The Witcher: Elder Blood

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***

- I wish I had a cross bike,' I complain to the horse beneath me. - Not that you're doing a bad job....

The winding road began, with a forest with a thin path ahead. Moving in a straight line on horseback was many times faster.

My artifacting training had progressed considerably. Hela Gedimdeit had checked the protective artefacts I had created and confirmed that they could be used - it was time to fulfil my part of the bargain with the Rector.

I decided not to start with a blind jump, but I had an idea to check the place where I had travelled to this world. The lake I'd fallen into from the portal. The rector was sceptical about the proposed idea, telling me that spatial rifts eventually close, unless you create a permanent portal, with whose help the elves in ancient times travelled through the worlds available to them.

But I wanted to be sure, and it wouldn't hurt to visit the witches. There were two proposals to the monster hunters, one for all of them, the other for Vesemir personally. It was worth asking them whether they would agree or not.

I could not teleport to them. At the time of my stay with them, I was unable to use magic, spatial coordinates were unknown, and after the attack on Cairn Morhen, there were no warlocks left who could link me with a megascope, thus giving me the opportunity to travel directly to him.

I had to do things differently. First I teleported to Ard Carraig, visited Sabrina, and borrowed a horse from her. I didn't want to buy a horse for the sake of a trip to the witches, but I would return it with the help of the portal.

Sabrina's family belonged to the nobility for a reason and had more than one witch in their lineage since the beginning of their history - to borrow one of the horses in the stables is not a problem.

Thus set off in the direction of the hidden stronghold of witches. I travelled light, making the horse gallop between rests. It had taken me two days to reach the pass, instead of five at the slow pace Vesemir and I had taken after leaving Caer Morhen, and I was now travelling through the dense forest from memory.

I was wearing a good-quality, dark, unembroidered hooded cloak that covered most of my body up to my knees. The front of the cloak was fastened with a rivet at the top of the neck, and remained loose underneath. The shoes resembled the familiar leather boots. Under the greyish leather jacket was only a T-shirt. On the belt behind the cloak was an omonyer - a leather money bag - and attached to the horse's saddle was a small rucksack, inside of which were four artefacts: three protective and one for communication - xenovox. There was another sack tied to the horse, containing several bottles wrapped in cloth.

Xenovox was purchased from the rector, the rest of the artefacts could be made by myself, as I had learnt to make protective artefacts. Jennyfer, for example, is still fiddling with the megascope, trying to recreate it herself.

The sorceress persuaded me to order clothes from Wengerberg's atelier. I didn't like medieval fashion, so I spent a long time explaining what kind of clothes I wanted. And he insisted on a simple, unadorned design. The colours were dark or black. I made concessions on one point only: during the measuring, Jennyfer insisted that my 'faded' - in the sense of letting expensiveness slip in my face - outfits match hers when she went out - I had to agree. I liked the enchantress's outfits, my new ones also proved pleasing to the eye.

Winter was approaching and it was starting to get colder, which the cloak helped with, though I wouldn't have any trouble keeping warm.

The first thing I decided to do was to visit the lake, it was just along the main path, but I had to get off the main road.

- There you are,' I looked at the clear lake, right where I'd been caught by the small witches.

I managed to get off the horse and tie it to a tree to keep it out of the way. According to them, I fell far away from the shore, maybe twenty metres, I'll have to get closer.

- Let's get started,' I kneel on one knee by the water. I put my hands palms down, touching the water surface. - Mittanya helca nen! - I cast a spell and shift some of my own energy towards the water. From where my palms touch the water, the water begins to freeze, sending an icy path forward. - Polda helce! - The ice becomes stronger and freezes in place, no longer bobbing on the water. - It's ready to go.

Slowly I reduce the distance from the supposed place of the fall and, stopping in place with my eyes closed, I try to distract myself from the environment and feel the spatial ripples.

- It's not going to be that easy, is it? - I shake my head at the failed attempt.

