"Let's take a break," said Nasuada falling into a seat behind her.
"Sure…" replied Eragon choosing to remain standing even though he was feeling equally as defeated.
So far the morning had been a disaster. It had started out well enough with the two of them reviewing mind protection techniques and Nasuada excelling at blocking off her mind. Nasuada had been extremely enthusiastic; a model pupil if ever there was one, up until the moment Eragon had softly touched her conscience. He had treaded very gently, knowing full well that she was not used to having the sanctuary of her mind invaded, but despite his care, the second he made contact, she physically and mentally recoiled. Eragon retreated immediately, but not before he felt waves of panic course through Nasuada's agile mind.
Eragon had never seen his generally cool and composed queen turn such a deep shade of red. She nervously laughed it off however, and insisted they go back to work immediately. Eragon, very confused, did not object. Yet again he reached for her mind and felt her radiating presence, but the second he got close enough to actually see a whole thought, he would be roughly pushed away by an increasingly embarrassed Nasuada. And so it continued for a good ten minutes before standing up started to feel very difficult. This was literally mental warfare, and neither of them was achieving anything. It was then that Nasuada had asked for a break, and Eragon had agreed with a lot more relief than he could express.
They sat in silence for a while, Eragon's thoughts buzzing melancholically with theories as to why Nasuada didn't want him seeing her thoughts. Each was grimmer than the next, and he finally settled on two of the worst possibilities; either Nasuada had something to hide from the Varden, which could indicate she was a traitor, or she just deeply distrusted Eragon. He was busy deciding which situation he would prefer, when Nasuada interrupted his thoughts, "I'm so sorry Eragon. I don't even know what's wrong with me."
"O no! It's okay!" he said in a falsely high pitched voice that indicated he thought otherwise.
"Let's just try it one more time, if it doesn't work, then I don't really need a demonstration, you can just coach me through everything in theory."
Eragon nodded absent-mindedly and made a last full blown attempt to surpass what had become an almost immediate defense response on Nasuada's part. Surprisingly, he met very few, if any, defenses this time. Instead he found her mind chock full of armory statistics, soldiers names, budget calculations and other technical jargon. He knew Nasuada was a much more complex and intelligent woman, yet he could find very few thoughts that would indicate her depth as he sifted through her consciousness, "What's going on?" projected Eragon. Nasuada took a while to answer, and when she did her thought was painstakingly guarded and bare, "Nothing, nothing."
Finally, Eragon decided to ignore the peculiarity and continue with the lesson. He started by giving her a lengthy list of instructions to remember when touching his mind. About half way through the list, he noticed that Nasuada was straining her mind to concentrate; but not necessarily on the lesson. At long last he withdrew from Nasuada's strange and disappointingly barren mind. He almost thought he heard Nasuada breathe a sigh of relief, but he wasn't sure. Instead he gave Nasuada the signal to begin reaching out with her mind, and waited, what he expected would be a long time, for their consciousnesses to make contact. That was not the case. Nasuda proved extremely adept, and found his consciousness within seconds. In her delight, Nasuada released a wave of exuberant thoughts into his mind, but now it was Eragon's turn to recoil. Among the plethora of joyous exclamations, he felt a stronger emotion, an emotion he hadn't felt in a while, but one that he couldn't fail to recognize; it was the pang of new love.
Nasuada, blissfully oblivious that she had let one of her strongest emotions slip into Eragon's consciousness, was somewhat surprised when Eragon suggested they end their lesson there. She didn't complain however, as finishing the lesson ahead of schedule would give her a few minutes to collect her thoughts before her next strategy meeting. Eragon took leave of her quickly, almost stumbling out of the tent, very uncharacteristic of a man with the gracefulness of an elf. Nasuada barely noticed: she was too entranced by her recollections of the lesson.
She began by scolding herself for not realizing earlier that a majority of her thoughts these days revolved around Eragon. He had been at risk of seeing those thoughts at any moment as he inhabited her mind. When she had first thought about the possibility, she had practically jumped out of her skin, and shoved Eragon's mind away simultaneously. From then on, she found herself unable to let down her defenses for fear of a revealing thought reaching him. It wasn't until after they took a little break that Nasuada had finally come up with a way to make sure she kept Eragon away from her stronger emotions. She had felt his surprise as he waded through her mind and found nothing but empty calculations and numbers. But while, she was a little bit worried that Eragon might think her empty headed, she decided it was worth the risk. Nothing could be worse than Eragon finding out how she felt about him!