When their vision returned, everything was red.
The sky was red. The ground was red. The trees, the rocks, the grass, all of it soaked in the same deep crimson. Finn didn't have the energy to think about it. He dropped to his knees when they landed and breathed.
Ciri did the same beside him, hands on her thighs, chest heaving.
They stayed like that for a while. When his legs stopped feeling like water he dragged himself toward a wide crack in the ground nearby, a natural split in the red earth big enough to sit in without being immediately visible. He dropped into it. Ciri followed.
"Where are we?" Finn asked.
Ciri shook her head. "I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"You said anywhere." She leaned her head back against the rock. "So I went anywhere."
Finn rubbed his face with both hands.
"How long before they pick up your scent again?" he said after a moment.
Ciri thought about it. "Anywhere between a week and right now."
Finn dropped his hands. "Are you serious?"
"Yes."
"Fantastic." He tilted his head back against the rock. "If I had to live like this permanently I would just kill myself."
Ciri raised an eyebrow. "Is that a recommendation?"
"No. Obviously not." He straightened up. "Are you hurt?"
"No. You?"
"No."
A pause settled between them. The red sky above was completely still, no clouds, nothing moving in any direction.
"You know," Ciri said, "my first memory of you is you drawing runes and throwing strong winds at the Wild Hunt. Then just now, the same thing. Are you a mage or something?"
Finn was quiet for a second. "Kind of."
"That's not an answer."
"I know." He stretched one leg out. "I don't really want to get into how magic works across different worlds right now. It's complicated and I'm tired. The short version is I can't just use it whenever I want. Every world has its own rules, and carrying it across worlds isn't simple. The staff is basically dead now."
Ciri didn't push further.
Then, the air went cold.
It came the same way it always did, the temperature dropping in a single breath. Finn swore loudly and started pushing himself up.
Then an arm came through a portal that had opened right at the edge of the crevice, close enough that the hand shot through before either of them could react. The fingers closed around Finn's wrist. He pulled against it and got nowhere.
More portals opened. Red riders poured through in clusters, spreading out across the ground above the crack, surrounding it completely. Finn looked up and could see the full body of the one holding him, a rider half through the portal with its free hand braced against the rock edge.
He turned to Ciri.
"Run!" he said. "Teleport! Right now!"
Ciri already had her sword out. "No! I won't leave you!"
"Ciri—"
"No!"
He clicked his tongue, reached down to his belt with his free hand, and pulled the lightsaber. The blue blade snapped on and he brought it across the rider's arm in a single motion.
The rider screamed as his arm dropped to the ground. The grip was obviously released. Finn scrambled up out of the crack and put his back to Ciri's, blade up. She pressed back against him with her sword raised.
The riders had them boxed in completely. Twenty at least, spread in a full circle, their horses heaving.
In the span of a second, Ciri felt it.
Something in her chest, a pull she hadn't felt in months. She knew what it was immediately. The same feeling she got when someone tied to her by destiny was close. She had felt it before, it was unmistakable.
Someone in this crowd was connected to her.
She scanned faces fast, going from one to the next. Most were fully helmeted. Then she found the one that wasn't fully wearing a helmet.
Half a face, visible through the gap of a tilted helmet. White hair. A jaw she knew. Feline eyes.
Geralt.
"Finn," she said. Her voice came out barely above a whisper.
"Ciri." He answered. "We need to go. Now."
She couldn't look away. She took half a step forward and the whole circle tightened by a degree.
"Ciri!" he shouted.
She heard him. She stood there one more second, eyes on that face, on those wrong feline eyes.
Then she grabbed Finn's shoulder and pulled him in close.
And then they were gone. Again.