Original release date: December 17, 2021
* * *
[wind howling]
[breathing heavily]
[grunting]
[growls]
[Ciri] Again.
[grunting]
[yells] Shit!
That’s enough. We’ll start fresh tomorrow.
I can do it.
[growls]
You need rest.
Anything else will have diminishing returns.
Sir Lazlo, he protected me in Cintra, and he said less than perfect means death.
Your stomach’s growling loud enough to wake the dead, if that counts.
Hunger makes for good sauce.
Also makes for shitty lunges.
[gasps]
[snarling]
Ciri.
You are safe here.
Was it the Black Knight again?
No.
If he’s still haunting you…
Whose turn is it for lunch?
[Lambert] Coen!
What’s the difference between a witcher and a heap of shit?
Well, go on, then.
Eventually, the shit will stop smelling. [guffaws]
That joke’s old as the Conjunction.
Well, you tell me one, then, you comedic fuck.
All right.
What do you call a witcher with no brains?
Lambert?
[laughs]
Okay, now she’s funny.
Oh, Lambert!
When you finish this, get some rest.
Ciri.
Trouble with the pretty, pretty princess?
Leave it alone.
Why should I?
He made his choice.
Cost us a brother.
That wasn’t our brother.
Not by the end of it.
And bitterness won’t help us find what killed him.
[Lambert] Oh, I know what killed him.
[Coen] Leave it alone.
[sighs]
[Eskel] Wait, Geralt…
[Geralt] Eskel?
Sorrel’s waiting for us.
No, no. [sighs]
I’m finished, mate.
We’re finished when we’re counting worms in the ground, not after an hour on the combs.
[laughs]
Three fucking hours.
You sound just like Vesemir.
Last I checked, we come here to rest in the winter, and to restore, and to have some fun, not train till our legs give out.
Legs seem fine to me.
Arsehole.
I haven’t seen you this sore since Vesemir tanned our hides for tying that thread to the bumblebee’s leg.
[laughs]
It wasn’t the thread that was the problem. It was the jug we tied to the other end.
“If you don’t leave that bee in peace, you’ll feel my sting again.”
[chuckles] See, you’re just like him.
We’re all just like him.
We won’t get any rest.
None of us will have any peace until there are no monsters left in the world.
Until our life’s mission is complete.
Which will be never.
‘Cause what else would we do?
Exactly.
Come on.
One more hour.
[sighs] Fine. One more hour.
Then you can hang what’s left of me on the medallion tree.
[laughs]
[Geralt] Hah.
[Eskel] Just like…
[sighs]
[crunching]
[loud crack]
[scraping]
[door opens]
[squelching]
Thank you, Wolf.
Don’t thank me yet. It was Lambert’s turn to cook.
[Vesemir sighs]
[sighs] This shouldn’t have happened.
We shouldn’t have lost him this way.
I know.
There must be more tests I can run to track whatever mutated the other leshy.
If there was a scientific explanation for any of this, you would’ve found it by now.
We’ve got a lab full of alchemical compounds that can change day to fucking night.
I’m not going to give up now.
I’m not asking you to give up.
[sighs]
But it’s time to let Eskel rest.
He deserves the peace.
[inhales] Yeah.
[wind rushing]
[seabirds calling]
[Artorius] So tell us, Istredd, while at the Nilfgaardian dig site, did you absorb any insight into their followers?
I absorbed nothing. Except perhaps some dirt.
Archaeological dig sites being what they are.
A respected mage, and even he found no indication of their plan to attack.
How could any of us have known?
Because we told you.
[scoffs] Vilgefortz had one good hunch about Nilfgaard’s military strategy.
A hunch that saved the Continent.
Ah, I am not here to glorify my part in our victory in Sodden.
Nor to watch you perform feigned inquisitions to distract from your failures.
Hmm.
The Northern kings are coming for the memorial, and they need answers.
The Nilfgaardian prisoner hasn’t proven fruitful.
There’s evidence of a magical barrier in his head.
So we need to search elsewhere.
Yeah, I would help if I could.
But I wasn’t there to study Nilfgaard.
I was there to study monoliths.
They hold the history of this Continent.
I think they hold our future too.
A future that will soon go to hell now that the elves are flocking to Cintra.
If we want to keep our people safe, we’d be wise to recognize the enemies in our midst.
The elves are not our enemies.
They’ve already aligned with Nilfgaard,
proving what many of us have known for centuries.
They cannot be trusted.
If we don’t control this now, it’ll grow beyond even our capabilities.
