After being on the road for several hours, she had already managed to get quite far away from the Free City but with daylight waning, she knew she would have to stop by an inn that hopefully had a bed available for her, or risk spending the night by a campfire, which was the last thing she needed right now.
She realized that her map was a little outdated because there were no inns marked anywhere but she happened to look up as she spotted movement out of the corner of her eye and saw some hunters carrying game. They must have just finished a hunt, for what little she caught of their conversation - "Boromir can cook these up in an hour! Whole village will be eating well tonight, lads!" - alerted her that there was a village nearby, which likely had a few beds available to travelers passing through.
She kept a certain distance from the hunters as she followed them up the hill until she saw them scurry ahead towards a village and was able to go the rest of the way on her own.
The sign hanging from the doorway leading into the village read Inn At The Crossroads but the place was not spectacular by any means. It was unimpressive and almost depressing with the thatched roof houses and spiked wooden fence that encircled the settlement as well as its drying grass but it fit right in with the rest of Velen.
It wasn't going to cheer her up anytime soon, though, that was for sure.
She hopped off Kelpie's saddle and led her over to the makeshift stable that had been set up near the inn, though, with storm clouds rolling in, she instantly found herself worrying about Kelpie's health and went inside to inquire about a better place for her horse to stay for the night… and of course, a room for herself.
"Do you have any rooms left?"
"Got one room left. It's yours, if you want it," the innkeeper - Boromir, she presumed was his name - said.
"I want it. My horse also needs food and water. She especially likes apples," Ciri remarked. "And is there someplace more dry that you can keep my horse for the night? It looks like it's going to rain."
"No worries, miss, I'll get right on it just as soon as you pay."
After handing over enough gold to ensure her mare would be well taken care of, Ciri went and made herself comfortable in her room, where she found herself at a loss of what to do next.
After sitting on her bed and staring at the far wall for a bit, she forced herself to snap out of her daze and reached into her pack before proceeding to dig through it. In her search for the map she always carried around, which was her most-useful tool next to her sword, Ciri spotted the wooden dragonfly she had won by playing that shooting game at Bea's wedding, sandwiched between the whetstones she carried around for when she needed to sharpen her sword in a pinch and the wooden tube that she kept her map in.
She carefully took it out of her pack and found herself fiddling with it as she explored different avenues in her head, tearing apart all of the treasured daydreams she had where, in some alternate reality where the Elder Blood wasn't a factor or didn't matter nearly as much, she and Avallac'h were just two people that happened to meet and possibly fall in love without experiencing any opposition from the world and more importantly, from her parents.
If we ever got together, I wouldn't be able to tell Geralt and Yennefer about Avallac'h, because I know how much they hate him, Ciri thought. I know they want the best for me, and that's why they would be opposed to it but…
They weren't wrong to be suspicious of him and she was aware that there was no way she could have lived the rest of her life hiding him if anything more had ever come out of their… relationship , if it could even be called that.
She wasn't sure if she could even tell Yennefer that she had harbored - still harbored - feelings for him, though she was sure Geralt had suspected something. Even when she had told him that she trusted him, on the sole justification that Avallac'h hadn't let her down to date, not even once, he hadn't tried to dissuade her from interacting with him.
It was like Geralt had almost accepted their relationship for what it was and had they never gone to the laboratory, perhaps he would have been okay with them courting as well.
Maybe they all could have believed that Avallac'h was a changed man but clearly, their trip to his laboratory on the Pali Gap Coast had proven them all wrong.
Not going wouldn't have sat right with her, though, and Ciri knew that she would have regretted not going to investigate the laboratory more than she ever did regret going… and trashing the place afterwards.
It had opened her eyes to the fact that Avallac'h had kept secrets from her. Anything he didn't think was worth telling her was kept under wraps and unless she forcefully pulled the curtain down to see what was behind it, And that was if she had become aware that a curtain had been put up in the first place.
For a while, because of the apology Avallac'h gave her shortly after she had slayed Dalhurst's giant serpent and traveling with the elven sage for several months, Ciri thought that they had moved past that and was even willing to let bygones be bygones if they could move forward from that and hold each other in equal regard but clearly, Avallac'h's priorities were elsewhere and didn't align with her desires at all.
She hated that their spat had forced her to run away to avoid getting browbeaten about her responsibilities to keep the Elder Blood safe because she had gone from living a relatively comfortable existence in the Rosemary And Thyme to mucking about at an old, dilapidated inn located at a crossroads that proudly bore that name as well.
