Where the Heart of Anti-Shurtugal Rises Again.

 This is not a proper chapter of Consequence. This is something that popped into my mind while I was writing the last part of Chapter 10 and ended up latching onto the character of Morzan way more strongly than I expected. I originally only delved into writing him very lightly, as the focal point for the clearest of his dragon's fragmented memories; however, the more I thought on the details we get of him in canon and explored what the Fall of the Riders might have looked like through his eyes, the more I started to see real potential in him as a character. Paolini never portrayed him as anything but a one-dimensional villain, which in my opinion is an absolute waste. I guess being mishandled by the author runs in the family.


( Fate had never been kind to him; would this be its first boon? )

As always, comments and critiques are most welcome!

 Alternate Title: Eragon Asks Himself Why He's Right

Another chapter, already? Oh yeah. I've been on a roll lately; plus, I wrote some parts of this concurrently with Chapter Eight, so I went in with a good three-page head start. Single-spaced. It is also a relatively short chapter.

As the alternate title implies, this one takes place entirely from Eragon's point of view. I expected that to make this chapter extremely difficult, but to my surprise, it ended up flowing pretty well once I got into my stride. I've read all four of the canon books, so I know Eragon pretty well, even if he's not my own character. Hell, I might even know his flaws better than his original author does, so when I write them, they're actually deliberate.


( Our villain, being villainous... )

As always, comments and critiques are much appreciated!

Chapter Eight
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Chapter Ten

Alternate Title: Hey, Remember That Guy From Book One, Chapter Three Who Never Appeared Again? Yeah, He's Back Now

Welp, I've schedule-slipped again, but at least it wasn't quite as hard this time. Hell, it wasn't even a whole year! It's been a hell of a not-quite-a-year, though, in ways that I probably shouldn't get into lest it distract from the story.

This chapter has us with Serrill and Jolanus as they attempt their escape from Ilirea. As distinct from Chapter 4, which had Vanora and Verja escape from Ellesmera... eh, I think they're different enough. This one doesn't involve a dragonback chase scene, for one thing, but I hope I have managed to make it interesting in other ways. Oh, and we also get my attempt to overhaul some of the magician-related terminology in this chapter, so there's that!

All right, it's high time for me to stop blabbing and let you guys have a read. Oh, and since I know some of my friends get really freaked out by this, Content Warning: Mindfuckery.

( Turns out hostile mental contact is actually traumatic! Who would've thought? )

As always, comments and critiques are most welcome!


Chapter Six
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Chapter Eight

Originally posted on Livejournal.

Alternate Title: How Paolini's Canon Can Really Bite Him in His Sorry Butt

Finally, after a far longer wait than I had intended, I have returned with Chapter Four! This was a tough one to write, not just because it's long, but because I needed to go back and reread some scenes from Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance to make sure it would work. I may not like all of Paolini's canon, but I do try to stick as close to it as possible, and when I twist it, I want my little spin to at least be plausible. While this does mean I have to work around a lot of stupidity, it also means that I am free to pick up the massive amounts of dangling plot threads and unresolved issues that he left lying around and use them against his characters. The dwarven civil war mentioned in the last chapter was one example; here, I combine something Paolini seems to have forgotten about with a common fan theory for another.


( The other ones bit her and burned her, and she will not forgive them... )

As always, comments and critiques are most welcome!

Chapter Three
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Chapter Five

Originally posted on Livejournal.

Alternate Title: The Snark Dragon Cometh

Writing this chapter was practically a study in discovering lost potential. There was so much Paolini could have done with dragons and the bond they share with their Riders. Yet, all he did with Saphira was make her act like a cat, see mostly in blue, and refer to things using hyphen-overloaded descriptions. The first was occasionally cute, the second was bizarre, and the third was just annoying. As for her relationship with Eragon, it was meant to be one of pure, family-like love, but fell seriously short. Saphira constantly keeps secrets and belittles Eragon, literally calling him "little one," while Eragon treats Saphira like a large, scaly horse and convenient mana boost.

Since I do try to stick mostly to canon, I felt obliged to give Verja a kind of vision that correlated with her coloring. After toying with a few concepts, I eventually decided that as a white-eyed black dragon, she should be nearly colorblind, but have excellent perception of depth, contrast, and movement. I also added some detail to her development, because aside from changes in size, Paolini really didn't go into much detail about Saphira's growth.

For the bond, I looked outside of Inheritance for inspiration. Dragons and their Riders are supposed to share at least part of their minds, so in some respects, they are almost a dual being. Thus, I wrote Vanora and Verja with His Dark Materials in mind, doing my best to model their relationship on that between a person and their dæmon. Vanora and Verja are more or less aspects of each other: Vanora represents their more cautious, introspective side, prone to despair and rumination; while Verja represents their more confident side, determined and resilient, but a bit impulsive. This is also why I made their names alliterate with each other. Verja's name, for those of you who might want to know, is an old Norse word meaning "to defend."

One of the most frustrating parts of writing this chapter was the timing. As we all know, Paolini's travel times are wildly inconsistent. After looking at the timelines of Eragon and Eldest with regard to travel, I quickly came to the conclusion that basing any estimate on the map is a fool's errand. From the eastern edge of the spine to the town of Yazuac is four days on horseback in Eragon, but Eragon and Company can get all the way from Sílthrim to Ellesméra in about as much time in Eldest, even though the first journey is through plains and the second through forest? That makes no sense.

This chapter also contains my first non-canonical addition to the Ancient Language in the form of the honorific Arya and other elves give to Vanora. It was originally skynsameyla, "bright young woman,"   which in true Inheritance tradition was taken from Old Norse as a portmanteau of skynsamliga, "intelligently," and meyla, "little girl." I essentially constructed it as a younger version of the canonical honorific svit-kona, "woman of great wisdom." However, after some reflection and rereading, I decided to trade out the awkward four-syllable honorific for the simpler svit-meyla.

As my final note before beginning the story, I must point out that if Paolini had written this, it would probably be ten chapters of pointless travel and at least three of actual scenes.

( This is how you condense travel time, Paolini. )

As always, comments and critiques are most welcome! It's been great hearing everyone's feedback so far, and I'm glad so many people seem to like the story. I hope it continues to satisfy.

Chapter One
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Chapter Three

Originally posted on Livejournal.

Alternate Title: There Were Civilians In Uru'baen, You Assholes

One thing that Christopher Paolini consistently demonstrated in Inheritance, both the book and the cycle, was that he only cares about his named characters. Eragon may occasionally spare a thought for someone or other who died, but he sure doesn't care about flinging great balls of fire into a city full of people.

So, for the prologue of my spitefic, I decided to actually write Vanora's experience of the battle for Uru'baen.

Potential Triggers: violence, harm to children.

( No eight-year-old should have to live through this. )

Comments and critiques are highly appreciated. Thanks for reading!

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Chapter One