Jaskier woke to the morning sun, as was his wont. He didn't put on his doublet, nor his shoes before he made his way down the tower's steps. He walked into the keep to silence. Ciri sat on the floor reading a book that reminded him all too much of the textbooks he read in university. Vesemir slept in the chair in front of her; Jaskier assumed he had been watching her study and had nodded off. The bard didn't see any of the other men. Ciri sighed and thumped her head on the book. The bard smiled.
"What are you reading?" Jaskier sat beside her.
"The difference between ghouls and alghouls. I just finished the section on the difference between wraiths and noonwraiths not too long ago."
"Do you only worry about how to kill monsters? When you aren't practicing with the pendulum to fight them, you read about their weaknesses. Is that all your time consists of?"
"Pretty much."
"That's unfortunate." Jaskier joked softly. He bumped the girl's shoulder; she didn't share his amusement.
"It's needed." I'm going to be a Witcher so I can help people."
"Witchers help people who give them coin Ciri. They don't aid in helping people who don't pay because that normally deals with politics."
"Not you too." Ciri huffed and put the book down on the ground.
"What do you mean?"
"Geralt already told me about his neutrality philosophy." Ciri looked over at the troubadour. She narrowed her eyes, curious. "Do you stay neutral."
Jaskier chuckled to himself and shook his head. "No Ciri. I wish I had stayed neutral, but I have never been able to."
"Why?" Ciri asked. She sat up a little straighter and scooted closer to the bard.
"I have loyalties that lie in the intertwines of politics." Jaskier admitted.
"Loyalties?"
"Friendships." Jaskier clarified. Rather than mentioning his blind patriotism in Redania and his subsequent spying career or the fights started by his lovers, he would rather tell the girl that. "There have been many times when my relationship with Geralt has put me closer to death than I would like to have been. Not that all of that was political, but some of it was."
"Hmmm." Ciri muttered before she looked back at her book. She sighed as she flipped through the pages she still had left to read. "I'm tired of studying." She whispered and looked at the bard.
Jaskier looked around. He still couldn't see any of the Witchers beside Vesemir still asleep in the chair. He weighed his options before he stood. The troubadour brushed off the dirt from his trousers. He extended his hand and Ciri took it curiously. Jaskier pulled her to her feet. He gave one last sparing glance for a Witcher before he began walking towards the tower.
"We'll teach you something other than ghouls and wraiths today." Jaskier decided aloud. Ciri trotted behind him up the stairs.
When they reached the top of the tower, Ciri immediately sat at the desk. She kicked her feet subconsciously, since her legs were too short to rest them on the floor. Jaskier reached for his lute case by the bedside. Carefully, he pulled the lute from it and walked to the girl. She took it into her hands curiously, holding it upright. Jaskier tried not to wince as she picked at one of the strings.
"We'll learn about music. Hopefully you'll find it almost as interesting than monsters." Jaskier smiled before he took the lute back from the girl. He grabbed a chair and sat beside her. "This is the fret," Jaskier brushed his hand over the neck of the instrument. "And these nobs tune the instrument, they're called pegs. Are you listening, Ciri?"
The two discussed how to properly tune the instrument with Jaskier's tuning fork after they had learned the name of each part of the lute. They practiced in the tower for hours. If Vesemir had woken, he hadn't disturbed them even after Jaskier had Ciri plucking at the lute strings. He tried valiantly to teach her the tune of the first song he'd sung of Geralt. The girl was too flat with her melody, and she plucked the strings harshly, but her smile was wider than it had been studying.
Ciri had begun to actually feel comfortable in the tune when the other Witchers returned. Jaskier sung with her in an attempt to keep her on tempo and key. Geralt looked at the book and Vesemir asleep. He shook his head. He glanced outside to the pendulum, assuming he had just missed seeing her. Only, the girl wasn't there. It wasn't until Jaskier quit singing to encourage Ciri to do it herself that Geralt heard her voice and registered that she was in the tower. He walked up the stairs and pushed open the door.
"Good job Cirilla!" Jaskier praised as the girl hit a striking note that even carried vibrato. He beamed at her.
"Ciri," Geralt interrupted. The tune came to an immediate stop. "You were supposed to be studying."
"I did!" The girl pulled the lute's strap off of her shoulder. "Really, I did all morning."
