The one with the Captain Marvel-Revelation

The midday heat of August had changed to a mere midday warmth now at the end of October. Once again Geralt and Kit found themselves having lunch in the market square in the center of Beauclair. Kit had visited the palace repeatedly to work on the wedding dress for Anna Henrietta. She did not bother with more than one because, as she said, there was only one perfect dress for the occasion and if that one was not to the Duchess' liking then no other dress that Kit could come up with would be either.

"Gonna tell me what it looks like?" Geralt asked her, swirling the wine in his glass. He accompanied her to the palace every single time and then met her once she was done with her work.

"I could but you wouldn't understand." Kit shrugged her shoulders apologetically.

"Try anyway."

She sighed. "I'm modelling this one on the dress that Beyonce's sister was wearing to her wedding, with a few alterations. While it was stunning in its simplicity and elegance, it might be too little for this time period. We're are talking white, a shade of ivory. High neckline with an added cape that falls around the shoulders. The front is simple and will beautifully display any jewelry with nothing distracting from it. Just the regal look you would expect for a royal wedding. However, in the back, the part that everybody else will see during the ceremony, there will be an opening in the cape, revealing the backside fully made from very delicate and transparent lace."

Geralt stared at her blankly. "You were right, I don't understand a thing."

Kit laughed the throaty laugh he liked so much.

"Who is Beyoncé?"

"She's a singer. One of the most famous ones of her generation. Which is quite an achievement, really. If I had my phone right now, I would have access to about 70 million songs. It's hard to stand out among so much variation."

"Did you just say 70 million?" Geralt frowned. He had long understood that Kit's world was one of superlatives but 70 million seemed obscene. If he was honest, he did not even have a proper idea of just how much a million was, let alone 70 million.

She nodded. "That does include classical music from hundreds of years ago as well, but with the advent of the internet came the possibility for people to spread their ideas and songs and, really, everything around the entire world with little to no effort. Hence, more people create music and as a result… Well, 70 million is not even all the music in the world, it's just what my preferred streaming service has to offer at any given moment."

"Kit, I beg you, please explain this internet to me! It drives me mad that you talk about it all the time and I have no idea what it is!" Geralt hated it when he was unable to understand something. This internet seemed to be such an integral part of her world and upbringing and yet, the concept was anything but tangible to him.

She pondered for a moment. "Okay, imagine you have a book. And if there is a word in there that you don't know or a thing that you would like to know more about, you just touch the word and another book appears for you to read up on the definition. And if there is anything in that definition that you don't understand, you can touch the words in there and even more explanations will appear…"

"That's the internet? A big lexicon?"

"No, that's just Wikipedia." She smiled. "This connection with which you can call upon explanations, that's called a link. The internet is an abundance of links between people and things and services." And from there she went on to fishing nets, information that was stored in ones and zeros and that did not take up any physical space.

Geralt's head was buzzing. He was not sure whether he had really grasped the concept. Once again, he began to feel inadequate. He wished for her to belong to him, to want to belong to him, but he only felt this way when they shared the bed. Those were the only moments when he truly believed that she was with him, fully present and not tethered to another world. He could not think of anything more beautiful than her in those moments when she gave herself to him so completely. And the gods knew he was willing to do anything to make her happy and keep her.

Kit took his hand. The familiar prickle of her skin pushed his dark thoughts aside. People had been watching them. Geralt had noticed that their frequent promenading through Beauclair for the past few weeks had changed the whispers around them. Sometimes he still picked up one of his many names but oddly enough many, mainly female, inhabitants of Beauclair had understood what Kit herself could not see: The witcher now belonged to her, the stranger with the interesting appearance who was working for the beloved Duchess. She was fairly recognizable by her clothes alone. Working for Anna Henrietta only added to that because the Duchess had allowed her to use all fabrics for herself as she pleased. The result was a colorful, quickly expanding wardrobe.

But the fact that Kit visited the markets regularly while accompanied by two royal guards, who shouted at everybody in typical Toussaint fashion to make room for the Duchess' seamstress, made sure everybody knew exactly who she was – no matter how many times she had begged them to stay back and let her wait in line patiently just like any other customer. She once mentioned to Geralt that she probably spent more time apologizing to people than she actually spent picking fabrics.

