Well, last chapter we got farther into the plot this chapter is short but only because next chapter it going to be full of magic.

Please read, review and enjoy.

Ch. 10

It had taken days but Cedric had reached the City of Metter with Roran, Angela and Master Carn. He wasn't supposed to be with them but he had followed them for two days before he had been caught. At first Roran had tried to send him back to the Varden but Cedric had stayed put. He vehemently ignored every order to go back. He told them that he was going to go help Nerezza whether they wished to bring him or not. She was his guardian Angel once and now he was going to be hers. Two more days and they would be in Uru'baen. Cedric touched Nerezza's purple rose underneath his cloak as he stared at the road ahead.

\/\/\/\/\/

It was strange; Murtagh had been appointed as Nerezza's escort. She was certainly Galbatorix's prisoner but she was never truly treated as one despite that she was never allowed to leave and was always being watched. But despite the fact that she wasn't treated like a prisoner in a cell she knew she was. She was desperate to leave to run, to find the Varden, to find Eragon but she wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. Well not out of the castle anyway. Again it was the same, Nerezza sat next to the window of the tower she slept in and stared out as she waited for Murtagh to 'visit' again. However she found herself getting attached to the Empire Dragon Rider. There was something about him that reminded her of someone she knew but couldn't place the similarity.

A knock on the door signaled his arrival. "Come in." Nerezza answered but the irony that Murtagh would enter whether she gave him permission or not was not lost on her.

"How are you this evening?" Nerezza looked at him.

"How do you think I am?" Despite the bite in her voice Murtagh knew it was not full-hearted. But an abrupt change in topic was his real answer. "Why do you serve Galbatorix? I am sure he knows your true name but how did he ever discover you?"

"I would rather not speak of such things." Murtagh was brusque, but not rudely so. Nerezza smiled to herself and looked out the window again. The sun was setting painting the sky in velvet colors.

"You value your life and Thorn's over others." It was merely an observation that Nerezza had noticed, she wasn't sure what she expected by telling Murtagh this but she couldn't help herself.

"Yes, I do." Murtagh answered easily, he watched the girl with a curiosity that he kept hidden. "Is that a bad thing?" Though Murtagh was sure that a lecture was coming Galbatorix had commanded him to get to know the guardian better so that is what he intended to do.

"Not necessarily." She spoke quietly that Mutagh almost missed her answer. She looked from the window of her room to him. Her violet eyes seemed to be nostalgic. "You are merely an animal. You follow instinct to preserve your life. It is natural for us all to fill this way. For example today through this window I witnessed an overturned cart. A woman was killed underneath it. Though I felt pity and prayed that her soul find rest and that her family be helped, I did feel a sense of contentment that I was not in her place."

"I see, this is not a sentiment that you learned from Eragon is it?" Murtagh knew his younger brother enough to realize that Nerezza was speaking from her own mind.

"No, it is not. Sometimes I have to wonder if the words I speak and the things I know and feel are mine or of whom I used to be." The minute she spoke Nerezza felt as though she should have clamped her mouth shut. That thought was one that she barely could admit to herself, much less the enemy. She felt naked; to say such a thing that had caused her so much grief so freely was much too stressing. Feeling too exposed Nerezza quickly changed subject. "So, why has Galbatorix ordered you to be with me?" Nerezza shielded her mind and face by placing a mask of nonchalance.

"He merely wishes for me to know you better." Murtagh gave her a crooked grin. Nerezza narrowed her eyes and quickly deduced the true motive.

"He wants you to get to know me better so he may learn my true name." A melancholy smile turned Nerezza's lips upward. "He will never learn my true name." Murtagh sensed something in her smile; something distinctly far from pride.

"You do not know of his skills. He can learn your name as easily as he learned mine." Murtagh warned her, but the girls smile grew wider almost as though she were about to laugh.

"No he won't."

"Why?" Murtagh asked for his own benefit, he wanted to know. Desperation seeped into his voice minutely, not enough for anyone but himself to hear.

"Because," Nerezza smile turned comforting and she placed her hand upon Murtagh's cheek. She spoke as though lecturing a troubled student. "It is our past that makes who we are, our experiences, our actions; they result in the wisdom's we live by that make us, us." She removed her hand from his cheek and placed it on his chest over his heart. She felt his steady heartbeat through her hand with each beat Nerezza could feel his thoughts there. "My past is still with me but it is a mystery, I do not know it, yet it bleeds into my thoughts finding where it belongs. But only a little, who I am is most likely very different from whom I was." Realizing how close she was to him she pushed herself away. Her palm still felt the thump of his heart.

"I-it must truly bother you to not know if you are you or someone else." Murtagh stuttered feeling the heat that radiated from his chest, where her hand once lay. Nerezza nodded slightly.

"Murtagh if you saw an elderly man in front of a stampeding bull and the only way to save the man was to push him out of the way and give your life for him, would you do it?" Nerezza changed the subject again she felt too hot in her skin.

"No, I don't suppose I would, that man has little to offer a community anymore besides consultation, and I on the other hand can work." Murtagh was truthful; he was who he was he would not lie about it.

"I see, spoken like a true tactician. However in the spirit of true names I think if you were to become the kind of person who placed others above himself that would certainly change your name." He was surprised. He gave her no clue that he intended to change his name, yet somehow she knew. "I will be getting ready for bed now." With that Nerezza shooed him out the door.

\/\/\/\/\/

"I believe she is correct sire." Murtagh spoke of his discussion with Nerezza though there were parts that he kept hidden and downplayed. He was lucky that Galbatorix was too interested in the new he brought than the actual memories. "As more of her memories come back her true name will change more and more, the only way to find her name and stop it from changing would be to wait for all her memories to resurface. Or to force them to awaken."

The mad king stared off into space contemplating what to do. "I will have the secrets of her memories but for the moment I will be content with keeping her from the Varden." He thought back to the memories of Nerezza's that he had witnessed and deemed worthless but in them the held the key to success. And the words that she had said herself, "It is our past that makes who we are, our experiences, our actions; they result in the wisdom's we live by that make us, us" He may not be able to manipulate the past itself but he could manipulate the way she perceived it.