Warnings:
Contains spoilers for the Witcher 3 Wild Hunt, Time of Contempt and The Lady of the Lake
Richard Bach:
"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life."
Beams of fresh morning light greeted the lovers as they awoke from their thankfully peaceful and rejuvenating sleep. Geralt watched Yennefer carefully as she got ready for breakfast but didn't see any signs of fatigue still lingering from the spell and his gaze did not go unnoticed as she smiled at him mischievously suggesting several other ways she could assure him her strength had returned, but that it would have to wait until dark. As they left their room they found Ciri already waiting outside for them.
The young ashen-haired woman sat on the balustrade with the sight of the sea behind her, the accommodation for the new school was located at the lowest level and looked as though it cut into the rock supporting Thanedd. The rooms were all connected in one long line that curled around the base of the island along with a wide stone pathway and various stairs leading back up to the rest of the school.
"Too impatient to meet us at breakfast?" Said Yennefer as she walked over to Ciri, her raven locks rustling in the gentle sea breeze.
"Like mother like daughter." Said Geralt smiling as he looked between the pair.
"Well, when I have the excuse to spend some time with you I intend to make the most of it." Replied Ciri jumping down from her perch. "Besides, Philippa's up there and she's even more irritating than usual, the meeting hasn't even begun yet and things are already falling apart."
"I can't imagine her mood will improve much," said the sorceress, "I'm not sure how realistic she's being if she thinks she can control people like Cerys and Roche like she can the Lodge. I think I might find it rather pleasing to witness."
"Yen, look me in the eye, and tell me you're not planning to try and test Philippa any more than you already have."
"I don't have to try." Ciri chuckled slightly.
"She practically walked a hole in the floor waiting for you and was seething with so much anger the others kept well clear of her. The look on her face right before she flew out of the inn, I'm was sure I heard her mention Yennefer's name and something rather unpleasant as well, I don't know what I thought she'd do which is why you gave me such a fright when I saw you covered in blood and scratches."
Summoned like the devil himself an owl suddenly came soaring down the stairs several metres from their right and Philippa emerged in a cloud of smoke and began to cast a spell causing the rune in her hand to glow with magic. Several seconds later a handful of rooms, presumably belonging to the guests of the Lodge, were filled with bright light most likely the sorceress' way of informing them to get up, and Geralt was sure he heard a distant voice belonging to Lambert swear.
"If that overgrown owl so much as tried to scratch me then some fortunate passer-by would be having roast bird for the next week. I dare say she'd be more useful that way anyhow." At the sound of muffled laughter, Phil turned her head to the small group catching Yennefer's eye as she smiled at Geralt and Ciri.
"What are you standing around for, get up to the hall now, most of the others are ready and waiting." She said venomously, glaring suspiciously at them.
"Ciri come inside for a moment, we have something important to tell you, away from prying ears." She walked back into their room, leaving the door wide open for the others. The young woman looked at the Witcher curiously.
"It's good news, promise." He replied as the pair followed after her, hurriedly slamming the door shut behind them to prevent any unwanted guests swooping in on them.
Geralt was wrong, it wasn't just good news, but also long overdue.
They were the last to arrive and barely had time to finish eating a few meagrely pieces of fruit and a slice of fresh bread each before Eilhart called the group to the meeting room, pointedly glaring at the late comers, Geralt and Ciri reluctantly following bellies still growling from hunger but Yennefer looked as though the price had been worth it.
The intended location for the talks was as beautiful as it was intimidating. A large marble table shaped and structured like a ring was centred in the middle of the room. The table looked as though it had been cut into quarters and slightly pulled apart leaving four pathways between the segments which allowed people to stand in the circular space enclosed by the table. Several intrinsically carved wooden chairs were places around the smoothed edges of the table, facing the inside of the circle.
The other members of the Lodge, Triss, Rita, Keira, Fringilla, Francesca and Ida were already seated on one of the segments towards the back of the room, their backs to the balcony hidden behind the large glass doors and windows that towered above them, filling the room with the morning's light. Philippa moved to the middle of the circle and stood there with her arms crossed expectantly and the others quickly took their seats, Yennefer, Ciri and Geralt sat together as far away from the Lodge as possible and the others soon spread themselves out around the room and when everyone had seated Philippa spoke, her voice even louder and clearer than usual, as though magically amplified.
