A Wandering Soul

I didn't exactly wake up with all my problems and doubts settled, but I did feel well rested and that did wonders for my mood. A nice breakfast later, I was wandering towards the training fields Fredric told me about the other day.

I was heading there for two reasons. One, I wanted to make sure my actions didn't have any unforeseen blowback on Eragon and I was about 80% sure he was going to be there today, and two, I wanted to see how I stacked up in my weakened condition. I was confident no one could match me physically without cheating, but I could always be surprised. And getting surprised in the middle of a fight was a good way to end up dead.

I wasn't sure 'baseline human' was the same as what I normally associated with the term because from what I remembered; Eragon's cousin Roran ended up fighting, killing, and more impressively surviving a force of 200 soldiers basically on his own. And that was without any special weapons or powers. So unless the world operated on some kind of Dynasty Warriors logic, 'baseline' had a surprisingly large range.

So when I actually arrived at the training fields and saw what they were doing, I was...less than impressed.

I had been expecting a series of dueling rings or lines of warriors training against each other in mock combat, and while there were plenty of those, most of the trainees were milling around in formations, most of them struggling to just keep up under the weight of their chainmail armour and heavy shields. The warriors were split into two distinct groups, humans and dwarves, with little mixing between the two. Although I guessed that made sense. If you were going to be drilling formations, it was best to make sure everyone participating was at least relatively the same size.

The archers were a bit more mixed, and the steady thwacking of arrows hitting the sackcloth targets was much more enjoyable to listen to than the clanging and cursing coming from the foot soldiers.

Maybe they would be up for a friendly competition?

A group fired their next arrows and all but three missed the targets entirely.

...Maybe I'd hold off on the competition. Either I was here when a bunch of amateurs were just getting started, or the Varden had a severe lack of quality archers. Probably the former though, newbies always got nailed with early drill times and it was still early in the morning.

Without any definite purpose I just started wandering up to the grounds. Hopefully I could find someone to-

"Alexandria! Good to see you, I wasn't expecting you to take me up on my offer so soon." I turned to see it was Fredric who attracted my attention, not exactly hard considering he was still a giant of a man and was now covered in rough oxhide armor and a chainmail coif on his head.

"Fredric, how are you?" I smiled back weakly. I still hadn't forgotten the meat and saliva shower from yesterday afternoon and now I was face-to-face with him again. At least this time wasn't eating anything and he wasn't spraying all over my face.

Surprisingly Fredric's mood darkened with my question. Not what I was expecting from the large man. "Bah, this new batch doesn't have any grit at all. A few matches and they're already ready to run. Dwarves aren't much better, though they stuck around longer."

I eyed the sword Fredric had attached to his back. The thing must have been six feet long at least.

"Trouble finding a sparring partner then?"

"Aye, I might need to track down some old friends and convince them to join in the mornings if I want any kind of challenge." he grumbled.

I was about to volunteer for a spar when I noticed Frederic wasn't paying attention to me anymore. I turned to follow his gaze since from the short time I had known him, it was uncharacteristic for him to stop paying attention to someone mid-conversation.

I couldn't exactly blame him though. Saphira slowly ambling towards the training field was plenty of a distraction. In fact I noticed several people not in the middle of an exercise or similar stop and stare at the incoming dragon. I watched somewhat bemusedly as Fredric apologised for needing to address the new group when he noticed Eragon and Orik approaching with her. It was also pretty funny that he didn't seem to notice me follow along behind him.

Saphira noticed me immediately. Her eyes appraised me but I didn't get a sense of outright hostility from her, more...some kind of guarded wariness.

Ah, someone must've told them I escaped from the 'prison' Ajihad put me in. Not that the dragon seemed to care that much since she hadn't even bothered to bring my arrival to Eragon's attention while Fredric was introducing himself. So in return for her not immediately calling me out to everyone gathered, I gave her a closed-mouth smile and a polite wave. She just nodded slightly and slowly began to look at the rest of the training field.

I mentally shrugged at her behavior and refocused on the others. They had finished their introductions and neither Eragon nor Orik had spotted me standing behind Fredric. So I decided to make my presence known.

"Hello, Eragon. So eager to run off that I don't even get a hello?" I said, totally enjoying the startled jumps from everyone gathered minus the dragon.

