Chapter 100: Ghost Fredie

“It was a ghost Freddie.” I could see the corners of his mouth turn up in one of his old smiles and decided that he was laughing at me.

“I know it was a ghost Dammit.” I snarled. “I'm not that stupid.”

“But you are stupid then.” He was grinning. He was teasing me and I didn't know what to make of that.

We started laughing at the same time. It felt good.

“It's a type of ghost called “porzucone dziecko” or “wedi eu gadael yn ddieuog” according to the elves.”

I thought for a moment. “I've never heard of it,” I decided.

“And I would be surprised if you had if I'm honest. Fortunately you deal with them in exactly the same way that you would in any other case of a haunting.”

“Spectre oil.” I said nodding.

“Plenty of stabbing,” he agreed.

“Then the question has to be asked Kerrass. Why haven't you done that yet. Was all of this some kind of elaborate test to tell me how useless I am? I'm not saying that this wasn't important. I've gotten over that particular brand of my own.....nonsense but, at the same time...”

“Your influence again I'm afraid.” He sighed and put the book aside.

“My influence?”

“Yes.”

“I don't understand.”

“This is going to embarrass you.”

“Maybe but I'll take the embarrassment over confusion.”

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He smiled a little sadly.

“I meant what I said.” He told me after some time. “You have made me a better man and a better Witcher than I ever was before. There are a number of points in my life where I have been influenced for the better, or at least I hope it's for the better. The earliest one in my life was the adventure that brought Sleeping Beauty into my life. It was awful having to see what I did there and if I could give her that innocence back or if I could, I would still go back and change it. But seeing what those men did to her had a profound effect on me. An effect that I still become surprised by.

“Then there was the time that I was rescued and cared for by men that I had been taught to despise. Men who I had hated since I was seven or eight.”

“Eskel, Vesemir and the others from the Wolf school?”

“The very same. They taught me more about being a Witcher and about being a man. They gave me a code to live by. The fact that I came up with the majority of that code by myself is immaterial but at the same time, they taught me that a code is important.”

He grinned suddenly.

“But I wasn't having fun until I met you.”

“Uh, thanks? I think.”

He nodded at that.

“Don't get me wrong. There were times there when I was so angry with you that I could pull out your eyeballs with my teeth...” Thanks for reading on ManaNovel!

I remembered the ghost in the cavern below us and shivered at the image.

“...but you taught me about trying to help people. Even if it turned out that you couldn't. I said I wasn't having fun as a Witcher before you. But you have shown me that I can also take a kind of pride in being a Witcher. In helping others with the gifts that I have been given, even if I do ask for money in return for the services. I was never ashamed of who, or what I am but at the same time, I was never proud of being a Witcher.”

He looked into his cup and poured himself some more from the cauldron. He beckoned to me and I handed my own cup over to be refilled.

“Which brings us to this ghost.” He said before grimacing at the drink and adding another spoonful of honey to his own cup. “It's name roughly translates to Abandoned child. You won't have heard of it because it's rare and getting rarer in the modern day. Indeed, this is the first one I've ever seen. You just don't come across them anymore.”

“Why?”

“Because they are generated by specific circumstances that just don't come up. When this part of the world was first colonised by humanity, any burk that had a number of armed men could put a crown on his head and declare himself King.”

“Or Queen.”

“Yes indeed and we mustn't think that women can't be as bloodthirsty and unpleasant as men. As you know these little Kingdoms started to encroach on each other. Wars happened and then they started to merge into bigger Kingdoms. Then the Kingdoms would often war with themselves as one noble would think, “Why do I have to follow that guy because his Granddaddy was more of a blood thirsty bastard than mine?” So Kings started to look around for “Inconvenient children.” Bastard children or other figure heads that ambitious men....”

“And women,” I interrupted.

