Our climb up Blue Mountain was brutal more brutal then I thought. What had noticed what looked like a manageable ascent from the lakeshore. But as we ascended it, the path revealed itself to be a treacherous maze of loose scree, jagged outcroppings, and slopes steep enough to require using our hands as much as our feet.
The morning sun had began to burn away the mist, but it brought little warmth, this high up, and the air was beginning to get thinner and colder the higher we went. Its breeze carrying the bite of winter from the peaks above.
My clothes were still damp from the lake, clinging uncomfortably to my skin. Each gust of wind felt like it was trying to peel the warmth from my bones. I was lucky my enhanced Constitution kept hypothermia at bay, but I could still feel the cold working its way deeper with each passing minute.
Callum climbed ahead of me, his movements seemed more steady and easier. But at this point that wasn't unusual at this point. He'd always been good at physical endurance stuff, he had the patient determination to keep putting one foot in front of the other no matter how difficult the terrain. His red hair had darkened by lake water, and clung to his neck and forehead.
We'd been climbing for close to an hour now, and the silence between us had stretched almost to long. This was honestly the most silence that had ever existed between Callum and I when we weren't training.
Normally by now, he'd be moaning about being hungry or wanting a snack, cracking jokes to pass the time, or pointing out interesting rock formations with child like enthusiasm. But today, nothing. Just the sound of our breathing, and the crunch of stones beneath our boots, with the occasional cry of a mountain bird wheeling overhead.
The air about him was heavy and tense, like he was serious was going on, which was good for the trial, I supposed but this wasn't like him. Over the years, I'd noticed that whenever Callum was serious, he was also scary. Not in an overtly threatening way, but in that quiet, don't-fuck-with-this-guy type of vibe that made even the senior Witchers give him space.
But the real difference had come after we underwent the Trial of the Grasses and Dreams. When we were still just half-elf children, before the mutations, Callum had been cheerier, almost always the first to smile, or first to offer encouragement, and the one who'd shared his food with a total stranger like me without a second thought.
Now, though... now he had his moments where he was quiet and so distant, then I noticed something a few years back. When he was alone and thought no one was watching, I'd see him cry. Not big sobbing tears, but quiet ones. The same quiet tears I'd had in my past life, the tears of missing something or someone you'd lost and could never get back. I knew that look so well. I'd worn it myself, in another lifetime, in another world.
I decided to break our long silence. If not now then when? We were literally in the middle of our final trial, but maybe that was exactly why it needed to be now. Before whatever came next changed us even more.
"Hey, Callum," I said, keeping my voice low. "I have a question, if you don't mind."
Callum continued walking from the front, not turning around. "What is it, Cain? But keep your voice down. We don't want to attract the rock trolls."
I watched my words carefully, making sure not to ask more than I intended to. "Callum, you seem less happy these days."
"What do you mean?" He turned his face slightly, offering me a smile. "I'm my normal cheerful self."
But I could tell from the look on his face that it was forced, not like his usual genuine expressions. The smile didn't reach his eyes, and there was a tightness around his mouth that spoke of effort rather than ease.
My cold face didn't change. Instead, I said, "Callum, if you say I'm your brother, then tell me what your problem is."
That's when Callum halted mid-step. He turned back to me fully, and his face was cold, much colder than mine, which was saying something. His emerald cat eyes stared at me, searching for something. As the mountain wind made his red hair blow across his forehead, and for a moment, he looked like some ancient warrior from the old stories, with such a stoic and serious expression.
After a long moment, he spoke. "Why are you asking this, Cain? We are literally in the middle of our last trial to become Witchers. So why now?"
He was right, I knew it. Now wasn't the time or the place. But it ate at me that I'd watched the kind, bright-eyed boy who'd shared his food with me a total stranger slowly change over the years. The mutations had changed all of us physically, but Callum's changes went deeper than that.
I guess I just didn't want to be ignorant to it anymore.
"Because, Callum, over the years you have changed, little by little. You don't smile as much, and you hide your pain and sadness. So if you call me brother and said you would want me to meet your family, then let me in to what's hurting you." I paused, then added, "You know about me having Elder Blood. You and the others hold my greatest secret."
