Something Wilder (Child of the Winter Moon Book 2)

18: Something Ends, Something Begins

"Juray!" Jaskier greeted as she approached the bar. "How'd it go."

"Swimmingly. Turned out it was succubus working for Crippled Kate's."

"Oh?"

"Contract's done. Don't worry about it."

Jaskier gave a smirk, knowing that meant she hadn't killed it. Jaskier was one of the few people that knew Juray didn't kill harmless creatures, even if it meant she wouldn't be paid for the job. "You have a visitor in your room, by the way."

"Who?"

"I was asked not to tell you."

Juray grunted and rolled her eyes before heading up the stairs. "I swear to the gods I'm going to kill him one of these days." She opened the door and was surprised at who was waiting for her. "Ciri?" She closed the door as the young woman stood from her seat on the bed. "What are you doing here?"

"Eskel said you had business in Novigrad and Jaskier said you were out on a Contract and I could wait for you here."

"Didn't answer my question."

"I need advice and you're the only one I can ask. You've always been the best person to ask anything without judgment."

"This isn't sounding ominous or anything."

Ciri gave a smile before pulling out a piece of folded parchment and holding it out toward her. "Read this first."

Juray took it and opened it, seeing it was a letter from Emhyr to his daughter. "He seems serious about this," she said after she finished reading. She handed the letter back. "But I'm not seeing why you want my advice. I'm just a Witcher."

Ciri smiled again. "We both know you're not just a Witcher, Juray." She then sighed. "He wants me to take over. Do I look like empress material to you? I don't know thing one about ruling an empire. Or ruling anything for that matter."

"But you are a leader."

Ciri looked at her.

"Emhyr needs someone that can lead and he believes that person is you. Besides I'm sure he'll teach you the ruling part before he steps down."

"Most of my life, all I've wanted to do is be a Witcher. Like you and Geralt. I've trained for it, learned everything you could teach me. You're my family." She sat on the bed again. "I saw it as a way I could help people."

Juray sat next to her. "Yes, you can help people as a Witcher. But those same people that praise you and thank you for helping them will turn around and stab you in the back and curse your name the next week. As a Witcher, you can do good for a person here or there, protect people from dying horrible deaths by various creatures. A single drop in a lake. Or..." She waited until Ciri looked at her. "You can do a lot more good as an empress. Your word could help those people in the long run. Your word could keep entire communities safe."

"You think I should just accept it?"

"I'm giving you the means to make an informed decision. Your heart is warring with it. And you came to me because I'm not going to sit here and do everything in my power to convince you to remain a Witcher like Geralt would."

"That's exactly why I came to you. You're not biased."

"I'm a little biased, but I'm not going to make that decision for you. You want to be able to do good and help others. You can do that as a Witcher to an extent. You can go even farther with that as an empress."