“Yes, or women would pin their hopes on to be the next King or Queen. So the smart thing to do was to exterminate all the children who had, or nearly had, a claim to the throne. The parents of the children tended to be upset at this prospect would hide their children away in an effort to keep them safe. Sometimes though they would lock the child away where they were “safe” and secret before they would go off to be beheaded for crimes, many and varied. Then for whatever reason, no-one came to look for the child and they starve to death or suffocate or otherwise die in their imprisonment.”

“That's awful.” I said. And it was.

“I agree. It doesn't happen as much now because the Kingdoms are so large that having a spare bastard lying around is occasionally useful for the preservation of the royal line. Out of the way castles can be found to lock away the inconvenient children so it just doesn't come up as often as it used to.

“Which brings me to my point.

“The old Kerrass would have just walked into town, realised what was going on, found the ghost and commenced with the stabbing. But I couldn't.

“We don't know what happens to the spirits that we slay. Do they just dissipate for a while, are they sent on to whatever place we all go to next or are we killing them? No-one knows because of course they don't. That would take away half the fun of the situation. But, recognising the ghost's behaviour I found that I couldn't do that to an innocent life. It's a monster but it's also a child that was dealt that cruellest of blows.

“These ghosts follow a pattern. They kill in a cycle, in this case, the child took a long time to die. Just under a week. I would tell you to think of it like a vampire but that's a little impolite nowadays.” He smiled at me.

“A little,” I admitted.

“But anyway. It's hurt, it's angry and it's very frightened and incredibly lonely. It, and I use the term loosely, “lives” with it's existence for a period of time that is often arbitrary. In this case, a little over six days. Then, when it can't tolerate the loneliness any further, it selects a playmate.”

“A child.”

“Yes. Then, if the child refuses to play through, understandable, terror then the ghost becomes angry and invades the childs nightmares and drives them mad and so to suicide. After a playmate dies the ghost actually feels unbearable guilt at what it does and withdraws until it can't take it any more and comes for another playmate. If the playmate agrees then the ghost and the playmate “play,” until the playmate simply drops dead from exhaustion.”

“So that was why the children looked so tired before death.”

“Yes, the herb-woman's diagnosis of fatigue was correct but she wasn't to know that she was treating a symptom of the disease rather than the disease itself.”

“She will be glad to hear that.” I said.

Kerrass just looked at me for a moment as I heard the words that I had just said.

“Who am I kidding?” I said after a while. “She's going to berate herself for not catching it. The same as most of the people here are going to.”

Kerrass nodded.

“So anyway,” he said, changing the topic with admirable restraint. “The last child was killed about four days ago now. So, I thought that as there was no danger for the next few nights, I would have a look around to see if I could find something out about who this child was in an effort to lay them to rest rather than to destroy them.”

I nodded. I approved

“Any luck?”

Kerrass sighed before shaking his head. “I spent last night up here in case I was wrong and a young kid did come up here to be chosen as a playmate. After you went to bed I went down to the cavern and had a look round for the kids remains so that they could be blessed by a priest. But they're either buried under sediment, carried off by animals or have fallen down the cracks somewhere during one of the earth movements.”

“Ooh, while I think about it. Is that what started this whole thing going. The landslide opened the crack which meant the spirit could get out.”

“That's my guess, yes.”

I was absurdly pleased that I had got that right.

“So in the early hours I went off investigating which was when I found this.” He hauled the book into view.

“What is it?”

“Your influence made manifest?”

“Mmm?”

“Remember Castle Dorn? You told me that you often find out more from the servants records than you do from the noble occupants.”

“I did.”

“Well, it's the same here. Turns out that the maidservant was a diarist.”

“They're always the best.”

“Mmm well, it wasn't any help. I know the child's name. I know why he was abandoned and why he was important but nothing that's going to help me put that poor kid to rest rather than to simply destroy him.”

“Who was he?”

Kerrass was right. It was a very sad story. Giving you the short version here rather than the minutiae of it.

His name was Jiakob and even before he was born he was already a victim of the local dynastic squabbles of the area.

