Of Monsters and Men

​

Veera kept her face blank, and simply nodded, when Veceslav was finished. She couldn't bring herself to say anything, not when her heart was breaking in her chest and her mind was slowly shattering. He might as well have put her to the sword, but being unable to do it himself, he would let her blood stain someone else's sword, someone else's hand.

She stood, limping out of the room, taking one last look at Veceslav's figure, illuminated by the fire. She opened her mouth, but really, what could she say? Turning, she walked out the door, shutting it behind her. Her room was not far from here, and she slowly made it to the familiar surroundings, making sure to lock her door behind her. Getting out of her armor was a slow task and she took her time in polishing and cleaning it before setting it aside. Each movement she made was methodical, familiar. It may well be the last time she would have an opportunity to do so in such a safe place. She could have curled up in the bed, but instead she went to sit in the window, watching the birds fly by and the clouds slowly move through the sky.

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"Well..." Treasa shifted uncomfortably, unsure of what to do. She had never had to comfort Alastar, not even when she had brought him the news of her mother's death, not even when her own nightmares drove her screaming out of sleep, or when he had nearly broken four ribs trying to protect her from a rather large cave bear. She remembered comforting her brothers when they fell and scratched their knees, and tried to draw from that faint memory.
"Maybe it's fate, then. If you hadn't been picked up to become a witcher, if you hadn't been strong enough to survive, then you wouldn't have met your true family, and you wouldn't have the happy memories with them that you do." She paused, smiling a little cynically.

"Though I suppose you wouldn't have met me, or Alastar, Could have done without that extra trauma."

NPCS only but they aren't important enough for their own banner.
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Group Alpha and Beta had combined, but they had suffered severe casualties. The two scouts held the hedgemage in between them as they limped back towards the camp. The poor sod had been knocked out after the last of his energy had gone to defeating the Water Hag. The tents slowly grew larger as the group trudged back, defeat evident in their faces and posture. They hadn't even been able to salvage the bodies.

Group Charlie was headed out of the city. Despite their weapons being at the ready, they didn't attack the necrophages around them, and the reciprocal was true. The warrior led with the little girl on her back, her eyes narrowed and her mouth pressed in a thin line. A little while before....

"No. I don't understand." She held herself high, eyes ablaze with contained anger. "You're a witcher, an order gifted with legendary powers. You're supposed to protect us from this, save us from this, but instead," her lip curled with disgust. "You're aiding this." She turned. "We will go peacefully, but only because I am thinking about the safety of my people over my own selfish desire. You might want to consider doing the same, the next time you are offered such."

They were nearly out of the city, and she turned her head to look for Group Delta. "Press your face against my shoulder, child." She commanded, her breath hitching in her throat. "We are going home."

Group Delta was no more. The sight that had met the woman's eyes was not a pleasant, nor welcome one, as she gazed upon the bodies of her comrades, being feasted upon by the necrophages. She could do no more to save them then they could for her if she was attacked, and she knew this. It was still a bitter pill to swallow as they carried on, towards the safety of the campsite, with more then just scouting information to offer.

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"You're right. Absolutely right. I don't regret this choice. I think it was the best that it could have been." Derrick agreed. He smiled at the last part. "Dealing with you two isn't that traumatic. You just caught me off guard at the wrong time. Any other day I'd have met you two wit for wit until someone forced us to stop." He rode along quietly after that in deep thought. Eventually, his eyes flicked up to the sky and he saw that there was going to be little time left to set up a camp in the light. Night was coming, and it was coming fast.
"We ought to make camp while it's still light." Derrick called back to Treasa. He led them a little off the road behind a hill. Not directly in sight, but not too far either. He got off his horse and began to unpack his camping materials, including his tent and his blankets. He started pitching it all up. "In the other bag still on the horse there's the materials to make a fire pit. Grab those and get to work. If you want to make use of anything, just let me know."




