Ch 8 trial of the grasses and changes

The next morning Vyr woke up somewhere she didn't recognise. Remembering what happened last night tears threatened to spill from her eyes. After sifting through her memories and calming down a bit Vyr sat up on the bed. As she looked around the room she saw it was made of stone and had many bookshelves with various arcane stuff on them. Guessing this was Yennefer's room Vyr decided to solve her most prominent issue and taking out some leftover apples from the system she began to eat them. As she bites into the apple she hears voices approaching so she sits on the edge of the bed to wait for the people to appear.

Not long after the door opens Yennefer walks in. When she sees Vyr awake she bursts into tears and runs to her taking Vyr into her arms. While Yennefer does this Geralt walks into the room after her. He slowly walks up to the duo and looks at Vyr who is trying to calm down Yennefer in a panic. Geralt smiles but quickly it becomes a frown remembering what happened last night.

(Geralt)"What happened to you? We tried to figure it out and I think we have a good idea but I want to hear your side of the story."

Hearing this and thinking back to what happened Vyr started crying again. Yennefer, seeing this, glared at Geralt and tried to comfort Vyr but ended up crying with her. After some minutes vyr choppily recounted what happened. Geralt hearing her story nodded and said "I know you just woke up but get some rest. After last night Vesemir moved the trial to tomorrow. I'll go explain to them what happened, Yennefer please stay here and make sure she rests." yennefer nods at him while he walks out of the room. Holding Vyr she lays down on the bed.

While they lay there vyr checks the system and sees a notification.

(System)< You have pushed your potential and overdrawn the prototype form advancement ability. For your own safety the ability to buy Prototype forms have been locked. The Prototype claw gauntlets have advanced forms becoming Crystal armor form. All old abilities will be stay the same but will be upgraded as well.>

(A/N ok so this is a half nerf but not really. She did not lose the clawed gauntlets they just got upgraded/assimilated into the new armor form. I will unlock this later, like near world 3.)

(Valkira System)

Listening to Valkira grumble about the other gods brought a smile to her face and she thought ' thanks sis, but what is with the system locking me out from my abilities?'

Vyr smiled and thanked Valkira before asking 'you said I got a bunch of upgrades? What are they?'

Thanking Valkira while giggling about the Ares thing. Vyr untangled herself from Yennefer and went to the middle of the room before activating her new armor form without the headpiece. Yenefer flinched seeing the form reappear from the particles. Vyr was testing her new form when Yennefer noticed the crystals were drawing in ambient energy from the surroundings. As Vyr stayed in the form more and more energy was stored slowly filling the gaps where the armor overlapped with a colorful glow, just like when she first saw the armor. Eventually the armor reached full capacity and different symbols appeared across the armor. A Small picture seemed to tell the start of a story with a replica of the armor form standing in front of a massive Wolf, both were looking forward and seemed quite intimidating. The pictures after seemed ethereal and shifted, never staying long enough to be made out, only the armor and wolf seemed to remain constant. Vyr seemingly content with the armor so far then manifested the head piece. This covered the story on her back with the ragged blue cloak. When she looked around she noticed she could see everything moving slower, then she realized everything wasn't moving slower she had sped up. Playing around testing things she realized different pieces had different buffs.The chest piece actively tried help healing (so basically a health regen), the legs assisted movement (move speed), the arms/hands were pretty sharp now and moved energy around her body automatically boosting her strength though only by about 50lbs (strength up), and most importantly the head piece decreased her reaction time and accelerated thinking (reflexe up).

Remembering her tearing chunks out of Adar with the lower face mask part of the suit. Vyr shivered before checking how it worked. It was weirdly linked with her mouth. She could keep it closed if she wanted but whenever she tried to bite something it would do so as well, it was weird how if she talked the mouth would stay closed unless she told it to open. She also found the teeth of the mask were even sharper than her claws, like the armor was meant to bite things.

