“I still can’t believe you decided to go fight a Shade on your own.” I muttered to Arya again as we waited for everyone to gather for another meeting about the aftermath in Feinster.

By now I was very familiar with spending days in meetings going over every little detail after a major event.

It was unavoidable when dealing with something as large as an army.

It also had made me incredibly jealous of Eragon who managed to miss most of these meetings for one reason or another. At least until Orrin threw his fit and I largely stepped away from attending anything to do with the Varden’s internal politics. But the capture of the city, and all the events that happened during it, made an invitation pretty much unavoidable.

Of course all that information needed time to actually find its way back to the leaders. So it was actually a day after the city leadership surrendered that we were all called to meet. Which was fine. It meant I got to grill Arya for the details around her night when I wasn’t packing things away.

Despite my night assault on the walls, some magicians had remained vigilant on other sections of the city and had managed to detect her and the other elf and raised the alarm. That wasn’t an issue for the two elves until a squad of abnormally heavily warded soldiers showed up with magical backup and forced them into a corner. Arya had actually been moments away from calling for my help when Eragon had arrived and rescued them. Then the crazy elf had decided to tear across the city after the magicians that fled with the help of Eragon and Saphira while her companion finished the original mission to open the gates for the rest of the army.

By this point I had already locked Samuel in my Reality Marble so there was no way for them to either ask for or come for help. So the three decided to just do it on their own.

Which may have been a good thing since they eventually traced the magicians all the way back to the castle and found them in the middle of summoning a Shade.

I still didn’t have a benchmark for how powerful a Shade was, but considering it had nearly killed Arya while holding off Eragon and Saphira at the same time, it definitely wasn’t a pushover.

“Does this mean people are going to start calling you Shadeslayer, too?” I asked with a teasing grin. “It might get confusing if you and Eragon spend too much time in the same room.”

“As I said before, I think my achievement is going to be overshadowed enough that it will not be an issue.” She gave me a side eye. “Isn’t that right, ‘Dragonslayer’?”

I sighed and leaned back in my chair. “You’re too stiff, Arya. You should relax a bit, I know you can. I’ve seen you do it!”

The elf let out a small huff, but was interrupted from answering when the door opened and people started to filter in for the meeting. A few of them wandered over to us and made smalltalk in an effort to get some details in advance, but Arya was easily able to fend them off with some verbal sparring. I, meanwhile, just grabbed Leona and pretended to have a very in depth discussion about the manufacture of more specialized healing mystic codes. A conversation that we had already wrapped up a week ago but was a great excuse not to talk to anyone else.

A few moments later the door opened again and Nasuada, Orrin, Eragon, and a few others I kinda recognised walked in. Nasuada took her position at the table and everyone took that as a sign the meeting was about to start.

“Good evening, I know many of us have other irons to attend to, so let’s not waste time. With the capture of Feinster and more of the southern territories the Varden is in an excellent position to strike at the heart of the Empire.” Nasuada had to pause as some cheers went up around that. “And we aren’t alone there. Arya, any more news from the Elven army?”

Eyes turned to the dark haired ambassador as she gave a quick update on what was happening up north.

After we left the forest while Eragon continued his training with Oromis, the elves had been mobilizing for war. And not long after Eragon left for the second time after managing to get his own freshly forged Rider Sword they had swept through the northern sections of the Empire like an out of control fire.

Something that was utterly unsurprising considering every elf was at least stronger, faster, and more experienced than any normal soldier they went up against. Combined with the fact every elf was also a magician…the best the Empire could do was delay and occasionally kill one or two of their attackers when they got lucky. And that was ignoring the fact that Oromis and Glaedr had come out of hiding and were leading the charge.

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Even I didn’t want to fight the gold dragon the size of a small hill. I couldn’t imagine how a normal garrison soldier felt when facing something like that.

All of that came to a head over Gil’ead, though, when Murtagh and Thorn were sent to confront the other Rider pair. Arya didn’t have all the details yet but the four of them fought over the city and after nearly a day of fighting, Oromis and Glaedr managed to capture their opponents at great cost to themselves. In a morbidly ironic turn of events Oromis lost an arm and Glaedr took a bad hit to the throat that prevented him from breathing fire.

I couldn’t help but smile at the knowledge my little discovery had saved the lives of the ancient Rider pair and likely gave Murtagh a shot at a happier ending than what he got. It was also a relief to know Galbatorix had lost both his subordinate Riders on the same day. It made what I was going to bring up much easier to swallow for the others…hopefully.

Eventually things circled around to me, since everyone wanted to know what happened with Samuel.

I gave them a very cut down version of my assault on the walls, the fight through the city when Samuel showed up, and then an even more brief description of the final fight in the marketplace.

I could tell that some people were frustrated by how little detail I was putting into the recounting. Some because they wanted to hear an epic story about the battle between me and a dragon. Some, like Trianna, who were frustrated that I wasn’t giving more insight into my abilities. And then some, like Orrin, that were being bluntly reminded how powerful I was and how little they could control me. Which meant they would really enjoy this last part.

