Chapter 20: The Fall of Cintra - Part 2
POV: Adam
The castle had become a maze of smoke and screaming, its familiar corridors transformed into arteries of chaos where death waited around every corner. Adam led Ciri through servant passages that his weeks of preparation had burned into muscle memory, their footsteps echoing off stone walls that wept with condensation and terror.
Stay hidden. Use the routes I scouted. Get to the tunnel before they find us.
Fire painted the walls in dancing shadows that spoke of a kingdom dying one room at a time. The smoke carried scents of burning tapestries and roasting meat that Adam tried not to think about too carefully.
"Where's grandmother? Eist?" Ciri's voice cracked with desperation that made Adam's chest tighten with shared pain.
Dead. Probably dead. Eist is definitely dead.
"I don't know. We have to keep moving."
The Kindred Spirits bond hummed with information that had nothing to do with sight or sound—the emotional signatures of Nilfgaardian soldiers moving through the castle like predators following scent trails. Adam guided them away from each patrol, using stolen seconds and borrowed luck to stay ahead of systematic slaughter.
Mousesack's tower. If anyone's alive, he'll be there.
They found the druid in his study, hands weaving patterns that made the air itself seem to thicken with potential energy. Books and herbs lay scattered across the floor where combat had disrupted decades of careful organization.
"Good. You're still alive," Mousesack said without turning around, his voice carrying relief that felt like absolution.
He's preparing something. Defensive magic. A last stand.
"Come with us!" Ciri's plea carried the desperate authority of someone who'd already lost too much to accept another farewell.
"I cannot, child. I must buy you time."
He knows. He knows what's coming and he's chosen to die for it.
Mousesack turned from his preparations, his weathered face bearing the peaceful expression of someone who'd made peace with necessary sacrifice. He handed Adam a small leather pouch that clinked softly with glass vials and dried components.
"Herbs. For healing, concealment, fire-starting. Use them well."
Supplies for the road. He knows we'll be running.
Ciri broke into tears, throwing herself into the druid's arms with the desperate intensity of someone clinging to the last piece of her childhood. Mousesack held her gently, his eyes meeting Adam's over her ash-blonde hair.
"I was wrong about you," the druid said, his voice carrying admission that felt like benediction. "You're exactly what she needs—someone who'll run when running is wise."
Understanding. Finally, someone who understands what needs to happen.
The sound of approaching boots echoed from the tower's lower levels, Nilfgaardian soldiers climbing toward whatever resistance they'd detected. Mousesack's form began to shift and expand, human flesh flowing into something larger and more terrible.
Bear. Massive brown bear with claws like swords and fury like winter storms.
"Go," the bear that had been Mousesack rumbled, its voice carrying harmonics that spoke of ancient magic and older purposes. "I'll give you what time I can."
Adam pulled Ciri away as she screamed the druid's name, her voice raw with loss that would join all the other wounds this day had carved into her soul. Behind them, roars and human screams painted the tower in sounds that spoke of violence beyond normal comprehension.
Another death buying us time. Another life spent so we can keep running.
The throne room lay between them and their escape route, its massive doors carved with lions that seemed to mock the kingdom's dying pride. Adam approached carefully, using Air Sense to detect the number of people inside.
Too many. But we need to get past them.
He peered through a crack in the door, seeing a scene that burned itself into his memory with perfect, terrible clarity. Queen Calanthe sat on her throne despite wounds that painted her royal dress red, surrounded by Nilfgaardian soldiers whose black armor spoke of victory earned through professional brutality.
She's still fighting. Even wounded, even surrounded, she's still fighting.
Calanthe's eyes found theirs across the throne room, recognition flashing in her pale gaze. Her lips formed a single word without sound: "RUN."
Royal command. The last order she'll ever give.
Soldiers turned toward their hiding place, hands moving toward weapons with professional precision. But Calanthe created the distraction they needed, throwing a concealed dagger at the nearest Nilfgaardian with accuracy that spoke of decades practicing violence.
Now. While they're distracted.
Adam used his last significant magical reserves to blast open a side door, Air Gust shattering ancient wood and providing them with an escape route that bypassed the throne room entirely.
[Air Gust: 20 MP]
[Current MP: 0/280]
Empty. Magically exhausted. Everything from here is sword work and running.
Six Nilfgaardian soldiers pursued them through corridors that Adam had memorized during weeks of paranoid preparation. Without magical reserves, the fight became pure desperation—steel against steel, training against experience, youth against professional lethality.
First soldier. Sword to throat. Quick kill.
The blade found its target with precision born of countless training sessions, opening arteries that painted stone walls red. But the second soldier was faster, his sword opening a line across Adam's back that sent fire racing through his nervous system.
[Damage Taken: 40 HP]
[Current HP: 85/190]
Critical condition. Need to end this fast.
Ciri killed the third soldier herself, her sword work flowing like water as royal training met desperate necessity. They fought back-to-back against the remaining three, Linked Combat bonus turning them into a single organism with multiple weapons.
Together. We're stronger together.
The fourth and fifth soldiers fell to combination attacks that turned Adam's positioning into opportunities for Ciri's blade. The sixth fled when faced with two young people who fought like they had nothing left to lose.
Smart. Smarter than his friends.
The hidden tunnel had remained undiscovered during the castle's fall, its entrance concealed behind stonework that looked like everything else in the ancient fortress. Adam led Ciri through passages that smelled of centuries and secrets, their footsteps echoing off walls that had hidden smugglers and spies and lovers for generations.