"Of course. We're a cavalry squad didn't you know?" He smiled and led them out of the tent (Apart from Matilda, who was collecting herself) and pointed to a paddock. There were a group of horses milling about not doing anything. "I'll requisition them. I'll record that they're out for a day and we'll bring them back imminently." He wasn't gone for long. Corporal Ardal came back with two horses, armoured and with his sword. He was clearly trying to present himself at his best for Gordon and Matilda's parents. He patted one on the head.
"This one's gentle. You can borrow this Gordon. Matilda is riding with me, she's not confident on a horse." Gordon was going to mention that he wasn't confident either, but he wasn't in any position to complain. Instead, he looked helplessly at Ellyn.
"Thank you." The farm boy mumbled. Matilda came out of the tent. She was fully covered up with a hood over her head and she was wearing some of Ardal's clothes. Ardal smiled when he saw her and she smiled back underneath the hood. He gently helped her up on to the horse and got up himself, while Gordon struggled into the saddle. After a moment where it seemed that he was going to fall straight off the other side of it, he caught and steadied himself.
"Let's ride!" Ardal barked, assuming his aura of command. Then he remembered what he was actually doing. "I mean, let's go." They rode out of the camp, and Gordon struggled out of the camp.​

 

"So what was I supposed to do huh? Grab my axe, kill two dozen, maybe more of these necrophages before being ripped apart myself? What purpose would my death serve? It would have been more selfish of me to die here, for you would have all been found the same fate." Alastar said, getting angry. "This isn't some ordinary necrophage infestation this is well beyond any single witcher, but I guess you don't want to see that, you'd just like to see my corpse being fought over by necrophages. Call me selfish all you want, I've been called far worse. Atleast I know that sometimes one needs to live to fight another day. Today is one such day, if you wanted to see me fight and die, well too ****ing bad." The anger was rising, angry at not being understood. Anger at his own fault and abandoning Treasa. The bear school witcher was close to cursing the warrior but he knew full well that a curse shouted in anger, might have dire consequences, after all he had cleaned up the mess of such incidents. He followed the group of people toward their camp since he still had that bloody offer to make and he didn't doubt that Tobias would be watching him to make sure he kept his end of the bargain, little did Alastar know how right he was.​

 

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It there was ever a way to put a man on the spot, what Ana did would be it, to some extent anyway. If not for Veceslav telling them where the rooms were he wouldn't know where to begin and now he just has some idea on where to begin. Still didn't change that he wasn't sure just what he was supposed to be looking for in terms of a room for them. Nevertheless, standing around wasn't going to solve anything. "Sure." With that he went to where the rooms where and started looking around.

Sweallow thought about Terra's question. While he certainly wasn't going to allow her to overexert herself while she was under his care, there wasn't anything wrong with simply going for a walk. "That's fine, there's nothing wrong with going out and getting some fresh air."

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"I'll gladly keep that in mind." Kruez said. In truth he'd forgotten about the offer Veceslav had made on alchemy. Since that was followed by him going to talk privately with Veera, Kruez went to go find a spare room and sleep.

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So long story short, Xross basically was amused by the fact that Talon had gotten himself arrested, in fact he even started to laugh out loud. Though when Kyle decided to go all kamikaze, he did what any normal, not drunk/unconscious, person would do and GTFO'D.

 

Olivia's pov:



'Now by Melitele what other useful observations do you have and hell Dopplers are the least of our problems' Well clearly she could see that. Soon they were surrounded by ghouls, alghouls and rotfiends. There was a chance to fight them off but it was a slim one. Two Witchers were not enough to fight all of these ghouls, alghouls and rotfiends. Next to a man was two dozen graveirs. Soon someone by the name of Tobias showed up. 'If you wish to get out of here to alive, I have a request to make.' She was not sure she trusted this man but if Alastar want to find his way to Kaer she was the only one around that knew the way. Tobias was using threats. She did not seem to have any choice in the manner. 'There are people in my city who are killing my children, take care of them for me and let it be known that Oxenfurt is not a place for man anymore and I shall let you go' This was interesting. The man asked about her but she seemed to zone out. Alastar left while she was zoned out. 'Go ahead, don't be afraid, is there something you'd like to know, girl?' She snaped back to where she was. She had lots of question, but really no time to ask them. "Well", she hesitated. She was not afraid of the man at all but there was something to him. There was nothing saying he would do what he said. "You say that you will let us go if we take care of the people killing your children. I guess we have to trust each other that we will follow though. There is one thing I wish to know, If anything what do you gain from us taking care of the people killing your children. What benefit would you get if any from that if any." Most people wanted something for something, but she could not be sure about him. "I guess I will be going to help the other Witcher."

