Smitten

"JOLLY!"

The door shatters into a million pieces as Solaire kicks it, he walks next to Arie and pats his shoulder under the disbelieving looks from the guards, "Thank you for your efforts my friend!"

Arie nods, "Well, I hope you found whatever you were looking for... We've definitely gotta escape now though."

The guard captain glares at the duo which are talking as if they weren't even there, "Halt, you are under arrest by orders of the King!"

Solaire "Is that so? Well, as I said to your other comrades, you will let us go or die." he says, already getting his next spell ready as these guards didn't seem to value their lives very much.

"Do you think me stupi-" He's cut off as Solaire beheads him with a lightning bolt.

...

The guards all drop their weapons and flee, shouting to let them live.

Arie sighs, "You really don't do it by halves, do you Solaire?"

Solaire shrugs, "Let us get out of the city walls, perhaps then we could contact Reima."

Arie "But how? The gate is surely locked down by now."

Solaire "Where there's a will, there's a way my friend." he says as he walks up to the wall and casts an overpowered Force Miracle.

*BOOOOOM!*

The spell instantly cracks the wall and sends fractured splinters throughout the stone, it starts crumbling on it's own but Solaire hits it again.

*BAAANG! CRACK!*

The wall caves in, tumbling down the mountain that it was previously sitting on. The guards atop it are killed as they're buried under tons of stone. Solaire looks down at the steep drop and draws his sword. He channels lightning into it and strikes with both hands, cutting out a large swath of stone and creating a makeshift incline that'll allow the group to slide down it.

Solaire "Come! There's no time to lose!" he shouts as he helps people down.

Once everyone is out of the city and in the field just under it Solaire follows as the reinforcements attempt to fire arrows at them. Solaire points his sword at them and a few lightning bolts fall from the sky and on top of the unfortunate souls tasked with apprehending them.

The group flees, running until they were out of range of the cities archers. From a distance they could already see Calvary mounting up at the gates, preparing to chase them down.

Arie "Damn, Solaire they plan to chase us all the way back."

Solaire nods and pulls a summoning stone from his bottomless box, he writes Reima's name on the floor and waits a moment for him to respond...

...

Only, that he doesn't. Reima doesn't seem to be available at this time, causing Solaire to frown.

Solaire "It seems my short cut isn't available... We need to walk back."

...

Arie "Walk? Look at how many sick, injured, and starving there are. That with the fact we would have to defend them from Kaedwen, monsters, and bandits makes me think we aren't getting home!"

Solaire shakes his head and points his sword to the sky, "We will make it back, eventually." he says as a rain of lightning falls from the sky, atop the mounting cavalry gathering at the gates of Ard Carraigh. The spell kills most and collapses the gate, preventing anyone from entering or exiting the city, at least until they get it fixed.

Arie sighs, "Whatever, let's get moving. They probably already know of our settlement, leading them to it won't do much apart from confirming it." he says reluctantly.

Solaire laughs, "That's the spirit my friend! I've got a large amount of food stored in my box for such an occasion anyway!"

Elsewhere :

Risryn and the other Prospects had just reappeared next to the alter after killing themselves. As soon as they confirm that everyone is present they cheer at their first completed mission.

Risryn leaves as they all cheer and looks for Reima, to make sure he knows that the mission is complete. However, she can't seem to find him anywhere, inside Kaer Morhen, around the half-built city, or even atop the mountain with the Everlasting Dragon.

She asks around and eventually hears about some kind of "Place of Power" from the half dragon girl that he might be at. Risryn sighs and clambers her way back up the mountain while following the directions given to her.

When she reaches her destination she spots Reima, however, something is immediately wrong when she gets there. He's meditating in-front of the glowing stone, the floor under him is stained black as some kind of similarly colored ooze drips from his ears. She walks up and looks at his face before grimacing at what she sees, the same ooze is trailing down his face like black tears. His eyes are wide open but completely black...

Suddenly she spots movement and jumps backwards as some sort of tentacle sprouts from the ooze and tries to attack her.

Risryn "What is this?" she mutters, tossing a rock at the tendril that deflects it away with ease. "I must inform the others." she reasons and starts sprinting down the mountain.

She tells everyone close to Reima about what is happening to try and find some answers, but most have little to no idea what it actually is. Quelaag explains that Solaire might have a clue but that isn't all that helpful as still completing his mission right now.

That's when she explains the situation to Ciaran, the woman pales when she hears it and requests to see him. Sif follows as if he can sense the impending situation approaching.

They manage to get Ciri to teleport them all to the top of the mountain, the group of Geralt, Ciaran, Risryn, Sif, Dusk and Ciri all walk along the path leading to Reima to inspect the situation.