A Wandering Soul [Multicross OC] [Currently in: RWBY]

[Azura]

Rider 3.2

"Well…" Eragon let out a long breath as we watched a procession of humans disappear over a distant hill. Considering what we just watched, I couldn't blame him for seeming a little disturbed.

"Well what?" Roran grunted, significantly less composed than his cousin.

"I've traveled among both dwarves and elves, and nothing they did was ever as strange as what those people, those humans, do."

I snorted at the comment. "Never underestimate the capacity for insanity an intelligent creature has, especially if religion or belief is involved. I'm sure both the dwarves and elves have plenty of examples that would turn your stomachs just as much as what we just saw."

I'm not sure I was comfortable with the fact that I was relatively unbothered watching a bunch of priests ritually bleed themselves on an altar, drink human blood, and celebrate when one of their members volunteered to hack off his own right hand, but to be fair…it was far from the worst thing I had seen.

And it was going to take a lot to top Akihiro Kanou's basement of horrors.

"You've seen something worse?" Eragon asked, his curiosity piqued.

"There's a religion out there that believed the sun was the embodiment of their god." I didn't feel like explaining anything I had seen personally and the Aztecs were a good example of how far some crazy fanatics would go without needing to explain too much. "He was locked in an eternal battle with his sister, the moon, and where everyone would perish if he lost because if he did the moon and the stars would devour everything."

"That doesn't sound too strange…"

"Well, he was also empowered by blood, so everyday a priest would cut out the heart of a living sacrifice in front of the entire city to ensure their god would have the strength needed to continue to protect them."

"Sounds monstrous," Roran said. "How could people let them do that?"

I shrugged. "It wasn't monstrous to them. To be a sacrifice was actually considered a great honor, where that person would be sent to an afterlife in paradise or to join the sun god's army against the darkness. Good luck trying to convince them to stop if it meant the destruction of everything if they did."

"Monstrous. Maybe even worse than the Ra'zac." Roran repeated and turned to Eragon. "But that's not important right now. The priests and any magicians among them are gone. Can you search for Katrina now?"

"I'll try, but be ready to run." Eragon said, closing his eyes and presumably trying to locate Roran's finance.

I had to admit I was jealous how easily animancers like him were able to detect things over vast distances. While I hadn't really needed to yet, the only spell I had that was remotely similar required dedicated hardware that I simply couldn't make here.

"I think I found her." The Rider said eventually. "It's hard to be certain because Helgrind is so far away and I've never touched her mind, but I think she is in that peak, concealed somewhere near the very top."

That made sense considering what I knew of the Ra'zac.

Not much was ever really explained about whatever race the Mad King's servants were really called. Apparently they were natural predators of humans in this world which had followed after Eragon's ancestors when they migrated to Alagaësia and despite some avian characteristics, their life cycle had more in common with a butterfly or a moth than a bird.

When they were young, they could somewhat pass as human by hiding under thick clothes and avoiding showing anyone their faces. But when they became adults they somehow morphed into something called a Lethrblaka, a giant hairless creature that sounded like a weird chimera of a bird, a naked mole rat, and a dragon.

I wasn't looking forward to coming face to face with those things.

Roran, of course, had other concerns. "Is she sick? Is she injured? Blast it, Eragon, don't hide it from me; have they hurt her?"

"She is not in pain at the moment. More than that, I could not say." Eragon replied. "It took all my strength just to make out the glow of her consciousness. I wasn't able to communicate with her." A troubled look crossed his face as he stared up at the bare mountain in the distance. "What I didn't find were the Ra'zac or the Lethrblaka. Even if I somehow overlooked the Ra'zac, their parents are so large their lifeforce should blaze like a thousand lanterns, even as Saphira's does. Aside from Katrina and a few other dim specks of light, Helgrind is black, black, black."

"Unless they are being hidden from you." I pointed out. "The Ra'zac managed to ambush you and Brom despite his experience. It might be a spell or even just a natural trait for them, but we should treat the situation like we expect them to be there waiting for us."

"It doesn't matter if they're there or not." Roran said lowly. "It doesn't make sense for us to attack tonight. Night is when the Ra'zac are strongest, and if they are nearby, it would be stupid to fight them when we are at a disadvantage. Agreed?"

"Yes."

"So, we wait until dawn." Roran gestured to the pair of slaves the priests had left behind, chained to the blood covered altar, as a sacrifice. "If those poor wretches are gone by then, we know the Ra'zac are here, and we proceed as planned. If not, we curse our bad luck that they've escaped us, free the slaves, rescue Katrina, and get back to the Varden before the King's agents can hunt us down. Either way, I doubt the Ra'zac will leave Katrina unattended for long, not if Galbatorix wants her to survive so he can use her as a tool against me."

Not a very complex plan, but good enough for me and Eragon. So with nothing else to do for now, the three of us headed back to the camp where Saphira was waiting for us, hidden under an illusionary bounded field on the off chance someone wandered out this far and saw the giant blue flying lizard.

-o-

Despite being woken up several times through the night thanks to Roran and Eragon - and even Saphira, on occasion - acting like teenagers on a camping trip, I was up and ready just before dawn. Eragon and Roran were also up and armored, ready to head out any minute. Saphira hadn't actually been unsaddeled, so she was also ready to go.

So after one final check anything that wasn't needed was abandoned in the camp and I made one final check on the thick bundle of cloth in one of Saphira's bags and made sure it was still undamaged. It was critical to our escape plan after all.

Nothing was wrong with it though, so I simply placed it back in the bag and made sure the quick release string holding it in place wasn't slipping but still able to detach in a hurry if Saphira needed to fight something.

And with that taken care of, the four of us were in the air heading towards the peak of Helgrind.

-o-

As it turns out? Galbatorix wasn't an idiot.

Most of the Ra'zac and Lethrblaka had been hunted down before the Rider's Fall but even with all of them dead, he didn't skimp out on defending his favorite hunter's lair.

The sheer height and steepness of the mountain would have stopped most people from finding it, but that was only the first half. The King had actually used the same method I had on occasion – like on the camp last night – and hid the entrance behind an illusion.

Honestly, I wasn't even sure how Eragon and Saphira found the right spot because one minute we were aimlessly circling the mountain, and the next we were flying straight at what looked like a solid stone wall.

Thankfully for all of us, it actually was an illusion and we flew into a cave rather than getting splattered on a rock face. Still, I was going to have words with the two of them later. Either one could have warned us with a thought!

"Warn me before you do something like that again." Roran had no issues letting his cousin know he wasn't pleased either. But that was all we had time for as everyone looked around for any signs of our enemy.

We were definitely in the right place.

While there was absolutely nothing in the initial cavern, the stone floor was covered in a mat of scratches from something with claws roughly the size of Saphira's all over. Coupled with the several dark tunnels along the walls leading into the mountain and who knows where else, this was clearly the home of something big and predatory.

The smell certainly gave that away.

Keeping an eye on the tunnels I leaned forward over Eragon's shoulder. "Can you sense anything?"

He silently shook his head.

Not that that really meant anything. Like I had mentioned yesterday, the Ra'zac could have been naturally undetectable or hidden by Galbatorix somehow. In fact there were probably wards tied to the entrance that would let them know if something other than them entered this cave so if they were here – and the fact the slaves were missing on the way here hinted they were – they were probably waiting in ambush deeper inside.

Or watching us right now from one of the tunnels…

With that thought sticking in the back of my mind I quickly dismounted Saphira by dismissing the projected straps while Eragon and Roran worked on their own. I hadn't really fought them on using projections rather than the actual straps, despite my projections being stronger and more convenient, because I thought it wouldn't matter much in the end.

I was regretting that choice now.

I landed softly on the scarred floor before either of the other two were more than halfway out of the straps and stared at the tunnels for any sign of movement.

Nothing.

Okay, looks like we had a bit of time then. I that case, I needed–

It turns out it didn't matter what I needed. As if to mock my previous thoughts, Eragon and Saphira's heads jerked up at an unknown sound. I reflexively Reinforced my ears to catch the tail end of what sounded like a bunch of clicks and possibly the sound of claws digging into stone. Half a second later, a massive shape rushed out towards Saphira.

I had a brief moment to spot a long spear-like beak, black beetle-like eyes, and disturbingly fleshy body before the two giants collided.

Eragon and Roran were sent flying through the air at the impact and I managed to dive out of the way to avoid being crushed under Saphira's bulk. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to dodge completely as the Lethrblaka's flailing tail caught me under the ribs and flung me into a wall.

My head hit rock and the world vanished in a flash of white.

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[Azura]

Rider 3.3

[Roran POV]

At some point the world had stopped making sense. Unlike most from Carvahall, Roran knew exactly when it did so, during the weeks after he left for a job in Therinsford and his cousin discovered one of the few remaining dragon's eggs left in the world.

A lot had happened after that.

The death of his father, hiding in the Spine to escape the Empire's soldiers hunting for him, Katrina's kidnapping, and then leading the rest of the villagers away from their home and certain death to find the Varden. All in hope of letting the people that put their trust in him find a new home and for him to find his cousin to help get Katrina back.

Roran didn't know what he was expecting when he finally met Eragon again. Part of him was expecting something out of one of old Brom's stories, a towering hero straight out of legend. Part was just expecting Eragon, the same daydreaming boy with an almost unceasing amount of questions he had grown up with.

In reality…he got something of a mix.

Even ignoring the physical changes Eragon certainly acted differently, calmer than Roran had ever thought possible, but underneath that he was still the same person. Still Roran's family. It gave him confidence because truth be told? While Roran had accepted that he could die trying to rescue his beloved, never once did he consider Eragon might also. Not after seeing him walk off the battlefield.

Then Alexandria, a magician that even a Dragon Rider admitted he couldn't match in whatever sorcery they used, was killed in the first few seconds of the fight after being run over by a creature the size of a small hut.

Roran had known people killed by a stray kick from a mule, let alone a strike so hard the stone wall behind her broke as well.

Regrettably he didn't have time to worry about the fallen magician, not with the Ra'zac finally making an appearance.

