The contract was simple enough: track down the monster that was attacking members of the Temple Guard and civilians.

When Ciri looked into it, the captain of the Guard hadn't been able to give her much to go on but the bizarre details - people being snatched up in the middle of the night and being found dead in the sewers the next morning, completely drained of blood - were enough for her to accept the contract. But then the captain proceeded to inform her that a few unlucky victims had been found chopped up into pieces and judging from the look on his face, he was likely trying to dissuade her from hunting the monster terrorizing Oxenfurt's drunks, even as he pleaded "please rescue us from this menace before it kills us all!" with his eyes.

This was right up her alley, though, and she accepted the contract without hesitation.

"I'll have the beast's head soon enough," Ciri promised the captain after they had agreed on a payment.

Following a thorough yet stomach-wrenching investigation of the corpses at the morgue situated along the canal, Ciri determined that all of the evidence pointed to one possible suspect: a Katakan.

And not just any Katakan, either, but one that really enjoyed the blood of alcoholics. It had gotten quite bold in its endeavors and because it wasn't like any normal man could get rid of one, it was able to continue killing indiscriminately for as long as it had.

There's only one way that I'm going to lure this monster out, Ciri thought grimly. She didn't like alcohol and couldn't really hold it, either, but a job was a job and she couldn't put some poor sap's life at risk by having - or even paying - someone to get drunk enough to be bait.

No, she would have to be the bait, even if she had to sacrifice her liver to make it happen, Ciri decided with determination as she made her way down the street to the tavern named The Alchemy and once inside, approached the bartender.

"I want to get really drunk," she said when it was her turn to order. He seemed exasperated by her request and Ciri couldn't help but wonder if he'd dealt with a situation like this before.

"I'll need payment up front," Stjepan said in response to her proposition. Ciri responded by handing him a pouch laden with coins but had considerable difficulty handing it over because she wasn't keen on pouring so much money into alcohol, even if it was for the greater good.

"Just keep it coming,"

The bartender took the coin and filled her a flagon of beer.

Sacrifices must be made, she told herself as she lifted the heavy mug off the bar and took her first drink of the night.

After Ciri finished her first round, the bartender proceeded to pour her drink after drink, though no amount of coin could stop him from eyeing her warily, like he was trying to figure out why she wanted to get plastered, but that was where his judgement ended. He continued to pour her drink after drink without commenting on her motives until, hours later, she was so tipsy that the room was spinning and she almost wasn't able to hobble out of the tavern and had to lean on the wall for support.

It took a few moments before Ciri was able to get her bearings and she couldn't help but think that maybe she shouldn't have had those last three mugs. But there was nothing she could do about it now except hope to the gods that her efforts would be worth it.

However, as she started walking around the tavern in hopes of luring out the Katakan, singing old drinking songs that she had learned from her friends from the circus, there was no way of knowing if it was actual confidence or liquid courage that was driving her actions. She felt emboldened, but any sensibility she might have had to stick to her training and stay alert had been drowned by all of the liquor.

Fortunately for her, she didn't have to walk very far before the Katakan showed itself, its sudden appearance sending drunk and sober civilians alike fleeing for their lives.

It was quite large in size and its claws were nearly as long as her sword, which approximately put its age somewhere between a hundred- and hundred fifty-hundred years old, and had adorned its body with so much jewelry that it glittered under the reflection of the moon as if it was the middle of the day.

Its lips pulled back, revealing teeth sharp as knives as it snarled at her but it couldn't hope to intimidate her because she drew her sword, assumed a battle stance, and bravely stared it down.

"There you are! Let's finish this here and now!"

Claws and steel clashed as witcher and monster lunged towards each other but Ciri had had the foresight to cover her blade with vampire oil, which gave her an edge over the Katakan. Every time she landed a hit, the monster flinched as if it had been burned and stumbled back to put some space between them while it tried to recover from the blows she had dealt.

She didn't have the advantage of witcher mutagens that would have allowed her to consume black blood and make the Katakan's life even more miserable but she still knew how to make a vampire squeal and simultaneously regret its existence.

While it was still licking its wounds, Ciri grabbed a moon dust bomb off her belt and flung it at the beast, only to miss because it teleported away moments before the bomb shattered on the cobblestones. Silver fragments hung in the air and Ciri didn't dare get too close - drunk as she was, she still knew not to get in range of the bomb's radius - and looked all around in search of the Katakan.

"Where the hell did it go?"

