Ch 43 Did you do it?
Vyr was sitting on the ground at the top of a mountain, far above the town the elves had built. A strong breeze carried the scent of the forest around her and ruffled the feathers of her wings, wings she rarely used. Despite how deceivingly useful they seemed, they weren't the most practical body modification she had formed. They did, however, properly fit her aesthetic, having been made the same colors her hair contained.
Littering the forest floor around her were empty bottles of alcohol, abandoned without care. Sitting snugly in between Vyr's fingers was a lit cigarette that the system had provided along with a short explanation about how it was made from a plant whose origins were somewhere in the Harry Potter world. In total honesty, Vyr could not give less of a shit right now.
Vyr had returned from their fake contract, not even getting a chance to take a break before the next problem arose. Firstly, Yang and Vyr had a falling out after Blake let it slip that Vyr thought the girls needed more experience with killing, seeing far too much hesitation in their fight.
It wasn't exactly Blake's fault, everyone was tense and emotions were a bit sensitive after the fight with the bandits. Vyr could tell Yang's mind was spiraling in anger, other emotions mixing in with that. Watching as Vyr and Josh killed off the survivors after the battle pushed her into subconsciously activating her semblance.
While Blake was trying to empathize and bring Yang back to her senses calmly, she accidentally let it slip that her first time killing someone was also planned for her. That this was just how things worked and that there was no need to take such action. Yang, instead of focusing on Blake, focused on her slip and proceeded to use it as an outlet for her anger. Knowing much more about Vyr made her a much more viable target for said anger.
Of course Vyr knew that everything Yang had said had been out of anger, she hadn't really meant it, so she let Yang vent. That didn't mean her words didn't hurt, that they didn't dig into Vyr. By the end of the whole confrontation, both of them were in a bad mood. They made it back to Kear Morhen and Yang stormed off almost immediately, sticking around long enough to yell at everyone not to follow her. Yang hadn't left the training yard since then.
Vyr wasn't one to make Yang do something so mindlessly, to kill people and be completely unaffected. That wasn't what she wanted at all, however her worries that Yang might be hurt if she hesitated to kill someone who wouldn't hesitate to return the favor, far outweighed any thought of Yang's own morals. Any timeline that represented the show before Vyr came along had long since been shot to shit, and she'll be damned before she lets Yang lose an arm because she didn't clean some dude's clock.
It wasn't as if Vyr didn't understand the metaphorical weight that killing someone could cause, she related to it far more than she'd like to admit. She understood that anyone she killed had a life, a family, people who laughed at their jokes. That person had dreams and plans for their future. Maybe she'd grown soft over the years she spent with Ruby, because it had been a while since she killed, but something had changed the way she viewed killing people. It hit her differently now. It wasn't easier or harder now, but each death held more meaning.
Thankfully Sif, along with Artorias and Ciaran met them on the other side of the gates and temporarily yanked Vyr from her thoughts. Exchanging quick pleasantries, Vyr was soon on her way to the keep to cool off a bit of her anger. Sif, Artorias, and Ciaran didn't join the group for long, opting to spend the rest of their evening exploring the elven city and sitesee.
Before Vyr and Josh could even unpack and take the saddles off the horses and get them settled in the stables, Fëthi along with some of her men showed up. She started talking with basic courtesy and beat around the bush, but when she realized she wasn't going to get the answers she wanted, her tone towards Vyr quickly changed.
She had wanted to know not about when they could leave, but why artorias, ciaran, and sif were allowed to walk around freely. For some reason the elves from Fëthi's world seemed to dislike the three fiercely. Claiming they were filthy, and unclean. But Vyr couldn't think of a reason why they would think that. It would be easy to assume it had something to do with dark souls. But what part exactly?
None of the trio had a dark mark, or were even undead as far as Vyr knew. And when the elves met kalameet they didn't have a problem with him. The only thing she could think of was maybe the abyss tattoo she had given them, but that wouldn't make sense either. The abyss power was hers now and the elves were fine with her too. Hell she still had the darksign branded above her heart, sure she kept it hidden most of the time, but it's still there along with all the souls it still held.
After telling Fëthi to "politely" leave, that may or may not have included some less than pleasant wording. The elves showed up with their own problems. While most of the time Vyr was hands off with the elves' governance, and did not try to put herself in a position of power over them. They still came to her when they couldn't decide on something.
This time it was a more interesting problem. See, not all of the elves were interested in civilian pursuits. Many of the elves through prolonged exposure to the witchers wished to become one as well. It also didn't help that they idolised Vyr and to a slightly lesser extent Geralt. Which says a lot about Geralt as they would die for Vyr if she asked.
It was definitely a problem Vyr hadn't expected. After a very long and heated discussion, and the inclusion of any witchers available at the time, it was decided that if the elves could develop a trial of the grasses that was suited to their physiology, they would be okay to join and take missions of their own.
