(Hi everyone, I’m back!
Just darkness.
No light anywhere.
How long had it been?
I couldn’t tell anymore.
I’d lost all sense of time.
My senses?
I couldn’t feel them at all.
Was I even still alive?
After some unmeasurable stretch of total silence, I heard a fragment of a voice.
“Aidy, my wish is to see you wake up, please.” Ciri?
What wish are you talking about?
I’m still here, aren’t I?
Then, after another silence, I heard again: “Geralt, are you sure you want to do this now?” Geralt?
What are you about to do?
I heard his voice answer: “Yeah, we have to.
I trust you, Triss and you and Yen are here to stabilize his body just in case.
I just hope he wakes up.” Triss?
Yen?
Who are they?
But I didn’t have time to wonder any further: I felt something like a needle prick in my arm.
For the first time in what felt like forever, real pain.
Raising my arm in that dark space, I saw it clearly then I collapsed.
— General POV Watching Aiden shake, foam at his lips, Geralt held him steady while Triss and Yen channeled their magic to try to stabilize him.
Ciri, held back by Vesemir, screamed behind them: “Aidy!” Geralt turned to Triss and Yen, his voice urgent: “Is this normal?!” Triss, drenched in sweat from the surge of magic pouring off Aiden after the modified potion injection, couldn’t answer too focused.
It was Yennefer, more skilled in this area despite the sweat on her own brow, who answered without breaking her movements: “His body’s changing.
The potion’s weaker than Aiden’s current state.
We need to keep feeding it to him until it wins out.” Continuing her incantations, she went on: “It’s like a reinforced door.
Aiden’s body’s trying to reject this intrusion because his old magic doesn’t recognize the potion as the right key.
We need to keep giving it to him until his body finally understands it’s the same thing otherwise, it’ll just violently reject it.” Geralt held Aiden by the shoulders to keep him from thrashing, despite the intense cold already creeping over his own fingers: “I don’t care!
It has to work!” — POV Aiden PAIN….
PAIN….
PAIN….
PAIN….
I clutched at my own body, an immense pain, like my organs were freezing solid one by one from the inside, massive spikes tearing through my heart, over and over.
Why do I keep fighting this?
If I just closed my eyes, maybe the pain would stop?
Just as I was about to give in, I heard, very faintly, Ciri calling my name.
I clenched my teeth.
Images flashed through my mind, as vivid as real memories: Geralt training me relentlessly, Lambert cracking up the day I fell in the lake after throwing a bomb, Eskel teaching me Wolf School techniques while sharing his own stories, Vesemir talking with me about monsters, Queen Calanthe’s last words, Mousesack’s lessons, and above all… I saw Ciri again, galloping beside me across the plains.
Our evenings laughing together after training.
The harvest festival.
Her huge smile at the idea of traveling together someday.
I HAVE TO RESIST.
I gritted my teeth and, forcing myself up, screamed, more to myself than to anyone else: “Goddamn it, get up, Aiden!
You promised Ciri.
You promised the queen.
And since when the hell are you this weak?!” Struggling up with extreme difficulty, I hurled every insult I could think of at myself bastard, idiot, moron but ironically, it worked: it kept me on my feet.
Looking up despite the pain, I finally took in the landscape around me.
A ferocious blizzard raged in every direction.
A snow-covered forest stretching endlessly, and at its center, a massive portal.
Somehow, without knowing why, I knew that’s where I had to go.
I started walking, painfully, through the thick snow.
I fell several times from the pain, but every time, I got back up.
The suffering didn’t matter.
I HAD TO GET THERE.
Just as I was finally nearing the portal, my hand reaching out toward it, a figure made entirely of ice appeared in front of me and shoved me back, sending me to the ground.
Looking at it, a chill ran through me: it was my own face staring back at me, my own features, carved out of perfectly clear ice.
Its voice rang out, calm my own voice: “Why do you want to go there?” I gritted my teeth, staring at it: “I have to!
They’re waiting for me!” It looked me straight in the eyes eyes made of pure ice and answered, just as calm: “Sure.
But why?” It stepped closer, crouching down in front of me, and continued: “Out there, so many people want Ciri.
Your power, though, is immense.
You’ll be hunted for your blood, for your magic whether to study you or just to kill you.
Why not just let me take over your body instead?” I stared at it.
“Who the hell are you to ask me something like that?” Ignoring my language, it went on: “I am you.
Or rather, the magic living inside you.
You’re a unique being, Aiden something preserved across countless years to decide the fate of countless worlds.
To most people, you’re nobody.
But to those who hold real power, you’re a hero to some, a target to others, a pawn to the rest.” I shoved it off as I got up, but it grabbed my hand, gripping it with terrifying strength, and continued: “Why keep going, Aiden?