Ciri didn't get the time to finish asking herself that question because she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and saw the Katakan dash across the rooftop of the house she was standing in front of and out of sight.

She chased after it by teleporting onto the roof but didn't get very far when she realized that she had just lost track of it after it had turned itself invisible.

The Katakan likely had decided that being pursued by a drunk witcher wasn't worth the trouble of trying to get a drink out of her, even though she knew that her blood was exactly to its tastes right now. Ciri couldn't help but off-handedly wonder if magical blood such as hers had a different taste or if Elder Blood had a similar consistency to regular human blood but at the same time, she wasn't interested in finding out.

Her blood was supposed to be a temptation so she could kill the damn monster that had been terrorizing Oxenfurt for weeks, not a treat for it to gorge on after it had already overstayed its welcome in this world.

"It's always Katakans," Ciri huffed in frustration. "Why can't it ever be a thousand-year-old bloodsucking puppy?"

While she continued to scan the area in hopes of spotting the beast, Ciri took more swigs of Redanian lager because her plan was to lure the Katakan back to her using the smell of alcohol, even though it was already proving to be quite difficult to keep down so much liquor, especially in the copious amounts that she was drinking. At times, she felt like throwing up but ended up dry-heaving instead, which was clearly her body's way of telling her that it wasn't sure if it was done drinking yet but wouldn't be able to handle much more, either.

Why did this particular vampire decide to go after drunkards? Was regular blood not good enough for it?

Gods… Ciri thought as she hiccupped painfully. What I wouldn't give to have a witcher's liver…

Her powers were great but they were no substitute for mutagens in strange situations such as this one; Geralt turned into an affectionate, bumbling oaf when drunk and she felt like she was moments away from vomiting up an organ or two.

But she had to endure until she slayed the Katakan… or threw up on it, whichever came first. At this point, she hardly cared.

She needed to lure it back to her and she knew exactly how to do it, because no Katakan could resist the smell of blood and especially not this one, with its penchant for the alcoholic variant.

"Desperate times, right?" Ciri grimaced as she downed the last of the Redanian lager and drove the last nail into the coffin. Oh, I think I'm going to be sick…

She forced herself to ignore the nauseousness that was making her stomach churn and scanned the area for the Katakan, which couldn't have gone far. It must have turned itself but there was no way it had gone too far and, in a last ditch attempt to catch its attention, Ciri withdrew the knife on her belt and pulled off her left glove.

Although she wished she could, it wasn't like she could spread moon dust over the entirety of Oxenfurt. It was far too impractical, a perfectly good waste of moondust, and there was no way she could possibly manage such a feat even if she wanted to.

Ciri also doubted the people of Oxenfurt would appreciate getting covered in silver splinters and decided she would be better off not flinging Moon Dust bombs at anything that moved because she didn't want to get accused of casting hexes even though crafting bombs was closer to potion making than curse-casting… but expecting peasants to know the difference was pointless and could result in her being burned on a pyre.

That was why this other method would have to suffice, Ciri thought as she brought the blade of her knife down and sliced her arm.

"Ow…"

The wound stung but she resisted the urge to press down on it and waved her arm around in hopes that the wind would catch the scent of blood and carry it far enough to catch the Katakan's attention. If this didn't work, then she would truly be out of luck…

Ciri then heard a hiss from behind her and whirled around, finding herself face to face with the Katakan, which had returned with a vengeance.

It roared at her before it lunged and Ciri found it difficult to avoid its claws as it swiped at her before flitting back to put space between them. She quickly recognized the tactic it was using - attack, then put some space in between them before repeating, as if it had taken an offensive approach - and managed to get in a couple of well-timed slashes that made it hiss as its blood splattered across the rooftop shingles like black paint.

Two can play at that game! Ciri thought, though when she teleported forward, she went from standing on her own two wobbly feet to lying atop of some barrels that had broken under her weight. It took Ciri a few more moments to figure out that she was no longer on the roof and had teleported herself into the street below .

She heard someone comment, "I'm not nearly drunk enough if I'm seeing wenches flying through the air like ploughin' witches on broomsticks!" as she sluggishly rolled to her feet and clutched her sword far too tightly.

That alone would have earned her a tongue-lashing from Vesemir if he were still around to lecture her - "girl, you'll break your own arm holding onto a sword that tightly!" - but Ciri couldn't bring herself to care in her drunken state, deciding she was allowed to do whatever she wanted and deal with the consequences later.

