Chapter 16: Harsh reality

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Vesemir gathered all the boys in one of the rooms which they could heat up with a fire, their dining hall and asked them to take a seat.

When everyone took their places and was ready to listen Vesemir told them a story.

In the distant past, there lived people that had abilities beyond the understanding of normal folks or mages. They were also mages, but unlike others, they possessed abilities that could identify as the strongest in the world.

This ability is seeing the future and the past. Their visions were not always right, but their abilities worked and that can not be denied.

Once the elven girl was born, and she possessed such a strong ability that she was able to see the distant future, she had the strongest gift for divination and prophecies. Her name was Ithlinne Aegli aep Aevenien.

Once she predicted something horrible that nobody even now wants to believe in. She predicted the death of the world in which we live."

He stopped for a second and took a deep breath before he continued in the strong and powerful voice

"Verily I say unto you, the era of the sword and axe is nigh, the era of the wolf's blizzard. The Time of the White Chill and the White Light is nigh, the Time of Madness and the Time of Contempt: Tedd Deireádh, the Time of End. The world will die amidst frost and be reborn with the new sun. It will be reborn of Elder Blood, of Hen Ichaer, of the seed that has been sown. A seed which will not sprout but burst into flame.

Ess'tuath esse! Thus it shall be! Watch for the signs! What signs these shall be, I say unto you: first the earth will flow with the blood of Aen Seidhe, the Blood of Elves.."

As soon as strong words were said, they send chills down everyone's spines, the things mentioned horrified even the eldest of Witcher, Vesemir.

August's eyes went wide, his heart went into overdrive, and his thoughts were processing every single word that Vesemir said.

He was shocked, for the last 7 years, those things were bothering him, words that came to his mind, without him realizing what they are, but now they have some meaning.

Now he understood that those things were not some random words. This made him wonder about the entire prophecy that Vesemir told them if it is something that will happen in the future, isn't it scary?

Strong winter that arrived out of nowhere, the blood of elves that he saw in his dreams during the trial. All of them are connected together.

Only now did he understand that he had a talent for something he didn't know before, a gift for divination and prophecies. That however didn't make him happy, because of this gift, he had to struggle, but there is no one he can blame for such a thing.

But that also terrified him, he was able to see how Kaer Morhen was destroyed, and that gave him faith that this prophecy that Elvel woman said is nothing to joke about.

But at the same time, he knew nothing of Elder Blood, what is it, where to find it and how to use it.

Vesemir spotted that August was behaving somewhat different to whatever he could expect from him. It seemed like he knew something that others didn't. But for now, Vesemir didn't want to talk about this, he had more important matters that he wants to talk about.

He announced "I told you this, but it is up to you to believe in this or not, I can't say myself if it is true or not, but what I know is that we won't be able to survive this winter without help. And I think it is about time we get you some weapons boys."

That made a lot of them smile since every single one of them wished to have something more than a rusty sword with them, it is really hard to train with no good equipment by your side.

Eskel was the first one to inquire "Where are we going?"

Vesemir smiled with a smile that clearly showed his displeasure with their destination"Brotherhood of Sorcerers"

For the rest of the days, the boys kept on packing things they will need during their adventure, little cloth they had weapons and some of the basic potions that they learned how to cook during their lessons and could be useful, one of which is Blizzard potions that enhance their reaction time.

…..

The next day came and it was time for them to depart.

Their destination was nowhere close to them, they will have to travel through the entire Kaedwen, Radania and Temeria to get to the Isle of Thanned where the academy of Arituza is located, next to the palace Garstang.

(If you wish to find an accurate map, there is one in the discord I posted it, for anyone to satisfy their curiosity)

It is located all the way to the South-West where the sea line is located.

The travel promised to be very long, they will have to cross half of the world to get there, but at this point, they were low on options.

August took the role of the archer in the party since he was the only one that had some skills in wielding it and as another weapon, he had his old dagger.

Others were armed as poorly as they could, some of the boys had no weapons at all, it was hard, but the best of them were given weapons and getting more was not something they could do.

They took what they could find and created themself. The only person armed among them was Vesemir.

During their travels, they would stay to take some breaks and get some sleep, as always hunting parties were sent to hunt for animals that they could find. With August they were able to take down a few birds that were taking the rest on the trees.

But even after a few days of travel, they found a lack of animals in this area and the weather was no better. But they kept on moving towards their destination.