Being chosen by the Duchess meant that she was instantly welcomed and respected by the inhabitants of Beauclair. But of course, treating everybody with the same politeness and kindness, that was so natural to her as she could not care less about someone's social standing, did not hurt either.

And the Duchess' seamstress having chosen Geralt meant that the witcher in turn rose in their esteem. Some people needed an extra lesson and while Kit had never mentioned it to him, it had come to his attention nevertheless. One day, when he was waiting for her, his sharp ears allowed him to overhear a conversation between two women, who were watching him from far away, not aware that their words were reaching him.

"… merchant called her the witcher's whore," the first one said indignantly.

"That's bold," she second one agreed.

"Her guards were about to lecture him but she held 'em back. Told him how ungrateful he was and that he wasn't worth the air he was breathing. Heard she nearly made him cry." Geralt chuckled at the idea that this small woman of his had started, in her own way, to protect him. He was not sure if he could love her even more for it than he already did.

When Geralt was by himself, waiting for her to return from the palace, he was hardly ever addressed. No screaming and lusting after him, no seductive winking, no insults. Maybe a shy glance, rarely ever a whistle. But that was it. Other people, who had still held reservations against him, now treated him much friendlier. It seemed that the presence of gentle and calm Kit was proof enough for everybody that there was no need for people to fear him. But it was also his treatment of her, the gentleness he showered her with, that made people see him in a different light. The tall, brutal and dangerous looking beast that carried the small, delicate woman who was so obviously in love with him – nobody could ignore that.

It appeared that the world had been restructured around him and Kit had no idea because she had never truly experienced the way it was before.

Geralt held her hand as Kit balanced on the edge of a fountain. Whenever she jumped the gold that the Duchess had given her for her services would jingle in the pockets of her skirt. Kit had been permanently hired for the idea alone to have pockets sewn into all the skirts instead of having to make do with the bag that was apparently worn under them.

They were on their way to the Cianfanelli bank to deposit her first salary. Her first monetary salary anyway. A few days ago, when Geralt had waited for her by the bridge as he always did, he thought for a moment that his eyes were playing a trick on him. But then he saw Kit's unhappy face and started laughing. Behind her, she was pulling a horse by the reins. A stunning horse. Its coat was of a light beige shade and shining like gold in the sunlight. The tail and the mane were of the same color. Its legs were unusually long and slender. While it was probably useless to a witcher, the animal was about the most beautiful horse he had ever seen. He had heard rumors about this golden breed from Ofir. Kit apparently had not because she pouted and without a word let her head fall against his chest, wordlessly holding the reins towards him to take over the animal, not wanting to deal with it at all. While Kit had made her peace with Roach, she still detested riding.

Nugget, as Kit had named the animal, was now sharing the stable at Corvo Bianco with Geralt's Roach. For a while it looked like they would have to add another stable as the horses liked to bite each other's ears, but after a while it seemed like they had overcome their cultural differences. Or maybe they had understood that Kit held enough affection for both of them despite her initial frustration with now owning a horse of her own. Geralt had an inkling that the horses could feel her power too and that Roach might just have been a little jealous when she learned that she would now have to share with Nugget.

Kit jumped off the ledge of the fountain and Geralt caught her. He wrapped his arms around her, his heart growing heavy.

"Geralt? Are you all right?" Her voice was muffled as he pressed her to his chest. She managed to free herself and looked at him curiously. "Geralt? What's going on with you? Why do you look like someone just died?" She reached for his face. As she cupped it with her hands, he turned his head slightly to kiss her palms while grabbing her wrists.

"Are you going to leave now?" He had been burning to ask this question for a while now. He dreaded the answer.

"Leave? Where to?" Kit wondered.

He shrugged. "Go off on your own now that you have the means."

Her voice faltered. "Do you want me to go? I always feared you'd get sick of me. I didn't think it would happen so fast…" She lowered her head and let go of his face. But Geralt held onto her wrists tightly. A little spark lit up in his heart. She had finally admitted what she had told Dandelion weeks ago.

