The Divine Hunter

Chapter 367: Ordeal at Sodden Hill

Kerack. A small country situated between Cidaris and Verden. It was late at night, but the room of Lytta Neyd, royal consultant for magic, was lit up. The crackling flames and moonlight shone on a pair of silhouettes in the room.

Lytta placed her glass on the table, the sound of the clang attracting her guest's attention. "What brings the infamous heartbreaking Viper to my humble abode? This is… mystifying." She turned around, her hair swaying, her eyes filled with questions. "This is the first time you wanted to visit me in my own home. Did something big happen?"

"Just wanted to see you. It's been more than a month." Roy lied as naturally as he breathed. "You mentioned an obstacle in your job last time. Have you settled it?" He looked at Lytta closely.

Her peach-colored rouge softened the sharp edges of her cheeks, but they failed to hide them completely. Her coral-red lipstick made her lips shine beautifully, and almost too perfectly. Her red hair was natural, and there was a tinge of brown in it, reminiscent of summer and fox fur. Most redheads would have a lot of freckles, but not Lytta. Her face was as smooth as opal and as warm as a hard-boiled egg.

Roy felt himself heating up, and a slumbering desire was slowly awakening.

"First time you're so eager to come. This is a surprise. I settled the matters with my job." She rested her chin on her hand, her polished nails gleaming under the moonlight. "But there must be a reason you came so late at night." She smiled.

Coral huddled closer to the witcher, and he could smell the scent of roses coming from her. He took a deep breath and stared at her face and simple white dress. The dress was simple enough for him to enjoy her beautiful curves and the necklace she was wearing. It was the one he gave her last time.

Coral loved his reaction as well. She picked this outfit herself. Roy was in black, while she was in white. It was the symbol of balance in the occult.

"You're not saying, huh?" Coral stood up, chuckling. "Come with me. I'll show you my lab."

"I'd love to see it. Hope it's as professional as the rumors say.

***

Lytta's laboratory wasn't far away. They traveled down the corridor for a short while, and then Lytta opened a door that led to a spacious but dim room. The air inside was filled with a sweet scent that tickled Roy's nose. All the racks around the room were filled with herbs and parts of plants. The long tables that sat in the center had countless glass containers and porcelain apparatuses lying on them.

Lytta waved her hand and snapped her fingers. A ball of flame started burning in the furnace that was shaped like an oversized hourglass, illuminating the room. Around the oven stood glass containers of different sizes laid out in the shape of a web. Some of them were curved at the tip, while some were spiral-shaped. One of the containers had a barrel underneath, and something was dripping into it.

Roy stared at the oven curiously. "An actual oven. And it's linked to an alembic, rectifying column, and condenser. Nice alchemical tools, but they're a bit old. Over fifty years, I think?"

"You've seen newer ones?"

"Yeah, in a witcher lab in Novigrad. They have better stuff there. You can come whenever you want."

"When it's time for the Trial."

Roy nodded and held out his finger to catch the falling drop of liquid. He licked it and asked, "What is this, alcohol?"

"Distilled mandrake fluids. You probably have heard this, but sorceresses love to make something called the Salve of Seduction, and this is the ingredient. The salve increases a sorceress' charm." She picked a measuring cup up and scooped up some of the liquid in the barrel before handing it to the witcher. "But you can drink the fluid too." She stared at him. "It'll perk you up. Wanna have some?"

Roy hesitated.

"Oh, are you worried I might have poisoned it?" Coral smiled mysteriously. "I've dried up and prepped the mandrake. The fluid's filtered, so there's no poison in it at all. No side effects, trust me."

Roy said nothing. If I'm right, mandrakes can destroy someone's willpower and work as an aphrodisiac. Why do you want me to drink a whole cup of aphrodisiac so late at night?

Roy took a sip and downed everything. A surge of warmth welled within his belly and shot up his nose, causing him to tear up. "That's strong. Even stronger than vodka with White Gull in it."

Coral drank a cup of the fluid as well. She wiped the smear off her lips, and her cheeks turned red.