Roran grit his teeth at the two creatures responsible for his father's death and staggered to his feet to meet them.

Before he could, both of them were forced to step aside as a great ball of fire shot towards them, driving them apart while Eragon rushed to his side and stood back to back.

"Hold them off for a minute." His cousin shouted before chanting in that magical language of his.

"Hope you know what you're doing, Eragon." Roran couldn't help but comment as he did his best to cover both Ra'zac coming to attack.

He tightly clenched his hammer and swung at the shrouded creature closest to him.

Just like the time in Carvahall the damned thing was weirdly quick. It jerked back to avoid the blow and struck as quickly as a snake. Roran was lucky enough to catch the creature's blade on his wooden shield.

The Ra'zac leaned closer and while Eragon's magics protected him against the weakening powers of the Ra'zac's breath, it did nothing against the smell. Roran felt his nose burn at the scent of fetid and rotten meat.

"Ffffoooollss," The creature hissed. "Weee will enjoy sssucking the marrow from your bonesss!"

Roran didn't bother replying. He was too busy trying to fend off the two of them.

Time and time again, their weapons struck against his shield and armor or missed cutting his skin and face by a hairs-breadth while he tried to smash their limbs or body with his hammer.

Seconds passed like minutes as he did his best to hit the unnatural creatures, but it was in vain. He was simply too slow but as long as he bought enough time for Eragon to finish whatever he was attempting it would be enough. Then the smaller of the two lunged for his face even as he caught its blade on his shield again.

Remembering the feeling of the Ra'zac's beaklike mouth cutting through his shoulder muscles, Roran tried to back away. That turned out to be a mistake. The Ra'zac ripped its sword from his shield and quickly stabbed at his leg.

He expected another thud of pain as Eragon's protective magic stopped the blades from cutting him, but he still felt some of the impact. Instead there was a scream of pain and the feeling of something wet and hot splashing on his leg.

Roran paused, expecting to feel where the blade pierced him, when he realized he wasn't the one that cried out. Instead, the smaller of the Ra'zac pulled away clutching at its forearm where an arrow had pierced through it. Roran barely had time to wonder where the missile came from before something passed close enough to his cheek to tickle and another arrow appeared in the Ra'zac's shoulder.

Then Eragon finished his chant and one of the massive beasts his dragon was fighting began to flail randomly like it could no longer see.

"Pay attention Roran!" The voice of the impossibly still alive Alexandria called out to him.

He refocused on the Ra'zac and did his best to support Eragon, but as the fight went on it was clear he was mostly just in the way. The two enemies did their best to get at Eragon while using him to hide from Alexandria's arrows, occasionally taking a stab at him just to make sure he couldn't attack one when they were distracted.

That didn't mean the battle was going against them.

Eragon managed to get a few hits in with the staff he had brought. He hadn't managed to kill either of them yet, but they were definitely wounded. Especially the smaller one since it had gained a third arrow lodged in its body at some point with the larger only sprouting one.

The real turning point came when Roran moved to intercept a blow and misstepped into one of the gashes covering the floor. His ankle twisted, and unable to support his full weight, he ended up falling to the ground. Unwilling to be an easy target, Roran rolled with the fall and readied his shield just in time to see Eragon strike the larger Ra'zac over the head with his staff and fell it.

Before any of them could make a move, a deafening roar filled the cave and Roran turned to see Eragon's dragon standing victoriously over the corpse of one of the bigger monsters. Apparently Alexandria had been assisting there as well because Roran could see even more, larger arrows sticking out of it as well, including one that seemed to have penetrated one of its eyes.

The second leather-whatsit didn't hesitate. It immediately tackled the blue dragon towards the lip of the cave before both of them went over the edge, fighting each other the whole way. Though judging from Eragon's reaction - besides an initial start - Saphira was still fine.

The last remaining Ra'zac finally decided that there was no way to win this battle and to just run. That didn't stop it from deciding to take at least one of them out and directing a flurry of blows at Roran faster than he could react. One he got lucky on and managed to block with his shield, the second bounced off his helm leaving his head ringing, but the third finally broke the web of magic Eragon had cast and cut through his chainmail and deep into his thigh. He gasped as his leg buckled under him and twisted so he rolled a bit rather than just fall on his face.

As he scrambled back to his feet, he looked up just in time to see another impossibly accurate arrow sprout from the hollow of the fleeing Ra'zac's knee, causing it to trip to the ground. A strange calm fell over Roran even as his blood seemed to burn with purpose.

For the first time in this battle, his enemy was vulnerable.

Roran shoved himself to his feet, ignoring any pain the movement caused him, and leapt at the fallen figure with his hammer raised high. With a wordless bellow he brought it down once, twice, three times with all his strength. With each blow something cracked and then it was done.

The Ra'zac were dead.

"Roran, your side." Eragon's words broke whatever spell Roran was under as his body suddenly reminded him of every bump and bruise he had just collected, to say nothing about his more serious wounds.

"The other one?" He demanded, just to be sure.

"Dead."

"Good riddance. Can you do something about this?" Roran asked, gesturing at the cut on his thigh.

While Eragon poked at his wound Roran turned to the third member of their group, the one he was convinced had died after getting hit by something nearly the size of his cousin's dragon into a solid rock wall, yet, seemed completely fine if not a little scuffed from the experience.

"Thank you." He told her. He wasn't stupid. That last arrow could easily have been put through the fleeing Ra'zac's heart if she wanted, but she had crippled it instead and gave him a chance at revenge at the same time.

Alexandria just waved him off. "We ready to go?" She asked instead, looking at Eragon.

"Yes," Eragon nodded, rising to his feet. "I don't sense anyone else nearby but I've locked the door to Katrina's cell. Only one of us can open it now."

"Great, then let's find her and get out of here. I don't like the feel of this place."

-o-

The more the three of them walked the dark halls of Helgrind the more Roran agreed with the female magician. There was something evil about this mountain. Something that seemed eager to trap them within its tunnels and never let them leave.

Even with the magical lighting from both Eragon and Alexandria, Roran would have been hopelessly lost after a few turns let alone the winding path that Eragon was leading them down.

But despite that Roran could only focus on one thing…every step he took brought him closer to Katrina.

Soon enough they were standing in a rough hallway with ironbound doors on both sides. The only thing stopping him from running to the first one and ripping it off its hinges was the knowledge Eragon already knew where Katrina was.

"Where?" He did his best to not sound impatient. He was also sure he failed.

"Ninth down, on the right." Eragon informed him. "You two go get her. I'll check on the other cells. The Ra'zac might have left something interesting in them."

Roran didn't wait a second longer, though that didn't stop him from noticing the suspicious look Alexandria as she passed by. That wasn't important now though.

"Can you open it?" He asked the Magician.

"Yeah, just give me a sec." She replied, placing a hand on the lock and closing her eyes.

Roran shifted from foot to foot in impatience and almost shoved her aside to just start hammering at the hinges himself when Alexandria opened her eyes again and held up a hand. In a flash of light a key materialized in her hand from thin air. "Care to do the honors?" She asked, holding it out to him. He took it and was through the door before he realized he even moved.

"Let me alone, you toothless bastards! I–"

Roran felt his heart flutter at the sound of her voice, regardless of the anger in it. And he couldn't keep the smile off his face as she stopped, stunned at the sight of him. She was pale from the lack of sun and covered in filth, but Roran had never seen a more beautiful sight than seeing her alive and unharmed.

Then she smiled at him. A tender, joyous thing that took his breath away.

"You came."

"I came."

Did she think he wouldn't? He had been ready to burn the Empire down when she was taken. How to get her back was one of the only things he could think about for weeks. None of that mattered now though, not with Katrina right here. She reached out to touch him and he pulled her into his embrace. Trying to tell her through his actions she was safe now since this throat had suddenly closed up, unable to speak past the joyous sobs that threatened to break free.

"You grew a beard."

Of all the things she could have said.

The light chuckling from behind told him that Eragon, apparently done with his task, agreed.

"Eragon? Is that you?"

"Aye."

"He's a Dragon Rider now." Roran explained.

"A Rider?!"

"As much as I would like to let you all catch up. We need to leave." Alexandria broke in. "Saphira is waiting for us back by the entrance. Eragon? Could you do something about her chains?"

"Wait! What about my father? Did you find him?"

"I'm sorry…we were too late."

Katrina slumped in Roran's arms and he did his best to support her, but at the same time he felt very little sympathy for Sloan's fate. The butcher might have been Katrina's father, but he was also responsible for telling the Empire about Eragon discovering his Dragon's egg which led to his father's death – something he might have eventually forgiven since Sloan had no way of knowing what the egg really was, but when the soldiers came to hunt down Roran, Sloan had eventually betrayed them, murdered one of the men on nightwatch, and allowed the soldiers to attack the village undetected while he kidnapped his daughter to escape alone.

"So be it." Katrina said eventually.

After freeing Katrina and checking her for spells or compulsions, something Eragon insisted on doing immediately, the four of them returned to the entrance where Saphira was waiting for them.

Seeing daylight again after what felt like hours underground was a relief only slightly dampened by the revelation that Kartina hadn't seen the light for so long she feared she was going blind. Thankfully Alexandria conjured a pair of heavily tinted glasses so Katrina could avoid tripping.

While Roran and Eragon introduced her to the Dragon, Alexandria busied herself retrieving and unraveling the cloth she had packed before they left. Just looking at it knowing what was about to happen caused a sour feeling to appear in his stomach but he did his best to not show it for Katrina's sake.

"Alright boys and girls, gather round. For Katrina's sake I'll explain what's about to happen." Alexandria announced once she was satisfied with the layout of the cloth. "This fabric has a teleportation circle knit into it that is paired to one back with the Varden's army. All you have to do is stand in the middle and I'll do the rest." She explained. "Eragon? You and Saphira are up first."

"Roran and Katrina should go." Eragon argued. "They are the ones most at risk if something happens and we need to return some other way."