Kerrass and I had seen the larger castle further down in to the river basin. Turns out that that belongs to the local Duke but at the time of the book's writing he was referred to as King, this was, maybe a hundred years ago. The then owners of the local ruined manor house were blessed with a lovely daughter. The Lord of the manor decided that he was ambitious and wanted to try his hand at national politics. The King, at the time, was a notable womaniser (I notice that there seems to be a lot of those older kings with this habit. I wonder if it was some kind of disease that you caught when someone handed you a crown.) and the father sent his daughter down to court in an effort to catch the King's eye.

The King was having trouble conceiving a son. He had no trouble at all conceiving daughters but his wife, the queen, just couldn't give him a son. So when this provincial girl went down to court full of innocent seduction, large eyes and long eyelashes the King was helpless before her.

Having read the book at length before sending it off to the university as an example of history and household life in this part of the world, there was one quote that caught my eye. The maid was trying to play her own game of seduction only on the head of the household guard. Said guard had once told the maidservant of something that the Lord had said which was “There is something in her eyes that hooks onto a man's soul.”

I'll never forget that.

The King never stood a chance. Three months later the girl was the King's official mistress, much to the Queen's displeasure. The Queen's family was similarly disposed towards the King and resented the arrival of this new faction in politics and they sent assassins after the Kings new favourite who promptly, and sensibly, fled.

Because she was pregnant.

The Queen's mistake was not chasing after the girl straight away. Instead she allowed the girl to escape and gave her enough time to give birth to a son.

The King was overjoyed at his newly arrived proven ability to produce a male heir.

The Queen was furious as now she was the one taking the blame for everything that was wrong with the world. Her faction went to work to discredit the Girl and her family going to all kinds of lengths to prove that the girl was a slattern, that the baby wasn't the King's child and did their best to discredit her. But the King was a softy and eventually the Queen received word that he was planning to set her aside and marry a younger girl of proven ability to produce sons.

But then another faction rose to the fore and the “Kingdom” was engulfed in something of a civil war.

Looking up the dates this would be around when Nilfgaard was beginning to expand into this area. The King was left to concentrate on these bigger concerns and set the matter aside to be dealt with later.

But that still left the bastard son out there.

The boys mother was ridiculously paranoid about her sons life. I would like to think that she loved her son and was concerned for his safety but the maid was of the opinion that her mistress was well aware of the importance of the child and wanted to keep him safe.

But the threat of assassins from any side of the dynastic struggles.

So she hid him. In her fathers hunting lodge.

He was forbidden from speaking to anyone other than the well known members of her fathers household and when men came, searching for him or to interrogate the household, the boy would be taken into the watch-tower and locked in the basement. He was guarded at all times by a group of his grandfathers guards.

One day, the guards just didn't come back. The boys mother had been summoned back to the court, a visit that she would not return from. The boys grandfather decided to grow a sense of right and wrong at the time and threw in with Nilfgaard. But the boy was still alive and inconvenient to everyone. Inconvenient to the Nilfgaardians who didn't want an extra heir to the castle lying around. The warring families wanted the line of succession to be clear and easy and the boy just became....

Inconvenient.

No-one seemed to know what had gone on. The household staff didn't even know where the guards used to take the boy to look after him on the grounds that the location couldn't be tortured out of them by enemies. They searched but couldn't find him.

It was unknown whether the guards deserted, were bought off, attacked and killed or even tortured to death for the location of the boy. But the boy was never found.

The silence fell around us quite gently after Kerrass had finished telling me the story.

“Wow,” I managed after a while. “So who were the other Spectres?”

“I don't know,” Kerrass said. “I can guess though, military training and armour. I think they were the knights who were assigned to protect him. Caught up in death, guilt, grief or some left over sense of duty. You did well by the way.”

“Two spectres, How many others were there?”

“Another five. I thought I was leaving you one but one must have got away from me.”

“Or there was another guard on rotation that was called off for some reason.”

“Maybe.”

I sucked my teeth.

“I'm sat here trying to think, if there is any way, that I could make that story even more tragic.”

Kerrass sighed and set the book aside.