I thought to myself that I'd lied, I couldn't tell him about the System, about my past life, about the full truth of what I was. But the Elder Blood was real enough, and dangerous enough, that trusting him with that knowledge meant something.
Callum just sighed, a long exhale that seemed to carry years of weight. "Fine, so you want to know. It'snot like its anything big or complicated. Remember I told you that one time my mother is a half-elf, and my father is the lord of the town and is one-third elf. So I'm basically half-elf, even though I looked fully human before the Witcher mutations."
I nodded, waiting. I'd heard this part before, but I sensed there was more coming.
He continued, his voice taking on a distant quality, like he was looking at something far away. "Well, Cain, when I was younger, I always wanted a big family. Growing up, it was just me, my sister, and my mother. My father had his wife and children. A boy and girl too, but they never saw us as siblings. They looked at us like... like stains on their father's reputation. Something to be ignored and hoped would go away."
I could hear the bitterness in his voice, it was subtle but unmistakable.
"I have an uncle too, but he only stopped by every now and again. Taught me some swordsmanship and other stuff. He was good to us, but he had his own life, his own responsibilities." Callum's hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. "I always wanted a big family. And since my mother didn't want to find a husband, and couldn't, really, not with her situation, I said I would give us a big family. That way my mom was never alone."
He chuckled, but there was no humor in it. "I even said I'd find a nice elf girl if it made her feel well. Make sure any children I had knew their heritage, knew they were loved. I had it all planned out."
And suddenly, it all made so much sense. His reluctance to become a Witcher, even though he'd never said anything directly. Especially when Vesemir had talked about us being sterile, unable to have children, a side effect of the mutations that was as permanent as our enhanced abilities. Callum had wanted to have a family, and the circumstances that brought him here had stolen that from him.
"I'm sorry, Callum," I said quietly.
"Don't be." His voice was firm. "I met you, didn't I? And it's not like you're to blame. My uncle told me once that complaining about things you can't control is like asking a whore to fuck you for free, it's sad and annoying for the whore."
Despite everything, we both chuckled at that. The crude wisdom had a ring of truth to it.
But then Callum's expression grew serious again. "Cain, I wanted to have a family. But since I can't do it biologically, I'll choose my family instead. And that's still just as important. Maybe more important, because it's a choice, not just because of blood."
"Got it, Callum," I said. "Just let me know when it gets too hard. I know I come off a little more cold than my old self because of the mutations, but I still care."
Callum smiled with a real smile this time, it reaching his eyes. "I know this, Cain. That's why I'm telling you. Because regardless of the mutations, I see you care in the way you've improved things at the Wolf School's Keep. You made showers and gave us hot water. You found a way to bring in money to repair the keep. The food you make is always hearty and helps the senior Witchers feel at home. And you give them more coin than what they came with, making sure they're better off than how they would have started in spring."
He paused, meeting my eyes directly. "I think I can say for certain, Cain, you're one of the most caring people I know."
I was quiet for a moment, processing his words. I didn't think of it like that, I'd just been trying to make things better, to use the knowledge from my past life to improve our situation. But hearing him list it out like that, seeing how it had affected the people around me... it was humbling.
There this kid went again, surprising me even more. He is so bright for his age, and so positive its inspiring.
I smirked. "Thanks, Callum."
Callum shook his head. "Don't thank me. It's true. Now let's go, I'm getting hungry."
I laughed. "Now that's the Callum I know. Now let's hurry up this mountain."
We resumed our climb with lighter spirits, the heavy silence replaced by a comfortable companionship. The conversation had cleared the air between us, and I felt the bond of brotherhood strengthen. Whatever came next, we'd face it together.
The terrain grew more treacherous as we ascended. The loose scree gave way to solid rock faces that required careful navigation. My enhanced Dexterity made the climbing easier, allowing me to find handholds and footholds that would have been impossible for a normal human. Callum moved with similar grace, his own mutations serving him well.
We'd been climbing for another hour when I smelled it, the distinctive musk of something large and carnivorous, mixed with the scent of old bones and rotting meat. My enhanced senses picked it up long before we saw the cave entrance, a dark maw in the mountainside that seemed to exhale cold, fetid air.
"Old Speartip's Cave," I whispered, holding up a hand to stop Callum.
