I do not own Witcher or any of the characters.
Teaching
Eldin stared at the chunk of centipede he'd brought back to Kaer Morhen. Ciri had been the target of not only the monsters Eldin and the others had fought, but also of both Eskel's Leshy and a Myriapodon Geralt had fought, the Myriapodon killing the Leshy. The Myriapodon was something they'd never seen, but due to its centipede-like appearance, yet not being a Giant Centipede, it had been given the name it was now known by. It had a head formed from a bloody wolf skull, ram horns, three eyes with one on the left and two smaller ones on the right, a pair of arms with sickle-like claws, and then a long, centipede body. Vesemir was studying both trophies, Geralt having brought back the Myriapodon's head, and so far had found matching back dust of some kind mixed into the creatures blood. Eldin had had to wash the same dirty blood mixture off of his sword and had burned the clothes he'd been wearing, as always trading them for a worn outfit of black pants and boots, a grey shirt, and a black cloak.
"I'll need time to figure out what this is," Vesemir finally said.
Eldin nodded and headed out to the main hall where the others were eating, Aralyn passing him a bowl of stew, and Renfri passing him a beer.
"So, Eldin," Lambert said, he and Coen joining the three of them along with Geralt and Ciri. "I heard you finally had a hard fight."
"It was definitely that," Eldin nodded, "though not my hardest, by any means."
"Was the hardest the dragon?" Coen asked.
"That loss was easy," Eldin said. "The hardest was a very, very long time ago."
"What was it?" Aralyn asked.
Eldin stared at the table for a long moment before speaking. "A Miasmal."
"A what?" Bodwel asked.
"A demon," Geralt explained, looking both surprised and confused. "Where did you find it?"
"A mine where an especially cruel king was trapping any subject who contracted a plague a very long time ago," Eldin said. "The collective suffering, death, sickness, and bitterness and hate allowed the Miasmal to form and grow in power from spirit to demon."
"What's so hard about fighting it?" Lambert asked. "Does it make you sick to be around it?"
"If only," Eldin sighed. "It could possess people, but humans, normal humans or even mages, couldn't contain it long, and would be killed by it. But a Witcher could survive. Could contain it as a host. That's what I was forced to fight. A possessed Witcher. A truly ancient one, since the Miasmal stopped its host from aging."
"Wait, how old?" Lambert asked.
"Before the sacking of Kaer Morhen?" Coen asked.
"Long before," Eldin nodded. "But then, he wasn't from Kaer Morhen."
"What?" Coen asked.
"He was from Kaer Seren," Eldin said.
"A Griffin?" Bodwel asked, all of the others staring at Eldin now as he nodded.
"A Griffin?" Ciri frowned.
"A Witcher from the School of the Griffin," Geralt responded.
"Is that different than here?" Ciri asked.
"This is the School of the Wolf," Eldin explained. "Every Witcher here trained and studied here, became Witchers here, so we're Wolves."
"Are there other schools?" Ciri asked.
"There are eight total," Eldin said.
"And the Wolf School was strongest, right?" Renfri asked.
"Not exactly," Eldin shook his head, then explained. "The weakest was the School of the Crane. They were masters of combat against flying and aquatic monsters, but to the exclusion of all else, so when they were attacked by human soldiers, it was a massacre. Lynx School was the next weakest, though only because they had so few Witchers. In individual terms, they were somewhere around the tie for third, but their small numbers limited their rank. After them was the Ursine Witchers, the School of the Bear. They were powerful, but they valued brute force above all else. Heavy armor, greatswords and warhammers, direct assaults. They never fought using a tactic that didn't involve overwhelming force, so they were easily defeated by such tactics. A feint from the front, then reinforcements from the rear."
"Next was the Feline School, Cat Witchers," Geralt said. "They became little more than a guild of assassins by the end, and most used daggers and light armor, if they wore any at all. They lacked military strength in a stand-up fight, so their destruction was easier than it could have been, and also was accomplished through a series of false assassination contracts that were traps and ambushes. Above them is the tie for third. The Viper and Manticore Schools. Viper leaned more toward fighting humans or being assassins, and Manticore leaned more toward monsters. Of the two, I'd wager Viper was slightly stronger."
"Next is the School of the Wolf," Eldin said. "We used a balanced form of training, preparing for anything, and earned ourselves our place. However, the School of the Griffin outstripped us. With Geralt as an exception, it would take two to three Wolf School Witchers to defeat one Griffin."
"You're also an exception," Geralt spoke up. "Griffin School clung onto Knightly honor and focused on Magic first, swordplay second, and tactics of combat third. They were masters of violence."
"When Kaer Morhen and most of the others were wiped out, it was by a small army of soldiers led by a handful of mages," Eldin said, eyes narrowed. "When the School of the Griffin at Kaer Seren was attacked, it was by the armies of three separate kingdoms and dozens of mages from the Conclave, now known as ths Brotherhood. With so many mages at the forefront of the siege, defenses were useless. Any that the Witchers tried, the mages merely blasted apart. Finally, the Witchers were forced to abandon honor to survive.
