On their way back, Roos was regaining her consciousness and Elora had commanded both of her prisoners to remain silent. She was sitting between them and the Van der Heydens, just to be sure, but neither of the tied men raised so much as a brow at them. Precisely, one could not see the one prisoner's brow, because Elora had pulled his hood over his face again not to scare Roos.
Elora relaxed slightly and imbibed a White Honey elixir to purge the toxicity caused by the other potions; toxicity that was beginning to make her feel sick and dizzy.
Roos began to enquire what had happened, who the two men were, and where they were; it became very apparent she was largely unaware of the events of the last night and that day. Floris promised to tell her the whole story once they were home and had recovered from the stress, but Roos insisted on being told what had happened with her dagger, since she did remember holding it.
Floris began by saying that he guessed that one of the mercenaries might have behaved ungentlemanly, as Roos suddenly exclaimed "Yes! I slashed his face, I did!" and made a feeble but defiant gesture.
Elora smirked. "Yes you did. The scar wouldn't have turned out quite as pretty as mine," she gestured at her cheek, "but not bad for a beginner. And very courageous, Roos. Do you remember what happened then?"
"Yes… the man with the sword and shield yelled at them to leave me alone, that I was their pawn, not prize." Floris twitched at her words and flashed an angry glance at the hooded figure, who turned away his head. "Then they gave me that drink again, I tried to refuse it, but they were too strong."
Roos fell asleep again, leaning against her father on the coachman's seat, and Elora thoroughly cleaned her swords to pass the time. She wondered if she would ever found her own steel swords again, searching the entire distance would be tedious. While caught up in planning how to go about it, Floris had glanced back at her more than once. "I thought I would never be able to… but you saved my girl, and my own life, so I'd be honored if you took this blade as a reward on top of everything else I offered you."
Elora raised her eyes to meet his. "I…" She wanted to decline.
"Let's be honest, Witcher… that old blade of yours has seen far better days. I should know, I took a very close look at it yesterday." Floris smiled. "Please, take Melody's blade, I know she would want you to have it."
"Alright, alright." Elora gave in. "Thank you. It is a superb blade."
When they reached the hamlet, Elora took Roos to the Waclaw farmstead. Ladva and Goran were delighted to learn that everyone was alive, and gladly agreed to take care of the girl until the Witcher and the blacksmith returned. Floris remained at the carriage to watch the prisoners, while Elora set out to have a few words with the innkeeper. Floris had suggested that he was a willing accomplice to their poisoning because he, Floris, had adamantly refused to marry Roos to the innkeeper's crude and brutish son. He denied any involvement, but he was as dim as his son, and Elora easily managed to loosen his tongue with an Axii sign. He admitted, in front of several customers, to spiking their drinks in exchange for money from the mercenary leader, leading to an outcry of the villagers present, who practically begged Elora to take him away.
It was getting dark, and Floris and Elora agreed to take shifts with watching their three prisoners. The hamlet had no guardhouse, so they brought them to a hayrick, had untied them for a while to stretch, eat and drink and let them spend the night in relatively comfortable circumstances. They finally learned that the cursed man's name was Baldor, and the young lad was called Pawel.
Elora was taking the first watch, and had insisted on taking a third one when she realized how exhausted the blacksmith looked. She told him how little sleep Witchers needed, but he wouldn't listen, protested that she had done so much for them that she deserved to rest. She had looked him deeply in the eye, held her fingers in the Sign of Axii yet again, and repeated that she didn't need as much sleep as him. That was the truth, but just barely. He complied.
Elora's first watch was uneventful. She prepared potions while the three men were sleeping, or at least lay quietly in the hay. When Floris relieved her, Elora fell asleep quickly, despite everything that had been crossing her mind since returning to the hamlet. Her second watch went by like the first, but she paced the room, pondering the curse and its victim, and what the connection to Roos might possibly be. And was Baldor a monster in a monster's body, or just a desperate man in a prison of flesh, as he had said himself?
In the morning, Elora packed her things from the mill and from her room at the Waclaw farmstead. Ladva and Goran were sorry to see her go, and so was she, but she was glad to have her Witcher's life back. No more harvesting crops, stacking hay and plodding through manure. Or Warg stew.
Ladva provided her with food for the journey, and Floris slipped her another pouch of orens. "Thank you, Witcher Eléanor de Drakenborg." Elora tensed up as gave her a fatherly kiss on the forehead. Roos hugged, thanked and greeted her several times, until Floris grabbed her hand and pulled her back. "Roos, she'll be back soon."
Elora and her three prisoners arrived in Vizima in the early afternoon. At the city gate, she explained she was under contract by a Temerian citizen, had captured three criminals and wished to speak to the Guard Captain. The guardsmen agreed to watch the prisoners for her, which surprised Elora a bit, but seemed to confirm what she had heard about the guard under Vincent Meis' command.
The Guard Captain was a middle-aged man with an alert as well as contemplative look. It was obvious he had seen plenty of fights, but not recently – in fact, he had developed a bit of a paunch. He was surprised at Elora's request, but agreed to take custody of the three men, in exchange for her help with a graveir problem at the cemetery. She was supposed to kill them the same night, and return to speak with him in private afterwards. It was a bit odd, but she complied, since she was happy to not have to watch three prisoners at the same time any longer.
She dragged a stool in front of Baldor's cell, and began to ask him a few questions. He could not remember the words of the curse bestowed upon him by his master – that was common with many curses, the victims often forgot how it had happened. He had intact memory of how the grimoire looked, and believed it to currently be in the possession of a Wizard of Kovir who lived in Oxenfurt. Baldor had no idea what Roos' actual connection to his curse could be, but Elora could tell that he was seized by remorse for assuming he had to capture the girl to lift the curse, and even more so that he carried out the plan. "You see, it wasn't easy researching the whereabouts of the grimoire when you look like I do. And I couldn't just walk up to her father and ask, could I? Instead, I tried to have her bought under false pre–"
"Shut up!" Elora hissed. "I told you I wasn't your judge. And I'm certainly not one of those people who want to look inside your head to tell you what's wrong in there." She got up. "And I tell, you, there is something wrong in there. It's about time you own up to it and make no more excuses. You're not the only who has been wronged and suffered for it." She stormed out of the guardhouse.