He nodded, his expression growing serious again. We both remembered Vesemir's warning.
We approached cautiously, keeping low and moving from cover to cover. The cave entrance was massive, easily twenty feet high and thirty feet wide, the stone around it worn smooth by centuries of use. Bones littered the ground outside, some human-sized, others belonging to animals. A few looked disturbingly fresh.
I peered into the darkness, my golden eyes adjusting quickly. And there he was.
Old Speartip was enormous. He had to be at least fifteen feet tall, with a body that was grotesquely muscular, covered in thick, leathery skin the color of old stone. His single eye,closed in sleep, thank the gods, it was the size of a dinner plate, positioned in the center of his forehead. Massive tusks jutted from his lower jaw, yellowed and cracked with age. His breathing was like a bellows, each exhale stirring the bones scattered around his sleeping form.
The creature was curled up in the center of the cave, one massive hand still clutching what looked like the femur of some large animal. Even in sleep, he looked dangerous, all that muscle and mass, the casual way he held a bone that could be used as a club, the scars that crisscrossed his body speaking of countless battles survived.
"We need to go around," Callum breathed in my ear, barely audible.
I nodded. The cave was the most direct route up the mountain, but there was no way we were risking waking that thing. We'd have to find another path.
We backed away slowly, careful not to disturb any of the bones or loose stones. Every sound seemed magnified in the mountain silence, the scrape of a boot, the rattle of a pebble, even our own breathing felt too loud. My heart was pounding, the Cold Blooded trait keeping my mind clear but unable to completely suppress the primal fear of being so close to such a dangerous predator.
It took us twenty minutes to circle around the cave, finding a narrow ledge that ran along the mountainside. The path was barely two feet wide in places, with a sheer drop on one side and the mountain face on the other. One wrong step would mean a fall of hundreds of feet onto jagged rocks below.
But we made it. We passed Old Speartip's territory without incident, and I felt a surge of relief as we climbed higher and the cave fell away behind us.
The mountain grew steeper still, and the air thinner. My lungs burned with each breath, and even with my enhanced Constitution, I could feel the altitude affecting me. Callum was breathing hard too, his face flushed with exertion.
That's when we encountered the rock trolls.
The first one appeared around a bend in the path, a hulking creature of living stone, easily eight feet tall and almost as wide. Its body was composed of boulders and rocks fused together, with moss and lichen growing in the cracks. Two small, beady eyes glowed with dim intelligence from a face that was barely distinguishable from the rest of its rocky body.
"Humans," it rumbled, its voice like grinding stones. "Humans not belong on mountain. Mountain is troll home."
"We're just passing through," I said carefully, keeping my hands visible and non-threatening. "We don't want any trouble."
"Trouble?" The troll's eyes narrowed. "Humans always trouble. Humans break rocks, scare goats, make noise."
Three more trolls emerged from behind boulders and outcroppings, surrounding us. They moved with surprising speed for creatures made of stone, cutting off our escape routes.
"We could pay you," Callum tried. "We have...."
"No want human coin!" the first troll roared. "Want humans gone! Gone or dead, trolls not care which!"
The nearest troll lunged forward, surprisingly fast, its massive stone fist swinging toward Callum's head. Callum rolled aside, the fist smashing into the ground where he'd been standing with enough force to crack the stone.
I didn't hesitate. I thrust my hand forward and channeled Aard, the telekinetic Sign erupting from my palm with more power than I'd ever managed before. The blast of force hit the troll square in the chest, and despite its massive weight, it had to weigh at least a ton, the creature was lifted off its feet and sent flying backward.
The troll sailed through the air, its stone arms windmilling uselessly, and disappeared over the edge of the mountain path. I heard it crash against the mountainside once, twice, three times as it tumbled down, each impact sending up clouds of rock dust. The sound of its descent echoed for long seconds before finally fading.
"Cain!" Callum shouted.
I spun to see another troll charging at me, moving with the inexorable momentum of an avalanche. I waited until it was almost on top of me, then dove aside and cast Aard again. This time I aimed low, hitting the troll's legs. The creature's own momentum worked against it, its legs were swept out from under it, and it toppled forward, unable to stop itself.
