The Witcher: Elder Blood

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***

I leaned against the back wall of my house, placing my training sword in its scabbard next to me. It was early morning, as it always was during my sword training, the sun had risen a little over an hour ago.

- Your biggest problem is your disregard for consistency. It's not like I'm using blows you don't know. Almost all of them you've honed quite well, so why don't you think ahead? - My fencing teacher was standing across from me. Towards the end of our regular training session, he decided to clarify my mistake. - You need to be proactive, to take the initiative in your own hands, not to fend off blows hoping for a chance to parry or to catch the other in a mistake. Others may simply not make the same mistake, and parrying doesn't always mean victory.

I stifled the impulses of anticipation during sparring sessions with Marzel to rely entirely on my skill, which never once made me win. Unlike my training with Vesemir, where I had always relied on my innate abilities, because I had been trained to stand up for myself rather than learn how to defeat knights without magic, this time it was the opposite.

Here's how a month has passed since buying the house and three weeks since opening our shop. The sale of simple potions was starting to pay off: the people of Vengerberg often bought them due to their cheapness and relatively quick effects.

I hardly did much with the shop, only helping Jennyfer with the preparation of potions in the morning immediately after our classes, which incidentally ended last week. Not all of the recipes in her book were made by me, I still had a few more to master, whose ingredients were much rarer and more expensive. Yennifer was able to learn the latter thanks to Tissai and her generosity in training a personal apprentice.

Also, I promised to teach Jennifer the most difficult spells in my collection, such as area silencing and mind-affecting, which I was able to learn at the academy thanks to the Rector's personal library and his rare tutorials.

- If only it were that easy...

- I'm not saying you should show me the results right now, just keep it in mind and don't forget it. We'll focus on that next time.

- Okay, I'll see you next Monday then. Good luck and don't disappear there, Marzel,' I said goodbye to my fencing mentor and went to the bathroom.

At least the name of the days of the week in this world are similar to mine. And unfortunately, that's where the similarity of the calendars ends, which is not surprising, because in this world the calendar was borrowed from the elves. The calendar on the Continent works in such a way that the months change during significant periods. It is during such periods that festivities occur everywhere.

For example, three days ago there was the feast of Belletein, which in human language translates to Blossom. During Belletein, they celebrate the beginning of summer, but we were more celebrating Jennyfer's birthday.

I hadn't decided on my birthday, it was a different calendar, the number of days in a local month could go over fifty, I had to choose the day myself. Anyway, I didn't really care when I turned a year old, especially now that I was a wizard and could slow down my aging with special potions, and if I learnt magic better, I could stop aging by myself. But since it's worth it to know your age, at least an approximate one, I decided to choose Lammas as my birthday. The Feast of Harvest and Harvest. In human language it translates to ripening, and takes place somewhere in early autumn, beginning the month of the same name.

Incidentally, as Galantea told me, she was born at the beginning of spring, that is, after the festival of Imbaelk - Kidneying, which marks the end of winter. After it, as in the case of Lammas, the month of the same name begins.

As for this past feast: I didn't even skimp on a silver sapphire ring for Jennyfer in honour of her birthday.... and I ended up broke again, considering Marzel's tuition.

I even had to deal with a pack of Rottlers - humanoid, humanoid creatures that like to snack on corpses with their nasty heads - to get enough coin to pay for a month's worth of lessons. Marzel refused to agree to less than a month's training, and even so he said after a few classes that I needed at least a year if I wanted to take the job seriously.

The rotters live up to their name, spreading disease just by being around them, and if you kill them, they explode, spraying their rotten insides all over the place, poisoning the air, and deafening everyone in the blast radius so badly it can burst your eardrums.

I wasn't paid to kill them, as they could be swatted from a distance with a bow or crossbow, but rather to erase the effects of their explosions. The pack had settled on one of the farms, and if no one had helped with the soil and plants sprayed with their innards, only a fool would have thought to plant anything within a hundred metres or less of the blast.

