Ciri waited at the library window, staring across the keep as the moon shined down on it. Geralt entered in. He faced her, she faced him.

"Ciri."

"Father."

"Where's…Oscar." He said the name like it was a curse.

"He's on guard duty on top of the tower."

Geralt nodded. "Uh-huh." He paused, choosing his words carefully. "Listen, about today…I'm sorry."

Ciri shrugged. "Oh don't be. I always knew the day would come when you'd walk in on me while I'm with someone."

Geralt couldn't help but grin. "Yeah." But then got serious again. "Only this time it was something."

She folded her arms. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means, Ciri, that I'm not...comfortable with you and him." Geralt couldn't believe he just said that. Him, a witcher, uncomfortable about something like this.

"And why not?" she demanded.

"Because…" Geralt sighed, he knew it was high time he told her why. "You're a young woman. You've got your whole life ahead of you. What's more you're strong, brave, smarter than even me, but most of all, you're the most caring person I've ever met. Honestly, no father is more proud of their child than I am."

Ciri's anger dropped a little, she had not expected those words, and she hardly ever saw this softer side of Geralt, the dark and brooding the witcher as cold and hard as his silver sword. "Where are you going with this?"

"Ciri, look. I know your life, a life of a witcher, is a lonely one. I know this better than anyone else. And I know we all need someone to love and someone to love us back. But Oscar, he's different."

"How is he different than you or I?"

"Because, what do you think is going to happen fifty years down the line? I'll will most likely be dead, you'll be…older, and Oscar, he'll be the same as he is now. You'll change, but he never will. And what will happen once you're gone, what then? Will he then drink from the blood of your children, you children's children?"

Ciri did not talk back, did not tell him he was wrong. Did not even look at him. She knew he was right, she had never thought about that, what things would be like once she grew old, what would happen to her, to Oscar.

"So, what are you saying I should do father?"

She looked at him and he the how hurt and pain in her eyes, but she would not cry, she was too strong for that. He sighed again, being a father was the most difficult thing he has ever done

"Honestly, I don't know sweetheart. I only know this cannot go on forever. And the longer it does go on, the harder it will be for you, and probably him as well."

Her head was downcast, her body slumped and she looked like she might fall over. Without hesitation, Geralt went over and hugged her, lovingly. She buried her face into his shoulder.

"I'm sorry Ciri." He told her. "It's be okay." He knew that wasn't true, but hell, what was he supposed to say?

"Alright,' she said and looked up at the scarred face of the one man she trusted more than anyone else. "Just, let me be the one to tell him."

He smiled warmly. "Of course."

He let her go and watched her walk out. A second later, he heard an approving sigh from a dark corner of the room.

"Well, you handled that a lot better than I thought you would." Yennefer walked out of the shadows and smiled at him. "Who would've thought that Geralt of Rivera would be such a good father."

He glared. "Have you been there the whole time?"

Her smile widen, showing her perfect white teeth. "Yes." She swayed her hips, seductively. "What are you going to do about it?"

He smiled, more mischievously this time. "I can think of a few things."

…

He stood there, sword in both hands, his shield strapped behind him, gazing from the tower, down at the keep, at the mountain, the hills and forest, the dark sky with the pale moon. It was all so beautiful, like the first time he came to this world.

The first time he meet her.

He thought it was the end for him, to die alone in that asylum, his quest to be the chosen undead a complete failure, his fate sealed and doomed, when a voice came to him.

He did not know who the voice was, perhaps a spirit, a god, or a demon, he only knew what it told him, that he could be saved from his fate, saved from being a Hollow forever.

The voice told him that if he accepted, then he would be taken to another plain of existence where he must drink the Elder Blood, drink a little and it will stay his turning, drink all of it, and it will bring him back to life.

Believing he had no choice, that this was better than a fate of eternal madness, Oscar of Astora agreed.

