Gawain's Residence, Gildorf.
The Collector was staring at the endless city outside his window. The sky was overcast, torn apart by silver lightning bolts and booming thunder. Raindrops as viscous as oil washed away the dust collecting on his windowsill, but they failed to wash away the darkness he felt within his heart.
"I believe it has been a full year since you took over Chappelle's place, Jiji. Have you encountered any… dilemmas during that period? Something like the original body's thoughts invading and corrupting your own mind?" Gawain said darkly, "I see some… unsettling scenes from time to time, like dissecting a poor soul's body all for the pleasure of experimenting. If it were in the past, I would feel nothing but disgust and abhorrence toward these acts." There was genuine fear in Gawain's voice as he spoke. "But now, every time I see blood, all I feel is ecstasy. Like I had too many Est Ests to drink." His shoulders trembled. "This… This maniac's perverted mind is corrupting me. How should I deal with this?"
***
"I understand where you're coming from, mate." Chappelle was in a black, tight shirt. He approached Gawain and grabbed his shoulder. "Twenty years ago, I too lost my way. I was confused." Reminiscence lit up his eyes. "Without my elders showing me the path forward, all I could do was press on by myself, exploring my power. Well, 'abuse' would be the correct term. I shapeshifted into many beings, extracting many memories. Too many. In the end, it turned my brain into mush. I had depression and schizophrenia.
"I couldn't focus, I wasn't interested in anything, and I kept seeing things in my head. Things that were illogical, irrational, bloody, and horrifying. Had I gone on with that path, I would’ve ended up losing my mind and taking my own life like a lot of the older dopplers did." Chappelle, or to be exact, Jiji, continued. "But then I met the church. It represents an undying flame, the symbol of life, the light within the darkness, and most importantly, hope."
Like a preacher and evangelist, Jiji said, "And it woke me. Hope. That was what I desired. A beacon in what's otherwise an impenetrable fog. A warm, shining light that points me to the right path. All the chaotic thoughts, all the fog that clouds our heart and soul, will melt away under that light of hope. Only those without hope or a beacon in their life will see nothing but darkness before them. They succumb to the thoughts of all the people around them, losing their own self in the process."
"I'm not telling you to convert, Gawain." Jiji gave him an encouraging smile. "What I'm saying is you should think for yourself. About your goals. The beacon in your life. You're no longer the same person you once were. No longer do you have to run away from the church. You should take some time to find that beacon in your life. Put your faith in something."
Gawain mused pensively. For most of his life, the shadows were his home. Things like goals and dreams were too lofty for him. After he took over the Collector's place, he was busy with the alliance and his business. There was no time to sort his mind out, but now he was putting some serious thought into this.
***
"Are you for real, Jiji?" Lambert was on the sofa behind the dopplers, looking confused. "You found hope in the Eternal Fire? You, a doppler?"
"Sounds like an ironic fairy tale, don't you think?" Jiji turned around. Lambert and Aiden were wolfing down the snacks before them. The doppler laughed at himself. "The church has been hunting me down for many decades, and yet its doctrines gave me salvation. But perhaps that is what Destiny has in store for me. I had run into the late Chappelle and taken over his place, all so I could pave a path to my dreams and goals."
"So, what is your goal, anyway?" Lambert gulped down a piece of pumpkin pie sprinkled with cinnamon powder. The unique sweetness surprised him, and he let out a grunt of approval.
"Witchers, I thought you'd have noticed. We've been working together for months." Jiji shook his head. Solemnly, he said, "As I have taken over as Chancellor of Security, I shall devote my life to the church. It has given me salvation, after all."
Lambert choked on the pie, and he thumped his chest.
Jiji ignored that and looked at Gawain. "I shall rectify what is wrong with the church. Oppression of non-humans, exclusion of different doctrines, and cruel punishment over petty matters. Those are the cankers of the church. I will—at least in this city—reform the church until it walks its talk. The belief is to lead its people through darkness and into a brighter tomorrow. And to do that, first we must erase all hazards. Kidnappers, for example. Why do you think I worked with you?"
"Are all dopplers this merciful, Jiji? You have my respect." Aiden nodded. But he asked, "But if you do things too differently from how the real Chappelle used to, the hierarch—"
"And the dissenters among the councilmen might hunt me down?" Jiji confidently said, "The hierarch is a man with great dreams and ambitions. He devotes all his time to the gospel, spreading the fire to new kingdoms. As long as I don't do anything evil, the hierarch won't crack down on me. And there's no need to worry about the dissenters. As long as Gawain, Cleaver, and Bedlam have my back, they're nothing."
