The Witcher: My Own Path

The women to whom I addressed my fiery argument were stunned. Not by any means for the fact that a child, at only ten years old, is shouting things about which he has no clue, but for the fact that they completely agreed with everything. They both knew it was like that, but they had never thought of it that way. This was the way the world worked, this was the way life was lived and you had to accept it and thinking outside of it, of something else, something more worthy, mostly died in the depths of the daily struggle for survival.

Beggars, thieves, bandits and prostitutes, peasants working all day in the fields, craftsmen and artists, merchants, and the bourgeoisie, knights without land, government officials, nobility and the king. Social classes, castes.

Everyone is born into one of these groups and dies within it. With very occasional exceptions where someone got lucky and broke out of the pattern. But that's the way the world is and if someone has big dreams, they quickly die or are brutally brought down to Earth. Loona was of those people who had big dreams, hers was probably to keep Hela away from selling her own body… she wanted to break her out of that scheme, out of the caste she would inherit. However, life brought her down to earth. If she died, her daughter, she would have no choice but to end up as she did.

I walk up to Loona and put my hand on her shoulder, our gazes meet.

''I know what you want, I know what you've fought so desperately for over the years, but if I wasn't here today, what would all this sacrifice of yours mean now?''

She bows her head in thought or in sorrow.

''I don't say these words to belittle your efforts or to create the feeling that you owe me something, that you need to repay me, but ask yourself. Now that you have a second chance. Was your plan good enough for you to continue?''

She looks at me with rage painted on his face.

''And what other fucking option do I have?!'' she shouts standing up, pushing my hand off her shoulder. 

''My whole life is fucking awful, every day I fight and fight and for my life! If it wasn't for my beloved Hela I would have collapsed a long time ago, or would be lying somewhere dead in an even worse place than this gutter.'' She looks at me and fulminates me with her eyes. 

''Mom!" whispered Hela lovingly. 

''That's why I'm here Loona, please sit down and listen to what I have to say.''

She sighs and reluctantly sits down in her seat.

''What do you want from us?'' she asks me 

''Not from "us" but from "you", because before I came here, I didn't know that you had a daughter and I didn't include her in my plans, but since she is here now, I can assume that she is trustworthy.''

She nods her head at me.

''Well then! first and foremost I want you, Loona! Before you ask anything, forgive me for this devious behaviour on my part.'' I announce in an apologetic tone. She nods and allows me to continue.

''As I mentioned earlier, Hela wasn't in my plans, so I have to modify them now, this will make it a bit more difficult to start my plans, if you agree to join me, of course.'' I theatrically wave my hand, pulling a wooden casket out of my pocket dimension, which appears in the middle of the table.

The women squeal quietly in amazement at this little display of 'magic'.

''Don't be afraid, open it.''

Loona looks at me and I nod encouragingly, causing her to refocus on the casket. She reaches slowly into it and carefully lifts the lid. She gasps for air loudly, covering her mouth with her hands. Out of curiosity, Hela stretches out her neck to take a peek at what's inside and joins her mother in mute bewilderment.

''Th...is it?!'' She stammers.

''Two thousand orens.'' I declare.

I'm sure the two women have never seen such a huge sum in their lives.

''One thousand, I want to donate to Hela so she can start her studies in Oxenfurt. ''I apologise for bribing Loona.'' smiling apologetically.

Tears are streaming down her cheeks; she has always dreamed of giving her daughter this opportunity. 

''Thank you!'' she whispers. 

I infer from the younger woman's reaction that she is equally excited.

I get serious and look the woman in the eye. 

''Now the fun is over!'' She gets serious and I imbue my body and voice with power, showing that they are now to listen to me and not interrupt. I'm done being a sweetheart! I declare emphatically. The women stiffen, slightly frightened by this unexpected change.

''I have goals and plans that I have been devising for years. I have dreams that I will realise and I will not let anyone stand in my way. I sternly declare. Now I am giving you a choice.'' I return my gaze to my mother. 

