#tornac

[alagaesia-headcanons]

Tornac wearing a "I'm not the stepdad, I'm just the dad that stepped up" shirt

[tonhalszendvics]

Murtagh had that horse. The grey one. He named it after Tornac. But he'd had that horse since he was a calf, when Tornac was still alive, so the poor thing had to have a previous name.

I am thinking way too much about how old he was when he got him and what was his original name.

[modern-inheritance]

Tornac trained Murtagh to have both independent thought while also giving him the structured side of military and spec ops training to fall back on.

[opelman]

Opel GT by benoits15

[horsehoedownshowdown]

[saphira-approves]

Can I come and tell you my deepest pain?

We should have had Morzan alive. I mean yeah, it would fuck up the whole narrative but imagine Murtagh being afraid of his father. He hates the king but fears his father.

Imagine him and Thorn; Morzan sees them, and he has problems with booze in canon, just how drunk he'd have gotten after Thorn learned to talk? There he is with his nameless dragon, half of his heart and soul, that he had to watch descend into stupidity. (Does he have its name written up here and there, does he watch it every day just to think about how he could make it real again?) Would he dream of killing his son and taking his dragon to himself? Would he want that even though he despises that sick joke of a connection that is in between Galbatorix and Shruikan?

And then Galbatorix finally discovers the name of the names. How would he beg for the king to use it to heal his companion?

Also, it would be very funny to watch our main characters run for their lives with an angry dragon after them, but y'know.

Should I write a fic about this

Oh you absolutely should write a fic about this (and let me know when you do! I’d love to read it!), and I should go back through my WIPs to find my time travel AUs…

I usually write more about Selena than Morzan, but I do love the idea of getting to see grown-up Murtagh’s reaction to seeing his father, especially in a context where Murtagh has lived without him for a while—whether that’s because Brom didn’t kill Morzan and Selena got both her sons to Carvahall, or because resurrection or time travel shenanigans happened.

As for Morzan still being around when Murtagh gets captured… I think there’s a 50/50 chance he gets Real Weird about the torture, in a “I was pretty sure up to this point that I didn’t actually care about my son but now my best friend is torturing My Son and I don’t like it actually” way, and I think that would be really fun to explore; I think, also, that when Thorn hatches and Galbatorix prematurely increases his size, Morzan would again be Real Weird about it because, like, that’s a baby dragon the size of an adult. He hasn’t lost his name, he just hasn’t really developed one yet; he’s a weird, warped mirror of Morzan’s own dragon. And when Thorn does, eventually, with difficulty, start to ‘grow up’, Morzan’s probably going to get twitchy about it—it’s been at least a century, more than two thirds of his lifespan, since he’s even MET a somewhat psychologically stable dragon; how much has he forgotten of their true intelligence, their real personalities? And when Galbatorix does find The Word, if Morzan asks him to heal his own dragon… honestly I don’t know if Galbatorix would be able to. Having power and knowing how to use it are two different things, we saw Murtagh figure that out in his own book with The Word. Would the king even know where to start? Would he allow Morzan to try for himself? Morzan probably wouldn’t have a clue where to begin, all we ever hear about him from people who’d met him is that he’s a powerful spellcaster, but not a very clever one.

Honestly, the whole situation might drive Morzan to split from Galbatorix; and even if not, it would still probably drive Morzan to be extremely destructive, to himself and everyone around him.

Also he’d be so pissed to learn about Eragon’s true parentage. Not even in a “my wife cheated on me?!” way but in a “oh my god can Brom stop being SO OBSESSED with me for FIVE MINUTES” kind of way.

[eliza-makepeace]

funny when, in inheritance, there’s a moment when saphira tries to help eragon by lending him her power, and he says she can’t help him because it’s “his mountain to climb”. she tries to argue but he replies with “besides, if i were flying, it would be on borrowed wings, and i would gain nothing by it other than the cheap thrill of an unearned victory”

i totally agree with the sentiment and i’d think it’s great of him to say so, if it wasn’t for the fact that that’s exactly what the blood oath celebration has done for him. i understand that, narratively speaking, the main reason for making eragon into an elf is because, otherwise, it would’ve been insanely hard for him to acquire the abilities necessary to defeat galbatorix, but i sitll think it’s a very cheap way of making him get the upper hand, or, if not that, a chance to win. i mean, in the end, paolini makes his own villain so impossible to defeat that he needs to fundamentally alter his main character in order to allow the story’s climax to take place. 

and then the fact that having eragon say this now makes him into a bit of a hypocrite. like, he has such a problem with saphira helping him now, “because it just wouldn’t be an earned victory” but he didn’t seem to mind when the elves made him look like them and have their abilities, even though he obviously hadn’t worked to achieve them by himself in the first place. i’m the first one that finds the whole “eragon gets a few months of learning x and suddenly he’s really good at it” a bit annoying, but i’d rather have that than him being an elf for all intents and purposes.

