Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters of the witcher. Those are property of Mr Sapkowski and I using Netflix series canon mixed with the books and my twisted version of the lore.

Warnings : war scene, gore, suicide scene.

Notes : I am late again. I had a hard time at the rereading phase. I needed to rewrite some part.
I am still not very happy with it because of the pacing again.

Destiny - Part 5

The fall of Cintra

###

He was alone in the jails. Silence was all he knew to the exception of a sort of random slow dripping sound coming from somewhere far from his position. After two days in his cell, every new drop falling was hitching his nerves. He could hear a distant humming sometimes too but the structure of the jails was making it hard to locate the real position. Eventually he wasn't totally alone in here. He spent the most of his time mediating, trying to reach some peace of mind in his precarious situation.

A guard - a very young soldier - was coming twice a day for two simple tasks : feed him with the most disgusting food he ever had eaten and change his bucket, which he learned quickly would serve for his hygiene, his hydration and his basic physical needs. This was humiliating but at least they were keeping him alive and seemed not in a hurry to kill him, as promised by the King Eist the first time he came.

He had to wait what he thought was a full week, considering the meals he had, for someone to actually talk to him properly. And it was not who he expected to be.

###

Calanthe came alone. She wasn't wearing any royal attributes, and seemed to have jumped in the gears of her husband, but the details were telling him another story. She smelt like blood washed with a floral soap and the large shirt she was in was definitely hers. Her long brown hair wasn't very well combed but expertly attached for someone in a hurry. She leaned against a pillar in a very masculine posture, trying to hide the anger boiling under the surface.

- "One week in my jails before my husband revealed the truth to me." She said after a hour long feeling minutes.

- "Which truth ?" Asked Geralt in return with a very deep voice, as he didn't used his vocal chords for so long.

- "You came here to take my little girl away. Twice. Bastard." She had tears in her eyes but she was holding them fiercely.

He was prepared to face her and her vivid emotions. He needed to be the calmest he could. This was the only way he could find his way through her.

- "I came twice to warn you about the dangers coming your way and to talk to you. I wished to convince you to let me help you protect her." She frowned.

- "Isn't it the same in the end ?"

- "No. I don't plan on keeping her away from you. Just protect her for the time you manage to face the Nilfgaardian army."

She was still angry, he could tell, but she almost calmed down. This was a positive trigger.

- "Why ?"

- "I believe this is what I am destined for."

- "You ? Believe in Destiny." She scoffed. "What happened to you ?"

- "A lot… I still don't really believe in it, if I am honest. But by the Law of Surprise I have at least a duty to Cirilla. And I am a witcher, I protect, so…"

- "You kill monsters for a living. This is no place for a child." She spat, cutting him short.

Geralt almost smiled at that remark. This was the point exactly that shattered his relation with Yennefer. Calanthe was thinking like him. At least he wasn't alone and that was from a mother's side. He controlled his emotions and replied.

- "Everything in my life is now pointing in your direction, even if I tried to avoid it. So I am here trying to do the best I can to help, because this is what I believe I can do."

- "I do not wish for it." She almost screamed back at him.

- "I know. But then what's next ?"

- "You, hanging by your neck on the public place, as enemy of Cintra." Geralt gulped. Now, he knew he would have to fight his way out for his life. "But don't worry you have a few days before that to meditate on your actions and on destiny."

- "I believe I meditated enough on that for the last decade and it seemed that I had no choice. But you have. Don't lose this opportunity like I did."

- "You are right, witcher. I have the choice, and I have chosen… I won't repeat myself. And now if you'll excuse me, I have to do what I do best first to protect my people."

- "What is that ?" He asked, trying to hide, the best he could, his anxiety.

- "War." She growled, with tears in her eyes and the most chilling smile he ever saw on someone.

She simply went away, disappearing in the shadows of the underground, leaving him with that heavy silence of the jails and its little random dripping noise. Why wouldn't drops follow a pattern ? He thought as he was trying to avoid the present reality. He was condemned to death, in a near future, just a few meters from his objective, and Calanthe was on her way for a rampage in front of the most unusual army Geralt had ever seen.

The Queen seemed crazy but her eyes were telling him another story. Her tears were the ones he stubbornly refused to shed when he was in a similar state of mind, and a proof of what Mousesack and Eist told him about her. She was unstoppable as long as she was fighting for her child. This was the love of a mother. Something he doubted he ever knew.

