Chapter 23

Within a grand feasting hall at the head of a long table that can easily seat over a hundred people sits the dwarven king Hrothgar. His long white beard is a heavy contrast to the golden crown on his head fitted with rubies and diamonds. His powerful stature is emphasized by the chainmail he always wears barely hiding the rippling muscles of a veteran warrior underneath. By his side is the Warhammer Volund, a massive weapon that was forged by the first dwarf king millennia ago, which has been wielded by each and every dwarf king to have ever existed. 

While they wait for the guest of honor to arrive, the many dwarves of Durgrimst Ingeitum laugh and shout with impunity, their boisterous voices echoing throughout the room. The guards standing watch at the entrance to the dining hall uphold their duty, their will absolute even if their hearts yearn for a mug of ale. 

Seeing someone walking down the corridor towards them, the grip on their spears tighten for a moment before relaxing as they recognize the figures as Orik and Eragon. The guards place their right hands over their hearts as a formal greeting to the duo before ushering them into the dining hall. Once they enter, the noise in the room gradually dies down and Hrothgar stands up with a golden goblet in his hand. 

"Welcome, Eragon Bromsson, Slayer of Shades and Argetlam. Come… Sit by me so that the feast may begin!"

Eragon and Orik walk over to the head of the table and sit right next to Hrothgar on his right side. A server quickly fills two goblets with mead and places them on the table in front of them. On the table in front of Eragon is a large deer carcass that had been skinned, deboned, and cooked to absolute perfection. The meat has a brown, glazed finish and the aroma is intoxicating. Once everyone is situated and has quieted down, Hrothgar holds his goblet high.

"Hwatum il skilfz gerdumn! (listen to my words!) A toast! To all our fallen comrades in this war against the empire. Their sacrifices were not in vain. We now have true hope of ending Galbatorix and reclaiming the freedom we have fought for. We now have a dragon rider on our side that with training and the support of Durgrimst Ingeitum shall slay the mad king and end his tyranny. Guntera Aruna! (Guntera Bless!)."

*GUNTERA ARUNA!!!* The dwarves shout in unison.

Hrothgar clears his throat before cutting off a small bit of meat and stabbing it with his fork. He then takes a bite, savoring the exquisite morsel for a few moments before swallowing. After waiting for a few moments, Hrothgar looks out towards the rest of the dwarves. 

"Let the feast begin!!!" 

Like starving hyenas, the dwarves start to devour the food in front of them at a rapid pace. Servers are running back and forth carrying pints of mead to anyone that is even close to having their cup run dry. With a nod from Orik, Eragon digs in as well. He carves off a large hunk of deer meat and marvels at its texture. Placing a piece of the moist flesh in his mouth, an explosion of flavor coats his tongue, leaving him starstruck. Within minutes his stomach is bulging out and a satisfied huff escapes his lips. He takes a sip of the mead and looks towards Hrothgar. 

"Thank you for your hospitality, King Hrothgar. This meal is the best I have had in my life and I shan't forget it anytime soon."

Hrothgar looks toward him with a satisfied look on his face as well. "Please, while you are here you may simply call me, Hrothgar. I wasn't lying when I said that you are the greatest hope we have against Galbatorix. We dwarves have been hiding in our mountains for far too long. In a few years, maybe a decade, We will march on Uru'baen and end his life or all of Alagaesia will fall to his power. Anything that you need that I have the power to give is at your disposal Eragon, should you require it. I do feel some guilt for robbing you of your adolescent years but your fate is to stand against him or die trying." 

Eragon looks down in contemplation. "Fate huh?" He says in a low whisper. He looks back up towards Hrothgar. "I will do everything that I can to be strong enough when the time comes. I like to highlight the fact that I have been forging my own equipment throughout my travels and wish to continue doing so. When I am not busy training I would like to learn from one of your blacksmiths." 

Hrothgar strokes his beard. "That can be arranged… I can understand your desire to forge your own weapons and armor. In the face of a destiny that you cannot fight against, you seek to create your own personal tools, tailor made to achieve your goal... Orik, have one of our smiths guide young Eragon in the intricacies of forging." 

"Of course Grimstnzborith." (Ruler of the Dwarves; literally 'hall chief').

Hrothgar nods with a satisfactory smile on his face. "Good. Now drink up young Eragon!" 

Eragon looks down at his goblet with a grimace. He didn't want to get too drunk as he wants to spend every waking moment while he is safe in the dwarven capital to get stronger. He takes sips of his mead for the next half hour before he feels a strange burning sensation on his chest. Looking down, Eragon sees the anti-scrying necklace he made is currently active, draining a small amount of his mana.

"I haven't even been here more than a day and someone finally tries to use the scrying spell on me." Eragon says in his head. "If I had to guess, the twins must have reported to Galbatorix about my arrival already, making Galbatorix the likeliest culprit. There is nothing I can do about this but hope he gets bored and cancels the spell." 