"I don't want you to go. Ever. But you don't need me anymore. You have work, just like you wanted. You don't have to rely on me anymore. You don't need me anymore," he repeated.

She looked at him, tears welled up in her eyes. "You are right," she whispered. "I don't need you anymore." Geralt felt sick. But then Kit got up on her toes to kiss him. "I don't need you. I can live without you. But I don't want to." A tear rolled down her cheek. "So, if you want to get rid of me better say it now because I have gotten awfully used to you."

Relieve flooded through him.

He looked at her in astonishment. "Never."

"Good." She sniffed. "Then that's settled." She turned away from him, just to turn back around to box him into the arm. "Don't ever do that to me again," she hissed.

"Never," he promised. He grabbed her tightly, put all the love and affection he had for her into a kiss to say what he was not able to put into words.

They stood there and hugged each other for a while before Geralt started to move, swaying in front of the fountain, the sun slowly setting over Beauclair while the summer was leaving the country. People watched, a man with a fiddle played a slow tune for them.

Magic is in the air, Geralt thought. She is no sorceress but surely she has her own magic. Some people joined them, dancing as couples or by themselves. The atmosphere was peaceful.

Before they left, Kit threw a gold coin into the violin case of the fiddler who thanked her excitedly. In that moment he was reminded again just how profoundly his small world had changed.

They walked back, the stars burning brightly in the clear sky. Kit smiled and hugged Geralt's arm. They made love under the stars as they had done so many times when they did not manage to get home fast enough. While Kit sat on top of him, a soft breeze caressed Geralt's burning skin. When he came, he twisted his head back and saw only the dark blue sky full of stars. To him the experience was divine.

Maybe Dandelion was right, he thought. Maybe she was his happy end.

Two weeks before the royal wedding, Geralt received a letter from Novigrad that he had not expected to receive anymore.

He looked for Kit who was weeding in the gardens. "There you are."

"What's the matter?" She smiled.

"A few months ago I wrote to an old acquaintance. I thought she might be able to help us with your… situation. She's in the city and asked to meet us."

Kit blinked, not quite understanding. "We have already figured out that there is no returning for me. And I don't want to anyway." As soon as she had lost touch to the emotions that were once tied to her memories, she had been fully content living in this new old world. While she would occasionally mention a modern facility that she missed, there were no more thoughts of a lost family dragging her down. She had made her peace, as she said, and had never once cried again.

Geralt shook his head. "She won't be able to do that anyway. She is an oneiromancer. She can read dreams, so to speak. She might be able figure out why this happened to you."

Kit grunted. Geralt could not imagine what was going on inside her head.

Dear reader,

have you ever hesitated when it came to whether or not you wanted to know something? Back in school, when the teacher handed us back our graded tests, I would always be afraid to look at the result. I don't know where that came from – maybe I was afraid I'd break down crying if I got a bad grade. Yes, I was a true eager beaver, failing was my greatest fear. But in the end I always looked. It was inevitable anyway. Just like some things are. You can decide not to take a pregnancy test but if you are pregnant, not doing the test will not stop the bump from growing. Not making the biopsy will not stop you from dying if you have cancer.

There is a chance for me to maybe learn about what brought me into this world. But a part of me is afraid that this knowledge will mess with what I have built here. I wonder if knowing makes a difference. Is this knowledge inevitable? As Regis has claimed, and as I've been feeling deep down on the inside for very long now, there is no returning for me. Not that I want to. It's been a few months now and I can't imagine a life without Geralt anymore. Maybe the bliss and happiness I am experiencing are typical for someone who's just fallen in love. I can only say that this has never happened to me before, not like this anyway. I am going as far as to claim that we have been made for each other. Sounds silly, doesn't it? I am usually more critical than this, more reasonable. But I have reached the end of my strength and I have given into this man completely.

So, is any information I could possibly receive going to change that – disrupt my feeble inner peace?

Do I need this knowledge? I don't know.