But more than that - beyond that. She was him before the mountains, during the mountains even, fighting with every fiber of his being the path chosen for him. She was him before he lost everything. She was him before he broke and followed the path chosen for him. And if she was really like him, he pitied her for the storm she would endure. It would be more than a shattered heart and a deceived soul to make her bend. He didn't like her - he didn't have to - he simply understood.

Now it was time for him to find an exit and test his cell properly. Dimetrium was blocking chaos flow but did it work or sign magic ?

###

The blind menace of his own future device was nerve racking. Geralt didn't know how long he really had to make his experiments. He casted Aard, Quen and Yrden first, as he didn't need much to try. The signs didn't work. It was to be expected and even though they didn't require to be a chaos user per se, it was using chaos for a part. Igni failed too for the very same reasons.

But Axii was a good surprise. He tested the sign on the guard who was feeding him everyday. He asked for a fork to eat with the spoon he usually had. It didn't seem to work on the spot, but he was positively surprise to see the man returning some time later with the object. He hid the object in his cell. This would be the main tool of his evasion.

The guard didn't seem to remember he did this when he came the next day. So Geralt pushed a little bit. He asked a simple question.

- "Why am I alone here ?"

- "You are not".

His blood ran cold. Unfortunately the spell didn't hold longer and the guard went away. He didn't have many options and occasions to experiment but it seemed that order impregnation was working better than complex thoughts manipulation. For sure he couldn't try a full mental projection in these conditions. He had to think simple and useful.

"Open the door" was too obvious and it didn't work. Luck was on his side though, as the guard was just confused and didn't remember what he asked. And he didn't need that in the end.

###

Five meals after the Queen's visit, something big happened. Something that even in the deepest part of the castle he could feel. The shock was so violent that the rocks shook. A few minutes later, the young guard he knew rushed in, terror on his face.

- "What is happening ?"

- "Nilfgaard…" He whispered after a long moment studying his face.

- "The Queen has lost ?"

- "She came back wounded from the front and Mousesack has reached his limits. We are going to die…"

Geralt frowned. What had Mousesack done ? Something magic probably.

- "Let me out. I can help."

- "No."

- "Please !"

- "I… I don't have the key…"

He understood that the young soldier probably just tried to hide from what was menacing outside. That was understandable.

- "Fine. So just don't try to stop me from getting out then."

He pushed the idea the most he could in his mind with his weak version of Axii. The young man was so terrified that he didn't resist. Geralt didn't wait a second. He took the fork, broke some teeth and used the last one to blindly work the old fashion lock of his cell.

- "Where did you get that fork from ?" Asked the guard observing him as he was getting out.

Geralt grinned but as soon as he left the effect area of the dimetrium, he was overwhelmed by the chaos around. Something huge happened or was happening. Now the information about Mousesack was worrisome. He knew the man had powers, strong ones, but he was a druid. That massive concentration of chaos floating around was from something else. From the enemy surely. What if those weird machines he saw back then in the Nilfgaardian procession were for that ?

He looked at the scared guard.

- "I am not your enemy. I won't hurt you. Just give me your sword and go hide."

The young man wasn't reacting. In normal circumstances, Geralt would have been patient but he knew he was on a clock now, so he didn't hesitate. The Axii forced his way through his mind. He felt his fear but was satisfied to see him giving his sword. He sent him a wave calming thoughts and the clear instruction to find a shelter before trying to flee.

He wasn't sure that man would survive but at least he tried. Geralt ran back into the castle, he had to find that princess Cirilla he came for in the first place. That also he had to try.

###

Finding his way up to the castle was hard. The underground was safe but the fights were intense in the lower parts and the outside of the building. There was a terrifying clamour coming from here. He didn't stay to analyze things. He was trying to go unnoticed. He felt bad for not stopping but he had to continue to try to reach the place he could find the princess.

He arrived in a relatively safe zone, where the fights had ended. This was no good news, because he would certainly find only death here. And he did...

He rapidly looked at the corpses in the halls to finally analyze the situation and mentally prepare to face both sides. Nilfgaardian soldiers in their dark armour were much less present in the casualties. As expected they were killed by swords and bolts. The second point was the main menace for him but he knew he could deflect some shots by reflexes alone. Interestingly, the Cintrian soldiers were also mostly killed by swords which meant that their enemy's main weapons were still basic. But they inflicted a lot more damage. This was strange.

For the long distance attacks he found some sort of rifle or long gun near the bodies and found nasty gunshot wounds on the victims of those weapons. He took a few seconds to study the thing and concluded that he wouldn't be able to dodge that with his signs tricks. The only good news was that they didn't have many munitions apparently. To be fair, they didn't seem to need more than their swords to do the job.