"You've seen the lab and had your alcohol. Now tell me why you're here." Coral's breath smelled like mandrake. The night breeze blew a lock of her hair onto Roy's face, and she pushed his chest, her nails almost digging into him. "Or you're not going anywhere."

***

The couple sat side by side on the french window by the laboratory. A big telescope on a tripod stood beside them, and through it, they could see the ships docked by Kerack's port.

"Do you remember what I told you the last time we were out at sea?" Roy stared through the night, and all he saw were beautiful buildings with semi-spherical roofs looking down at him like giants.

"Don't go to Sodden Hill. You'll get yourself killed." Coral was moved and amused, and she pursed her lips. "You even think about me in your dreams? But dreams are the opposite of what will happen in reality. You worry too much."

"No, listen to me. That wasn't some random dream. It's a feeling I had. A very strong feeling. Some sort of premonition I got after the Trial." Roy looked at her solemnly. "The glimpses I saw have happened in the past and will happen in the future. I have proof of it. I found our school's long-lost diagrams, escaped lethal dangers countless times, got in touch with the Wolves and Cats and became allies."

Coral's eyes glinted. She was the one who opened the portal leading to Kaer Morhen for the Vipers one month ago, but she didn't expect Roy to convince the conservative Wolves. "The Wolves are already in Novigrad?"

"The brotherhood of witchers awaits you."

The brotherhood?

Lytta swiveled around, and Roy pretended he didn't see the beautiful angelfish tattoo on her thighs.

"I can't imagine a witcher possessing the powers of clairvoyance. And without using any tools or the stars either. That's impossible. You only managed to convince the Wolves because you're a good negotiator. You do have a glib tongue after all."

Coral pulled her hair. She was still doubtful of Roy's abilities. "You only think it's premonition because your guess is correct every time. I have no reason to visit Sodden Hill, much less die there."

"Actually, the things I saw were rich in detail. It's like I was seeing something through a telescope," Roy argued.

"How rich in detail are we talking about?"

"You went to Sodden Hill for a battle. It was a war." Roy stared straight into Lytta's eyes and upped the level of severity of her future. "You were dragged into this mess because you're both the royal consultant and a member of your brotherhood."

"Wait, there's going to be a war near Sodden Hill?" Lytta stared at the ground. As the royal consultant for Kerack's king, politics was something she had to learn, but no news was pointing to a war at Sodden Hill. Yaruga split that place into two distinct pieces of land, and she couldn't see why a war would break out there.

"Upper Sodden is Cintra's vassal state, while Lower Sodden belongs to Temeria. Who started the war? Who's the enemy?"

"Nobody in the North." Roy shook his head. "Nilfgaard will invade us."

The frown on Coral's forehead deepened, and her eyes narrowed. Coral looked like a cougar that would eat Roy at any given moment, and she grabbed his arm. "Are you cracking a joke? Emhyr is insane if he thinks he can invade the North. We're a big place." She explained, "I've heard news of his troops setting up a base at Amell, and he does want to take over the North, but if he has an ounce of intelligence, Emhyr would pick Cintra as his first conquest. They're nearer and weaker. Why did he go straight to Temeria instead?"

"Oh, but he didn't go straight for Temeria," Roy answered coolly.

A cold night breeze whispered through the air. Lytta's dress failed to shield her from the cold, and she shuddered, huddling closer to the witcher to share some warmth. Silently, she muttered, "If he was already attacking Temeria, then Cintra must have fallen."

Roy nodded. "Coral, believe it or not, Emhyr's troops are far more powerful than you think. Emhyr var Emreis, the White Flame Dancing on the Grave of His Foes, has trained his troops all these years for one thing: conquest. He wishes to dominate the world, and until he conquers the North, he will not rest. Cintra alone couldn't stop his troops' invasion, nor did it sate his appetite for domination.

***

"But if Nilfgaard tries to invade Cintra, Brugge and Verden will step in," Lytta argued. "If they work together, they can buy enough time for reinforcements to come."

