Bringing this back from hiatus with a beta!

Summery: Tovi, a refugee in the Varden, a nothing who lost all.
Another side to the story everyone loves to read, about a girl who would be the new flame after the night has reigned. Takes place during Brisinger, Inheritance, and afterwords.

Major Shipping: mostly friendship and romance, in depth

~OC/Carn

~OC/Roran

~Roran/Katrina

Minor Shipping: touched upon, but not really explored

~Arya/Eragon

~Nasuada/Murtagh

M for violence, some language, adult themes (non-explicit rape attempt in chapter 3 included)

The usual clamor of clanking armor and animals being herded to graze was what woke Tovi as usual. She fought the allure of a warm cot as she tore the blanket off, the cold air attacking her bare skin. Tovi struggled to keep her eyes open and stretched as far as the tent her, Nana, and Oliver shared. Tovi turned to the cot she rose from and wrapped little Oliver warmly in the rest of the blanket. Her Nana's little nephew was seeming very precious all curled up on their shared, stained cot. It killed her how someone so young could endure through so much without the reminder from the burn marks on his neck and shoulders.

Tovi snuck a small kiss and made sure Nana was warm as well, placing her cane in reach of the cot from where it had fallen. She ran her fingers through the knot's in her hair as well as she could in the dark and felt around for the worn handle of her comb. Tovi threw on a shawl over her nightclothes, a move Nana would scold her for ("I didn't raise you to show skin for anyone who fancies it!") and walked to the bucket outside the tent to wash her face, the morning chill unforgiving, giving her goose-flesh.

The early morning gave her hair a look more to a shade of black than the dark brown it really was, and her bangs would not stay out of her eyes no matter how she tried to tie them back with the rest of her hair.

Tovi froze as she felt a hand on her shoulder. In one movement she grabbed the wrist and twisted forcefully, stopping only when she heard a familiar voice exclaim,

"Ow! Tovi!"

She looked up to see the strained expression on the face of her best friend, Carn. She lessened her grip and let go of him immediately, "Carn! How many times do I have to tell you! I'm tense in the morn-"

"-you're always like that!"

"-for good reason! And you know just as well as I! A simple 'Morning, Tovi' works too!"

Carn rubbed his wrist where she had twisted it, "I'm sorry, but easy on the grip, will you?". Tovi sat on the crates by the tent, shifting over for Carn to sit by her, he slumped next to her and exhaled deeply, both of them sitting silently as the day drew steadily brighter.

"So why did you come so early, aren't you with your Vu Gata Drangr of something?"

"It's Du Vrangr Gata-"

"-does it matter?", Tovi said irritably, she was still on edge that early in the morning.

"Yes, it does. But that's beside the point, and no not yet, they said I would be assigned by Nasuada today, but didn't give me details."

Tovi froze, it wasn't the first time that he had brought up assignment but the idea continued to make her throat tighten and her palms break into cold sweat. Tovi let her bangs fall over her eyes for once and busied herself with a stain before speaking again, she exhaled deeply and wiped her hand on her frayed shawl.

"Oh, Lady Nasuada, someone seems to be connected," she teased.

Carn's blue eyes darted away for a moment, embarrassed, but clearly pleased, with the way he ran his fingers through his soft brown curls, "Well not….her directly, but you know…"

They heard a noise inside the tent, the soft groan of the wooden frame of a cot.

"Blast it, that'll be Nana, meet me at the usual spot will you?"

"Of course Milady," he leapt off the crate and started for the well-worn path, "I have nowhere to be until 'noon."

"Great, meet you there- hurry, or Nana will tan us both!"

Tovi watched as Carn disappeared behind a throng of archers beforing heading back into the tent, meeting the Nana's hard look. She eyed her for a moment, "You weren't with that boy, again?"

Tovi huffed, "he's not 'that boy'"

"So you were with him?", said Nana, her eyes narrowing.

"And what if I was? Why does it matter, we're only friends."

Nana rolled her eyes and set herself to folding the sheets. "Acquaintances, friends, lovers…"

"Nana!"

"Love, all I'm saying-don't give me that look! The young men of the varden are what we depend on, but even they have urges-"

"Nana, for the last time, and you know this as well as I. We are friends."

"It's improper!" reasoned the aged caregiver, though Tovi had feigned deafness to the usual tongue-wagging she gave her.

Tovi changed out of her night-clothes and into her fading tunic and leggings, she groped around by her cot for her trousers and soft leather boots, cracked and worn with use, which she laced to the knee. She tightened her braid and ran her fingers through her unruly bangs.

"Sweetheart you know your dear old Nana worries for you, most girls your age have settled down , made a family…even if the circumstances aren't the brightest- but this! Running wild while you're a young woman- wearing trousers as if you hadn't been raised properly! What would M'lord and your mother-"

The tent went silent as Tovi glared through the dim light of early morning, only faltering when she snatched her arrows and bow. She slung her dagger, strung on a leather thong, around her neck. "Don't speak of my mother to me," she said in a hushed tone through a clenched jaw before pushing past the tent flaps.