The expected failure didn't do much to dampen my mood, only an unpleasant aftertaste. On the one hand, I wanted to return to the past world, taking Jennyfer with me, the house could be left to Galantea. On the other hand, I was well aware that even if I found my old world again, I would face a problem in the form of using magic in the modern world.

I could, of course, do it secretly, live in seclusion, changing documents because of constant youth, in which mind control would calmly help, but otherwise it would be a pain in the arse, and in such a case the meaning of modernity would be lost. Still, it was worth a try, for the sake of the same parents, the opportunity to watch films and so on. Plus it would always be possible to move between the two worlds. If you wanted to, you could enjoy the comforts of an advanced civilisation. If you wanted to do it differently, you could learn magic and communicate with other wizards in a medieval reality.

Far away somehow I think, it was worth at least some world with intelligent life to find, and preferably that the intelligent life did not turn out to be monsters. It didn't take much thinking to realise that monsters came to this world from other worlds during the Conjunction of the Spheres and further mishaps of inter-world connections - the process was not fast, and new species came to the world for hundreds of years, until the rifts were completely exhausted, and until new ones were opened. Even now it's hard to answer for sure, do new rifts open somewhere in the world for a short period of time or is it all over for a long time?

With nothing more to expect from the lake, I headed back to the main path and followed it to the fortress, this time keeping the horse by my side rather than riding it.

The gates of the fortress were closed most of the time, except in the morning when some of the witches might go into the forest or decide to run to the lake. At the moment the time was approaching evening, it was not possible to ride a horse through the main gate. But there was a hidden passage to the courtyard on the other side of the walls, there during the storming of the fortress the wall had fallen slightly, and it was possible to get inside. Witches use this passage when they return to the fortress and the gate is closed. Now they do not have the opportunity to put a shift on the gate, the people have become many times less, and do not require constant duty, again, the people are many times less - rarely anyone comes.

I tied the horse near the gate and went to the hidden passage. I got through without any problems, I had experience from the days when I first came to the new world.

With winter looming, the older witches must begin returning to Caer Morhen. They'll be arriving at a slower pace, but the return journey is different for everyone, and there's no telling what might happen.

Vesemir had told me during my time at the fortress that young witches didn't start on the high road until they were sixteen. By that age, a mutated witch has reached his potential height, and all that's left is to gain mass, which constant training helps with.

By my estimate, only half of the young witches went to seek orders on the Bolshak-five of them. The coven trio likely won't go until after winter, except for one - Lambert with the next one, a year younger.

Here was one of them: in the courtyard, near the training area, a white-haired witch doctor sat sharpening his blade. Just before I could step into the courtyard and take off my hood, he noticed me, eyes slightly ajar.

- Eren? - A hint of surprise flickered through the calm boy's face.

- It's been a long time, Geralt,' I said, waving my hand in greeting. - He's about my height now, and I'm not even used to it.

I walked over to him and shook his hand, then looked at the grown-up witch. His hair was grown out, tied back in a ponytail, and his face was more mature.

Time goes by like that and you don't notice, but it's been five years, soon it will be six years since he moved to this area.

- I checked the place of the spatial rift, - I explain him on the unspoken question. - Unfortunately, to no avail. And I wanted to talk to Vesemir about a couple of things. Is he in Caer Morhan at all, by the way?

- Yeah, he got back last month. Probably talking to Berengar in his office right now.

- Then I should say hello to the others,' I nodded at his words, Vesemir would find me when he was done. Berengar has always disliked the witch arts and his involvement in them, a problematic type, but in terms of the sharpness of some phrases, and so mostly calm. - Just help me with the gate first. And with the 'guests', - I grin at the last word, emphasising it. - I bought five bottles of cherry tincture before arrival, I had only to wrap them in rags, or they could be beaten on the way.

Five bottles of cherry tincture would be enough, considering the planned drinking, and the planned conversation with Vesemir, I would have to stay for a day.