[Chapter Size: 2700 Words.]
Third Person POV
Toussaint.
...
...
"3 years, Ciri. Three years since you disappeared. Do you have any idea how crazy that drove us?" Geralt murmured, while Ciri sighed, sitting beside him and looking out over the duchess's castle city.
They were there, at that very moment, in that very place. After all the chaos in the arena, the duchess had decided that the games would continue, but she would return to the castle to speak with Ciri after everything that had happened. Ciri also told her about the bandits she had captured, hoping someone would investigate.
Besides that, the games would never be the same again, not after the spectacle Ciri had put on.
Meanwhile, Geralt immediately took her to one of the castle's enormous balconies, and there she was, being questioned by her "father" before anyone could interrupt them. They had barely had any time to talk after all the commotion that broke out upon arriving at the castle.
Even on the way there, with Ciri riding alongside Geralt toward the castle on horseback, the two took advantage of a moment of silence. Even surrounded by the duchess's guards, with her inside the carriage, they simply admired the landscape of Toussaint.
Now that they were finally there, Geralt could at last express all of his frustrations.
Ciri looked at him silently after his words and sighed. She couldn't blame her father for the way he was acting, not after everything that had happened.
"Actually, it was two and a half years," she murmured, making Geralt raise an eyebrow.
"So?"
"The first thing we did after returning to this world was get caught up in a war, if you want to know. Something happened on that other continent, where the masters and founders of every witcher school had gone."
She began recounting everything that had happened on that other continent, explaining how they had fought against a god.
Geralt sighed. At the same time, a clear look of concern filled his eyes. He didn't like the idea that Ciri and Madara had faced a god before returning to this continent.
But it wasn't as if Geralt or the others could have done anything to help, not when they had seen just how powerful the two of them were before entering that portal and leaving the world with the unicorn.
That only made Geralt sigh, knowing he had no right to reprimand her.
"Anyway, we're back. I'm happy to see you again, Geralt. We returned to this continent no more than three days ago," she began to explain.
For only three days... finding him had been incredibly fast. He had to admit that.
"Where's Madara?" he asked.
"He went north after leaving me here. One of his clones is here, but it's just a clone, and I know you'd rather see him in person." Ciri let out a small laugh.
"Is there any reason you two split up? Did you go to Ellander?" he asked curiously.
Ciri smiled when she heard him suggest they had already gone to see Aren. But first, she answered his first question, knowing that talking about her son would take much longer.
"He went to investigate Kovir. There are some rumors... He's going to meet the king himself, who, in a way, really hates us..." Ciri said.
"A king is something very dangerous, Ciri. You two have to be careful with that. But now that you're back in this world, we'll handle it together," Geralt said.
"Ah, it's fine. We already killed a king last night."
"You did what?" Geralt stared at her as if he had seen a ghost. He wanted to tell her that she shouldn't say something as serious as killing a monarch so casually...
"We arrived in Novigrad when we came back to the continent. We saw what was happening in the Kingdom of Redania, found Triss and Tissaia as members of the Akatsuki fighting the witch hunters, and took care of a few things. But I don't want to talk about that right now. Let's talk about Aren!" As she said that, Geralt was still staring at her. He clearly wanted to discuss it further, but Ciri was quicker to change the subject and start talking about her son, as if killing a king were something trivial while her son was far more important.
Which, for Ciri, was exactly the case.
She began telling him about how she had found the boy. Aren hadn't recognized them right away, but he had been deeply surprised and emotional. Of course, there had been resentment in his heart. They had disappeared for three years, and the boy believed they had abandoned him, that they didn't love him. Ciri spoke about the fear and sadness she had felt the first few times she saw her own son looking at her that way.
Not that she could blame him.
At the same time, he eventually accepted both of them. That very night, they left the temple to spend some time together. They went to one of their favorite places, where they enjoyed their son's company for the first time while he learned more about her and Madara. In the same way, they also learned more about their son.
Geralt listened to everything in silence.
"We visited him a few times. Yennefer always came with me. It was easier to get there. But... she started becoming distant and didn't want to visit him anymore..." he said.
