Chapter 5: Flight of Fancy

"This is the worst plan I've ever been a part of."

"And yet, it's working."

"We'll be caught!"

"We will if you keep talking like that!"

"I regret sparing you."

"Shush!"

Anri held Murtagh by the arm before he could continue any further. A squad of soldiers walked past them and down another hallway. The two intruders waited with bated breath until the voices disappeared. Waiting another few seconds they continued on their way, towards where Murtagh claimed the dungeons were. They hadn't been caught yet, but there had been a few close calls.

"I still don't understand this. How are we hidden? We're in plain view!" Murtagh whisper-yelled into Anri's ear. Honestly…

"It's a piece of magic from my Age. The young white branch will make us appear as something common to the soldiers here. Like a chair, or a stool. It's an illusion, but it's an illusion that doesn't. Mask. Sound!" She harshly told Murtagh. She honestly couldn't blame him; the only proof that they were hidden was the broken branch in her hand. They were in plain sight, so it was more than likely quite unnerving for anyone not used to such magic.

They must've been close to the top few levels now, when Anri looked out the window the ground was very far below her. A fall from that height would mean death, but even if Anri was used to such mishaps, it was never pleasant to experience a death like that. She also didn't know if she would come back, or where, since there wasn't a bonfire set anywhere. She did not fancy coming back to life where she had started at Carvahall.

Very gently she opened a door leading to another stairwell. Their ascension was painfully slow, both having to keep up the illusion, but eventually they reached the next level. Again Anri gently opened the door…

And held it deathly still as she was faced with six soldiers right in front of them. Luckily though, they were focused on other things.

"Charge!" The one in front yelled running forward, causing the rest of them to follow suit with a yell.

"What– go, Murtagh!" She yelled, breaking the illusion and turning into the hallway. She speared the closest soldier with her sword, causing a brief lapse of confusion that Murtagh used to down two more with his bow.

"Thrysta!" A shout came from the other end of the hallway, causing one of the last three to clutch his chest and fall down, dead. Another took an arrow to the neck, falling and bleeding out. She was about to finish the last one when the same voice called out again. "Don't kill him!"

Anri kicked the back of his knees, sending him crashing down. Roughly, she grabbed the back of his cuirass and hefted him up, resting the edge of her sword against his throat. The message was clear enough, as the man went deathly still.

"You've seen what I can do," the boy said harshly. "If you don't answer my questions, the rest of your life will be spent in utter misery and torment. Now where's my sword—its sheath and blade are red—and what cell is the elf in?"

The man clamped his mouth shut, and Anri pressed her sword further against his throat, drawing a single thin line of blood. "Bad move," she said in a hard tone.

The boy's hand began to glow and the air distorted from the sudden heat. "Do you know how much pain a grain of sand can cause you when it's embedded red hot in your stomach?" The boy asked. "Especially when it doesn't cool off for the next twenty years and slowly burns its way down to your toes! By the time it gets out of you, you'll be an old man." He paused for effect. "Unless you tell me what I want."

The soldier still didn't talk, but he was sweating profusely. If she didn't know better, Anri would've thought the man to be a pyromancer!

The boy picked up a sizable chunk of stone "This is a bit more than a piece of sand, but be comforted; it'll burn through you faster. Still, it'll leave a bigger hole." At his word, the rock turned a bright cherry red, though his hand remained unharmed.

She could feel the moment the soldier's will broke. All right, just don't put that in me!" yelped the soldier. "The elf's in the last cell to the left! I don't know about your sword, but it's probably in the guardroom upstairs. All the weapons are there."

Immediately after the man stopped speaking the boy said something in a different language, probably the same one she heard from him earlier. Regardless, the man slumped in Anri's grip and fell when she nudged him forward. She might have laughed if it was another circumstance.

"Did you kill him?"

The boy –young man, now that Anri looked a bit harder– looked at Murtagh and squinted before lighting up. "Murtagh! Is that you?"

Murtagh nodded, "yes. Did you kill him?"

"No, he's only asleep. How did you get in?"

Murtagh looked at Anri, but she was only staring at the young man across from her.

