This new world smelled of mud and regret.
As Tom Jacker found his footing, he was greeted not by neon lights or ancient architecture, but by the grim landscape of Velen. The sky was a leaden grey, dripping a cold drizzle onto muddy ground adorned with the remnants of battle. In the distance, he could see burned villages and gallows standing like strange, leafless trees.
He had arrived in the middle of a war zone.
"How depressing," Tom muttered, his fine shoes sinking slightly into the mud. With his Telekinesis, he lifted himself a few inches off the ground, floating casually so as not to get dirty. He drifted over the ruined landscape, feeling bored. There were no tall buildings to jump between, no advanced technology to mess with. Everything felt... primitive and miserable.
Just as he was about to decide to jump to a brighter corner of the world, he felt it. An incredible pulse of energy, so powerful that the air around him seemed to vibrate. The energy was wild, full of rage, and utterly unstable. It was like a giant beacon in the dark night.
It was the most interesting thing he had encountered since arriving.
"Now that's entertainment," Tom grinned. With a single thought, he vanished from above the muddy field.
He reappeared on a hill overlooking the ruins of an old wizard's tower. Below, amidst the shattered stones, he saw the source of the energy. A woman with jet-black hair was struggling inside a flickering circle of magic. Her arms were outstretched, the veins in her neck bulging with concentration as she tried to contain a swirling vortex of wind, lightning, and raw energy raging before her.
It was Yennefer of Vengerberg, and she was losing badly in her fight against the Djinn she had just summoned.
Her magic shield was cracking, and blood dripped from her nose due to the pressure. The Djinn, an elemental entity enraged at being summoned, was gathering its power for one final attack that would destroy not only Yennefer, but the entire hilltop as well.
Tom watched from above, floating casually. He could see the burning ambition and power in the woman's eyes, but also her desperation. She was powerful, no doubt. But she was challenging something beyond her reach.
"Good effort, but poor execution," Tom commented to himself.
Just as the Djinn was about to explode, Tom decided he had watched enough. He descended slowly, landing without a sound behind Yennefer, just outside her failing magic circle.
Yennefer didn't notice him. All her senses were focused on trying to survive.
Tom didn't chant a spell. He didn't use any complex hand gestures. He just boredly lifted one hand toward the magical storm.
He used Telekinesis.
To Yennefer, it felt as if the entire world had stopped. The elemental storm before her, a primordial force of nature that was about to tear her to shreds, suddenly froze in place. It was as if a giant, invisible hand had seized it in a tight grip. The Djinn struggled and howled silently, but it could not move.
With a slight frown of concentration, Tom began to squeeze. The vortex of magical storm was compacted, compressed, forced into a smaller and denser ball of energy. From the size of a house, to the size of a carriage, then the size of a barrel, until finally, it was a restlessly pulsating, bluish ball of light the size of a fist, floating obediently before Tom.
Yennefer gasped for air, her magic circle extinguished as she fell to her knees from exhaustion and total shock. She stared at the trapped ball of the Djinn, then at the strange man standing casually behind her. She couldn't sense any Chaos magic from him. All she felt was raw power, physical force on a cosmic level directed by will, something that shouldn't be possible.
Tom looked at the struggling ball of energy, then turned to the still-kneeling Yennefer. He smirked, a smile that was not at all reassuring.
"This pet of yours is a bit wild, huh?" he said, his tone light and mocking. "You should probably keep it on a tighter leash."
Yennefer rose with difficulty, her legs still trembling from magical exhaustion. She ignored the pain and fatigue, her violet eyes staring intently at Tom Jacker with the intensity of a serpent ready to strike. Her momentary fear had been replaced by cold calculation and wariness.
"I will not ask again, stranger," Yennefer said, her voice hoarse yet filled with undeniable authority. "Who are you? And what do you want with that Djinn?"
Tom glanced at the still-struggling ball of blue light in his telekinetic grip, then back at Yennefer. He shrugged. "The Djinn? Oh, this thing?" With a casual mental flick, he released his grip.
The ball of energy instantly shot into the sky like an arrow, letting out a high-pitched scream of relief before disappearing behind the grey clouds. The Djinn was free.
Yennefer's eyes widened in disbelief. The primordial power she had risked her life to conquer had just been released by this man as if it were a boring pigeon.
"What did you do?!" she cried, rage now coloring her voice. "Do you have any idea how much power I could have gotten from it?!"
"Of course I do," Tom answered, walking closer. He stopped a few paces from her, his smile completely unaffected by her anger. "I could see it in your eyes. That hunger for power. Ambition. That's why I came to you."
He paused, letting his words sink in. "This world... is incredibly boring. But you," he gestured to Yennefer with his chin. "You look like a promising source of entertainment. You have goals, you have desires. But you lack the means to achieve them quickly."
Tom spread his arms as if offering the entire world. "So, here is my offer, Sorceress of Vengerberg. I will be your 'means'. I will be your weapon, your tool, your deus ex machina. I will help you get whatever you want. More power? Enemies to be eliminated? Curses to be broken? You name it."
Yennefer stared at him suspiciously. "And in return? My soul? Eternal fealty? What do you want, demon?"
Tom laughed, a genuine laugh. "No offense, but your soul doesn't particularly interest me. I have only one condition: don't bore me. Take me on your adventures, show me your political intrigues, let me watch you strive for your ambitions. As long as I am entertained, my power is yours to command."
