The Witcher: Elder Blood

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Calanthe's coronation was over, and consequently our stay in Cintra was over. I was only there at Jennyfer's request, otherwise I would have spent the time resting, and she in turn attended the coronation to give Elsa the opportunity to become an advisor to the newly crowned queen with a precarious position but high ambitions.

- How did your conversation with Kalanthe go? - I asked my daughter once we were inside the manor of Toussaint.

Elsa had shown the power of the Source, including the Elder Blood gene, but had no particular interest in travelling to other worlds, which might have been helped by my stories about them - there was little of interest there. She'd also spent a fair amount of time learning alchemy and healing under Jennyfer's tutelage, but she didn't want to follow her mother's path. But Elsa was better at politics than either of us, was good at gathering and storing information, could easily communicate with the aristocracy, and was simply better suited for the role of a counsellor.

- My Oxenfurt training paid off. We'll meet with Kalanthe in a month, once she's sorted out her backlog. Whether I will or not is an open question.

After her studies in Arethusa, which ended at nineteen, she entered the Oxenfurt Academy a year later in the departments of Law and Philosophy. She studied the laws in the kingdoms and gained wisdom.

- And yet... Cintra? - I'm squinting at them.

- It's quite a nice place. Nice view of the sea from the castle windows, helps you think about complicated things... but there's not much choice.

- There are no choices,' Jennyfer interjects. - Your daughter wants to be a councillor, and she can only become one in Cintra.

- Sabrina in Caedwen, Philippa in Redania, your old acquaintance Detmold in Kovir, Keira Metz in Temeria, Stregobor in Povis.... - Elsa began listing all the councillors at the moment.

Every king, or in Kalanthe's case, queen, in the north had their own court mage. This was not only a whim of the rulers, but also the influence of the Brotherhood of Magicians. There is no direct interference in the politics of the kingdoms from our side, but there is some control. And it's easier to monitor the activities of warlocks in these kingdoms because we have access to internal intelligence.

- Enough, I get it,' I'm sure she has a list of warlocks who served as advisors in each kingdom decades ago.

- The funny thing about the whole situation around Cintra is that there are too few candidates for the position of councillor to the shaky Kalanthe, and the worthy ones? Well, I'm the only one,' Elsa never had a problem with self-esteem.

- Kings and queens aren't the only ones who employ court mages. Toussaint doesn't have one at the moment. Caroberta could take you on,' Caroberta, aka Caroline-Roberta, was currently the Duchess of Toussaint.

- Didn't your mum tell you?

- About what? - I turned my gaze to Jennyfer.

We sat down in the living room, the girl on the long couch across from the table, and I settled into a chair off to the side.

- The seat of the Sorcerer's Counsellor will soon be empty,' the older Sorceress grinned. - I've gotten to know Caroberta pretty well over the years. You know, sometimes you should spend more time with your family so you don't have to be the last to know.

- I'll definitely take your advice.

- He disguised it as a request to go on a long hiking trip, - Elsa added oil to the fire, and then left us and went to her room to rest alone.

Our daughter's room can be compared to a small library. Along one wall is a long wardrobe completely filled with books and stacks of parchments. On the nightstand by her bed there are always books she reads before bed. And above the bed hangs a large map of the Northern Kingdoms.

But the oil didn't break: Yennifer came over to me and sat on my knee, leaning against me in the chair. There was a time of silence; we sat with our eyes closed in an embrace.

- Your business with the OWLs is going well?

- Quite well. There's an empty seat on the Chapter now. If Tissaya approves of my candidacy, it will only be a matter of time before I join - my magical skills, my accumulated knowledge, and my ability to take over the Pretoria were enough to make me a surplus member of the Chapter. With my accession, the chain of action of having to notify the Chapter of every task completed and then handing over captured renegades into custody would be done away with. Everything will revolve around me and in most cases end with me. - Have you spoken to Tissaia about your assignment?

- Mm-hmm, to replace Sheala de Tanserville. Why would she resign?

Sheala has long been a member of the Council of Warlocks, a little less than Philippa herself, one might say leading our circle.

- The same reason she refused to join the Chapter twice. I don't know the reason. I'm not that close to her, and I don't pry into her life. She's always on her own mind, probably decided to spend more time on her scientific work.

- You should be close to her. What about Philippa Eilhart? Why is that one sitting on the OWLs?

She was both simpler and clearer, but also more complicated, and that's because of the following: - Philippa is a figure caught up in palace intrigue. In my time with her on the OWLs, I can tell you this: she likes to rule. Ruling the Council is probably a much better occupation on her part than being on equal footing with everyone else in the Chapter, especially when Tissaya, Gerhart and Francesca will be more equal in their positions.

