A/N: Happy New Year, first of all!
This chapter and the next one are heavily influenced by all the MMORPGs I played over the years and this is my take on how dungeons and raids would be if they were real. The possibilities for crossovers are almost endless when you have characters who can travel through time & space in the story and it felt wrong to not take advantage of that part of the lore. I hope you enjoy the trip!
He could hardly believe he was only a few days away from going back to the Continent and Ciri. Time flew by once they returned home after Christmas and began making preparation for their impending trip to the Continent. The hardships of life wouldn't be the only problems she'd have to face. She'd have to deal with the people there and do her best to blend in. To this effect, she sketched out a few outfits under his guidance and had the garments commissioned from a seamstress. That way, she'd have a chance of fitting into the scenery, at least at first glance. If anyone knowledgeable took a closer look, they'd see that the fabrics and the stitching stood apart. But that was something unlikely to happen, and even if it did, they would justify it as an exotic acquisition from Zerrikania.
"So what's the story we're going with?" she asked him as she tried on the clothes.
"I was thinking something half-true, so it's easier to keep track of the lies. Maybe keep the professional identity you have here. And if anyone asks why you're with me, say you hired me for protection. All see us as hired muscle anyway, and it's not completely unfounded."
"Alright, I can do that."
"The part I'm not sure about," he continued, "is what to say about your magic skills when the need arises. How much of them are you willing to admit to?"
"Depends on who we're talking to, I guess. How much do you trust your friends?"
"Dandelion and Zoltan, I'd trust with my life. Same as Eskel, Lambert and Yen, of course. Ciri goes without saying. The only ones I worry about are the Lodge sorceresses. Philipa especially. She's hellbent on power at all costs. Don't trust her with Ciri and I wouldn't trust her with you."
"And the rest of the Lodge? I thought Yennefer was a member."
"She was. Is. I don't know what's her standing with them right now. You can trust Triss Merigold, I think. She's made some poor decisions in the past, but she cares for Ciri, and she won't betray you. Keira is pretty decent, but she always has something up her sleeve. Would trust her about as far as I could throw her. Margarita was a good friend of Yen's so she might be alright, but I don't know her well enough to vouch for her. Don't even know if she's still alive. We tried to track her down but failed. There are a few more in their little organisation, but I know even less about them."
"In that case, maybe I'll lean more into the healing aspect of my abilities and less on everything else. I don't want to advertise new avenues of magic with them or it might give them ideas. There are plenty of ways to misuse that knowledge."
"Good. I agree." He thought for a moment, then felt he needed to give her another word of advice. "In general, you might not want to advertise any magic, healing included. And here I don't mean with the Lodge, but with everyone else. There's not a lot of love for mages at the moment."
She hummed in acknowledgement. "I'll make sure to adapt my story depending on who's around."
She took off the garments and placed them next to the rest of the things she intended to take with her.
"That's all?" he asked, looking at the small pile.
"I think it's better to travel light. Whatever items I'm missing, I can acquire there."
"That's why I got these," he said, rummaging through his own things. He took out a pouch and spilt its contents on the bed. Pieces of jewellery poured onto the covers. "When Ciri brought me to you, I didn't have my coin purse on me, but I went out yesterday and used the money in my account to buy these. We can exchange them for the things we need on our way."
"This reminds me…" She shifted from one foot to the other, shy to continue. "I have a debt to settle. Your sword. I've yet to pay Master Albion for his work. So my first trip should be to Idris."
"And?" he asked with a quirked eyebrow, feeling her unease.
She blushed. "I can drop you off on the Continent and join you later. That way I won't cause you any delay while I pay the blacksmith and maybe see some of my friends."
His eyes narrowed, focusing on the redness in her cheeks. "Or you could take me with you. I'm curious to see that part of your life."
"Aren't you eager to get back to Ciri?"
"Mhm, but the way you blushed just now makes me want to meet your friends more."
Her blush darkened further. "It's not what you think. I don't go around sleeping with my friends, but they mean a lot to me. We've been through a lot together and it's been tough not being able to see them for so long. Before you, they used to be the only ones I could talk to for the past decade and I miss them terribly."
"Why didn't you say anything until now?"
"And burden you or make you feel guilty? No, I couldn't. Not when it was my choice to link myself to you. I knew what I was signing up for."
He closed the distance between them and wrapped her in an embrace.
"I don't want you to feel like there's something you can't talk to me about. And you have to stop trying to coddle me. There's no such thing as burdening me."
"Fine, but you have to be honest with me too. When you asked to meet them, was that jealousy speaking?"
