-"

"What do you mean it's not quite true" she interjected, intrigued.

"I made a mistake" he said, in a flustered tone of voice, while grimacing at the same time, "She actually did something, now that I remember it. For a few years, at the request of Vrael, she committed herself to building Cuaroc, who I am sure you remember."

A vivid image of Cuaroc stomping around Ellesmera suddenly came to mind. She remembered, just about as she was going to go to bed, Saphira and Firnen flew by, roaring as they went. She was well used to this behaviour by that time, as it had happened for a couple of nights beforehand, but what she was not prepared for was what was coming.

Cuaroc, while in pursuit of Saphira, who herself was at the time concealing the dragon eggs, tripped on a tree root outside Tialdari Hall and created a god-almighty crash. She had been extremely surprised, and she vividly remembered dropping something she was holding on her foot. Obviously, she had not taken the initiative to tell anyone, but Firnen had soon found out, and the mini-episode had sent him into fits of laughter. Where he was unable to control his fire and thus unpredictably, every few second, small puffs of smoke and fire threatened to harm anyone who went near him. The memory was enough to lift the corners of her mouth, but her reminiscence about the time was cut short by Dathedr impatiently tapping on a wooden table, on his side of the scrying mirror.

"Yes," she answered hurriedly, "I certainly do remember him. But what does this have to do with Eragon?"

As soon as she finished the question, the answer dawned on her, lighting her face up with understanding, but Dathedr continued anyway.

"If Eragon heard about her from that" he stated evenly, "then he must be aware of the usefulness of Cuaroc."

"And if he's aware of the usefulness of Cuaroc" she supplemented, "Then he must want more of the same, which would explain his interest in Silvari. Which raises a whole host of other questions; although this is only based on guessing so he might want Silvari for a whole other purpose."

"I don't think it could be anything else" supplied Dathedr, "Apart from her minor role in the forging of the Dauthdaert's-"

"She forged the Dauthdaerts?" Arya interrupted, in a tone of disbelief and conflicting ideas, cutting Dathedr's sentence in half, "Why have I not heard about this before?"

"It is not" he said, in an irritated sounded way, "common
knowledge. Only a few people, including myself, know about it at the same time. Your mother knew it" he added, inclining his head, "when she was queen, and so did your father."

"Would that be why," Arya questioned, "she shuns most contact and doesn't get anything done?"

"Yes" said Dathedr shortly.

"But still, to do nothing for many years seems a bit, for want of a better word, weird?"

"Well" answered Dathedr, weariness lacing his tone of voice, "You must understand where she's coming from, to get why she doesn't do anything anymore. As you have realised, it is the height of our dishonour among our people to kill a dragon, except for maybe killing a fellow elf or elf children. Imagine that multiplied a hundred fold."

The elves had not been particularly pleased at their inability to get another solution for Shruikan,but after having closely observed him in Galbatorix's chamber, she had concluded that there was not another way, especially considering his size, and was also not convinced anyone could have another way. At least the effects of becoming a dragon rider and queen had mitigated the expected backlash by the elven people, and for that she was very thankful, if for nothing else the position of Queen had offered her.

"Aah, yes. But it's not as if she hasn't had time to repent" she said confusedly.

"You must remember that often" he answered, "Elves born close to the time of Du Fyrn Skulblaka tend to have different approaches to life than elves nowadays. Rhunon would be the prime example; she continues to act like she always did, the only difference is that the world around herself has changed."

Arya was about interject a statement or tow, but Dathedr saw this and ploughed on through, only raising the tempo of his voice by a small amount.

"No longer" he continued, "is she surrounded by elves that play and fight like humans or the old elves, but rather more like beings that appear to be imitating, to the very best of their abilities, statues. Silvari's view on things is probably that to continue to make things of such strength and power, when the first thing she wrought, came to naught, but death and destruction, was probably a living reminder of what she had done wrong."

She listened carefully too his views, absorbing every single word with rapt attention, but at the same time using the time to structure what she was going to say next. As soon as he had finished, she reined back the conversation to where they had gotten side-tracked.

"Let us assume" she stated, "that he only knew of Silvari through Cuaroc's history, then the only thing that immediately springs to mind when you consider why he wants her, is that he wants his own private army, or at least more versions of Cuaroc."

