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Last of the Ravens
Story Arc One: Weeping Willow
Chapter 1: Welcome to Weeping Willow
It was late in the night at the Ugly Duckling, the one and only inn that travelers could rest, drink and learn of local happenings in Weeping Willow. As expected of the hour it was full of people.
Julia stayed one night at the inn, and she already hated it along with this town. The very first thing that stood out to her was the fact that she hadn't seen a single non-human among the populace and that was never a good sign. She was sitting alone in a table further away from most of the patrons but close enough to be able to hear if anything interesting comes off.
"What do you want?" She heard suddenly.
It was the waitress, though in the Northern Realms they are mostly called wenches, she was a thirteen year old lass with dark brown hair, matching eyes and a rather well developed for her age body, wearing a dress a little too revealing for work in a tavern. Yes, she was the same one that served her yesterday night as well.
"Are you deaf? I ask if you'll take anything!" Her tone was worse than before.
"A Nilfgaardian Lemon or the closest thing you have to it." Julia finally answered.
"About time" The waitress said in a low voice.
While waiting for her drink, Julia was toying with her medallion. It has become a habit by now since wherever she ordered something she was always the last one to be served for whatever reason the 'decent folk' as they constantly call themselves found to hate her. The thought angered her.
. . .
One hour had passed and Julia's expectations have been surpassed quite a bit. For once her drink came two minutes ago and instead of Nilfgaardian Lemon or anything remotely resembling a southern drink she was served a Lyrian kriek, a drink that was quite possibly sixty-four years old. Second, the only 'interesting' things she learned was that the innkeeper was also the waitresses father, that the local market is the target of the 'golden-haired imp', that some Voltaire's son is not his son and that the people of this town are superstitious idiots that believe that black birds are messengers of death. Finally, that the reason for the absence of non-humans was the Redanian mage-hunters that after burn the local herbalist they decided to also burn the local elves and dwarves for good measure, every man, woman and child that they find. And if that wasn't good enough after new self-appointed councilor Sigismund Dijkstra started sending a suspiciously large number of the most 'faithful' straight to the front during the third war with Nilfgaard, the mage-hunters choose to stay and make sure that Weeping Willow will remain a 'decent town' for 'decent folk' only, as its personal guard and that the local folk were more than happy about that turn of events.
Her mind was wondering and her head felt dizzy, the Lyrian Kriek was as old as she feared.
"Well, well, look who's here." She heard.
The voice came from the man at the table in the front. She remember him, he was the one that stopped her on the town's entrance to inspect her. Tall, still not as tall as her, but taller than the rest of his friends, broad shoulders, bald with a scar that started from the left side of his mouth and ended on the back of his neck, even dizzy from the expired drink it was impossible to forget that face. What was his name again? Bolek, Bolo, Bollock? She couldn't suppress a small giggle while thinking about it, but she was sure he introduced himself yesterday.
He came to her table and sat opposite of her.
"Good evening, Bollock, did you get tired of all the local beauties in the pigsty and decided to come try your luck with me? I'm flattered." Julia said with a half-smile. His friends from the front table were laughing.
"It's Bolo! And I wouldn't touch an ugly cunt like you even if you were the last woman alive in this sphere, I'll sooner stick it to a grave hag." Bolo said angrily.
While the waitress was passing by them with a disk full of tankards, he grabbed her suddenly and forced her to his own knee.
"Fortunately the Eternal Fire has graced us with a sphere which provides a lot of ways to tame the flames in our hearts and our pants." Bolo said while grabbing the lass's left breast. Julia could see that she was distressed, though she tried to hide it. This was one of the very few moments in her life that she felt lucky for having no bust.
Julia's grip on her medallion was tightening. She didn't like the sight in front of her. The fact that Bolo's friends, who were simply laughing in amusement before, were now laughing in applause didn't help things nor that the rest of the patrons simply ignore the sight. "This thing happens every night." She though.
"Aleksandra, what the hell are you doing, girl?!" The innkeeper barked behind the counter. He was a plain-looking but rather unpleasant man around his thirties.