"A bit. You said you were involved with someone like you. For a moment, I imagined he might have been one of your friends. The idea that you might have an Istredd of your own… It terrifies me."
"An Istredd? What's that supposed to mean? Isn't he Yen's…" Her words trailed off as realization dawned on her face.
"Yes, he is. And Yen cheated on me with him." He cleared his throat and scratched his chin. "It was bad. Really bad. She spent her nights with me and her days with him. And even worse… I had to find out from him. Thought I'd die. She hurt me so bad that I wanted to die."
"You think I'd do that to you?" she asked, frowning.
"No, not really. But…"
"But what?"
He sighed. "But I didn't think Yen would either."
She crawled out of his arms and took a step back. "I know she did a number on you, but you can't keep holding that against me," she chided. "As for my old fling - cause that's all he ever was - I'd like to say I haven't seen him since, but that would be lying. He's not part of my close friends, but he's a top tier mage and I need to work with him from time to time on tough jobs. But whenever I see him, it's only for professional reasons and there's no love lost between us."
"Sorry, I didn't mean to come across as accusatory."
Her face softened. "Sometimes it feels like I have to atone for all the wrongs sorceresses have done to you over the years, and I don't know how to cope with that. Most of the time I can brush it off, but sometimes it's just too much. It's like a constant fight where I'm always a step behind, struggling to compensate."
"Damn! I really don't want to make you feel that way. Come here," he said, taking a step towards her with his arms open. He curled around her protectively and placed a kiss on her temple. "I love you, but I'm so bad at this."
She huffed and pressed her cheek to his chest. "I'm not great at it either, but I'm better at keeping most of my malignant thoughts and worries to myself."
"I have a hard time believing you have any such thoughts."
"I do, but I realize they're the product of past trauma, so I try not to voice them."
"You know that's not healthy, right?"
She just chuckled. "Yeah, but I never claimed I was well-adjusted. I'm just as fucked up as the next person."
He caressed her cheek and tilted her chin up to gaze into her eyes. "Want to tell me what those thoughts and worries are? Might help ease your mind."
"Fine, but keep in mind that I know this is just my paranoia talking." She looked to the side and bit her lip. "I worry about being discarded."
"What?" he asked, dumbstruck, but she looked as serious as can be.
She smoothed her hand over his chest, then played with a button of his shirt, keeping her eyes on it. Her brow creased as she chose her words.
"I'm used to being seen as… well, useful. And sometimes I think that when I'm no longer needed, then I'll get left behind." She shook her head, still not looking at him. "But I know you're not like that."
"Damn right I'm not, but it sounds like someone did a number on you too!"
She laughed lightly and looked at him with warm eyes, so he leaned in, smiling.
"It's true that I need you, but not because of your use. Useful is the last thing I ever see you as. It's hard to put into words, but know that my need for you will never end. It's unquenchable," he said, with his forehead resting against hers, then kissed her.
It was finally time for them to leave her world. Their first stop, Idris. An oasis for all who, like her, fought to keep the balance. Before creating the portal that would take them there, she took out a gem from among her jewellery and, between her fingers, it transformed into a small hourglass.
"What's that for?" he asked, intrigued.
"It's an anchor to ground our return in time. It's very difficult to be precise when time passes at different rates in each world. Without something like this, I might miss the mark by days, weeks or even months."
She placed it on the dressing table, and the sand inside it began to pour down.
The portal she made looked very much like all the others he had seen. Through the middle of the blurry circle that enclosed it, he saw a fuzzy image of what lay beyond. The sight was so foreign it didn't make much sense to his mind, and he cursed himself for agreeing to go through more portals than was strictly necessary.
She said that there's no fighting allowed on that world aside from arranged matches, and yet he loathed to part with his gear, so he dressed in full armour and strapped his new sword onto his back, while she wore only a thin ivory dress and flat sandals, claiming it's much too warm on Idris for anything else.
Looking back at him, she grabbed his hand and walked through the shining portal. He refrained from telling her just how much he hated and distrusted portals. Instead, he calmly walked with her into the abyss.
On the other side, after the usual sickening nothingness that accompanied all portal travel, he stepped out into the confines of a seemingly empty space and looked at her with a raised eyebrow.
"This is my house," she said, gesturing towards the empty room. "It's considered impolite to portal directly into public space. Everyone uses designated areas or their own home. In this case, I needed to pick up something from here first."
He nodded in acknowledgement, mostly out of habit because for the life of him he couldn't figure out what she could pick up when there was nothing there. He looked around curiously. There were no solid walls. All around, they were surrounded by glass walls and the ceiling appeared to be suspended in space as if defying gravity. He wondered if this resulted from some magic she infused into the walls or just unknown technology.
