[ 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! ))

Comments

[gynvael]

[ Something else? Geralt's brows draw together into a frown. He leans forward. What does she mean the city guards? (Do they know something? Has he been so caught up with what Thorne nearly uncovered that he's lost sight of threats far closer to home?)

No. He pushes the thoughts aside. Ciri seems to understand why she's being followed—and her reaction tells him she doesn't suspect it to do with her abilities. She'd have not waited until now to tell him otherwise. For show, she says. ]

Tell me what happened. [ It must be while she was searching for him. A tail is concerning, but. As long as they can be sure it isn't anything to do with her powers, her Elder Blood—that's the most important part. ]

[wiedzminka]

[ Ciri sighs, leaning an elbow on the table as she deflates a bit. Luckily, she doesn't look upset or scared -- merely annoyed, and perhaps a tiny bit sheepish. Or maybe just frustrated. ]

When Jaskier and I went out looking for you, I followed your trail. We found your camp. But...

[ The frustration solidifies into anger, quiet, already mostly spent. The memory of it is enough to make her lip curl, disgust more than rage now. ]

We were not the first to have discovered it. A group of those wandering brigands -- you know, the ones that roam the desert attacking merchant caravans. They were already there, picking through your belongings. They'd taken your sword.

[ Her voice is flat, unflinching. ]

I took it back.

[gynvael]

[ She needn't say much before understanding shifts his expression. In a sense, he's suspected there was a reason his gear was waiting for him when he returned. A sword like that would not sit in the open desert long before someone happened upon it: to sell or salvage or keep for themselves.

He gets it. What it would have looked like to Ciri to find a group of men over his belongings after a bloody trail was left behind. (Jaskier being there, though—mm. Jaskier knows when to keep out of the way.) And if the only consequence she received was akin to a slap on the wrist, then the city must have considered their deaths no great loss. Wanted men in the first place, probably.

Not like he hasn't left a small handful of corpses himself. He'd have preferred not, but—they'd made their choice, so he made his. ]

Should've left the bodies by an outrice nest. [ Those damn birds will eat anything. He does not dwell on the simple way Ciri tells him. He might carry no memories of training her, but he does know Kaer Morhen is not a place where one learns to preserve one's innocence. Neither is the Continent at large. ] Save you the trouble.

[wiedzminka]

Mm. [ Her lips quirk, shoulders loosening. She appreciates that Geralt doesn't even bother asking further questions. That he understands. (Of course he would; she was counting on it, wasn't she?)

Ciri shrugs. ]

I'll keep that in mind. [ Not that she's hoping for any sort of next time.

The mood having, oddly, lifted a little, Ciri reaches for her ale again. This time, her sigh is more of a grumble. ]

You know, the guards practically thanked me. Desert's safer without the rogues, after all. But they apparently had to make a show of some sort of consequence.

[ She doesn't mention the part where she was also in a cell for a night. It's not important. The point here is that the men following her are just doing their jobs, which are stupid, but at least they can all acknowledge it's stupid and there's no reason for Geralt to worry. The last thing she wants is for him to notice someone tailing her and end up with consequences of his own for her carelessness. There's enough on all their plates without that. ]