I do not own the Inheritance Cycle.
Edited 1/30/22

I've been debating about posting a brief clutter of chapters about Selena and Brom's traveling to the Varden and decided that this part of the story is needed. There will two chapters of their journey now, and then we travel back to the venture in the north.

Enjoy,


Journey
Part 1

The letter from Rose was found that morning.

To Selena,
I am very sorry that you should find out in this way. Eragon has chosen to leave and I shall be accompanying him on his journey. I do not know how long we shall be gone, so please, continue without us and keep the green treasure safe from its hunters. I remember what you said to get to your home and we shall take that route.

We will see you before long,
Rose

Selena had read the words twice now but she still could not seem to fully understand what had been written. The meaning of the words seemed jumbled as if written in another language. What exactly did 'leave' mean?

She took a breath though it felt as she had not; her chest was too tight to breathe and her head felt as if it were swimming high above her. With shaking hands, she balled the paper up and made to toss it into the fire but found herself smoothing it out and reading it again. A wave of cold emptiness washed over her and she found that she felt nothing. There was no fury, only a mild disbelief that settled over her like an uncomfortable wet, woolen blanket.

With a great amount of effort, she pushed her panic aside. She would not panic this time.

Selena looked at the trail that her children and their dragons had left behind in complete hopelessness. The prints led away from the camp, far enough that the dragon's taking to the sky wouldn't be heard, and then nothing. Absolutely nothing.

It was path that led to nowhere. Selena had walked the trail more times than she could count but even so she felt the urge to do so again. If she did, perhaps she could find something that she had missed, a clue of some sort, telling her where they might have gone.

At the end of that trail, stood Brom. He was walking around the small clearing in complete silence, looking as lost as she felt. Selena studied him for a moment, not truly thinking of anything, just watching his movements. Slowly she unfroze and unsteadily made her way over to him. She placed her hand on his shoulder and was slightly shocked to see that her hand was shaking. He turned on his heel and stared down at her, his eyes were alit with a strange blue fire and then his arms wrapped around her, pulling her to his chest.

This too came as a shock to Selena. They hadn't had much physical contact. They were working on healing the wounds left unchecked, the wounds they had placed there in their own anger and pain. Even now, after all these years, the arguments they had had stood between them, a rage river of grief they were not able to cross. They talked about it, sometimes late at night but their conversations never seemed to be enough. So much had changed between them, far too much time has come to pass. And she wondered if there would ever be a way to fix what was shattered.

Selena had watched couples change, how they fall in love with the other and how over time they are there for the gradual change within them, so slow that neither one of them took notice, but it wasn't like that for Brom and her. The man she first loved was gone, pieces of him were still there, yes, and of course she still loved him, very much so, but at moments, like this one, he seemed a stranger to her.

She was sure that she seemed a stranger to him, as well.

Suddenly, despite having gotten a decent night of sleep, she felt very tired and leaned in closer to him, resting her head against his chest.

When she had left for the capital, she knew that this journey would be hard although she hadn't expected it to be quite so trying. Her whole being felt wary. There had been so many unexpected turns and events during the last months she was not quite sure what she doing any more.

"What are you thinking about?" Selena asked after a time. Her throat was tight and the words sounded thin and forced.

Brom took a sudden breath, she couldn't hear it but she felt his chest rise and fall, then he released her from his hold. She felt very cold, very suddenly. "I'm not sure," he said softly. "I should scry them, and make sure they are alright. There is very little else we can do."

"No. Not Rose. You can scry her though she won't show, and I don't know for certain that Eragon will not be any different so long as he is beside her," Selena said, taking a step back so that she could see his face. Brom raised an eyebrow as he pulled his pipe from his cloak and quickly lit it. "I gave her the necklace you had given me. The enchanted one. I knew that Galbatorix would be watching out for her and I couldn't have that. I thought it was the right thing to do."

"That causes a problem for us now, doesn't it?" Brom turned away, but not before she caught the look of hurt in his eyes. "We'll have to try to scry them throughout the day, and wait to see if she doesn't move away from him for a time. We might be able to contact them, if fate permits it."