When she took her first steps away from where they exited the portal, furniture grew out of the ground where previously there had been only empty flooring. She crossed the room and stood in an empty space. A green light swept over her body from head to toe, and after a beeping sound, a door opened into thin air and the image of a room filled with laden shelves was visible on the other side. He rounded the door and gazed in amazement at the empty space behind it. Was this a new kind of portal?
"What the fucking hell?" He couldn't help his surprise. He thought he had seen it all, but if her world had seemed strange to him, this one took the cake.
"Security measures for my vault," she explained in that matter-of-fact voice she got sometimes. Again, he could do nothing except nod.
She dipped inside the room to rummage through the shelves while he looked out through the glass walls, only to see that they were at a considerable distance from the ground. In fact, they were so high up that it might have made a normal man nauseous. Lower, below them, there were other such glass cubes seamlessly floating above the ground. He couldn't be sure as he couldn't see through the floor below, but he judged that they must have been suspended mid-air in the same way. A lump lodged in his throat just at the thought of it.
His gaze moved over the horizon instead. Standing below them and expanding as far as the eye could see, was a reddish-brown desert landscape with jagged terrain. Not even a spot of green could be seen anywhere. It was a true barren land. He peeked over his shoulder to see Criss pull out a pouch from a shelf in the vault. She emptied the contents of the pouch onto a floating metal tabletop. Small pebbles that looked completely unremarkable rolled out onto the cold surface of the table, making a melodious jingling sound. She moved her fingers through them, picking out some and taking them to the side to form a small pile. After counting them, she put the rest inside the pouch, then looked up at him.
"What is considered valuable in your world? Something that might be used as a currency without it being necessarily specific to one kingdom or another."
"Precious stones, silver, gold. That's about it." His eyes stole to the pile of common rocks. He assumed, based on pure logic, that they must be precious somehow, otherwise, she wouldn't have kept them in a secure vault. "Are those a form of currency?" He nodded towards the pile.
"Mhm, few things are more precious."
"And you made these? Like my armour and silver sword?"
"Yes, and no. Can't make anything from nothing. Your armour and weapons were made from resources found in the soil of the forest. It was a simple matter of transforming what was there into something more refined."
"Mhm, real simple," he stated ironically, so she continued on, explaining the process.
"It's like alchemy. That's probably the closest thing to it. The environment provides the material basis, I provide the energy and intent, the result is controlled fusion."
"So what are they?" He approached the tabletop and ran his fingers over the stones, spreading them across the surface. His gesture was short-lived as the mere touch of them felt like he was being burned alive and images of great beasts danced through his mind. He pulled back his hand instantly. "You could have warned me," he said, still feeling the singing touch of the rocks.
"These are enchantments made from the essence of creatures I've fought. They are as rare as the beasts that spawn them, perhaps even rarer since it takes knowledge to make them."
"What will you do with them?"
"Pay my debt to Master Albion. Sama is a poor choice of person to send on an errand to a merchant. He doesn't appreciate the value of haggling, he just accepts the first price he's told. And Albion knows that if I sent Sama, then I was desperate and willing to pay whatever he asked, so he took advantage."
"Sounds like a bit of a prick," he said and looked at her amused face. "What?"
"Nothing." She broke out into a wide smile. "It's sweet that you're so protective, but there's no need. Even if I grumble about his business practices, Albion is the best and the sword he made you is fully worth its price."
He scratched his neck and gave her a crooked smile.
"I don't like the idea of anyone taking advantage of your kindness."
His remark earned him a kiss and as his hand slipped down from her waist, he realized he hadn't seen a bed or a bath in the whole glass cube. She pulled away from him and caressed the side of his face, sensing his heated thoughts.
"We'll have plenty of time for that later. First, I need to take care of the business I have here."
He expected her to take them through another portal to leave the cube, but instead, they walked onto a circle drawn on the floor. There was a flash of light, and then they were standing in a busy square. She dragged him by the hand and the next second someone else appeared behind them, where he had stood.
"You have to move fast here. These transporters are very busy this time of night."
"Night?"
He wondered if his witcher sight was that much better than hers that he could no longer tell the difference between day and night. Looking up, he saw a glowing sun above, high in the sky. It most definitely wasn't night, and the look he gave her stated just that.
"Trust me, it's nighttime here by their standards. The second sun will rise in a few hours and then you'll see what I mean."