It was apt, for Ciri truly felt like she was at a crossroads herself but hoped that, with a little time, she would reorient herself and figure out where to go from here.
Although, if anyone should have left, it should have been him. Or at least, Avallac'h should have left her alone until she felt sound of mind enough to speak to him without being angered by his presence.
I don't remember if I ever gave him the impression that I can't be trusted with secrets or if he just decided that keeping things to himself was better than letting me in on important information.
It was maddening to be treated like an imbecile when, despite their spats and disagreements about how to go about handling certain situations, she always thought they were equals.
Color me surprised, Ciri thought bitterly. She set down the wooden dragonfly on the single nightstand by her bed and crawled under the covers. Moments later, sleep captured her but Ciri did not enjoy any dreams.
The next morning, she woke up early in hopes of riding to the next-nearest town in search of a contract after breakfast. Although delicious, her grilled chicken sandwich went mostly unnoticed because she was too preoccupied with finding work… and putting as much distance between her and Novigrad as possible.
She was open to taking any kind of job, even locating a missing chicken or teaching a child how to swing a sword, as long as she could get paid for it and offer her services to anyone who needed it. Instead of scaring her away, the accident with the Katakan had only emboldened her and made her more willing to help people, if only so she could indirectly prove to Avallac'h that she was still just as capable as she had been before the accident.
I'd like to see him get drunk and fight a Katakan. He wouldn't even last a second before blacking out, Ciri thought scornfully.
"Excuse me, miss, I couldn't help but notice you from the other side of the tavern," a peasant woman said as she approached her. She had blonde hair and wore a faded blue dress that had seen better days. "I was wondering if you could help me?"
"What is it?"
"It's my husband, Bruno. He went hunting early yesterday morning and still hasn't returned. I'm worried sick."
"Do you know where he went?"
"To the river east of here. There's good hunting there, especially now that the war has been over for some time."
"Did anyone else go with him?"
"Nay, he went on his own."
"Is it normal for him to go on his own?" To Ciri, it seemed dangerous because the woods were filled with a variety of different beasts - boars, feral dogs and wargs, and wolves, not to mention drowners, any number of insectoids, and if someone was especially unlucky, leshens - and it was always safer to go in groups.
Even having the company of one other person increased a person's odds of making it back home alive after a jaunt through the woods but being alone increased the chances of falling victim to all sorts of predators.
"Bruno is a skilled hunter, so he tended to hunt alone. It's how he preferred it."
Let's hope his so-called preference didn't get him killed.
"What does Bruno look like?"
"So you'll look for him?
"I'll look for him but first, let's talk about my payment."
"Yes, of course. Name your price, just bring Bruno back!"
After an amount was decided upon, Ciri told the woman - somewhere over the course of their discussion of how much she would get paid for finding Bruno, she had learned that her name was Lucia - that she would be back as soon as she had any news. She refused to make any promises but a part of her hoped that the man had gotten injured while hunting, even if it was a fragile hope that could very likely be shattered if she didn't hurry.
She was looking for a tall, burly man with red hair and beard with a bow and quiver. Easy enough.
This is as good of a time as any to try out that sword Hattori made me. As long as I run into any monsters, that is, Ciri thought as she hung her sword sheaths from Kelpie's saddle before hopping in and riding to the area where Lucia said Bruce had gone hunting.
Once there, Ciri couldn't help but notice herself quickly growing apprehensive.
The wood was quiet, too quiet, in fact, and she couldn't even hear birds chirping.
The only sounds she heard were the creaking branches as the wind pushed them back and forth and the rushing river nearby
Even Kelpie had suddenly become anxious, digging her hooves into the dirt and snorting, like she was trying to tell her something. Clearly, she wasn't too keen on staying long in this grove and wanted to leave.
"Calm down, girl," Ciri soothed as she rubbed her neck. "Everything's okay."
Of course, if her mare was being unusually antsy, then that meant something was amiss. She could only hope that Kelpie would have enough sense to run away if drowners came after her, though Ciri couldn't hear their tell-tale croaks and rasps despite being so close to the river.
The soil around her feet was wet since she was standing so close to the riverbank and several puddles still remained from the rain, which hadn't had time to evaporate yet, and then she noticed a couple pairs of footprints imprinted in the muck that still seemed fresh.
