Confession time! I posted this on Ao3 way longer ago than I want to admit and kept forgetting slash neglecting to post it here...sorry...
For a long time, she just stood there. The early sunlight touched the mandible, highlighting every sharp edge and deadly divot. Slowly, her fingers numb, she turned the hollow appendage and looked into the end. It was empty. The venom sac had pulled free and was still attached to the tip. She cursed and hurled the thing as far as she could throw it, her mind working furiously.
If there was an entire sac of venom still inside Geralt's chest cavity it must still be attached to the tip or else it would have flooded his system and he'd be dead already. She would have to keep him very still, and the extraction was far beyond something she had the skill to treat. The dryads may be able to help, but moving Geralt even by Ciri's teleport was just too dangerous. Someone would have to come to them. Yennefer's lips went white as she pressed them together and anger filled her like a thunderstorm, an anger she carefully folded up and kept behind her violet eyes.
There had to be another way. Any other way. Triss. A Toussaint healer. Anybody, anything but her.
Yennefer knew there was no other way, and she would not lose Geralt.
Carefully composing herself, she went back inside, standing at the end of the bed to give herself one moment to look at Geralt and Ciri. Then she squared her shoulders, held her head high, and walked around to the side where Ciri was still sleeping with her head on Geralt's shoulder.
"Ciri," she said softly, squeezing the witcheress' shoulder. Ciri blinked blearily and her hand tensed on Geralt for a moment before she visibly relaxed and looked at Yennefer. Her brow furrowed and she rubbed at her eyes.
"Yennefer?"
"Come."
Ciri really looked concerned then, and she glanced once more at Geralt before she obeyed, following Yennefer out into the foyer and then into the front courtyard. Yennefer retrieved the mandible, giving it over to Ciri before clasping both her daughter's wrists. Ciri looked from the mandible up to Yennefer's face, her own showing the fear that was building. "Yennefer, you're scaring me."
"Geralt has little time, and I cannot heal him," Yennefer said, forcing her voice to be steady, forcing herself to be strong. This was a mask she wore most of her life. If it was going to save Geralt she could wear it a while longer. "The venom sac pulled free of the mandible, and the tip is missing. Both are still inside him. If it bursts, he will die. But there is someone who can save him."
"Who?" Ciri asked, her voice and expression openly distressed. She never had mastered that part of Yennefer's teaching.
Yennefer swallowed the lump trying to tie itself in her throat and reached up to touch Ciri's temple, transferring an image she'd seen in Geralt's mind years ago when he was miserable with fever. "Her. You must find her, my daughter. Give her the mandible. Tell her what's happened."
Ciri squeezed her eyes shut for a moment and shook her head, processing the image before blinking her eyes open and fixing Yennefer with a puzzled look. "Who is she, how will I find her? How will I convince her to return with me?"
"You will find her because you must," Yennefer said softly, caressing Ciri's cheek. "And she will come with you because she must."
"What is her name?"
"Visenna."
Ciri sought Yennefer's face, seeing the barest cracks in Yennefer's careful expression. "Who is she?"
"She is Geralt's mother."
Alone in the courtyard, Yennefer took a moment to bury her face in her hands. But only a moment. Then she was back, the steel in her spine as she went to Ciri's room and woke Eskel.
"Geralt is in more danger than we realized," she told him as he got up and pulled a shirt over his head. "The venom sac is still inside him. I sent Ciri for someone who has the skill to remove it, but you must watch over Geralt until she returns. Keep him very still. Whatever that takes. I cannot put him under magically—he is too resistant to it. I need to prepare."
Eskel's eyes went wide but he did not argue. He was down the stairs in a moment and he disappeared into the bedroom.
In all the chaos Yennefer had not forgotten Teya. Quite the opposite in fact, the little girl had been in the back of her mind constantly. When she'd first felt something had gone wrong with the hunt she'd taken Teya to the eldest woman who oversaw the vineyard, knowing she had three daughters of her own and would take careful care of the infant. It was to this woman's quarters that Yennefer now went.
She knocked and Eurydice quickly answered, Teya held against one shoulder. "Oh mistress Yennefer," she gasped, backing up and ushering the sorceress inside. "How is the master?"
Yennefer sighed, reaching out to receive Teya. "He fares poorly, Eurydice," she admitted, rocking Teya gently and taking comfort from the baby's warmth. "He needs more help than I can give him."
