Chapter 2

Eventually, Saphira sent him an image of a secluded clearing in the trees by the Ninor river. He began putting the horses into a trot, turning a new direction. With her instruction, he quickly found the site but noticed it would be easily passed by others, making it an ideal place to make camp.

A small smokeless fire was already burning when he entered the clearing. Brom sat next to it, tending his arm, which he held at an awkward angle. Saphira was crouched beside him, her body tense. She looked intently at Eragon and asked, {Are you sure you aren't hurt}

'Not on the outside…, but I feel a lot of frustration swelling up inside me. I was too weak to fight even one urgal. If I was a bit less lucky or those urgals were a tad more cautious, I'd be dead right now.'

Saphira went silent, as she also had come to that conclusion and couldn't fathom living without her closest counterpart.

'From the moment I left that village is the moment I decided I need to start thinking more. Right now, things are relatively tame. But think once the empire confirms our existence, we'll be within the king's site. But just not him, the Varden, and maybe even the elves for all we know. I plan on asking Brom about magic and upping my swordsman training. I don't plan on forever depending on you and Brom.'

{…, you are changing little one}

'Yes, and hopefully for the best.'

He looked at Brom. "How are you?"The old man glanced at his arm. "It's a large scratch and hurts terribly, but it should heal quickly enough. I need a fresh bandage; this one didn't last as long as I'd hoped." They boiled water to wash Brom's wound. Then Brom tied a fresh rag to his arm and said, "I must eat, and you look hungry as well. Let's have dinner first, then talk."

When their bellies were full and warm, Brom lit his pipe. "Now, I think it's time for you to tell me what transpired while I was unconscious. I am most curious." His face reflected the flickering

firelight and his bushy eyebrows stuck out fiercely.

Eragon quickly briefed him on what had happened when he was unconscious. Brom remained silent throughout it, his face inscrutable: When Eragon finished, Brom looked down at the

ground. For a long time, the only sound was the snapping fire. Brom finally stirred. "Have you used this power before?"

"No, but I've been able to control it better than when I first used it." 'Brisingr,' within his head, he silently thought to himself while holding his palm upwards.

The ball in light inside him, which he identified as his body's container of magical energy, shrunk as a ball of blue flames appeared above Eragon's palm.

"I'm guessing this word means fire. I'm not sure why, when I used it earlier that I passed out. But when practicing on the way here, I haven't even felt all that fatigued."

Brom's eyes widened as he was visibly shocked. Not only had he never seen someone use magic so easily with only learning how to use it only hours before, but he noticed Eragon hadn't spoken the word.

"Eragon, you are either the most talented prodigy or the luckiest fool in all of Alagaësia. What you are using is indeed magic. What you did in the village is dangerous. The whole village alongside yourself could've been destroyed. But that's almost meaningless compared to what you're doing right now. But before I get into that is could you also please put out those flames?"

Nodding, Eragon stops imbuing magical power into the spell, causing the white flames to disappear quietly.

"This magic has rules like the rest of the world. If you break the rules, the penalty is death, without exception. Your deeds are limited by your strength, the words you know, and your imagination."

"So the more magical words you know, the more spells you can use?"

"Yes, something like that. Just like when you shot the urgals, you uttered the word "Brisingr." It is from the ancient language that all living things used to speak. However, it was forgotten over time and went unspoken for eons in Alagaësia until the elves brought it back over the sea. They taught it to the other races, who used it for making and doing powerful things. For instance, fire is called Brisingr. Not only is a name for fire, but it is also the name for fire."

Hearing this, Eragon was getting a clearing image of exactly how the magic worked in this world."So you're saying that the ancient language is the basis for all things magic. Meaning as long as you know the correct words, it's possible to cast almost any spell. But then why is was the fire blue, and how did it do what I wanted when all I said was fire."

"The color varies from person to person. It depends on who says the word. As to why it did what you wanted, that's a matter of practice. Most beginners have to spell out exactly what they want to happen. As they gain more experience, it isn't necessary. A true master could say water and create something unrelated like a gemstone. You wouldn't be able to understand how he had done it, but the master would have seen the connection between water and the gem and would have used that as the focal point for his power."

Eragon looked surprised,' So magic here can be influenced with intent. If so, then let me try this. He thought the word Brisingr again and thought of his mother's flames, flames that could freeze everything around them.

