Work Text:
For a normal human a lifetime is marked by time, years, hours, minutes, a careful record of the changing seasons. The average human also only lives, if they are very fortunate, to around eighty to one hundred years. So easy to capture such a small life with something as trivial as time. Leaning back in the wooden chair at her desk Tissaia pondered her own life in terms of time. Long before her fifth century began the meaning of it had ceased to capture what it meant to be alive still. For those that lingered on the mortal plane a life was cherished not in measurement but by fond memories and, if one was so lucky, the people they held dear.
The only reason dates and hours had any meaning left for Tissaia was her duties to the Academy and to the Chapter. While she had to keep track of her students and the mages she sent out into the world she rarely tracked her own comings and goings. The only written record she had was contained in a small flip style calendar sat on its triangular base on the corner of her desk. The only thing written on today’s date was a reminder for a meeting with the chapter that evening, it had long since been scratched out and the meeting cancelled. Try as she might, not everyone was as organized as herself and meetings were often cancelled or rescheduled, much to her displeasure. Tissaia cleared her desk of papers and reached for her pipe, if her evening was free she was damn well going to try and enjoy it.
After a short time of lounging and smoking Tissaia’s mind still buzzed with thoughts of her own chronology. With a sigh she tapped the now cool ash from her pipe into the wooden box meant just for that purpose. Once her pipe was cleaned and put away she pulled out a fresh stack of paper and her favourite pen and ink set. Knowing that she would never be able to settle with her thoughts going as they were, she got to work.
At the top of the page in her usual flowing longhand she wrote, ‘The Life and Times of Tissaia de Vries: an approximate autobiographical chronology’ (Draft One)
The beginning was very easy as she recalled quite quickly the year of her birth and that of her conduit moment. The following years of her study at Aretuza were documented elsewhere, summoning the tome of her predecessor she leafed through the pages until she landed on her own name. Jotting down the dates that accompanied the memories of her education and ascension, she shut the book but left it close by as it might come in handy again. From there things got a little foggy. Some events were easily recorded, such as her discovery and synthesis of “De Vries extract” so she skipped ahead to what she could recall in the moment. Soon she had several piles of paper each one dedicated to a numerical century of her life and broken down into decades. Quickly she came to the conclusion that she should have written a list of rules on what made a noteworthy event, there were large things that obviously qualified such as, ‘Became Rectoress and Archmistress of Aretuza’, but she had also included things that she now realized were not as important such as, ‘Visited Skellige festival with Margarita.’
Should she keep it professional and strictly to the events pertaining to her career and accomplishments? Flipping through the pages of what she had finished so far she realized if she were to do that then she might as well wrap it up and call it done, but it didn't feel finished. The day with Margarita in Skellige might not be academically noteworthy but she could still clearly remember the sun in the sky and her hands on soft hips as they danced the day away for the fisherman's festival. Remembering that seemed pretty damn important.
With her decision made she continued to fill in her timeline, sometimes she had to guess at a decade and put down a span of years when the event could have taken place but for the most part she was creating a fairly accurate account of her life in the last half century plus. Years were marked by good times and the bad, friends and enemies and the occasional lover coming and going. Sometimes even a remarkable student made it into the pages of her life. It was her most recent century that had the most pages, it shouldn't have been surprising as the memories were still somewhat fresh and easy to remember; what was surprising however was the contents of the dates she had felt the need to include.
The night had grown dark as she flipped through the thick stack of paper by candlelight, one name jumping out at her from nearly every page, Yennefer of Vengerberg. Reading closer Tissaia realized she had basically started a chronology for the other woman as well, she had included every date she could think of that pertained to Yennefer, even when the event had nothing to do with herself. She sat up straighter and read through the entries in disbelief, ‘Foolish girl went through the enchantment process with no herbs and forcefully ascended.’
‘Yennefer met the Witcher Geralt of Rivia and tried to capture a Djinn within herself in Rinde, her fate forever changed.’‘Yennefer saved the life of a Golden Dragon.’ ‘Yennefer disappeared for half a decade.’ ‘I managed to track down Yennefer once more right here in Thanedd.’
She shook her head, not only had she written of Yennefer’s escapades but apparently she found her lack of presence worth noting as well! Her heart pounded in her chest, she put the papers down and ground her knuckles into her tired eyes. Hoping everything would make more sense in the morning she headed to bed and tried to get some rest.
Tissaia awoke from a surprisingly restful sleep even as the concerns of the night previous still swirled in the forefront of her mind. Without doing her usual routine she entered her study with her hair down still wearing her nightdress. Immediately flipping to the final few pages she once again came face to face with a shocking amount of evidence. Tissaia was not unaware that Yennefer was special to her, but this...this spoke volumes and she wasn't sure if she was ready to listen.
The day went on as usual from there, even as she tried to focus on her classes and students her thoughts returned to Yennefer. Her colleagues in the dining hall could tell she was lost in thought but that wasn’t unusual, it was the small smiles she would try to hide behind her water glass or napkin that alerted them to a change. When asked what was going on she simply told them of her project, it was going well and they should consider doing the same for the sake of posterity. After dinner she quickly returned to her chambers, there was a lightness in her heart she hadn’t felt before and it was making everything she did feel new.
A smile lit up her face as she went right to her desk, Tissaia pulled out her pen and in her finest hand wrote the day's date and the words, ‘The day I realized I am overwhelmingly in love with Yennefer of Vengerberg.’