Escape and Yennefer.

Alan nodded to Ciri and approached the two elves standing guard.

"Hey, can I have some water pl..." - he arrived while talking, with a smile on his face and while still doing it, attacked. Elf didn't see it coming at all, receiving a blast at the face, sending him flying unconsciousness.

"Bloede d'hoin..." - screamed another but a kick at the gut effectively shut him up. Still, elf got back to the fight very quickly, removing a dagger from his belt and lunged forward. Alan caught his ankle, moved like a hurricane and saned him to the ground, stomping on his temple with no delicate motions, but like a mammoth – with power and sure-to-knock-out strength.

It all took barely couple of seconds.

"Wow!" - Ciri cried out in surprise, but after that a composed expression won over her face.

"We are moving out. Let's go." - said Alan. - "Keep closer to me, I'm making our way with magic."

"I know. I'm not a little girl."

'No, that is exactly what you are. Look, you are trembling.'

Alan went to the door and opened it. In the end of a corridor he found another guard standing. With a tug of mana he sent a confusion on him, but made it far stronger in Isu variant and it was a direct knockout.

Elf slid down the wall slowly, while the duo went deeper.

He ran to the center of a small room while four were still playing gwent and directly sent table flying with space ram. It hit two, while the others were able to react and jump to the side, taking out bows and placing arrows for the shot.

'Truly elves, they are unbelievably fast with bows.'

Alan kicked another table and heard two fast tweaks and saw arrowheads glaring at him, piercing through the wood. He dropped down with Ciri in tow parallel to descending table and got another two arrows at it.

Palm slapped it forward with a push of levitation spell and Alan swept the floor with earth wave, sending elves rolling.

"I'll kill ya, bloody twat!" - came a roar from the side and Alan rolled his eyes, sending another space ram at the chest of a dwarf, sending this meat cannon ball outside the room. Well, like they say – keep dwarf away, but elf close. The rule works wonders in bed with females of said races too.

"Quick, to the door." - he levitated a table and under it's cover they sped away. - "Go, down the stairs, there is a portal."

Ciri went forward, while he turned around and created a stone wall to block the rear. After he was done he sped up and followed, only to see Ciri standing there with grim face without moving.

"Wait, I'm not your enemy." - said elven girl.

"Really? And others who tried to shoot us with arrows too?" - retorted Ciri, staring at Naevis.

"Alan, let me explain!" - the mage pleaded. - "I just want to escape too, I am tired of the fighting, of the war... I want to go to Gwendeith! To continue my magic studies and to escape from him. You know who I'm talking about."

"And why are you telling me this? To much trust for a stranger."

"You are not." - she said while bitting her lips. - "I know you. You will not harm me."

"Really?" - he heard a sound of crashing stoned from the corridor.

Naevis stepped to the side and sighed waving her hand.

"I don't understand!" - said Alan confused.

"Can I go with you? I will be useful, anyway all I need is to pass Flotsam and from Aedirn I move on my own."

"Don't make me regret this." - said Alan, not finding anything wrong with either Vibe or legilimency and taking Ciri's hand, who was glaring at the woman, entered the portal.

"What's that smell?" - frowned Ciri.

"Run! Fast!" - Alan sped forward with Neavis coming too. - "It is Geralt. He is ready to blow the place up."

They sped through, seeing the body of reik at the corner and finally found old man leaning on the wall in blood.

"Let's go." - witcher said with no weakness to the voice. Potions made wonders to them it seems.

The last thing he did, was to throw a Grapeshot down the hall, before they entered the next portal to freedom on the other side of mountain ridge, while it heavily sigh in tremendous explosion somewhere in it's depths.

"I hate portals!" - grumbled Geralt, getting out of the puddle of mud and wet snow by the river.

"Well, we may not have gone where we liked to go, but I think we ended up where we needed to be." - said Alan his positive review of the situation and looked at himself. - "I hate ruins, especially elven."

"I got a fly in my mouth." - complained Ciri, getting out of the bushes. Her hairstyle was exactly like the place she was just laying in.

"That was one of the most unstable portals I ever traveled through." - said Naevis, standing ashore like a goddess. She seemed to be able to avoid unsightly fate of her companions.

"Whatever." - Alan stood up and snapped his fingers, cleaning all three of them, making eyes of Naevis bulge out like a soccer balls.

"How... wha..." - she wanted to ask, but eventually didn't.

"We are leaving. Now." - said Geralt and walked to the road sign looking at it with attention. He seemed to find proper destination and felt uncomfortable without a horse, so he needed to buy one soon. Good thing all their things were inside Alan's space.

The four of them eventually did just that – arrived to Vergen, acquired necessities and went for their own journeys. Naevis raced to the east for search of free elves and the trio further north, to Kaedwen and from there – Kaer Morhen.

Geralt could only hope they will make it in time, before blizzards blocked the pass to the valley completely.

* * *

"I am surprised with you. After all this you still went to have a bottle of wine at some whore house instead of looking for a healer."