[everythingloveandanimated]

On this episode of Musing on Murtagh I realized something... Murtagh's relationship with fate is "No Good Deed Goes Unpunished”. (WARNING!!! Heavy feels and Heartbreak below)

Chases away the Ra'zac to save Brom and Eragon. -> Eragon gets broken ribs, Brom gets a fatal knife between his ribs.

Saves Eragon and Arya from Gil'ead, accompanies them to the Varden -> Gets locked up. (which he considers pretty good. He's alive, has a furnished room, gets meals and reading brought to him on command, so 4/5 results)

Fights with Varden against the Kull Army -> Gets kidnapped and tormented on the way back to Uru'baen where the torment doesn't stop.

Swears fealty to Galbatorix to get his soldiers to stop torturing Thorn -> Thorn gets locked in a solitary cell and his torture continues for months

Spares Eragon's life at the Burning Plains -> He and Thorn get maliciously tortured for it

Tries to preserve Nasuada's life -> ordered to assist Galbatorix in torturing her

Helps Eragon defeat Galbatorix -> Nobody (sans King Orik?) is willing to take Eragon's or Nasuada's word that Murtagh is not an enemy

Tries to do right by Thorn by fleeing north to freedom -> Loses opportunity to plead their case in the court of public opinion

Rescues Silna ->Robs Glaedr's grave, injuries and betrays a guard he befriended (using that term loosely) and Thorn torches Gil'ead in a panic attack after saving Murtagh's life

Investigates the Dreamers to get information to report back, motivation to protect Nasuada's kingdom -> gets himself and his dragon captured, tortured, enslavement experience 2.0

And! As a bonus! FAMILY/ FAMILY-ESQUE RELATIONSHIPS

Selena does good by Eragon getting him to safety, then returns to Murtagh -> gets gravely ill and dies soon after

Tornac risking his life to help Murtagh get to freedom -> DIES just outside the city in front of Murtagh

Murtagh does all these life saving favors for Eragon -> Eragon skips off continent and is unavailable to help Murtagh clear his name

Holy Heck! And he STILL wants to honor the role of Dragon Rider by protecting the land and its denizens! (okay it's a little more focused than that. He wants to protect Nasuada and her realm, not the realms of Dwarves and Elves. They can take care of themselves; unless their goals overlap then he'll consider working with them.) BUT STILL!!!! HOW?!?!?! And the scary beautiful thing is there are deeply traumatized people WHO ARE LIKE THIS!!!! They will go out of their way to protect other people they deem worthy of their help!!!

[lunamond]

Here are our boys on travelling together in book 1.

I also managed to squeeze in Tornac (the horse) and Snowfire, I originally also wanted to add in Cardoc (what's up with these boys naming their horses after dead men?), but 2 horses were already a enough horse to draw.

[inheritancetrain]

I’m sure this has been headcanoned to death, but Murtagh must have named horse Tornac while OG Tornac was still alive.

It was probably a joke between the two of them.

[alagaesia-headcanons]

Hey do you have some Tornac headcanons please?

So. uh. This is probably a lot more than you bargained for lmao, I went a bit crazy. This is mostly a continuous story of his backstory through roughly the first year he raised Murtagh, then some more random headcanons after that.

I just. love Tornac <3

-

- Tornac is the son of the marshal, who oversees the military presence of a nobleman’s castle. His father starts training him in combat when he’s young simply for practicality, with the hope that he can take over his role when he’s older.

- Tornac learns very quickly, even when he’s young. He didn’t have any fervent dreams of knighthood or glory, yet he’s always unwaveringly prepared for new challenges to overcome.

