When Ciri returned, it was with a spring in her step and Kelpie trotting along behind her.
She returned the mare to the stable and headed for the temple, intending to ask for a bath.
She spotted Geralt on her way and stopped. "Kain back yet?"
"Not that I saw. He'll be back before nightfall." He regarded her with cunning interest. "Where have you been?"
Ciri leaned in, grinned, and tapped the tip of Geralt's nose with a finger. "On an adventure."
Somehow it worried him, deep down in his heart. But he tried to smile. "What kind?"
Ciri considered him, her grin transforming to something more like a knowing smile. "The kind I probably should not discuss with my father figure." She squeezed his shoulders, then backed away. "I'm going to wash up before supper."
His smile slipped off completely, replaced with naked concern. He caught her arm. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"Only that there are certain things a father and a daughter are not supposed to share," Ciri said. "Or so I'm told."
She rested her hand over his, squeezed assuringly, then proceeded on her way.
"There is no such rule between us, and you know it," he called after her, annoyed. Frustration rose from within him where he had it suppressed during the recent day or two. A small worm of fear writhed in the middle of it.
The fear of her slipping away again.
When Kain returned to the Temple's grounds, the sun was beginning to set and the sky was reddish with pink and purple clouds passing over it.
Geralt was in their room with a steaming stew in his hands, eating on the balcony.
"You're just in time for dinner," he said.
"Great." Kain took the bowl meant for him from the table and sat down on the bed.
"Feeling all right now?" Geralt inquired.
"The scars are gone, too. Griffin's in the woods."
Geralt looked surprised. "You called him somehow?"
Kain shrugged. "I might've. We get glimpses into each other's minds."
They ate in silence for a bit. Geralt surveyed the sky and remembered the red shine of her hair, the quiet whisper of her voice, the gentle touch of her small hands.
"Did you see anything?" he asked, still staring at the sky. "While you were out?"
Kain thought for a moment. "Nothing I remember, I'm afraid. Why? Something happened?"
"I... had a dream." Geralt finished his stew and set the bowl on the railing. He felt his brother's eyes on his back.
"I don't suppose you saw Yennefer," Kain said eventually, joining him at the railing.
"It was just a dream," Geralt mused, and peered at Kain. "Wasn't it?"
Kain's mouth twitched with a hint of amusement. "What you mean is 'it wasn't real'?"
Geralt made no response, just looking at him somewhat expectantly.
Kain sighed, averting his eyes to watch the sky go darker shades of purple and blue. "My dreams with her are always real. Why should yours be less?" He looked the Witcher in the eye. "Why do you keep thinking you're lesser?"
Geralt set his jaw, but didn't look away. "You know why."
"I know it's what you decided to think. I'm not sure it helped you any with the pain before, and I see it certainly doesn't now. So why you're so eager to hold on to it?"
Geralt spread his arms briefly with a faint helpless smile tainted with heartache. "It's the only truth I know. She gave me no other."
"Were you willing to listen?"
"Of course," he said and thought of how angry and scorned he felt. How he yelled at her. How he wished to see her pain, her regret. Anything.
Kain took his empty bowl from the railing and went into the room to set it on the table. Geralt squeezed his fingers around the railing and looked up at the sky.
The urge to go to Yennefer made its appearance. Only she was no longer alone.
"We should get an early night," he said. "Tomorrow we'll see what we do next."
"Agreed."
Geralt nodded, but didn't hurry to leave the balcony. He wished to see the stars begin to ignite amidst the clouds.
Night came but Ciri's high didn't abate. She'd never felt more alive, more powerful. Not to mention beautiful.
She'd watched herself in Yennefer's looking glass while she bathed and found that her skin had a new glow. The green of her eyes looked more intense and her lips seemed pinker and swollen.
It was with this new discovery in mind that Ciri later ventured out of the room she shared with Yennefer. Everyone were fast asleep and she met no one on her way as she made for Kain's room.
Ciri crept in on silent feet. The room was entirely dark. The only thing Ciri could see was the outline of Kain's bed illuminated by the moon through the window.
She smiled to herself as she slipped out of the robe she'd been wearing to dry off and silently climbed into the bed beside Kain, draping one leg over his hip to press up against him. She wanted to feel his body against hers like she had the night before. To be close, even though he kept denying her.