He was teleported from his world and placed into this one, inside a forest, before a bonfire. The voice told him to wait here at the fire and the first person who he met would be the one who carried the Elder's Blood.

So Oscar sat there, waiting, waiting for the one who carried the Elder Blood to come so that he may drink it. But when that person came, when Oscar saw her in the firelight, he could do nothing but offer her a pace by the bonfire for warmth.

He talked to her, learned who she was and realize he could never do anything to harm her. Yet he needed her blood. He asked if her could accompany her and became her companion, her friend and protector, never believing she could ever come to love him as he loved her.

But she did.

Even when he told her the truth and, that he was here because her needed her blood to save himself. She loved him.

And this is why, as he stood there on the tower, he knew he must do what he must.

He heard a sound behind him, and recognized her soft footsteps.

"Hey," she said.

He turned to face her, staring at her loveliness, but also saw how troubled she was. "Cirilla." He always called her by her full name.

She stepped closer to him, her arms folded tightly, maybe she was cold, or maybe what she came to say was hard for her. "There's something I need to say-"

He held up a hand to silence her. "That' alright. For I have something I must say." Even with the helm on, nothing could hid the sadness he bore, yet he spoke with full dignity of a knight. "I'm leaving."

"What?" she gasped wide eye.

"I am leaving," the man in steel replied.

Ciri stood there, frozen. "But why?"

"Because I must."

"Is-is this about my father, or is it-"

"No," he replied. "I am not leaving because of that."

Ciri was now confused. "Then why must you go."

Oscar stared at her and she at him, the only sound was the wind of the night.

"Because I love you."

No words came from Ciri's open mouth. After all their time together, they had never used that word, perhaps they were just too afraid to. But now he said, he declared it, right here to her.

She found her voice again. "If you love me, then why must you go?

A heavy sigh hisses out the air holes of his helm. He reaches up and pulls the helm off so that he could see her clearly and her him as he spoke.

"Because, when I first came here, I did so with the full intention to drink your blood and to save myself. But when I saw you, I couldn't. Yet I joined you and followed you wherever you went, simply because I didn't know what else to do, and as I did I could feel my feelings for you grow stronger each day, while my body began to turn and I was forced to tell you the truth. And to my surprise, you gave your blood and promise to always do so as long as I needed it. And for that, I pledged to always serve you and be by your side."

"But then, something happened, something I never dreamed was possible. You loved me too, despite what I was. You made me the happiest person in the whole cursed world"

Ciri said nothing just listened to the knight's words.

"But now…now I realize that this cannot go on, that I must go, though I wish I could stay by your side forever."

"And where will you go?" she asked.

A sad smile appeared on his lips. "Home."

"And what about your Hollowing? You will turn without my blood."

"No, I won't." he declared it so confident and assuredly. "Because I now have a reason not to turn, to stay alive forever. Your love. No matter what happens to me, my memory of you will always keep me safe."

Ciri couldn't help it anymore. She rushed to him, into his arms. They embraced there, on top of the tower, for what felt like eternity.

"Oscar," she said in his arms, struggling to not shed a tear. "I love you too. But I don't want you to go"

He smiled down at her, while his one hand reached within his armor and pulled out a black crystal, the crystal that the voice gave to him.

He then brought her face up so he could look at her, eye to eye. "I will always be with you."

They kissed, eyes closed.

He broke the crystal in his strong hand, and the magic from it began to spread over his body.

Ciri gasped as she saw the magic glowing from him, then saw he was beginning to disappear, to fade away, returning to his world.

"Oscar!" she cried.

He touched her cheek as he gazed upon her one last time. "Now and always."

And he was gone, vanished into the air, and Ciri was all alone.

She stood there, quietly. Then she looked up to the sky, at the stars and other worlds, wondering if Oscar was on one of them right now, looking down at her world. She liked to think he was. And in a way, it made her feel like h was still there, watching over her like he said, like they were still together.

She smiled. "Now and Always."

THE END