Chapter Text
1. Haze And Renewal
When Avallac’h awoke to sunlight in his eyes, he turned over and discovered Ciri’s side of the bed was empty. The only evidence of her presence were the wrinkled sheets and an indentation in the pillow where she had rested her head.
Her Wolf Medallion was missing from her nightstand, which told him that she had put it on when she woke up, but it still didn’t give him any indication of where she had gone.
He got out of bed and went looking for Ciri but didn't have to search for very long before he found her seated in a chair on the patio, legs propped up on the guardrail as she watched the sunrise.
She was dressed only in an oversized, loose-fitting shirt -- it was his, which he knew from its fine embroidery and the fact that it was too big on her -- that still couldn't hope to completely hide the lace underwear she had on, and her hair was gathered loosely around her shoulders. Her medallion hung around her neck and reflected the sunlight bouncing off the sparkling lake.
The morning sun on the water hurt his eyes but it was still a welcome sight compared to Skellige's frozen waters and chilly temperatures.
Toussaint, on the other hand, had warmth and bliss to offer.
Even the air smelled of flowers, almost as if the kingdom was in a state of perpetual summer and snowfall wasn't a concept let alone a concern to the people here. Everyone seemed happier here, whereas the Skelligers always seemed to be looking for a fight wherever they could find one, which he firmly believed was directly correlated to Skellige’s cold climate.
Of course, that likely made them happier than living in peacetime but Avallac'h always thought they were exceptionally primitive and barbaric, even more so than the dh’oine of the Continent.
"No accounting for modesty, I see," Avallac'h teased her as he leaned in and kissed his Swallow on her lips.
"Well, it's not like anyone will see me! It's just us here, after all!"
Their cottage was located at the edge of the forest, which provided them a front-seat view of the lake from the porch connected to their cabin. It was quite pretty now, became rather blinding in the afternoon when the sun was at its highest, and was especially beautiful in the evening when the sun was setting.
“Very true,” Avallac’h hummed. He scooped her out of her chair, eliciting a surprised shriek from his Swallow, and carried her back to their bed, where he proceeded to kiss her breathless.
“I never knew you could be so… hm, eager,” Ciri teased in between kisses. Avallac'h didn't have a response for her quip and kissed her again to quiet her.
The rest of the morning passed by in a blur, for Ciri and Avallac’h became lost in the throes of passion between the sheets and it wasn’t until the sun was high in the sky that they finally decided to get out of bed and start their day.
After a refreshing bath, they got dressed and went out to the village just down the road from the cabin where they were staying for a meal.
Toussaint’s beauty extended to its clean, welcoming taverns that had only good food and drink to offer. The rest of the Continent, especially some of the taverns in Temeria and Novigrad, could stand to learn something about hospitality from the land of fairy tales.
“I heard there’s a wine festival happening in a few days. Would you like to go?”
"Of course," Avallac’h agreed without needing to be convinced.
However, only a few days passed before Ciri’s restlessness got the better of her and she departed their cabin wearing her armor and sword on her back. Avallac’h quickly came to find out that she had taken on a contract for a haunting and looked incredibly excited to purge the restless spirit that haunted the graveyard on the other end of Toussaint.
All mention of the wine festival had been forgotten the moment she had suited up.
She insisted that she would be back soon but something compelled Avallac’h to come along, if only to keep her company in the dead of night, and that was how he found himself in a busy tavern while Ciri tried to iron out the details of her contract with the contract giver despite the noise around them.
Avallac'h only managed to pick out bits and pieces of their conversation -- something about a shrieking ghost -- despite standing right next to his witcher.
"Sounds good. I can do it for that much coin," Ciri agreed.
Not much later, they found themselves in a crypt that Ciri had decided to scope out; the witcher sat across from him on a stone sarcophagus whereas Avallac'h's leaned against the wall opposite of her. She was clearly in her element, unfazed by the stillness of the night yet hyper-aware of everything happening around them.
No ghost would catch her by surprise, that was for sure.
The sarcophagus Ciri sat on was one of many in the room, and it was clear to them both that this particular section of the crypt belonged to a family, because their familial name was engraved into a placard nailed by the door and the sarcophagi only bore the first names and recorded lifespans of the buried dead. They had to be quite wealthy in order to afford a lavish crypt such as this.
“Is something on your mind?” Ciri asked, cocking her head to the side.
Her dear elf could try as he might to maintain an air of impassivity but she was pretty good at reading him, and she could tell that something was bothering him.
“This isn’t really what I had in mind when we agreed to go on vacation.”
It wasn’t that Avallac’h was about to start complaining like a petulant child but he couldn’t help but feel curious about his Swallow’s motives for taking on a contract. She was still bedraggled and worn down from her time spent searching for Cerys and fighting the Crow Clan and she was supposed to be recovering from that experience, not chasing after new contracts. At least, he thought so.