"I think you should talk to him" chided Dathedr gently, "to see what he wants, and from there, work out how to best serve our interests without offending him."

"Thank you Dathedr," said Arya wholeheartedly, "But for now, I think that I have other matters to attend to, the spells are running behind schedule and will probably continue do so, if not worsen, without my help or aid."

Dathedr bowed deeply and said "Your majesty," for only the second time in their conversation, before cutting off the scrying connection. She breathed a loud sigh, and sank back into a chair. She wondered how they were going, she called for one of the elves and after a few moments her call was answered, and an elf bounded into her room, accompanied by a human page, who struggled to keep up with the elf. In the page's right hand, he bore a message from Nasuada and in the left, an odd-looking tube.

(PoV change)

Rhunon looked around at her surroundings, there was nothing that distinguished this part of the forest from the rest of Du Weldenvarden, but she had a feeling that Silvari was here somewhere. Often Silvari just went missing to retire to one of her numerous hidden spots in the forest, and this was one of her favourite hideaway's, it was an especially beautiful part of the forest, not in the least helped by a aqua-clear stream that gurgled nearby. Closing her eyes, and reaching out through the forest with her mind, she sought the tell tail traces of spells that Silvari left behind, but it was for naught because she encountered none.

Undeterred, because Silvari must have gotten better at masking her style, she thought, she employed an old trick of hers that she had come up with ages ago, when she had discovered the difficulties of trying to find something hidden magically. Drawing energy from one of the Jems on her belt, she started singing in rough, guttural tones. She hadn't sung in ages, and her voice was rusty, but slowly, as she wove together an incredibly complex enchantment, her voice got more and more melodic and soothing.

Finally, after an hour of singing together the enchantment, she was finally ready to release her hold upon the spell. With the last word, she relinquished control of the spell, and her magic spread throughout the forest, draining her magic at an increasing rate as it spread. After a minute or so, the drain of energy from her body slowed to a trickle, and then stopped altogether. The remnants of the spell fluttered back towards her, creating a slight distortion in the air and the ground as it did so.

She uttered a few words, and the spell coalesced into a circle of light, whole and complete, before shrinking and zooming to the ring that was situated on her middle finger, where it embedded itself in the gem contained in the ring. The spell had found nothing, but she had not expected it too, it was just a test too refine the spell and fine-tune it.

The spell in question, was designed to search for all the area's that did not contain significant traces of magic, thus when enchantments were set up to hide magical activity, they stood out conversely. All the areas that did not have magic registered with her spell, and those that did have magical enchantments, absorbed her magic, unless otherwise designed so, and left that said area blank. Of course, this was made all the harder by the fact that most of Du Weldenvarden had lingering traces of magic. Which A, would make it harder to distinguish between what she was looking for, and B, make it easier for Silvari to hide herself among the enduring dashes of magic.

Nonetheless, while Silvari could effectively do this, and well beyond her ability to detect, she didn't think that Silvari would do something like this. Firstly, it would take a lot more energy and time, although elves were not lacking in either of those departments, and secondly, in the event of a real emergency, it would make it much easier to be contacted and contact other people.

With her spell fine-tuned to the specific nature of magic through this part of the forest, she walked forward, eager to find Silvari and tell her the news. Hah, she thought to herself, you were wrong Arya, I did do something of my own volition and my success in finding Silvari will prove that.

(Time change)

Rhunon had nearly spent 8 hours out in the dark, and she was starting to get a little weary, but her spirits still stayed as buoyant as ever. At least the ring that she wore on her finger allowed her to keep the spell in an intact form, so that whenever she wanted to use her own specially devised spell, she didn't have to sing for an hour.

All she had to do was load the spell up with energy, or more accurately the ring, which allowed the transfer of energy to the spell. Then, after the spell had been completely saturated with energy, she sent the spell on its merry way by releasing the magical hold the ring had on it. So far she had done this around 7 times, each time walking to a new place in the forest to do so.

