Tomorrow.

They couldn't travel by portal, not all of them or with all the things they wanted to take. Kaer Morhen still had things of value, irreplaceable things, sentimental things. Besides, Geralt hated portals and would walk through glass barefoot if he had to to avoid it.

It was harder to leave than Eskel thought it would be.

It had been easier to walk away the first time, riding on waves of his own grief and anger. Easier to leave knowing that he could come back. But this really was the end. They would take everything valuable, everything they could carry and then they would destroy what was left. They wouldn't risk someone finding this place after they were gone and finding something they'd neglected to take with them.

There were too many dangerous things that had passed through these gates to take chances.

It wasn't the first time he'd watched Maya pack her things, but this time he understood what she went through. Perhaps he'd been at Kaer Morhen for more years, more years than even seemed possible when he thought about it, but that little cottage was her home, just like this one was his.

But she followed him then, even before fate had forced her to reveal her secret to him. She followed him, still afraid that when he found out that he'd kill her. She had every reason to be afraid of him, but she loved him enough even then to risk it. It was hard to reconcile it in his head. It was better not to think about it too hard.

They were in the library. He'd spent a lot of time here over scores of winters, pouring over dusty old parchment written by scholars and ancient Witchers, wizards and royalty. Some were so old that the covers had long since worn bare, pages stained by countless fingertips. Some were blood stained. Some were bound in unrecognizable leather.

Every single one was valuable but most would have to be left behind.

Maya was sitting on the edge of a table, a pile of books haphazardly stacked at her hip. She had her legs crossed at her ankles and a big tome open across her lap. There were drawings on the pages, beautiful detailed painting of herbs and flowers and plants.

He remembered that one. Sadly, there wasn't anything in it any herbalist worth their salt didn't already know. Beautiful as it was, it would have to stay behind. From the look on Maya's face, she'd clearly come to the same conclusion.

They were leaving in the morning but they were stalling.

All the important things, the dangerous ones had been packed up already or destroyed. All that was left were the sentimental, the pointlessly valuable things most of which would be left behind.

Eskel watched her run her fingers over the paintings. He'd done it himself plenty of times. Sometimes, the world was very ugly and things like that, those beautiful, brightly colored petals, curled leaves, even the ivory paper showing through the translucent paint were comforting.

But it was just a thing. And this was just a building, an old one at that, surviving long past the time it should have crumbled to dust. Sometimes he felt the same way, but maybe it was time for that to change. Maybe this was the start of something new for all of them.

Damn it, it was going to be.

Impulsively, he grabbed Maya's hand and knocked the book out of her lap on to the floor. She looked startled for a moment, but smiled when he stepped in between her knees and took her face between his hands. He wanted to say something profound, something to express how this made him feel, how he made her feel. But Eskel wasn't good with words. Words and poetry and all those romantic things always seemed beyond him. But he knew about action.

He kissed her. He remembered the first time. That first tiny kiss on his cheek, the first time she pressed her lips to the equally numb and sensitive ridges of his scars. As amazing as those moments were, this was better. This wasn't something new, fragile. This was something real, something worth hanging on to no matter how hard it might become.

This was love; not the word, the action.

This was just the beginning.

"I can't wait," he said against her lips. "I can't wait to start a new life with you."

He felt her smile, felt her breath when she spoke. "I never thought I could have a real life, one where I didn't have to hide all the time."

"No more hiding," he said. "I don't know if anything will really change, but it's worth trying."

If he knew even one goddamn true thing in the entire world, it was that this was right. This thing they found by accident was worth hanging on to. Nilfgaard wasn't exactly what he pictured in his head when he fantasized about having a happy ending, but he figured it would do.

Right now, he wanted a different kind of happiness. The table was just the right height for the wicked thought that crept into him head. He grinned, pulling her close, sliding her across the old polished wood until her ass was right at the edge. He fiddled around with her dress, managing to get it bunched up around her waist. He wondered if he'd ever stop wanting her all the time, but he hoped not.

Maya wriggled her hips, rubbing herself against the completely unsubtle ridge of his erection. She wore a cheeky grin, even if he could see her anxiety about what was to come underneath it.

Shit, he was getting better at this emotional crap. But he was always a quick learner.

"I'm quite sure I've never been fucked in a library before," she said, amused.

"First time for everything."

"Last time too," she said. He almost expected that would be enough to put him off. He got the feeling she was hoping it would. He didn't like it.

Eskel frowned at her. "They have libraries in Nilfgaard, I'm pretty sure."

She didn't look comforted. "I know, I just-" She put her hands behind her on the table and leaned back away from him. "Have you ever been to Nilfgaard?"

He didn't like where this was going but he took a step back and smoothed her dress back down over her thighs. He left his hands there at least.

"Once or twice," he said. "I usually don't travel that far unless the coin is really good."

"I haven't," she said. "I've been around for a long time, but I've never gone very far. It's not like I ever had a real home, not really, but Nilfgaard? It sounds so foreign. What if-" She pursed her lips. "What if something happens and I'm stuck there? In an unfamiliar place, not knowing how things work?"

Nope, he didn't like it.

"If what happens? What's going to happen there that couldn't happen here?"

"It's not that," she said. Her eyebrows were sagging down at the ends to match the corners of her mouth. "But the last time I had anyone I could really trust was a long time ago. My family. It's a weird thing, calling them that, a bunch of runaway vampire prostitutes and cast offs but that's what they were. A family. And this, gods, it feels so much like that did. Like I can trust this little menagerie of monsters and magic but it makes me afraid. What if I lose them, lose you, just like I lost them?"

"You might," he admitted. He wasn't going to placate her with lies. That was bullshit. "Nothing lasts forever."