One particular set, consisting of deep boot prints, caught her eye, especially when she followed them to a spot by the river where the ground had clearly been disturbed recently. A deep imprint had been left behind in the muddy ground where it appeared that someone had fallen before scrambling to their feet and running far, fast.
Next to the running footsteps were several pairs of pawprints and a few steps ahead, she found a pile of arrows haphazardly scattered on the riverbank.
Arrows… looks like wherever was running dropped them when they slipped and fell for a second time.
A few steps more and Ciri found a bow. It was simple and devoid of any intricate carvings but looked powerful enough to down a deer with the arrows it could shoot.
The large pool of blood on the wet grass next to the bow indicated that a corpse had lain in this spot but it looked like it had been dragged. Lots of pawprints circled around the blood pool but then appeared as if the canines had run off in multiple directions away from the corpse, which had then been pulled into the water.
I'm probably dealing with drowners here, Ciri observed. The odds of her finding Bruno now were low, since there was no telling how far his body could have traveled downriver since yesterday, but maybe someone had seen him that could help point her to where he had gone. Or could at least point her to his body.
She retraced her steps and noticed the same size footprints in the mud near where Bruno had fallen and with all the rain they had been having, she had a clear path to follow and resolved to do exactly that, whistling for Kelpie and leading her horse by the reins as she walked in the direction that Bruno had come from.
Ciri followed them until she came across a tiny homestead in the middle of the woods, which was the only sign of civilization for miles around. There was a quaint little garden situated in front of the hut, flourishing with a variety of herbs and flowers that was being attended to by a blonde woman, who looked up from her work when she took notice to Ciri.
Despite being a bit older, Ciri couldn't help but notice how much the woman resembled Lucia, and could have very well been her sister or a close cousin.
"What brings you here?" the woman demanded gruffly, sparing her no pleasantries.
"I followed some footsteps in the mud leading away from your home."
"What, why? Who are you?"
"I think they belong to a man named Bruno. He lives-"
"He lives in one of those houses next to the Inn at the Crossroads."
"So you know him?"
"Aye, I know him," the woman scoffed disdainfully.
She leaned down to pluck a blowball flower but ended up pulling with too much force and tore the bulb from the stalk, which remained rooted in the ground. It, too, was torn out of the dirt and was tossed into a wooden bucket near the woman's feet.
"He and his wife were having trouble with making a baby, you see, and he came to me pleading for help so I gave him an amulet. When that didn't work, he came back and demanded that I return his coin. Of course, I did not. I've got my own youngins to feed and it isn't my fault that the trinket didn't work."
"Funny… I don't see any children around here," Ciri remarked.
"It's none of your concern where my girls are!" the woman snapped. She clearly believed that she was being accused of lying - she wasn't, but the woman's harsh reaction was starting to make her wonder if she was hiding anything - but Ciri didn't let the woman's tone fluster her.
"So, what are you, a sorceress of some kind?"
"Nay, I'm nothing like those fancy witches that consort with kings. I'm just a herbalist, trying to raise two daughters on my own after their good-for-nothing father left us for a younger wench!"
As if on cue, two little girls ran up the hill that the hut sat on and into the yard, carrying mushrooms in their aprons. Save for two quick, wary glances, they paid no mind to Ciri and scampered over to their mother to show her what they had collected.
"Mamma, we brought mushrooms like you asked!"
"We found lots of chanterelles!" the other little girl chirped. Ciri found her appearance quite interesting, for she had short red hair that didn't even reach her shoulders and was an obvious outlier compared to her blonde mother and sister.
"Good, good! We'll be eating well tonight, my little loves. Go wash them for me, would you?"
"Okay, Mamma!"
"What happened to Bruno is unfortunate but I had no hand in it," the woman remarked once her daughters were out of earshot once more. "Though I wouldn't expect any sympathy from you."
"Sympathy from me? Why?" Ciri echoed. Rather than respond, the woman waved her off and only once Ciri pressed her did she say,
"You obviously think Bruno is completely innocent in all this."
"Are you implying that he isn't?"
"I'm saying that he was a carousing, lying bastard!"
"Is… Bruno the father of your daughters?"
"They deserved a better father than him!" the woman spat angrily. "When he decided he didn't want us anymore, he chased us out of the home we shared and left us to die."
"Did you know that Bruno has been missing since yesterday?"
"Damn shame, but I didn't kill him."