"You're Eragon." The knight, a woman! Said as if realizing something important. "You're Eragon!" She said again, as if in awe. Her entire posture changed too, she had nearly staggered.

"Yes…" Eragon said cautiously. There was something familiar about her, but he couldn't place it. "Who are you?"

"My name is Anri." She responded before looking at Murtagh and then back at Eragon. "It doesn't matter right now, we have an escape route on the floor above us, come on!"

"Didn't you hear what I said?" asked Eragon, gesturing at the unconscious soldier. "There's an elf in the prison. I saw her! We have to rescue her. I need your help, both of you!"

"An elf…" Murtagh growled, hurrying towards Eragon. "This is a mistake. We should flee while we have the chance." He stopped before the cell the soldier had indicated and took out a ring of keys from under his ragged cloak. "We took it from one of the guards downstairs," he explained. "Anri knocked him out."

"Get a move on!" The knight, Anri, called out from further down. She was watching the stairwell for any sort of movement. Her armor shone silver in the small amount of light coming from the windows.

"Where and when did you meet an imperial knight?!" Eragon whisper-yelled as he searched for the right key.

"She's not imperial, she's…" he paused, as if searching for the right words. "A recent acquaintance. We'll explain later!" He eventually decided upon.

Eragon found the right key and swung the door open. A single beam of moonlight slanted through the window, illuminating the elf's face with cool silver. It painted an ethereal sight; the elf faces him, head held high despite what she had gone through. Her eyes were dark green, almost black, and were slightly angled like a cat's. They lifted and met Eragons, sending chills down his spine.

Their gaze held for a moment before she trembled and fell, giving Eragon moments to catch her. She was light, shockingly so, and Eragon noted lightly that the smell of crushed pine surrounded her.

Murtagh entered the cell before stopping as well. "She's beautiful!" He said in awe.

"She's hurt."

"We can tend to her later. Are you strong enough to carry her?" Eragon shook his head. "Anri, we need you over here!" The knight looked their way before jogging over, sword still drawn. She paused and looked at the elf before looking at Murtagh. "We need you to carry her, she's not well. Do you have anything that can help her?"

Anri sheathed her sword and put her shield onto her back before taking the elf in her arms. The image looked like something out of a fairytale, Eragon noted. "I'm not sure, what's wrong with her? Poison?"

"We don't know," Murtagh shook his head. "Doesn't matter right now, we'll sort it out later." Murtagh shoved a dagger into Eragon's hands. "Upstairs, now!" he said before rushing back down the hall, followed by Anri and then by Eragon.

They were loud, and as they moved up a stone stairwell Eragon asked, "How are we going to get out without being noticed?" Surely the guards they had killed would be missed by now.

"We're not, especially not with the elf." Anri said as Murtagh kicked open a door. Inside was a banquet room filled with broad wooden tables. Shields lined the walls, and the wood ceiling was trussed with curved beams. The sight of the food made Eragon's stomach rumble, and he remembered that he had been ignoring the food for however long he was stuck here.

Murtagh turned to Eragon as Anri set the elf down on the table, taking something out of the box on her hip. "Can you talk to Saphira for me?"

"Yes," Eragon responded with a question in his voice.

"Tell her to wait another few minutes."

There was yelling in the distance, faintly the three could hear stomping feet and rustling armor. They were moving right past the door! "I don't know what you're planning Murtagh, but we don't have time for it!" Anri whispered urgently, slipping something gleaming into the box.

"Just tell her, and stay out of sight," snapped Murtagh, running off through another door, closing it behind him.

As Eragon relayed the message, his and Anri's head both snapped to the door. Footsteps were coming up the stairwell and they weren't running past. "Get under the table!" Anri practically shoved him down, grabbing the elf and an odd looking tree branch.

"What about you?"

"Don't worry, just hide!"

