Bound By Destiny (book 1)

Chapter 17

Geralt's eyes widened at the pair of amber orbs, that were very much like his own before he backed away to let the other man in. "Lambert, what the fuck are you doing out in this storm?" He rolled his eyes. "Was heading here actually to this town for work when that damn storm showed up out of no where. I saw the smoke and thought maybe Selene...Wait shit do you?"

    "I know Selene, she's here as well." Lambert nodded. "Good, she freezes easily so I hope she's warm." "She is, had to warm up her up a bit but she's asleep now." Lambert blinked, he was a bit surprised that Selene let Geralt hold her but also knew she probably did it to save her life. "How long have you been traveling with my dear little sister?" Geralt rolled his eyes. "Roughly a little over a month and a half."

   "I see, means you Two actually talk now huh?" "Yeah, still a bit of a process, but one im willing to work with." Lambert nodded and went to remove his own cloak revealing his red leather armor and black traveling pants along with the two standard swords a Witcher carried. "What I wanna know is what the fuck you did in Valen when you heard Selene was hit with hot stones."
   
    Lambert stiffened before he growled. "She told you the water downed version then, or at least what she believes. Those men, stoned her all four apparently the fifth one had a sense of decency and honor and walked away after paying Selene for the job that almost killed her."

     "Explain, because I don't have the patience for riddles." Lambert looked over and saw the anger yet concern in Geralt's eyes before he sighed and drew the conclusion that Selene was important to him. "Alright sit down, cause this is not a nice story."

    Geralt motioned to the fire and the two walked over before sitting down on the cold hard floor. "Roughly a year ago Selene was in Valen, doing jobs as she traveled, you know most of this though so let me summarize. She almost got killed fighting off a hoard of ghouls, lost her companion and demanded more coin for the damn job. This Job alone should have called for two fucking Witcher's. However Selene being Selene is dangerous alone, she could have easily handled it had she not been caught off guard and ambushed. Had she had the correct information she could have came out unscathed and her companion alive."

    Geralt nodded, he knew most of this but also knew Lambert needed to explain it his way. "I'm assuming you ran into her?" "I didn't, I had heard she was around so I was trying to find her, I wanted to catch up make sure she was alright and see if she knew anything about curses. She's the best at curse breaking and tracking you know."
  
    Geralt's nodded. "Yeah she helped me break a curse on a princess turned striga." Lambert cringed at that. "Damn, those things are whoresons to deal with." "You're telling me, I didn't even know her name when she told me what she knew about them. Even took off after making sure I would be alright after it. It was only two months after that did I find her again and learned her name. From there we traveled together, but we're getting off topic. You made it so no Witcher would dare step foot in Valen ever again."

    "Right sorry, it's just I get mad when I think about it." Geralt nodded in understanding. "Anyway, I arrived in town, little place, maybe a few hundred lived there, I was in the market when I heard four men laughing. Talking about how they had sent a silver eyes women to her death against ghouls, only to somehow live and return for double the reward."

    He took a deep breathe. "At this point I was seeing red, I only knew of one woman with silver eyes, and that was Selene. So I walked over and asked them who they were talking about." He shrugged. "They spat at me and called me a demon a monster but I didn't care. I wanted answers so I slammed the one against the wall and forced them to talk."

    For a few minutes he was silent. "They spoke of how she was paid and went to leave. But not before they said they had an added bonus, now from what I understand Selene didn't stop to listen to them, she just kept walking, however they didn't care, so they picked up rocks that had just been washed in steaming hot water and chucked them at her, one hit her across the head and one on her face, the rest hit her cloak which hopefully kept her from feeling most of the pain. They called her names, foul names, whore being one of them. They called her the white witch, the killer of men." He snarled.
 
    "They tried to ruin her name and reputation but thankfully no one paid them any mind. One of the idiots however thought that throwing stones wasn't enough so he charged at her and stabbed her through the side. If you've seen her Grey cloak you'll see where the sword ran through her." Geralt looked sick at this point and angry, someone harmed Selene and now he knew why she told the version she did. Because it was awful. "The man ripped out the sword and kicked her knocking her forwards and into the gravel. Spitting on her he and his buddies walked off. I knew she lived because the men spoke as if she was. That and I didn't hear anyone talking about burying her either."

