Eragon sat with his back leaning against Saphira's stomach. He was in his chambers near the top of New Doru Araeba, taking a small break from the headache of leading the dragon riders. The balcony was open, allowing the cool mountain air to wash into the room, setting him at the perfect temperature when resting next to his dragon. The sky was clear and beautiful. The trainee riders were practicing air combat that day, their dragon's scales glittering with every turn. Eragon, while having half an eye on them, was deeply engrossed in the scroll he was reading, which outlined a rather strange new island far to the north with some unique magical properties. It had been found a week prior by one of the more adventurous dragon riders.

Saphira was dozing beside him, not bothering with the nest as it was away from the sunlight. He could feel her satisfaction in finally being able to get some sleep, as all the drama of the past couple of weeks had left them both mentally frustrated. It was a good time for a break. As Eragon flipped the page, he felt a rumble from Saphira, the large blue dragoness raising her head in confusion.

'What is it Saphira?' Eragon asked her mentally.

'Don't you feel that?' she responded.

'Feel what... oh.'

Eragon got to his feet. It was like waves of magic were being summoned, cascading through the air toward them. It emanated from the west, and whoever was casting such a spell was using an enormous amount of energy to do so, more energy than Eragon had ever seen before. His apprehension growing, Eragon sort out the Eldanuri, linking his mind with theirs, ready to protect his home from the approaching power. He just hoped the wards he had placed around the city were enough to protect it.

The young dragon riders had stopped what they were doing, their dragons just hovering as they faced the oncoming power. Then it hit them. The dragons let out strange yowls, staggering in the air. Eragon felt a tingle pass over his skin, like being hit by a wall of wind. He staggered backwards, shaking his head, but was otherwise unaffected. It was Saphira that took the greatest hit. She shook her head with a snarl as the magic infused with her for but a moment, before moving on, seeming to have done what it needed to. Saphira growled, pushing her bulk from the ground angrily and looking around with narrowed eyes.

"Saphira!" Eragon called to her, "Are you alright?"

'I am fine little one,' she said, though she was obviously on edge, 'At least I believe so.'

"What happened? Did the spell do anything to you?"

'I... don't know,' her frustration in their ignorance of the spell annoyed her to no end, 'But I feel... different.'

'Different? Different good, bad?'

'No... just different,' the dragoness raised her head to look West, where the spell had originated from, wondering how such a powerful piece of magic was cast, and what its purpose had been.

* * *

Sharrag, king of the wild dragons, lay in his cave, not quite asleep, breathing heavily in and out. His mind connected deep into the valley he was in, pulling at the strings of wild magic that leaked into the surface of the world. It was a technique he had learned while he had been living there. Using the tendrils of wild magic, he could see far and wide into the world. Part of him wondered if doing this would eventually give him the ability to be able to pull on the power at will, rather than only in specific circumstances.

Because of that strange connection, he was the first to see the spell being cast. He felt the disturbance within the world as wild magic was pulled out in droves, seeming as though every tendril was being used for the spell. The wild dragon opened his eyes, worried. He got to his feet, moving as quickly as his stiff limbs would allow as he stumbled out of the cave. The valley he called home was shimmering in response, and he felt the spell coming toward them.

Fruessa was laying on the banks of the lank. When she saw him exit, she got to her feet, sending him concern with her mind. He responded back with concern of his own as he looked to the sky. The spell passed over them like the wind, and he staggered, growling uneasily as the spell pulled at him, sinking deep into his soul and mind, before moving on, doing what it needed to. The green dragon snarled, shaking his head and feeling a slight dizziness wash over him. He didn't immediately notice any difference, but when he did it caused his worry to grow a hundred-fold.

The difference he noticed wasn't in himself, but in his surroundings. The wild magic that was so usually present in his home... was gone.

* * *

A group of five dragon riders flew swiftly through the sky. They had just reached the edge of the Hadarac desert and could see the storm swirling in the distance. The amount of powerful magic being cast was felt by them all, each blast of wild magic sending shockwaves through the entire kingdom.

In the lead was the golden dragon Sashi, and her rider, Logan. Logan was anxious. Ever since Akaysha had left them in the middle of the Hadarac desert, there had been cause for worry. The amount of power that was being thrown around and the unnatural behaviour of the storm could only be coming from her. Part of him wondered if Ragin had been killed, and the dragoness had gone into a rage, only keeping herself alive with her magic. She could have even retreated into her Eldanuri, but he doubted such a thing would be the case.