"I see." Lambert said, "The orphanage is going to expand a few months down the line. We'd need your help to get the permit."
"Of course." Chappelle nodded. "It's time to build a bond between witchers and the church." He suggested, "Keep taking down the kidnappers and ask Dandelion to come up with a few more scripts to improve how the public perceives witchers. Once the public perception changes, the church might want you to be our sword instructor."
***
"What are the other witchers doing?" Gawain picked up a cup of tea and sat down before the witchers. Jiji's advice cheered him up a little. The frown on his forehead was gone. "It's been a while since I saw Letho."
"Same old, same old." Lambert crossed his legs and dug his ear. "Guy's teaching the kids how to do alchemy."
"What about the others?"
"Auckes and Serrit are teaching them how to farm and hunt. Even built a garden for the kids." Aiden took a sip of the tea. He added, "Vesemir's the blacksmithing instructor now."
"Geralt and Eskel are teaching the children how to swing a blade," Lambert said, huffing. They keep talking about how they won't teach the kids, but they sure are happy about it.
Carl had returned, and a show of strength ensued. His friends, motivated by Carl's power up, put even more back into their own training every day. The next Trial might come in less than a year, but that all depended on how Lytta's research would go.
"Felix takes Carl around for some real-world training."
Their training were just simple battles with drowners, wolves, and dogs in the wilderness of Novigrad. "While Kiyan stays back and teaches the children how to read and write."
"This is an intricate teaching system, witchers. It feels like an academy to me." Jiji let out a sigh. "Fortunately, you have enough people around to teach the children. Most orphanages don't even have that kind of resource. At most, they'd just gather the kids around every morning and teach them some random stuff for two hours."
"The kids are left to their own devices most of the time. And what about Lytta?" Jiji asked. He only decided to join this alliance after he saw the gorgeous sorceress.
"Doing magic stuff as usual." Lambert smirked. He joked, "But she's not in a good mood. Understandable, though. It's their honeymoon period, but her partner insists on going out for work. She does not like that."
"And who is her partner?" Gawain was reminded of something. A smile curled his lips, and with curiosity, he asked, "Why did he leave his beautiful wife at home all alone?"
"Her partner's none other than the seer and diplomat, Roy. As for where he is right now, well, he's in hell. Like usual."
***
July had arrived, and nature was draping Redania's wilderness in a blanket of green. But not even that hint of life could extend its arm to the chilly north.
Across the Gulf of Praxeda stood the kingdom of Kovir, with Poviss situated even further north. A snow-covered kingdom for most of the year, this kingdom had almost barren lands with barely any produce every year.
The higher the altitude, the less warmth this already freezing land enjoyed. Poviss stood in the northernmost part of the continent, with its back against the Dragon Mountains. Icy gales blew down on it, and the air's temperature could reach a freezing fourteen degrees Fahrenheit.
In the snowy skies, a witcher flew. Not even he could fend off the icy winds. He curled up and held his griffin's mane to keep himself warm as he looked down at the lands.
Sand as far as the eyes could see, and waves crashed on the reef jutting out of the shore. The sea glimmered gold under the sun, the coast resembling a golden moon. Beasts prowled across the shrubbery on the coast, but they were no larger than ants from this height.
But Roy was in no mood to enjoy the view. The cold winds were taking all his body warmth away at a terrifying speed. It felt like an over-time spell that gradually took his life away. Even Heliotrop could only last for fifteen minutes before it broke into tiny little pieces.
Two hours later, Roy's mana was almost empty. His cheeks were red, and Gryphon was starting to chatter as well. It was impossible to reach Kaer Seren's mountains under these conditions. Rest was a must.
They landed in a yellow ginkgo forest not far from the beach. Before they even made their landing, Gryphon easily caught a deer with its talons and galloped around the forest with its prey in its mouth.
The cold had gotten to it. A layer of frost covered its beak and mane. Had Gryphon been an adult griffin, it could have fended off the cold, but it was still very much in its youth.
Roy collected a pile of sticks and hay as fast as he could. He piled them up beneath a jutting rock and tossed Igni at it. Igni's magical flames turned all the water on Roy's body into vapor. Sparks flew, and the flames crackled.
Gryphon happily rolled around its master.
"Don't get too close, or the fire's gonna burn your hair off." He took off his freezing armor and put it beside the fire to dry it up. Then the witcher easily cut the deer in half and tossed most of it to Gryphon.