 

Tobias sat on the steps of the church, that was still burning behind him. One of the Graveirs came closer to him and he petted it as if it were a dog. The girl finally seemed to come alive and Tobias turned his gaze back to her. His completely black eyes gazing upon her. She was hesistant to ask him anything. "Isn't it always a question of trust whether the other follows through, whether at a market stall or taking on a contract, it's all a gamble." Tobias observed "You'll just have to trust me, there is no alternative. Though to be fair, if I wanted you killed, we would not be talking right now. That is the only thing you can be certain of after all you're not dead yet." The man spoke, getting back to his feet. "Isn't it obvious? My children will not be murdered for what they are. After all what is a Lord without subjects to rule over? Naught but a commoner himself." The man explained. "The other Witcher is currently leaving the city with a group of the murderers that accepted my gracious offer, if you hurry, you may catch up to them." He'd make sure a crow was following this girl as well, until she caught up to the other witcher.

 

Olivia's pov:



'Isn't it always a question of trust whether the other follows through, whether at a market stall or taking on a contract, it's all a gamble.' She guessed that was true. Nothing was for certain. Nothing was true unless you believed it to be so. 'You'll just have to trust me, there is no alternative. Though to be fair, if I wanted you killed, we would not be talking right now. That is the only thing you can be certain of after all you're not dead yet.' There was so many to kill but there was no way. "You must know that most fear death. Witchers are not among those that do. Death is one of the things we are certain that will come. For many we go down fighting. There is not peace." 'My children will not be murdered for what they are. After all what is a Lord without subjects to rule over?' That was interesting. People might be wanting to protect them self and that was the only reason why any children died. The people might be killing just to kill, but human were so not equipped to fight off that many. She wondered how the humans would even do that. Humans had there ways on doing things they was did. Most hated or killed things that they did not understand. 'The other Witcher is currently leaving the city with a group of the murderers that accepted my gracious offer' "Ok." So she was off to catch up with Alastar. She made her way towards the edge of the city. She making her way as quickly as possible. The edge of the city was in sight. Well now all that left was to head into the forest to make her way to kaer.

 

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Treasa glanced at Derrick as she dismounted, rummaging through mentioned bag once her feet hit the ground. "A please would have been nice." She commented, grabbing the materials needed before turning. She frowned as she scanned their "campsite" before picking a spot. Setting up the fire as Alastar had taught her, she struck a match before tossing it onto the kindling, blowing gently until the fire was a little stronger before feeding it larger pieces of wood. Then it was simply time to gather more wood around the campsite, which she did.

Despite Magick's strong urge to have Treasa attacked by something due to sheer boredom, it twas not to be, and Treasa managed to collect a good amount of fire wood, which she dumped in a spot easily reachable by the campfire.

"I'll take the watch, if you want to sleep...or whatever it is you do." She gestured to Derrick. "I can sleep when we ride tomorrow. And I have no desire to rest now." She pulled her bow from the strap on her back and crossed her legs, setting the weapon across her lap with the quiver next to her. Pulling out the quiver, she teased the unfletched arrows out before pulling the necessary glue and materials from her pouch, setting to work on them.

 

"Eh, whatever. It's not as if it's a formal occasion. Manners seem optional at the moment, but as you wish princess." Derrick replied nonchalantly. He continued to put up his stuff, and soon enough it was finished. A decent tent for him to stay in. Apparently she wasn't resting, so he simply shrugged and clambered into his tent and lay down on his back inside. "Sure thing! Wake me up in the morning! And if we die because you fell asleep on watch, I'll kill you!" He sincerely hoped that she realised that the last part was a joke. With an aching shoulder and a stressful day of exhaustion behind him, Derrick of Kaedwen fell straight into a deep sleep, uninterrupted by the horrific phantasms that plagued most of those that had seen the horrors that he had would see. He rested peacefully, and dreams came. Dreams of a future time where he had set down his blades, hanging them over the mantelpiece at home and simply relaxed, working as some kind of merchant with a wife whose face he never saw. All that he knew was instinctive - That she was beautiful, that he loved her and that she loved him too. A dream idyllic, beautiful, and on the whole unrealistic. He smiled as he rested, enjoying the moments of peace that he was getting - He had no idea whether he would get the same chance again. ​

