I own nothing. I started reading the Fox Children while I was playing the Blood and Wine expansion. I love Toussaint, and the vampires everywhere. Anyway, I haven't written a thing in years. This is the result of a horrible cold, cold medicine, too much alone time, and wanting to see more of the other Witchers.
OoOoO
Kaer Morhen sat in isolation, her crippled bones laid bare to the world. Winter had come and the Keep sat alone, withered and beaten. The holes in her walls from every battle, hard fought and hard one, still open wounds. The empty rooms full of rotting food and forgotten books. Moth eaten linens in rooms that have forgotten the feel of life. A lone grave marker sat down a nearly forgotten trail, the last life taken from within her walls lay just inside the reach of her shadow. No name, no markings other than the remains of a pyre and a sword impaled into the earth.
It had been three years since the Hunt had invaded this world in search of the child of the Elder Blood, hunting and seeking with all their might. She was a wolf, through and through, and they could not cage her. Despite every effort, every attempt to hurt, hinder, despite their desperation she persevered and won the hard fight. But she was not left unaffected. At the cost of those she held dear, the ones she loved. Vesemir, Skjall, Geralt, Yennefer. The latter two survived at the mercy of Unicorns. She had watched her brothers fight for her, her friends and what she called family.
Kaer Morhen sat alone, not quite forgotten, but alone none the less. They agreed to meet, one last time seeing each other all in one place, Ciri had demanded it and not a single Witcher who knew her could deny the little wolf. Lambert arrived a full day before Eskel, wandering the grounds of the keep and paying his respects to his former mentor. Geralt had arrived half a day behind Eskel with Ciri and Yennefer.
"I told you, I hate teleporting." Geralt groaned, rubbing his temples irritably as he walked away from a very proud Yennefer to where Eskel and Lambert had already started drinking, a decent fire burning in the hearth.
"You're getting much better, dear." Lambert and Eskel exchanged curious glances, Yennefer glowered at them. "Go on, then. Say it."
Eskel threw his hands up in a sign of defeat. "Hey, hey, not going to say a thing."
Lambert gave her a sneer. "Doesn't prove anything, still a heartless shrew." Lambert didn't bother making eye contact, simply pouring a drink for Geralt as he sat down. "What do you think of Witcher life now?" He glanced up at the young woman, completely ignoring Yennefer's furious shouting.
"Better than I could have imagined." She laughed as she spoke, filled with excitement and wonder.
Lambert scoffed, his own experience being far less joy-filled. He had few friends, most of which had been murdered or died on 'the path'. He hated that stupid saying. What path was he supposed to walk, where was he supposed to be going?! "Good. Can't imagine how it could be better but…good."
"I'm free, Lambert. I chose this life, chose to be a Witcher. I'm free of the schemes of…why are you looking at me like that?" Ciri cocked her head to one side, Lambert looking completely disgusted with either her or his drink.
Geralt held up a hand, sensing the problem before the young Witcher could say more. "She just means she chose to live like us, she's not downplaying any of what you or any of us had to go through. Besides, if you could have chosen differently, wouldn't you?" Lambert sighed, nodding solemly.
"Yeah, I would have." He changed expressions so fast it made Yennefer do a double take. "Where the hell is Merrigold and her little friend Kiera? Thought everyone was coming to this little shin-dig."
"Triss is in Kovir, couldn't get away from the King long enough to visit. Kiera is in Oxenfurt with Rita re-opening the University." Yennefer's voice was unusually soft, Geralt thought it might have actually been for Lambert's sake she hadn't said anything sooner. Both Sorceress' had taken a strong disliking to him.
Once he left Kaer Morhen with Kiera they had become quite infatuated with one another. Turns out Kiera was infatuated with his usefulness and skill, not so much the man he was. She would dole out affection incrementally and only if the work deemed it worthy. It was more payment than pleasure and Lambert had grown to resent her for treating him more like a tool and less like a person. 'Any port in the storm' she'd said, she had mentioned her little stint with Geralt and how he had once helped her 'in so many ways, much like you Lambert.' He left her, in the middle of a busy market in Novigrad, in broad daylight. Turned around and walked away from her, not bothering to say anything to her for almost a year. She found him, told him exactly where she thought he could sheathe his sword, and dropped a pouch full off crowns at his feet. "Payment for a job done oh so well." And she was gone. Yennefer had never actually disagreed with or downplayed his anger, personally she felt he had good reason and wasn't one for overreacting or lies.
Now, three years past Vesemir, just over two past Kiera, and possibly seventy overall, he looked older. She had mentioned her concerns to Geralt, who had replied in his usual monotonous tone 'Lambert is Lambert, you can't fix that one'. Yennefer had never actually tried to fix anything that was living, and wasn't about to start with that hopeless man-child parading as a monster hunter. But with all he had done and the sacrifices they had made for her daughter, she wanted to try.