This would be the last time she did this tonight, but thankfully, it was the most likely place where Silvari had settled. Namely the fact that it was a beautiful area, the mountain to the north had some foothills extending through the forest and this allowed, in certain places, views that encompassed the whole of the forest, in all its beautiful complexities. This, and the cascading waterfalls nearby, meant that is was a very probable location for a hideaway.

She gathered the last remaining shreds of energy from the gems on her belt, and poured them into the ring on her finger. After the ring was saturated, she allowed it a few moments to transfer its energy spell, and then she released the so called 'gate' of the ring, and the spell quickly escaped the confines of the ring. The magical torrent passing through the gate of the ring with tremendous energy, threatening to break the confines of the ring, but eventually the flood subsided and her ring no longer glowed with the energy of her own.

After a minute, the remnants of the spell returned, with a rippling effect in the air and the ground, and they formed up in front of her. She muttered the words, and the spell turned into a bright, white shining circle. Unlike the other ones though, which were pure white throughout the entirety of the glowing disc, this one had a hole in it, a circle of darkness in which she could just see the forest through. Finally, she had found Silvari's hiding place.

(Time change)

It had taken the better half of an hour to pinpoint Silvari's hiding place, and it couldn't have had a better view, even from just a cursory glance at the scenery. Her magic was going haywire, which told her that Silvari's enchantments were set in place all around her. She released her spell, and the shining silver disc that she had conjured went away.

It took a few seconds for her eyesight to adjust, but soon she found herself on the edge of a large rock that jutted out from the surrounding hills. In front of her, the forest stretched out in almost every direction, except to the south-east where she could see Lake Rona, and to very south, if she strained her eyes enough, she could just see Lake Ardwen. The luscious forest canopy allowed her to see little to nothing of the undergrowth or forest floor. She walked along the rocky outcrop; pine needling's crunching under her foot as she went, while the view was certainly admirable, she needed to get to work in trying to find out how to best enter Silvari's very well hidden hideaway.

She thought the stream that had been cleverly rerouted by Silvari to flow to the tip of the outcrop, was the clue to it, but she did not know how. This was also compounded by the fact that the last few metres of the stream disappeared underneath a layer of solid rock. Although maybe it's only purpose, she thought, was to allow gravity to do its work, as she could hear the water being ejected into the air after it vanished from sight. She walked to the tip of the rock, careful not to trip on any of the jagged shards of rocks scattered around the place. She leaned over the edge, and below, she could see the remaining rays of moonlight reflect of the water, as it found itself in free fall.

Then it struck her, maybe she had to divert the water from the wall. Gathering the last bits of her strength she murmured a few words in the ancient language and the water parted to either side of the waterfall, revealing an ancient weathered piece of cliff face and a button that looked like it was made out of rock. She pressed it, and a rough, rock hewn ladder, leading down the edge of the cliff appeared.

Careful too not use too much energy diverting the water, she hurried down the ladder as safely as she could until she reached halfway, where the rungs suddenly stopped. Frowning, she looked around until she spotted a lever sort of thing, and pulled. She was completely unprepared for what happened next, the stone slab that she was holding on too, suddenly jolted and moved into the face of the cliff, and too her left, in the apparently impregnable bastion of rock, was a doorway carved out of rock. She leaped off the stone slab, and jumped through the doorway onto solid ground.

"My, my" leered a voice out of the darkness, "look what we have here, an intruder in our midst."

Quickly realising what was needed, she proclaimed in the ancient language, "Eka ai Fricai", which roughly translated as 'I am a friend. '

"Well, well, well" said Silvari, casting a werelight to illuminate the surrounds, "What brings you here Rhunon, and how did you find me for that matter"

She took her time in answering this, looking around as she did so, although there was nothing much that she could see. She was in a rough, rock hewn passageway, behind her, the slab of stone had gone back into place, and once more she could hear the water tumbling down near her. Her spell must have failed, not of her own accord or exhaustion, she thought, it must have been the spells that Silvari had set up.

"Well," she answered truthfully," I was wondering whether you wanted to accompany on my journey to Eragon's city, or rather his will-be city."

Silvari was quite a bit hesitant, for the expression showed on her face, so Rhunon added kindly, "We don't have to leave immediately."