 

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Vyle looked out over the valley of deer. He looked at Ana with gratitude that she understood. "Don't look. Please" Vyle pleaded. He didn't want her to seee him for the beast he was. With that he swooped down into the valley and landed upon an unsuspecting creature. Its neck was so supple and full of lovely blood. Vyle feasted on the creature. It wasn't pleasant, but it was necessary. He tried to wipe the blood off his face and hands and returned to Ana. He didn't say anything and avoided her gaze.

 

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Teliana smiled gently at Vyle, and turned her back, staring up at the blue sky. She wondered how Vyle had survived all these years. If he was as old as he suggested, it must have been a hell worse then Milosh had shown her...Milosh...She shuddered. Even here, he still invaded her thoughts. She had a feeling he would continue to do so for some time, and it bothered her. As if he was still winning by tormenting her even when he couldn't physically do so. She heard Vyle returning behind her, and stepped to his side once more.

He wouldn't look at her, wouldn't return her gaze. She sighed, and gently took his face in her hands, wiping away a smear of blood. "You missed a spot." She said, her voice low. Ana wasn't sure how to show him that he wasn't a monster, that none of this was his fault, but perhaps it was a wound only time could heal. Good thing she had a decent amount of patience.

"Come on. I could use with some sleep." She continued, letting her hands drop and taking his hand.
Soon enough, they arrived back at the Kaer, where Vyle helped Teliana back over the wall in the same way. Eventually, they found the rooms Zephyr had picked out, indicated with Zephyr asleep in one of them. Teliana hovered over the young mage, making sure he looked comfortable and that he was actually asleep and not for some reason dead before taking the room next door with Vyle. She remembered changing out of her tattered dress and into a new one and falling into bed before unconsciousness overtook her.

As the sun went down, the diurnal monsters found their nests and dens while the nocturnal creatures took their place. The stars glimmered in the sky, and small campfires dotted the land as travelers took their respite where they could. The moon rose, shining as a small sliver and giving very little light. Because Magick can think of no more poetically correct ways to say a timeskip happened.

Boom. A timeskip of eight hours happened. It's dawn now. Wakey wakey bitches.
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Teliana bolted upright, her skin covered in sweat and her hair matted as her eyes wildly searched the room. The last she remembered was Milosh's voice in her ear as he stabbed Vyle through the chest. Her hands clenched the sheets next to her as she gasped for air, her mind slowly quieting as she took in the strange room, the sunrise coming in from the window. "Vyle?" She whispered, her voice half pleading and shaky with fear. What if Milosh had come and taken him while she slept, torturing him while she dreamed? What if it hadn't been a dream? Instead of calming, she began to panic again.

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Veera hadn't slept more then an hour or two, and as the dawn rose, she was already dressed in her armor, swords buckled the strap that held them in place against her back. She wasted no time in tidying up the room, erasing any evidence she had ever been there before giving it one last look. The sunrise had always been her favorite part of the day, even as a child.

Closing the door behind her, she made her way towards Veceslav's room, knocking twice before awaiting his reponse. Her heart was steeled against this particular encounter, and steel it would remain. She knew there was very little chance she would return from this mission, given the power she had seen the mage wield. She would say goodbye to the only father figure in her life, and then she would leave. At least her limp was almost gone, making walking a much easier task.

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Treasa jolted awake, her heart racing as she stared down at the horse's mane, confused for a moment. The places she had left behind in her nightmares were not the same surroundings she was in now. She stared at the rising sun, then at the man who rose at her side before running her fingers through her hair and wiping the sweat from her forehead.

"Sorry." She muttered, guiding her horse along the rode before taking a deep breath to calm her racing heart. She knew she cried out in her sleep, sometimes. Alastar would shake her awake and hug her. There was no uncle here to wake her from those dreams now, just the snorting of her mount and the clopping of their hooves on the gravel.

