#relatable portrayal of someone who has been through an ungodly amount of trauma and been hardened but not broken by it

[drowningparty]

I love the way Andrzej Sapkowski writes Ciri in Tower of Swallows when she's relating the horrors she experienced, travelling alone as a young girl in a hostile world to Vysogota. She endured so much at such a young age but never let it break her, and I find her strength and resilience inspiring. Reading her describe feeling like a wooden doll, stepping outside her body during an interrogation to look down and watch it really got me, like... I do that!!! I've been doing that almost my whole life, I knew exactly what she's describing!!! Sapkowski really understands the different ways trauma can shape people. Ciri becoming more violent (while still hesitating to kill) is a natural response to the violence that surrounds her, the conditions she was raised in. So does her seeking comfort in an animal, in Kelpie, who cannot speak but can provide some much needed silent support when nearly every person she's met over the last few years, besides Yen & Geralt, only wanted to use her.