The two women sat idly, silent yet still enjoying one another's company. One balanced on fence posts, jumping from one to another so elegantly it almost seemed she were dancing, her sword extended gracefully. The light from the sun glinted off the edge of the blade, casting a rainbow gleam across the lake. The other sat on the lake bank, using a whetstone to grind the edge of her blade and honing it to deadly perfection. For the times they were in, to any passer bys, they would have looked out of place, wrong. On more than one occasion they had been told women couldn't fight like men, and they agreed. Men threw their weight around, hitting as much as they could. The two women used the weight of the blades to balance out themselves, taking fewer but more precise, lethal blows, rendering their foes defenceless in less than thirty seconds. Of course, all the training in the world wouldn't compare to the added edge they both had, as witchers, school of the wolf. Each of their sense had mutated into a supernatural sensitivity, able to hear the wings of a dragonfly, vibrations in the air as someone began to move, reshaped cat eyes able to see that which no one else could perceive. It was the eyes that gave them away as little more than human, the feline slits that widened in a chase, allowed them to move unaided through darkness. It also granted them certain powers, some had a better control of them than others.
Olivia had been brought to Kaer Morhen when a witcher in her home city had invoked the law of surprise, meaning that he would take payment by taking the first thing he saw in the Dukes castle when hired to slay a wyvern that was taking the towns livestock. The Duke agreed quickly, assuming that there wasn't anything of much worth he couldn't just buy back. What he didn't bargain on, was when the witcher would return for his payment. A couple of weeks passed, the witcher was assumed dead and the Duke put out another notice for someone to rid them of the beast. It wasn't until another week went by, and the Duke heard his daughter giggling from the other room. He had been too busy sending ravens to notice his daughter had escaped his sight, and wandered out of the room. The Duke sighed, dropping his quill in frustration and went to retrieve the toddler, muttering under his breath. He stopped short, mouth slightly agape at the black armoured man, holding his daughter.
"Wh- Why have you got my daughter?"
"I told you. First thing I saw."
"No- You cant take Olivia!"
"She was on her way out of the door anyway. You seem to have your priorities elsewhere."
No argument the Duke could think of would stick, the witcher had a counter statement. Though the Duke tried to find any loophole through hired help, the law of surprise was older than the settlement itself, and the witcher rode away from the duchy with the young girl to rear at their castle. Witchers by their very nature, were sterile and the prospects of Kaer Morhen looked bleak as almost everyone they had put through the trial of grasses had perished in agony. Their numbers had begun to thin out, and almost all of them were asking for payment in the form of the ancient custom rather than coin in hopes to receive something beneficial. Some had the idea that Olivia could bear children once of age, to bear sons for the witchers to rear. The man that had brought her to Kaer Morhen, Eldridge, had grown to care for Olivia as his own, and naturally began to dislike the idea of any town boy putting his paws on his daughter. Eldridge began to train the girl in combat so she would always be able to look after herself. As she grew from an awkward skinny girl with dirty blonde hair, gappy teeth and knock knees, to a beautiful young lady with skills that surpassed the boys in training. They were constantly in competition with each other, as few as there were, and spent their time either teasing the girl or trying to show off to her.
Shortly before her seventeenth birthday, Olivia approached Eldridge, and expressed her utter disdain for a future that had already been chosen for her, all due to her gender. As a child she had wanted children, but to be told she had to have them for the good of Kaer Morhen had put her right off. She didn't want to settle down with someone from town, sew blankets and becoming a breeding cur, to only see the sights the village had to offer. As much as she hid it, she was a romantic, and hadn't envisioned this is how her happily ever after would come. So, if she couldn't have it, they couldn't have their livestock. She wanted to become a witcher. Female witchers were unheard of, the only semi close equivalent was a sorceress, but Olivia had showed little interest in the magical arts, though she did exhibit some signs of magical tolerance. Eldridge refused initially, but she had gotten his stubborn streak, and persisted.
