Tensions between me and most of the Varden’s leadership stayed high since that one meeting despite Nasuada and a few others trying to smooth things over.

But Orrin had made his ultimatum and his position didn’t really allow him to backtrack without throwing his pride away, something the man seemed unwilling to do, and I wasn’t going to let others decide what I could or could not do just because they wanted to feel like they had some control of me.

So in the end I simply spent most of my time working on personal projects or with the Healer’s Guild documenting how to introduce and improve all the ideas we had come up with on creating the Guild in the first place.

I figured it would be good to have if I ever needed to repeat the whole process elsewhere and they wanted to eventually expand across the entire continent.

It was also a good way to fill the time as we marched to our next target – ironically we were headed back to Feinster, the same city I had humiliated Samuel in.

That wasn’t to say that things were uneventful though.

Roran had finally managed to marry Katrina and I had been invited as a guest. Not that I was involved much beyond most of the former Carvahall villagers making sure to stop by and thank me for helping Roran and Eragon rescue her.

It was actually a very refreshing experience simply because outside of those thanks, the villagers were more focused on the newly wed couple and Eragon so I managed to simply sit off to the side and enjoy the sights and sounds of a genuinely happy event. Something of a rarity at the moment.

I even managed to play a prank on Roran by giving him a ‘potion’ that would help him during the wedding night that had both him and Katrina almost glow red in embarrassment, much to the amusement of the villagers.

Even funnier was when several girls including Katrina cornered me asking for a similar potion only for me to reveal it was just a potion that made the drinker feel warm.

That was it.

I almost pulled something laughing at the looks Roran got that day. It seemed that no matter the setting people were still nosey as fuck about what went on in someone else’s bedroom. And apparently Roran now had a reputation.

Well, another reputation anyway.

Because he was the next one to run into the wonderful world that was politics.

Eragon was sent back east to try and speed up the election for the next Dwarven king or queen, something I only knew because Saphira wanted someone to complain to about being forced to separate from her Rider for such a long time. For everyone else, Eragon would simply be a bit more reclusive as one of his new elven guards would act as a body double.

While that was going on, Roran went out with the Varden on a few assignments and actually did fairly well for himself. Managing to complete a mission despite running into Galbatorix’s weapons, soldiers that had been magically altered to feel no pain making them remarkably similar to zombies where only headshots or bleeding out would put them down.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

It was after that, that Roran had the twin misfortunes of a commanding officer that couldn’t handle the slightest challenge to his orders or authority without handing out punishment and needing to completely disregard the man’s orders to not only save his captain’s life but the entire group.

Roran not only saved his men from being wiped out but also almost single handedly killed nearly two hundred Empire soldiers. And Captain Edric had him arrested for insubordination almost immediately after.

I didn’t hear about it until it was over, but Roran cooperated with the arrest, was brought before the Varden’s leaders, and was given the option of 30 lashes and a discharge from the Varden or 50 and that would be the end of it.

Roran took 50, and was almost immediately given command of a mixed group of Urgals and Humans and sent on another raid.

And I’ll admit, I almost decided to storm up to Nasuada and rip into her for that decision.

I’d be the first to admit I didn’t have much of a connection with Roran, but I considered Eragon a friend - if not a very close one. But still, I felt like I should at least look out for his friends and family when I could. The fact that his cousin was punished so harshly without me even knowing about it until it was too late to do anything made me feel like I failed that friendship. It was only Angela pointing out how much extra trouble me publicly arguing with Nasuada would cause when she stopped by to inform me of the whipping incident and that she had been instructed to heal Roran quite a bit before he left and the fact Edric was no longer a captain and likely wouldn’t ever be one again that stopped me.

It also helped that Roran seemed to thrive in his new role. Not only did he do well commanding his new soldiers, he even played a vital role in integrating the Urgals to the Varden as a whole. Not easy when they had a reputation for barbarism and in many cases lived up to the stereotypes.

But with a leader both the Varden and the Urgals respected, many of those issues were being resolved simply because the Urgals would follow ‘Stronghammer’ for his strength and the men would follow the cousin of a Dragon Rider that managed to command what they considered savages.

Probably not the best thing to base interspecies relations on, but if it got them through the siege and later the rest of the war I doubted many would care.

And speaking of sieges, there was a slight knock outside before Arya made her way into my tent to update me on what preliminary plans to expect since we were only about a day away from Feinster at this point.

It was nothing super surprising, instead of directly helping with the siege my job was to keep an eye out for either enemy Dragon Rider to show up and handle them as best I could.

The worst case scenario would be me fighting both of them at once but I didn’t think that was too likely. The elves had also started making their way down south out of their forest and if Galbatorix planned on seriously confronting them at all he would need to send one of his Riders to face them.

There was really just one problem.

“Any news about Eragon and Saphira?” I asked my friend.

Because, naturally, Eragon had to make things complicated.

Not only had he been attacked while the next Dwarven leader was being decided by the Az Sweldn rak Anhûin - which is why Saphira had left to join him - he had also sent a message back saying he was going to Ellesméra to briefly meet with Oromis.

And while I ‘knew’ he was going to do that, it was still hugely inconvenient trying to plan around him when I didn’t remember when he would make it back to the Varden.

He better have at least gotten me some of the brightsteel he dug up to make up for the headache.

“They’ve left the forest, but we have no idea how long it will take them to arrive.” Arya responded.

I nodded. “Hopefully they get here within a few days, because both Murtagh and Samuel being in Feinster would be disastrous. I can fight them off easily enough, but I can’t be in two places at once and their dragons are a huge mobility advantage.”

“You’re assuming both of them will be there?”

“No, but hope for the best, plan for the worst, you know?”

“True. And I suppose the only thing worse would be if Galbatorix himself came to face us.” Arya mused to which I disagreed.

“I’d actually consider that one of the better scenarios.” I said. “I’d have a chance of killing him away from his seat of power and then I could focus more of my time on getting the materials I need to leave.”

Arya looked surprised. “You truly think you could kill the Mad King alone?”

I shrugged and gave her a small smile. “Maybe not alone, but I think I’d have a pretty good chance. I finally managed to heal myself enough to have access to some of my more powerful weapons.”

I’d finally hit the point where I could Trace Noble Phantasms again.

Even if I was restricted to anything considered D tier or lower, the fact that I could Trace any of the anti-dragon weapons I suddenly had access to again was a massive trump card. One Samuel and Galbatorix would find particularly unpleasant, I hoped.

“Even if you could manage it, I’d rather you didn’t attempt to do such a thing alone.” Arya said seriously. “It’s not worth the risk.”

I simply agreed with her and promised I wouldn’t intentionally face Galbatorix on my own and then changed the subject. There were only a few hours left before we would be up to our necks in another battle, and I wanted to spend them not thinking about serious things for the moment.