This story is setted a couple of years after the end of Blood and Wine, so i must warn you there is a lot of spoilers both from the books and the games.

Premises:

- Yen and Geralt have been living together in Corvo Bianco;

- Ciri became a witcheress;

- Nilfgaard won the war.

As always, the characters and locations do not belong to me but to the genious Mr. Sapkowski, I only use them for my own pleasure without any other objective.

The cover image belongs to Devianart artist Shalizeh.

The sun shined through her closed eyelids, but it did not bothered her, she was comfortably shielded from its warm by a tall tree that filtered the rays with its many leaves. At first, she had some difficulties adapting to the always-warm weather of Toussaint, but now she find it pleasant, even if she would never dare to admit it aloud. She had even adapted her wardrobe to the weather, ignoring the witcher's suggestion to abandon her signature black and white colors. That day for instance, she wore the lightest white linen blouse with a loose black skirt that barely reached her shin and her always-present obsidian star necklace. And nothing more. There was no need to wear any accessories and make up, her now calm life did not demand it.

She reached for her chalice of wine with her eyes still closed and sipped of it delicately enjoying the lightheadedness she was already feeling brought by the beverage she had been drinking.

Yennefer had always preferred wine to other kinds of drinks, and she was able to differentiate a good wine from a mediocre one, but that was how far her knowledge about the beverage went. However, now that Toussaint was her home, more precisely the Corvo Bianco vineyard that her beloved witcher had received as payment from the Countess Anna Henrietta, she ought to become a specialist.

The sorceress was sure that as always, Geralt had not taken in consideration the consequences of his actions and he was not aware that owning a winery was not remotely close to own a horse, so she had assumed the most tedious tasks to aid him, such as taking care of the books and dealing with merchants and servants. Her new responsibilities quickly absorbed her attention, as they were an easy way to get distracted from her now too calm life.

She was shaken out of her thoughts by something that shadowed the dimmed ray lights that reached her face. She opened her eyes but she could not make up who was the slender figure standing before her against the sun.

"I'm sorry, Yen, I did not want to startle you. Barnabas said you were here," said the melodious voice Yennefer yearned so much to hear.

"Ciri!" The sorceress got up quickly and embraced the young woman tightly. "How long has it been since the last time I saw you?"

"I do not know, too long," Ciri chuckled against her shoulder, responding the hug with the same intensity.

"Let me look at you," Yennefer said pulling away from the young woman's arms. She quickly noticed the bandage around Ciri's right arm. "Like I did not have enough worrying about one witcher, now I also have to worry about you, witcheress."

"I'm fine, Yen." Ciri dismissed her with a smile.

"You are sounding dangerously similar to Geralt."

"Where is him, by the way?"

"He did not adapt very well to his retirement," Yennefer chuckled. "He left for a contract somewhere near Belhaven"

"Oh no, I was hoping to get that one. I thought I'd come to visit first, though."

"I think you can still reach him, he left this morning."

"Nah, I'm not going to spoil the old witcher's fun" giggled Ciri.

"In that case, let us go inside. I want to at least redo those bandages you improvised" the sorceress winced.

"And how is the retirement treating you, Yen?"

"Retirement only from politics" snorted Yennefer walking with her daughter back to the house. "Despite what you caught me doing, napping quietly by a tree's shadow, I was just taking a well deserved break. I'm helping Geralt to run the vineyard. The last two harvest had been particularly good, I cannot say that I did not use a little help with them, after all what else a sorceress could do while tending the grapevines"

"Oh no, you are not really tending the grapevines yourself, are you?" laughed Ciri sitting by the table in the cool kitchen.

"I'm not too far from it, Ciri," Yennefer answered very seriously which made Ciri laugh even louder. The sorceress removed carefully the dirty fabric around Ciri's arm, revealing a nasty gash in her upper arm. "What did this?"

"Just a nekker. I was clearing a nest, not so far away from here."

"It is infected. You really have to be more careful, you know nekkers can have toxins and pathogenics in their claws, those nasty creatures. Did you clean it properly? You should have restrained your arm so it could heal."

"I cleaned it. And it is in my sword arm, I could not just immobilize it"

"Now you will have to. Why don't you stay here until it is cured?"

Ciri smiled beautifully, warming Yennefer's heart. Ciri was, despite all the scars and dirt acquired in the path, a beautiful young woman. Yennefer felt very proud of her.

"Sounds like a good plan, I cannot lose my sword arm, can I?"

