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"Alright, as you said, elves are a race whose representatives live for about five hundred years, which means they inherently don't have the same mentality as humans. If it's already difficult and somewhat... problematic for a human to plan something a decade in advance, elves should generally be building plans at least fifty years ahead."
"Let's assume that..."
"Now tell me, let's say you hadn't parted ways with that elf and continued traveling together... world after world... year after year..."
Ciri frowned.
"Most likely, over time, you would have grown fond of him, and your intuition, even if it warned you about something, would simply stop reacting to him after a few years because you wouldn't pay attention to it."
"Keep going..."
"And after that, everything is very simple... you would have probably slept with him..."
"You..."
Anger flared in Ciri's eyes.
"Don't misunderstand me. I don't know the reasons why it would happen. Maybe you would have just resigned yourself to the fact that he was the only one around you for so long, maybe you fell in love, maybe he would have arranged the situation so that doing otherwise was impossible..."
"Arranged?"
Ciri scoffed.
"Well, who the hell knows... let's say you'd end up in a very cold world where you'd have to huddle together for warmth, your clothes would accidentally get wet, and then..."
"And what would happen next?"
"Then you'd be led around for another year. And when you gave birth to a child, they would zero you out, take the child, and raise it as a true elf, ready to do anything for their people."
"Hmm..."
"Maybe they would have 're-educated' you over time. After five or ten years of travel, you would have grown fond of this specific elf, or maybe he would have found a way to make you his slave..."
"Never!"
Ciri jumped up from her seat, and the plastic cup she was drinking beer from flew aside. She pierced me with an angry stare.
"Never! I, Cirilla Fiona Elen Riannon, Daughter of Cintra's Princess Pavetta Fiona Elen and Emperor of Nilfgaard Emhyr var Emreis, Deitwen Addan yn Carn aep Morvudd, granddaughter of Calanthe and Rognar of Ebbing, Kings of Cintra, will never be anyone's slave!"
"And they wouldn't have asked you..."
I shrugged.
"Surely even you know a way to bind someone powerful with some kind of obligation... or bonds..."
Ciri flinched, and all the belligerence immediately evaporated from her.
"Only if a Djinn grants the wish..."
"A Djinn?"
I looked at Ciri in surprise.
"A Genie."
I nodded in understanding.
"But you still have to summon it, catch it..."
"Do you really think that those who travel between worlds as dense illusions don't have some way to do that?"
Ciri sighed.
"Now that you mention it... the last time I jumped, I just did it on luck... but before that, I was jumping based on the elf's descriptions..."
I nodded.
"You see? That means he at least knew exactly where you were heading..."
"Yes..."
She frowned.
"Alright..."
I sighed.
"...so we have a week for sure. And if we get more time than that, you can assume that this elf acquaintance of yours was indeed leading his elven comrades right to you."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes..."
I nodded.
"I'm almost a hundred percent sure we have more than a week, but we'll plan for the minimum time...
"Good, what do I need to do?"
Ciri composed herself and, sitting back down in her seat, she looked at me intently.
"First, don't stand out..."
I sighed.
"In our world, we have so many surveillance systems that can find a person with no history..."
"Surveillance systems?"
"Hmm... imagine hundreds of metal eyes. They transmit what they see to another artifact that analyzes all of it."
"A terrifying world..."
Ciri shuddered.
"It's normal, if you ignore the fact that any passerby could be a merc who can zero you out."
"Zero you out?"
"Kill you."
"Ah... I see... local dialect?"
"Yeah..."
I nodded.
"So now we'll pack up, and you'll do everything we say and not attract attention. And for starters, we'll drive to the clan's camp, where we'll begin preparations for the confrontation... Ugh..."
I sighed.
"What?"
Becca looked at me intently.
"I just realized that I tried so hard not to get involved in corporate feuds, and now I'm wading into a fight for a complete stranger who has an enemy with unknown abilities... What the hell am I doing?"
Ciri looked at me sadly.
"Are you going to refuse? Don't worry, I underst—"
Smack!
Panam hit Ciri lightly on the back of the head.
"Hey!"
