Living Cousins
Eragon awoke, nearly jumped, he was alert. And he hit his head on Saphira's wing. Arya stirred.
"What is it Eragon?"
"I just remembered that last night Roran's ring alerted me that he was in danger when you were showing me your thoughts. I was too exhausted , too hurt, and too preoccupied to realize it. I thought he was dead. Obviously he isn't I have to make sure he is alright."
"Very well, are you well enough to do magic?"
"No."
Saphira was too lazy to move her wing so Arya said, "brisingr." So there would be light. She then summoned water from the ground and made the scrying spell to scry in Nasuada's tent. To their surprise, they saw a heavily bandaged, unconscious Nasuada, and a healer. The healer nearly jumped and said,
"Shadeslayer, Roran is the acting leader of the Varden now, I suggest you scry his tent."
Arya terminated the spell as she adjusted it to Roran's tent. During the time, Eragon asked,
"What do you think happened?"
"I do not know, perhaps another ambush."
The spell was completed and Eragon saw his cousin through the mirror. He cried out of joy when he saw his cousin.
"Your alive!"
Roran nearly jumped as he had not been looking at the mirror. He saw Eragon and he too yelled,
"Your alive!"
The two cousins saw each other's tears falling down their faces. Roran was the first to speak.
"What happened? Is that Arya to your left?"
"Aye, she rescued me two days ago. Galbatorix almost broke me, but think not much of it. I got out thanks to her." He kissed her. "Roran, Galbatorix said you were dead, and at that exact moment before our fight a few days ago your ring alerted me to danger. Just now it did the same thing. What happened? And why is Nasuada hurt, and why are you the leader of the Varden?"
"First off, I saw that, congratulations." Eragon and Arya had embarrassed looks on their faces. "Second, the first time my ring alerted you, there was an assassination attempt on me by our own villagers of Carvahall. Birgit, the tanner, and the tavern keepers."
"WHAT!"
"They were corrupted by four magicians who were also attempting to assassinate Nasuada. Eragon, I did not want to kill them, but I was forced too."
"I understand."
"Nasuada was hurt because the empire attacked us again when the dwarves arrived."
"The dwarves arrived?"
"Yes. We were attacked by some soldiers without pain and the excommunicated dwarves. All the excommunicated dwarves were killed. 1000 of the soldiers of the empire, a quarter of which are soldiers without pain, fled to Belatona. There are 12,000 dwarves. Nasuada was stabbed in the abdomen by a soldier after the battle was won. She is in death's grasp at the moment."
"And why did your ring warn me about something yesterday? It did not alert me to the attack when the dwarves arrived."
"The Council of Elders and Du Vrangr Gata attempted a coup."
"WHAT!"
"Yes, luckily Orrin, Orik, and Nar Garhzvog were near me. We killed all of the mutineers. It was a great defeat for us. We have lost nearly all our spell casters and have no council anymore. Eragon I need to leave, we are about to march."
"Alright, stay safe, and stay alive cousin."
Arya terminated the spell. Saphira lifted her wing and entered their thoughts.
What is it emerald eyes, little one? Roran is alive, but Nasuada has been seriously wounded and he became the acting leader when the dwarves arrived. There was an attempted coup among the Varden by the Council of Elders and Du Vrangr Gata. A noble idea Saphira, but all of the mutineers died. The Varden are now nearly magician-less.
Cowards! I will rip them limb for limb and present their heads to Roran!
"We should hurry back to Gil'ead then." Arya said aloud. helped Eragon up. She unintentionally touched his posterior. Arya was embarrassed.
"Sorry,"
"Thanks for the compliment."
Arya helped Eragon onto Saphira and they flew with extra speed to the elves.
26.5
Eragon stirred and awoke. He was startled to find out that he was not in Gil'ead, but once more on the ground. It was again night time, and he was once more by the camp fire. Arya was holding his hand again. It was almost deja vu. The night before he had been doing the same thing. He was confused as to what was going on. He did know though, that his back ached.
