We emerged through the doorway at the base of a massive staircase, blocks of white and black stone making a checkerboard pattern up its length. the door slammed behind us of its own accord before disappearing into thin air, I gave Geralt a look and he shrugged and we stepped forward.

"Congratulations mortals." A booming voice came from above and I looked up to the top of the staircase to see a tall man in gaudy clothes and a resplendent golden cloak so long that it trailed around his side to lay on the step below him.

It was obvious at first glance the guy wasn't human or Faunus, for one his skin had a slight purplish hue, almost lavender hue, and his ears were tapered at the tips. Also, as soon as something says 'mortals' that's kind of a dead give away it's supernatural.

"You think that's our… 'host'?" Geralt asked.

"Pretty good shot." I replied.

"You are the first in many moons to make it this far." He continued, "But now…" He clapped his hands together and the stones of the staircase flashed once. When the light went away, I saw that they had all turned different colors.

"It comes to an end." He declared, "Or… shall you be the first to ascend: The Stairs of Memory?"

He made a grand sweeping gesture, "You see, my cloak," He lifted the cloth off the ground to display it for us, "Will flash a series of colors. Your steps up to the top must match that pattern, which I shall only show a maximum of three times… once at the start, and two more upon your request."

He snapped his fingers and a small clock appeared floating in the air beside him, "And if you should fall afoul that pattern you shall have to start all over again. You shall have only five minutes to ascend the stairs, and thus win the game."

He paused dramatically, "Now… are you ready? One…"

Without a word, Geralt and I began walking up the steps, stopping at the top right in front of the man, whose eyes flicked back and forth between the two of us.

"Well look at that." I drawled, "We did it."

The man swallowed nervously, "Well, no you see, you're supposed to wait until I say, 'go'." He explained.

"No dice." I replied, "We've done your three tasks… murder chess, murder sovling, and murder snakes-"

"And ladders." The man interjected.

"Which means." I continued, "We get to issue our ultimatum."

The man's face turned stony, and the ground beneath our feet began to tremble slightly, "You dare attempt to issue such a challenge to ME?" He demanded, his voice thrumming with power.

"Yes," Gerlat answered evenly, "We dare."

The man's face transformed into a beatific smile.

"Excellent." He purred.

A feeling of apprehension began to crawl its way down the back of my neck and Geralt frowned, "What are you-"

Then the ground fell out beneath our feet and the whole world went into a blur, and when everything turned solid again, I found myself sitting in a cushioned chair, a small table in front of me.

I blinked and looked around me to see the witcher similarly seated, as was our host, who picked up a porcelain teapot from the table and poured it into the cap in front of him.

"I must say, I shouldn't be surprised." Our host said, "After all, I would imagine the Guardian of Remnant would be aware of the conditions of most geas spells."

"Uhhh… right." I watched as he poured the golden liquid from the tea pot into the cups in front of us before picking his own up.

"I am quite relieved that you were the ones who were ensnared." He admitted, "That… creature… a bruxa was it? It had absolutely no sophistication, an absolute brute."

"About that… how did you even swap out the orb and the spell in the first place?" I asked him.

"Oh that." He shrugged, "That orb… the Arithma, is actually set up entirely for that purpose; it has a decent amount of power, but it is designed such that I can summon it back and leave a geas spell in its place in order so that I can bring visitors to my realm."

I lifted an eyebrow, "And so you decided to put it in Fergarssian? Don't let me tell you how to do your whole… whatever this is… but that seems a little counterproductive."

He winced, "Ah yes… a bit of a mistake on my part… I'm afraid that I haven't… updated my inventory of spells in some time… Fergars used to be a lot more commonplace before the Great Count-"

"Not that this isn't interesting." Geralt interrupted, "But I need to get back to my world, so let's get this over with."

Our host smiled, "Ah yes… let's." He set his tea cup down on the table, "We shall have to decide upon what game to play, but-"

"Whoah, there." I held up a hand, "We did your three tasks… three games… now we get to issue our ultimatum."

Our host smiled, "Ah… yes, go ahead."

I eyed him suspiciously, "Uh… you mind if we uh…" I gestured to Geralt, "Talk in private real quick."

"By all means." Our host nodded and put a silver bell onto the table, "Simply ring this when you are ready." He then clapped his hands and disappeared.

I turned to the witcher, "Alright, so I'm pretty sure our conditions are: beat you in a game and then put us someplace safe, send you back to your world right?"

Geralt shook his head, "Right, but I've had enough of games… we should just challenge him to a… game…"

We both were silent for a moment, "So… is it just me… or is the absolute only thing I can even think of doing is challenge him to a game?"

Geralt ground his teeth, "We. Should. Challenge. Him. To… play a game." He let out a frustrated growl.

"Shit." I swore, "It's either something about this place or him… but I literally can't think of anything else to do but try to beat him at a game."

"Hmmm."

"And I'm going to guess that directly challenging him at something is going to be a whole different ball game then simply beating one of his challenges." I continued.

"Hmmm."

I massaged my temples, then let out a deep breath, "Okay… so any ideas?"

"Hmmm… one." Then Geralt picked up the bell and rang it.

Our host reappeared, rubbing his palms together, "So what shall it be? I must warn you… no one has ever been able to defeat me in any game that has ever been played in Remnant."

Geralt smiled, "I figured it would be something like that… so how about some Gwent?"

"I'm pretty sure he was crying by the end." I told Ruby as I finished up the story, "The witcher just didn't let up, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before."

"So what happened next?" She asked.

I shrugged, "I had him set us down at the edge of Forever Fall Forest and then we used our immediate boon to have him send Geralt back to his world… that's the last I ever saw of him."

"So what about the second boon? The one that you're supposed to collect later?" She asked, "I mean… sure the game thing might have been his big gimmick, but I think we could use all the help we could get at the moment."

I shook my head, "Even if he could, I already used it."

Ruby frowned, "On what?

"For the deal with the Snathi." I explained, "Turns out that Snathi don't eat people really for nutrition, they do it for fun because they're constantly bored. So I had him bring them to his realm, turns out they had so much fun together that he let them come back and now whenever they're bored they just pop into his realm and go wild."

"You ever figure out that guy's name?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah, he said 'Lord of Games', apparently used to be 'King of Games' but apparently there was some kind of deal with some ancient spirit or something that got all interdimensional lawyer on him or something."

"Huh." Ruby shook her head, "Well I have to admit Uncle Qrow… that was just about as crazy as advertised."

I grinned, "Glad I didn't disappoint."

We were silent for a moment and then I stretched, "Well, I'm gonna hit the hay, you should do the same… but first…"

I turned to her, "How about some Gwent?"

AN: I don't think the ending came together as strongly as I wanted for this one, but I just kinda wanted to do something with the Witcher series because I feel like there's a lot of portions of Nevermore Sweetling that border pretty closely to it. Hope that you enjoyed this little bout of insanity.