"Something killed him."
"Must've been an accident. There's all kinds of beasts out there that could've killed him. But tell me, why are you looking for Bruno?"
"I'm a witcher, and his wife Lucia asked me to look for him."
"His wife!" the woman guffawed as if Ciri had said something funny. "I'm surprised that wench has any self-awareness to care about anyone but herself!"
"Why do you say that?"
"She bewitched Bruno! Convinced him to abandon us for her!"
"Are you sure he wasn't just a terrible person?"
"Aye, that crossed my mind as well. Wasn't like he was a good man even while we were married but I never expected him to do something so callous as to throw his own daughters out onto the streets for some whore!"
"Mamma, we're back!" her daughters called out, announcing their return as they ran up to the bitter woman with their bucket of freshly-washed mushrooms.
"Leave us, witcher, and don't ever come back," the woman ordered as she picked up her bucket of blowballs and held the door to her hut open for her girls as they scurried inside.
Sensing she was no longer welcome, Ciri left the homestead without a word and followed the footprints back to the spot on the riverbank where Bruno had fallen. He was likely dead, but she wanted to try and get actual confirmation that he'd been killed, for she felt that his bow and arrows weren't nearly enough proof of his passing.
Might as well try and follow the river. Maybe there's a chance that he already washed up on the riverbank somewhere, Ciri hoped.
She promised herself that, if she didn't find him within the hour, she would return to Lucia with his bow and tell her that she regretfully had no luck in finding Bruno but all the evidence she found pointed to his death even without a body.
Still, she couldn't go back to the Crossroads without giving it one more shot and decided to spend some time combing the banks for Bruno.
After a while, Ciri was almost ready to give up - if the position of the sun was anything to go by, she had searched for nearly three hours, more than she had planned, and had still found nothing - and write off the hunter as dead and drowner food by now.
But as she started to walk back to Kelpie, she noticed something out of the corner of her eye and nearly mistook a particular lump on the beach for a giant clump of bloodmoss in the sand; upon closer inspection, she realized that it was actually a dead body. The corpse fit the general description Lucia had given her - white shirt, brown pants, what appeared to be a tattoo of a compass on his upper arm, and of course, red hair - and confirmed that this was, indeed, Bruno.
He's ice cold, Ciri noted grimly.
The only injuries she was able to note were his torn-out throat - likely caused by a dog or wolf - and part of his left leg had been gnawed to the bone. The rest of him was untouched, likely because the carnivores that had started chewing his corpse had been chased away by drowners, who then pulled him into the watery depths where he had remained until his corpse washed ashore as a result of the rising water levels.
The cause of death was a coin toss between a torn jugular and drowning, though Ciri was willing to bet her coin on the former just because of how gruesome Bruno's initial injuries were, though being dragged to the watery depths to suffocate came at a close second.
There really was no foul play. This had just been an unfortunate accident.
He's not wearing the amulet that woman mentioned, she noted. What could have happened to it?
Ciri was forced to leave Bruno's corpse behind and rode for the inn at the crossroads with a conflicted heart. When she returned, she spotted Lucia waiting for her at the entrance to the village and did her best to keep a straight face, for she had been hoping that she would get a little more time to figure out how to break the complicated news to the woman without accusing her of any moral wrongdoing.
She was probably the "younger wench" that Bruno had taken for a wife but it wasn't Ciri's place to get involved in the squabbles of humans where it didn't concern her. It wouldn't change the fact that those two little girls had lost their father, nor bring Bruno back to his wife.
"Did you find Bruno?" Lucia asked as Ciri hopped down from Kelpie's saddle and led her to the water trough so she could get a nice, long drink.
"I did…" Ciri admitted reluctantly.
"Is he hurt? Where is he?"
"He's… Lucia, I'm sorry to tell you this but Bruno is dead."
Ciri did not expect to find herself standing in the middle of the inn's courtyard with a wailing woman sobbing into her hands, which had immediately caused all heads to turn towards them and even brought people out of the inn to see what all the commotion was about. It was a normal reaction as any and Ciri stepped off to the side to give Lucia some space while the other villagers tried to comfort her and asked her what was wrong but then the odd pendant hanging from Lucia's neck caught her eye.
It was flat and looked as if a crosshatched circle had been carved into the wood - it resembled the symbol peasants carved onto the outer walls of their homes when they were seeking the goddess Lada's protection from evil forces - but there was an odd burn mark over the symbol that Ciri was willing to bet hadn't been the result of an accident in the kitchen or by a forge.
