"Vain sorceress. Monster!" She heard a ghostly voice whisper on her ear. "You have no right to exist. You have no right to desire life".
She open her eyes and saw she was alone, laying on a daisy flowerbed, under the black velvet sky full of thousand stars, forming constellations that were strange to her.
"Once you renounced to life and now you arrogantly desire to give a life, how dare you?" She heard the ghostly voice coming from nowhere again. "You are an insolent creature, Yennefer of Vengerberg. You are reckless to the point you believe you can get away without paying the price."
Yennefer tried to get up but felt something heavy pressing into her chest, pinning her to the ground. The green spectral light was gathering in the shape of a terrible woman, floating in the air in front of the sorceress. The ghostly woman reached for her and Yennefer felt the familiar grip of her dagger on her hand.
"You have to finish what you started. If you will not do it, I will," Said the woman raising her phantasmagoric voice but not moving her lips. Yennefer felt a familiar numbing pain her left wrist, she saw a deep vertical cut appear on her arm from where blood had already begin to pour.
"You have no right to bear life inside of you. Your barren body is the payment for the power you are so proud of, arrogant and naïve sorceress, you play with the nature to fulfill your vain whims, I'll not allow it!" The voice screamed hatefully from everywhere while an invisible blade sliced her right wrist. Yennefer looked away from the ghastly woman and saw that the flowers under her had wilted, while her blood flowed from her wrists, damping the earth.
Suddenly a white brightness shone and pushed away the greenish light coming from the phantasmagoric woman, who shrieked loudly, as the whiteness took over the night. Yennefer closed her eyes, not feeling anymore the sharp pain on her wrists nor earth under her.
"Am I dying?" Yennefer heard herself, as if her voice came from far away.
"No mother, you are being saved." Answer a soft distant voice. "I am taking you back to your destiny, because is him who will fulfill your deepest desire and is him who needs you to guide his way."
Yennefer opened her eyes and saw Geralt's worried face. Confused she took her hand to her left wrist and felt the smooth skin, without any cuts or blood. Slowly coming to her senses, she felt the magical aura that caused her hallucination.
"Are you hurt, Yen?" Geralt asked helping her to sit up, holding her against him.
"No, I am fine," she lied, feeling like her head was going to explode. She saw the small girl looking at her scared. "What happened?"
"The apparition was chasing this girl through the forest, and when you reached the clearing, it knocked you over disappearing".
"The damn thing gave me a horrible hallucination," she said massaging her tempers."Geralt, we have to leave, we have to take her away from here".
"What is your name, little lady?" asked Geralt very gently.
"P-Pom Sinclair" said the little girl with a shaky voice, her eyes were full of tears. "I w-want to go to d-daddy."
"Hum… Sinclair? You ran a long way, missy" said Yennefer softly, taking the little girl's hand.
"The last time I saw her she was just a newborn baby," the sorceress told, holding the sleeping girl against her with one arm while she held the horse's reins with the other hand. She had casted an orb of light that illuminated their way to the Sinclair state. "Seven years ago I was called by the baron Svan Sinclair and his wife Maria. The Baroness Sinclair had suffered many spontaneous abortions before and they were desperate to have children, so I accompanied her during the whole nine months, giving her treatment. You could not imagine how happy they were when little Pom was born, so healthy and beautiful." Geralt nodded and looked at her worried and confused, probably hearing the sadness in her voice. Yennefer smiled feeling very tired.
The sun was breaking on the horizon when they arrived to the rich Sinclair state. It had not changed since the last time Yennefer had been here, the formidable gate was held by a tall stonewall that surrounded the many acres of the property. Guarding the gate were two armed men, wearing the white tree against a dark green background coat of arms. Yennefer recognized the older one as Solon, Baron Sinclair' right hand man.
"For Melitele!" He screamed surprised, "is that you, Lady Yennefer? Is that Pom with you? Thanks to Melitele!"
"Yes, mister Solon and maybe you can answer why the hell I found her in the forest in the middle of the night when she was supposed to be in her bed like a normal child?" Yennefer said coldly, placing the sleeping girl on Geralt's arms, who already had dismounted his horse.
"She ran away. This girl is an imp, Melitele forgive me!" said Solon whipping the sweat of his forehead."Let's go inside, we should let the Baron know that we found her. Freddrick, go fetch the men who were looking for her on the forest".
"Oh Pom! You have scared us so much!" cried Maria Sinclair holding the girl tightly against her. "Lady Yennefer how lucky that you found her. Thank you so much, and you too mister witcher".
"She is a mischievous little one," the Baron said after Geralt told him what happened in the woods, "she probably found a foxhole on the wall and got lost. Is not the first time, but she had never gone that far".
"Happily nothing happen to Pom".
"Yes, I am thankful that you found her," Svan Sinclair said politely. "Maria has asked the maids to prepare the guestroom for you, if you wish to rest, I'm sure it was a long night. Lady Yennefer I believe you know the way. I hope you can join me for lunch later, Geralt, as I would like to discuss business with you".
"Is it about the apparition?"
"Yes. But rest first you both look tired".
Yennefer closed the wooden blind to shut the daylight from the nicely decorated guestroom. She calculated they had less than five hours to sleep before lunchtime. Geralt was already laying on the comfortable bed, with a relaxed expression on his face. Yennefer laid next to him placing her head on his chest, she adored hearing his slow heartbeats.
She felt terribly tired but could not fall asleep because she could not push away from her mind the dream the ghost induced. She look at her wrists without a single trace of the scars; she had them concealed magically when she was still a student in Aretuza. She was a different person then, she was scared and broken. There was nothing but pain and rejection in her heart. However, she had cure her own wounds, in the same manner she did with the scars on her wrists, she had made them go away forever.