"Alexandria?! What are you doing here?"

"Touring the sights mostly." I said with a shrug. "Tronjheim is a gorgeous city. Much prettier than the last one I saw on this scale…"

"Not worried we'll drag you back to Ajihad, girl?" Orik grumbled, hand idly resting on the handle of his weapon but making no moves to actually draw it.

"Not really." I replied. "The only person here with any obligation to Ajihad is Fredric here. But he probably has no idea what's going on." Not technically true since Orik could have me arrested for illegally trespassing in the Dwarven kingdom, but I sincerely doubted I ranked as high enough of a problem for either of the rulers to demand me brought in on sight. They certainly hadn't advertised my presence yet...

"And what is going on?" the large man demanded, unhappy with the sudden situation he had no knowledge of.

"The lass refused to be examined." Orik explained. "Held off the Egraz Carn, refused Ajihad's protection, and vanished out of the room they put her in without a trace while supposedly being unable to use magic." He directed that last part at me accusingly.

"I didn't want them in my head." I deflected.

"Can't blame you for that." Fredric muttered and turned back to Eragon. I was a little surprised that he didn't make any comments about me escaping captivity, though after I thought about it I realised it simply wasn't his job or responsibility to care and he was just THAT uncomfortable with magic. In their current society magic was something incomprehensible to the common folk so if I didn't want to get caught up in magic, Fredric was perfectly happy ignoring my actions as long as I didn't hurt anyone. Or so I assumed. "Enough of that though, do you know how to use any weapons besides that sword and bow?"

"Only my fists." Eragon replied after a bit of thought.

"Good answer!" Fredric laughed. "Well, we'll start you off with the bow and see how you do. Then once some space has cleared up on the field, we'll try --" it didn't take a genius to spot why Fredric had stopped peaking and was looking past Eragon with a hostile scowl on his face.

Despite that the Twins continued to stalk forward even when confronted by the much larger man.

"I thought I told you two to stay away from the training area." Fredric growled.

Oh, maybe that was why he had no inclination to capture me. Inter-group politics. Yey.

"We were ordered by Ajihad to test Eragon's proficiency with magic, before you exhaust him banging on pieces of metal."

"Why can't someone else test him?"

"No one else is strong enough." The two sniffed arrogantly. Saphira growled, smoke drifting from her nostrils. But the two ignored her.

"That says more about the unfortunate weakness of the Varden's spellcasters than your own strength. Especially since you were trying to steal Eragon's knowledge during your 'examination'." It might've been a little reckless to immediately antagonise them like this, but the Twins would've spotted me soon enough, and now Eragon and Saphira knew the bastards were looking to abuse this test to learn more for themselves. Sure, they would've figured it out pretty quickly, but now they knew what they were getting into from the beginning.

Of course I was now directly in the Twin's sights.

"You!" They hissed.

"Me!" I sing-songed back.

"We don't know how you escaped, but you will not do so again. You will-"

"Shouldn't you be focusing on Eragon right now?" I interrupted. "You know, the thing Ajihad ordered you to do?"

The two grit their teeth and look like they are honestly about to attack me, but eventually reign their tempers in. "Yes, testing the Rider IS more important than some harlot..." I narrowed my eyes at the insult. "...and we will deal with you afterwards. Come with us." With those parting words, they strode off towards a more empty part of the field.

The Twins began their tests and Eragon did his best to complete them all by using short, muttered phrases so no one could hear him, much to the Twin's obvious displeasure. But I wasn't really paying attention to that. I was too busy looking at the wide showcase of magic going on in front of me and doing my best to dissect it all. Water manipulation, telekinesis, fire conjuring, scrying, healing, earth manipulation, and a host of other tasks were presented one after the other for over an hour and I had to say the whole thing was...rather disappointing.

I mean the range of utility Eragon was displaying was incredible, I couldn't do that much back to back without the help of a device to keep track of everything or at the very least more time to formulate a spell; the advantages of having your magic dynamically shaped by language and intent alone I suppose, but the power behind it all was pitiful.

Like I could do twice the effect for half the effort pitiful.

