Eragon stared in awestruck horror at the aflame, regal beauty.
Brisingr hadn't even made a scratch on her armor. Even though his knowledge of the Ancient Language was limited, he knew that such a thing was not supposed to happen. He had put so much of his own life force into that blast...
Yet it hadn't worked. If anything, the flames seemed to have served in empowering the enchanting woman, somehow. She had manipulated them into a terrifying flame of her own make, white and ethereal.
...Was she even human? Surely not. He would have heard tales of such an abomination borne from the human race.
Galbatorix would have stopped at nothing to gain such power on his side.
'Saphira... don't come. It's an impossible fight. She's a spellcaster, and a powerful one at that. Stronger than Brom. Much, much stronger. We stand no chance against her. We can't even run.'
Eragon would have shuddered if he was not already frozen in fear at the terrifying growl that sounded through their link, which was quickly growing stronger as a blurry, azure figure tore with terrible speed through skies of the Hadarac Desert, towards the scene.
'Silence, little one. Do not dare speak to me in such a way again. Would you yourself abandon me to death, merely if I asked you to?'
Eragon grit his teeth, fingernails digging angrily into the cracked plates of the sandy earth.
'...fine. Perhaps we can reason with her... though that course of action doesn't seem likely to work. She doesn't appear to be the agreeable type.'
Saphira snorted.
'No. With such a terrifying presence, who would dare deny her, anyways? Even I must admit that I shake, merely from the memories of the scene you witnessed with your own eyes. Her raw power is unfathomable. And she is yet to show you even the beginning of her powers. This, I know.
She... should not be. I can feel it, deep inside my chest. She is unnatural.'
Eragon shuddered. What kind of abomination was terrifying enough to be called unnatural by a dragon?
'We were foolish to underestimate the power of an unknown figure. Perhaps she would have reacted differently if you were here, with us. Sending you away in fear she might speak of you later on was foolish, considering her unknown nature.'
'Perhaps. But I think not. Eragon... I think she felt my gaze.'
Eragon frowned inwardly. The woman was still staring, emotionless, at the unnatural white flames that danced along her body, making her look like a star despite the desert brightness.
He dearly hoped they would keep her distracted until Saphira's arrival.
'Is such a thing possible?'
'I believe so. You could call it a... sixth sense of sorts. We creatures of power can sometimes emanate an intangible feeling of power, one that humans aren't meant to be able to grasp. Otherwise, they would go mad. When one faces another such creature, those with sufficient power are sometimes capable of noticing.'
'... we seem to have angered the worst possible adversary in the entirety of the Hadarac Desert, huh? I miss the sandstorms with Brom.'
Saphira chuckled, a low sound that rumbled deep within her chest. She would reach Eragon and Murtaugh soon, hopefully stopping any combat... after all, dragons were among the fiercest of creatures. Everyone had grown up hearing tales of their frightening deeds, though most considered them to be mythical beasts of legend. Perhaps even the terrifying, beautiful woman would be apprehensive to clash with one...
"Boy. What is your name?"
Eragon snapped back to reality in a heartbeat, and he felt cold sweat on his face despite the debilitating heat of the desert. He shakily looked up at the flaming woman. Somehow, the gorgeous flames made her look even more beautiful.
Looking up at her face felt like facing judgement.
In the back of his mind, Saphira growled faintly and struggled to increase her speed even more. Her wings were straining terribly, and he could already feel her growing tired.
Eragon stuttered, eyes wide as he stared at the woman's impassive face, unable to look away from her capturing eyes. "E-eragon, my lady." She looked at him for a moment longer before asking, "Was that your aspect? Or are you somehow an inheritor of the Sorcery of Names? It is... unfamiliar to me."
Eragon stared at her, dumbfounded and confused. Aspect? Inheritor? The... sorcery of names? what was she talking about? "W-what do you mean by aspect, my lady? And what is the Sorcery of Names...? Oh, are you talking about the Ancient Language?" Her eyes tightened slightly and a hint of a frown appeared on her face.
Eragon shuddered as the invisible pressure surrounding him suddenly increased. It reminded him of the time he had tripped and gotten stuck under one of Horst's wheelbarrows. His chest had nearly caved in that time. When the enchanting figure spoke again, her voice was somehow even colder than before.
"Do not think you can distract me with made-up phrases, Eragon. I know you are Awakened; who else could call upon flames to do their bidding? Pretending to not be such is not only futile, but annoying. I also know that you are stalling. However, I can handle a Great Monster- I've killed dozens before. So, I suggest that you answer my questions. Maybe I'll even allow you to live."
Eragons mind swirled with a dozen different questions. What was an awakened? She spoke of it almost as though one would an entity. Organization? Maybe a... state of being? And what was a Great Monster? Surely she wasn't talking about Saphira, and dragons in general... right? After all, the Dragons and their Riders had gone extinct hundreds of years ago. Surely it was impossible that she was as old as Galbatorix?
She had even known he was stalling, and didn't seem to care. If a dragon didn't even give her pause, was there even a chance at negotiation?