"They cast monster bait among the army and retreated into Kaer Seren, as well as the tunnels below it, leaving the beasts they'd summoned to have their fun with the army. Once the army had dealt with them, after massive amounts of casualties, they moved to break into Kaer Seren. The Sorcerers and Sorceresses cleared their way by causing an avalanche. Then, the Keep was stormed. And then, it was a slaughter. Inside the Keep and its tunnels, where there was a restricted amount of room, and where the Witchers had set traps, they were able to ambush soldiers and mages alike. The invading force believed they were about to clean up a broken enemy force and dropped their guard as they entered, only to be slaughtered. Finally, after roughly fifty percent of the combined force had been decimated by the Witchers, the battle finally ended with the Witchers' defeat."
"How do you...know all of this?" Ciri asked.
"Because he was there," Vesemir spoke up. "Eldin finished training before the Sacking of Kaer Morhen, though not by much, and went to visit a friend at Kaer Seren."
"And then I watched him die," Eldin said, staring at the table. "We fought in the tunnels. We were winning, until a Mage brought the tunnel down on us. My friend used Ard to throw me clear of the collapse, but was crushed to death himself." He reached into his shirt, pulling out his medallion, his forward-facing, three-dimensional wolf-head carving, unlike the others' coin-shaped medallions. When he turned the wolf head toward himself, however, it revealed a similar carving of a forward-facing Griffin head. "I was the only survivor, and it took me days to excavate myself, during which time I also found my friend and buried him and the others. By the time I got back here, Kaer Morhen had already been sacked as well."
Everyone was silent for a long while.
"So, that Miasmal," Lambert said. "How'd you kill it?"
"I fought the Witcher it was possessing, nearly died by his hand, then killed him," Eldin removed his cloak, shirt, and dragon scale shirt as he spoke. He had a handful of scars, but the most grizzly among them was a stab wound just to the left of his heart and sideways to slip the blade between his ribs. "His blade broke through my Quen barrier easily, but it deflected enough to miss my heart." He began to dress himself again. "The Miasmal left the host bosy to fight me directly, to finish me, but I was able trap it with Yrden, then used Aard to blast it, repeating it over and over until its body was broken and a part of the salt mine's roof caved in on it. Then I was found by a healer mage who managed to repair the damage, minus the scar on my skin."
"Alright, I'm never pissing you off," Lambert said.
"You piss me off now, I put my mask on and everyone nearby dies," Eldin warned him. "Even Aralyn and Renfri aren't safe."
"And on that happy note," Vesemir spoke up, "I hope you all saved me some food. It'd be a shame if I had to remind you all why you feared me when you trained under me."
Everyone laughed, the foul mood broken, and Lambert served Vesemir.
Eldin carefully poured the glowing red fluid into the elixir, then put the stopper in it and shook it as he chanted in Elder Speech, the mixture swirling and combining, the red glow turning first yellow, then green. Finally, he stopped, inspecting the mixture before nodding to himself and pouring it into a metal and glass phial like the similar blue one he'd drank during the battle with the Giant Centipedes. Once finished, he capped the phial, then chanted a second spell just as Triss walked into the room, raising an eyebrow.
"A regeneration spell?" Triss asked.
"Saves me from having to scavenge monster parts," Eldin shrugged.
"Monster parts?" Triss frowned.
"Eldin is the best alchemist I've ever known," Vesemir said, stepping into the room. "He's found a way to break a monster's remains down to their base DNA, their cells, pure and untainted by the world, and then combine that with our elixirs into a sort of decoction that enhances his mutations."
"It doesn't enhance them, it alters them," Eldin corrected. "It gives me specific abilities, like enhancing the power of my signs, enhancing my strength or reaction time, my senses, give me night vision. I've been searching for a monster that will give me the ability to heal faster."
"Have you tried a High Vampire?" Vesemir asked.
"First I'd have to find one," Eldin said. "I got a Bruxa one, but it gives me sonar."
"You can't choose an ability?" Triss asked.
"Nope," Eldin said. "So, where's Geralt? I haven't seen him around today."
"I sent him to see a friend of mine about the Stellacite Monoliths," Triss said.
"Why?" Eldin asked.
"The Leshy that turned Eskel and the thing that attacked Ciri, what were you calling it?" Triss asked.
"Myriapodon," Eldin said.
"Yes, that," Triss nodded. "They both had Stellacite in them."
"So did that Giant Centipede piece you brought back," Vesemir said.
"So that's what that black shit was," Eldin nodded. "I'm glad I didn't try to make a decoction out of them, then."
"What's that one?" Triss asked.
"It's from a pair of Treants we fought just before the Giant Centipedes," Eldin said. "I'm sure it was Eskel's Leshy that sent them after us, but they're free of Stellacite."
"Do you know what it does?" Triss asked.
Eldin uncapped it and took a long whiff before capping it again. "Camouflage."
Triss made an impressed face and nodded. "Impressive."
