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 : murder scene, blood.

Notes : So I decided that it will go in this part and I cut the chapter in two. Massive rewrite to make it fit correctly, so the next part could be delayed too if my reread are not satisfying. Anyway, this part is Geralt getting some help for the visions and where he needs to go with a vivid scene of Mousesack's end.

Destiny - Part 6

Recollection

###

Geralt's ride was stopped by one disturbing view. The land was wide opened by a huge rift on the ground. It was falling to the deepest depths and couldn't be jumped over by any horse. From east and west, he couldn't see the end.

From where he stood with his horse, he could see the forest and a broken monolith, on the other side. This was the one he passed by and from which the Jaskier's ghost had appeared before. What could have shattered something that big ?

He looked past it. There was a huge forest. His instincts were telling him to go that way, but that wasn't possible at that time. He had to follow the fracture. He rushed East, trying to find the end of that gap but to his horror it continued for miles.

###

He pushed that poor horse to his limits and reached Bleobheris in a record time. He wasn't proud of himself but he had to. He didn't sleep either during that crazy racetp toward Temeria and was a bit hallucinating from time to time. But he couldn't tell it was from exhaustion, the trauma of what he witnessed in Cintra or that weird phenomenon happening with chaos. Maybe a little bit of the three.

He had nightmarish visions mixed with past dreams. There were flames and trees and the indistinguishable feeling that he had to come back to the Great Oak : the only safe place he could think of for the moment. But also to get what was left of his life and tell the druids what he saw.

He didn't know if it could help in any way but they were the largest Continent network available to warn the rest of the world, outside the technological relays and the Aretuzan diplomatic fields. Also, one of the visions he had and was particularly disturbing was about Mousesack. If anything of that was true, then he had to tell Elrik that he had died at the hands of Nilfgaard.

###

The sanctuary was still untouched. His horse couldn't run anymore but he certainly rushed in the camp nevertheless.

- "Elrik ! Elrik !" He screamed searching for the old druid, looking in the groups of refugees.

- "What is it ? Gwynbleidd ?" The man came his way from afar. "What happened to you ? Are you hurt ?" He asked immediately, seeing him properly.

Geralt looked at himself briefly. There was blood and dirt on his clothes he never noticed for the last three days.

- "No no. I am ok but I am here to warn you about what is coming." He said in a hurry.

- "Calm down. Follow me. Let's talk about that in a more private place."

Elrik looked at the horse, then at him, and asked some druids to take care of the animal. Then he led him to the forest, till they arrived at a small glade with some druidic installations. He offered him a seat on a carved log vaguely resembling a bench and went to a dormant hearthstone he reactivated expertly.

The little walk and that moment of quietude was enough to settle him down a bit. He wasn't the kind of man who was panicking but he certainly did this time. Geralt nervously observed the old man preparing some decoction.

- "We don't have time for this…"

- "Well. You are distraught. You will be more efficient in telling me what you need to, with a clearer mind."

He was right to help him retrieve some sense of self before trying to explain anything. The silence that followed was long but Geralt took this time to order his thoughts the best he could.

- "Tell me." The druid said, giving him a cup of the beverage he just prepared and sitting next to him. "How bad is it for you to almost kill a horse coming back here."

- "I am sorry. I didn't have the choice to win over machines."

- "I bet… Gwynbleidd isn't known for hurting creatures unnecessarily. Machines you say ?"

The interrogation from the druid raised his worries up. Nothing had filtered yet. Three days and the news about Cintra didn't reach them. It meant total blackout. The rest of the world wasn't ready for the Nilfgaardian's armies.

- "You first. What news do you have about Cintra ? I want to know what's the state of the rest of the Continent, right now."

Geralt had to make sure of what was known - what news could have come through even the slightest.

- "Not much information, as always. Cintra doesn't share much. The only thing I know is that our common friend, Triss, has been revoked."

- "So she could come back safely, then."

Geralt sighed in relief. That was one good news he was eager to take.

- "Yeah. She returned to Temeria four days after you arrived in Cintra. It is about one day away from here by car, so I guess she stayed three days for the negotiations but it didn't go well."

- "I guess my presence didn't help at all. I was arrested the day we arrived. But at least she is safe and wasn't bothered by what I was doing. Neither were you."

- "That you don't know."

- "Meaning ?"

- "They still can find connections if they want to."

- "With what is coming, I am not sure they will have the time or the will to do that." Elrik looked at him worryingly. "Cintra has fallen."