"Again? Stop dallying with the men and get this mess cleaned up!"
"Ye-Yes, father." The girl said, all her nerve from before had vanished and she sounded almost wimpy. She ran to a room behind the counter.
"So what is this about now, another inspection?" Julia asked dejectedly, she didn't pay much attention to her appearance but she didn't like to be called ugly to her face, especially by a hypocrite who wasn't that good-looking himself.
"Actually, yes it is." Bolo answered. Remembering the previous inspection brought a bad taste in Julia's mouth. Funny, how he was calling her an 'ugly cunt' now, but he had no problem grabbing her backside yesterday during said inspection, she initially went along with it but she finally had enough of it and hexed him to 'go sleep with the pigs', she now wished she had switched the word 'sleep' for something more appropriate.
"Aren't you off-duty?" She asked, then, she realized that his eyes were fixed on her medallion. The waitress return from the room with a mop and started cleaning the alcohol from the floor.
"Hoi lass, bring my boys one more round to drink, Gawel's treat." Bolo said to the waitress.
"Fuck you, Bolo!" The man who obviously was Gawel answered from the front table.
For some reason the waitress's face darkened even more than when Bolo was fondling her. Bolo's attention once again returned to Julia. "Nice little bauble you've got there." He started.
"It's not for sale."
"Looks awfully similar to the one that Witcher that came by a week ago was wearing, same silver chain, same unusual metal, even the shaped angles are similar." Bolo said in an accusatory tone.
"Sleeping in pigsties, getting agitated over a simple cock joke and showing interest in jewelry. Be careful Bolo, you may end up in the next pyre." Julia said in a complete monotone, she could see the shadow of a smile in the waitress's face.
Bolo suddenly grabbed her left hand.
"Or maybe you will." He said, his black eyes meeting hers. His stare was threatening.
"Let go of my hand."
"Where did you get that medallion?"
"What is it to you?" While saying that, Julia was reaching with her right arm for a dagger in the back of her belt. Bolo didn't seem to have noticed.
"I'll tell you what is. It's a Witcher's medallion. This means two things: that either you killed one of them and took it, which I doubt, or that you are one of those freaks yourself."
"A She-Witcher? Yeah, no, there is no such thing, which means…"
"You expect me to believe that a woman managed to kill a Witcher? Back when the fatherland was under Radovid's rule, I killed one those freaks myself." Upon hearing this Julia try her best not to betray any feelings she could show with her limited spectrum of emotions. Bolo reached with his left hand in his pocket and pull out a medallion similar to hers. Julia recognized it. It was the emblem of the School of the Griffin. "The whoreson killed eight of my men. Eight! Before we managed to get him, I cleaved his head in two personally. We didn't even burn his carcass, bastard didn't deserve the honor." Bolo continued. Julia was now suppressing the desire to open his throat right here and now.
"I would have done the same to that viper that came by a week ago if the mayor was not so adamant about getting rid of that beast that prowls the forest, and look what that got him. Fucker walked away with his coin and left us the beast to deal with."
She finally had enough, and with a swift movement stabbed her dagger in the table right between the middle and third fingers of his left hand, the blade didn't cut him deeply but it did drew blood, Bolo had his eyes wide in utter shock. The sudden burst of adrenaline was already clearing her head. The waitress step back in terror and pretty much everyone in the inn have their eyes on them.
After a moment of silence, Julia stood up and bent forward, bringing her face closer to his, her blue eyes meeting his.
"You want to test me, Bolo?" She said with a smile. "You want to see… If I can kill someone… And how?" Julia continued in a flirtatious tone for no other reason than to mess with him, all the while toying with the dagger, slightly moving it with her fingers in a suggestive manner, to divert his attention between it and her and allow her a few glances to his friends at the front table. Four men all armed, three with swords, one with a crossbow, unloaded.
"So? What do you say?" She continued, coming closer to his face "You… And me… Outside?" Bolo's eyes which were previously moving between the dagger and her face were now looking straight in her eyes.
"Enough!" The innkeeper's voice was heard after a moment of silence.