Alexandria narrowed her eyes at him, possibly insulted by the thought her magic would fail but simply nodded.

Roran guided Katrina to the middle of the circle and held her close.

"Okay, three, two…on-"

There was a flash of yellow light and a pulling feeling that caused Kartina to scream next to him but even as he rushed to steady her, Roran noticed that Alexandria had actually managed it. They had gone from a barren cave to one of the Varden's large tents in a heartbeat.

Roran finally allowed himself to relax fully for the first time in weeks and felt like a huge weight had fallen from his shoulders. Katrina was finally rescued and the Ra'zac were dead. They had accomplished everything they had set out to do and survived.

He gently moved Katrina off the circle so the others could come through, already making plans for what needed to be done. Katrina would need to see a healer at least. And then they needed to find Horst and the rest of the villagers and tell them the good news…

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[Azura]

Rider 3.4

I knew Eragon was going to be a pain in the ass the second Roran and his fiance were teleported away.

He wasn't exactly a master of subterfuge and I had months of practice dealing with a bored Yoruichi. I knew the signs of someone gearing up to do something incredibly frustrating to me and running off before anyone could retaliate.

So before I did anything else I tossed a handful of the gems I used to make the illusionary bounded field for our camp the other night to hide the entrances back into the mountain. It wouldn't actually stop him – the fields were only strong enough to show an image and put up some very slight resistance to anything moving through them – but it stopped him from rabbiting long enough for Saphira to realize something was wrong and pin her Rider underfoot.

"So Eragon," I said calmly to the trapped teenager. "Any particular reason you looked like you were about to run off when we are leaving?"

"L-look, I can't leave yet." Eragon stuttered as he tried and failed to push the very unimpressed dragon off his chest. "Think about what the Ra'zac had here in Helgrind! Potions, scrolls, information about the Empire's activities – things that could help us!" He tried to dislodge Saphira again. "We can't let Galbatorix recover those and you and Saphira can't stay here, so I'll stay behind and–"

"Figure out what to do with Katrina's father?" I interrupted.

Honestly, I had completely forgotten about the man. He wasn't exactly important outside of his relationships to Roran and the others from Carvahall. I likely never would have remembered he existed if Katrina hadn't asked about him.

I'm not exactly sure how either one accepted Eragon's word he was dead because the Rider was a terrible liar.

My guess Katrina was too distraught by her own captivity and Roran just didn't give a damn if he was dead or not.

It was only thanks to Eragon that I remembered the man was the reason the Rider stayed behind in the Empire out of some sense of responsibility and his desire to not execute a man when he was helpless or something like that. A little weird considering Sloan was condemned to death thanks to his betrayal that led to him being held captive in the first place but for once I wasn't going to judge too harshly.

While he had killed dozens of normal soldiers in the last battle, if he didn't want to kill a man off the battlefield then that was his line and I'd do my best to accept it.

I wasn't about to support his nonexistent plan to not kill Sloan, but I could respect his choice.

"How–?"

"You aren't that good a liar." I replied. "But that doesn't matter right now. All you need to worry about is getting you and Saphira onto the teleportation circle and getting back to the Varden."

"Alexandra…I can't let Katrina or Roran see him, and I can't just leave him to die. I have to deal with this."

I shook my head. "I get it, you don't want to be an executioner. But the deal was once the Ra'zac were dealt with and Katrina was rescued, you and Saphira go right back to the Varden. I might not take my word as seriously as most of you, but I do try to keep it when I can. So onto the circle with you, I'll deal with Katrina's father."

Eragon continued to protest, but there wasn't much he could do as his Dragon refused to let him go and moved over to the teleportation circle.

"Right, here we go. Three, two…"

"I don't think so. I didn't say you could leave yet." An annoyingly familiar voice said behind me as a streak of red whizzed past and hit the corner of the tarp Saphira was standing on.

I panicked a little seeing the tarp starting to go up in flames but managed to trigger the spell safely. In a flash Eragon and Saphira were both teleported to the Varden and I was alone with the newcomer.

I turned, and just as I suspected, saw a rather stunned Samuel standing at the entrance to one of the other tunnels going into the mountain.

"Bastard…"

"How did you do that!" He interrupted me. "None of you knew I was here. You didn't move. None of you cast a spell, so how did you deflect mine?!"

Deflect?

I snuck a glance at the still burning tarp behind me.

Ah, so Samuel had tried to hit me in the back as part of his big entrance. Either kill or wound me, gloat about it, and then try and capture Eragon and Saphira. Only to miss because of the slight distortions caused by the bounded field I used on the tunnels to stop Eragon from running off.

I snorted.

Because that meant he was already inside and had been watching while we'd been sending Roran and Katrina ahead and deliberately waited just so he could make a more dramatic entrance.

"I didn't do anything. You just have bad aim."

"Liar!" Samuel snapped before he forcibly calmed himself down. "But that's fine. Bring them back and I'll consider sparing your life. Or don't and I'll just use you as bait. The Hero can't just leave you to die right?"

"Well, can't do that. Circle was one way only and even if it wasn't the other side is useless now that this one is destroyed." I said as the tarp finished burning. I wasn't really bothered telling him about the 'design flaw' of the teleportation circles. I was the only one that could make and use the things anyway so it wasn't like he would be able use the info for anything anyway. Hell, it might send Galbatorix down a rabbit hole trying to recreate what I did if I was lucky. "And use me as bait? Pretty arrogant considering how our last fight went. How's the hand treading you by the way? I'm impressed you managed to grow it back so quickly."

"Grrrr. You can't use that laser gun without bringing the roof down on our heads and I know how you fight now. This time will be different." He snarled, drawing a normal looking steel sword and pointing it at me.

"Yeah, you're right." I agreed with him as I traced Kanshou and Bakuya and leapt forward.

"This time I'm not running on fumes." I snarled as our blades collided.

-o-

As much as I'd like to say I easily crushed the bastard, he was still putting up a good fight and he was right about me being afraid to use anything too powerful for fear of causing a collapse.

Of course he had the same issues to some extent. He couldn't reshape the ground or use those giant rock summons like last time, but that didn't stop his more insubstantial attacks like giant waves of fire and such. At least he did the few times he was able to get distance from me. Most of the time I was too close for him to attempt that without hitting himself.

"How are you even here anyway?" I complained as Bakuya cut a notch into Samuel's sword while Kanshou glanced off his helmet. "Shouldn't you be on your way to get your ass chewed out by the king?"

"You're not the only one who thought about teleportation. If the elf bitch can move an egg across the whole damn kingdom, a couple dragons can move me here." The bastard growled as he tried impaling me from behind with a rock spike. A trio of greatswords stabbed into the ground, forming an impromptu shield while I considered his answer.

It was certainly possible. Originally, the whole secret to Murtagh suddenly having enough power to rival Eragon despite being completely human was the fact Galbatorix had collected a number of magic gems that naturally grew inside dragons that let their minds survive after their bodies died and let them retain their magic. I forgot the name of them at the moment, but using a few of those as a battery to teleport a few days' travel by dragonback wasn't a stretch.

He probably appeared at the bottom of Helgrind somewhere and made his way up after he saw Saphira fly out to hunt down the second Lethrblaka. But…

"Yeah? So what took you so long then? Galby's going to be pissed you let his toy bugs die."

I had the pleasure to see Samuel actually shiver at the thought of that.

"You– You bitch! It's all your fault!" He snarled as he hacked at my leg. I jumped over the strike and stabbed down from above but he rolled away before I could land a hit. A wall of earth rose up to block the projected daggers I shot after him. "Eragon was supposed to be captured at the Burning Plains, if you hadn't interfered none of this would have happened!"

So that was why nothing had changed even though Samuel had to have known about this mission.

Both him and Galbatorix expected Eragon and Saphira to be out of play, so there was no reason to change anything to try and trap them. Samuel had likely realized he could try and worm out of punishment by catching us all here and then fucked up out of arrogance.

"Well, good news then! If I kill you here you don't need to worry about getting punished!" I taunted as Zangetsu made a brief appearance to demolish the wall before fading back into blue particles.

Hozukimaru speared through the gap and almost between Samuel's visor, but he managed to block the spear with the same hand I cut off last time and deflect it at the last second.

"Bitch!" He snarled as he ripped the blade out of his palm and I noticed something strange.

His hand wasn't bleeding.

Before I could question that little mystery Samuel surprised me by throwing the increasingly chipped and broken sword he'd been using at my face.

"Giving up already?" I taunted as I parried the thrown blade. But internally I was on guard for a trap.

"You wish, blonde bitch." He snapped. "I know I can't beat you with that trash weapon, but I just realized something…"

"You're a dumbass edgelord working for the bad guys because putting in effort is hard?" I guessed.

"As much as I'd like to get some payback for fucking up my plans, I realized it doesn't matter as long as you're dead." He continued as if I hadn't said anything. "Also between the two of us, I can teleport whenever I want–" I flinched as the entrance to the Ra'zac's cave we initially flew through collapsed suddenly, only the lingering fires from Samuel's attacks giving us light. "– and you needed that drawing. So yeah, I can't beat you. I can drop a mountain on your head though."

As he spoke the entire cave shook and bits of rock rained down from above. He really was going to bring the whole place down!

"Don't worry though, I'll be sure to tell the Varden we're taking good care of you somewhere safe. Maybe we'll get another shot at Eragon that way." He said smugly before vanishing in a burst of red light.

Something in the ceiling shifted, and then everything came crashing down.

-o-

It took me several hours, but I eventually managed to dig myself out of the rubble by chipping away at the rock while reinforcing my slowly expanding tunnel in a cage of swords. Once I felt the cool breeze from the outside air I was more confident in my digging and soon enough I was free.

I looked out from the ruined mountaintop into the setting sun.

"So…what do I do now?"
—-------------------------
AN: Dear god, this chapter fought me. Not satisfied with it at all but sometimes them's the breaks…

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[Azura]

Rider 3.5

At the end of the day, I really only had two choices.

Head back to the Varden on foot.

Head into the Empire on my own.

