Anastasia of Vizima (@hellsxbellsx) sent a meme: [ mark ] - for my muse to discover that your muse’s soul mark is the same as theirs.
Who would've thought that Eskel would end up with another sorceress? Well, he himself did not, but now he was here, accompanied by Anastasia. As if traveling with a witch wasn't somehow awkward enough (after Eskel got in a verbal fight with two of those before and he has never been so fond of them), she was nice and she intrigued Eskel ... with the scars she bore. That gave him the feeling of being familiar with her already... and he couldn't stop imagining how she earned them. He knew how he got his own, given, but - the other sorceresses he met had looked unharmed.
Just like rain would run down a lotos flower's petals, it felt like human profanity like scars, or crossed legs, skin conditions, rotting teeth would pass on a sorceress. Like those things also were no issue for Witchers. They couldn't fall ill or have rotten teeth, but they bore scars of so many kinds and all over their body. While other Witchers showed their scars and were proud, Eskel wore the facial scarring as a permanent reminder to never run from Destiny again.
And it must be Destiny now, that he would run into these powerful women on end, either magical themselves or immune to such.
They rode alongside another in silence for some time now, but Eskel grew uncomfortable, getting squirmy. Not that he wasn't used to people being completely silent - he could often bear that much better than some nonsense talk - with Anastasia, he felt weird. Wanted to do something, go forth, have an adventure or something to talk about...
But his head perked and he looked around, pausing Scorpion to come to a halt. He raised a hand.
"Shhh," he said, "did you hear that?"
Maybe he was just a little too jumpy now, but he would swear he heard something drop to the forest floor. It was not a bang, it wasn't even a whimper he heard, just the impact that made Eskel's feelers go off.
"Someone's here. We might find the monster sooner than anticipated."
He gave Anastasia a look. "If that is what this peacock of a nobleman thought it is, we're fucked." He whispered the last two words, as if swearing in front of a Sorceress was something you shouldn't do. Usually, Eskel didn't care. He swore and cussed in front of Triss all the time, and he's yelled at Yennefer before, so ... they've always had a sassy comeback, now was the time to find out if Anastasia lived up to the royal's reputation.
Another sound, a rustling rushing through the woods like a whisper blowing through the leaves of a massive elm, made Eskel more alert and he unmounted Scorpion. In the heat of his movements, and tearing the coat off that was supposed to keep him warm, he revealed his upper arms and his itching rash showed. A rash, that's what he thought it was. That it looked like an ancient Aen Elle rune, he did not know, that it was ancient and powerful magic, he also did not know.
