Last chapter:
Arya folded her slim arms. "If you accept that emotion is no weakness, then there is no reason for me not to tell Eragon how I feel."
The Queen stared at her daughter for a long while, not moving. Arya seized the opportunity to speak again. "Emotion is what we live for, mother. Passion, we need. Will you deny me of those essential things?"
Finally, Islazanadi stirred. Her expression was unreadable as she stared into Arya's eyes. Then; "I'm bringing you home, Arya."
Arya's mouth dropped open for the second time that evening. "What?"
"You heard what I said."
For a few moments, Arya simply stared, shocked, but then she rediscovered her anger and her sense, and said; "You can't! You- you can't!"
The Queen's eyebrows rose. "Yes, I can. I am your Queen and your mother, am I not? I hold the power over you actions."
"The Varden needs me, mother!"
"I see no reason why another could not take your place. Name an elf that would not leap at the chance! Name an lf who would not obey my instructions to the letter! Name an elf who could not handle themselves just as well as you!" The Queen folded her arms against her chest, daring her daughter to retaliate.
Arya growled out the word, and her slender eyebrows knitted together. "Nienna!"
For a minute, the two women stared into each others eyes- a child's game with an entirely new meaning. In the end, it was the Queen that broke the contact, waving a weary hand. "I have no time for mindless staring contests. I am weary. Contact me when you have regained your control."
Arya glared at her mother before severing the communication entirely. Well, that went well…
Eragon returned to Nienna's tent after walking Arya to hers, her words still ringing in his now pointed ears; It's not your fault, she'd said. What wasn't his fault? His love for her? What happened on the mountain? What?! Or was she merely trying to spare his feelings? Eragon groaned, causing several men that huddled around a fire nearby to look up in alarm. He ignored them. I wish the elves weren't all this… unpredictable. It makes them so hard to deal with!
You show no aversion to Nienna, Saphira reminded him stiffly, present at the back of his mind as she always was. Eragon smiled.
Where are you?
Scouting.
I see… then you will have no objections to my dining with Nienna tonight?
Saphira grumbled, her distinctive jealousy clear in her mental tone. Do what you like. You are no concern of mine.
Oh, but I am, Saphira!
She withdrew from his mind, retaining a dignified silence. Eragon laughed, causing the men to stare up at him again, but he took no notice. He took this rare moment of free time to delight in the countryside's natural beauty; the evening sky was tinted with a light pink, rippling across the horizon. Skylarks sang joyfully as they flitted across the ocean of air that was their playground. And the mountain… Eragon winced away from the memories that the beautiful sight brought flooding back, then cursed himself with a frown for being so weak. And I call myself a Rider! Ha!
With a deep sigh, Eragon ducked into Nienna's tent.
The pair spent many hours laughing, talking and drinking. Eragon ignored the snide comments of his sapphire dragon as his mind became clouded from the many tankards of mead he had consumed. In the end, she cut him off entirely, maintaining a dignified anger from where she lay across the camp. Eragon did not care.
They spent most of the night exchanging stories of their youth's. Nienna, Eragon was shocked to discover, had not been like other elf children- she, too, had spent much of her time playing practical jokes on her parents and mentors. She was not at all like Arya: a fact in which Eragon reveled, rebelling against his natural attraction to the older elf. He fought with a sort of vindictive pleasure, but could not help his mind wandering back to her... for example, why did she dislike Nienna so much? That thought occupied him for some time, and he could not concentrate on the beautiful elf before him.
"…and when she came back, we—"
"Why does Arya dislike you, Nienna?"
She stared at him, her round eyes even wider in shock. This, clearly, had not been what she was expecting, and she seemed at a loss at how to answer. "I'm sorry?"
"Why does Arya dislike you?" Eragon repeated his question patiently, but his eyes combed the elf's face. She opened her mouth a few times as if to speak, but soon shut it again. After a few minutes of this Eragon sighed and smiled. "It doesn't matter. You do not have to tell me."
"I will, Eragon, but… I cannot find the words."
The Rider smiled, encouraging her silently. She seemed to take courage from it, smiling absently back. "You have, I suppose, heard the tale of the Menoa tree?"
Eragon frowned. "Yes…" Then, when she raised an eyebrow at him expectantly, he continued. His eyebrows furrowed in the effort to remember the tale Arya had told him under the Menoa tree. "Once there lived a woman… Linnëa?" He looked to Nienna to confirmation. She had closed her eyes, but she nodded for him to continue. "Linnëa had grown old without the comfort of a mate or children, nor did she feel the need to seek them out, preferring to occupy herself with the art of singing to plants, of which she was a master. But then, a young man came to her and asked for her love…" Eragon winced.
"She was delighted, and deserted her work and devoted herself to the young man and, for a time, they were happy. But the young man was young, and he began to long for a mate closer to his own age. His eye fell upon a young woman, and he wooed and won her. And for a time, they too were happy. When Linnëa discovered that she had been spurned, scorned, and abandoned, she went mad with grief. The young man had done the worst possible thing; he had given her a taste of the fullness of life, then torn it away with no more thought than a rooster flitting from one hen to the next. She found him with the woman and, in her fury, she stabbed him to death.
"Linnëa knew that what she had done was evil. She also knew that even if she was exonerated of the murder, she could not return to her previ-ous existence. Life had lost all joy for her. So she went to the oldest tree in Du Weldenvarden, pressed herself against it, and sang herself into the tree, abandoning all allegiance to her own race. For three days and three nights she sang, and when she finished, she had become one with her beloved plants. And through all the millennia since has she kept watch over the forest . . . . Thus was the Menoa tree created."
The Rider looked at his companion, and concentration immediately turned to shock: a single tear rolled down the elf's taught cheek. "Almost."
"Almost?" Eragon frowned. "But I am sure that is what Ar- what I was told."
She sighed, but did not open her eyes as she spoke. "I said almost. Nearly all of the facts are correct… save one. The young man that loved Linnëa… it was not his fault."
Eragon stared at her in disbelief. Even Saphira, listening half heartedly from where she waited, listened more intently now. "Then who is to blame?" Eragon asked, but Nienna did not answer. "Nienna?"
She opened her eyes, with what seemed like a great effort, and they glistened with unshed tears. "He did not woo the woman that Linnëa found him with. She convinced him to leave his love… she was jealous…"
"How do you know these things, Nienna?" Eragon asked.
"Because I…" she closed her eyes again, and more tears escaped from her honey-coloured eye lids. "I was the woman."
For a few minutes, Eragon stared in shock at the elf. When she finally opened her eyes, it was to the sight of a confused Rider.
"Eragon… no one regrets more than I… I could not just sit back and watch my sister love her mate when I had none…"
"Your sister?" Eragon dismissed the point immediately. "You still have not answered my question. Why does Arya dislike you?"
Nienna took a deep, shuddering breath before she answered him. "Promise that you will not think ill of me once you know what… horrors I have commited."
"I promise."
The elf woman nodded. "I wooed Linnëa's lover, because I was jealous…" she sighed in defeat, and looked Eragon in the eye.
"I did the same thing to Arya. I stole Faolin from her…"
A/N: DUN DUN DUUHHHHHHH!!! Well, tell me what you think, my lovlies! Will not update til I have 25 reviews. Wow… two hundred and something reviews would be AWESOME!! Also, I will be updating my Twilight fic 'D is for decisions' soon, so keep an eye out... and any Host fans, check out my fic 'Too Good To Last' XD.
LoveMuchly
Arya x