What part of it means fuck all went in one pointed ear and fell out the other? All of it, apparently. The more Estinien goes on, the more his patience wears thin. He has little time for those who insist on drawing him into a conflict he wants nothing to do with. He has even less time for someone who seems determined to push him when he's granted them several chances to walk away. It isn't even about the fact that he's under any illusion he can remain out of it altogether. He knows, given Yennefer, given the power Cirilla holds within her, that he will find himself in the midst of a fight he didn't ask for. That he will do it for reasons he owes to no one.
But it'll not be because someone's dragged this mess to his doorstep and demanded he make a choice or else. Is now starting to tell him about—whatever it is. What is it? What's even the point? Does Estinien want a pat on the head, for his internal struggles before a throat is cut? Does he want to see disdain for acknowledging having once killed without mercy? Does he think it makes a difference either way?
It doesn't. Geralt does not care to debate arbitrary moral reasonings behind blood spilled, one way or another. He cannot give two shits about whether Estinien feels nothing or feels everything or something in between about what he chooses to do. Somewhere in the mob that burned Kaer Morhen to the ground, in the hungry violence, there were those who struggled, too, as they stepped over the bodies. Who did it, anyway, because they foresaw a better world without his kind to plague it. Plenty who can't sleep at night, knowing they abandoned their child to the Witchers, to the Trials, and just as many who would do it again in a heartbeat. What does it matter? What does it change? (His mother had looked at him with such guilt and grief, and some part of him hates her all the more for it.)
What Estinien can never understand is that this has moved long past just Yennefer. Because there's a girl in his hands, and all he knows for certain is that she hasn't asked to be a part these hopes and prophecies, either. So the only thing he gives a damn about is protecting her from this war, from everyone's grand ideals that would use her.
And it means Geralt has zero desire in extending this conversation. To him, it ended five minutes ago, when Estinien made it clear that he has some higher purpose in mind he will stop at nothing for.
"You don't seem to understand," he says flatly, "that I'm telling you to fuck off."
no subject
But it'll not be because someone's dragged this mess to his doorstep and demanded he make a choice or else. Is now starting to tell him about—whatever it is. What is it? What's even the point? Does Estinien want a pat on the head, for his internal struggles before a throat is cut? Does he want to see disdain for acknowledging having once killed without mercy? Does he think it makes a difference either way?
It doesn't. Geralt does not care to debate arbitrary moral reasonings behind blood spilled, one way or another. He cannot give two shits about whether Estinien feels nothing or feels everything or something in between about what he chooses to do. Somewhere in the mob that burned Kaer Morhen to the ground, in the hungry violence, there were those who struggled, too, as they stepped over the bodies. Who did it, anyway, because they foresaw a better world without his kind to plague it. Plenty who can't sleep at night, knowing they abandoned their child to the Witchers, to the Trials, and just as many who would do it again in a heartbeat. What does it matter? What does it change? (His mother had looked at him with such guilt and grief, and some part of him hates her all the more for it.)
What Estinien can never understand is that this has moved long past just Yennefer. Because there's a girl in his hands, and all he knows for certain is that she hasn't asked to be a part these hopes and prophecies, either. So the only thing he gives a damn about is protecting her from this war, from everyone's grand ideals that would use her.
And it means Geralt has zero desire in extending this conversation. To him, it ended five minutes ago, when Estinien made it clear that he has some higher purpose in mind he will stop at nothing for.
"You don't seem to understand," he says flatly, "that I'm telling you to fuck off."