He did so, hearing a sound like chimes and a summer breeze before the door slammed open. Ten soldiers entered the room, sweeping through it hurriedly, looking under only a couple of tables, and continuing on their way when they didn't find anything. Eragon waited a few moments more before stepping out from under the table, leaning against it tiredly. He looked around in a momentary panic when he saw neither the elf, or the knight. For a moment he suspected that their new 'ally' wasn't actually on their side when he saw a shimmer from a nearby table. Before his very eyes, a chair glowed gold and faded from existence like ash, revealing Anri who was holding the elf and the broken branch she had moments ago.

The knight quickly but gently set the elf down on a table before moving to Eragon, giving him a quick once-over and making sure he wasn't hurt. When she was satisfied she turned to the table and shoved a plate of food over to him. "Eat," she said. "You need something in your system, don't even try to hide it from me." She moved back over to the elf before looking back at Eragon. "Eat." she said with a bit more force, and Eragon suddenly remembered how hungry he was. He scarfed down what was on the plate and then downed a few sips of water that was luckily in a tankard.

The knight took off her leather glove and put her hand to the elf's forehead and then in front of her mouth. "She has a fever. Breathing's shallow. Shivering every once in a while. Definitely some kind of poison," she muttered to herself. "Estus might help but…"

Just then Murtagh returned from the door he had left through, carrying Zar'roc, a strange and detailed bow, and an elegant thin sword without a sheath. He handed Eragon Zar'roc and it felt as if he was whole again. Like a piece had been unknowingly separated from him. "I found the other sword and bow in the guardroom. I've never seen weapons like them before, so I assumed they were the elf's." It made sense, and after matching the sword to the elf's sheath they had their answer. They didn't know about the bow, but from how elegantly it was crafted it couldn't belong to anyone but the elf.

"What now?" Eragon asked, cramming a last bite of food into his mouth. "We can't stay here forever. Sooner or later the soldiers will find us and this will have been for nothing."

"Now?" responded Murtagh, taking out his own bow and notching an arrow, "we wait. Like I said, our escape has been arranged." Murtagh was confident as could be in this situation, which meant he didn't know about the Shade!

"You don't understand; there's a Shade here! If he finds us, we're doomed." Eragon said urgently. It seemed as if the temperature in the room dropped several degrees.

"A Shade!" exclaimed Murtagh. "In that case, tell Saphira to come immediately. We were going to wait until the watch changed, but delaying even that long is too dangerous now."

"What's a Shade?" asked the knight, and two pairs of eyes turned to her. She shifted her weight, as if being caught in some embarrassing act. "Remember when I'm from! I know practically nothing about whatever this Shade could be!"

"It's bad, and that's all you need to know for now! Eragon," he said, turning his attention. "The message, hurry!"

"Saphira, you need to come immediately! There's a Shade here!"

"A Shade!" was the dragon's shocked and worried response. "I'm on my way!"

"You messed up our plans by escaping yourself," grumbled Murtagh, watching the room's entrances for any unexpected guests.

Eragon smiled despite their situation. "In that case, perhaps I should have timing was perfect, though. I wouldn't have been able to even crawl if I had been forced to fight all those soldiers with magic."

Anri snorted, still fussing over the elf, "glad we could be of some use then. Let's hope that whatever this Shade is, it's in another part of the keep. We'll be gone by the time he reaches here"

A cold and dark chuckle filled the room, and this time the temperature did drop several degrees. "Sorry to say, but it's far too late for that."

All three of them spun around and Eragon heard the sound of a sword being ripped from its sheath. He saw Murtagh with his bow taught and ready to fire from the corner of his eye, and Anri stepped into view holding her sword and shield in a defensive position. The Shade held a thin and pointed sword with a single thin crack down its blade. He reached up and unclasped the brooch that held his cape in place and let the garment fall to the floor. He was thin, like a sprinter, but Eragon remembered what Brom had said. Looks could be deceiving, and Shades were many times stronger than the regular human.

"So, my young Rider, do you wish to test yourself against me?" sneered the Shade. "I shouldn't have trusted the captain when he said you ate all your food. I will not make that mistake again."

"I'll take care of him," said Murtagh quietly, putting down his bow and drawing his sword.

"No," hissed Eragon under his breath. "He wants me alive, not you two. I can stall him for a short while, but then you'd better have a way out for us. Take the elf and go!"