Supplies cached here weeks ago. Food, water, medical equipment, emergency funds.
They grabbed packs that contained everything needed for life on the road—dried meat, water skins, basic medical supplies, and fifty crowns that might buy them shelter when desperation made charity impossible.
Exit tunnel. Leads to forest outside city walls.
The tunnel opened onto darkness painted red by burning buildings, Cintra's death visible through smoke that carried the screams of people who'd trusted in walls and kings and other comfortable lies. An explosion behind them marked another tower's collapse, another piece of history reduced to rubble.
Out. We're out. But everyone else...
Ciri broke down completely, tears streaming down her face as the full scope of loss hit her with crushing finality.
"They're all dead. Grandmother, Eist, Mousesack..."
Everyone you loved. Everyone who defined your world. All gone in one night.
Adam held her while she cried, his own tears mixing with hers as they grieved for a kingdom that had become memory and ash in the space of hours.
"I know. I'm sorry. But we're alive. We have to stay alive."
For them. For the people who died so we could escape.
They ran through forest that surrounded Cintra like a protective embrace, trees older than kingdoms providing shelter from pursuit that would come with dawn. Behind them, the city burned with light that painted the night sky red while screams carried on wind that tasted of smoke and ending.
Five miles. Get five miles away before we stop.
Adam pushed through exhaustion that felt like lead in his bones, his body running on adrenaline and desperation while blood from his wounds left a trail that professional trackers could follow. Ciri matched his pace despite trauma that would have broken lesser people, trusting him to lead them to safety that might not exist.
Cave. Small cave where we can rest.
They collapsed inside a hollow in the hillside, both of them shaking from exhaustion and shock. Adam used medical supplies to bandage wounds—his and hers—while Swallow potion worked its healing magic on damage that threatened to slow them down.
[Healing: 25% of maximum HP]
[Current HP: 133/190]
Better. Not good, but better.
Ciri cried herself to exhaustion in his arms, her body shaking with sobs that spoke of a world ending around someone too young to understand why such things were allowed to happen. Adam held her through it all, offering what comfort he could while his own grief threatened to drown them both.
"Everyone I loved is dead," she whispered against his chest.
Not everyone. I'm here. I'm not dead. And I'm not leaving you.
"I'm here. I'm not dead. And I'm not leaving you."
"Promise."
Forever, if necessary. Whatever it takes.
"I promise. We're in this together. Whatever comes next."
They slept huddled together for warmth and comfort, two survivors clinging to each other while the world burned itself out around them.
Dawn brought experience gains that felt hollow against the scope of what they'd lost.
[Experience Calculation:]
Wave 1: 96 XP
Wave 2: 180 XP
Wave 3: 180 XP
Courtyard Rescue: 60 XP
Escape Combat: 75 XP
Story Mission Complete: "Survive the Fall of Cintra" +1,000 XP
Bonus: Saved Ciri +500 XP
TOTAL: 2,091 XP
[LEVEL UP! 9 → 10]
[LEVEL UP! 10 → 11]
[Free Stat Points: +10 total]
[Allocation: +3 STR, +4 STA, +3 AGI]
[New Stats: STR 22, STA 32, AGI 27, HP 220, MP 320]
Level 11. Stronger than I've ever been. But it feels meaningless against what we've lost.
They woke to forest quiet and distant smoke, Cintra still burning on the horizon like a funeral pyre for everything they'd ever known. Ciri's face bore the hollow expression of someone processing trauma that would reshape her understanding of how the world worked.
"What do we do now?" she asked, her voice carrying the lost tone of someone whose certainties had been reduced to ash.
Survive. Find help. Find someone who can protect her better than I can.
"We survive. Find safety. Find... Geralt of Rivia."
"Who?"
Your destiny. The man who's supposed to protect you. If I can find him.
"Someone who can help. Your destiny."
Ciri didn't understand, but she trusted him enough to accept the explanation. They packed their meager supplies and began walking south, away from Nilfgaard's advance and toward whatever safety they could find in a world that had suddenly become much larger and more dangerous.
[ARC 1 COMPLETE: "Awakening & Bonds"]
[ARC 2 BEGINNING: "Flight & Growth"]
[NEW MISSION: "Find Geralt of Rivia"]
[WARNING: Nilfgaard actively hunting Ciri. Stay hidden.]
[Relationship Status: Ciri - Trusted Companion (Maximum)]
[Ready for Romantic Development when age-appropriate]
Cintra burned behind them. Everything they'd known, everyone they'd loved—gone.
But they were alive. Together. And as long as they had that, there was hope.
The road ahead would be hard. Dangerous. Maybe impossible. But they'd face it the same way they'd faced everything else: together.
One step at a time.
The forest stretched before them, green and vast and full of possibilities that might lead to safety or might lead to death. But they would walk it together, two survivors carrying the memory of a kingdom and the hope that somewhere ahead lay people who could help them build something new from the ashes of everything they'd lost.
Together. Whatever comes, we face it together.
The sun climbed higher, painting the world in colors that spoke of beginnings rather than endings, and Adam Chen—formerly a clerk from another world, now protector to the most important person in this one—took his first steps into an uncertain future with the only certainty that mattered.
She's alive. She's with me. That's enough.
It had to be enough.
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