Ciri narrowed her eyes. "Why would she do that? I thought she liked Aren," she murmured, dissatisfied by what she had heard.
"I'm not good with feelings, but it seemed like she wanted to avoid him."
"Why?"
"The boy reminded her of you two. She blames herself a lot for what happened," Geralt replied.
Ciri raised an eyebrow. "How could she blame herself? She had nothing to do with what happened." She thought that was completely foolish on the sorceress's part.
"I had to follow the unicorn to another world because I needed to save my husband's past. If I hadn't done that, he simply wouldn't have existed, and our timeline would have been destroyed, and everyone as we know them would have been erased."
"You really went to the past, Ciri?" Geralt asked.
She nodded. "Yes. I know where the place that used to be the Uchiha clan's home is hidden. I arrived there on the night of the massacre. I had to fight several men while they slaughtered the clan's men, women, and children, inevitably."
"There was an old man using powers from that skeleton, similar to Madara's. I fought some men who were surrounding the area, and then I went after my husband's parents. I found the same unicorn that appeared in Aretuza, but it was the one from that era and not a time traveler from the future as well."
"He helped me erase Madara's parents' memories, and I sent them to Cintra more than twenty-two years ago. Then I returned to the present." She finished explaining.
Geralt had trouble processing all of that.
Time travel...
It was one thing to believe in magic, monsters, and everything else he had seen over sixty years of life.
But traveling through time... changing the past... That should belong only to the gods.
"It feels like I can't even keep up with you anymore," he finally said. "But I hope you didn't do that again," Geralt asked.
Ciri nodded. "Of course not, you dummy. The unicorn paid a price for doing that. He died after I came back. He gave his life so I could save my husband," she explained.
Geralt raised an eyebrow. "So that's why he..." He didn't finish the sentence, now understanding another point he had been about to ask.
"Yes, that's why we didn't return. Because we no longer knew how to come back. Tampering with the past came with a price, and the unicorn was doing it in cooperation with the gods of this world. He was willing to give his own life to preserve a future where we could defeat that god on the other continent. And that's exactly what we did."
"So as soon as we returned to this world, there was a debt to be paid to those gods. We were already strong enough to deal with them, so we didn't waste any time. We spent six months fighting across that entire continent," she explained.
Geralt nodded, although he still looked somewhat confused.
"Anyway, we're back. There's no longer any risk of us getting trapped in other worlds or traveling around randomly without being able to return here. The elves aren't chasing us anymore. Even so, I still need to be very careful with my powers. Even with the control I have now, it's best not to use them in places like Ellander. I wouldn't want the temple to be invaded by the elves..."
"What happened to the elves?" Geralt asked immediately.
"Well, since we had trouble finding a way back to this world, we set a trap. We did it because we knew they would come looking for us. After the destruction Madara had caused in their world, they became much more cautious and no longer wanted a direct confrontation. But they still wanted to investigate us while we were jumping from world to world."
"What did Madara do to make them end up like that?" Geralt asked, having no idea what the answer would be.
Ciri gave a small, restrained smile. "Not even Madara really knew. He sent a clone to that other world and never recovered its memories, but that clone... had enough energy to destroy their capital. That clone entered the ships' portal like a ticking bomb. We found out later, but Madara saw that his clone had created a complete Susanoo..."
"He did the same thing he had done during the war years ago, when he simply massacred a hundred thousand Black Ones. Only this time, he did it inside their capital."
"He killed a lot of people," Geralt added...
Ciri didn't seem very proud of it. She simply sighed. Even she couldn't deny the outcome.
"You can judge him if you want, but I don't intend to do that to my husband... What else were we supposed to do? The elves brought this upon themselves. It's not my fault that my ancestor ran away from them when they wanted to use her as some kind of interworld portal battery or as a laboratory experiment." She paused, frustrated.
"Madara would always choose to wipe out the entire elven race to keep me safe. Well... he killed a lot of people. But when we returned there, we destroyed their city once again." She said it in an indifferent tone.
"This time, I took part in it too." The way she said it made it clear that she had also killed many people.
