Kyana Of Cintra

7

Having collected her mushrooms, Kyana stood, water droplets dripping from her cloak from where it had caught in the stream. "So you want us to kill Stregobor for you. How ironic." She deduced, walking back to her horse to place her satchel on it. Renfri nodded, her eyes pulled downwards in sadness.

"It's the lesser evil." Kyana scoffed a laugh. 

"If I hear that sentence one more fucking time." She said, annoyed. She hooked the bag onto the saddle and placed the knife carefully into it. "We keep getting told it's the lesser evil. Maybe it is the lesser evil, but evil it still is."

Renfri looked closely at her face. "Stregobor asked you to kill me too." She stated, angry beyond her facial expression. Kyana didn't deny it, nor confirm it. She stayed silent, which was enough for Renfri. She looked furious.

"'Cause I was a girl born during an eclipse?" Renfri huffed, digging the tips of her boot into the dirt. "I could've become so many things. Queen Calanthe of Cintra, she just won her first battle at Hochebuz. But here I am trying to convince you I'm not-" Renfri paused, unsure of what word to choose. 

"A monster." Kyana finished gently. The look on Renfri's face said it all, though words did not leave her mouth. Her innocence was unnerving for Geralt, who knew she had killed multiple men. Still, he was not completely convinced Stregobor was entirely wrong. 

"Are you?" Geralt asked, basing his judgments heavily on the replies Renfri would give.

"How am I to know? When I cut my finger, I bleed. That's human, right? When I overeat, my stomach aches. When I'm happy, I laugh. When I'm upset, I swear. And when I hate someone for stealing my whole life from me, I kill him." Kyana let out a sigh of discontent. Renfri was convincing Geralt so well up until that last remark. "Would you do the same?" She aimed her question at Kyana.

Kyana thought for a moment. "The person who destroyed my life deserved to pay for it. But they're dead, and not by my own hand. For my revenge to take place, I'd have to hurt their family, people who didn't do anything to me. I can't make strangers suffer for an associates actions." Kyana answered, stroking her horse delicately.

"That is the most dignified answer I'm sure I will ever get for that question, and yet, people call your kind monsters too." Renfri pointed out. "Surely that frustrates you."

"Mutants." Geralt corrected gently. "And you get used to it."

"What if they come after you? Attack you?" Renfri spoke to Geralt, hoping that the man of the two would be a little more aggressive and driven by his temper. It struck Kyana as manipulative, although Geralt was so focused on Renfri's pretty face, he didn't notice. 

"They have." He replied, a small, amused smile on his face as she attempted to get him to see her side. Even Kyana had to admit while looking at him, it was an adorable attempt. Kyana observed Renfri, who's body faced Geralt and her eyes gazed at him from beneath her full eyelashes. She wasn't sure if Renfri was trying to recruit him, or seduce him. 

"Why not kill them?" Renfri asked darkly, drawing closer to Geralt to intimidate him. He matched her, stepping closer to her, the smile still ghosting his features. Kyana realized he was indulging her, and she suddenly wasn't sure if it was such a good idea to travel with Geralt. 

"Because then, I am what they say I am." His words clearly surprised Renfri, although she just glared at him when she didn't get the answer she wanted.

"If I tell you, Witchers, that I can neither forgive Stregobor nor renounce my revenge, is that it? I admit I'm a monster?" Renfri said it as though just the thought of it tore her apart.

"Yes. Or you can leave Blaviken and finally live." Geralt answered her simply. She was so upset, anyone could tell. She didn't want to be a monster. She wanted to be normal. "You choose, Princess." Geralt replied, walking away from her to saddle his horse. Renfri nodded, swallowing her remorse, watching Kyana saddle her horse and join him.

They rode away, not a care in the world, and suddenly, Renfri felt very jealous of them.

****

After nearly an hour of riding downstream, Geralt began to talk to Kyana. He unsaddled his horse, removing the blanket from under it to make Roach comfortable. It was folded and thrown onto the pile of things they had made, a fire besides a thick log to sit on.

"You know what Vesemir would say. 'Witchers shouldn't play at being white knights. We shouldn't try and uphold the law. We don't show off. We get paid in coin' And he's right." Although Kyana didn't know who Vesemir was, she listened quietly, sharpening her sword with a stone. He sighed, looking towards Kyana, watching as the stone slid smoothly onto the sword, allowing it to become one of the most deadly weapons man had made.

"Want to hear about my first monster?" At that, Kyana stopped her movements immediately. She patted the log across from her, watching him sit as she placed the sword and stone down. "Wasn't 50 miles outside of Kaer Morhen. He was huge, stinking, bald head and rotten teeth. He pulled that girl from the cart, tore her dress off in front of her father and said, 'It's time you met a real man' I told him it was time he met one too. It took two strikes to kill him. They weren't clean. But they were spectacular." Kyana listened to his every word, avidly talking in the story. Hers was much the same, and she was sad for that on his part. "I turned to that girl afterwards. She was drenched in the man's blood. She took one look at me, screamed, vomited, and passed out." Kyana let put a huffed laugh.

"Story of our lives isn't it." He looked at her curiously. "When I was fourteen, not yet a Witcher and without a family or a home, I faced my first monster. I was roaming around on the streets for weeks until she grabbed me. She pulled me into this absolutely filthy home. She was actually quite kind, pulled me into a room gently where there were dozens of girls with barely any clothes on. She told me if I didn't help them and do as I was told, starvation would kill us all. She trained me in the ways of her business, before moving onto getting me my pay." She took a deep breath as she reminisced on the memory. "She had dragged me into a brothel. All she saw was a pretty homeless girl in brown, coarse clothing, and that's all she needed to know. She brought a man in, and told him that I was the finest girl among them all. It was then that I snapped and broke his neck."

Horror had strewn itself on Geralt's face. Kyana smiled gently, not wanting sympathy. "Nobody has to tell me that I'm pretty. That's all that I've heard for decades. It's the first thing people notice. So when it's not, and they see who I am, I truly become their monster. Beauty is everything in this world, Geralt. A woman born without beauty might as well have never been born at all."