CHAPTER 82: THE WINDS OF FATE

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One ship drives east and another drives west

With the self-same winds that blow;

'Tis the set of the sails

And not the gales

That tells them the way to go.

~

Like the winds of the sea are the winds of fate

As we voyage along through life;

'Tis the set of the soul

That decides its goal

And not the calm or the strife.

~

by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

All of them were now in a rather bland bedroom. Their feet are still dirty from the mud, and clothes soaked because of the rain splash, but they've got no time to worry about the dirt now, as they have a dying patient on their hand.

"Put her on the bed." Hermione instructed Ed quickly, and the boy was compelled. He carried the young woman onto the bed, Ed's clothes and hands were soaked with blood as he carried her.

"Now, get out of here." Hermione told Ed.

Ed was confused. "What?"

"I'm about to take her shirt off, so get out of here." She pushed Ed out of the room and locked the door so Ed wouldn't open it by accident.

"What do I do then?" He asked the girl behind the door.

"Get me my clothes in my room at your parents' house." She said, but then quickly stopped Ed from going home as she took Ciri's shirt off. "On second thought, I think my clothes won't fit..."

"What? Why? "

"Because…" She looked at Ciri's chest with an expression of jealousy. "Her… Chest area is bigger than mine… I doubt it'll fit mine…"

"Oh…" Ed coughed lightly at the statement. "Do you want her to wear my clothes?"

"Um, sure, bring her some." She said hurriedly.

"Alright, I'm going, I'll tell our parents that we won't sleep at home."

Ed then instantly blinked to the front of the mansion, his clothes and hands were bloodied, if a stranger saw him, he'd probably look like he had just killed someone.

Ed then opened the front door, through the living room, and passed the dining room, and there he saw his parents having dinner with Hermione's parents. Once the parents saw that Ed was all bloodied and feet full of mud, they panicked and stood up from their seats.

"Ed! what happened?!" Anna said in panic. "Where's Hermione!?"

"It's fine Anna." He said hurriedly. "One of our friends is injured, Hermione's treating her right now, I just need to grab some clean clothing for her, Hermione, and me."

"But Hermione's fine, right?" Mrs. Granger asked in worry.

"Don't worry, Mrs. Granger, she's fine, just probably shocked from all the blood. I need to be quick now. We'll probably not sleep here tonight, so just go on without us. " Ed reassured the group of parents and bolted off without waiting for a response.

He then quickly entered his room, washed the blood from his hands, and gathered all his clothing in one go, using the Accio charm, and put it in a charmed bag. He then took one of the shirts and changed his present one to a new one. After that, he went to Hermione's room and did the same thing, using an Accio charm to gather all her clothing in one go and put it in the charmed bag.

He then quickly blinked back to the cottage. His now clean-self slowly and quietly walked to the room that Hermione was taking care of Ciri. He then knocked the door softly, carefully not startling Hermione.

"Darling? I brought the clothes…" he softly said.

"Wait a moment, I'm just finishing healing her scar." She answered. A minute later, Ed heard some ruffling sounds, and the door opened, revealing a rather tired looking Hermione. Her hands were soaked with blood as well, although her clothes were not as dirty as Ed's before.

"Wash your hands first, I brought your clothes as well." Ed said, moving away from the door so Hermione could exit the room.

Hermione just smiled and went to the bathroom to wash herself. "Wait at the front door of the bathroom; I'll ask for clothes." She instructed Ed.

The girl entered the bathroom, and Ed could hear running water from inside. After a couple of minutes, she spoke to Ed from behind the door. "Ed? Could you give me the bag? "

"Sure." Ed opened the bathroom door a bit so the bag could slide in. Hermione took the bag and closed the door again.

Not a moment later, Hermione exited the room, but she wasn't wearing her clothes, she was wearing one of Ed's shirts.

"Why are you wearing my shirt?" Ed asked in amusement.

"I can't wear your shirt while another girl can?" She asked, raising her eyebrow.

