The next time Avallac'h saw Ciri, she strode into his laboratory with purpose and he could tell from the impish grin on her lips that she was here for a very specific reason.
It had been a while since he'd last seen her but he was glad to see her doing well, much better than she had been doing the last time she arrived at his lab, delirious and desperate for help. She looked motivated, vibrant, and dare he say, happy.
"Ah, Zireael, what brings you here?"
"You see, I'm in a bit of a bind with a treasure hunt," the witcher stated as she pulled up a chair across the table from Avallac'h and put her feet up, ignoring the look of mild disapproval he shot her way.
"Are you still hunting monsters?"
"Well, of course I'm still hunting monsters!" she scoffed.
She had promised herself that, if she ever managed to successfully evade the Wild Hunt once and for all, she would fulfill her lifelong dream of becoming a witcher and now that she had, she wasn't about to quit after only being in the business for a year.
She wasn't sure what she would do once she got sick of it - retire, perhaps? Or find a new career once witchering was something she no longer wanted to do - but that was a concern for later, when she finally hit that fork in the road decades from now.
"I've simply taken a momentary break from monster hunting. You see," she started to explain when Avallac'h cocked an eyebrow, asking her to clarify, "I tried to teleport but there are barriers within the tower itself that I can't bypass. I can't use my powers, either, because I can't get in someplace if I don't know what it looks like."
"Your powers allow you to travel wherever you please," Avallac'h pointed out. Something wasn't adding up regarding what Ciri was telling him.
"I already told you that I tried and it didn't work. So will you come with me?"
"I'm a sage, not a mage."
"That's why you're much better suited for the job!" Ciri remarked, though Avallac'h couldn't help but shake his head.
"Please? I'll be forever grateful! And I'll give you a share of the profits!"
"Is this a treasure hunt or a contract?" The more Ciri talked, the more that her request for assistance was starting to sound like she needed help with a monster contract and that the treasure hunt was just an afterthought that had gotten tacked onto her main obligation.
"A treasure hunt," Ciri repeated.
Hunting monsters tended to get boring and to avoid burnout, Ciri liked to take a break sometimes and do something a little different, like searching for treasure when she happened to come across maps that pointed to valuable riches, either on dead bodies lying on the side of the road or from travelling merchants who didn't know what they had. Before they had gone their separate ways, Ciri on the Path and Geralt to Toussaint, he had told her that taking breaks in between contracts was the best thing she could do for herself and naturally, Ciri had taken her father's advice to heart.
"Very well," Avallac'h agreed without needing much time to ponder the Swallow's proposition. "Let us be on our way."
One of the benefits of possessing the Elder Blood was that Ciri could go wherever she pleased instead of having to seek out a portal and could take whoever she wanted with her, as long as they held hands to ensure they were physically linked.
And that was when the witcher found herself in a bit of a predicament.
Ciri couldn't help but feel tongue-tied as she pondered the best way to propose to Avallac'h that they hold hands so she could teleport them to the tower and the elven sage seemed to notice her hesitation, for he held out his hand to her and quipped, "I don't bite, Zireael", which resulted in Ciri rolling her eyes and grabbing his hand perhaps a bit too roughly.
Her behavior brought an amused smile to the elf's lips but he didn't comment on her behavior beyond that and held on tight to the witcher's dainty hand.
Ciri teleported them directly to the base of the tower in a flash, saving them the trouble of having to walk - that, and teleporting in the middle of the nearest village would have had the Eternal Fire after them, her for being a "witch" and Avallac'h for being an elf - and released his hand once they were steady on their feet. She couldn't deny that she missed the warmth of Avallac'h's hand and wished she could have kept holding it, even if there was no reason to.
It was as if their hands fit perfectly - at least, she thought so - but she was careful not to show how fluttery she truly felt because she still felt somewhat wounded and apprehensive after their last discussion. Sure, she was relieved that Eris had not been present when she showed up to speak to Avallac'h but at the same time, she couldn't help but wonder if today had simply been a fluke and that, the next time she came to see the elven sage, the she-elf would be there, too.
