Chapter Four: Fools by Devilish Compulsion
Talgar Mines, Talgar, Kingdom of Kovir and Poviss
Damien was the last to stir, taking his time getting up from the wolf hide he had been resting on. He woke to find the other's all eating around the fire, and decided to join them.
"Get good rest?" Fendar asked, clearly mocking him.
"Best in weeks Master."
"Good, because we're going to need you at your best."
"What's the plan?" Damien asked, taking a bit out of the grilled chicken sandwich that had been warming by the fire.
"Follow the other side of the cave. It probably goes even deeper than we are right now, so we have a chance of finding the monster lair."
"Very well. Give me a moment then. I got some potions to prepare." He finished his sandwich and headed back to his satchel. A few minutes later he came back with a few bottles of potions of various reds and blues.
"What are those?" Triss asked, curious. She had never seen Geralt carry around bottles that large, and had no idea what they could be used for.
"Mutagen decoctions. Really useful, but really potent. Got to watch your consumption of them, but otherwise they make everything so much easier." With that, Damien opened one of the bright blue bottles and drank it in one shot. The blood vessels on his face became slightly more pronounced, but other than that he looked fine.
With that, the group headed back into the large cavern where Damien had fought the fiend. They climbed up a ledge to continue along the path.
After a few minutes of walking, Damien pipped up, "I smell something." He paused. "Human urine. Fresh…"
"Someone else is down here." Fendar said gravely. With that, both guards drew their blades, and Damien drew his steel cutlass. They carefully walked down the path before finding themselves in another cavern. But this time, there was a lit campfire at the end, and three individuals were standing around it. There were a few dead human bodies lying around on the other side of the cavern, and all of the people had small axes at their hips.
"Who are ye?" One of the campers said, getting up and drawing his axe. "No one's allowed in these mines unless the lady allows it!" His face was angry, and the other campers flanked him and drew their weapons as well.
"Look, we are just here to help the people of Berniken." Damien tried to explain, putting his sword back in its hilt. He was hoping to keep the group from getting violent. "We learned monsters had taken control of the mines, driven out the locals. We are here to help recover it. Do you know anything about what happened?"
"Aye." The camp leader grew a devilish smile. "I know what you is talkin' bout. It wasn't monsters that killed the miners."
"If it wasn't monsters, then who did?" Triss asked, angrily. She was not certain about what was going on, but she was not willing to play games.
"We did lass. The sweet lady told us to. Said that we miners were ruining the land, corrupting it. Said she needed us to restore balance. So we told our commander we needed to leave, and he told us we were mad. So we killed him and his crew. Now the sweet lady can rebuild the land with the animals who were meant to live here." His smile was looking ever more corrupted and twisted, and his voice was getting creepier and creepier.
"You killed your own kinsman? What is wrong with you?" Damien exclaimed. He drew his blade again, ready to kill the nutjobs. "You will pay for what you have done."
"Wait!" Albert exclaimed, "There's some kind of magic holding them captive. Whoever this sweet lady is, she is controlling them, making them do what they did…like a curse."
Damien groaned. Witchers and curses. "Very well. I won't kill them." With that, he waved his free hand, and all three of the men were suddenly dazed, and dropped their weapons.
"What…what did you do?" Triss asked, confused.
"I'm controlling their minds with Axii. For right now, I can stop them from doing anything. Quick, figure out what the curse is, so we can dispel it. I need to hold the sign, or they will snap out of it and attack us."
With that, the mages went to work, searching for clues and analyzing the miner's minds with magic. After a few hard minutes of work, full of Damien's constant reminders of the need for quickness, the mages were able to figure out the curse.
"It's a complex parasitic binding curse. The controller changes memories, thoughts, and actions to whatever they want. Whoever casted this is incredibly powerful and has no mercy whatsoever." Fendar reflected.
"Alright, when I say go, I am going to release the miners. You guys need to pin them down with magic, and I will remove the curse. Ready?" Damien looked around, and got a chorus of nods, "Go!" He flicked his wrist, and immediately the men snapped out of their lull, charging instantly, only to be immediately restrained by the mages. Damien then got on his knees, closed his eyes, and said the words required to break a binding curse. The men all passed out, and with that, the mages released the bonds.
"Did it work?" Triss asked. "Are they free?"
"If they wake up and don't try to kill us, then yes." They waited as the three men stirred, slowly getting up. Two of the miners simply sat down, but the leader got back up, brandished his axe and charged at Triss.
"Argh-", but before he could even come close to Triss, he was hit in the chest with a massive flow of energy from Damien's Aard sign, which slammed him again the ground. He got back up and dropped his axe, finally clear of the curse.
"So, you guys ready to explain what happened in here?" Damien asked, crossing his arms. The men were scrambling up, huddling back in fear.
"We didn't mean to hurt no one master witcher! Believe me, it was all that bloody witch, she made us do it!" The leader was in deep fear. "She was going to take our ears, she was she was. But we told her they wouldn't accept us without our ears. She got really angry, and then took control of our bodies! We didn't mean it, believe me sir!" The leader was prostrating before Damien, who was still greatly displeased.