However, being as drunk as she was, the world around her was swaying and that made it doubly difficult for her to dodge attacks.

While her body knew the correct defensive moves, she felt far too slow and it was difficult to avoid the Katakan's swipes, which forced to resort to using her sword to block its attacks when it came too close for comfort.

When it swiped at her, Ciri leapt back to dodge its claws and ended up stumbling backwards as she lost her balance, which she couldn't regain even as she flailed her arms. The Katkan used this to its advantage and grabbed hold of her in its giant claws before pulling her forward and clamping down on her shoulder.

The bite felt like knives plunging into her shoulder and Ciri couldn't hold back her cry of pain, back arching as she felt the Katakan's teeth bury themselves into her flesh, so deep, in fact, that she was convinced her bones were going to snap under the pressure.

She found herself writhing against its grasp in an attempt to get free before the Katakan drained her dry and managed to gather what little strength she had left and used it to drive her sword straight through the vampire's heart, forcing it to drop her. She landed on the cobblestones with a thump! that knocked the breath out of her and managed to look up when she heard a loud squeal and saw the Katakan flailing its arms and struggling to remove her sword from its body.

It was in too deep, and she was in agony herself but seeing the vampire's blood melding with the pink vampire oil on her sword made it easier for Ciri to smile through the pain, especially as the light faded from the monster's eyes a moment later before it, too, fell to the cobblestones with a considerably loud thump!

The pulsing pain in her neck was worsened by the dizziness - Ciri couldn't tell if it was a side effect of the alcohol or the vampire bite - and she was forced to remained seated where she lay on the cobblestones, taking deep breaths while she waited for the dizziness to subside… but it never did.

She decided not to waste any more time and stumbled to her feet, sword in hand, and brought her blade down on the Katakan's neck again and again until she finally managed to hack off its head, not as cleanly as she would have liked but the important thing was that another monster was off the streets and Oxenfurt's drunkards could safely drink themselves into a stupor without having to look over their shoulders as they bumbled home from the tavern.

It was easily one of the worst jobs she'd had the displeasure of taking and after she handed over the Katakan head to the contract giver and collected her coin, Ciri hobbled back to the back room of Avallac'h's herb shop in Novigrad.

For the sake of not frightening his customers, she had let herself in through the back door, even though the front would have been so much faster and wouldn't have required her to climb - climb, because she could not trust her powers, being as drunk as she was - over the tall wooden fence that surrounded his garden. She might have trampled over a few beggartick blossom bushes on her way in but an apology and some compensation for his damaged plants would smooth over the elf's ruffled feathers.

Avallac'h must have heard her stumble in oh-so-ungracefully because the second she plopped down on a chair in the shop's backroom, he came in and stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of her.

"What, is there something on my face?" she asked cheekily.

"Zireael, are you drunk?"

"What gave you that impression?" Despite her best efforts to appear casual in the rather uncomfortable wooden chair she was seated in, she knew Avallac'h had seen straight through her the moment he caught sight of her.

"You're bleeding."

Not much got past him, it seemed.

Ciri glanced down and saw blood had stained her white shirt as a clear stream of red ran from the bite on her neck down her chest and had come to cover her skin in a sheen of red. However, she didn't get much time to process what had happened because Avallac'h wasted no time in busying himself with providing first aid.

The wound was quite garish because the flesh around the bite had been torn, almost as if the Katakan had tugged on her skin as it drew blood in hopes of getting a bite of meat out of her; he had seen a lot of frightening injuries, even endured a horrible disfiguring curse, but nothing had been quite as gut-wrenching as this.

He cast a spell to help speed along tissue regeneration but couldn't deny that he felt extremely concerned over the fact that the vampire had managed to get that close to Ciri. He wasn't just worried about her but also the Elder Blood, which came to mind the moment that he realized the witcher had been bit, but he refrained from bringing it up until he had managed to close the wound and stop the bleeding because he didn't need Ciri storming off and passing out from blood loss in an alleyway.

But an hour later, after he had finished closing the wound and passed Ciri a cup of tea brewed from beggartick blossoms and chamomile to soothe any pain she might be feeling, he couldn't hold back any longer and blurted out,

"Zireael, where is the Katakan's head?"

"I turned it in. What?" she demanded when Avallac'h shot her a desperate look. Why did he suddenly look so concerned, especially when he had been relatively calm - or as calm as one could be while tending to an injury as terrifying as hers - just a moment ago?

It had been just like any other contract, which required her to turn in the beast's head as proof that she had done her job properly and neutralized the threat. Without it, the captain wouldn't have paid her.

