Chapter 29:

What of the old serpent who cannot shed his skin, and calls all others naked and shameless? - Khalil Gibran

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Two Years Later

Current Year: 1261

I stood on the deck of the ship, enjoying the utterly chilly morning that we had been graced with. To most people, travelling to Skellige would be unpleasant. However, those of us from the islands have sailing in our blood. Most prefer to be manning the sails rather than to be stuck on dry land. I admit, travelling back to my homeland was… exciting. I prefer Skellige to almost any other nation. Their culture allows anyone to prove their worth, there are no laws that bog someone down from showing greatness.

A cool breeze suddenly brushed against my standing form. It was a good thing that I was dressed for a harsh winter. I was currently wearing a heavy cloak that was of a rather murky gray color. It was of decent quality and was outlined with some animal furs to help fend off the elements. Underneath the cloak, I was wearing the same light armor that I had received from Calanthe long ago. The leather had of course been modified and received additional parts in order to compensate for my growing frame. I have not had the chance to gain any true witcher armor, yet, but it's only a matter of time. The most interesting thing of significance when it comes to my clothes was the medium sized female elk skull that was resting on the back of my hip. I patted it a few times for good luck, it was one of the few items that I was most proud to have in my possession.

It's been over two years now since I entered into Queen Calanthe's service. Not a terrible lot of things have happened, but it was enough time for me to make some pleasant memories to cover up some of the bad ones. That 'celebration' we had after I faced King Tuirseach in a duel turned out to be quite pleasant. There was good food, good music, and pleasant ambience. There were a couple of nobles in the crowd that were vying for Ciri's hand in marriage, but Calanthe obviously turned them all down. She was probably planning to marry her off to a prince of a foreign nation. Nothing truly insane happened at the feast, a few fights about 'honor' took place, but that was it. Nobody came crashing in and claimed the law of surprise, but it was still a good night.

I had helped In advising the queen whenever I got the chance. I was just a lowly apprentice to the true advisor, so I didn't exactly do too much. However, that bandit problem that the queen faced in Attre two years ago had been resolved easily enough. Mousesack and I had travelled to one of the villages that the 'heartfelt thieves' took food from and then poisoned the villagers' offerings to the cutthroats. The bandits didn't suspect anything and as soon as they went back to their keep and ate their evening supper, almost all of them were knocked out cold. Mousesack was easily able to get the gate to their stronghold open with magic. The knights that we had waiting on standby then arrested the bandits and forcefully conscripted them into Cintra's armed forces, just as I told them too. The few who didn't eat their food were cut down when they attempted to run or fight back. All in all, the queen got around sixty-five more men added to her army while Mousesack and I got jack squat. All that we received were a few words from the queen that told us our duties had been fulfilled admirably.

Speaking of Mousesack, my two year long tutelage under him had been incredibly fruitful. Mousesack was a dutiful teacher and he didn't have a terrible personality, like most magic users do. Learning how to use 'real magic', and by that I mean magic other than witcher signs, was incredibly difficult at first. The first four months were mainly spent with me trying to control my abilities as a source. Sources can't really control their chaos at first, usually their powers just go out of control before they get the proper training to control themselves.

After that frustrating period, I had managed to get my chaos under control and use it without spontaneously combusting. Things became a bit easier after learning to control myself and I was able to start working on my spells. Learning spell formulae wasn't too incredibly difficult, but that was mainly because I was absolutely fascinated by magic. I would frequently lose sleep and try to wiggle out of my duties in order to read more tomes and practice my skills.

During this period of time, I was even able to come up with a few original spells of my own. Not all of them were combat based, but they were all incredibly useful to me in other areas.

"Oi, witcher." A gruff sailor's voice came from behind me while I peered out at the icy waves. He had broken me out of my train of thought. I turned around to face the man and saw him dressed in skelligan style clothes with a few furs covering him to warm himself against the cold. He wasn't really much to look at, he was fairly tall and lanky and he was missing quite a few teeth. His nose was also slightly bent in the wrong direction.

"Yes?" I asked the seafarer, hopefully he wouldn't bother me too much.

"I heard that yer that cranky ol' druid's ap'rentice. 'That true?" The man, obviously a Skelliger, spoke to me in broken english. It's clear that he didn't have much of an education.

"Aye, I am. What of it?" I replied while a faint mist came out of my mouth. It was easily cold enough to see your breath.

"The wind stopped blowin awhile ago. 'Tink ye can get it storted up again?" The crude man asked of me.

"I… suppose." I said with a sigh while walking towards the center of the ship.

I closed my eyes and started to channel some chaos from within myself. A simple breeze is easy enough to summon. I started gathering the chaos into my hands and after a few seconds, I opened my eyes and spoke a few words in elvish.

"An gaoth fíochmhar!" I spoke out in the elder tongue. It basically means 'A fierce wind/breeze'.