He looked around as she dragged him through the bustling streets. People and creatures were moving in every direction, going in and out of buildings at a pace that made him dizzy. He couldn't recognize most of the species he saw. There were some humans and elves among them, but at the same time, there were so many other humanoid forms he had never seen before. He tried not to gawk, but some were downright unbelievable.
"We're here." She pointed across the street to a building that didn't look like it had an entrance. It didn't even look like a building at all, just a giant metal cube like all the rest. What was it with these people and cubes? Did they really lack imagination or were they just so very practical? His question was answered when a cube, the same size as all the others, floated down on top of another one. A few more followed, stacking up neatly. Indeed, they looked practical, like one of those legos Criss's nephew played with.
She tugged at his arm and he realized he had been frozen in place, watching the ever-moving cubes. His attention turned back to her as he followed behind her. She stopped in front of the building and touched the metal surface. A panel drifted to the side to let them in.
Inside were bright white walls on which hung a myriad of weapons ranging from your everyday daggers to swords, greatswords, poleaxes, maces, bows, axes, scimitars and many others, some having shapes he had never encountered before, some of them probably could only be wielded by certain races. Judging from the grips, races with six hands.
He heard footsteps echoing closer to them, and soon a red-haired burly dwarf with a plaited knee-length beard appeared in the room. Criss bowed her head, and Geralt followed suit, assuming that was the correct way to greet someone in this place. The dwarf mimicked their movement and spoke in a hoarse voice.
"Welcome, Criss, dear, I assume you're here to settle the matter of the payment." The dwarf eyed the hilt of his sword, which was visible over his shoulder, and nodded appreciatively. "I trust your companion is happy with my work. It is one of the finest weapons I've made to date."
"Indeed," Criss nodded curtly in acknowledgement, "and probably one of the more expensive as well," she added as she extracted the small pouch in which she had deposited the enchantment stones.
The dwarf approached her and produced a plate on which she spilt the contents of the pouch. He pulled out what looked like a monocle and examined the stones, careful not to touch them. As experience taught Geralt, it was a rather unpleasant experience to make contact with any of them.
"I'm surprised you feel the need to check them. I don't remember ever cheating you," she said, half-joking.
"Sorry, it's a force of habit." The dwarf's apology was clearly only for show as he continued to eye each stone in turn.
"Mhm, I'm sure. If you're satisfied with their quality - which I'm sure you'll be - you can bring out the weapons and pair them accordingly."
After finishing with all the stones, the dwarf hummed appreciatively. "They're true beauties and I have just the weapons to go with them."
He moved to an empty stand and touched its base. A circle glowed and in it appeared a beautiful bow with exquisite details down its length. He used a pair of tweezers to select one of the stones. Apparently, Criss needed no more instructions to go with his gestures. She simply picked up the stone with two delicate fingers and the bow with her other hand. When she ran the stone over the bow's limbs, her eyes sparkled gold for the duration of the movement and runes appeared. She replaced the bow in the glowing circle and it disappeared, in its stead appearing a mace. He watched as she enchanted the mace in much of the same way, the only difference being the shape and colour of the runes inscribed on the weapon's surface. The mace was replaced by a sword, then an axe, then another sword, so on and so forth different weapons appeared until all of the twelve stones had each been paired with a weapon.
"Pleasure doing business with you, as always," the dwarf beamed, clearly happy with his profit margin.
"Likewise," she replied, but her face betrayed her unhappiness with being cheated out of what he imagined being a small fortune. "Our business being concluded, I hope you can excuse our rapid departure. We have other urgent matters to attend to."
"Sure, sure, my dear. I reckoned as much, considering Akira has been by today to purchase some of those piercing arrows she is so fond of."
"She has?" There was genuine surprise in her voice.
"Mhm. Mentioned she'll be meeting Lyari at the Circle, said something about a trip to Twenty-One." Criss blanched upon hearing the news and the dwarf caught on quick. Like all merchants, he was very keen on his customers' reactions. "I assumed you'll be going with them, but judging from your face, I reckon maybe not."
"Thank you, Master Albion." She bowed her head and turned to leave, grabbing Geralt's arm on her way. "Can't believe they planned to go without me," she muttered in a low voice, "I'm sorry Geralt, but we might need to make one more trip before setting out for your home."
She walked briskly, dragging him by the arm to make sure he wasn't falling behind while looking at the wonders of this world. He had no trouble keeping her pace and admiring the shopfronts they passed in their hurry, but he was more curious what the cause of her hurry was.
"Perhaps you'd like to share where we're heading with such urgency and why," he said, hoping it was enough to prompt an explanation out of her. She shot him a quick glance, and he could tell she was torn and unhappy.
