"No no no no no!" Nicholas howled in anguish, finally reaching the spot where the girl had been crushed before their eyes. "No no, Ren, no! Oh gods, please, no! Ren, Ren, Ren!"

His sobs were loud enough to be heard over the devastation still going on around them as he clawed at the boulder. "Ren, come on, come out! You can't be - you can't. Please, Renata! Please don't do this!"

Nathan stumbled forwards, eyes dry and face hard. He placed a hand on his brother's shaking shoulder, squeezing gently as he said, "We have to move on, Nick. It's too dangerous here."

"She's gone, Nate!" Nick shouted at him, green eyes fierce with pain and anger. "Gone! First Nia almost...and now Ren is...now she's - "

"Dead," the older boy finished, and the other drew in a ragged breath at the word. Swiping away a single tear, he stood taller and continued in a firmer tone, "And it won't help anyone if we die, too."

"I don't care!" Wrenching away, Nicholas turned his face upwards. "She isn't worth it!" he screamed to the destruction. "Losing her isn't worth any one of those dragon eggs!"

Everything that was falling halted in midair at his words, hovering for a moment before slowly reversing direction to reattach to the ceiling. The cracked surfaces of the both the roof and the ground mended themselves; debris that had already landed also began to steadily rise upwards.

In front of the two brothers, the gargantuan broken stalactite trembled before lifting into the air with a groan. Nick scrabbled forwards as the ground beneath it was revealed, his eyes searching desperately for his beau.

What they saw left them all silent, except for one.

"Where is she?" Rosaminda asked, speaking up for the first time. Her eyes were so wide they dominated her face, all other features frozen except for the trembling bottom lip. "Where's my twin?"

"I - "

"You lied," she cut Nate off, her voice shaky and high. "You said she's dead, but she's not here. Why would you lie about her being dead?"

"Rose," he began slowly, moving away from Nicholas, who was now bent over the ground. Nathan's brown eyes flickered with the slightest bit of worry. "I thought she was, but you know I'm happy that's not the case, right?"

"Of course I do!" the girl snapped suddenly, eyes abruptly narrowing into thin blue slits. "No one should be happy if Ren was dead!"

A hand rested on her shoulder, and she spun to find Nia standing there, dirty and bruised and tearful. Stepping closer, her godsister raised a hand to her cheek and laid it there; the eclipse stone glowed against her skin fiercely as the light above dimmed. "It's okay to cry, Rosie."

"Why would I be crying? She's not dead." Rose smiled, but her eyes remained blank. "So let's find her, alright?"

Startled, Niaomi nodded in agreement as the blonde strode forward to stop beside her godbrother.

"Nick." The boy looked up at his name, eyes haunted, and she offered him a hand. "Let's go find Ren."

He stared at her for a moment before taking the offered hand and letting her pull him to his feet. His eyes were still moist, but now a fierce determination lay in their burning forest depths. "Let's."

____________________________

The reminiscence fast-forwarded to show the four walking across the expansive chamber. The roof was still high above them, while the obsidian floor beneath reflected the light held Nick's hand as well their own images. Nate was walking just behind his beau, not making a move to touch her even though it was obvious to Eragon that he longed to.

"Are you sure we're going in the right direction?" Nia asked tiredly, her face haggard and her circlet askew. Nathan reached out to straighten it for her, and she gave him a small smile in return.

Her other brother didn't even glance back, head twisting left and right to examine their surroundings. There were no walls in sight; even the one behind them had disappeared in the near-blackness. "Yes."

The magic and stress had obviously taken a toll on the dark-haired girl. The light charm had gone black like the ones for water and stone, and Niaomi absentmindedly spun the bracelet around her wrist, eyes hooded and wary. The others were no better; Nicholas and Rosaminda were too desperate to find Ren to focus on their own wounds, while Nate was so worried that Eragon feared he'd chew a hole through his own lip.

A sound came from the darkness, and the weary quartet immediately went on the alert, huddling closer together while everyone scanned for a threat. The light brightened, but nothing was revealed. The kids were beginning to relax somewhat when the noise came again, a warble that rose and fell in tempo. Due to the echoes, it was hard for them to discern what and where the sound came from until the volume began to rise.