"No, you cannot, witcheress. I'll take care of it" Yennefer cleaned the wound with an alcoholic solution and whispered a healing spell. "Have I ever told you that healing was never an aptitude of mine, not until I met Geralt and I had to start practicing."

"I could not picture you as the town's healer" chuckled Ciri.

"For a long time I thought it was not worth to channel the demanding amount of energy necessary for healing magic, not for someone else. I could not bring up that amount of selflessness. Not until I ran into someone who was worth it."

"And how are you? You and him, I mean"

"Well, it is been almost two years since I arrived and I have not teletransported him to the middle of a lake yet. Which I guess means we are better than ever," Yennefer answered amused. "Yes, we still fight, but for silly reasons now, like for instance the time I yelled to the servants or when he brought home a dead something."

"I do not think it is possible to be different."

"I would not have it differently" Yennefer smiled back at Ciri. "I'll ask Barnabas-Basil to prepare a bath for you, no point on putting clean bandages if the rest of you is still filthy. Daughter, I can still smell the nekker that scratched you."

Many years had passed since the last time Yennefer sat behind Ciri in front of a mirror and carefully tended the young woman's hair. The last time was when Ciri was still a young girl, barely on her teen years. How the sorceress longed for that time, when fulfilling her beloved witcher request she had gone to the Melitele temple in Ellander, in order to help his surprise child to control her powers. Yennefer had only attended because of her honest desire to help Geralt, paired with a great amount of curiosity. There was no way she could know that in that temple she would find the greatest gift Geralt could ever give to her.

So many time had passed since that and they three had gone through many things, especially too much time apart.

The sorceress combed carefully the long ashen grey hair still wet from the bath, like she had done so many years before. She picked up a pair of scissors and trimmed Ciri's hair. The young woman absently played with the flasks and bottles arranged before her. Yennefer endeared by the moment could not bring herself to reprimand her adoptive daughter for doing so, instead she just fondly combed the woman's hair.

Now with the heavy black kohl washed away from her face, Yennefer realized that Ciri looked much younger. But still, now looking at both their reflections in the mirror, she realized how the two of them resembled to have the same age.

She realized that someday soon Ciri would look older than she would. Someday, Ciri would even look older than Geralt, because he too would also eventually grow old, although much slower. The realization hit her hard, someday Ciri and even Geralt would age and die, while she would remain not a day older than she was now. And what was going to happen to her then? She felt desperation drown her, even way ahead of time, there was nothing she could to stop it.

"Yen, what is wrong? You are squeezing my shoulder," Ciri asked looking at her reflection on the mirror.

"I'm sorry." Yennefer cleared her throat. "I was just remembering the time we spent in the Melitele temple in Ellander"

"It was the last time we were together in peace. It seems it was ages ago."

"I know." Yennefer placed the comb and the scissors back into the vanity table and sat in the bed.

Ciri sat beside her and after a long yawn she leaned back into the pillows.

"How come you did not accept Emhyr's offer?" the witcheress asked, breaking the long silence.

"Why are you bringing this up?" Yennefer asked surprised.

"I thought it was rude to answer a question with another question," Ciri giggled. "I'm asking only out of curiosity. Once you promised me that you would answer my questions with honesty, I hoped that promise was still valid"

"It will always be, darling." The raven haired sorceress took a deep breath and laid next to the young woman. "I did not accept Emhyr very tempting proposal because of you. He offered me a permanent position on his council and an opportunity to rebuild the Chapter or the Lodge, whatever pleased me the most. However I was not willing to pay the price… as long as I stay beside him, I have to be away from you. Because you chose to play dead and I can assure you, my child, he also chose to pretend to believe. Underestimating him is a terrible mistake…"

"But Yen" Ciri said quietly. "You are not like Philippa, with you the Lodge could actually turn up to something good. Have you thought about all the things that could happen if mages had power and freedom again?"

"And what good could bring me all that selflessness, when it never had a positive outcome before? What benefit we got from putting others before ourselves, Ciri? It only pushed us apart, Geralt, you and I. We only got pain and suffering, and we already had our fair share. We have already wasted so much time."

"Are you content with how things turned out then, Yen? Are you satisfied with your life now?"

The sorceress stared at the only small lamp that lighted up the bedroom for a long while before answering.

"I think I'm, my darling." However, she was not sure if it was true.

Ciri probably had been very tired because she fell asleep while they still were conversing. The sorceress did not have the courage to disturb her, so she allowed her to sleep on her bed, like she had done many years ago when Ciri was barely a teenager, except this time, the young woman slept without dreams or nightmares.

Differently from her daughter, it took Yennefer a long time to fall asleep.