- No one around him entirely recognizes what they have on their hands as Tornac goes through his first several years of training. He steadily masters every skill presented to him, not without struggling, but he never struggles for very long. His father can tell he’s especially talented and he’s impressed when he has nothing more to teach him when Tornac is just 14. He knows his son will be a great swordsman, but it doesn’t occur to him to imagine far beyond the scope of his own largely unremarkable life.

- Regardless, his father is kind and wants him to excel, so he arranges for Tornac train under a more venerated knight in another city. He goes and he learns the more advanced skills the knight teaches him until Tornac can best him too, after only a little more than a year after arriving.

- With the impressed recommendation of his previous tutor, Tornac gets passed around to increasingly renowned warriors, and yet, his capabilities never seem to reach a limit they can’t grow beyond. He never finds a mentor he can’t eventually defeat. Belatedly, his peers and patrons come to realize that Tornac is a true prodigy, something the Empire’s army inevitably takes notice of.

- In his youth, Tornac himself is hard working, reserved, and intensely pragmatic, never particularly outgoing or adventurous. He never cared to question the path his father set him on, even once his father was no longer the one laying it out for him. He’s good at this, and that was reason enough for him to decide to build his livelihood as a soldier. He never stops to consider any other possibility for himself.

- So when the army takes him into the fold to test his mettle, he goes along readily. Even the expertise hoarded by the Empire can’t hold him back by then. He has so little left to learn, and what he does he learns swiftly before conquering every last challenge. At just 20 years old, he earns the simple but resounding reputation of the best warrior of his day- and quite possibly in the history of the Empire.

- (I do imagine Tornac as the best human warrior in the series. In a hypothetical situation where he might have lived, he had the skills to defeat any of the other humans at any point in the story.)

- Tornac needs no convincing to accept a position in the army, especially after his father expresses his support of the opportunity. It is by far the clearest place for him and he struggles to imagine a different option that could suit him, so he doesn’t dwell on the choice to enlist. He honestly doesn’t know what else to do with himself.

- He wasn’t raised with any special loyalty to the Empire. He sees his role in the army as performing a job more so than serving a cause. He’s dismissive of the politics behind the army and he falls short enacting the zealous allegiance that the army prefers to instill in its soldiers.

- Nevertheless, by the merit of his unparalleled swordsmanship, Tornac rises through the ranks swiftly. He doesn’t do much to actively seek out his promotions, not very ambitious by nature, but his reputation elevates him, and after a few years, he settles in the position of commander.

- Tornac spends over a decade in the army, notorious, but no longer just for the fact that he remains undefeated. The years sour him and wear away at every soft part of him, leaving only jagged flint behind. Tornac’s remarkable prowess in combat doesn’t innately suit him to command. He’s adept at it, he would have never lasted so long if he wasn’t, but he hates it. It taxes him horribly, managing so many soldiers- he hates the endless monotony, logistic headaches, enforcing discipline, handling every problem, and ordering around everyone without the common sense to figure out anything on their own. He does it, but he hates every minute of it.

- Tornac grows notorious for being a dismally strict commander, never to the point that he’s called cruel, but famously impatient. It’s an accurate description. He’s utterly intolerant of any disrespect or crassness, irascible and very swift to snap at anyone who’s made a mistake or fumbled their responsibilities, and browbeats his men for talking back to him or his orders.

- It creates an endless cycle of stress and he drinks when he can find the time to try to alleviate the tension. He’s perpetually discontent, but he sees no alternative.

- Tornac carries out his own orders successfully and wins every battle against the Varden’s men when they pressure their borders. While the Empire uses the less effective units of its army to police its own citizens and ensure compliance, it sends Tornac to deal with the real threats. He becomes a very experienced and renowned veteran, but he doesn’t make many friends.

- Tornac is in his thirties when he’s appointed Murtagh’s warden. Of course, in an official capacity, Galbatorix is the guardian of his most loyal servant’s son, but the child’s day to day life is beneath him and so he summons Tornac.

- Tornac is bewildered to be plucked from his post by a direct invitation from the king with no explanation. It’s nothing compared to his absolute shock when Galbatorix announces he is to oversee the upbringing of Morzan’s four year old son. Overshadowing the already confounding revelation that Morzan had a child at all, he cannot fathom why he should have any responsibility over him. He argues that he has absolutely no skill with children and he has duties to fulfill on the other side of the country. Galbatorix informs him that he’s been relieved of his command so he may take on this task.