Even if he did think she was exceptional and claimed that he didn't hate her, she needed more than just his word because assurances could only go so far, which wasn't very far at all. Unfortunately, she didn't think she was going to get more than that.
"What is this treasure you're looking for?" Avallac'h asked, snapping her out of her thoughts.
"A diagram, either for a sword or some kind of armor, though I hope it's a sword. And I'm hoping there's actual treasure, too, like rubies and coin, that I can sell off or keep for myself."
"And how do you know this diagram is here?"
"I found a journal on a dead havekar pointing to a treasure hidden somewhere in this tower. Er, he was dead before I found him," she assured Avallac'h upon realizing how bad her words must have sounded to the elven sage, who hadn't been there with her when she discovered the journal.
She hadn't missed the concerned look he shot her way, almost like he thought that she had killed an innocent man for his journal even though she would never stoop that low.
Would she have stolen the journal?
Perhaps she would have, depending on the level of desperation she felt, but spilling innocent blood was where she drew the line… unless, of course, someone wanted her dead, which, in that case, meant that they were no longer as innocent as previously thought.
Ciri and Avallac'h went up the winding staircase and passed through an active portal at the top of the landing, finding themselves in a chamber with five doors. Two of the hallways had collapsed but the three that were still intact were blocked off with magic barriers, purple, swirling portals of energy that hid secrets just beyond their doorways.
They had been an endless source of frustration for Ciri who, even with her Elder Blood, could not find a way to bypass them until she finally gave up trying and sought out the one person she knew who would help her without coddling her. And now, she was starting to see the magical barriers as a blessing in disguise… or perhaps a curse.
Ciri's thoughts went back to what Avallac'h had told her the last time they'd spoken - " I think you are quite exceptional, Zireael, in every way." - and she couldn't help but wonder if he remembered what they had discussed or if he had already forgotten. It wouldn't have surprised her to find out that the sage didn't dwell on such… foolish things but at the same time, she couldn't just accept it for what it was and move on.
Seeing Eris for a second time had been a punch to the gut and even now, she felt somewhat awkward being around Avallac'h despite her best attempts to present herself as confident, tough, and unbothered by the scathing, racist comments hurled at her by that awful she-elf.
She was still reeling from their exchange and whenever the world fell to a lull at nighttime, that was when the noise in her mind was the loudest and she could hear herself telling Eris, "the next time I'm poisoned, I'll make sure to roll over and die, if it pleases you!" followed by the she-elf snapping back, "it would please me very much!" in an even louder voice that made her ears ring in the quiet of her room at the inn.
Instead of sleeping, she frequently found herself arguing with the she-elf in her mind, telling her off with all sorts of creative insults that she managed to come up with but because everything was already said and done, she felt no triumph, only bitterness.
After all, her witty comebacks in an imaginary argument wouldn't change what had actually happened.
At least she had confirmation that Avallac'h didn't hate her and as far as she could tell, he wasn't commiserating with Eris. Otherwise, she would have been at the laboratory when she came by today and the she-elf was quite lucky for it, too, because Ciri would have clawed her eyes out and nobody, not even Avallac'h could have stopped her.
I wonder why he said 'yes' to this treasure hunt? Ciri couldn't help but muse. It didn't benefit him at all and surely it wasn't just because she'd asked nicely and promised to throw in some coin for his trouble.
"What is it you plan to do with the treasures you discover, if you find any?" Avallac'h questioned as they stepped through the doorway that was no longer being protected by a barrier and found themselves in a study.
The room was quite small and could be considered an alcove, for the only furnishings it possessed were some bookshelves and an oak desk covered in papers and more books, which had somehow been knocked down from the bookshelves.
Ciri scanned the titles on the spines of the books and suddenly became painfully aware of how close she and Avallac'h were standing. There was hardly any space for the both of them and they were so close that a slight shift to the left would have them standing side-by-side, bodies touching.
That also meant that she certainly couldn't hope to squeeze past him to look at the books on the other end of the alcove, which prompted Ciri to simply resign herself to not exploring half of the bookshelves, even if it meant missing out on a book that could have piqued her interest.