You were just a student, before all this.
And now, they’re training you to kill, like a witcher.
If you cross that portal, you’ll become a mutant, one step closer to your destiny, and…” I headbutted it square in the face, knocking it back.
For the first time, I saw real shock cross that icy face.
I smiled.
“So what?
Screw destiny.
Screw all those people.
They want to control me?
They want me dead?
Let them come, I don’t give a damn.
This is MY body.
These are MY decisions.
And it sure as hell isn’t my magic that gets to decide my life for me!” I pressed my hand against its chest, absorbing I don’t know what but I could feel it all coming back into me, little by little.
The being of ice let me do it, but said again: “Are you sure?
You’ll know suffering.
Sorrow.
Betrayal.
You could still let me protect you from all that.
I might be a prison of ice, in your eyes but a prison that shields you from pain.” I kept staring at it, still absorbing, and answered calmly: “Yeah, that’s true.
But that’s exactly what makes us alive.
Yeah, I regret dying in my old life.
Yeah, I still regret, I still ache from having to say goodbye to Cintra, to people I cared about deeply.
But…” I went on, weaker now: “But I accept it.
That’s what defines me.
And if you’re really me, you should understand that better than anyone.
Geralt.
Vesemir.
Eskel.
Lambert.
Mousesack.
Calanthe.
The commander.
Some of them are dead, and I still grieve them.
Others are still here, and I want to keep living, for them, to help them.” I looked into the eyes of the being of ice, and said, with an oddly amused smile: “And Ciri.
We promised each other, didn’t we?
We’re supposed to travel together, get our revenge on Nilfgaard.
So understand me: yeah, I’ll suffer.
Yeah, maybe I’ll die someday.
But that’s life.
And… I’m not a coward.
I accept all of it.
Completely.” The being of ice stayed silent for a long moment, then answered, a note of amusement in its voice: “You’re right.
So, Aiden me, your magic I’ll keep protecting you.
After all, without you, I’m nothing.
Live your life fully.
And even once I’m dormant inside you, know that I, as the spirit of the old magic, will always watch over you.” I smiled, simply: “Then let’s work together, starting now.” The being of ice dissolved into a shower of fine snowflakes.
I felt, inside me, like some conflict had finally resolved.
Pressing a hand to my chest, I felt whole for the first time in what felt like ages.
Looking at the portal, I walked toward it, the pain completely gone now.
With every step, my hair grew a little whiter, until it turned fully snow-white.
My left eye froze into an icy blue, my right eye into pure snow-white.
Crossing through the portal, I said simply: “Ciri, I’m back.
Your wish came true.” Then I woke up, finding Geralt frozen above me, the rest of the room coming into focus around him.
I said, my voice still weak: “Sorry I’m late.
I heard Ciri make her wish, and I… took my time.” — POV ???
Watching my… work it out on his own, I smiled faintly.
Turning my head, I saw him appear beside me, and sighed.
“You wanted to see my… face that alone.
Happy now?” He didn’t answer right away, keeping his eyes fixed on the spot where my… had just stepped through the portal, back to his own.
Then he said, calm: “Yes.
I needed to be sure.
You know as well as I do that he’ll need to be ready to face it, alongside Zireael.
His strength is already starting to grow, and even I’m finding it harder and harder to contain especially since he’s still wearing my daughter’s body, and the Aen Elle are starting to take an interest in that power too.” I frowned.
“That’s true.
But don’t forget: Aiden will decide his own path.
That was our deal.” He nodded.
“I know.
Don’t worry.
I promised your wife, and you, back when I needed someone to help settle this.
But he’ll need to learn, sooner or later, what’s really waiting for him.” I sighed.
“Fine.
Are you going to call on Lycaon?” He nodded.
“Yes.
He’s already waiting to put him through his first trial so he finally learns the truth about this world, and what awaits him if he accepts that responsibility.
At least Lycaon will get to reunite with his beloved, once it’s done.” He turned his eyes toward a dark corner and continued: “I need to leave you again.
He’s stirring again.
Don’t forget: I can’t hold him back forever.
One day, he’ll resurface, and every world will have to decide its own fate.” He vanished in a cloud of snowflakes.
The place sank back into darkness.
I sighed.
“Hrívë… you’re still suffering too, aren’t you, despite everything…” I looked for a moment at the spot where he’d vanished, then, before fading away myself to rejoin my rest deep within that soul, I murmured: “Tedd Deireádh is coming soon.
And even you, Hrívë, won’t be able to hold it back forever.” Then I returned to my rest, deep within that soul.