The usual spot where Carn and Tovi would meet at throughout the week, in breaths between the hectic life of a refugee in the Varden was a quiet, light hillside on the outskirts of camp where they caught game to sell and salt for later use. Carn was already there, his own hunting pack at hand, waving to her as she was in the distance. His usual light demeanor dimmed as his brown eyes met the glare in her green ones.

"Did you and Nana have a row again?"

"I don't want to talk about it Carn." she hissed as she began to go through her pack.

He eyed her warily, but knew better than to press on, but before the awkward silence could go on much longer, Tovi inquired aloud, feeling sorry for dragging her friend into her mood, " So what have we got?"

"Rabbit's are plenty, I think I might have seen a doe or stag… maybe even a bear?"

"A bear? Surda really is strange, Naught like Trojenheim's mountains at all."

"Well, that's the Varden… we move, and move, and keep going until that bastard king decides otherwise."

Tovi nocked one of her arrows and held her stance for a few tense moments, letting her arrow finally fly , a clean hit through the rabbit's eye. "Get it for me?"

Carn mumbled something unintelligible and the rabbit slowly rose and moved its way toward Tovi, on its own in mid-air. She spotted Can with brows furrowed in concentration and slightly flushed, the rabbit landing neatly b their feet.

"Show off."

Carn chuckled, "I'm nothing like those elves though- Eragon as well, their amazing!"

This caught Tovi's attention immediately, "You got to see the elves and Eragon?" she said excitedly, she then groaned and slumped on the ground, "Lucky bastard".

Carn grinned at her reaction, "It was fascinating…and alarming all at the same time, I rememberwhen one of our own at the Du Vrangr Gata had to connect minds with one of those elves, reckon he hasn't been the same since."

"Old Marn? The news travelled fast, heard from Morgana actually."

"I think their odd, them elves," Carn admitted, taking aim for another rabbit.

"Really?"

"They just do not seem right…" he said before letting his arrow reach it's intended.

"Well, you can't expect them to, they're not human," Tovi reasoned

"I know, but it's more than that… it is hard to explain but it's like they're magic themselves, it's not right".

"You sound like Nana again, half of tonight's earnings say that is the same reason she doesn't like you much either".

"You really should not gamble at those taverns"

"I'll decide what I should or should not do."

"You never know, Tovi, those men had not had a woman's touch in some time, it is not safe," he warned, but Tovi couldn't help but notice the tips of his ears turning a shade of red they didn't often take and his sudden interest in his pack.

"but remember, that's why you accompany me"

"You can't expect me to protect you against all those men you cheated!"

"Now who asked you to protect me?", she loved riling Carn up, he would get flustered so easily.

Carn groaned laid down on his back, plucking at the blades of grass one by one, "You will be the death of me, you know"

"Let's hope so, better than you getting cut up by some soldier, because then I might just have to kill Galbatorix myself", she said, laying next to him with arms and legs outstretched.

Carn laughed, "Now, that will be a sight to see"

"You do not think I would be able?" she said, shoving him teasingly.

"'tis not so… but honestly," he said his tone becoming somber, "Well, no one wishes to admit it a such, but if Eragon and Saphira can't even face Murtagh…"

"Murtagh?"

"Oh, he is the Rider everyone was talking about he appeared on the Burning Plains, the one Galbatorix managed to receive a hatchling for"

"The one with the red dragon?"

"The same, there are rumors that the use of magic made them stronger, more of a match to Saphira and her rider."

"Magic." Tovi spat.

"Magic." Carn agreed, his face suddenly contorted in focus as he layed on the ground, frozen for several moments. Tovi propped herself upright, watching him until he returned to face her.

"Trianna?", she recognized the expression, someone was holding a mental connection with him.

"Indeed, I have been assigned! Captain Martland Redbeard tomorrow at daybreak."

These words struck Tovi, she knew these were words that Carn was expected to celebrate, though she could not help the chill in her skin, the sudden feeling that the ground under her had turned to an unnatural angle, or the tightness in her throat as images of contorted bodies of men flashed threw her mind without consent.

"Oh, that's…good," Tovi said, pulling her knees up, hugging them to her chest.

"Good? Tovi, this is wonderful- I can finally prove myself!"

" What it get killed in the process?" she lashed.

"Do not be as such, the Varden needs all the magicians they have!"

"I know!", she said, she truly did but a piece her believed in the cause, a cause her family and friends died for, and if not as a result of their cause, however a stone in her abdomen got larger. "-but that is only because hardly any one comes back!"

Tovi didn't remember rising, but found herself on her feet, slinging her bow and the few rabbits they shot over her shoulder, and storing her arrows to be cleaned for later use.

She refused to meet Carn's gaze.

"Tovi!", Carn's voice called after her again and again, as she headed back toward camp from the usual spot, her back to him, hoping it could continue to be their usual spot.

Tears trailed along her cheeks as she ignored his calls.

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