Hello there! Welcome my friends to the next chapter of Light Bringer Stories: The Witcher.
Hope your going to enjoy it and now time for the story.
That following morning after a good nights sleep, well Geralt's sleep. Lucifer had no need for it. Though he did partake in being lavishly pampered as he was cleaned by the fair maidens the Duchess had so graciously ordered to take care of them.
"I was not mistaken." Captain Damien de la Tour said as he escorted them to the duchess, "You arrive and trouble followed soon after."
"Oh Demi, I can't help it." Lucifer said smugly, "Trouble is just so infatuated with me. Like a certain duchess we both know."
They came out on a balcony, the one where the duchess would hold council on sunny days, which was very often seeing as Toussaint was located in a warmer location of the Continent. The balcony overlooked the beautiful mountain range of Toussaint, and it was there that the fair and beautiful Anna Henrietta stood in a beautiful silk dress, along with her entourage.
Upon seeing the blonde Devil with the witcher, her look of concern turned into a pleasantly surprised smile.
"Lord Lucifer." Anarietta said as she strode towards them, giving him a courtly bow before offering him her hand.
"Lady Anarietta." Lucifer said, taking a hold of her hand, bowing so he could press it to his lips, "Even more beautiful and radiant than the last time I saw you."
"And you still look the same as that beautiful spring and summer we spend together." Anarietta said, "While your here, I wouldn't mind reliving those nights spend together." she added with a flirty smile.
"Oh, my lady. As deliciously tempting as that offer is, it pains me to my core to be forced to decline." Lucifer said, looking into her sparkling blue eyes, "I'm afraid, my dear lady, that I'm spoken for."
"Well now, ain't that an interesting fact." Anarietta said intrigued, "I would be most interested to know whom has managed to capture the heart of Lucifer Lux. Unfortunately, there are other matters to attend."
Lucifer let go of her hand, "Of course." he said, turning to send a wink to the clearly jealous Captain de la Tour as he felt Geralt's gaze in the back of his head.
"Witcher, we've been on tenterhooks." Anarietta said turning to Geralt, "Did you catch Milton's killer?"
"Case is more serious than we thought." Geralt said, "The Beast, I couldn't kill it, didn't manage."
"We send you after a monster, and you return with nothing?" Anarietta said her voice raising, "We are very disappointed."
"Anarietta, if I may." Lucifer spoke up, "Geralt would have killed it by now, if the Beast wasn't a higher vampire."
"Is that suppose to be a problem? Is it too much for a witcher? A monster slayer?" Captain de la Tour scoffed, "Everyone knows how to end a vampire. Draw him by trick into sunlight. Or arm yourself with ample garlic and drive a stake through its heart."
"That doesn't work on vampires from this World." Lucifer said, "And doesn't everyone die from a stake through the heart?"
"Indeed." Geralt said turning to the captain, "Those methods you mentioned, pure invention, only work in legends and fables."
"And buckthorn?" Anarietta said curiously, "When I was a child, grandmama Ademarta always claimed buckthorn drives off vampires."
"Silver sword's your best option for keeping them at bay. But it won't get the job done." Geralt informed her, "Cause only a higher vampire can truly kill another of its kind."
"Excuses. Your Grace, I shall assemble a battue, bring the matter to its end at once." Captain de la Tour said, "The witcher need but tell us where to find this monster."
"As funny as it would be to see Captain de la Tour and his men be torn limb from limb, I must insist you do not send him and his men on a suicide mission." Lucifer spoke up, "Anarietta, let me and Geralt go after it. Higher vampires, each one is unique but with our efforts combined they would stand no chance."
"If these higher vampires are so powerful." Anarietta said, turning to the blonde, "What would you try to do?"
"What I do best. Make a deal..." Lucifer said before he held up a hand in annoyance, "Damien, be quiet now. Mommy and daddy are talking."
The Captain was indeed about to speak up but decided to keep his mouth shut but looked deeply insulted. Captain de la Tour always was trying to prove he had a more massive unmentionable than Lucifer, who treated this challenge with dispassionate superiority, managing to best the Captain time and again, earning himself another enemy.
"Luci, you do not, I trust, suggest we let Milton's killer go free? Or wait until it murders again?" Anarietta said, "We must render it harmless as quickly as possible."
"I suggest no such thing. A certain degree of punishment must be met out, but the punishment must fit the crime." Lucifer assured her, "You know me, Anarietta. My word is my bond."
"... I admit to being swayed, Luci." Anarietta said with a nod, "I will entrust these matters into your capable hands."
"Thank you." he said with a smile, "With me and Geralt teaming up, there is no way we can fail."
