‘The center is crumbling.’ was all that Nasuada could think as another meeting ended in angry people storming out of the command tent.

You would think that coming out victorious in a battle with the Empire and driving off two enemy Dragon Riders would bring the various factions together.

Instead it had emboldened several of them to make demands of her in an attempt to seize control of the Varden for their own ambitions.

Her arms throbbed at the thought as the self inflicted wounds from the ‘Trial of Long Knives’, the latest and most blatant attempt at usurping her position. The Warlords that followed her father had taken advantage of both Alexandria and Eragon being absent to demand high ranking positions throughout the Varden essentially for free and when she called them out about it, they demanded the Trial to have her prove she followed her people’s traditions.

That had been the start of the collapse.

She had called on Jörmundur and King Orrin to bear witness to the Trial because she did not trust Fadawar and his advisors to be truthful about the results, especially when they had been surprised that she knew the Trial would grant her leadership of Fadawar’s tribes as well should she succeed.

Jörmundur had accepted her decision easily enough out of loyalty to her but King Orrin had surprised her.

Instead of the storm of protests she had expected, he had gone cold and simply asked once for Fadawar to release her from her oath.

When he was refused the Trial began.

Fadawar and Nasuada took turns slicing their forearms with ceremonial knives to show their dedication to endure for their people. After six such cuts Orrin did try to stop the contest out of concern for them killing themselves but Nasuada had told him to not interfere. After a full nine cuts, she was declared the victor but that was when she made her most damning mistake.

Pain-drunk as she was she misspoke and ended up insulting the Surdan king for being unwilling to take risks to advance their cause…and was swiftly reminded that while the Varden had been sheltered by the dwarves, Surda had been fending off encroachment from the empire longer than she had been alive.

The words had been hasty and ill considered and while King Orrin realized that, he was also more curt and distant when they spoke. Gone was the easy friendship they had had and in its place was an uneasy alliance between leaders. One Orrin was unsatisfied with due to Nasuada’s failure to consult him on several matters.

She would be spending a lot of time trying to mend that relationship. Among others.

Eragon had not been pleased to find out that not only had his liege-lord risked her life without even notifying him, he had also taken her refusal to heal her wounds as an insult as well even if he did express his understanding for the reasoning when she explained her thoughts. Saphira was much less accommodating and straight up called Nasuada a fool…but thankfully no one had spread that around or trust in her would have plummeted among the groups not familiar with the tradition of the Trial.

Besides, the Rider pair had their own troubles.

The ‘minor’ one was that Elva, the infant Eragon had ‘blessed’ on his first appearance in Farthun Dûr had confronted him about the compulsion that made her seek to shield others from misfortune at the cost to herself. A hellish existence, especially in the middle of war, that had rapidly advanced her growth till she resembled a child of six years at least instead of the babe she had been mere months ago.

To his credit, Eragon was aware of his mistake and had prepared to remove the blessing long before he was confronted by the girl.

He was apparently not completely successful and only managed to remove the compulsion to prevent harm from everyone around her while she was still perfectly aware of the suffering, but Elva was satisfied with the result. Nausada was also secretly relieved – much to her own guilt – that she would not lose such an incredibly effective bodyguard as Elva as a result.

But the bigger issue the Rider was facing was that his actions during his rescue mission had some drastic consequences.

No one had been pleased to discover Eragon had planned to remain behind to buy more time figuring out how to deal with Katrina’s father. While on a personal level Nasuada was pleased Eragon hadn’t simply executed the man, though it would have been well within his rights, as a leader she was incredibly frustrated the Rider they were placing all their hopes on would risk himself over a murderer.

If that had been the end of it, Nasuada could have ignored it. But Eragon’s ill-thought actions had allowed a mage from the Empire to sneak up on them and now Alexandria Cross, the single most powerful human mage outside of a Dragon Rider they had ever seen, the leader of a sizeable fraction of the Varden’s magicians and healers, and one of the most terrifying warriors she had ever seen…was lost in enemy territory with no way of them knowing what had happened to her.

To make things worse the gossip mill had already noted her absence when people noticed her leave with Eragon only to not be seen after he returned.

They were placating the rumors as best they could for now while trying to come up with plans how to proceed but nothing they could come up with was very workable without more information.

Unlike Eragon and the elves, Alexandria lacked the ability to communicate over large distances and her own defenses prevented other magicians from scrying her.

The only consolation was that she was definitely alive because she was still shielded but whether or not she had been captured was unknown. As a result unity between the leaders of the Varden was at an all time low. Eragon had nearly raced off to find the missing mage when she did not follow through the magic circle she had expected them to use.

Orrin and some of the other commanders had immediately protested that by pointing out the Empire’s army was still only a few miles away. They needed Eragon as a deterrent, not out on a rescue mission for someone who had repeatedly refused to swear loyalty to the Varden and its allies.

Leona, Alexandria’s apprentice, had all but threatened to close the Healer’s Guild to them as a response. Tensions ran incredibly high for a while and Nasuada had to dismiss everyone for the rest of the day lest something be said neither side could take back.

She had hoped the next day would be more relaxed but an urgent message from one of their spies in the Empire quickly dashed those hopes.

Alexandria had been captured by the enemy and was set to be executed in the city of Feinster in a few days.

That news had really put the cat among the pigeons.

Eragon had almost immediately demanded to be allowed to take Saphira and fly into what was surely a trap on his own. It was only by the timely arrival of the contingent of elven bodyguards Queen Islanzadí had sent to protect Eragon that had stopped him from running off and that was because they would follow after him even if they had no way to keep up with a flying dragon.

Nasuada had relaxed when Blödhgarm finally managed to convince her headstrong Rider to abandon his foolish mission only to realize hours later that Eragon had fooled them and had only been drawing everyone’s attention while not only Leona but Arya as well had slipped away from the Varden’s camp heading Northeast.

The young leader of the Varden could only despair as two very politically important figures sped off towards a trap, her advisors and companions fought and schemed amongst themselves, and that she herself had no way of quelling the unrest without becoming a tyrant.

She could only hope Alexandria was successfully rescued. If only so she would have the pleasure of lecturing the blonde woman for hours about the trouble she caused.