The White Werewolf || Season One: Ties That Bind

Chapter Fifty-Seven

Scala, 1254

Geralt and Jaskier sat at the table in the room in silence, watching Robin. She was on the floor in front of the fire, her legs crossed, ranging out into Chaos once more to see if she could find the mysterious Yennefer.

"Is she ever going to find anything in there?" Jaskier murmured.

Geralt shrugged. "It's an imprecise process. She might, and she might not. But as much as we aren't particularly fond of it, she's right. It's the only way we might discover more information at the moment."

Still, he carefully listened to her even, measured breathing, waiting for a sign that something had changed.

Not that he could help if it did. But he certainly wanted to know.

The only part of her body that moved anymore when she was in Chaos were her eyelids. The effect was eerie, since they fluttered rapidly while the rest of her remained entirely still.

She also couldn't hear or speak to them while she was searching, so they had to wait until she was finished before she was able to report anything. It was an entirely nervous experience for both of the men.

For her, it was highly isolating. When she was in Chaos, all she could see were random images pulled from swirls of gray and purple mist.

Her instincts were naturally drawn to large drains on Chaos' magical energy, so what she saw most often were mages. And thanks to her cloak, she was able to spy on those mages without being seen herself.

She knew most of them by feel now. They were primarily political advisors, like many mages ended up being, or worked with the Brotherhood of Sorcerers and their various schools. The spells they were casting were related to that work and nothing for her to worry about.

What she was most concerned about were the unknown signatures, the scents and crackles that alerted her to something new or unusual happening.

She breathed in and turned her head to the left. In reality, her actual body wasn't moving, but it made no difference to her mind.

There was something in the distance that she hadn't smelled before.

She breathed in deeper. It was lilac and gooseberries, cloyingly sweet in her nose and sour on her tongue.

She moved in that direction. Each step took her an incredible distance, so she could traverse all of Chaos easily. And while she usually couldn't tell exactly where she was, geographically speaking, she could at least find the person she was looking for and observe them.

The tendrils of mist cleared and revealed a woman bent over a large book. She seemed to be in a library somewhere. Robin shut her eyes briefly, allowing herself to feel the woman probing at Chaos.

She wasn't seriously casting. She was just playing, testing. But she was harnessing an unusual amount of energy doing it, which was what had made Robin curious.

She stepped closer, trying to get a better idea of what the woman was doing.

Suddenly, the woman's head snapped up. Her dark hair tumbled over her shoulders and Robin found herself looking directly into a pair of wide, unusually purple eyes.

"Well, well," the woman drawled. "Who are you?"

Robin breathed in sharply.

Whoever this mysterious mage was, she could see her.

In reality, her body jumped, reflecting how startled she was in Chaos. Geralt instantly moved to her side, grasping her upper arms and staring at her.