- Under any other circumstance, Tornac might be overjoyed to hear he doesn’t have to toil in the army any longer, but in the moment, it feels like his world is falling apart. He’s carefully built his whole life around the things he already has full confidence and understanding in, and now, all at once he’s being thrown into something utterly unknown and untried.

- And he has never wanted children. He hates his command because he hates being bothered, and the only thing he can imagine bothering him more is a shrieking toddler. He’ll lose his mind.

- His blindsided panic gets the better of him and he argues against his orders much more brashly than he would have dared to otherwise. Cool and stoney, Galbatorix cuts across him, saying, “Morzan’s son is to become a great warrior. I am giving him the guidance of Alagaesia’s finest swordsman so that he will not fail that expectation.”

- The king leaves not even a hair’s breadth of room for defiance and so Tornac stops showing any. It gets through to him that this is real, so he bows and accepts the task. He might not feel much loyalty to the Empire, but he’s not a fool and he knows full well that the king is not someone to be denied.

- And so it happens that the most famed and maladjusted commander of the Empire’s army becomes the caretaker of Morzan’s four year old son.

- Galbatorix was being honest in his explanation to Tornac. His reason for assigning him to raise Murtagh was Tornac’s martial prowess. From the beginning, he intends to use Murtagh as a weapon when he’s old enough, whether he becomes a Rider or not. So it’s of the greatest importance that he learns to be a strong warrior, and since that requires dedicated training throughout his youth, that’s what he needs Tornac to provide more than anything else.

- The rest Galbatorix is confident he can handle when the time comes to recruit Murtagh. He knows Tornac is rather dispassionate about the Empire and is unlikely to instill much loyalty in Murtagh, but he feels fully willing and able to force Murtagh into compliance if need be, so he doesn’t let that get in the way.

- He’s also aware of Tornac’s less than kindly reputation, but that doesn’t bother him either. In fact, Galbatorix welcomes the possibility that Tornac might mistreat him similarly to how Morzan did- as long as he doesn’t cause more lasting, physical harm. Instinctive, ingrained fear of punishment is something he could make effective use of later down the line.

- So Galbatorix ignores Tornac’s objections that he would be a bad warden for a young child. He will serve the purpose the king actually cares about- forging a weapon.

- Thus Tornac is provided a new life in Uru’baen’s citadel, more lavish than he’s ever known. He’s introduced to his quarters, the household staff, and finally, his ward.

- He doesn’t know what he thought Morzan’s progeny would be, but it certainly wasn’t Murtagh. He’s scrawny and oh so small, with huge, gray eyes deep with uncertainty. He holds himself tense and moves around carefully- because of his wounded back, Tornac soon learns.

- And he’s quiet. Murtagh is remarkably, blessedly quiet.

- At first, Tornac revels in this, astounded by his good luck. He expected a shrill, petulant, and entitled child he simply wouldn’t be able to cope with, but Murtagh is so withdrawn and out of the way, he can almost forget he’s even there. He can live with this, and the relief is profound.

- It doesn’t last, though. After the first week, Tornac starts to get frustrated by how difficult it is to communicate with his new ward. He shies away from his attempts to glean anything about him, mumbling only the most noncommittal answers, then when he does tug on his sleeve, he fails to say what exactly he needs. Murtagh needs so much coaxing to come out of his shell, only to retract again at the drop of a hat, and Tornac finds himself struggling to keep his patience.

- In the way Galbatorix silently anticipated, Tornac does snap at Murtagh in those early days. His habitual stress responses make him raise his voice and reprimand him for being difficult, trying to forcibly override Murtagh’s behavior. It’s counterproductive enough that it starts to make Tornac uncomfortable in a way he’s never felt before.

- Any satisfaction he first felt at Murtagh’s quietness has vanished. He’d rather deal with a well behaved child, but a four year old should have more energy than this, no matter his shyness. His reticence strikes him as more and more unnatural.

- A far cry from what he dreaded when he was told to care for a child, this is how he would imagine having an exceedingly skittish cat. Murtagh hides under the furniture, he tries to leave the room the moment someone else enters, he never makes eye contact with him for more than a heartbeat, and he’s so damn quiet!

