Ancient Sea update
Mar. 11th, 2020 12:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7via https://ift.tt/2vWV49a
As promised, I finally have Jaskier back in this story, failing to be a prima donna in the Advanced Bardic Performance Workshop Session, and workshopping the fragments of his new Tragic Ballad, which I had to actually write, which is just the worst.
chapter 5, Session
But the bit I’m excerpting, at the risk of ruining the punchline, is the part where Geralt realizes that Yennefer and Jaskier are hanging out now, and this is where I’m enjoying the tight POV, because Geralt doesn’t know Triss well enough to understand precisely why she’s off-kilter in this conversation, but the reader knows what Yennefer has already told Triss all about, and which Triss of course cannot reveal any inkling of because that would go against the sorceress Bro Code.
Geralt scratched uneasily at the back of his head under his hair, finding that he had a stray tiny braid woven into the length of his hair that Ciri had to have put there when he wasn’t paying attention. “They’re not… friends,” he said. “It’s hard for me not to see this as… slightly threatening.”
“Yennefer spoke of the bard as a friend,” Triss said, looking slightly, hm, wounded, offended maybe. Not good. “From what she said to me, they seemed quite close.”
“Hm,” Geralt said, feeling he was treading on shaky ground here. It wouldn’t do to offend a mage. Their loyalties tended to be, hm, strongly swayed by how much you annoyed them, he’d discovered. And there wasn’t much you could do, once one showed up, but go along with them and hope they lost interest before deciding to kill you. Which was precisely what he was hoping hadn’t happened to poor Jaskier.
“You don’t seem convinced,” Triss said. “What, you think Yennefer is sending you proof that she’s near this bard as a threat to you that she would somehow– what, hurt him?”
Geralt gritted his teeth, and said, “No,” but he could hear that it came out sounding false. If he was alienating Triss– it was painful to think of himself and Yennefer as being opposing sides of a conflict, but there was no question Triss would be on Yennefer’s side, and if Yennefer’s “side” became something that was in any way in opposition to Geralt, that would be a problem.
“You do,” Triss said. Oh, she was offended, or something– he couldn’t read her expression, but probably she was upset. Fuck.
Well, nothing for it. “I care deeply for Yennefer but she is not careful with people,” Geralt said, “and I have been close friends with Jaskier for many years and know very well that he is not careful with himself. I don’t consider that an auspicious combination, is all, and given how they’ve interacted in the past, I don’t see it going well.”
“Hm,” Triss said, frowning, but she seemed less offended. She seemed to be fighting some inward battle, the contents of which he could barely guess at. “You’re… not wrong about Yennefer,” she conceded. “But the way she spoke of it, she was helping the bard record the events of the Battle of Sodden Field, not–” She hesitated. “Anything nefarious.” She cleared her throat, oddly.
“Mm,” Geralt said.
As promised, I finally have Jaskier back in this story, failing to be a prima donna in the Advanced Bardic Performance Workshop Session, and workshopping the fragments of his new Tragic Ballad, which I had to actually write, which is just the worst.
chapter 5, Session
But the bit I’m excerpting, at the risk of ruining the punchline, is the part where Geralt realizes that Yennefer and Jaskier are hanging out now, and this is where I’m enjoying the tight POV, because Geralt doesn’t know Triss well enough to understand precisely why she’s off-kilter in this conversation, but the reader knows what Yennefer has already told Triss all about, and which Triss of course cannot reveal any inkling of because that would go against the sorceress Bro Code.
Geralt scratched uneasily at the back of his head under his hair, finding that he had a stray tiny braid woven into the length of his hair that Ciri had to have put there when he wasn’t paying attention. “They’re not… friends,” he said. “It’s hard for me not to see this as… slightly threatening.”
“Yennefer spoke of the bard as a friend,” Triss said, looking slightly, hm, wounded, offended maybe. Not good. “From what she said to me, they seemed quite close.”
“Hm,” Geralt said, feeling he was treading on shaky ground here. It wouldn’t do to offend a mage. Their loyalties tended to be, hm, strongly swayed by how much you annoyed them, he’d discovered. And there wasn’t much you could do, once one showed up, but go along with them and hope they lost interest before deciding to kill you. Which was precisely what he was hoping hadn’t happened to poor Jaskier.
“You don’t seem convinced,” Triss said. “What, you think Yennefer is sending you proof that she’s near this bard as a threat to you that she would somehow– what, hurt him?”
Geralt gritted his teeth, and said, “No,” but he could hear that it came out sounding false. If he was alienating Triss– it was painful to think of himself and Yennefer as being opposing sides of a conflict, but there was no question Triss would be on Yennefer’s side, and if Yennefer’s “side” became something that was in any way in opposition to Geralt, that would be a problem.
“You do,” Triss said. Oh, she was offended, or something– he couldn’t read her expression, but probably she was upset. Fuck.
Well, nothing for it. “I care deeply for Yennefer but she is not careful with people,” Geralt said, “and I have been close friends with Jaskier for many years and know very well that he is not careful with himself. I don’t consider that an auspicious combination, is all, and given how they’ve interacted in the past, I don’t see it going well.”
“Hm,” Triss said, frowning, but she seemed less offended. She seemed to be fighting some inward battle, the contents of which he could barely guess at. “You’re… not wrong about Yennefer,” she conceded. “But the way she spoke of it, she was helping the bard record the events of the Battle of Sodden Field, not–” She hesitated. “Anything nefarious.” She cleared her throat, oddly.
“Mm,” Geralt said.
