The White Werewolf || Season One: Ties That Bind

Chapter Seventy-Nine

Malleore, 1262

After leaving the mountains, Geralt, Robin, and Jaskier set out for Cintra. Besides needing to check on Geralt's Child of Surprise, Princess Cirilla, Robin had informed them that Yennefer was planning to cast her spell in the old elven keep at Sodden Hill. Some mages believed it was a place of power that would enhance any magic worked there. Robin wasn't sure it was true, but she would have done the same thing in Yennefer's position. If it helped, it would be fantastic. If not, she'd be in the same position she would have been in anywhere else anyway.

Robin had told Triss everything she had learned as well, and the mage had promised to take Yennefer's plans to the Brotherhood of Sorcerers to try and get them to intervene. But Robin wasn't going to rely on a council of mages who would have condemned her to a dimeritium prison, despite her never having hurt anyone with her necromancy, to stop Yennefer.

Especially because she highly doubted they would spare her in any way, and Robin was still intent on taking that course.

The spell was massively imperfect, and Robin doubted that Yennefer would be able to make any significant changes to it before the casting. It was essentially unrefinable past this point, and it was her last option to restore what she'd lost, which was why she was so willing to risk it.

As it was, the spell was likely to kill not only monsters, but anything that wasn't human, including elves and dwarves, and possibly even animals. Robin had seen that Yennefer herself was ¼ elven, so she was even worried that her own spell might backfire on her, but she wasn't going to be deterred. She was simply going to employ a magical shield to protect herself.

Robin had no idea how she was going to stop Yennefer. The other mage was more powerful than her, and she knew it. But Yennefer wouldn't be swayed, so Robin wasn't going to be either. She had to try. To protect Geralt, if nothing else, but also to prevent a great number of innocents dying.

They had stopped for the day in Malleore to restock their supplies and see if there was any work for Geralt nearby. Jaskier had immediately disappeared. After going to the market, Robin set herself up in the tavern, and when she saw that he wasn't there, she knew he was up to something. She just had no idea what.

It became obvious when he bustled in shortly before the evening, barely visible above the bundle of tulle in his arms.

"Please tell me we're not going to another party," she groaned. "They never work out well for us."

"Not a party," he corrected her. "A wedding. Your wedding, to be exact."

She laughed. "Have I been proposed to when I wasn't paying attention?" she wondered.

"This is the proposal," Jaskier informed her. "Geralt bought you the dress and asked me to ready you for the ceremony."

Robin's mouth dropped open in surprise and Jaskier laughed. "Surely you're not that stunned, dear sister. He finally admitted that he loves you. It can't be shocking that he wants to marry you now, can it?"

"We've never talked about it. I just didn't think that marriage was particularly important to him. And he never asked me."

"Because he already knows your answer, obviously," Jaskier chastised her. "It's written all over your face. You can't wait."

She blushed and smiled, standing and studying the dress. "I really can't," she confirmed.

"Then let's get you into this thing. It's going to take some time, you know. You don't want to be late for your own wedding."

"No," she agreed. "I don't."

Jaskier dressed her in their room at the inn, then escorted her down the stairs to the outskirts of town, where there was a tiny ruined chapel. The crumbling stones were oddly beautiful, though, since they were surrounded by overgrown foliage and large flowers that were so white they seemed to glitter in the twilight.