“I refuse.”

I always figured the phrase ‘angry enough to spit blood’ was a purely metaphorical saying, but the bald man was making a good effort at doing it anyway. His entire face had gone a probably unhealthy shade of red all the way down to his neck and really highlighted the fact that he had no eyebrows in addition to being bald. There was a condition for that. Aloe-pica Universalis or something like that? Meh, not that important. The point was if his blood pressure went any higher, he was going to burst something.

“And what gives you the impression you have a choice in the matter?”

I said nothing and just stared at the man. I was half expecting Orik to jump in again but he remained quiet. I guess he was choosing his interruptions with more care than I thought.

The bald man stalked forward and two of the surrounding warriors stepped up behind me, preventing me from running off. To their credit they didn’t exactly look comfortable putting me at the mercy of the near rabid man, but they were determined to do their job.

A rough, oddly feminine hand seized my forehead and I could tell right away the man wanted to make this as painful as physically possible. Too bad for him I wasn’t all that worried. I hadn’t had a reason to do much with it beyond its primary function as physical armor, but a little known fact about the Barrier Jacket spell was that it was a nearly complete defense against physical, mental, and environmental hazards. Whatever telepathy trick this guy was going to use was going to run into a steel wall as I tightened my defenses.

So I was a bit surprised- okay, I was stunned and horrified -when the man didn’t attempt to probe my mind, but started worming his way into my soul. How the hell did he even- no, no time for that. Thankfully while whatever method the bald man was using was incredibly invasive and prevented me from just kicking him out immediately, it was slow. I was able to recover quickly enough to at least blunt the probe from getting too deep.

In response the probe started to spread to several places, worming its way into cracks in my defenses like thorny vines. It was infuriating. I wanted nothing more than to kill the one behind this, damn the consequences, but as I had just found out magic worked on an entirely different spectrum than what I was used to. I had no good defenses for a direct soul assault other than simply reinforcing my will on blocking the probe. And this was just a technique for interrogation. I couldn’t risk the chance of the purple prick causing some serious harm in retaliation if I tried to kill him right now, not when he was already in contact with my soul.

What saved me from doing something stupid was the Hogyoku.

Turns out, the little miracle marble is territorial. Once the probes got past a certain point they ran into a diamantine wall that refused to budge at all under the spiritual assault. Slowly, the probes were driven back. They still kept poking for new places to wriggle into, which was both painful and annoying, but there was no chance the bald man was getting what he wanted at this point.

Something he seemed to realise as he withdrew his hand and reared back like he was going to slap me.

That proved too much for Orik and he decided to step in again, once again physically pulling the two of us apart.

“Enough, Egraz Carn! I’ve warned you before, we do not have the right to torture for information. Especially not some slip of a girl!”

I scowled at the casual dismissal based on my gender. Weakened though I was, I was still more dangerous than everyone in this room, including the dragon. If this was the commonly shared attitude towards women I was going to really enjoy being stuck here for a while. Also, I was not a ‘slip of a girl’ by any definition, dammit!

“You would allow them to enter unchallenged? Are you so great a fool as to put us all at risk?!” the bald man demanded, looking slightly feral with barely chained rage.

“Can they use magic?”

“That is-”

“Can they use magic?” Orik roared at the man, his voice echoing in the halls slightly. Dwarf or not, he had an impressive set of lungs.

The bald man drew himself up, suddenly expressionless and clasped his hands behind his back. “No.” he said finally, his previous anger oddly absent.

That or he was so pissed off he just went full circle back to calm.

Also, sidenote, figure out how the hell magic worked here because I was obviously capable of using magic. Was actively using it too, seeing as my projected weaponry was still there, yet he was saying I couldn’t use it at all. And the man wouldn’t be lying for my sake, he clearly wanted information and this would be the perfect opportunity to push for more.

“Then what do you fear? It’s impossible for them to escape, and they can’t work any devilry with all of us here, especially if your powers are as great as you say. But don’t listen to me; ask Ajihad what he wants done.”

After another glare at the dwarf, the bald man looked to the ceiling and closed his eyes. Apparently there was an actual method for telepathy, since he started muttering soundlessly to himself for a few minutes. It was clear very quickly that whatever was being said wasn’t to his liking though, considering he was practically strangling the air in front of him by the end of it.

“Leave, now.” he finally snapped to the surrounding warriors once his telepathic conversation ended. Perhaps wisely, none of the warriors made a sound as they began filing out of the room. “Because I was unable to finish my examination, you and… your friends will remain here for the night. If either of them attempts to leave, they will be killed.” he said directly to Eragon. After that, he swept out of the room leaving the four of us alone.