We’ll be burying a lot more than 14 mages then.
[Yennefer] Thirteen.
[whispering]
Yenna.
[Tissaia] I waited a month to carve it.
Mm-hm?
[wind gusts]
What was happening in there?
It’s tumultuous. [sighs]
Artorius can feel his grasp on the leadership slipping.
And Stregobor is…
A fuckhead.
Desperate.
Which makes him dangerous.
I need to tell you something.
Let me speak first.
Your actions turned the tide at Sodden Hill.
You are a hero to me and many others.
But we need to let Vilgefortz carry the mantle of victory for now.
You want me to lay low.
I need you to.
Because you and Vilgefortz are making a play for their seats.
We know it’s dangerous, but this is not the time to be weak.
It’s the time to be strong.
Just like you were at Sodden.
You did what you had to do.
And I, for one, will always be grateful for your sacrifice.
[laughs ruefully]
[man] Make sure you have your papers!
[bustle of voices]
[Filavandrel] They’re coming to Xin’trea from everywhere.
A place of refuge, where elves can be safe.
Our scouts tell us the North has turned against the elves completely.
[Francesca] It wasn’t that far to turn.
Yes.
But our immigration to Xin’trea has inflamed tensions.
With Nilfgaard, who will protect us.
I’ve never known a human to give out of the kindness of his heart.
[Francesca] Yes, there’s a cost.
But if it saves our people, it’s one I’m happy to pay.
You say that now.
Because I stand in the here and now.
Where Ithlinne wanted us.
Go. Eat meat.
Be happy.
We’re safe here.
I hope so.
[inhales deeply]
[horse whinnies]
[gasps]
Gettin’ tired?
[breathing heavily]
Do you remember wasting your time battling sacks of straw, Coen?
Can’t say I do.
[panting] What did you do, then?
[chuckles]
I don’t think so.
Some things are far too scary for little girls.
I’m not little, and I’m not afraid.
That’s easy to say. But our road is a dark one.
Full of dangers.
Is that what you want?
I want to do what a witcher does.
[chuckles]
[grunts]
Come on, then.
Afraid to break a nail, Princess?
[crashing]
[sails snapping]
[blades swishing]
[wood creaking]
[Lambert] Give it a try.
Go on.
[poles swooshing]
[Coen] Are you sure about this?
I’m just having a little fun.
[yelp[s]
[coughing]
Still wanna be a witcher?
[gasps]
[birdsong]
[Vesemir grunts] Now you can rest.
[sobbing quietly]
[wolf howling]
[sighs heavily]
[Vesemir sniffling]
[sniffles and sighs]
[Vesemir sighs deeply]
None of this makes sense.
Death by a mutating leshy. Find that in our annals.
How did we miss this?
I feel like the Continent’s evolving underneath our feet and…
We didn’t see it coming.
Maybe another Conjunction’ll come along and change it all again.
I know you think I’m mad, but I need to know what happened.
If it were your child…
You’d be going crazy to figure it out.
What you missed.
What you could have done differently.
[Geralt] I know.
It’s a burden I now share.
[Vesemir grunts]
[wolves snarling]
[howling]
[Geralt] They’re here.
[howling]
[howling continues]
[speaking in Elder]
[sighs]
[speaking in Elder]
Fuck. Fuck!
[sighs]
[footsteps]
Do you kiss your elven father with that mouth?
We heard you were back.
Word spread fast.
Like wildfire.
We heard about that too.
You survived.
So did you.
How divine.
Indeed, darling. Indeed.
[both laughing]
Come on, join us for a swim.
It’s freezing.
Surely the savior of Sodden would know how to heat a pool.
[speaking in Elder]
There.
You look different.
So do you.
[Sabrina] Oh, the water’s perfect.
[laughs]
Come on, you two!
[laughs]
[both laugh]
[gasps and sighs]
[all laugh]
[Sabrina] I could stay here a while.
Gods, this feels good.
Like you’re alive again?
[chuckles]
Come on, Triss. Join us.
Not today.
Not yet.
You remember Falka.
[sighs
[roaring and rumbling]
From your studies, you know she was a power-hungry mutt of a girl…
[roaring and screeching]
…who cried, “Death to all kings!”
When Vridank spurned her elven mother.
[screeching]
Bent on revenge, she slaughtered nobility…
[men scream]
…priests…
[swords clash]
…even civilians, with her bare hands.
[women scream]
It wasn’t enough, though.
She preyed on foolish followers, incited a rebellion.
[crowd cheering]
Together, they burned cities to the ground and sent rivers of innocent blood
down the streets of Redania and Temeria.
