Secrets shared and secrets kept

Mercury POV
It had been a week and a half since Mercury's accidental explosion. Mercury had managed to cover up the source of the explosion from most of the leaders, the only exception being Orik, which he had told personally.

Mercury had noticed that in the time since the explosion, Eragon and Arya had acted a little off. It was not something any one might notice, but Mercury had. The only clues to their behaviour had been their common disappearances from time to time, which had not been noticed by the rest of the Varden yet, because they had last been spotted at different ends of camp before disappearing.

Mercury was currently walking towards his usual training with Eragon and possibly Arya. Since the explosion Arya had participated in his training from time to time, but she had never been particularly stable in her attendances, and Mercury suspected that his training was not the reason for her attendance.

This cannot go on, Mercury mused to himself as he walked, if they don't change their behaviour someone will begin to notice. It will be rumours at first, but once the rumours starts, then the political landscape will erupt, and until it is settled, the Varden will be too fractured to handle any unforeseen threats. I need this to go unnoticed at least until we have Dras-Leona, after that they will have all winter to sort this out.

As Mercury neared the training area, he noticed that there were two people there: Eragon and Arya. Oh good, then I won't have to find them later, Mercury mused to himself, as he greeted them.

They both greeted him back, and swiftly after Mercury began to practise swordfighting with Eragon. Arya looked on from the sides, she would occasionally give advices, but mostly she just observed.

The training ended as usual with Mercury's total defeat, he had not scored a single mark on Eragon, but at least his own marks had decreased somewhat in numbers. Mercury knew that with the speed and strength of an elf, Eragon would be near impossible to defeat in an open fight, but seeing as this was just practice, Mercury did not mind the open fight.

They had chosen to skip the mental defence training, since Eragon had reasoned that unless Mercury would stand against the king or Murtagh, he would be able to stand his ground. Instead they chose to go directly to the exercise of extending your mind. Mercury still had a lot of problems with extending his mind, he had only done it successfully once, and that was when Eragon had helped him pull his mind out.

"Alright focus on me, try and let your mind wander like we practised earlier", Eragon said while sitting directly across from Mercury.

Mercury tried to do as he said, but it seemed like the more he tried to focus on Eragon, the less he let his mind wander. He continued to stare at Eragon for another 5 minutes without anything happening; suddenly he felt a consciousness brush against his own. It was not a hostile act, but at the same time it was not a consciousness he knew, and he did not trust it. He immediately erected his walls and forgot everything about letting his mind wander, but the consciousness did not attack.

After brushing against his walls for a couple of minutes, the consciousness seemed to withdraw to its source, but it left a kind of trail behind. Mercury was quite intrigued by the strange consciousness, and after a moment of hesitation, he decided to follow the trail. The trail felt both foreign and like the nature around Mercury, like something that was both part of the woods and yet not. Mercury could hear a slight melody, made of some wild musical tones, which seemed to draw him further along the trail.

At long last the trail seemed to end at a vast and powerful consciousness, Mercury had been too enthralled by the music to notice how far out his mind had wandered: his mind was currently very close to what he now recognized as Arya's mind. Upon noticing his mind's current position, he immediately retreated back into the confines of his own mind, Mercury was stunned that he had so easily been lured out of his own mind and into the open, by a consciousness he had not recognized.

"No, don't go back. You were doing so well", came Arya's sing song voice from her new position near Eragon.

"No I was not, it was you who pulled me from my mind", Mercury said with irritation clear in his voice. He was not irritated at Arya for trying to help him extend his mind, but he was very annoyed at himself for being that reckless with the safety of his own mind.

"I did not pull you from your mind; I simply brushed against it and then retreated to my own mind. It was you, and you alone, that followed me back", Arya said, "I have to admit Eragon, I did not entirely believe it was possible to teach him to extend his mind".

"I knew it would be possible, but I had doubts about how long it would take to do it", Eragon said as he looked at Arya. Arya looked back into Eragon's eyes and they stayed like that for almost a minute before Mercury brought them back to reality with a small cough.

"This is exactly what I need to talk to you two about", Mercury said as he shifted between looking at Eragon and looking at Arya.

"What do you mean?", Eragon said in a voice that was a little higher than it should have been.

"You two obviously", Mercury said as he sighed before continuing, "I know that you two are currently seeing each other much more than what everyone else thinks. I know that you have snuck out of different ends of camp and then decided to meet somewhere".

Eragon looked like he had just seen a ghost, his eyes were widened, his face was pale and he kept stealing glances at Arya to watch her reaction. Arya wore her impassive mask, but Mercury noticed that her hands had tensed, like she was expecting an attack.

"Please don't say anything to anyone", Eragon pleaded, "we are not a couple as such, but if Islanzadi or Nasuada found out, they would not care whether we were or not".

"Relax, I don't want to expose you", Mercury said and watched as they both visibly relaxed, "but this can't go on. If it continues this way, then I won't be the only one who notices".