- "How ?"

- "Nilfgaard is using machines that seem to be working with the same dwarven technology that the Lost Ones use to regulate chaos in their organism. But this is completely distorted in a mass weapon capable of breaking walls. I barely survived one shot using Quen. I went through two rooms before I was stopped by the next wall and the machine was shooting from afar. They use it against the population also." The druid looked horrified. "And they feed it with people, actual people, sucked from their essence or whatever it is that they use from their bodies."

- "The balance… The price to use chaos… They found a solution then…" Commented Elrik with a pained expression.

- "A dreadful one." He nodded. "But there is more." He drank a bit before continuing. His throat was harsh. "I have seen just a portion of it, they are probably destroying all the big cities of Cintra's kingdom at the time we are speaking. But they cannot go further north, unless they go through the Sodden Hills. When I first saw their armies near Metina's lakes, I honestly thought they couldn't go elsewhere but they could go through the mountains. Now there are two obstacles they cannot avoid on their way. There is a huge gap, literally separating the land for miles and miles. And it is really deep. They will need to construct bridges to get over it. Then there is the Brokilon Forest…"

- "Can the Dryads do something against the weapons you describe ?"

- "I guess not. But if it feeds on people, they are stronger in cities."

- "That is a clever guess." Elrik looked at him with piercing eyes. "There is more, right ?"

- "Yes. And I don't know how to say this."

- "Is it about your Destiny ? What you told me about the child that is yours by the law of surprise ?"

- "In a way it is but, I haven't been totally honest with you."

- "Meaning ?"

- "The law of surprise. Me ignoring my responsibility. Everything is right. But there is more to the story."

- "You were purposely ignoring signs and evidence ? You went against Destiny ?" Geralt nodded. Elrik had a sad smile.

- "For many years."

- "Well you didn't want that child. But what were the signs ?"

- "Dreams. Many dreams during the last twenty years. Like vivid hallucinations sometimes. In the things I gave you before we left, there is a map I made from memory to where the dreams were the strongest. These dreams are hard to understand but somehow they show me things that happened or would happen. Visions to guide me, I suppose now. But those were all things I never wished and that I tried to avoid all along for the most part. I wish to share those with you, if you can help me through it, but… I need to tell you I made another one of those dreams on the road here and it concerns Mousesack."

Elrik was pained by all he was saying. Geralt knew that druids were very attached to Destiny beliefs. He gave him a little time to gather himself.

- "Tell me what you saw, Gwynbleidd…"

- "I have dreamed that Nilfgaard has made him a prisoner. There is a cage and demitrium chains. Then I see him dead in the ruins of Cintra. But then I see him alive in a forest. And I don't understand. For the moment, the vision is not complete - it was more a sort of hallucination as I didn't sleep - but my gut instinct tells me Mousesack is dead."

Elrik took the information hard but he didn't dwell on it.

- "Dreams like these are important. You need the next part. You need to make it full for it to make some sense. And after everything that happened and what you said to me, I demand to know. You own me that at least."

Geralt nodded.

- "I will stay tonight and I will do what you want to help me have the full vision of it."

- "Good. Stay here, while I bring back everything that you will need."

Geralt stayed on his woody bench, with his cup of whatever the druid gave him, contemplating his own situation with a critical eye but he was feeling lighter too. He was embracing some heavy stuff he had put aside for the first time. He told some people about his dreams a little bit but not how he was now determined to reveal it to that man. This was a kind of hunt he was initiating there and he would be meticulous.

###

Elrik came back with his belongings and gave him the map. For each red point, Geralt told him what he remembered from his dreams and what happened. He didn't avoid mentioning the heat of Yennefer's discovery and didn't hold on to the details of the most weird or terrifying visions. He went in the most detailed ways of what happened in Cintra and the words of Mousesack to him.

After hours of talks and map study, the sun was low and exhaustion was winning over him, shutting down progressively his body, but Elrik told him something that shook him.

- "You believed you tried to outrun your Destiny but it was showing your path anyway. People linked by destiny will find each other and this is no different. Everything happened because of it and would be as it is. But from what you told me of your story and what I can guess, you avoided something in all this that shaped your life like that. That child, the princess of Cintra, is the one that bends all around her, not you. Mousesack must have felt it too and that's why he served the crown for so long. He had faith in her almost blindly and faith in you too, I gather. You already figured out that you had to protect the child from something. Destiny will protect her life for a part, but not her soul. She will need you faster than you can imagine to get through what she has to do. You have to find her as soon as possible. But for the others, the sword of Destiny will decide."