Geralt sighed. He certainly didn't want his adopted daughter to follow that path. But... what else could he say?
"You didn't kill innocent people, did you?" Geralt asked.
"Well... I cast a few spells over the city to show them we weren't joking. A lot of people died," she said.
After all, Ciri wasn't about to let her husband do everything alone. She wouldn't allow him to carry that burden by himself.
She unleashed powerful spells upon that world, magic that also slaughtered tens of thousands of people. Many of them were innocent and wanted nothing to do with that conflict.
But what else could she have done? It was the elven leaders themselves who had led their people into that situation.
And all for what? Because they wanted the power of her blood. They wanted to find an opportunity to save their own world, something Ciri and Madara would have done anyway, since the White Frost wasn't a threat only to the world of Aen Elle, but to all worlds.
Geralt listened to the entire explanation as well. "I understand..." was all he said in the end, knowing there was nothing more to say.
Ciri turned her attention back to the landscape ahead before asking another question, one that had been bothering her.
"How is Yennefer? I'm not very happy that she abandoned our son. Even if she felt guilty, I wish she had gone to visit him. He had Hilda and the others, but he was still alone..." Ciri said, returning to the subject of Yennefer.
"It wasn't just that, Ciri. She knew that if she stayed in that region too often, even without teleporting directly to the temple, people would notice... Too many powerful people knew about our connection. Did you really think we weren't investigated?" Geralt said.
"Every organization on the continent occasionally sends people to Kaer Morhen, something Vesemir and Lambert complain about every year. They also keep the castle under surveillance. It even keeps everyone busy, precisely because we have to investigate who's watching us."
"The continent never forgot about you. How could it? We're the people closest to you. Of course they've been watching us all this time, waiting for any sign that you'd return."
"Even I would have liked to visit your son more often, but I couldn't. At least once or twice a year, I went there. Yennefer couldn't forgive herself either if she ended up bringing something dangerous to the temple," he said.
"How long have you two been apart?" Ciri asked, already realizing that it seemed each of them had gone down a different path.
"Two years ago... after a year had passed since you left, she said she needed some time alone. But I know Yennefer became even more obsessed with trying to find you. She said she couldn't pretend everything was fine when there wasn't a single trace of you anywhere... I heard she went east, to where Assire var Anahid is. You know she's part of an organization now, from what I've heard."
"Ah, the Lodge of Sorceresses. I know. Madara already investigated it, and we've heard about Tissaia's and Triss's organization. Apparently, the Lodge of Sorceresses, as they call it, led by Philippa and the others, still exists, while another group of them followed the path Madara had created with the Akatsuki," Ciri said.
"It's not just the Lodge." A third voice spoke up.
One of Madara's clones appeared beside them carrying several documents.
"Assire var Anahid is also here under orders from the emperor himself, your father." The clone stepped closer and handed over the papers. Ciri took them before Madara turned to look silently at Geralt once more.
Geralt looked surprised when he saw the clone, but he wasn't nearly as excited as he would have been if it had been the real Madara. After all, this was only a clone. He still preferred dealing with the original.
Even so, he couldn't deny that he envied that ability. Clones could gather information, serve as distractions, and help in battle. For a witcher, that was simply invaluable.
Geralt had envied that technique ever since the first time he saw it years ago. Even so, he didn't like the feeling of talking to someone who wasn't the real person.
"I see... So that's why there are so many soldiers here instead of fighting in the war up north," Ciri observed as she looked over the documents and murmured.
She handed the papers to Geralt, showing that Emhyr was also searching for them, almost desperately.
He had sent Assire var Anahid to Toussaint, where she also acted as one of the emperor's agents. On top of that, she was gathering information for the Lodge of Sorceresses as well. Emhyr had requested that the duchy keep its men on standby in case he needed to use them in the emperor's name, already expecting that Ciri might appear there.
Madara's clone left the area while Ciri and Geralt continued talking.
A few moments later, the duchess approached them. Ciri turned her attention to her, beginning a conversation, mainly about the many unresolved matters they still had with the duchy.
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