For Alagaesia: 5. Injuries of the past

Eragon was bored. He had been in the city for two days now and didn't have anything to do other than exchange greetings with elves he didn't know. He wanted to do some work or else it seemed to him like he will be brooding over the past sorrowful days and lose his sanity over them. So he decided that he will meet Islanzadi and ask if he could be of some help. He conveyed this to Saphira who was away hunting. He walked all the way from his resting place, the small but comfortable house to the mansion where the Queen had made up her residence.

The mansion was monstrous to say the least. He wondered if it was built by having dragons in mind. In the entrance, he was stopped by three elves who identified themselves as the queen's guards. He was asked to wait for sometime as the queen was busy with a meeting. Resigning himself to waiting outside the doors of the Elven queen, he sighed. May be I could have done this waiting at my room itself - he was thinking when the door was opened forcibly and Lord Dathedr came through it. Eragon saw that the elf-lord was a little tense and wondered what was it that the Queen had been discussing to make even somebody like Dathedr tense. Dathedr scanned the room once before stepping to where Eragon was seated. Eragon raised himself from the chair on which he was sitting and nodded at the elf-lord approaching him. Dathedr started the traditional elven greeting and Eragon followed suit.

After finishing the formalities, Dathedr asked, "Eragon Shurtugal! May I know why you have come to visit the queen? I mean, if it is something you can tell me." To Eragon it seemed like Dathedr was too straight-forward in his speech and attributed the change to the elf-lord's tense demeanor. Nevertheless, he said, "Its nothing that important, Dathedr-Vodhr. I just wanted to know if I could help with rebuilding the city." Dathedr visibly relaxed and said, "Of course, Shadeslayer. If you are willing to help, you may go down to the prisons and deal with the prisoners." Eragon couldn't understand what the elf-lord meant by 'dealing with prisoners', so he voiced his doubts, "I apologise. But I don't get what is there to be done with prisoners, Lord Dathedr." "It is I who must apologise to you, Shurtugal. There are magicians of the empire in the prisons and you will have to break into their minds to find if they know anymore of Galbatorix's plans", Dathedr said with some distaste in his voice. Eragon felt like there was a sour taste in his mouth. He knew exactly why Dathedr voiced the last words with distaste. It was a foul thing to do-breaking into the minds of others-but a necessary one. Eragon quickly nodded his head and said in a low voice, "It will be done". Dathedr looked at Eragon with a new respect and said, "Fare thee well, Eragon-elda". Eragon bowed slightly at the elf-lord and turned to go finally getting to know why Dathedr was such a prominent member of the elven royal court and why Arya considered him a friend.

Eragon after leaving the mansion contacted Saphira straight away asking for her assistance in his work. She was glad to help him and share the load of the foul deed they were about to commit. Eragon decided that he wouldn't look into the private life of people so as to reduce the strain on them and him. He vividly remembered how painful it was for him when the Twins had tried to drill information out of him. He had examined only the minds of few Urgals after that and even that with their consent. This was going to be the first time, he will be trying to vanquish somebody's mind. With such thoughts, he entered the dungeons.

He was aware that these were the same dungeons where he was kept prisoner for a day and Arya for months. Those experiences mixed with what he was about to do, he became grumpy. There were already some elves at work in the dungeons before him and they were grappling silently with their enemies. He found one cell that was unoccupied by elves and stepped into it. The cell was grimy. But he ignored it and took a look at the lone figure in the corner of the cell. "Who is there? You filthy monsters. Don't you dare touch me. The king will cut your heads off when he finds you.", the imprisoned person cursed. "I am Eragon Shadeslayer. The rider allied with the Varden. If you will tell me what Galbatorix has planned to do next, I will not harm you", Eragon said in a steady voice. The man loudly swore "Rider. Humph... You are no match for our great king, scum. He will rip your name out of you once he catches you and then you will beg for his mercy", he shouted. Eragon didn't like talking to this man anymore and started attacking his mind silently telling Saphira to join forces. He was trained. But couldn't withstand the force of both Eragon and Saphira for even a minute and succumbed. Eragon as he had planned didn't cause much discomfort for the man even after his dirty swearing words. Eragon started despising the man though. He couldn't help but notice the various atrocities that the man had done. He was one of the most filthy creatures Eragon had laid eyes upon. Eragon contemplated driving the man insane by burning out his memories, but restrained himself reasoning that the slimy prison cell in which he was kept was enough punishment for an animal like him. But the man wasn't aware of any of Galbatorix's plans and so Eragon left him to rot in the cell.