And between the two, I found myself wandering northward instead of heading back to my allies.

I could make up reasons or excuses why I decided not to head back as quickly as possible but most of it boiled down to one simple reason. I didn't actually need the Varden for anything right now.

Sure they were a great help at providing a basic workshop for me to experiment and make a variety of mystic codes as needed, not to mention getting the materials I asked for, but I had long passed the point where I was actually doing anything new. If I wanted to make new or better tools, I needed better methods to manufacture them with. Purer metals, better instruments, things like that. And none of that could be easily made in the middle of a marching army.

If I needed a comparison, I was a hobbyist that had maxed out what could be done with random tools in a basement or garage. I would need a dedicated shop with a professional setup to push myself further and that wasn't happening without more time and effort than I was willing to invest.

Which is why I wasn't in a hurry to return.

Sure I could go back, keep trying to stay out of internal politics and hope that I came across the swords I needed to get the Horizon fixed at some point…

…or I could go looking around some major cities without having to fight through the walls since Samuel, and by extension Galbatorix, thought I was dead and weren't likely to be on the lookout for me.

Besides, I'd taken a tour of a few fantasy Dwarven and Elven cities. Why not check out the evil human Empire and see if it had any cities that stacked up?

I was avoiding the closest city of Dras-Leona though. I really didn't want to see a place where people worshiped the practice of amputating parts of themselves.
-o-

Of course that didn't mean I could reach another major city just because I decided to.

The next closest city after Dras-Leona was Uru'baen, the capital of the Empire and Galbatorix's seat of power. After fighting Samuel I was confident that I could at least put up enough of a fight to run away from the mad king if I couldn't just kill him, but that didn't mean I was going to try taking him, his dragon, an entire army, and possibly Samuel and Murtagh on all at the same time by myself.

There were a few bigger cities to the north that I had taken note of, mostly thanks to them being called out during strategy meetings, with the biggest being Gil'ead. Considering it was basically a fortress-city, it was the most likely place outside the capital for what I was looking for and therefore my destination.

I just had to get there.

"Look, I told you I'm traveling north by myself. I'm not running from anyone, and I'm not someone's mistress! I'm here to spend the night, restock some food I don't need to hunt down myself, and then move on." I argued for the third time. Turns out the biggest challenge I had with the Empire's forces wasn't their Dragon Riders, or their magicians, or their soldiers. It was a suspicious middle-aged gate guard.

"And we don't need some unknown woman coming in and stirring up trouble." He repeated. "With clothes like that, yer either a noble runaway or a thief. Doubt a thief would wear them so openly though, so which is it?"

"Neither, I'm just a traveler!"

"And I'm the Queen of the Empire."

Urgh, I was ready to strangle this jackass!

"Okay, fine." I said as I wrestled the last bit of my patience. "If I'm a thief, then I have to be the single most arrogant or stupid one around. Since if anything goes missing you're going to come running straight to me. So pretty unlikely, right? But if I am a noble like you think – even though I'm not – what could you possibly gain by frustrating me like this?"

"Personally? Not a damned thing." The guard had the nerve to shrug! "But if this is some kind of noble's game, then I can warn the scoundrels here to be polite instead of you taking offense and hanging them from the gallows. If you're a mistress or wife on the run, though, we don't lose our heads when whoever is following you catches up and asks about a woman with finer gear than even the Governor was seen in the area. Might even get a reward to boot."

Part of me wanted to ask if runaway wives were common enough for that to actually seriously consider, but a much larger part of me was tired and hungry. If this guard wasn't going to let me in nicely, then I was just going to have to go through him.

"Well, you can't say I didn't give you a chance." I grumbled as I placed a hand on his chest, a small spell circle appearing around where I touched.

"What are you – WHI…!" He began to shout before he crumpled like a puppet with cut strings.

Schlummern was a really useful spell for things like this.

I quickly grabbed him and leaned him against the wooden palisade hopefully out of sight from random civilians or other guards. Then it was just a matter of repositioning him to look like he fell asleep on the job and that was that. With a little luck someone would come by and wake him up or the sleep curse would wear off naturally and he would think the whole encounter was a dream.

Now then, time to go find an inn for the night.

-o-

Unsurprisingly, the inn was a loud and rowdy place.

It was practically a guarantee when you mixed alcohol, music, and bored people. And considering there wasn't a whole lot for normal people to do once the sun began to set besides party and drink, inns were a great place to do both.

It was also a pretty good place to pick up information if you knew who to ask, which was why I was politely grilling the waitress who brought me my food when she stopped by. I'd like to say she was enjoying my good looks and company, but considering I was offering a few extra coins and was hiding my face under a traveling hood, she was likely just after my money and a chance to avoid being harassed by the bunch of drunks a few tables down.

"So nothing about heirloom blades or special swords?" I asked one more time.

"Sorry, not the kind of thing a small town like ours really hears about." the waitress apologized. "Some of the guards or older folks might know more, but…"

I waved her off. "No, it's fine…don't want to bother anyone over nothing. I'm just looking for stories."

"Are you sure? Because I wouldn't mind. I know a few men that are decently well traveled before they decided to settle down here." I got the impression that she was using me as an excuse to not talk to the other customers.

Considering how drunk some of them were, I couldn't really blame her.

"I'm sure, but I'd love to hear any other interesting rumors you've picked up if you want." I offered as an out.

"Interesting rumors, hmm?" she mused. "I doubt you care much about hearing about who's been sleeping with the miller's daughter and things like that, but let me think…"

I ended up getting some fairly generic news about items some local shopkeepers had picked up from traders that stopped by, unconfirmed rumors about some bandits off to the east, and some of the happenings around town, but nothing really useful to me, personally.

My conversation partner also seemed to avoid saying anything about the war, the only time she even came close was mentioning some local's son had run off to join the army. I didn't know if it was because she didn't want to or was actively told not to, but I didn't mind. Even if I was trying to spy for the Varden I doubted a random inn waitress would be able to tell me anything anyway.

I was just about to excuse myself for the night when a man burst through the door.

Nearly every eye turned to him and I was a little surprised to see more than one person with a naked blade in the crowd.

"News from the capital!" The newcomer shouted in the resulting silence. "The Sun Witch was captured by Rider Samuel!" And just like that he was gone again, running through the town shouting the same thing over and over. Not that I could hear him. The inn erupted into a screaming match almost the second that he rushed back out.

But the thing I was paying attention to was the few men in the crowd reluctantly or disappointedly stuffing daggers back into sheaths while glaring in my direction. The fact my waitress nearly collapsed onto my table hinted that wasn't a coincidence either.

"...captured? But I thought for sure…"

Well that made it pretty clear what was going on.

"You thought I was the Sun Witch?" I said in a falsely offended tone. Though seriously, Sun Witch? That was the best they could come up with? "Then this whole time was, what, a distraction so your friends could get close and assault me? You do this often?"

"No, no!" The waitress frantically denied. "It is just…you looked so similar to the poster, and with the added taxes to support the war in the south, we thought…" She trailed off.

"...poster?"

Without a word she produced a carefully folded piece of paper and handed it to me.

Once I opened it I was face to face with an actually very good drawing of my own face, but how…

Ah, right…mind readers.

Galbatorix probably had any one of his spies share a memory of what I looked like with an artist and had it replicated enough to have one in a small inn out of some random town.

That was really freaking clever.

Also really annoying because I wasn't expecting anyone to be able to recognise me unless I started using magic around other people. Luckily Samuel's attempt to convince the Varden he managed to capture me would deter most people from thinking I was an enemy walking among them. Too bad there was surely going to be a handful too stupid to let that stop them or just plain hadn't heard the announcement.

Problems for later.

"I can see the resemblance, but I obviously can't be her." I lied, handing the paper back. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to head to my room. I'm not feeling very welcome at the moment."

"O-of course. If you need anything-"

"I'll call for someone."

And with that, I quickly retreated to the small room I rented for the night.

Some basic protections were put in place to keep out pests and deter casual intruders and then I simply collapsed on the thin mattress to think.

I still didn't regret going off on my own into the Empire but now I would need to be careful about how I did it. If only to keep Galbatorix's agents from reporting where I was. It would definitely get Samuel in trouble, but that would probably mean getting the king's personal attention.

Something that would definitely end my little sword hunt.

A hunt that was probably going to be more difficult than expected. Because if a town only a few miles away from a major city like Dras-Leona didn't have any rumors of them floating around, then there was very little chance of others being in someplace smaller.

Granted, I could just have bad luck and this particular inn didn't know about it, but with Samuel's announcement that I had been captured getting out I was on a bit of a timer. I wasn't about to turn around and head back to the Varden, but I definitely wanted to get into contact with them somehow. If only to stop them from doing something stupid.

Too bad I couldn't replicate the local methods for long distance communication.

It should be fine though.

Nasuada and Arya were there. They should be able to keep everyone's head on straight.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
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[Azura]

Interlude Nasuada

'The center is crumbling.' was all that Nasuada could think as another meeting ended in angry people storming out of the command tent.

You would think that coming out victorious in a battle with the Empire and driving off two enemy Dragon Riders would bring the various factions together.

Instead it had emboldened several of them to make demands of her in an attempt to seize control of the Varden for their own ambitions.

Her arms throbbed at the thought as the self inflicted wounds from the 'Trial of Long Knives', the latest and most blatant attempt at usurping her position. The Warlords that followed her father had taken advantage of both Alexandria and Eragon being absent to demand high ranking positions throughout the Varden essentially for free and when she called them out about it, they demanded the Trial to have her prove she followed her people's traditions.

That had been the start of the collapse.

She had called on Jörmundur and King Orrin to bear witness to the Trial because she did not trust Fadawar and his advisors to be truthful about the results, especially when they had been surprised that she knew the Trial would grant her leadership of Fadawar's tribes as well should she succeed.

Jörmundur had accepted her decision easily enough out of loyalty to her but King Orrin had surprised her.

Instead of the storm of protests she had expected, he had gone cold and simply asked once for Fadawar to release her from her oath.