- "Are you sure ?"

Geralt was feeling anxiety rushing back inside. Yennefer and Jaskier screaming, surrounded by flames, was the vision that was ramping back in his mind. Elrik, nodded. The witcher stood silent for a moment.

- "There is a chance nothing happens to them, right ?"

- "If denial helps you to get through the idea that there is a possibility they perish and it helps you do what you must, then I won't stop you. You will know for sure when the time will come anyway. Now, give me my answers about Mousesack and you can go and choose the path you want." Geralt nodded slightly.

- "How does it work ?" He asked, his throat constricted with anguish.

- "I will guide you to sleep with herbs and a bit of hypnotic techniques. You will be able to talk and answer my questions. You won't notice."

The witcher didn't fight it and he felt safe in a way. The druid used some derived techniques of what Yennefer used to help him remember his childhood and he fell asleep that way. He didn't remember when the paradoxical sleep began nor did he heard the questions, as he was told, but he felt the need to describe things at some point.

- "I am the wolf." He slurred. "Cintra is still burning but silent. Ashes are floating in the wind and… snow ? There are people with capes searching the bodies. So many…" He shuddered.

He didn't remember talking after that.

The vision was weird and a bit blurry. He moved away from those people and entered the walls of the gardens. The ashes snow thing was ticker here. There was one capped person here but followed by a woman who was exuding nobility and two Nilfgaardian soldiers. She was wearing a pale and simple gray dress, contrasting with her dark skin and black short hair. She had an ageless quality to her that reminded him of the Aretuzan sorceresses. A name fell on his lips : Fringilla. She corresponded the description of the sorceress Yennefer gave him, in some old discussion. This was about rivalry and a swift move she made to change place with her when they were attributed as mage counselors. Also she spoke about her briefly when they were talking with Yarpen and his men in the mountains. Fringilla was Nilfgaard attributed Aretuzan witch.

He followed them from afar trying to avoid the piles of bodies and the destruction.

He recognised the spot where they stopped. This was the foot of the tower from which Calanthe had jumped. And they did find the body. It was abnormally frozen. The capped man kneeled near it and cut some skin with a hunting knife. To his horror, he ate the flesh he had detached and began to convulse shortly after.

- "Ancient forest… sacred tree."

Those were the only words the man could pronounce before dropping dead at the feet of the black woman.

- "The blood has spoken. Destiny unravelled. The girl will go in Brokilon." She said to the soldiers. "Bring the druid in the back courtyard and make sure Cahir is here with his little friend."

The next blink he was there with them, facing a metal cage on a truck. The black sorceress, several soldiers and two men were there. The first one was very lightly dressed and incredibly beautiful. But it seemed artificial as much as uncanny. The second one was a young man in Nilfgaardian armor. Blond, dold blue eyes and a severe expression. He had in his hand a custom helmet that resembled a monstrous face with stylish dark wings on the side. He was probably an elite soldier. He deduced that could be Cahir.

For a brief moment he had another vision. Cirilla, covered in a heavy blue mantle, was riding on a horse with a Cintrian guard. They reached the outer wall. Two shots. The first one got the horse who continued his course for a minute, leaving a heavy blood trail on his path, before its legs gave up and he simply stopped. The guard screamed something to the princess who ran away. The second shot got him square in the chest.

The white wolf looked in the direction of the shooter. This was this Cahir, helmet on. His weapon was still smoking when he put it back in his holster. He was so far away and still had shot his victims with high precision. He didn't doubt any second he would accidentally wound or kill the princess…

He saw him in brief succession cutting his way through some Cintrian soldiers, reaching the outer wall and getting on a bike. The white wolf ran with him when he caught the princess by the waist. Clinging her to his chest he drove away from the battlefield. She was fighting in his grip, crying, screaming in total fear. Geralt wanted to help her, to free her, but this was just a vision. He had no power over it.

When they arrived near the obelisk she turned her head toward him - or more precisely toward the city of Cintra falling into a burning hell - he caught her insanely green eyes full of tears and she screamed. And he was pushed back into the castle garden.

- "Bring the druid here." Ordered the sorceress.

The soldiers opened the cage and pulled the chains. Mousesack fell on the ground at the bottom of the vehicle. He was visibly hurt but not wounded. The beautiful man next to Cahir grimaced.