- Oh, Eren, speak plainly - Philippa doesn't want to sit in Tissaya's shadow.

- Right, that makes more sense. Gerhart mainly oversees the men's academy in Ban Arda. Frances Findabair only deals with the elves. Tissaya, on the other hand.

- She likes order and control.

- You know her better than I do,' I kiss Yennifer's forehead. - She won't allow Philippa to mess around in Redania with the same success if her best student joins the Chapter,' I was pinched at the superiority comment. - But it's true,' an annoyed look was now fixed on me.

- Who's going to take your place? - she stood up and walked to the table with a jug of wine, poured it into two glasses, and took a plate of grapes with her before returning to her original spot - sitting on my lap again.

- There is one candidate - Wilgeforz of Roggeveen. A man who has seen life. Trained as a druid at an early age, he entered Ban Ard after a brief relationship with some enchantress. Never asked Philippa about him again.

- I remembered hearing about him once at a meeting in Arethusa. Too young for the Council, don't you think?

- Ask Tissai about that. We don't join the Council on our own suggestions. He's young by warlock standards, but as far as he's concerned. I forget, 40 years old. If they approve him, he must be suitable.

Wilgefortz turned out to be one of the talented mages: he quickly learnt the basics at the academy, and then easily grasped the realities of life as a wizard: connections with the aristocracy, a career in the Brotherhood of Wizards or scientific research, or both, meddling in the affairs of a kingdom and other interesting affairs - that's the only way to explain his rapid growth.

- There's nothing for me to do. When I join the Council, then maybe I'll find out, but as it is, I don't care,' Jennyfer decided to change the subject: 'In ten days, Caroberta's child's birthday is coming up. You and Elsa are coming with me.

- Are you serious about becoming her counsellor? Help with paperwork, oversee the health of the princely family, make recommendations, and on and on and on.... - I actually missed my wife's movements towards Princess Toussaint's counsellor.

- And I'll go, and you, let's go without your 'further.' Toussaint is not a large kingdom. I'll have to find a new employee for the shop, but without that, I won't be able to devote enough time to it.

- Then close the shop, you don't need it. You'll make more money as a councillor.

Yennifer tapped me on the shoulder with her palm: - I'll close it for you. I'm the only one in Bockler who can help with pregnancy, and now in Toussaint. You get more cynical as you get older.

- I've learnt human nature perfectly well...

- There's no use talking to you on this subject,' Yennifer interrupts me and breaks my embrace. She got up from my lap, fixed the creases in her clothes, crossed her arms and looked at me with a tired look and said with a hint of judgement: 'You didn't send your friend Detmold to the trial, just because you knew him from a long time ago.... in spite of all his hobbies. You decided, you see, that an obliged sorcerer is a useful sorcerer.

I once heard from a snitch about Detmold's practice of necromancy. Then I had to visit him in Covira and give him an enlightening talk.

- He's not my mate. And I don't drag every wizard who decides to learn forbidden spells to the casemates. I only care about the part of the wizards who decide to use those spells, and in the open. You know more about forbidden spells than the sodomised and sadistic Detmold,' I was surprised by his hobbies besides forbidden magic.

- Well, let's forget your cynicism. I'm used to it. I'm not closing the shop anyway. I'll find a replacement if I have to. There are plenty of young warlocks out there.

- It's your right. I was just making a suggestion. Is the fight cancelled this time? - she pressed her lips into a thin line and walked off in silence towards the bathroom. Initially in the estate it was not there, only a tub in the bedroom, this arrangement did not suit me. I had to reproduce the separate room myself, as it had been in our previous house.

By the end of our conversation the time was nearing late evening. The coronation had delayed us on its own, not without a private conversation between Elsa and Kalanthe, which had to wait out a tour of the castle with Jennyfer.

'There had better be another fight. An offended Yennifer is worse than an angry one,' I massaged the bridge of my nose in annoyance.

Before heading off to wash up after Yennifer, I decide to go into my office first. Well, it's not just my office, more like the whole family's. It contains everything I need: a quality megascope; a cabinet with books on magic and information about the kingdoms; a safe with important work papers, letters, and small useful artefacts with a handful of mana crystals from the world I found; and a desk with a comfortable chair. My love of armchairs can be traced throughout my life.

The study was of average size, no more than twelve square metres. There was a window on the opposite side of the door, covered with curtains. To the right, opposite the wardrobe, two paintings hung above the safe: one of a calendar with important notes on it, and the other of the three of us-Jennifer had wanted a family portrait when Elsa had returned home as an adult after finishing her studies in Arethusa.