Orik followed him, but not before promising to have some food sent to us.

I wanted to introduce myself to the three of them now that we weren’t running from an army but Eragon muttered something to Saphira that had the dragon separate us and growl lightly when I tried to approach. Trying to figure out what was going on, I reinforced my hearing and realised why Eragon wanted us separated pretty quickly.

Murtagh had recently revealed to him that he was the son of Morzan, the leader of the Forsworn, thirteen Dragon Riders who served Galbatorix and aided him in his destruction of the Order, and abusive father on top of that.

Eragon had kept that information hidden during the ’examination’ and wanted to know how the son of someone that close to Galbatorix was free to wander around like Murtagh had. According to Murtagh, he really hadn’t been. He had been raised close to the king after the death of his father and swore to serve the king in helping him conquer the rest of the continent- apparently the King was a really persuasive speaker -but changed his mind and tried to escape when the king revealed his madness and ordered Murtagh to lead a detachment of troops to raze a town that was rumored to shelter some of the Varden occasionally.

Determined not to follow the orders of a madman, Murtagh attempted to escape but was predicted. He still managed in the end but his friend and teacher Tornac was killed in the process. Murtagh fled to another friend’s estate and hid there until he caught rumors about the King looking to capture or kill someone resembling a Rider. Deciding to follow a few of the king’s agents, Murtagh eventually met Eragon and the rest was history.

It made sense that Eragon was keeping me at a distance if that was what they were talking about. If he was going to keep it from the Varden, there was no way he would discuss it with someone he hadn’t actually been introduced to.

So rather than intrude on their conversation, I simply raised my hands to Saphira and slowly backed off and waited until they finished. Eventually Murtagh got fed up with the conversation, threw his hands up, and loudly declared that he was going to sleep.

“Sorry for that,” Eragon apologised as he approached. “That was a private topic, and pretty sensitive too.”

“It’s fine.” I smiled at him, then had to hold back laughter as he blushed deeply. After seeing Ichigo deal with everything less than full on nudity with the reaction of a block of wood, it was nice to cause that kind of reaction with just a smile. Even if it was because Eragon was a farmboy with almost no real exposure to the other sex. “I just wanted to say thank you for warning me, even after our initial meeting started out so poorly.”

“Ah, right… that…” Eragon coughed uncomfortably. “It was an honest mistake, and I’m sure Saphira is sor-” he was interrupted by a great snort from the blue dragon, making both of us look at her. She clearly wasn’t the least bit apologetic about our meeting and was probably telling Eragon exactly that going by the expression on his face. “Ahem, well…” He trailed off before shaking himself and speaking up again. “I’m Eragon and this is Saphira. I would introduce Murtagh but he is in a foul mood at the moment.”

“No worries. I would be upset too if my only options were death or imprisonment. My name is Alexandria Cross.” I introduced myself.

Eragon looked surprised for some reason before I realised he might be drawing the wrong conclusions from my name. If I remembered right, people here based their last names on either ancestry or achievement. My name must sound strange to him. But this might give me a chance to start forging my own history before someone makes assumptions like last time.

“You aren’t upset though? That man was so strong, I’m surprised you were able to resist him.”

I smiled sharply. “Oh I’m not happy about that at all, in fact, if he gives me the chance I will return the favor. As for resisting him… it’s been a while since I faced an animancer, but there are ways anyone can learn to handle them with some training.” or by getting lucky and having a semi-sentient object decide that visitors aren’t allowed. I would need to fix that hole in my defenses sooner than later.

That should be enough to plant some interesting conversational hooks though, and I could tell Eragon was curious about several points. Unfortunately, he ruined it with a jaw-cracking yawn. He obviously didn’t have much energy left and had probably only come over to be polite so talking past this point wouldn’t do much. Especially if he fell asleep in the middle of the conversation.

“It’s late and I’m sure our hosts will keep us busy tomorrow. You should sleep, we can talk in the morning.” I suggested.

Eragon tucked his head sheepishly. “Right. It was nice to properly meet you though.”

I just smiled back, earning myself another blush. Saphira let out another growl and Eragon made a hasty retreat back to his group before settling down to sleep. His dragon curled herself around him like a cat and draped a wing over him, hiding him from view, and gave me a glare. I’m not entirely sure what I did to get on the dragon’s bad side but there was no reason to get into it tonight. Following their example, I settled up against a wall and got as comfortable as I could before drifting off to sleep.