Geralt lies awake in the dark staring at the ceiling, listening to the thunder cracking outside the keep's walls. He's thinking about Ciri and her trance during their dinner, how her face went blank as if drained of any emotion, of the humanity itself, and she became something else, something more... Things she said to Coën and Geralt don't go from his mind that keeps rolling through them over and over, turning her prophecies into a neverending loop.
He feels helpless. There's been too few moments when he felt lost like that, and most of them were around Ciri. She keeps putting him in that position, making him afraid for her. It's like his life itself keeps proving how misplaced he is as a father - someone he was never supposed to become, and for a good reason, as he's always thought. Destiny... What can it even be? Perhaps it's some twisted sorcery meant to ruin lives, like curses...
She climbs under his covers, and he feels her naked body against his. She's shivering.
"Let me sleep with you, Geralt," she whispers, her breath hot on his ear and neck. "I'm so cold. Please... Just tonight..."
A bright flash illuminates the windows for the briefest moment, and in a few more, it thunders loudly. She clings to him, her warm hands roaming his chest and stomach.
"Just tonight..."
He feels he can sleep now, his eyes close as if his eyelids are too heavy, and even her stroking hands can't keep him awake any longer.
"Triss..." he groans in protest as the slumber pulls him into the dark, and the rain outside gets stronger.
... And her hands felt hotter. He struggled, disoriented, and felt he was waking up.
"Triss?" he muttered, trying to open his eyes.
"What?!" Ciri blinked, pushing herself up on an elbow to peer down at... Geralt?
"What are you doing here!?" In Kain's bed.
Shock jolted through Geralt's nerves as he sat up in a jerk, and then the candles on the table flared alight, and he saw Ciri's astonished face and wide eyes. She was naked next to him. She wasn't even covering up.
"What is this?" he breathed, air hitching in his throat.
"I thought you were Kain, obviously!" Ciri hissed, slipping out of bed to reclaim her robe. "What are you doing in his bed?"
"We switched," Kain said, finding his voice. He was sitting on the mattress on the floor where Geralt had slept before. "He prefers beds unlike me."
Ciri looked to Kain. She hadn't even noticed him in the dark. Nor had she assumed he and Geralt would share a room now Kain was no longer dying.
"What's gotten into you?" Geralt demanded, unable to shake off the shock. He felt dizzy with it.
"Honest mistake," Ciri said, holding her hands up in defense after tying her robe shut. "Could have happened to anyone." She couldn't help but laugh; a genuine trill of laughter. "Oh my, Nenneke would have had a stroke seeing this."
Geralt shot a look at Kain and read no indignation there that the Witcher himself felt, only baffled amusement. He turned back to Ciri who showed no embarrassment whatsoever, and opened his mouth to ask why she did it, but then thought it was silly. It was too unlike her, but that was hardly something to point out to her.
He went with, "Go back to your bed, Ciri." He felt exhausted. And lost. As lost as in his dream she woke him from.
And Ciri was once again the reason.
She somehow always was.
"Certainly." Ciri executed an extravagant bow, unable to keep from snickering to herself as she exited the room.
She was vaguely aware she should have felt something akin to shame and embarrassment. But those emotions felt like a vague memory. Useless.
Ciri didn't go back to Yennefer's room. She wanted to see the night sky and fall asleep under the stars. Nenneke's garden would do just fine.
Geralt turned to Kain, puzzled and exasperatedly helpless. Oh, how much he hated that feeling.
"Something's going on with her," he said. "She wouldn't have done that. Like something's gotten into her."
"You're not saying she's possessed," Kain frowned. "By who? Or what? The Crones are dead, and Eredin..." He shrugged.
"Think Eredin can do that?" Geralt asked, and immediately felt ashamed for being hopeful. As bad as it was, it would mean Ciri was not slipping through his fingers while becoming someone he hardly knew. "We need to get back. We need Avallac'h."
"If Eredin was doing it, she'd be by his side already," Kain reasoned. "Stop it, Geralt. She's here and fine right now. If you act all suspicious and try to read into her every move, all it's going to do is enrage or upset her. You won't get any clarity that way. Let's sleep and see what happens in the morning."
"She's not fine," Geralt muttered, lying back down reluctantly. "Maybe I have to check on her."
"She's not five, she knows where her room is. Sleep." Kain waved a hand, and the candles blew out. "You'll see her in the morning."
"I better," the Witcher grumbled.
He tossed and turned, his mind finding no way to relax until it was beginning to dawn. Then he finally fell back into an uneasy sleep.
