A/N: Hello everyone, so this is the start of a new fanfic for me on a new account. I wanted to clear up a few things before the story gets going, because I am going to try not to write too many author's notes. I am going try my best to update every week, but this will be a long story so patience will go a long way. If there are things you feel weren't explained enough or needed further development, feel free to message me or review and I will do my best to explain further within the story. If I can't fit it in the story smoothly, I will reply to you personally. Thanks, and enjoy. Italics signify mental communication.

Disclaimer: All characters, places, and events formerly existing within The Inheritance Cycle are the property of Christopher Paolini. All new characters, places and events are of my own creation. I do not own The Inheritance Cycle. This FanFiction contains graphic descriptions of violence, adult language, and sexual content. Reader discretion is advised.

Prologue:

She watched as the few remaining embers in the hearth smoldered, letting loose twisting spirals of smoke that danced upwards through the air in a delicate waltz. She had been sitting before the fire for quite some time, reflecting upon what had, and what would become of her. The slow death of the embers seemed too poignant for her to ignore, as if they were a direct analog to the way she felt about her life. They offered a short span of light and warmth, to fade silently away into nothing but memories, quickly forgotten from the minds of those on whom they failed to make any lasting impression. Since the moment they were sparked into existence, they had been forever fated to a slow and unimpressive end. Fate, gods, or whomever, had laid out their destiny which they dutifully followed to the very end. Dead lumps of ash which the slightest breeze could banish from their peaceful resting place, leaving no trace that they were ever there at all.

Katya grimaced as the bitterness within her boiled to the surface. She could hear her father drunkenly crooning some tune behind her, the sound of which only increased her frustrations. His slurred words and groans disgusted her. Ever since her mother had passed just over a year earlier, her father had quickly sunken into a cruel and drunken pit of despair. She had felt pity for her father, in the beginning. Her family had been happy and close, her parents clearly in love with each other. Katya had idolized her mother. She was strong, loving, gentle, and a constant source of comfort for the young girl through her awkward adolescent years. Katya was often reminded that she was a spitting image of her mother, as she had clearly inherited her beauty from her. She had fond memories of spending time with her mother, times full of laughter and fun. They spent many hours amongst the woods and the wildflowers, talking and sharing their dreams with each other. They resided in the tiny village of Kiowa, north of Ceunon. The population was so small that it could hardly even be considered a village, and a trading post was a more accurate description of the place in which she grew up. Kiowa was an excellent timber and mining village. It was so unnoticeable however, except to those who traded here, that it wasn't even found on many maps of Alagaesia. Her father being employed with the mine left her and her mother with a lot of time to spend together and bond, and that they did.

The pity she had felt for her father immediately following her mothers passing slowly faded, as he became cruel and pathetic. He was unable to cope with the passing of his beloved wife, for he couldn't understand why she had been taken away so soon. Instead, he vented the anger from her passing on the only person he could, his daughter. Through his drunken delusions he had come to convince himself that if it wasn't for Katya, his wife would still be alive. He would neither accept nor entertain any explanation to the contrary. Slowly but surely, all of his friends began to vanish after their attempt to help and reason with him proved futile and he became increasingly more unpleasant to be around. Soon he found himself all alone, with the only person around being the daughter he had grown to despise, and the only reason she was around was due to the fact that he was her only family and she had no other place to go.

This is where Katya presently found herself. Struggling to provide for herself and her father, who neither wanted her, nor loved her. He had quickly lost his job in the mines after her mothers death, for his constant state of inebriation put everyone in danger in an already perilous profession. Since then, it became Katyas responsibility to put food on the table, for her father was neither willing nor capable to do any more than sit in his chair and drink. No matter how much she had grown to despise her father, she could not in good conscious give up on him and allow him to die. He was still her father, and that meant something to her even if it meant nothing to him.

Her fathers actions had made life difficult for Katya. Before the passing of her mother, she had many close friends, and even more boys pining after her affections. She found herself constantly being pursued by one boy or another since she had come of age, for in the small village in which she lived she was considered a wondrous beauty. She herself had never thought of herself as anything spectacular, but it seemed as if everyone else had thought differently. She was taller than most girls, with shoulder length dark, golden hair that resembled flowing honey as it cascaded down from her head in subtle waves. She had been blessed with a tight and toned body mostly from the hard labor she had participated in throughout her youth, but also with substantial curves that the men and boys of the village found most inviting. Her face was soft and her skin smooth, freckles adorned her cheek bones and nose. Her eyes were a startling deep blue, as if the ocean itself had spared sacred water from its deepest depths for the gods to frame within her delicate face.