- He’s concerned for Murtagh, Tornac realizes, grieved by the signs of fear and pain in a child so young. This is as far as he can get from his responsibilities in the army, and his methods of dealing with it like a commander are clearly making things worse.

- Tornac pulls back to reevaluate. He may be woefully unknowledgeable about children, but his father always told him that his natural talent as a warrior came from his impeccable intuition. He can intuit this. He can observe and analyze and adapt to figure this out, because those are skills he does have.

- He breathes and steadies himself, calming himself like he does before a duel. He aligns himself to Murtagh’s own pace to start off, then adjusts from there. He forcefully reminds himself he’s not working under any deadlines anymore, he has no duties that pile up during any delay, and he lets himself wait for Murtagh to find a degree of courage and comfort in his own very lengthy time. Some days, he never does, but as Tornac allows himself to take this as a chance to rest and recuperate as well, patience comes so much easier. Enough that Murtagh occasionally overcomes his anxiety and opens up to him.

- Tornac resolves to better step into the role assigned to him. He involves himself more consistently in Murtagh’s day to day, he bends his focus and decisions towards his safety and comfort, and he starts to teach him lessons. Murtagh’s still so young that they’re hardly vital, so he keeps them short and light, hoping for enjoyment over education.

- He does that so Murtagh can gain a semblance of routine and, more than that, so he can get a sense of Tornac’s role in his life. It lets him see that he doesn’t need to fear his presence and intentions. It’s a way for Tornac can demonstrate that he has no desire to hurt him.

- And not just that he doesn’t want to inflict new hurt, but he doesn’t want to exacerbate his old wounds either.

- Murtagh won’t talk to him at all if he can smell any whiff of alcohol, doing everything he can to escape his presence, so Tornac cuts back on his drinking. He finds himself remarkably unbothered by it, and it’s far easier than he imagined.

- Murtagh flinches and cowers whenever Tornac pats him on the head, immediately on the defensive. It leaves him so on edge and desperate to perform perfect behavior that Tornac can’t unravel the source of his fear when it happens. Only after a while does he coax Murtagh into revealing that his father used to manhandle him by dragging him by the hair.

- So Tornac trains himself not to reach for his head and pats his shoulder instead, squeezing lightly to comfort him. And he tries to come up with another way to convince him not to worry about it because the child has a real knack for getting his hair tangled and he could really use a brush.

- As Tornac lets go of his habits and reinvents his approach to this new situation, he changes. His anger and discontent peter out. His impatience is nowhere to be found. Once he stops expecting every little thing to stress him out, it stops happening, and he realizes that his stress was a habit in itself, born of years and years in a role that didn’t suit him.

- Tornac finds happiness and fulfillment he never imagined in being a caretaker, a guardian, and a teacher. It gives him peace.

- There is a span of time in the midst of this, when Murtagh starts to trust him but before he learns how to fully opens up, that he shares himself with Tornac without the words he’s not yet comfortable with. Quietly, mumbling sometimes, he gives Tornac a small, worn book of sweet poems for him to read to him. He grabs his hand and leads him to meet the cat he befriended in the yard. He presents him with his most cherished and only remaining toy and even lets him hold it.

- At this point, two things happen. Watching Tornac engage with the things he loves with careful and genuine care makes Murtagh accept Tornac and give him his complete trust. He decides he’s someone he can rely on and wants to turn to whenever he needs to. Murtagh sees in Tornac what he always wanted to have from his parents.

- Simultaneously, Tornac falls in love with Murtagh. He discovers such a wonderful, precious child, and the tendencies he previously saw as stains of fear and damage, now he can see nothing but bravery and resilience within them. He wants to see him grow and thrive and he wants to contribute anything he can to that. If someone told him just a few months ago that he would be doting on his ward like a parent pampering their firstborn, he would have laughed himself to tears. But before he even realizes what’s happening, Tornac’s wholeheartedly dedicated to raising Murtagh.

- Tornac gets over the initial hurdle of putting Murtagh at ease. He comes out of his shell and has a lot more energy and talks much more. He’s eager and expectant, so Tornac now faces the overall task of parent with a feeling of, Okay, now what the fuck do I do?

- That is the recurring theme through the next 14 years he spends raising Murtagh.

