[ OPEN / CLOSED ] i think i found a way to kill the sun

[gynvael]

Who: Geralt + Various
When: December
Where: Cadens, Horizon
What: Some catching up now that he's home
Warnings: Discussion of trauma; nsfw marked



(( placing starters in the comments below. find me at discontinued or at Noa#1979 to plot stuff! ))

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[gynvael]

[ People do indeed disappear. And he'd believed that was it until he'd landed in Thorne. Realized it was true. That Mal had returned. Even after his domain had vanished in the Horizon, he'd returned, someplace else altogether. What it says, he isn't sure.

Geralt doesn't address the matter yet, lets Kylo speak as he will while he considers. Friendly elements. Like the mage, he presumes. The Duchess, too, perhaps. His expression flickers. Yeah. He remembers. The queen had said, what was it. That her uncle captained the military? There's a stretch of silence that Geralt makes no effort to fill even if Kylo were to add anything else. Truthfully, he does not want to be the one holding political secrets, but here they are. Not that it changes much. No secret will ever top the one he holds for Ciri. ]

And if Thorne is attacked from within? [ Because he knows, better than anyone, that chaos rarely begins from without. He thinks Kylo must realize that, too, whatever it is they're planning on that side of the border. ] Instability does no one good. The Free Cities are not showing restraint out of respect.

[ It's the first time he's acknowledged, a little, of where exactly he stands, despite his presence in Cadens. He's about as much interest in shattering the Singularity as anyone in Thorne. It doesn't matter what that thing is or what omens Thorne believes it holds. Maybe it spells doom, maybe it doesn't. Maybe all that will happen is that there's one less giant rock in the universe. What he does know is that you do not fuck with something that has existed on a world since its inception unless you're looking for trouble. Trouble he wants absolutely nothing to do with.

Beyond that, the Singularity appears to be the only thing shielding Ciri from the Wraiths of Mörhogg. For now. Its interference with her Elder Blood is a concern, but it's at least a concern that can be worked with, alongside Yennefer's help. A concern he can bide his time with while they find an answer. The Red Riders, though? If they discover her, as she fears? No one needs that. Least of all Ciri. He's already trying to protect her from a dozen different things, from a dozen different people, all who will want her the second they realize the power she carries inside her. Every day, it feels like he finds something new. And it worries him, not just for her safety, but because it's been years. Years since he's...since he's taken her in, apparently. She came to this place a grown woman, still on the run, still afraid. Which tells him she's been escaping for near a decade, from those who would pursue her. Perhaps he should know better, than to believe peace can be found for those like her, like him, too different for the world to turn away from. But it's something he can't help wanting to give to her. ]

[photophobic]

[If. Kylo offers Geralt a particularly flat stare, which isn't perhaps the most obvious indicator of wearied amusement to the uninitiated— but it seems to Kylo that there are enough similarities between the two of them that he doesn't need to lay it out further. They do indeed both know what a kingdom divided looks like, and the kind of trouble it can cause.]

It's... delicate.

[Which is not his specialty. Or Geralt's, he suspects. Although, with so much of Geralt's thoughts turned to protection, Kylo can't help but catch the very edges of the concern Geralt is turning over. What surprises him is how familiar it is, now, the desire to protect something— someone precious and valuable and absolutely, vitally secret. No longer an experience alien to him, or a sentiment that inspires the sickening heat of jealousy. Kylo has people of his own, now.]

But I am doing what I can to show Thorne the position of strength and stability it can find in informed co-operation with the Summoned, and I am not alone. I take it you weren't given much access to the castle library during either of your visits?

[A sip of ale, a rhetorical pause.]

The last time the royal family of Thorne did something the population disapproved of, they were overthrown and executed. As long as the people feel adequately protected, the threat of exposure should keep the Queen... contained.

[And Yennefer, newly proven loyal, should be a shiny enough bauble to keep her eyes from straying elsewhere, he doesn't add. Perhaps he doesn't need to.]

[gynvael]

[ Not obvious, but Geralt's expression is similarly flat, so they're on the same page.

Delicate. Yeah. What else isn't fucking obvious?

He lets Kylo talk, reacting to little even as he quietly mulls it over—though his eyebrow lifts when the matter of an execution is brought up. Hm. That's new. Not the most surprising. What kingdom hasn't got a bloody coup and an execution or fifty in its history? His expression suggests he doesn't like any of this. He also knows he doesn't have to. The balance between the three nation states can't be maintained forever, but. The longer it can, the better. It'll at least give him time to learn more. ]

I'm not seeking retaliation. I only want to know ahead of time if or when a storm is brewing. Whether that involves the queen or otherwise.

[ It needn't be said, but he does so nonetheless. That's always been the one thing he's made clear no matter who approached him. Because he's aware, given everything, it would be easy to assume that's what he wants, that he would be willing to support certain things simply because he holds no fondness for someone who did that to him. And he doesn't, but that's not the point. He knows full well what allowing resentment and vengeance consume you does. Never ends well. It isn't a place he wants to find himself in.

Probably, that's what Kylo will sense most in him: that if he holds any desire to see the Queen pay (and part of him does; he'd be lying if he said the impulse to take her head did not exist), it's largely tempered, carefully cooled and set aside. As long as he can be certain the people important to him are protected, what happens to her—good or ill—is a secondary concern. ]

The mage. The one who set me free. [ He still hasn't got a name. Truthfully, he isn't sure he wants to. It might be best he can't name to anyone—whether that's Thorne itself or the Free Cities—which of Thorne's mages cut him loose, if it ever comes to that. ] I owe her. And you.