How It All Goes Down
Mandrake Root and Newt's Tongue
- When Eragon awakens, he feel relaxed. And safe. But what about Murtagh?
- Then he notices a familiar-looking cat sitting at the edge of his cave. It's our old pal Solembum!
- Ol' Sol wants Eragon to follow him.
- He follows the cat down the giant staircase. Solembum comes to a door and yowls; the door opens, and Eragon follows him in.
- There in the room he finds… Angela. Reunions everywhere!
- Angela explains that she just knew that Eragon was a Rider.
- Eragon tells her that Brom has died, and Angela says that it was Brom's fate to fail at all of his tasks (including loving a woman), save one—killing Morzan. Still, he succeeded at a pretty important task.
- Eragon's curious: What's Angela doing in Tronjheim?
- Angela says she likes to be "wherever important events are occurring" (54.24), and, anyway, Solembum would have come here with or without her. She likes his company.
- Eragon catches her up on the events she's missed out on.
- Angela warns Eragon to be careful about trusting Murtagh, and also to watch out for that nasty Shade character.
- It turns out that a Shade is actually someone who is possessed by an evil spirit—forever.
- So what's Angela doing way up here, above Tronjheim?
- She's hiding out. When she first got there, a bunch of magic users tried to get her to join their secret group, especially the Twins. She got annoyed and so she's hiding out here to avoid them.
- Eragon asks if the Twins scanned her mind like they did to him, but she says that they wouldn't dare try. She's been coming here since they were just knee-high to a grasshopper.
- And that's that. Angela ushers Eragon out, making him promise not to tell anyone that she's here.