"And its body?"

"Probably where I left it. The Temple Guard likely hasn't even thought to move it yet," Ciri shrugged. As she looked up at Avallac'h, she saw his eyebrows furrow in concern and also felt worried.

"Please tell me why you look so stressed all of a sudden."

"Did you burn the corpse?"

"You expect me to play with fire when I'm drunker than a Mahakaman dwarf on Belleteyn? And here I thought that you were the wise one!"

"Zireael, you have a responsibility to make sure your power, your blood, does not fall into the wrong hands."

"If you're so concerned about it, why don't you go handle it instead of lecturing me?"

"But it is equally important that you be much more careful. You were quite careless today."

To her, it didn't really matter if a Katakan - a dead one, at that - had gotten a bite out of her because, even though recovering was going to be a pain, the important thing was that the beast was dead and she had been paid for taking the contract. But here Avallac'h was, hounding her as if she had done something wrong by letting the beast sneak up on her.

"I resent that! I didn't let it do anything! Accidents happen, Avallac'h!"

He just didn't understand that monsters were often unpredictable, especially if they were unusually dangerous and bold like the Katakan she'd fought.

"Yes, but it's an accident that could have killed you-"

"And destroyed the last living trace of Elder Blood," Ciri mocked. "Yes, I know exactly what you're concerned about."

"Zireael…"

"If the issue of the vampire's corpse is so pressing, then you handle it! Make sure that your precious Elder Blood doesn't fall into the wrong hands!"

"And if it did? The results could be catastrophic-"

"It's always about my powers with you!" Ciri groaned in frustration. "You don't see anything else but the Elder Blood, do you?"

She was still recovering from the effects of her recent dive into the liquor supply at the tavern, exhausted , and at her wit's end. She had never been so frustrated with Avallac'h as she was now, so much that she couldn't even stand to look at him right now, and leapt to her feet before storming off in the direction of the front door of the shop this time.

"Where are you going?" he called after her.

"I'm leaving!"

She slammed the door behind her as she stormed out of the herb store and started off in the direction of Dandelion's tavern.

Avallac'h had moved out of the inn a few days after they had returned from Verden, as he now had a bedroom in the upstairs apartment attached to his herb store, but Ciri had decided to remain at the tavern since there wasn't enough room for her at the shop. There was a second, much smaller room across the hall from Avallac'h's bedroom but it was currently filled to the brim with things that had belonged to the old owner who had disappeared some months back and needed to be cleaned out before it could be utilized.

Plus, Ciri hadn't wanted to impose, in case the elf had wished to convert it into a study or a laboratory. Of course, it was a good thing in hindsight because there was less of a chance of Avallac'h impeding her flight from the Free City because they weren't, er, living under the same roof anymore.

It's not like he can just leave his shop behind to chase after me, Ciri thought, though it gave her no pleasure.

"What happened to you? You look angry. It's scaring the customers," Dandelion remarked when she came through the door.

"Not now, Dandelion." She looked to the bartender and asked for water, which she received moments later.

"Ciri, have you been… drinking?" The bard's nose scrunched up at the smell of liquor. It clung to Ciri's clothes and was quite pungent, as if she'd bathed in booze all night, and he could smell it on her breath, too. He was used to her fiery personality but she seemed unusually irritated and on edge, like something had upset her.

Dandelion almost didn't want to know.

"It was for a contract!" Ciri insisted, though the bard didn't seem convinced that she was telling the truth.

Her head pounded from an awful headache and she wanted nothing more than to lie down and sleep but she couldn't, because Avallac'h was likely to come looking for her and he was the last person she wanted to see.

"What kind of contract- you know what, I don't want to know."

"You're right, you don't want to know. By the way, do you have any supplies for sale? I need to ride out of Novigrad-"

"Now? Ciri, you're in no condition to go riding!"

"But Avallac'h might-"

"Don't worry, I won't let him disturb you," Dandelion promised. "Go upstairs and sleep off your hangover."

"Thank you," Ciri uttered. It had taken her a few moments to accept the bard's proposition on account of her mind being so swimmy but she had to admit that he was right: if she hopped into Kelpie's saddle right this minute , she was going to fall off and break her neck on the cobblestones.

"And later, when you're well-rested, come downstairs for some good food, on the house."

"Of course. Thanks a bunch, Dandelion," Ciri agreed before starting for the stairs.