I walked into the office for a reason, I needed to see the alert on the megascope. The artefact had an embedding of gemstones, each one tuned to a specific location. At the moment it was glowing red, which meant I'd been contacted about the Council - Philippa had alerted me to a meeting in Garstang.

Usually, when there's no urgent business going on, meetings are held on the first and third Mondays of the month. Short meetings of half an hour, an hour at most, nothing serious.

But this time an alert had come in, which meant an unscheduled meeting was coming up.

'Should I contact her now or leave it for the morning? Better now. If she doesn't respond, I'll do it again in the morning.'

I activate the artefact and tune it to Philippa's megascope in Tretogor. I had to stand for five minutes - I was thinking of switching off the artefact - before Philippa came on the line.

- Hello, Phillipa, - a colourless figure of a sorceress, created by megascope, appeared in front of me, copying the movements of the real Phillipa. Her voice was slightly distorted.

- I had to wait for your answer for half a day, - unfortunately, it is difficult to determine the tone of the interlocutor through the megascope, if it is not pronounced. She seemed calm.

- I won't apologise. We attended Kalanthe's coronation, just got to the megascope.

- Calanthe Fiona Rhiannon. It's widely believed she caused the deaths of Adalia and Dagorad. A clever girl who could get her hands on power that way. Your little girl has decided to feed in Cintra? I'm sorry, that sounded bad.

- Since you apologised - I'll keep my return comment about the voracious Redan enchantress to myself.

There was a moment's pause. I had been waiting for the moment, the very purpose of the conversation with Philippa. She was probably a little offended by the retaliatory 'jab' in her direction-we all know Philippa's love of palace affairs, and therefore she'd fed on them enough-and decided to marinate me for a while.

- There's something we need to discuss,' the sorceress cupped her chin with her right palm while the other supported her elbow at her stomach. Her head tilted slightly to the side.

'Clearly plotting something,' the thought flashed before answering. - He's all ears. Just hurry up, I can't wait to wash off the fatigue and get into a soft bed.

- Not now. I'll see you tomorrow at Garstang around 2pm. We'll discuss it face to face.

Her furtive behaviour was clear to me. An important conversation can be recognised by replaying the megascope recording. But in Garstang there is an anti-magic protection, and I will not tell others about our conversation, if what I told her will not harm people close to me, which is not so many - complete confidentiality of the topic of conversation.

- I'll be there. I hope you're not distracting me for nothing, Philippa, because the next Council meeting is in three days. I'll have to make time tomorrow.

- It's not my nature to be distracted by trivialities,' the link went dead.

It was time to end the day. And I regretted talking to Philippa today. I should have put it off until the morning, so I wouldn't have to think about tomorrow's meeting all night long.

When I got to the bathroom, with the marble bathtub inside, I saw Jennyfer resting inside. Only the bubble bath slightly covered the view of the naked enchantress.

- Shall I join you? - The girl opened her eyes slightly, looked at me as I began to undress, and, without answering, only stood up so I could climb into the tub. Dipping into the water, I stretched out along the tub and then laid the enchantress on top of me. - It had been a long time since we had bathed together.

- It always ended in lovemaking, water splashing across the room....

- And each time we collected it with telekinesis. This time we can end up talking,' I took the flannel in my hand, soaped it up, and began to run it over the enchantress's hands.

- Pleasant?

- Who knows, Philippa decided to pull me into her adventure.... or there was an urgent and secretive mission to capture a powerful renegade. No, what am I talking about, in which case I would have been contacted by Tissaya. Philippa is muddying the waters in the local swamp.

Yennifer perked up. The size of the bathroom was big enough to fit two people freely in it, which was the original expectation. The girl turned towards me, and also lay along the tub, only with her back on the opposite side of the marble.

- Had she contacted you on the megascope? What did you two talk about?

- That's the thing, there was no conversation as such. We'll talk tomorrow, in Garstang, alone, like she said.

- Could she have found out about the Elder Blood in you and Elsa? Decided to use your gift? To bind our daughter to her? - The girl showed concern, more towards her daughter.

- Let's not get ahead of ourselves. I'll meet you tomorrow and find out the details. She might well want to unleash her hands more, in case I join the Chapter. You know, control of the Praetorium means you can decide who gets caught, and who gets educational, and who gets shut out. I've never done the latter before.

- What about Detmold? - she remembered him in passing, clearly thinking about something else.

- I made it very clear to him that if any act of magic forbidden by the Brotherhood came to light, he would be sent to the casemates of Arethusa faster than a crossbow bolt. The possibility of ending up in the torture chamber of Praetorius is something no sane warlock wants. We'll leave Philippa for tomorrow, it's been a long day.

For the first time in a year, we took a bath together again. And for the first time we ended up just washing.