Murtagh cursed under his breath and followed Eragon's order, but…

"Not happening," said the knight. Her helmet never strayed from the Shade. She was unmoving, not displaying a single thought or even a hint of fear or trepidation. She didn't know what she was dealing with!

"Go, he won't hesitate to kill you!"

"Again, not happening," she shook her head. "I've spent too long chasing you down just to abandon you when a threat rears its head!"

The Shade looked at her with a glimmer of curiosity in his eyes. "Why do you protect him, knight?" he asked. "Have you forsaken your oath to the king? The punishment for treason is death, you know." It was if he was offering her a way out, or trying to convince her to turn on him.

Still, even being addressed directly she didn't even flinch. "The only oath I've taken in this Age is to protect the Rider and his Dragon. Even if it leads to my death."

"This Age?" The Shade's eyes widened a fraction. "You're the curiosity. I see it now, you reek of foreign magic. My master is very interested in you, you know."

This time, Eragon did see her pause, if only for a moment. What did any of this mean? A different Age? A curiosity? Foreign magic? Who was this knight that Murtagh had found? The three of them stayed like that, waiting for the first move, for even a flinch that might indicate a strike, but before they could do anything the ceiling boomed and the room shook. Dust billowed from it and fell through the air. From the roof came screams and the sound of clashing metal. Eragon looked up, fearing falling wood, and that's when the Shade struck. Eragon barely moved his sword when he was shoved to the side, hearing a terrible clashing sound. He pivoted his foot and watched as Anri parried and blocked the Shade's sword with her shield before shoving the creature away. From there it was a deadly dance as the Shade stabbed and slashed, all of which was blocked or deflected by Anri. Eragon noticed that her shield had a horizontal scratch across it. She had shoved Eragon away and angled her shield to let the pointed sword run off of its side.

To the untrained eye it looked like the duel was a stalemate, that it was two apex fighters giving it their all, but Eragon wasn't untrained. Anri was faring well, but she was entirely on the defensive, focusing all of her energy on blocking and deflecting with her shield and her sword. They would lock blades, and the Shade would use hers as a brace to try and slash her limb or stab into her midsection, when she would shove her shield between them to get distance. Eragon could see her arms shaking with every blow, both of them knew she couldn't keep this up alone, but Eragon knew that taking the wrong opening could be fatal for one of them.

Eragon watched as Anri's foot caught a loose stone, causing her entire guard to stumble. The Shade took advantage, seeing the opportunity for a killing blow, but was so entirely focused that he didn't see Eragon strike.

Anri caught herself with her shield and righted herself, heaving and gaining a foot of distance. This Shade was the best fighter she had encountered in a long time, and unlike those other times, she couldn't take the time and deaths to fully learn the way he fought. She lost count of how many times the Shade had come that close to slipping into her guard and sticking her with that evil sword. She was constantly on the backfoot, and her arms burned. If Eragon hadn't taken the heat off of her that might've been it for her. She took a shuddering breath and waited to intervene again. Eragon grasped Zar'roc with both hands and swung with all of his might at the Shade's head. The Shade blocked him with ease, whipping his sword through the air faster than either of them had thought possible. Strong and fast!

Terrible screeches sounded above them, like iron spikes being drawn across stone. Three long cracks split the ceiling, causing more dust to fall around them. Shingles from the slate roof fell through the fissures. Eragon ignored them, focused on the fight as he was, even when one smashed into the floor next to him and nearly hit him. Eragon was obviously well trained, but Anri could see that he was totally outclassed. Both of them were! The damn Shade even had a smirk on his face as they fought. As Eragon and the Shade locked blades and started trying to angle their swords to gain an advantage, Anri leapt back into the fray. This time neither of them left, and both focused entirely on the Shade. When Eragon deflected a strike, Anri swept low with her sword, trying to hit his legs. The Shade jumped over the strike and lashed out with a foot, smacking Anri across the face and spinning her fully around. She ignored the throbbing across the side of her head and blocked another kick with her shield. Even blocking it sent her sliding back a few feet, making the burning in her arms even worse.