"I'll keep what I want, sell what I don't," Ciri said coolly while she pretended to read through a book she had found in the corner on her side of the alcove.
She saw nothing particularly interesting, as the books ranged from a variety of topics such as herbology, tyromancy (whatever the hell that was), numerology, alchemy, and more. The mage who inhabited this tower once upon a time had clearly possessed an interest in a variety of topics, though nothing that was useful to her.
Just when she was ready to ask the elven sage if he was ready to abandon the alcove and continue exploring, Avallac'h passed her a book with a red leather cover and it was the title - Magnificent Monsters and Where To Discover Them - that caught her eye.
"What an odd title," Ciri remarked as she ran her finger over the gold lettering on the leather cover. "I wouldn't say I've encountered a single monster that I could consider 'magnificent' in any capacity."
"Perhaps you will once you read it," Avallac'h quipped. There was a playfulness in his voice that sounded almost encouraging but Ciri didn't comment on it and tucked the book in her satchel.
"Have you found anything interesting?"
Ciri was positive that they had flipped through the contents of every single book twice and to her disappointment, there was nothing that struck her as interesting besides the book that Avallac'h had given her. There was no sign of the rumored diagram among the books, either, which meant that they had to leave the alcove and continue exploring the tower.
"Nothing caught my eye. Let us continue, if we're done here."
"Yes, let's."
The second barrier came down just as easily as the first and they found themselves walking down a long, dark, dusty hallway with only Ciri's torch to light their way, until they found themselves in a laboratory.
Books and papers were strewn everywhere and it looked as if the mage had run away in a hurry, almost as if he had been fleeing from something, though there were no signs of a struggle or even a spatter of blood anywhere in the room and left Ciri wondering what had happened to him.
She found an old journal next to some alchemical equipment in the far corner of the room and flipped through the entries until she came across the last page, which read,
I have this sword diagram my assistant mistakenly purchased from a merchant,
who I am starting to believe wasn't a merchant but a swindler, a common thief or worse,
a havekar who sold things he pilfered at exorbitantly high prices.
Unfortunately, my luck keeps getting worse and worse, for it appears
that my experimentation with portals has transported… a beast from
another plane into the basement of my tower.
I have very little coin left but perhaps a witcher will be willing to accept the diagram
as payment in exchange for killing whatever it is that haunts the basement. He can
retrieve the diagram from the basement when he takes the contract.
Until then, I must put up a protective barrier and pray to the gods for safety.
"Whoever this mage was, it appears that he didn't stick to one discipline. It's quite strange," Avallac'h remarked.
"Perhaps he was a jack of all trades," Ciri quipped absentmindedly. She was more interested in looking around the laboratory for anything that could be considered valuable - like the aforementioned sword diagram - that she didn't even register Avallac'h saying "perhaps…" before he went silent again.
She was also quite grateful for the spaciousness of the laboratory, which allowed free movement compared to the alcove, which, had it been any smaller, would have had them in each other's arms.
Perhaps it wouldn't have been so bad, Ciri thought, though she didn't give herself much time to entertain the thought and went digging through a chest she discovered in the corner of the room, only to find nothing but dusty, old books. After determining that she had searched the laboratory from top to bottom, Ciri decided to chase down her last lead and started for the doorway they had come through.
"Where are you going?"
"To the basement," Ciri explained as she came to a stop and turned her body so she was facing Avallac'h. "According to the mage's diary, there's a monster in the basement and where there's a monster, treasure usually isn't too far away."
They returned to the tower's center hallway, where Avallac'h took down the last shield, though with slightly more difficulty than before. It was almost as if the mage had cast an extra-strong spell to ensure the doorway remained blocked but just like the other two, it eventually came down and they made their way down the spiraling staircase until they reached the lowest level of the tower.
Ciri spotted the green light glowing from the golem's body before she saw the Elementa and once she came near, it spotted her and came to life, bumbling towards her with a loud groan. She teleported behind it, preventing it from swinging at her with its spiky hands, and proceeded to slash away at it, managing to get in several strikes in rapid succession.
