Chapter 3
What am I to you?
Triss Merigold takes in her new surroundings for a moment. The cottage is an understatement of the dwelling Yennefer took over, but a manor is overstating what it is.
Currently, she, Yennefer, Geralt and Princess Cirilla or Fiona when out in public, are in the dinning room. The three adults discuss while the former princess of Cintra was in the corner tuning the lute.
"So far my magic is linked with the Master Bard. With his lute, and your help, he can be found," Triss Merigold stated.
Ciri frowns at this and clutches on the lute, unwilling to part from it, let alone have it expose to magic. This sentiment is shared with Geralt.
"I promise I would not damage the lute," Triss solemnly promises, "Just as the Chaos in our blood is our life, music is to a bard, especially for the Master Bard Jaskier."
The passion, the care for the words that flow with the song. The gratitude and sincerity aimed at her was a balm to her soul when its so rare in this world. Triss can see why someone like him will be willing to travel with Geralt.
Shame Geralt never introduce the two before, the Master Bard is someone special. Someone who definitely would get along like house in fire with Yennefer.
Although she wonders at the last song he performed before their parting. She can almost taste the heartache in his voice and left her thinking about Yennefer who she has not seen often before the Battle at Sodden .
Sorrow of the lost time and fear that maybe she did something that Yennefer left without even a goodbye to her when the other sorceress grew tire of the Brotherhood.
Looking back at Geralt, Triss wonders if he knows anything about the grief of the Master Bard.
She blinks when Geralt turns to her with Cirilla standing by him. She was holding out the lute with reluctance, but isn't letting go.
"Promise you'll bring him back?" she whispers.
Looking at her hard eyes, having a small idea of what the girl had already been through, Triss bows her head, "I will use all my power to get him back to you, princess."
She nods and lets Triss get hold of the lute before walking out to somewhere else in the house. Geralt didn't follow and stares at Triss.
"I'm coming with you," he states.
That was fine with Triss. She does need help in getting the Master Bard's token to gain full control of the magic being released and location of said bard, "Of course."
The lost look, the regrets of words said in anger and the desperation to save the one who should at least get an apology was what caught Yennefer once she got over her joy at seeing her old friend Triss.
Never again would she want to go through that again.
As Triss set up, Yennefer verifies what she learned from Triss over the protection spell she casted over the bard.
"So to free him of the set up, you need two 'keys' one being yourself and the other his token," Yennefer states as she mentally runs scenarios of the best way to reach it.
"The lute can replace of having Master Bard physically present since it has been with him so long that it might as well be part of his person," Triss gently shakes one of the mixed potion bottles before passing it off to her.
Yennefer reaches over and scoffs, "That is true."
Then she sobers when she gets a brush to dip it into the solution, but makes no move to make the necessary signs, "Are you sure you don't wish for me to come with you?"
Triss keeps silent, probably finishing up the weaving emergency spells for the trip. Once a minute passes, the curly haired woman opens her eyes and gives her a kind smile, "Once we locate the Master Bard, I will need you be in full power to rescue him, who will be in high chance need of healing. Hopefully I would have recovered by the time you and Geralt return with him."
"He doesn't have that good of a voice to be considered a Master Bard," Yennefer darkly mutters, mixing the brush into the mixture to be completely drenched.
Triss only smiles.
So what if she is annoyed by the last song of the dumb bard made for her. Sweet Kiss indeed. Geralt is the dangerous one. She was just a victim of his wish.
"He made me a song as well. Very nice. It's a shame he had no chance to spread it before getting himself captured," her eyes turn to mischief, "Once he is better, I would ask a performance and you can review it for me. I would like a second opinion of his gift to me for assisting in saving him."
"More like owes you a song cycle after this," Yennefer hides a smile when Triss gives her snorting laugh.
Triss looks around and sees only Yennefer who stands outside of one of the two overlapping circles that cross the center one. The other overlapping circle has Geralt and herself. The center was where the lute was located that would try to resonate wherever the Master Bard is, regardless of the hidden spells. That is what the next layer of the spell circle is for, to catch the location of where the spell is without being caught whoever hid Jaskier from their magical vision.
Seeing all is in order, Triss takes a deep breath and activates the spell circle that Yennefer drew.
There was a dizzyingly sensation then a pop of familiar magic shimmering around her.
"We have entered his mind," Triss breathes. A whisper of a tightening grip in her hand has Triss give a small smile in gratitude despite knowing Yennefer isn't presently there, "Be prepared this is something I would have preferred to not have to do, alas we are short in time."
Geralt gravelly nods.
A pressing and familiar feeling falls over them.
"If life could give me one blessing it would be to take you off my hands!"