"Go to Toussaint. Drink some wine, stay in Geralt's villa, and get away from this horrid place." Ciri elbowed him in the ribs. "Do you some good to get out for a bit, see somewhere warm and colorful."
Lambert shot Geralt a curious grin. "Don't tell me you make wine now…is there anything your smug ass can't do?"
"Cook!" Eskel, Yennefer, and Ciri shouted in unison, earning a chuckle from Geralt and a snort of laughter from Lambert.
"Oh ho ho, that's right! You're the reason we had to rebuild the kitchen here." Lambert slapped Geralt on the back. "That was good day, Vesemir was more pissed off at you then than he ever had been at me."
"Hey, what about the bee hive?" Ciri smirked at Lambert. He groaned, burying his face in his hands.
"Oh Gods, the bee hive. It was the largest hive I had ever seen, nestled in the chimney above the hearth over there." He pointed to the remains of a kitchen. "It blocked a lot of the smoke from leaving so it had to go, had no idea the damn thing was still being used. Bees don't tend to build around smoke or burning…anything." Lambert took a quick swallow from his mug. "I go up there, start pulling some of the stones away to pull the thing up…and BAM! The whole thing caves, drops the hive right in the fucking fire, the bees go beserk, and Vesemir swore if I ever came down he'd kill me himself."
"He stayed up there for three days." Eskel noted, grinning like a loon at Lambert. "Geralt and I had to go drag him down."
"He was so pissed at me." Lambert chuckled, finishing his drink and pouring another.
"To Vesemir." Yennefer held up her glass of wine. The others did the same, taking a drink in his honor.
"Good luck on the path, old man." Lambert mumbled the words, oddly more affectionate than the others. Despite all his furious declarations to the contrary, Geralt knew Vesemir's death affected him more than he was willing to share. He was the only father figure who didn't beat him, didn't fill his head with fear or lies. He taught Lambert to be swift, strong, and to kill and protect. He turned him from an urchin into a warrior. Gave him purpose and drive. As much as Lambert bitterly complained about him, he was always the first to return for Winter, bringing proof of his skill back to the keep to show off.
They cooked, ate, and drank. Celebrating the man that brought them all together. Ciri talked of her contracts, of taking on a fiend. She showed off her scars that came with it.
Eskel talked about going to Zerrikania, he wanted to see a desert. "Sand as far as the eye can see? It sounds like a dry ocean. Scorpion would love it there." Yennefer encouraged it, said it would build character…and the Zerrikanians paid more for their contracts.
Geralt and Yennefer were going to Oxenfurt to meet with Rita and Kiera, which was more for Yen than Geralt. "After we've finished our work there, I believe we're going to the Blue Mountains. Geralt wanted to be away from Velen and here." She motioned at the frosty mountains.
"So, villa in Toussaint, huh?" Lambert was staring down at his empty mug. "You wouldn't mind if I stayed for a bit? I've never been there, it'd be interesting. I've always wanted to see a Tourney." His eyes lit up with childlike excitement.
"Of course! Make yourself at home, Lambert." Yennefer answered for Geralt. He nodded his agreement.
"You could use a change, of well…everything. Liked you better when you weren't so morose, prickly suits you." Lambert laughed at that and nodded, saying nothing. "Go and drink some wine, meet a girl, kill something. It would do you some good. No one will bat an eye at you, either." Geralt offered to pour more liquor into his mug, Lambert accepted.
"Really? That alone is reason to go. Witchers' common there?" Geralt shook his head in the negative. "Huh. Just…don't care?" He nodded.
"Toussaint is one of very few places that is heavily saturated with magical energy. Makes things a little dangerous but they've compensated with exceptionally well trained knights. And the occasional Witcher." Geralt put an arm around Yennefer, leaning back into his seat. "It's different in all the right ways." She gave him a knowing wink.
He took a long pull from his mug. "I think I'll do that." He downed the liquid and stood on wobbly legs. "I need to piss." Yennefer and Ciri groaned, Eskel and Geralt laughed.
"I told you, he's just...Lambert." Geralt laughed.
They talked well into the evening, regaling each other with their adventures over the last few years, with plans of a future they hoped to see. They laughed and drank like they hadn't done in years, since Ciri was a small girl training at the keep and Yennefer had tamed a Djinn. They laughed at Dandelion and his misadventures, talked about Nilfgaard and how it looked like things were falling back into place. With Radovid gone, mages and sorceress' had their freedom again. It looked as though the world was calm for now.
