The Witcher And The Ageless Slave

Cold

Lillian was angry and upset, scared of just so many things. It was getting late, and it was getting kind of cold out, but she didn't care. Lillian tried getting the blood off her, but it wasn't coming off. She was freezing, but it wasn't coming off!

"Lillian," Geralt said as Lillian was still scrubbing the dress to the point holes were appearing in it.

"Lillian," Geralt said softly as she shook in the water.

"Lillian," he said as she snapped.

"What?! What the hell do you want?! I'm busy," Lillian growled as he looked down at her.

"You are freezing, and you will get sick if you don't dry off," Geralt said.

"Does it look like I care? I give zero fucks right now! Getting sick is the least of my problems right now; I killed nineteen people and didn't fucking remember doing it!" Lillian growled.

"Come on, get out of the water so we can talk about this," Geralt said as she chuckled.

"You know I'm fucking done talking about this, Geralt. I'm done with all of this already, okay? I can kill you, Geralt and Jaskier, because of this stupid mark on my dam arm. I don't want to hurt you, all I want is this mark gone, but it isn't going to happen. Geralt, your best option is to kill me at this point, I could do that again, but worse," Lillian said as he grabbed her arm gently and pulled her out of the water.

"I'm not killing you; you are not a monster," Geralt said as he handed her a blank.

"Not a monster; Geralt Jaskier doesn't look at me the same. I mean what, ever I did scare him bad, I killed those people, Geralt. I may not remember it, but the blood on my dress does," she informed.

"Get your spare clothes and change by Roach. I'm not killing you, Lillian, because you had no control over what happened. I know the difference between you and whatever saved us. That thing wasn't you; you would never get a man like a fish; you would also never hurt us," Geralt said.

"You have no idea who I am, Geralt! I barely know who I fucking am!" Lillian screamed then a tree behind him split entirely down the middle.

Geralt looked behind him, and she looked at the tree, shocked. Luckily Jaskier wasn't paying any attention to this at all.

"Nice! So dame nice! Found something else I can do," Lillian said as she shivered.

"You are freezing; we will worry about that tree later. Change your clothes," Geralt said. She sighed.

"Fine, but don't look," Lillian said.

"There isn't much to look at," Jaskier blurted out as anger filled Lillian.

"He isn't worth it; I will take care of him," Geralt said as she growled.

She grabbed Roach by the rains and went deeper into the forest.

"Jaskier," he growled.

"What I was telling the truth, there isn't much to look at in the saddle bag. All the food we had is almost gone," Jaskier said.

"I told Lillian to change; you said there wasn't much to see. Do you see where the problem is? I'm trying to keep her happy enough that another one of those marks doesn't disappear. She might kill us in our sleep if that happens or worse," Geralt said.

"Worse than killing us? Geralt, I'm sorry to tell you, but she is a monster; I wanted to figure out what exactly we are going to do with her," Jaskier said.

"Lillian wouldn't ever hurt us; whatever helped us wasn't Lillian," Geralt said.

"Geralt, I'm not saying to kill her; maybe we need to take her to a witch and leave her there; they can help her more than we can," he informed.

"What if that mark means she contains some dark magic? They try to harness it, and then what? If she is with us, no one will know, and no one will hunt her down like an animal," he said.

"Geralt, she killed people!"

"I have killed people too, and you aren't afraid of me!" He growled.

"You don't have a creepy mark on your arm that bleeds black, and you don't sing when you kill people, Geralt. That mark is evil, or Lillian is evil," he said.

"Lillian is not evil," he stated.

"I understand that she has been threw a lot, but there has to be a point when you draw the line; I drew it as soon as she butchered that guard," he said as Lillian returned.

"I'm sorry, Jaskier," Lillian said softly, "I didn't mean to do that. I don't know what this mark means, but that wasn't me. I swear it wasn't me."

Lillian was still cold and shaking even though she had changed her clothes. Geralt looked at her, and he felt guilty. Geralt should have stopped her but didn't, and now she was cold. Later that night, Jaskier was asleep, and Lillian was sitting a little far away from the fire. She was still out, but she was staying away from them.

"Don't make me move the fire over there," Geralt said.

"Geralt, I killed people, and I don't want to kill you," she said as she wrapped the blanket around her tightly.

"Come here," he said as she seemed hesitant still.

"I'm not afraid of you, Lillian; you didn't do any of that willingly," he said as Lillian sighed.

"Doesn't matter; I did it," she said as he went to her side.

"How about we find out how you got that mark? It may have been a toy you touched as a child or even a nickname that was a spell. So what was your favorite toy as a child?' He asked as she paused.

"I uh...," she paused as she tried to remember anything.

"I don't ever remember ever being a child.." she answered

Geralt looked at her, confused, she had been with that family her whole life, and she couldn't remember being a child.

"Lillian, you are sixty years old, that family raised you, and you don't remember being a child?" He asked.

"No, no, I don't. The first memory I have is when Danny was born. I helped deliver him," she said.

"So you were twenty then, that's a start. Did you have any friends?" He asked.

"No, none. I was the only one who helped with the children and with chores. How would I know how to deliver a baby without family?" She asked

"Instinct maybe," he answered.

"No, I knew how to do it. Like how I knew how to handle a sword or poison those men. I didn't read it in a book. I knew because I had done it before. I'm a lot older than sixty, and this mark is older still. We aren't going to find it in a book," she said as she touched her mark.

"A part of the mark is missing," Geralt said as he looked at it.

"Because I remembered, this spell is holding back my memories. When I was in the castle, you said I had a sword. I must have remembered how to use it," she said.

"We need to see why you have it; we need to take you home," Geralt said.

"I just hope I'm not a monster," she said softly.

"Lillian, you aren't a monster; I know you," he said as she sighed.

"That doesn't mean I'm not, okay, forget about today and move on. Let's focus on tomorrow, " she said as she decided to lay down in the grass.

"Move closer to the fire; it will be warmer," he said as she sighed.

"Fine, but oddly enough, I'm not cold anymore," she said with a smile.