"I'll stay awake until tonight." She wasn't sure if she was promising Derrick, or herself.

​

Zack was up before the dawn, having barely slept the night before. He paced the confines of his tent, thinking. The offer the witcher had brought him was strange, disturbing, and left him with little choice for the future of his people. Yet he could see no way not to accept it. He didn't have the forces, or the means, to take on an entire necrophage army and it's apparent king. But where would they go? What could they do? The dopplers would be shunned when the world found out about the massacre of Oxenfurt, and they would be hunted worse then ever. Sanctuary had been their only hope, and now....

Now he had no idea what he would do.

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Tessa felt the light hit her face, but she simply rolled over, her cheek hitting the pillow as she murmured something incomprehensible before her hand grabbed the edge of the pillow, clinging to it. Not quite awake yet, but not quite asleep, she kept her eyes closed and her thoughts quiet until she was actually forced to get up. It had been a long time since she had been allowed to sleep in.

 

The Castellan of Kaer Morhen had gone to sleep after the talk with Veera the previous night. The Master Witcher had once more been sleeping, he was getting older and after the day they had had, he needed the sleep. He didn't have any nightmares. In he morning he had put on his armour again, he'd get around to repairing all of that later. There was a knock on the door and he knew who was there. It was Veera, he had given her the opportunity to stay until she was ready to do this, apparantly she was prepared more quickly than he had expected.

He opened the door to find Veera standing there. "Come on in." The old crow said as he invited her into the room. His room was located in one of the towers of the keep, there wasn't too much to it, except his personal laboratory that nearly rivaled the one in the cellars. He was brewing some more swallow, tawny owl and thunderbolt potions. He had been awake before the sun rose and decided to start brewing to keep his mind occupied and he wouldn't send Veera out without a little bit of back-up. The rules never forbade providing supplies for said journey and that was all he was doing. "How is the leg?" He asked her. Not really wanting to think of all the possible consequences here...


Alastar and the NPC brigade had been going back through the city and Olivia had caught up with them. Alastar had explained the deal to the leader of the refugee camp, bought some supplies for the road for a very hefty price, giving the people some extra cash to get more of their own supplies, after all Alastar supported the local economy. He rested up at the camp and in the early morning went back to the road, intended to go towards Kaer Morhen. Which would be quite the trip as there weren't any horses around, well not horses that could support him and not make it look like the horse was suffering because of it. "So what actually happened in that city? We were a bit late and pulled the others out. And what's your story?" Alastar asked Olivia​

 

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You'd think that after finally being able to sleep in a bed of his own choice instead of waking up in one due to passing out Zephyr would stay asleep to enjoy the feeling , but nope. Instead of lying in bed sleeping his worries away, Zephyr had gotten up and headed outside to get some fresh air. If he'd known more about where he was, or at least the layout he might've wandered around for a bit, but since that wasn't the case he choose the option that wouldn't potentially get him lost.

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Now unlike Zephyr, Kruez had no problem with walking around Kaer. Partially because this was his second time being here. The mage had two destinations in mind, the library and/or wherever Veceslav was at the moment. At the library he was simply curious as to what they had there as reading material while for Veceslav he wanted to take the witcher up on his offer to learn more about alchemy. While it may have been nothing more that a hobby to him, there was still a form of legitimate interest in the topic for him. The order he did this though depended on where he ended up.

 

Olivia's pov:



At some point she caught up to the Witcher, to Alastar. The man asked her 'So what actually happened in that city?' She was not sure where to start. "My horse should be around the forest where the portal happened. We can walk and talk and once we find my horse ride and talk." She began walking. The city... "Well it all started in Kaer Morhen. Everyone was wanting to go there own way. I wanted to head to Oxenfurt. To find out something.." She did not know how much to tell the man. "I was to meet Derrick there. I arrived in oxenfurt and then shortly after ended up in a house with three dopplers. Two of them left for some reason. Can not say they are all that bright. I was able to take care of the dopplers. I walked out of the building I was in only to see hundreds of dopplers in the city. I could tell that most of the fighting was taking place in town square. I made my way though countless dopplers. Then at some point I came up on to ghouls. There seemed to be a battle shortly before I got to the ghouls. I knew that I had to be close to someone. I fought though them and made my way towards the forest. That was when I met up at the camp." He hopped that information was enough for the man. What was her story? Why would he want to know? "I am sure you do not want to hear about that." She then looked at the man. "What about you?"