- Things balance out now that Murtagh’s recovered enough to start a routine more typical for a young child. He has tutors and training and activities through the days. And now that Tornac himself is better adjusted and doesn’t need to spend all his energy on Murtagh’s immediate issues, he notices his own isolation. He doesn’t have any friends. He’s so used to that that he doesn’t feel particularly upset by it, but he figures Murtagh probably shouldn’t be raised by a recluse.

- So he tries. He’s not very social and his early efforts to make friends feel painfully awkward, but he slowly gets closer to a few people. Not many, but he’ll just never be that type and he’s fine with that. The head retainer of the household with her vicious wit. The jovial old man who makes the combat training regimens. The head groom of the castle stables.

- They become the closest. Tornac tells him a lot about the antics of raising Murtagh. His friend always laughs and says he’s got a great kid, but for his part, he’ll stick to horses. He is the one who provides the foal Tornac gives Murtagh.

- Tornac tries his damnedest to stop him from naming the horse after him, but it’s a losing battle. The kid’s too stubborn to admit that he just couldn’t come up with anything better and refuses to change it. Depending on who’s being more cooperative with his interests, his horse or his warden, Murtagh enjoys designating “the better Tornac”. When Murtagh’s not using the name for jokes, the horse is often called “Tor” for clarity.

- Tornac sleeps like the dead, he is so hard to wake up. Murtagh is always a restless sleeper and struggles with nightmares. When he’s young, sometimes when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he goes into Tornac’s room to sleep with him. He crawls up onto the bed and full on rearranges Tornac, moving his arms and shuffling all around him until he’s finally comfortable and Tornac sleeps through the whole thing. He wakes up with his arms wrapped around Murtagh who’s snuggled against his chest as he tries to do the bleary mental math of if he was there the whole time or if he’s a new addition.

- Tornac is aromantic. He was focused on other things when he was younger, and whatever shift was supposed to add romance to his focuses as he grew up just never seemed to happen. He makes plenty of excuses for that to himself, all the while finding other people’s dedicated interest in romance vaguely weird. He never feels the urge to know what he’s missing.

- He doesn’t quite identify it as an underlying lack of attraction. In his brief musings about it, he comes to the conclusion that, oh well, he must just have unreasonably high standards that no one can actually meet and that’s the reason no one appeals to him, then he shrugs and never thinks about it again. He never marries or has any kids other than Murtagh.

- Murtagh does get an impression of this when he’s a bit older, starting when he gets his first crush. Of course he turns to Tornac, because he knows everything, only for him to shrug and go, “Maybe flowers, I think flowers are supposed to be romantic, right? Try that?” He’s no help at all.

- Murtagh considers what Tornac does not, which is that if too high standards are what’s actually behind his disinterest, that would be extremely frustrating. But Tornac seems perfectly content without a partner. Murtagh knows even if the perfect person walked into his life, Tornac wouldn’t want them.

- Both Tornac and Murtagh have conflicted feelings about outright calling each other father and son. It’s something they never fully work through before Tornac’s death.

- For Tornac, he’s reluctant to call himself Murtagh’s father because of self consciousness. Despite his best efforts, Murtagh has a rather tumultuous upbringing with no small amount of suffering. He’s mistreated by many people around him and some get close enough to hurt him more dramatically. Murtagh endures attacks, manipulation, betrayal, coercion, and a few, worse things.

- Tornac beats himself up for not protecting Murtagh from these wounds. He believes a real father should take better care of his child and balks from claiming Murtagh as his son when he feels like he failed him in that regard.

- For Murtagh, he refrains from declaring himself Tornac’s son because he feels like a burdensome child. Murtagh sees himself as trouble, unreasonably difficult and hard to deal with. He’s so conspicuous and marked by preconceptions he never had the chance to control, and trouble flocks to him without end. His life will be a thorny mess no matter what either of them do, and Murtagh fears Tornac would never want to claim a child like that.

- Even when he’s trying his best, awful things happen to him that Tornac has to manage and that makes Murtagh so deeply guilty. He doesn’t want to force Tornac to accept him as his responsibility more than he already has to through the even tighter bond of being his son.

- Wholeheartedly, they mutually feel that they are truly and fundamentally father and son. But they never find the courage to say it as profoundly as they feel.

