[ CLOSED ] here in this garden of bones

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Various
When: May
Where: Cadens; Horizon
What: Catch-all for May
Warnings: basic witcher canon stuff, adding as we go



(( starters below. discontinued or at Noa#1979 to plot. ))

Comments

[soothsighs]

( Urianger hesitates again, ever reluctant to unburden himself ohis troubles lest he need to use them for some manner of secrecy — but then this is Geralt, isn't it? A man who isn't in the same faction as him, let alone privy to the various guilts he's been carrying with him from Hydaelyn. Perhaps a man with a fresh perspective is precisely what he needs. )

Aye.

( A nod. )

The ritual, it— ( Urianger draws in a breath, then backtracks a little. ) Long have I worked in the shadows to assist my companions — to make necessary decisions that would be too terrible for them to bear — and for that I have needed to cultivate a great deal of self-control.

( There's a pause, then: )

Of mental fortitude.

( Urianger's posture alters slightly, straightening and sharpening, like that of a man falling back on subtle habits that manifest physically. This is the version of himself he wants to be — that he needs to be, for the safety of his friends. )

Yet in the pit, I was powerless to stop the effect of the ritual from taking hold. My mind was not my own — something I cannot allow to ever happen again.

[gynvael]

[ By the end, Geralt had not been conscious much. His memories of that time are blurry, patchy. He recalls the ritual, the rumbling shrines. Ciri, screaming, cracking the stones. Attacking Steve when Ciri vanished. Only after Ciri's desperate attempt to cure him had he started to become aware again.

He knows something happened to those like Castiel and Urianger. A different sort of fever that gripped them.

Leaning forward, he rests his arms on his knees. ] Witchers are trained since boyhood to resist magical influences. Even so, I've been caught unawares. Had my defences penetrated by someone more powerful. [ He pauses. ] If you spend your days afraid of the next time your control is stripped from you, you will never gain it back.

[ A hard lesson to learn. There have been a dozen things taken out of his hands, a dozen things he was never able to choose for himself. But he knows what he can control, what he's capable of, where his strengths lie. And he knows there's no greater prison than the waiting. For another loss, for another tragedy, for another terrible fate to befall. Eventually, the fear threatens to consume you whole. ]