That and I discovered that nearly every spell demonstrated purely affected the physical aspect of the world entirely. Elemental manipulations? Purely natural forces. The heat of any fire summoned was the same as what you'd get from a torch, water didn't gain any healing or purifying qualities, earth wasn't stronger than normal, they didn't even touch on air or lightning…

The only spells that seemed to have a spiritual component were the scrying spells, and even then it was very limited.

So by the end of the testing I was both relieved and disappointed. Relieved because even with half finished training, Eragon was one of the best human spellcasters around so the Empire's magicians shouldn't be too hard for me to deal with if I needed to. Disappointed because I doubted I could learn or find anything to help me with my injuries here since the spiritual aspect was so neglected by this style. Ironic since they were powering everything via soul magic…

Ah right, I also figured out Eragon, Saphira, and the Twins(who were cheating, subtly trying to make Eragon fail the tests, the bastards) all were using their souls to fuel their spells. This was why people could die from magic overuse. They strained their soul and body too much at a time and drained them both. That snapped the connections between the soul and the body, killing the caster.

Well, even if it wasn't immediately helpful it might be worth studying how the Ancient Language interacts with magic. Like I thought at the waterfall, being able to talk to people with no chance of them doubting my word sounded really freaking useful...just as long as I could turn it off.

The tests continued and while Eragon was starting to struggle, I hadn't seen the Twins try anything overtly dangerous so far. Finally, the two bald magicians seemed to run out of ideas. "There is only one more thing to do. It is simple enough...any competent user of magic should find this easy." Alarm bells started blaring in the back of my mind. I didn't actually remember what the Twins tried to pull, only that Arya interrupted it, but it didn't take a genius or even foreknowledge to realise the Twins were not asking Eragon to do something simple.

I was actually pretty worried that the Twins might've accelerated their scheme since Eragon caught on to them fishing for knowledge from the get go and that I might need to step in if the elf didn't get here on time.

A quick look around confirmed the elf was on the way, the thunderous expression letting me know she knew exactly what was going on and was NOT happy about it.

"Stop!"

Arya's rather musical voice cut through the air and interrupted Eragon before he could attempt casting. It also had the delightful side effect of making the Twins pale white.

"Shame! Shame to ask of him what only a master can do. Shame that you should use such methods. Shame that you told Ajihad you didn't know Eragon's abilities. He is competent. Now leave!" Arya pointed one hand at the silver ring the Twins had given Eragon earlier and focused. "Arget!" She exclaimed thunderously.

The ring shimmered and a ghostly apparition appeared right next to it. The two were perfectly identical except the ghostly copy seemed purer somehow and glowed white. My eyes widened as I examined the magic. Arya had actually summoned the spiritual essence of the silver ring! At first I was excited because that meant the Elves definitely knew more about the spiritual side of magic, but I quickly calmed down when I realised the rest of what she said. Just conjuring that much was already in the realm of Masters, not even imbuing the essence into another item or manipulating it. The Elves might be more knowledgeable, but probably not by much all things considered.

At the sight of Arya's magic, the Twins paled even further, stumbling back a few paces.

"The...the girl comes with us!" One of them managed to croak.

Arya waved dismissively, either trying not to overstep her authority or just genuinely not caring about me I couldn't tell. But I figured this would be a good time to reveal my own magic, since if summoning a ring was enough to scare off the 'most powerful magicians of the Varden' then no one would mess with me without good reason.

'Trace on.'

I quickly browsed the lower quality weapons I was confident I could Trace easily in my current state while the Twins recovered from their fright. They approached quickly, obviously trying to catch me and get away from Arya as fast as possible.

"What was that word you said?" I pretended to ponder. "Oh yeah! Arget." I snapped my fingers and a glowing white blur speared itself between me and the Twins, who had their hands out grab me. The glowing white silver sword that appeared in front of them was enough to get them to stop. The twelve others floating behind me like wings was enough for two dark spots to appear on the front of their robes and for them to spin on their heels and flee for their lives.

Satisfied with the result, I allowed the thirteen swords to vanish into motes of mana and turned back to the group.

Eragon and Arya were looking at me with large eyes after my display, while Orik, Fredric, and Saphira looked like they were ready for a fight to break out any second. I waited for a bit but no one seemed like they were going to say anything.

"What?"

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