269 Open up

Reima enters the secret room that Ciri had apparently found, immediately he notices the large pentagram on the floor and Ciri reading a book with a disgusted expression.

Reima \"Ciri! Drop it now!\"

Ciri jolts and drops the book, confused at his command.

Reima \"Please tell me you atleast scanned them for curses before touching them?\" he asks while sighing in resignation.

With a sheepish expression she shakes her head, \"I, may have forgotten.. To.\"

Unfortunately Reima isn't a curse breaker nor has he purchased any book on the subject, the most he can do is scan for magical presences down here. With a wave of his hand he tries to sense anything containing magic with the obvious exception of he, Ciri and the two vampires beside him. Once done he's relieved that the only magical thing present is the pentagram, and that's only residue from a ritual that was cast quite a while ago.

Reima \"You're lucky you weren't cursed, don't do something so stupid again... Your luck will only go so far.\" he scolds her a she seemingly ignores him.

Picking up the book she had just dropped he reads the title \"Muggles or Squibs, which blood is better?\"... This place is obviously full of dark magic but there is no sign of anyone visiting for a while, this was supposedly a safehouse acquired by Ambrose, could he have been in contact with a dark wizard? It wouldn't be strange since he was trying to find a way to break the binding ever since it was put up.

Reima scans the bookshelves for interesting books that may help him without being too sadistic, morally evil and or unforgivable. Surprisingly he does find a book that draws his interest, it doesn't have a title and reads more like a diary than anything else. After skimming through it, it seems to be information on Animagus transformations, by the way it's written it must've been written around the time this particular magic was being refined. He'd read that the earliest users of self-transfiguration similar to Animagi were Native-Americans who'd take an inordinately amount of drugs, psychedelic mushrooms and poisons by certain animals and insects. Inside the diary is discusses various ways to improve the transformations and many, many speculations should certain circumstances ever come to pass. Whoever wrote this was apparently very skilled in the art, from a few key clues he'd managed to gather that their Animagus transformation was that of a Raven, what this means? Reima has no clue.

Reima looks behind him at Talicia and questions \"Did Ambrose ever tell you about this place?\"

She shakes her head, \"No, never... Perhaps we could ask him when he returns?\"

Reima mentally counts the amount of time he'd been missing and comes to one conclusion, \"I'm sorry but if he hasn't returned already he's at best captured, at worst dead... If not there is no way he wouldn't be here now, we witnessed his ridiculous regenerative properties when we first met...\" he says as bluntly and truthfully as possible to the woman.

She appears to have come to the same conclusion but still held out hope that he'd come eventually. Her eyes look down as she quickly mutters \"I'm sorry... I think I need some time to myself...\" as she leaves the secret room and slowly out of the basement itself.

Nerissa looks up at him and questions, \"Do you believe father is truly gone?\" she asks, and almost chokes through her sentence. He gives a nod and tries to stroke he hair comfortingly but she'd already turned and made her way out of the room, probably towards her mother.

Ciri just stands back and watches, she'd been slowly getting closer to the young girl but she didn't think it was her place to comfort her... She felt like she knew what it felt like to lose her father, afterall Geralt had died briefly were it not for her intervention, but she still felt like these two experiences didn't match up. She couldn't really imagine having a husband for such a long time before suddenly losing them. \"Do you think they'll be ok?\" she asks him as he watches the young girl leave.

He doesn't move, \"I don't know, Nerissa is mature for her age but losing a parent will always hurt...\" his answer draws long into silence.

Ciri sits on a wooden table covered by many haphazardly written notes, \"What of you? Were you close with you're parents?\" she asks cautiously, she knew of how most children taken to become Witchers were unwilling to leave.

Reima shrugs \"It's been such a long time since I'd thought of them, I can barely remember their faces to be honest... But I think they were good to me. How about you? You keep your cards close to your chest and have never mentioned them before.\"

She seems uncomfortable by the question but answers anyway, \"I don't really remember my parents, I occasionally recall memories of my mother teaching me to dance, read...\" She smiles to herself before quickly stifling her emotions. \"Before I'd even lived past my fifth winter my mother died sailing to Cintra due to a storm, my father was also supposedly killed but I know not that was not the case.\" she says bitterly.

Reima notices he appears to have touched a sore spot, \"Sorry, I didn't mean to bring up bad memories.\"

Ciri waves it off, \"No matter, nothing can change the past. Shall we continue to peruse these shelves?\" she asks trying to divert to conversation, he doesn't comment and nods. It isn't long before a comfortable silence forms between the duo as they investigate the rather vast library.