Anything to reclaim power!
[crowd yelling]
[Istredd] That’s not true.
[screeching]
Falka was a girl forgotten by her family.
She was trying to rightly recover her throne.
You weren’t there, boy.
No, I’m a historian.
Falka was quarter elven, just as Yennefer is.
What are you saying? Yennefer’s related to Falka?
[Stregobor] Course not.
[laughs]
A historian should know bloodlines better.
[murmuring]
But history does have a way of repeating itself, doesn’t it?
And I was there.
I was there when Falka destroyed Mirthe and all the mages in it.
Her violence, etched here…
Forever.
[audience gasp]
[whispering]
[chuckles] I have always tried to protect our institutions.
To protect…
You.
If we allow Vilgefortz and Tissaia to take charge of our council, if we allow our power to be diluted by elven blood,
Thanedd will be led to ruin.
No. Yennefer…
She would never do something like that.
I’m sure of it.
King Vridank was sure of his sweet daughter Falka,
and then she axed him in the neck.
The only certainty on this Continent, my boy…
Is that no one is ever what they seem.
[Triss] At Sodden, after I’d been burnt by that soldier, I was…
On the ground, screaming, and…
You walked by me.
I’m so sorry.
No…
No, I sent you to that gate.
If I’d have known…
No.
It’s not that.
We were all there to play a part.
We knew we might not survive.
I remember thinking, “If only one of us gets to live, I’m so glad it’s Yen.”
We will find a cure for your scars.
I’ll talk to Tissaia.
No.
What’s lost is lost.
I’m not on Tissaia’s plaque.
I’m not dead.
I have to find a new way forward.
[poles swooshing]
[yells and coughs]
[Lambert] That all you got, girl?
[Coen] Come on, Ciri.
Let’s go back.
[splutters]
You’ve had enough.
[coughs]
[yells]
Sheesh!
[blades swishing]
[shrieks]
[groans]
[wheezes]
[whimpers]
[winces]
[Lambert] Nice try, Princess.
Admit it.
You belong in a castle, not our keep.
[bell ringing]
[Hake] That makes 4,000 elves coming in and more on the way.
How exactly do you plan to feed them, let alone train them?
How can you be sure they won’t impede our mission?
The White Flame always finds a way.
Oh, just as he found a way to empower you in his absence?
Francesca.
Thank you for joining me.
Of course.
[scoffs]
Trouble with your men?
Are you comfortable here?
[chuckles]
My people are used to sleeping on a forest floor.
To awaken without the bite of a snake or the sting of a wasp is a pleasure.
What will it cost me?
[laughs] We’re both smart women.
I was told by someone masquerading as Ithlinne to come here in order to find Dol Blathanna.
You were told by someone masquerading as…
Emhyr. To bring you here to fight against the people who have wronged us both.
You suffered great losses in Sodden.
You need a new army.
[sighs]
We are looked upon as imperialists.
People, they see our black armor and they assume that we are here to destroy the world.
But we’re not.
We are trying to feed, to house, to…
To liberate.
You can help us.
How?
The elves know the Continent better than any man, Northern or Nilfgaardian, ever could.
I want your partnership.
The Deathless Mother may have brought us together, but you can trust me.
I want a home for my people.
But, more importantly, I want a place for our future to begin.
Can you promise me that?
[man 1] …is desperate…
[man 2] …I’m doing it…
…next time, do I need to…
Yennefer.
What are you doing down here?
Staying out from underfoot.
Per Tissaia’s request.
I wish things were different.
But…
Politics…
Requires a certain type of person.
Calculating. I understand.
Yes.
Of course you do.
[faint voices overlapping]
[voices and laughter]
[soft groaning]
[continues groaning]
Oh! [laughs]
My condolences.
It isn’t the end I’d hoped for, no.
I hate to break it to you, but you won’t meet an end here.
Well, Yennefer of Vengerberg, it seems mages are merciful.
[splutters]
No, we’re practical.
Death must serve a purpose.
And mine serves none?
None whatsoever.
Fringilla told me about you.
[thump]
Your days as schoolmates. [laughs]
She envied you.
[laughs softly]
Then.
Ah. What’s the hurry, my dear?
What is it with men lurking about this place?
[chuckles] Oh, I startled you.
So sorry.
[yells]
I always pegged you as a pervert.
[chuckles] Oh, I’d never demean myself with the likes of you, quarter blood.
I prefer Hero of Sodden.
Heroes don’t go mysteriously missing for a month after battle.
