"We didn't intend to wander the catacombs, Ciri," Kain said when they stepped outside and she faced him. "Otherwise we would've taken you with us. We found it by accident." He didn't sound apologetic, nor looked it.
"I'm sure," Ciri replied dryly. She wasn't certain if he knew about her altercation with Geralt the day before, but had a suspicion the older witcher had been using this situation to punish her. "Instead you got the little medic. She was probably the more pleasant choice."
"She was simply already there and served as a mediator between us and the Academy."
Ciri folded her arms across her chest, leaning back against the inn's wall. "And what adventures did you have? Did you find what you were looking for?"
"We have found the Aen Elle laboratory, which you already know. And we've found the map we needed, but it's too big and detailed, and therefore it's wiser to use it at the Academy library where it belongs."
"You found the map in the catacombs?" Ciri arched a brow in disbelief. "They had none upstairs?"
"We found it in the library," Kain said. "We went to the basement simply to check the hunch and make sure there was no threat."
Ciri wasn't sure if she believed him. Not that it mattered at the moment.
"I assume you saw the dead Hunt soldiers?"
"We did."
"Did they have an anchor?" Their pockets had been empty when Ciri and Yennefer searched them.
Kain nodded. "It was their reason for coming. They weren't supposed to get back to their world."
Ciri straightened. "Where is it? Show me."
"Geralt has it. Wherever he is."
"Of course he does." He was making sure to keep them from her. Because he didn't trust her anymore.
"What do you want with them?" Kain asked, studying her.
"To hold them. Examine the face in the stone." She looked up. "Was it Lara again? Same as the first?"
"Yes." He narrowed his eyes slightly. "What power does that face have over you? Because it's yours but belongs to another? You'd like to be her?"
"Is it so strange for me to want keepsakes of my grandmother?"
"The one you never knew nor would have known? You had a real grandmother, and it was Calanthe. It's not her face on those things. But she was the one who raised you. Your true blood."
Ciri narrowed her eyes, scrutinizing the man before her. "That's a very human thing to say, Kainar."
The smallest of smirks touched his mouth and disappeared as quickly as it showed. "I was raised a human, even if I'm not fully it."
She stared him down for a long time, trying to read the expression on his face. It was as though they were speaking different languages. He didn't understand her. She didn't understand him. Not anymore.
"Did the portal open for you?" she whispered eventually. "The second portal... that's the one that took you to Tor Lara?"
"Yes. It took me and Shani, but Geralt..." He shook his head in lament. "We thought - hoped that he didn't get through. But if he's not in Oxenfurt, he must be somewhere else."
Ciri tried not to scream from the pure rage she felt. Rage and humiliation.
The portal had opened for him. Had deemed him worthy, whereas she had not been.
Geralt had chosen to take him. The Hunt wanted him. The Lodge was salivating at the mere sight of him.
And Ciri would be left behind. Forgotten.
"Probably," she managed to say. "He may not even be in this world. I can no longer feel him."
That was a scary revelation. Kain scrutinized her for a long moment, battling his swelling worry and attempting to decipher the chaos of energies storming around her.
"You're mad at me," he said eventually. "You have the right to be. But right now we need to focus on finding Geralt. Can you work with me? Or should we split?"
"I'm not angry at you." At that particular moment, it was the truth. She wasn't mad at Kain for his rejection. How could she single him out when everyone else apparently felt the same?
There was something wrong with her. Ciri. She had known all along that she could never be what everyone needed her to. And now all those around her had finally caught up. Had finally realized the truth.
"You need me to help. Geralt needs me." She wanted that to be true. "Don't try and send me away."
"No one wants to send you away or get rid of you, Ciri," he responded. "If you feel so, you're reading it wrong."
He cast a glance at Yennefer as she emerged from the tavern and approached them.
"There must be a limited amount of places the portal could take him to," Kain said, and looked at Ciri. "You've been through Tor Lara's portal. Where did it take you?"
"The Korath desert," Ciri replied solemnly. "Where even the mightiest witcher might perish depending on how long he is left there. The heat is unbearable, no water, no shade."
Thinking of Geralt there, going through what she had years ago, made Ciri's heart twitch in a strange feeling.