Suddenly the energy seemed to condense, pulled backward into a storm of power so great the dragons struggled to fly toward it. They felt the energy being weaved back and forth as it was shaped and structured under the will of the one who controlled it, before it exploded outward in an intense burst of magic so powerful the trees themselves bowed under the stress. For Logan, he had never felt such a powerful spell before, not even when fighting the king of shades himself.

The spell struck out at them, passing over them. The dragons were nearly knocked from the sky but managed to keep themselves upright. Each of them felt a shift within themselves, a sudden change that was so small but incredibly noticeable, even if they didn't know what had happened. But it was Logan and Sashi that were affected the most.

The wild rider let out a cry of pain as golden Gedwey Ignasia on his hand glowed like the sun, the magic ripping into it, as well as his bond to Sashi. As it passed by, he slumped against the back of the golden dragon. She hissed, shaking her head at the sudden pain.

Reaching out her mind to her rider, she asked, 'What happened?'

She felt a little worried when Logan didn't reply, feeling the shock and horror originating from the man. The wild rider looked down at his palm to where his Gedwey Ignasia was... or at least where it used to be. Instead there was only an ugly looking scar covering his hand. This missing rider's mark wasn't the worst thing. The worst was that the connection between Sashi and himself was gone, leaving a slightly dull ache behind. It took a moment before the golden dragon realised this as well, fear and worry clouding her.

'What was that?' Logan growled angrily.

'It came from Gilead,' Sashi responded, her own anger clouding her.

Waving on the other riders, who had all stopped at the passing of the magic, they all began to fly toward the ruined city. The swirling wild magic from before was absent. The storm began to die. The fires began to dwindle. They were still a good hour away from their destination, getting closer and closer to the Isenstar lake. By that time, the storm was completely gone, leaving a slowly descending sun to shine upon the ruins of Gilead.

The riders were shocked at what they saw. Not a single building was completely intact. The roads were impossible to distinguish from the ruin. Ashes were being soaked in puddles, and it didn't take long to find the bodies. There were hundreds of them, thousands even. Soldiers with crushed armour and bloody corpses. Civilians killed from the very homes they lived in falling upon them. There were even two dragons, slaughtered in cold blood. Logan recognised them both, one being an old friend of both Sashi and himself.

'What could have done this?' the golden dragon said, her anger falling away to horror and repulsion.

Logan narrowed his eyes, searching the ruins. It didn't take him long to find what he was looking for. The glint of night-sky scales flickered in the sun, and Logan directed Sashi with a soft mental prod. Dread at Logan's thought process flooded the dragoness, but she couldn't find any way around it. There was only one being that would have the power to do something like this.

But when the two of them spotted seemingly lifeless dragon and rider there was really no other way to view it. Carefully Sashi winged her way down toward Akaysha. The dark dragon didn't move as they approached, making it difficult to figure out if she were alive or dead. Tentatively Sashi prodded the other dragon's mind with her own, trying to figure out if they were truly gone.

Relief flooded her for a split second when she found that Akaysha was indeed still alive, but the relief was replaced by confusion as she began to delve into the unconscious dragon. It was like Akaysha's mind had been broken, shattered into a thousand different fragments, with pieces of her mind and pieces of another tossed recklessly together so that she couldn't distinguish them. The pieces of Akaysha she did see were dark, full of malice and rage, as though she hated everything around her. Shivering softly Sashi gently removed herself from the dragon's mind.

Logan slid of her back, having done a bit of mental probing himself, and walked around Akaysha's body to where her rider was. Ragin seemed a bit more roughed up than his dragon, with dried blood staining his clothes and face. He had obviously been in a fight, though with what remained a mystery. His sword, Wydra, lay at his side, the gem glowing softly. Much like Akaysha's mind, Ragin's own seemed to have melded with his dragon's, flash of both their thoughts and dreams engulfing him as if he didn't have a mind of his own anymore.

Looking around their surroundings, Logan took note of the dozen dead soldiers that lay near them, not killed by anything physical of forceful, and all facing the dragon rider duo. The golden rider looked down at his apprentice with worry.

"What have you done... my young friend," he sighed, kneeling, still feeling the dull ache of the loss of his bond with his dragon.

Gently Logan picked up Ragin's blade, gently casting his mind upon the glowing dark blue gem in its hilt. He nearly dropped the blade, startled. The sword was full of energy, more energy than anything he had ever seen before, except for the depth of what was wild magic. With the energy in the sword Logan could crush the entirety of the Beor Mountains, and there would still be a substantial amount of power within the blade.