Feeling the connection with the armor Vyr noticed she had two other connections as well. One went to the improved rope dart launchers, 'though its chains now instead of ropes' Vyr thought. The other connection oddly went to the crystals on the armor. Playing with the ability she realized the reason the crystals pulsed like they did was because they were linked to her heart beat. She could manually turn off the glowing but she had split her focus to do so. She could also draw out the energy to do different things like doubling the bonus a piece of the armor gave her, doubling all the bonuses the armor gave (only for 30 seconds), and overcharging spells. There was probably more but she could think of any at the moment.

After thoroughly playing with the armor she unsummoned it and went back to Yennefer to get some rest.

The next day all the recruits were taken to the dining hall where tables were prepared. As they were going in Vyr pulled Josh and Trey to the side.

(Vyr)*whispering*"You both know how my ability to create stuff works, right?"

They both nod confused before Vyr says simply "Good" and hands them the vials she bought before Adar attacked her.

(Vyr)*Whispering*" i was going to give these to you before the whole thing with Adar. These are something that can increase your chances at surviving the trials but it will make it worse as well. It's up to you if you want to use them but be warned it Will increase the pain, you won't have to worry about the mutagens failing but you will need to withstand the pain, in more ways than one."

Both boys look at the vials in their hand, then Vyr who is looking at them worried, then to each other before nodding. They then wrap Vyr in a quick hug before downing the rainbow colored liquid inside the vials. Vyr seeing this says "I'm sorry about the pain, but thank you for taking the serum." with tears in her eyes. They quickly go into the room and get a bed close to each other.

Vesemir walks over and asks "are you sure you want this girl, from what i've seen this won't help you much, if at all."

Vyr looks Vesemir in the eyes and says "I WILL be a witcher, one way or another." after a few second she adds "beside i got a valley to win"

Vesemir nods and straps her to the table and redies her for the Trial before moving to the next person. Not long after, Geralt stands beside her and says "We don't know how this next bit will go so you will be the last to get started. I'm sorry but in case you lose it we need everyone to suppress you."

Vyr nods and says "I'm not worried about myself but please, Watch Josh and Trey make sure they don't go into shock or bite their tongues."

Geralt seems confused but sees how serious she is and nods. About five minutes later the first screams start. After the first more and more join until the only ones to have not started are Vyr's team. Geralt tells Eskel and Yennefer to watch Josh and Trey relaying Vyr's message to the two. Soon their Screams join the others but it is more Guttural and intense. Geralt gives Vyr a questioning gaze but seeing her ignore it with a guilt ridden face. He can tell she won't tell him what she did.

Soon everyone surrounds Vyr with swords at the ready as Geralt starts the process. Vyr flinches as the liquid enters her body, the liquid quickly becomes a cool stream in her blood and after flowing to her heart, it seems to gain a life of its own quickly flowing across her body while most center around the head. Vyr then feels like she was dunked in a bath of ice-cold water, making her pull against the restraints and gasping. The feeling is quickly replaced by a warm current of energy surrounding and refining the cold making it much more bearable.

The next thing Vyr knew she was waking up like she had been in a particularly good sleep. When she opened her eyes everything was brighter and more defined. It was like taking off a pair of wrong prescription glasses. In fact all her senses seemed to be more defined. Looking around she saw the witchers, Yennefer, and her teammates all standing around her, giving her a strong sense of deja-vu. Looking at them she tried to get up before releasing she was still strapped to the table. Seeing no one move to help her she asked "what are yall starin' for? I'd kinda like to get up, this table aint exactly comfy!"

Vesemir then began laughing while Geralt went to help her and said "in all my years i have never heard of someone falling ASLEEP during the trial of the grasses."

Vyr sat up and said "i don't know what you expected, but you know i can change my form at will right?. The trial would never be able to leave a mark on me anyway. I just needed to stimulate the mutation so I could enhance myself. Like giving me a guide so I could improve myself the right way."

Lambert hearing this said "I guess even you can be wrong the trail left a mark alright even though it is faint."

Hearing this Vyr was shocked before making a mirror to see herself in. The trial did change some things! On her face there were very faint tendrils almost vein-like in quality that were just a shade or two off from her skin tone, unless you were looking closely they couldn't be made out thankfully. Vyr thought 'oh thank god, i have scars from training worse than that. Plus most people won't even notice. What with the hair and eyes'

(A/N this was an original part of the character they are even included on the cover. It is just too far away to see them. I didn't include them from the start because I wanted to give them a significance to the story like they had for me in the code vein game. I may have just passed out for like 3 hours :( oops)

(Vesemir)"So you wanna tell us what you gave those two?"