The fight was edging closer to where Murtagh was, making the situation even more dangerous for them. It seemed as if the Shade was taking the fight seriously now, as each of his strikes landed harder and shook both fighters more and more. The Shade pushed Eragon away and focused entirely on Anri, hacking and slashing faster than she had ever seen. Even in the Age of Fire! With a masterful flick his blade found the hilt of her sword, right beneath the crossguard, and flung it away from her. She didn't even have time to be shocked, grabbing the shield with her now empty hand and barely blocking a flurry of strikes, each one shifting her entire desperate guard and forcing her lower to the ground. Each time she had to bring it back up in order to block a potentially lethal strike. Eventually though the Shade had grown tired of her defense and slipped his blade behind the shield, yanking it to the side and leaving her entirely exposed for a kick straight to her chest. It felt like getting hit by a demon, knocking the breath from her lungs and launching her into a wall.

It took her a few moments to get her bearings, the sudden expulsion of oxygen making everything fuzzy and muting the sound from the room. When she heaved a desperate breath or two everything came back, and she tried pushing herself up. Doing that though, alerted her to the extreme pain of multiple cracked and definitely one or two broken ribs. Even then she forced herself to her knee, coughing raggedly and holding her chest with her left arm. Her shield had disappeared, probably let go when she hit the wall. She blinked the tears from her eyes and found Eragon and the Shade again. Now that there was only one opponent Eragon didn't stand a chance, and it was a horrifyingly quick process for the Shade to disarm Eragon nearly the same way he had disarmed her. The force of the blow sent Eragon to his knees. He didn't try to get back up.

The Shade stared down at him haughtily. "A powerful piece you may be in the game that is being played, but I'm disappointed that this is your best. If the other Riders were this weak, they must have controlled the Empire only through sheer numbers. And you," he gestured to Anri. "I am sorely disappointed with your performance. Your time was an Age of Gods! What gods must they have been if you were a knight among their ranks." His words made Anri stand up, albeit very unsteadily, an arm still clutched to her chest.

Eragon looked up and shook his head, smiling. "No, you forget something."

"And what might that be?" asked the Shade mockingly, sneering.

There was a thunderous reverberation as a chunk of the ceiling was torn away to reveal the night sky. The entire room shook violently from the force. "The dragons!" roared Eragon over the noise, and threw himself out of the Shade's reach. The Shade snarled in rage, swinging his sword viciously, missing, and lunging towards Eragon again. Surprise spread across his face though as one of Murtagh's arrows sprouted from his shoulder. Anri reached into her box and grabbed the first thing she could.

The Shade laughed, yanking the arrow from his shoulder and snapping it with two fingers. "You'll have to do better than that if you want to stop me." He made to charge again when a new sound erupted into the room. It sounded like the roar of a fire, and out of nowhere Anri swung with all of her might, the coiled sword clutched in both of her hands.

The Shade backstepped her swing, but had to dodge even further back to avoid the jet of flames and the incredible heat that followed the primordial blade in Anri's hands. It was like the sword was speaking to her, whispering where and when to swing. Now it was the Shade's turn to be on the backfoot. He tried to brute-force a block, only to cry out as he took the full heat of the sword. He looked in shock at his own blade, glowing a faint orange from where their blades had met. "You know nothing of my Age!" Anri bellowed, dragging the coiled sword across the ground, swinging upwards and launching a gout of fire that the Shade barely missed, covering his sides in blisters. He tried to lunge again, poised to spear Anri, but she plunged the coiled sword into the floor, expelling a wave of pure heat and force, sending any loose items and the Shade flying away. "Mine was an age of heroes! Of Gods! Of beings so powerful you wouldn't even be considered an instinct!" Anri swung multiple times, and each time the Shade had to dodge, as by the time the wave of fire following the blade dissipated she would already be swinging again! "And I?" She laughed. "I slew a Lord of Cinder, a being who devoured gods! Don't pretend to know who I am! What I am!" And to the awe of everyone watching, she landed a strike, severing the Shade's arm as he miss-timed a dodge. She followed up and swept his legs from underneath him, waiting a moment before walking casually over him.