He was sure he knew the reason why -- Ciri wasn’t all that difficult to read, after all -- but he wanted to hear the truth come from her lips.
“I know that we said we were going to enjoy our vacation, but I think it doesn’t hurt to have a little extra coin! And besides, who knows when another witcher will come around to fix the problem?”
“You just wanted to take on a normal contract. That’s the actual reason, isn’t it?” Avallac’h presumed.
“Yes,” Ciri sighed heavily. Damn him, he could read her like a book. “Besides, isn't it more important for us to spend time together… regardless of what we’re doing?”
“I suppose there is some truth to that.”
The cemetery was located at an intersection between the Hauteville and Lassommoir districts, which was certainly one of the more impoverished parts of the city; the quarter had been almost completely deserted when they came through , save for the women of ill repute and drunkards that roamed the cobblestoned streets in search of their next customer or drink.
Even though Avallac’h knew Ciri could handle herself, he still didn’t like the idea of her going out alone and more importantly, didn’t see the point of biding his time in an empty cabin while his witcheress chased ghosts.
“Do you think that Toussaint would be a nice place to settle down in? I think our child would really enjoy it here.”
“This is quite the place to have a conversation about starting a family.”
“The irony is not lost on me,” Ciri said, snorting out a laugh.
Still, Avallac’h listened intently as his witcheress laid out all of the positive aspects of living in Toussaint, which included a warm climate, a kingdom that was untouched by violence and war, and of course, living in close proximity to Corvo Bianco, the vineyard where Geralt and Yennefer resided.
“Do you plan on informing Gwynbleidd and Yennefer about us at any point?”
“Why do I have to do it?”
“They are your parents.”
“Hmm, fair. I suppose I’ll--”
A shriek interrupted Ciri and with true, witcher-like reflexes, she drew her sword, so quickly, in fact, that the metal sang as it exited its sheath, and crossed the distance of the room in a matter of seconds by teleporting. Green light flooded the room and then faded away as she headed deeper into the crypt.
Avallac’h only knew where Ciri was by the pulses of her magic but managed to catch up to her easily enough. However, he wasn’t prepared to see vases and offerings that had been left behind by mourners float up into the air on their own; anything that wasn’t nailed down or too heavy to lift flew all around them in a cyclone and it was only thanks to his quick wits that Avallac’h managed to pull Ciri down just as a vase flew over their heads and shattered against the wall behind them.
She smiled at him in gratitude but that was as far as her thanks went before a feminine voice shrieked,
“I can’t believe I can’t get away from you even in death!”
Ciri looked up and saw a woman’s ghostly form standing on the other end of the room, nex to an urn on the stone shelf. She looked angry, but not at them. She was angry at--
“I’m not happy about this either, you daft wench!”
There was another ghost, this one a man. He stood opposite of her by an urn sitting on a stone table.
"Yes, you would rather have been buried next to the concubines you cheated on me with--"
"It would have been far more peaceful if I had!"
“Quiet!” Ciri shouted, effectively silencing both of the arguing ghosts.
“Who are you?” demanded the woman. “You don’t look like one of his women!”
“That’s because I’m not. I’m a witcher and I came here to see what all the shouting was about.”
“Well, you can thank Salvatore here.”
“Me? What do I have to do with any of this?”
“Everything, you imbecile!”
“So if I understand this correctly, you hate him because he cheated on you and you hate her because… she nags you?”
"Nag doesn't even begin to describe it! She--"
"Don't start, Salvatore! You have no right to talk--"
"Oh, shut up, woman! Neither do you!"
Is this what it's like to be married? She was at a loss regarding how to help the ghosts… that is, assuming that was what they needed. It was starting to look like they just wanted to scream at each other until the end of time.
It wasn’t like ghosts had to worry about high blood pressure, either. They could just yell and yell and yell without fail…
"Is there a point to all this?" she interjected tersely. “Or are you two going to argue all night?”
“I wouldn’t have to argue with him if I didn’t have to be in the same room as him!” Carmela huffed.
“Likewise!” Salvatore barked.
I’m surprised they can actually agree on something…
“Well, how do you want to resolve this? Do you want me to move one of you out of the crypt?”
“That sounds like a splendid idea! I wish to be laid to rest with my mother,” Carmela requested. Her features twisted up in disdain as she added, “not here with this scoundrel!"
“I don’t want you here, either!” Salvatore snapped back. “Get her out of here and I’ll reward you! You can collect the coin owed to me by my friend Guiseppe after I beat ‘im in Gwent.”