"Now everyone is finally here let us begin. The Lodge wishes to detail a chronologically accurate timeline and an account of the events surrounding the Wild Hunt as well as gather information on these spectres should they ever again pose a threat. Listen attentively to ensure no detail is spared and do not speak unless it is to provide us with the information we ask of you." She made her way over to the vacant seat in the middle of the other members of the Lodge and looked one final time around the room before sitting down. "Now, let's start from the very beginning."
The meeting progressed slowly as Ciri, Yennefer, Geralt and Dandelion started off the timeline with the details of their initial encounter with the Red Riders just outside of Gors Velen. Philippa, Francesca and Ida tried to squeeze every minute detail out of the group which infuriated Yennefer as Ciri became noticeably agitated and uncomfortable about the questions relating to her time in Tir ná Lia.
"The Lodge demands ever detail and you, Yennefer, have no right to question what we believe is necessary. Stop interrupting and be quiet before you do yourself irreversible harm."
"How dare you question the word of my daughter! If she says there is nothing else to tell then the Lodge shall leave her be. Save your breathe Philippa, for someone who can be fooled by your idle threats and displays of power."
"The Lodge will see you punished for-"
"Anyone who tries will also have Geralt and me to contend with, we three are rather inseparable. And I's sure my father, the Emperor, will be informed of any move you make against us." The group was forced to take an early lunch as tensions were on the verge of breaking point.
After Ciri's tale of the elven home-world, things progressed more easily and the group were riveted to their seats as the Lady of Space and Time described some of the places she had been before the Hunt forced her to move on, with looks of amazement mixed with utter disbelief. All apart from Yennefer and Geralt, who had already heard the countless tales of her adventures. Ciri's monologue about her travels ended when she reached the point at which she had gotten wind that Yennefer had been kidnapped by Eredin, the point the sorceress and Witcher had been dreading.
Very few of the questions thrown their way were meet with clear and certain answers, to them their time with the hunt was nothing but the lingering fragments of thoughts and images that accompanied a dispelled nightmare. The Lodge slowly tried to piece together what happened but mostly it was speculation, with nothing more than muddled memories of sounds, smells and flashes of sight to base it on. It seemed likely that a battle had commenced before Yennefer's capture, both recalling the smell of blood and burnt flesh, and the feeling of hopelessness. Geralt's sudden sensation of sickness and dread confused the group until Triss proposed the idea that Yennefer must have teleported him away as her memory after that point becomes even more ambiguous and, looking at each other the pair nodded in unison, the scenario seemed plausible to them.
The Witcher's memories about tracking the hunt were also vague, the story of his journey to catch the riders had little detail that could be of any use to the Lodge. However, both Yennefer and Geralt could account for the exchange with Eredin in surprising detail when compared to their other memories, perhaps because for each, it was so significant to them.
With the chance of any information from the Witcher's time with the hunt clearly out of the question, the focus was once again placed on Ciri who's tale continued from hearing the news to meeting Avallac'h who warned her of the Wild Hunt's trap, offering to train and aid her for the sake of keeping her from the wrong hands. Eventually, with his help Ciri was able to release Geralt before once again going on the run with her new companion, losing them for a time until she made the decision to return home, to Yennefer and Geralt.
Geralt provided some extra information about Ciri's time in Skellige, Velen and Novigrad, mostly about what had become of those who stumbled unknowingly across the Wild Hunts search. The first round of discussions ended at the moon began to set in the night sky, illuminating the tale of Ciri and Geralt's reunion and preparations for the upcoming battle. As they retired to eat Ciri was exhausted in more way than one and Yennefer hastily made up an excuse to drag her away, as the curious minds of the other members, such as Dandelion, bombarded her with yet more questions about her travel between worlds.
"Yen, where are we going?" Asked Geralt as he and Ciri followed Yennefer up a seemingly endless flight of stairs.