When he was refused the Trial began.

Fadawar and Nasuada took turns slicing their forearms with ceremonial knives to show their dedication to endure for their people. After six such cuts Orrin did try to stop the contest out of concern for them killing themselves but Nasuada had told him to not interfere. After a full nine cuts, she was declared the victor but that was when she made her most damning mistake.

Pain-drunk as she was she misspoke and ended up insulting the Surdan king for being unwilling to take risks to advance their cause…and was swiftly reminded that while the Varden had been sheltered by the dwarves, Surda had been fending off encroachment from the empire longer than she had been alive.

The words had been hasty and ill considered and while King Orrin realized that, he was also more curt and distant when they spoke. Gone was the easy friendship they had had and in its place was an uneasy alliance between leaders. One Orrin was unsatisfied with due to Nasuada's failure to consult him on several matters.

She would be spending a lot of time trying to mend that relationship. Among others.

Eragon had not been pleased to find out that not only had his liege-lord risked her life without even notifying him, he had also taken her refusal to heal her wounds as an insult as well even if he did express his understanding for the reasoning when she explained her thoughts. Saphira was much less accommodating and straight up called Nasuada a fool…but thankfully no one had spread that around or trust in her would have plummeted among the groups not familiar with the tradition of the Trial.

Besides, the Rider pair had their own troubles.

The 'minor' one was that Elva, the infant Eragon had 'blessed' on his first appearance in Farthun Dûr had confronted him about the compulsion that made her seek to shield others from misfortune at the cost to herself. A hellish existence, especially in the middle of war, that had rapidly advanced her growth till she resembled a child of six years at least instead of the babe she had been mere months ago.

To his credit, Eragon was aware of his mistake and had prepared to remove the blessing long before he was confronted by the girl.

He was apparently not completely successful and only managed to remove the compulsion to prevent harm from everyone around her while she was still perfectly aware of the suffering, but Elva was satisfied with the result. Nausada was also secretly relieved – much to her own guilt – that she would not lose such an incredibly effective bodyguard as Elva as a result.

But the bigger issue the Rider was facing was that his actions during his rescue mission had some drastic consequences.

No one had been pleased to discover Eragon had planned to remain behind to buy more time figuring out how to deal with Katrina's father. While on a personal level Nasuada was pleased Eragon hadn't simply executed the man, though it would have been well within his rights, as a leader she was incredibly frustrated the Rider they were placing all their hopes on would risk himself over a murderer.

If that had been the end of it, Nasuada could have ignored it. But Eragon's ill-thought actions had allowed a mage from the Empire to sneak up on them and now Alexandria Cross, the single most powerful human mage outside of a Dragon Rider they had ever seen, the leader of a sizeable fraction of the Varden's magicians and healers, and one of the most terrifying warriors she had ever seen…was lost in enemy territory with no way of them knowing what had happened to her.

To make things worse the gossip mill had already noted her absence when people noticed her leave with Eragon only to not be seen after he returned.

They were placating the rumors as best they could for now while trying to come up with plans how to proceed but nothing they could come up with was very workable without more information.

Unlike Eragon and the elves, Alexandria lacked the ability to communicate over large distances and her own defenses prevented other magicians from scrying her.

The only consolation was that she was definitely alive because she was still shielded but whether or not she had been captured was unknown. As a result unity between the leaders of the Varden was at an all time low. Eragon had nearly raced off to find the missing mage when she did not follow through the magic circle she had expected them to use.

Orrin and some of the other commanders had immediately protested that by pointing out the Empire's army was still only a few miles away. They needed Eragon as a deterrent, not out on a rescue mission for someone who had repeatedly refused to swear loyalty to the Varden and its allies.

Leona, Alexandria's apprentice, had all but threatened to close the Healer's Guild to them as a response. Tensions ran incredibly high for a while and Nasuada had to dismiss everyone for the rest of the day lest something be said neither side could take back.

She had hoped the next day would be more relaxed but an urgent message from one of their spies in the Empire quickly dashed those hopes.

Alexandria had been captured by the enemy and was set to be executed in the city of Feinster in a few days.

That news had really put the cat among the pigeons.

Eragon had almost immediately demanded to be allowed to take Saphira and fly into what was surely a trap on his own. It was only by the timely arrival of the contingent of elven bodyguards Queen Islanzadí had sent to protect Eragon that had stopped him from running off and that was because they would follow after him even if they had no way to keep up with a flying dragon.

Nasuada had relaxed when Blödhgarm finally managed to convince her headstrong Rider to abandon his foolish mission only to realize hours later that Eragon had fooled them and had only been drawing everyone's attention while not only Leona but Arya as well had slipped away from the Varden's camp heading Northeast.

The young leader of the Varden could only despair as two very politically important figures sped off towards a trap, her advisors and companions fought and schemed amongst themselves, and that she herself had no way of quelling the unrest without becoming a tyrant.

She could only hope Alexandria was successfully rescued. If only so she would have the pleasure of lecturing the blonde woman for hours about the trouble she caused.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

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[Azura]

Rider 3.6

I muttered several curses as I sped over the landscape. A combination of Haste and Air Walk making the trip over the untamed wilderness almost effortless as I backtracked days worth of travel distance because karma was a bitch.

My initial plan had been to keep heading north until I hit the garrison city of Gil'ead, but not only was the city much further away than I expected there was still no guarantee they would have what I was looking for. So I was looking for solid leads anywhere I could find a Rider's sword and would head there over Gil'ead depending on how good the info was.

And in the last town I had stopped in, I had gotten a confirmed lead on the location of a sword…in a city down south.

If it was just a rumor I might have continued on and investigated it later, but not only had the merchant I had talked to given me a story about how the blade was used as a showpiece by the local lord to cut normal swords in half, he even had a drawing of the thing - well a portrait of the previous lord posed with the sword drawn.

But unless a smith had gone out his way to figure out how to stain a normal sword a pale venomous orange I was looking at the genuine article.

Which meant if I wanted to actually find the stupid thing I needed to do an immediate about face and double time it in hopes of making up the time I spent wandering the completely wrong direction.

A small snarky part of my mind whispered that if I moved fast enough I might be on time to my own execution. Afterall, while Feinster was far away, I was pretty fast when I didn't need to worry about other people keeping up.

-o-

"Reason for visiting?" A bored guard asked me with the same disinterested tone of someone who had asked the question so many times the individual words no longer held any meaning for him.

I had learned from my first disastrous attempt of entering a town. Instead of walking up in my normal outfit and just saying I was passing through, I had taken steps to blend in with the rest of the travelers. A simple brown cloak I had picked up, some random plants hanging from a pack I had made, and a bit of dust and dirt on my face and hands. All that combined with a polite but distant attitude made getting in and out of towns fairly easy. Especially if there was a queue like the one behind me now.

"Just here to sell off some medical herbs." I said, idly waving towards the plants. It was a good thing Angela wasn't here or I would have either been subjected to a long lecture about propagating misinformation or drawn into a vicious debate on what each plant did while trying to act as if I knew what I was talking about. I was knowledgeable about many magical things. Botany was definitely not one of them.

I gave myself a little mental shake.

Only a few days away from the Varden and I was missing the few friendly faces I had gotten accustomed to. Which was weird because I hadn't missed Yoruichi or Kisuke like this despite being separated from them in a much more decisive manner. Or maybe it was because of it that I didn't miss those two as much?

Maybe I subconsciously knew I couldn't meet with them until I fixed my ship, fixed myself, and figured out how to navigate back so I simply didn't dwell on it? Whatever the reason was, it would have to wait until I wasn't sitting in the middle of enemy territory.

I was able to enter the city with no extra fanfare and started making my way towards the center of the city.

Ironically, 'my' upcoming execution was making it a lot easier to move around the city. There were simply too many people around for the city guard to realistically pay much attention to every single new face and since these types of events were supposed to be a combination of warning and entertainment to the people no one would pay me much attention even with my rather travel-worn appearance wandering around the more upper class areas a commoner might normally be chased out of.

Of course, I wasn't the only one taking advantage of the event for my own ends. Plenty of minor criminals were out trying their luck on the crowds. I had already seen over a dozen pickpockets, thieves, and cut-purses going after those not paying attention, along with some other, much less discrete criminal behavior like snatch-and-grabs, muggings, and one possible kidnapping.

Speaking of muggers and kidnappers, I seemed to have picked up a few of those myself. A group of five had been alternating between following me and running ahead while pretending to be interested in other things while they watched which directions I picked so they could follow later.

I hid a smile and turned down a dead end alley. I was starting to get hungry and if a bunch of muggers wanted to donate to my dinner fund I wasn't about to stop them.

When I turned around all five of them were blocking the exit with smirks on their faces, smirks that vanished pretty quickly when they realized I was not surprised to see them at all and was suddenly holding a sword I definitely hadn't had on me when I was walking through the city.

"Hello, boys. Here's how it's going to work. You drop all the money on you and you get to walk away clean. Anything else and I'm going to have to get a bit rough with you…"

-o-

"I'll have the stew and an ale, please." I cheerfully requested from the tavern waitress as I sat down in one of the more out of the way tables. I was feeling good. The group of muggers had been good stress relief and while they didn't have a huge amount of money on them, they had enough that I wouldn't need to worry about paying for food with magically projected coins for a while.

My good mood continued when the food was not only freshly made, but rather tasty too.

They actually used spices for once.

The ale was just an ale though. I probably couldn't expect much else from a random tavern but it would be nice if I could find a decent drink outside of the dwarves or the elves.

While I ate I thought about my main goal here.

I needed to figure out how to not only steal from the city lord, but also get out of the city without an army on my heels.

My biggest issue was finding the sword in the first place. Just because it was important to me didn't mean it was important to the current owner. Hell, it could be buried in some storage closet gathering dust for all I knew or it could be in the guy's bedroom being polished daily. It was likely somewhere in between those two extremes but the point remained, I couldn't exactly search the entire property for a single object.

So step one was to find out where the sword, if it actually existed, was located.