Eskel arrived next to August during their small camp they set up and took a seat next to him. He looked at the distance and inquired "August, what do you think of mages? Do you think they are kind and have a lot of knowledge?"

August looked at the ground staying silent for a few minutes, without looking back at Eskel he replied "No, they are an arrogant bunch of fools full of themself"

Eskel lightly punched August on the shoulder giving a small chuckle "Why do you have to be so gloomy all the time?" he stood and gestured something with his hand "Don't you think it is cool to wield magic?"

August replied, nodding his head "It is useful"

"Boring!" Eskel frowned at August's antics "You have to have some fun sometime you know. Dream of great things, of battles and other stuff"

August's eyes dimmed more after Eskel spoke about dreams, he muttered "I wish I could never see dreams"

Eskel looked at August with a confused expression asking "What did you just say?"

August shrugged everything off and stared at the fire burning in front of him.

For some reason, he wanted to touch it, and he went for it.

When his hand was all the way in the fire, Eskel eyes turned wide and he in a hurry pulled his hand out of the fire shouting "August, what the hell are you doing?!"

August looked at his hand which had not a single hint of actually being affected in any way by fire. He said "It is nothing"

….

The next week of travel was peaceful, they travelled through forests and walked about 30-40 km a day. They started to feel the difference, the temperature started to rise and it was overall better. There were more animals to hunt which made all of the boys happy and full of energy.

On one of the days, they were following a forest path before Vesemir gestured to the boys to be more careful.

Vesemir spotted human steps around this area, everyone unleashed their blades, while august pulled the string on his bow and started his search for the target.

*Rustling* Sound came from the trees.

Without waiting for anyone to command August aimed his bow in the direction of the sounds and fired his arrow, which disappeared in the leaves that were covering the area where the sound came from.

All the boys looked in the direction of the arrow and froze, waiting for something to happen.

5 seconds, 10 seconds, 15 seconds. Nothing happened, everyone started to relax for a bit before with a loud sound a body of a man fell from the tree with an arrow in his chest.

Everyone went on high alarm and they didn't have to wait for long before a lot of people raised up from the sides of the roads. With weapons in their hands.

All the boys rushed at their closest enemies trying to take down them as fast as possible.

Vesemir dashed at the biggest group of bandits that could pose the highest threat and engaged with them.

Geralt with a sword in his hand run-up to the closest person he had and instead of killing him, he went for the disarming.

With a powerful blow, Geralt knocked a weapon out of the man's hands and kicked him in the guts, leaving him lying on the ground. Without finishing the job he went for another. Leaving enemies alive that he didn't inform his brothers about.

The fight continued, August was taking shots with a bow, trying to take down people that were armed with ranged weapons. Doing so he also dodged incoming arrows that they were aiming at him, trying to avoid receiving any injury from the fight.

It took Vesemir 5 minutes to deal with a big group of bandits that had 15 of them.

Vesemir arrived by the side of the boys and looked around for any more alive targets, he spotted nobody up and said "Well done guys, you did well, now at least we can arm all of you"

But before long one of the bodies that were supposed to be dead silently stood, while the attention of the others was attached to Vesemir and with a knife in his hands he pierced the heart of one of the boys. Killing him almost instantly

August didn't have time to think, so he did everything on reflexes putting an arrow in the head of the man.

Vesemir screamed, "Spread around, check for any alive targets!"

While Geralt stood there with a frozen expression on his face, it was a guy that he disabled.

Geralt's thoughts were running wild 'Why? I had mercy on him, but he killed one of us, is it all because of me?"

What happened next, nobody expect such an outcome, one of the most positive among them ran toward Geralt and punched him in the face, with enough strength to make Geralt take a few steps back.

It was Eskel, he screamed "Are you insane?! How could you?"

The response was silence.

Eskel looked directly into his eyes, while Geralt look down.

Getting no response from Geralt, Eskel spits out with anger boiling in him "Know this, he died because you are a delusional child! You are too absorbed in your own thought and ideas that lead to one of us dying!"

Vesemir looked disappointed by the decision Geralt took, he didn't expect him to act this way, he will have to grow or he won't live long.

On the other side Geralt, for the first time after setting his own goals and moral rules started to realize that everyone was trying to enlighten him. But he decided to ignore their thoughts and took his own path that resulted in nothing but the death of his brother.

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