In the middle of the night Geralt was woken up by the smell of fear and urine.

He turned to look at Jaskier who was still asleep, clearly having a nightmare. Geralt was about to touch his arm but before he reached him, Jaskier woke with a start. He shivered all over and was covered in cold sweat, his heart was racing and he was feeling distinctly nauseous. Slowly, he started to realize where he was.

Fortunately, the fireplace was still illuminating the room. The only thing worse than waking up from a nightmare was waking up from a nightmare in total darkness.

Jaskier's head was spinning and for a minute all he did was shiver and breathe. As he slowly calmed himself down, he exclaimed: "Now, that was a flashback!". His shaky voice betrayed his attempt at sounding confident. Then Jaskier noticed the warm feeling that had spread between his legs. For a moment he froze in shock and embarrassment and wondered if he could hide the accident from the witcher, who, of course, had to be awake. Looking at Geralt's face he knew that Geralt knew, probably had known before Jaskier did.

Still lying on his back, he punched the mattress with both his fists and made the straw it was filled with rustle. Then he shot Geralt a challenging look to mask that he was afraid of the witcher's reaction.

Geralt had felt very helpless as he watched Jaskier recover from his nightmare, not being able to prevent it, neither to help him calm down from it. But somehow he was glad to see that Jaskier dealt with it by being angry rather than turning to despair. Geralt could deal with angry, he was more familiar with it. He could see that Jaskier was anxiously waiting for a reaction.

"Don't look at me like you've committed some sort of crime, that look doesn't suit you", Geralt hushed. "Now get up and go get some new trousers from the wardrobe."

A faint smile of relief appeared on Jaskier lips as he made his way to the wardrobe.

Geralt determined that only one of the blankets was soiled, so he tossed it in a corner to deal with it the next day.

Jaskier made it back to the bed, wearing trousers that were far to big for him but he wasn't bothered by it. He sat down on the bed, hugged his knees and looked at Geralt's face. He didn't explain what he had dreamt of and the witcher didn't ask.

Just then the light emitted by the fireplace was hitting Geralt's eyes at a certain angle and they glowed bright yellow in the dark, just like cat eyes. Only that with a cat it might have passed off as cute, on an almost six and a half feet tall and bulky witcher, however, it just looked plain scary. Jaskier jumped back up from the bed and yelled: "Holy Melitele, your eyes!"

Geralt was startled at first, not recognizing what Jaskier had seen. Then it dawned on him and he started to apologize.

Jaskier, quickly realizing that it had been just a combination of light and witcher eyes that spooked him, interrupted Geralt and exclaimed: "I honestly don't know how many scares my heart can take in one night but I suspect we're reaching my limit here. What the fuck is up with your eyes?" Geralt sensed that Jaskier had gotten over the worst of the shock. "Get back to bed and I'll explain, alright?", he suggested with an apologizing smile.

"Oh hell, sleep can kiss my arse right now!", Jaskier was furious.

He fetched a piece of paper and another piece of charcoal, sat down in front of the fireplace and started to scribble. But it seemed he was too tired, soon he ripped the paper and threw it into the fireplace. Then Jaskier hesitantly climbed back onto the bed.

"Would you still tell me what they did to your eyes?", Jaskier asked, being all soft and mellow again.

And Geralt started to explain, he talked about what he knew of the trial of the grasses and the trial of the dreams as Jaskier listened carefully.

"So...you can see in the pitch-dark?", Jaskier asked into the silence.

"Like a cat", Geralt confirmed. "Yet cat's seem to hate witchers, I don't know why. Maybe they can sense we are not natural."

"Well, what is natural these days?", Jaskier interjected. "Is it the elves and dwarves that get pushed back to the edge of the inhabited world further and further? The trolls that dwell in their caves and under their bridges? The mages that look so much like us humans, and yet, are of a vastly different nature? Are the dragons natural, the mermaids in their water realm so very foreign and inaccessible to us? What about...humans? The Conjunction of the Spheres squeezed together creatures and folk that was never meant to coexist. And what bitter irony that what has been done to me has been done by my own kind..." Jaskier shook his head.

Geralt's mouth fell open at Jaskier's little speech. Jaskier managed to astound him time and time again.

"What, I'm not iliterate!", Jaskier feigned hurt.

"No, you are not indeed", Geralt said almost reverently. "Where did you gain your knowledge?"

"Well, I studied at Oxenfurt when...when I was...when my further attendance was suddendly made impossible."

"Why did nobody look for you? Surely you would be missed.", Geralt urged to know.

"That I would like to know myself", Jaskier answered, "maybe their search was unsuccessful, maybe they didn't bother to look for me."

"Would you like to write a letter to anyone?"

"No, not just yet."

And Geralt left it at that.

They kept talking all the way through the rest of the night, until the first rays of sunlight hit their window.