“I can do you one better! My mother was buried with some valuable Gwent cards that she received as payment for a job she did once. You can open a compartment in her gravestone and there you'll find them! You look like you play Gwent, witcher! The cards should serve you well!”
“You always do this, Carmela! Why do you always have to have the last word?” Salvatore barked frustratedly.
“Because you never listened when we were married!”
“That’s not an excuse--”
“Enough!” Ciri snapped, which effectively silenced both of the arguing ghosts.
She took Carmela’s urn off the shelf it sat on and carried it out of the crypt.
Ciri and Avallac’h were both glad to be out of the crypt and away from the arguing ghosts; in contrast, the warm air and quiet cemetery were a welcome change compared to the stuffy, noisy crypt they had just escaped from.
They found Carmela’s mother’s final resting place in the cemetery easily enough and as she set down Carmela’s urn right next to her mother’s gravestone, Ciri could only hope that she had done enough to prevent the ghosts from coming back and starting another ruckus.
And then she retrieved her reward.
"Who would go through all the trouble of burying Gwent cards like this?" Ciri wondered aloud as she opened the compartment in the gravestone and withdrew a small metal box which held the cards she had been promised. She found a Cockatrice, Botchling, and an Arachas inside, which satisfied her quite well because she could see herself putting the cards to good use the next time she played with Geralt.
"Whoever buried the woman," Avallac'h's quipped, which made Ciri chuckle.
"Fair enough."
Ciri was not that surprised to discover that Giuseppe had already spent all the coin he owed Salvatore, on account of the fact that the man was now dead, but he did have enough honor to offer Ciri a dagger as a substitute.
The blade was curved, adorned with expensive rubies at the base of the hilt, and the handle was carefully wrapped in black leather, which Ciri accepted because she couldn't bring herself to walk away from such a beautiful weapon. They bid Giuseppe farewell, returned to the Clever Clogs Tavern, where the witcher happily told her contractor that there would be no more shouting coming from the cemetery before collecting her pay, and returned to their cabin just as the sun was rising.
Ciri tugged off her armor and tossed it to the floor with the intent of picking it up later and then crawled into bed, where she fell asleep in Avallac'h's arms, happy and content.
***
2. A Night To Remember
It wasn’t long after her contract at the cemetery that Ciri realized she needed to get away from the Continent as soon as possible or she would spend the rest of her and Avallac’h’s vacation taking contracts and hunting monsters. This led them to abandon Toussaint for Night City and not even six hours into their stay, something exciting caught the witcheress’ eye.
More specifically, it was a shiny, holographic poster hanging in a shop window, advertising a Pilots concert after a long, three-year hiatus. The concert in Night City would be held for one night only at Night City Stadium and, as printed on the poster in giant, color-shifting letters, it was not to be missed.
Ciri managed to procure tickets through an old friend who knew how to navigate the ticketing system better than she or Avallac’h ever could and met up with her the day of the show with money on hand.
“All of the special packages sold out in five minutes but I managed to get you general standing seats. Hope that’s okay.”
“It’s more than okay. It’s great, actually! Thank you so much, Judy! You’re a lifesaver!” Ciri gushed.
“It was no trouble at all. Then again, I never took you for a Pilots fan.”
“I don’t really know anything about them. I just heard that it was one night only and decided I couldn’t miss it.”
“Yeah? Well, you have good taste,” Judy remarked, which Ciri thought was a funny statement because her music tastes didn’t extend much further than ballads sung by bards back home on the Continent. “By the way, did you know the lead singer’s the son of Johnny Silverhand?”
“No, I didn’t know that.”
“Yeah, apparently the big man himself had a one-night stand with some groupie and bam, Jeonsan was born nine months later. Kid’s talented, I’ll give him that. Clearly got it from his dad.”
“Can you tell me anything more about the band?”
“I do know that Jeonsan was actually part of a seven-man boy band before he went indie-- er, independent,” Judy corrected herself when Ciri shot her a peculiar look.
Spending six months in Night City years ago had not been enough time for the witcheress to learn the intricacies of hyper-modern slang and because it had been a while since she last visited Night City, what comprehension she had of the language that Judy and her other friends used was more than a bit rusty.
“And now he has his own band?”
“Yeah, he broke off from his record label when he found out that they weren't paying him and his group properly. It was the top story in the news for weeks and his company's stocks crashed so hard that they went out of business.”
“Sounds like they got what was coming to them.”
“Yeah, I’ll say,” Judy snorted. “Say, where’s your friend? Y’know, the tall, blonde, silent guy with the pointy ears?”
“He’s back at the hotel.”
“Oh, so he is here. Tell him I said hi.”
“I will. I think he’ll be happy to hear that you remember him.”