Ed sighed as he shook his head. "I told you jealousy is useless, Hermione…"

"I'm just joking, okay?" she giggled. "I'm not that petty. I just want to wear your shirt, it feels nice. "

Ed just smiled weakly and kissed her cheek. "Give her my shirt and your trousers or something, it should fit."

Hermione hummed, and just entered the room again, aiming to dress Ciri up.

"I'll go to bed early okay?" Ed said to Hermione, which Ed heard the girl just hummed behind the door.

Ed then walked to their bedroom. It wasn't decorated just yet. It was just a king size bed and a drawer, nothing more. Ed sighed as he lay down on the bed. He thought about how Ciri would integrate into society. He had never really known her, so he had to wait to assess her personality, but Ed planned to take her around London and Diagon Alley a bit, giving her lessons about the world.

Then Ed heard the door open, and Ed saw Hermione practically dragging herself to the bed. She threw herself at Ed on the bed, cuddling him tightly.

"Hi..." she mumbled to Ed's neck.

"Hello... you okay?"

"I'm okay. Why would I not be okay? " She weakly asked.

"Well… that much blood could make anyone throw up in my opinion." He answered.

Hermione just went silent and hugged Ed more tightly. "When I was healing Ciri… I kept thinking, What if it happened to you..."

Ed chuckled. "You worry too much."

"With what we're about to go through, I think the chances are quite high." She refuted.

Ed sighed as she gently stroked her head to comfort her. "Starting to regret being with me?"

"Of course not." She decisively said. "A world without you would be thoroughly mundane... and there's no one else I'd rather fall in love with. "

Ed laughed lightly at the girl's words. "Getting poetic now?"

"Shut up." She said while smacking Ed's chest lightly, but Ed could see a smile on her face.

"Rest." Ed kissed her forehead. "You must be tired from all the healing."

"Yeah… Healing magic is quite exhausting. " She answered weakly. "Good night."

"Good night."

Two days had passed since the arrival of Ciri, but the young woman hadn't awoken. Ed and Hermione had somewhat decorated their cottage, Ed even bought a piano, which pissed Hermione off a bit because of his wasteful tendencies. They decorated in almost the same style as the living room in the suitcase, but much more modernized as they bought new things, not antique furniture. The two also started to move their things to the cottage, and after a lot of convincing from Hermione, they decided to stay in one room rather than separate.

In those two days, Hermione and Ed also managed to destroy a Horcrux, the Slytherin Locket, which was a whole other story in itself, but that is a story for another day.

Right now, though, Ciri, who was lying on the bed, suddenly started to stir. Her eyes fluttered open, revealing her green emerald eyes. She quickly jolted awake as she remembered her last memory, but when she sat up, a shock of pain suddenly erupted making her wince in pain.

"Son of a bitch..." she cursed. After she felt the pain, she inspected her body, but found nothing wrong with it, only her past scars. But there was something that piqued her interest: her clothes appeared... unusual in her eyes. It has a soft texture. The shirt was too big for her, and her trousers were too tight.

"What?" she whispered to herself. "What the hell was that pain…"

She then decided to shrug it off for now. Then she scanned her room. It was a bland room, only a bed and a small table beside her, the bed was soft though, which was nice. She looked around again to find something, but she didn't see her sword.

"Where's my sword?!" she panicked a bit. She stood up, fighting the pain from her non-existent wound, and quickly got out of the room she was in. Once she got out of the room, she looked around, and she was quite surprised at how 'fancy' the place is. She felt like she was in her home back at Cintra, she looked at the interesting furniture and just hummed.

She then looked for an exit, and quickly found it. She opened the front door and was greeted by a semi warm wind and the smell of the sea.

"Where am I…" she said to herself. "The last thing I remember was thinking about Ed's promise…"

When she said that, she spotted a boy and a girl in front of what looked like a crater. The girl was holding some kind of wand, she gathered the mud that was scattered around the crater with her 'magic' and covered the hole that was in front of her, while the boy looked like he was hugging the girl from behind, guiding her hand. The girl was blushing furiously, she noticed from her trained eye that the girl was fidgeting. In the back of them, Ciri saw a sword lying on the ground, and the young woman instantly realized that it was her sword.