Eldin shrugged. "Still don't have one to heal wounds instantly."
Triss smirked, shaking her head. "With your armor, you really don't need it that bad."
"True, I suppose," Eldin shrugged. "Alright, I should get back to my room before the others wake up."
Triss raised an eyebrow, but Eldin ignored her, storing his new decoction in his satchel with the others as he made his way through the keep to his room. As he walked in, however, Aralyn was lying between Renfri's legs alread. He smiled, rolling his eyes and shedding his clothes.
"You couldn't even wait?" He asked as he lined himself up with Aralyn's soaked entrance and pushed into her, Aralyn moaning into Renfri.
"We were just keeping ourselves busy," Renfri grinned. "But we'll accept a punishment if you think we deserve it."
Eldin rolled his eyes, gripping Aralyn's hips before beginning to hilt himself in her over and over again roughly, Aralyn moaning and mewling as she bucked back into him.
Eldin smirked as Lambert crouched. Then, when he lunged, Renfri knocked his sword aside before slamming the flat of her blade into his chest, knocking him to the ground before holding her blade to his throat. Coen, Bodwel, and several of the others laughed.
"Well done," Eldin grinned as Renfri helped Lambert up, then walked over to kiss Eldin.
"Jesus woman," Lambert said, shaking his head. "I'll admit, Eldin, you trained her well."
Eldin grinned, then drew his own sword, Aralyn stepping forward to face him. Both readied themselves, then struck, their blades clasing over and over rapidly. Aralyn's blade tore a slit in Eldin's shirt's side, his opposite shoulder, his pants' thigh. Finally, Eldin managed to sweep her legs, tripping her before stopping with the tip of his blade to her throat, the tip of her own pressing firmly to his abdomen.
"Damn," Coen said. "If not for your armor, you'd have lost."
"I know," Eldin nodded. "Aralyn's better than me."
"Eldin," Vesemir spoke up, Eldin turning to him. "We need you."
Eldin followed him into Kaer Morhen, Aralyn and Renfri continuing training with the other Witchers. After a few minutes, they'd reached the room where everyone made new elixirs where Triss had just finished filling a phial with Ciri's blood.
"What's going on?" Eldin asked.
"Ciri is a child of Elder Blood," Vesemir said. "We were hoping you could help use her blood to make a new Witcher mutagen."
Eldin stared at Vesemir, then Triss. Finally, he nodded, holding his arm out to Triss. She obediently drew some of his blood and Eldin poured a nearby bottle of a clear, acidic liquid into it, capped it, and shook it. After a moment, the mixture turned a light, sky blue. He set it in a stand, then turned to the much larger phial of Ciri's blood, pouring some into a smaller bottle, then turning to the other ingredients around them. Among them were a cluster of purple flowers with yellow centers.
"Do you know why Feainnewedd is so special, Vesemir?" Eldin asked.
"It only grows where Elder Blood is spilled," Vesemir said.
"That's true," Eldin nodded. "But that's not the whole story. According to the Griffin's records, it's part of the original Witcher mutagen recipe. It allows the Elder Blood to mutate normal human cells instead of destroying them."
He plucked the petals of several flowers and ground them into powder, adding them to the bottle of Ciri's blood, also adding a few other ingredients, then reached into his satchel, pulling out a bottle of a thick, dark fluid.
"What's that?" Vesemir frowned.
"The third most important ingredient," Eldin said. "Vesemir, quiz for you from your student. What monster's blood was used along with the catalist to create Witchers?"
Vesemir frowned. "There was monster blood?"
"Only one," Eldin said. "Archgriffin."
He poured some into the bottle, then more into one of his elixirs. He passed the Witcher mutagen in progress to Triss as he chanted over his decoction, using his free hand to mime her shaking the bottle, as he was doing with his own. Once he was finished with his decoction, he sniffed it and sighed, adding a regeneration spell so that it would refil itself from even a drop left in the bottle within twenty four hours, then capped it and stored it, taking the bottle back from Triss. He chanted a short incantation, and the mutagen turned from dark blood red to pitch black. He poured a small amount into a phial, adding the clear fluid, then shook it. After a few seconds, it turned a dark blue, almost purple, and Eldin frowned.
"Did it work?" Ciri asked.
"No," Eldin said, just as the fluid darkened again to black. "Her blood's too strong. I'll have to adjust the recipe to compensate. It'll take me time."
"Alright," Vesemir nodded. "Will you need more blood?"
"Not yet," Eldin said. "Maybe if I can't get the mixture right in a handful of tries, but for now, I have enough. Then I'll need more to make a stock, but we'll worry about that after."
"Then I'm going to go wash up," Ciri said.
She left, and Eldin looked to Vesemir.
"What else is this about, Vesemir?" Eldin asked. "I can see something bothering you."
Vesemir hesitated. "She wants to be the first. The first new Witcher. It was her choice."
Triss gaped at him incredulously, then stormed out of the room after Ciri. Eldin sighed, shook his head, and returned to his project.
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