He took the main stair and found a lot of rooms there. He hoped he was at the right place. Unfortunately Nilfgaardians seemed to search for someone or something too in here. It was his first confrontations. He had the disadvantage of been malnourished for the past ten days and was lacking some energy, but they were abnormally hard to kill.

He understood why when he pinned with his borrowed sword the last one standing to the heavy wood door leading to a rich guest room.

Geralt removed the soldier's face helmet and discovered to his horror that it was a young man. He was twenty years old, probably not much more than that. Just like the young Cintrian guard hiding in the basement. Blood was dripping off his mouth as his lungs were filling with his vital fluids. He was smiling at him, giggling even, and his pupils were heavily dilated. Fisstech again… They didn't feel the pain. They were exhilarated and totally wild.

Nilfgaardian soldiers were just meant to be a flesh force - a disposable one.

- "Who are you looking for ?" He asked the young man who began to laugh hysterically and crying at the same time.

Geralt noticed the weird movement of the tongue just a second too late and could prevent the soldier from swallowing the death pill, probably hidden in his cheek or some purposely broken tooth. A few seconds later, his laugh was choked, as white mossy saliva mixed with the blood totally blocked his airways and he began to convulse badly, spitting around. The witcher took just a few steps and witnessed that uncanny agony. He let a deep angry growl escape his throat. What a waste... for what purpose...

He dared look inside the room he was in front of. A simple glimpse was all he needed to get that the court members and guests were given poison so they wouldn't have to face a brutal death or worse if they were kept alive. They knew what was coming… That too was feeling wrong and twisted. But in the same time, he understood the need to finish it without pain.

His medallion suddenly vibrated and he felt a disgusting concentration of Chaos. The only thing that saved his life was that he heard a weird sound and that it triggered his reflexes. He casted Quen just a fraction of a second before the impact. The blast threw him in the air and he would have been crushed if not for his magic shield. He landed in a pile of rocks that were from all the walls he got through. His ears were ringing and his vision was troubled but he didn't wait to get on his feet. He moved back to what was the room before. Half of it had disappeared.

There was a distinct circle of approximately four meters diameter that pierced a hole in between two floors. Ironically, the young Nilfgaardian soldier was still pinned and twitching convulsively like a dying bug to his door frame that was now hanging sideways to a portion of a slowly falling piece of wall.

Geralt's eyes passed that disturbing vision to find a new horrifying one. The hole was giving him a direct view of what was happening outside. The Cintrian soldiers were largely outnumbered and the assault was so violent that he felt sick instantly. They were overkilling everyone with a blind rage that only the Fisstech could explain. Then he saw from afar the machine that fired that blast. This was what he oversaw in the Metina area and took a picture of. But now they were distinguishable and, even if he still didn't know how they worked, he just experienced their purpose. There were not as many as he remembered but neither was the army. That meant that the other forces were used elsewhere, provoking massive destruction and breaking their enemy's defences on their path.

Facing the reality of that war, he understood that there were not many options left : continue the search or go away. Strangely something in his gut was telling him that there was nothing left to search where he was. Maybe this was his subconscious need to survive or the Destiny unfolding differently now that the events were drastically changed. He didn't fight this. So tumbling back into what was left of the corridor he decided to find his way out.

###

He reached the security room where he got checked when he came with Mousesack, almost by accident. It was hard to recognise anything with the holes the machines had dug into the buildings. But that part was still standing.

There were mutilated Cintrian soldiers there, laying in pools of blood. The whole room was upside down, much like if someone was searching for something in the chaos. Luckily he found his swords and potion belt in a pile of random things. He didn't have time to search for his phone though as two Nilfgaardians ran his way.

His own sword in hands he felt better. He swinged right and left, parried, cut legs tendrils to make them fall and sliced their throat open. There was no time to waste in saving those poor souls. They were already condemned, even by their own army.

From there, he ran outside and found himself somewhere behind the first wall that was pierced in many places by the blasts machine. The blood scent was overwhelming there, not even masked by the smoke of the fires that were now eating the palace. He sneaked out of the shadows and tried to find somewhere he could escape more discreetly. He killed only when he couldn't avoid it.

He did fine until he reached the western part of the castle. He felt a surge of chaos that sent him on his knees. His vision doubled and he almost threw up. The sick elves were right. There was something in the Chaos here. It was polluted or changed. He forced himself up and moved forward.