Due to her drunkenness, she barely managed to make it upstairs to her bedroom - actually, once Ciri made it to the landing between the stairs, which placed her just out of sight of the patrons down in the bar, she used her powers to teleport and miraculously found herself on her bed this time - and fell asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.

It wasn't until hours later that Ciri was roused from her deep slumber by shouting.

Better-rested and less drunk than she had been earlier, her first instinct was to grab her sword but she stopped short of pulling it out of its sheath when she recognized the voices and realized that Dandelion was arguing with Avallac'h right outside her room.

"Only paying customers are allowed upstairs! In case you forgot, you checked out of your room months ago!"

"Where is Zireael?"

"She said she didn't want to be disturbed so go back downstairs before I-"

"Step aside, bard!"

Having heard more than enough, Ciri stormed over to the door and pulled it open, nearly ripping it off the hinges as she came to glare at the arguing pair standing outside her door.

"What do you want, Avallac'h?"

"Ciri, if you don't want to talk to him, I can get security to throw him out," Dandelion said.

"No," she insisted weakly, even though the bard's offer was terribly tempting. "It's fine. Thank you, Dandelion."

"May I come in?" Avallac'h requested. Ciri stepped aside to let him into her room before shutting the door behind her, though she didn't know why she hadn't just thrown him out herself.

"May we speak?"

"Avallac'h, if you came here to pick a fight with me, you can leave," Ciri snapped.

"I came for no such thing, but the conversation we started back at my shop isn't over yet."

"Why do you get to decide when we're done talking?"

"Because it seems you do not understand the gravity of the situation at hand-"

"The Elder Blood, that's all that matters to you?"

"Because it seems that it doesn't matter to you, Zireael. You have a responsibility-"

"I resent that! Of course it matters to me but it's not the only thing!" Ciri seethed.

Protecting the common folk from monsters, enjoying her life as a witcher because it was what she had always wanted ever since Geralt accepted her and trained her at Kaer Morhen, and most importantly, enjoying her hard-earned freedom were just as important . She had all the time in the world to kill monsters for coin, spend winters in Toussaint with her parents (or at Kaer Morhen, if she happened to miss Eskel and wanted to keep him company), and to live her life and she could not be bothered to worry about the Elder Blood like she had before.

Her fear of the Elder Blood falling into the wrong hands had been placed onto the backburner the moment that Eredin breathed his last. The rain would wash away her spilled blood and the world would keep spinning, something that Avallac'h was blind to because he was so obsessed with criticizing her over such an insignificant mistake, and it made her blood boil.

"I wish you were more upset about the fact that I could have died but it's always about the Elder Blood with you!"

"I'm simply reminding you that you need to be more careful."

"And I don't need you to remind me about something that I already know! I'm as careful as I can be but unfortunately, sometimes things get out of hand and there's nothing I can do when that happens! But what could you possibly know about hunting monsters?"

"I do know that a monster hunt doesn't usually involve letting a Katakan bite you-"

"You think I let it bite me?" Ciri echoed. "Well, I hope it enjoyed the taste of Elder Blood, then!"

"Do you even hear yourself?"

"I hear myself! The question is, do you hear yourself? Because it's quite clear you don't care about me one bit!"

"Zireael, how can you say that when I left Tir ná Lia to travel with you-"

"Then go back to Tir ná Lia if you miss it so much! Nothing is stopping you!"

"I cannot go back to Tir ná Lia because I allied myself with you," Avallac'h said pointedly. His tone implied that she should have known this all along, even though he had always kept that information hidden from her… just like everything else. "That did not make me popular with my people, many of whom supported Eredin."

"Well, then I'm sorry that the Aen Elle shunned you," Ciri scoffed, though it was obvious to them both that she did not feel any remorse for him or his plight. He had, after all, made his own decisions and she didn't understand what any of it had to do with her.

She was painfully aware of his obsession with the Elder Blood - if the bloodline tree in his laboratory was anything to go by, he would have given anything to separate the human line of her genetics in order to create a child who was entirely elf and had the Elder Blood - and knew, deep down, that he had likely agreed to accompany her from place to place just to prevent the last known trace of the Hen Ichaer from perishing.

For a time, she had deluded herself into thinking that Avallac'h would come around, that he would finally warm up to her and stop being so closed off to her but that hopefulness made her feel worse than a fool.

Avallac'h's words from a long time ago - "I do not despise you. In fact, I think you are quite exceptional, Zireael, in every way." - rang through her mind but Ciri realized now that they had just been empty praises meant to placate her at a time when she had been quite angry at him.

