A/N: Guess who's back! And with an extra-long chapter to help make up for the extra-long wait. It's so fun to be back to writing; guess that absence really does make the heart grow stronger. I wanted to have this done by the old update day (i.e. Tuesday), but Niaomi and Eragon just ran away from me as I was trying to tie up plot holes and include everything that needed to be included in this, which is why I'm awake and posting this chapter past 3:00 a.m. Only six more to go, can you believe it?

Two heartfelt moments almost back-to-back, so brace yourselves and your feels! :3

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Nate still hadn't woken up when they docked, and they struggled for a moment with figuring out how to move him before deciding the simplest method was to act as though he was injured. It meant a long walk into town since they couldn't pull into port. Their faces were surely plastered over wanted posters by now - or at least, their previous faces were.

Taking a chance, the five had forgone their disguises in favor of merely shifting the triplets' features to be more human. It was easy enough for them to do on their own, and Angela shockingly did not have a large expanse of magic power to pull from. Niaomi had not even changed the color of her eyes, but they split up into three groups since the guards would be searching for a party of six.

Nick strained to catch a glimpse of Ren's golden head as he and his sister bore their brother aloft. She and Angela were further ahead, as the triplets had chosen to enter the city amidst a group of Wandering Tribesmen in an attempt to blend in further. Rosaminda, her hair wrapped with Nasuada's scarf, had already entered the city. The delay was due to an admittance line at the gate, which provoked the curiosity of their fellow travelers.

He supposed that this was a strange enough occurrence to merit their interest, but growing up on a magical island left him unfamiliar with what this country's concept of normal was. They'd learned that it was normal for the land to be silent, and normal that horses did not have wings, and normal to not know the ancient language (at least in this realm - Angela had explained things were different in Du Weldenvarden, the place of his mother's birth). His definition of normal had changed vastly since coming to Alagaësia.

Or, more appropriately, since Niom and Leafë's deaths.

"You ready?" Nia's question shook him out of his thoughts, and he nodded as they approached the gate.

His grip on the stretcher tightened as the guards barred their way. The grizzled one on their left looked suspiciously at Nathan and asked, "What happened to this one?"

"Fever struck him," Nicholas answered. It had been decided he would be the one to speak, as it was also normal for males to do so, not that it made any sense whatsoever. "We're heading into town now to see the healer."

"Narda doesn't want any disease ridden wanderers."

"Please, sir!" his sister interjected in a pleading tone. "It's a simple fever that won't spread. We know cause he fell ill after eating some food he shouldn't have been eating. We just plan to spend the night until sailing out to Teirm, promise."

The man seemed ready to continue protesting, but his youthful companion muttered to him, "'s bad luck turning away a sick man."

Growling, the guard stepped to the side and waved them along hurriedly. The two siblings thanked him before carrying the third through the gates. As Niaomi led the way, Nick whispered, "Thought I was supposed to do the talking?"

"Got us in, didn't I?"

The cheeky smile she threw back over her shoulder made it clear she was teasing him. But her comment struck a nerve that made him fall silent. His inability to handle the situation quickly enough seemed to serve as further evidence that he was useless without magic.

He looked down at Nate's blank face and amended that thought: even with magic, he was useless. Not a single spell he had tried had worked, and he knew his brother's condition was the fault of him and him alone. If only he had his father's talent for inventing spells. How often had Niom told him that there was more to the art of gramarye than just knowing every word in the ancient language? That it was indeed an art more so than a study?

"Nicholas!" Green eyes darted upwards in surprise to find violet ones narrowed in worry. "Are you alright? I called your name and you didn't answer for a while."

"'m fine. Let's get Nate inside."

It was easy to see that the young woman didn't believe a word he said, but she thankfully decided to drop the subject in favor of freeing a hand so she could knock. Two taps, then three rapid ones, followed by a pause before tapping again, and the door opened before them to reveal Angela ushering them inside. "Welcome in, well come in, we haven't got all day!"

Renata was waiting just behind the seer along with her sister, and he breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing his beloved had made it safely. The small cottage was similar in style to Angela's shop back in Teirm, but less cluttered and homey in feel. It was almost sterile in comparison, accept for the vivid multitude of paintings scattered haphazardly around the walls.

"You like the pictures? I put them up so that people feel less inclined to linger unless they have a serious ailment. Very off-putting, don't you agree?"

Never able to tell when the witch was joking or being deadly serious, Nicholas merely shrugged in response and changed the subject. "Where should we put Nate?"

Rose winced at his word choice, but he couldn't find a better way to phrase it. The measure of his inadequacy was extending itself.

"There's a bedroom down the hall to your right where I usually bring patients in." Angela gestured towards it, and he helped carry his brother to the room. It was more sterile than the parlor, which actually bothered him. Perhaps he could bring out the fairth of their family that had hung in Nia's room.