It slid across the loose scree, clawing desperately at the ground, but there was nothing to grab onto. With a final, grinding roar of rage and fear, it went over the edge, following its companion into the abyss below.
Callum was dealing with the third troll, dancing around its clumsy attacks with the footwork we'd drilled for years. The troll was strong but slow, and Callum was using that against it, staying just out of reach while looking for an opening.
"Callum, get clear!" I shouted.
He understood immediately, rolling away from the troll. I cast Aard again, this time putting everything I had into it. The Sign blazed with white light, and the force that erupted from my hands was like a physical wall.
The troll was picked up and hurled backward with tremendous force. It crashed through a boulder, shattering it, then continued its flight over the edge. Its roar of fury was cut short by the sickening crunch of stone on stone as it impacted the mountainside.
The fourth troll, seeing what had happened to its companions, turned and fled, scrambling up the mountain with surprising agility. We let it go, we'd made our point, and I was starting to feel the drain on my mana reserves.
"That was..." Callum started, then shook his head. "Your Aard is terrifying, Cain. You just threw three tons of rock troll off a mountain like they were children's toys."
"I guess the Elder Blood really helps," I said, trying to sound modest but unable to keep the satisfaction from my voice. "And they were kind of asking for it."
"True." He looked over the edge where the trolls had fallen, then quickly stepped back. "Let's keep moving before any more show up."
We continued our ascent, and despite the violence of the encounter, I felt a growing sense of accomplishment. We'd crossed the lake, snuck past Old Speartip, and dealt with the rock trolls. Each challenge overcome made me more confident that we could complete this trial.
The sun was past its zenith when we finally spotted it, a series of stone steps carved into the mountainside, leading up to a plateau. Even from a distance, I could see the ancient stonework, weathered by centuries but still solid. At the top, barely visible through the thin mountain air, was a structure, the Circle of Elements Forge.
"There," I said, pointing. "We made it."
Callum let out a long breath. "Thank the gods. I don't think I could handle much more climbing."
As we approached the steps, I found myself wondering aloud, "I wonder why we had to come here of all places. What's so special about the Circle of Elements?"
"Yeah," Callum agreed. "They actually put our medallions up here. Why would they do that? Seems like a lot of effort just for a ceremony."
"Maybe it's tradition," I suggested. "Or maybe there's something about this place that's important to the ritual."
We reached the base of the steps and began to ascend. The stone was worn smooth by countless feet over the centuries, how many Witcher candidates had climbed these same steps? How many had made it this far only to fail at the final hurdle?
I was about halfway up when the first notification appeared.
System Notification: Warning! Warning Warning!
My eyes widened in surprise. What? The System had never given me warnings like this before. The white text seemed to pulse with urgency, and I felt a chill run down my spine that had nothing to do with the mountain cold.
Then more notifications began cascading across my vision:
System Notification: High Magical Anomaly Detected.
Void Rift Detected.
My senses started to become overloaded with system notifications, windows and warning prompts appearing faster than I could read them. It was like the System itself was panicking, throwing every alert it had at me.
"Cain?" Callum's voice seemed distant. "You okay? You've got that look again."
I couldn't respond. The notifications kept coming:
Warning: Dimensional Instability Detected.
Warning: Reality Fracture Imminent.
Warning: Unauthorized Planar Breach.
Caution: Unknown Entities Not Of This World Detected.
Alert: Temporal Distortion Present.
My enhanced senses were going haywire, picking up things that shouldn't be there, sounds that existed in frequencies that shouldn't exist, colors that had no name, smells that belonged to places that weren't part of this world. The air itself felt wrong, like reality was stretched too thin here, ready to tear.
"Cain!" Callum grabbed my arm, his face concerned. "What's wrong?"
"Something's not right," I managed to say, my voice tight. "Something's very wrong up there."
But we were too close to stop now. We continued climbing, each step feeling heavier than the last. The notifications kept coming, a constant stream of warnings and alerts that made it hard to focus on anything else.
When we reached the top of the stairs, both our eyes widened at what we saw.
The Circle of Elements Forge was there, just as it should be, it was an ancient stone structure with a central forge surrounded by four pillars representing the elements. But floating above it, suspended in the air like a wound in reality itself, was something that shouldn't be there.