Chapter 102

"So, as you said, elves are a race whose representatives live about five hundred years, which means they a priori do not have the same mentality as humans. If it's hard for humans to plan a dozen years ahead and somewhat... problematic, elves should generally plan for at least fifty years."

"Let's say..."

"Now tell me, let's say you didn't break up with that elf and continued traveling together... world after world. year after year."

Ciri frowned.

"Most likely you would have grown to like him over time, and your intuition, even if it warned you about something, would have just stopped reacting to him over a few years because you weren't paying attention."

"Go on..."

"And then it's very simple. you'd probably sleep together."

"You..."

Anger flashed in Ciri's eyes.

"Don't get me wrong, I don't know why it would have happened. Maybe you'd just accept that he's the only one around long enough, maybe you'd fall in love, maybe he'd set the situation up so that it would be impossible to do otherwise..."

"You set it up?"

Ciri grinned.

"I don't know. let's say you're in a very cold world where you have to huddle together, your clothes get wet by accident, and then..."

"And what would have happened next?"

"And then you would be led for another year, and when you gave birth to a child, you would be killed, and the child would be taken and brought up as a true elf ready to do anything for the sake of his people."

"Hmmm..."

"Perhaps you would be "re-educated" over time, over five to ten years of traveling you would become sympathetic to this particular elf, or let's say he would find a way to make you his slave...

"Never!"

Ciri jumped up from her seat, and the plastic cup from which she'd been drinking her beer flew to the side. She glared angrily at me.

"Never, I, Cyrilla Fiona Helen Rhiannon, daughter of Cintrian Princess Pavetta Fiona Helena and Emperor Emgyr var Emreis of Nilfgaard, Deitwen Addan yn Carn aep Morwoodd, granddaughter of Calanthe and Rögner of Ebbing, kings of Cintra, will I become anyone's slave!"

"And you wouldn't have been asked..."

I shrugged.

"Surely even you know a way to bind someone powerful enough to some kind of commitment... or bond."

Ciri flinched and all the belligerence would immediately evaporate out of her.

"If only a wish is granted by a Genius..."

"A genius?"

I looked at Ciri in surprise.

"Genie."

I nodded understandingly.

"But he still has to be summoned, caught..."

"Do you really think that those who wander between worlds in the form of dense illusion don't have some way of doing it?"

Ciri sighed.

"Now that you mention it. I just jumped the last time just for luck... and before that I jumped based on the elf's descriptions..."

I nodded.

"See, so he at least knew exactly where you were going..."

"Yeah..."

She frowned.

"Okay..."

I sighed.

"...So there's a week for sure, and if there's more time, you can assume that this elf acquaintance of yours has been setting his elf brethren on you after all."

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yeah..."

I nodded my head.

"I'm almost one hundred percent sure we have more than a week of time, but we'll still count on a minimum amount of time..."

"Okay, what do you want me to do?"

Ciri gathered herself and sat back down in her seat looking at me intently.

"For starters, keep a low profile..."

I sighed.

"There are so many surveillance systems in our world that can detect a person with no history..."

"Surveillance systems?"

"Hmm. well, imagine hundreds of iron eyes. that transmit what they see to another artifact that analyzes it all."

"Scary world..."

Ciri shrugged her shoulders.

"Normal, except for the fact that any passerby could be a mercenary who could zero you."

"Zeroed out?"

"Kill."

"А... I see. local dialect?"

"Yeah..."

I nodded.

"So now we're going to pack up, and you're going to do whatever we say and keep a low profile. And first, we'll make our way to the clan, where we'll begin preparations for the confrontation... uh."

I sighed.

"What?"

Becca looked at me carefully.

"I just realized, I've been trying so hard to stay out of the corporate mess, and now I'm getting into the mess of a girl who's a complete stranger to me, who has an enemy with powers we don't know... what am I saying?"

Ciri looked at me sadly.

"Have you decided to back out? Don't worry, I'm a pony."

Slap!

The back of Ciri's head was hit by a low blow from Panam.

"Hey!"

"You won't talk nonsense. If David had decided to refuse, he would have said so, but as it was, he was just melancholy, to which he had succumbed. He's going to reflect a little and it'll pass. But that won't stop him from helping you deal with the problem."