“No,” he said. “It couldn't be worse. And now, his existence ends in the flash of a Witcher's sword. I can't think of any other way to deal with this.”

I grunted and rested my head on the cool stone of the watchtower crenellations.

“So what was this all about Kerrass?” I asked, more to fill the silence than for any other reason.

“Mmm?”

“All of this. Making me hunt this thing by myself rather than at your side. No, no, don't get me wrong.” I held up my hand to forestall him. “I was wrong. This is just as important as my missing sister. Everyone has tragedy, everyone does and I did see the anguish of another man who lost his sister. I saw the woman who couldn't help and thought it was her fault and I am aware that if.... if we had ridden by in my haste to carry on then another child would die and there would be more upset. More trauma. It might even have led to the loss of this village in the long run.

“So I was wrong in saying this wasn't important.”

Kerrass grunted.

“I do think, knocking me down was a bit harsh though.” I commented.

“Heh, No. You totally deserved knocking on your stupid noble ass then.”

“The first or the second time?”

Kerrass considered.

“The second time you definitely deserved it. Saying or even thinking that these peoples lives are “less important” deserves a smack in the mouth. The first one was just me.”

“What did I do to deserve that?”

Kerrass sighed and thought for a while.

“There were two reasons.” He said after a while. “I possibly couldn't have argued this before but I've been doing a lot of thinking since then.”

“What about?”

“Many, many things. Including whether or not I even wanted to carry on travelling with you.”

I stared at him in shock.

“Okay.” I said carefully.

“Don't get me wrong,” he went on. “I promised you that I would look for your sister and the people responsible but I no longer thought that I wanted to do that with you. I....I was beginning to think that with you being the way that you were, or possibly still are, that one or both of us wouldn't survive the experience.

That was the other reason I decided to take a contract. To help these people but also to test you. To see what I was dealing with now. I wanted to see if.... to see if you could still do this.” He sighed. “I'm not explaining myself very well.”

“So you decided to test me.”

“I did.”

“Did you not think I could do this?”

He sat forward suddenly. “That's it.” He said animatedly. “That's the point. The old you could have done it easily.

“The old you. The man who took the lessons that Letho gave him and still managed to shake the man's hand afterwards. I was so angry with him for what he put you through at the time but I've read your works on the matter since then and you took his lessons and made them.....have weight and substance. In ways that even he probably struggled with.”

“I thought you liked Letho.”

“Letho is a difficult man to like. I don't like his politics, his way of working or his morals or his ethics. But I can think of fewer people I would rather go drinking with, play cards with and once he has decided that he likes you then he will walk through fire for you.

“But anyway.

“The old you. The man that stood up to an ancient vampire. A woman so powerful that I struggle to think of who, in the Lodge of Sorceresses, could take her in a fight. And that's not a knock on the Lodge, they have some formidable women there. But you stood up to her, changed her mind, challenged her and made her think. You educated her about the world as it exists now rather than the world as it existed as she knew it and you did it in a few days ride. I've read your account of that adventure too and you give her a lot of the credit for getting us all out of that situation alive. You are correct but she wouldn't have made that decision without your help.

“The man that helped me wake the Princess up. A problem that heroes, wizards, warriors, nobles and scholars couldn't figure it out. Including this Witcher and you managed to look at it in a different light. You looked down on her sleeping form and you didn't feel lust but instead you felt pity.

“That guy. That guy could find this ghost. I've thought about this problem for a while and I can't find a way that we can dismiss the ghost without destroying it. If we had more time and you were definitely that man then I would say that you should give it a go, to try and find an alternative method. Just for the record though. The reason that we can't is that the ghost will choose another victim within the next couple of days.

“That man could have found the ghost. That man would have asked what was on the Witcher notice and when he saw that it was children that were dying without dismissing it, then he would have left his own mission to go and help. He would have insisted on it and would have been angry with me if I had been the one that tried to push us on down the road.

“That guy would have found the ghost.

“But the man you've been?”

He clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“That man would have left. He would have continued on his self-imposed mission. He would have ignored these people's plights and done his own thing, rushing headlong into the problem.”

“I am the same man I was.” I tried.

“No Freddie, no you are not. It's hard because you still show some signs of that man. The comfort that you offered Princess Dorn, your realisation of the neglect that you had been showing Ariadne. These are things that the old Freddie would have done.

“But no.

“You have been through a tragedy and you're under an enormous amount of, largely self-imposed, pressure. An old teacher of mine once told me that when we are under stress we revert to behaving in the way that we first learned to behave. In your case, the spoiled, arrogant and self-righteous noble student.”

“I wasn't spoiled.”

“Come on Freddie, you honestly telling me that if your Father had put his foot down that you would have been able to avoid your familial obligations. He didn't agree with your decision to be a scholar but he accepted it because he loved you. If he had really wanted you to live up to your duties then you would have been carried home in a sack to marry whoever you were damn well told to marry. Probably some woman who was prohibitively far from the university. A Skelligan woman in return for a guarantee that Coulthard ships wouldn't be raided for example.”

“I hadn't thought of it like that.”

“Of course you haven't. But since your sister's disappearance, that is who you have again become. The headstrong bull in a glass shop that expects to get his own way, believing in your own invulnerability and that the world will just bend to your will because of who you are.”

It's hard to listen to your best friend list your faults. Even if you might not agree with them.

“Lets look at the evidence,” Kerrass said. “You insisted on being part of the investigation into your sisters disappearance. Do you know why I volunteered to lead the investigation that day?”

“You said it was because you knew the family.”

“That's right. I do know you. If it had been Geralt he would have told you to go back to your rooms and await word. What would you have done then?”

“I....I don't know.”

“Come on Freddie, you can lie to me if you like but don't lie to yourself. You would have carried out your own investigation wouldn't you. Even though the smartest thing would be to stay in the room and wait for the experts to do their job, you would have followed him around asking questions and getting in the way. So I insisted that I perform the tasks so that I could keep an eye on you.

“Then again when Laughing Jack is discovered as a presence. You demand to take part in the hunt. You expect it as though you're entitled to it. If we had been anywhere other than Toussaint where they appreciate the romance of the gesture, the guards would have locked you up to prevent you from interfering.

“Then, what do you decide to do. After Jack has badly injured a Witcher, killed many highly trained knights and dozens of expert guardsmen. You, YOU.” He jabbed his fingers at me for emphasis. “You dive into the water to chase after him alone. I was so angry with you I nearly killed you myself. What kind of foolish idiot were you becoming? I thought to myself. It's astonishing to me that you are still alive from that incident alone.

“Then when that doesn't work out we get onto the boring part of the investigation. The legwork, the searching of the houses and the ships. The magical surveys of the land and things. You identify that we could ask Jack what was happening.

“This was by far the most useless and stupid idea that you had come up with yet.”

“More stupid than talking to the dragon?”

“Yes, more stupid than that. A dragon can be killed. Jack can not. Also, I would remind you that we tried everything else before we tried talking to the dragon. Including the things that we knew weren't going to work but we tried them so that when we did talk to the dragon it was because we had no other choice. But you go charging off and doing it anyway.”

“And then, when that doesn't work. Instead of doing the sensible thing and waiting until all the alternatives to happen. All of the boring things which involve legwork. You go off and try to talk to him. You don't step aside and let someone more qualified to do it. You jump and insist that you do the talking.”

“You didn't try to stop me.” I pointed out. I thought I had been acting fairly rationally and I found Kerrass' point of view shocking.

“No I didn't. Because again, if I had tried to prevent you you would have done it by yourself and in a way that I wouldn't have been able to find you, or without the proper precautions.

“But I save the most stupid decision of all till last.

“Despite what happened to you in Ambers crossing. Despite knowing that Jack, if anything, is more powerful than that thing.

“You made a deal with him.