The other Geralt turns his back after uttering those words, not seeing the shattered look of the Master Bard as if reaching toward…
"I will not find what I need here!" Yennefer shouts at the Tissaia de Vries. The older woman glares, but says nothing to stop the younger from leaving Aretuza.
"Yennefer—!" Triss pushes past the crowd of sorcerers and sorceresses, hand reaching toward the violet eyed sorceress.
"I will have better luck elsewhere, so don't even bother in following me, let alone expect to see me again!" with a wave, Yennefer portal herself out, leaving Triss grasping for air, only to be thrown back from a delayed spell that Yennefer probably left to stop anyone from following her.
Shaking her head, Triss takes another deep breath, ignoring the almost painful tightening grip in her currently empty hand.
"Not time like the present," she tugs Geralt, or more like tries to. Tugging a brick wall is easier than the Witcher. Hence why she sends a small spark at his arm to snap him out of his spiraling thoughts.
He glares at her. Triss raises an eyebrow and points at the retreating figure.
"We would not be able to figure out what is your bard's token if we stand here, Geralt."
"Not my bard," he mutters. Fortunately, he follows her in chasing down the Master Bard.
"That—stupid—warned him about her—tone deaf—I cannot even—!" Jaskier kicks the bed of the inn where Geralt and Jaskier had stayed before everything went down.
Unfortunately, the bed was sturdy, leaving the bard hoping around on one foot, cursing in pain.
Geralt's eyes follows the erratic movements of Jaskier, who quickly getting over the bruisd toes, "Like is it so much to ask to be called a friend? Was I really that bad? Even that Mousesack got that title. Sorry I am a human that maybe reminds you what you lost Geralt, its not my fault I was born like this!"
He grabs the first thing he finds and throws it. Geralt flinches when the book goes through him. Triss muffles a giggle at his response only to stare past him.
Before he turns to look, Jaskier lets out a shriek and runs through Geralt as well. Geralt barely fought the urge to shiver at the unnaturalness of his bard doing that to him.
No, not his bard.
"Nononononono!" he reaches over and pulls out the burning book, but it was too late. Whatever it was not charred, it was in ashes near the fireplace.
For a moment only the crackling flames were heard.
"Dammit, Jaskier," Geralt almost bemoans the fact that once again Jaskier has no self-preservation at the sight of the mild burns of his hands that still clenches the burned book, "I thought you'll at least care for your hands for your music and other fun activities."
A choke sound echoed the room.
"Twenty years…just like my songbook….all went up in flames," Jaskier chokes out.
He folds himself placing his forehead over the destroyed journal that Geralt now recognizes being Jaskier's favorite song journal he got for the bard after getting tired of watching the other write on anything he can get his hands on when inspiration hits him.
The wail almost had Geralt look away, yet he watches, knowing this is what he needs to see. This is what his words done to the one who stayed despite of everything and what everyone else believed about him.
When a coin falls out of the shaking journal, Jaskier stares at it and whispers, "…I'm weak, my love, and I am wanting—"
Triss curses and tugs Geralt back and everything turns black.
"—healing already—"
"Not fast as yesterday, maybe—"
"—I don't care! We need to break him and get all the information necessary for weaknesses of the White wolf so the Emperor can finally get the princess back!"
Jaskier wakes up and blinks at the piercing light on his face. Rolling his head around he looks up at his still tied arms to the ceiling. He kept looking up at the sound his cell door opens, and the soft steps of the sorceress enters.
"You better not ignore me, bard," sneers the witch.
"Oh boy. I am now a new level of insanity. I am hearing voices now and not just any, but a dumb bit—" he gave a chocked scream when pain explodes all over his body.
Once he blinks away the black spots, Jaskier squints at the close up of the demented witch. Maybe he really should get around getting her name, then again, she's crazy and he doesn't really care to know. Unfortunately, he couldn't look away with the harsh grip she had of his face.
"Your defenses are failing. Tell us everything we need to know, and your death will not be slow and eternal."
He dazedly stares at her in silence, trying to reach his words.
"Speak! I know you never understood the meaning silence!" she shook him, but Jaskier gave her a bemused smile.
"We all know you have the information. From a reliable source, they said you were there when the White Wolf invoked the Law of Surprise."
Jaskier shrugs. As long as he says nothing all is good.
"You best not forget that I am a powerful sorceress," the woman coldly warned. Jaskier hums and stops realizing he was emulating a certain Witcher.
The sorceress ignores this, frustrated by his silence, lets go of his face, "Hard way it is then."
In response, Jaskier looks up the ceiling, trying to make constellations out of the mucky ceiling. He felt a tingling sensation of not being alone. Almost an echo of comfort or hope…?