'Answer her questions to the best of your ability, Little One. If need be, we will escape her.'
Eragons was surprised at her sudden confidence.
'Are you capable of such a miracle?
'I will... find a way.'
Eragon gulped dryly and nodded, mouth open in awe. Even despite the terror he felt, her beauty was just so otherworldly...
"Good. Now, where am I? Waking World, or the Dream Realm? I can't feel my tether. Why is that?"
Eragon looked at her with despair. She wasn't making any sense!
"I, I'm really sorry, my Lady, I truly have no idea what you're talking about. I am unfamiliar with those, uh, terms."
For the first time, a hint of emotion just barely cracked the mask of indifference that was her face. Was it surprise, doubt, incredulity? Perhaps a mixture of them all? Then, her expression hardened once more, so quickly he wasn't sure if he had imagined it or not.
"Lying to me is not in your best interest now, boy. Do you really speak the truth?"
Eragon nodded feverishly.
"Yes, yes! To be honest, I haven't understood most of the words you have used... I don't know what an aspect is, or an awakened, or a tether, at least in the context you seem to be using it in. I also am not sure what you mean by dream realm and waking world. I've never heard of either of them before."
Doubt flickered once more on the woman's face, and she suddenly seemed contemplative, lowering her sword. She turned away from Eragon, who immediately sagged in relief to be released from her gaze, eyes burning, and she began muttering to herself as she paced. "... is it? It can't be, right? I would have never had the chance to enter one, let alone be foolish enough to think I could survive the consequences. Unless something changed... did Cassie discover a way for us to enter freely? Maybe we were forced, like with the Third Nightmare... is Sunny, here, too? What about the others?"
All of a sudden, breaking the tentative silence into a thousand shards of glass, a terrible roar shook the landscape. Eragon flinched and his head shot toward the sky, where he saw Saphira diving from the sky, wings folded to her stomach beneath her both to increase her speed and protect the precious package tied to her belly. She had gotten here so fast! He hadn't expected her to be there for a couple more minutes, at the least. He could see white foam at the corners of her maw, and her normally calm eyes were full of rage.
Damn, he had forgotten to relay the sudden change in her behavior! She must have been too focused on moving quickly to pay attention to Eragon's perspective. The woman froze for a moment, midstep, and glanced calmly up at the dive-bombing dragon.
Then, Eragon blinked, and she was standing behind him, hand hovering next to his throat. Her sword had inexplicably disappeared, and the restless white flames had seemed to relax slightly as she had pondered her revelation, but he felt that the mere palm of her hand would be more enough to kill him.
To his horror, her other hand also came to rest on his shoulder, and he saw the white flames begin to travel down his arm. He cursed and tried to jerk himself away from her, but her grip was like a vice. All he succeeded in was hurting himself in the struggle. They didn't hurt yet, for some reason. Saphira's eyes widened far above him, and she suddenly threw out her wings, slowing herself just enough at the last possible second. Still, her landing on the cracked earth caused an explosion of dust and flying debris, sending a wave of it into the sky. When the dust cleared, Saphira's menacing figure was towering above Eragon and the woman. Hot jets of steam puffed from her nostrils, and her eyes were filled with cold and calculating fury, not unlike those of the mysterious woman's were. Saphira growled, a deep, shuddering thing that shook him to the core.
He hadn't known she could make such a sound.
'Eragon.'
Her voice was cold in his mind.
'...Yes, Saphira?'
'Tell her that if she causes my Rider any more harm, even a scratch, I will stop at nothing to take her into oblivion, even it means going with her.'
'But-'
'Eragon.'
His shoulders dropped a little.
"She says... that if you cause her Rider any more harm, so much as a scratch... that she will stop at nothing to take you into oblivion. Even... if it means going with you."
The woman's head had turned her head down to look at him at his words, but he couldn't raise his gaze from the dirt.
Suddenly, a deep, burning intensity ignited in her eyes. She looked back up at Saphira, who stared at her coldly. "She... speaks?" Another growl sounded within Saphira's throat. The intensity in her eyes grew even brighter. "Fascinating... She is no echo, that much is sure. A beast of intelligence. A dragon." Her voice was emotionless except for the trace of interest that escaped from it. "Is it a temporary transformation? Is there a human hiding somewhere in there?" Saphira's eyes suddenly sparked with indignance and fury, but Eragon held a hand up to her, giving her pause. His face was shrouded in darkness, and the woman could not see his expression either.
But suddenly, his voice was no less cold than Saphira's had been.
"She is no human. Nor is she a mere beast."
He spat the words out as though holding them back would cause him to explode.
His face rose, revealing a chilling, frozen mask with slightly unhinged anger nestled deeply within his brown eyes that would give most cause to step back, but the woman's grip on his shoulder didn't change.
"She is Saphira. I am her Rider, and she is my Dragon."
The palm of his right hand began to shake slightly, and he clenched his fist so hard he felt his fingernails drawing blood.
"I pity those who dare stand against the two of us."
Something else ignited in the woman's eyes.
Recognition.
* * *