He found himself in the outer circle of the royal garden for what he could deduce. Cintrian soldiers were forming the last wall against the enemy who was flooding through every other part of the castle now. If Cirilla was there, it was game over. There was no way he could reach her and there was no way she could get out. He ran to the other side of the wall and found a small pocket of peace. Nilfgaardians hadn't reached that part yet. Maybe he could go there ?

He began to climb the wall but two things happened almost at the same time that made him understand that his Destined Child wasn't there anymore. The first one was a noise. A distant unnatural scream that was echoing back there and seemed to amplify as it reached this place. The giant monolith sitting over the castle seemed to vibrate in unison to that and for a brief moment, Geralt believed he was something on its surface. But maybe it was an illusion due to the fires all around. But suddenly he was somewhere else. He was seeing many events at once. Past, dreams, future ? But everything was connected with a single element: fire.

He saw Jaskier running desperately in what looked like Bleobheris in fire. Yennefer was screaming wildly on top of a hill while rivers of flames were bursting out of her hands. He saw a young Vesemir standing in the burning ruins of Kaer Morhen. Then a black elven mage at the seat of the Cintrian monolith laughing maniacally while torching everything around. He heard a snap, and saw a sadist face with a sick smile lit from under. He heard Jaskier scream. He turned his head and saw him, bloodied and crying, cuffed to a chair, and he smelled burnt flesh. The snap again sent him somewhere else. He saw a woman laughing in the flames that were burning her alive and then Cirilla. She was in the center of it all in a sort of trance at the feet of another monolith. She was screaming her head turned to the sky, her ashed blond hair floating around. A line of fire drew itself on the ground. The monolith suddenly shattered and the earth opened following the fire path.

The deep growl of the breaking ground reverberated there and snapped him out of the chaotic visions. Everything was shaking. It was real. And it was now.

He got the second event, only because he was looking up when everything happened. He saw a movement at a window. And while the earth was shaking, he saw Calanthe climbing out.

She was in the same manly sort of outfit that she was wearing the day she visited him. Her hair was messed up and cascading in wild locks over her left shoulder to her waist. She was clutching a piece of blue fabric to her right side that was soaked with blood to the leg. From here he could tell that she had already lost too much and that she would not make it. But she was determined to end it her way. Now.

The moment felt suspended in time. The castle was burning. The dark monolith was sticking out of this hell but seemed like an evil thing from the dark ages. A hundred Nilfgaardian soldiers were screaming while investing the place. They forced the doors and rushed inside like a tide, probably climbing toward the Queen who was shakingly standing on the window of the seventh floor of her tower. She let go of her blue soaked fabric, opened her arms wide and, with a smile, let herself fall. She seemed to fly for a mere second. The sound of her bone crushed body hitting the ground was masked by the noise of the drugged soldiers mass and it went unnoticed.

No-one but he saw it...

The smile of the Queen stuck with him. She died happy somehow. So Cirilla wasn't there anymore. Now he had no doubt and ran away.

###

He found his exit through the holes in the walls. He discovered unfortunately that the castle was not the only target. The whole city was on fire and what he saw on the streets was sickening. He had to mentally block everything to get through.

On his way, Geralt saw how the weird Nilfgaardian blasting machines were working as he passed not too far from one. They were heavy turrets tracked by large vehicles that were moving slowly and were guarded by dozens of soldiers. They seemed not under influence like those drugged with Fisstech fighting on the front line, but they were vicious as well. Some of them were entering houses and extracting survivors or wounded Cintrian soldiers to feed the machine.

There were some sort of masked mages operating the whole thing from a platform on the back. They stabbed their victims with weird glowing tubes finishing by long needles and the glow intensified while their vital energy was kind of sucked out. The device reminded him of the Lost Ones artificial aids. It was darwen technology if he remembered correctly. But this one was clearly turned from its initial purpose… into a war atrocity.

When the energy reached a certain level, the mages were connecting themselves to the machine while chanting in elder or something similar he couldn't understand well. Then the turret was locked on their target and the energy was released in a wide bubble of energy that could blast parts of buildings from afar.

He miraculously got through this line without being noticed, so he ran toward the one place he knew that could help him get out, still unnoticed. Driving a car was suicide - too noisy - but get on a horse could do it.

He found a horse miraculously still alive in this mayhem. He used Axii to calm him down and jumped on his back and in the dark and the screams of the whole city, he went north, as fast as he could.

I hope the fast pacing was not a problem.
I am not sure if the next chapter belongs to this story or the next one. So the publication can take some time.