If the trinket was supposed to encourage fertility and provide protection to the wearer, then Ciri could only assume that the burn mark had likely created the opposite effect: that it brought nothing but grief and chaos since its powers had been inverted. However, she couldn't bring herself to ask Lucia, at least not while she was sobbing from grief and decided to wait until she was calmer before she would ask her about it; even once Lucia calmed down, she was still struggling to speak through her tears and Ciri couldn't help but feel sorry for her.
"Do you have someone you love, witcher? I don't mean parents when I say this but… more like… a lover?"
"I… I don't," Ciri admitted with great difficulty.
She had told herself time and time again that she was better off finding someone more like her: someone who was human and could actually stand a fair chance of earning her parents' favor without their relationship being scrutinized under a microscope because of the skeletons in her lover's closet. There were many, many skeletons in Avallac'h's closet - in hers as well - but Geralt and Yennefer would never judge her for her mistakes, for things she'd done that she was less than proud of doing and regretted, even to this day.
She also wanted Lucia to just stop talking because the heartbreak was becoming too much for her to handle but she steeled herself and held her tongue because she felt that it was the least she could do for this woman, especially after bringing her bad news about her husband, was to be there for her for these next few, fleeting moments.
It wouldn't bring her husband back but perhaps it would provide her with some comfort.
"I see… well, Bruno, he… he and I grew up together here in the village and by some miracle, our parents approved and we got married with their blessings. Marrying my dear friend was the true blessing in disguise. It's just a shame that we couldn't have children and grow old together. That was his dream, you know… to have a family."
"I'm so sorry for your loss. "
"T-thank you," Lucia uttered with great difficulty, though it was obvious that she was trying her best not to cry. "Before you go, can you please show me where his body is?"
"I can," Ciri agreed in a voice so soft that she almost didn't hear herself.
She escorted Lucia and two other villagers, who had agreed to help her bring Bruno back to the village for burial, to her beloved's body and stood by to ensure that drowners didn't swarm them while they worked on moving the bloated corpse onto a wooden stretcher.
"Lucia, before I go, I wanted to ask you something: did Bruno give you that necklace you're wearing?"
"He did. Oh," Lucia sighed wistfully as she cupped the pendant and gazed upon it longingly, "this is the last thing he gave me before he died."
"He got it from a herbalist and I think she may have tampered with it. I know it means a lot to you but maybe you should-"
"So you spoke to that lying bitch Dina?"
"I don't know wh-"
"Ugh, just take your coin and go!"
Lucia forcefully shoved a coin purse into her hands and cast her one last look of disdain before she ran back to the inn, even abandoning the two men who had volunteered to bring back Bruno's body.
Ciri didn't dare chase after her and instead, numbly climbed into Kelpie's saddle before riding off. Only once the inn at the crossroads was a mere shadow in the distance did she tug on her mare's reins to make her stop and barely managed to climb out of the saddle before she started to cry, collapsing at the base of the nearest tree as her face fell into her hands.
What a day…
This had easily been one of the least satisfying contracts she had ever taken and the coin hadn't even been worth it because she'd spent so much time looking for a body when she should have written off Bruno as dead as soon as she found his bow and the pool of blood in the mud.
"Now, now little one, that wouldn't have been fair to Lucia, no matter how angry she became," she could hear Vesemir saying to her, almost as if he were here right next to her.
"Yes, well-"
But just as she was about to "give" Vesemir one of her biting retorts, Ciri heard a loud scream and froze. It sounded as if it was coming from the direction of Crossroads, though much, much closer.
The scream had to have come from that woman's hut! Ciri realized as she leapt to her feet, only to find herself dealing with yet another dilemma.
Horseback would be too slow and running would be even slower…
Ciri cursed. She had wanted to avoid using her powers to stay under the radar from Avallac'h but she had a feeling that she would regret not rushing to the commotion the fastest way she knew how and closed her eyes, imagining herself at the sharp-tongued woman's homestead before teleporting there, where she found the woman on all fours before a small mob of people.
They all held torches and weapons, mostly pitchforks, knives, and clubs, while her two daughters hugged each other for comfort and cowered in the shadow of the doorway to their home.