Ciri noticed that the boy was Ed, and quickly shouted at him. "Hey!" she yelled, instantly earning the attention of the two.

The two had a look of surprise, and quickly abandoned what they were doing and rushed to the young woman.

"You're awake." Ed said as he neared Ciri.

She ignored the courtesy and asked for her sword back. "Give me my sword." She said,

Ed just shrugged and gave her the sword. "Just picked it up, it's been sitting in that hole for about two days now…"

Ciri just hummed and unsheathed the sword, revealing its sharp nature. She sheathed the sword and stared at the two when she was satisfied that nothing had been broken. "Where am I?"

"In my world, of course." Ed casually said, cleaning his and Hermione's hands using a spell. "Why are you here, though? We found you bleeding in that hole. " Ed pointed at the crater.

Ciri just grimaced. "It's a long story." She said,

Hermione just sighed. "Come on, I may have healed your wound, but the internal damage still exists. You need to rest."

"I'm fine, I need to go again before The Wild Hunt is here again." she said.

Ed chuckled. "They're not coming here Ciri, you know that."

Ciri raised her eyebrow in confusion. "Really?"

"Did you not listen to the owl that we met back in last year?"

"Owl? What owl? You mean that voice in that creepy dimension? " she asked.

Ed sighed at the description. "Yes, it's that voice."

"So… I don't need to run again?" She reconfirmed, confused about what she should do.

"Not quite." Ed said. "You still need to solve your problems back home, here you will just train, once you can control your power, you'll go home, solve your problem, and after that, you're going to help me solve my problem."

"Oh…" she simply said. "So what do I do now?"

"Like I said, rest." Hermione interrupted by lightly pushing the girl back inside. "Your internal damage still hasn't healed."

Ciri just relented and entered the cottage again, Hermione then guided her to the couch, and told her to sit down. "Are you hungry?" she asked.

"Um… yeah…" Ciri weakly answered.

Hermione then looked at Ed, who had a knowing look and just nodded. "I'll make some food. Just stay here and make yourself comfortable."

Ed then hurried off to the kitchen to make some food, while Ciri and Hermione were just awkwardly sitting on the couch.

"So…" Ciri broke the ice. "You're Hermione, right? I saw you in one of my dreams..." she stated. "What's your relationship with Ed, by the way? Are you his friend? Or siblings? Or a lover? "

"Oh, um, I'm his… lover I guess…" she said while blushing. She then mumbled to herself, but Ciri definitely heard her. "But we haven't done it yet…" Ciri noticed that Hermione was strangely rubbing her thighs together.

Ciri just smirked but didn't say anything. "What is that stick thing, by the way? Is that a wand? "

Hearing the question, Hermione changed her attitude a hundred and eighty degrees, and started to explain rather vividly and in detail, even the boring stuff, while she was rambling, but Ciri thought that Hermione was distracting herself from something.

Fifteen minutes later, Ed was bringing the food, which was a simple soup, to the living room, but he found something peculiar when he arrived. He found that Hermione was rambling to Ciri about the history of wands, which was odd and amusing at the same time. Ed looked at Ciri, and he saw that she had a bored look, and when she saw Ed, she looked at him, pleading to make her stop.

Ed just chuckled at the scene. "Hermione, you're rambling again." She stopped and realized what she had done. She was embarrassed, to say the least, and she muttered an apology to Ciri, which the young woman accepted.

"Here. Soup." Ed said, placing the three servings of soup on the coffee table nearby.

"Shouldn't we get to the dining room?" Hermione asked, frowning.

"It's just a bowl Hermione, it's fine." Ed casually answered as he took a serving and sat on the couch. Ciri also took one and filled her empty stomach instantly.

"So…" Ed said to Ciri. "What did you last remember?"

Ciri quickly finished her soup, which surprised Hermione, and the girl offered her portion to her, which the young woman happily accepted.

"I was running from the Wild Hunt as usual," she said. "But then I found out that Geralt, basically my father in everything except blood, was captured by them, so I saved him and dropped him off at Kaer Morhen, his home or some sort."