This wasn't an easy decision either. Many were against it including Lambert, Aelos, and Vesemir, to name a few. The end result was a compromise of sorts. The elves could research all the witchers had on the trials and it would be up to them to develop their own version. It would all have to be monitored and signed off on by the witchers, but in the end they got the go ahead.
Really the only reason it was allowed at all was due to the near impossible odds the elves faced trying to succeed. Not only would they have to restore much of what was lost when the keep was overrun by the fanatics before Vyr's time here. They would also have to face the difficulties of understanding the rare and precious few herbs left in case the trial was ever used again. And on top of all that each of the different races that made up the former house elves would need a separate trial developed for them. But this did little to damper the elves who wanted to become witchers.
That was how she'd ended up here, at the top of a mountain, surrounded by empty bottles, playing music so loud that it would be considered a sonic attack had anyone else been present. What was usually a dull drone hovering in the back of Vyr's head had grown to a thunderous sound that surrounded her in a cocoon of vibrating air. With every note, every drop of music, the air would shake around her. Bottles threatened to break under the heavy blows of music, and the ashes that clung to her cigarette would fall to the ground.
Being careful of her wings, Vyr laid back and relaxed into the atmosphere the music created around her. The clouds in the evening sky were lazily moving along a distinct opposite to the fast paced music that drowned the area. All at once a different sound came out as if to contest the music for Vyr's attention.
It was a custom notification sound Vyr had set up on her scroll. The sound of Ruby laughing one day when Vyr and Yang were having a "minor" prank war back when she was at their house. Ruby had laughed so hard she ended up rolling on the floor. The sound always made Vyr smile even though she had been the one Ruby was laughing at.
Pulling the scroll out of her belt pouch she could see a text from ruby.
you there?
Oh good! :)
What are you doing right now? Do you have time to talk?
Without thinking, Vyr set her cigarette to the side and moved some of the empty bottles away from her, she then sent a selfie of herself on the mountain top to Ruby.
That's so cool~ :) Where did you find a wing filter? I haven't seen that one before. 0.o
Vyr responded confused before standing up again. The copious alcohol had dulled her sense of reason enough, that she clearly wasn't thinking of future repercussions. As such she used some magic to fix the phone in place but had it maintain focus on her. She then proceeded to video herself jumping off the mountain and doing a short aerial show, before landing, stumbling a fair amount, ending the video, and sending it to ruby with a smug emote.
*\Ruby POV/*
Ruby watched the video with a blank expression. She didn't know how to feel. Seeing Vyr flying around with wings was an unexpected shock. Of all the things she thought would happen when she tried to message Vyr with a scroll, this definitely isn't one of them.
Finding out your girlfriend had an unexpected talent is one thing, But finding out she had a previously unknown appendage, that's something else entirely.
(A/N Get your head out of the gutter. Yes you. I know what you were thinking. Stop, that's enough horny.) (S: really shouldn't have added this because i'm a giggly bitch)
Forgetting the current situation with Bea entirely, Ruby closed the chat and sent a video conference request to Vyr. When the video opened she could only see blurred movement and shouting along with, Squawking? It took some time but eventually she could hear Vyr celebrating and gloating about something before she picked up the scroll again.
Now that the camera was showing something other than the sky Ruby could make out Vyr's messy appearance as well as a small bit of the surroundings. Namely what seemed to be a live bird that vyr had just tied up.
"Are you ok? What was that?" Ruby asked
"Ah. I'm fine. This little fucker just tried to kill me, I think? Not too sure really," Vyr said casually as if it was normal to be attacked by a bird, "but what'd ya need. I'm surprised the scrolls work here."
"It was kind of a long shot. See we have someone here who says they know you, but we're not sure. You have some time?" Ruby said unsure if it was ok for Vyr to be talking on her contract.
"For you? Anytime," Vyr said, sitting back down at her spot. "We're already back at the keep anyway."
*\Group 2 Pov/*
Seeing Ruby talking to her scroll, Everyone turned to see what was happening.
"Of course! Why didn't i think of that?!" Weiss said loudly, mentaly kicking herself.
"Think of what?" Trey asked lost to the situation.
"Our scrolls, while they can do a lot of things, their original purpose was to allow communication over long distances. I didn't think they would work this far away without a spire to connect them." Weiss explains.
"So it's like communication magic. Got it." Trey summarized.
"So who's this person I'm supposed to know?" Vyr asked as Ruby put her on speaker.
"This girl, named Bea." ruby answered.
"Yeah, That's not ringing any bells." Vyr said with a frown. "Got any more details?"
"She's a vampire if that helps." Trey said blandly.
"Oh hey trey. That's a good start but I happen to know a surprising amount of vampires." Vyr said off handedly.
""You do?!"!" Ruby and Weiss said simultaneously.
"Oh yeah, all kinds too. It's surprising how many neutral, border-line nice, non-humans there are." Vyr said, like it wasn't a big deal.
"That's so~ cool~" ruby said with stars in her eyes.
"Remind me to tell you about the time I stayed with the merfolk, or would they be called havfrues? They were near skellige after all."
