Luminescent (Inheritance Cycle and Beyond)

Chapter Twenty-One: Iridescent

Oromis brought out pens and ink for us to continue our education of the Liduen Kvaedhí, the written form of the ancient language, which was so much more elegant than the humans' or dwarves' runes. After hours spent bent over the paper sheets, Oromis waved a hand.

"Enough. We will continue this tomorrow." Oromis pulled out several scrolls. "Two of these are in the ancient language. Three are in your native tongue. They will help you to master both alphabets, as well as give you valuable information that would be tedious for me to vocalize."

"Vocalize?" Oromis took a massive scroll from the wall and handed it to Eragon.

"This is a dictionary. I doubt you can, but try to read it all." When Oromis opened the door for us to leave.

"Master?"

"Yes, Eragon?"

"When will we start working with magic?" Oromis leaned on one arm against the doorway.

"You must trust me to guide your training, Eragon. Still, I suppose it would be foolish of me to delay any longer. Come, leave the scrolls on the table, and let us go explore the mysteries of gramarye."

We headed outside, and Oromis walked to the edge of the Crags of Tel' naeír, his back to us.

"What is magic?"

"The manipulation of energy through the use of the ancient language." Eragon automatically responded. There was a pause before Oromis responded.

"Technically, you are correct, and many spellcasters never understand more than that. However, your description fails to capture the essence of magic. Magic is the art of thinking, not strength or language—you already know that a limited vocabulary is no obstacle to using magic. As with everything else you must master, magic relies on having a disciplined intellect."

"Brom bypassed the normal training regimen and ignored the subtleties of gramarye to ensure that you had the skills you needed to remain alive. I too must distort the regimen in order to focus on the skills that you will likely require in the coming battles. However, whereas Brom taught you the crude mechanics of magic."

"I will teach you its finer applications, the secrets that were reserved for the wisest of the Riders: how you can kill with no more energy than moving your finger, the method by which you can instantaneously transport an item from one point to another, a spell that will allow you to identify poisons in your food and drink, a variation on scrying that allows you to hear as well as to see, how you can draw energy from your surroundings and thus preserve your strength, and how you can maximize your strength in every possible way."

"These techniques are so potent and dangerous, they were never shared with novice Riders such as yourself, but circumstances demand that I divulge them and trust that you won't abuse them."

"Adurna!" Oromis commanded. Eragon and I watched as a sphere of water coalesced from the brook by the hut and floated through the air until it hovered between Oromis's outstretched fingers. "Catch."

He tossed the sphere back over his shoulder toward Eragon. Eragon tried to grab the ball, but as soon as it touched his skin, the water lost cohesion and splashed across his chest.

"Catch it with magic," Oromis chided. "Adurna!"

"Reisa du adurna," It slowed to a halt just shy from the skin of Eragon's palm.

"An awkward word choice," said Oromis, "but workable, nevertheless."

Eragon grinned before sending the ball back. However, the sphere did not land where Eragon had intended, but instead shot past the elf, whipped around, and flew back at Eragon with increased velocity. I took a step away from Eragon as it collided with his head.