Adapts the short story "A Matter of Price" from the anthology The Last Wish.
Geralt is recruited by Jaskier to be his bodyguard for Princess Pavetta of Cintra's engagement party. Meanwhile, Yennefer is on a similar mission to protect the Queen of Lyria and her newborn baby when they are attacked by an assassin. Ciri encounters the dryads. This episode was adapted from the short story "A Question of Price".
Tropes present in this episode:
- Adaptation Expansion: The subplot with Yennefer and Queen Kalis being pursued by an assassin was not in the short story. Yennefer does not appear in "A Question of Price", and Kalis was created as part of the lore for CD Projekt Red's Thronebreaker video game.
- Adaptational Heroism: Geralt's motivation is altered subtly but substantially, making him less of a Jerkass in the series than the original short story. There, it's heavily implied Geralt had guessed from the way Pavetta was acting toward Duny that she was already pregnant, and he decided to invoke the Law of Surprise as a way to try and gain a recruit for witcher training. In the episode, he's just as ignorant as everyone else about Pavetta's delicate condition, and only invoked the Law as a kind of dark joke when Duny wouldn't let him go without repayment.
- Ain't Too Proud to Beg: When Yennefer abandons her to her fate, Kalis tries to beg for her life, offering her infant daughter in exchange for herself. The assassin's only response is to magically slit her throat with a thrown knife.
- Asshole Victim: Given her treatment of Yennefer and the fact that she was willing to trade her own daughter's life for her own, absolutely nobody was sorry to see Queen Kalis get her throat slit.
- Baby Factory: Queen Kalis complains that she's this for her husband. After failing to provide a male heir, the king hires a mercenary to kill her.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: Geralt and Duny fight off Calanthe's men together until the Skelligers decide to join them.
- Bad Boss: A mild example: Calanthe kicks one of her knights down a small flight of stairs for being beaten by Duny and grabs his sword.
- Battle-Interrupting Shout: Calanthe finally puts the brawl in her throne room to an end by holding Geralt at swordpoint and bellowing for all parties to stop.
- Bawdy Song: Jaskier sings the ribald song "The Fishmonger's Daughter" at the engagement party.
- Be Careful What You Wish For:
- Yennefer has become deeply dissatisfied with the Aedirn job, having been reduced to cleaning up petty political squabbles for the king.
- In a more humorous example, Calanthe tells Jaskier to sing something more upbeat than the "maudlin nonsense" he starts playing when she arrives, and then ends up regretting it when he has the entirety of her court singing an extremely ribald song.
- Duny absolutely will not let Geralt walk away without being repaid for saving his life, so Geralt invokes the Law of Surprise just as Duny had years earlier, not expecting anything to come of it. Doing so links his fate to that of the child no one knew Pavetta was carrying.
- Because Destiny Says So: Eist defends Duny because, with the Law of Surprise, destiny is on his side. Geralt on the other hand doesn't believe in destiny, but believes firmly that promises should be honored. Calanthe tries to tell destiny to fuck off, which results in her daughter exploding in a torrent of magical power. At that point, Calanthe really can't argue.Calanthe: Destiny has spoken... and I have listened.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The Krallach, or "cockroach hound" the assassin uses as an Attack Animal is a cockroach-like insect the size of a wolf, and capable of tearing apart dozens of armoured men with its claws and fangs. Yennefer has to magically decapitate the creature to put it down for good.
- Big "NO!": Pavetta reacts to Calanthe trying to knife Duny with this enormous shout. It's also the moment her latent magic kicks in (see Traumatic Superpower Awakening).
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kalis initially seems somewhat spoiled and coddled but basically a nice person, worn down by her terrible husband and his endless demands for a son. Then she calls the sorceress who's trying to save her life "useless" after multiple teleports leave Yennefer exhausted, and when Yennefer leaves her behind for that little jab, attempts to bargain with the assassin by offering up her infant daughter in exchange for her own life.
- Blood Knight: When Eist Tuirseach insists anyone who wants to kill Geralt and Duny has to go through him, his fellow Skelligers waste no time in getting up and helping Eist fend off any who try.
- Blood-Splattered Warrior:
- Geralt enters the tavern, having survived an offscreen encounter with a monster that swallowed him whole, having cut the thing open from the inside.
- Calanthe shows up to the party late, in her armor, and still covered in the blood of some rebels she had to crush.
- Brutal Honesty: Geralt shoots down Jaskier's more glorious tale of the encounter with Filavandrel when Queen Calanthe asks about it.
- Chairman of the Brawl: Eist demonstrates his support for Geralt and Duny by smashing a chair into a dissenter's chest.
- Curse Escape Clause: An accidental version. Duny had no idea, but Calanthe formally officiating his wedding with Pavetta breaks the curse. Whether Calanthe's forgiveness or the marriage itself was the cause is unclear.
- Death of a Child: Queen Kalis's daughter doesn't survive the episode despite Yennefer's best efforts.
- Dissonant Serenity: Jaskier is very cheerfully writing down the details of Geralt's horrifying demise. Though, this is due to his confidence that he survived, which is proven correct very quickly.
- Dramatic Irony: Queen Calanthe dismisses Nilfgaard as a weak, backwards, do-nothing kingdom when one of its princes comes to her court as a suitor for her daughter's hand, unaware that that same kingdom will invade her lands and almost destroy her entire house. Oops.