“For just a moment there. I hated your fucking guts Freddie. You didn't have to sit there with Emma and Mark and Ariadne and watch the fear that they were losing their little brother and the man that they loved to strange, unidentified powers. How could you have been so selfish when there are any number of more qualified people available to do what you just assumed that you would do.”

He stared into space for a moment, struggling with some kind of emotion.

“Oh and by the way, when we next meet Emma or Mark, you are going to buy your sister flowers as an apology and do....whatever it is that Mark wants you to do to apologise. I don't know, let him hear your confession or something.”

“You're consigning me to a fate worse than death Kerrass?”

“After what you put your family through, you deserve it.”

Kerrass didn't say anything for a while.

“I thought you might snap out of it when we left Toussaint but you carried on with it. Suddenly I was no longer your friend or companion or even.... or even your business partner or your study topic. I had become your servant.”

“Oh come on, that's unfair.”

“Is it?” He raised his eyebrows at me. ““Come on Kerrass We can ride another couple of hours before it gets dark. Why are we bothering with training Kerrass? You can fight and I know what I'm doing.””

His impersonation of me was not complimentary.

“Do you remember riding the commoners off the road?” He asked me.

“What?”

“You did. “Make way,” you yelled before carrying on riding. I honestly believe that if they hadn't moved then you would have ridden them down.”

I struggled to remember. It might have happened I supposed. I struggled to remember.

“It was two days ago.” He said, “Just as we left the last border watch-post.”

I remembered.

“We were in a hurry to get down the mountain.” I protested.

“Were we? Or were we just anxious to keep moving to the expense of everything else. Like, caution for example?”

I had no answer.

What could I say.

“You know my methods Freddie. We rest earlyish in an effort to find a camp-site so that we can properly protect ourselves. We train to make sure that our skills are sharp and to better ourselves. We maintain our weapons so that we can depend on them. I heard about how long you worked at your spear earlier. Wasn't very sharp was it.”

I didn't say anything. He was quite correct.

“You're a scholar Frederick. You know more about monsters, history, Witchers and philosophy than most people in the world. Including many people who would call themselves “educated.” So why do you keep studying? Not that you've done a great deal recently I notice.”

“To better ourselves.” I said. “Because there is always more to learn. More to teach, more to understand.”

“Precisely. I liked that part of you. I admired that part of you. I miss that part of you and I worry that you are “less” because of it's lack. I worry about you Freddie.”

“So you punch me in the face?” I tried for levity.

“I was trying to shock you. To give you a kick of some kind to try and wake you up. Rather ham-fistedly I will admit. But right then and there I was so pissed at you for everything that had built up over the last few weeks.”

“So what you're saying is that, it seemed like a good idea at the time?”

He laughed. “It did at that, and it felt sooooo good.”

I laughed as well. It felt good and I felt the distance that was growing between us begin to shrink.

“Am I wrong?” He asked, leaning forward and pouring himself another drink. “Is anything that I've said unfair? Say so now.”

I thought about it. “Could we not have talked about it?”

“I tried but you weren't receptive if you remember. Just determined to find your vengeance.”

He was probably right. I had been locked in my own head for a while.

“So, let's say that I admit to the problems that you're talking about and I will admit you're probably right. I think you might be a little harsh but you're probably right.”

He nodded.

“So what's next?” I asked him.

“Well. You need to make a choice. You can either continue with me or you can go on by yourself. But if you come with me then we need to return to our old forms of travel. When we're in courtly situations then I will follow your lead but while we're out on the road or dealing with supernatural creatures then you will follow my lead.”

“I understand.”

“If you come with me then you need to understand that I am not yours to order around or buy. Money will not enter into it. I want....I need to pay my own way. You taught me that. I am going to stop to help people and carry out contracts. There is another reason for that which I will get to in a moment. I would like your help on those hunts, same as you used to.”

I nodded.

“I would also suggest that you need to start your studies again. Write to people, let them know what happened in Toussaint. Let them know what happened here. There is still so much out there that is not known to the world and the only person that is telling them that, as far as I can see, is you. So write your book on Jack, write your journals. Remember why you're out here. It might also mean that other people will contact you with leads that we can follow if they read about your adventures and then think.... “Hey, that might be useful for him to know.””