Kain knew what the Korath desert was like, however, solely by education.
"It's one of the possible options," he said. "He must be in this world - I don't suppose he could be carried over to Aen Elle's with no elven blood in him. We have to check all the towers we have on our Continent and Skellige."
"Triss is in Skellige," Yennefer said. "I shall send her a message and ask her to look out for him there."
At least the last time Yennefer had checked she was supposed to be. A lot of their plans had fallen apart and it seemed everyone had decided to do their own thing.
"Korath doesn't have a tower," Ciri said after a moment's contemplation. "It dropped me out of the sky there. The fall knocked me unconscious."
If Geralt had suffered the same, it meant he was highly vulnerable to all the monsters roaming the desert. "We should go there first. I can try to bring us close to where I landed."
While they figured out what next to do, Yennefer had turned her back on them, closed her hands over one another and focused on creating a kestrel. She wanted no mistakes this time. She'd learned that sending Triss a message could be tricky and Geralt's life was as at stake. Yennefer couldn't afford any. She whispered her message into the space of her hands while she created the bird and then with a murmuring of proficient elvish verse, she sent it on its way.
"It's strange that it sent you to Korath," Kain said. "But there could be many reasons. Portals are not an exact magic, it's tricky and whimsical. You're right, we'll check Korath first. Though we cannot search it whole." He turned to Yennefer, meeting her gaze when she looked back to them. "Could you go back to Oxenfurt - to their library? Ask them for the map and try to locate Geralt with your magic."
Yennefer nodded her willingness to return to Oxenfurt.
"That I can do. To make a better connection, I'd like a little of your blood."
"I'll help as I can," he nodded and turned to Ciri. "Check Korath, then pick me up in Oxenfurt, will you?"
Yennefer's heart skipped a beat, unable to contain the grimace that had danced across her face at the thought of leaving Ciri on her own. "I don't think Ciri should go alone. We've no idea what she might come across in Korath."
Ciri was equally annoyed by Kain's suggestion for her to go on her own, and Yennefer's insinuation she wouldn't manage on her own.
"I'll go. Out of the three of us, I am the only one who has been before."
"With her power of travel, she's more than capable of having a quick check," Kain said. "I'll help you at the library while she's at it. Shall we? Time is short."
Yennefer was taking a little strain after the kestrel, but she focused and summoned up the portal to take them back to Oxenfurt, knowing that trying to argue would go unheeded. The sooner they went their separate ways, the sooner they'd come together again.
As soon as they were alone with the map in the library, Kain produced an anchor medallion from the inside pocket of his jerkin.
"I needed her to go so we could use this," he said, placing the trinket on the table before Yennefer. "It's not wise for her to have it but she fights for that right. No need to agitate her unnecessarily."
Ciri left the moment after Kain and Yennefer did, focusing intently on the very spot where she had woken up in the Korath desert all those years ago.
The shift in temperature and scenery was immediate, and no more than ten seconds passed before Ciri began to perspire. She was standing on a stony plane that lasted as far as the eye could see, with several large rocks and boulders covering much of the open space. As though they had been randomly dropped from the sky.
The sun up above was blisteringly hot. That familiar sting in Ciri's eyes returned and she used her hand to shield herself from its merciless rays so to better get a look at her surroundings.
There were no signs of Geralt, or indeed any other living creature. But the flat terrain allowed one to move quickly. In the beginning, before the sunstroke, thirst, and famine set in.
"Geralt!" she called, listening as her voice shot across the plane and bounced between the rocks. "Geralt!"
No answer. Not even a disturbance in the air.
But it was not enough. She had to search the area closest to where her portal had once expelled her. If the same had happened to Geralt, it was likely he was unconscious.
With a weary sigh and sweaty brow, Ciri set off in the search of her guardian.
"Those are the Wild Hunt portal amulets you've been looking for? You were in the laboratory? Is that who you took it from? How come they didn't use it to go home?"
Yennefer had a lot going on in her head, but she also wasn't too sure how it tied to finding Geralt. Would it, perhaps, take them directly to him?