The temperature around them dropped as ice white flames appeared above his hand. Frost formed while the world seemed to become dull around them, sending a chill down Brom's spine. It was only after Eragon extinguished the flames did Brom regain his senses.

"Eragon…, what exactly was that flame?"

"I was trying to do what you said to cast my spell with intent. So when I cast the word fire, I thought about freezing everything over. Like the winter does on the Spine."

"Eragon, I've never seen flames like that before. You either have an abnormally strong will, a very vivid imagination, or maybe both to conjure such an abnormal flame."

Eragon himself was also surprised he was able to conjure those flames. And he had a pretty good idea why no one was successful in making them. He doubted he could make them from scratch. It was because he had seen those flames. Even experiencing their coldness before when his mother was angry with him…

"Also, Eragon, I must warn you the way you cast magic as not something I've ever seen before. As far as I know, one must first speak the words of the ancient language for a spell to take effect. Casting it without speaking is something I'm inexperienced in. Maybe the person who taught me has more knowledge in it, but I'm not sure if he's even alive at the moment or if we'll even be able to get in contact with him."

Eragon pondered for a moment. He didn't care if Brom hadn't seen this before as he was already doing it without harming himself so far. He just wanted him to teach him magic. As long as he learned more of the ancient language, he could expand his fighting power greatly, giving him so breathing room.

"I will get straight to the point then. Will you teach me magic? As for me, silently casting spells will be something I experiment with on the side, to try to discover the dangers without hurting myself. But I want to expand my knowledge of the ancient language first."He said earnestly.

Brom was silent for a moment as he began thinking hard. On the one hand, he felt somewhat hesitant about teaching Eragon magic. He did indeed plan on eventually teaching him magic, as he was a rider. Something like learning magic was natural. It was only that while some part of him thought it was too early for Eragon to be learning magic, he began looking at the situation from a different perspective.

Eragon had appeared in a turbulent time. Many invisible hands were trying, already silently fighting for control over him. He would need the strength to defend himself, or he would be torn apart in the crossfire. That and the apparent fact he had an ungodly amount of talent for magic.

"Alright, I will teach you as much as I can about the ancient language and magic. But I must warn you it will be hard, and I won't be cutting any corners with your other training either. So knowing all this, are you still hard set on learning magic?"

"Of course! If I give up now, how will I be able to handle any danger in the future."

The old croon nodded his head in satisfaction."Very well, let's end this discussion here, and tomorrow we'll begin your magic training. Now let us get some rest; we will get back on the trail we were initially on tomorrow, so we leave before sunrise."

The pair began spreading out their blankets for the night, covering themselves to stave off the cold. An hour or so later, after everyone fell asleep, Eragon silently got up and walked away from the clearing getting far enough to be out of earshot.

Summoning his devourer spirit, black miasma began appearing on his hand, transforming into rows of serrated teeth. The teeth parted to reveal two faint silhouettes. These two silhouettes were the souls of the urgals he killed earlier.

He'd meant to devour them when he was heading towards the camping site but had spent all that time literally playing with fire—experimenting with it to glean any useful information about the magical system. That and the fact that he didn't just want just to devour the souls, he wanted to extract their memories.

So without any more delay, he let the teeth sink into the souls. They began slowly extracting the soul's essences, making them appear fainter and fainter until they disappeared completely. Eragon sat still as two lifetimes' worth of memories surged into his head.

He sent his mind into autopilot. He was organizing the memories, while also skimming through them to any critical information. And his efforts were fruitful. He learned the language of the urgals, which would probably be helpful in the future. He also knew who the leader of the giant army of urgals was.

But instead of smiling, Eragon frowned. 'A shade, huh. Well, that's not only troublesome but also raises a multitude of other questions.'

'First, why is a shade gathering an army? I know the king has to have noticed it, so why isn't he doing anything. Or maybe he knows and is ignoring him? No, he must know; he either is working with the shade for a common goal, or the shade is working for him. Whatever the answer is, I just added person to the long list of people trying to fuck me over.'

He could only shake his head as he began trodding back towards his blankets.

'I need some more urgals. This body is too weak compared to other races. Some more urgals will bring my strength, defense, and stamina up to superhuman levels. Then after that, I'll just keep growing stronger as I don't feel comfortable having to heavily rely on a dragon that's barely broken out of its egg.'