And I was also asked to check the animals, only two spells for each, nothing difficult for any trained spellcaster.

The money from this incident was enough to pay for the lessons, which I couldn't help but be happy about, otherwise I would have been left without the most worn brand in my pocket.

- Finally finished? - Jennyfer met me on the ground floor, having had time to tidy up after her nap and come downstairs. - Breakfast is almost ready, and I'll be waiting for you at the alchemy table,' she said, stirring the soup in a pot suspended over the cooker.

- At least let me wash up first.

- Of course, I don't want to smell your sweat while I'm working.

I resisted the urge to hug her like that and get the whole house screaming about my soiled clothes, and headed for the first floor. Once upstairs, I headed straight for the bathroom and unlocked the door.

What I saw made me stop in the passage: Galanthea was relaxed stretched out along the entire tub, slowly rubbing herself with a flannel.

I had completely forgotten, yesterday the girl had stayed late at the king's birthday celebration at the palace, participating in the feast and playing her lute into the night until the festivities began to come to a close. She probably decided to break tradition and wash in the morning, rather than do it before bed like she and Yennifer usually do.

- I'm almost done, I just need to rinse off the foam,' she noticed me immediately when she heard the sound of the door opening.

- Oh, you can take your time,' I reluctantly closed the door and sat down on one of the chairs in the corridor.

Besides the rooms and the stairs, the corridor connected to a small open living room. It was where we usually ate.

- God, I'm going to be thirty years old in a couple of local months, and I'm still making such stupid mistakes.... I should have gotten Galanthea into bed before I started a serious relationship with Jennyfer,' I sighed heavily at my life problems.

***

Galantea scooped up some clean water with a ladle and washed her soapy body. Rising up in the tub, she decided to finish washing soon so as not to keep Eren waiting too long.

'It feels so good to relax in a human body like this,' she thought as she toweled herself dry. - 'I'll need to have a serious conversation with Eren..... better not rush, the prophecy is too vague, it's unlikely with his current skills he'll be able to fulfil it. And it is not certain that he is the one destined to fulfil Itlina's Prophecy.'

Putting on clean clothes and suppressing her renewed desire to talk to Eren about her goals for him, Galantea left the room and called the warlock to wash up.

Eren walked past, throwing glances at her every now and then. It would be so easy for her to seduce a child of the Elder Blood, to indoctrinate him with her desires and make them her own, but that was not her way.

Dana Meadhbh would never harm living creatures who live in harmony with nature, only punish those who get cocky. Zhivya has no desire to interfere in the enmity of mortals, she does not like to influence people's lives, only to participate in them, to observe and give verdicts to those around her.

Year after year, decade after decade, century after century..... Hiding in plain sight among mortals, the one who some call goddess, worshiping her in temples and others honouring her during Lammas celebrations so she can bestow her blessing upon their lands, the Queen of the Fields walks in a mortal body she created, constantly changing her appearance. For many years, Dana Meadbh had stayed out of mortal affairs, harbouring an equal love for all races inhabiting her home, the Continent, but with each war she saw the withering of the elves, felt the rolling clod of the two races' anger building up day by day towards each other.

'At some point their strife will come to an end: either there will be a complete extermination of the elves, or they will manage to leave this world and find a new home,' her gaze moved to the bathroom door where the one who might have to save an entire intelligent race from extinction was now washing. - 'In any case, his development will take more than a year. I'll have to make friends with his woman, or she won't stop turning him against me...'

The mortal shell had the unpleasant feature of being exactly like a mortal's body with all the flaws. In her true form, she did not experience such ridiculous feelings as lust at Eren's constant stares at her body or annoyance at Jennyfer's caustic words to her when she thought the young bard could not hear, the only purpose of which was to drive the 'rival' out of the warlock's life.

- Bitch,' the Queen of Fields couldn't help herself from making a quiet remark, the warlock was getting on her nerves.