Selena took a deep breath, and again, placed her hand on Brom's shoulder. She waited until he turned to look at her, then she said, "We should continue on our way."

Selena watched as his bushy eyebrows disappeared into his tousled grey hair. It didn't seem so long ago when he had said the very same words to her, but back then she was unreasonable, and would not continue, refusing until she saw the damage for herself. He had given in for her, even came with her as she returned to Gresyni Castle to question the staff, and afterwards when she walked mindlessly from room to room in search of nothing in particular. He didn't leave her alone once during that trip. Even now she didn't know what she had been looking for at that place all those years ago. Proof perhaps? Some sort of evidence that the words she had heard were false?

Back in those days, Brom had been her anchor, and at times he still was, now however he looked as lost as she felt. If Brom was at a loss as to what to do- what could they do?

Neither of them were ready to lose the family that just so recently come together. The thought of merely losing one of them was too painful, far too cruel, to even comprehend. Selena prayed to all the gods she could think of that Eragon and Rose would survive unscratched and make it to the Varden unharmed. They would have to, any other outcome to their foolish journey was unconceivable. The prayer didn't lessen her worries or ill thoughts any but she felt as if she could continue breathing for the moment. If only a brief moment.

Selena swallowed but the lump in her throat did not go away. "We should continue," she said again.

"And leave them out there on their own?" he grumbled. "They'll get themselves killed or worse. I'm fairly certain that Galbatorix knows of Eragon. I'm willing to bet he has sent someone to investigate those claims…"

A knot formed in her stomach, making her whole body feel like it was twisted up. "How?" she asked. "How would he? You and Eragon have remained rather low in your months of travel." Unlike Rose and Thorn, she thought to say but did not. The events proceeding that particular event were still too raw, and Tornac's death still haunted her- both a regret and a resentment.

"We had an unfortunate run-in with Urgals not long ago," said Brom with a sigh. "Eragon had revealed himself to them. A good number of them had gotten out my reach alive. Where they went and who they talked to afterwards, I can't say."

Selena frowned. Resisting the urge to sit down, she took a deep breath but her chest felt suddenly very tight, she could not get enough air. She pulled her hand up to rest it against her collarbone. "When did this happen?" she asked, forcing herself to calm down.

"Little more than a week before we met." He scratched his beard and set his lips together. His hands were trembling ever so slightly.

Selena looked at horses with regret. They could not race dragons with horses nor did she believe that they could. Yet… It was a thought, an unlikely one, but a thought, nonetheless.

"When do you think they left?" she asked.

Brom sighed and looked at the ground, his eyes trailing the dragon's tracks "Sometime in the night. Likely in the middle of first watch," he said after a moment of silence. "They have been gone too long to even hope to find them now." He was silent for a moment. "We can give them a chance to return. We can't stay too long, but hopefully one of them will change their mind and return."

"I highly doubt we will see that. Rose shan't turn back now that she has left, and I doubt Eragon is much different. He is too much like Garrow was at his age; once he set his mind on something, he'd see it through despite the cost," Selena said with a hopeless sigh. "How long do we stay?"

"A day," he said. "Two at most. Any more than that will be foolhardy."

Selena nodded, but remained quiet.

.

That day was perhaps, the longest that she had ever lived through; it did not seem to have an end. Selena rode out on Arvid more than once, for the exercise, she claimed, but she knew it was to look for any signs of that the dragons were returning.

They did not.

She and Brom talked very little, and when they did it about unimportant matters; what they should have for a midday meal or who would take first watch that night. When night came, though, neither of them got much sleep, both sat awake by the fire and watched the stars. Searching. Hoping.

When morning came, they were quick to agree to give it until next morning, and when that day too passed without the dragons' return, they debated staying another. In the end, however, they did not, soon finding themselves packing the horses and hesitantly leaving the small paddock.

