Silver Tongue - The Witcher | Geralt of Rivia

XIII

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It was midday, and the sun was keeping Myrcella warm as she trudged around in the cold river water with Geralt, to hopefully catch the attention of the kelpie that had plagued the small village and its children north of there for a while.

Jaskier stood a little further downstream dressed in only a pair of trousers, shaking subtly from fear, as he played his silent role as bait.

It had been a week or so since the monster hunting trio had left Cintra.. –and hereby effectively also Geralt and Myrcella's child-surprise.

Myrcella found herself spending a lot of her energy thinking about it. She worried. Neither her nor Geralt seemed fit to take care of a child, yet she did have a feeling that that would change very quickly if they ever did claim the babe.

Much in contrast to Myrcella, Geralt hardly ever let the child-surprise cross his mind. And if he did, it was to try and convince himself, that since Myrcella was really the one asking for the law of surprise, she was also the one with the child-surprise and not him.

Besides denying the short straw destiny had given him, Geralt also spent a lot of time just observing his partner.
They'd never really talked about what happened in Temeria, and since it was clear to Geralt that she'd fed sometime during their visit in Cintra, he felt it was his duty to ask her about it sooner rather than later.

A soft breeze that carried Myrcella's scent of Magnolia had Geralt almost falling into a daze as he watched the young woman. The skirt of her dress had been tied in a loose knot at the side of her upper right thigh so it wouldn't get wet, and her hair was in a messy bun at the top of her head, exposing her pointy ears and the soft skin of her neck and collarbone. Geralt felt a sudden urge to touch her, but quickly caught himself in the thought and shunned it.

"—We never really talked about what happened in Temeria." Geralt watched Myrcella as she looked up at him surprised. "You never brought it up." She stated calmly with a shrug of her shoulders.

"I was waiting for you to open up." Geralt spoke truthfully. He had indeed waited for her to say something, to explain this whole thing to him; what she was, what she felt, what she did and had done. He needed her to tell him everything. He wanted to know her.

"Open up? You mean plead my case and beg you not to do your job?" Myrcella huffed amused at her own sarcastic remark. It troubled Geralt that she thought of him as a threat like this. "You were never a monster in my eyes.." The way he looked and sounded made her knees weak. It was vulnerable, yet with a certain strength, and most importantly, she could tell he was honest.

"Don't become sentimental now, or I might just mistake you for someone who's actually capable of feeling emotions." Myrcella found herself joking. Geralt sighed disappointed at her inability to take this conversation seriously. "Myrcella." He scolded.

Even a bit disappointed with herself, Myrcella took a deep breath as she prepared for apologising, but once again, her silver tongue had a life of its own. "Sarcasm is a defence mechanism. Why do you want to talk about this right now anyway, why can't it just wait?"

Geralt looked at her, annoyed now at her unwillingness to discuss this important thing that only became more difficult the longer they waited. "—Because it's a problem now."

"What changed?" Her voice was void of emotions, but her eyes were telling him otherwise. She knew what he was trying to say, but she wanted to hear it directly from him. "You're weak and in lack of control from not feeding properly, and it's distracting you as well as it is distracting me."

Myrcella stayed silent. It wasn't as hard to hear him actually say it as it was to watch him distance himself from her every hunt because he was overwhelmed by her powers invading his senses all of the time. "–so.. You're asking me to go 'solve' this?" The way she said it made it sound like she didn't care, like it was his problem and not hers. The truth however was, that Myrcella was bothered by it as well. The guy she had killed in Cintra had replenished her powers and made her stronger for a while, but now that she'd gotten a taste of what she was missing out on, she was even more hungry than before.

"I don't want you sleeping around and killing people while we're in the cities." Geralt said disapprovingly of her phrasing. The truth was, he just didn't want to share her with anyone. Didn't want any man spoiling her with his filthy seed.

"I don't have to. I can just create the illusion that they're having sex with me, while I feed. I can control myself. You won't have to deal with my body count, I never kill unless they're monsters themselves, but if it comes to that, I usually use my silver dagger and not my other abilities." Myrcella informed him matter of factly. Succubi weren't known for killing their food. Sure it happened that you heard about the occasional poor bastard who'd exhausted himself with a succubus to the point of death, but it rarely happened. Succubi weren't violent or bloodthirsty like that. "—I can feed without harming anyone. Most succubi do." She added watching her partner as he seemed deep in thought.

"Why can't you just do that with me?" Geralt grunted frustratedly. Myrcella looked at him with wide eyes. Geralt didn't know why she looked so startled by his suggestion. It seemed logical enough to him.

After recovering from the initial shock of his words, Myrcella found herself looking shamefully at her reflection in the river water as she mustered the courage to tell him the truth. "—I don't know how it would affect any of us on longer sight. Besides.. I don't trust myself to stop with you. And in that situation I don't trust you to stop me either."

"I trust you."

"You shouldn't.. Not with this."

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Small chapter in honour of Henry Cavill's birthday May 5th!!