For her to become a witcher was risky, the survival rate for the transmutation was lower than he'd have liked, people hated witchers as much as non humans, and no witcher ever died in their own bed. In ways Eldridge had no idea of, Olivia obtained the method to create the witcher decoction, and gave him an ultimatum. Let her do it, or have her do it herself. Rather than let her risk an already dangerous transformation alone, Eldridge sought help of the castle's sorceress. The woman agreed to help, keen to test a new mutation within the trial. Once the existing witchers were approached about Olivia, it came down to a five to four vote in favour of her becoming one of them, should she survive.
The new mutation gave Olivia an effect that had not occurred with the other witchers, her hair turning from the dirty blonde to a silvery white mane, and an aptitude for magical signs. She survived the transmutation through her undeveloped skill of magic, and exhibited it in her new form quite naturally. She had the ability to 'blink' through space, moving unseen across a room or rooftop within a split second.
A few years down the line, after even more rigorous training from the elders of Kaer Morhen, Olivia began accepting contracts on beasts, from cockatrices to gryphons, forktails and sirens, she began to save enough to start stepping out on her own and to travel. Wanting to tear away from the gaze of her adopted father and make her own path, Olivia began to accept contracts from shadier people. She never targeted innocents or people generally, sticking to beasts, clearing out camps of rock trolls, which weren't always bad and just moved on, or emptying caves of Nekkers for them to set up in. One time, Olivia had an overwhelming surge of curiosity when accepting a contract, and invoked the law of surprise from a well to do man, whose name seemed to change every day. After killing the elemental guarding the depths of the cavern, Olivia let herself into the mans quarters to see what would become hers. She overshot her blink and ended up behind a locked door within his area, and came face to face with a bruised, unconscious woman who had been tied to the chair, wrists and legs red raw from struggling with the ropes. She wasn't from near their lands, her features slightly different, with a more Zerikkannian attribute. Olivia took her payment, and took the woman with her.
Usually, people caught in the cross fire were left to die, or left with a medic, but when Olivia was told the woman would perish soon from a shattered rib piercing a lung, she felt a sense of duty to what had essentially been given to her. She brewed the trial of grasses, and gave it to the woman, dreading the repercussion she would get when found out. She sat by the woman for the next few days, as she fought her way to survival, setting her broken bones, allowing them to be prepared for when the mutations would set everything. At the last moment, Olivia twisted the rib out of her lung, leaving no barrier between life and death.
The attempt was successful, the woman surviving on sheer determination and desire for revenge. Once she had come around, the woman, Shino, had explained how she had been captured in a cowardly ambush, twenty to one. Her unit had also disappeared, presumed dead. The Zerikkannian forces had been transporting royalty for a ball with the empress, and the unit had been sent to a nearby town to wait for her return. Unfortunately, Shino had a contract out on her, to be captured alive, but no other requests. Though she was female, Shino had brawled and punched her way to the top of her unit, running out alone on suicide missions to retrieve any captured allies. She was around the same height as Olivia, but a dark brunette with umber cat eyes, and toned muscles that showed a lifetime of strenuous exercise.
Unwilling to go back to Kaer Morhen and face the retribution for turning someone without permission, the two set out on the road, working as a perfect duo. Shino had always been very perceptive, especially when it came to people. She could tell if someone was lying, and using witcher signs, she learnt how to influence minds and make people speak the truth, or sway them to do something they were otherwise reluctant to do. She bargained their prices up, her negotiations getting her called all sorts, but she knew when theyd hit the limit. The two made out with the finest steeds, and it kept them in swords and potions. Recently, they had started a book of beasts, flora and non humans they had come across, their weaknesses, locations and strengths, but now they began to seek much more dangerous foes. More recently, they had been trying to uncover the location of one of the last known higher vampires in the Toussaire land.