"What would you have us do? Wait until after the war? We will be facing Galbatorix, the most powerful spellcaster in history, and it is highly possible that either of us dies", Arya said in a rare outburst of emotion.

Eragon looked at Arya with something akin to joy, it was not like Arya to show emotion, and now she had shown she cared more about their relationship than the possibility of her mother finding out.

"No, I would not have you wait", Mercury began", but I would like to offer you something that you both need: Alibis. In your current arrangement, people will begin to notice that you are both absent, and from there they will start rumours, but if either of you have alibis for most of the time, then people will not see the connection. I suggest that we use at least one of the two times a week, where Arya usually plays chess at my tent, she would sneak out the back and leave an image of her behind, so that if anyone walks in they won't immediately see that something is wrong. I furthermore propose that Eragon tells Nasuada that he, Orik and I are working on something secret in his private forge, but instead of it being Eragon, Orik and I, it will just be Orik and I. I know that I can convince Orik to go along with the deception without letting him know".

"You would do that for us, and are you sure you can convince Orik to go along with this?", Eragon asked in a grateful voice.

"Of course I would, and I can", Mercury said, as he smiled at the relieved faces of the couple, "by the way, I feel like I should congratulate you two".

Time skip(a week later)
Mercury was walking towards his usual training with Eragon, but unlike so many times before, this time he finally had a proper sword to call his own. He had commissioned the sword in Orik's personal forge, only a short while after they left Feinster, but it had not been finished until yesterday.

Mercury had never been entirely comfortable with the sword the Varden had given him, it simply did not fit his way of fighting and he believed its qualities did not suit him. Luckily for Mercury, one of the books he had decided to bring with him had provided the answer to his problem.

Mercury had not made the sheath of the sword, so that it would fit on his belt, he had instead opted to strap it on his back with the hilt of the sword accessible at his left shoulder, so that it would not get in the way of any leg movement, but that he could still grab it at any time.

He had already noticed that several of the Varden soldiers had stopped what they were doing, and started studying him as he walked towards his training with Eragon, but whether it was the sword itself, the position of his sheath or a mixture of both that captivated him, he did not know. He did now however that it was not the sheath itself that captivated them, because the sheath was a simple wooden sheath covered with a thin layer of black leather.

Upon reaching Eragon, Mercury noticed that Arya had chosen to observe today's training from a log nearby. Eragon sent him a quizzical look as he eyed his missing sword at the hip and the hilt of his new sword, which was the only part of his sword that could be seen from the front.

"I see you have changed your sword", Eragon stated in voice that clearly requested answers to this mystery.

"I have", Mercury said as he smirked, "I did not entirely like the old one, so I commissioned this shortly after we left Feinster".

"Really, then why have you not used it before now if you commissioned it so long ago, and where exactly did you commission it, because I don't believe Nasuada knows about it, and she would definitely know if you used a blacksmith at the Varden", Eragon asked with curiosity in his voice.

"Well to answer your endless questions", Mercury said with a grin directed towards Arya, "I did not use it before, because it was only finished yesterday, and I commissioned it at Orik's personal forge".

"Enough chatter, let us see the sword and judge whether it suits you better than your original", Arya said from her position at the log.

Arya's comment silenced both, and Mercury quickly drew his new sword. The sword hilt was long and clearly intended for two-handed wielding, with pieces of a black cloth woven around the hilt to increase the grip, and it had a small circular guard instead of the usual crossguard. It had a slender slightly curved single edged blade with a length of around 73 cm, but neither the blade, guard or hilt had any intricate patterns or markings, which was usual in important blades, it was just a smooth steel surface without any obstructions.

"What kind of sword is that?", Eragon asked as he studied the new sword with clear wonder in his eyes.

"In my old world it would be called a katana", Mercury answered as slightly turned the sword to let his viewers study it more closely.

"Are you sure that is even going to hold? If it had been elf-made, it would have been reinforced with magic because of its slender build", Arya said as she eyed the slender blade.

"It was considered one of the best kinds of swords in my old world, and I am quite confident that it will hold. It did not take so long to forge for its appearances sake", Mercury said as he gripped the katana with both of his hands and took a few practice swings.

"It is your sword, but let me just block the edge, so that we don't cut each other to pieces", Eragon said while blocking the edges of his own sword.

After blocking the edge of Mercury's sword and handing it back to him, they both took their fighting stances and waited to start the fight. Mercury was the first to strike, aiming at Eragon's right shoulder, but Eragon easily parried the strike and followed it with a strike of his own towards Mercury's right thigh, which Mercury parried by bringing his blade down just beside his right shoulder. Eragon had been surprised by his ability to block his strike, because with his old sword Mercury had not been able parry such a strike, but because of his new sword's extra length and lack of weight, he was now able move his sword much faster and cover more areas of his body with the same movement.

Mercury used Eragon's surprise and swiftly followed his block with a single motion sweep towards Eragon's right abdomen, but Eragon just jumped right out of range of his strike.