"This is a decent establishment! You are both scaring my patrons!" The innkeeper said while aiming a crossbow at their direction, more specifically, perhaps unintentionally, at Bolo's direction.
"Fuck off, Gustaw or your establishment and your patrons would be the least of your worries!" Bolo answered angrily.
"You couldn't event shoot a drunk jackass, so put that thing back in your asshole!" He continued. Julia saw that the innkeeper's hands were shaking.
"Shut up Bolo!" The innkeeper said. His voice was getting tenser.
"You don't have the stones to even take on anyone who is not half -" Before Bolo managed to finish his sentence the bolt was launched on his direction, Julia managed to push him out of its way just in time. He fell on his back on the floor while the bolt was stuck in the wooden wall, some of the patrons started running outside and the waitress have pretty much frozen in place with the mop in her hands.
"You fucking prick…" Bolo said as soon as he stood up and then run straight to the innkeeper's direction, his face full of anger. The innkeeper attempted to flee but Julia threw the dagger in front of him, breaking his momentum. Bolo catch up with him, grabbed him from the back, and violently throw him on the floor. "S-Sorry it was an accid-" was the last thing the innkeeper said before Bolo proceeded to repeatedly punching him. Nobody was even making an attempt to go help him, not even his daughter. "Did nobody like him?" Julia wondered while sipping from a mug of one of the patrons that fled. It was Redanian Lager "Not bad!" she said loudly.
After finally Bolo was done beating the innkeeper up, he came up with his crossbow in hand and throw it to one of his friends. "Your lucky day Artur, another one for your collection." He said. Artur grabbed it cheerily like a kid getting his hands on his first slingshot.
"Hey" Julia heard Bolo's voice, she turn to face him.
"Ehm… Thank you. For saving me" He said, his voice was… calmer somehow. That was unexpected, in a pleasant way.
"I was going for a punch" Julia said only to realize how stupid that sounded. Mixing a long expired beer with a different one was a bad idea even for her advanced metabolism.
"With an open palm?" Bolo asked with a chuckle.
Julia avoided his gaze and unintentionally turned to see that the innkeeper's daughter was only now helping him on his feet. His head was bloodied, his nose appeared to have been broken and his lips opened on the right side. She couldn't suppress a small smile while looking at him.
"You fucking red-headed foreign whore." The innkeeper said, angrily looking at her.
"All this is your fault! Get the fuck off my inn and never come back or I'll chase you off with a cleaver!"
"Try it. I will enjoy seeing you get beaten up by a woman as well." Bolo told the innkeeper with a smile.
Instead of answering Julia went and picked up her dagger from the wall, and after cleaning it with a piece of cloth in her satchel, returned it to its scabbard in her belt. She then turn to leave.
While moving towards the exit, Bolo grabbed her by the forearm. "Wait a second." He said.
"Don't touch me!" Snarled Julia, releasing her arm with a swift movement.
"Gustaw, is that a way to treat a lady that was on the road for days?" Bolo said looking at the innkeeper and his daughter.
"What!?" Julia, the innkeeper, the waitress and two of Bolo's friends said simultaneously. Julia never thought that five people could think and say the same thing at the same time.
"I think you should be thankful that she is actually willing to pay you. Let me guess: third room, on the far left side, thirty-five and hundred crowns, said that this was his cheapest room?" Bolo asked Julia.
"He also said that the price was non-negotiable since he has four mouths to feed." Julia answered.
"He is lying. The wench is his only child."
"So I've heard."
"Listen you maggot, you'll give the lady the first room at normal price, namely two hundred." Bolo said to the innkeeper with a rather creepy smile which his scar made even creepier. "Are we understood, Gustaw?" he finished with a tone that made clear that it wasn't a request.
"Go to hell! This is my inn!" The innkeeper answered, trying to sound threatening, and failing, due to his clearly pained expression.
Bolo walked over to him and slapped him hard enough that he fell on the floor once again. He then went on one knee, grabbed him by the hair, and brought his face closer to his. "Are we understood, Gustaw?" He repeated with a grin.