'Logan, Fanderal has contacted me. They have found a survivor,' Sashi told him solemnly.

'Tell him to bring them here,' Logan replied mentally, not finding it in him to speak.

Sashi did just that, watching her rider carefully. Despite not being bonded with him as his dragon, she still knew exactly what he felt. They had been together for over two hundred years after all. She gently walked over to him, skirting around Akaysha, and brushed his shoulder with her snout. He patted the scaly nose and gave her a slight grin, that was really more a grimace.

'I'm going to put the sword in your saddlebag. I don't think its safe to keep it here,' Logan told her.

She agreed, lowering herself to make it easier for Logan to gently place the sword in one of her many bags, making sure to place a protective magic shield around it first so it didn't cut through their belongings. Afterwards they turned their attention back to the unconscious duo. Neither said what they thought happened, letting their thoughts flitter back and forth between their own minds.

Another ten minutes or so later, Logan spotted one of the riders he had flown there with him, walking toward him with a man in behind her. The rider's name was Heelia, an elf who was still rather young for her kind, but possessed an air of authority that he quite respected. She had been a rider for about twenty years, coming into her own during the height of the war with the Black Hand. Her yellow white dragon flew above, making Logan wonder why they hadn't just flown to where he was.

"This is Bernard," she said, motioning to the white face guard, "He saw what happened here."

Logan turned his attention to the soldier and was surprised to find the man not looking at him but staring with terror at the unconscious form of Akaysha behind them. He seemed frozen to the spot, like a sheep trapped by a Shrrg. His white face turned red, and Logan could quite literally feel the anger and fear emanating from him.

"Is it dead?" he hissed from his mouth, gripping at the sword at his waist.

Both Logan and Sashi shared a glance at his words, before the human answered, "No. Can you tell us what happened here?"

"What do you think bloody happened?" the man turned his surprisingly accusing gaze upon Logan and Sashi, pointing a shaking hand at the dark dragonesses body, "That... thing... attacked us! We... we couldn't do anything. It ripped the entire city apart. It... it killed everything. You riders were helpless to stop it. That... dragon... it killed everything!"

Bernard collapsed to his knees, sobbing uncontrollably with those last words. Logan felt Sashi's remorse. He gently touched the broken man's mind, confirming what he had said to be the truth. Sure, it was what they had both suspected, but to have it undeniable broke something within them. He still found it difficult to believe. Akaysha - sweet, loving, shy, Akaysha - had massacred an entire city.

"What are you going to do with it?" Bernard asked, angrily.

Logan didn't have it in him to be offended by the soldier's view on Akaysha, "We are going to bring her back to New Doru Araeba. There she will suffer proper punishment."

"Proper punishment!? That thing needs to die! Now!" Bernard shakily pulled his sword from the sheath, going to step toward the unconscious dragon.

"Slytha," Heelia spoke the word, and Bernard staggered, before collapsing to the ground fast asleep.

The elf looked at Logan with haunting eyes. He nodded his thanks, "I need to report this to Eragon, you go help the others. See if you can find any more survivors."

"Ebrithil," she nodded her head, turning and walking back into the rubble, her dragon following from above.

Still finding his breath shaking Logan reached into another saddle pack, pulling out the scrying mirror he used to communicate with Eragon. With a quick word it cleared to reveal the rider commandant sitting in his council chair. He recognised the large scaled blue mass behind Eragon to be Saphira. As soon as his face appeared Eragon turned to him, his face solemn.

"Logan, I'm assuming you felt the spell?" Eragon asked.

The golden rider blinked in surprise, "The spell? It reached all the way out to you?"

"Yes. The Eldanuri believe that it affected the entire planet," Eragon said, sitting back on his chair.

"That's impossible," Logan breathed, glancing at Akaysha again.

"I know. Sharrag came to me shortly after. He believes that the spell completely eradicated any trace of wild magic," Eragon continued.

Logan looked at the scar on his palm, another shuddering breath escaping him, "I think he may be right... and I think I found the cause."

With a shaky hand he turned the scrying mirror to face the unconscious form of Akaysha and Ragin.

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Hey guys! New chapter! I hope you enjoyed. Only two chapters left now. What do you think will happen within them? I will get the next one out as soon as I can, though it may take the rest of the week since it's going to be a little busy this week. Vote if you enjoyed, and comment what you thought. The next chapter will be out soon. See Ya!

Pennator^^