She didn't realize it, she didn't even notice it, but there was an aura around her. Eragon and Murtagh watched in awe as Anri was surrounded by a wave of heat, the very air distorting red. Her entire body was covered in embers, head to toe, and yet they didn't burn her. Instead they wafted off of her, as if she was a being made from fire itself. Murtagh didn't believe Anri when she talked of her Age, at least, not entirely. There was no question about it now. There was a definite power in the air, much different from when Eragon used his magic. She was an otherworldly being, something so alien and foreign from Alagaësia. The room was covered in fire, and yet it didn't spread, as if it was tamed, waiting for orders to burn or to strike.

The Shade tried crawling away but Anri put a foot down on his stomach, pinning him. For probably the first time in history, the Shade Durza looked up in fear. This wasn't a knight. This thing wasn't even human! "What are you?" He asked, trying to muster the fury to gain power again. He tried a mental attack, but it was warded away from whatever power possessed her in the moment. She laughed. "I am Unkindled Ash, creature. I am Anri of Astora, Lord of Cinder." And before anyone else could speak she plunged the coiled sword through the Shade's head and into the floor, expelling all of the remaining power. She heard a scream mix with the roaring of fire before the vile creature turned into a cloud of mist, vanishing.

All at once the power left, every ember or spark of fire fizzled out, and the two humans shuddered from the sudden drop in temperature. Anri was able to stand for a moment longer before her strength just evaporated. Her entire body was burning from what she had just done, gone was the new Lord of Cinder, the knight Anri took her place back. The coiled sword was a muted gray; if there was any fire left in it she wasn't able to see or feel it. Finally her legs gave out, and fell, only being caught by Eragon at the last second. He had grabbed her across the chest, however, causing her to cough violently and cry out in pain.

Eragon had no idea what he had just witnessed, but there would be a time for explanations later. RIght now, they had to flee. Murtagh ran up and helped to drag Anri back, her sword and shield were with him. "You killed the Shade, Anri!" exclaimed Eragon. He knew of only two heroes of legend who had survived slaying a Shade. "I'm not so sure," said Murtagh. Anri just gave a noncommittal groan in response.

A man shouted from beyond the door, "That's it. He failed. Go in and get them! The fire's gone!" Soldiers with nets and spears poured into the banquet room from both ends. Eragon and Murtagh backed up against the wall, dragging the elf and the collapsed Anri with them. Eragon ran through his options as the men formed a half-circle around them, spears ready. Then Saphira stuck her head through the hole in the ceiling and roared in fury. She gripped the edge of the opening with her powerful talons and ripped off another large section of the ceiling, causing the room to shake and more of the roof to buckle. Finally though, the battered roof gave, with a resounding crash, the center beam of the ceiling cracked and rained down heavy shingles. Confusion scattered the ranks as they tried to dodge the deadly barrage. More and more of the roof came down. This would be the best chance they would get!

With one last massive effort, Saphira tore off the rest of the ceiling before jumping into the hall with her wings folded. Crying out with relief, Eragon threw his arms around her. She hummed contentedly, finally reunited. "I've missed you, little one." There was no furling that could describe the joy the two of them felt in that moment.

"Same here," he responded. "There's someone else with us. Can you carry four people?"

"Of course," she said, clearing the immediate area of debris. Murtagh and Eragon pulled the elf out of hiding. Saphira hissed in surprise as she saw her. "An elf!"

"Yes, and she's the woman I saw in my dreams!" said Eragon, picking up and sheathing Zar'roc. He helped Murtagh secure the elf into the saddle, then they gently pulled Anri to her feet, earning a pained grunt of effort as she stumbled.

"What happened?" Saphira asked in shock.

Murtagh settled Anri behind the elf. "I'm f-fine, worry about me later!" she said through gritted teeth.

"We fought the Shade, she took a kick to the chest, I think it's her ribs. She saved my life." Eragon spoke quickly as he and Murtagh climbed behind Anri, who hissed again when she was moved slightly.

"Saphira. I heard fighting on the roof. Are there men up there?"