Step two was pretty easy, but came with conditions. Steal the thing - and do it unnoticed if possible. I was self aware enough to know that if one of Galbatorix's pet Riders wasn't too much of a threat to me, a random guard or hedge magician didn't have a hope of actually stopping me. The real danger was if word of where I was got back to the king and he decided to drop by with Samuel and Murtagh. I was confident about one Rider. I wasn't so sure about three.

Step three was simply get out of the city and back to the Varden. As much as I would like to continue gallivanting around the Empire I wouldn't be able to move freely with a Rider's sword on me. People would notice. Not to mention I needed to go back and make sure no one ran off with the sword I already had. I trusted the people I interacted with among the Varden but I was under no illusions that there were either spies or just greedy people that would take advantage of me not being there to steal my stuff if given the chance.

But back to step one of the plan…

I needed information. And there were really only two ways to go about getting it.

Get hired for a position where I could wander around the manor without anyone looking too closely or find someone who already knew everything about the inside or where the owner kept the sword.

The first was possible, but because of the execution scheduled for two days from now no one was really hiring new staff. In fact I would bet money that there were people watching out for newcomers that even tried hoping to catch spies or agents of the Varden.

I wasn't even sure I would be in the city after the execution. Mostly because I knew myself and unless they were punishing an actual criminal and just plastering my name on her, I was probably going to stick my nose into things and helping her escape. I could possibly do that without anyone realizing who I was, but my luck wasn't that good. I was expecting things to go to hell at some point.

So that meant going with the second option and convincing them to help me out within a day.

That wasn't going to be easy. Once again I wished I had the convenience the local spellcasters had. This would be a lot easier if I could read people's minds or create new spells on the fly instead of needing to work out the proper math. Oh well, nothing I could do about it.

I finished my stew, leaned back, and hummed in contentment.

Welp, better get started then.

-o-

My good mood dampened a bit when I left the tavern only to pick up a follower again.

Only one so far, but that wasn't necessarily a good thing. If I was going to be mugged again a group usually meant they would lean into intimidation to get what they wanted. Just one person meant they were either skilled, desperate, or just planning on looting a body. And that was only if they were planning on stealing from me and not following for some other reason.

From the quick glances I managed to get I couldn't actually tell what the person was after. They had a cloak on that hid practically everything about them.

Okay, I didn't have time to play with every single person that wanted to stalk me.

I ducked into another alley and hid out of sight, a projected dagger falling into my hand at the same time. A little scare wouldn't hurt them…unless they were stupid about it.

I waited until the cloaked figure walked past and reached out to grab their shoulder, planning to simply overpower them, shove them into a wall, and demand to know why they were following me.

I wasn't expecting them to throw off my grip, grab my wrist and throw me into the wall instead!

My knife slashed up - nothing serious, just enough to give me some space - and bounced off a ward. Shit. Either magician or someone important enough to be protected by one. Options ran through my mind, but most of my defaults were too flashy. I'd have to give myself some time…

Or at least I thought I would need to.

My brain kinda blanked out when the person spoke up.

"You're looking remarkably free for someone who is supposed to be waiting for their execution."

I recognised that voice!

"Arya?!"
----------------------------------------------------------------------

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[Azura]

Rider 3.7

My brain kinda shut off for a bit while my friend led me through several twists and turns, ducking through alleys and buildings to throw off anyone attempting to follow us. The whole time I was just trying to wrestle with the fact she was here, why was she here?! She was supposed to be making sure the Varden was running smoothly!

But despite my brain being locked up for the moment, I was still functional enough to realize demanding answers when we were not in a secure area would be stupid and a waste of time until Arya stopped pulling me along.

So I kept quiet until we stepped into a house where Arya locked the door behind us. Must be where she was staying in the city. Though why a house and not an inn or something?

"Lady Arya? You're back early, did something happen?"

WHY WAS LEONA HERE!?

"I was fortunate enough to run into a familiar face that basically completes our task here. And while I haven't heard the story behind her escape, I decided we needed a secure space before we had a discussion."

"A familiar face? Who - Lady Alexandria! Thank the gods you're safe! When we heard the news…everyone was so worried!"

"Hi Leona, nice to see you too." I replied. "But…what are both of you doing here? Shouldn't you be back with the army?" I froze as a thought occurred. "Eragon isn't here with you, is he?"

Thankfully Arya shook her head. "He remained behind along with Saphira. The bodyguards my Mother sent were due to arrive and would be honorbound to follow them if they did leave. A group that large would be hard to move around the Empire undetected."

That was good then. No need to worry about the Varden's Rider getting ambushed somewhere while we were talking. Which meant I could get back to the main issue…

"Great, but what are both of you doing here?"

Both women looked at me like I was an idiot.

"Alexandria," Arya said slowly. "The Empire announced your execution as far and fast as they could. Did you expect us to not do anything? Even if it was a trap, which it certainly is, did you expect me to leave you at their mercy? When I know exactly how little their torturers possess?"

I winced at that. I was an idiot apparently.

I hadn't fully considered what news of my capture would mean to my friends. Yes, I expected them to be worried. Yes, I expected them to do something about it - mostly keeping Eragon from running into a trap. But I made assumptions about their behavior because of their responsibilities to the Varden and discounted Arya's experiences in particular.

I didn't think about how she'd react to me being captured because I hadn't. I was just running around the Empire doing my own thing, but she probably got flashbacks to her own ambush and captivity and rushed to save me.

I'd need to do something to make up for not figuring out how to contact the Varden sooner and letting Arya know I was alright. I'd have to do something nice for Leona too. She'd come a long way from the nervous barely trained witch I'd first met if she was willing to invade a city with only one other person for a rescue mission.

"Yeah, okay. That was foolish of me. Thank you both for coming." I said sincerely. Now for the awkward part. "Unfortunately, I can't leave just yet."

Arya cocked an eyebrow. "You have some reason to remain in a city ready to spring a trap set for a Dragon Rider?"

I nodded and explained the situation. Both of them already knew about my need to hunt down the Brightsteel that was used in Rider's swords even if I hadn't explained to them exactly what it would be used for. I told them about the lead I had on one such sword somewhere in the City Lord's mansion and the issues I had with locating it.

Needless to say neither one was particularly thrilled that I was planning to potentially risk my life when I didn't need to, pointing out I'd have other opportunities to search for swords when a trap wasn't waiting to spring on anyone, but I was determined. And rather than try to convince me otherwise anyway or drag me back to the Varden, they decided to help me out instead.

Something I was incredibly grateful for since they both proved invaluable soon after.

-o-

"So there is definitely a magician in there?" I asked after Arya had mentally scouted some of the staff in the mansion. Nothing too invasive just yet, mostly just counting how many people were inside and if their thoughts were actually guarded. To my mild surprise, several of the staff were mentally protected one way or another either from training or as Arya had just found out, warded by a magician.

"It seems so. Not a very strong one, though. I could easily break the protections, but it would be noticeable."

I nodded. "And we want to avoid being noticed as long as possible."

"That's generally the preferred option when planning a theft from someone as influential as a city lord." Arya said dryly, which I ignored.

"So we won't be able to find out where the sword is by going through the servants' memories without alerting whoever is protecting their minds or the ones trained to protect themselves noticing. Do we try sneaking in? Disguising ourselves somehow?"

I was shocked when Leona actually laughed at my suggestion. Despite me never caring about how she spoke to me or any of the master/apprentice formalities and often just telling her she could speak normally to me, Leona was always unfailingly deferrant and polite around me. It wasn't a bad thing, just surprising she did something so uncharacteristic.

"S-sorry, I didn't m-mean to laugh, my Lady." Leona apologized, still laughing. "I-it's just…the thought of y-you and Lady Arya trying to blend in with a bunch of servants…hahaha…!"

"I've gone undercover before!" I retorted, feeling strangely defensive. Arya must have agreed because she nodded at my words.

"As have I. Disguising myself as a human is well within my abilities."

Leona just giggled some more and pointed a finger at Arya. "That is what I mean. The way you speak and present yourselves just makes it impossible to imagine either of you as a simple servant. Both of you draw the eye too easily."

The corner of my lip twitched into an almost smile as she managed to make being called 'pretty' into an insult and sound completely sincere at the same time.

"That still leaves us without a way forward." I pointed out.

Leona shook her head and stood up. "You and Lady Arya are too eye-catching. I can blend in perfectly fine. If the sword is famous enough that there are portraits of it, some general questions won't be too suspicious. Let me investigate on my own. We can plan more afterward."

I didn't like her going off on her own. Out of the three of us, she was the one most in danger if she was caught by herself but after a short argument I gave in. As she pointed out, no one would be looking for Leona specifically and Arya would be keeping an eye out for her as best she could. I'd just have to trust them.

Of course, that immediately left me and Arya with nothing to do.

And while I could spend hours or even days focused on something if I needed to…I got bored easily without something to hold my attention.

"Say Arya…while we're here, do you want to give the Empire and a certain annoying Rider a black eye before we leave?"

-o-

Two days wasn't a huge amount of time to do research about a person scheduled to be executed, but unlike the City Lord's mansion, there were simply too many people involved for every detail about the prisoner for everything to be suppressed.

The same thing had been true when Arya was imprisoned.

Nobody not under the Shade Durza's command might have been allowed to see her, but people definitely knew she was there. And it was the same for my stand-in, though many of them simply assumed the slender, blonde haired man was being used as a lure for Varden agents and not supposed to be me. Everyone just assumed I was really being held elsewhere.

From there it was pretty simple to figure out the background of the stand-in because no one was trying to hide it. He obviously wasn't me, so why would they?

My first idea was to rescue him and embarrass the Empire by parading that fact around during the execution time.

Unfortunately, it was really hard to justify rescuing a serial killer that made a habit of stalking young girls, killing them, and keeping a collection of their severed hands. This was the kind of criminal I had no problem getting a death penalty and was a little surprised he wasn't simply killed when he was captured, but it turned out Samuel was behind that too. In fact according to one Guard Captain Christopher Paolini the killer would have been unceremoniously hanged days ago if the Rider hadn't arrived and co-opted the criminal for his own purposes.