Blood dripped from the woman's face and the ringleader - Ciri quickly recognized the man as one of the two that had volunteered to carry away Bruno's body - kicked her in the face and laughed as she writhed on the ground; her daughters, frightened by the sudden display of violence they had witnessed, screamed and cried for their mother. And then, just when Ciri didn't think that the situation could get any worse, Lucia, of all people, pushed forward to the front of the crowd and kicked the woman in the stomach.
"Dina, you bitch! You just couldn't accept that Bruno had moved on, could you?"
But despite being outnumbered and battered, Dina refused to cower in fear and defiantly raised her face to glare at Lucia.
"Bruno abandoned us because of you! You stole my husband and you made my daughters fatherless!"
"She speaks lies!"
"She's a witch! Lucia can't get pregnant and what if she curses the rest of us, too?"
"What in the hell is going on here?" Ciri demanded as she came to stand before the mob, intentionally placing herself in front of Dina to shield the woman.
Even if things took a turn for the worse, she could protect Dina from the mob … probably.
I have to believe that I can do this, that I can protect the common folk even if Avallac'h thinks I can't hack it. It's my duty as a witcher, Ciri reminded herself.
"That's what you told them? That this woman is a witch?"
"I tell no lies, witcher," Lucia said defiantly. "This woman, she has ruined my life in more ways than you can imagine and I'm going to get my revenge. You would be wise to step aside or I'll kill you, too."
"Is that a threat?" Ciri demanded in a low, dangerous tone. She grabbed her sword with such speed that the metal sang as she pulled it out of the sheathe.
To her pleasure, a few of the more cowardly villagers took a couple of steps back but most of them seemed to double down, as if they had become more emboldened from seeing her brandish a weapon.
Suddenly, Ciri felt a cold sensation wash over her and she found herself in Rivia, of all places.
Somehow she knew that it was the year 1268 and she was running through the chaotic streets, sword in hand as she shoved past rioters in search of Geralt and Yennefer, granting herself only half a second to scan every single face she was able before continuing on, only to find her mother and father lying in pools of their own blood in the town square. Their bodies were growing cold but she had sensed the tiniest bit of life left in them and in a last ditch effort, she took them away in hopes that they would always be safe, far away from anyone who wished to hurt them.
The number of people who died that day had been in the hundreds, or so she heard, and she remembered that final, sorrowful goodbye when she left Geralt and Yennefer on Malus Island, thinking she would never see them again… until the Wild Hunt came looking for her. She knew the pain of losing her parents too well and could not bring herself to step aside and let this horrible mob kill Dina in front of her daughters.
They had decided to attack Dina based on a story that Lucia had told them that was built on lies, which they had all blindly accepted because it gave them a reason to leave their homes and beat down a woman who was likely just a jilted herbalist and not an evil, vengeful witch.
With a blink, Ciri snapped back to reality, in which only a few seconds had passed since Lucia had threatened her, and widened her stance as she prepared for an inevitable fight.
"Dina, take your girls and go inside!" Ciri ordered. She didn't turn around to check but she heard frantic movement behind her followed by the sound of a door slamming shut.
"You think you can take on all of us, witcher?" Lucia taunted. "When we kill you, we're going to kill that witch, too!"
"If you were planning on killing me, why haven't you done it yet? Attack me if you dare, but I promise I'll make you regret it!"
Her challenge appeared to reach some of the villagers, who lost whatever murderous zeal they had been clinging to and split from the group as they ran away with newfound fervor, as if desperate to keep their lives, but the rest remained and one particular madman lunged for her, swinging his pitchfork. Ciri managed to teleport out of the way before the pitchfork's spikes hit her and found herself behind him, where she cut him down with such speed that his limbs went flying and blood splattered everywhere.
"Would anyone else like to die?"
The mob ran off before she could even finish her sentence and she saw Lucia trailing behind, nowhere near as fast as the men she had brought, and teleported to her, where she grabbed her by the back of her neck and tripped her, causing her to fall on her back. She saw fear in her wide eyes as she brought her blade to her throat and leaned in before uttering,
"I'm going to let you go but on one condition: you're going to leave Dina and her daughters alone from now on and if I find out that you went back on our deal, you'll wish you never met me."
Ciri allowed her vague threat to speak for itself as she removed her weight off Lucia and stood up, watching the woman scramble away as fast as her legs could carry her, and could only hope that deranged woman would spread the word to the rest of the people at the Crossroads to never mess with a witcher. It was a shame that the incident couldn't be resolved peacefully but the villager who tried to stab her with a pitchfork had picked a fight with her and she wouldn't lose any sleep tonight for giving him what he deserved.
