On Ashen Wings
is a The Witcher and Baldur's Gate III fanfiction by Historical Hijinks, author of Seraphim, Herald, Because of the War, Dawn Is Just a Heartbeat Away, Crown of Slaves, and Nothing Is True.
Official Summary:
Ciri has spent her whole life running. From her grief over the deaths of her parents, from her grandmother's expectations, from her own doubts and fears. From Nilfgaard, from the Wild Hunt, from her Destiny. But when she, escaping the Wild Hunt once again, finds herself in the path of a certain marauding nautiloid, she decides that she's tired of running. Tired of doubting. Tired of being afraid. The Ashen Swallow takes flight in Faerûn, and beyond, with a little...help.
This work contains examples of:
- Action Girl: Ciri, naturally. Shadowheart and Lae'zel as well, of course.
- Adaptation Deviation: The story starts with (relatively) minor deviations due to Ciri's presence and Gaunter O'Dimm's deals, but will likely only become more so as time goes on due to the cascade effect. Examples include:
- Astarion, one of the core companions of the game, dies off-screen in the first chapter, with his vampirism being provided to Ciri instead.
- Wyll, while still Duke Ravengard's son, is no longer a legitimate one, but instead a bastard. Furthermore, Gaunter mentions casually that he 'traded his life as a Duke’s son to get that devil’s leash off of his neck', implying that he is no longer bound by his contract to Mizora. What that means exactly is yet to be defined.
- Shadowheart is immediately recognized as a Cleric of Shar by Gale, due to the decorations on her armor, rather than the party being oblivious until significantly later like in canon.
- Alien Abduction: Much like the canon characters (and countless other nameless individuals), Ciri is captured during the Illithid Nautiloid's attack on the Dessarin Valley and Yartar. Ironically, she was captured as a direct result of her attempts to avoid a different Alien Abduction entirely, this one by The Wild Hunt.
- Blessed with Suck: As a Child of Prophecy with blood that is quite literally out of this world, Ciri is being hunted across multiple realms by several factions, all more or less intent on either killing her or turning her into a constantly barefoot and pregnant weapon. Gaunter O'Dimm involving himself in her life may briefly improve it, by enabling her to save herself from the mind-flayers, but it's also guranteed to make her life a hell of a lot worse, given he did such things as turn her into a Higher Vampire and a member of the nobility somewhere in Faerun. With a few other 'minor side-effects' not yet revealed.
- Deal with the Devil: The devil, in this case, being Gaunter O'Dimm, who makes several deals within the first chapter.
- Ciri makes an agreement to continue providing him with 'interesting entertainment' in exchange for his help in escaping Illithid captivity alive. In pursuit of doing so, he makes deals with:
- Astarion, who was so desperate to escape from his circumstances and the curse of vampirism that he did not put any qualifying statements on his deal. Wishing to be free of the nautiloid, free of the parasite, and free of his vampirism, he found the latter two taken from him (to be given to Ciri) and receives the former via a portal out of the ship. Unfortunately, the other side of the portal was midair, several hundred feet in altitude.
- Wyll, by comparison, had plenty of experience with tricky deals thanks to his bargain with the cambion Mizora, his warlock pact partner. As such, while the deal might not have entirely gone his way (he is still Duke Ravengard's son, but his noble background was stripped from him -to establish one for Ciri in Faerûn-, changing his history to make him a bastard son desperate to earn his father's approval), he survived his deal with Gaunter and actually earned a compliment from the entity.
- Wyll, of course, made a deal with Mizora for warlock powers as he did in canon. However, given the changes to his personal history thanks to his above deal with Gaunter, how that pact came to be and the fallout is not yet known.
- Death by Adaptation:
- Astarion dies off-screen as a result of his making a poorly-worded deal with Gaunter O'Dimm, resulting in him being teleported out of the nautiloid the main cast is aboard while it is several hundred feet over empty air.
- Ciri kills Us the minute she realizes that a brain is talking to her psychically, despite having no idea what it is.
- Divine Intervention: A few examples.
- Gaunter, of course, gets directly involved with helping Ciri escape the nautiloid as well as 'empowering' her through making deals with some of the other canon characters.
- Averted in the case of another deal he considered making, as he briefly considers who else on the ship can be used to provide benefit to Ciri, but dismisses one option because he 'doesn't want to irritate a local deity by breaking her pet', implying afterwards that said local deity would move against Ciri in revenge.
- Dimensional Traveler: A couple of examples.
- Ciri, who isn't native to any of the Planes known to Dungeons and Dragons, but ended up in the Material Plane in the Dessarin Valley as a result of her efforts to escape The Wild Hunt.
- Gaunter O'Dimm, who followed her in an effort to maintain and even enhanced the entertainment he garners from her life.
- Doom Magnet: Ciri, of course. Case in point, she escapes yet another attempt to capture her by The Wild Hunt. Should be good news, right? Problem is, she escaped right into the path of the nautiloid attacking Yartar in the opening cinematic of Baldur's Gate 3.
- Everyone Has Standards: Gaunter O'Dimm, of all people!
- First, he (seemingly genuinely) promises he had nothing to do with Ciri's capture, and gives her a deal virtually free of strings or traps because he likes her parents so much and finds her feud with the Wild Hunt amusing.
- Second, he happily kills off Astarion, remarking that the vampire would have quite happily fed from her against her will, caused her significant issues with their differing moralities, and quite probably betrayed her if given the chance.
- Eye Scream: The implantation process of the illithid larval parasites is horrific, agonizing, and terrifying, the victims held down by magic and machine as a tentacled, multi-mouthed monster forces it's wait onto and around their eyeball into their brain.
- Flash Step: Ciri's Blink ability, per Witcher canon, allows her to perform rapid teleportations as she sees fit, though she has only used it once so far, in order to skip a long walk to a town. In chapter four, at Shadowheart's somewhat-flirtatious urging, Ciri attempts to use her Blink ability on both herself and Shadowheart to avoid having to climb a rocky cliff rendered damaged and unstable by the nautiloid crashing into it, or going through the nautiloid itself. Neither of which they are interested in doing.
- Genre Savvy: Ciri might not know what Mind-Flayers or Intellect Devourers are, but she does know that a brain exposed to open air that is moving of it's own volition and talking to her psychically is a Bad Thing, prompting her to stick a dagger through Us without hesitation while it is still in Myrnath's skull.
- Psychic Link: Much like in canon, the party members (and all those infected with the illithid tadpoles from The Absolute) share a mental connection with one another, though it seems limited to vague impressions and hints of emotion for the time being.
- Rescue Romance: While it hasn't gotten much past surface-level appreciation and attraction just yet, Ciri finds Shadowheart to be very attractive, and Shadowheart is impressed and appreciative both of Ciri rescuing her from the pod and the way she did it (ripping the door off with her bare hands).
- Superpowerful Genetics: Ciri, as she is in canon, bears the Elder Blood, making her supremely powerful magically. Something that is enhanced even further by her presence in the far more magic-rich world of Baldur's Gate.
- Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Lae'zel and Shadowheart, during the escape from the nautiloid, much to Ciri's frustration and despair, though the pair is at least willing to keep their sniping at one another to a minimum when there are more important things to focus on.