Selena forced herself to keep her gaze on the trail but more than twice she searched the skies. As the day pasted, she often found herself believing that they should have stayed in the valley in case the children return. But at the same time, she that thought this, she knew they could not. She would have to hope that they would make to Varden on their own and that Rose would remember the brief directions she had given her.

After Tornac's death, she had told Rose as much as she could about how to get to the Varden's refugee city, though she could not give complete instructions and her directions were vague. Selena knew that if anything happened to her, if she died as Tornac had, Rose would be left without any sort of direction and no place to go. Giving Rose this information however comforted her very little now, as it did then, if not at all.

Shifting on her saddle, Selena urged Arvid forward. She overlooked the land they were passing, simply watching the rolling land they moved by, wishing at that moment she could be still if only for a short time. Then there were moments she felt as if they were not moving fast enough. Perhaps this whole thing was a hoax or some horrible dream that she would wake up from and find her children sitting around the fire.

When Brom slowed Snowfire and rode beside her, it was to her great relief. He brought her some form of comfort to her, at least she was not alone this time. After a time Brom spoke, "Within a league this road will split off, one goes north, and the other south to Melian but to the west of this route there is a hidden route that will lead south east. Before we reach this point, we need to figure out which path we will take."

Selena knew which route she wished to go but it was not the one they should. When she voiced that they should continue south east into Surda she found the words nearly impossible to get out.

Never before had she been grateful for the past four years she had spent waiting and planning to go to Urû'baen. She found that it something she could now draw some strength from. Those years were the most unbearable; the hardest years she had lived through but she found later that she had gained a strength she wouldn't have otherwise. She held onto that strength now, allowing it become the drive that moved her forward.

.

.

"So much for our plan," said Selena with a frown. She looked over the flooded path and sighed. Taking that hidden path had gotten them nowhere all too quickly. She should have known better than to follow a path only Brom knew about. It was likely one of the many he used during the times the Forsworn were still alive, or the "Dark Days" as he used to call them.

The man beside her shook his head. "It's not as if we had much of one to begin with," he grumbled. "We should continue or we'll be here all night."

Selena turned and studied him for a short moment, a frown settling as she did so. "You're rather grumbly today," she observed. "More so than usual. I know it's not only the kids that are troubling you, Brom, and I can't help if you do not tell me what it is."

Brom was silent for a time as he studied the flooded path. There was a current, and though it appeared not to be strong, they both knew that meant very little. Water could be very misleading and there could be a very strong undercurrent, one that could pull the horses down if they tried to cross.

"The Varden," he said at last. "I said before that I do not want to go there, and that hasn't changed. They will ask for things I will not give them- cannot give them."

"I highly doubt it. Very little was asked of you the last time you were there." She gave him a critical look. "What is this truly about, Brom? Are you going back to your claim that they're going to force the kids into swearing fidelity within the first week?"

Brom swung himself around to look at her. His eyes were unusually hard and his jaw was stubbornly set. "You cannot tell me it's something that you have put no thought into," he said. "Providing they get to the Varden, much will be expected of them and we'll likely have little say in what they cannot do. They won't either, if they want to keep the people at bay. It will be a dangerous game that they will be forced to play."

"I know," Selena said as she pulled herself onto her own horse. Starshine, Rose's horse was tethered to Arvid's saddle, much like Cadoc was to Snowfire's, and at times, like now, would nicker his discontent. "I have been playing that game for the last decade, in case you've forgotten. Ajihad shan't ask for more than what they're capable of, I'm sure. We will worry about this when the time comes but, right now, I'm more worried about them surviving."

His lips formed a hard line as he urged Snowfire into the water. Selena urged Arvid to follow him, checking every so often to make sure that Starshine was following behind. The stallion stayed close behind, his ear flat against his head. His discontent about the situation was the only thing that was steady about this league of the trip, and Selena didn't dare comfort him. Last she tried the silver beast bit her arm.

"Foolish," Brom muttered lowly, angrily, after a time. Selena didn't think that he was talking to her, but rather to himself. "So utterly foolish. That boy needs to comprehend that he is not a simpleton. He has a perfectly good brain. If only I could get him to use it."