What he'd said to her immediately after - "Do not allow the opinion of one elf to upset you." - stung terribly because he was clearly only concerned for the Elder Blood, not about her. If he truly cared, he would have dropped the topic after she left his shop and come by to ask her if she was doing alright so soon after being healed.

Instead, the opinion of one particular elf was upsetting her more and more with every passing minute.

"If you were expecting me to thank you," Ciri scoffed callously, "you'll be waiting a long time."

"I don't need you to thank me. I need you to be responsible-"

"Just so you know, I would have been perfectly fine on my own against Eredin, thank you!"

"Zireael, be sensible. Eredin would have captured you-"

"I am sensible! I could have handled myself against Eredin-"

"No, you wouldn't. You would be dead, one way or another. Eredin would have forced you to use your powers to-"

"I never asked for these powers and I would have been perfectly happy without them! If I could, I would give them up, if it means never having to hear about the Elder Blood ever again!"

Avallac'h didn't say anything in return nor rebuke her but it was clear he was livid and Ciri felt herself go into full-on tunnel vision anyways because his quiet rage was more upsetting than being yelled at ever could be.

The tension in the room was palpable and Avallac'h's jaw was clenched tight while his eyes were sharp as daggers; it took Ciri a moment to realize that their conversation was dead and that there was nothing else that they could possibly say to each other that would make a difference.

Elder Blood had been spilled, Ciri thought grimly, and that was the furthest that Avallac'h's concern stretched.

"Where are you going?"

"Don't bother looking for me. You won't find me anyways," Ciri snapped as she grabbed her swords and satchel before storming out of the room and down the stairs as fast as her legs could carry her without tripping.

One benefit of never bothering to unpack her things or make herself at home in whatever rented room she was staying in was that she could pack up and leave at a moment's notice.

"From the look on your face, I'm guessing it didn't go well?" Dandelion remarked when she made her way over to him where he stood by the front door of the establishment.

"No, not at all." Ciri passed him the key to her room and added, "thanks for everything, Dandelion."

"Not a problem. Where will you be going, if you don't mind me asking?"

"I honestly don't know. I might go see if there's any work in Velen for me. Oh, and before I forget: if Avallac'h comes by asking for me, tell him you have no idea where I went."

"But you didn't tell me where you're going," the bard protested.

"Dandelion, please ." She didn't have time to argue about this. "I promise I'll be fine."

"If you say so. Say hi to Geralt for me if you see him."

"I will."

After packing some rations that Dandelion gave her for the road, Ciri grabbed her satchel and left the tavern, hurrying down the street to Hattori's where Kelpie was stabled behind his shop. She had paid the elven armorer to take care of her mare and he had done a splendid job but now it was time for them to leave. Ciri led her horse along by her reins until they had crossed the bridge that led out of the Free City before she climbed into the saddle and rode off.

She was unsure where she was going but she knew that she wanted to get as far away from Novigrad as possible for the foreseeable future, if only to avoid any possibilities of running into Avallac'h.

Novigrad was a big city but not nearly big enough to prevent them from ever encountering each other.

The memory of their argument was fresh in her mind and the words they'd exchanged during their spat hurt worse than the healing Katakan bite on her shoulder. Though she could still feel the vampire's teeth digging into her flesh, the words they had exchanged hurt far worse and Ciri felt like she had been ripped apart from the inside.

Her heart had sunk into her stomach and that was where it would stay until she finally pulled herself out of the emotional gutter she was currently trapped in.

Worst yet, she felt that she and Avallac'h were so far apart that any common ground and understanding they might have gained from attending Bea's wedding together and breaking an awful curse that would have gotten Verden's princess killed if they hadn't been there, had been for naught because they still didn't understand each other.

And they probably never would.

Deep down, he probably just thinks I'm another dh'oine. What a shame his precious Lara didn't marry him, give him the special child he wanted… perhaps this entire generational mess could have been avoided if she had.

"It's just you and me now, Kelpie," Ciri sighed.

She tried to uplift herself, to make herself feel optimistic and excited about the journey she was embarking on but, as much as she would have liked to deny it, Ciri was not looking forward to the lonely days on the road and even lonelier nights.

It would do no good to mope, though.

Forced aside any feelings of regret and despair that were threatening to sink their hooks into her and gave Kelpie's reins a flick, encouraging her horse to move at a trot, as she embarked on the Path towards her next adventure.