"Then?"

"Then, Eredin chased me, I was close to being captured. When I refused to come with him again, I ran, and this time, he slashed my back. The last thing I thought of was your promise of taking me in, and the next thing I know, I woke up on a bed."

"That's why you had such a large wound on your back when we discovered you."Hermione mumbled. "That still didn't explain the crater though…"

"Probably because of her lack of control." Ed blurted out, which made the young woman frown.

"I know I can't control it alright? Don't rub it in." she scowled.

Ed sighed. "Right." He placed his bowl on the coffee table again. "You should rest. Tomorrow, we'll take you to the city to buy some clothes."

"City?" Ciri questioned.

"Yeah, city." Ed answered. "So rest well, I'm going to continue studying the anti-weather ward, you two can chat or something."

Ed then blinked out of nowhere, startling Ciri. "Is he always like that?" she asked.

"What? blinking randomly? Yeah." Hermione giggled. "Just rest Ciri, I'll bring you some food again if you're hungry."

"O-Okay…" the young woman mumbled, and Hermione left for the bathroom, doing something that Ciri doesn't know. She was walking weirdly though.

The next day, in the afternoon, Ed was waiting for the two girls to come out of Ciri's room. Hermione was thinking of a way to make Ciri look at least presentable, as she didn't really have any clothes that fitted her except Ed's clothes.

As the two females got out of the room, Ed saw that Ciri was wearing his signature dark blue shirt, along with Hermione's leather jacket, who barely fit.

"Do you really have nothing else that I could wear? This tightness reminded me of my princess days…" Ciri grumbled.

"You're a princess?" Hermione asked, surprised.

"I was." She grimaced. "Until the Nilfgaardians invaded Cintra…"

Hermione knew what Ciri meant and decided to not ask again. Ed then broke the awkwardness by asking. "Ready?"

"Yeah." Hermione smiled at the boy. "How does she look?"

Ed then looked at Ciri and shrugged. "Decent."

"At least compliment me or something…" Ciri scoffed.

"You're quite scary in this world's standard Ciri, especially with that huge scar on your face."

Ciri snorted. "This world's men must be cowards then."

Ed sighed and shook his head in amusement. "Let's go. We're going to Diagon Alley first to mask the trace."

Hermione just nodded, while Ciri was confused. "Come on, come closer." Ed continued.

Hermione then pushed Ciri to close her distance from Ed, and the group instantly blinked, disappearing from the cottage.

All of them then appeared at Ed's office in the Alchemist's Armoury shop that he owned. The room was quite tidy, and Ed never really visited it, it was mostly Lupin who did all the work.

"Right, let's go." Ed said, ignoring the surprised look from Ciri. The group then exited the room, and they bumped into Lupin, who was busy with something.

"Hello Remus." Ed greeted.

"Good afternoon, Professor Lupin." Hermione also greeted, while Ciri stood awkwardly beside her.

"Oh, Ed, what brings you here? Need help with something? And Hermione, I told you many times not to call me Professor." Remus asked his boss.

"Nothing really, I'm just passing by, I need some clothes for Ciri over here." Ed pointed at Ciri, who glares at Ed for forcing her to socialize with people right now, as she's not in the mood.

"Oh, Ciri? I believe we haven't met." Lupin stretched his hand to her, which Ciri awkwardly shook.

"Ciri…" she nervously answered.

"Who are you to Ed, by the way?" Lupin asked the young woman, which made her even more nervous.

"She's my distant cousin." Ciri sighed in relief as Ed interrupted.

"Oh, really?" Lupin was quite surprised. "Well, I shouldn't have disturbed you any longer. Have a good day."

The werewolf left the group and continued his work.

"Well, that was something." Ed commented. "Let's go."

The group then got out of the shop and walked through the crowded streets of Diagon Alley. Ciri was gobsmacked by seeing the scene. She saw people wearing strange robes, pointy hats, it was all strange.

"What's with the hats?" she asked Hermione. "They don't wear anything like that in my world…"

"It's traditional Wizards and Witches garb; I know it looks strange,"Hermione explained. "You won't be wearing these types of things, we're going to the muggles' side."

