I do not own Witcher or any of the characters.
Busy First Day
Eldin sprinted forward as the giant roared. It swung its weapon, a massive stone wheel on a thick wooden shaft, like a stone wagon wheel or a mill wheel, around, but Eldin dove forward, rolling under the giant's arm, then slashed over himself, slashing its forearm. The giant roared, its mace flying from its hand, only for the chain attaching it to a shackle on its wrist to pull it off balance. Then, Milton and Palmerin rushed forward, slashing the giant's knees in back. It roared angrily, legs buckling, and crashed down, catching itself on its hands. However, just as it did, Renfri and Aralyn reached it. Both struck smoothly, Renfri's blade severing the tendons in the eye of the giant's right elbow as Aralyn's blade completely separated the left arm at its elbow. The giant crashed down hard and Eldin charged forward over its body, running up its back, then slashed hard. As his blade cleared its arc, the giant's head rolled away. Eldin sighed, wiping his blade clean on the giant's skin anywhere they hadn't already carved deep gashes into it, mostly meaning its shoulders. The fight hadn't been unbearably long, but it had been annoying. They'd been unable to reach anything lethal for about five minutes, in part due to the giant's height, and in part due to the giant's incessant swinging of its makeshift weapon.
"That thing was obnoxious," Eldin sighed, wiping the last of the blood on his cloak. "Finally dead, though."
"Agreed," Renfri nodded. "Hey, when are we getting me a better sword? Both of you have one that'll go right through monsters' bones and peoples' armor. Hell, Aralyn has two. Where's mine? Both of my swords are shit compared to that."
Eldin chuckled, nodding. "Alright. If we can find a decent enough blacksmith while we're here, we'll get you a new set."
Renfri nodded, smiling. "Thank you!"
She gave him a kiss and they walked over to rejoin the knights, now including a younger one named Guillaume de Launfal, Palmerin's nephew. He'd been fighting the giant when they arrived but had been a few minutes or less from death.
"You fought well, Guillaume," Eldin commended. "You fight monsters a lot?"
"Never before," Guillaume said. "But I vowed I'd bring my heart's champion the head of a monstrosity. As the famed Gottfried, known as the Giant Killer did."
"Who for?" Eldin asked.
"The most beautiful woman among them," Guillaume smiled wistfully, then sighed. "Alas, this was your kill. Ah, well. You may take Golyat's head as a trophy if you wish. I'll find something else to present her with."
"The giant had a name?" Renfri asked.
"It was rumored to previously have been a knight, but that he betrayed his vows," Palmerin said. "For that, the Lady of the Lake cursed him and transformed him into this form."
"That would explain the helmet," Eldin said, eyeing the giant's head, which was encased in a barrel, broken in the side to allow the giant to see, and peacock feathers were stuck in the top of it like the horsetail of a knight's helmet. "I'm not really looking to lug around a head the size of my torso, though."
"Here," Aralyn said, holding out a hand and chanting.
A moment later, the head began to shrink, along with the feathers and barrel. Finally, the process stopped with the head barely the size of two fists. Eldin picked it up, then sighed, giving Aralyn an exasperated look.
"You couldn't have done that with the Wyvern?" Eldin raised an eyebrow. "Or the Treants? The Fiends?"
"You never asked," Aralyn shrugged.
Eldin sighed, picking up the miniscule head and securing it to his horse's saddle to bring back to Kaer Morhen after they'd dealt with whatever monster was haunting Toussaint.
"So, Guillaume, what's next for you?" Milton asked. "You don't mean to hunt the Beast, do you? If you do, I'd warn you it's a job better left to Eldin."
"Another challenge awaits me," Guillaume assured them. "Yet if Eldin is to hunt the Beast, he ought to know, it's struck again. The river surrendered a corpse. It washed up in the meander by the Cockatrice. Damien de la Tour's guardsmen are there already, securing the area."
"Oh boy," Eldin sighed. "They're going to trample any potential tracks. Although, given the body was in the water, and assuming there's a current, I'd wager that it was swept down from further on."
"That's possible," Palmerin nodded.
"We should head there," Eldin said.
Palmerin and Milton nodded. Together, they all mounted up, Guillaume excusing himself, and a few minutes later, Palmerin also excused himself to go and report to Dutchess Anna Henrietta that Eldin had come in place of Geralt and that he had begun working.
"Random question," Eldin spoke up as Palmerin led him to the Cockatrice Inn. "Didn't the Gottfried of the legend turn into a dragon or something?"
Milton laughed. "Something like that."
Eldin nodded. "What about the other bodies? Anything link them besides how hard it was to get to them?"
