“…I, Eragon, first Rider of the Varden, Shadeslayer and Argetlam, give you my blade and my fealty, Nasuada, until Galbatorix is removed and a fair leader is appointed in his place.”

Well, at least he took some of my advice. I mused as the new leader of the Varden was sworn in.

The meeting with the Council hadn’t lasted long after the last two arrived. In fact it barely lasted another five minutes before Nasuada accepted and the meeting broke up. Though the new leader had managed to get Eragon to remain behind and presumably secure his fealty despite my warning to wait.

Arya had not been happy but besides the deathgrip on Eragon’s hormones -that she was not going to lower herself to use- she really had no way to influence the situation. And I hadn’t seen the Rider since the meeting a few days prior.

So now she was standing beside me with a blank expression as the amphitheater shook with the cheers of the Varden as Nasuada accepted the oath.

“I guess that means we will need to leave soon.” I commented to the raven haired elf. “The Council was just denied their toy, and like the spoiled children they are, they will try to throw a tantrum.”

“We?”

“Well of course I’m coming with you.” I said blithely. “Someone needs to keep him from killing himself and I suspect you’ll be too busy with your mother to watch him all the time. The dwarves will no doubt choose someone as well, but let’s be honest, anyone they send won’t be much of a factor.”

Arya stiffened at the mention of her mother. “How do you…”

“Know who your mother is?” I interrupted. “I have my ways. That and Angela has some very interesting things to say if you can ignore the insane tangents that woman brings up.” A small misdirection that had the intended effect of making Arya assume the witch was the one who told me. Her reputation for just knowing things and turning up at odd places was very useful.

“You play a dangerous game. And I have no reason to allow this, Eragon would be perfectly safe among us.”

I shrugged minutely. “You can try and stop me, I suppose. But someone needs to keep an eye out on the curse he has on his back. And unless you have gotten significantly better in the past couple days, I am the best healer around.”

Arya’s lips narrowed into a fine line. “Then we will be happy to have you along.”

The whole conversation brought up some nostalgic feelings of how Yoruichi used to pester me, each of us too stubborn to give in unless we had to. Too bad for her, Arya had nothing on the ex-Squad Two Captain and this truly wasn’t the time or place to get in an argument. So the elf folded fairly fast even though I’m sure she could have put up a better fight if I wasn’t taking cheapshots at her.

Maybe that would change later.

I kinda missed the flighty assassin and it would be nice to find a similar relationship here. Even if it would be weird that I would be the more playful of us.

“Don’t worry, I won’t slow you down any. Though I would like to discuss magic with you. Who knows? Maybe we can both learn something. Never worked with an animancer before.”

She just hummed noncommittally and we both went back to observing the ceremony.

-o-

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Nasuada asked for a meeting not long afterwards.

Despite my obvious desire to stay out of Varden politics, I was still widely regarded as a hero by the troops for my actions during the battle. Something only reinforced by my actions after it as well.

It’s hard not to spread rumors about the woman who held off an army with magic and then turned around and spent days healing the wounded. I probably would have been following the rumors myself in other circumstances.

So that meant the new leader of the Varden had to at least know my opinions about certain things or she ran the risk of having a fracture in her followers if I made my displeasure known. And she didn’t have an oath of fealty from me to tell me to shut up about any disagreements.

So I soon found myself outside of what used to be her father’s office, with far more guards than previously, waiting to be let in.

To her credit, Nasuada didn’t have me wait long and I’m ushered inside not long after I got there.

Not much had changed since the last time I had been in here, a small vase of flowers is probably the biggest change. Nasuada was seated at her father’s desk still wearing black mourning clothes, silently observing me as I took a chair.

“I admit I don’t know what to make of you, Lady Lightbringer.” She said softly after some time. “You are the most powerful magician I have ever heard of besides an elf or a Rider, you treat priceless secrets as worthless things to be shared among healers, and you fight ferociously to remain independent from being a part of the Varden. And yet, no one has ever heard of you before you arrived with Eragon, Murtagh, and Arya. You effortlessly claimed leadership of nine out of ten healers with an ease that tells me you are used to being in charge. But when you had the chance to take control of the Varden - and do not think I did not hear them calling your name alongside Shadeslayer - you said nothing.”

“Is there a question in all of that?” I asked her with a slight smile.

“What do you want, Lady Lightbringer? What can the Varden offer you to ensure you support our cause?”

My smile widened. Just like her father, she was very direct. No obvious flattery, no toadying to my ego. Just a straightforward admittal she had no idea what my game was and what could she do to make sure I didn’t cause trouble.

She would definitely make a decent leader if she got the support she needed.

Unfortunately…

“There is nothing the Varden can do. The minute I have what I need I’ll leave.” Well, probably not the exact minute. The only way I was getting my hands on enough brightsteel was going to be after Galbatorix was taken care of. Which meant I would probably be healing the aftermath of that battle. “As for what I want…”

A brilliant red blade shimmered into existence between us.

“You want Eragon’s sword?” Nasuada did a good job of hiding any fear at the sudden display of magic under the confusion in her voice.

“Not quite.” The single sword becomes four.

“I don’t understand.”

That’s fair. And I am being deliberately unhelpful at the moment.

Partly because I’m trying to give Nasuada the image that I’m going to do things my own way no matter who she is, partly because I’m having fun before I spend weeks in the company of extremely literal elves.

“Every Rider sword is made of an incredible metal. One that I need for a very important project. Apparently the only way I am going to get enough is to acquire three or four swords and melt them down.”

“Three or four…? No one has that many Rider blades! And they certainly would not let you melt them down!”

I shrugged. “I figured that out the first few days I was here. Which means I will be around until I figure out where to find some.”

We sat in silence for a bit as Nasuada absorbed the information. I’m not entirely sure what she was taking away from that little speech because I wasn’t asking for help. Just stating facts.

Eventually she just decides it’s something to think about later and moves on to the next topic.

“I’m planning on moving the Varden to Surda.” I nodded along because I already knew that would happen. “The dwarves won’t be able to support us much longer and recruits from the Empire are few and far between.”

“So you’ll send Eragon to the elves while you are moving.”

“Yes, he needs to get stronger before he faces Galbatorix.” She replies with narrowed eyes.

“I agree with you. Also I’ll be going with him to make sure his injury doesn’t worsen.”

“Is that a possibility?” More points to her, she is more worried about Eragon as a person than his status as a Rider.

“It’s unlikely.” I admitted. “But the Shade left a pretty potent curse on the wound. If I was at my best I might be able to do something about it. But that will take some time.”

“You were wounded during the battle?”

I shook my head. “No, it's an older injury from before I arrived at these mountains. Not to worry though, it’s healing pretty well and I should be able to access my full magic soon enough.”

“...your full…” Nasuada went pale enough that I could see it, despite her dark complexion. Yet at the same time she seemed a bit more hopeful than before. I suppose she would be excited, an already strong mage working on her side was only going to get stronger.

“Well then, I hope you recover soon. As for you accompanying Eragon, I have no objections. Though Hrothgar will probably demand a representative to observe his training as well.”

“I already mentioned the possibility to Arya. She didn’t seem against the idea.”

We continued planning for a while before I took my leave.

I had a trip to pack for.