"You'll see soon enough." Several moments later slits of dim light began to spill down the stairs as they ascended into a glass dome encapsulating the top of what must have been the tallest tower in the school. The various translucent panels making up the dome splintered the moonlight which passed through them shooting fragments of light around the room which made it look as though they were hovering in the night sky surrounded by hundreds of magnificent, pale, glistening stars.
"This is absolutely beautiful." Said Ciri as she held her arms out in front of her, watching the light dance across them making her skin sparkle under their touch.
"Worth the wait, wasn't it?" Said Yennefer, smiling at the mesmerised look on the young woman's face. "Here, come sit." The sorceress sat down on a large blanket which had been lain across the stone floor, her back against the iron railings enclosing the stairs, gesturing for the others to join her as she a rearranged some of the cushions to make room.
"Always full of surprises." Said Geralt as he sat down next to her, their shoulders brushing together while Ciri sat cross-legged opposite the pair watching the pattern the light cast across the floor.
"Well, I have to keep you on your toes somehow. Open the basket, my dear." Yennefer said, gesturing towards Ciri and the object lying just beside her. First, she pulled out a bottle of wine, passing it to Geralt to open along with three glasses before removing a small rectangular wooden box from the basket, her face lighting up as she took off the lid.
"Are these the chocolates from that old bakery in Vengerberg?" She asked in amazement and Yennefer nodded.
"Whenever we used to go shopping in Vengerberg you always insisted on getting some, no matter how in a hurry we were or how late it was."
"I remember. You used to complain about it, but always bought me some." The young woman took one of the square pieces from the box and bit into it rolling her eyes in delight, quickly consuming the other half. "I forgot how much I missed these, thank you."
"You've always had us wrapped around your little finger Ciri." Said Geralt, smiling at Yennefer as she rested her head against his shoulder, satisfied that her gift had been a success. "But that doesn't mean you're allowed to eat them all by yourself."
The lights filling the school slowly began to die down as they just sat there peacefully, drinking wine, eating and talking about small, irrelevant things that brought them joy, Geralt's tale about Yennefer's new friend Bert the Rock Troll bringing Ciri considerably joy as she lay on her back, gazing up at the night sky with her head in the sorceress' lap, Yennefer gently stroking her head. The time to leave seemed to come far too quickly as they reluctantly got to their feet ready to make the journey back to their accommodation for the night.
"This feels, well, so much like home, and I think I needed that, and I think you know I did. Thank you, mother." Said Ciri as she hugged Yennefer affectionately, the small candy box still clutched tightly in one hand, a keepsake of this calm evening. Geralt gently took Yennefer's hand in his as she made to follow Ciri down the long flight of stairs, pulling her closer.
"I love you, Yen." He whispered tenderly in her ear, placing a kiss on her smiling lips as their eyes met. "Never change." She placed a soft hand against his face, running her thumb gently over his cheek.
"How could I, if it meant losing all this, my love." Slowly she broke away still holding the Witcher's warm hand in hers as she lead him down the stairs after their Witcheress.
The second round of the meetings progressed, in the morning, in a similar fashion to the previous day as discussions continued from battle preparations to the battle at Kaer Morhen, and Roche, Ves, Eskel, Lambert, Keira, Ermion, Zoltan and Hjalmar looked relieved to finally have something to do. Each party told their version of what occurred and the Lodge compared their accounts creating a detailed timeline of precisely what was happening, when and where. Things once again became uncomfortable and emotional when Ciri was forced to remember the events surrounding Vesemir's death, but this time neither Philippa, Ida or Francesca pressed her for information.
Details then turned to Geralt and Ciri's journey to the Bald Mountain in search of Imlerith, then to the Witcher's adventures with Avallac'h through time and space as they convinced Ge'els, with the help of Corinne Tilly, to withhold support from Eredin. At which point it was time for the final battle. The meeting progressed quickly through this stage, as several members of the Lodge were already present, but Geralt, Ciri and Hjalmar still gave them details about their fight with the hunt while Cerys reported on the damages and losses as well as representing the accounts from various other clans and warriors who took part and with these tales over, talks turned to the white frost. The room waited silently for Ciri, intrigued to hear about the great evil from Ithlinne's Prophecy, Dandelion's hand was practically quivering over the parchment he had been making notes on.