 

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A gushing breeze tugged at her loose hair as they topped a small rise, and Ellyn looked down at the farmland below, and the village nestled among them. It looked nice, this little corner of the world, with the sun dazzling on the nearby river and the trees around keeping it sheltered from the outside world. It was the out of the way villages like Pontarsfork that stayed constant and safe, for the most part blissfully ignorant of the ravages of war and machinations of politics elsewhere in the world. It felt like it would stay like this forever.
Oak had stopped at the top of the rise in response to a tug on his reigns, giving Ellyn a chance to muse happily over Pontarsfork. It reminded her of her childhood, such as it had been. Vaguely she questioned why there were no farm folk in the fields, but she dismissed it. They were probably finished. Looking at the town itself though there seemed to be a lot of people around, more than she had thought had actually lived there. Perhaps from some farms further afield, or another town?
“Gordon, is there something going on in town today?” she asked the boy absentmindedly. She was reminiscing on how she and the other children had spent their time paddling in the ponds during summer.

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Evander awoke to pain. Mind-numbing, body-engulfing pain. It hurt all over. It hurt within his very bones. Thought and mere breath brought a fresh torrent of that pain with each passing second. It wasn't possible to live like this. Death would be kinder. Desperate, he grasped Power, and the flow of it he turned to healing his body. The pain grew less, slightly bearable, and with that lessening Evander was able to use more of that Power to heal. Soon, that unendurable pain was gone, and he could think clearly.
Vaguely he became aware of someone speaking to him. “...do you feel? Can you hear me or see me?” Evander turned his gaze to the right, and saw a man in bloodied clothes sitting beside the bed he was lying in. “The fuck do you want?” he rasped. The state of his voice surprised him for a moment.
The surgeon seemed a little put out by that greeting, but managed to move past it professionally. “Sir, I am a surgeon. You were brought to me injured, and I did what a could to help you. Quite a miracle I can assure you, the extent of your injuries...”
Evander was ignoring him by now. He had noticed his left arm, or what was left of it. It was simply gone half way up the forearm. Panic rising, he scrambled into a seated position, clutching at his arm with his right. What the fuck happened?!
“...sorry about your arm, truly I am, and, ehm, your legs...” the surgeon trailed off in a politely embarrassed tone.
Evander shot the surgeon a wildly panicked glare, and tore the blankets off of himself. Hideous red scars covered his left arm and torso, leading down to his legs, which both ended at the knee.
Dazed, his gaze drifted from his legs to the stump of his arm and back again, passing over the burn scars as he did so. His healing had helped with the scars as much as it could, they looked years old, but his limbs... the greatest healers alive couldn't bring those back.
The surgeon was now tentatively holding out a mirror for him. “You should look...” Evander grabbed it, peering furiously, terrified, into it. His face was a mere mass of distorted, melted flesh. His nose was gone, and his lips stretched back in a thin, gastly grin. Only the area around his right eye was untouched; the other eye was gone forever.
“I'm sorry. I really did do all I could,” the surgeon told him sympathetically. “But you're alive, at least.”
Evander simply stared at him for a moment, before breaking into a mad, mirthless, desperate laugh.
“Thank you, dear doctor.”

 

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Veera folded her arms over her chest, her eyes cold. "Fine." Was the only response she gave to Veceslav. She stared at him for a few moments before her gaze switched to a particular piece of cloth on the bed, or a cracked stone in the wall. Anything really, to keep her from looking at the man who had both decided on and would carry out her sentence. Shoving her towards death without swinging the blade himself.

He might as well have declared her dead. And if she didn't feel up to the suicidal tendency, then she could feel free to forever wander without a home, wondering when one of her fellow witchers would show up to finally end her. "Do you have something to say?" Her tone was as frosty as her eyes, her opinion on the matter clear.

She wasn't one for goodbyes, and this was one hell of a farewell.