But I am curious. Maybe I could learn something about my odd skillset. I have a hunch that I am doing more than merely conducting energy from another sphere. However, what exactly it is, I cannot tell. Maybe there is a purpose after all. I would hope it is not one of destruction but some sort of nourishing trait.

Ignorance is bliss, they say.

But is it wise to base my life on insufficient knowledge? They also say: Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back.

Maybe nothing will come of it anyway. Maybe I am worrying about nothing.

I think I should try.

When Kit told Geralt about her decision they met the oneiromancer just a few days after. The sun over Beauclair had just started to set.

"Geralt, how good it is to see you!"

"Corinne Tilly! Always a pleasure." Geralt looked at Kit who was holding his hand and appeared to be slightly uneasy. "May I introduce? This is Kit, our visitor from another world."

"It is so very exciting to finally meet you," Corinne greeted her while examining her.

The oneiromancer was visiting a friend who lived in one of the nicer houses close to the Metinna Gate. She explained that she had been traveling for several months which is why she only received Geralt's letter a few weeks ago. As coincidence would have it, she was invited to the royal wedding as well. Being one of the few real oneiromancers left on the continent, she had helped the Duchess out in the past repeatedly, thus earning her spot.

They sat down at a little table where Corinne offered them some tea.

"In order to help you, I need to know more about you," she explained. "I'll ask a few questions and you try to answer them as best as you can, okay?" Kit nodded.

"What did you do right before you came here?"

"I actually don't know. I don't remember. I was wearing gym clothes, so I was either preparing to go to the gym or go for a run. I have no idea what date it even was. It must have been after my birthday, because the clothes I wore when I got here were a birthday gift." Kit looked at her uncertain. "Not a good start, huh?"

Corinne shook her head. "Don't worry. What is your date of birth anyway?"

"July 20th, 1986." Corinne looked at her amazed. "1986? We have the year 1282 so that means…"

"The current year in my world is 2020. Meaning compared to you I lived in a future 738 years ahead of yours," Kit calculated. Before Corinne could ask, Kit already explained: "It would be reasonable to assume that the difference in years is not due to different calendars. This world looks the way the Middle Ages have looked like in my world. In comparison, here we should be close to the end of the Middle Ages with a period we named Renaissance about to start."

The oneiromancer nodded her head. "How very interesting. Tell me about your world."

"Don't talk about the internet," Geralt hissed before Kit could get a word out. She smiled, and so did he.

Kit described and explained many of the things to Corinne that she had already told Geralt about. For a few weeks now, they had been playing a little game every day that Geralt had dubbed "What do you miss today?" in which he would ask Kit this question. This way he had learned about fridges, hot showers, TVs and why the ending of a show by the name of "Game of thrones" was awful. Ever so slowly, he had been gaining a better understanding for her world, in terms of technology but also in terms of society. He did not notice it at first, but understanding her world made it easier to understand her and how she perceived his world.

But to Corinne all of this was new. It was obvious that she was not quite sure how to work with that information.

"Tell me about your personal life."

"I am the oldest child of my parents. My brother is two years younger than me. He's a nurse, working in a hospital in our hometown. My mother is a housewife and my dad has been retired for many years now. He was working in logistics. I am sort of an accountant. I lived in a different city, by myself.

"What do you miss most?"

"Indoor plumbing." This answer lead to Kit explaining how toilets worked. Something that Corinne immediately admired.

"But what about your family," she wondered.

Kit sighed. "It's complicated. I missed them so much when I came here. But something happened to my memories. They are all still there, all intact. But any emotion connected to them? Gone. I see their faces in my head and I feel nothing. Nothing at all." Her face burned with shame, Geralt could tell. He took her hand and pressed it lightly.

"This is most curious," the oneiromancer said, her voice sounding absent-mindedly. "I have come across many strange things in my life, but never this."

The time finally came when the three of them prepared to fall asleep. Geralt, hugging Kit tightly, shared a small bed with her while Corinne contended herself with a bedroll on the floor. The tea she had served was not showing any lack of effect. The last thing Geralt felt before falling asleep, was Kit's hand, her thumb caressing his cheek.

