The Witcher: Black and White
Of Men and Monster
Adius Turnican sat at his desk staring at three reports at once, two of them about a certain blaze at the Rosemary and Thyme and another about a loose lips prisoner. All of which were valuable in their own way, even if the common eye didn't spot it. A dark figure stood in the shadows before him, his gaze lowered to the stone floor, awaiting Turnican to finish reading.
Turnican inhaled before speaking. "He specifically asked about Geralt of Rivia?" he asked.
The figure nodded. "He's asleep now but, he asked were the Witcher was in the fortress."
"And did he get an answer?"
The figure shook his head.
Turnican raised a groomed eyebrow and then waved the figure away. "Return to the cell and watch over our friend."
As the figure turned to leave, Turnican summoned the next man waiting outside the Lord Knight's office. The door opened, the figure left and a man in gilded armor swiftly walked in, placing his distorted phoenix helm on the table.
"Sir Silas, wonderful to see you again. Pray tell, the blaze was your doing?" Turnican addressed him.
The almost entirely burned husk of a head shook. "The Witcher was more formidable than originally anticipated, I was forced to flee when my men were killed." Silas Longhill said shamefully.
Turnican stood from his desk, he stood but an inch taller than the knight who towered over regular men and looked him in the eye.
"Do you remember what happened the last time you failed, Longhill?" Turnican asked, not bothering to address him as a sworn knight.
Turnican reached out and touched the seared flesh. "Now, I can do much worse. Do you want that?"
"No, Lord Knight." Silas replied.
"Take a hundred men, find the Witcher, the sorceresses, and the bitch betrothed to our King and kill them all. I don't care if a village of women and children stand in your way, kill everything until they are dead or are dying, do you understand, Longhill?"
Sir Silas nodded again.
"Do. Not. Fail!" Turnican screamed. He turned back to his desk and waved the Scorched Knight away like a plaything.
As Longhill left and Turnican reached his desk, he began to feel it surfacing within him again. Suddenly, long spikes of solid bone sprouted from his back, running the length of his spine. He did his best to keep from screaming in agony. Claws began to protrude from his fingertips and scales started dotting his shoulders, back, and face. He quickly reached into his desk and grabbed a vial of black liquid. Turnican downed it in a second and the pain went away.
The bones and claws went back inside his body and the scales disappeared, his vision was blurry and he felt nauseous but it wasn't anything the Lord Knight of Roshytta couldn't handle. Turnican sat back down in the leather chair and breathed a sigh of relief that no one noticed his special condition.
/
One Month Later…
In four short weeks, Dandelion had spent a good chunk of his savings from the Rosemary and Thyme to buy an inn in Kelama to stand as a replacement. It acted as a business and the crew's base of operations. Marvo and Ciri were almost constantly out on missions or contracts for a little extra gold but when they weren't away from the riverside town, Yen noticed them talking with each other, laughing and telling stories. The mother in her wanted to wrench Ciri from the young Witcher but being in love with a Witcher herself, it hardly seemed fair.
For four weeks, things had been peaceful. The days dragged on for hours and the nights were all too short. Marvo spent his days riding around the Pontar accepting contracts and slaying beasts. Only one day, he returned from his daily hunt to find Yen in a particularly sour mood.
She stopped him outside Dandelion's new inn. "You need to come with me." she said without a proper greeting.
Confused, Marvo followed along as she walked down the muddy road out of Kelama. They walked a long time in silence until they were a fair distance away from anyone else. Only then did Yen talk.
"What is all this about?" Marvo asked when they finally stopped walking.
Yen sighed. "I felt something, I don't know what but I've an eery feeling."
Marvo cocked his head and narrowed his golden eyes. "Felt what?"
"Nothing physical, mental. Like, someone was in danger somewhere." she replied.
"Do you know where?"
"No, but I know how to get there." Yen said with a faint smirk.
Marvo's shoulders drooped with disappointment. "Portals?" he asked.
Yen nodded. "Portals." she confirmed.
A swirl of golden beams appeared behind her and she backed up into it. With shoulders still lowered, he followed, not enjoying the predicament he was about to endure at the hands of Yennefer. He braced himself and stepped through the portal. The two found themselves in a dark cave with little to no light in it.
"So, if you could bring us here, can you possibly get us inside Turnican's fortress?" Marvo asked from the darkness.
Marvo saw with his senses that Yen was shaking her head. "I can only teleport to a place I have some kind of connection to, magic isn't all straight forward." she added.
Marvo scoffed. "Tell me about it."
Marvo led Yen through the dark with his ears and nose until he found a piece of a tree's root. Convenient, but fortunate. He snapped it from the rest of the tree overhead and used Igni to turn it into a makeshift torch for Yen.
They wandered the cave for a long amount of time until they came across a large cavern and torchlight. Marvo counted maybe nine or so men in simple Redanian uniforms and torches standing over two masses even Marvo's superior vision couldn't make out.
"Who are they?" Yen whispered.
Marvo frowned. "Look like Redanians."
"Could they be working for Turnican?" she asked.
"One way to find out." Marvo said with a grin.
Marvo bounded from their vantage point and landed but 20 feet away from the squad of soldiers. They in unison turned to face him.
"Evenin' gents." Marvo said.
"Who are you?" one of the soldiers said, his voice echoing through the chamber.
"Just a traveler wonderin' why Reds are hunkerin' down in a cave such as this."
"None o' yer business."
"Either way, I'm not going anywhere." Marvo said.
The soldiers took a step forward. "Is that so?" another asked.
Marvo unsheathed his sword. "Yeah it is."
Marvo lunged forward swiftly. He whirled about mid air as his steel came crashing down on the skull of a soldier. The some of them advanced on his backside, so Marvo pulled his blade from the man's head and swung it around in a pirouette motion, decapitating two more. A large fireball came from Yen's direction and blasted away another three men.
The final three men regrouped and got shoulder to shoulder in a last stand. Marvo's eyes narrowed on the biggest man in the group, suddenly, the big man turned to his comrades and stabbed the man beside him. Before the last could react, he had been stabbed through the throat.
Marvo advanced on the man under the Witcher's influence and sliced cleanly through his neck, sending his brawny head twirling away.
Yen came down from her vantage point and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. "Well, that was invigorating."
Marvo didn't reply, instead he sniffed the air for a scent he recognized.
"What is it?" Yen asked.
"Something in someone's blood." Marvo said.
Yen gave him a confused look. "Iron? Oxygen? What?"
"No, something different. Something chemical." he said simply.
Marvo knelt beside two corpses that were slumped on top of each other. Moving one aside, he peered at the one underneath. He wore different clothing than the others and also had no head. This wasn't one he had killed. Then he saw it, protruding from the folds of his cloak was a Witcher's medallion, a wolf.
"This one was a Witcher." Marvo said breathlessly.
Yen was moving bodies out of the way. Then, she finally called out. "This one two!"
Marvo stood up and turned to her. This body had a corresponding head to go along with it. He recognized the mug of the Witcher, Salac. One of the boys he had trained alongside. He looked back at the headless one, then noticed a bloody bag discarded when the fight began.
He walked to the bag and pulled out it's contents. Long orange hair and beard, eyes rolled back in their sockets. He also recognized this man, Arnley.
"Two Witchers at the same time. They couldn't have been killed by these men, they'd at least have wounds."
"What else is capable of killing Witchers?"
Marvo didn't want it to be true but everything pointed to a single thing. His words almost caught in his throat but he managed to get them out.
"Witchers." he said solemnly.