"Were you any different at his age?" Selena asked over the loud gushing of water.

"That's the problem, isn't it?" Brom replied, looking determinedly ahead.

"That he is far too much his father for his own good? Or perhaps that both of his parents were equally as foolish when they were young?"

Brom didn't say anything, his focus on steering Snowfire through the water. It was a small fortune that the water hadn't flooded the path too horribly and there was hardly a current at all. The water looked worse than what it was, hardly going past the horse's fetlock, still, despite the low depth it slashed up to their flanks soaking not just the horses but Selena, Brom, and their bags, as well.

"Perhaps it's both," he said as they neared the end of the flooding. "Or neither. I can never tell with that boy. There are times when he is listening but doesn't hear a single thing that I'm saying. He lives among the fay sometimes, that's what my pa would have called it."

"It's not too late, you know," Selena said after a time. "For Eragon to call you his father, I mean. He obviously holds you in high regards and trusts you greatly. You are important to him, more so than you let yourself believe."

Brom grumbled and looked away though his eyes shone with emotion. "That's the problem with that boy," she heard him say very quietly. "He puts his trust in people far too much."

"Don't we all? At some point in our lives?" She frowned and looked up at the man as she urged her horse to walk beside him. "It's a lesson we all must learn within our lifetime, how much trust we should give another. Some people learn it earlier than others, sometimes it's later, but in the end it is something we all learn."

"You're thinking about your girl again, aren't you?"

"I am always thinking about my children," she said softly. "Both of them."

Brom was silent for a time. "She seems to have forgiven you rather quickly," he said. "When you told her who you were. She does not seem as if she is bothered about it."

Selena smiled sadly and looked down at her hands. "Hardly," she said. "Rose is furious with me, that's why she acts so civil. If we were on good terms she would not be anywhere as polite as she has been. Do not think that that if she had somewhere to go when I told her I was mother, she wouldn't have gone there at that very moment." Selena knew very well that Rose would have left, that she did even if it was for a short time. It had been such a relief when she had returned and even more so when Selena was certain she would not.

Things would have likely gone very different if Tornac was still about to soften the blow, to talk to her about it. If Selena hadn't been as distracted that day in the pass, their travels would have been very different. She could use Tornac now as well, he at least would be able to provide some insight into this mess.

With a sigh, she shook her head rid it of such thoughts. "But this isn't about my relationship with Rose, is it?" she said. "No, it's about you telling Eragon."

Brom coughed. "Remind me," he said, "how exactly we got onto this subject."

Smiling, Selena shook her head but said nothing more. She knew that it was best not push the subject on Brom too much, if she did he would push away. With a slight frown she turned away and listened to the noises of the wild- she couldn't seem to find anything better to do.

.

That night they camped in a small alcove, which Selena would not have seen if Brom hadn't pointed it out to her. "I've camped here many times before," he told her, "many years ago." Although the alcove certainly looked as if it have many years since it had been used, it possessed a very strong sense of shelter, something Selena hadn't felt in months.

"Eragon mentioned something to me the other night," she said, balancing a bag over her shoulder. The silence about the alcove held something of a haunting feeling, something that Selena wished to fill. She certainly did not want to be left to her thoughts which were at the moment rather black.

"Hmm?" Brom grumbled from the other side of Snowfire. He was brushing the horse's back, stepping over the bags he placed around his feet. It was a mystery to Selena how he didn't trip over them as he moved about.

"He said that you told him I was conceited and dignified," she said as she set down her bag. A knife fell from a pocket that had a broken strap. Lifting it up to examine how the fire light reflected off if it, she continued, "That those things were the reason for my downfall."

Brom looked up at her innocently. "Did he?"

"He did." She leaned against Arvid's chest, her arms resting across the mare's back, and raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you believe I'm so proud I'd let it bring me to my ruin?"

Brom coughed violently and dropped the brush. He lowered his head and began detangling the knots in Snowfire's pale mane. The horse stood still obediently, his tail swaying slightly in the breeze.