"Yes… we are." The innkeeper said in a mixture of dejection, anger and, mostly, pain.
"I knew we wound come to an understanding." Bolo said in a fake happy tone while, gently this time around, slapping him twice in the left cheek.
Julia came by them. "You didn't need to do this… but thank you all the same." She said to Bolo awkwardly, she wasn't used to expressing gratitude since encounters with the locals at inns more often than not ended with violence directed at her, at least in the Northern Realms. "You should put some spirit into it" she continued.
"What?" He asked in confusion.
"In the cut." Julia pointed with her eyes.
"Heh, it's nothing, I've had worst."
"I bet." She said with a smile looking at his scar. She then turn to the innkeeper "The key" she asked, the innkeeper comply with a frown and Julia in turn return the key of her room.
"Well, goodnight lady and gentlemen." Julia said and 'bowed', as clumsily as she could muster, in the off-chance that someone might recognize her southern stance in the, now, almost empty inn. She went up the stairs, eager to move to her new room.
"It seems my luck starts to turn around a bit… About time!" She thought while walking the stairs. It was a rare luxury for her to have a bed to sleep compare to the cold soil or the occasional tree so she rarely complained about the prices. The only time that she could trade clean sheets for earth's embrace was when the moon was full, as beautiful as it was from the windows of the Amell Mountains… She immediately suppressed that memory, least she once again feel her heart racing. She couldn't help but wondered if her 'brothers' suffered from the same defect or that Joseph simply botched her Trial of the Grasses on purpose because he didn't like her. He was perfectly capable of that. Only three out of ten girls survived it anyway and unlike the rest of the male-only Schools, which their main means of finding new members was by invoking the Law of Surprise -to take a boy as a reward for a job done- the School of the Raven was not picky: street urchins, unwanted daughters of nobles or born in brothels, slave girls, deformed or mentally handicapped, the School of the Raven took anybody they could find, so even if she died during her Trial it won't damage their numbers and her body could have been studied for improvements for future Trials.
She found herself in front of the door to her new quarters.
She was tired and her head felt heavy, though she wasn't sure if it was due to alcohol or her own thoughts…
She just wanted to lay and rest, ideally after a bath.
Last of the Ravens - Codex
Bonus Story: Joseph's Reports
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Subject eighty-nine
Procedure: Experimental, Purpose: Regeneration
Status: Failure
Day after Trial: Third
Cause: Internal hemorrhaging
Subject reacted poorly to mutagens harvested from the Ogroid sub-species known as Rock Trolls. Instead of the desired effect, the mutation resulted in pointy 'rock' solid growths which pierced the subject's soft organs.
Further experiments needed.
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Subject ninety
Procedure: Standard
Status: Failure
Day after Trial: Tenth
Cause: Cardiac arrest
Subject never recovered
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Subject ninety-one
Procedure: Standard
Status: Failure
Day after Trial: Tenth
Cause: Brain damage
Subject euthanized
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Subject ninety-two
Procedure: Standard
Status: Failure
Day after Trial: Fifth
Cause: Dehydration
Subject lost due to excessive emesis.
Side note: Alchemy Instructor Elwira mentioned similarities between subjects ninety-two, eighty and eighty-one. She also suggested minor alterations to the Trial of the Grasses regarding the application of Wyvern spinal fluid.
Suggestion dismissed.
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Subject ninety-three
Procedure: Experimental
Status: Failure
Day after Trial: The day before
Cause: Suicide
Subject consumed two vials of beggartick extract it probably stole from the repository.
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Subject ninety-four
Procedure: Experimental, Purpose: Poison resistance
Status: Failure
Day after Trial: Sixth
Cause: Hemoglobin
Third experimentation with Manticore mutagens resulted in failure. Despite showing promise, the subject's body rejected the treatment. My theory that subjects with rare genetic defects, like ninety-four's, can make better candidates for new mutations needs more testing.
Further experiments needed.
~ Reports by Joseph of Vicovaro, Master of the Trials of the School of the Raven
