The Worst Part Of The Second Round Of Trials The Mages Put Geralt Through Actually Came After The Fact.

the worst part of the second round of trials the mages put Geralt through actually came after the fact.

he lost his human ears. his ear holes moved up his head and he grew actual wolf ears over them, but his old ears were cut off once he was awake and concious for it.

he grew a tail. once they were sure it was done growing, they strapped him down to a table and cut it off. he was awake for that too. the damage to his nerves was so bad, the instructors went behind the mages backs and got an exile from aretuza to reverse the removal of his tail. he doesn’t let anyone touch it.

he grew dogteeth. the mages pulled out the smaller ones so newer, larger ones would replace them. Geralt’s mouth aches for years. he can’t speak through them, he cuts his tongue trying to talk, can’t open his mouth enough to chew, can’t stop his jaw from shaking, can’t sleep for the bone deep pain at the slightest movement of his mouth.

his jaw trembles when he cries.

when he grew furry swathes over his chest, belly, and back, the mages tried strapping him down and skinning him. again, awake and given nothing for pain. Vesemir, who did not particularly care for children at the time, charged into the room before they could pull their knives from the cleansing fire and killed them.

Geralt flinches when anyone tries to touch him, even in simple affection, for over a century.

so. when Geralt is through all of his changes and emerges a witcher juvenile, the first of this new witcher-kind, he takes to standing guard outside the trial room and keeping the mages at bay. holds both his swords, annointed in Hanged Man’s Venom, between the remaining mages and the helpless boys beyond. he cannot stop them from making more witchers, but there will not be another like him.

Eskel is the one to tell him that they will begin putting more boys through secondary trials after Geralt reaches maturity and is sent on the path and cannot interfere. they even have a specific boy in mind to start.

Geralt packs up his things, sneaks into the pups’ room, and steals Lambert away into the mountains just before dinner. Eskel covers for them. not that anyone notices the disappearance of two children with Kaedwen’s army making it’s way up the Killer.

and after the pogrom, Geralt and his stolen brother return to the keep, and find Eskel and Vesemir. with no mages to uphold pretenses for, they form a family to survive. Geralt grieves their lost brothers, doesn’t say he’s glad the knowledge of the second trials was lost in the chaos on the sacking, but Vesemir doesn’t need him to.

and if Lambert favors Geralt, clings to his brother well past the age any boy would otherwise, looks to him for protection from nightmares and monsters alike, for approval of his choices on the Path, and love in spite of them at times, well, Vesemir isn’t in a position to do anything about it.