"Ciri, dear. At least pretend you are trying to focus, could you?" Yennefer sighed deeply and internally tried to restore her quickly thinning patience. Ciri has been distracted since the previous morning and from what Yennefer had heard from Lambert, she had a sneaky suspicion that the girl has tried to visit the bard secretly.
"I am trying," said Ciri, but from the way she stared at the text without processing it, the witch was sure that they wouldn't manage to finish their studies for that day.
"Okay," said Yennefer and put her own book away. "This is obviously not working. You are worried about Jaskier, aren't you?"
The slightly guilty look the former princess gave her was a tell-tale sign, so Yennefer took her text away too and put it back onto the shelf where it belonged. There was enough time to study Elder another day. The language wouldn't disappear anywhere soon, in contrast to a certain bard.
"Do you perhaps wish to talk about him a little?" she tilted her head and watched Ciri lift her face, hope rising in her eyes.
"So you knew him too?" asked the girl and the sorceress nodded.
"Of course. He was always traveling with Geralt. There was no way to miss someone so loud and colorful," she smirked as Ciri chuckled.
"It is true that he loved colorful outfits. And he always had the best stories to tell. He never sang to me about Geralt though. I think my grandmother must've told him not to. From what Geralt told me, she wasn't too happy that he claimed me," said the cub, obviously searching through memories.
"Oh, I believe she was furious," chuckled Yen. "I also wouldn't want to give up a child like you," she added softly and Ciri turned to her, eyebrows coming together in worry.
"What if he won't recover? I sneaked in yesterday. I know I shouldn't have, I know. But I was worried and I remembered that one time in Cintra when he sang to me while I was ill. I wanted to cheer him up," she said, lip trembling and Yennefer stretched her arms towards her, inviting her for a hug, which she accepted and quickly snuggled into her chest.
"Shhh, hush hush. It's okay. I'm sure he would've been happy if he knew you remembered," she whispered into her hair, while the girl sobbed quietly in her embrace.
"He – he was so, so still, Yen. And silent. He looked dead. I've never, never seen him like that," the girl cried hugging the sorceress whose heart was heavy.
"Do you think that he will heal? I want him to heal so much. I want to talk to him again, I want him to tell me stories and to sing to me," Ciri choked out through tears.
"Shh. Listen to me, dear. I have never met a being more persistent than Jaskier. He's not the kind to just give up. It will be okay," Yennefer petted the girl's hair and hoped, that those words wouldn't end up being false.