An unnatural red energy enveloped my palms as I spoke the words. After I was finished, the energy started to fade away. The spell had been completed. Some moments went by in silence, but after waiting a bit longer, the winds started to pick up again.

"Haha!" The sailor said while slapping his hands together at the sight of the winds starting up. "Tat's some 'proper magic! You feel like staying 'round, yeel let me know?"

"I'll give it some thought, kinsman." I replied with a small smile and then made my way over to the stairs leading to the quarterdeck. A spell like that wasn't even enough to fatigue me.

As I reached the quarterdeck, I noticed that my mentor Mousesack was sitting down in a chair reading a book on herbology. Next to him was the now nine year old Princess Ciri. She rested her arms comfortably on the taffrail of the ship, looking out into the icy waters in a similar way to what I was doing earlier.

"I see that you've helped out the sailors with your magic, apprentice. There was no need, we would have arrived at Ard Skellig within the hour anyway." Mousesack said, not bothering to tear his eyes away from the book in his hands to look at me.

"Yes, Master Mousesack." I said with a tiny coy smile. "I just thought that I would show off a little of our hospitality."

"Is that so?" Mousesack questioned while still keeping his eyes on the book. He had a rather sarcastic expression on his face. "Key words being 'show off a little', wouldn't you say?"

"Well… 'tis true, I suppose." I replied with a small chuckle. "You know me, Master. I'll take any chance I can to practice."

Mousesack looked up from his tome and just gave me an understanding little half smile. After that, there was a loud sighing sound coming from the right of us. Ciri was apparently less than enthused at our conversation.

"All you two ever talk about is magic, is that all there is to you?" Ciri snapped at us while turning her head to face us. She wasn't wearing anything fancy like a dress, instead she wore clothes that were more designed for the Skellige climate. She was wearing some blue islander style clothing. Just some simple pants and a shirt that had fur outlining them. She also had a similar looking gray cloak to mine.

"The same could be said of you, only with the swordsmanship I've been teaching you." I snapped back at her while sitting down on the cold floor and crossing my legs. "When you perfect that riposte from an upwards slash I've been showing you, we'll talk."

"Please." Ciri said in an exaggerated tone while showing off a slight smile. "You know for a fact that If I had your mutations, you'd be at my mercy already. One day, your magic won't save you from me."

As soon as I sat down, I waved my right hand in a particular motion while grasping the elk skull by my side within my left. The magical circle that was carved into the top of the skull glowed with a vicious red light. Another sudden burst of red energy took place within my right hand, a book on Hydromancy that I was currently reading made its way into my palm.

"Maybe or maybe not. Regardless, with magic it becomes possible to do things like this." I said while holding my book up for Ciri to see. I had a proud smile on my face.

"I swear, you've been showing off that little trinket of yours since the day you first put it together!" Ciri yelled while rubbing her eyes in frustration. "Who cares that you have a place to store your old mouldy books?!"

"I care." I let out a voice full of mock sadness while caressing the elk skull by my side. "Don't worry darling, she didn't mean anything by that 'trinket' comment. You're perfection itself."

"You're even talking to it now?" Ciri said with a tone of mock disgust. Since I arrived at Cintra, she's become a lot less bratty. Her comedy was also starting to flourish. Courtesy of yours truly, of course.

"Of course, I'm talking to HER." I said with a playful tone of anger. I detached the skull from the back of my waist and held it up for Ciri to see. "Apologize to HER, right now!"

"Ah, I see." Ciri said while lowering her head in a small exaggerated bow. "I'm sorry, Ms. Elk. Truly, you are a wonderful creation. Please don't hold my discourteous words against me, Madame."

"Now that's more like it!" I said with a triumphant look. Ciri just giggled at my efforts.

"Both of you need to be quiet." Mousesack said while rubbing his temples. "We're almost there, can't both of you just calm down until we get there?"

"Of course, Master." I said while nodding my head.

"Not likely." Ciri commented at the same time I did.

Mousesack let out one of the biggest sighs I've seen him make. He got out of his chair and snapped his hands, the chair disappeared as soon as he got up.

"I'm going to stay at the other end of the ship. Both of you can keep each other company." Mousesack said while quickly walking away. After he had gotten a good enough distance out of reach, Ciri and I just stared at each other.

"So…" Ciri said with a playful smile. She undid the button to her heavy cloak and let it drop to the floor.

"So indeed…" I responded while also undoing the button to my cloak. I gently placed my book on Hydromancy on the cold floor of the ship.

"Sparring?" Ciri asked while getting into a combat stance. She had a battle loving look on her face.

"I thought you'd never ask!" I yelled out with glee. I summoned two training swords from my precious treasure resting on my hip. I tossed one over to Ciri as my face morphed into a smirk. "Let's get started, shall we?"