"That makea a wolf…" he mutters, ignoring the spluttering of the witch. He would have grinned if there were no sudden cold fingers by the side of his head.
"Your mind is not safe from the likes of me and I will get that information from you."
Those were the last words as he felt darkness fall.
Geralt stumbles forward as well Triss and their surroundings change into a study of an unknown manor.
"What was that?" growls Geralt.
Triss doesn't answer as she grips on the nearest furniture, "Its Fringilla. She is trying to break his mind and my link to the Master Bard. This is the first time she does it so directly," Geralt looks at her worried, but she cannot lie, "She knows and worse is that we were close to figuring out what was the token he is using as a key to lock his mind from her."
Geralt frowns and asks, "Is it an item or an idea?"
"Anything that means so much to him," Triss absentmindedly responds as she looks around the study with a critical eye.
Geralt frowns, "The songbook?" Geralt frowns deepens when she shakes her head.
"I have tried that first when I heard he was missing and I tried again now, but as you can see," her hand encompasses the unfamiliar study, "Another memory that has the link."
A pair of steps passes by the open door of the study. The two intruders step out and find themselves following Jaskier and a noble lady.
"—I do not like what you are insinuating my dear Countess," Jaskier gasps, placing a hand over his chest in offense while the other fiddling with the lute's strap, "My heart is and will always be yours!"
Geralt frowns at the title of the woman, Could it be the infamous Countess de stael…?
The young woman giggles and nods in greeting at her guards at the foot of the staircase, "The whole Continent knows, my vessels know, and I naturally know the truth. Your muse, your inspiration, your love are one and the same."
Jaskier stops in the foot of the stairs, only moving when the Countess drags him by his free arm to the door.
Before he says anything, her amusement turns tender, "You miss him. I do not feel comfortable forcing someone away from their love."
Letting go of his arm, she claps, "For your next ballad, I want something special. I am dire need of one that ends different from many of your bards' bittersweet tragic tales. I want to listen and believe true love prevails in real life."
"If that is true, why are you telling me to leave, my dear, my heart, my beloved lady of my bosom," Jaskier grasps her hands.
The Countess shakes her head and carefully takes back her hands. Looking so much older, the woman motherly cups Jaskier's face, "I miss the young lad who graced my halls who joyfully sings just the sake of singing. I can feel the darkness reaching your light. It will be my greatest joy to hear you sing of once again in my halls once you find your happiness."
"Fuck," Geralt mutters. To think that even before the cursed Djinn incident, Jaskier was already in pain and he didn't notice. He might not understand much about music or anything about being a bard, but he knows and had heard he was his muse. And if the countess says is true then...
Then it means Jaskier loves him.
Does he love him back too?
Not eager to follow up those thoughts he hears Triss muttering spells. She keeps holding her hand with some kind of comfort.
Geralt returns his attention to the memory Jaskier who was walking toward the forest.
"They say he is near Rinde, but where…?" Jaskier licks his lips in thought before beaming.
"Let's leave it to chance, shall we?" He takes out a worn coin and flips it. The ping of the spinning coin had Geralt mesmerized for some reason, wondering why it felt important.
He blinks when Jaskier makes his way into the forest chosen by flipping a coin.
A familiar stream appears. The familiar stream where some poor sleep-deprived fool was fishing for respite, unaware of the incoming events that led to much regret.
"Oh!" Triss gasps, "I am able to generalize the area where Master Bard is!"
"Good..?" it couldn't be that easy, would it?
"Partially. It will give me time to reinforce the protection spell that is straining as we speak. We still do need to find Jaskier's key since the spell has been going too long and without it, we will only save his body, but not his mind."
"And Geralt," Triss began with a hard look, "Best to apologize for everything. Filling less pie? That is quite harsh to say to a bard about their singing."
He sighs, "Long list if anything, but the rescue first."
"Of course," Triss' face softens and clasps her hands together, leaving behind the memory.
"I've located him."
Yennefer said as greeting when the two reappeared in the spell circle. She turns to nod at Ciri who understood as rushing to get the lute off its designated spot.
Geralt nods gravelly and goes to get the ready made pack of potions that Ciri and herself prepared for such an occasion.
"I'll stay with Triss, but next time I want to help too," Ciri states at Geralt. He nods and looks at Yennefer with impatience that any other day, she would have just ignored him out of spite, but she'll give him pass. Only this time.
"Let's get that Bard out of those Nilfgaard dogs' prison," Yennefer smirks and summons a portal that leads them as close as possible to the location.
Geralt follows behind swinging his sword, ready to slice through enemies for the sake of his bard.
Just another day with Geralt, Yennefer thinks ruefully.