"Tell me about this witch that you ran into. What did she look like? Did she summon all of the monsters that live here?"
The man stopped for a moment and thought. "When we first saw her, she was a beautiful lass, and she was so sweet and shy that we couldn't help but listen to 'her. Then we didn't give her our ears, and she got real mad master. Turned into an old hag, scared the shite out of us. She waved her hand and took control of us. And the monsters, pretty sure that was her. She kept shouting words into something and made terrible noises and shakings. Please save us witcher, please!" The man once again started groveling by Damien's feet, prompting him to move back.
"The witch you encountered, did she have a medallion, similar to the one the witcher is wearing?" Triss asked, pointing at Damien's griffin medallion.
"Yes miss, but it was a different shape…looked more like a wolf."
Damien looked to Triss, incredibly confused. "How did-"
"She's a Crone of Crookback Bog. The one who escaped." Triss said, matter-of-factly. Looking back at Damien, "Ciri ran into them once, they were working with the Wild Hunt. She tried to kill them all, but one of them escaped with Vesemir's medallion. This must be the other one."
Damien looked up, stupefied. "The Crones you say? Heard of them, but never dealt with them. If they are as the folk say, that explains the monster controlling. Certainly glad there's only one left, but we aren't Elder Blood. We have our work cut out for us."
Triss nodded. "Guards, stay here and protect the miners. If we don't come back soon, take them back to Berniken. We need to hunt the witch down." We also need someone to report back in case we all die, but Triss decided to hold back on that.
With that, the group continued through the mines in the direction the miners had told them to go.
"Ciri tell you anything about what it was like, fighting the crones?" Damien asked Triss as the group climbed up a ledge, continuing along.
"They were fast, hard hitting, and can summon monsters to fight for them."
"If that's the case, may I make a suggestion?" Damien asked, pausing.
"Of course…" Triss asked, confused, as everyone in the group stopped.
"You all stay right here. If I'm not back shortly, keep going." With that, he jumped onto a ledge and climbed up into a small inlet above them in the path. The group decided to stay stationary at the moment, waiting as Damien had asked.
He should be around here somewhere, Damien thought to himself, as he crawled along the path. Sure enough, it came to an end, and opened into a massive cavern. There were a few monsters below him. A few nekkers, some ghouls, a water hag.
Most importantly, however, was what was directly below him. The fiend. He could smell the poison he had used from the path the mages were still waiting in. He positioned himself as best he could, drew his silver blade, and jumped.
He landed directly on the beast's back, his knees on the fiend, his blade driven deep into the monster's heart. It awoke, and roared loudly, struggling to get up. It tried to buck Damien off, but in doing so, only made things worse; Damien held on by his blade, dragging it across the beast, down until he hit the floor, cutting a massive gash down its entire length. The fiend's guts poured out, and fell over, barely alive. With that, he stabbed in the eye and ended it.
Damien turned to see a room full of monsters all seething and ready to strike. "Come here, you pieces of filth." His eyes scrunched, his blade readied. He was like lightning, ducking and diving across the room, bursts of fire coming from his hands. At one point he was almost overrun by nekkers, only for them to go flying back in a blast as his shield was destroyed. He showed the beasts no mercy, and when it was all said and done, cut the fiends head off and carried it with him as he climbed back onto the path back to the mages.
Triss had heard noises, and was worried that something had gone wrong. She was pacing back and forth, hoping nothing had happened.
"We should consider continuing." Beata stated, trying to avoid Triss' gaze. "Damien's still not back and we don't know when-"
"We can wait a few more minutes okay?" Triss spat. She surprised Beata and herself with her emotional response. Why do I care so much about a damn witcher I met yesterday?
But before she could say anything, either in apology or otherwise, a large object fell in front of her. She shrieked in shock, seeing a massive fiend head directly in front of her. Shortly after came Damien, feet first, covered in monster blood. He looked a little bit roughed up, but was otherwise fine. He was beaming ear to ear.
"Thanks for waiting-" He tried to quip before Triss slapped him across the face.
"You went after the fiend by yourself? You could have died!" She screamed. Damien flinched back, and started laughing, only angering Triss further. "You think this is all a game don't you,-"
"Triss calm down." He said, gripping her shoulders, still shaking his head from disbelief. "Only one of us could fit through that passage. I smelled the poison I used on the fiend, so I knew he was nearby. I caught him while he was sleeping and killed him. No problem. If I had waited, the crone would have woken him up and attacked us with him. I thought about the risks before I made the decision." His explanation seemed fine to everyone except for Triss.
"Still, you could have at least-" Triss stammered, realizing she was in the minority.
"Done what? Told you what I was doing? None of you would have let me. Triss I'm the witcher here. I know how to kill beasts. I can handle an injured sleeping fiend. But if it's any consolation to you, I'm sorry for putting myself at risk."
"…Thank you." She said quickly, looking away to hide the blushing. "Let's keep going shall we?" Triss marched forwards, hoping to hide her embarrassment.
Damien only smiled as he picked up the fiend head. "Yes. Let's."
End of Chapter Four