The incident had lost some of its grim colors by the morning. But the poor sleep failed to wipe the frown off Geralt's face.
"Have you talked to Ciri yesterday?" he asked, getting dressed.
Kain stepped away from the water bowl and reached for the towel to wipe his face. "She caught me at the gate, wanted to come with. I said I needed to be alone, and she stayed behind. Why? Was that important? You think it set her off somehow?" He looked vaguely amused, and Geralt once again felt stupid in his suspicions. The Witcher rubbed his neck, pondering it.
"I saw her walk away with her mare, and she was elsewhere for hours. The way she strolled seemed sort of sad, and now I guess it's reasonable if you refused her company."
"Oh come on, Geralt, I only denied her because I truly wanted to heal alone. Had it not been it - and I'm sure she understood."
"She's just sensitive that way, ever since she met you. She takes everything you say to her personally."
Kain put on his jerkin and gave his brother a look. "You want me to talk to her?"
Geralt washed his face over the water bowl, considering it carefully. Then he peered at Kain, unsettled. "You think I've overreacted a bit?"
"You might've. She's not the shy little girl you sometimes mistake her for, she's rather mischievous when she feels like it."
"Hmm." Geralt felt as if it became a bit easier to breathe as some of the rightness in his chest began to loosen. "Think Yennefer might've encouraged her to take some steps?"
Kain hemmed, simultaneously entertained and worried by such an idea. "I wouldn't put it past her. She likes to push when she feels it's right."
Geralt nodded. He felt better now. Much better. "All right. Let's go see what's for breakfast."
Ciri woke to find a gaggle of young girls staring down at her with wide eyes and mischievous smiles they hid behind their hands. She'd fallen asleep outside, alright, under one of the beautiful trees in the garden, her back resting against the trunk.
"You! Get away from there!" Nenneke called to the girls as she stormed towards them with a motherly scowl on her face. "Have you not enough chores to take care of? If not, I am happy to give you more."
The girls disbanded and ran off back towards the temple. Some were still giggling.
"Ciri," Nenneke exclaimed as she neared the ashen-haired girl. "Are you hurt? What are you doing out here?"
Ciri pushed herself to her feet and stretched, trying to work the kink from her neck. She smiled reassuringly. "I am fine. Wanted to see the stars last night and fell asleep."
Nenneke huffed. "In your robe?" She watched Ciri with a disapproving shake of the head. "Go inside, young lady, and get dressed. It's almost time for breakfast."
Ciri didn't argue. She didn't feel the need to. She simply followed in the other girls' wake and strolled towards the temple.
Geralt hesitated a moment, then knocked on Yennefer's door, wondering if Ciri was there, if she told the enchantress about last night or didn't. Most of all he wished it was just as Kain named it: mischief.
Yennefer had bathed and dressed early in the morning, unconcerned that Ciri hadn't come back to the room last night, assuming she'd slept in Geralt's.
Or, more specifically, Kain's.
When the knock on the door sounded, she eased off the mattress, set the book she'd fixated on aside, and opened it.
"Morning," Yennefer greeted as she came face to face with Geralt, detecting that his energy was a bit off. "Is everything well?"
"With us it is," he said. "Is Ciri up yet? They're setting up our breakfast in the garden. While the weather is good."
"Ciri never slept here last night. I assumed she was with you. With both of you. Is Kain back?"
His face darkened. "She came briefly and left for back here - at least it's what we thought." He squinted, gauging the mage. "Have you put her up to coming to Kain?"
"Do you really think I'd need to?" Yennefer asked, unsure of what he was trying to hint at but sensing there was more to it. She was beginning to worry. She took a step forward, encouraging him to take one back so she could close her bedroom door and then slowly headed for the outside so they could search for her.
"Have you never spoken to Ciri about her feelings, nor advised she took any bold moves?"
"Ciri and I have spoken countless times. Be assured, as a woman, I've suggested a multitude of approaches to a certain situation she's concerned about. But not once have I forced her to do so, if that's what you're trying to ask me."
He sighed and stalled her pace. "I know you wouldn't force her. But... She crept into my bed last night, naked. Thinking Kain was there, but we had switched before. I just..." He paused, uncertain, running a hand through his hair. "I didn't expect it from her, is all. Kain thinks I'm reading too much into it. You think so, too?"