What happened? He thought to himself. He looked at Arya, who was looking on with concern.
"Arya, what happened?" She sighed for a moment and looked at him. Her eyes were full of concern.
"You passed out during the flight. We started flying again too soon so we decided to rest another day." She finished. Eragon nodded. He rubbed his back. It ached.
"Does it hurt?" Arya asked, standing up for a moment.
"It's aching. It hasn't felt like this since..." He paused for a moment. The last time his back had ached like that was following a seizure from the wound Durza had inflicted upon him.
"Since Durza," Arya stated, finishing Eragon's statement.
"Yes, since the scar upon my back." Eragon replied. He saw Arya wince at the name.
"It seems the scars of our past still haunt us." She whispered silently. Eragon did his best then to sit up. He looked at Arya who looked like she had seen a ghost. He wondered why she reacted so.
"He's dead Arya. And we don't know what is wrong with me. It may have nothing to do with what he did to me." He stated firmly. Arya looked at him again.
"Eragon. When you were tortured, did Galbatorix try to do anything...to your mind?" She asked. Eragon was wondering where this was going. He thought he had heard everything about her torture.
"No Arya, he did not. Why?" Arya sighed again and looked like she was about to remain silent. Eragon took her hand. "We are together now Arya. What ails you? You can pour your soul into me and I will do my best to help you. I may be hurt right now but you can trust me with anything." His voice was raspy but he did his best to hide it. Arya then finally began to speak.
"What I say to you I have told to none. Not even mother. Durza...almost broke me Eragon...with mindgames...he should have broken me." Eragon's eyes widened. He had thought that Arya had stood fast, and now he was hearing that Durza had done something that almost had broken her.
"Mindgames?" Eragon asked.
"He turned my defenses against me Eragon." He saw her emerald pools begin to fill with salt water. She continued her tale.
"Every day, Durza would assault my mind. I would change my mental defense every day as well so that he would not know how to work into my mind. After he tortured me he would do so. However, one day before we were broken out of Gil'ead. I made a mistake." Her fist started to clench and her knuckles became white. Eragon wriggled his hand into the fist and broke it, holding her hand firmly. Eragon looked at her in the eyes. He knew that the worst part of her tale was coming.
"He tried to break into my mind, so I decided that day I would base my defense off how much I had loved Faolin. As always, he failed to break into my mind. However, as he left, he said something along the lines that the next day was going to be hell for me. I did not think much of it however, I knew too much was at stake. I could not break for the good of Alagaesia." She took a deep breath, and then a tear fell from her eye.
"The next day, as always, I was drugged. However, this time not only did the drug prevent me from reaching magic, but it also made me hallucinate more than I had been. I was in quite a delirious state at that point in time. That morning, my mind clouded, I thought I saw Faolin walk into my cell. Hope surged into me. I thought that he had somehow survived the arrows in his heart and was going to break me free." Eragon could tell from the tone of her voice that the story was about to take another turn. She then said nothing as she started to cry again. He felt Arya touching his mind. He let her in.
Eragon...this memory is one of the most painful I endured. May I show it you rather than speak of it? Of course you may Arya.
He was seeing things through Arya's eyes. His mind was clouded, seeing things that were not there. Arya was sitting down at the foot of her cell, not moving. Suddenly she heard what she thought was her cell door being broken down. She looked up and saw Faolin walk in. She jumped up and ran to him.
"You came!" She said joyously. Tears were on her face. He had survived! But how? How had he survived three arrows in the chest? She looked into his eyes and saw nothing. She then had a questioning look on her face.
Suddenly, the man whom she thought was Faolin picked her up and slammed her into the cell wall. She felt several of her ribs break. She looked up at the man again. She was delirious. Why had he done it.
"Stupid girl." The impersonator said in a horrificly similar tone to Faolin. He was speaking in the ancient language. "I never loved you. All I wanted was to rise to power. Durza has promised me that I shall be seated at the right side of Galbatorix when I break you." He drew a whip and slammed it into her. The sting was amplified by the fact she thought it was Faolin doing it.
