Geralt takes Ciri to the Temple of Melitele, hoping she might learn to control her abilities there, only for them to cross paths with Yennefer. An attack on Kaer Morhen makes Triss fear a terrible power might have fallen into the wrong hands.
Tropes
- Better Living Through Evil: Rience requests a meeting with Lydia's mysterious benefactor, believing he stands to gain more by being a part of their cause.
- Blatant Lies: Oh yes Yen. You are the shining beacon of purity.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Geralt tears apart the Michelt brothers, a bunch of Hired Guns Rience brought with him to capture Ciri. And this is despite him being unarmed for most of it!
- Even Evil Has Standards: Cahir expresses his anger at the Northern Kingdoms committing genocide against elves.
- Gallows Humour: After Ciri confesses to Geralt that, she has killed at least four people in the past due to her Power Incontinence, Gerald simply snarks that compared to him, a Witcher with likely hundreds of kills at this point (both monster and human), she's got some catching up to do.
- Godzilla Threshold: Triss informs Tissaia about Ciri's abilities, knowing that Tissaia will prioritise the threat posed by the Elder Blood over the politicking of Aretuza.
- Green Thumb: Francesca first discovered she had magic when she made a withered rose bloom again.
- Jerkass Has a Point: After Francesca gives birth to the first full-blooded elven child in generations, Cahir questions Fringilla about how long the alliance between the elves and Nilfgaard will last if the elves decide they can repopulate and reclaim their lands without Nilfgaard's help.
- Knowledge Broker: Istredd visits a pair to figure out why Nilfgaard is after Ciri
- Mercy Kill: Geralt performs one of these on Roach, after a monster attack leaves the horse fatally injured.Geralt: Enjoy your last walk across the meadow and through the mist. Be not afraid of her for she is your friend.
- Oh, Crap!: Triss when she realises Rience has stolen the vial containing Ciri's blood from Vesemir's lab, Ciri when she finds herself confronted by Rience and a pack of hired thugs, and Tissaia when Triss informs her Ciri is a Child of the Elder Blood, and Yennefer when she realises the girl she is perusing to regain her power, is Geralt's Child Surprise.
- Pet the Dog: Fringilla helps deliver Francesca's baby and gets the child breathing.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Yennefer and Ciri flee the Temple through a portal to escape Rience. He in turn teleports to safety after Geralt kills his minions.
- Self-Made Orphan: Francesca tells Fringilla that her father tried to murder her when he discovered she had magical abilities. Instead, with her brother's help, she killed her father.
- Would Hurt a Child: Rience and his thugs torture a young scribe at the Temple of Melitele nearly to death for Ciri's whereabouts.