"You're going to get your wish sooner than I expected." She sighed loudly. "You'll get to meet a couple of my friends and learn more about my off-world life. And probably stop them from doing something idiotic."
Her pace quickened, and she didn't stop until they reached The Circle, which turned out to be a bar. Upon entering, she set out straight for a table in a corner where a man and woman were sitting in the dim blue light. The woman stood up and Geralt could tell at a glance that she was at least a head taller than him and very muscular. She rushed towards Criss, who let go of his arm and wrapped the woman in an embrace that made him envious. Only then did he notice that the woman wasn't fully human. Her eyes were catlike, much like his own, only they were blue and she had a streak of fur growing from her nape down to her lower back where her tail began, a tail she had now coiled around Criss's thighs. The man also stood up from the table and walked towards them to put his arms around both women. Geralt watched as Criss sank into their embrace for a moment, completely rejoicing in the reunion before pulling away and punching them both in their arms with a scowl on her face.
"You idiots! Whose idea was it?"
Neither the man nor the woman answered. Instead, they looked at each other with the unspoken question of "Who the fuck told her?"
"Albion told me," she answered the look in their eyes. "Now you're gonna tell me which one of you came up with it?"
Geralt couldn't say he understood any of what she was talking about, but it was clearly something that had made her furious. He hoped that an explanation would follow soon, preferably after she had done him the courtesy of introducing him to her friends. Until then, he stood in place, with his arms crossed over his chest, waiting for her to remember his existence.
"Does it even matter? Now you're back and you can come with us and then it won't be such a hair-brained idea anymore." It was the man who answered in a low rumbling voice that didn't match his slim build, nor his pointy ears that gave away his Elven origin.
Criss looked back as if she suddenly remembered she wasn't there alone and her eyes pleaded for him to come over. He uncrossed his arms and walked up to them unhurriedly. They both studied him with curious eyes and both eyed the hilt of his sword.
"This is Geralt of Rivia, my... pair." Geralt smiled in approval at the title she gave him. This one he liked.
Both her friends raised their eyebrows in surprise and bowed their heads respectfully towards him. She continued to make the introductions.
"This is Akira Faxess," she pointed to the tall feline-looking woman, "and Lyari Dahana," she turned to the elf. Geralt bowed his head in response to their greeting.
"Pleased to make yourrr acquaintance," the woman spoke in a very feminine voice that didn't match her look and each of her "r"s rolled like a purr. "Perrrhaps yourrr lovely pairrr would like to join us as well. I see he is arrrmed and looks capable of handling his own."
"I never said I was going with you," Criss teased, and the elf roared with laughter.
"I know you've been away for a while, but I doubt you've changed so much that you would leave us without a healer in the face of danger."
"Hmm, perhaps I have," she teased again, but her friends simply scoffed. "Before I decide, I need to confer with Geralt for a moment."
She pulled him to the side and looked pleadingly into his eyes.
"He is right, Geralt. I can't let them go alone. The idiots will get themselves killed without a healer." She bit her lip and looked at the pair, then back at Geralt. "I don't know what to do. This was supposed to be just a simple visit, not a job. And I know you didn't sign up for this. Do you want to come with me or wait for me here?"
"I go where you go," he told her without a second thought. "It'll give me a chance to try out your Christmas present," he added with a charming smile that made her sigh and press herself to his chest. She looked deep into his eyes for a moment, then her lips closed over his in a sweet and thankful kiss.
"Thank you," the corner of her mouth lifted in a smile, "I never thought I'd have someone with whom I could share this."
"I'm not sure exactly what this is yet, but if I know you're part of it, that's all I need." He took a moment to laugh at himself, he was so smitten with her that he was becoming quite good at this sugary way of speaking. Dandelion would be proud of his friend.
Her fingers interlaced with his in a tender touch and she walked back to her friends, holding his hand. They had watched the exchange from afar and it was obvious they knew what the conclusion was since they were already preparing their weapons.
"You're in luck, it seems. I'll go with you and so will Geralt. If everyone is prepared, we can leave at once."
They both nodded in unison and seeing as there was no one around to be bothered by her lack of decorum, she quickly summoned a portal through which they walked without hesitation.
A/N: Yen cheating on Geralt is a reference to A Shard of Ice story from the books. The TV show hinted a bit at it with the whole "Yen"/"Yenna" exchange but didn't give full context to the rivalry between Geralt and Istredd.
I added the anchors to help make sense and add some rules for time travel since that's always a sticky point in such stories. I'm not claiming to fix all possible paradoxes that stem from time travel, but I'm trying to make it as logical as possible.
Thank you for reading! Would love it if you left a comment!