"It's safe, you can come out now!" Ciri called out to Dina when she returned to the hut. A few moments later, the woman and her two daughters peeked out of the window and, when they confirmed for themselves that the coast was clear, emerged from their home.
"Thank you, witcher. I… I don't know what would have happened to my girls if you didn't show up to help us."
Her words didn't possess their usual barbed edge and Dina sounded… genuinely grateful.
"It was no trouble at all. I happened to still be in the area," Ciri explained without really explaining.
"Ah, I see. Adela, Matilda, get your things. We're leaving."
Despite being wide-eyed with terror, the girls obediently scrambled to their feet and started to pack their things. Dina, however, hesitated and did not move to start packing and it was clear as day on her bloodied face that she was worried.
"Do you need me to stay with you, just in case they come back?"
"Accompany us to my sister's home, and that'll be all that I'll ask of you," said Dina.
That much, Ciri could do.
While Dina and her girls packed their things, Ciri stood watch outside of their home, keeping an eye out in case any disgruntled villagers from the Crossroads came back looking for more trouble. If they did, they would have to face her and unfortunately for them, she wouldn't be an easy opponent to beat down.
"Do you need any aid? I'm a witcher, I know a few remedies that-"
"I'll be fine."
"It's no use putting up a brave face when you're hurt!" Ciri protested.
The handful of celandine and beggartick blossoms she had were the last of the herbs that Avallac'h had given her some weeks ago and she had been desperate to find some way to part with them. Ciri didn't understand how Dina could be so stubborn, even after getting her face beaten in - in a way, it was admirable, especially since she was the only anchor her young daughters had to rely on - but she seemed desperate to prove that she was unbreakable even though, in the end, she was just human.
"Fine, if it makes you stop nagging!" Dina huffed, snatching some celandine out of Ciri's hand.
Once the celandine had started to take effect and Dina and her daughters deemed themselves packed for the road, Ciri escorted them south to Blackbough.
Just because the sun was still in the sky didn't mean that there was no danger - Ciri kept an eye out for any danger, promising that neither wolves nor bandits nor arachnomorphs would get past her - and made sure to be vigilant when Dina and her daughters stopped to rest.
It wasn't ideal because every moment they spent sitting around was a moment wasted but Dina was terribly wounded from the mob's attack and needed to sit every few minutes. There was no telling how badly she'd been beaten before Ciri intervened and was lucky that her injuries weren't worse; because she was trying to be headstrong for her wide-eyed, terrified daughters, Ciri wasn't able to stop and examine the woman's wounds, and had to trust that Dina knew what she was doing by willingly enduring the pain.
At one point, Ciri even thought that they were being followed by some members of the mob, who she believed might have had second thoughts about letting Dina live, only to find out that it was just a gaggle of hunters searching for one of their own, a girl named Diana, which sounded so close to Dina when being shouted from far away.
Ciri forced herself to breathe and willed her racing heart to slow down as she reminded herself again and again that nobody was out to hurt the people in her care.
Even so, she didn't want to take any risks hurried along the trio as much as she could because the shadows were starting to become long and the day was slowly getting shorter and shorter, as a result of winter creeping up on them, and managed to reach the entrance to the village just as the sun started to set.
The girls ran ahead to the hut located near the pond, where they started to interact with a brown-haired woman hanging up laundry in the yard, which caught Ciri's attention. They were both too shy to randomly walk up to any stranger and start talking to them, which tipped her off to the fact that this was Dina's sister.
"Auntie Rose, this is Ciri!" Adela chirped when the witcher and Dina made it to the hut.
"Dina, what happened to you?" Rose gasped in shock.
Rose ushered her family into the house but Ciri decided to stay behind, sitting down on the bench situated next to the door of the hut in an attempt to try and catch a breather and gather her thoughts.
I can't believe this whole mess happened because of the death of one man, Ciri thought. Things had gone from bad to worse so quickly and could have ended horribly - Ciri wouldn't have put it past the mob to slaughter Dina and her daughters without reason - and she now had to worry about Avallac'h tracking her down.
It had been a few hours and he still hadn't shown his face but he could have found her instantly. He absolutely could have if he wanted to and the fact that he hadn't was what made Ciri even more paranoid.