Kain waited out her stream of questions and sighed. "Yes, they're the anchors that help establish their portals. Their mission was to deliver the anchors and leave them beneath Oxenfurt. There were two elves and two anchors. They weren't supposed to get back home, thus they killed themselves."
"How did you teleport from the laboratory if the portal only goes one way? Did you use the anchors?"
"They were sent through their own portal - one their mage summoned. Geralt and I used the laboratory one, and... I think the anchors on us influenced the outcome."
Yennefer nodded lightly. So how were they able to use the portal while Yennefer and Ciri couldn't? Was it because of what was currently crawling through Ciri's veins?
"Wait… you think Geralt's gone to the Elven world? To the Wild Hunt?"
"I don't think he could. Even with the anchors, he's not an elf. I believe he's still in our world. But we have to figure out where it was he landed."
Her heart had stood still. They didn't know much about elven magic and they couldn't really be sure that it hadn't dragged Geralt somewhere, but she hoped Kain was right.
"We can use this anchor to lock onto the other that Geralt is carrying, it might also reveal any others that are left behind on the map."
Yennefer picked up the amulet and inspected it. She could feel its link to energy, a dull sensation she'd attempted to follow herself a handful of times in the past when Ciri first went missing.
Kain cut his finger and smeared the blood over the anchor Yennefer was holding.
"It should help. Try now."
The corner of her mouth twitched as he added his blood to the pendant. She'd been meaning to ask about that. Fortunately, he had read her mind.
She studied the map, imprinting the details to her mind and then closed her eyes, keeping the pendant cradled in her upturned hands as she began to recite a known locator spell.
Kain stared at the map, his eyes flicking from Tor Lara to Oxenfurt, then to Skellige Isles and back to the continent, skimming over the masterfully painted landscapes of Aedirn, Angren, Cintra and Toussaint. He lingered on Brokilon, then went back to Cintra, and slowly moved his gaze along the rivers and mountains, as if waiting, listening to any slightest stirring in his nerves.
Eventually, he had one.
His heart skipped a beat, and he looked up at Yennefer, waiting for her resolution.
There was a short flash of images from the map that passed across her eyes, pointing her in different directions until eventually, it seemed to settle in and around one in particular.
"I believe he might be close to around Toussaint. I can't get a definitive link on him."
Yennefer looked at the map, pressing a finger to the spot where the magic most seemed to want her to go, drawing a large circle.
"There's nothing definite, you're right," Kain said, and skimmed his finger in a circle over Mir Trachta and Tarn Mira. "I suppose there's an explanation for it - if he ended up here." He tapped his finger on Tor Zireael.
"Tor Zireael and its portals are said to be a myth. All that remains are ruins."
Yennefer had been there a handful of times in search of the portals when she first started with magic, determined to be one of the select few to find and see the tower. She never did.
"It's not a myth," Kain said. "It's very real. Geralt told me Ciri's been there. The tower appears for those that can enter. Normally, Geralt wouldn't be the one, but what if having those anchors on him made it possible and he was carried right in? Or at least around the ruins somewhere."
"It's possible. Hopefully, he isn't hurt."
Yennefer was still concerned about that.
She lowered her hands, studying the amulet, wondering if she were to use it or direct herself there with a portal if, would it carry her in as well or reject her. What worked for Geralt, wasn't guaranteed to work for Yennefer.
She mulled it over a while longer and turned the anchor over in her hand, reluctantly holding it out toward him.
"Ciri should hopefully be back soon. You should keep this out of her line of vision if you mean to keep her away from it. Or maybe I should hold onto it."
He pondered it, looking at the anchor in her outstretched hand.
"Perhaps it's best you keep this one if you can hide it well from her. Use it with this map to locate others. We need to find as many as we can."
Yennefer closed her hand over the anchor, slipped it into the space between her breasts and murmured an incantation to cloak it.
"As soon as we've found Geralt, I'll find the remaining anchors."
He considered her through narrowed eyes. "You have a bit of elvish blood, do you?"
"I do," Yennefer said.
"Then that along with the anchor shall be your chance to finally see whether Tor Zireael is real." He smiled a little. "For a mage, it must be thrilling."
"I tried once or twice back in the day, when magic and discovering things were exciting. You're probably right that it would be different for me now."