Yennefer let him guide her to a stop, her brows furrowed, her expression bouncing first to unease and then amusement. That had to be awkward. "You didn't expect Ciri to want to be naked with a man that she has feelings for?" Yennefer studied him, her smile widening. "That she might want to take comfort in Kain and has been working up to it for some time? She almost lost him a day ago. Could be she was simply looking to seize the night." She shrugged slightly, letting him know she could only speculate. "What I think is that you're protective and that since getting her back, it's hard to distinguish ourselves with the fact that during her time away from us she became a woman. A woman with… lustrous needs."
Geralt winced at hearing her name the uncomfortable subject aloud. "It's not that I don't realize she has... needs," he muttered. "It's all the other aspects of how she was forced to grow up by people I'd like to flay alive. I hate to think of things they put her through when she was too young for such, and I wasn't there to spare her some childhood innocence. I'll never forgive myself for it."
"Neither will I," Yennefer agreed, touching his arm. "Instead of looking so grim about the prospect of her taking control of what's happened, celebrate the fact that she's alive, and despite everything, she's trying to live a half-ordinary life." She squeezed his bicep sympathetically. "Neither of us is ever going to let anyone touch her again in any way she doesn't want. That's a promise. But, with regard to your concern, last night, that was Ciri's choice. The fact that it happened to be Kain – that's another thing you're going to have to come to terms with as I don't think that particular want is going to be dwindling anytime soon"
"I don't want her to be hurt," he said. "Neither of them. When one is too eager and another isn't ready, it's bound to end in tears. I don't want her to suffer rejection, and the more she pushes, the more he runs."
"She's suffered a lot worse, Geralt," Yennefer said, removing the hand from his arm, casting a quick glance toward the outside. "You can't protect her from romantic love, or who she chooses to love. Ciri needs to make those choices herself. All we can do, and do best, is be there to nurse her heart as needs be."
"It's not just some man," he reasoned. "It's someone who's not going out of her sight if something goes wrong between them."
"And you think that'll be the worst thing to happen to Ciri? To be near someone that rejected her? That broke her heart over and over?"
He frowned, sensing some subtext in her voice. "It won't be the best outcome for her, no," he commented carefully. "Not after the hard years she needs to heal."
"I don't want to see her have her heart broken either. However, you're not Kain, and I'm not Ciri. Neither of us can decide how their relationship ends, or doesn't, before it even actually begun. For all you know he could be precisely what she needs to heal," Yennefer paused to let that sink in. The same could be said for their talk the night before. Geralt blew hot, cold, then hot again and Yennefer had absolutely no idea anymore what to think with regard to what Geralt wanted and what he didn't want. She also didn't dare venture into his head as freely as she'd done in the past. "Just be there for her as you have been."
With that, Yennefer slowly turned on him and proceeded to head outside, hopeful Ciri would make her appearance.
The lighter mood he had upon waking and talking to Kain had nearly vanished. He followed Yennefer outside, feeling confused and therefore gloomy. Ciri's antics were difficult to sort at times, but there was also Yennefer who demanded no less attention and finesse, and there he had little to no knowledge of how to be.
After Ciri had sought out the priestess who tended to her muddy and bloodied clothes the day before, she dressed in the freshly laundered items and stepped back outside.
They had set up a large table in the garden where people were taking their breakfast. Kain was among them.
Ciri took a seat next to him and helped herself to a shiny red apple from the bowl of fruit.
"Morning."
"Morning to you, too," he said between the bites - the priestesses made some wonderful pastries with fresh butter and herbs. He washed it down with herbal tea, studying Ciri with interest. "Slept well?"
"I did, actually," she smiled and took a bite of the juicy apple. Unlike all the cooked and prepared food she'd eaten lately, it tasted wonderful. Like it was exactly what she needed. "How did your healing session go? You all better now?"
"Yes, like nothing happened." He opted for some scrambled eggs and fried vegetables along with more pastries stuffed with cheese.
"Good. Then we will probably leave soon. We have so much to do."
So many people who needed killing. And after yesterday, Ciri was in no doubt that she was capable of taking them all out. Even Eredin.
She pictured that particular scenario with a growing smile on her face.
Kain considered her, chewing on his pastry. Her smile made him a tad uneasy, there was something in it he didn't like. Like... hunger?
"You have worked out some solid plans?" he asked.
"Not yet. Geralt worries The Hunt will launch another attack on the cities. I suppose we need to question Avallac'h about it. If anyone would know, it's him."
Kain recalled his last talk with Avallac'h and bit back a smile of irony. He didn't believe the elf would be eager to share any intel on his kin's strategies. He would rather try to pull their focus to Skellige and finding the Sunstone.