It’s telling that you don’t understand such complex concepts as prisoners of war!
So…
You were in the company of Nilfgaard.
[echoing] Nilfgaard, Nilfgaard…
Don’t get shy now.
We have so much more to talk about.
Tell me how it felt…
[echoing] Tell me how…
…to control fire.
Fuck you!
Or why you returned to Aretuza, a place you once so colorfully conveyed that you’d, what was it?
“Burn it all down”?
No?
Well… if you don’t want to chat about your true intentions, I’ll be forced to use a method your dear Tissaia’s grown so fond of.
[intense crackling]
[screams]
[horse neighs]
[screaming[
[Yennefer yells]
[grunting]
[Stregobor] That’s more like it.
[Tissaia] Stop!
[groans]
[panting]
[hisses]
[Tissaia] You will answer to this.
I thought the girl was supposed to be tending your horses.
[horse neighing]
She was.
Training’s going well, then.
She’s a quick study, if impatient.
Sounds familiar.
[horse snorts]
Vesemir…
I’m sorry for Eskel.
I know, son.
And if I was ever a burden…
Was?
[laughs]
Geralt!
You need to see this.
[sighs]
[Lambert] I’ve told you once, and I’m not gonna say it again!
[panting]
Stop showing off!
Steady your legs.
And breathe, damn it!
You’re panting like a dying mammoth.
[yells]
[grunts]
[cheering]
[gasps]
Stay calm, girl!
Go on!
Yeah!
[roars]
[panting]
[shouts]
[groaning]
[wheezing]
[strains]
[roars]
[screams]
[shouts]
[panting]
[groans]
[whimpers]
[coughs]
[gasps]
So close.
You have committed treason against one of our own.
[murmuring]
Tissaia’s pet,
Yennefer of Vengerberg, survived fire magic, survived imprisonment by Nilfgaard, survived capture by elves, and now returns to these hallowed halls unscathed?
And we are to unquestioningly believe that she’s here with good intentions?
I’m not saying she is the enemy.
I don’t know.
Do you?
I’m simply saying, Vilgefortz, that if you claim to want to defend the Brotherhood, as you so vociferously did before Sodden, then you must also be willing to defend it from threats inside these walls!
[thunder rumbling]
[heavy rainfall]
[Tissaia] We have no other choice.
To prove your innocence, you have to kill the Nilfgaardian prisoner.
Is this Vilgefortz talking or you?
The hero kills the enemy.
Which will prove what?
That you are not a spy!
Or that I am a killer!
[thunder crashes]
I’d be gift-wrapping yet another reason for Stregobor to vilify me!
Then tell them the truth.
What?
That you are not a threat because you have lost your magic.
I know you to your core.
Your pain is my pain.
Triss is scarred. Sabrina’s bruised. We’re all in pain.
Yes.
Yes, we are.
[sighs]
[sighs]
[sighs heavily]
For a month, I’ve searched the Continent, trying every herb, every potion, every spell to get back what I had.
[sobbing] What I deserve!
Tell me how to save myself!
[sobs]
I cannot.
[yells] I don’t believe you!
[gasps and sobs]
[thunder crashes]
I want to pierce Cahir’s mind.
Punish him. Push him towards madness, all to find out what had happened to you.
I would have done anything.
[sighs]
But what is lost is lost.
[gasps] Without it, I’m nothing.
Oh!
I’m stumbling through darkness.
From the moment we met, you have been trying to fill a void.
Power couldn’t do it, even when you had it at your fingertips.
What makes you think it’s the answer now?
Because it’s all I have left!
[Ciri] I almost had it.
I can do it.
[Geralt] You can do anything.
[winces]
Doesn’t mean you have to.
[sighs]
When a witcher cracks his skull, all we need do is stick him in a cot and fill him with veratrum, spurge, and hawthorn.
Chances are, he’ll survive.
You do not have that luxury.
But you said we catch fear.
That you have to face it. You mustn’t just give up.
That’s right.
But you have to train first.
Well, then let me train.
I am.
No, you’re not. Not enough.
I want to be a great fighter.
And not just against sacks of straw.
I have known many who wanted to be great fighters in my time.
Do you know where they are now?
Where?
In cemeteries.
Ugh!
[sighs]
[inhales]
[Istredd] Where are you going? Are you fleeing?
Why do you care?
‘Cause I care about you.
If you have an ulterior motive, you can tell me.
What, so you can rat me out to Stregobor? Again?
Oh, come on, Yenna.
Don’t call me that.
I lied to the Council.