Vyr looks guilty and hands Yennefer a box and a vial saying "i can't make more of this so one is for you to study and try to recreate, the box will open when you need it. I can say no more."

The witchers look at the rainbow vial in interest, but Yennefer is more intrigued by the box and how she gets headaches whenever she tries to interact with it in any way besides moving it.

Vesemir looks at Vyr and says angrily "you can't make more? Or you wont make more? Do you know how many you could save with that? How many died in this trial?"

(Vyr)*sigh* "i don't know how many have died. And I realize how many I could save. But I couldn't make more. Not because i didn't want to but because i literally am unable to. This world has a story to tell and I am changing it just by giving you that. And it is not you who suffers their death anymore Vesemir. IT IS ME !!! I MADE THE CHOICE OF WHO LIVES AND WHO DIES!! NOT YOU! Call me what you will, I know I'm a monster Vesemir. But I couldn't sit by and not help my brothers who may die. I .. I .. just couldn't."

By the end of this Vyr was crying and holding her head while Josh and Trey were trying to comfort her seeing how much it was weighing on her consciousness.

Vesemir calms down seeing the girl he thought of as his mischievous and weird granddaughter thought her choice through and realized if he was in the same situation he would do the same.

(Vesemir)*Sigh*"we don't blame you lass. Hell we saw the pain that vial put those two through. I was just angry and took it out on you. Im sorry."

Vyr shook her head in her hands still crying and said "you have every right to be angry."

After everything calmed down Vyr found out that only half of the group that went into the trial made it out. She thought to herself 'how many of us will be left when the last two trials are finished?'

The children were given two days to get used to their new abilities before they had to go through the second trial. After two days they were strapped back to the tables and given the second trial. This one was to for them to keep their new found powers. Of the twenty children only nine remained when it was over.

After they were split among the four witchers for personalized teaching. Geralt ended up getting Vyr's whole team as Vyr was his personal disciple.

It was almost a full year of training including going on hunts with Geralt to get field experience. In that year Vyr learned many things and got many new scars.

Vyr was also given ownership of the Kaer Morhen Valley in this year. After which she quickly got to work enacting her plan.

One day in summer Vyr was standing in front of the keep with Geralt, Yennefer, Vesemir, Josh, and Trey behind her. She had called them here saying she was starting her plan.

Taking a deep breath Vyr pressed confirm purchase in her menu. Quickly the surroundings were covered in light as many beings were summoned all at once.

Once the light died down everyone there could see many small things clothed in only rags. The beings were short, shriveled and shook just standing there. They had long pointed ears, pale skin and eerily big eyes.

Ignoring the confused stares she was getting, Vyr walked forward and said "House elves i, Vyr am your new master."

Hearing this all the house elves (about a hundred) turned to her at once and bowed saying "your orders master?"

While the others were shocked Vyr continued "Good! First everything in this valley north of the river to the south is my land. You will be repairing, enhancing, cleaning, and generally taking care of the keep we are in right now. In the future this job will expand into the rest of my territory. Second you will need to familiarize yourselves with this land you are now in. this is no longer the world you are used to. Even the map has changed, much less the monsters or magical creatures. There are books in the keep so read them and learn from them. Is that understood?"

The house elves all say at once ""Yes""

(Vyr)"Good! In the future you should elect a spokesperson to speak for your group. Next everyone here is someone you should listen too. You should show yourselves to no one but those here for now. Next, this is Grandmaster Vesemir. If I am not around and you have a problem, go to him. Lastly I am not like your last master, if you do a good job you will be rewarded, on the same coin if you do a bad job i will punish you. I will even restore your lost heritage in time so make sure to do a good job, understand?"

The house elves look up at Vyr and seeing she was serious all yelled """YES""" in excitement

(Vyr)"Good then you have your tasks, elect a leader to speak for you all and send them to me. After that you have your tasks to get to work. In the future after you have your heritage restored this valley will be your home as well, so take good care of it."