"Your lying! Thorta du illumeo!" Arya yelled. It could not be true. That could not have been the truth. He was lying. She was denied when he simply said the same thing.
"I'm going to have fun with this Arya." Faolin said with a grin. He coated the whip with seithr oil and whipped across her back several times. She screamed in pain. She had not screamed when Durza had whipped her. But this was not Durza. This was someone whom she had grown to love over the years. She continued to scream in pain. Finally her voice grew hoarse.
"Faolin...please...stop..." She begged. She could not believe she could have been deceived so.
"Then tell Durza what he wants to know." He sneered.
"Never." She said weakly. She felt another lash upon her back. She curled up into a small ball. Tears were coursing down her face. She had loved him. How could he have lied to her, and then have fun assaulting her? How could he have gotten past all of the vows her mother had made him swear when he became a body guard. It made no sense. She continued to cry.
Suddenly, the hallucinogenic part of the drug began to wear off, but she did not care. She was still traumautized by what she had just been through. Suddenly she was picked up by the dress, and looking straight at Durza, who was laughing.
"Let me tell you something wench. You think your lover truly died after those arrows? You are wrong. Oh...he fought. For so long he tried to fight. We healed his heart so we could torture him. We let the poison from the arrows course through his body. I enjoyed each and every scream from him. It was so gratifying to see the graceful elf scream. Only when he begged us to kill him did we end his life, by whipping him until he bled to death!" The shade cackled for a moment. He threw Arya to the ground and left the cell. She remained curled up in a ball, tears coursing down her face. She did not care anymore. She could not deliniate facthood from falsehood. Was what Durza had said true? Was it not? Was it really Faolin who had just whipped her?
She did not care anymore. She just wanted it all to end. She wanted the mindgames over. Durza had taken what she had loved and poisoned it. She did not care if it was Durza who had been impersonating Faolin. It was over. She was broken. Her mind was defeated. She screamed, "Why don't you just kill me now!" Hoping Durza would hear.
"Maybe I shall, just tell me what I want to know." He then walked away when Arya did not give in. Arya wanted it all to end. Nothing mattered to her. She could not think correctly. All of her memories had been poisoned by something that was not true.
Eragon then returned to reality from the memory. He looked at Arya. I was drugged and my mind was clouded. I did not know any better Eragon. I had been driven to the edge of insanity. It could have been my father that had whipped me and I would have believed it.
Why couldn't you be done with it and let it sink in everything was fake?
Arya had finally opened up completely to him. The most evil pain which had hurt her had been revealed. She continued to cry. He stood fast, no matter how much his back ached, simply letting Arya cry into his arms and letting her relieve herself of the final pains of her heart. He did not feel jealous anymore about Faolin. He was her mate now. And he needed to make sure she was fine. He loved her, and now he was going to show it with every passing breath.
"Its ok Arya. I am here. No person shall hurt you the way he did." He whispered to her. She then tried to say something. Eragon did his best to decipher everything which was being said.
"I cant get that memory out of my mind Eragon. No matter how fake the things he said were. It still haunts me. Every day," She whispered.
"Then let it haunt me as well. You have me to talk to now." Eragon answered.
"Thank you." She whispered. Eragon continued to hold her as the two of them slowly began to lie down and rest. Eragon held on to her as she sniffled once more. He touched Saphira's mind for a moment.
She opened up again to us Saphira. He thought. That is a horrible thing to have to go through. How was she able to stay sane after I rescued her?! She is a strong woman.
She did little one. And I agree. What a horrible way to be tortured. Not even Galbatorix would be that sadistic.
Indeed she is. She has gone through so much in this conflict with much as we have. A wonderful addition to our family.
Yes, but I think she needed it more than we hoped for it. Eragon answered.
Perhaps.
He then pecked Arya upon her lips as he bid her goodnight. The two of them drifting off into their waking dreams. The scars of Arya's past had been revealed, and dealt with. She could now finally move on from everything which had hurt her.