"So your surprise was more surprising than you'd imagined." Triss said. Geralt avoided the topic 'Evelyn'. He wasn't denying her or anything but he was doing this for his own sake. Bearing with it quietly was better than being reminded of it every day... which he was nevertheless. "And mysterious." Geralt added. "She won't tell me anything from before the fall of Cintra." he sighed. "Well, if her mother did have powers, as you say, if she was a mage who never properly harnessed, the child could have inherited an evolved version of it. But it's an untested theory. When did Ciri start exhibiting signs of Chaos?" Triss asked. Geralt was fumbling with a hard piece of bread, crumbling it on the table.
"That's the issue. She hasn't exhibited any typical indicators of Chaos. She can't even form Witcher signs." he said and Triss frowned. "What do you mean by 'typical'?" she asked, playing with the rim of her mug. "She might have the power of foresight. She seems to have visions of things that have yet to come to pass." Geralt said and pressed his lips into a thin line. "Like what?" Triss wanted to know. "She saw me at the aftermath of Sodden Hill. Before it happened." Triss shook her head. "No one should have to gaze upon that carnage. That loss." Triss said with a sigh.
"There's more." Geralt said what brought Triss' attention back to him. "Ciri felt something else. A pull. Toward the Leshy that turned Eskel." Geralt started to explain. He brought Triss down into the examination room where they kept the freshly cut-off skull of a monster unknown to even Vesemir.
The other day, as Geralt mentioned, they walked into the woods, following Ciri's pull. It brought them to the Leshy which, before it could attack, got ripped in half by a monster. Exactly that monster whose head was now lying in Kaer Morhen. The creature had followed Ciri but didn't attack her. Geralt, however, didn't see that and killed it with one strike.
"Like a compass to a magnet, she led me straight to it. And then this," Geralt said and uncovered the head. The cloth was black and red from the blood and as he revealed it, so was the table. The blood was now dried on the leathery skin of the goat-like creature, only that it seemed like the head of a goat that belonged to a centipede. "tore it in half and charged us." Geralt said. Triss walked around the head. "Gods." she said, stepping away a bit.
"What is it?" she asked and then took a closer look. "I've never seen anything like it. But it did try to get her. Both of them did." Geralt explained. "To do what?" Triss asked. "I didn't let it live long enough to find out." Triss smirked a little to herself, hearing that. "Could a mage have made this?" Geralt asked and Triss tilted her head. "Theoretically. But generating monsters has been outlawed for centuries." she explained. Geralt scoffed. "Oh, outlawed. So definitely not a mage, then." he mocked.
Triss huffed a laugh. "There is one way to find out." she said and looked over at the stand where empty potion bottles were hanging. She took one of them out. "May I?" she asked. She wasn't asking for permission, it was more for formalities. Geralt gestured at the monster, signalling her to go ahead. She opened the small bottle and picked up some tongs to remove a piece of flesh which she then put into the bottle.
She closed it again and waved her hand over it slowly and spoke Elder while doing so. Afterwards, she placed it back into the stand. "If there is any sign of mutagenic alchemy, if a mage has been involved, that component will glow." she explained and started to spin the wheel to make the whole stand turn in circles. "We'll know by morning. But why would a mage want her?" she asked.
Geralt sighed unfolding his arms, they've been crossed the whole time. he was the sceptical type. "I don't know. Mages, Nilfgaard, something dark lies ahead of her. I can feel it. That's why I'm training her. I won't be here forever to protect her." he said and walked out of the room. Triss right behind him.
"I'm sorry about Eskel." Triss suddenly said. "I'm sorry about Sodden." he then said. As he kept walking, Triss stood still in the hall. As soon as Geralt noticed he stopped and turned to look at her in confusion with raised brows. "Those who died, I- I say their names at night when I lay down, so I don't forget. Atlan Kerk. Vanielle of Brugge. Axel Raby. Dagobert-" Geralt interrupted her. "Stop." he demanded and they kept walking. "If it's up to me, everyone will know their names. They can live on in our memories." she said.
Geralt stood still and Triss walked in front of him. "Perhaps something more." she said but Geralt said nothing. Triss shook her head in disbelieve. "You Witchers, you pretend not to have emotions, but you do." she said, no reaction from Geralt. "I know you feel it too. All of it." she said and whispered the last part. "Normal hatred, normal pain, fear and regret, normal joy, normal sadness and normal love." she said, still no reaction.
She went to grab his hand and looked at the back of it. Geralt looked down at his hand then at Triss. "Stay with me tonight." She asked him. "Triss." Geralt said, hoping to have her leave the thought by herself. "Only stay. Let's not be alone." she almost begged. Geralt took his hand away from her gentle grasp and wrapped it around his medallion, his wedding ring very much visible. "I'm sorry." he apologized. Triss' gaze fell onto the ring and her jaw fell open slightly, no words coming from her.
Without saying another word, he let her stay in the hallway and made his way towards his own room. Triss couldn't know he was married. He didn't even say a thing about Evelyn. However, Triss figured out by now what she was to him.