Milton considered. "A few things." He nodded. "Let us see who the newest victim was, then we will speak of the other bodies."
Eldin nodded, and they headed to the river by the Cockatrice. The Knights-Errant there were less than pleased to hand over the scene to the Witcher but accepted it once Milton explained he and the others were there at Anna Henrietta's behest. Eldin and Renfri scoured the area carefully but found precious little on land. Under water was a different story. They found a few things that didn't belong in the fish nets that the body had gotten caught in, one of them being a kerchief bearing the letters "d.l.C."
"We'll need to find out where they took the body," Eldin said as he and Renfri walked out of the water.
"The patrons will likely have seen which way the guardsmen took the body," Milton said, indicated the Cockatrice Inn where the entirety of the Inn's patronage was on a balcony or the bridge beside it watching them.
However, just as they looked, one figure wearing a brown cloak turned, walking inside. Eldin narrowed his eyes, watching them go.
"Looks like we've got an audience," Aralyn said, she and Renfri both also having potted the cloaked figure.
"That'll save us a little time, at least," Renfri said.
"Recognize this?" Eldin asked, handing Milton the kerchief once the cloaked figure had entered the inn.
Milton stared at the kerchief, muttering to himself, for several long seconds. "De la Croix!? It cannot be. Was it he the beast slew?"
"Did you know him?" Aralyn asked gently.
"Long past," Milton said, seeming pained. "He was once a close friend once, but our paths diverged. He was a man of extremes, standing by his companions no matter the odds, fighting his foes to the bitter end."
"Seems the bitter end finally came," Eldin mused. "You mentioned the corpse was quartered?"
"Indeed," Milton nodded.
"Any of his foes you can think of who had enough of a grudge to quarter him?" Eldin asked.
Milton shook his head. "None I can think of. But, perhaps the body will prove of more use to you than I. Shall we go?"
Eldin nodded, and they all headed up to the tavern together.
Eldin narrowed his eyes as he stared into the entrance to the cellar. They'd reached Corvo Bianco, the vineyard where the corpse of the most recent kill had been stored, but all of the guardsmen present had been slaughtered, all with either a single strong blow or with something incredibly sharp and powerful, but not a blade. The patrons at the inn's tavern had been fairly helpful, except the man who'd found the body, who'd only been talking about seeing a blood-red sky when he first woke up. A bad omen to be sure, but not one that was excessively important on its own. However, the others had mentioned that the killer only committed the murders on days honoring saints, and that people believed it was a punishment from the gods for departing from the old ways of virtue and honor. Eldin wasn't so sure that's what it was, but he agreed that the days might have something to do with the Beast's motive, if it was more than a normal monster.
"Be careful," Eldin warned, drawing his sword as Aralyn and Renfri both drew theirs as well, Renfri drawing her silver sword.
They all headed into the basement in silence, moving carefully. There were more dead guardsmen inside, scattered around the basement in the obvious aftermath of a hopeless battle. One of the bodies had been hurled into a metal grate door and had died on the impact but had broken the door clean free of its frame and hinges in the process. Finally, they reached the final chamber of the vineyard's basement and stopped, finding a nude woman standing over the pieces of the corpse.
"You," Eldin said, recognizing her from the inn, the figure wearing the dark brown cloak. "Saw you at the inn. You left as soon as someone said where the body was. Clever way to find out where to go, stalking a monster hunter. You're a Bruxa."
The woman straightened up, setting a severed hand down in a leather bag.
"Why'd you kill these people?" Eldin asked. "Surely you could have snuck past, if you had wanted to, and you clearly didn't kill them for their blood, so...what was it?"
She turned to them, blood coating her naked body, stepping between him and the severed hand.
"I'm guessing that hand doesn't belong to the victim," Eldin said. "So, then, you're here to take it so no one can use it to find the one committing the murders. And all of these guardsmen died just in case they realized there was an extra piece." He hummed thoughtfully. "If a Bruxa is helping the killer, then either you care about him, or...he's a Higher Vampire."
The Bruxa snarled angrily.
"We don't have to fight," Eldin said. "Higher Vampires are sentient. Able to think for themselves. I want to talk to him. Maybe I can reason with him."
"You are wrong," the Bruxa said, beginning to walk around the room in a circle, Eldin and the others circling the other way, spreading out. "I cannot allow you to leave here alive." After a moment, she vanished, reappearing by the gate out and locking it. "You're too dangerous."
