Honey and Sulphur (Witcher/Gaunter O'Dimm story) Completed!

Part six: The city of Oxenfurt *

Music by Rachmaninov.

Welcome again, dear readers. Thank you for reading.

This chapter features sexual content.

Hope you enjoy! Treat yourself to a nice warm drink <3

Part six:

I felt much better after scrubbing myself clean at the herbalist's hut. The kind herbalist saw me come in with a tear in my dress and a busted lip and asked no questions. She gave me a healing salve, which I gladly made use of. It numbed the area surprisingly well. That same evening I stitched up the tear in the dress, it was a pleasantly calm activity. I refused to take payment for the herbs I had gathered, since she probably needed it more.

The next day Geralt came to retrieve me at dawn. My body felt sore all over, concentrated mainly in my abdomen and legs. My lip was throbbing and swollen, but it seemed otherwise fine.

He took the reins of Roach, who was grazing near the hut. He looked at me and raised his eyebrows in question. "What is this? Who has done this to you? What happened yesterday?"

"Ehm, in short: I was tricked by some bandits and O'Dimm came to the rescue, so I earned myself some more marks." This seemed to suffice as an explanation, but he gestured at my hand and I revealed the full scope of the branding. I winced at the sight of it.

"Sorry I wasn't there to help."

"Don't apologise." I said. "Can we go? I'd rather not talk about it." Or that I cried myself to sleep the night before. "Oh, but I did get us some coin, stolen from the bandits."

He smiled slightly, nodded curtly and helped me up on Roach's back. "That's something at least. I'll make sure something like that won't happen again."

"Thanks." I said and we chatted about which monster he'd killed. He was almost unscathed, although that might be because of his faster healing and Witcher potions.

We reached Oxenfurt in relatively little time. I felt a slight fear in my gut upon seeing the city in the distance. Sleeping under the stars was less oppressive than in a murky town. And I felt safe with Geralt, who was always aware of his surroundings and a more than capable swordsman.

Oxenfurt was bustling with activity, much more so than the small towns we previously visited. A nice change of pace. I went to rent a room in the inn while Geralt checked the notice board for contracts in the area.

On the second day in Oxenfurt, I met a scholar from the academy in the market square. I asked if he knew any jobs for travellers, he said he could use a hand for an experiment of sorts. I agreed. Where I'm from, participating in experiments is often good coin for little work. It turned out I only had to hand him the right vial or read something aloud from some dusty books when he had his hands full. His assistant had given up on the project, so he was left to complete it on his own.

We chatted and I had fun. His name was Edmund. A handsome young man, delicate and graceful, not rugged from years of hard work. Edmund's experiment aimed to find a reagent to make gold a stronger metal, but instead he discovered how to make it melt quicker, which wasn't useful at all. It was fun to be back in an academic environment, as I previously was a philosophy student. Edmund didn't mind my soft melancholy and promised to show me around the art gallery and the other, more attractive parts of the Oxenfurt Academy. It was an impressive building. I marvelled at it, and at how impossible it was I was here, instead of at home.