"I know that, and you will keep me updated." Anarietta said, "Won't you, my dear Luci." she added by touching the tip of his nose with her index finger before he and Geralt where dismissed.
The duo walked out of the palace and was making their way towards Rosch.
"So you know the Duchess?" Geralt said, "How did that happen?"
"Oh, it was the during the spring of 1268. I remember it well, me and Anarietta became acquainted during a ball. I had some business in Toussaint and what better way to spend my stay than in a palace. One of my favorite vacations I spend in mortal realms, if I was able to have children there would be a bunch of little Lucifer's and Anarietta's running around that palace."
"Yeah, that I can believe." Geralt said, "Around that time, I was in Toussaint. Was on my way to save Ciri from Vilgefortz."
"What a coincident!" Lucifer said, "If faith was changed just a little, we might have ran into each other."
"Could have used the help." Geralt said shaking his head in as he remembered the assault on Stygga castle, "All my companions died in the battle."
"You wouldn't have liked me back then." Lucifer said waved it off, "I was a cunt back then."
"Not much would have changed, I still don't like you in the present day." Geralt said, "Because your still a cunt."
"And your a dick, Geralt of Rivia." Lucifer said stopping in his tracks as he stared the witcher down, "That's why we work so well together." and the two shared a smile at their banter before they continued to walk.
Between Beauclair Port and Francollarts, there was a large cemetery named Mère-Lachaiselongue Cemetery. While the cemetery itself is rather large, with tombstones practically overlapping each other, there's only one crypt here.
A famous act of poisoning once occurred which took the lives of a large gang of bandits who were ransacking the area. The folk charged with cleaning up in the aftermath originally planned to burn the bodies, but one pious soul thought even rotten dung-diddlers such as they deserve better.
He thus paid for their bodies to be laid to rest in a small cemetery: Mère-Lachaiselongue.
Trying the only door to the crypt, but Regis isn't answering so Geralt proposed to find another way in. Lucifer instead snapped his fingers and the door opened by itself.
"A bit cliche, meeting a vampire at a cemetery." Geralt said as they walked down into the crypt, where Regis had set up his hideout.
"Nothing comes readily to mind." Regis said with a laugh as he stood on one of the upper levels.
"You could have left the door open." Geralt said before they walked up the stairs where the upper level had been turned into some sort of make-shift library.
"What of my privacy? I value it rather deeply. Unmolested, especially by unwanted guests. That's my preferred state." Regis said turning to Lucifer, "Besides, I knew you'd find a way to get in."
"Yeah, Lucifer has some uses." Geralt said before taking a seat in the chair, "We need to find your friend."
"I shall do whatever's in my power. Yet what you want or even need must matter little. What matters is what Dettlaff wants. If he does not wish to be found, you will not find him. Ever. End of story." Regis explained, "Vampires can evade detection by the senses, and no divination magic works on us. Even the most precise megascope would be useless..."
"Can't we just summon him?" Geralt said, "Your both higher vampires, there has to be a way."
"If I'm to be entirely candid, there is indeed one." Regis said, "But believe me, we will be better off never availing ourselves of it. It is a last resort. Absolutely."
"That's what mortals always say about dealing with me." Lucifer said with a smirk as he conjured up a bottle of wine along with three glasses made of crystal, "And yet here we are."
The bottle began to pour it's red liquid contents into the three glasses, before putting itself down on the table and it was now the turn of the glasses to float off the table and into the hand of each of the three.
"Fortunately, your rules don't apply to me." Lucifer said, "As you know Child of Cain." before taking a sip of his wine.
"Why do you keep referring to Regis as Child of Cain?" Geralt said as he sat there with his glass in hand.
"All vampires, no matter which World they are from, are originally descendant of Cain, the First Murderer and the First Vampire. He was a bit of a trendsetter like that." Lucifer explained, "What sets them apart from each other is the condition of their evolution thanks to existing in different dimensions. A bit similar to how magic is harness differently between Worlds." but it seemed Geralt had no idea who Cain even was.
"Right. So you have Adam and Eve, First Man and Woman. After they got kicked out of the Edan, they had children. A set of twins named Cain and Abel. So Cain disABELed his brother, by murdering him with a bloody rock. Then my father sentenced him to immortality, while also giving him super speed, super strength, the ability to turn invisible, the power of polymorph. Oh, he also hooked him up with Lilith. Yes, that Lilith, the Mother of Demons."
"...Your dad truly works in mysterious ways..." Geralt said dryly.
"That's a bit of an over simplification, but that's the gist of it." Regis said, "What Lucifer said is true. The rules don't apply to him, he could easily track him down."
