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"The fuck? Is that human?" Lambert asked, alarmed. He was leaning against the frame of the doorway into Aubry's room, and he had just caught sight of a cleaned skull sitting in the middle of the floor. It had a small tattoo of a heart on the forehead.
"Hm? Oh, yeah." Aubry replied offhandedly before he waved Lambert inside. "What the hell is Geralt thinking?" He asked as Lambert stepped in and shut the door behind himself, continuing their conversation from the hallway. Lambert shrugged.
"You know how he is. Thinking witchers are all noble and shit; of course he wants to start hunting humans."
"Not all humans, though." Aubry added, thinking back to the arguments Geralt had made to them earlier. "Just the monstrous ones."
"Yeah, well," Lambert leaned against the door behind him, crossing his arms as he went. "Most of 'em deserve it, from what I've seen." He snarled out. Aubry made an agreeable sort of hum at that.
"What do you think?" Aubry asked carefully, after letting the silence ring for several minutes.
"I think he's mad." Lambert admitted with a smirk. "But I'm friends with a Cat so that isn't a bad thing in my book."
"Think the rest will agree?"
"I hope so." Lambert said, soft in a way that he normally never let anyone else see. "What do you say about it all?"
"I think," Aubry started, picking out his words carefully. "We should." Lambert nodded, glad. He'd tell Eskel later that Aubry would be on their side. He leaned up, off the door, mission accomplished. He paused in the doorway, however, and looked back.
"We not gonna talk about that?" He asked, nodding at the skull. When all he got back from Aubry was a blank stare, Lambert scoffed at the older witcher before he left in a huff. He had shit to do.
"Eskel told you what I'm here for, yes?" Yennefer asked as soon as Aubry opened his door. She was standing in the hallway in all her witchy glory, one hand on her hip. Aubry huffed a response before stepping to the side and allowing her to enter.
"Silencing spell, right?" He asked as he folded his arms and glared at her. He didn't mind the witch, in all honesty. But this was his room, and well, wolves were territorial.
"Yes. It won't take-" Yennefer cut herself off as she spotted a human skull on the hearth. She went completely silent as she stared at it, almost mesmerized. Aubry gave her a few moments before he growled out a small huff.
"You were saying?" He asked when she didn't respond. She snapped her eyes to his, eyes wide and slightly frantic.
"That's a powerful artifact." She whispered.
"I'm aware." Aubry said coldly, fixing her with a stern glare. She straightened herself, patting down her immaculate skirts as she cleared her throat.
"It won't take long." She raised her hands and started the spell, ignoring everything around her and focusing on a spot on the door. Once she was done, she stepped back to the door, shooting a pointed look at the taciturn witcher. "Be careful with that."
"I know what I'm doing."
"Aubry, is that a human skull?" Jaskier asked after a moment's hesitation. Aubry blinked and looked at the table he was standing beside. There, on a small stack of books, sat a clean skull, a small little heart set just above and between the eyes.
"Yeah." He said softly before he went back to the task at hand, namely finding Jaskier's misplaced cloak from last winter. Jaskier had let Aubry keep it when the little black-and-white kitten kept falling asleep on it during the days, especially after the next tribute wagon came through and had an extravagant royal blue one on it.
"Is there a story behind it?" Jaskier asked, shifting slightly in the doorway of Aubry's room.
"There's a story behind everything." Aubry said with a small chuckle before he went back to his digging. Finally, he let out a soft 'ah' noise when he uncovered the cloak. He held it up and shook it out, inspecting it carefully. It was covered in black and white fur, but it'd do.
"Oh, Aubry. You'd best not let Jan discover you've stolen one of the mousers or he'll have kittens!" Jaskier said softly as he took the cloak from the quiet witcher, looking at the fur in dismay. Aubry chuckled deep in his throat and they left, to continue on their day.
"Ah! Such a view!" Priscilla exclaimed as she rushed through Aubry's room to the open window. She sighed dreamily as she looked out over the mountains. "You know, I didn't quite believe Jaskier when he was describing everything at Oxenfurt." She said quickly as she turned to look back at the witcher, who was unbuckling his sheaths carefully.
"Better or worse than?" Aubry asked softly, and he caught Priscilla's hungry gaze upon him.
"Better." She pushed away from the window and marched up to him, gaze never wavering, stopping just out of his reach. "Much better." She smirked up at him and he couldn't help the small smile that appeared on his lips. He scented the air discreetly and was not surprised to find no hint of fear in the air. She stepped into his personal bubble of space, licking at her lips. He lifted a hand to do... something when she turned away with a startled gasp.
"Is that what I think it is?" She asked, flitting over to the shelf above the hearth, where a bleached white human skull sat, right in the middle.
"It's a skull, yes." She leaned in closely to it but did not touch. She was examining it with a critical eye that Aubry found amusing.
"That's interesting." She said before turning back to him. "This old keep is just full of secrets, isn't it?" She asked with an amused grin on her face.
"Chock full of them." Aubry agreed, and then he had his arms full of bard. Suddenly he couldn't be bothered with superfluous things like thoughts.
"Ah, good evening, Witcher Aubry." A voice practically purred from behind him. Aubry whirled on the spot, hand flying to the hilt of his steel sword. Before him stood a man that was vaguely familiar, but just the sight of him had every instinct in Aubry's head screaming at him. 'DANGER' Every fiber in his body screamed, but Aubry just narrowed his eyes at the smiling man.
"Gaunter O'Dimm." Aubry spoke his name and bowed his head just enough to not be considered rude, hopefully. Fitting, that Aubry would run back into him at a crossroads in the middle of nowhere.
"It's been many years since I've seen you out and about. Been busy?" He asked, a knowing smirk on his lips. Aubry just shrugged. It was then that he noticed that the other man's hands weren't empty. He was tossing, gently, a human skull back and forth between his hands. A human skull with a small faded tattoo.
"See you've found it." Aubry said, not lowering his hand from his sword hilt.
"You've kept it safe for me all these years, haven't you?" The man of mirrors said as he held up the skull, looking at it fondly. Almost like one would a lover.
"I have." Aubry agreed, for there was no point in lying. Not to this man.
"Since you've done so well for me, Witcher, consider our contract fulfilled." He smirked, shooting a glance at Aubry. "Perhaps we'll meet again, someday, Witcher Aubry. One day, mayhaps, you'll be in trouble and I'll be nearby to help." He said with a nod and Aubry glared, but nodded back. The man turned and started walking down the road, away from town, whistling a haunting tune.
Aubry growled and turned away.
He really hoped he never ran into the Master of Mirrors ever again.