The Kaedweni-Redanian Border -
The road through northern Redania stretched long beneath a pale afternoon sky, endless lines of trees swaying quietly in the wind while Sebastian's horse moved at a steady pace over hardened dirt and scattered stone. The farther he rode from Ard Carraigh, the lighter the air seemed to become, yet the weight in his chest remained stubbornly unmoved.
Kaedwen was behind him now, the burning estate, the Count, the Hym.
And the child.
None of it left his thoughts.
His cloak shifted softly behind him as the wind rolled across the open road, silver medallion resting against his chest while his eyes wandered across the distant hills and forests.
"Redania," he muttered to himself with a faint shake of his head. "One fucked up kingdom from what I've heard from Geralt."
His horse snorted beneath him.
"But it doesn't matter."
He adjusted the reins loosely in one hand.
"I want to see it."
It was just him and the road.
A strange feeling settled in his chest at that realization.
Not loneliness exactly.
"Maybe I'll make my way to Novigrad," he continued absentmindedly, eyes fixed ahead. "See Dandelion. Gods know he'd never shut up if he learned I passed through Redania without visiting him."
A faint smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.
"He only visited Kaer Morhen once alongside Zoltan and somehow still acted like he owned the damn keep."
Sebastian huffed quietly through his nose.
"It'll be nice seeing him again."
The wind rustled through the trees.
For a while only hoofbeats answered him.
Then he sighed.
"Yeah… that's a plan then. Right, Sebastian?"
Silence.
A few birds scattered from nearby branches.
Then he blinked slowly before laughing under his breath.
"Gods, I'm a sad existence."
He rubbed a hand over his face.
"Talking to myself like this… almost pathetic."
His horse flicked an ear.
"Witcher life, huh…"
The laugh faded as quickly as it came.
The road turned quieter after that.
Villages became sparse. Forests thicker.
Sebastian's golden eyes moved carefully across the surroundings out of habit more than concern. Every movement of grass. Every sound. Every shift in scent.
Years of training made silence impossible to trust, his gaze drifted upward toward the clouds.
"I wonder how Geralt and Ciri are…"
The thought came naturally.
His expression softened slightly at the mention of them.
"Probably had it easier than I am," he murmured. "Though Geralt did say he hated complicated contracts…"
A dry chuckle escaped him.
"And somehow they always found him."
His fingers brushed lightly against the reins.
"My first one wasn't exactly pleasant either."
The memory of that underground chamber flashed across his mind again.
The tiny skeleton.
Sebastian exhaled slowly through his nose.
"They should be somewhere in Temeria by now. Probably farther south…"
He glanced toward the road ahead again.
"It's been almost a month already since we departed…"
Then suddenly
His eyes narrowed.
The horse slowed instinctively beneath him as Sebastian spotted something farther ahead on the road.
Someone.
A peasant laying motionless near the edge of the dirt path.
Half-hidden by grass.
Sebastian's expression immediately sharpened, his hand moved near the hilt of his sword without even thinking.
The wind shifted.
And then he heard it.
A weak heartbeat, unsteady.
He wasn't dying but it was not healthy either.
Sebastian slowed the horse carefully.
"This seems a bit suspicious…"
No blood scent, no visible wounds.
No wagon nearby and no signs of struggle.
The road itself was almost too quiet.
Sebastian's eyes hardened immediately.
"Well that's reassuring... I know what this is.."
He dismounted slowly, boots pressing against the dirt while his gaze swept the tree line first instead of the body.
He heard multiple heartbeats, but nothing moved.
Still…
It was too convenient.
His horse shifted nervously behind him as Sebastian slowly approached the man.
The person appeared to be a man wrapped in a torn traveler's cloak, laying on his side near the road with one arm stretched awkwardly beneath him. Dark hair. Pale skin.
Human.
Sebastian crouched several feet away first instead of immediately touching him.
His eyes narrowed, his heartbeat became irregular.
Breathing shallow.
Sebastian studied him silently for several long seconds.
Then he spoke calmly.
"If you're pretending to be unconscious, now's the time to stop."
There was no response.
The wind moved through the trees again.
Sebastian's hand had barely touched the stranger's shoulder when the forest exploded around him.