Speaking of his sister, she confronted him as soon as Nathan was settled. "Tell me what's wrong."

"Nothing," he immediately replied, refusing to meet her searching gaze. "I'm fine."

"Then why do you seem so haunted?"

"I said it's nothing!"

She froze for an instant, startled by his vehemence, and Nick prayed to the gods that she would back off before he cracked. But defying their will was a newfound talent she seemed to have developed, and so he found himself on the receiving end of a tight hug as she ordered, "Stop blaming yourself. None of this is your fault."

And nothing could stop the tears from streaming forth, because he knew, he knew she was wrong, and it was all his fault, and he should be able to help - 

"No, Nick," Niaomi argued, and he realized he'd been speaking aloud. "You put such a burden on yourself because of your damn title. You may be the Mage, but we are all mages, Nate included."

"B-but I failed in my role. I've failed! J-just like...j-just like w-with Mor-"

"That wasn't your fault, Nicholas! She chose to cast the spell 'Alalëa' knowing it would kill her. That was her choice, and she did it to protect all of us because we are her children. You can't take full responsibility for her sacrifice. Just like you can't take it for our brother. The only ones whose actions that you're responsible for is you. And just like always, you did the best you could."

He tried to shake his head, but her hold just tightened. "That is what makes you the Mage, Nick. Because you always do everything you can to think of a solution, and you look everywhere you can to find one. You don't need magic to be able to do that. You just need to be you."

His sister's words finally reached him, and he sobbed even harder. He'd been an idiot, so caught up with not being able to use magic that his greatest talent had become his greatest crutch. If magic couldn't save their brother, then he'd find something that would.

Once the sniffling had ended, Nia pulled from her brother to offer him a small smile, and was rewarded with one in return as he whispered, "You should take your own advice since it's pretty great."

Her lips turned down at that, but his were already pressing against her forehead before he turned away, no doubt to see Angela off; in order to meet a "very important visitor", the healer had to depart before nightfall. She should do the same, but someone had to watch over Nate. Or at least, that's the excuse she gave herself so that she wouldn't have to fall asleep.

Snatching a quick nap here and there had been enough to tide her over. Any deep sleep would induce visions; already it seemed that whenever she closed her eyes, the Progenitor stood there, beckoning to her. I won't come, she thought to herself as she took a seat on the bed beside her oldest brother. I won't come, so stop calling for me.

"Hello?"

Startled, mist trailed her as she spun to see Eragon standing before her, as confused as she was until she realized what had occurred. "Gods be damned, I fell asleep!"

The boy - more of a young man now - winced at her curse, and his dark eyes grew shrewd. "Who are you?"

"No one of import." Even though Angela had not had the chance to teach her the finer parts of controlling her gifts (what with her reluctance to practice them), Niaomi knew enough about dream manipulation to insure he would forget this one. "You're having a dream, so let's just say I'm part of your fantasy."

"My fantasies don't usually look like you."

"Oh?" she inquired with a raised eyebrow. Eragon blushed ferociously at the implication and made to apologize, but she just chuckled. "I'm teasing. How's Saphira?"

"How do you know - "

"It's your dream. You tell me."

He frowned briefly, glancing around though there was only the Mists to greet him. "...she's fine, at the moment."

Something in his voice tipped her off. "What about you?"

"I had a...bad dream before this one, actually. Wasn't planning to fall asleep either."

The fact that he remembered her earlier complaint made her unnecessarily happy. "You tell me about your nightmares and I'll tell you mine." He hesitated, and so she added, "This is all happening in your dream, remember?"

Relenting, Eragon took a few steps forward before sinking down with a sigh, prompting her to sit before him. "Simply put, my uncle transformed into the monsters who murdered him and then tried to murder me."

Nia forced herself not to display any signs of shock. "I'm sorry for your loss, Eragon. Truly."

He shrugged off the lingering pain to shoot her a wry look as he said, "Alright, it's your turn now."

Swirling her pointer finger through the mist gathered near her feet, she quietly replied, "I'm a murderer who killed my parents. And now I've endangered the rest of my family as well."

It was silent before the inevitable question came: "How so?"

"That curiosity will be the death of you, you know."

"Brom always says that. It hasn't killed me yet, has it?"

"I suppose not." The lightness Eragon had brought was gone after the brief moment, and her tone grew somber as she explained, "Our home was attacked by...an agent of the Empire. One of my birds named Ion managed to trap her until we could find a way to escape, and he almost lost his life."

"This bird...Ion, is important to you I take it?"

"Very much so. My mother found a spell that could transport us away, but my father was busy fighting an underwater sea monster."

"Wait," the Leader interrupted, confused. "I thought teleportation magic could only be used on non-living things."

