Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Eighteen: Iridescent

"Yet you chose to follow the Ra'zac when it would have been easier to remain in Palancar Valley. And you came here."

"It was the right thing to do... Master." We lapsed into silence for several minutes.

"Were you, perchance, given a trinket of some kind in Tarnag, Eragon? A piece of jewelry, armor, or even a coin?"

"Aye." Eragon reached inside of his tunic and fished out the necklace with the tiny silver hammer Hrothgar had given him. "Gannel made this for me on Hrothgar's orders, to prevent anyone from scrying Saphira or me. They were afraid that Galbatorix might have discovered what I look like... How did you know?"

"Because," Oromis started. "I could no longer sense you."

"Someone tried to scry me by Sílthrim about a week ago. Was that you?"

Oromis shook his head. "After I first scryed you with Arya, I did not need to use such crude methods to find you. I could reach out and touch your mind with mine, as I did when you were injured in Farthen Dûr."

Oromis lifted the amulet and murmured several words in the ancient language. He let it go after twenty seconds. "It contains no other spells I can detect. Keep it with you at all times; it is a valuable gift. Khensamel, will you lend me your hands?"

I slid my gloves off and offered my hands. Just as he had done with Eragon, Oromis wrapped his slender fingers around my wrists. There were several minutes of silence.

"You are your father's daughter." My eyes went wide, and every muscle in my body became taught. Oromis looked up with kind eyes. "You are what he should have been child. It is your choice whether or not to follow in his footsteps."

"I will never be that kind of Rider." I hissed out angrily. "We are keepers of the peace, not rulers." Oromis smiled gently at my hissed words.

"Then stop worrying that you will turn into him, become the Rider you want to be. Focus on the principles that guided you here." He responded before turning to Eragon.

"Why are you here, Eragon?"

"To complete my training."

"And what do you think that process entails?"

Eragon shifted uncomfortably. "Learning more about magic and fighting. Brom wasn't able to finish teaching me everything that he knew."

"Magic, swordsmanship, and other such skills are useless unless you know how and when to apply them. This I will teach you. However, as Galbatorix has demonstrated, power without moral direction is the most dangerous force in the world. My main task, then, is to help you, Eragon and Saphira, to understand what principles guide you so that you do not make the right choices for the wrong reasons. You must learn more about yourself, who you are, and what you are capable of doing. That is why you are here."

"When do we begin?" Saphira asked. Oromis began to answer when he stiffened and dropped his glass. His face went red, and his fingers curled into claws. The change was frightening and instantaneous. Before Eragon or I could do more than flinch, the elf had relaxed again.

"Are you well?" Eragon asked both of our faces had worry spread across them. The corners of Oromis's mouth twitched.

"Less so than I might wish. We elves fancy ourselves immortal, but not even we can escape certain maladies of the flesh, which are beyond our knowledge of magic to do more than delay. No, do not worry... it isn't contagious, but neither can I rid myself of it." He sighed deeply.

"I have spent decades binding myself with hundreds of small, weak spells that, layered one upon another, duplicate the effect of enchantments that are now beyond my reach. I bound myself with them so that I might live long enough to witness the birth of the last dragons and to foster the Riders' resurrection from the ruin of our mistakes."

"How long until..." I swiftly elbowed Eragon in the ribs while Oromis rose an eyebrow.

"How long until I die? We have time, but precious little for you or me, especially if the Varden decide to call upon your help. As a result—to answer your question, Saphira—we will begin your instruction immediately, and we will train faster than any Rider ever has or ever will, for I must condense decades of knowledge into months and weeks."

"You do know," Eragon said, struggling against the embarrassment that made his face red. "About our... our own infirmity." He ground out the last word. "I am as crippled as you are, and Mal can barely use her right arm and hand."

"Eragon, you are only a cripple if you consider yourself one. I understand how you feel, but you must remain optimistic, for a negative outlook is more of a handicap than any physical injury. I speak from personal experience. Pitying yourselves serves neither you nor your dragons. I and the other spellweavers will study your malady to see if we might devise a way to alleviate it, but in the meantime, your training will proceed as if nothing were amiss."

I sighed in relief at the thought of Oromis and the other spell weavers working to help Eragon and I. Eragon however was not so convinced.

"The pain is unbearable," he frantically burst out. "It would kill me. I—"

"No, Eragon. It will not kill you. That much I know about your curse. However, we both have our duty; you to the Varden, Khensamel to the throne, and I to you. We cannot shirk it for the sake of mere pain. Far too much is at risk, and we can ill afford to fail."

Eragon shook his head with panic building in his body.

"Eragon. You must accept this burden freely. Have you no one or nothing that you are willing to sacrifice yourself for?" Eragon was quiet for five minutes. He must be thinking hard about this.

"I accept on behalf of those I fight for: the people of Alagaësia—of all races—who have suffered from Galbatorix's brutality. No matter the pain, I swear that I will study harder than any student you've had before."

The moment that Oromis and Glaedr were out of sight, Saphira burst with excitement. Alethea sent me an image of her rolling her eyes, I started laughing, and at one point, I almost slipped off of Alethea because I was laughing so hard. When I stopped laughing, Alethea and I exchanged memories of what we had learned today.

"Saphira better get over her excitement soon," Alethea mumbled subconsciously. I don't even think she realized that I had heard. I let her mumble her complaints about Saphira's behavior for the rest of the flight back to our room.

We reached the room, and Karí and Nearí immediately pounced on us. Karí set up a basin of hot water and promptly set Alethea in the water. I felt her surprise melt into contentment as the scalding water washed over her scales. Alethea put her entire body under the water except for her head and began to paddle around the basin, squeaking her thanks. Nearí put me in the exact same position.

"You may be a hard-working dragon rider, but you are still a princess! You're getting a bath after every training session!" Nearí ranted while undoing the elaborate braid that my hair was in. "No exceptions, my lady!"

"You two are spoiling us beyond reason," I muttered before sliding into the water and blowing bubbles.

"If this what a bath feels like I want more!" Alethea chirped.

"You can get as many baths as you want Lee," I responded with a grin. After my bath that cleansed the dirt and sweat from my body, Nearí helped me change into a nightgown. Shortly after I dismissed them for the night, I didn't want to keep them up late. I climbed my way to the center of my bed and pulled up the sheets, tomorrow was going to be the start of Eragon, and I's real training.