- "This is disgusting. We don't like that."

- "Just do it." Said the young soldier. He exuded authority.

The man approached the druid while the others lifted him up a bit.

- "He is afraid." He said, smiling like a predator.

- "Afraid to die." Laughed one of the soldiers, pulling the chain back suddenly. Mousesack grunted in pain.

- "No…" The man lustfully caressed the prisoners' face but this was not sexual. He was aroused by what was to come. "He is not afraid to die. He wished he could have the time to kill himself before we got him."

- "Clever man." Said the sorceress. "He understood his value alive.

- "Release him now." The beautiful man was shivering from anticipation. "We need to hunt."

Geralt didn't understand what he was witnessing. Dopplers weren't killers. This one was different. So drastically different.

- "How many live inside of it ?" Asked Fringilla to Cahir.

- "From the amount of body parts in its flat, at least twenty."

- "Its mind shattered from the murders ?"

- "No. He chose to have them part of it. But this instability came from the first man he absorbed." The young man explained. "Dopplers are inoffensive but play with mind to survive. It played with a serial killer's mind and became him. That sick human made it the monster it is now."

- "What did you promise for its loyalty ?"

- "Immunity for his future hunts." Cahir said with a blank expression. He threw a dagger on the ground not far from the Doppler. "Release the prisoner." He then ordered.

The soldiers obeyed and Mousesack didn't move at first. The white wolf heard the growl of the monster, infuriated by his stillness, and cried when the druid was forced on his feet and pushed forward.

With the last bits of his magic, now free from the demitrium shackles, he blasted everyone with an air bubble and ran away. The Doppler took the dagger and got back on his feet with the most terrifying smile. It didn't take long for him to catch the druid who was exhausted. He gripped him in a weird embrace and, with a delighted expression, he pushed the dagger deep in his belly and slowly twisted it inside. The old man fell on his knees clinging to his murderer. The Doppler stabbed him more, taking his time between each blow, feeding on his agony. The snow turned red around them.

Fear filled Mousesack's dying eye while the man in front of him slowly morphed into him and his double whispered to him :

- "We know everything you knew. We know for the girl and what you told her. We know for the witcher. We will get her and she will fulfill the Destiny chosen by the masters."

The predatory smile on the familiar face of his friend was terrifying. The dagger was pushed one last time, up to the druid's heart this time. Mousesack fell backwards in the red snow and the false one came back to the sorceress and the soldiers.

- "Inside this wall was Geralt of Rivia. The princess is linked to him by the Law of Surprise. He came for her. And she was told to find him if she could. She ran away north toward the forest where you lost her. She will try to find that man so I guess we must find him first."

###

Geralt woke up. The sun was rising and Elrik was still near him with a very concerned expression.

- "I guess now we know what happened." The old man said.

- "I am sorry for Mousesack. He was my friend too and…" He blocked the next words as it reminded him too much of his fear to destroy everyone he cherished in his life. This was too true. "I am afraid that Doppler will lead them here sooner or later." He added instead.

- "Maybe. But for now you must find your child."

- "But where can she be ?"

- "Try Brokilon. This was in the blood of the Queen. Your past visions included the sacred tree and the Dryads also. They won't kill you if you are destined to be there. They will know."

- "What a relief." He replied sarcastically.

- "Are you ready to embrace your responsibility ?"

Geralt didn't reply. The answer was "no" of course and he wanted to flee and hide. But the life he knew existed no more. There was no turning back.

###

Elrik and him left the glade. Geralt took everything he could with him and went to find Roach. The old mare was grazing peacefully. She welcomed him back with a low neigh. He put his stuff in his travel bags and saddled her. Before mounting the animal he turned toward the druid.

They had a weird goodbye to Geralt's feelings but he understood that he caused pain… again, and that couldn't be forgiven yet in their eyes for everything that he'd done toward one of their profound beliefs. He'd lost another friend in the process and this was a definitive casualty.

He got on Roach's back and rode back toward the war, and the sacred soil of Brokilon, hoping that he would finally make a difference in this hell.

I am making the Destiny something more upfront and clear for my Geralt for now. There are plenty of uncertainties to come, don't worry.

Also now you get another reason of why I used the Passiflora story ^^'. The representation of the Doppler was weird in the series so I made my ground mid way, using the lore of the books to make something of it. I hope you liked that little twist.

Also this is my first introduction to Cahir and Fringilla.

Next time you know what it is :].

Till then, lots of love everyone.