[ CLOSED ] death is no man, death is no wraith

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Various
When: October, pre-event
Where: Cadens
What: October catch-all
Warnings: Standard Witcher canon


(( starters below. plot with me discontinued. ))

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[wiedzminka]

[ Destiny just fucking with him again, perhaps.

Ciri wipes the knuckles of her free hand at the corners of her eyes. ]

I don't know the details. [ When it comes to Jaskier, she means. ] I fled after that. I didn't want the Wild Hunt to find any of you.

[ She shakes her head. ]

For years, I succeeded.

[ Unfortunately, there is more. ]

[gynvael]

[ That's the thing, isn't it? Even if all on the Continent resolved as tidily as she offered, the Wild Hunt remains. They're the first threat she told him of, and he knows for as long as they're out there, it means he left her while she still needed him. And he knows he couldn't have expected to protect her forever, but—

He studies her carefully, his hand covering hers, gauging how much more he should ask. Now that it's out, though, the words seem to flow, and so he lets her continue. ]

You said they were chasing you when you were summoned here.

[ Was it because she sent him and Yennefer away? Was that the opened door that called them down on her again? ]

[wiedzminka]

[ She nods. ]

They changed tactics. Maybe I ran too far, or they got tired of chasing me. Every time I went somewhere new, they would find me again--

Until, instead, they found you.

[ Ciri scrubs her hand over her eyes again, shoulders slumping. She isn't crying anymore. She just looks... exhausted, like the memory alone of all that running, hiding, all that loneliness from the past has reemerged to weigh on her again. ]

I hoped you and Yennefer could be safe where I sent you. Somewhere just for the two of you to rest and be happy and be together. [ The anger creeps back into her voice now, a flicker of a spark beneath the tired hopelessness of the rest of it. ] But they found you and took you, I suppose to draw me out. It worked. They did the one thing I could not ignore.

[ If it all sounds hurried and complicated, that's because it is. She doesn't know what else to say about it. The story has no happy ending, after all. ]

I managed to free you, portal us away.

But I lost you again in the process, and I do not know what happened to Yennefer after she was freed from the Hunt as well. Somewhere on the Continent, I suppose. She's always found her own way.

But all I could do was keep running, and try not to get caught again.

...I'm sorry. [ Ciri lets her head drop with a sigh, closing her eyes. ] I failed you both.

[gynvael]

[ A long moment passes where Geralt appears to be stuck simply processing. He can't tell if he died or lived or what part of him survived. Maybe the reality isn't important. Ciri thinks he lived and was taken, and it's weighed on her since.

He cups her cheek, wiping the dampness away with his thumb. ]

You didn't. [ Did he know? Was he aware she was on the run, where he was? He cannot imagine a version of him or Yennefer that'd have abandoned her to fend for herself. If he was trapped in another realm, he'd have tried to find his way back to her. No matter the cost. ] Ciri—if what you say is true, then you saved us both. You're the reason we have a chance of finding each other again.

[ On the Continent. Here. That means something. Doesn't it? If he was taken, then that isn't the end of it. He might yet find her once more. He has to believe they will. They've done so in Abraxas. Destiny has fucked with them enough; the least it could do is bring them together each time life sees fit to tear them apart. ]

[wiedzminka]

[ She closes her eyes a moment, leaning into the rough warmth of his hand on her face.

She may never know what actually happened to him or Yennefer. They may be out there still, in another time and place, as real as they are here. Is there a version of her there too, or do her abilities mean that -- just as she's never had these dream-memories -- she is somehow apart from the rigid way time passes for most other people? It's dizzying to think about. And nobody else knows the answers anymore than she does. Not even those who seek to use her power seem to actually understand it.

Maybe Ciri could find out. Maybe, if she really tried, she could learn to actually bend space and time to her will the way others have told her she can. But the truth is, all she actually wanted was a home. A family. Somewhere to belong.

And here, she has exactly that. Maybe it's selfish. Maybe that naïve little girl she'd been, the one who wanted to be a Witcher and a queen, would consider this giving up, would be appalled (would be more appalled to know what happened in between). But Ciri knows better these days.

She cannot change the past, and the past is where the Cintra of her memories remains, along with the rest of the Continent. She's made her peace with leaving that world long ago. ]

Before, [ she says finally, pulling his hand into hers between them. ] I was always running from something.

They didn't realize what they did. Giving me someone to run toward instead.

I found you, even here.

[gynvael]

[ The more he remembers the girl from his visions, the more he sees how much she's grown. Changed. Not merely in age, but all of her. It mirrors so much of his own journey, shedding the scraps of dreams and wishes until what's left is this. Clinging onto what you have.

He'd wanted better for her. Perhaps he had lessons of his own to learn. Perhaps he's meant to realize he can't give her everything he hoped to, but that doesn't mean he failed her. She's still here, surviving and living—trying to make a home. And maybe that's enough. It's enough to know she made it through the horrors even without him there. That years later, she continues to want nothing more than her family together. That she doesn't regret the life she chose with them.

He can grant her that. A family and a home. It's not too late.

For the first time, he does not assure her that she will be found no matter what. That is, he understands now, a relic of the girl she once was. It's no longer what she needs to hear. ]

You'll always find me. I promise.