Yennefer was silent. It was the most insane offer she had ever heard. This man, with power beyond her comprehension, was offering himself as a tool simply out of boredom. It was a trap, she knew it. He was a venomous snake offering the sweetest apple. But... the potential. With power like his, she could rewrite her own destiny. She could achieve her goal of curing her infertility, something even the most powerful magic could not do.
Ambition warred with caution within her. And as always, ambition won.
"Very well," Yennefer said, her voice steady despite her racing heart. "I accept this 'partnership'. But I need to see proof of your power." She decided to give him a test, an impossible task. "Years ago, I lost something precious. An obsidian, star-emblazoned pendant. It fell to the bottom of Lake Vizima, near the Temerian capital."
Tom raised an eyebrow. "A lake? You want me to fetch jewelry from the bottom of a lake?"
"It is not just jewelry," Yennefer replied coldly. "The lake is deep and filled with monsters. Even if you could reach the bottom, finding it would take weeks. Do that, and I will believe in your offer."
Tom looked at her for a moment, then a crooked smile appeared on his face. "Lake Vizima, huh? Okay."
With a single thought, he vanished. Instant teleportation.
Yennefer gasped, unprepared for his sudden departure. She stood alone in the ruins, wondering if she had just made the biggest mistake of her life.
One... two... three seconds passed.
Directly in front of her, the air shimmered again and Tom reappeared. His clothes were soaking wet, his hair dripping with murky water that smelled of lake mud. He held out his open hand. In his palm lay a beautiful obsidian pendant, glittering with the symbol of a star, still cold from the deep water.
"This one?" Tom asked casually, as if he had just picked it up from a table next to him. "It was a bit dark down there."
Yennefer stared at the pendant, then at Tom's face. All her backup plans, all her strategies to test and control him, shattered in an instant. She was not dealing with a powerful wizard or a cunning demon.
She had just made a pact with something else entirely. And for the first time in a very long time, Yennefer of Vengerberg felt truly powerless.
Yennefer put on her obsidian pendant. The cold touch of the stone on her skin felt different now. Once it was a symbol of her ambition, now it was a constant reminder of the impossible pact she had made. A reminder of Tom Jacker.
"Alright," Yennefer said, her tone professional and firm again, trying to reclaim control of the situation. "My first objective is the city of Oxenfurt. I need to speak with an alchemist there about some rare ingredients for a ritual. The journey by horse will take about four days. We'll have to hire..."
"Four days?" Tom interrupted, sounding genuinely horrified. "Four days on a smelly horse's back? To meet one person? No, thank you. I have a better way."
Before Yennefer could protest, Tom grabbed her arm. "Think about the alchemist. His face. His workshop, if you can picture it."
Yennefer instinctively thought of the alchemist's cluttered laboratory, a place she had visited a year ago. A moment later, the now-familiar pulling sensation enveloped her. The ruined floor beneath her feet vanished, replaced by solid wooden floorboards. The scent of sulfur and strange potions filled the air.
They had arrived. Right in the middle of the alchemist's private laboratory. The old, white-bearded man, who was busy grinding something in a mortar, jumped in shock, dropping his pestle.
"By Melitele's beard!" he yelped, staring at the two intruders who had just materialized in his room.
Yennefer closed her eyes for a moment, fighting off a massive headache. Her plan to approach the alchemist carefully, build trust, and negotiate subtly had just been thrown out the window and set on fire by her new partner.
"See?" Tom said proudly. "Four days into four seconds. Efficient."
Although it started with chaos and required a great deal of calming magic from Yennefer to soothe the alchemist, Tom's method proved effective. They got what they wanted in less than an hour.
This pattern continued. Every time Yennefer devised a careful and intricate plan, Tom would shatter it with an instant solution that was logical yet chaotic. Yennefer wanted to infiltrate a nobleman's party to steal documents? Tom teleported them both directly into the nobleman's vault, took the documents, and left before anyone noticed. Yennefer needed an escort through a dangerous, monster-filled pass? Tom just teleported them to the final destination, skipping the danger entirely.
To Yennefer, this was incredibly frustrating. She felt her role had been reduced to merely being Tom's destination compass. But to Tom, this was the best entertainment. He enjoyed the exasperated look on Yennefer's face every time he ruined her complex plans.
Their game wasn't just played out on adventures, but also in their quiet moments. At night in luxurious inns (which they, of course, entered via teleportation), Yennefer would try different tactics.
"So, Tom," she said one evening while pouring wine, her voice soft and enchanting. "That power of yours... it isn't Chaos magic like mine. I've never seen anything like it. Where are you from? Another realm? The dimension of the gods?"
Tom just smiled and sipped his drink. "What if I told you I was from the bakery across the street? Would you believe me?"
Yennefer tried a more subtle spell, a magical whisper designed to loosen one's tongue. "Tell me the truth."
Tom leaned forward, as if about to whisper a great secret. "The truth is," he whispered, "this wine is a bit sour. Maybe we should 'borrow' a bottle from the king's wine cellar in the capital?"
Every attempt Yennefer made to understand him was met with a witty and infuriating dead end. This man was a locked safe whose key didn't exist in this universe. The inability to control or even comprehend him made Yennefer even more obsessed. He was a puzzle she had to solve.
And Tom? He was enjoying every second of it. He enjoyed this game of wits just as much as he enjoyed the chaos he created. He let Yennefer try, let her get closer, because watching the most powerful and cunning sorceress he knew be so utterly baffled was his new favorite form of entertainment. The tension between them grew thicker, no longer just about the mission, but also about domination, curiosity, and a dangerous attraction.