As the golem whirled around with a growl, it swung at her and narrowly missed impaling her on its spikes, for she teleported over to Avallac'h to put some distance between it and herself. When she came to stand by his side with her sword at the ready, she looked over and saw his hand glowing with blue sparks while magical energy flowed through his staff and came to form at the top as a glowing orb pulsing with power.
Each magical attack sent the golem stumbling back and allowed her to get in several more strikes in rapid succession while the golem was distracted. Even as she battled the brutish Elementa, Ciri made sure to keep herself in its direct line of vision so that it didn't turn on Avallac'h despite knowing that the sage could handle himself.
After all, he had protected her from the Wild Hunt on Skellige and so many other worlds…
When it turned around and started charging at Avallac'h, Ciri teleported, placing herself directly in the path of the golem and began to leap backwards, leading it away from the elven sage while skillfully dodging its swipes, leaving the golem wide open to magical attacks.
When it finally lost momentum, she teleported behind it and landed several more slashes that made the beast groan and stumble and together, the elf and the witcher succeeded in driving it into a corner, where Ciri slayed it with one final strike of her sword. One last burst of energy of magic from Avallac'h sent the golem crashing into a pillar, which collapsed on top of it and broke the beam that had been supporting the ceiling, and then the Elementa fell still for good.
"That was some good teamwork," she complimented Avallac'h despite being somewhat breathless.
"You also did quite well, Zireael. You appear to have better control over your powers since the last time I saw you," Avallac'h praised, which was more than she had been expecting from the elven sage and prompted Ciri to turn her back to him as her lips curled up into a smile that stretched from ear-to-ear.
She sheathed her sword and upon noticing a couple of chests located across the room, hurried over to sift through the contents - they mostly consisted of more old tomes but also contained several glittery rings, some lesser Zoria and Devana runestones, and even an ornate-looking gold necklace that was inset with an expensive-looking emerald pendant - until she found what she was looking for: a sword diagram tucked between the pages of a book on the workings of Aeromancy.
Ciri's triumph was short-lived, though, for she felt panic rising as the tower started to shake and tremble. She looked over at Avallac'h and saw a mixture of concern and fear written on his face and realized she had no time to waste.
"We need to get out of here!"
Thinking quickly, Ciri ran across the room, dodging crumbling rocks and falling beams, and threw her arms around Avallac'h's shoulders before teleporting them out of the tower.
A moment later, they found themselves in the fields just outside of the tower, just in time to see it crumble. All that remained was a pile of broken bricks where the tower had once been and Ciri was more than relieved that they had avoided getting buried beneath the rubble.
What a relief, Ciri thought, only to completely forget about the tower and their near-death experience a moment later when she realized how close her and Avallac'h's faces were, so close, in fact, that their noses could touch if she simply leaned in.
Ciri then snapped out of her reverie, becoming painfully aware of their uncomfortable closeness, and shuffled backwards to put some distance between them. Her whole body burned with embarrassment over the rather… compromising position they had found themselves in and secretly cursed the golem and the crashing tower for being the reasons why they had found themselves in this mess in the first place.
"Are you alright, Zireael?" Avallac'h asked gently.
"I'm fine!" she insisted perhaps a little too quickly, hurriedly scrambling to her feet as she felt her cheeks burning hotly, which were surely as pink as Ginatia petals, and started walking in the direction of the village without checking to see if Avallac'h was following.
Of course he was.
She could hear his footsteps trailing next to her, the elven sage easily keeping pace even though her step was quite hurried thanks to her shame. They walked in relative silence and Ciri focused on keeping her breathing steady despite feeling as if she was seconds away from hyperventilating. She was still reeling from what had happened seconds before their escape and resisted the urge to shake her head at the reason why they had found themselves in such a compromising position in the first place.
Avallac'h likely didn't think anything of it but she was overthinking it… just a little.
"Can I expect you to start carrying around two swords like Geralt?" Avallac'h asked as he broke the silence.
"Perhaps," Ciri said just to placate him. She wasn't really sure if she wanted to burden herself with two swords when the sword Geralt had gifted her was more than enough to deal with all of the monsters in the world, human and otherwise.
