Her Sweet Kiss | Geralt of Rivia X OC | The Witcher FF

Chapter 36 - Elder blood -

"Has anyone seen Evelyn? She's hasn't been here neither for breakfast nor lunch and at dinner, I'm not seeing her here either." Lambert said as he scanned the room for the small woman. Everyone shook their heads and mumbled a 'no'. "Have you checked her room?" Coen asked at what Lambert groaned. "Where the hell do you think I have been just now?" he asked and crossed his arms. He was standing in front of the table and would usually sit down to eat with the others but he wouldn't do that without Evelyn. Coen scratched his chin. "Have you checked the training grounds in the backyard? She's been there quite a lot these days." he said. Lambert, without any more words, left the room.

Evelyn was in the backyard, training with the same old straw dummies as Ciri did, except for she used her real sword and was destroying the fifth dummy now. Before she started with that about an hour ago she was training with the wooden pillars at the edge of the cliff for balance training for one. She slashed the dummy open making the straw fall out of it. Lambert approached her, she noticed him as his steps made the snow crunch underneath his feet.

He stood there and watched her carry the dummy away, towards the other ones, which were sitting stacked on top of each other in a pile. "I think that's enough to start a bonfire out here, don't you think?" Lambert said as she was about to hang another dummy up. She turned her head towards him and shrugged. "You need something?" she asked and attached the ropes tightly around the dummy. "Yeah. You to come inside and eat dinner. You haven't eaten all day." he said and she, instead of answering, stabbed the dummy and from the part of his chest split him open. "I'm not hungry." she grumbled.

Lambert sighed and stepped right in front of her. "Don't act all tough now." he said and she looked up at him with a frown. "I'm not." she said and threw her sword in the snow. The taller Witcher rolled his eyes. "You are. Come on, what's the matter?" he said and her gaze went to the ground. "I don't know. I just feel so alone." she said and rubbed her upper arms and then looked back to Lambert. Her hard gaze from before was now soft and sad. "It feels like everyone leaves me; Jaskier, Eskel... Geralt." she said and blinked away the burning sensation from her eyes. 

Lambert smiled a little at her. "You still got Vesemir, Coen and me and well... the rest of those whoresons." he said with a chuckle to cheer her up. The corners of her mouth curved a little upwards. "He'll be back soon, I promise." he said before, unexpectedly, pulling Evelyn into a hug. A hug she needed. She nodded against Lambert's chest and then pushed him away a little. "When was the last time you washed?" she teased with a smirk and walked past him. He laughed and pat her upper back after he caught up with her. 

Vesemir's pov

Geralt had left for Cintra and Ciri wasn't all too happy about it the rest of the day. I wanted to get her mind off of it and show her a little something. Something that she could be the key of. Recently, I found feainnewedd, a flower that only grows where Elder blood has been spilled. We assume that, because we found it on the training paths Ciri had used recently, she has Elder blood running through her veins. 

"When the Conjunction happened, it wasn't just the elves, humans, dwarves. Spheres of beasts collided too. Mages weaponized monsters. Tried to conquer the lands with them. Fucking idiots. Of course, the monsters destroyed everything. Then, 300 years ago, mages weaponized men. Mutated them with elixirs. Made them faster. Stronger. Brutal enough to kill the beasts. The Witchers saved humanity from extinction. Do you know why there are fewer of us each winter, Ciri?" We arrived in the basements where she would have studied monsters with Geralt, who studied them with Evelyn here as well.

She frowned at me. "Because when Kaer Morhen was destroyed, so was the mutagen that allowed us to make new Witchers. Well, so we thought. There was some left of it but it was only enough for one more. But I think you can help." I said and walked into the room. "Ever heard of feainnewedd?" I asked her and walked over to the table where said flower was lying. She followed me and I presented her the small violet flower that was in a small pot currently. "It's an ancient flower. Only grows one place. Where Elder blood has spilled." I explained to her and she leaned with her elbows on the table and took the petals between her fingers. 

She took a few of them by their stem out and brushed through them. "These have been sprouting all over the training course." she mumbled and looked at me. I nodded. "Yeah." I raised my brows and she looked back at the flower with a frown. I think she might understand what I am implying. She lowered her hand on the table. "Where I've bled." she whispered more to herself as she realized. 

"But my- my grandmother she hated the elves." she stuttered over her own words and looked at me, searching for answers. "Sometimes our deepest hate is for the things we cannot change about ourselves." she retrieved her hands and walked away from the table. She walked over to the entrance and sat down at the small pair of stairs. She fumbled with the flower in her hand and sighed. "Something bad is brewing out there. With a vial of your blood, we could protect generations to come." I said and she looked up from her hands. "How are you so sure it will work?" she asked in a soft tone. "I'm not." I admitted.

"I'll do it. On one condition. You have to test it on me first." she demanded. In front of my eyes played the scene of the many boys that got injected with the mutagen and so many had to die because of it. "Forget it." I said. I didn't want this fate for her. "Come." I said and walked out of the room. "My men are warriors now." I said as I approached the chair in which we tied the boys to mutate them.

"But they were boys in pain once. If they even survived. And not many did. I'll not take that chance with you." I said and she clenched her jaw. "Because I'm a girl?" she asked. "Because you're Geralt's child." I corrected her and she frowned. "I'm not a child." she said. "Because we care about you." I said. Why wouldn't she understand? "And I care about all of you! You said it yourself. Witchers are dying. One by one. You'll fight. You'll die. And all of those boys' suffering will have been for nothing." she said. I grunted and turned away from her.

She grabbed my shoulders and turned me back to her. "I've destroyed so many things. Please, just... let me help heal something for once. I'm meant for this." she said. I pressed my lips into a thin line. "I can't." I mumbled and she sighed deeply. "It is because I'm a girl." she crossed her arms. I shook my head. "No. I had a girl once go through this. I almost lost her and it broke us all to see her suffer." I admitted and her eyes went wider a little. "Evelyn."