"Exactly..."

I nodded a couple times.

"Okay..."

From there we just packed up, and I asked Ciri clarifying questions, gathering information about our future enemy, but... she knew woefully little about it...

"Hmmm..."

"What?"

Nestled at the girls' feet in the backseat, where she was sure no one would notice her without peering inside the car with the windows open, Ciri became overly pensive.

"Uh, no. I just thought it was another reason not to trust Avallak'hu..."

"Is that the elf?"

"Yeah..."

I sighed.

"And what's the reason for that?"

"Don't you get it?"

A slight irritation appeared in Ciri's voice.

"I understand, but it would be helpful for you to voice your thoughts."

"You're like Uncle Vesimir. you try to make a lesson out of everything, huh?"

"No..."

I shook my head.

"...just by saying your thoughts out loud you think them through again. It's very helpful. In fact, that's why we discuss all the orders we make together. I may be smart, like all my girls, but during the discussion we find answers to those questions to which previously could not find the right answer ... or just find a better solution ... or just find a better solution."

"I see..."

"So?"

"I know too little about elves. And that's despite the fact that I spent almost a year wandering the worlds with one."

She sighed...

"Oh, come on."

Becca stroked Ciri's head and she gave her a slightly confused look, clearly not sure how to react.

"...you had the wrong situation to look at the situation critically and from the outside."

"And I don't think you would have been given that time if you hadn't met us."

Panam while driving decided to participate in the conversation.

"You think so?"

"Pretty sure..."

Panam nodded confirming her answer to Ciri's question.

"They might have found you later, but they would have found you and most likely tried to send you in the right direction to the next world, or that elf of yours would have shown up at the very last moment and taken you to another world while getting "badly" injured."

That said, the word "severe" was so emphasized in Panam's voice that anyone would have understood how she felt about such an injury and how "severe" it would be.

"Yeah, I'm, uh. I'm leaning that way, too. I'd probably be chased around the world for a week or so, so I'd feel not only hopelessness, but also loneliness..."

"Exactly..."

Kiwi joined the conversation.

"...but things will be different now..."

And Kiwi stroked Ciri's head as well.

"Enough already!"

Ciri shook her hand off her head, but that only brought smiles to our faces.

"What the hell is wrong with you people?! I bring them problems and they pat me on the head!!!"

"Well, what's the big deal?"

Kiwi shrugged.

"Uh-huh...

Lucy nodded her head slightly thoughtfully.

"...we have problems without you, and we really feel sorry for you."

"I don't need pity!"

"Need..."

Judy looked into her eyes and grinned sadly.

"...and we are strangers to you. It's easier to accept it from us than from people you know well or close to you."

"Uh-huh...

Ciri snorted wryly.

"...and then feel embarrassed if we become friends?"

"Not without it. and you already think we're gonna be friends?"

Becca grinned caustically at asking that question.

"..."

Everyone could hear Ciri's quiet whispering over the chrome, and she said that we had somehow broken into her soul very easily. But we all decided to pretend we hadn't heard her.

"What are you whispering?"

I turned and looked at Ciri.

"Nothing..."

"And yet?"

Panam grinned caustically asking this question.

"Nothing!!!"

"Oh, come on."

"I said nothing!"

"Oh. you're such an embarrassment."

Lucy shook her head.

"By the way, what kind of wagon is that? How does it drive?"

Ciri decided to take the conversation in another direction.

"Well there's an engine up front..."

"The engine?"

"Hmmm..."

I wondered thoughtfully. And how could I explain to a girl from the Middle Ages, albeit magical, what an engine is?

"Hmm. do you have any explosive mixtures?"

"Yeah..."

"So there are little explosions going on in the engine all the time. They move the parts up and down, with a special connection the up and down motion is converted into a rotational motion, which is transmitted to the wheels..."

"Uh..."

"David, you broke it!"

"Well..."

I shrugged at Judy's indignation.

"...but you can stroke her head in peace..."

The girls looked at each other and sighed, leaving Ciri alone to digest my interpretation of the internal combustion engine.