She touched a hand to the space between her breasts that housed the anchor.
"I should go ahead. I can get myself to the ruins. Will you wait on Ciri's return?"
"We have to try together," he said. "No one goes alone. We can't afford to lose anyone else to whatever tricky elvish magic."
Yennefer didn't like to admit that Kain was right, but he was. All that was left to do now was to wait on Ciri to join them.
Ciri yelped when the ground fell away beneath her, swallowing one of her legs in the sand. Falling forward, she dug her fingers into the ground in front of her, attempting to pull herself free, but to no avail. Unable to get a purchase of anything solid, the girl remained a prisoner of the desert floor.
Which was nothing more than an annoyance until something sharp pierced her calf.
Ciri teleported away on pure instinct, landing atop one of the larger boulders nearby where she had a better view of her surroundings.
She clutched her aching leg, her hand coming away wet with blood. It wasn't hard to recognize her assailant. Down below where she had been trapped moments earlier, the sand shifted and drained away from the sinkhole. Before long, two large sets of hooked pincers appeared, followed by a short cylinder-shaped body covered in grey bristles.
Sand monster. Ciri had encountered their kind before, the last time she'd been in the Korath desert. They had wounded a unicorn foal and Ciri had managed to save it.
Still, they were strong adversaries. Not to be taken lightly or trifled with.
The one currently scurrying down below on the sand seemed confused as to where its prey had gone. That suited Ciri fine until she managed to push herself back on her feet to get a decent overview of the desert.
It seemed neverending. Too vast. Too desolate. And being back here made the girl's hands tremble.
"Geralt!" she called, keeping an eye on the horizon to see if a grey-haired witcher would pop out from behind one of the rocks. "Geralt! Are you here?"
Nothing. There was no point. If Geralt had indeed ended up in the desert, searching for him like this would not be fruitful. She'd need help.
That was the thought that spurred her to jump from the safety of her boulder and to Oxenfurt Academy in the hopes Kain and Yennefer had made it there.
When Ciri walked into the library, her boots shedding sand that crunched under her soles, there was a shadow of disappointment that swept through Yennefer's eyes.
"He's not there, I take it," Kain greeted, his arms folding. "You felt anything?"
"Only the pincers of a sand monster," Ciri grumbled, wiping sweat off her brow with one bloodied hand. "The desert is vast. And if he was knocked unconscious as I was my first time there, those monsters could have dragged him under the sand. It's what they do. But as far as I could tell, there was no sign of him."
"What did you feel?" Kain insisted.
"Nothing," Ciri responded with a note of annoyance. "There was nothing."
"Said your eyes?" Kain smirked, then waved a dismissive hand. "Never mind. We think we know where he might be."
That smirk, that arrogant smirk, instantly ignited Ciri's anger. She glared.
"I don't feel him. I don't feel you. I don't feel anything." Not like she had before. And Ciri knew why. They were all pulling away from her. Closing themselves off. Making sure she would soon no longer have access to any of them at all.
It was probably why they had sent her off to the desert in the first place. So Kain and Yennefer could plot.
She glanced between the two, feeling disgusted. "Enjoy your hunt."
A moment later she swiftly turned away from them both and headed for the exit. She needed to wrap her leg.
"We can't save him without you," Kain sent at her back, trying to keep his face impassive. His eyes flicked between her bloodied leg and the back of her head.
She paused in her stride, jaw clenched in annoyance. "Where is he?"
"There," he pointed on the map, waiting for her to return and take a look for herself.
She reluctantly made her way back and followed the line of where Yennefer was pointing. Her heart skipped a beat, in fear or excitement, Ciri wasn't sure.
"Tor Zireael?" She looked up. "You do realize that is where the portal to the Aen Elle is located, yes?"
Kain shrugged. "I don't believe it's ever open to just anyone. Geralt is hardly the type it would open for. But he might be inside or around the tower." He exchanged a glance with Yennefer, and added, "We don't know where else he could be."
Ciri's line of thinking had been that the portal received some help from the Aen Elle themselves. It had opened for her all those years ago because they had wanted her to come. Had guided her in their direction. If The Hunt got word Geralt was close by, what would stop them doing the same to him?
"Fine. I'll go."