Geralt had to realize that he had no physical body anymore. He was merely an onlooker to the scene that was unfurling itself in front of him.

There was nothing. The world seemed to consist of undefined shapes. The surface of it was seemingly made from smooth, black water. He saw Kit. Her clothes were very different from what she had been wearing just a moment ago. She was dressed in something that vaguely reminded him of armor, except that it was very fitting to her body, made from mostly leather, as far as he could tell, with bits and pieces of metal. Most striking about it were the colors: a radiant red and blue, a golden star on her chest. There was just one other person in this world of indistinctiveness: A woman, wearing the same leather amour, except hers was mostly black with small green details. The woman was older, 60 maybe? Geralt was unable to tell whether her short hair was blonde or maybe grey. Probably both.

He noticed how Kit examined herself, tried to figure out what she was wearing, then looked at the other person.

Dear reader,

are comic book movies still all the rage? I remember going to the movies a few years ago to watch Captain Marvel. I liked it, especially for its untypical structure. Normally these movies follow the same order of events: Something happens that gives the titular hero their powers. The hero learns how to be a hero and then defeats the villain. Not in Captain Marvel though. She had already gotten her powers, but she was struggling to control them, trying to suppress her emotions. Because that is the way it is done in the world of the Kree. She really should have watched Frozen because haven't we all learned that the whole 'conceal don't feel'- approach doesn't work for anybody except maybe the Hulk?

Anyway, she tries because if she fails, the Supreme Intelligence, the artificial intelligence that rules the Kree, threatens to take away her powers. In the end it turns out it is all a lie. Captain Marvel got her powers in an accident in which she lost her memories. The Kree tried to use her, knowing very well they would not stand a chance against her if she ever discovered how strong she really was.

Why do I mention this? Well, because that is what the dream showed me. I was wearing Captain Marvels costume and before me was the Supreme Intelligence, the one and only Annette Bening in her role as Dr. Wendy Lawson. This was the form the Supreme Intelligence, which had no physical body and therefore always chose to appear in a different form depending on who it was speaking to, had taken to appear before Captain Marvel.

It's somewhat ironic, isn't it? The Supreme Intelligence went through Marvel's memories to take a shape that she would find trustworthy. And now these higher powers went through my memories to find a setting that I would consider helpful when it came to the big revelations they had in stock for me. They apparently did not understand that this scene came from a movie and had nothing to do with reality. This is some inception-level bullshit.

Annette Benning looked at me. She was smiling the way someone smiled who did not understand what a smile is.

I'm doing my best to recreate the dialogue that followed. But I'm cutting out all my stammering because nobody wants to read that and I want all of you to think that I was super cool and chill.

"Hello Kit," they said. This voice, completely devoid of any emotions, still haunts me. The smile they were wearing just made it so absurd.

"Hello."

"You have come to us for answers. You shall learn everything that you desire to know."

How very gracious of them, I thought. I would have liked to rage a little but I had no idea how long that dream was going to last. So instead I just asked away.

"Who are you? Or what are you?"

"We keep the balance. We protect this and every other universe from chaos." I, too, like to be super vague sometimes. Makes things more exciting.

"What happened to me? This world…" I didn't finish this sentence because I really didn't know where I was going with it. Do you know just how hard it is to form coherent thoughts in this situation where there were so many questions and so much confusion?

"We apologize for that. It was necessary. You had accidentally been sent to the wrong world. It was of utmost importance to set things right. The order of things was endangered."

"Why haven't you sent me back? What's the meaning of this? I don't understand."

"Yes, indeed, you do not understand. The world that you have been born into was the wrong one. The one that you are inhabiting now is the correct one. The mistake has been rectified." Annette Benning still smiled her caricature of a smile at me.

"How could I have been born into the wrong world?"

"A mistake was made. A soul was sent into the wrong world. We induced all necessary corrective measures. You belong here." They said it in a way that made me think it wasn't any more grave than, say, making a mistake when separating your waste.

"But what about my old world? What about my family? Do they know what happened to me?"