Olivia jumped down from her fence post, landing as light as a cat in front of Shino, and brought her sword down on her shoulder. Shino deflected it quickly, using the momentum to push herself from the ground, the swords grinding to each other's hilt as they fought, attacks that were impossible to behold, reactions quicker than lightning. They laughed as they duelled, using the environment to gain advantage against each other. Olivia blinked across the lake and back, nudging Shino with her shoulder.
"No way, that's cheating."
"You can use your any time you like.." Olivia replied smugly, receiving a dig to the arm in return, before Shino sat down heavily, pulling out the Est Est 1269 vintage, swigging the wine from the bottle before passing it to Olivia.
"So, whats next on the agenda Olli? A Golem and a herd of Drowners, im calling it a day. I swear I can still smell them."
"Necrophages, strength? Their stench" Olivia joked, tucking their encyclopaedia away, taking great care when moving it. Hours had been spent painstakingly drawing creatures, printing the words as neatly as possible, copying herbs and flowers exactly. "Im still curious about the Higher Vampire, where they went. There was a few Bruxa that one time, but no leads."
"Maybe they died. Its been centuries since they were last seen around here, or maybe they moved." Shino said, reclining and sunning her face, dipping her bare feet into the river, the bottoms of her pants becoming sodden.
"They don't just die." Olivia scoffed, sitting cross legged and picking at the small flowers on the ground in front of her. "Theyre immortal."
"Not if I stuck one in the heart."
"Another myth, garlic, sun, stakes, there isn't a way to actually kill one. We could remove it for a while but I heard of one coming back after he was nothing more than a bloody smear on the ground. Remember the story of Regis?"
"The vegetarian vampire?"
"The non blood consumer, yes. He 'died' once and was revived from nothing but a wet smear. The only way to kill a higher, is another higher has to kill them."
"Maybe they did."
"And what of them? Theres definitely one around." Olivia said stoutly, looking around as if to see one hanging from a tree. Shino shook her head at Olivia, laughing a little at her passion for old history and skipped a stone across the clear water.
"Come on, lets go into town and get some food. Im starving" Shino said, standing up and brushing the grass from her rear, and pulling on her leather boots. Olivia nodded, and slung her sword and bag over her shoulder, and mounted the horses. They raced towards the local vineyard they had been renting a room at, trampling budding vines as their horses leapt the enclosure for a short cut, farmers shouting at them as they charged off. They called the race off once they almost ran over an old lady, biting their lips to stop the laughter and led the horses to the stables. Nearby, one of the vineyard owners was hammering a parchment poster onto the stables entry, a few posted around the grounds.
"If that's a contract Olli, tomorrow, I want one night off, okay?" Shino pleaded, wanting nothing more to get nice and drunk, pass out in vomit and sleep until noon. Olivia rolled her eyes and approached the sign, frowning in curiosity.
"Whats the festival for?" Olivia said, mouthing the words as she read. It was an advertisement for a type of harvest festival in the south, a couple of hours ride. Between them and the town was mostly grassland and forest, so if they cut through and risked the beasts within, they could half the time easily.
"You two might like it actually" The owner said, giving the two women an unsettling grin. "It's a town full o' women. Only women, see? Men are allowed in but don't live there. I don't know what gods they worshipping, but they celebrate with wine, food and sex, all night long." Olivia looked to Shino, who seemed more relaxed now it wasn't a contract, and an excuse for wine. It suddenly dawned on them both that the reason the owner thought theyd like it, was that they were romantically involved.
"Only women? No men?"
"Nah theres one, he built the town, see? Safe haven for women, he says. Safe from pillagin' and rapin'" Shino stiffened at his words, her eyes steely. "But I think hes a genius, know why? Says its safe, and gets all the women to 'imself!" The man had clearly been imbibing in his own product, cheeks rosy. He chuckled to himself as the two women left for their room, kicking off their bracers and swords.
"So…"
"Olivia. It's a town full of drunken idiots, probably fighting over women, showing off and greed. Of course we can"