Finn had turned his room into a workshop.
Parts of the lightsaber lay across the desk in rows beside a screwdriver set, a soldering pen, bits of stripped wire, and one small tray that held some screws. He had taken apart the lower section of the hilt and nothing more. Going further than that felt stupid. The saber was advanced enough that he understood only the broadest idea of how it worked, and broad understanding was not enough when one wrong move might turn it into basically useless scrap.
The reason he had opened the bottom part in the first place sat beside his hand: the ice crystal from Captain Cold's staff. The idea was simple enough. If he could seat the crystal into the saber properly, then he would not have to keep carrying both a staff and a lightsaber. One weapon would do the work of two.
He had another idea too, though that one was staying on paper for now. Where his lightsaber would be hidden inside one of his arm and can come out either like a mantis blade or just an extension of his arm, with a magnet fitted into the saber. Another one fitted into his arm. Throw the weapon, and call it back, like Captain America's shield, or whatever the Jedi is doing, except without the Force. It sounded good in theory. The problem was that modifying his cyberware was a very different matter from taking apart a hilt. He still did not properly understand how the chrome in his body functioned, much less how to alter it without wrecking something important.
Finn rubbed a hand over his face and looked at the half-open saber again. To implement those kinds of modification, he needed manuals first, lessons too, if he could get them. He remembered something called skill shards, maybe those can make him learn how to modify his cyberware. He should take note of that and maybe chase after it in the future, or ask a fixer to find one for him.
It was then that someone knocked on the door.
"Come in," he called.
The door opened, and Ciri stepped in. "Hey," she said. "Do you have a moment?"
Finn looked up from the saber. "Yeah. Everything fine?"
"I... had an idea that I kept thinking of." She said. "Would you mind accompanying me to buy something?"
"Buy what?" Finn asked.
"Well... I don't know."
Finn raised a brow. "...You don't know?"
"I was thinking of buying something for the people back home," she said. "I've never even thought of that when I was running, but now... it feels as if it's a natural thing to do."
Finn sat back in his chair, a little surprised despite himself. "Oh."
He put the tool down, and looked at the saber parts for a second before deciding they could wait.
"All right," he said. "There must be some stores nearby. The problem is what you want to buy for them. With the people you've got back home, I doubt we can go to one store and cover them all."
"Yeah... that's what I figured. Which is why I need your help."
Finn shrugged and stood. "Dress up then. I'll go get the car ready."
—
By the time they were on the road, the late afternoon rush had started to thin. Rain from earlier still sat in the cracks of the street and turned the neon signs into long smeared colors on the asphalt. Finn drove with one arm over the wheel. Ciri sat beside him looking out the window for a while.
"So?" Finn said. "What kind of gift do you want to buy?"
"I don't know... something practical maybe for the witchers," Ciri said. "And maybe something... feminine for the sorceresses."
"...In the first place, who do you want to buy gifts for?" Finn asked. "Geralt, obviously. Yennefer..."
"Maybe Triss, Eskel, Lambert. Uncle Vesemir. Dandelion," Ciri said.
Finn let out a low whistle. "That's a colorful bunch all right. For the witchers... maybe swords. If you look in the right places, the katanas here are really high quality. I can go to Wakako Okada again. She seems like the type to know blades. I saw a beautiful one in her office."
"Swords, hm?" Ciri thought about it. "Maybe for Geralt."
"Why not all of them?"
"I don't think I want to give a sword to Uncle Vesemir," Ciri said. "Eskel and Lambert... maybe a knife or something."
Finn chuckled. "You want Geralt's gift to be better than the others?"
"What? Is that wrong?"
"It's just cute, is all."
Ciri gave him a look. "Cute? It is only natural."
"Right, right." Finn tapped the wheel once with his thumb. "Geralt gets a sword. Eskel and Lambert get knives. Vesemir?"
"Well... he's old." Ciri stared out the windshield a moment. "Perhaps something useful."
"One thing I know about old men is that they love tools," Finn said. "Maybe get him a high-quality tool set from here."
"...Can he even use it?"
"I'm sure we can teach him. It can't be that different. Just more refined."
Ciri hummed. "All right, if you say so. Then there's Dandelion... Yennefer... and Triss..."
"...I don't know that much about women," Finn said. "But Dandelion maybe gets art supplies. Pens. Pencils. Books. That sort of thing. He'd probably like that."
"All right. That sounds good. Let's think of what to buy for the women later. For now let's just get those."
"I'll call Wakako first then."
He started the call through his optics and let it ring while the car rolled past another line of storefronts. Wakako picked up after a few seconds.
"Hello, Mr. Wegner. Long time no see. I hope the new apartment suits you."
"It suits me very well," Finn said. "I'm just glad the scavs aren't bothering me anymore."
"Ah yes. The parasite responsible for that has been dealt with, for your information," Wakako said. "Now, what can I help you with?"
"I need a favor. You know a thing or two about swords?" Finn asked. "And I'm not talking about those mass-produced ones."
"Well, you asked the right person," Wakako said. "You want one forged?"
"The highest quality possible."
"What kind of sword do you want, Mr. Wegner?"