"Your existence has been deleted from your previous plane of existence. Nobody knows you were ever there. Every trace of your being has been removed, your body, your every cell has been destroyed. Reality has been accommodated to this change."

"Are you saying that… nobody remembers me?"

"Precisely." I was gone, erased. The people I once loved had no idea I ever was someone to them. This should have hurt but, I have to admit, I was just relived. And in that moment I didn't get to think much about that anyway because I just realized the other thing they had told me. And that was kind of shocking.

"Wait… What do you mean you destroyed my body? I have a body!"

"We created an exact replica of your old body, save for some necessary adjustments. We are sorry for the disconnect you experienced. Unfortunately, this can happen at the beginning. The new body was to form new connections to the transported mind." Everything made so much more sense now. Regis wasn't able to see my connection to my old world because this body had never been there. He was right after all. And I had actually had a legit reason for having felt that my body and mind hadn't properly worked together at the beginning.

"But what for? What's one person in the wrong place? What harm could that possibly do?"

"Sometimes one is enough to tip the balance. All planes of existence are at risk. The mistake had to be rectified."

"But why? I don't understand."

"A mistake was made. It had to be rectified. We could show you but your human mind is too delicate. It would destroy you." I wanted to throw in their face what I thought of their very lacking explanation, channel my inner Karen and demand to speak to a superior, but then again, I feared that time was running out. And I had so many questions left to ask.

"It was you who tampered with my memories?"

They nodded.

"Why did you do it?"

"We understand that the transition is causing you great pain. By letting you keep your memories and experiences and therefore your personality, we wanted to allow you to be immediately operable in your new world. Unexpectedly, the negative emotions, the…" they halted for a moment, as if looking for the correct term, "the sadness you experienced was posing the risk of your mind splitting from your body. It was decided to remove any emotion tethered to your old memories to limit the trauma and fuse your body and mind. The transition was unavoidable. The mistake had to be rectified."

"You already said that."

"We tried our best to make up for our initial failure. We engaged in lengthy calculations and extrapolated all data. Instead of placing you into this new world at random we chose the spot that would guarantee the happiest outcome for you."

"What? You dropped me in field!"

"According to our calculations this exact position would lead to you ending up with the human that is most compatible to you in terms of brain chemistry, personality and sexuality, and through whom any other necessary processes were enabled."

For a moment I felt sick. They were talking about Geralt. "Are you saying what's between me and him is not real? That you created it?" There it is, my world crumbling. The information that I should not have asked for.

"Nothing has been changed. We just calculated who the most ideal person was for you to reach maximum happiness, there was no other interference."

"It's real then?"

"Your concern about the validity of your emotional bonds to the man known as Geralt of Rivia is unnecessary. Our interference was limited to the aspect of putting you in his physical proximity."

"This is mildly disconcerting but okay." Isn't it funny – all the time I thought he was made for me. Now it turns out that he really wasn't and yet, the result was the same. So, I was pretty close after all.

"Again, we apologize. We understand that for the human mind the circumstances are not easy to compute."

"Don't you say…"

"To make up for our collective failure we have provided you with a gift. Was it appropriate?"

"What gift?" I was a little overwhelmed by all the information I had gotten up to this point so I really had forgotten about it in that particular moment.

"The powers of cell manipulation we gifted you with. Your new body has been adapted to channel energy accordingly. You have already made use of it on several circumstances."

"Cell manipulation?" It's silly how sometimes things are so obvious in retrospect. But they showed me anyway. I'm saying they showed me, but really what happened is that the understanding just bloomed in my mind and I saw the pictures right there: The wound on Geralt's shoulder that had disappeared – my hands moving around it, transferring the energy while I washed his hair. His leg that had stopped hurting and therefore wasn't reliable in predicting the weather anymore – squeezed between my legs when sleeping, energy running through it for hours at night. A lot of internal scarring that I wasn't even consciously aware of but that I was in the process of fixing through our frequent contact anyway. It seems I even worked on the scars that were visible on the outside – with very little progress though.

And the tooth, that had grown back. Contrary to Geralt's apprehensions, not all of his teeth had fallen out and been replaced with new ones. We had never talked about it again once it had grown back into place.