"But I might, " she said. "Immortality is fucked."

"Yeah, well, so are a lot of things," he said. "What's the alternative? Just go hide in a fucking crypt like a striga and pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist? You're better than that." He moved to her side and leaned up against the table. There would be plenty of time for other stuff. She needed something else right now. It was pretty damned ridiculous that he was going to try to help her with this, but she helped him get through plenty. He was willing to try, even if this wasn't really his strong suit.

He wished she'd ask him to kill a griffon or something. That he was good at.

He bumped his shoulder into her. "We could both get dead tomorrow; the world is screwed up. Hell, if it wasn't for Ciri, we'd all be icicles. But we aren't dead yet. I spent years just going through the motions, and I feel like I just woke up. Don't get all grim on me now." He laughed. "I'm supposed to be fatalistic. Not you."

Maya laughed. It was a beautiful, unexpected sound. He felt her warm fingers slide between his arm and his rib cage, curling around his bicep. Her cheek pressed against his shoulder.

"If you ever question why I love you or if I love you, remember right now," she said. She sounded like herself again, that edge of fear gone. "And you're adorable, but that's just a perk."

Eskel chuckled and put his hand over her fingers. "Come on, let's get the last of these books packed up. We're expected to join everyone for the big send off before we blow this place to hell tomorrow."

"So tell me," she asked, hopping down off the table and grabbing the top of her stack of books. "When you drink with Geralt and Lambert, is it worse or better than when you just drink with Lambert?"

Eskel smirked. "Last time, there was a goat and I discovered I don't look half bad in a dress."

"Please tell me you're kidding."

Eskel deadpanned as he picked up the rest of the books. He was who he was.

Maya shook her head at him. "What have I gotten myself into?"

He shrugged. "Hey, you're the one who fell in love with me," he said to her back as she walked toward the library door. She had this little sway to her walk and it was terribly distracting. He needed to pace himself tonight. There were a lot better things he could do than play dress up with Geralt.

"You did it first," she shot back over her shoulder.

"That's true."

It was. He had no regrets.


Lambert tried to sing and it was ridiculous.

They were gathered around the fire, the crackling wood taking the damp chill out of the air. Telling stories about Vesemir, about Ciri, about contracts that weren't horrible but amusing instead. Ridiculous stories about drinking and falling out windows and Geralt slogging through a sewer to hunt down a giant frog prince. A real one.

They should be broken, all of them. And not just the Witchers. Not a one of them didn't have a story that could have started with, no shit, this really happened and ended with a near death experience.

Saying goodbye to Kaer Morhen wasn't the dour thing he was afraid it was going to be. The pain of Vesemir's death, of Leo's, of all the bullshit that had happened, it was faded. Vodka had never been enough to blunt it before. There was always an edge of fatalism to what they did, even when they got half cocked ideas that three drunk idiots were going to convince beautiful women to talk to them.

Somehow they managed it sober.

Even Yennefer was smiling, at least half drunk herself, the top laces on her corset hanging loose. Geralt had his head in her lap and she was braiding his hair. Maya's cheeks were pink and her eyes were bleary, but she was right there beside him with her hand entirely too far up his thigh to be decent. Keira was egging Lambert on, even when he got on the table and knocked the bottle to the floor. He nearly fell off afterwards and Keira managed to wrangle him off the table before he killed himself. He ended up on his knees with his face pressed into her cleavage.

No one cared. They earned this.

Before Maya, he would have been paranoid, worried this was just the calm before the storm. Nothing good ever happened without horrific consequences to undo what little joy any of them ever managed to eek out. Tonight, they weren't trying to hide in the booze. They were celebrating.

"Eskel, buddy," Geralt drawled, lolling his head in Yennefer's lap to look at him. "How'd you end up with a vampire?" He squinted at Maya. "A elf vampire? How's that work?"

"I bled on her."

Geralt laughed. "They way to a woman's heart is through the jugular."

Maya leaned forward, her elbow on her knee. "The femoral artery, actually, " she said, snide, gesturing with her hand. "I got a really nice look at his thigh though. Very distracting."

Eskel thought he might be blushing, but his face was already hot from the liquor, so he couldn't be sure.

Geralt snorted. Then he frowned. "But you didn't, ah-"

"No, of course she didn't," Eskel interrupted. "I didn't even know until later. She saved my ass."

"Sounds like she took a good look at it too," Lambert interjected.

Maya shrugged. "It's a nice ass."

Usually Eskel was less than thrilled with laughter at his expense. This time, he didn't mind so much.

"But that doesn't explain the ears," Geralt continued. "I mean vampires are vampires, not elves."

"I don't know, I mean, the old fashioned way I guess. My mother never talked about it, and I never thought to ask," Maya explained.

"Wait, that means...huh," Lambert said, not quite able to articulate what he was thinking through the haze.

Keira shook her head, patted the back of his neck. "What I think Lambert was so eloquently attempting to say, was that it means that things aren't quite like he was taught. Monsters," she gave Maya a look, "If you'll forgive the term, are supposed to be too different from men and elves to interbreed with them. But I think they forget that elves too came into being from the same events that brought these other creatures to our world. If we can have children with them, why not vampires? Who knows what life will accomplish?"

"A lot of the stuff we know is bullshit," Eskel said.

Geralt nodded. He sort of half sat up, draping his arm over Yennefer's lap and resting his head in the palm of his hand. "Lots of goddamn secrets and maybe in Nilfgaard Ciri can help us figure them out. No more of this shit. Everything out in the open."

"Here, here!" Lambert's voice was muffled by Keira's chest. They laughed again.

They were happy.

Finally.