There was no use in pointing it out to her now, anyway, and he didn't. He focused on another part instead.
"Why you think they'd attack the cities again?"
Ciri shrugged. "To create chaos. Fear. Instill guilt in me to make me surrender. And if the humans they threaten start hunting for me as well, all the better for Eredin."
Thankfully finding Ciri was no problem. She was at the table the Priestesses had laid out for breakfast, talking to Kain.
"And there she is," Yennefer murmured for Geralt's ears only, hopeful at least that finding Ciri in one piece would eradicate a little of his concerns. It had hers.
"Hmm," Geralt responded, feeling an echo of the last night's awkwardness.
Mischief, he thought. Just mischief that came up after all the trials of the recent time. Just that. Had to be.
"Morning," Yennefer greeted once they joined the collection of people at the table, her gaze focusing on Ciri and Kain and what she'd picked up of their conversation. "Discussing strategy or problems? Who's hunting who?"
"There's only one problem with hunting, and it's the Aen Elle," Kain said and turned back to Ciri. "If they wanted to, they'd have attacked already. More likely they would stand by waiting for the Crones to aid them. I would expect them to check out the bog."
"I bet they did," Geralt said, settling at the table. "It was getting colder when I left."
"They did," Ciri confirmed casually, taking another large bite of her apple. She spoke around it. "They were there yesterday. Scouts."
Everybody froze staring at her. Geralt shot a glance at Kain: both figured what her stroll meant.
Adventure, Geralt thought, remembering her cunning mien.
"You went there?" he asked like a disapproving father. "Alone?"
"I did," Ciri answered, throwing her apple core into the nearest bush. "I didn't think Kelpie would enjoy it."
Yennefer helped herself to an apple, studying Ciri even as she tossed her own finished one over her shoulder, absorbing her dismissive attitude.
"That was a bit reckless. You're lucky they didn't see you..."
"I'm not talking about Kelpie, Ciri!" Geralt nearly yelled, toning it down in the last moment. "You should've told me! You saw what happened to Kain there? And he wasn't alone! How could you be so reckless with your life when so many are trying to help and protect you?"
Ciri looked from Yennefer to Geralt. She felt genuinely puzzled by his sudden anger.
"I knew I could take them," she said simply as though this should have been obvious. "They didn't stand a chance. In fact," she laughed a little, "it was funny to see the arrogance wash off their faces."
Geralt drew in a breath for another bout, but Kain shot him a look, and he gnashed his teeth, trying to cool down. It was impossibly hard.
"Could take them?" he repeated with a ghost of snark. "Why then have you spent so many years jumping worlds with Avallac'h if they're so easy? Why do we have half of Oxenfurt destroyed and so many dead if you could take them?"
"Geralt," Kain murmured.
Yennefer lost her appetite and she had hardly even touched the apple.
"Now is not the time for thoughtless revenge," she chided. "You have no idea what could have happened – what might have happened had they called more soldiers in. You could have ended up in their clutches again and none of us would have known where you were. Why'd you even go back there?"
"Because I didn't know until now," Ciri said, getting to her feet. She was smiling because surely they would all be equally excited when she explained. "Avallac'h tried to tell me. I can do anything I can imagine... I just had to believe it." Ciri shot a playful look at Kain. "Did you know we can drain people of their life force just by touching them?" She clasped his face between her hands and leaned down, brushing her lips across his. "Suck them dry? It's easy when you know how... And it feels like... Like every dark and hollow place inside of you is healed." She let him go and turned back to Geralt. "Oh, Geralt, don't be angry." Then Yennefer, who now had taken a similar tone to the Witcher. "Because I am done letting people hurt me. Use me. I'm going to make them suffer in the most delicious of ways. Like they deserve. Like I was meant to do all along."
Yennefer watched in amazement. Ciri was answering their questions, but instead of the usual contrition, perhaps sulky guilt about being scolded like a child, her entire demeanor had shifted. She'd even been so bold as to kiss Kain. Or instruct…
"Not you," Yennefer corrected. "Us. We're in this fight together. I thought you knew that. Why the change of heart?"
The witchers stared at Ciri as if she suddenly sprouted horns and a tail turning into a fiend before their very eyes. Now Kain didn't seem unconcerned, either, which scared Geralt even more.
"Who said you were meant to suck the life out of people?" he asked. "What exactly does it even mean? And how do you know how to do it? Who taught you that?"
