Prologue, Part Two

New chapter is live.

Settle in, take your time, and let's see what waits in the dark 🖤

✦

Late that night, Ciri woke drenched in sweat.

"No! What did they do to you?"

The cry tore out of her before she was fully awake. In her dream, she had seen Yennefer, the sorceress she loved like a mother, locked in a cold, damp cell and tortured until both her hands were crusted with dry, black blood.

She knew it had not been only a dream. It had been a glimpse of something real.

As a Source and the only living bearer of the Elder Blood, Ciri had inherited more than vast, unruly magic. Her blood gave her the power to cross time and space.

It was also the reason powerful and evil men coveted her. Because of that blood, people she loved, and who loved her in return, had been hurt while others tried to capture her and claim what ran through her veins.

The knowledge left her shaking so hard she could not stop.

She had to leave. Her respite was over. She had to go back. She had to face her destiny, even if that destiny meant enduring the kind of humiliation she could barely force herself to imagine.

There was no clean way to steal a bloodline. Men who wanted one from her had only the oldest and cruelest method left.

***

The bedroom door opened.

Marek came in, sat on the edge of the bed, and gently patted her back.

"Nightmare?"

Everything Ciri had endured had made trust difficult for her. But after half a year together, she could not bring herself to push away this young, steady, unpretentious boy.

She threw her arms around him and held him tight. Choking on the words, she confessed her real identity, the pain she had survived, and the reason she had to leave.

'I've let my guard down around him. But I have to tell him. My little brother deserves the truth before I leave him forever.'

"So..." Marek said at last, breathless from the way she was clinging to him. "Your name isn't Falka. It's Ciri. You're not a traveler from beyond the mountains or across the sea. You crossed here from another world. You're the princess of Cintra, a Source who carries the Elder Blood."

He drew a careful breath and went on, piecing her broken explanation together.

"A group of evil elves from another world, the Aen Elle, kidnapped you and trapped you in their world. They wanted you to bear a child for their king so they could take your bloodline."

Ciri's grip tightened.

"You found a chance to escape," he continued softly. "After that, you crossed through several worlds and finally arrived in ours, where you collapsed in front of my cottage. Now, half a year later, you learned in a dream that a powerful sorcerer in your original world kidnapped and tortured the woman you love like a mother. So you have to go back and save her."

Some parts of her story were vague. Some were clearly things she could not bring herself to say. Marek understood enough not to force her to say them.

"It's hard to believe, isn't it?" Ciri murmured. "But everything I told you is true. I'm sorry I used a false name when we first met. Please forgive me."

"No," Marek said. "I believe every word."

He meant it. Ciri could tell he was not lying, and that nearly brought tears to her eyes.

Only Marek knew why he had trusted her so easily.

When he first saw her half a year ago, he had liked the wounded girl partly because her appearance stirred a distant memory. Long before Bell Town, in the world he had crossed from, he had once played a game featuring a woman named Ciri. She had the same ashen hair, the same oval green eyes, and the same deep scar beneath one eye.

His first affection for the girl had begun with that old memory from another life.

Now that her explanation matched what he remembered almost perfectly, he had no reason not to believe her.

Several miles from town, beside the road, Ciri stood with Kelpie's reins in hand and her gear packed. Marek had walked with her to say goodbye.

For a while, neither of them spoke.

"Will you forget me?"

They asked it at the same time.

The strange little moment made them look at each other and laugh.

"I won't forget you," Ciri said. "My dear little brother."

"I won't forget you either, Ciri."

"Why won't you call me your sister?"

"That's hard, Ciri. Especially after half a year of me taking care of you because you're hopeless at daily life."

He reached into the herb satchel he never left home without and took out two blue potions, then tucked them into the pouch at her waist.

"Take these. If you're hurt, they can save your life. They aren't my flawed practice batches. My grandmother left them to me. They're the good ones."

"Thank you."

The memory of the last six months, beautiful and unreal as a dream, left Ciri silent. Then a sudden, cutting chill snapped her back to the present.

"No. The Aen Elle have caught up."

She vaulted onto Kelpie's back. At the same time, countless ripples spread through the air around them, each one the first sign of a passage opening through space.

Ciri realized she could not leave Marek behind. She could not leave him to those cruel elves.

"Get on."

She seized his arm and hauled him up behind her.

"Hold on to me!"

She pressed her knees to Kelpie's sides, and the mare broke into a full gallop.

As they jolted forward, Marek looked back. One passage after another opened behind them. Armored riders poured out like something from an ice-crowned nightmare, roaring in fury before giving chase without hesitation.

Despite himself, he muttered, "No epic story is complete without a chase scene."

Ciri ignored him and focused.

Ahead of Kelpie, the outline of a door tore open in the air. Beyond it churned a milky-white vortex threaded with pale light.

In a whirl of dazzling light, with Kelpie's warm, powerful back beneath him and Ciri in his arms, Marek experienced his first conscious crossing between worlds.

It was dizzying, nauseating, deeply unpleasant, and ended with him blacking out.

Kaer Morhen.

In Elder Speech, the name meant Keep of the Elder Sea. It was the training fortress of the Wolf School witchers, and their home. Ciri had trained there and once called it home, and she was glad her jump had brought her to the right place.

She was even gladder to see Uncle Vesemir standing in the courtyard, repairing a comb-shaped training post, with astonishment written across his face.

Ciri lifted the unconscious Marek down from Kelpie and laid him gently on a pile of hay in the courtyard.

"Ciri?" Vesemir recognized her easily, though the way she had arrived was far too sorcerous for his taste. "How did you get here? Geralt and Yennefer are looking for you everywhere."

She stepped forward and hugged him.

"I know. I know they're waiting for me, and I have to find them right now."

She pulled back and looked him in the eye.

"Listen, Uncle Vesemir. I don't have time to explain. This boy is my brother. He is very important to me. I need you to look after him the way you looked after me. He saved my life. He means... he means a great deal to me."

Vesemir did not understand what was happening, but Ciri's face was grave and earnest. He nodded.

She kissed Marek on the forehead, mounted Kelpie again, and raced through another portal in a flash, vanishing from the courtyard of Kaer Morhen.

Her next jump brought her to the place from her nightmare.

Stygga Castle.

But at that moment, Ciri was still too young, and far too naive. She believed she had cards to play. After two successful jumps in a row, she also believed she held the advantage. She did not know her enemies could interfere with her power and lock her crossings away.

So she walked openly into the castle and demanded a parley.

They beat her bloody and strapped her into a specially prepared chair for what came next.

Fortunately, before the worst could happen, the man bound to her by destiny arrived. Her adoptive father, Geralt of Rivia, the White Wolf, came with the company he had gathered to find her. They stopped the tragedy, rescued Yennefer, and pulled Ciri back from the edge.

In the end, Geralt and Yennefer joined forces against the evil sorcerer, while Ciri faced the brutal mercenary alone.

Destiny had brought them to the final confrontation.

✦

✦

✦

Want to keep going?

You can read ahead on my Patreon, with early access, previews, and extra story updates 🔑

https://www.patreon.com/c/EliasVane