"When I emerged, I was almost blinded by how bright it was, everything was covered in pure white snow and the sky was clear and cloudless, the sun glared down on me but did nothing to stop the biting cold. Then I heard it, something at least, a distant rumbling, and I knew that the White Frost was approaching. That it was now or never. I don't know how I did it, I only remember thinking about home, about Yennefer and Geralt, and knowing that I must do it. Then I woke up back here, Yennefer and Geralt beside me, and Avallac'h, he said it was over, that I had nothing to fear from the Wild Hunt anymore, that he no longer had to fear for me, or for the white frost. That was the last we saw of him."
After the group returned from lunch many of them pondered what the Lodge could possibly want from them next seeing as the timeline had been completed so it came as surprise when they entered the large circular room again to find a small, pear-like sphere hovering just above the pedestal now in the centre of the room, in the gap enclosed by the table. After they sat down Philippa spoke from her position beside the orb.
"Now we have concluded the events surrounding the Wild Hunt we move onto the equally as important second stage. Tactics. The Lodge believes it necessary to learn the strengths and flaws in the Rider's technique, to learn their tactics, to formulate a most effective strategy against them." She raised both her hands to the sphere, placing one on either side and a moment later a ghostly apparition of one of the Wild Hunt's riders appeared on the opposite side of the sphere. "This magical device can record your memories regarding an enemy's fighting style, this is how we will collect the information we need."
One by one the members of the group stepped up to the orb and the first to go was Ciri. As she placed her hands upon it, feeling its warm energy pulsate through her body, the spectral rider emerged. She closed her eyes, thinking back to one of the battles at Kaer Morhen focusing the rider in her mind's eye, and as she did so she was surprised to find herself speaking aloud, saying step by step the Rider's movements in surprising detail and, unknown to her, the apparition in the room moved around exactly the way she described, slightly too slow to be natural, but very accurate.
The same thing occurred as other members such as Eskel, Ves and Zoltan stepped up to the orb, and the spectral rider's movements each time became faster and more accurate until it was acting faster than the subject could speak until eventually it more or less perfectly mirrored its physically manifested counterpart.
"Now that we have an accurate record of their techniques, tomorrow we will focus on successful countermeasures. Be sure to get plenty of rest, we start early and more importantly come prepared for fighting." Philippa left without another word, and Geralt could only imagine what she would have in store for them tomorrow.
When Eilhart called them all for the start of the third day she did not take them back to the meeting room but deeper into the school. A large circular platform surrounded by stone columns and railings rested atop a small stack of rock some fifty metres away from the main school, connected to it by a flat stone bridge whose pillars sunk into the depths of the sea churning the base of the rock. On the land supporting the school itself, there were rows and rows of tiered, marble seating arranged in a semi-circle cutting into the naturally sloped sides of the school and was directly across from the platform. The first thing that came to Geralt's mind was an arena.
"This," said Rita proudly "is the schools training area. Here students undergo magical testing and can watch practical demonstrations from other students or teachers."
"It's a lot more complicated than what we have on Skellige." Said Hjalmar as he and some of the others moved over to the seating and sat down, as indicated by Rita. "But what's the point of that? At home, we make them simple because then they're a lot easier to rebuild after our warriors smash them to pieces." Several of the sorceresses looked rather amused at this comment.
"Magic preserves the structures," answered Rita, ignoring the look from several of her colleagues, "we wouldn't want to risk a stray spell collapsing some of the pillars on our student, or damaging the platform."
Yennefer, Geralt and Ciri, as always, sat close together near the top and the latter gestured for Cerys to join them, which she did. As they sat down Philippa made her way to the bottom of the seating where there was a large semi-circle stone tile that connected the bottom of the seating to the bridge over to the arena. At its centre were two podiums similar to the one they had seen in the meeting room the previous day and sure enough, the sorceress withdrew the orb from her pocket and placed it upon one of the stands which began to glow with magic. After several minutes three Wild Hunt spectres appeared in the arena, frozen in place.
