[ Sam's heavy pour receives a grateful look. After a moment, Ciri straightens up just enough to grab the glass and take a long, bracing drink, the burn of it hitting her tongue and the back of her throat making her shudder.
She knows Julie and Nadine already patched him up once, helped him get back on his feet. What the fuck had happened after that? He was supposed to take a portal here, wasn't he? But Sam wouldn't know the answers to her questions, so Ciri doesn't bother voicing them.
It's just as well she doesn't have a real Witcher's fortified strength; the cup would shatter in her grip, the way her fingers tighten on it, knuckles straining. Ciri swallows down the rising fury along with that burning whiskey taste, letting out a hiss between clenched teeth. ]
It's always fucking men. [ Humans, she means. Gender nonspecific. It's always fucking other people. Witchers, created to fell monsters, repaid with violence as often as coin. Here, the context is not exactly the same-- but Ciri is just about as tired of mages and men as Geralt is.
It all just hits too close to home. ]
By magic or by hand, you don't get wounds like that in a fair fight. They tortured him. [ She says it bluntly, giving voice to the fact they all know by now. Sam's not an idiot. He can put two and two together. No one goes to the effort of capturing a man halfway across the continent to rough him up for no reason, and if they'd wanted to kill him, they'd have done it before he had the chance to run. No, Thorne wanted something.
And they knew about the connection (some connection, at least) between him and Yennefer. There aren't many logical leaps that need to be made from there, only a few reasons Ciri can think of why tormenting Geralt would have been worth snatching him from within the borders of enemy land.
What she doesn't know is how Yennefer had truly been involved. If she'd been just as blindsided as Geralt. If she's the reason he's here now, or--
Ciri takes another drink, finishing her glass on the second gulp. It's strong. She doesn't care.
The idea that she can't trust Yennefer, even a Yennefer who doesn't yet know her (but who still knows Geralt, still loves him, at least still cares for him) is far too painful to consider in any seriousness. It only makes sense if Yennefer had been taken by surprise or somehow outwitted. If she'd been foolish or overconfident. Not unthinking, not cruel. Not purposeful. She wouldn't. Ciri knows she wouldn't.
Lost in her own thoughts (fears), Ciri nearly misses Sam's question. It takes a full few seconds to register that Sam has said anything else, and another two to put the words together, realize she's meant to respond. Ciri stares into her empty glass, then shoves it across the counter at the bottle in a wordless request for more. ]
He was ambushed. Traces of a struggle, few signs he got to defend himself. We were able to ascertain magic was used in his capture, but no specifics.
[ She does not mention all the bodies left behind. ]
no subject
She knows Julie and Nadine already patched him up once, helped him get back on his feet. What the fuck had happened after that? He was supposed to take a portal here, wasn't he? But Sam wouldn't know the answers to her questions, so Ciri doesn't bother voicing them.
It's just as well she doesn't have a real Witcher's fortified strength; the cup would shatter in her grip, the way her fingers tighten on it, knuckles straining. Ciri swallows down the rising fury along with that burning whiskey taste, letting out a hiss between clenched teeth. ]
It's always fucking men. [ Humans, she means. Gender nonspecific. It's always fucking other people. Witchers, created to fell monsters, repaid with violence as often as coin. Here, the context is not exactly the same-- but Ciri is just about as tired of mages and men as Geralt is.
It all just hits too close to home. ]
By magic or by hand, you don't get wounds like that in a fair fight. They tortured him. [ She says it bluntly, giving voice to the fact they all know by now. Sam's not an idiot. He can put two and two together. No one goes to the effort of capturing a man halfway across the continent to rough him up for no reason, and if they'd wanted to kill him, they'd have done it before he had the chance to run. No, Thorne wanted something.
And they knew about the connection (some connection, at least) between him and Yennefer. There aren't many logical leaps that need to be made from there, only a few reasons Ciri can think of why tormenting Geralt would have been worth snatching him from within the borders of enemy land.
What she doesn't know is how Yennefer had truly been involved. If she'd been just as blindsided as Geralt. If she's the reason he's here now, or--
Ciri takes another drink, finishing her glass on the second gulp. It's strong. She doesn't care.
The idea that she can't trust Yennefer, even a Yennefer who doesn't yet know her (but who still knows Geralt, still loves him, at least still cares for him) is far too painful to consider in any seriousness. It only makes sense if Yennefer had been taken by surprise or somehow outwitted. If she'd been foolish or overconfident. Not unthinking, not cruel. Not purposeful. She wouldn't. Ciri knows she wouldn't.
Lost in her own thoughts (fears), Ciri nearly misses Sam's question. It takes a full few seconds to register that Sam has said anything else, and another two to put the words together, realize she's meant to respond. Ciri stares into her empty glass, then shoves it across the counter at the bottle in a wordless request for more. ]
He was ambushed. Traces of a struggle, few signs he got to defend himself. We were able to ascertain magic was used in his capture, but no specifics.
[ She does not mention all the bodies left behind. ]