Eragon drinks his mead in silence, the dwarves laughing and drinking without a care in the world. Whoever is scrying him continues to do so for the next ten minutes before they finally cancel the spell. Eragon breathes a sigh of relief then asks Orik to lead him to the Dragonhold. (found the actual name for the dragon roost 🙂). Orik downs his entire goblet of mead before standing up and guiding him to the main hall once more.

Off to the side in the main hall, a large spiral staircase is built into the wall that leads all the way up to the Dragonhold nicknamed the endless staircase. Eragon bids Orik a farewell and starts to walk up the stairs. At a leisurely pace it takes him over half an hour before he is walking on the top side of Isidar Mithrim. There he finds Saphira curled up and asleep. With a smile, Eragon walks over and gently lifts up her wing and slides into place next to her. Even while she is asleep, she still seems to respond to his presence and drapes her wing over top of him, sealing him in. Eragon rolls up his jacket and uses it as a pillow and promptly falls asleep in Saphira's warm embrace. 

…

The next two weeks go by in a blur for Eragon. Between magic and sword lessons with Brom, smithing lessons with various dwarves, and working on making his own weapons and armor, he has had little time to spend with Saphira. She has taken to hunting the various dangerous animals of the Beor Mountains to keep her skills in top shape. She still hasn't been able to breath fire but it could happen any day now. Neither of them have felt lonely as they always keep in contact with their mind link. 

To make up for not being with her as much as he wants to, Eragon made her a new saddle that can be attached or removed whenever she wants with a simple command growl. Setting the password to a growl still makes Eragon chuckle from time to time. 

Speaking of things Eragon has forged, he finished his sword a week ago and has started working on a set of armor for himself. The sword is made of L6 bainite steel, a steel alloy that is by far the strongest metal for making cutting implements in the 21st century. Realizing that he prefers a smaller sword than the original Eragon, he made it just slightly bigger than a short sword and added a cross guard with the sole purpose to catch an enemy's blade and twist it out of their grip. The blade itself is smooth and sleek with a pointed end so that he can hack, slash, or stab with impunity. Fueling the enchantments is a series of sapphire gems that are inset into the blade, the size of each gem is smaller as it reaches closer to the tip.

The enchantments on his blade this time around are slightly different. He can't add the blade lengthening spell to the sword because it is made of steel. The reason it worked with the stone sword is that he compressed an entire boulder into the size of a normal sword so he could decompress the stone from the tip to extend the blade and vice versa. This time Eragon goes for more versatile enchantments on top of the standard durability enhancement. 

One of his favorites is temperature control, allowing him to make the blade extremely hot or cold. Then there is probably the most important enchantment he placed on it, barrier destruction. The premise is that when the sword strikes a magical barrier, the enchantment would drain an obscene amount of mana from the barrier into the gems. If the opponent doesn't disable the barrier in time, they will lose all of their mana and easily perish to his blade, but if they disable the barrier, they will get run through with his sword. A lose/lose type of scenario. 

Then we come to the armor which he is just now putting the finishing touches on. He opts for a leather chest plate, greaves, and gauntlets with small metal scales made of L6 bainite steel covering every inch of open space, the scales overlapping the same as Saphira's scales. He makes the scales a darker shade of blue that doesn't reflect light to make himself stealthier. (It's definitely not because his scales can't be prettier then Saphira's).

With an added touch, he adds a large plate of steel over the shoulders and engraves a dragon head on each side. He took inspiration from the Witcher games and made the armor look like it was made for the dragon school of Witchers which doesn't actually exist. The enchantments are as follows. Durability so that he doesn't need to repair the armor, temperature control for comfort and survivability in harsh environments, a gravity enchantment on the bottom of his boots so that he can climb walls or stick to Saphira's back without a saddle, two barriers, one for defense from any spell that tries to effect his body (There are a multitude of instant kill spells like stopping someone's heart, severing their nervous system ETC), and the second to filter out poison in the air and insulate his body from liquids so he can breath underwater and swim without actually getting wet. 

While he has made quite a lot of progress in this short amount of time, Eragon still suffers from the Shade's curse. Over these past two weeks he has had three episodes where he is assaulted by the darkness in his heart fueled by the trauma of his past life. Luckily it has always happened when he is alone or with Saphira or Brom, and the episodes have been mild when compared to the first as he usually only passes out for a few hours each time. Brom has been busy in the library trying to find a way to remove the curse but his search hasn't bore any fruit yet.

After the third time he passed out, Eragon decides to try his luck at removing the curse himself. He spends the next week studying with Brom trying to work out what spells may or may not work in removing the curse. The hardest part is that they are not sure what the curse truly is. Is it just the lingering negative emotions of Durza and the spirits that resided within him? Then why does the curse force him to relive his tragic memories and not those of Durza? It also doesn't get triggered by him casting magic like what happens to Eragon in the novel.

Questions like these cause their progress to stagnate until one day Arya walks into the library and approaches them.