"Don't talk nonsense. If David decided to refuse, he would have said so. But as it is, he's just being hit with a wave of melancholy that he's giving in to. He'll get over it after a bit of self-reflection. But it won't stop him from helping you with your problem."
"Exactly..."
I nodded a couple of times.
"Alright..."
After that, we just packed up. I asked Ciri for clarifying questions along the way, gathering information about our future enemy, but... she knew depressingly little...
"Hmm..."
"What?"
Ciri was too thoughtful, sitting at the girls' feet in the back seat, where no one could see her without looking directly into the car through the open windows.
"Oh, nothing... I just thought of one more reason not to trust Avallac'h..."
"Is that the elf?"
"Yes."
I sighed.
"And what is that reason?"
"Don't you understand it yourself?"
A hint of annoyance crept into Ciri's voice.
"I understand it, but voicing your thoughts out loud will be helpful to you."
"You sound just like Uncle Vesemir... you try to turn everything into a lesson, don't you?"
"No..."
I shook my head.
"...by simply formulating your thoughts out loud, you reflect on them again. That's very useful. In fact, that's why we discuss all the jobs we take together. I might be smart, just like all my girls, but when we discuss things, we find answers to questions we couldn't answer correctly before... or we just find a better solution."
"I see..."
"So?"
"I know too little about the elves. And that's after I traveled between worlds with one of them for almost a year."
She sighed...
"Oh, come on..."
Becca patted Ciri on the head. Ciri gave her a slightly confused look, clearly not knowing how to react to that.
"...your situation wasn't the kind where you could take a critical look at the situation from the outside."
"And I don't think they would have given you that time if you hadn't run into us."
Panam, who was driving, decided to join the conversation.
"You think so?"
"I'm almost sure of it..."
Panam nodded, confirming her answer to Ciri's question.
"They might have found you later, but they would have found you and probably tried to send you in the right direction to the next world, or that elf of yours would have appeared at the very last moment and taken you to another world, getting a 'serious' wound in the process."
She emphasized the word "serious" so much that anyone would understand how she felt about such a wound and how "serious" it would have been.
"Yeah, I'm already leaning toward that train of thought... they probably would have chased me around the world for another week or two so I would feel not only despair but also loneliness..."
"Exactly..."
Kiwi joined the conversation.
"...but now everything will be different..."
And Kiwi also patted Ciri on the head.
"Stop it already!"
Ciri swatted her hand away, but that only made us smile.
"Damn it, what is wrong with you people?! I brought you problems, and you're patting my head!"
"What's wrong with that?"
Kiwi shrugged.
"Uh-huh..."
Lucy nodded, looking thoughtful.
"...we have problems without you, and we genuinely feel sorry for you."
"I don't need pity!"
"You do..."
Judy looked her in the eyes and smiled sadly.
"...and we're strangers to you, for now. It's easier to accept it from us than from close ones or people you know well."
"Uh-huh..."
Ciri snorted sarcastically.
"...and then feel embarrassed if we become friends?"
"That's part of it... and you already think we'll be friends?"
Becca gave a sly grin, asking the question.
"..."
We all heard Ciri's quiet whisper thanks to the chrome. She said that we had broken into her soul too easily. But we all decided to pretend we hadn't heard her.
"What are you whispering?"
I turned and looked at Ciri.
"Nothing..."
"But still?"
Panam asked the question with a sly grin.
"Nothing!!"
"Oh, come on..."
"I said nothing!"
"Oh... you're so easily embarrassed..."
Lucy shook her head.
"By the way, what kind of carriage is that anyway? How does it move?"
Ciri decided to change the subject.
"Well, there's an engine in the front..."
"An engine?"
"Hmm..."
I thought deeply. How do I explain what an internal combustion engine is to a girl from the Middle Ages, even a magical one?
"Hmm... do you have explosive mixtures?"
"Yes..."
"Well, small explosions are constantly happening inside the engine. They move parts up and down, and with a special connection, the up-and-down motion is converted into rotational motion, which is transmitted to the wheels..."
"Uh..."
"David, you broke her!"
"Well..."
I shrugged at Judy's protest.
"...but you can safely pat her on the head now..."
The girls exchanged glances and, with a collective sigh, they left Ciri alone to process my interpretation of the internal combustion engine.
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