- Murtagh blames himself for Tornac’s death- for not fleeing the moment Galbatorix first tried to beguile him, for asking Tornac to escape with him despite the danger, for not protecting him better.

- Tornac would be inexpressibly proud of who Murtagh’s become.

[tonhalszendvics]

Stop right there!

You know the Inheritance Cycle? Yes? Do you want a story with short chapters, but with all the drama and stuff so it'll haunt you all day and all night? Also yes?

Then here is this series, it was written for you, give it some love!

[modern-inheritance]

More from the in-progress Great Escape

I'm not so sure about this part. I need to clean it up, probably rewrite it completely, but just wanted it DOWN.

~

“Ya alright, ya alright.” Murtagh pulled on the woman’s shoulder. It took substantial effort to haul her onto her back, fighting against her natural instinct to keep her battered body tucked as tightly as possible. “Let me see, come on!”

The second she was laying flat the elf grabbed his wrist in an iron grip. Her eyes were wild, a look that Murtagh recognized from Tornac’s many episodes. Seeing but not seeing, dangerous and vulnerable all at once.

He did his best to ignore the pressure and ripped the bandage open with his teeth. He tossed aside the packaging with a practiced flick of his wrist, and with a gruff word of warning, none-too-gently shoved the thick absorbent material into the bleeding gash along the woman’s hip. 

That got her attention. She let him go with a ragged hiss and pressed a hand over the bandage, holding pressure while Murtagh dug in the bag for tape. “Keep holding it, it’s bleeding bad.” 

He snapped back to her when she let out a choking noise, rolled away from him again and clutched her head. Whatever the Shade had done was still in play, though not nearly as powerful as the first wave. Murtagh swore and grabbed her again, partly crawling under the damn table to pull her back. 

While under there, one arm around her waist to try and keep some sort of seal on the bandage, he spotted a glimmer of metal. He hooked it with his free hand, fingers barely brushing the edge before he got purchase, and dragged it out with the elf. Her sword. He shoved it in the sheath at her side. 

“You gotta stay with me, lass.” Murtagh pleaded. Elves, Shades, dragons, Dragon Riders. The entire roof coming down over his head because a dragon was ripping it apart. He was rapidly starting to find he had a wits end and was maybe, just maybe, in just a little bit over his head. 

So he did what he could. He picked up the woman’s bloodied hand and placed it over the wad of gauze. “Just hang in there, we’re almost out of here.” Her hand stayed when he lifted his own, just long enough for him to tape it down as tightly as he could. Unsure if it would hold, his gaze caught on her stolen belt and he readjusted it before ratcheting it down over the mess of tape and bandaging.

(Back to Eragon fighting Durza)

“He’ll kill him.” The elf’s eyes were glassy when Murtagh tore his own gaze away from the spectacle. She was trying to turn over again, this time to her belly, trying to push herself up. Alarmed, Murtagh grabbed her shoulders and forced her back down and back under the table, just in time for a stone the size of an Urgal’s head to bounce off the mahogany. 

“Eragon’s doing just fine, lass!” A jolt of worry lanced through him when he realized the woman was barely pushing against his arms. She had ripped apart a metal locker earlier and now she couldn’t even break his grip. “Just stay still and stay awake, yeah? Saphira’s almost here.”

“Saphira?” The raspy whisper was little more than a confused mumble. “Saphira’s dead….” 

She trailed off. Murtagh swore explosively when he realized her eyes were closed. "For fuckssake, what did I just tell you!"

[musicandbooksaremyhappyplace]

Ever since i read I.C. i was a huge fan of Murtagh. He always struck me as one of the more relatable characters because he wasn't out for right or wrong just self preservation. He had a traumatic childhood and grew up with no friends and not even a mother, the only person he was ever truly loved by was Tornac who treated him like his own son and raised and nurtured him.

Something i'm really hoping to see in this new book is Murtagh getting what he deserves. I hope he finds someone who understands him and shows him what it's like to be loved. I don't necessarily mean romantic love just some good old platonic friendship that shows him how much he is loved.

[horsehoedownshowdown]

[saphira-approves]

Canon: Brom falls in love with one of Murtagh’s parents.

Good chunk of fanon: Brom falls in love with two of Murtagh’s parents.

Enlightened alternate-universe-where-Tornac-survives fanon: Brom falls in love with all three of Murtagh’s parents.