"They're not big enough to stall Nilfgaard." Roy shook his head. "And all the biggest kingdoms in the North have their own troubles. Well, bickering, to be honest. Redania's Vizimir II and Temeria's Foltest are fighting each other with customs tax and trade laws. Aedirn's Demavend and Kaedwen's Henselt would never stop their feud. Kovir and Poviss' House of Thyssen and Caingorn's Hengfors' League are also at war. None of them would help Cintra, nor did they expect the Nilfgaardian troop to be so unstoppable."

Lytta had no arguments for that. The Northern Kingdoms bickered among themselves all the time and would never work together to fend off any enemies unless their own land was in trouble.

Lytta pulled her legs back and rested her chin on her knees, her eyes glinting.

"Nilfgaard conquered Cintra in no time flat and sent their troops to carve a path to the North through Sodden. The rulers finally realized how dire the situation was, so they sent their troops to intercept the Nilfgaardian army. The Brotherhood of Sorcerers, an organization deeply affiliated with northern royalty, sent their members into the fray as well. And you're one of them."

Coral stopped doubting Roy. Instead, she leaned her head against his shoulders and listened quietly.

Roy took a deep breath and stared through the night as if he could see the fires of war far, far into the future. He said aloud, "I heard the screams and shouts coming from Yaruga's northern coast near Lower Sodden. A great number of soldiers had amassed near the passages in the north and the south. Nilfgaardian soldiers wearing black cloaks and winged helmets flanked the passages. The infantry fought in the center of that battlefield and turned the whole place into living hell. That battle claimed many lives and crippled even more. The mages who lived their whole lives in luxury were forced to fight in this war, and they were situated in a small castle on the top of that hill." Roy kept going on, but his voice was grim and cold. "Over forty mages, the south included, fired off a barrage of spells against each other. Streams of fire, flaming arrows, and exploding firewalls zipped through the air. I heard screams and clashes. The sky was almost lit up by the flames themselves, and the ground itself rumbled. There was every spell raining down on the battlefield, from fireballs to Alzur's Thunder. As the battle came to a close, most of the mages started bleeding all over their faces from overusing their power. Some self-combusted from an overload of chaos energy within them."

"What about me?" Coral interrupted quietly. "How did I die?"

Roy said nothing, but he suddenly held her hand. Cold. "Don't worry. You'll live, since I am here. I'll take you with me. We'll leave this place. That's a promise."

Before her death, Lytta suffered a great deal. She was lying in a pool of blood, all her limbs lost, and she was screaming like a banshee. She and the others who died were called the Fourteen of Sodden Hill. They were hailed as heroes who died defending the North from the invading Nilfgaardian army, but that didn't change the fact that she died.

"So when will the war happen?"

"Next year."

"So I only have a year to live unless I make a change?"

***

The sorceress and the witcher locked gazes. She suddenly stood and let out a chuckle. The chuckle eventually turned into a laugh, and her chest bounced with every movement she made. "That was an interesting story, you little heartbreaker. You should consider working as a bard."

Roy stared at the ground and sighed. "You don't believe me?"

"On the contrary." She hopped down the windowsill and hugged Roy from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder and whispering down his ear. "I tried to make sense of it, but the battle just sounds preposterous. And yet you made an excellent point about the relationships between all Northern Kingdoms. You're right in every regard in that department."

She knew Roy was most probably right, but that didn't change how she felt about this whole affair. Nobody could remain calm if someone told them the outcome of a war that would affect everyone, especially not when that war was still a year away. She felt like she was dreaming. "I don't think you're lying. The source of your premonition aside, how did you know so much about politics? You're just a witcher."

Roy heaved a sigh of relief. Good. At least I didn't waste my time for nothing.

"When the moment comes, I would have no choice but to defend Sodden Hill. Just like how you said I would." She turned Roy's head around and huddled closer to him. Their noses touched, and she stared into his eyes like a cute little kitten. "So, how will you save me, you little heartbreaker?"

***

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