"We'll all go," Yennefer put in and spread her arms inviting them to take her hands. "You'll take us, Ciri. Will you?"
Ciri didn't reply. She wouldn't be able to hold back the venom in her voice.
She took hold of Yennefer and Kain's hands, closed her eyes to focus, and transported them where they needed to be.
Ciri's magic consumed Yennefer, enveloping her, breaking down her body until ice erupted through her pores and began to suffocate her. A deadly second passed before she realized it wasn't the effects of a spell gone wrong, but of water, her lungs burning from the forced strain of fighting off its natural will to drown her, unprepared for where she'd ended up.
Her legs kicked violently, churning the inky water beneath her, fighting the building pressure on her lungs and the drawn-out distance to the surface that seemed impossible to reach.
In her mind, Yennefer cried out for Geralt, for anyone, to pluck her out of the water, to aid her before she lost her battle with the liquid ice fighting to force its way into her lungs to pull her back down.
She broke through the surface, clawing at the air ravenously as if she expected it to reach down and help her, giving way to temporary relief as the burning in her lungs subsided.
She swam for the sandbank.
Her breathing labored and strained by the time she reached a shallow place where she could crawl, her hands frozen and aching as they dug at the silt beneath her. She hauled herself onto the safety of the sandbank, her teeth chattering uncontrollably, her freezing clothes sticking to her body, enveloping her with the stiff ache that had taken over her limbs and made the course sand feel like glass upon her skin.
Yennefer scrambled to her feet with a struggle, panic gripping her as she cupped her hands over her mouth and began to shout.
"CIRI! KAIN!"
Were they in the same predicament that Yennefer was? Were they still beneath the water? There was so much magic around the place that it had distorted any attempts she had to reach out.
She had to believe they were stronger than that. She knew for a fact they were.
"CIRI!" Yennefer yelled, contradicting the thought and unable to control the compulsion, her arms moving to cross over her chest, to rub at her arms in an attempt to warm them.
She fell quiet and her gaze swept around in frantic search of her daughter and her lover's brother, trying to pick them out from between the trees and the wrought shadows that taunted and teased.
"CIRI! KAIN!"
Yennefer forced herself to walk, to pick a direction and move, convinced that if she stayed in one place too long that her limbs would freeze. She followed the water's edge, praying she'd stumble upon them, cursing the fog that thickened around her like a blanket, and then dissipated, opening like doors to welcome her in and then spit in her out when she caught sight of a familiar shape.
The Tower.
There was nothing else around to see besides the mist coiling over the lake, and the tall silhouette in the milky fog was unmistakable. Yennefer picked up the pace, arms pumping at her sides to increase blood flow and keep her legs from surrendering to the cold. This went on for some time. She neared the tower, felt as if she were making headway, and then, like the folds of the fog, it was gone and Yennefer was so far back it was as if she hadn't covered any distance at all.
Yennefer growled, her fists clenched, hands beginning to throb as they stiffened. She flexed her fingers, being careful not to get too rough, not wanting to accidentally exert herself.
She stopped walking, focusing on the tower mocking her in the distance, and mentally worked through her next plan of action. In all that time the tower had disappeared twice, putting it further and further away from her every time.
She glanced at the water, at the fog that lay across its surface like a thin blanket and then reached out with her right hand, closing her eyes in search of something to control within the air, something she could latch onto and would funnel her along the tower's magical bridge.
Yennefer's insides roiled when the essence directed her toward the water – the lake. It explained why she'd ended up inside it. She steadied herself and began to chant, the water rippling roughly, picking up in speed as it hadn't before like a roaring monster until it had created a whirlpool.
With her limbs still aching, crying for heat, she charged into the water with a warbled gallop, jumping into it, the last thing on her mind the tower and her desire to be inside it.
When Yennefer appeared safely on the other side of the portal and inside what she assumed was the tower, the first thing she saw was her daughter.
"Ciri!" Yennefer murmured in relief and rushed to her, drawing her in for a hug, unaware how worried she'd been that Ciri might have drowned until she could feel the girl against her chest.
When Yennefer pulled back and started to look around the inside of the tower, it began to dawn on her that they were alone and that the entrance hall or room they were in was eerily quiet.