But it didn't stop there. Apparently, I had already healed myself on several occasions. My scratched back, the cut in my thumb... I had been starting to wonder why there were never any bruises on me considering Geralt's fondness for covering me in love bites. Or why I never felt sore even if we were at it the entire night like two horny teenagers (and we did that a lot). And with all those things going on around me, I learned that I somehow subconsciously had stopped my period. Until that moment I hadn't even realized I was long overdue. A blessing in a world without tampons and running water. Smart move. Unconscious but smart.

"You have used your gift mostly for healing. Your ability allows you to manipulate mammalian cells, remove what has to be removed, add what has to be added to restore health and function."

"Is that all it does? People tell me they feel different things when they touch me." I had once asked Dandelion to describe to me what he felt – and while it was generally pleasant it was worlds away from what Geralt had told me.

"How the recipient experiences your powers depends on them, they chose how to interpret the energy."

"What I do with them does not impact their free will?"

"No."

"That's good…"

"Are you content with the apology given to you?"

I laughed. "Ask me again in a few years."

"We might."

"How often do you misplace people like me?"

"About one in 100 billion souls."

"Across all universes?"

"Yes."

"That's… a lot." Considering there were over 7 billion people living on earth alone and they had basically declared there were parallel universes, some of which I am sure contain life forms other than humans on planet earth, one in 100 billion sounded like a giant fuck up. Had animals souls as well? Because then one in 100 billion was a pretty outrageous error ratio.

"It is. We apologize."

Now it was the entity with Annette Bening's face that asked me a question: "Were we successful in creating maximum happiness for you? Will it suffice for you to accept your new circumstances?"

"It will. But I have one last question."

Annette Benning nodded.

"Why did you not simply let me be born into this world? Wouldn't that have been much easier? If you can create a new body for me just like this then I assume you could have made that happen, too."

"We gave you a choice. Be born into this world, into a wealthy family, with no memories of your old life, or stay who you were, deal with the discomfort of having to adjust to a new world, and find happiness anyway." All of a sudden, a hint of that memory was back in my head. "You argued that being reborn would be equal to dying and that therefore you wished to explore the other option." And you know what? I still feel that way. I am by no means perfect, but the idea that I would grow up, potentially spoiled and without everything that makes me me, still sounds horrible to me.

"Do you always give people a choice?" I wondered.

"We offer this choice to all life forms which have the capacities to understand and make such a decision. We do not intend to harm. We do intend to correct our errors while trying to limit all harm."

"Can I ask… Do most… beings decide to do what I did?"

"No, very few decide against being reborn." I believed them. After all, how often have you heard of people appearing out of nowhere? I'm just assuming that, if they place someone like me in the past, they might as well place someone from the past into the future. Or, you know, relative future since it's going to be a different world anyway.

"Thank you, this has been… helpful."

Anette Bening nodded. And everything disappeared.

Waking up was odd. Nobody knew what to say. I because I was trying to digest what I had learned and Geralt and Tilly because they had not understood. They had seen what they thought was a human as the concept of computers and an artificial intelligence was foreign to them, however they could not understand this person. But maybe that was not relevant. I had understood.

Geralt had eventually told me the story of him and Yennefer. How a wish had tied their destinies together and how they only found happiness once the wish was undone. I was afraid that my powers were doing something similar to him. That he was not with me out of his own free will but because I created an addiction with my touch. Geralt had not let on how much he had suffered in his former relationship but Dandelion had told me repeatedly. And I really did not want to cause him any more pain. To hear that it was up to Geralt how to interpret my magic touch, as we have come to call it, was a great relieve. Talking about relieve: The fact that there was no family missing me or looking for my corpse, that there was no one suffering because they had no idea what happened to me – that made me breathe easier. Knowing that every trace of my existence had been erased made it easier to forgive myself for not feeling anything for these people anymore. It was the last thing that I needed to round off with my former life.

I suppose that is it. My new life begins now.