Eragon had to skip a few cells before he could find one that was free of interrogators. Before he entered in, an elf murmured from outside, "Be careful of that one. He hasn't yet been broken down even after two of us had tried. He is stubborn." His voice steadily reduced in intensity after seeing that it was Eragon who entered in the cell. Eragon guessed that the elf wasn't sure of Eragon's skills and hence was hit by indecision not knowing whether to encourage or discourage him. And with rising curiosity to see the man who had defied elves, he stepped into the cell. The moment he went in a sharp curse was made at his expense which was then followed by, "Get away, you filthy elf. Do you think I will be afraid of your pointy ears. Cats. Monsters. How dare you put me in my own cell." Eragon who was already grumpy became even more annoyed and said to Saphira, 'Keep away, Saphira. I will deal with him myself.' with determination written all over his voice. Saphira sensing his determination left him to deal with the man separately.

Eragon didn't want to waste his time with such a filthy and dark person. So he plunged a strong mental dagger into the man's defenses. The man was very well trained. Eragon tried to penetrate the defenses in a roundabout way preferring to concentrate on distorting the image that the man had filled his mind with so as to create his defense. What he saw sickened him to say the least. It was an image of Durza tutoring this man to perform some dark spell. So Eragon, from his memories sent the image of Durza with Zar'roc penetrating from his heart as the dagger to break the foul creature's defenses. He succeeded this time and gained entry into the filthy mind of the monster. He repeatedly told himself that he shouldn't cross the limit and so rummaged through the man's mind cautiously not paying too much attention to the savagery that he had committed. But when he came across a particular moment in that man's life, Eragon's sense of virtue was overcome by a feral anger.

Every sense controlled by a boiling anger, Eragon burnt out those moments from the memory of that animal. The animal was writhing on the ground screaming out incoherent words. Saphira's voice shouted at him from some distance, but he didn't care to listen to her. Once those moments were erased from the filthy creature in man's skin, Eragon seemed to get his emotions back in control and pulled out of the man's mind and with a rage that he had never felt before stormed out of the room.

In his anger, he didn't even know where he was going. He just kept moving fast. Saphira tried to calm him down and tried to know what made Eragon lose his sense in such a spectacular way. But Eragon wouldn't open his mind to her to show what he had seen in the man's mind. In his wild dashing, Eragon crossed various corridors in the dungeon ignoring the surprised elves who looked at him with a kind of fear in their eyes. His dashing continued until he reached a secluded part of the dungeon where a lone elf, Arya was standing. On seeing her, Eragon seemed to remember who he was. He stopped dead and watched her. Her eyes had a far away look; but were watching the finger-nail marks on the lone table in the adjacent room. Eragon followed her sight and laid his eyes on the table and that table again brought the unexplainable anger back. He looked at it with intent. In seconds the table started burning in blue flames. Only then did Arya notice Eragon. She turned around in a way that suggested she was coming out of a reverie.

"Eragon..... What?...." was all Arya managed to say before Eragon burst out, "Arya... That table.... Your back... they tore.... claws... red hot iron claws... You...You didn't cry. Your finger nails. You tore at the table. How?...How could you?.." As he said these, the things he saw in the mind of the man leaked through their link to Saphira.

He was asked to heat the claw-shaped branding iron. He found himself proud and happy that his master, Durza had chosen him to torment the filthy elf. Oh, how he hated that elf. She had once broken his mind when he had tried to do things to her. He used all those heating spells and the roaring fire to heat the metal. He waited patiently for it to turn red-hot. Then he handed it to his master. His master slowly took the metal toward the elf's eyes and then toward her back. He was playing with the filthy elf. He was making her afraid. Then, his mind became a happy haven when he watched his master, sink the metal that he had heated into the elf's back. He had expected the elf to scream out. But she didn't. He was disappointed. But then he noticed the elf's hands. She was tearing at the table with her finger-nails. It was good. She was suffering. He had caused it. Filthy elf.