"Wait, do you mean mermaids? You met mermaids?" Weiss asked in disbelief.
"And mermen, don't be sexist. They're super nice too. Just have to be careful around the Vodyanoy. AND not be an ass, else they might call a kraken or two."
"Vod- Vodnu- Vodnoyes? What's that?" Ruby asked, having trouble pronouncing the name.
"Vodyanoy, they're fish people. Like full on, more fish than person, fish people."
"You can tell stories later. Do you know this girl or not?" Geralt voiced roughly, trying to get everyone back on track.
"Hey it's not my fault, you're not giving me anything I can work with."
"Why don't we just show her? Can she not see us like we can see her?" Trey asks.
"Because Vampires don't show up in mirrors or cameras, duh." Ruby says like it's obvious.
"Uh, yes they do. Why wouldn't they? It's not like they are invisible." Trey replies confused.
"Oh yeah. That would work wouldn't it?' Vyr says with a sloppy nod as she reaches out and picks up her cigarette again, while ruby swings the camera around to Bea's direction. Bea on the other hand has apparently been gagged again at some point and looks none two happy with fact.
"Are you smoking? Are you about to do a ritual?" Geralt asked, surprised to see Vyr smoking as she normally dislikes the smell it leaves behind.
"You're smoking?!" Ruby asks incredulously and swings the screen back to her face as it is still on facecam.
"Shit, uh, No?" Vyr asks hopefully as she hurriedly hides the cigarette off screen, but in her haste exposes the multitude of bottles around her.
"And drinking? When we get back, me and you are going to have a serious talk." Ruby says in a well, serious tone.
"Aww, come on ruby. It's not even tobacco, it's a magic plant called gi- gi, shit what was the name? Look it's this plant that lets you breathe underwater, in fact it's good for you if you smoke it! No need to be upset right?" Vyr says hastily, trying to reassure Ruby her smoking was not a bad thing.
Ruby, not knowing about magical plants, looked to Trey. Without needing for her to ask he said "I've never heard of it, but it wouldn't be the first time Vyr found something weird. That's actually pretty tame, all things considered." As if to remind people of her existence Bea hummed in agreement to Trey's words.
"We can talk about it LATER. Show Vyr the vamp already." Geralt's grave voice put an end to the topic.
With everyone's mind back on task, vyr finally could see bea. After looking for a few seconds she said, "Yeah, i don't know if it's the alcohol or the spinning but i dont recognize her. She does look familiar though. What is she anyway? An alp?" Hearing this Bea's eyes widened as she started to panic and shout at vyr only to be muffled by the gag in her mouth.
"A bruxa." Geralt said evenly.
"Bea the bruxa, bea the bruxa." Vyr repeated, trying to jar some obscure memory loose in her alcohol laiden mind. "Nothin', you sure there's not anything else I can use?"
"She works at a bar? Said you and her worked together before. Something about killing other vampires." Weiss gave, still wondering about mermaids.
"Nah, I don't know any vampire bar girls. I worked with a few vampires, so that's out. Wait, did you say she hunts vampires?" Vyr asked, a glimmer of recognition in her eyes. Seeing Geralt nod she continued " while I don't know any bruxas named Bea there is one~ Bruxa I know that hunts other vampires. Buffy is that you~?" She asks with a shit eating grin. Hearing her Bea lets out a groan and looks away from the camera.
Seeing her reaction Vyr laughs happily. As Geralt takes out the gag, she says " It IS you~! Buffy the vampire slaying bruxa! I should have known. Why haven't you come and said hello if you were so close by?"
"First, I already told you to stop calling me buffy! That's not my name, I don't care if you like the sound of it. And to answer your question, to be fair I was wondering if you died after I stopped hearing about you. Last I heard you were in toussaint. I thought some monster finally got you while you were fucking around. I wouldn't have been too surprised." Bea lacadasily states.
"Pfft, what part of living says you gotta die? I plan on burning through another nine lives." Vyr says confidently.
'Ancestors forbid that, please. Considering the trouble she makes now I don't think the rest of the world can take her having nine more lives.' Bea thinks to herself.
"Good so we all know each other. That's great and all but we still have a contract. Now Vyr can you vouch for this vamp?" Geralt asked, getting fed up at how easily everyone was getting sidetracked.
"Uh in what sense? Cause I can tell you she is an equally good kisser as she is a singer." Vyr said, making Ruby feel both uncomfortable at the thought of bea and vyr kissing and embarrassed by her own experience with kissing and vyr.
*Sigh* "in the we have a contract, dead people, and vampire who was close to the last victim sense." Geralt said thinking that he should maybe get a drink as well. It would probably help at this point.
"Oh in that sense. Well~ if you put it like that~. Hey Bea did ya do it?" Vyr asked simply.
"No" bea said in an , you're stupid for asking, tone while rolling her eyes.
"Yeah she's good. She didn't do it." Vyr said just as simply.
*groan* "Why did I expect anything else?" Geralt said before inhaling and exhaling loudly "Okay then. That means this just got more complicated."