A/N: Here's a small Yen chapter in case anyone was wondering about her and to set some stuff up for the next few chapters. While I am not necessarily a big fan of dear Yennefer I still think she is a well written character and I won't ignore her completely. Also this is close to an interaction her and Istredd had in the Netflix series but It's not the same I just took a lot of inspiration from it.
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Back down in the city of Aedd Gynvael Yennefer had finally found her breakthrough after meeting with several other mages as well as some elves that remained in the city. She had at first wanted to go to Aedd Gynvael because of Istredd, her estranged lover from her days at Aretuza and she had found him at the sight of some kind of archaeological excavation of elven ruins. The interaction she had with him did not go as smoothly as she had expected in her mind.
Istredd stood just about twenty feet away from the sorceress as she waited impatiently for the guards to read her totally real letter of safe conduct.
'We hereby declare the bearer of this document to be a loyal servant of...."
It was a short decree and she was starting to get nervous that they would see through the credibility of the letter and she would be pulled off site in cuffs before she even locked eyes with Istredd.
He had changed so much since they had been lovers but at the same time not at all. His face was still the same incredibly smooth mocha skin and natural black curls that he brushed out and shaped impeccably. The beard was new, he had grown a full beard that just like his hair was full but shaped and cropped. He had been one of the few sorcerers that did not choose to look that much different than he already did. His frame was tall and lean but he now had the strong muscle structure to fill himself out.
Finally his grey eyes met her violet and they widened just as they did back then when she entered the ballroom showing her new physical form for the first time. She could see the years in his eyes that she couldn't on his face. Yennefer did not come to her beauty as most mages did. She was formed fully awake, screaming in pain and covered in her own blood. She felt every shift of the bones on her misshapen spine lining up, she felt her jaw break in order to be aligned and then set again. On the rare occasion that she dreamed she would remember flashbacks in her nightmares. Particularly the part where the sorcerer performing the procedure informed her of what she would have to give up in order to be reborn. That to be reborn her body would bear no more.
Many emotions flickered across the face of her former lover, excitement, confusion, affection...fear. Once the guards cleared her forward she gently prodded her horse forward with a kick. Still astride her steed Istredd approached and lifted a perfectly manicured hand to help her down. She accepted quickly and allowed the man to set her gently on the ground.
They were still in a loose embrace when Yennefer's horse was being led away towards a small area where it could be fed and watered.
"Why have you come?" Istredd finally spoke.
"This is the first time we see each other after more than a century and that's the first thing you say?" Yennefer responds incredulously.
The mage lets out a nervous laugh and he subconsciously tenses his muscles.
"It's alright, I forgive you." She smiled at him, one of the first genuine smiles she's had in a long time.
"You...forgive me?" He repeated, making sure he heard her correctly.
For many years Yennefer had blamed the man for what happened to her. For having to go through the ritual the way she did, for not having the acceptance of the Chapter and being sent to Aedrin properly in order to serve her king, King Virfuril. Istredd had used her to gain favor with his mentor Stregobor and betrayed her trust by telling the older mage about her elven genetics. After all, Yennefer was quarter-elf and Aedrin was not welcoming of the Elder race in the kingdom. King Virfuril would have never accepted the Chapter assigning him a mage of elvish descent whether she hailed from Vengerberg or not
"I served Aedrin for decades." Yennefer spoke. "It wasn't something worth giving up all that I had, the only thing I am grateful for is an epiphany I had. Is there somewhere we can talk privately?"
Curiosity was clearly evident on Istredds's face, his dark eyebrows arched, though he nodded.
"Come with me." The male mage took her by the hand and brought her to a tent erected off to the side of the dig site. The inside of the tent was decorated magically, much more large and extravagant than what would be possible naturally. There was a sofa that Yennefer's tired legs were called to immediately. The mages settled into the comfortable seat together, facing each other, hands still clasped.
"You kept your eyes." Istredd spoke quietly, one of his hands, much too soft to be a regular archaeologist of a non-magical nature, caressed the side of her face so he could look closer.
"Look at you Yennefer, you could have anyone." His hand fell into his lap and his own grey eyes looked away.
"I have." Yennefer responded truthfully. "You were right in a way. I did want to be beautiful, and as soon as I had it I took full advantage. But beauty was never all I wanted, it was never even what I wanted the most. My biggest wish to begin with was power and I have that now as well. I have immense power, sometimes even I am unaware of the extent of it. But with both the power and the beauty something important to me was taken."
"What was it?" Istredd asked.
"My choice." Said Yennefer with a scary amount of seriousness in her gaze and voice. The air around her seemed to almost shake with her emotions.
"You've made many choices I'm sure." said the male mage, he wanted to laugh, to call her on her joke but she didn't seem to be joking in the slightest.
"The epiphany I had under the service of Virfuril, it happened while I was escorting Queen Kalis and one of her children. Another baby girl. We were in a carriage when we were attacked. The king sent an assassin to get rid of the woman who could not provide him a suitable heir. Neither of them even cared for a second about that baby, I did what I could but there were so many portals and one of them came out of the Great Sea, she was gone!"
Yennefer's voice rose in increasing passion as she spoke. Istredd softly set a hand on her arm but it was like he wasn't even there. He sensed this was not something that she had spoken about much if at all before.
"The choice." Istredd realized. "The choice to be a mother?" It was something he never knew Yennefer wanted so much, though he supposed that when he was with her she hadn't. The woman in front of him was beautiful, she was powerful, but she was alone.
"I can have that choice again." She told her former lover with intent in her eyes. "We can have that choice again." A single tear ran down her perfect cheek out of her left eye, another from her right to soon follow.
"I don't understand, the ritual was clear." The male mage argued.
"It was. But I found another way, I have a Djinn under my command and I have enough wishes left for the both of us to regain our choice. If I am to be a mother then I want to be a mother with the only one I've ever loved."
Yennefer shook her head out of the memory and looked down, placing a hand on her swelling abdomen. She made her choice.
"Istredd I found something!" She called in excitement.