"The next phase in these meetings is to test which strategies are most effective against the enemy. One by one each of you will enter the arena and demonstrate how you fought the Wild Hunt and the Lodge will gather information on this." From her other pocket, she produced a second pearl like sphere, only this one was as black as night. Carefully she placed into on the second pedestal and turned to the group. "Keira has agreed to go first to demonstrate, watch her closely and be prepared to come forward when requested."
Slowly Keira walked across the bridge entering the arena and coming to stand in the centre nodding towards Rita who then muttered a spell which caused the stone columns around the platform to glow a light blue, and the apparitions began to move. From the perspective of the seating area the battle taking place could well have been real, the spectres' movements were fluid and natural and they reacted to Keira's spells just as they had done in Kaer Morhen.
About ten minutes later and after several waves of Riders, Rita deactivated the spell and the new apparitions which appeared, their predecessors having been vanquished, froze in time. As the sorceress began to leave the arena Geralt and some of the others saw the cut along her arm suddenly vanish as well as the small trickle of blood, the wince on her face was replaced by relief.
"Vernon Roche, make your way to the training area," Philippa called out from her seat beside the two magical orbs as she watched the Blue Stripes Commander reluctantly get to his feet muttering something to Ves before making his way across the stone bridge. Once in the arena, he unsheathed his sword, standing at the ready as he nodded towards Rita who activated the magic. Skilfully Roche cut through the enemies that surrounded him and after several moments three more appeared. This carried on for a quarter of an hour before the apparitions stopped and Roche was called back clutching the wound on his chest that was staining his blue robes, but just as with Keira the second he exited the arena the wound disappeared along with the pain, blood and rip in his clothing.
"I'm not sure what to think about this." He said as he sat back down beside Ves tugging at his shirt in fascination as he turned to Geralt. "It sure felt like I was back at your fortress, and the pain, that was real, I felt it. But now, nothing. I don't like it."
"Ermion, step forward." The group watched as the druid began to descend the tiered-seating.
"At least we don't have to face off against the likes of Imlerith or Eredin again." Said Ciri who was polishing her sword.
"Or Caranthir," said Geralt as he looked at Yennefer mischievously, "and his icy glare."
"Hmmm," said the sorceress smiling back at him, "my spine shivers at the thought."
"I was surprised when he went cold-turkey at Kaer Morhen."
"He probably got cold feet seeing all the carnage."
"When his touch could chill you to the bone?"
"But you know what they say, cold hands means a warm heart." Geralt paused for several seconds watching the smile of Yennefer's face grew even wider before his shoulders slumped in defeat.
"Fine, you win Yen, this time."
"Ha!" The others were looking at them with a mix of amusement and curiosity, Ciri and Zoltan were chuckling to themselves.
"Somethings never change." Said the ashen-haired woman. "I've missed things like this."
One by oneindividuals from the groupwere called up to the arena fighting various waves of monsters, sometimes for several minutes, sometimes for up to half an hour, all leaving the platform with a puzzled expression as their pain and wounds vanished as they re-joined the curious onlookers talking and laughing among themselves. Overhead the clouds crackled silently with his magic.
Christina Rossetti - Soeur Louise De La Misericorde: Chapter 6, Lightning
I have desire, I have been desired;
But now the days are over of desire,
Now dust and dying embers mock my fire;
Where is the hire for which my life was hired?
Oh vanity of vanities, desire!
Notes:
Guys, I did it! I managed a word play, it took so long but it's done, now I can rest easy! (Please no more word plays) Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter and all the blood sweat and tears I put into that Icy exchange at the end. Feel free to leave comments or PM me as I love hearing from you guys.
What did you think of the meeting and my little interpretation of the events on the Isle? Bet you didn't expect there would be physical aspects to the Lodge's plan as well! Hope you liked the little family scene in the tower, really enjoyed writing that part :)
Massive shout out to vic-of-thor (tumblr) for all the kind words and support and to korbel05 (fanfiction) for all the feedback and suggestions.
So, on the chapter's rather ominous note, until next time guys, have a great week – Eileniessa