"Indeed, all I need is something to catch his scent." Lucifer said, before he noticed Geralt produce a severed hand, though it would be more fitting to call it a bloodied claw. It also had a very peculiar ring on it.
"That's very handy." Lucifer noted.
"A pun, really? I expected better from you Lucifer." Geralt said, before gesturing to the hand, "Got if off one of the Beast's victims, found by a bend in the river. Body was chopped, in pieces. Three of those pieces were hands. Hand with the ring seemed the odd one out. A bruxa had taken an interest in it."
Placing the glass down on the table, Regis took the hand off the table, lifting it up to study it better in the candle light. He took a few whiffs of the blood before putting it back down.
"It's Dettlaff's hand, without a doubt." Regis said, placing the hand back down but taking the ring off it, "Can you work your uhm... magic?"
"Of course." Lucifer said taking the hand that the vampire offered, "There is power in blood after all." as he began to study it.
"The ring's pretty intriguing." Geralt said, "Made of no metal I've every seen. And the ornamentation."
"It comes from our home, where we lived before the Conjunction of Spheres." Regis explained, "It's actually mine. I received it from a dear old friend. You might call him a... humanist. He saw us, vampires, as guests here, guests who owe their hosts, meaning you humans and the Elder Races, respect."
"Respect?" Geralt said, "Meaning not to treat us like cattle to be slaughtered for food..."
"Precisely. And the reason why I, in turn, gave it to Dettlaff." Regis said, "To remind him of the ideals my old friend championed."
The best wine comes from Toussaint, any sommelier will tell you as much. Bottles bearing its famed labels are worth fortunes and even grace the tables of kings. Indeed, today one can barely imagine a royal feast without Côte-de-Blessure or Est Est. And it is here, at Beauclair's port, that this wine begins its journey both to the south, into the heart of the Nilfgaardian Empire and to the far-off North.
The Devil, witcher and vampire stood in front of a building in the Port district. The Rocking Horse was once a well kept toy store in Beauclair's Beauclair Port district. However, after its owner fell into money troubles, it was closed by the authorities.
"The scent is strong here." Lucifer said as they walked through the door.
"Indeed." Regis said, sniffing the air, "He's not here, but he was here recently."
"Well then." Lucifer said, clasping his hands together, "Let's have a look around in the creepy toy shop."
On the first floor wasn't much of interest. The trio made their way behind a wooden counter covered in dust and up to the attic. It was clear that someone had turned the abandoned building into a resting place. The three looked around, shifting through the dusty objects in the room.
Regis looked through the wooden carved toys while Lucifer noticed a highly detailed drawing of a dark haired woman on the wall near the bed.
Something about the woman seemed familiar.
"You two need to hear this." Geralt said suddenly getting their attention. It appeared the Witcher had found a letter, one addressed to Dettlaff.
"Dettlaff van der Eretein, you do not know us, but we know you to be a vampire. We know also of your weakness for the wench they call Rhenawedd. Now you know this. We shall chain her down and let rats feed on her. We shall flay the skin from her flesh... Yet you can save her. You need but travel to Buauclair, where you shall slay five men in the manner we prescribe. You must complete the killing in three days. Fail, and the next letter you receive will contain a memento of your failure. Your beloved's finger."
"There you have it." Regis said slightly relieved, "Proof positive Dettlaff killed not of his own accord. A blackmailer's sunk his claws into him."
"Any idea what it could be?" Geralt said, "Dettlaff have any enemies?"
"Indeed, Dettlaff gains foes occasionally, but they never live long. One might have evaded him... but I know of none." Regis said, "It would have to be someone devilishly dangerous. As you well know, having faced Dettlaff yourself."
"Who is Rhenawedd?" Lucifer said, gesturing to the drawing of the dark haired woman, "Is that her?"
"Rhenawedd, she was his one-time lover. The sole human woman with whom he was very close. Because she accepted him. With her aid and care, he found a place for himself in this hostile world. She began the work that I strive to continue." Regis explained, "While it can be, I'm not sure. Never had the pleasure to meet her, alas. She deserted him a time before he came round to save me. Though he always claimed she'd gone missing."
"What made him think that?" Geralt said.
"Apparently she disappeared one day. Her belongings disappeared with her, not a scenario one associates with kidnapping." Regis said, "In my humble opinion, she left on her own, scared off, perhaps, by a bout of Dettlaff's rage that revealed his other, more monstrous side. But not only was she his beloved, his lover, his mate. She was a member of his pack. And one never leaves one's pack voluntarily."