The hiss of arrows came first.
Sharp and fast.
One from the left.
Two from the trees.
Another from behind.
A fifth straight toward his throat.
Thuds echoed one after another as the arrows buried themselves into his body.
One pierced his shoulder.
Another his stomach.
One slammed directly through the side of his head.
Silence followed for exactly few seconds.
Then Sebastian sighed.
A long, tired sigh.
"…I knew it."
He talked while an arrow remained lodged through the side of his skull.
"Old fashioned bandit ambush…"
More movement came from the bushes immediately after.
Men, five of them.
Dirty leather armor. Rusted blades. Cheap bows.
The kind of desperate killers that haunted roads between kingdoms.
One climbed down from a tree laughing loudly.
"Told you the bastard would take the bait!"
Another emerged from the bushes with an axe in hand.
"Look at him!" he barked. "My shot was brilliant!"
A third spat near Sebastian's boots.
"Witcher or not, nobody survives us."
Sebastian looked between them silently.
"…Do I look rich?" he asked flatly. "I'm just a witcher."
One of the bandits frowned.
"What?! How the..."
Then the arrows started burning, at first only smoke rose from the shafts embedded in Sebastian's body.
Then orange cracks of heat spread across the wood.
The men were shocked, flames suddenly consumed the arrows whole.
Wood blackened and the iron melted.
The arrow lodged through Sebastian's skull burned away last.
And the hole beneath it closed slowly in flickering embers.
One bandit actually stumbled backward.
"What the fuck…"
Another tightened his grip on his sword so hard his knuckles whitened.
"A demon…"
"What the fuck are you?!"
Sebastian slowly stood fully upright now, embers drifting from his clothes while faint orange light glowed beneath his skin for only a moment before fading again.
His golden eyes settled on them one by one.
Disappointed, tired and almost confused.
"You just saw that," he said calmly, "and you're still raising blades toward me."
None of them answered.
One tried to hide his fear behind anger.
"Kill the freak!"
Sebastian tilted his head slightly.
"I really don't understand this."
His hand slowly wrapped around the hilt of his steel sword.
"Why do people insist on picking fights with witchers…"
Steel whispered from its scabbard.
The sound alone made two of them hesitate.
But panic had already taken hold.
And panicked men were stupid men.
"All at once!" one screamed.
They charged him together.
Bad mistake.
The first bandit swung wildly with his axe.
Sebastian stepped forward instead of backward.
One movement.
One slash.
Steel flashed upward diagonally.
The man's arm separated at the elbow before he even realized what happened.
Sebastian moved past him immediately.
Second move.
A sword thrust straight through another bandit's throat.
A clean cut.
The body dropped before Sebastian even pulled the blade free.
The third attacker came from behind with a knife.
Sebastian didn't turn.
AARD exploded outward from his free hand.
The shockwave crushed the man into a tree hard enough to snap his spine with an audible crack.
Three down.
The remaining two froze.
Too late.
Sebastian was already moving.
The fourth bandit screamed and swung desperately.
Sebastian caught the blade barehanded.
Flames burst across the steel instantly.
The sword glowed red.
Then melted in the man's hands.
Before the bandit could even react, Sebastian drove his steel sword through his chest.
Four.
The last one broke immediately.
"Fuck this!"
He turned to run.
Sebastian watched him for a second.
Then he exhaled softly through his nose.
The witcher sword spun once through the air.
Steel cut cleanly across the man's neck from behind.
The body collapsed face-first into the dirt.
Silence returned to the forest.
Five dead.
In less than ten seconds.
Sebastian stood motionless among them, embers drifting faintly around his body before disappearing completely.
There was no triumph or satisfaction.
Nothing, just exhaustion.
He walked calmly toward the corpse of the fake injured traveler and nudged him lightly with his boot.
Dead too, likely poisoned by the bandits and that's why his heartbeat was strange, Seb couldn't know if he was one of them or just a poor man they caught.
Sebastian crouched briefly and searched one of the bodies.
Nothing worth the trouble.
He wiped his blade clean on one of their cloaks before sheathing it again.
Sebastian rubbed a hand slowly over his face. "…Idiots."
/-\
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