Kyana Of Cintra

23

The Witch looked slightly offended, having come closer so that they could see beneath the hood. Kyana could't see much, but you'd have to be blind not to see she was beautiful. "Sorceress." She corrected gently. 

"Witch." Geralt declared stubbornly. She saw there was no point in arguing with him about what to call her, instead lowering her hood. Without the hood, beautiful black curly hair revealed itself, along with luminous brown skin and pretty dark eyes. Kyana's eyes were immediately drawn to her eyes, which glistened and sparkled in the moonlight. 

"Triss Merigold. I serve King Foltest." Geralt scoffed, lowering his sword. Kyana lowered hers too, although she was slightly more dubious than him. Kyana, having used her beauty to manipulate or twist people in the past, was extremely aware that Triss could do exactly the same thing. 

"So he makes a show of kicking me out then sends his errand girl to slip me some coin so we kill his monster. Not a very original plan for a king." Geralt stated, his back straightening as opposed to the fighting stance. Kyana inspected Triss, her eyes sliding up and down her dress to see if she had anything dangerous. She found nothing. 

"Its my plan. My coin. And I don't want you to kill the beast; I want you to help me save it." Triss moved towards the pair, speaking to Geralt predominately. Kyana nearly rolled her eyes. All the women talked to Geralt, while all of the men talked to her. There was no balance, and it annoyed her. Surprise shone on Geralt's face for a small second, before dissolving into his stony expression. Kyana had found that he was like a locked book. Those who had the key could read it easily, but for those who did not have a key, it was an impossible task. 

******

It had taken them until morning to get back to the castle and into a room surrounded by vials containing all sorts of liquids. This area was clearly Triss' workshop, filled to the brim with alchemy ingredients. 

"Six years ago, stable hands started vanishing at the castle above the city. Before long, citizens were disappearing throughout all Temeria." Triss explained as they walked around. "Foltest's royal guards soon realized the creature was coming from the crypt where the king's sister Adda is buried. Rumor has it she was having an affair with a young man in town when she died." The three came to a halt next to lavender, several beautiful candles and a few vials of blue liquid.

"Was she pregnant?" Geralt asked gently. If she was when she died, that was something the King would surely want to keep covered up. Kyana's fingers gently ran across the wooden, chipped table, a sound that slightly soothed Geralt, who could hear her movements. 

"If she were, that would make her child the sole heir to the throne as Foltest never married." Kyana weighed Triss' words greatly, seeing the pros and cons of aiding her. "The king fled the castle, ignoring the rising death toll. After Nilfgaard overthrew their king, the Brotherhood couldn't risk it happening again, so they sent me here three months ago to cure the creature."

"Vukodlaks are freak mutations. They can't be cured" Kyana informed her immediately, unwilling to give her false hope.

"Well, good thing it's not a Vukodlak." That caught their attention. If it wasn't a Vukodlak, what was it? Triss led them down a long, torch-lit corridor which was surprisingly void of echoes.

"Two thousand orens if either of you can tell me what exactly killed these people." The Witchers looked around, seeing people in tombs of salt to preserve their bodies, only their heads visible. Triss lead them forward with her eyes, gesturing to the tomb directly in front of them. The Witchers walked hesitantly towards the stone tomb, cringing when seeing the man inside, his eyes gouged out and his silver wolf necklace hanging around his neck. Geralt picked it up out of the salt, his gloved hand moving over the metal and removing excess grains from it. He ripped the necklace from the dead man, holding it in his palm to inspect it.

"You didn't want the people to know that it bested a Witcher. And you let them believe that he fled with their coin." Geralt was clearly annoyed with her, although Kyana understood the reasoning behind it. Geralt swiped the salt away from the body, digging into the pit to find evidence of other creatures.

"Either of you clearly weren't acquainted." Triss commented. Kyana rolled her eyes, helping Geralt move the salt to get at the rib cage. Geralt's hand went rather deep into the body of the dead man, his gloves soaking with blood. Once Geralt had sufficiently examined the remaining organs, he turned to Kyana.

"His heart's missing, along with his liver. Only one creature I know is that picky an eater." Kyana nodded at him, remembering the hundreds of millions of facts she had consumed in Kaer Morhen and along her travels. 

"A Striga." She stated, picturing the gray, gaunt and slimy beast in her head. Kyana had never see a Striga in the flesh, only in books and sketches. She usually came across ghouls or drowners, maybe a rare griffin once in a while, but never a Striga.

"Strigas are old wives tales." Triss immediately shot down the notion. Kyana rolled her eyes. It always astounded her how people who didn't know a thing about what they were talking about were always the experts. 

"They're very rare. The only way to make one is through a curse." Geralt informed her. In her head, Triss began to piece the puzzle together. Everything began to connect, like stitches being pulled through a hole in a shirt. 

"Someone wanted Adda dead." Triss concluded. Geralt hummed in agreement.

"But the curse didn't stop with Adda. It turned her daughter into a monster." Triss looked both shocked and confused. 

"Her daughter?"

"Strigas are female." Kyana told her. "That Striga is a princess." Once the shock and weight of Kyana's words had sunken into Triss, she immediately requested to meet in front of the king. It was granted, and so Geralt and Kyana stood behind Triss while the king stuffed his face and a soldier stood next to him, awkwardly speaking for the monarch.

"Miss Merigold, you were dispatched to settle a family affair, not enlist mutant mercenary and his whore for a game of sleuthing."  The soldier told her, a scolding tone on his lips. Kyana's face remained stoic, although she was seething behind her facade. 

"This is no game, Captain. Tonight is a full moon, and both Geralt and Kyana have already proven themselves invaluable. We believe we can cure the creature." Triss declared proudly.

The Captain considered this. "You say she's a girl, then you will refer to her as Her Royal Highness." Kyana rolled her eyes again, but heeded in his request. 

"Segelin, I believe urgency warrants flexibility in court decorum?" The man from the dungeon told him, although the Captain completely ignored him.

"The Witcher's theory is nonsense, Princess Adda was the people's angel. Who'd wish to murder her?" Kyana scoffed and turned her head away. 

"There is always someone who wants to kill everyone." She stated. "Like a lover, for example." The king stopped eating at the sound of that, as if his stomach turned at the mention of the word. The captain was quick to leap to his defense.

"Seditious rumors. Idle courtesans trading out boredom for jealousy." He stated, leaving no room for argument. Geralt warned Kyana with his body language not to continue to argue. Kyana agreed to his instructions. 

"Perhaps if you called off your guards, if we were able to search the abandoned castle, we could find clues as to who cursed her." Kyana suggested. Triss nodded in agreement, her head facing the Captain as if asking for her. The Captain rolled his eyes insolently.

"Don't talk to me like you're intelligent. You're a woman, and a Witcher's whore."