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hudine · 10 months

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Still don’t have a name for this fic. Will put on AO3 when I got one. Anyone got any ideas for a name feel free suggest them.

Part 1 Part 2 Part 4

60 years later

Jules was in the human realm again for the first time since the sacking. He had wanted to go home long before now but his mother wouldn’t let him out of her sight at court. He became an adult by fae standards ten years ago but that didn’t mean his mother couldn’t find other means to keep him from leaving. Eventually though he got hold of a lute, some bard clothes, snuck back into the human realm and took up the name Jaskier to make it harder to find him. He’s been wondering the continent as a traveling bard trying to hear anything he can about what was left of the wolf school ever since.

Finding out knowledge of any Witchers yet alone a particular guild of them was easier said than done. In the past year he’s only managed to find two, one viper and one cat. He didn’t get much out of either of them but the viper and cat schools got never along the with the wolf school in the first place so it wasn’t that surprising.

He was going to give it a few more months then actually pluck up the nerve to go back home to Kaer Morhen and see what is left and go from there. Right about now Jaskier wishes he didn’t put such a good anti tracking spell on the medallions or he could find anyone he wanted. The majority of those who where out on the path during the sacking wore medallions he had enchanted in the first place so it wouldn’t have been hard otherwise.

He was playing in a small tavern at the edge of the world in the town of Posada when it happened. Jaskier was playing a set that was pretty much designed to get food thrown at him so he wouldn’t have to pay for lunch. Also he didn’t want to stand out so he didn’t want to showcase his true talents. Then seemingly out of nowhere Geralt of fucking Rivia unexpectedly walked in and took a seat in the back corner where no one would see him. The bard almost missed a note in shock. So knowing how literal minded his old friend was he started singing in metaphors using monsters that don’t exist or at least shouldn’t exist.

He finished his song and on queue got bread thrown at him. He started muttering at the crowed as he stuffed bread rolls in his pockets. He looked up to see Geralt hadn’t bothered to even look up at the spectacle. Didn’t surprise him much. He had enchanted the medallions to ignore his magic so he could get up to magical mischief as a child and Geralt always had been particularly resistant to magic even for a Witcher. It’s why Reidrich singled him out for his ‘experiment’.

The fae stood up, took a tankard from a passing barmaid, had a drink to brace himself and walked up to Geralt. “I love the way you just sit in the corner and brood.”

“I’m here to drink alone,” Geralt replied not even looking up.

“Good. Yea, good.” Jaskier ignored the Witcher and sat down across from him. “No one else hesitated to comment on the quality of my performance… except for you. Come on. You don’t want to keep a man with bread in his pants waiting. You must have some review for me. Three words or less.”

“They don’t exist.”

“What?”

“The creatures in your song, they don’t exist.”

“And you apparently still wouldn’t know a metaphor if it bit you in the ass Geralt.”

Geralt really looked at him for the first time, brow furrowed. “Do I know you?”

“Gee thanks. Nice to know I’m that forgettable. It’s been sixty years I know, but I hadn’t been able to get away from my mother until now. She had guards watching me and a tracking spell for when I slipped the guards. She was convinced if I came back here to see what was left of Kaer Morhen I’d be killed. Took me finally reaching age of majority and another ten years of court responsibilities she made up, before I managed to slip the leash. Anyone asks, my name is Jaskier and I’m a perfectly normal human bard, thank you very much. Really don’t want to be dragged back there. Court is boring.”

It took a moment for Geralt’s brain to catch up with the rambling and put it together. “Jules? You’re supposed to be dead.”

“I got out. Managed to make a portal and took the children with me to the fae realm along with Birman and Deglan who dragged my unconscious father along with them.”

“Vesemir said he was the only one left alive in the keep. Does he know?”

“Considering he shoved me through my own portal when I tried to talk sense into him about coming with me, yea. I would have jumped right back through there and dragged his ass back through with me but I hit my head on the other side and got knocked out. So Vesemir is still alive?”

“For now. Might be a different story when I get back to Kaer Morhen and have a ‘talk’ about him letting me think you’re dead for the past sixty years.”

“Don’t be too hard on him. He was probably just covering for our escape, didn’t want any rumours any of the mages made it out. The brotherhood was behind everything. Saw some of their council members, not just mages, among those attacking.”

They got interrupted as a farmer walked up to the table. “Excuse me… master Witcher. I need your help. I have coin. A devil has been stealing from our grain stores.”

“A devil?” Geralt asked sceptically.

“Well I don’t know what else to call it. It looks like a goat that can run on two legs.”

“And it’s been stealing from your grain stores?”

“Yes. I have a hundred and fifty crowns for you to go take a look.”

“Alright. You coming Jules?” Geralt asked as he got up.

“Sure. Maybe I can write a song about it or something, Eric,” Jaskier replied, getting up and following.

“Don’t call me that,” Geralt snarled annoyedly at Jaskier.

Jaskier haven grown up around Witchers, didn’t find it in the least bit intimidating. “Don’t call me Jules and I’ll not call you Eric.”

“Fine, Jaskier. What kind of name is that anyway?” Geralt asked as they left of the tavern.

“A whimsical one like you’d expect a bard to have. Also kinda fae, it being a plant name and all. They’re weeds. Hardy, will grow anywhere, near impossible to get rid of, and poisonous,” Jaskier proclaimed proudly.

“Hm. Put that way, very you,” Geralt replied as he got Roach out of the stable.

They walked out of town a bit before Jaskier couldn’t help asking, “Isn’t that one of the horses I grassed?”

“Her name is Roach.”