So a rescue attempt was out of the question, which was probably a good thing since doing so would definitely have triggered a few traps that were no doubt set up around the whole event but that did mean we'd need to come up with another way to rub Samuel's failure in the Empire's face.

Arya and I traded some ideas back and forth, mostly to kill time waiting for Leona to come back or signal for assistance, with some ideas (mostly mine) getting so intricate and ridiculous that I wasn't sure they were possible without a perfectly coordinated army spread out over the city and a few weeks of preparation.

It was fun though, and it kept my mind off of Leona being off on her own.

And eventually my patience was rewarded, because not only did we come up with a reasonable plan that satisfied my desire to humiliate Samuel but it also was considered safe enough that we didn't expect to have to fight our way out of the city, Leona came back with information about the sword!

"And it's just in his sitting room?" I repeated for clarification. Because a big part of me was expecting it to be hidden away rather than just out in the open.

"It is. The servants I talked to mentioned the Lord is obsessed with it. He makes them polish the thing several times a day when he isn't busy with other matters. Honestly, once I got one or two of them complaining about the thing, the rest practically couldn't resist joining in." Leona smiled smugly.

And she deserved to.

She had basically single handedly made the whole reason I was here a trivial matter. Either Arya or I could sneak by in the night and swipe the sword. It might not be the most subtle plan in the world but it would work. Ironically, it would actually be easier with most of the city's security focused on either the bait or the Lord himself. There simply weren't enough trustworthy people to cover everything and guard a room where the most valuable thing in it was a sword that was more of a trophy than weapon at this point.

"Well done then." I praised her. "Then all that leaves is our exit strategy once we crash the execution. But we can talk more about that in the morning. Right now I just want dinner. Anyone opposed?"

"The pantry has plenty of ingredients stocked. It wouldn't be hard to whip something up, is there something in particular you wanted, my Lady?" Leona asked.

I had a sudden idea. "Let me see what we have, because I have a recipe I'd love to share with the two of you now that I have access to an actual kitchen."

I'd been craving pizza for a while now. And this seemed like a perfect opportunity to share the recipe with friends.
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[Azura]

Rider 3.8

It was weird to see how much of the city turned out for the execution.

Intellectually, I knew events like this were used as much of a celebration as a warning and punishment for cultures like the Empire. A way of showing the ability of the government to remove threats to their citizens and punish/scare criminals with the threat that if they stepped beyond a line they would be next.

But it was incredibly disturbing to see a bunch of young children urging their parents to get closer to the execution platform so they could 'get a look at the witch before her head was lopped off' with big smiles on their faces.

I don't think they fully understood what getting your head cut off meant just yet, but it made me viscerally uncomfortable. It also made me glad for the fact that Arya and Leona were elsewhere getting ready to steal the sword for me. I don't know how I would have reacted if they approved of what was happening here, even if it was a show execution and the victim was a serial killer.

I knew them well enough to know they probably wouldn't. But that niggling doubt was enough to make me glad I didn't need to find out just the same.

The crowd quieted down as someone walked onto the platform and I shoved my thoughts aside to focus on him since it seemed things were starting.

I only paid attention for a little bit when it became clear this was more of a 'rah, rah, the Empire is so great' kind of speech rather than anything informative or interesting. Most of it boiled down to propaganda and various crimes I had supposedly committed to make sure everyone knew how evil I was. And while it was a little fun to see what the Empire was trying to pin on me, it obviously wasn't going to be the last speech because my stunt double hadn't been brought out yet.

While I listened to the speaker I mentally dismissed one of my projections, a simple ring I had left with Arya and Leona, to let them know they could get started on the heist. The big trap for any Varden agents trying to rescue 'me' was in swing. The city guard couldn't just drop that to deal with simple thieves no matter how much the city lord loved that sword so the only resistance they should run into were the people in the manor. And a few maids and servants weren't much of a threat to Leona let alone Arya.

They would be fine. Now for the hard part.

Listening to pro-Galbatorix and Samuel drivel without objecting to the obvious white-washing going on.

-o-

Luckily for my sanity I didn't actually need to stand in one place and watch every second to keep an eye on things.

After an hour or two, I wandered over to a street vendor to get something to eat while keeping half an ear out for any major disturbances in the crowd. Nothing fancy, just some grilled meat skewers.

On the way back I started eavesdropping on random conversations just to see what the random citizens thought about everything. Unsurprisingly, most of them were all for the execution of a Varden agent.

They were dangerous rebels afterall, and many of the people here had family in the army. Family that I might have killed in the last battle and they were eager for a bit of revenge.

That…was actually a little hard to listen to.

After Farthun Dûr I had come to terms with the fact I would never really know how many people I killed in battle simply because of how widespread my attacks could be…or at least I thought I had.

Listening to three different groups of women wondering if I had killed their sons/husbands and hoping I suffered in whatever hell I ended up in was…a lot harder to listen to.

I took a bite of my skewer and pushed those feelings aside for later.

Up on the stage things seemed to be moving along. The speaker had shuffled off while a group of men stacked a bunch of - oh, they were setting up a pyre.

I shuddered at the sight of one of the most painful, least efficient execution methods in history. The victim could burn for hours and not die because surprise surprise, people weren't actually flammable and could survive quite a lot if their organs were intact.

But I guess Samuel had decided to go with a lasting spectacle. Or maybe a sick joke.

They called me the Sun Witch so burn the witch, I guess?

I shook my head and focused as the bastard himself walked onto the stage and cast a spell to let his voice be heard by everyone in the square.

"Hello, people of Feinster. Today we rid the world of a great evil. A witch that selfishly used her powers to join the Varden rebels and killed many of your husbands, sons, and friends." I scowled in annoyance as the crowd cheered for the hypocritical bastard. "But you don't need to fear her anymore! After an intense battle, I, Samuel, First of the New Dragon Riders, defeated and captured the Sun Witch and have brought her before you to face justice for her crimes!" The crowd roared again and more men escorted my struggling double up to the pyre and tied him to the stake. I noticed his hair was the same length and color mine was and despite the thrashing he wasn't actually screaming. Obviously Samuel had used magic to sell his bait and keep them quiet despite being the opposite gender but even from a distance I could see enough obvious differences that he probably didn't put too much effort into it.

…or just wasn't skilled enough to make it more convincing since that wasn't something simply throwing more power at could really fix.

Either or.

"King Galbatorix mercifully offered this witch the opportunity to serve the kingdom and make up for her crimes, but she refused, so the only answer we can give is DEATH! Bring up the torches!"

We were rapidly approaching the point where I wasn't comfortable sitting back and watching anymore.

Executing a serial killer? Fine by me.

Dressing up said serial killer as another person so you could execute them after presumably killing that person by dropping a mountain on them? I could see a few arguments for it.

Dragging things out to make it painful instead of a quick death? Not okay. If you wanted a showy execution there were plenty of other options.

I sighed as the first few tongues of flame caught on the pyre and left to find a more open spot to crash the party from. Arya and Leona should be done by now anyway.

It took a bit of effort to escape the crowds and jump up to the rooftops. From there I projected my bow and thought about what to use for the arrows.

As much as I would have loved to hit Samuel in the face with a Nova Blast or a Noble Phantasm arrow…no one was going to ignore a giant glowing yellow spell circle popping up out of nowhere for the few minutes it took to prepare the spell and the last time I tried projecting a NP it felt like my nerves had been dipped in battery acid.

So those were out, but I still had plenty of other options even if they weren't nearly as powerful.

I formed what was going to be the core of my weapon, a lance with an enchantment that allowed it to thrust forward faster than should be possible. Then I attached smaller, thinner blades with fire enchantments all around the shaft in places where it wouldn't catch on the bow itself. The idea was simple. A technically two-stage missile with multiple explosives on it to give it a bigger kick than any single weapon I could project at this moment.

Then, just to be cheeky, I made a replica of the sword Samuel had left behind during our first fight and had it hover next to me while I drew back the bow.

The sword shot forward with a mental nudge and plunged into the chest of the my disguised duplicate just as the flames started to lick at his ankles. It was morbidly hilarious how quickly everyone fell silent when they had been screaming for an execution, but when they got a much quicker one they felt scared. No matter. I waited just long enough for Samuel to recognize the sword before releasing my arrow.

The improvised missile cracked the air and shot off towards the enemy Rider. People screamed and ran away in panic as the execution stand was engulfed in a massive explosion. A part of me hoped that the surprise attack was enough to get rid of the jackass, but I wasn't that lucky.

Sure enough, Samuel survived to claw his way out of the rubble looking worse for wear but still alive.

"WHO DARES?!" He roared, voice amplification spell still active.

Well, there was my cue.

"HI, SAMMY BOY! DID YOU MISS ME?"

"CROSS!"

"Yep! Still alive!"

"I dropped a mountain on your head! How?! How did you escape that?!"

I smiled. Samuel was making this too easy for me. "That's my little secret, just like how your's was executing a serial killer disguised as me as a publicity stunt!" I looked at the remains of the pyre that had been scattered by the explosion. "Though it looks like I stole the kill from you there. Sorry!" I wasn't sorry.

There were a bunch of different reactions from the crowd that still hadn't run off.

Some continued running, hoping to get away from the whole mess. Some tried hiding in buildings or behind objects scattered around. And others just sort of froze in place.

My favorite were the ones that were just glaring at Samuel now that they realized he had been lying to them.

"And guess what! You get to explain to Galbatorix that you're not only a fuckup, but the whole kingdom is going to know you're one too!"

Samuel paled at the reminder that this whole trap was based on his assumption I was dead. An assumption he had probably used to deflect some of the blame Galbatorix heaped on him for not only failing to capture Eragon and Saphira at the Burning Plains or at Helgrind, but also allowing the Ra'zac to be killed as well.

"I-it doesn't matter!" He stuttered. "As long as you die here nothing will change!"

