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xvi
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"THE TRAIL WILL test you. Force you to move beyond the pain, the fear, the failure. Until you become one with the killer itself. Remember, hesitation will draw danger to you like fire. But trust the path you choose and it will protect you. Even in darkness. As long as you listen. Always listen."
Geralt's words stayed with Ashiya as she and Ciri followed him, training harder than they had before.
They'd climbed, ran, jumped, swam, fought.
As Geralt hunted, the girls listened as a branch broke, and then another.
They exchanged a look.
Ciri grabbed her knife and turned, ready to jump onto the path. But at the last moment she slipped over the frost, grabbed Ashiya to steady herself but ended up pulling her and the two girls topped down a small hill and fell onto the path, crying out in pain and laughing.
Ciri hissed as she pulled herself up, blood dripping from a cut on her face onto the ground.
Footsteps.
Both girls sprung into a standing position, and Ashiya pulled out her sword, and put her other hand up, ready to click her fingers.
A woman stood before them. She was pretty, with brown skin and curly hair. She had a long cloak and a kind aura about her.
"I'm not going to hurt you," The woman declared, lowering her hood. She smiled, "Your girls."
"So are you," Ciri replied.
"I'm going to Kaer Morhen," the woman declared, "Is that where you're headed?" she walked closer to them but they stepped back. "I appreciate the suspicion but be reasonable. Would I have gotten this far if I didn't know the way." She studied the cut on Ciri's face, "Let me look," she offered.
Ashiya debated in her head, whether to let her past.
A few moments later, she lowered her sword standing aside and letting the woman bring her fingers to Ciri's face. She closed her eyes, speaking an incantation and within moments the cut had closed up, leaving Ciri's face clear and woundless.
Ciri blinked, "You're a sorceress," she realised, her eyes flickered to Ashiya, "Like you."
The woman smiled and picked some daisies from the ground, handing them to both the girls, "It's nice to meet you."
"Tris," came a voice.
They turned to see Geralt walk onto the path, carrying a dead boar on his shoulders.
"And a friend of Geralt's, you must be quite charitable," Ciri mused, standing aside. The two watched as Geralt and Tris smiled, staring into each others eyes.
"It's good to see you again," Geralt greeted.
"And you."
Ashiya and Ciri exchanged a look.
Half an hour later, they made their way into the hall.
"I brought dinner," Geralt announced.
"More than that," Vesemir grinned, making his way towards Tris. "My child, what a surprise."
"Hello, Vesemir," Tris smiled, hugging him.
"Oh hell," Lambert mused as Tris let go, "I haven't even had me fill of grog yet and already the women are increasing." He crossed his arms, "Merigold."
"Lambert," she answered, "I see your wounds have improved but your manners have not."
"I wish you had come sooner," Vesemir stated, "We all could've used you."
"Hopefully we still can," Geralt replied.
"I'll go dress for dinner, I assume all of you will want to wash up as well," Tris declared, walking away. She chuckled as they laughed, "Of course not."
They soon sat on tables, eating dinner and chatting. Ashiya sat next to Ciri, mostly quiet as usual.
They lapsed into a silence as Geralt told Ciri that he'd called Tris here for her.
This was her chance to know what was really happening.
Ashiya looked up at Tris, smiling. "So, what's it like in the outside world? I hear the elves have aligned with Nilfgaard."
Tris surveyed her for a moment, smiling back, but then frowning, "Well, the elves are flocking to Cintra now - but because of the alliance the Northern Kingdoms have wholly turned their backs on the elves. There's more hate than ever. Elves are being imprisoned and slaughtered by the thousand..."
Ashiya was dimly aware that Triss was still talking, telling her of the outside world, but she was staring hard at the table and turning her words over in her mind. So it was true. The elves were being mistreated worse than ever.
Flesh tearing like velcro.
Babies swinging by their legs.
Hands in places they shouldn't be.
'A good elf is a dead elf.'
Ashiya could feel bile rising in her throat, she couldn't see, she couldn't breathe. The world was collapsing around her.
She stood up abruptly.
"Excuse me," she managed to stammer out, her voice catching in her throat.
And then she ran out of the room.
She didn't know where she was going, every single corridor looked the same. She couldn't breath, her lungs and throat were burning. It felt like she could die now, like she was being torn apart from the inside.
Screams echoed in her head, reverberating again and again. Blood. So much blood. She was chocking on it. The stench of rotting flesh was stuck in the back of her throat again. It was acrid. She wanted it gone.
Her hands found the edge of a basin.
She was dimly aware of someone screaming. Was it her? She didn't know.
She wanted to tear her eyes out of her head. She wanted the images to go away. All the bodies. all the hands. Screaming. Touching. Dead. Dead. Dead.
Everything was dead.
Chains were everywhere. She was trapped. They were all trapped again. Hanging at the gallows. Arrows raining down. Burned at the stake. Ears cut off and sawed off of dead bodies like trophies.
Bile was rising in her throat. She could taste the blood again. Ferrous and foul. She was choking on it. Throwing it up. Coughing.
Someone was behind her, holding her hair back and holding her still.
The screams were getting louder.
Were they hers?
She didn't know.
Elves killed by the thousand.
It was happening again. It would never stop. She wanted to burn the world. She wanted it to stop.
Dimly she was aware of a splash, everything was cold. Someone had thrown water on her.
Ashiya coughed, falling to her knees.
Someone was talking to her, but she couldn't hear them, their form was fuzzy. Everything was blurry. She couldn't understand anything anymore.
She tried to speak but it didn't come out right, she was stammering and crying a mixture of Hen Llinge and Laith aen Undod.
Someone's hands were on her, they were tucking her hair behind her ears and forcing her to look up at them.
"Look at me, Ashiya. Look at me."
She couldn't face them, not with her people dying. She couldn't stay here.
"Axii."
The world came to a screeching halt. Everything stood still for a moment. Ashiya could breath again, taking in quick, shallow gasps.
She blinked.
It was Geralt, he sat, crouched on the stone floor before her attempting to steady her. She was soaking wet, he'd poured water on her. They were in the lab.
She tried to say something, to apologise, but the words were stuck in her throat.
"It's okay," he assured, as if reading her mind. His eyes flickered to her head.
Her ears.
"Don't touch me!" Ashiya hissed, covering her ears with her hands and scrambling away, flinching at his movements.
"Ashiya," Geralt said, voice low, "It's okay. I know. I've known since your first night here."
She frowned.
"Are you going to kill me?"
In that moment, she looked small there, curled up and beaten, like the weight of the world was on her shoulder.
He moved closer to her, kneeling in front of her. "I would never." He pulled her hands away from her ears, and looked at her sadly. His eyes were wide and his head slightly tilted. He was looking with a mix of pity but also like he wanted to protect her. He looked at her softly but steadily.
It was the same look he gave Ciri.
"Don't look at me like that," Ashiya begged, screwing her eyes shut and letting her head loll down.
"Why not?"
"Because you look at Ciri like that. Only Ciri."
He said nothing, but instead he grabbed her, pulling her into a hug. Ashiya stayed there, her head against his chest for a time - she didn't know how long it really was.
"All I have ever known is war," Ashiya whispered, the words spilling from her lips like tears. "I was born in one of the camps. We were massacred and captured by Cintran soldiers. Again and again. Everywhere I went. We were chained up and murdered." There was a pause, before she finally said what she feared, "It's happening again. They're chaining us and cutting off our ears and burning our babies. They won't stop until we're all dead."
Geralt only held her, letting her speak.
"I won't let them hurt you," he finally said.
It's not me I'm worried about, she wanted to say.
~
A/N:
Word Count: 1513
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