"Did you? Tell me the difference between an alghoul and a ghoul then."
"Alghouls have more intelligence than regular ghouls. They're capable of forethought which makes them more dangerous."
"Physically how do you tell them apart?" Geralt persisted.
"Geralt, she did the readings," Jaskier tried, but the Witcher shook his head.
"By markings." Ciri said confidently. "Like unto the panthera tigris that in Zerrekania dwells. And by the sickly paleness of its visage."
Jaskier nodded though he didn't understand the teachings she recited. "See?"
Geralt sighed. "I suppose you did do the readings after all."
"Of course, she did." Jaskier smiled, "I wouldn't have pulled her from her studies if she hadn't."
"And what exactly were you thinking pulling her from her studies, Jaskier?" The Witcher grumbled as his attention turned to the bard.
"Ciri, be a dear and go fetch me some Celandine from outside." Jaskier smiled softly as he took his lute back.
"Celandine doesn't grow at Kaer Morhen. It's too cold." Ciri said simply.
"Go check for me, won't you? I'm sure you'll find it." Jaskier lied.
"Okay," Ciri muttered, albeit confused, "but I doubt I'll find any."
Her feet padded down the stairs as the girl left. Jaskier didn't speak until he heard the door of the keep clatter open and shut behind her. The bard walked to the window and watched as Ciri began her search for a plant.
"Celandine?" Geralt asked.
"It should take her quite a long time to find it." Jaskier said.
"A long time indeed. It doesn't grow at Kaer Morhen."
"I know." Jaskier carried his lute to the case and put it safely inside. "You have to stop training the girl so hard Geralt."
"She's a Witcher."
"Not yet." Jaskier gave an exasperated sigh. "Geralt, she hasn't undergone any mutations and yet you treat her like she has. She's a child, no more."
"Don't tell me how to raise the girl."
"She needs something in her life that isn't consumed with mutilated corpses and monsters."
"So, music is what she needs?"
"Yes." Jaskier put his tuning fork necklace back around his neck.
"Why music?"
"Because she's far too young to teach the other liberal arts to." Jaskier joked as he returned his eyes to the Witcher. "Unless if you want to teach her arithmetic or astronomy but I didn't learn that until I was 18."
"She doesn't need any more of that knowledge. What little she got with her time as a princess was enough."
"Oh, Geralt," Jaskier shook his head. "Just because you have no appreciation for the arts doesn't mean that the girl must share the same fate. If nothing else, you must realize that it's an outlet for her to put her frustrations with her training and the world. Or did you forget her home was buried around her?"
Geralt turned his head from the bard with an inaudible grumble. He walked to the window and pulled back the curtain. Ciri ran back and forth as she dug in the bushes, growing more confused as to why she couldn't find the plant when Jaskier had been certain. Jaskier walked behind him and put his hand on the other man's shoulder.
"She's just a child Geralt." Jaskier reiterated. "You asked me to stay, so let me help with her."
"She's mine. That girl is my responsibility." Geralt stared down at her as the girl shook her head and headed back for the keep.
"She is yours. You were the one who got her by the law of surprise." Jaskier agreed. "But that doesn't mean I won't help. You hardly take care of yourself sometimes." The bard's tone still held serious rather than his normal joking.
Geralt turned to look at him. Their eyes bore into the other. Jaskier hadn't realized how close he had gotten to look out the window; now, with their chests practically touching, he was all too aware of the closeness. He offered a shaking smile as he was once again faced with the feeling he had felt at the party, buried in the maze. He was sure Geralt could hear his heart racing out of his chest. The bard held his breath as Geralt stepped closer. His eyes began to flutter shut.
"Did you find Celandine?" Geralt asked with an amused smirk as Ciri pushed into the room. He stepped away from Jaskier and towards the girl. The bard let go of his breath in a huff when he realized. He smiled stupidly and put a hand on his face.
"No, I'm sorry Jaskier." Ciri blew a strand of hair out of her face, "I don't think it grows here."
"You're right Ciri." Jaskier relented. "It doesn't."
"Perhaps you should get back to your studies. Now that the others and I are back from ridding us of the Forktail nest we can have you back at the pendulum." Geralt offered as he led the girl out of the room.
Jaskier waited until he could no longer see them before he slumped into the desk chair. He buried his head in his hands and sighed.