Lillian was passed out in Geralt's room, and he locked the door so no one would touch her. Geralt was going to sleep with a whore or next to Jaskier for the night, and either way, it would be a long night. Lillian's hands had slept well in months, and he wanted her to have at least some rest before they left tomorrow. He didn't even know she was asleep until he came back with some new clothes for her to wear because the ones she was wearing were too revealing. She probably had to crash. Having to fight and kill people was tiring. He put her clothes in a chair and tucked her in before leaving.
"So we know Lillian, how exactly?" Jaskier asked.
"She saved my life, and you convinced me to return to her first master to see how she was doing. We found out he beat her then sold her like she was nothing," he said with a bitter tone.
"Oh, she is beautiful even though she killed many people," he informed.
"I have killed more; she was protecting herself," he said.
"So I think I might take a chance and," he paused, and Geralt glared at him.
"Okay, I won't touch her! You don't need to look at me like that. It would help if you liked her," he informed.
"She will kill you if you touch her," Geralt informed.
"You may never know," Jaskier informed.
"Don't you try it," he said, "you are sleeping on the floor."
"Why not sleep on the floor in your room?!" Jaskier asked.
"Lillian will need to change somewhere," Geralt put in.
He sighed and then went to bed; Geralt glade he locked the door because he would have checked on her. He was trying not to care about her, but after he found out she was, a life felt guilty. Morning came quickly, but Lillian was still asleep. Geralt was sitting in the bar now with Jaskier, who wasn't happy about the sleeping arrangements and was seated next to him with a headache.
"Next time, sleep with Lillian; I'm sure she wouldn't mind," he complained.
Geralt didn't say anything other than, hmm, making Jaskier highly annoyed.
"I don't know why you are giving her space most of the time; you sleep with any girl without a second thought. Mostly you fuck any woman that can do magic. Can she do magic?" He asked.
"What do you think?" He asked.
"If she can do magic, why haven't you slept with her yet?" He questioned.
"I have standards; I don't sleep with every woman I see, unlike you, Jaskier," he informed.
"I don't sleep with every woman; I haven't touched Lillian yet," he smiled.
"You touch her; I kill you," Geralt said.
"Claiming her already?" Jaskier asked.
"No protecting her from people like you. Lillian deserves someone she loves to sleep with, not someone that likes married women," he informed.
Jaskier started laughing as he couldn't take Geralt seriously. Geralt was protecting her but maybe from himself. Geralt gave him the snake eye, but then Jaskier stopped laughing as Lillian's master came in with four men. Her master had a broken nose, favoring his right arm from the knife she threw at him.
"Um, Geralt," he informed as the four men turned eight and ten.
"Witcher, I want my property back!" The man growled as Geralt didn't even bother turning around.
He knew he had more men, and the innkeeper gulped.
"Are you looking for a young woman by chance?" The innkeeper asked, making Geralt glare at him.
"Which room?" He asked as Geralt stood up, and some bystanders started leaving quickly.
"Second door on the left, please be careful!" He said as Geralt got in the way of the hallway.
"Geralt, it's fine; I can handle this," Lillian said as she was wearing what Geralt gave her.
Lillian was wearing a purple shirt and black leather pants, and old boots. Geralt looked at her as she smiled kindly at him. He didn't want her to fight them, but he let her pass by anyway, and as soon as one of the more prominent men grabbed her, she punched him hard in the face, slammed his head on her knee, and then snapped his neck causing Jaskier to get up in pure shock.
"Anyone else?" She asked as two men came after her, but she used her magic to start choking them.
"I don't like being touched, and if you want me so badly, get me yourself; as you can see, I'm harmless," she smiled as both men passed out, and she wiped the blood away from her nose.
"You bitch!" He growled.
"Come on, boys, I can do this all day," she growled.
Most of the men left him behind, and she smirked as she walked passed him.
"Touch me, I dare you," she said as he glared at her.
"I will get you back one way or another; I own you. Remember that," he hissed.
"I own myself; no one will own me again," she said as she went to the barn to check on Roach.
"She just killed someone Geralt!" Jaskier yelled.
"Well, you heard her, touch her, and you die," Geralt said as he paid for his room and stepped over the dead man.