"There were, but no more." She said, preparing to fly. "Are you ready?"

"Yes." He added audibly to Anri; "be ready, this may hurt."

"Great…"

Saphira leapt out of the hall and onto the fortress's roof, where the bodies of archers and soldiers were scattered about. "Look!" said Murtagh, pointing. A row of archers ran out of a tower on the other side of the roofless hall. They were in trouble!

"Saphira, you have to take off. Now!" warned Eragon. They were out of time!

She unfurled her wings, ran toward the edge of the building, and propelled them over it with her powerful legs. The extra weight on her back made her drop alarmingly though, and Anri's armor probably wasn't light. As she beat her wings and struggled to gain altitude, Eragon heard the tell-tale twang and whistle of arrows being fired.

Arrows whizzed toward them in the dark, many flying harmlessly by, but Saphira roared in pain as she was struck and quickly rolled to the left to avoid the next volley. More arrows were fired at them, but in the darkness they were fired blind. Worried, Eragon bent over Saphira's neck, looking for any serious wounds. "Where are you hurt?" he asked when he couldn't see any.

"My wings are pierced… one of the arrows didn't go all the way through. It's still stuck inside." Her breathing was labored and heavy, audible even over the rushing of the wind.

"How far can you take us?" He was worried, pierced wings could spell disaster if it was bad enough.

"Far enough," she said, finally crossing the borders of the city and disappearing into the night. She banked and veered eastward, leaving the city behind.

It was silent for a time before a chuckle broke the air, surprisingly it came from Anri. "T-Told you the plan would work!" she said before breaking into laughter. Eragon heard a groan from behind him.

"Shove her off and spare us the weight." Anri only laughed harder before coughing again, and despite himself Eragon joined in. It might not have been appropriate, he still had many questions, and three of them were gravely injured, but that didn't diminish what they had done.

"What a peculiar knight," Saphira added, only adding to the situation.

Soon, even Murtagh joined in for a bit before it became quiet again. They were free; they had done something impossible, but there was still much to do.

Done again, faster than I expected. It really is weird how much you can write when everything else fades away and you just enter the "zone." This is also my longest chapter by far! Over 5,000 words without the summary at the end! Also, even though I feel that it's implied, I am not Christopher Paolini or Hidetaka Miyazaki. I do not own any rights to Inheritance Cycle or Dark Souls!

Fight scenes are always a bit odd to me, and it's hard for me to find a good groove, so I hope I did alright. I also really enjoyed writing the last part, what does it mean for Anri to be a new Lord of Cinder? Is the Fire as gone as we think it is? More importantly though, Anri is finally part of the gang! It only took half a continent, but she did it! It was a struggle, but she managed!

Now I can do something I've been wanting to do for awhile; responding to reviews! And I think I've settled on responding to comments every 5 or so chapters. That may change depending on the frequency of reviews but I feel like 5 is a good number.

Many of you said something very similar; so to everybody saying that you enjoyed my writing, that you're excited for more, that you're curious and roped in. Thank you from the bottom of my heart! It gives me a warm feeling when I read those comments, it lets me know that you enjoy my writing, and that I'm not just wasting my time writing this. You guys keep this story going. You inspire me to write more. This wouldn't be a thing without you. Isthisusernameok, Brother Bov, xXxGhostRiderxXx, Hollydoor, Walkmanapprenticewordsmith, kadraphan97, thank you all for your kind words.

Bloobloo2334: I totally agree, and though it fulfills its purpose the world hopping is an overused trope. Dark Souls opens up new options since time is relative, and the Age of Fire stagnates the natural order of the world. I also agree that Eragon tends to be put to the side a lot. He's still one of the main characters in this story, that is not going to change. There's a lot planned for him and the rest of the fun characters we know and love!

Slaggedfire: Sorry about Oscar, but now he has his peace! Also, Saphira is still relatively young, and nobody but Anri is aware of the hell that was the Age of Fire, or the creatures it spawned.

Once again, without all of you, and everybody reading this who's left a follow or a favorite on the story, you all mean the world to me. I'll see you all soon~