''You can take a thousand orens from the casket and leave the rest. We will then go our separate ways and we will never have anything to do with each other again, or you can have everything and I will no longer be your little apprentice. I will become your master, to whom you will always be loyal. But then you will become an inseparable part of my plans and dreams. I will tell you everything! The choice is yours!''

Shock, Fear, Disbelief, Doubt, Hope and Curiosity were all I saw on their faces, their feelings were changing like in a kaleidoscope. 

''Does Hela-''

''No, she doesn't have to join us. She can quietly study at the academy. It would be even better if she didn't know the details of what we were going to talk about. Of course, after graduation, if she wants to and you agree, then she can join us.'' 

''Hela! Go upstairs!'' she commands, still looking at me.

''But mom...''

''Darling, you have to make sure you take everything to the academy, and do everything you can to prepare properly for it. You know this is our dream! Trust your mum, everything will be fine.'' 

Hela gets up from the table and looks at me pleadingly as if to tell me to look after her.

''Don't worry, if your mother becomes one of my subordinates, I will do everything in my power to ensure her safety.'' I say with seriousness. 

She looked into my eyes for a while, looking for any lie, but when she didn't find one, she nodded and headed towards the stairs, for a while we could see and hear her, but when she disappeared from sight we returned to the conversation.

''Do you want me to give you more time to think about it?''

''No, she shakes her head.'' She gets up from the table and kneels down in front of me. 

''How may I serve you?''

I put my hands on the balls of my head, satisfied. I don't show it from myself but in spirit I smile joyfully.

''Get up and sit down Loona, we have a lot to do but not much time.''

''Look at this!'' Once again, I wave my hand pulling a stack of parchments out of nothingness. 

Still unaccustomed to this sight, she flinches… then reaches for the parchments and begins to study them intently.

She pales with each passing second and her eyes go out of orbit. She is not surprised. On these pages are plans, diagrams and devices from my previous world. Admittedly, nothing special to me, because I lived in the twenty-first century and the contents of the pages only concern the Middle Ages and late Middle Ages, not even the Renaissance or other more advanced eras, not even mentioning the Industrial Revolution. Maybe one day the time will come for this but not yet, it is certainly too soon for that. I wasn't worried that she wouldn't understand anything, she was intelligent and well-read. Besides, I wrote everything in very simple and understandable language, adding data about, the machines and their use and the benefits that could come from their use. 

Our documents include:

⦁ crop rotation (nowadays people all over the world use the three-field system)

⦁ how to introduce and the benefits of paper money

⦁ heavy ploughs

⦁ printing presses

⦁ toilets, showers

⦁ modern furniture

⦁ newer and more varied clothing

⦁ coaches and other horse-drawn carriages

⦁ asphalt 

⦁ paper machines

⦁ all kinds of board games and more

⦁ oil lamps

And many, many more. Of course, I wasn't going to put all these ideas into practice, I assume that even if I tried, I would only be able to put about twenty percent of them into practice in my lifetime. To be honest, my main aim was to show her the potential I had, keeping her loyal to me even if someone offered her more money so she wouldn't betray me.

''This... everything is unbelievable!'' she whispers. Her hands shaking uncontrollably. ''All these ideas! All the possibilities, the development!'' She looks at me, still unable to believe what she has just said'.

''By selling these ideas alone, you could be extremely rich and...'' before she had time to develop the thought, I excitedly finished…

''Dead!'' I pour a bucket of icy water on her flame of excitement. 

''Dead!'' I repeated emphatically. I looked at her blankly.

She puts the documents down on the table, realising she got carried away. I'm proud of her, someone else would have gone mad or at least not cooled down so quickly!

''Wealth, without the power to guard it, becomes your undoing! That is why I need you…'' I say.

''Tell me what your plan is, Lord!''

I sit down opposite her.

''My... no. OUR goal, is to build two organisations!''

She looks at me in concentration, she knows that what she is going to hear now will change not only her life but the lives of tens if not hundreds of thousands of people in Temeria and maybe even beyond!