Geralt gave Jaskier another treatment with the salve that made the skin burn. He learned that Jaskier hadn't used up all of his curses when he'd applied the salve on his skin yesterday. Or Jaskier had thought of some new ones during the night.

They ate and Jaskier still had to take several small meals throughout the day in order not to upset his stomach. Yet one could already see the first signs of his body recovering, now that it was no longer starving. Of course, there weren't any changes in his weight yet, but he seemed to have more energy, more life in him and the dark circles around his eyes had started to disappear despite the rather short night.

Geralt thought about introducing Jaskier to Roach as he remembered the...thing he had taken with him from the castle. The one that looked like someone had just mashed together wood and wire. Geralt would never have noticed it, but Jaskier had reached for it just before the sight of a blood-smeared, certain white-haired witcher had rendered him unconscious.

That certain white-haired witcher now made his way to the stables where he had left the thing. He'd forgotten about it until now.

Looking at it, he still couldn't tell what it was (if it had ever been anything more than what it was now). He picked it up and carried it to his room, where Jaskier was waiting patiently.

"I, umm, took something with me, when I was at the castle."

"Something other than me?", Jaskier winked. When the sun was up and no one else was there but Geralt, one never would have thought, it had only been three days since Jaskier had been safed from his gruesome destiny.

Geralt smiled his rare smile that found its way on his lips much more often since Jaskier was around.

"Yes, something other than you.", he replied. "I don't know if it holds any kind of meaning to you but back there, you looked like it did."

Geralt handed Jaskier the thing.

Jaskier carefully took it in his hands, stroked it and sighed. And then a tear rolled down his cheek, followed by several others.

In all this time, Geralt had not seen Jaskier cry a single tear. Not when he'd been afraid of starving while not being able to keep down his food, not when he'd thought Geralt would rape him and not when he'd shivered from nightmares that had made him wet himself.

But now he stood there, weeping about something that to Geralt looked like a piece of junk.

"What is that?", Geralt whispered.

Jaskier shook his head, as if to chase away some memories. "This was a lute once. My lute. I tried to give the others hope by playing it. Or at least I tried to give them some sort comfort in the final minutes of their lives if I knew someone was about to pass away. Our captors smashed it and left it nearby for me to see every day.

But I kept singing to the others when I sensed their time had come, sometimes until I lost my voice." Jaskier closed his eyes and swallowed hard.

The witcher had to clear his throat before he asked gently: "Do you have any idea why you survived? It sounds like you've been there for longer than most of them and still you are alive."

At that Jaskier burst into tears, he covered his face with his hands and sobbed: "I don't kno-o-o-w". The last word was drawn out by his shaky crying.

The trial of the grasses dulled the emotions of a witcher. But Geralt wasn't made of stone and he couldn't help but to pull Jaskier into a tight yet very gentle embrace.

Jaskier had sunken down to the floor and Geralt followed with him.

The bard shook and cried for several minutes until he finally calmed down enough to at least speak again. "These men probably took a liking in me – in taking me – so they gave me just a little bit more food and water than the others. I came to see it as my task, my destiny, to make sure the other souls were granted a peaceful passing so...", Jaskier started sobbing again, "I just had to stay there, I couldn't die and leave them."

Geralt finally had to wipe his eyes as well.

Jaskier's tears suddenly dried up as he seemed to remember something.

He met Geralt's eyes and whispered softly: "You know, when all of us were in there together, we made a deal, a kind of pact. If some of us made it out alive, they would live their lives not only for themselves but also for the ones that didn't make it. We told each other about our dreams, our wishes and what we would do if we survived somehow. The idea was that the ones that made it out of that dreadful prison should try to fulfill the wishes of the ones that passed. It were little things, like eat a certain food, smell a special flower or journey to the sea. Tell me Geralt, is that silly?"

The witcher needed a short moment to realize he was required to say something, he'd been so absorbed by Jaskier's words. Then he answered: "No, not in the slightest...and it gave you hope, all of you." The witcher paused briefly, then he continued: "I vow to help you do all of these things...that means, if you want to do them."

Jaskier nodded and smiled a smile that was both happy and sad. "Of course I will do them...it's all that's left to do. Thank you for supporting me."

"So...what was yours?", Geralt asked.

"My what?"

"Your last wish."

"Oh", Jaskier smiled again. "There's a bard, Essi, goes by the name of Little Eye. She's very dear to me, like she's my little sister. My wish was to hear her sing again for one last time."

"We will find her and you will get to hear her sing again", Geralt assured.

"Yes, but not until I experienced all of these other things, these other wishes. My own wish will be the last one on the list.", Jaskier declared.

"Just give yourself time to recover first, okay?" The witcher was merely making a request, nothing more.

Jaskier nodded. "I will. Luckily no one wished to see me dead in the snow, so be assured, I'll take my time."

Only one chapter left now, this story is soon coming to an end.

Thank you to everybody who's made it so far. :)