Eurydice looked genuinely crestfallen, and she reached out a hand to squeeze Yennefer's arm. At one time, Yennefer may have thrown such a touch but she'd grown fond of the vineyard's keeper. "Oh, sweetheart. Will he—do you think it's his time?"
Yennefer's eyes hardened then and she shook her head. "He will not die."
Eurydice's eyes were sad, but she didn't argue. "I'll make some breakfast. I doubt you've eaten since he returned from that hunt."
Yennefer sank into a chair, realizing how bone weary she was all of the sudden. Eurydice was right of course, Yennefer hadn't even thought about food.
It took four days for Ciri to return. In that time Yennefer prepared. She turned the kitchen into a medic's operating room, cleansing every surface possible, sharpening tools, brewing herbs. She needn't have worried about Geralt moving. On the morning of day two the fever leveled out and he went still as a corpse. When she tried to read his mind, she could find barely anything there. He still breathed, but the color was gone from his body and it was difficult enough to get water into his failing system. Eskel watched over him day and night, his Witcher's stamina letting him go without sleep, though the weariness was evident in his eyes.
When Ciri finally returned, it was the middle of the night. Yennefer felt a change in the magic of the place and ran out of Geralt's room, having left Teya with Eurydice to ensure the girl had care no matter what happened. Ciri immediately ran to her, grabbing Yennefer's arm. The sorceress couldn't remember the last time she'd seen Ciri so frightened.
"Yennefer, I tried, I'm so sorry. I didn't want to risk getting us lost by going back too far in time, this was the closest I could get. Is he-"
"He lives," Yennefer assured, her eyes breaking from Ciri to look at the woman behind her.
Visenna's red hair was bleached by the Toussaint moonlight, and she stood there with her head high and back straight. Her skin was pale and freckled and young, like all sorceresses. She looked no older than thirty, and though there was no evidence left on her body that she'd carried a child Yennefer could see Geralt in her face. Her cheekbones, the shape of her eyes, even the curve of her shoulders, though much more delicate, evoked her son's posture. Not even Visenna's magical youth or Geralt's mutations could tear the resemblance apart.
Yennefer believed in a woman's right to decide what happened in her own life. She always had, but with Visenna she found she couldn't be so diplomatic. Everything in her urged to send the woman away, to rebuke her for throwing away something so precious, for rejecting the one thing Yennefer had always wanted and could never have. The very last thing she wanted to do was ask help from the woman who'd abandoned Geralt to a Witcher's life, but she had no choice. And she would not lose Geralt to her own anger.
"Visenna," Yennefer said softly, instead of all the things she wanted to say, squeezing Ciri's arm and moving around her.
"Where is he?" Visenna asked, a careful measure in her voice. Yennefer could see the concern in the other sorceress's eyes, could see the near imperceptible way she tightened her hand on the strap crossing her chest.
Yennefer, gestured. "Inside. He has not moved for near three days."
Inside, Eskel tensed as the three women entered, his eyes narrowing suspiciously at the newcomer. Yennefer put up a hand. "Eskel, peace. She is here to help."
Eskel got up from where he was laying next to Geralt, standing slowly and rounding the bed the way a predator did stalking prey. His shoulders were tense and Visenna met his eyes without flinching. He looked at Visenna long and hard, then something clicked in his eyes and he looked down at Geralt, then back up. For a split second there was surprise, then rage replaced it.
"What do you think you're doing here?" he demanded, moving so quickly only Ciri was able to track him. In an instant his hands were twisted in Visenna's dress and he had her picked up, pressed hard against the dresser. She startled and grabbed his wrists, but didn't try to struggle away.
"Eskel, stop. Put her down," Yennefer commanded, her eyes alight with anger of her own now.
"Give me one good reason!" He shook the sorceress. "My mother died and I was taken as payment for a debt my father couldn't pay. The merchant who took me decided I was too much trouble so Vesimir took me in. That's how I ended up at Kaer Morhen. But Geralt told me about you. You had a choice. A temple, anything. But you dumped him on the steps of Kaer Morhen not knowing if he would survive. Three in ten! Three in ten of those boys survived! In our group it was two! Two, Visenna! Me and him! What did you hope, that the trials would kill him and you wouldn't have to think about his screams?!" he shouted, and Yennefer grabbed his shoulder at this point, her eyes flashing.