Just as her fathers friends had been pushed away, so had hers, for no one wanted to spend time around one so vile and repulsive. People wanted to spend as little time around her father as possible and by extension, stayed away from her as well leaving her isolated, alone and resentful. She had not failed to notice the whispered words and disappointing glances sent her way when she walked through the village. Over time, her feelings of embarrassment and shame had evolved into those of anger and rage. Disappointing glances were met with harsh stares, until the other villagers learned that it was better to avoid looking at her at all. It was as if she had become invisible to all who had claimed to care about her and those that she thought she cared about. She was an ember, her life slowly fading into insignificance, to be remembered and loved by none. In her heart, Katya had always believed that she was destined for great things, but the world it seems had other plans for her.

"Hey.. hey.. answer me goddamn it!" Her father slurred from behind her.

"I'm going out, I will be back soon." She replied, trying to keep her voice from revealing her anger.

"Like hell you are. You ain't going nowhere, sit your ass back down in that chair, NOW!" he yelled as he stumbled trying to stand up and ending up falling on the floor. "If yer mother could see you now, she'd be 'shamed of you. You took her from me. YOU!" He screamed from his position of the floorboard. "The biggest mistake we ever made", he mumbled as he tried unsuccessfully to climb back into his chair.

She stood in the doorway, looking down on her father as the taste of vile slowly began to fill her mouth and hot tears of hurt and anger started to fill her eyes, "Goodnight Father".

As she turned around and ran from their shack on the outskirts of Kiowa she could still hear her father yelling, screaming his vitriol of hate at his one and only daughter. Try as she might, she could not stop the hot tears from burning down her cheeks as she ran. She lost track of time as she ran deeper into the forest, her anger fueling her feet to run farther and faster than she normally would. The sound of her footsteps pounding and her heart racing, blocked out the feelings she was trying to avoid and she lost track of both time and distance.

She was running too fast to stop as she saw a deep hole in her path, and so she stomped down and attempted to slow herself as much as she could but as she reached the lip of the hole she had too much momentum and slowly fell forward, she desperately reached out to grab onto the opposite ledge. Her fingers barely grasped the edge but it wasn't enough to stop her fall and it swung her body straight into the wall of the hole, forcibly driving the breath from her lungs. Before she knew what was happening she was falling backwards, watching as the opening of the hole became smaller and smaller. She was panicking as she landed with a loud thud, which again sent the breath flying from her body and stars to appear before her eyes. She hardly had time to come to her senses before she realized she had landed on a steep incline and was sliding further into the chasm. In the pitch black darkness of the deep she could see nothing, and all was silent but the wind rushing through her ears. She started to wonder how far she had fallen, how deep in the earth she had come, when the slide leveled out and she was sent sprawling onto a cold, stone floor.

She lay there in the darkness for a moment, trying to catch her breath. She tried to sit up and a sharp pain shot through her back as she gently felt her ribs. They were almost certainly broken and kept her breathing capacity to short, shallow gasps. She slowly brought her eyes up to survey her surroundings as her eyes adjusting to the lack of light. She noticed the floor and that the stones were set in place. This floor was not natural, it had been laid this way. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end and fear began to creep into her bones. The room in which she found herself was circular, that much she could tell from the lay of the stone upon the floor, but the walls were not visible suggesting that the room was rather large.

She slowly got to her feet, grimacing as the pain in her ribs shot through her entire body. She walked back to the slide and looked upwards, noticing that it was rather smooth rock and steeper than she thought. She began to panic as she began to realize she would never make it back up the slide with the condition of her ribs.

"Panicking will get you nowhere, my dear." She spun around, eyes wide with terror at the sound of the sing song voice emanating from the darkness.

"Who.. Who are you?!" she cried desperately into the darkness, wild eyes searching the shadows for the source of the melodic sound. "What do you want from me?!", hot tears began to roll down her cheeks as the fear enveloped her lungs and heart in a vice grip.

"I am nothing more than a very old.. friend. I can feel you are afraid, but I assure you that I mean you no harm precious girl. In fact, I am thrilled you are here." The voice sang out from the shadow. It had a musical quality to it, singing Katya's heart into trusting in the words that fell upon her eyes. Her heart was pounding but her fear had slowly started to abate as she began to walk forward. She was apprehensive, but her feet seemed to be acting of their own accord as she slowly made her way across the room to the opposite side. As she slowly crossed the chamber two lights at the opposite side of the room flickered into existence. They were not torches but resembled two female figures reathed in flame that seemed to dance upon small circular dishes that rested upon pedestals. They cast a reddish glow upon a throne that sat in between them.

