The Right Thing (The Witcher Netflix)

Life and Death

Merrian grew as the months passed, Triss stayed past the three months she was scheduled to leave because she did not want to leave Merrian just as she was beginning to need her. Merrian was treated as if she were a porcelain doll, being given treasures and gifts for her on the way. Calanthe would often visit, as often as she could at least. Triss gave her the news that it would be a little girl, and Calanthe was thrilled, calling herself an honorary grandmother to the child, Merrian couldn't help but agree. She would rather have Calanthe be grandmother to her daughter than anyone else. Merrian would often sit at the window and tell her unborn daughter of Geralt, his strength, his heart, and her love for him. The words she dared not speak to anyone else she told her daughter all of her secrets and in some ways, she believed her daughter listened.

Months rolled by quickly, the baby soon became due any day now, and Merrian grew impatient. Her daughter really knew how to gauge her time, and it was not long until, under a full moon, Merrian was in labor. Hours passed in excruciating pain, until, her baby was born. The room was silent, dead quiet, no crying, no whispers, just silence. As the nursemaids huddled around the baby Merrian struggled to sit up.

"Let me see her." She rasped and one of the nursemaids turned to look at her, she held the bundle in her arms, it wriggled a little as she handed the newborn to her mother. A beautiful little girl, dark brown curls on the top of her head and intelligent blue eyes looked up at Merrian as she held her bright baby.

"Look at you..." she smiled and cooed at her daughter.

"You are my little princess... and I will love you forever." She whispered and snuggled her baby close, holding the little bundle to her heart and sighing in relief.

The little girl was named Dalia, intelligent and sweet she was beloved by anyone who looked at her. No one was more in love with that child than her own mother, never apart for even a moment, the two were inseparable. Yet Merrian's curse looked over them both like a shadow, closing in on them with every passing day.

One day Dalia was tottering around the courtyard Merrian following her little one closely as she went to inspect a pretty flower, Jupiter's Beard, stacks of bright pink caught the young one's bright blue eyes as she wobbled unsteadily towards it. Merrian watched with a weathered eye, knowing her child didn't yet know what was good to eat and what wasn't. She smiled as her child picked the flower and sniffed it before tottling over to her mother, handing her the flower. Merrian smiled and sniffed the flower.

"It's very pretty Dalia..." she smiled and held her daughter's hand as they walked through the garden.

"Merrian!" Someone shouted her name and she turned her head to look but she saw no one. Confused she looked around until there was a scream not far from her, a gardener was looking at Merrian in horror. No, not at her. Past her. Merrian turned and it was as if everything was in slow motion, she stared in terror at her daughter lying sprawled in the grass blood everywhere, and her little fists clenched around a strange insect-like creature.

"DALIA!!!" She screamed and held her hand out pushing her magic into the creature until it popped like a balloon. She ran over to her child and held her as she let out gut-wrenching screams of agony and sorrow as she held her dead child. Every sob of anguish racked through her body as she held her dead baby, the only light in her life had been extinguished. Blood soaked into her clothes as she sobbed into her daughter's dress, her daughter was gone, and it was all her fault.

Merrian was quiet for many days after that, her whole life had been extinguished in a fraction of a second. Her daughter was dead, her brightest star had flickered out and she was now a broken shell of what she once was. Merrian would wake up howling in the night for her baby, crying her child's name over and over searching frantically for what she lost but will never have again. As the days turned into weeks, and weeks into months, and the months into a full year after her daughter's death, Merrian left Temeria. There was no fanfare, there were no shed tears for her departure. She left in the night where none could see her when even the moon hid its face in shame.