"Where's Kain?"
"You're wet," Ciri said, her nose wrinkling with distaste.
"The tower's magic deposited me in the lake."
The chattering of her teeth had minimized now that she had found her daughter, setting her mind at ease to some extent, although Yennefer still worried for both Geralt and Kain.
"I'm not your daughter," Ciri said so apathetically that Yennefer wasn't sure she'd spoken at all. Ciri's gaze flared and her green eyes sparked with fire, her lip curled with disgust. "Don't call me that!"
"I—" Yennefer started, trying to defend herself, only to be cut off as Ciri advanced on her, slender index finger poised, poking at Yennefer's chest so hard that she felt the pain bloom beneath her ribcage.
"I could never be spawned from someone as horrible as you! Someone who was unable to protect me when I most needed her! A vile witch undeserving of Geralt's love or of my devotion!"
The accusing finger turned into a fist, and Yennefer's head snapped to the right, tears springing to her eyes, her free hand coming up to touch her aching cheek in shock.
Another blur of motion and Yennefer found herself on her back, the air temporarily leaving her lungs, her hands coiled against her stomach to alleviate the pain and nausea that rose in her throat.
Ciri had kicked her and Yennefer hadn't even tried to defend herself, nor did she try when Ciri drew back her foot and kicked her a second time, a nasty blow that gleaned off the back of the sorceresses head and made her see stars.
Yennefer hunched in on herself even deeper in anticipation of another bout of pain, raising her hands to her neck, trying to protect her skull while her vision darkened.
"I should have killed you the wretched moment you were born!"
Yennefer frowned amidst her pain, convinced she'd heard her father, but when her head was abruptly wrenched back, and the piece of steel pressed against her throat, all she saw was nimble fingers and green eyes boring into her face with remote hatred.
"It doesn't matter how much magic you use to mask your ugliness. It'll always be there in your actions, in your selfishness and gross intention to adopt a child that was never meant to be yours. I belong to Geralt—to Geralt alone! I'm his child surprise. HIS!"
Yennefer could feel Ciri's spit on her face, the blade cutting into her flesh, driving a moan from her throat, a hand coming up with the purpose of throwing the girl from her back.
Nothing happened.
Ciri laughed, a mocking chuckle that mixed into a familiar tone that once again reminded of her father's cruelty and made more tears spring to her eyes.
"You're pathetic."
Ciri breathed against her ear, her breath smelling strongly of mead and rot, a smell that had haunted Yennefer for years and made her insides turn cold.
"You're nothing without your magic, you're barely even human."
Ciri's blade sunk deeper into the softness of Yennefer's neck, driving another groan from her lips, her hand coming up in an attempt to stop the blade from moving and finding her fingers to be gnarled.
"You're a monster," Ciri stated with unconcealed disgust. She flashed a grim smirk, her eyes shifting to the blood that was beginning to seep from the cut she'd made, her fingers brushing against the smooth stickiness, wrapping around Yennefer's throat to capture it.
"It's only appropriate that you should die by the hands of a Witcher."
"Ci—" Yennefer choked, trying to understand where the girl's hatred had come from, only for it to be cut short when suddenly the blade was ripped from her throat. Yennefer's pain intensified and what felt like hot water pooled onto the floor beneath her, intensifying her trembling until eventually her world clouded over and blackness took her.
~WRITERS' NOTE: Greetings, our dearest readers - if we still have any of you here after such a long break.
We have no good news - our computer is still out there and no way to say when the service guys finally understand what's wrong with it. Because of that unfortunate situation, we're still very limited. We will do our best to do what we can, but we can make no promises concerning the dates. We shall post chapters as we get them ready. That's the only promise we can make. We have set a high plank for ourselves - 5-7k words per chapter - therefore it's a bit more work than the usual 1-2k we get in most fanfiction. So we'll do our best to keep them coming, but the process is slowed down until we finally have this computer issue resolved.
Thank you all so very much for your dedication to this story! It truly means the world to us! If those of you who still read and wait for more would leave us a comment under this chapter, we'll be forever grateful to be able to hear from you! We miss you lots!
Love y'all! Stay safe and to be continued! ~