The throne was a simple seat, cut from black obsidian with crisp and clear angles. Seated on the throne was a figure, shrouded in black. Katya could tell it was a woman, from the noticeable figure of her chest. She wore a black cloak, with a hood that cast her face into shadow. Only the bottom half of her face was visible but she wore a strange metal mask, with geometrical engravings criss-crossing its metallic surface. She wore matching armor, made of the same material as her mask, with the abstract geometrical patterns covering its entire surface. She made no sound or movement as Katya approached, and she began to wonder if the figure was but a statue and her mind was playing tricks on her. She thought that perhaps she had hit her head during her fall and this was all in her mind.

"I assure you my dear girl, this is no delusion. I am quite real and and you are indeed here." Katya startled and stared at the figure with fear, how did she know what I was thinking?

A black metallic hand reached up and beckoned her closer, "Please, do come closer and do not fear. If I had wished harm upon you, we would not be having this conversation. No, rather, I feel as though you are just the one I've been waiting for. My, my, my! What a beauty you are!" the figure leaned forward as Katya was closer to the lights. "Yes, you remind me of myself when I was young", the gauntlet covered hand held in front of the mask as it she were examining her nails, "and not just the beauty.. no, no, no…"

"What do you mean?" Katya replied warily.

"I see in you, what was seen in me. Within your heart there is pain, loss, anger…. rage. The unjust punishment thrust upon you from a sick, sad little world…" She continued to study the hand that was held in front of her face.

"I know not of what you speak.." Katya answered trying to sound as defiant as possibly, but her reply came out sounding weak and feeble in comparison to the musical voice of the mysterious lady. At this she began to laugh, and visibly bent forward as she struggled to gain her composure. Her laughter was a beautiful song, lovely, but terrible.

"Forgive me, my dear", she said as she gained her composure, but as she addressed Katya again her voiced had changed. All traces of humor had vanished. "Lies, however, will do you no good here. You know of what I speak. Hearts do not lie, and yours has betrayed the words you have spoken. I can feel it within you, just as it was felt within me. One so beautiful, with so much potential, thrown into such an insignificant life. Unappreciated! Cast aside! Disowned and unloved by those closest to you! Abandoned and left alone, with nowhere to run and no one to turn to. All the while, your potential going unnoticed, your greatness untapped!" The figure now rose from her chair and slowly descended the few steps to where Katya stood. She began to walk around Katya, as silent tears rolled down her cheeks.

"You have had to suffer for the ineptitude of the world in which you live, cruel and unfair. But why you? Why have the gods forsaken you and those of your own kind forgotten you? Why has this life chosen you as its punching bag?! WHY YOU?! The answer is quite simple, because it could. You and I both know however that this is not for you. No, my beautiful, you were destined for the grandest of things. You have just lacked the power necessary to right the wrongs, the injustices, that have been forced upon you. I know in your anger you wish for this. The power to hurt those who have so devastatingly hurt you, to make things right and claim the capabilities to chose your own future. The strength to regain what you have lost, and much you have lost, of that have no doubt. You have the character to wield something too great and powerful for you to imagine. Would you like for me to show you of what I speak?"

Katya nodded in silent agreement, and dark purple lights ignited within the hood where eyes should have been. Katya heard a shuffling sound behind her, and there walking out of the darkness was her mother.

"Mother!" Katya screamed as she ran forward, she reached out and embraced her mother, tears now cascading down her face, "Mother, I have missed you so much! I love you" and as the words escaped her lips her mothers body slowly turned into smoke and disappeared, "no.. no.. no, no, NO! Please! Mother, NO! PLEASE COME BACK, PLEASE!" she sobbed as she gropped the air where her mother had just stood. "I LOVE YOU! PLEASE, COME BACK, DONT LEAVE ME AGAIN!", she yelled into the darkness as she fell to the floor.

"She never has to leave you again" the figure whispered over her shoulder, "would you like that?"

"Yes, please! I'll do anything you ask of me, just please bring her back…. please.." she pleaded now bowing at the figures feet.

"I will not have to, for you will be able to bring her back yourself. Take my hand." The black gauntlet extended down before her. She looked up at the masked face, with eyes of burning amethyst and slowly reached out her hand. As she laid her hand in the other, searing pain invaded her entire body and mind as if her very soul was being torn from her body. She screamed in agony as she looked down at her hands and saw they were slowly being covered in black metal, with engravings burning themselves into the metal as it inched its way over her body. "They will all fear and love us", the figure whispered in her mind. Everything turned to black as she heard a maniacal laughter and realized it was her own.