If it proved to be too burdensome, she could always drop in at Corvo Bianco and leave the sword in Geralt's care and was sure that, once it was crafted, it would look quite pretty next to all of the other swords that the White Wolf had collected from his travels throughout the years.
I wonder what Geralt would think if he knew that I was still in contact with Avallac'h, Ciri mused.
There was no question that the White Wolf would have grabbed a sword straight off the displays he had around the villa and relentlessly chased after Avallac'h until he succeeded in killing the elven sage, especially if he found out that today's treasure hunt had been their second time meeting up since they parted ways after the Wild Hunt's defeat.
She had come to him seeking help but now she no longer needed him, though, putting it that way, it almost sounded like she had just used him for her own personal gain, which was a grim way of looking at it.
Even more, he could have gone back to Tir ná Lia by now but he was still here, walking by her side, and it took Ciri's damndest to avoid smiling even though she was quite glad that she hadn't immediately parted ways with the elf.
The treasure hunt had been a brief moment that they'd spent together and she wondered if it had been as short for him as it had been for her. Night was almost upon them and the village had fallen still, no longer bustling as it had been during daylight hours, and the only source of activity was the inn.
Once inside, Ciri took up a table near the back of the inn and left her things with Avallac'h before going to speak to the merchant sitting at a table near the bar, where she spent several minutes haggling over the value of the treasures she had found.
Avallac'h, on the other hand, felt like a fish out of water among the human peasants in the tavern, hyper-aware of the fact that he was the only nonhuman in the room - and likely the only nonhuman for miles - but quickly forgot his discomfort when Ciri returned to him and, with a smile on her face that made her eyes sparkle, said,
"Is there anything I can get you?"
Avallac'h politely rejected her offer but it was almost as if Ciri paid no mind to what he'd said because she went over to the innkeep and brought back two flagons to the table before seating herself across from him. He secretly appreciated their seating arrangement because he could secretly admire her under the pretense of paying attention to her when she talked and looking at her simply because he was facing her.
Upon taking a sip, Avallac'h realized that the red liquid was raspberry juice and not ale like he'd originally assumed. More so, he was pleasantly surprised to see Ciri being responsible and not drinking just because she could, though she was the type to drink alcohol very often, either.
In the meantime, Ciri stared at the piece of vellum covered in runes and wondered when would be a good time to visit Hattori so he could make the sword for her. She didn't have anything better to do and maybe there were contracts in Novigrad that she could take to bide her time while she waited for the elven swordsmith to craft her the steel sword as per the instructions on the diagram, which was likely to put a considerable dent in her savings.
I might as well be making money while I spend money, she thought. At the very least, she could stand to make her money back.
Halfway through their drinks and after she had finished examining the sword diagram, the witcher set her flagon down and grabbed Avallac'h's hand, pressing a fistful of coins into his palm.
"Here, your share of the profits."
"Zireael, I cannot accept this."
"Yes, you can. You helped me, so you deserve part of the payment."
"You'll need it more than I do," Avallac'h said as he pressed the coins back into the palm of her hand and held them there to keep her from trying to give them back to him.
"Why don't you travel with me?" she proposed boldly aa she pushed back on his hand with the coin. "It could be fun, especially since we're no longer being chased by the Wild Hunt!"
"I suppose I could travel with you for a time, if only to keep you out of trouble," Avallac'h conceded.
"What are you trying to say?" Ciri crossed her arms over her chest, pretending to be offended, though it was obvious from the smirk on her face that she was just pulling Avallac'h's leg.
"Only that you might need someone to look out for you, since you're far too busy with witchering to do that yourself."
"Hmph, you're lucky I like you."
"Or what?" Avallac'h playfully taunted.
"It's best if I don't tell you," Ciri teased, "keep you in suspense."
"And so the swallow became a hawk."
"Mhm, 'hawk' just doesn't have the same ring to it as 'swallow'."
"I agree, 'Zireael' suits you much better."
I could say the same about you, Fox, Ciri thought as she raised her flagon to her lips to hide her smile.
But, of course, she didn't tell him that.