Judy laughed. “Okay, I think I’ve kept you long enough. I’m sure you have places to be before the show tonight.”
Judy transferred the tickets to Ciri’s brain chip and told her, “don’t be a stranger” before they went their separate ways. Ciri didn’t let her leave without hugging her goodbye and then went back to the hotel room she was renting with Avallac’h. When it came time for the concert, they embarked for the venue and found a spot near the back instead of attempting to merge with the crush of people that had formed around the stage.
Ciri was just happy to be among normal people for once.
“It’s time! It’s time!” she uttered excitedly to Avallac’h when the lights dimmed, lightly slapping his arm to get his attention. He hummed attentively next to her.
As Jeonsan walked out on stage with the rest of his band and shouted, “everybody, make some noiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiise!” into the microphone, she forgot about all her worries as the walls began to pulse with loud music.
The music had her jumping up and down and singing along to every song even if she didn’t know the words and at some point, she and Avallac’h found a secluded corner where they danced together; although the dances from their worlds didn’t really fit the ultra-fast paced tempo of the songs being performed, they were having fun and that was all that mattered.
One exciting song followed another and Ciri noticed herself going hoarse as the night went on but she didn’t care.
“Thanks for an unforgettable night, everyone. N.C. never disappoints,” Jeonsan said at the end of the night, which was met with loud whoops, screams, and shrill whistles. He sang three more songs and then the lights came back on in the venue once he and the band stepped off-stage.
Ciri let out a giddy laugh as they exited the stadium with all of the other concertgoers. Her heart pulsed with excitement and her ears were ringing yet, at the same time, everything around her felt oddly muffled and it felt like Avallac’h was standing a considerable distance away from her even though they were walking together side-by-side.
She looked over at her elf and in a moment of boldness, she curled her fingers into the fabric of his shirt and tugged him into a deserted alley.
As their lips touched, Ciri teleported them back to their hotel room, where their clothes quickly fell to the floor and they forgot about everything else as they tumbled headfirst into pleasure together.
***
3. The Future By Its Throat
When they returned from their holiday in Night City, Ciri and Avallac’h found themselves back in Novigrad. It was easy enough to assimilate back to their everyday lives despite not having been in the Free City since last winter, for it felt like not much time had passed at all.
Avallac’h returned to his shop, where Eimear caught him up to speed on all the developments he had missed out on during his time away, while Ciri went into the city in hopes of finding a lucrative contract to help line her pockets.
Hanging from the notice board near the Golden Sturgeon, Ciri found a couple of marriage proposals, a marriage rejection, a death announcement for a barrister who wasn’t so well-liked, lessons in propriety being offered by a minor duchess, a threat against a “serial shitter” who insisted on doing his business on the doorstep of a man named Amos, but no contracts.
The notices were so old that they had almost been bleached by the sun and ocean air.
“Where is everyone?” Ciri asked aloud, though there was no one who could answer.
The docks were normally bustling with life but it was as if everyone had disappeared. There were no dockhands nor civilians passing through, not even courtesans roaming the streets in search of new customers. It was as if Silverton had been completely deserted.
There has to be someone around here who knows something, Ciri thought. She decided to venture inside the Golden Sturgeon, figuring it was her best bet for getting any useful information but even the tavern was empty. The tables were devoid of customers and even the bartender was missing from his station.
This is very strange…
“Apologies, but we’re not open-- Ciri!”
“Bea,” the witcher said as she embraced her dear friend. “It’s been too long.”
“Aye, you can say that again! I haven’t seen you in years! How are you?"
“Oh, you know, traveling the world, hunting monsters. How about you? How is Ciaran?”
“He’s well, and so am I. Happy as ever,” Bea gushed. “We even have a little one named Violet.”
“You had a baby?” Ciri gasped excitedly. “Congratulations!”
“She’s quite a handful but gods, I love her so much! She looks exactly like Ciaran, except for her hair.”
“So she looks like you, too.”
“Just a little. You should come by to Farcorners so I can introduce you. We could even go now, if you wanted. It’s not like any customers are going to come in.”
“About that… why is the place empty? And the docks, too? There’s no one around.”
“We’re closed, as you can see,” she said, gesturing to the empty tavern around her. “The innkeep insists on keeping the doors open but I personally don’t see the point if we’re turning away all our customers.”
“Any particular reason why?”
“There is, actually, but it’ll take some time to tell you the whole story.”
“I have time.”
Ciri and Bea took a seat at one of the empty tables with a round of drinks for themselves. Ciri paid, figuring that she could help out the business a little bit despite being one of many establishments under strict orders not to operate. But it was fine, because the Council would never find out that their work-stoppage decree had been broken by a barmaid and a witcher.
“Where to begin…”
“When did all this start?”
