Adapts the short story "The Sword of Destiny" from the anthology Sword of Destiny.
With the Continent at risk from Nilfgaard's rising power, Yennefer revisits her past, while Geralt reconsiders his obligation to the Law of Surprise.
Tropes present in this episode:
- Because Destiny Says So: When Calanthe tries to pass off a blonde girl of the right age as Ciri, destiny is not having it. The door to a passage to the square opens at just the right moment for Geralt to walk through and see False Ciri accidentally blow her cover.
- Blatant Lies: Fringilla insists Nilfgaard is going to stop with Cintra. She even goes so far as to claim that they are "saving" Cintra, which is narrated over shots of Nilfgaardian soldiers cutting down Cintran civilians during what will become known as the Slaughter of Cintra.
- Defiant to the End: The Nilfgaardian soldier Geralt tries to interrogate first says he's not afraid to die since his soul has already been saved, then begins murmuring a prayer after Geralt stabs him and gives him one last chance.
- Double Meaning: When Tissaia says that Cintra is proud, stubborn, and rash, but also frightened, and that the Brotherhood also bears responsibility for the estrangement because they stopped trying, she's also talking about Yennefer. It's an oblique way of offering an olive branch and asking Yennefer to work with her again, as well as an attempt to convince the conclave to vote her way.
- Foregone Conclusion: The first half of Geralt's subplot. The viewer already knows that Calanthe won't give Ciri up, Cintra will fall, and Ciri will have to fend for herself — the worst case scenario Geralt had predicted. The twist is that he actually was present during the attack on Cintra, but left minutes before Mousesack went to get him.
- For Want Of A Nail: Stregobor traces the current situation to Yennefer refusing the Nilfgaard assignment — if she hadn't, he muses, Nilfgaard might still be a backwater kingdom. Stregobor is, however, to blame for that (not that he'd ever admit it) because he's responsible for Yennefer rebelling against the Brotherhood due to him discriminating against her for her elven blood.
- Heroic BSoD: Mentioned by Eist, when he tells Geralt Pavetta's death left Calanthe in one of these for months, only pulling herself out of it thanks to Heroic Willpower.Geralt: You put too much faith in that woman.Eist: Well, you weren't there. After Pavetta died, Calanthe would wake up howling in the night. The Lioness, nearly broken. Someone who's able to pull themselves out of that, they'll have my confidence until my final day.
- Insane Troll Logic: Calanthe told Geralt never to come back (and tried to kill him), but throws in his face that he hasn't come back as a reason why she shouldn't honor the Law of Surprise. Justified, as one of Calanthe's flaws has always been that she gets irrational and controlling when she's worried about losing someone she loves.
- Medieval Stasis: Fringilla accuses the Brotherhood of enforcing this on the study and practice of magic, claiming Nilfgaard has lifted such restrictions on its mages. Triss argues back that the restrictions the Brotherhood placed on branches of magic like demonology and necromancy were imposed for good reason.
- Missed Him by That Much: Geralt broke out of his cell minutes before Mousesack went to bring him to Ciri, postponing their destiny-mandated encounter.
- Mushroom Samba: Yennefer mixes herbs and feeds them to Aretuza's students, resulting in a drug-induced trip.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Geralt gets two in this episode. First at the beginning, when he sees a massive Nilfgaardian army marching in the direction of Cintra; and then toward the end, when he witnesses Calanthe's suicide and realizes that it's time to get out of Dodge.
- Anton and the rest of Ciri's old playmates have one when she goes into a trance state after they accost her.
- Old Flame Fizzle: Yennefer seeks Istredd out at a dig site, but he rebuffs her.
- Once More, with Clarity: We find out that Geralt was present during the sacking of Cintra—giving context for Calanthe and Mousesack's Cryptic Conversation—and see it again from his perspective.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Geralt sees Calanthe's body and realizes that the "Lioness of Cintra" has committed suicide, he shows more shock than at any other point in the series until now.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: After the Brotherhood of Sorcerers votes against intervening in Nilfgaard's conquest of Cintra, Tissaia, Vilgefortz, Sabrina, Triss and a handful of other mages choose to defy the vote and assist the Northern Kingdoms in resisting the invasion. After a plea from Tissaia, Yennefer joins them.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: One of the girls that Yennefer pals around with in Aretuza has no magical talent at all, and only got in because her father is a rich nobleman that offered to give the Brotherhood a brace of fine horses in return for allowing her to attend. This lets Yennefer know just how badly the Brotherhood has fallen.
- Shut Up, Hannibal!: After Stregobor gets too mouthy about denouncing Cintra, Tissaia shuts him up by pointing out that, given his life's work involved "torturing girls born under the sign of an eclipse", he's in no position to judge the mistakes of others.
- Sympathy for the Devil: A variation: despite there being no love lost between them, Geralt is visibly saddened when he witnesses Calanthe's suicide during the sack of Cintra.