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Tessa shifted as Seth moved, her eyes slowly opening. She smiled sleepily before turning over once more, burrowing deeper into the warmth of the blankets and covering her head to block out the light. "Just a little longer." She whispered, pulling her legs up towards her chest as she tried to soak up the delightful feeling of sleeping on clean sheets, in safety, with the heat of her body lingering on the cloth underneath.

She would stay here forever if the gods allowed it.

 

Alastar walked with Olivia down the road, he somehow doubted that the girl had fought as many dopplers as she claimed, just a look at her revealing a lot fewer injuries and sure she may have been a witcher, but if old, experienced hands like the Crow himself got out badly, then there was no way this girl got out in such an good shape. "What did you want to find out then?" Alastar asked, why just not say why she wanted to go to Oxenfurt in the first place, why all the secrecy? They were both Witchers for crying out loud. and she was going on about Dopplers then onwards to Ghouls what happened in between? Something must have happened right? This girl knew nothing useful, that was for sure. Her mention of the horse only made him laugh. "Have you actually looked at me, lass? There's no way yer horse can hold me, not to mention me and someone else. No that'd be cruel to the horse." She tried to dodge his question about her story with a question in itself. "If I didn't wanna know I wouldn't have asked and don't answer a question with another question, it's rude ya know." Funny enough that exactly he was the person talking about being rude, but it didn't matter he didn't have any ill intent.


The short reply told him all he had to know as did her tone. He took the small vials from his equipment and neatly lined them up. "Take them. And these." He said holding out a set of dimeritium bombs. "There's so much to say, yet not enough words to say it. I wish you the best of luck... You're my daughter, you know that, maybe not by blood, but family's more than just the blood coursing through your veins. I know you called out to the Witchers before I got to Oxenfurt, I tried to reach out to you, but you pushed me away... I wanted you to come home... so that all of this may have been prevented. You hate me for doing this, but I don't have much of a choice, you know that... The code says I can't help you myself, but truly if the hour is dark, call and I shall come. Family above code... especially when our family is growing ever smaller... Just know that whatever may happen out there... I put my faith in you..." He knew that she could point out his family over Code argument being applied here in general and him not punishing her, but he couldn't exactly do that. "I hate saying goodbye... it's so final, so I will tell you this. Until we may meet again, Veera, take care of yourself out there... One last thing...with your memories... there's something I want to give you, you carried it with you when you came here as a little girl, you fought hard to keep it... however eventually Master Silas took it from you when you were exhausted from training, I don't know what it meant to you, since you never told me and maybe it'll help you find your memories..." The old crow said as he took one of her hands and pressed the simple bracelet into it, looking into her eyes one last time.

Sigmund had slept nicely and in the early morning when Matilada ended up on his doorsteps had one of his servants let her in, assuming she came to check the bandages she was guide by aforementioned servant to the respective room.​

 

Olivia's pov:



Alastar asked her what she found out. "Well nothing useful. I was hoping to meet Derrick and he would have answers." Oxenfurt was full of wonder. "When I first got to Oxenfurt the first place I went to the library. I was hoping to find information on two Witchers. It almost like they disappeared. When I was younger I would come to Oxenfurt with them. Most of the time it was for Wither training. If not in Oxenfurt it was in Kaer Morhen." The books... "The books I got from the library should still be with my horse." 'Have you actually looked at me, lass? There's no way yer horse can hold me, not to mention me and someone else. No that'd be cruel to the horse.' "I am sure it will be fine." They would just have to see when they got there. 'If I didn't wanna know I wouldn't have asked and don't answer a question with another question, it's rude ya know.' Why did the man want to know so much? She had just met the guy and he wanted to know her life story. "At the age of 5 my home town was attacked by werewolves, Sirens vampires and other creepy creatures of the dark and night. The town was completely destroyed. I was able to get away and find my way to a new town. A new home." She looked at Alaster as to see if she wanted her to stop. "Witchers' stories of there lives are never happy. This one does not even have a happy beginning."


Ethan's pov:



Hours went by and it was now morning. He got up from where he was and had a look around. A brand new day. An other adventure come his way. He stood up ready for what was to come. Maybe now was a good time to head back to the village.