I was testing the protection runes I prepared. I made them in the form of a heptagram, to have better control and to be more comprehensive, reinforcing the defenses of the place. While I was positioning the third rune, Vesemir approaches.
"Kid, I don't know if it's a problem or not, but we have some visitors looking for you." he says dull, looking guilty about something.
"Strange, I don't know anyone else in this world besides you, Geralt and ill saying, Yen or whatever your name is." I shrug, following the old man.
"Well, as expected, your performance in rebuilding the Keep has reached the ears of the king, and many other nobles of Kaedwen, so it is quite likely that some of them would want to meet you." he says.
"I see." was the only thing he said, as he escorted Vesemir to the fortress gates.
Once there, there were three well-dressed men, behaving in almost the same manner as the purebloods I had met, and a few soldiers, with no more than four or five of them wearing heavy armor.
I had barely stopped to ask who they were, and one of them steps forward, holds his nose high and begins to speak.
"On behalf of King Henselt, we summon the sorcerer who has magnificently rebuilt the fortress of Kaer Morhen, to a private meeting with the king," he says, still staring at me pompously.
"You invite a person without knowing his name, to be in the presence of your king? Are you crazy or do you hate your monarch?" I ask, because I found this invitation strange, to say the least.
"The king trusts his grand witch Vesemir, and knowing that you are a friend and have helped him in his arduous task, he comes to trust you, to be in his presence." says the pompous guy.
"I understand, thank the king for his confidence in me, but tell him I have not yet recovered from my previous work. I will need more time to be at full strength again." I say, already turning my back to leave.
I was only acting like this because here, they wouldn't touch me, in fact, anywhere they wouldn't touch me, and in fact, I wasn't 100%, although I could still do magic, I wasn't used to this new way yet.
Many times I tried to cast an expelliarmus or stupefaça, but all that happened was that I felt an extreme pain in my arm, as if there was a blockage. But when I tried to transfigure an area, it worked fine.
I was still looking for the reason for this, so there was a list of things to do, like lifting Kaer Morhen's protections, understanding how my magic would work from then on, testing new potions, and many other things.
Another important point, was to find out why I could no longer access my animagus form, it was as if my link to my form had broken or changed into something else.
The ritual for the connection could not be made, as the plant I know of for this does not exist here, so I would need to research a lot to find a similar one.
It was my luck that the witches cataloged everything, so this would greatly shorten my search.
A few days after I finished putting up the protections, which were nothing more than a way to magically reinforce the walls of the fortress, I began to study the plants of this world.
Occlumency was very good at this time, because it helped me to catalog in my brain the ones I knew, and compare them with the new ones. It was almost like a book, where every two or three pages, there were descriptions of the countless plants.
But the more the days went by, the more things seemed strange to me. I knew that my body was adapting to the system of this world, but even though nothing seemed to change, it still felt strange.
Or it could just be that I couldn't get used to being without my long-time friend, my wand. I understand the feeling of the wizards when they said that being without a wand, your wand, was like being naked on a block of ice.
You feel like a nothing.
I will have time to work this out, now the important part was, to improve my physique and my fighting skills. I was considered good, but lacked a little more experience.
I asked Vesemir to give me some lessons for a few hours a day, since now the old man was like me, just studying.
According to him, his will was to recreate the formulas to have new Witcher. As much as people say that their era is over, it was clear for all to see that this was not so.
The Witcher are like a police department, they not only kill monsters like ghouls or drow, they are also the ones who keep the countless wizards and sorcerers in check.
It is because of this, that the schools have been attacked in the past, with the wizards filling their lords' heads about how dangerous they were and that one day, they might succumb to greed and try to seize power.
I understood the old man's feeling, and we made a deal, I would help him find effective formulas and he would help me improve my fencing and fighting.
A routine began to form, in the mornings, we would go to the courtyard, where we would have brief fights, because according to him, this was the only way I could improve. Then I would go to the training machines, to improve my agility and reflexes.
After lunch, we would go into the library and look for anything that could be used, not only for what he is looking to redo, but also for my side. It was quite helpful as he read my book on magical herbs and fungi, and noted the plants in this world that could match them.
----
It was the beginning of my 4th month on this world, and Geralt arrives in Kaer Morhen. It was amusing to see his expression when he noticed that the fortress was like new, and improved. The walls were firm and magically secure against attack.
He explained to us what was happening, and asked for my help in finding the girl, his daughter, Cirilla. I accepted, but informed him that I was in the middle of a job with Vesemir, who immediately dismissed me.
For him, the most important thing was the little girl, and so I would travel in search of information, and who knows, I might find her before he does.
Ok, this is not going to happen, because it still requires a lot of preparation, and I will not make the mistakes I made when I played for the first time.
In my first save, Ciri died, and I did not like that ending. It was after the second time that I saw the numerous other ending options, and since then I have been searching for them.