#yes yes im up on the tower ranting and raving again

[wiltking]

iorveth: you're probably right, but please, don't kill her. unless you must do so to save your own life...

i've been thinking about this line non stop since last night. iorveth changed his entire modus operandi for saskia - to fight her war because he believes in her ideals, going so far as to accept a world where he might live in peace with humans. and not only for her cause, either, because it's implied in his conversation with geralt in vergen that he might be involved in all this to such an extent because he has more personal feelings for her. 1 week prior he even started to threaten geralt if he ever revealed saskia's secret to anyone -

and we don't know what his threat might have been exactly, thanks to geralt's quick reassurance, but going by the things he says to philippa after she takes advantage of saskia (thus putting her in danger) it's fair to assume his threat might've been aimed at geralt's life.

but now? after traipsing through the wilds alone together to get to loc muinne, fighting together, talking together, even after geralt chooses to trust philippa again (however marginally) and take her out of the cells, even after they are once again betrayed by her as a direct result of geralt's actions - iorveth says this. he asks geralt not to kill saskia - unless he must do so to save his own life.

now, iorveth is a smart man. he understands risk and consequence, and agrees to let philippa keep her life despite his anger (that started long before she ever put a spell on saskia, mind you). he's shown that he's capable of change on multiple occasions. but it still strikes me that he would, in this moment, put geralt's life above saskia's. that he gives geralt this trust, this permission, this admission...

and all i'm saying is that one could, reasonably, draw a conclusion that if iorveth is weighing the possibility of geralt dying against saskia dying (in the event that a fight is unavoidable), and he chooses geralt as the one he would rather see survive, above the woman he had risked it all for, the woman he possibly had feelings for, that there is an existence of feelings here, too. feelings for geralt that may have surmounted what iorveth felt for saskia. feelings that aren't founded on politics or a just cause, or a pretty face, or magnificent secret, but rather... friendship. mutual respect and aid and curiosity. an unlikely link forged in an unlikely place, bound with blood and understanding and trust...