"Seeing that I'm talking to you, then a katana, preferably," Finn said. "Oh, and I also need knives. So maybe tantos too?"
"We could certainly discuss design in my office," Wakako said. "Though I must warn you, something of very high quality will take time to forge."
Finn glanced sideways at Ciri, then back to the road. "Well, we aren't going away anytime soon. I think. I'll see you later then. Tomorrow morning maybe?"
"I will see you then, Mr. Wegner."
After that, she hung up.
Ciri was smiling faintly when he looked at her again. "It's quite weird to see that it's as if you're talking to yourself. I know you're talking to somebody, but still..."
Finn laughed. "Anyway, let's head to a megabuilding near here and find the rest of the stuff. We'll meet Wakako tomorrow for the design."
—
They finished buying Vesemir's and Dandelion's gifts hours later.
By then it was night again, and rain had started up once more. The toolbox sat on the back seat beside the art supplies, both boxed and bagged. They had parked for a while under the shelter of a concrete overhang so they could think without driving in circles.
"We still need something for Yennefer and Triss," Ciri said. She leaned back into the seat and let out a breath. "Maybe clothing? Though I do not suppose they'd like the fashion sense of this world."
"I'm sure they'd like any gift you give them," Finn said. "So just think of one. Jewelry maybe. Perfume."
"Necklaces sound quite nice," Ciri said.
"We'd need to dress up a little if we want to go to a jewelry store."
Ciri groaned. "I don't like wearing dresses. Especially this world's dresses. Why?"
"Because those are high-end places," Finn said. "You need to look high-end too. Otherwise they might think you're there to rob them."
"They'll probably think me a robber either way," Ciri said.
She did not say more than that, but Finn knew what she meant. His eyes went to the scar on her face. Avallach's ointment had done more than he expected. The mark was still there, still unmistakable, but it had healed softer than before. Less raw. Less jagged.
Without thinking too much about it, Finn reached over and brushed his fingers against the scar.
Ciri jerked slightly and turned to him. "What are you doing?"
"Your scar," Finn said. "It looks really nice now. If anything, it adds to your beauty."
That caught her off guard so completely that she just stared at him for a moment.
Then she found her footing again. "You can't just say something like that all of a sudden."
"Look, they won't think you're some kind of lowlife because of that scar," Finn said. "They'll probably think it's some new trend or some high-fashion thing."
Ciri scoffed. "Who was even talking about my scar?"
"I know you're insecure about it," Finn said. "So if you really want to buy some jewelry for your people back home, you need to dress up a little."
Ciri let her head fall back against the seat. "Fine..."
—
They found a high-end jewelry store in the Watson district near where their apartment is.
Finn leaned against a counter near the wall while Ciri spoke with one of the clerks. She had dressed up, though not in the formal way. Still, she looked expensive enough for the staff to stop asking questions and start offering options. Her coat was cut better than usual, her boots were cleaner, and the clerk had switched to that smooth high-end customer voice people in this city seemed to keep ready for anyone who looked like they might spend a lot.
Finn let them talk and stayed out of it. Ciri was doing fine on her own. Better than fine, actually. He watched her point at one tray, dismiss another, then ask to see a third closer. She looked far too serious about it for someone who had been grumbling in the car an hour earlier.
It was then that another clerk came up beside him.
"While we wait for your girlfriend, sir, do you need anything else?"
Finn looked at him. "Girlfriend? Oh no, she doesn't swing that way. I think. Just a friend."
The clerk blinked once, recovered instantly, and smiled again. "Of course, sir. Then can I help you with anything?"
Finn thought about it for only a second. "Can you make custom jewelry for me?"
"Our store is the best in Watson, sir. You can count on us."
Finn smiled and sent an image through his optics with a point of his finger. "Perfect. I need a silver necklace. Here's the design. Can you make it?"
The clerk studied the projected sketch. "We can certainly make this, sir. It should be ready in a couple of minutes. Our fabrication tech handles custom work very quickly."
"Perfect," Finn said. "Just combine the bill with hers."
"Right away, sir."
—
They were back on the road by the time the rain had started to ease.
Ciri sat with the boxes on her lap and opened them one by one under the glow from the dashboard. Finn saw the pieces as she checked them: a purple flower pendant for Yennefer, a red gem bracelet for Triss, both clearly very expensive. She studied them with a small, satisfied look, then reached for the last box and stopped.
"Wait... what is this?"
She held up the box that had not been there when she paid. Finn kept his eyes on the road.
"Just open it," he said.
Ciri did.
Inside was a silver necklace. The pendant was a wolf's head, close enough to a witcher's medallion to be recognized at once, but not the same. Smaller. A little narrower. The lines of the face were subtler, almost feminine, more she-wolf than wolf. There was no magic in it, of course.
Ciri looked at it for a long moment before speaking.
"You asked them to make this?"
"Yeah. It's for you." Finn shrugged. "From the look of things, you hadn't bought anything for yourself. It doesn't have any magic in it, obviously, but you can enchant it or something once you get back."
Ciri looked down at the necklace again, then carefully lifted it from the box.
"...Thank you, Finn," she said.
She put it right there in the passenger seat. The silver wolf settled against her chest almost perfectly.