While brooding over his injured hand at dinner, Eragon produces a spell to create calluses over the knuckles that will protect them from splitting in the future. He loses sleep thinking about the morality of killing people, eventually asking Arya for advice. She tells him a story about when she first became an ambassador. She was sent to the capital of Surda and met a band of Urgals just past the Beor Mountains; the Urgals were outnumbered, and Arya made her first kill. Later, when she realized she was dwelling on her negative feelings despite feeling she had acted justly, she pictured herself in a calm place—for her, the Tialdari Gardens. Arya suggests he find inner peace through breathing. As for the Urgals, despite previous negative encounters she believes Nasuada made the right choice by inviting them to join the Varden after Nar Garzhvog’s offer of support. They love war, but they are not inherently evil.

Arya continues to unburden her grief to Eragon, and the two connect physically in the context of comfort—after a minute, the elf is ready to separate. Eragon creates a lily to please her, but the strength he uses saps him and she suggests he turn to the supply in his sapphire ring, Aren, which is something he has not done before.