I nodded. “You're right. I still have duties to the university, even if I'm not there at the moment.”

“Precisely.”

He watched me for a while.

“You had a second reason though.” I told him. “Another reason as to why you made me hunt this thing.”

“Yes I do, and this is the uncomfortable part.”

He shifted his weight until he was sat cross legged in front of me. No longer relaxed he peered at me intently.

“Here's the thing. A couple of days ago, when you were complaining about why we weren't going after the bad guys as quickly as you wanted, I told you that we weren't chasing them, that we were hunting them. You remember?”

I nodded.

“Well that is true. One of the things that we know about these people is that they can gate, teleport or however you want to say it. They can do that. They did it to Francesca right?”

I nodded.

“So how fast we travel is immaterial. When we're hunting whether it's an animal or a spirit, flying creature or otherwise they are invariably stronger, faster, quicker and more vicious than they are. What we do when we're hunting them is that we put ourselves in their position and we learn to think like them the better to track them down. With something like deer we find out where their water is coming from and wait. For rabbits, we identify where their warrens are and set traps. The same with monsters. We don't just chase around the countryside, waiting for the griffin to attack. We identify it's food source and track it back to it's lair.”

“So you're saying that we need to think like them.” I felt my lip curl in disgust.

“Partially. Which means that we need to toughen up. That's the other thing I wanted you to do for this. You were being emotional.

“Don't get me wrong. You have every reason to be upset, angry and otherwise emotional but if you let that drive you....”

I held my hand up. “I take the point Kerrass.”

“So you need to learn to set it aside and focus on what we're doing. That's what I was trying to force you to do but the other thing is still correct.

“Goddess but I hope I'm explaining this right,” he said.

“We are hunting them. We need to get into their heads but we also need to make them think that we have given up. That they are safe from us.”

“But you've just said that I should keep writing my journals.”

“Yes I have. We need to return to “normal”. We need to do what we were doing before so that they think that they have us beaten besides. You would only write about what we were doing after we had done it. So if they read what you were writing then they would be reacting to things that had already happened right?”

“True.”

“But we need to start thinking like them and we need to toughen up.”

“Okay?”

Kerrass was working himself up to a point and he didn't think I would like it. He had stopped meeting my eyes and was shifting nervously.

“What is it Kerrass?”

“Ok, here we go.” He cleared his throat. “I need you to start preparing yourself for the possibility that this is your fault. Your families fault.”

“What?”

“Don't get me wrong. Them taking your sister is a step too far.”

“Right?”

“Here's my thinking. There was hate behind this taking of your sister. Real, honest to Goddess Hatred. This wasn't an attack on the Empress, or Nilfgaard as a whole because if it was there would have been follow up gestures or attacks. This was an attack against her or an attack against your family. It took effort, planning and money. Now I'm not going to go down the rabbit hole of asking who would have access to those kinds of resources but.... I'm more asking who would have the motivations to do that.”

“But....We've done nothing wrong. We haven't invaded any countries, we haven't had anyone assassinated, we haven't....”

“Have you, for example, written a story about nobleman's death where he came across as the true villain of the piece?”

I felt my mouth open.

“Have you subverted the course of justice by insulting and ridiculing those properly appointed officers of the law? You understand I'm just talking about you now, not your brothers or sisters, right?

“Have you personally managed to jump ranks so that you have more power and influence than you would have any right to? Power and influence that others might have pegged for themselves?

“Have you gone from being a younger son of a fairly insignificant family to a man who is an informally adopted brother to the Empress, future Count of Angral who has the ear of certain members of the Lodge of Sorceresses, member of the faculty of the university of Oxenfurt who is also on friendly terms with many important people while serving to advise the Empress on matters of state.

“This is just you by the way.

“But lets look at your family as a whole for a minute.