“...so after I killed his dragon, I speared him through the heart and hit him with a spell that reduced his body to ash. Unfortunately, this will be the last battle I fight for the Varden–” I said only to almost immediately be drowned out under the volume of protests from damn near everyone at the table.

After a solid minute of yelling without anyone managing to get everyone under control Arya finally cast a spell that silenced the room. She held it just long enough to give everyone a stern look before dropping it and giving Nasuada a nod.

“Thank you for that, Arya.” The Leader of the Varden said with a nod of her own towards the elf. “Now then, Lady Alexandria, please explain what you meant.”

I resisted the urge to cross my arms over my chest defensively with everyone staring at me. “There isn’t much to explain. In the fight with Samuel I pushed things too far. I’ve undone nearly all the recovery from my previous wounds and from what I can determine I’m not long for this world anymore.” I said, slipping a small lie in with the truth. None of the wounds I got during the fight were permanent and I had already recovered from the strain of using the Unlimited Blade Works. However, that countdown was still present in the back of my mind. I still couldn’t read it so I had no idea how much time I had left to leave this world before I was forced out, but I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like what happened when it did.

Sure, there was the small chance that whatever was supposed to remove me was as broken as the rest of that message, but there was just as likely a chance it could straight up delete me from reality.

I wasn’t exactly willing to test it out, so it was time to leave.

Nasuada looked stricken, and several others gasped at my revelation.

“Alex, that's…are you sure?”

I chuckled, this is what finally got Nasuada to address me casually? “Yeah, I’m sure.”

“What about the elves?” Eragon asked. “Their healers–”

“–Can’t do anything I haven’t already tried.” I cut the young Rider off. “It was my research that was able to finally help heal your teacher after they failed to find a cure for decades, and his wound was a lot milder than mine.”

“...that can’t be true. Arya, is there–”

“We’ve already spoken about this.” Arya replied calmly, having already heard the actual story behind me leaving before swearing herself to silence. “Alexandria is right, the Elves know nothing she does not or is not more skilled in herself.”

“Is there a chance you could be wrong, Lady Alexandria?” King Orrin asked.

“None.”

“Then it seems I have limited time to do this.” And to my shock, he stood and bowed low. Much lower than I had ever seen nobility do, let alone a king. “Lady Alexandria, I must deeply apologize for my words towards you earlier. You have given much to the Varden even if you did not formally swear yourself to it, and now you have given us everything. I have shamed myself and cannot help but feel like I bear some responsibility. But I swear your sacrifice will not be forgotten.”

“Whoa! Hold on a second!” I protested and shot to my feet. “Let’s not act like I’m going to just drop dead!”

“You still deserve to be recognized for what you did for us.” Nasuada argued. “It’s the least you are owed…and wildly insufficient for what you have sacrificed.”

Crap, I was starting to feel bad. And I couldn’t exactly say I wasn’t actually dying now, could I?

“Why don’t we just move on with the meeting?” I tried.

Not that anyone was listening to me at this point.

-o-

My departure from the Varden was a much more sedate affair than the Soul Society had been. Part of that was to avoid the morale hit my absence would cause, but most of it came down to the difference in relationships I had with the people here.

I had simply made more and closer friends in the Bleach world compared to the handful of acquaintances I had among the Varden. I had sort of set myself up in a mentorship role for Eragon, but he was often so busy with other things or even just in other places that I couldn’t call us more than friendly acquaintances. Saphira appreciated me helping wrangle her Rider, but we never had much of a connection beyond that. I felt like Sandra and Fredric could have been friends, but I hadn’t seen much of them once the war started in earnest.

The only two people I would really miss were Arya and Leona. And while I considered asking them to come with me, Arya was a princess, an ambassador between humans and elves, and quite possibly a potential Dragon Rider if I or Samuel hadn’t butterflied that away somehow. She simply devoted too much of herself here to pack up and leave. And Leona had gone from a barely educated hedge-witch to the de facto leader of the Healer’s Guild.

So after one final celebration with everyone to say goodbye, I slipped away and began heading towards the eastern side of camp, where I was very surprised to see someone waiting for me.

“Are you ready to depart, mistress?” Leona asked, a fully loaded horse beside her.

“Depart? Leona, you’re a guildmaster. You can’t just give that up for me.”

She actually laughed. “I never really wanted it anyway. It was more I became guildmaster because I was your apprentice, even if we never officially said it. Besides, I would be a proper fool to abandon that position when I have so much more to learn from you.”

Leona was one of the few that knew I wasn’t dying, but I didn’t think she really understood what it meant when I said I was leaving.

“I understand enough, mistress.” She argued when I pointed that out. “I don’t know how, obviously, but you are leaving this plane of existence. And I want to come with you.”

I huffed at her. “You realize this could be a one way trip? We might never come back here again.”

“Even more reason to go, if this is the last chance I have to study under a teacher like you.”

I couldn’t help but smile a little at that. Fine then, if she wanted to come along…

“Then let’s get going. We have a long way back to the Beor Mountains, and I still have a lot of work to do…”