    Geralt clenched his teeth, had he been there those men wouldn't be breathing anymore. "I roughed them up but didn't kill them. Then I sent out a note to every last one of us and told them we would no longer help those in Valen because one of our own was gravely inured there by the towns folk. While we could make coin there, it would be up to Selene to even consider it."
   
    "Why is it up to her?" "She was the one attacked, This was my way as a brother to keep her safe and ensure people paid for their crimes." Geralt nodded. "I understand." After that both men went silent as they listened to the howling winds of the storm outside.

   "I'm just glad she has you Geralt." This caught his attention. "She was always so closed off at Kaer Morhen. I'm sure she told you about the trials for the medallion." "She did, And I'm thankful that you didn't leave her behind." "Yeah, I am too. I felt like such an ass for the way I complained about her before. She's this amazing person and she didn't deserve it." Geralt only nodded.

    However it wasn't long before he heard the sounds of movement then a pair of feet moving softly along the floor and the door opening. "That was not a long sleep huh Sel?" Said woman only rubbed her eyes and hummed for an answer.

    "You get away with calling her sel?! She almost cut my balls off when I called her that!" The sudden out cry fully woke Selene from her sleepy daze and she looked over with a raised eyebrow. "Nice to see you as well Lambert." Said man stood up and walked over to her while Geralt howled with laughter.

   Quickly hugging her he held her tight. "Gods Selene it's a relief to see you." "You as well, we ironic as that sounds." He pulled back with a grin only to look her over, he didn't see any scaring on her head from the rocks but he could see some others that were easily hidden under her clothing.

   Selene rolled her eyes as she realized what he was doing. "It's healed up nicely by now." He snorted "that's not the point they almost killed you." She shrugged. "Not the first time not the last time. You get use to it. If Valen is willing to fairly pay and work with us when we need jobs then we should resume work there. However if not they can all fuckin rot." Both men chuckled. "Sounds like Selene made up her mind."

    Lambert nodded and looked at them both, especially the way Geralt has stood and walked over to her. "You didn't tell me they stabbed you." She shrugged and he made her look at him. "It didn't seem important." He snorted. "Trust me, that's important information." Selene only shrugged and Lambert was amazed, geralt was able to actually touch her face, something no one ever did, let alone hold her. 

    "So wait, how come he can call you Sel but I almost die when I do?" Selene shrugged and Geralt tried to not laugh. "He doesn't listen, my threats don't really scare him either, there's also the fact I've just learned to accept that he won't stop with the ridiculous nickname. But I promise you if you ever utter that and especially to my face, I will cut off your balls and force feed them to you, is that clear?"

  Lambert gulped as he nodded. "Yep crystal clear." Shaking his head he watched Geralt shudder a bit before he smirked and discreetly put his hand on Selene's waist. "Come on Sel you gotta eat something okay?" "Yeah, Yeah." "Don't you Yeah, Yeah me." Yet both were trying to not laugh at each other.

     "To bad I did. Now move your hand and go get the venison. I'll reheat enough of it to feed the three of us." And with that everything calmed down and Geralt nodded before disappearing to get the food. "I'm glad you're around him Selene, it's doing wonders for you." Selene looked at him and nodded. "Yeah, for once I'm actually glad myself, gets awfully lonely when you only have yourself and a horse to speak to." He chuckled. "I can only imagine, Shall I assume you've another Raven?" Selene nodded and walked over to where Geralt was now standing.

    "Alright, if anyones willing to go into the back of the cottage I have more wood hiding there so I can start another fire." And with that the Lambert walked off and Selene started to set everything up. For once she was oddly calm and happy to be around people. Yet part of her still wanted to run away, because little by little her walls were breaking and soon they would be important to her, and she couldn't have that.

    So with a sigh she decided that after this shit fest of a storm was over she would tell Geralt she would be on her happy way and once more avoid them.