The Divine Hunter

r>I see why Mother Nenneke took them in.”

The girls talked about how weird it was that witchers had the eyes of a beast, then they started talking about something else.
“Queen Emilia comes every month to donate to the temple, doesn’t she? Then she buys a lot of herbs from Mother Nenneke.
She’s the most devout believer I’ve ever seen.
She should be blessed with the cutest child ever, but I wonder why Melitele wouldn’t grant her that.”

“Silence, Lily.
How dare you speak of the queen like that?” Iola II glared at the girl.
“Stop gossiping and get back to class.
If you’re even one minute late, you’ll be copying your homework one hundred times.”

***

“Don’t get distracted, boy!” Letho smacked Roy’s cheek with his wooden sword, drawing blood.

“Hey, just because I have hair doesn’t mean you get to hit me like that.
And why do you keep hitting my face?” Roy winced at the pain and shifted his focus back to the training at hand.

***

On the other hand, Nenneke, Coral, and Iola came to the yard, observing the duo from afar.

“What do you think of the child, Coral?” Nenneke clutched her chest, worried.
She felt that taking in a candidate for the trial wasn’t a good idea, for not everyone was as trustworthy as Geralt was. The mutations are unpredictable.
Both his body and mind will change.
Roy might be a gentle soul now, but who knows if he’ll turn into a murderer once he finishes mutating.

“Oh, Mother Nenneke.
I’ve told you a million times.
I, Lytta Neyd of the Sorcerer’s Brotherhood, am here to oversee the process.
Nothing will go wrong.”

“Don’t call me mother, Coral.
You aren’t younger than I.
And honestly, if I had a child like you, I’d probably hang myself.”

“Ouch, Mother.” Lytta chuckled.
“Let’s talk about the boy.
It hasn’t been a day since I came in touch with him, but he has proven himself to be an interesting one.
The way he speaks and thinks is quite peculiar.
I’ve seen many people over the years, so I’m sure he’s not from an Aedirn village as he claimed to be.
He’s probably…”

“From somewhere else.” Iola nodded in assent.
“He’s not a northerner, but not a southerner either.” How did he find out about my past with Geralt?

***

Apparently, Roy had stood out too much.
Lytta’s eyes gleamed, and she clenched her fist, trying to grab something.
“The trial’s just starting.
He won’t escape me.
I’ll get to the bottom of this.” She turned to Nenneke.
“And don’t beat yourself up.
Go ahead with the research about their decoction.
You might just come up with a few new potions.
That’ll show everyone how generous Melitele is.
And honestly, we did something good.”

Nenneke was intrigued.
“How so?”

“The brotherhood has done a survey.
The witchers have been acting weird over the past twenty years.
We suspect that no new witchers have been produced during that time.
That goes for all witcher schools.”

She looked up, feeling sympathetic.
“If this keeps up, they’ll slowly but surely disappear in the ravines of time.
Honestly, having nothing but mages is boring.
We need more magical individuals to help out.
And with my help, he might just be the last witcher ever born.”