Of course, she had moved in that time and any remaining traces of her teleportation would become useless once she left the area but she hated not being able to use her abilities to their fullest potential, which made her feel restricted in what she could do as a consequence.
Unless he comes to apologize for what he said, I don't want to talk to him. And maybe not even then.
"Excuse me, miss?"
Ciri snapped out of her thoughts and looked to her left, where she saw Dina's sister standing off to the side, and couldn't help but wonder how long she had been standing there.
"Would you like to stay for dinner? The girls were telling me all about how you saved my sister."
"Oh, thank you for your kind offer but I don't want to intrude-"
"Nonsense!" Rose scoffed lightly. "You saved my sister and I wish to repay you somehow. We're very poor so I don't have any coin to give you but I can give you a meal. Please, come have dinner with us."
"Very well."
Ciri ended up staying behind one more day to help Dina set up a storefront out of her sister's home and even shared some of the knowledge she had picked up from reading old tomes at Kaer Morhen, which Dina accepted in her typical, barbed manner that was actually starting to grow on Ciri. She thought it smart that Dina had decided to offer her services and knowledge to the village, which needed a herbalist, and even expressed a desire to build herself and her daughters a home in Blackbough starting next spring, which Ciri was confident she would be able to manage.
The next day, she went to the forest near the village and took some time to hunt, knowing that the unexpected increase in household members would be a strain on Rose and her husband, Jack, if she didn't try to help out.
When she returned with a freshly killed deer and some rabbits, she handed those over to Jack, who immediately got to work skinning the animals and then devoted a few hours to telling Adela and Matilda some tales of her adventures. The girls still seemed shaken even a day later but she couldn't blame them - and told them of her adventure where she had been on the run from the Wild Hunt in hopes that the girls would take comfort in knowing that she, too, had faced scary situations and came out of them no more worse for wear than she had been in any other situation.
She couldn't help but notice their eyes conveyed a hint of fear even though they did their best to appear calm and collected, which was odd because they seemed so adult-like despite barely being older than ten - Ciri assumed Adela was ten and Matilda had to be around eight or nine years of age - until she started to tell her tale, which was when their eyes came alive and that childlike innocence returned to their faces, assuring Ciri that it hadn't been stolen by the mob but had just been hidden away for a little while, as if they had been protecting a valuable trinket.
In a way, that was what it was, and she hoped that the girls would never lose their innocence and instead, grow into adulthood while retaining what were hopefully happy memories of childhood.
"Hmmm, let's see… where to begin? Oh, yes, it all started when…"
Ciri told them stories until dinnertime and then shared one more meal with the family before finally setting out the next morning.
Despite her desire to stay in Blackbough a little longer, she reminded herself that she had done all she could to help Dina and her daughters get situated in their new home and took the time to bid farewell to Dina as well as Rose and Jack. Adela and Matilda must have overheard because they came running from around the back - they had taken a liking to playing around the pond and chasing frogs - of the house and approached her.
"Are you leaving already?"
"Yes, I must go," Ciri admitted. "I've got many more monsters to hunt down, many more contacts to take on elsewhere."
"Because more people need your help, right?" Matilda guessed.
"That's exactly right."
"Well, before you go… Mamma always said we need to thank people who are nice to us…" Adela explained, though she shyly trailed off at the end. Matilda took it as her cue to hand her a piece of paper.
"What's this? Oh, how lovely!" Ciri exclaimed when she took the drawing offered to her.
They had drawn her next to with another stick figure that was obviously their mother Dina, and then two smaller stick figures - one with a braid and another one with short hair - that were obviously Adela and Matilda and and signed it "from Addie and Mattie" on the back.
"Thank you so much, you two. I'll treasure this forever," Ciri promised, and to prove that she would, she took off her pack and slipped the rolled-up drawing into the same tube that stored her map where it would remain safe throughout her travels.
"Will you come visit sometime?" Matilda asked hopefully.
"Perhaps, if my travels permit." She couldn't make any promises but if the opportunity came up, she would come back to Blackbough to check on the girls and Dina at least once.
"Next time you come, will you tell us more stories of your adventures?" Adela asked excitedly.
"Definitely." That was a promise she could keep.
Adela and Matilda accompanied her to the village entrance and waved goodbye to her as she walked off with Kelpie, who followed obediently as she led her by the reins. Once she was far enough away from the village, Ciri climbed into Kelpie's saddle and rode off in search of her next adventure.