- Escalating Brawl: The trouble starts when Duny gatecrashes the party and tries to claim Pavetta's hand in marriage, with Calanthe taking him to be a monster and siccing her guards on him. Then Geralt intervenes to defend Duny and cuts down several guards, which prompts the Cintrian nobility to stand up threateningly as if to join in the fight. Then Eist starts fighting them due to Duny invoking the Law of Surprise, with the Skelliger guests joining him soon afterwards, while Geralt and Duny continue fighting the guards. It takes Calanthe grabbing a sword and wading into the brawl to put a stop to the chaos.
- Everyone Can See It: Mousesack snarkily points out that for all Calanthe's refusal to remarry, she and Eist have been "circling each other like courting swans" for years.
- Genre Blind: Geralt invoking the Law of Suprise as a joke right after all the destiny fueled drama created by another instance was practically begging for irony to hit him in the face. Everyone else present is Genre Savvy enough to recognize it and react with horror.
- Gone Horribly Right: Geralt invokes the Law of Surprise almost as a joke, expecting it will get him a bumper crop or a litter of puppies; something that he can ignore and no one will care. Then it turns out Pavetta is pregnant.Geralt: Fuck.
- Go Through Me: Eist invokes the spirit of this while defending Geralt and Duny.Eist Tuirseach: You kill them, kill me!
- Groin Attack: Geralt lies that Jaskier is a eunuch to stop a lord from recognizing him as the one who slept with his wife. But also to embarrass him.
- Heir Club for Men:
- Queen Kalis's husband orders her assassination for failing to provide him with a suitable male heir.
- During the feast a prince of Nilgaard cites the fact that he's one of five brothers and his "potent seed" will provide Pavetta with strong male heirs. Pavetta (a female heir who will go on to have a daughter of her own) and Calanthe (a woman ruling in her own right) don't see this as much of a selling point.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Geralt spends the party drinking to try and get through the night.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: Almost certainly aided by magical means, but the assassin throws a dagger so that it would go clean through Yennefer's shoulder and into the baby she was holding.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: Being in full royal regalia doesn't stop Queen Calanthe from picking up a sword and wading into the thick of a brawl in her throne room.
- Loved I Not Honor More: Eist defends Duny because it's the right thing to do, even if he's in love with Calanthe.
- Mama Bear: Between Kalis and Yennefer, the latter does everything she can to save the infant princess from the assassin. The former, the infant's own mother, tries to sacrifice her to save herself.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Yennefer leaves Queen Kalis after one insult too many. She eventually comes back to rescue the baby.
- Moment Killer: The episode begins with a peasant describing the attack on his village by a monster, and extolling Geralt's virtue in fighting it off...only to be interrupted by Jaskier, who's busily jotting down the man's account, since Geralt is always "stingy with the details."
- Morning Sickness: Pavetta throws up immediately after Geralt claims the Law of Surprise from Duny. Everyone present takes it as a sign that she's pregnant.
- Offhand Backhand: Geralt drops a noble about to attack Duny from behind with one of these.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Eist's reaction when he spots Calanthe advancing on him with a drawn sword. Subverted in that she uses it on a brawler about to attack Eist from behind.
- Everyone in the banquet hall reacts his way when Geralt nonchalantly claims the Law of Surprise as payment for saving Duny. Considering the brawl that kicked off as a result of Duny claiming Pavetta via Law of Surprise, you can see why the room reacts so poorly to Geralt's request, even if he wasn't serious. Then right after he says it, Pavetta abruptly vomits and everybody twigs that she's pregnant...
- Precision F-Strike: Geralt lets out a quiet and tired "Fuck..." when he realizes that his Law of Surprise will give him Pavetta's child, rather than something easy to ignore.
- Refuge in Audacity: Eist has asked for Calanthe's hand three times, and been turned down every time. When she acknowledges Duny's claim to the Law of Surprise, Eist steps up and says she accepted his marriage proposal, meaning Skellige stands with her, and so anyone who disagrees with her declaration will have two nations to fight if they cause trouble for her. She's clearly impressed with his audacity and just goes with it.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: The assassin stalking Yennefer and Kalis always finds her. Yennefer eventually realizes that Kalis has something signaling their location on them.
- Stress Vomit: Pavetta vomits immediately after Geralt invokes the law of surprise, implicitly due to a combination of Morning Sickness and horror at the realization that she will have to give him her child.
- Surrounded by Idiots: Fed up with her guards' failure to deal with Duny and Geralt, Queen Calanthe seizes a sword from one of her guards and wades into the fray to put a stop to the madness.
- Tempting Fate: Once Geralt realizes that Duny won't let him leave empty-handed, he invokes the Law of Surprise to get as little a reward as possible, certain they can't possibly have anything that would qualify. Everyone else reacts in horror as he non-nonchalantly brushes it off...then Pavetta has a bout of morning sickness.
- This Is Gonna Suck: Geralt realizes how much trouble Pavetta's sudden vomiting is going to cause him,and lets out a quiet and tired "fuck" moments later. Then he leaves in what will be a vain attempt to avoid the trouble.
- Time Skip: Yennefer's timeline has jumped ahead 30 years, as revealed by Yennefer lamenting her situation.
- Traumatic Superpower Awakening: Pavetta's latent magical talent activates when her mother nearly kills her lover right in front of her.
- Ungrateful Bitch: Yennefer works herself to near-exhaustion opening portals for her and Kalis to escape through. Kalis responds by calling her a "useless witch" and blaming her for not seeing the attack coming. It's hard to blame Yennefer for ditching Kalis after that outburst.
- Would Hurt a Child: The assassin succeeds in murdering the newborn princess of Lyria.