"And you patched me up nicely. By the way, I like you too, Yen. No, seriously, before that I really disliked you. I mean, Geralt suffered much because of you." - said a man in his diverse outfit of a person with certain line of work, presumably a bard, not to think something more extreme.

A woman in front of him was a complete apposite. She preferred simple black dresses and wore her hair lose. They went down to her back in slightly wavy manner, outlining face that can make men lose mind, money and life only to have a chance to please her.

But no matter how much the man on the other side of a table loved beauty, he never will stick his hand on someone of her level. He is not that tired of living yet.

"You got yourself in a mess this time, Jaskier. A real mess. And your Redanian boss won't be able to help, believe me." - said the woman while taking a sip of wine and cringing at it. Than she opened a little portal with her hand and poured the wine there. Thought for a moment and threw the bottle to follow suite.

Something broke on the street and someone got really angry, screaming at the sky. Woman didn't even flinch, making another portal and taking out her own bottle.

"This is wine." - she said affirmatively taking a sip. - "Now where were we? Ah, yes. Trouble, Jaskier. You need to stop singing it."

"I am a poet and a man of culture, Yennifer! If you think that some freak with magic can stop me from performing my works you are really very right. I will stop it." - he deflated at the end under actually very mild and not all threatening gaze of the gorgeous woman. But he knew, the warmness and smiles on her face were the unnatural occasion, when she is trying to hide her wish to twist necks off with some esoteric spell.

"Good." - she said and continue to drink in silence while looking at the window.

"You could have asked." - said Jaskier, nailing a piece of cheese on his fork.

"I don't want to know." - she said.

"Than why are you even here looking for me? Don't tell me our sorceress actually got interested in my person for some other reasons."

"Don't push it."

"I'm not pushing it, Yen. If you want to know, just ask, but I can't tell you, I only saw him last time on Yaruga. However if he is gone anywhere, it should be the only place all this mess can't reach and you know what it is. No one can get there unless invited. Well, you was there so... I guess you are welcome. Will you go? You want to warn him, right?"

"What do you know about the boy?"

"Boy?" - acted Jaskier in ignorance, but in front of Yennifer, who can pry open magicians brain from another side of a hall while dancing on the party, it was a clearly foolish move. And she showed it with all disregard her chilly lilac eyes can exude.

"Jaskier. Right now I think you outdone yourself. I don't even find your previous ballads about me all that insulting."

"What do you mean? I'm an unrivaled poet, a man who knows the difficulties and wishes of the audience and the only voice of reason in this world! My work is there to burn images of heroes of old and new into their hearts and minds, for them to know whom they should be thankful for their peaceful lives!"

"I mean the juicy scenes of me and Geralt you depicted were just a mild appetizer before the main dish. Especially the part about my ass. Such a hero Geralt was particularly in it, yeah. You, my dear friend, got balls of steel and a guts of a dragon, can't deny you in this." - she said and her eyes dangerously narrowed.

"Yen, we are all people of culture, right? Let stay within boundaries of proper conversation." - he hurriedly explained, really fearful that this woman will turn him into a toad or a roasted duck.

"Oh. And you wanted to stay within the said boundaries before or after you created a lie about my so called 'son'?" - she raised her hand and played with purple flame while it was rolling around it. It was a good thing they had a private room, otherwise this will really create unnecessary panic.

"But... Yennifer. I am a poet, a number one bard in the lands of North and beyond. My work don't contain lies! Don't insult my genius. Believe me, he is your copy. Like total one! The same eyes, the same hair and he is a mage already! He can cast spells without even moving." - that's where Yennifer really frowned. It was unprecedented and that made her very interested in a boy. - "And he is only fourteen."

"Where is he?"

"Geralt will be jealous." - smirked Jaskier, but knew right away that Yennifer was in no mood for jokes. - "Yen, I think Geralt took him to that place too. They are very close. Yen... Alan saved his life. Believe me when I say it, I know Geralt. He looks at him very differently. Don't harm him."

"Whatever." - she said with a sigh and relaxed. - "Jaskier."

"Yes."

"Thank you for being his friend. For being with him. He needs it." - she said while looking outside the window at the moon with sadness in her eyes.

"You do love him. And he needs you more than anything."

"You ruined the mood."

"Not ruined, changed. Bard as great as myself can't ruin it."

"You go and believe just that." - said Yennifer and tore open space, like it was paper. She got a very rare gift to space and occult magic. - "If you see him, say hello. And Jaskier, no matter red, blue or black, these colors don't suit you. Stay within yourself. With your mosaic incoherence."

"I'd like to, Yen. Very much like to." - Jaskier smiled sadly looking at the empty place where portal already vanished.

Yen entered a room and waved her hand, taking out a lump of very dim light. It stuck to Jaskier clothes for a long time.

"Aura of this boy is not weak and he didn't bother to mask it at all. Is he careless or confident? Or... just clueless about his own uniqueness?" - she beaconed a crystal skull in a form of a crow to her hand, infused aura inside and performed some mana manipulations, creating a living crow out of thin air! - "Fly, find him or something that can show his origins to me."

It cawed and went straight trough the window. It remained closed all the time.