“A few weeks ago,” Bea said definitively. “It was a bright, sunny day like any other and then suddenly, the water started rolling like a tempest in a storm! It rose so high that it reached the front steps of the tavern! And then it cracked three ships in half before it suddenly stopped!”
“What could have done something like that?”
“I wish I knew. Anyone who might have known drowned or got pulled under by the waves.”
“Have you seen this beast?”
“What makes you think it’s a beast?”
“What else could it be?”
Bea pondered her statement and then shrugged in agreement.
“Come to think of it, some survivors reported seeing shadows on the water and not much else. People sometimes go missing at night and turn up dead on the docks come morning. Most of them wind up smashed to a bloody paste, so it’s hard to even tell who they were before the beast got to them but there are others who are less lucky and just disappear, never to be seen again.”
Sounds like it’s something big… really big. And it likes eating people…
“It’s got folk scared. Ciaran frets for me everytime I go to work. He keeps telling me that I shouldn’t do anything that will put my life at risk and leave our daughter motherless but it's not like I can just sit at home and wait for the problem to solve itself. Then again, there's not much work to be had on account of the beast wreaking havoc all over the docks. Hardly anyone comes by anymore and I can't say I blame them."
"I think I see where you're both coming from," Ciri acknowledged. "I might be able to ease his worries after today and business should return to normal soon enough."
“Please, Ciri, if you can fix our problem, I would really appreciate it! And I know everyone else will, too!”
"Has anyone posted a notice for the monster? Would make it worth my while if there was a contract out for its head."
"I think the innkeep managed to grab a copy from the notice board. Be right back."
Bea went into the back room and returned with a piece of paper that was much more crisp and nowhere near as yellowed as the notices posted outside. It was newer, too, and undamaged by the elements.
Seeking the services of an experienced witcher skilled in all manner of extermination!
For weeks now, business in Silverton has suffered on account of a beast that lurks in the ocean waters.
This beast has disrupted trade in multiple kingdoms and needs to be dealt with as soon as possible!
Will pay handsomely for the deliverance of the beast's head and assurance of a job well done.
See Gabriel Eckhart, head of the Sailors’ Guild, for more information.
"Looks like it’s time to pay Gabriel a visit."
Ciri found him at the Kingfisher without too much trouble and quickly came to discover that he was a ship foreman, which explained his vested interest in getting business to return to normal as quickly as possible. He looked incredibly stressed, flipping pages with more force than needed and scribbling down notes with enough force to tear the parchment.
“Are you Gabriel Eckhart?”
The man looked up from the logbooks in front of him and peered at her with suspicion. “Who are you?”
“I’m a witcher. Here about your little problem.”
“Yes, well, my so-called ‘little problem’, as you described it, is anything but! I’m losing money every minute on account of the monster and I would like it if it were dispatched as quickly as possible.”
“Well, it’s your lucky day. I’m here to fix your problem but there’s something we need to talk about first.”
“What is it?” the foreman asked impatiently.
“Pay’s not enough.”
“What do you mean it’s not enough? I’m offering an entire purse of gold!”
“Well, for starters, no one has been able to tell me what I’m going up against. That immediately raises the cost of things.”
The foreman huffed. “Fine, you’ll get an extra fifty crowns and not a copper more!”
Ciri smiled triumphantly. “You’ve got yourself a deal. If all goes well, you’ll be back to work by the end of the day.”
As she left, she heard Gabriel remark, “I sure hope so, witcher” and silently swore that the beast would meet its end today.
If the stories weren’t exaggerated and that it was truly as big as Bea claimed, Ciri knew that the monster was likely impervious to the bombs she carried in her pouch. She would need a thousand Dancing Stars and a way to throw them at the monster all at once. But even if she had assurance from the gods that such a method would work, it would just be a waste of time and supplies.
She needed something bigger, with a lot more firepower than a Dancing Star bomb but in order to figure out her course of action, Ciri knew she first needed to investigate the harbor and come up with any clues about what she was dealing with.
Her investigation almost ended before it started when a guard noticed her heading towards the heart of the docks, which resulted in Ciri wasting several minutes arguing with him -- precious minutes that could have been spent searching for clues -- but she was allowed to continue on when the guard realized that nothing could sway her. Of course, he made a remark about her being suicidal, and to not come crying to him when the monster inevitably ate her up but it went in one ear and out the other as Ciri continued on her way.
The docks were covered in some kind of slick, viscous substance that actually ate through her gloves a bit, forcing Ciri to wash it off in a bucket before it burned a hole straight through them.
She then found a piece of a tentacle from a dock worker who had managed to survive the beast and cut off a chunk of it the morning he got attacked. It looked like it belonged to a kayran, if her memory of the sketches in Brother Adalbert's bestiary served her correctly.
