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I woke up with a fit of shivers that strangled my senses and mind, my tongue imbrued in a metallic taste set my muscle fibres ablaze. Cool metal emanated beneath me and my fingers twitched for release. There were leather shackles with metal fastenings on my wrists, fetters tied all the way around the bed’s feet which stood like thin grim rods with paint peeling off the surface.
I struggled against them, yanking, yelling and yearning for release.
Ma… ma… Visenna?! Visenna?!
Ma...Ma...VISENNA?!
No one came.
Whatever they gave me, clearly wore off and the pain seeped into my neurons, setting it on fire as I moved. I felt it in my fingertips first, whizzing dully and then a wave of contractions hit my system. My teeth chattered, my gums bled along with several other discharges and I palpably tasted puss.
The elixir had to work, right? A myriad of bottles clamoured in high racks, surely, one of the vials had a solution to end this torture. Where was the bloody anaesthetic that could dull my senses?
“An so he shall ess cleansed y aenye, air, carraigh, bloed an water. An so he shall rise, an mutant - an yeá vatt'ghern” - A mad chant of a sorceress silenced the air.
Every cell in my skin was alive with torment.
“And so he shall be cleansed of fire, air, earth, blood and water. And so he shall rise, a mutant - a true witcher.”
I heard drum beats in my skull, my vision blurred with tears and acrid scarlet flashed like the sun. A strange stickiness serenaded my eyelids due to the incessant slosh secretion and fluttering.
THEY HAVE TO STOP. NOW.
I WANT TO DIE.
GIVE ME DEATH INSTEAD. PLEASE, FOR THE SAKE OF THE OLD GODS!
“An so he shall ess cleansed y aenye, air, carraigh, bloed an water. An so he shall rise, an mutant - an yeá vatt'ghern…”
She sounded like death, beckoning.
A thousand emotions suppressed into one entity and I was made a vessel, imbibing it, piece by piece. Multiplying and piercing like a virus gripping my nerve fronds.
I felt everything and anything. A fly so much as landed on my skin and it resembled an elephant crushing me beneath its feet.
My stomach secreted fluids that I was not aware of, gyrating, amped to an infinite scale, I was not keeping track anymore. It finally stopped and adamantine chains settled in its place.
“An so he shall ess cleansed y aenye, air, carraigh, bloed an water. An so he shall rise, an mutant - an yeá vatt'ghern…”
I could feel my heartbeat, slowing dangerously close to death, frightfully beaming with a shell of a life.
Surprise, surprise. I survived.
They had several names for it. Experiments, procedures, surgeries - change for the better with an activated mutation - a better world with witchers.
“With immense pain, comes power - power you can control, wield and fortify,” Vesemir yelled loud enough for the young boys to let the words sink in.
There was no escape, no sign to prove my innocence. I just want to go back to my Ma.
Tears brimmed my eyes and I screamed with all my heart as my nails dug into my palms - drawing blood. I hammered my fists on the uncharitable surface beneath me. No more soft feathers that lulled me to sleep. The temperature of my body dropped, I turned into ice and turns out it was only the first phase of the transformation.
Ma… ma… Visenna…
No one came.
Or they chose not to hear my blood-curdling screams and rested behind a glass. Watching my every move, observing my reactions. They preyed on the innocent minds and snatched the tender bodies to deliver the ultimate weapon.
The cavernous abyss of Kaer Morhen lay gaping wide as the tiny limbs fell through to pick and probe. They say two out of ten boys survive the ordeal. I want to survive. I want to see the world. Visenna cast me aside, set me on a path of destruction and chaos. I will never forgive her for that day.
The day she left me on the street for desolation to consume me, for evil to embrace me as its own. Chaos controlled and mercilessly wielded on a human without a second thought. No boulders unturned. No ruse left to ponder over.
I was doomed f or an eternity.
Kaer Morhen was to be my home and Vesemir, the All-Father.
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