"Muggles?"

"People who didn't have magic." Hermione explained once more. "Magic is a talent you're born with here… the ones who didn't have such abilities are called muggles."

"So they didn't know that magic existed?"

Hermione nodded. "Yes, they thought it was just fairy tales, so don't use any types of magic when we're in the city, or the ministry will come after you."

Ciri didn't know what 'ministry' meant, but she assumed it was some type of authority over here.

The group then entered the Leaky Cauldron. Ed got a couple of greetings from the wizards and witches that saw him, as he was quite well known right now for his discoveries of magic items, especially the werewolf ring, which earned him a huge favour from the werewolf kind.

"Is Ed famous or something?" Ciri asked Hermione again, looking at the surrounded Ed.

Hermione giggled at the question. "Something like that."

After waiting for a couple of minutes, Ciri and the couple got out of the Leaky Cauldron and headed towards London's West End.

Once they got out of the place, Ciri was once again surprised at how different it was from the place she visited just now. In her eyes, a lot of boxes were moving on their own in the middle of the streets, people wore less strange clothing, but still quite strange to her eyes, and the paving of the roads was much nicer and tidier than the streets of Cintra, Vizima, and many other cities on the continent.

"This place is strange indeed…" she mumbled to herself.

Meanwhile, Ed was asking Hermione something.

"You know a place that has good clothing for her? I don't know where to buy women's clothing... or men's clothing too, for that matter. "

Hermione chuckled at the statement. "Yeah, I do. Just follow me."

Ed then followed the girl, while dragging Ciri with him as she was starting to wander off out of curiosity. When they were following the girl, Ciri was questioning Ed about everything she saw. In other words, she looked like a village girl who had just arrived in the big city, and the big scar on her face didn't help either. Everyone looked at her, some annoyed by her because of her constant questions, some pitying her because of her scar, and some just ignored her.

"Hermione said that no magic is allowed. Then what's with the boxes in the middle of the street?" she asked the boy, which made him laugh.

"That is no magic, Ciri, it's science." Ed answered.

"Oh, science? We have those too on the continent… I think…"

"Science is probably a constant thing in all the worlds, Ciri." Ed answered. "Just the progress of it might be different."

The group then arrived at a women's clothing store that Hermione usually visited. The girl and Ciri entered the place, while Ed was waiting outside. He looked around the street, searching for an ice cream shop or something, but he didn't find it, which made him a bit disappointed.

An hour has passed... The girls haven't come out yet.

Two hours… still haven't come out, Ed's legs are killing him at this point.

Three hours… Still no sign of Hermione and Ciri, he wondered that all girls like these sort of things, even the tough ones like Ciri.

Four hours later, the sun was starting to come down, and only Ciri had come out, Hermione was still nowhere to be found.

"Where's Hermione?" Ed asked irritably to Ciri, who had already changed into her own clothes, which were punk rock in style, but from the looks of it, she could still move around freely, making it easier for her to use her sword.

"Still inside." She said, "She's picking her own clothes now."

"Four hours just for you?" Ed was beyond desperate at this point.

"Well, I was kind of picky in terms of clothing… As a result, it took a long time."

"A long time would be quite an understatement." Ed grumbled, making Ciri chuckle a bit.

"How do I look now?" she asked Ed.

"Still abnormal." Ed answered. "Your choice of fashion is just amplifying your scar."

She just scoffed lightly at Ed's words.

"But.. you do look great in my opinion." Ed finally complemented her, which made her smile a bit.

Hermione then got out of the store with bags of clothing. "Here." She gave the bags to Ed, which made him grimace.

"Seriously?"

"Can you bring it, please?" Hermione asked, acting cute and looking at Ed with puppy dog eyes.

Ed sighed. "Fine, let's just go home."

"What, now?" Ciri inquired, frowning. "We're not going to take a look around a bit?"

"It's already evening, Ciri, and besides..." He showed her the bags.

Ciri grumbled. "Fine…"

The three then went back to the Leaky Cauldron and blinked back to the cottage, ending their day.