Kalira ⤱ The Witcher

[five]

With a sigh, they reluctantly followed him into the garden, stopping by a fountain. If it wasn't some old mage's fantasy, Kalira would have enjoyed looking at the beautiful naked women surrounding them. However, she kept her eyes on the man, waiting to hear what nonsense he was about to sprout about the seemingly normal woman they had met earlier in the tavern.

"Destiny has many faces, Witchers." Stregobor spoke up, taking an apple from the basket. "Mine, for example, is beautiful on the outside but hideous on the inside." He continued, twirling the apple in his hands. "She has stretched her bloody talons towards me."

"Wizards are all the same." Geralt sighed with an annoyed look. "You talk nonsense while making wise and meaningful faces. Speak normally."

Stregobor's face dropped, the illusion of the apple vanishing.

"Have you ever heard of the Curse of the Black Sun?" Stregobor asked and Kalira walked to a bench knowing this was going to be long and boring. "First full eclipse in 1200 years. It marked the imminent return of Lilit, demon goddess of the night sent to exterminate the human race. According to the wise mage Eltibald, Lilit's path was to be prepared by 60 women wearing gold crowns who'd fill the river valleys with blood."

"Hmm." Geralt hummed resting his arm on the fountain. "Doesn't rhyme. All good predictions rhyme." Kalira's lips tugged up seeing the amused smile on Geralt's face as Stregobor frowned at him.

"I studied the girls born around the Black Sun and I found horrendous internal mutations among them." He continued and Kalira frowned hearing internal. "I tried to cure them, locked them in towers for safekeeping, but the girls always died."

"Internal mutations?" She asked from her spot, making the men face her. "How can you know of internal mutations?"

"They were autopsied, of course, to confirm my suspicions." Stregobor replied, nodding along his statement. "But eliminating these women was the lesser evil."

"So, tell me sorcerer..." Kalira kept a blank face, crossing her legs. "These women are considered evil only because they were born during a celestial phenomenon? Something that just happens naturally?"

"They could have drowned entire kingdoms in blood." Stregobor replied, avoiding Kalira's logical question. "If you'd been alive during Falka's Rebellion, see what I saw-"

"Innocent women are dead." Geralt cut him off and realization hit him. "But not Renfri, the beautiful one. She's after you."

"Daughter of King Fredefalk of Creyden." Stregobor continued his story. "I delivered the princess myself in the middle of the afternoon in pitch black."

"Under the Black Sun." Geralt rolled his eyes, opening his arms in disbelief. "So she's cursed."

"Do you consider me a fool, Witcher?" Stregobor turned back, adamant on making them believe him. "Do you think I did not conduct research? Renfri was acutely affected. Her stepmother, Aridea, told me she tortured a canary, strangled two puppies, even gouged out her maid's eyes with a comb." He continued much to Kalira's delight. "I admit what happened next was not ideal, but with the lives of Aridea's own children on the line, we had to act."

"Stepmother fears the rightful heir to the throne." Kalira spoke shooting Stregobor a deadpan look. "I'm sure she was telling the truth."

"I dispatched someone to follow Renfri into the woods." Stregobor dismissed her but they were having none of it. "We found him in the brush, Renfri's antique brooch jammed into his ear. After that, I organized a manhunt to find the princess, but she was gone. Two years. Until she reappeared, robbing and murdering merchants on the roads of Mahakam." He walked towards Kalira, trying to send his point. "Impaled them on sticks at first but soon, she picked up sword skills. And now no man can defy her, it's said."

"You're not a man." Geralt replied with a dry smile on his lips. "You're a magician."

"She's resistant to magic." Stregobor countered making Kalira frown.

"That's impossible in humans." Geralt shook his head but Stregobor slyly smirked at them.

"Not mutated ones." He stated. "She's chased me for years bent on revenge. And now she's tracked me here, just as you arrived. Destiny. Kill her. I'll pay you anything."

"We kill monsters." Geralt shot back and Kalira got on her feet, standing next to her friend.

"Not women who have every right to be after you." She added, looking down at the shorter man. "Maybe you should've called for a cat instead of two wolves." Kalira said with distaste, not liking the Witchers from the School of the Cat as they were mainly the reason for the infamy on the Witchers in the public eye.

"The kikimora kills because it's hungry, Renfri kills for pleasure." Stregobor hissed at them, clearly angry that he couldn't get two Witchers on his side. "She is a monster. She is the last of Lilit's women. And she possesses the power to destroy us all."

"I don't believe anyone has that power." Geralt insisted, deciding he had heard enough.

"Sounds to me like a man is afraid of a powerful woman and labels her as evil without understanding anything." Kalira added, her own experiences running through her mind. "Which wouldn't be the first time I heard it." She smiled at him and patted his chest making the man flinch in fear she was going to attack him. "All I see here is a small man deeming what's evil or not as he lounges around naked women for his pleasure."

"With the fate of the Continent at stake, is that a chance you're willing to take?" Stregobor asked after collecting himself as Kalira passed Geralt, heading to the exit. "There's your rhyme. Killing Renfri is the lesser evil."

"Evil is evil, Stregobor." Kalira heard Geralt say as she was almost at the door. "Lesser, greater, middling... It's all the same. I'm not judging you. I haven't only done good in my life either. But now, if I have to chose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all."