"I cannot be that foolhardy," she said. She drew back and tucked the knife into her belt.

"You broke into Galbatorix's treasury," Brom grumbled after a moment, "with a plan that could have failed at any moment. You could have gotten yourself captured, endangering all of those you care for by doing so. You knew this but you did it anyway because you were sure that you could. And don't you tell me that rubbish you filled Eragon's ears with; we both know you wouldn't have gone to Urû'baen if you weren't certain you could. So tell me, why exactly are you asking me-" he looked up at her with a teasing smile "-whether or not you're conceited?"

Selena scowled at him and turning away she began shifting through the bags. Neither of them spoke for a time, and the sound of the brush scraping against the horse's coat took over.

She wished he hadn't of brought up that subject. Her days in Urû'baen had left her out of sorts for quite some time afterwards. They had reminded her of a past life, her time there many years ago when she had been a very different person, and it filled her dark thoughts and feelings. She had been much more jumpy than she should have, every person she passed in the halls set her on edge. If one of them, just one, recognized her…

Selena couldn't imagine what would have happened.

She had decided before she left for Urû'baen that if she had been captured she would do her best to kill herself. Death was much better than facing Galbatorix's wrath for her betrayal. Had that happened Rose would simply have to get by, at the time she had Tornac to guide her and Selena was certain he would have, somehow.

This thought had always filled her with dread, and she hoped more than anything that she would not have to take these measures, that they were simply unnecessary precautions.

While she was there she wondered more and more often why she had not killed Morzan herself. She certainly had possessed the skills to do it. Even now when she out of that castle she still did not understand why she did not. Selena wished that she had, that she set aside whatever feelings she had had left for him and freed herself completely. At the same time she knew that if she had failed Morzan's treatment towards her and her daughter would have been so much worse- but would it have been worth the risk? What life had she willing given up out of her own fear?

Being away from Urû'baen now, she didn't often think of such things. She has been far too busy to do so. She hasn't cared for Morzan in many years, and after what he did to her, he was not deserving of her thoughts, even the ill ones. And she had very many ill thoughts towards that man.

"If you wanted a dishonest answer you should have asked differently," Brom said as she moved on to build a fire. Selena however was still thinking about Morzan and she did not answer him, hardly even heard him. He turned to her with a settling scowl. "Selena?"

But she remained silent, ignoring Brom's grumbling pursuits until she had gotten a fire roaring. "I wasn't looking for a dishonest answer, Brom," Selena said slowly tossing aside a rather damp log. "I know there are times when I can be a little too proud."

Brom snorted and turned away from her, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter. Picking up the broken tinderbox, Selena chucked it at him, hitting him between the shoulder blades. He turned and, bending down to pick up the tinderbox up, gave her a toothy grin.

"We might find a need for this," he said tossing the tinderbox beside her. "Best not try to break any more than it already is."

"You are such a pain in the-" Selena began but was cut off when Brom shushed her.

He pointed to the shadowed overgrown brush about them and picked up his sword. Pulling it out of its weathered scabbard he whispered, "Somebody has been following us."

Selena squinted into the darkness, but saw nothing. It was too dark. She gathered up her mind and imagined it past the stony alcove, and heard what Brom was talking about. There was the distant sound of large wings flapping in the air, wings without feathers, and she thought for a moment that the dragons had return with her children. Then she heard something ticking, like that of a chicken clicking its beak, and hisses as cold breaths drew in and out of leathery bellows.

Drawing back, she looked at Brom with an open mouth. "Are they-?" she whispered, not wanting to voice her fears.

Brow nodded and muttered a spell. Instantly the flames changed, turning much brighter almost blinding with their new light. She blinked and turned to her belt, pulling out a long throwing knife. Her gaze didn't return to the fire. "Isn't that a bit like saying 'here we are'?"

"Don't you think they already know that?"

Selena nodded and looked back up, fingering the knife in her hand. She knew what was coming, and though she didn't like it, they couldn't exactly run. The question was; how and why did the Ra'zac find them?