The fight continued like that for around two hours before Arya finally broke them up. In none of their previous fights had they continued for that long or fought with such determination. Mercury had fought with his determination to fully test his new sword and how it could change his way of fighting, and Eragon had fought to determine Mercury's true level of fighting, but the fight was still clearly won by Eragon.

"Well fought, you almost had me at your second strike and the time you twisted your blade in that special way", Eragon said as he reached for the water skin.

"But I still could not land a single strike on you, despite all of my best efforts, and taking advantage of your surprises with my new weapon's capabilities", Mercury said slightly annoyed. He had never expected to win the fight, but he had hoped that he at least would be able to use some confusion on Eragon's part to land a strike or two.

"You should not feel bad about that, I have the speed and strength of an elf after all. Brom once told me that even though I was a rider, I should still run if I were to ever face an elf in combat, because even the weakest elf could easily defeat any human", Eragon said to comfort his friend, "but I do agree that this sword suits you far better than the old one".

"What will you name it?", Arya asked from the log.

"What do you mean by, what I will name it?", Mercury asked confused.

Eragon interjected by saying, "I called my sword Brisingr", and upon saying his sword's name it burst into blue flames, which were quickly extinguished by a slightly cursing Eragon, "I forgot, I can't say my sword's name out loud, unless it bursts into flames".

Mercury, who had never seen Eragon's sword burst into flames, had immediately jumped back in surprise and raised his own sword, as if to defend against an incoming attack. After seeing that there was no danger, he again walked up next to Eragon and asked, "do I need to name my sword like you have, and will something equivalent happen to it, when I say its name out loud?"

"First of all, my sword is special", Eragon started, "the elf smith Rhunön used my body to forge my sword, and as such some of my personality might have seeped into the sword during the spell weaving. We believe that Bris-, the name of my sword, might be the True name for my sword, but none other than me can light it".

"And second of all", Arya continued, "the naming of a sword is crucial if the person wielding the sword ever gets famous or currently is. The reason for this is that when bards tell tales, they don't just tell the tale of the hero, but his sword as well, and therefore you can either choose to name it now or let some bards name it later, and seeing as your current sword is quite special in its design, I would suggest you name it as soon as possible, because a weapon like that do not go unnoticed".

"I never thought about that", Mercury said as he rummaged his mind for fitting names for a sword, but he could only find a single name, which seemed to fit both his sword and his intentions for its use.

"In that case, I name this sword: Stille Död", Mercury said as he raised his sword, so that it stood straight up into the air, "but I will not scorn the blade, by writing a name on it".

"What does that even mean?", Eragon asked confused, "is it something in the dwarven language?"

"Wouldn't you like to know", Mercury said while smirking, as he sheathed Stille Död, "but no, it is not something in the dwarven language. Could we just continue with the training instead of these distractions?"

Eragon grudgingly agreed and sat down opposite to Mercury, and to both their surprises, Arya chose to sit down with them. Mercury thought he had made a lot of progress since last week, he had learned to follow trails to other animals' minds, and had learned to impart pictures and emotions, but he still had trouble reaching out to the small insects, which he knew crawled around just beneath and around him. This fact frustrated him greatly, as he wanted to be able to touch each and every mind of the creatures around him, so that he might both learn about them and use them as a sort of early warning system.

Some of his frustration must have seeped out, because Eragon projected a thought to him, which sounded almost like he was mentally chuckling, again you expect too much of yourself. It is far from all magicians that can touch the small minds of insects even after years of training, and yet you want to do it after only a couple of weeks of trying and without any prior magical powers.

There is nothing wrong with expecting more than your own best from yourself, Mercury thought back, it makes me want to improve myself even more.

But you must remember to know your own limits, because if you try to exceed them in battle, then you will almost certainly fail, came Arya's musical thoughts.

I do know my limits, but that does not mean that I can't try and improve myself, when I am not in a battle, Mercury answered.

The mental exercises continued for half an hour without anything disturbing them, but suddenly Mercury heard a small snap of a twig behind him. He had not sensed anyone around him, and neither Eragon nor Arya had alerted him of someone, so he guessed that they did not know of their presence either, but before he could open his eyes, and look who it was, he was knocked on the head with a blunt weapon. The last thoughts that raced through Mercury's head as he fell unconscious were: I failed! Because of me the empire will have Eragon and Arya. I failed them!

I bet you are guessing what the sword name means, so I have decided to start a contest of sorts. The first person who guesses the English name for the sword gets credited in the chapter immediately after they guessed it.

Another thing I believe I might need to clarify: Mercury does not extend his mind, like Eragon does in the clearing in book two, as he is very far from that level. What he does is to follow the trail of a single mind back to it' source, kind of like a hunter stalking a prey, but it has some clear disadvantages. The strongest being that you could compare this type of extending your mind to only being able to focus on one thing with your eyes. You might see the thing clearly, but you are oblivious to everything around it.