“Your family was a fairly minor Barony before Nilfgaard invaded the North. Your Father was, essentially, a merchant who made a few good deals and became rich. Bought himself lands and a title. He would not have got any further, he would not have been allowed to go any further because of King Radovid's disdain for your father. Despite your father's loyalty to the state, and he was loyal, Radovid's death and Redania's defeat opened doors for your family that would have remained closed for decades otherwise. Suddenly they are subjects of a larger Empire. Your Father always had an eye for a deal and sent your sister south.

“Your family as a whole has a talent for spotting holes in the market and plugging them. Your sister filled the hole of giving the Empress a friend and a younger sister figure that she hadn't attained because of her history for instance.

“You saw the lack of up to date knowledge about Monsters and Witchers which has led to your rise in academic circles as another example.

“But your family has done everything it should do for people in your position and it has done so very well. There is no way, no way, that you won't have made enemies while doing so.

“How many other people were angry with Francesca for giving the Empress the confidence and friendship that she needed meaning that they were less able to take advantage of the Empress. Not that they could have done but they might blame your sister.

“It is well known that Emma is the head of a merchant powerhouse. Built by your father and Grandfather to be sure but now Emma is the figurehead. Emma, a woman, in an open, loving relationship with another woman who, for some reason, has managed to gather the loyalty of her people. How many people has she stood on to get where she is. Even if all she did was take advantage of other people underestimating her.

“Mark is a powerful man in the church. I even understand that for a given value of being a churchman, he's relatively progressive.

“You, because of your demanding that we interfere in Sir Robart's investigation into your Father's death, ended up getting so many young men executed for heresy.

“To our eyes, these people deserve what happened to them. To us, we did the right thing. But to the man who watched his son get burned at the stake for heresy which, to him, was just a bit of harmless fun at the expense of people who don't really matter.

“They would hate you.

“The merchant who lost his fortune because Emma could undercut his bid for a trading contract. How dare she, a woman, do that to him? She's a woman. She should know her place.”

He leant back against the stone.

“It goes on and on and on. So many examples of what your family has done that would upset, anger and incite hatred against it. To you and from your point of view. You did nothing wrong.

“But to them....?”

I sat and considered this for a while, staring into space.

“My family has risen quickly to be sure.” I said. “But doing this....this seems a bit much.”

“Is it? Sir William the Ram, Lord Fuck-face of Angral, Sir Robart de Radford. Only one of which is still alive to be fair but every one of them had friends, family and patrons who might have depended on them for their own advancement. Any one of those people could hate you enough to do this.

“What I'm trying to say is that you need to start thinking along these lines. You need to start thinking along the lines that this is not some super, grim dark conspiracy. It's going to be someone that hates you. And they might have a good reason.”

“So What are you trying to tell me Kerrass?”

“What I'm saying is that you need to start thinking about what you're going to do when you find out what happened. You need to start thinking about how bloody you want to get.

“There are plenty of people that have every reason to want your family destroyed. And when you find them, they might have powerful friends.

“So how far are you willing to go Freddie?

“Think about that please?”

I nodded. “What now?”

Kerrass sighed. “What's happening in the village is your situation in microcosm. I might be stretching the metaphor a bit but here's how I see it.

“The ghost is angry and lashing out because of the horrible things that was done to it in life. It kills indiscriminately and the lives it takes are innocent. The people in the village who have lost their children hire a Witcher to come and help them.”

I shut my eyes and thought for a moment.

“So you are the Witcher?”

“Yes.”

“I am the villagers, parents and siblings of the dead, wanting help and vengeance?”

“Yes.”

“Francesca is the dead children.”

Kerrass was nodding.

“The Ghost is the people that took Francesca.”

Kerrass said nothing.

“The Ghost is just angry and lashing out. What was done to it was horrible.”

“Does that excuse what it did?” Kerrass asked me.

I shook my head.

Kerrass reached into a pouch at his side and produced another vial of spectre oil.

“So what are you going to do Freddie?”

He held up the vial of oil.

I stared at it for a long time before making my decision.