She was going to need insectoid oil for her sword but that wouldn’t be enough. She needed something to help her level the playing field against the kayran and decided that she would go back to Avallac’h’s shop and see what she could cook up there.
“You’ll want to burn that. It’s not edible,” Ciri advised the man, who seemed disappointed to hear her say that. “I’m serious. It’s poisonous, and it’ll kill you if you eat it.”
She stood by and watched him burn it to ensure that he didn’t try to eat it behind her back and then ventured back into the heart of the city to her elf’s shop.
“Do you have buckthorn?” Ciri blurted out, skipping the pleasantries as she brushed past him and started looking through crates and jars set up around the shop. Avallac’h shot her an exasperated look.
“I do, but I would appreciate it if you would tell me what you’re trying to do before you go raiding my shop for supplies.”
Now it was Ciri’s turn to give him an exasperated look. “I need to craft a lure for a kayran. It’s a giant sea monster and I know that, unless I level the playing field and get it on land, there’s no way I’m going to kill it.”
Avallac’h seemed to understand. “You can find buckthorn in the back room, on the top shelf next to the jar of bryonia.”
Ciri smiled. “Thanks.”
She got to work crafting the lure, which was a multi-step process that first required her to synthesize a potion that was supposed to lure out the monster by smell alone.
The buckthorn stank when she set it on fire with the intention of burning it and grinding it to a powder and even with the windows open, she was sure that the smell was permeating throughout Avallac’h’s shop; unfortunately, there was nothing she could do but forge onward and endure the smell even when it threatened to make her throw up.
But at some point, Ciri could no longer bear it and had to ask Avallac’h to step in. She stood in the doorway, taking advantage of the airflow while her elf finished synthesizing the lure, and couldn’t help but enviously look on when she realized that he wasn’t nearly as affected by the stench as she was.
“If this doesn’t draw it out, I don’t know what I’ll do,” she groaned.
“Would you like some assistance?” Avallac’h asked.
“You know… yes, I would like that.” Since she was about to face off against a true terror, having her dear elf watching her back could give her an edge over the monster.
On their way back to the docks, Ciri filled in Avallac’h on the details of her contract and he listened intently.
“So I’m still working out the details but I have a few ideas on how we could kill it."
“You mean to tell me that you don’t even have a solid plan?”
“I’ve been going over it in my head while we were walking,” she insisted. “And, well, we might have two, maybe three options but all of them are going to cause a lot of property damage.”
“Which one is the least detrimental to your safety?”
“They’re all pretty dangerous.” Ciri didn’t miss the concerned, reluctant look Avallac’h gave her but there was nothing she could do to soothe his worries. “We only have two choices: fight it on the docks or on a ship. It’s the only way that might reduce the loss of life, not unless you expect me to fight it in the canal-- wait, that’s it! The canal!”
“Zireael, no, that’s suicide!”
“It’s not! Look,” she said as she tugged him by the wrist and had him stand on the bridge, facing away from the docks. “That’s Tretogor Gate. It can be lowered and raised by a spinning lever in the tower above the sluice gate.”
“So your plan is to lure the kayran here in the canal?”
“Yes, and if we time it right, the gate will fall on it and that’s when we strike!”
Avallac’h let out a heavy sigh but did not make any comments about Ciri’s plan. His witcheress could not be swayed once she set her mind to something, which meant that all he could do now was use his magic to defend her against the kayran and help tip the scales in her favor.
He remained by Ciri’s side as she sought out the help of the town crier and the city guards to help evacuate the Silverton district and backed her up when they were reluctant to go along with her plan.
Together, they somehow managed to convince them to go along with her plan of evacuating everyone living within a two mile radius of the canal but it became even easier once she informed them that she was going to kill the sea monster living in the harbor.
“Right, miss, we’ll have that done right away,” the guard assured her. Within the half hour, the district was completely cordoned off and by then, the sun was high in the sky.
Good, Ciri thought as she shielded her eyes from the midday sun with her arm. We should see it coming from a mile away.
“Ready when you are, miss!” the guard shouted from his post at the top of the gate’s tower.
“Shall we get started?” she asked Avallac’h.
“I am ready if you are.”
“Once I spill the lure along the bridge, there’s no going back.”
She teleported ahead to the first bridge located closer to the docks and it took all of her willpower not to vomit as she uncorked the bottle and poured out half of its contents onto the bridge; she then teleported back to Avallac’h and poured out the rest of the bottle’s contents at their feet.
They were fortunate that the winds were blowing towards the docks, carrying the stench away from them, or she surely would have vomited.
“And now all we can do is wait… and hope that it takes the bait.”
