cmdrnemo

Chapter 8

Galbatorix

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“It was… surprising to hear you had come. Miss Mellie.” Emperor Galbatorix picked fruit from basket. Uncommonly tall, clad in dark cloth, he had the appearance of a generic evil overlord. He loomed in the back of a massive office overly decorated, themes of darkness and magic.

“Why wouldn’t I come?” Mellie was leaning casually against opposite wall arms crossed. “You understand my situation.”

“By dragging you here I have effectively kidnapped you and am holding your world hostage.” Eyes and thoughts drifted apart for an instant. “I have little time for sympathy. My world is at stake. I’m not at all certain how to explain the mess.”

Mellie inspected her nails. “Something here is corrupting the basic concept of magic, and life itself, to generate a lot of anger. While increasing risk tolerances and decreasing empathy and self preservation. I’ve also seen direct orders given to a dragon rider and obeyed. There’s no reason to believe anyone with magic is exempt to such influence. Obvious concerns about your own judgement and or abilities.”

“You do know. Then you will help?”

“And you have a plan?”

The emperor approached undecorated section of wall. At a word it opened. Folding down to reveal glowing gems. “These are Eldunari, dragon souls,” he paused, “you are not going to buy the standard flowery explanation.”

Mellie’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Right,” he continued. “Dragons never stop growing. Nor do they die. Eventually they get so big they can’t move. They still feel hunger, thirst, tiredness. So they sit, still as stone, unable to die. Or, they can chose to shed their bodies and live on as minds in these stones. Any dragon can put itself into a stone at any time. Most choose it over death. They can talk to each other. And to anyone with magic.”

Mellie picked up a rock. “Guessing, you want to open a passage into these things. Then murder?”

“It isn’t that simple I’m afraid. The energies contained in these stones are beyond comprehension. It can’t be released all at once. Instead, I plan to open a dimensional gate to somewhere else.”

With sylphen nod. “I know just the place.”

“You do? Just like that? In only an instant you can think of a place to send incomprehensible amounts of energy?”

“Those apples look good, may I? I’ve put some thought into why I was on that mountain.”

“That’s absurd. You think I wanted to fail? To leave the person I summoned in an unsurvivable situation on the far side of the country.” He stopped. “I’ve been fighting them for over a hundred years! I killed the other riders because they wouldn’t fight.”

Mellie finished her first slice of apple.

“I’ll not admit defeat, not after fighting for so long, sacrificing so much.” Fruit crushed by emperor’s fist. “No matter.” Head turned to face guest. “Normally, should I need more power, I borrow it from the dragons themselves.” He tossed crushed remains to bin.

Mellie’s eyes lit up. “You need to make words more powerful? We need music!”

“Music?”

“Do you want to pull out the thesaurus? Use unfamiliar words because they sound impressive?”

“There could be nothing more foolish. And if I could make better use of familiar words I would have done so already.”

“If we can’t abuse obscurity, and no better writers are available...” She trailed off picking second slice from glass knife.

Galbatorix whispered at wall mounted tubes. To summon aides hidden beyond. “Tell me miss, can you sing?” He said idly.

“Not at all.” Mellie stood aside. Several boys rushed in. Responding to the emperor’s direction she spoke. “We need volunteers, mages skilled with music, several of them. For a suicide mission. Please collect them for me.”

“Send them to the main hall.” The emperor waved a dismissal. “Suicide mission?” He inquired as the boys ran.

“Someone’s going to need to hold the door open.”

“Do you need much time to prepare?”

“An hour should suffice. Sadly, my offensive abilities are limited without Ani. Apologies, my gunner.”