"Eskel, put her down. She is a healer, without her Geralt will die."
He ground his teeth and didn't break eye contact with the sorceress. Visenna stared back at him, her eyes sad. But she said nothing.
Finally, he slowly let her down, his face twisted in a sneer. He spat at her feet and stormed out. Ciri tore herself away and followed him. Visenna flinched, but she did not react otherwise, hesitating only a moment before moving forward and finally looking at Geralt.
Yennefer stood at the edge of the room, arms folded as Visenna sat at Geralt's side, laying her hand against his brow. Again the urge to banish her, to stop her from even touching him welled up inside Yennefer and she quashed it. She could deal with everything later.
Visenna's hands were gentle, her movements practiced. She examined him silently for several minutes, peeling back bandages, listening to his breathing and to his heart. "I can remove this, but he may already be too weak to purge the rest of the venom."
Her voice was carefully emotionless. "Pray he is not," Yennefer said softly. Visenna met her eyes for the briefest moment and a silent exchange went between them.
"I will do everything in my power."
"Yes," Yennefer said. "You will."
The surgery needed all four of them, so while Visenna prepared her own tools in the kitchen Ciri moved Geralt with Eskel and Yennefer ensured they had everything they needed. She and Visenna spoke in low tones, Visenna directing and Yennefer limiting her responses only to suggestions on how she could help.
By the time they got Geralt on his stomach and settled, there was a plan. Eskel would watch to keep Geralt still through Axii and brute force if needed. Ciri would get anything the two sorceresses needed, Yennefer would help keep Geralt calm and stop the bleeding, and Visenna's entire focus would be to get the venom tip out of Geralt's back.
It had settled close to his spine, and getting between his ribs and around all of the tendons and nerves with minimal damage was the challenge. It was relatively close to the surface and thankfully not lodged in his lung, but behind it. Every breath in pressed on the venom sac and leeched a little more into his system. Getting it out and saving his life was primary, but even a retired Witcher still needed his nervous system intact and if the sac were to burst, it would eat acid like through several important nerves. He could end up paralyzed, if he survived.
Visenna's eyes glowed with a white magic as she placed a hand on Geralt's bare back, the barest flicker of something showing in them and in her pressed lips as she touched the claw marks that hadn't been there the last time she'd treated him. Yennefer stood by, her hand on his head, and said nothing.
"You must all follow my instruction precisely," Visenna said, looking up at each of them, especially lingering on Eskel. "Without cooperation anything going wrong will kill him."
Eskel's jaw clenched but he gave a stiff nod. Yennefer's eyes began to glow.
Visenna made the first cut.
It seemed to take forever. Meticulous cuts deeper and deeper into Geralt's back, peeling back skin, then fat and muscle and finally revealing bone. She had to cut slightly away from the actual site for fear of puncturing the sac. Eventually, the black-tipped spine of the mandible pressed up between red strands of muscle, a drop of pure green welling up at its end as Geralt took another breath. Visenna quickly caught it with a cloth and wiped it away, pressing her knife and her fingers into the wound to pull apart the muscle until she could see the sac. It was still swollen with venom, and that both gave Yennefer hope and set a grim line to her lips. Less than she'd feared was in Geralt's system, but they still had to extract the rest.
"Yennefer, hold his ribs open so I can remove it without placing pressure on the gland," Visenna instructed. Yennefer stroked her hand across Geralt's head as she slipped her hand from him, moving across from Visenna to work her fingers into Geralt's wound and keep it open. Blood seeped around her fingers and another drop of venom welled. Visenna quickly dabbed all of it away and discarded the rag before she paused, looking at Eskel. "Can you use Axii to still his breathing for a moment?"
"This weak, I'm thinking about using Axii to convince him to keep breathing."
She gave one nod, waiting until Eskel made the sign with one hand and pressed his palm against Geralt's temple. "Everyone be still, Ciri, ensure he does not move."
Slipping one finger in behind the mandible, Visenna muttered an incantation and her eyes glowed, a shimmering field surrounding the tip and the venom sac. With a jerk she pulled it free, holding it in her palm only long enough to make sure she got all of it. When she saw that it was intact she threw it to the ground and then things moved quickly. "Ciri, stop the bleeding. Eskel, get a new dose of golden oriel into him, Yennefer, help me sew him up."