“And she lets you ride her? I remember most those horses becoming like demonic hell spawn afterwards…”

“Took a while but she trusts me. She makes a good Witcher horse; fast, lots of stamina, isn’t afraid of pretty much anything, won’t let anyone steal her. She’s also older than me and still going. Why did you grass horses anyway?”

“Oh. They had me practice on animals before they let me preform the trail of grasses on a person. I take it you haven’t come across the rats… those sneaky little bastards are why they decided we should move on to bigger animals who can’t hide as easily.”

“Rats? Is that why we have a colony of half feral mutant cats?”

“I only grassed two… to catch the rats. How was I to know the cats could still have kittens afterwards? Most creatures mutate so much they’re not compatible with the same species anymore and renders them infertile,” Jaskier explained exasperatedly.

“What happened the people you escaped with?”

“They decided to start over. Got the fae to take them to a new part of this sphere far from the continent. After all it’s not just here that has a monster problem. They’re thriving last update I had, and far away from the influence of the brotherhood. People actually look up to Witchers there and don’t have the superstitious beliefs about them so less die each year because of humans.”

Geralt had a far away look for a moment. “Must be nice.”

“I could take you there.”

“Maybe… someday. I can’t just abandon those that are left here.”

“How many are left?”

“The number dwindles every winter. Last count there where about twenty that came to Kaer Mohen to winter, not all of them wolves. There are also a few stuck in wolf form who live in the woods around Kaer Morhen. We’ve tried to help them but nothing seems to work.”

“I can change them back. I turned Varin into a giant chicken once because he was being an asshole. So transforming them back to their Witcher state shouldn’t be a problem. The problem is if they’ll stay that way. Might be that they’re not stuck. Might be that they’ve grown tired of life on the path and decided they’re better off as wolves. Seen it happen a time or two. Usually from the mistreatment they get from humans. I could quite happily do some really horrible things to whoever started the rumour that Witchers don’t have feelings.”

“They’re supposed to have been burned out of us during the trails.”

Jaskier actually smacked Geralt upside the head. “Don’t. That’s a load of nonsense. Actually if anything emotions are heightened because believe it or not that is a sense and all senses are heightened. You feel things more intensely than humans. Sometimes though it gets stuck inside and they get trapped where you’re unsure how to express them or are too overwhelmed to do so. Makes it hard to speak for some too. Of course the cats are the only ones who openly admit this. The rest of you all pretend otherwise because of a toxic culture that sprang up long before I was around. You think you had it bad as a kid? It was a lot worse in the past. Most the outright abusive ‘training’ was stopped.”

“I find it hard to believe with Witchers like Varin training us.”

“They used to all be like him… except Vesemir. He was always fair from everything I heard. Varin was just an asshole they had to confine to the keep and had to give him something to do while there. He learned not to mess with me though. The chicken incident just being the last in a long line of shit I did to him when he was being an ass.

“Actually I was the reason a lot of it got stopped. The mages never paid much attention to how they trained new Witchers until Vesemir decided I was old enough to be put in training with them. They where horrified by the shear number of boys who died before the grasses just because they hadn’t been fed enough, or exposed too long to the cold, or beaten for no good reason. Dad didn’t believe me at first when I told him about it, so I went to Dagobert, then Reidrich. Eventually I made enough of a fuss with them they checked it out, watching through magical means.

“They pretty much unanimously told Rennes they where leaving if they didn’t stop all of that. He came up with some bullshit excuse about selecting the toughest of the boys. Then my father informed him that there is nothing tough about surviving all that, mostly just luck. They wanted healthy boys for the trails and if they stop killing them off maybe they’d have more pass and their low success rate probably has everything to do with malnutrition. He wasn’t wrong about that. That was just part of the puzzle though. The rest was in quantity of elder blood, freely given, and different mutagens, and a touch of original genetics. If you have some elven or fae in you you’re more likely to make it. Or some chaos.”

“Like Eskel. He’s always been good with signs.”

“It’s also how I was able to teach him how to do some minor magic like glamours. Same with you. Actually you got more raw chaos than Eskel. Just Eskel has better control of his,” Jaskier proclaims to Geralt who just looks sceptically at him, “It’s true. I’ve had a closer look at both of your magical cores than most. I did the grasses on you twice, and the dreams on Eskel. Did my best to make sure you both maintained access to it. Hence why you both can do more than signs. I’m just surprised you both still talked to me after, yet alone became my friends.”

“If you didn’t do it one of the others would have. You where also known for being gentler about it than the others, actually trying to dull the pain, and had the highest success rate. It’s why I begged you to do my second round of grasses. Never trusted Reidrich. Besides you may have been one of the mages officially by the time I came along, but you where always one of us. You didn’t hold yourself above us lowly Witchers unlike Reidrich or Dagobert. Your father wasn’t so bad either, if a bit scatterbrained. But you Jules, you ran the walls with us as punishment like the rest of us when we got in trouble. Got stuck in the middle of whatever childish mischief that was being planned. Protected us from people like Varin. I’m also convinced you’re responsible for most of Vesemir’s grey hair. After all I can quite reliably say you’re responsible for my own hair going white.”

“It really wasn’t supposed to do that.”

“Relax it’s a joke. I have been known to make those on occasion. I got used to it a long time ago.”

“You joke? Actually you’re communicating in more than grunts. Are you ok? You haven’t been cursed with gift of the gab or something?” Jaskier asked sarcastically.

“Hmn,” Geralt grunted also sarcastically.

“Now that’s more like the Witcher I know and love,” Jaskier replied, grinning.

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#the witcher #jaskier #geraskier #geralt x jaskier #geralt of rivia #joey batey #henry cavill #fanfiction #needs a name #seriously taking all suggestions for fic names #fae!jaskier #wip

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