"It sounds like a bird," Nia said cautiously, focusing on a point somewhere in front of them. "And it seems to be coming closer."

A soft clacking noise followed the song, and as the group slowly inched forward, a small bird came into view. It hopped towards them, brown feathers ruffled in pain as it slowly dragged its left wing behind it. Looking up at them with beady eyes, the bird opened its narrow beak and chirped pitifully.

"A wren."

Rose immediately spun around to face her godsister and frantically ask, "Where?"

Nick had not reacted at all, and flatly corrected her, "Not Renata, but the bird - a wren, with a W."

Disappoint washed over the blonde's face, but when her beau made a move to comfort her, she turned away. Niaomi bent down and scooped the injured creature up, gently curving her hand atop its broken wing and shutting her eyelids momentarily to heal the bone.

The wren fluttered its wings and began warbling once more as it rose into the air, flying out of their circle of light before darting back. It passed over its healer's head, tugging on one of the loose curls to lead her in a different direction than they were heading before darting off in that direction once more.

It continued to sing in its fluctuating style as Nia said together with her youngest brother, "We have to follow that bird."

Without argument, Rosaminda and Nathan followed the two, the wren leading them along to another tunnel opening. The bird rested in a niche above, its tune halting as the group reached the exit. Hesitantly, they passed through, but Nate stopped for a moment to look up at the wren and whisper a heartfelt thank you.

As they trooped through the tunnel, whose floor was dirt unlike the cavern before, its roof shifted to a luminescent aqua color. The glow was bright enough that Nicholas was able to extinguish his orb, and the new source of light cast a blue tint upon the four of them and their surroundings. The obsidian of the walls seem to flicker with life as the viewpoint of the reminiscence tilted upwards, allowing Eragon to make out little ripples and whorls seemingly carved into the roof. They seemed to be laid out in a simply decorative pattern, but power hummed from them, which was most likely what was generating the light.

Nick lead the around another corner that opened into a small antechamber. It was only few feet wider and taller than the tunnel, which continued some yards ahead straight across from them. But there were two major differences in this room. One was that the floor before them was made of some see-through substance that showed only white beneath.

And two was that in the middle of the floor trapped beneath it lay none other than Renata Belindasdóttir.

"Ren!" The shout bounced off the walls as Nicholas ran to the girl, skidding when his feet first touched the chamber's floor. They fell out from beneath him, but he continued to slide along, unfazed. Reaching the place where his beau lay, he pressed against the ground and struggled to break through it. "Ren! Renata, can you hear me?"

The girl remained still, eyes closed, her hair fanning about her head like a golden halo. Her arms were crossed, though the left one looked slightly crooked, bent in a way that seemed almost unnatural. There were no signs of any outward injuries; her pale skin was unblemished, the wounds from their journey gone and her clothes mended. Ren was suspended there motionlessly, and not even her chest rose to tell if she was breathing.

"I can't sense her," Niaomi said in confusion, slowly walking onto the glassy surface. She too slid and fell on her rear, hands touching the floor before lifting abruptly. "That's cold!"

"Ice, I think," Nick replied distractedly, searching around the entrapped blonde. He pounded his fists down above her in anger. "I can't find anything! No mechanism or lever or even cracks to suggest how she got in there, let alone how to get her out!"

Behind them, Nathan was grasping Rose's shoulders lightly, shaking her back and forth as he called, "Rosa?"

Her eyes were wide, the light making them take on a more demented bluish hue. "Maybe you were right after all, Nathan."

"What?" His brow furrowed for a second before smoothing out, quickly grasping what she meant. "No, I wasn't, Rose. I wasn't right about Ren being dead, and I couldn't be happier. Don't you see her?"

Nate gently turned her to face the room before them, but Rosaminda jerked away from the sight, whipping her head back and forth in denial. "I don't want to see her! Not like this. Not when she...when she -" gathering a deep breath, she continued, "- when she looks exactly like our mother does."

"Oh, Rosa," he said with a small sigh, pulling her into his arms and trying to still her shaking body. "She's not Belinda. Can't you detect her presence? Ren is still here. She's still alive."