But when Eragon finished his stuttering sentence, he couldn't stand to see what Arya's reaction would be. He knew she was going to chastise him for using wordless magic just as Saphira was doing just then. But it was not his fault that he used magic without words then. He wasn't even aware of the fact that he had used magic. He only wanted to destroy the table when he laid eyes upon it. The table that was a part in hurting Arya. He didn't want to hear anything that Arya had to say in this matter. He had done the right thing. In fact, leaving that filthy animal alive was testimony of his virtue. So he ran. Out of the dungeon. Out of the city. Out into the meadows. He was dimly aware of somebody following him. He was sure that Saphira was following him by air. But he didn't want to wait for anybody. He needed to be alone.

Eragon heard Arya's voice behind him laced with a unusual mixture of authority born out of her upbringing and heritage and a right to call him born out of their strangely close friendship asking him to wait. But her pleas or commands whatever they were succeeded only in slowing him down. But then, he felt a great pressure upon his back as Saphira pushed him down on the ground and held him there with her strong talons. "Saphira.... Let me up.", Eragon sounded strangled. 'Not until you listen to Arya', Saphira threatened. 'You saw what they did to her. Will you not get angry like me?', Eragon asked wanting her to understand his reasons for acting as such. 'Who said your anger was unwarranted? I only ask you to do what Arya says', Saphira answered him smoothly. 'So be it, Saphira. If you or her don't think I did a mistake there then I will listen to her', replied Eragon. Saphira let him rise and he saw Arya standing near him. He looked at her with uncertainty not knowing if he could look into her eyes or not. But upon looking into her eyes, he saw that she was looking straight into his eyes with a intent look. The look disconcerted him. A feeling of guilt came over him. He felt like he wasn't her friend and like he was her closest relation at the same time. Bringing up his courage he said, "Arya, when you said you nearly went insane by Durza's cruel treatment, I felt sad for you. I wanted to comfort you. When I saw your wounds for the first time when we took you to Farthen Dur, I promised myself that I would kill anybody responsible for it. But this.... watching what they did to you directly, it was too much. I... I couldn't control myself.... I didn't..", he faltered there unable to justify his anger. All the while, Arya maintained the intense eye contact with him and he had to look down then. But when there was no visible response or reaction from Arya, he looked back into her eyes and saw that she hadn't stopped scrutinising him with her look. And when he started thinking it was going to be just this way forever, he saw Arya shifting and she said, "Spar with me."

Eragon thought that he had heard wrong. He didn't expect her to ask him to spar with her in a situation like that. But he found that his ears hadn't deceived him for she took her slim silvery elegant sword out and said the words for blurring the edge of the sword. Eragon who was still angry to act coherently stood there doing nothing. Saphira was cajoling him in his mind. So after a few moments he took Brisingr out of its scabbard and said, "Gëuloth du knífr" to blur the sword's edge and charged towards where Arya was waiting for him. When he reached near Arya, he swung Brisingr in a fine arc aimed at her ribs. But she was quick to bring her sword down and block his attack. This continued for minutes; Eragon trying to attack Arya and she evading him either by blocking his sword or swaying away from his sword. Eragon was getting frustrated. The anger was still burning in him urging him to finish off the opponent. But Arya was no simple swords-woman to be defeated in minutes. This brought forth more of his anger and Eragon's attacks became more forceful. He started to sweat all over. But as the fight progressed, his anger started abating and in its place came the fine logic needed for swordplay. The intricacies of the beautiful and dangerous art began filling his mind chasing away the anger that he had felt just about an hour ago. He now had a mild idea about why Arya asked him to spar. It seemed she wanted him to vent the vestiges of his anger through swordplay. The hard look on his face had completely gone away when Arya called, "Enough" ending their sparring session that had extended for well over an hour.

The situation had suddenly become peaceful. Eragon had regained his composure completely. Saphira sniffed at Arya who smiled slightly at her. Eragon wanted to thank Arya for helping him overcome his anger. But when he approached her and opened his mouth to speak, she said, "You don't have to thank me for anything, Eragon. All I did was my duty." So saying she offered him a small smile and left him there to ponder her words. What started as a devastating day had become a wonderful day with that smile. Eragon turned around with a huge smile plastered on his face toward Saphira who nudged him on the shoulder with her snout slightly and asked him if he would like a aerial ride with her. A sort of bliss blanketing his mind, Eragon obliged.

Author's note:

This was the most difficult chapter to write. Eragon doesn't always feel like he should kill somebody and Arya doesn't always encourage Eragon's feelings for her. Do they?