Chapter Text
Eskel’s arrival had presaged the arrival of all the wolves for winter. The keep now brims of witchers home from the Path. Geralt hadn’t seen Kaer Morhen fill in this way since before he had joined the Path himself, generally, he’s one of the last people to arrive back before first snow.
He knows something is going to happen soon, more specifically, that he'll have to do something soon. Vesemir must have told some of the older witchers what he is about to do as they have been sending him furtive, but perhaps considering, looks at him in the recent days. It should be intimidating, but with Jaskier at his side, he knows he’ll have the words to say what he needs to say and with Eskel at his side, he’ll have the strength to do it.
The presence of both Eskel and Jaskier in his life at the same time had soothed something he hadn’t considered - Eskel had long been a comfort to him, since the decades they met, but recently, Jaskier had become just as comforting. He’d never considered how bringing them both together would impact his life, but now that he has both of them together, he is thankful. He probably wouldn’t have been able to deal with what he has now realised is his largest shift in his (moral) identity since he left for the path without both of them.
—
Vesemir comes to him a few weeks later, a few days after all of the school is home, after they’ve been snowed in, after they’ve had the time to mourn those who have only come back in spirit through their medallions.
“Geralt, I’ve convened the elders of the school. It might be best if you talk to them first before the rest of the school.”
Though it’s still early in the winter and Geralt wants to procrastinate this part of his plan for as long as possible, it isn’t really an option. He has planned this with Jaskier and Eskel, who has proven an invaluable help for navigating the potential politics of his choice in addition to his oratory prowess. He has to convince the elders and it is best done as soon as possible so that, if he successfully convinces them, they can have the planning mostly done by the time they present it to the rest of the school.
They will also have to convince the mages, but that will be at a later date. Geralt isn’t keen on having to interact with them at all, as they were the ones who decided he needed to go through a second set of the Grasses. Beyond that, however, since the schools have split, they seem to be content with just following the witchers in their political decisions and observing them as though the adult witchers were still a part of their magical experimentation.
He enters a chamber he’s never been in before, though he had passed by the door leading to it many times, as he was never deemed interesting or old enough to attend a council of the elders. He is alone, as, for this, he cannot have either of his companions by his side (and he misses them like lost limbs) and he looks towards a horseshoe curved table filled with all his mentors and some other older witchers who decided they wouldn’t train the youngsters.
There is silence in the chamber before Vesemir breaks it, “Geralt here has discovered important information on the path he feels we should act on, though he seeks the wisdom of this council first.”
Prompted by Vesemir’s raised eyebrow, Geralt takes a deep breath and begins his tale. He explains the situation: how he had been directed towards the shallow grave of a young woman, a girl even, by a grieving sister, how, now that he knew where to look, he had spotted the same shallow graves, some newer, some older, in most of the villages he passed on his way to the foot of the mountain, how it was only when his path diverged from that of the monster that those graves stopped appearing but that there were very few Kaedweni villages unaffected. He gave his estimate of the number of victims, hopefully not in their hundreds, and their ages, ranging roughly from 14 to 26.
Then, following Jaskier’s idea, he asks the elders what their idea of the monster is, as he could not find any matching it’s description in the bestiary and thus did not know how to deal with it.
Predictably, they gave answers ranging from rare types of lower vampires to sentient creatures such as incubi or succubi and higher vampires.
It is at this moment that Geralt internally gloats at having brought Jaskier, as he would have gone about persuading them in a much blunter way which likely would not have worked.
“So you agree that even if it is a sentient being, they must be dealt with?”
Caught in the hubbub of all the elders instinctively agreeing with the question, only a few seem to realise where Geralt is leading them. And the following question causes the room to go silent again.
“So, you all agree whatever is causing this is a monster that must be dealt with; what if it's a human?”
Jaskier had thought it would be the most effective way of getting them to realise humans could be monsters too, presenting them with the information they would receive at the beginning of a hunt. It seems to work, too, as the silence is filled with the contemplative stares of old men realising that if they had been confronted with these circumstances they would have only thought the one capable of such cruelty to be a non-human monster.
Only Varin’s voice pipes up in disapproval of the idea. The rest of the council generally abhor cruelty unless they deem it necessary, however Varin had always been cruel to trainees even when he did not do it to teach them.
“We were created to protect humans, we couldn’t deal with a human as if they were a monster. I say let humans deal with humans themselves.”
It is now that Geralt goes off the script he had worked on with Jaskier and Eskel, “You know, I would agree with you if all of the reactions I’ve received from witchers after I told the story was that I wouldn’t be the first witcher to kill a human monster.” He sees nodding from the other council members and decides to go for the kill move, “Besides, the humans might have a hard time dealing with this one themselves… seeing as he’s the King of Kaedwen.”
The chamber once again erupts into sound as all the elders begin murmuring at each other, obviously pondering his points. He is fairly certain he’s convinced them, however, when he looks up at the table and sees most of his mentors looking at him approvingly and Vesemir nods.