The elves discuss within themselves before sending a slightly better off looking elf to be the leader while the rest disappear getting to work. The elected leader walks up to Vyr and the rest before bowing to each in turn and asking "what are your orders master?"

(Vyr)"what is your name?"

"Knobly mam."

"No, not that servant's name. Your elven name"

The house elf looks surprised before he answers "I dont have one mam we lost that tradition along with our heritage"

Vyr nods thinking before saying "then i hope you don't mind if i give you a new name."

The elf nodded vigorously saying "it would be an honor mam"

"Alright then since I know a good one. How about Aelos"

Aelos starts to cry nodding and saying "thank you mam, thank you"

"It's fine, for now go and tell the others to decide names for themselves as well. Then please direct the others, after gaining the necessary knowledge. If there are any questions please direct them to Yennefer, my mother, or Grandmaster Vesemir."

As the crying elf vanishes, Vyr turns to see a happy Yennefer wrapping her arms around her. Knowing she won't be able to get away she ignores Yennefer and asks the rest "So what are your questions?"

(Vesemir)"what are they lass? I heard you call them house elves but I ain't never seen an elf that looks like that."

"Yeah you wouldn't, being they came from another world. They are the elves of that world, their races were cursed and forced into slavery for centuries. They eventually lost all they had as a race and lived to serve humans."

Hearing the backstory of the house elves everyone flinched before Josh asked " you said something about restoring their heritage? What was that about?"

"Ah that was about me breaking their curse and giving back that which they lost. After doing so they will become what they were supposed to be. They won't be weak little servants but good, strong, and loyal allies to Kear morhen"

(Geralt)"How can you be sure they won't betray you?"

"First don't let them hear you question their loyalty. They would easily die to prove it. They're not like the elves you know. They were loyal to their friends even before they were turned into slaves. You could say it's one of the reasons they were. Hell after they decide to follow you, you could ask pretty much anything from them and they would do it. That is the main reason they were enslaved. The one they acknowledged as king was loyal to someone he shouldn't have been and ordered his race to become slaves."

(A/N i know that isn't true but hey i'm changing it)

(Vyr)"they were, and will be again, super strong to boot. At the time they reigned, they were the most advanced magical civilization ever since in their world. Give them a week and I bet they will be at Yennefer's level or higher. They are a race that is connected to the world. That's why I want you to learn from them mom. They can show you much more than you can imagine. Here I can show you. House elf !"

Vyr called out to the void much to the confusion of the rest, but before they could ask what she was doing one of the house elves appeared.

(Vyr)"They would like a demonstration of your people's abilities. So would you and some of the others quickly repair this yard? Not enough to tire you all, just enough to be a good demonstration."

The house elf disappears for a few seconds before reappearing with about ten more. They all line up and wave their hands at the area in front of the keep. Much to the shock of everyone except Vyr, they watch as time seems to reverse and everything becomes good as new.

(Vyr)"Thank you now you all can go back to what you were doing. OH! Since you did a good job here. Give one to Aelos as well please. These will start the process of repairing your bodies so you can withstand the later processes. You will get more later but this will give you all a head start so work hard and make it worth it." She then hands them 12 weird fruits.

The elves look at the fruit like it was a holy object before all but the first disappear after saying "thank you". Vyr looks to the house elf holding two fruits and asks "do you need something?"

The elf looks conflicted before asking "can i please split the fruit with my sister?"

Vyr laughs and takes out another fruit giving it to the elf and askes "just give that one to your sister. What are you and your sisters' names?"

"We dont have one mam." she answers truthfully.

"Well then would you like me to give you two one?"

The elf looked shocked then nodded quickly saying "More than anything mam!"

"Hrmm two sisters' names. How about you be Izaeth and your sister will be Irala."

Izaeth nods and disappears while crying.

After that day Kear morhen looked as if it was remade exactly the same in a week. The once scarred walls were good as new. The next week it became a magical fortress. The house elves worked tirelessly, day and night makeing the Keep stronger and stronger.