Ciri laughed. "Not meant to suck the life out of people, Geralt! Meant to punish them. The ones who hurt me. And the ones who might. The ones who are considering it." She looked to Yennefer. "Of course we are in this together. Does not mean we are to do everything together. I told you, I could take care of this on my own. And I did. Three dead soldiers all in a row. Well, more like scattered around the swamp, to be honest." Ciri smiled to herself. "No one had to teach me. I just knew. My body guided me. My magic."
She inhaled subtly, a light tremor rippling through her body as she looked out towards the garden, her eyes taking on a glassy look.
"All shall cower before the Elder Blood," she whispered, then snapped back to them, looking between her parents and Kain. "Shall we get ready to depart now Kain is well again?"
"It's not just about me," Kain said without hesitation. "Geralt and Yennefer had their own injuries and strains."
"Yes, I'd rather stay another day, since all is good in Novigrad," Geralt agreed, trying to keep his face neutral. Like nothing was happening while his world was turning upside down within him.
Ciri watched them all with a scrutinizing look, eyes narrowed. Searching.
Then she perked. "As you wish. Though we really need to work on your recovery time. We've a war to win, hm?" She leaned in and placed a kiss on Geralt's cheek before striding off towards the stables. She could never quite trust the workers to take care of Kelpie properly.
Geralt watched her stroll away with a lost expression, then hid his face in his hands. "Oh gods..."
"It is strange," Kain commented.
"Like I said!" Geralt hissed, annoyed and frightened. "Did you see her slip into that trance? Like back in her childhood. Is this some curse progressing or... possession? What is it?"
Kain looked at him almost apologetically. "Hard to tell. We need to find out what happened to her and when."
"How do we do that when she's not telling anything specific? Should I interrogate her like a criminal? She won't have it."
"No way," Kain shook his head. "If you treat her like she's in the wrong or there's something wrong with her, she will close up and you lose her."
Yennefer watched Ciri walk away and seriously considered an incantation to knock her out. Presently, she didn't trust Ciri – didn't know what had happened.
Yennefer pushed her chair back, plucked a few blades of grass and set it in her hand, cupping the other over, murmuring an incantation. When she removed the left hand off of the right, a green bug sized creature had fled, shot in the direction that Ciri had gone to spy on her and make sure she didn't leave the temple grounds. Any trust Yennefer had in Ciri presently deceased.
She cast a glance within the direction of the priestesses still hovering about the table helping themselves to food and clearing away other plates.
She didn't like talking in front of them.
"She seemed fine yesterday. The morning at least. We've to figure out what's triggered the change? What set her off? It can only be magic—perhaps her fight with Eredin's men."
"We have to go there and see," Geralt said.
"If we all go, she'll know," Kain argued. "It's best for one of us to go. And have an excuse for it."
Geralt rubbed his temples, then his scalp, his appetite completely vanished. "You two should go," he said finally, peering between them. "You'll get more information and in shorter time than I would. I'll try to keep an eye on her."
Yennefer frowned.
"Kain would probably be the most efficient at distracting Ciri," she elaborated, easing forward so she could rest her elbows on the table. "If she's keeping an account of anyone's movements – it's his." And she'd explained as much to Geralt before they reached the breakfast table. "You and I should go."
The Witcher shook his head. "He has more magic and means to get a reading out of the scene. It's not some monster activity scouting, Yennefer. It's different. Something I'm not as good at as he is."
Kain wasn't fond of having to go alone with the enchantress, but couldn't disagree with Geralt's thought. "I can go alone and prevent her from finding me, if you worry she would go looking," he added. "I know how to do it."
"No, we'll go together," Yennefer countered. She was a lot of things, but she wasn't privy to being the cause of the man's demise. He was too important to Ciri and Geralt and who knew if there were still any of Eredin's fighters out there? Scouting for those Ciri claimed to have disposed of the night before.
She took a bite of her apple without even tasting it, dismissing what remained as she got to her feet and headed in search of a place to summon the golden door that would carry them to the Bog.
Unprepared to waste time.
"Try to be quick," Geralt said, squeezing Kain's shoulder shortly.
Kain nodded and went after Yennefer to steer her to a solitary place in the backyard where they could avoid being seen.
Geralt stayed at the table and tried a pastry he didn't want. If he went to the stables, Ciri would know something was up. Better play it smarter.
He winced and took a tiny bite.