Then, she vanished again, and Eldin sighed, readying himself and extending his other senses as he reached into his satchel. Finally, he heard a foot hit the ground behind him and snapped his fingers, igniting the wick of the grenade in his hand. He cast it backward, allowing it to explode and scatter silver dust through the air. Instantly, the Bruxa became visible. She shrieked angrily, and Eldin sprinted forward, slashing, only for her claws, each a foot long, to deflect it. She ducked backward, avoiding the blade's next pass, then shrieked, sending him flying across the room as Aralyn and Renfri moved in, striking. She deflected both blades, then turned, slashing at Renfri, only for her to narrowly avoid the strike. Eldin's arm snapped up, a blast of Aard exploding into her, but only making her stagger back a few steps. However, it opened her up for Aralyn to move in. Aralyn slashed rapidly, over and over, but after a graze the first strike, the Bruxa was able to dodge or deflect everything else. The Bruxa's claws swept out to strike back, but Eldin pulled Aralyn back with his free hand, his blade deflecting the claws. A moment later, he and Aralyn were striking together rapidly. They pivoted and flowed around each other, their swords striking from all angles and at odd intervals, a technique they'd practiced against Lambert and Coen but had used a few times against stronger monsters before.
The Bruxa began to fall back quickly. All of her counterstrikes were deflected or avoided, and together they were able to keep her from being able to hold still without being overpowered. Finally, Renfri spotted an opening and darted forward, slashing from behind the Bruxa. Her blade tore across the Bruxa's back, but it spun, knocking all three blades away before vanishing, reappearing off to the side and shrieking. All three of them were hit by the blast and sent exploding into the wall.
"I fucking hate Bruxa," Eldin growled as they all scraped themselves off the floor. "Even without an open space to fly around, they're obnoxious."
"Maybe if you'd take your eyes off her tits for a few seconds, we could win," Renfri accused.
"You're projecting again, Renfri," Aralyn countered. "Eldin only has that problem when he spars with you and me."
"Could we focus on the deadly vampire, please?" Eldin asked as the Bruxa prepared to charge again.
"See?" Aralyn asked. "He can't multitask."
The Bruxa charged in a blur, and all three lunged. Eldin and Aralyn both deflected the Bruxa's claws, and Renfri slashed. The Bruxa jumped, flipping over Renfri, but as it landed, Eldin sent a blast of Aard into Renfri, hurling her back into the Bruxa. This time, Renfri's blade plunged into the Bruxa's back, piercing its heart before both slammed to the ground and Renfri bounced past the Bruxa. She pushed herself up, dusting herself up, then turned back to the Bruxa, which was crawling across the ground toward where it had left the hand. It reached out for the hand, struggling against her inevitable death. Then, it collapsed, falling still. Renfri walked over, stepping on its back before ripping the blade out of it, then slashing the head off for good measure.
"Finished," Aralyn said.
"I fucking hate it when you do that," Renfri said. "Even if it is effective."
Eldin sighed, shaking his head. "If it hadn't been a Bruxa, I wouldn't have done it. We were getting nowhere fast."
Renfri nodded, she and Aralyn joining Eldin at the corpse. As Milton had said, the body had been quartered, severed at the elbows and knees, but death had been the result of a hole through the victim's torso about two and a half to three inches across. Eldin shook his head, giving the body a slightly more thorough look as Aralyn picked up the severed hand the Bruxa had been after. The separations were caused by something razor-sharp and bearing more force than Eldin had personally ever encountered. That lined up with a Higher Vampire's claws perfectly. Something that was confusing, however, was the thing lodged in the victim's throat. A pouch of coins, a lot of coins.
"Killed, a pouch of coins stuffed down his throat, and then quartered and thrown away," Eldin mused. "If anyone had ever bothered to tell us about the other two victims like I asked, this might make a little more sense. Right now, this is just...bizarre."
"Almost as bizarre of this," Aralyn said, holding up the hand. "It's still alive."
Eldin frowned, taking the hand, then nodding. It was warm, it twitched and flexed its fingers. It was alive. It bore a ring embossed with twisting serpents on the face.
"Let's head to the tourney ground," Eldin said, bagging the hand and slipping it into his satchel. "Maybe we can finally get someone to tell us about the other victims."
"It's surprising how little information we've been given about the murders we're here to investigate," Renfri said.
"It's always like that with nobles," Aralyn sighed. "They expect us to be able to look at a spot of ground where a monster sneezed and be able to tell them exactly where the monster lives, what it is, as well as the gender, breed, and exact age."
"As long as the Dutchess pays well, I can live with unreasonable expectations," Eldin said as they finally stepped outside again, finding their horses waiting. "But even with unreasonable expectations, they're going to give us some fucking answers."
Both of the others nodded, and they spurred their horses toward the tourney grounds.
Leave a review.