My smile turned mocking. "Die here? I've got better things to do. Have fun explaining this fuck up to the Mad King. I'm sure he'll be very understanding!"

With that I turned and jumped off the roof, hitting the ground at a sprint and headed for my exit strategy.

"Running away?! COWARD!"

I laughed as I ran down the street.

As if deciding not to fight an entire city on my own was cowardice. And while my own estimation of my intelligence had taken a hit recently, I still wasn't stupid enough to think Samuel wouldn't use every soldier, magician, and even civilian as a tool to take me down. Not when failure meant dealing with the madman he decided to join and whatever consequences that meant.

And leaving him to crawl back to Galbatorix with absolutely nothing to show for his efforts was worse than anything I could do in the short time I had before I had a bunch of pursuers on my tail.

It didn't take me long to backtrack to the pre prepared alley I'd blocked off with a simple Bounded Field that kept anyone from getting too close.

There wasn't much there – just a simple teleportation circle like I had used to infiltrate the Seireitei, already configured to send me several miles east away from the city.

But simple was all I needed.

I gave one last sarcastic salute back towards the execution platform where I could feel the rhythmic spikes of air pressure from a dragon's wings and activated the circle.

It glowed for a second and then in a flash, I was somewhere else.

A quick look around later and I was relieved to see both Arya and Leona heading towards me looking perfectly unscathed. I was even happier to see that they were successful in stealing the sword from the mansion, going by the package in Leona's arms.

Two down, one to go.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

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[Azura]

Rider 3.9

We were able to slip back into the army with very little fanfare. Something I was grateful for because after getting a taste of how it felt to walk through a town without practically every person staring at me or whispering behind my back about one thing or another, I don't know if I was ready to deal with all of that again so soon.

Especially when a messenger tracked me down at my personal tent to let me know I was being summoned to a meeting first thing in the morning by Nasuada and the rest of the Varden's leadership.

Which was…fine.

I got it, they wanted to know what happened and where I was. But all I really wanted to do was hide out in my tent and spend more time working on how to break the enchantments on the Rider swords I had.

Now that I almost had all the material I needed, this was starting to become more important because even if I got my hands on more brightsteel it would be useless if I couldn't actually form it.

Unfortunately Rhunön was really damn good at what she did and the elven smith had made the damn things nearly unbreakable in a way that wouldn't cause issues and leave the metal still usable. For instance, I could douse the blades in dragon fire for a few days and eventually the enchantments would fail, but I really doubted Saphira would agree to sit still doing nothing but heating up a few slivers of metal for that long without a good reason.

And anything else I could think of either involved dissolving the blades in something or blowing them up with enough force to break the spells on them. Neither was really practical since I had no idea how to go about extracting metal from a solution with middle-age tech and searching for slivers of metal in a crater didn't sound fun.

I sighed and once again wished I had talked more with the smith when I had the chance. But I had other things to do at the time and Rhunön was also a notoriously prickly bitch. There was no telling how the forger of all the Rider's swords would react to me asking how to erase her best works even if she had literally taken a magically enforced oath to never make another after the last war.

Artists were temperamental like that.

Nothing for it, I would just have to keep trying until I managed. And if I was really lucky, I'd be able to get a solution that would let me disenchant a sword midfight. The thought of finally dealing with Samuel after turning whatever sword he ended up with as a replacement and turning it to scrap gave me warm fuzzy feelings.

So instead of getting to work, I gave my work table one look of longing before slipping into bed. If I was going to spend tomorrow dealing with political meetings I could at least be well rested for them.

-o-

"...and then I met up with Arya and Leona and we made our way back here." I finished narrating my unplanned adventure to the group.

The usual group was here. Nasuada, King Orrin, Jörmundur, and a few other advisors. And of course Arya was here as the Elvish representative.

Eragon and his new group of bodyguards were absent though. I wondered what he was up to…

Orrin leaned forward. "So what you're saying is that you abandoned your duties and the Varden on a whim to galavant around the Empire?" He said with barely contained anger.

I was a little taken aback by the tone, and I could see I wasn't the only one.

"I took advantage of an unexpected setback to pursue my own goals, King Orrin." I said formally but as evenly as I could. "I wasn't taking a vacation for the fun of it."

"But you did desert us the very moment you had an opportunity."

I bristled at the insult. In fact I wasn't the only one. Both Arya and Nasuada looked ready to object but were holding back for now.

"Two things, your Majesty." I snarled. "First, I did not ever actually join the Varden, only offered my support, so I literally could not desert. Second, I came back immediately after getting my prize instead of searching for another. Something I remember several people here promising to help with yet failed to deliver anything beyond vague rumors." Some of the advisors shifted awkwardly at that, well aware that there were at least a few Rider swords in Surda yet no one had given me a location for one yet.

"Another issue we need to address. I've withheld commentary until now, but I find it unpalatable that one of the most recognizable members of our army is in fact not a member of any organizations that make it up."

My scowl stayed on my face. "We've had this discussion before."

He nodded. "We have. And at the time we were happy to leave you as a mercenary if that was what you wanted," I had to hold back a scoff, they were anything but happy, "but that was before your little adventure. It's a good thing you are who you are, Lightbringer, and that you came back on your own, otherwise we'd have executed you for desertion."

"Orrin, have you lost your mind!?" Nasuada exclaimed in outrage. "We would have revolts if we even suggested such a thing!"

"And we would have just as many problems if warriors think they can do whatever they want because they are powerful!" Orrin snapped back.

"We've already had to execute some deserters. Or lash the ones that returned without a fight." Jörmundur 'helpfully' added.

"Common warriors, not a woman hailed as a hero by most of the army!"

"A woman that is not even a part of that army."

"Alexandria is no more part of the Varden than I am." Arya jumped in. "Are you going to take issue with my departure as well?"

Orrin looked like he swallowed a lemon and several advisors broke out into concerned muttering.

"Of course not, Lady Arya." He admitted. "But you are acting as Ambassador to your mother's will. Alexandria does not have that excuse. Your actions are not the same."

"What do you want then, Orrin?" I demanded, tired of this whole thing and not feeling particularly respectful.

"Either you are punished for desertion to show no one is above our laws," Nasuada, Arya, and even Jörmundur were about to protest again but paused as the king continued. "Or that you properly swear fealty to one of our camps."

I had to admit, as annoying as this was, it wasn't exactly unsurprising for Orrin to pull something like this.

Despite being King of Surda and supplying most of the army's current needs, he was constantly being overshadowed by Nasuada and it was obvious it was getting to the man. Even if it was clear he didn't want to run the entire war getting looked over by everyone to a teenage woman had to grate on his pride quite a bit.

His solution? Be the one that finally forces the Lightbringer to bend the knee and join the Varden. A prize so attractive that Nasuada didn't immediately speak out against it. Something she rushed to correct when she noticed me glance at her but the damage was done. Everyone else had noticed her pause as well.

There was quite a bit of yelling after that - mostly from the advisors once they felt it was safe enough with everyone distracted. But like I said, I was tired of this whole thing.

I stood suddenly and almost instantly there was silence.

"I've made my refusal to join the Varden very clear several times now and that won't change here." I declared to the group. "And I refuse to submit myself to some unearned punishment to soothe your ego, Orrin. If you want me punished, find someone capable of forcing me. I'm done here."

And with that I walked out of the tent, ignoring Nasuada's calls for me to wait.

-o-

I didn't immediately head back to my tent.

For one, I didn't want to be bothered by anyone until everybody cooled off. And secondly, the only thing to do there was tinker with the various experiments I kept there. Several of which were potentially explosive if handled wrong. And considering I might be tempted to start throwing things at the moment? Much safer for everyone around me if I didn't touch those until later.

Instead I decided to just sort of wander around the camp and take in some of the changes I've made while considering future paths open to me.

The biggest, most obvious change I introduced was the idea of generic mystic codes that any magic user could use with a bit of training.. Every once in a while I would see a magician with two or three of the things hanging from a belt. Most of them were still the same healing codes I introduced, but Leona had told me entire groups were popping up dedicated to creating their own codes with custom spells if they could. And I was excited to see where they ended up.

It was also proof I was going to leave a lasting mark on this world far beyond anything I intended.

Between the codes and the Healer's Guild, that was obvious. But at the same time I was making enemies.

I still hadn't resolved anything about the dwarven clan that declared a blood feud with me - unsurprising considering I hadn't really spent much time in an area where they could get to me - but at some point that was going to have to be resolved.

And that was probably going to be a headache and a half now that King Orrin was trying to throw his political weight around and Nasuada was proving to not be the solid ally I'd prefer.

I didn't really blame her though.

The power difference between us was enough to make any normal person nervous. I recognized that. Only a few short years ago I was practically tiptoeing around Yoruichi and Kisuke because of how dangerous they were. It wasn't until I could fight close to their level and a good amount of time interacting with them as friends and colleagues that the relaxed facade I used around them changed into something more real.

Nasuada was feeling the same thing I did about being trapped in the same room with a 400 pound tiger, and unlike me, she wasn't narrowing the power gap. Orrin giving her a legitimate way to get some sort of leash on me would have been incredibly tempting. Though it spoke well of her character that she didn't push the advantage despite what she might have wanted to do.

But between the political problems from the Varden and the mess dealing with the Az Sweldn rak Anhûin was going to cause…did I still want to see the war play out to the end?

Samuel had to go, so I was definitely committed as long as he was still alive. But after that? Maybe try to find a way to free Murtagh and Thorn from Galbatorix's control or otherwise remove them from the war, set Eragon up so he was better prepared to deal with the Mad King, and start planning how I was going to split from the Varden without things devolving into a fight or shattering the army's morale when I decided to leave.

Not exactly how I thought this little adventure was going to shape up honestly.

I rolled my shoulders and shoved my depressing thoughts to the side. I wasn't going to let politics completely ruin my day. I should go bother Angela and see what she's up to. Yeah, that was a much better idea than getting caught up in my head about things that hadn't even happened yet.

Maybe I would actually win an argument with her today.

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[Azura]

Rider 3.10

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.

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.

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