It wasn’t long before she heard a rumbling coming from the pier and looked up just as she saw the kayran, a giant, grotesque, tentacled monster, quickly barreling down the canal. It flung itself over the first bridge and landed in the water with a splash! that sent water flying everywhere. It was a miracle that the canal quickly refilled itself or Ciri would have had to readjust her plan on the spot and fight it in the emptied-out canal.
It recovered from its plunge and resumed its chase, barreling towards them at speeds that Ciri didn’t even think was possible for a kayran.
“Go, go!” she shouted as she pushed at Avallac’h’s shoulder, encouraging him to run away to safety just off the bridge, and then teleported outside of Tretogor Gate.
She braced herself, waiting for the right moment as she watched the monster’s movements, and then signalled the watchman. The gate came down on the monster a moment later and it let out a blood-curdling shriek that made the ground shake.
Ciri teleported back behind the city walls and dove into battle, where she made quick work of the kayran by cutting off its limbs one by one.
She narrowly managed to teleport away and avoid getting a faceful of acid but almost wasn’t as lucky when the kayran tried to spray her a second time. This time, it failed to hit its mark thanks to the shield Avallac’h put up, which prevented its acid from melting her face off and allowed her to strike back against the beast even as it tried the same tactic on her over and over again.
It was all it could do because she was too fast for its swinging tentacles, which fell one by one until it had none to defend itself with.
The final plunge of her sword made the beast groan and shake as it died but just when she thought it was done, it managed to knock her back with a final lunge before it sank into the canal, dead
Ciri wound up losing her balance when she couldn’t recover and fell into the canal with a loud splash!
“Nothing like a swim in the canal to freshen up on a hot day,” Avallac’h quipped as he helped Ciri out of the water and onto the fractured bridge.
Ciri didn’t respond to his statement with a quip of her own like she normally did when he teased her. She didn’t get the chance to because as soon as her feet touched concrete, the stench of the dead kayran hit her and she threw up all over her boots.
“Are you alright?”
“Ugh… that horrible stench…”
“Come, let’s get out of here.”
Ciri somehow managed to keep it together long enough to collect her payment from Gabriel and took the side door out of the restaurant. As soon as she stepped outside the Kingfisher, she didn’t wait for Avallac’h and teleported back to their flat. She sent out a silent apology to him as she hurriedly stripped herself of her dirty armor and then lay down on her side, praying that her nausea would settle.
Her elf caught up to her some time later and fortunately, he did not seem angry at her in the slightest. He was concerned, though. It was clear as day on his face.
“Are you alright? I can fix up something for you--”
“No, no, I don’t want any of your potions,” she groaned. “I’ve had enough for one day.”
“Rest now,” was all Avallac’h said. Ciri felt him kiss the top of her head and then heard his footsteps trailing off as he left her alone.
After dozing for a few hours, Ciri felt a little better.
Her stomach churned and she still felt like she was moments away from throwing up but it wasn’t too terrible as long as she was gentle with herself.
With nothing better to do and no desire to get up for a book, Ciri continued to lay in bed and pondered all of the potential reasons behind her nauseousness. She didn’t understand why she had been so miserable today, when she was capable of clearing a sewer of drowners any other day of the week without flinching at the smell.
First the lure she had brewed, then all of the close calls with the kayran’s acid, and then an unfortunate dive into the dirty canal… all in one day. It was a miracle that she hadn’t thrown up sooner.
How funny would it be to find out that I’m pregnant? she thought with amusement.
Nothing short of a devourer exploding on her could disgust her to the point of wanting to throw up and even that wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Ciri blanched. Wait… what if I am pregnant?
Although her life was a constant cyclone of chaos, of chasing contracts and killing monsters, she still somehow managed to keep track of her cycle and mentally counted the days since the last time she had bled, only to realize that… she was late.
She shot up into a seated position. It should have irritated her stomach but she didn’t notice as she downed the potion Avallac’h had left for her on the nightstand -- for your nausea, he had written on a small piece of parchment. If you decide you do wish to take it -- and then teleported to the Golden Sturgeon.
She held her breath long enough to seek out Bea inside the tavern and was relieved to see that her friend was still there, preparing tables for the customers that would surely come pouring in as soon as word spread that the kayran was dead.
“Ciri, you did it!” she cheered when she saw her. “A thousand thanks to you!”
Ciri grimaced, wishing that she could bask in the glory of a contract well done but there were more pressing matters at hand than celebrating the kayran’s downfall.
“Bea, I need to talk to you. It’s urgent.”
She watched Bea’s joy shift to concern and almost wished that she could have done something to prevent her joy from disappearing so quickly. “What is it? Is everything alright?”
