Transplanted Heart (Uprooted Remix)
Eskel/succubus, Eskel/Geralt
remixing The Heart Entire by @brighteyedjill
I saw Jill's one-sided Eskel/Geralt fic in the @smubbles-etc remix pool and immediately got inspired. Wrote 5k in like three days. So it's no longer a drabble but definitely going the remix route with Leshy Eskel! Also going a very different direction than my other Leshkel series. Currently posted 2/6 chapters.
Major character death (off-screen), hurt/comfort, Wolf brothers bonding over monster nerdery. Love confessions, first time, plenty of angst, suicidal ideation, more hurt/comfort. Mild spoilers for the events of the witcher books.
“Some loves are planted too deep to uproot without also pulling out the heart entire.”
🌳💚🌳💚🌳💚
“I didn’t think I’d ever see you again, let alone see you like this,” Maja said, eyeing him with a combination of sympathy and fascination. Eskel was no longer the witcher she had lain with. He was a mutated leshen with abilities that surpassed even the Queen that had originally infected him.
Eskel had always visited Maja before he returned to Kaer Morhen. She’d been so good at helping him burn off the lust, it made it bearable for Eskel to be near Geralt for the winter. Had less worry about accidentally revealing his feelings for his Wolf. He knew Maja would help him now, regardless of what he’d become, but he figured he ought to give her enough context to understand what he needed—and why.
It’d gotten too complicated. He missed it when things were simpler.
Eskel felt large and hulking in her cozy home. He was self-conscious about his desiccated, half-broken branches and scorched bark. That didn’t seem to deter her. She approached him, reaching for the nearest branch, and Maja touched a small pink blossom that had managed to survive the storm of his grief.
“A lot’s happened.” It was the understatement of the century.
They sat near her fireplace and Eskel began recounting the story while she finished her dinner. He told her of the leshen queen he’d come across on the Path that infected him. The agony of the transformation and the confusion that ensued. Geralt had nearly cut down Vesemir to protect Eskel and had defended his right to live. The fear and pity of his brothers and Vesemir was almost worse than death, except Eskel had lost his purpose. He wasn’t a witcher anymore, and he didn’t know what he was supposed to do. He’d been halfway down the mountain when Geralt caught up to him.
“He asked you to stay for the season,” Maja said.
“Yeah, he did.”
“How did it go?”
Eskel he draped some of his branches near the fire. Close enough to burn himself. “I’d already lost my body, my purpose. What else did I have to lose?”
Maja was silent for a long moment. “Did you lose your heart?”
He used one of his branches to grab Maja’s drink and he drained the last of the spirits.
Heartache unfurled in Eskel’s body, fresh and icy as spring thaw. It almost would have been better if he had stayed away, taken himself into exile and left his old life behind. He could have lived with that pain of being without Geralt. He had lived with that pain his whole life.
“Eskel.” Her voice was soft. She was misunderstanding his silence.
“Geralt knew me, he was there for me like no one else had been, and no one will be again. I told him… I told him everything.”
Maja’s look of surprise was refreshing, and Eskel cracked a sad smile. “Bet’chu didn’t see that one coming.”
“Not at all,” she said, and touched the small blossom again. “What happened?”
read chapter 2 on ao3