I spent time amongst Nilfgaard’s followers.
I talked to them.
Heard how they feel protected under the emperor, how they feel welcomed.
I haven’t told anyone.
But I trust you.
I’m not a spy!
I’m leaving for Cintra tomorrow, to help the elves who are migrating, to help people like…
Like me? How heroic.
If only you were asked to prove your loyalty by beheading a man.
Stregobor has spies stationed on the towers outside.
If you slip out in the night, you will be caught.
But you were never one to go quietly, were you?
[whispering voices overlapping]
[old woman] All you lost…
[screaming]
All you deserve…
[cackling]
Come to me.
Come to me.
[faintly echoing] Come to me…
[Ciri grunts]
[Coen] Again!
[groans]
[Coen] You keep looking down.
That’s why you’re losing your balance.
Your enemies aren’t on the ground.
[grunts]
Again!
Good.
Eyes up.
[grunts]
Again!
[panting]
You said I couldn’t train more yesterday.
Not today.
That strange feeling that you get like someone’s coming after you, can you describe it to me?
I don’t know.
When you think about it, what’s the first word that comes into your mind?
A pull.
It’s… like I’m being pulled.
Pulled towards what?
I don’t know.
[Geralt sighs]
If you were to follow that feeling, where would it take you?
[man roars]
The woods.
[Ciri] What do you think we’ll find here?
Why does it want me?
Why me?
I was at your parents’ wedding feast.
I saw your mother exhibit…
Uncontrolled magical power.
She destroyed an entire throne room.
Given that you’re her blood, I think you’ve inherited that power.
Or something like it.
Why didn’t you tell me?
I didn’t want to scare you if I was wrong.
You said you’d never let anything happen to me.
And I trust you.
Good. It’s about time.
[gasps] I think we’re close.
[gasps]
It’s missing a hand.
It’s Eskel’s leshy.
[crunching]
[snarling]
[hissing]
[roars]
[screams]
[shuddering roar]
[leshy screeches]
[blaring roar]
[roars]
[snarls]
Run!
[high-pitched, bleating roar]
[groans]
[shrieking]
[creature’s shrieks echoing]
[panting]
[shrieking continues]
[snarling]
[echoing shrieks and snarls]
[breathing deeply]
[echoing shrieks continue]
[buzzing and chittering]
[screeching]
[high-pitched shrieking]
[screeches]
[bellowing]
[roaring]
[growling]
[snarls]
[huffs]
[growling]
Less than perfect means death.
Sir Lazlo would be proud.
[birdsong]
[Cahir panting]
[sighs]
Can you at least tell me what purpose my death serves now?
Absolution.
Mine?
Mine.
If the White Flame asks for my sacrifice, I am ready for the darkness.
It is in blindness that we find our true strength.
[sniffs]
We thank the Northern Kingdoms for their generous contribution honoring our fallen.
May it stand forever on the Hill!
[cheering]
Where’s Triss?
She was summoned away this morning.
[Vilgefortz] In Sodden, we banded together, to fight not only for the future of magic, but for the future of the Continent.
Tragically, our victory came at a great cost.
Vanielle of Brugge.
Atlan Kerk.
Lawdbor of Murivel.
[King Foltest] Look there, Vizimir, the sorceress that saved Sodden.
Yennefer of Vengerberg.
Think she’ll put on a fiery display for us tonight, Foltest?
I’ve heard mages embed these events with spells to prevent magic.
[Vizimir] Yes, well…
My adviser Dijkstra says she’s worth keeping an eye on.
[Tissaia] Kalia de Torteville.
[Foltest sighs] They all are these days.
Our most trusted advisers…
[Tissaia] Wagens of White Hills.
…are becoming less and less trustworthy.
[Tissaia] …C’steczko Tower. Gorazd.
Lytta Neyd.
Yoël Grethen.
Today, we must unite again against a common enemy.
[murmurs of agreement]
[chains rattling]
This Nilfgaardian will be put to death.
His head will be sent to Cintra to make our voices heard.
The North, kings and mages alike, this is what strength looks like.
[cheering]
[man] Hear, hear!
[applause dies down]
[Cahir wheezes]
[old woman whispering] Free yourself.
Reclaim your power.
[voices overlapping] Simply say the words…
[gasps]
[breathes deeply]
[breathing shakily]
[breathing heavily]
[grunts]
[gasps]
[crowd groans]
[uproar]
[neighs]
[whinnies]
[snorts]
Come on, then.
Why save me?
Don’t flatter yourself.
I’m saving me.