Silvari looked relieved at this, for she invited Rhunon into her rocky abode,

"Come" she invited pleasantly, "let us talk about these matters in comfort."

It was only a few seconds before they reached the main place where Silvari obviously lived, but in those few, spare moments, Rhunon suddenly became aware of the days toll on her body. She gratifyingly slumped into a chair in the first room, while Silvari went to fetch a platter of berries and nuts. She let her gaze wander around the room, until it eventually settled on a workbench in the far corner which had a nimbus green glow emanating from it.

Her curiosity got the better of her, and she got up and walked over to it, before she could decipher what it meant Silvari came back into the room,

"Oh that" said Silvari dismissively, "Can we talk about that later, after some rather late dinner" said Silvari amusedly.

Rhunon settled back into her old seat, while Silvari dragged up a chair from another room in the cliff face, and they sat together in comfortable silence as they ate the berries. Eventually, after they had finished eating the berries, and a few long, but equally satisfying, moments had passed, Silvari broke the silence.

"I am thankful for you coming here" she started, "But forgive me for my intrigue on why you came to the trouble of finding me?"

Rhunon replied "Well actually, I wasn't going to come and find you so soon, but Eragon and Arya wanted you to be there at the settlement for reasons unknown. Mind you, he is interested in Cuaroc a hell of a lot."

"Everyone's interested in Cuaroc" said Silvari indifferently, "Nobody's seen magic done that way before, and they keep on pestering me about it."

"Well" said Rhunon half-heartedly, for she had long since given up on trying to make Silvari recognise her achievements, "it is quite a feat. One, I might add, that has yet to be repeated."

"Hah" jested Silvari, "They'll figure it out soon enough."

"I think" said Rhunon quietly, "You'll find that Eragon would rather have an army sooner, rather than later."

She almost laughed out-loud as Silvari literally froze in her tracks,

"He wants what" she said disbelievingly.

"His own private army" said Rhunon seriously.

"And he specifically requested this" Silvari asked, disbelief still lingering in her tone.

"Well not exactly, he kind of let it show on his face, and I got the general gist of his plan from that" said Rhunon gently.

"Oh, ok" she sighed, "I suppose I can do that, it would keep me occupied for a while with something to do."

"Now" interjected Rhunon, recognising the opportune time to bring the mysterious green glow up, "What is that project you are working on?"

"It happens to be a culmination of many years work nothing" she said miserably, "and it is still not yet finished."

"Why was it all for nothing" asked Rhunon, intrigued.

"About that" she grimaced. "It was a failed, or rather half-finished, attempt at replicating the Dauthdaert."

"Why would you try to replicate the Dauthdaert, I thought you had your full of them when you were younger" asked Rhunon confusedly.

"Well, long story short" summed up Silvari, "I thought that I could repay my debt by offering a weapon, the ideal weapon, to kill the mad-king or his pet dragon. Of course, I was beaten to the punch by Niernen" she added, "but I still held out the faint hope that this could someday be of use."

"Why don't you show me" questioned Rhunon, "That way, I can see what you might need help with?"

Silvari led her over to the workbench and then started pointing out each thing and explain the purpose.

"See that long black cylinder" said Silvari, Rhunon nodded, "That goes inside of the lance, it helps it stay strong and is one of the best materials that you can imbue spells into."

"What's this" asked Rhunon, pointing to a cup-like object, with barbed patterns on the outside.

"That is" said Silvari gravely, "the head of the lance, it has to be very strong and that is the part I am having the most problem with. You see, the spear has to be able to cut through all known magic, as you probably already know, but the tip takes the force of the brunt, and is the only bit that you ever you. Thus it is doubly hard to make, and is also the reason why it is taking so long to make. That and the handle" she added.

"Why the handle" asked Rhunon resignedly.

"It has to protect the wielder from all sorts of magical inflicted harm. I think you should go to bed Rhunon, you should get as much rest as you can before we leave."

It was not a moment too soon, for as soon as she lay down on the smooth rock floor in the main room, she immediately fell asleep.

A/N: Please review, it would make my day if someone could offer feedback on this chapter.

Sorry, it was not as good as the last chapter. Thanks for reading and all the support, you guys are great. Have a good day

Yours Sincerely,

WSB