Ciri shook her head. “I don’t know…”
“You can tell me, whatever it is.”
“How did you realize that you were pregnant with Violet?”
“The worst was the nausea. I constantly threw up and, well, I didn’t bleed for a while. The most obvious sign was when my stomach started growing.”
Ciri grimaced. All of the symptoms were adding up. It was no wonder that her corset and pants felt a little tighter than usual, and her unexplained weight gain suddenly had an explanation.
“I think I’m with child,” she blurted out, interrupting Bea.
“You are? Congratulations!”
“No! This isn’t a good thing!”
Bea’s face fell.
“Are you worried the father of your child won’t be pleased?”
“Oh, no, he’s going to be ecstatic. I’m the one who’s scared. I don’t know if I can be a mother! I certainly don’t know how,” she laughed bitterly.
Emhyr had robbed her of a mother and grandmother before she was eleven and by the time Yennefer had come into her life, Ciri hadn’t exactly been ecstatic to have a new mother-figure in her life… not right away, anyways. She eventually came around and loved the raven-haired sorceress as if she had been the one to birth her and in return, Yennefer had helped occupy the mother-shaped hole in her heart that had desperately needed filling.
But then she died, too.
That pogrom had taken her mother away from her and it was a miracle that she had gotten her parents back. She was painfully aware of all the ways that her life would have been different if they were dead, and the thought alone brought tears to Ciri’s eyes.
Suddenly, there was so much at stake.
She could no longer take on contracts, be as reckless as she pleased, and have Avallac’h patch up any injuries she sustained at the end of the day because there was no way she could explain away her wounds to her tiny child, who would see blood all over her body and instantly fear the worst. That was no way for a child to live, to fear for her life every time she went out to kill some monster.
But I can’t just give up being a witcher… can I? Did I work so hard for this life, just to lose it to motherhood?
“I was scared, too, but then I reminded myself that I wasn’t alone. I had Ciaran to help me, and don’t forget that you have the father of your child, too. Does he know?”
“No, he doesn’t. Not yet.”
He would likely know by the time she returned home, since he was the all-seeing, all-knowing one. Ciri wasn’t sure if she was ready to face him but she couldn’t run away from destiny, either. It would only serve to catch up to her sooner or later… or in this case, it already had.
I know we weren’t exactly careful but… why now? she wondered. Why not back in Skellige, or in Night City?
“You should tell him when you’re ready,” Bea gently advised her, sensing her apprehension.
“Might as well get it over with now. Thanks again… for everything.”
“Anytime, Ciri.”
Ciri returned to the shop and approached Avallac’h once he finished speaking with his customer.
“We need to talk,” Ciri uttered softly in his ear before she continued upstairs. She teleported to the top and went into their bedroom, where she sat herself down on the bed they shared and waited for Avallac’h to catch up.
“What is it?” he asked once he’d shut the door behind them to give them some privacy.
Ciri looked up at him with wet, shimmery eyes that brimmed with tears.
“I’m sure you already figured it out.”
“Figured out what?”
Ciri huffed out a sigh. “I realized that I am miserable because I am pregnant with your child.”
There it was. The whole truth without any sugar-coating.
She had never been so blunt yet so calm before but on the inside, a tempest was brewing in her mind and her heart. All she could think about was the child growing in her womb and how her life was going to change from here on out.
Nothing will ever be the same, Ciri thought miserably.
What if the damage was too great and she never figured out how to properly care for her child? What if she simply lacked the instinct that other women had? She could slay hordes of monsters all day long but raising a child required a delicate touch that she wasn’t sure she possessed.
She snapped out of her thoughts when she felt Avallac’h sweep her up in an embrace before kissing her hard. His kiss had stolen the breath from her lungs and left her feeling winded, which only worsened the gnawing feeling in her stomach.
But when she pulled back from yet another kiss to breathe, she saw the excitement on Avallac’h’s face. She had never seen him so happy before and while she wasn’t sure how to feel about it, she supposed that seeing joy from her lover was better than the alternative.
Ciri could say with certainty that she would have felt far worse if Avallac’h hadn’t been pleased by her announcement but even his joy wasn’t enough to reassure her that everything would be fine once their child was born.
"Can I even be a good mother?" she whispered so softly that Avallac'h almost didn't hear her, even though her mouth was right by his ear.
"You will be a most wonderful mother, Zireael. I know this."
Ciri laughed softly, though it didn’t sound nearly as mirthful as she would have liked. “I suppose I should be reassured, hearing those words coming from you.”
“Of course you should be, en'ca minne.”
“Give me a little time. This is a lot for me to process.”
“Of course. Take all the time you need.”
Ciri smiled to herself and tightly hugged Avallac’h for comfort.
I’m so lucky to have you.