She let out a sigh and Geralt hugged her tight as response.
A couple of hours later she was awaken of her light sleep when she felt that the witcher woke up.
"Geralt?"
"Humm?" he groaned sleepy moving his hands to her breasts
"Oh, I see you are indeed awake," she laughed. "Are you going to take the baron's contract?"
"Yes, but later…" the witcher murmured brushing his lips on her chest.
"May I go with you?"
Geralt lifted his head and I looked at her. "Yen, have you forgotten what happened on the woods? I don't want you to get hurt".
"It will not surprise me this time. I am very curious to see you in action," she smiled flirtatiously.
"How am I supposed to say no when you ask like this?" he said kissing her lips.
Baron Sinclair was as polite as Yennefer remembered; he told them that he was very worried about the ghost because Pom was a mischievous child that liked to run to the woods. Geralt agreed to look into the forest to find out the reason why the ghost was roaming and to banish it. Yennefer knew that this kind of apparitions were related to violent deaths, but none on the Sinclair manor could recall anything like that happening recently. The kingdoms of Aedirn and Kaedwen often disputed the region between the Pontar and the Dyphne, however, Yennefer remember that the last conflict happened more than ten years ago.
"We should see Geril, she is a half-elf druidess that lives in the woods, if something happened in there, she knows about it," said Solon jumping on his horse.
"And why you did not go to see her before?" asked Geralt rising one eyebrow.
"She does not like us, she won't see us," Solon answer scratching his head, "she thinks that our farming and hunting is destroying the forest. Honestly, almost everyone is just scared of her."
"And are you scared of her, mister Solon?" Yennefer was amused for she knew that druids were mostly harmless.
"Scared? No, I respect her and I prefer to keep a respectful distance from her."
They rode into the woods, following a thin trail that meandered through the trees. When they were approaching the lone hut that belonged to the druidess, Geralt stopped suddenly his horse and winced.
"Something is not right…"
"What is it?" Yennefer looked at him curious about what he had sensed.
"Stay here."
Geralt went further and jumped out of his horse, while Yennefer and Solon waited behind. The witcher opened the hut's door slowly and entered. After a short moment, he left the house and calmly walked to where they were.
"She is dead. Her throat was sliced and she was probably raped. By the state of her body, she probably died a couple of days ago. Solon, we have to give her a proper burial".
The man made a grimace and dismounted the horse. As they got closer to the hut, a strong wave of horrible smell hit them, Yennefer felt an urge to vomit, but instead she took the small bottle of perfume she always carried with her, soaked a handkerchief with it and took it to her face. The sorceress saw a resemblance between the ghost she saw on her hallucination and the corpse that laid in a pool of dried blood on the plain hut.
The witcher and Solon rolled the druidess' dead body in a large blanket they found on the hut and buried her under a tree.
"Yen, please go back to the Baron's house with mister Solon. Now that we gave her proper burial, once banished, the ghost will not return."
"I'm not going back. You promised."
"Yen…"
The sorceress crossed her arms over her chest and stared into his eyes coldly. "You have no reason to fear for me, I can take care of myself and I believe I've already shown you that in Rinde. I'm not a maiden that needs to hide behind closed doors and stone walls, I'm a very powerful sorceress, as you also already testified".
"Last night the apparition attacked you, I do not want that to happen again, Yen".
"Geralt, I'm not leaving."
The witcher held her gaze for a moment before approaching Solon and giving him Yennefer's horse reins.
"Please mister Solon, can you please take the horses back to the Baron's property? They might get scared with the apparition".
"What should I tell the Baron?"
"Tell him that the ghost that is haunting these woods was once Geril the druidess. Is a nocturnal apparition we must stay until after dusk to encounter it."
They waited in silence as the sky grew darker, Yennefer observed the witcher thoroughly polish his silver sword. She felt the urge to touch him but she did not want to disturb him. She watched him drink a pale liquid from a small glass bottle. He closed his eyes and breathed deeply. The sorceress looked at him curiously wondering what he had drank. She knew that witchers often used magical elixirs produced by themselves to enhance their senses and skills. She would ask him about it later.
Yennefer felt the magical aura of the apparition and noticed that Geralt was aware of it too.
The witcher walked a couple of steps standing between her and the green supernatural light that started to gather in front of them. Mist was starting to rise from between the woods, engulfing them.
The apparition launched itself on their direction, Geralt quickly slashed it diagonally with his glistening silver sword. The ghost jumped backwards while shrieking. Yennefer casted a magical trap around them preventing the ghost from escaping.
Stirred up by the spell, the apparition floated making a circle around them. Geralt managed to hit again the spectral woman with his sword, slowing it down. Yennefer murmured a spell and directed an orb of white energy to the ghost that shrieked loudly stopping its dance. With inhuman speed the witcher made a diagonal movement hitting for the third time the ghastly woman, who ignited into green flames.
"I think I'll bring you monster hunting with me".
"Then you will have to share the reward with me". The sorceress kneeled next to where the green fired had extinguished and she carefully collected the plasma with a little quartz bottle. She noticed Geralt observed her and she explained. "Nocturnal apparition essence is very expensive and difficult to find".
"Maybe I can give you your part of the reward in ingredients for your elixirs," he said sarcastically. "If your goal was getting the essence, you should have not risked yourself, I could had gotten it for you".
"Geralt please." said Yennefer putting the vial with the essence on her tiny purse, "where would be the fun on that?"
The witcher observed her in silence so she walked to him and putted her arms around his neck and whispered, "you have to trust me as I trust you".
"I trust you," he promised quietly, kissing her lips and pulling her closer to him.