One of the deer's legs hung on a makeshift grill, covered in spices and oil. Roy laid out a beast hide before him.
After Carl's successful Trial, the next part of their plan was to seek out Keldar, the leader of Griffin School. But Vesemir had too much fun teaching his blacksmithing protégés, and he was planning on another trip to Oxenfurt, this time spending a week with his beloved Mignole.
Vesemir did not think this negotiation would end well. The only support came in the form of a yellowing map made out of beast hide. It detailed the exact location of Kaer Seren. The fortress was located on the cliff of the border of Poviss' coast and the northwest of Dragon Mountains.
The brotherhood would not ask Vesemir to make this trip, so the job of negotiation fell upon Roy once again.
Lytta was livid when she found out. Four months. That was how long she took to complete the Trial for Carl. It had been too long since they were separated. They barely had time to see each other. After the Trial was done, Lytta was planning to go on another date on the sea under the moonlight, but Roy came and told her he had a job to do.
He would like to spend some time with her, but work came first. An anguished Lytta opened the portal to Dragon Mountains reluctantly and kicked Roy into it. Before Roy left, she said, "Piss off to Poviss!"
And the unfortunate witcher found himself on the coast of Poviss, a hundred miles away from Dragon Mountains.
Even after a day and a night on Gryphon's back, he was still far from his destination. The weather was getting colder too. That was Lytta's punishment for him.
***
Roy turned the map around and placed it on his lap. He tossed a piece of wood into the fire and turned the glistening deer leg on the skewer. His eyes were on the mountains covered in snow and fog. Beneath the mountain stood the kingdom situated on the northernmost part of the Continent—Poviss and Kovir.
The only wealth they had were sand and seawater. That was supposed to be a joke, but nobody laughed once salt factories were invented. Kovir and Poviss monopolized the salt and glass market all over the world.
Even so, most Northern Realm people thought this kingdom was far, far away from them. It was located in a hostile environment, and their people were even worse than the weather.
The kingdom was the butt of everyone's joke. Teachers would tell their students, "If you don't like my class, you can piss off to Poviss."
And so, Poviss became synonymous with hell. As word spread about the kingdom, rebels, adventurers, mad scientists, innovative engineers, and visionary businessmen, all moved to this barren land in the north.
But then these immigrants came back with shocking discoveries. This presumed barren nation was, in fact, a treasure trove. They had an unbelievable amount of ore deposits, and the profits they gained from those ores were more than the profits of Redania, Kaedwen, and Aedirn combined. Only Temeria's Mahakam had more ore deposits than them.
But Poviss' gold, dimeritium, and platinum took up three-quarters of the world's market. Nobody ever looked down on that kingdom after that.
Roy tore off a strip of flesh and popped it into his mouth, then he lay down on Gryphon's warm belly. Redania once sent its troops to invade Kovir and Poviss in an attempt to steal its wealth, but the kingdom responded by sending out an army of well-equipped mercenaries. That band of mercenaries pulverized Redania's army, forcing them to retreat.
Ever since then, Poviss and Kovir signed a peace treaty with all the major kingdoms in the north and became a permanent neutral land.
"Poviss is a good place. It's even more accepting of non-humans than Novigrad."
Auckes wanted to visit this place badly.
"I'll take a look once I see the Griffins."
***
Roy heard the sound of a twig breaking coming from afar, and he produced a diamond-shaped crystal in his hand. Colorful magical lights illuminated it, and it covered Gryphon. The beast was alarmed as well.
Poof, and the griffin turned into a little black cat. It scurried up Roy and hid in his hood. The little cat mewed and stuck its head out to see what was happening. Roy wore a pair of sunglasses and kept his heterochromatic eyes hidden.
He tucked the bones and campfire into his inventory space and quickly hid in an arrowwood bush.
About thirty seconds later, two burly men in thick, grey cotton clothes entered the woods.
"I think I saw smoke rising here. And I can fucking smell the taste of meat in the air. Even heard a cat meow like it was in heat." A man with green hair, a nose resembling a garlic, and a chin resembling an eggplant showed up. He then looked around carefully.
"Ah, you're just hearing things, you coward. There's no cat around here, dumbass." The other man's face was red, and he clicked his tongue. "So, did you tell Igsena? Did she agree?"
"Gotta hand it to you, mate. I told her I was gonna buy a whole sack of coal, and she agreed to the deal." The man with green hair rubbed his hands. "I bet she's gonna steal her father's coal and sell them to us. Tonight."
"Good. Perhaps we can even have some fun."
***
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