He went after her and saw she was petting Roach.
"You have changed," he said as she smiled a bit.
"Had to, I didn't want to, but when you nearly get raped as often as I have or beaten within every inch of your life, you have to. You don't seem scared of me, Geralt," she said as he was trying to find the innocent girl he left behind but could only see it in her eyes.
"I should have never left you, Lillian; I'm sorry," he said as she looked up at him, confused.
"Don't be sorry; it was for the better. I told you I would see you again, so here we are. I should probably leave you both, though. I will still be hunted down like an animal. Thank you for the new clothes, how did you know I liked purple? I never told you, I don't think," she said.
"It was the flowers; you had flowers in your hair when you told the innkeeper off. But Danny took them out and slapped you for attracting the men around you," he said as she looked at him oddly.
"Geralt, there was never a reason for you to feel guilty; it was my fault. When I went after Jaz, I drained all my magic, and I couldn't use any of it for months. I still can't do a lot, but I can do some now," she informed.
"I should have taken you out of there," he stated.
"It's alright, anyway, I must be going. I still have to burn this mark off of me," she sighed.
"How about you stay with us? I want the company. It's better than just Jaskier, and if you want, you can stop when you find a good place to start over," he informed.
"I wouldn't mind following you a bit. Plus, I might need help burning off the mark," she said as he nodded.
"All right, we better go then," he said as she smiled.
"I'll go get Jaskier," she informed.
He missed the old her, but he knew she would return. They headed off, and she was talking the entire time. Geralt didn't mind it, but when they made the camp for the night, he gave Jaskier a look as she explained what she had done to some of the men. Jaskier nearly spat out his soup as she sat there still eating.
"You seriously cut off everything?" Jaskier asked as she nodded.
"Oh yeah, he bled out to, not the way I could have, doesn't it, but he raped thirteen women and got four pregnant. Some weren't slaves, so I tricked him and cut everything off,' she explained.
Geralt was covering himself up more after hearing that, and so was Jaskier. She smirked, seeing how uncomfortable Geralt looked and chuckled. He was hiding how painful he was well, but that slight bit she saw made her realize that things still fazed him. Or, since he was a guy, not having his so-called snake anymore disturbed him.
"Can't believe you can just laugh at that!" Jaskier informed.
"Can't believe you can't; maybe I should start drawing again; I miss it a lot," she sighed.
"You went from chopping balls off to art? Only you could do that, especially after you killed so many people," he muttered.
"You know I didn't want to kill any people at all... but then I killed a hundred. Some weren't bad people. They were innocent men. But their masters worked them so hard they were in pain that I couldn't fix with any potion I made. So I killed them... with the position that wouldn't cause them any pain. I killed a hundred men because I did, but most were too hurt to cure. The people that owned me were crueler than Danny ever was. I tried to help, but..." she paused.
"You couldn't, so you put them out of their misery so they wouldn't suffer," Jaskier informed.
"Yeah, I am not sure if it was the right thing to do, but they were just going to be either worked to death or beaten to death," she sighed as Jaskier sighed sadly.
"You did what you could," Jaskier informed.
"If I hadn't used my magic, I would have been able to save some of them," she informed with a soft sigh.
She didn't change at all; she was just heartbroken. Killing someone was not easy but even harder to do when they were in pain. She had made mercy killings and some to protect herself. But most were done to help others. She was still kind and caring, just a bit broken and colder.
"You had no idea, don't blame yourself for their deaths," Geralt said.
"My purpose was to heal, help, and protect people, and I murdered and hurt people. I may have done some good things, but they can't make up for what I have done. I'm exhausted. I should go to bed," she said as she got up and went next to Roach and laid down near a tree.
"Will she get her magic back?"Jaskier asked.
"Probably not; she barely has control over what she has right now. We will need to keep watch over her in case. She is more or less defenseless even though she can fight a bit. It's not enough. She is a lit smaller than she used to be," he informed.
"She broke a man's neck," Jaskier pointed out.
"It took all the strength she had to do it," he said.
"Fine, I will keep an eye on her, but I'm still going to flirt with her," he said.
"She will kill you if you do," he said.
"Not if I'm nice about it," he smirked.
This was going to be a very long trip.