She kept her gaze pointed downwards as she answered, "There were special circumstances. But even so, the price of the spell was her life. And since I could not save my father, he died as well."

"I still don't understand." Niaomi finally looked up into his bright brown eyes, and a stab of pain pierced her as she was reminded of the other darker pair of eyes that still would not open. "How does any of what you told me make you a murderer?"

Her own eyes widened in shock. "Because...because I failed to save them. And it was me who lead her - Liress - the agent to them!"

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow, and he crossed his arms for added effect, demonstrating how clearly unconvinced he was. "I did the same to my uncle, yet I know the ones truly responsible for his death are the ones who lit the fire that killed him."

"It's different for you," she spat back bitterly, fixing him with a cold glare. "You didn't know that it was the Ra'zac who were coming for you. You didn't know that it would happen!"

"And you did?"

"Yes!" The shouted admittance was absorbed by the blanket of the Mists, and Nia folded her head into her knees as the tears began to pour. "I knew what would happen if we went after the dragon eggs, I knew that it would lead to the death of my parents, and yet I did it anyway! Because I was so deluded by my sense of superiority, of being the Seer, that I thought I could outmaneuver destiny. That I could change what I already knew the future would bring. That the inescapable fate of me becoming a Rider didn't hinge on them dying!

"But as soon as we entered the cave, the Trials began, and as soon as we'd survived the tests and found our dragon eggs, it triggered a wave of magic energy that surged from the island and revealed our location to Galbatorix, who sent his own personal assassin to eliminate us. And though I didn't see it all, I saw the outcome. The only outcome, yet I was too blinded by the faith in the powers the gods had bestowed upon me. If this was the path they'd set me on, the path to help them, then how could it begin with such tragedy?!"

Her body was convulsing, and yet she still fought back the sobs to continue her spiel. "I killed them. I killed them. My mother and father are both dead because I chose being a Rider over them. I chose my dragon over them. A-and I can't - I can't e-even...I can't even regret it!"

And suddenly arms had encircled her as the anguish overcame her, unavoidable now that she could no longer deny the truth of her actions. She screamed at the overwhelming guilt that had been eating her alive, day after wretched day, the guilt she had never allowed herself to admit to since it would eat at Luminous as well. Her dragon, her beloved dragon, that innocent hatchling that did not deserve to be blamed for Leafë and Niom anymore than her baby brother. It was her burden, Nia's fault, her fault, her fault -

"Shhhh." A hand smoothed down her curls as she clung to the body before her and sobbed uncontrollably. "You can't continue blaming yourself - that is what you know. I chose to go to Saphira rather than the farm, and you chose to find Luminous rather than leave her trapped in the dark, because when you're a Rider, there's never a choice to be made."

Her head rocked back and forth in denial, and hands pulled back her face so that she was forced to look at Eragon. His gëdwey ignasia seemed to burn against her cheek as he told her, "There is never a choice to be made, Nia. Never."

"H-how do you know m-my name?"

With his face so close to hers, his smile was blinding, making her blink away the tears in response. He brushed his fingers against her pointed ears, gaze flickering over her slanted (and no doubt swollen) eyes, before he whispered, "It's my dream after all. And you're my fantasy, right? I've always wanted to meet an elf."

The laughter bubbled up within her, and she couldn't help but release a giggle as her hands folded atop his. As they peered past each other's eyes, Niaomi felt the moment the young man spotted her heart and claimed it for himself as she whispered back, "Thank you, Eragon."

And suddenly the fog was obscuring him from her sight, and her palms were pressed against her own cheeks, and she spun frantically to find him, to find him so that he would remember his dream, because she was sure for a short second she had caught a glimpse of his own heart. But dizziness overtook her until it was splashed away as a voice shouted -

"Niaomi!" She awoke suddenly, sputtering from the copious amount of water dripping down her face that could not be the product of a few tears. Wiping her eyes, she was able to spot Rosaminda lording over her, hair still wrapped in her aunt's scarf. "Where's Nate?"

"What?"

"Your brother, godsdammit! Where is he?!"

Startled awake, Nia was somewhat addled as she glanced to her side. The bed was empty, which woke her up completely. "I...he's not...did he just finally wake up?"

"No!" the blonde shrilled, voice already clearly panicked. "You were the one supposed to be watching him, so why don't you know where he is?"

"Calm down, Rosie." Ren's sedate demeanor was a stark contrast to her twin's, and her gray eyes for once were softer than blue gaze still cutting into their godsister. "Nate's not here, Nia. And he wouldn't have just up and left."

"It's not just Nate that's gone," Nicholas spoke up from his spot in the doorway, having just arrived to deliver the bad news. He gulped, the motion drawing attention to his throat as his sister noticed he wasn't wearing his skilna braugh chain, which only made his next words all the more devastating since there was no doubting them. "Toparien's missing, too."