"Have I already told you that you are the best goddamn thing I have ever picked from a field?" Geralt laughed, splayed out on the ground, but then held his side in pain were his ribs were bruised. Kit shook her head while she fumbled to take off his armor. She had had an uneasy feeling once she heard the sounds coming from inside the cave. Geralt had forbidden her to follow him so she had been nervously and impatiently waiting for his return right next to the entrance. And just as she had feared, the Shaelmaar had been rough on her witcher.

When the armor was finally off, she pushed up the cotton shirt he was wearing beneath and flinched when she saw the giant bruises on his ribs. Geralt felt the pain, but Kit's face pained him more. He did not want her to worry but it seemed to be unavoidable. Carefully she placed first her fingertips and then the palms of her hand onto his ribcage where the skin had taken on a shade of a dark purple. Geralt felt the energy surge right through him. But it was different now. Ever since she had learned about its real purpose, she was able to add a degree of control to it. She had healed him subconsciously months ago when the ghoul had injured him. Back then, he had been able to feel her power from head to toe. She was now much better at focusing it on where it was really needed. Though Geralt did not at all mind if she 'spilled' as the feeling never ceased to be pleasant.

After just a few minutes the pain eased considerably and after a few more minutes his skin had returned to its normal color.

Kit slumped, relieved. She cuddled herself between his arm and chest on the unhurt side and let one hand rest on the part that had been bruised just a minute ago, her fingers tracing lightly over his skin, probably fixing small cracks in his bones. But she did more than that. He could feel how she drained the side-effects of his potions. They usually caused him a great deal of pain whenever they wore off but not today. He could see the dark veins on the back of his hand returning to normal quickly and assumed his eyes were doing the same. Kit had not shied away when she saw him with all black eyes for the first time after he had decimated a nest of kikimoras. And he was grateful for that. Once Kit had explained the dream to him in more detail, he mused that she had not been placed in his vicinity for her benefit but for his – because who needed a healer more than a witcher?

Geralt became a willing guinea pig for Kit. Whenever he hurt himself, which usually happened when he worked on a contract, she would fix him. Ever so slowly she got a better grasp on how to heal. But she was far away from understanding just how she did it. One night, their still sweaty bodies clinging to each other, she had tried to work on the huge circular scar on his chest but found that she could not do anything about it even though they both knew she had already improved the scarring all over his body ever so slightly – an action that had probably been unconscious.

"It doesn't matter," she kissed the scarred skin. "I still think they are beautiful anyway."

A scratch she had left on his back however, she was able to heal immediately, making her think that fresh wounds, for some reason, were easier to heal - to which Geralt suggested that maybe he should give her another reason to scratch his back so that she might try again just to make sure her theory was sufficiently backed by facts.

Their nightly experiments led to Dandelion announcing that he would return to Novigrad now as they made it impossible for him to sleep. But Geralt suspected that the upcoming wedding and a hurt ego were the real reason for the bard to take his leave. After all, Anna Henrietta had moved on and was not bemoaning the fact that she was not with the bard anymore. The bard, it seemed, had never really gotten over her.

The wedding came and Anna Henrietta wore Kit's dress for the ceremony. Kit had been right. The unassuming front drew all attention to the jewelry that the Duchess was wearing. But the moment she walked past the onlookers of the ceremony, accompanied by the angelic singing of a choir, people would gasp at the extravagant backside, in part probably because the see-through cutout was indecently low. She wore four other dresses that day but Kit's was the one that people kept talking about for weeks.

November in Beauclair was still very mild during the daytime which meant that the wedding festivities were held in the palace gardens once again. Geralt and Kit danced, without pretending this time. Geralt did not even get the chance to complain about his uncomfortable attire as Kit had made something for him that he quite liked. The vest he wore with a stark white shirt was much more comfortable than the tunics he had worn before and did not limit the movements of his arms nor cling to his throat.

"You are a man of the future now. 700 years ahead of your time," she whispered in his ear while they danced.

"Whatever it takes to keep up with you." He smiled into her hair, his hands running up and down her back.

"What do you miss today?" he asked once again.

Kit, cheek rested against Geralt's chest, smiled to herself.

"Nothing. Nothing at all."