"Dettlaff have trouble letting go." Geralt said, "Accepting that she'd left him?"
"Like humans aren't that much different." Lucifer scoffed, "They too let their emotions guide their actions far more than they let on."
"Ironic." Geralt said, "Especially coming from one who burned half a city down looking for Ciri."
"I never did that." Lucifer said confused, "But it seems clear what we need to do. Find Rhenawedd and get her out. Even if she did abandon him that time, looks like someone's actually kidnapped her this time."
"Hard to argue with that." Regis said, "And hard to foresee what he's prepared to do to free her, get her back."
"He's prepared to kill." Geralt said, "That's for certain."
"As would you be for Yennefer." Regis said, "He kills for he cares for her deeply, and that blood, those individuals... they mean nothing to him."
"Sounds more like a certain someone I know." Geralt said, glancing at the blonde Devil.
"I wonder who." Lucifer said oblivously, "Mind if I have a look of the letter?"
Geralt handed to him, as Lucifer studied it. Holding it up to study it better he muttered to himself, "Ink dyed with cinnabarite. A rare mineral but means very little... Now this is interesting."
"What is?" Regis said.
"The corner is stained with wine." Lucifer said.
"Not much to go on." Geralt said, "Especially not in Beauclair."
"Think, Geralt, Think!" Lucifer said using his index finger to point at his head, "This is wine country, it is a sacred thing. It always means something in Toussaint.", he took the letter as he began to study the wine stain while Geralt and Regis began to sum up what they already knew.
"Seems Dettlaff's being blackmailed." Geralt said, "Someone's been feeding him his victims names."
"All noted down using one and the same ink. And not in his handwriting." Regis said, "Not much but enough to ascertain Dettlaff's innocence. Clearly."
"It wouldn't make Dettlaff innocent." Lucifer said not looking away from the letter, "After all he still killed those men."
"But he's being blackmailed." Regis said, "Because a loved one..."
"Cool motive, still murder." Lucifer said as he tasted his fingers after running them over the wine stain, "Though it should lessen his punishment. What we need to do is find his lover, take away the power the blackmailers have."
"I agree. I shall stay here, he's sure to return sooner or later." Regis said, "Convince him to stay his hand, assure him you two are friends seeking to help.
"Oughta wait with you, maybe." Geralt said.
"No. He'll sense you from a mile off, simply fail to appear." Regis said, "I'd better stay alone, you must trust me on this."
"Fine." Geralt said.
"Well if Geralt, trust you, then I shall as well." Lucifer said, "We need to speak with the duchess again. I found something interesting about the wine stain."
"Your not going to explain until we get to the palace?" Geralt said.
"You know me so well, Geralt." Lucifer said turning to Regis, "See you soon."
"We'll await you here." Regis said, "Dettlaff and I both." as Lucifer and Geralt went back down stairs.
"Ana!" Lucifer said as they reentered the balcony where Anarietta was waiting, "I bring news."
"I wouldn't be surprised if it was news on how you already have solved the problem already." Anarietta said, "What news do you bring?"
"We found this, a letter blackmailing Dettlaff into the killings. It's corner stained with wine." Lucifer said holding up the letter, "Not unusual, giving where we are. But it's the kind of wine. It's Sangreal, the 1269 vintage."
"Nice." Geralt said.
"Are you sure... No, of course you are. But still... that's impossible." Anarietta said, "The wine is produced at Castel Ravello. Especially and exclusively for the ducal table..."
"It's why I came to inform you of this fact." Lucifer said, "I promised to keep you updated."
"Perhaps some Sangreal was stolen?" Anarietta said before coming to a decision, "We must go to the vineyard, see if there's not been an incident."
"Wait... Your Grace wants to go with us?" Geralt said, "Out of the question."
"Your Grace, what you propose is far too dangerous." Captain de la Tour said, "The witcher and Lord Lux should..."
"I'm not about to agree with Dami on anything." Lucifer said at once, "Makes me feel sick."
"And we couldn't have that." Anarietta said placing a hand on his chest, "I've made my decision, we shall go, accompanied by the best possible escorts. Lucifer, Geralt and you, captain."
Upon hearing the news that de la Tour would be coming with them, Geralt spotted Lucifer's cane suddenly appearing in his hand and he was about to unsheath to create a portal out of there until Geralt stopped him.
"Give me a moment, I must don something more appropriate, and concealing. Then we will be off." Anarietta said, "And of course, I will be riding with Luci."
"I wouldn't have it any other way." Lucifer said with a smirk, "Shadowmere will be delighted to see you."
And that was the chapter, hope you enjoyed.
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