#commanderroche

    Stubborn little thing, wasn’t she? He could tell she was not about to back down, no matter how much he resisted. And what did it hurt to allow her to feel useful? His pride? No. She was merely trying to repay a debt she felt she owed.

Okay so being sweet wasn’t working because he was shouting.  Or it was working too much and that’s why he was shouting, some men were like that and they often became soldiers for some reason.  Maybe because shouting was encouraged once you’d gone up in rank some.

“Yes sir, I’m aware.”  They’d been in conflict with the elves since shortly after the conjunction of the spheres, the elves just had a special name now and were angrier.  For...reasons that were pretty fair.

things were well once the wild hunt was defeated and ciri managed to stop the white frost. to the witcher, it seemed as if the whole world decided to take a turn as well. nilfgaard seemed to have weakened considerably and was slowly pulling its troops back south towards the empire. folk he passed whispered of emhyr finally seeing reason about the northern kingdoms being too strong in unison as opposed to nilfgaard and its allies, though geralt highly doubted that. maybe emhyr did see reason, but not in being unable to defeat the kingdoms. still, with nilfgaard now slowly retreating, the peace offered chances of turning things for the better ---- rebuild that what was destroyed, plant that what was burned down and get kingdoms back on their own feet. there was no better man to discuss such matters with than vernon roche, who was still in his hideout just outside oxenfurt.

they were all sitting at the campfire in the temerian partisan hideout which, upon geralt's arrival, seemed to have expanded nicely, at least supplywise. the witcher sat next to roche, ves and a few others with them as they chattered. "what's gonna be your next move, roche? nilfgaard's retreating. still willing to fight for temeria?"

     Avallac’h was close to collapse, his chest heaving with every breath he took. He’d run as far and as fast as his legs would carry him, not daring to open a portal lest he be tracked to yet another world for Eredin to chase him through. He was thankful for the woods; the horses could not follow, and there was a stream he could cross so that the hounds would lose his scent. 

     His only comfort was that if they were on his heels, they were far and away from finding Ciri. It meant they needed him for information, and though he shuddered to think what might befall him should they catch him, they were desperate. She was safe, for the moment.

     He did not escape unscathed, though. An arrow protruded from his arm, near the shoulder. It was enchanted, of that he was certain. He could feel the icy cold seeping deeper and deeper into his flesh, and he was beginning to lose feeling in his fingers. If it wasn’t removed soon...

     A voice from behind made him go rigid. For half a breath, he thought that perhaps they’d managed to track him down anyway; Eredin was a hunter for a reason, after all. But reason won out; this was not the distorted voice of one of the Red Riders.

     Not stupid enough to throw caution to the wind just yet, he turned slowly to face the speaker. Human. Temerian, a soldier judging by his appearance. Not of those he’d been fleeing, but still no less dangerous. 

↳ @commander-roche​ sent, “⚔️+ reverse (for Vernon)”

     After their last parting, Avallac’h had not hoped to ever see the dh’oine again. The soldier had left a bad taste in his mouth. True, Commander Roche had aided him once, offered basic medical assistance without any expectations of recompense. However, any points this may have earned him were lost the moment he’d called the sage ‘monster.’ He had proved himself to be every bit as childish as they come. How he’d ever managed to command any sort of force was beyond the elf.

“Oh come on fuck off!”

Such declarations hadn’t actually worked previously, hence the reason this one was followed up with a knife swing that only caught the barman on the arm.  He shouted, started calling her a worthless whore.

“No, ‘whore’ is what I would be if I subjected myself to your fat, sweaty ass for a room!”

She’d actually already paid for a room but getting that back was more than beyond imagining right now, she was hoping she’d just get out of here without him calling the guard and manufacturing something that would get her thrown in jail to be called a whore by other people

@commander-roche

“Ah!”

It was...him, that soldier.  She kept forgetting the rank, Roche was his name right?

“Ah, sir, are you alright?”

He’d been an enormous pain and help both, but he seemed generally a decent guy and it was a shock to see him on the ground, and too close to town for it to really be an attack besides.  At least from the elves.

She went to the man, knelt beside him and wetted a handkerchief with her waterskin to press to his forehead.