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The two followed Triss back to the castle in Temeria into her chambers where she did most of her mage work. Loads of bottles filled with potions and various chemicals sat prettily around the dimly lit room. "Six years ago, stable hands started vanishing at the castle above the city. Before long, citizens were disappearing throughout all Temeria. 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." Triss explained the conspiracy of the creature.
Caira reached over, her curiosity possessing her body, to touch from vials filled with a blue liquid. Geralt quickly grabbed her wrist and pulled her curious hand away, grunting in disproval at her. "Was she pregnant?" Geralt asked the mage.
"If she were, that would make her child the sole heir to the throne as Foltest never married. 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." Triss explained what her motive to curing the creature was.
"Vukodlaks are freak mutations. They can't be cured." Geralt informed her, nonchalantly, as he watched Caira from the corner of his eye to make sure she didn't touch anything that belonged to the mage.
"Good thing it's not a vukodlak." Triss replied, matter of factly. Geralt turned his head to look at her, his brows furrowed and his visage troubled. As far as he knew, the thing was rumored to be a vukodlak.
Triss gestured for Geralt and Caira to silently follow her as she further explained while they walked down the chambers of the castle. "Two thousand orens if you can tell me what exactly killed these people." Triss bet Geralt as the three entered one of the deepest parts of the castle, where a few dead bodies laid in coffins filled to the brim with snow. The snow was placed to preserve their bodies, obviously to be studied by Triss.
Geralt took notice of a bulky dead man with his eyes carved out of his head, laying peacefully in his coffin filled with snow. Geralt took a deep breath and reached out to brush away the snow from the man's neck to reveal a necklace, with the Witcher emblem pressed into the metal piece. Geralt pulled the necklace off the dead man, gritting his teeth in anger. The fellow witcher had died at the hands of this creature and Triss allowed the people to believe that he had fled with their money. "You didn't want the people to know that it bested a witcher." Geralt huffed, scowling at the mage. "And you let them believe that he fled with their coin."
It was certainly giving the Witcher a bad rep, but it was also dishonorable to the now dead warrior. Geralt put the necklace away, for safekeeping, and proceeded to brush away the snow on the man's body. Slowly, as the snow went away, it revealed a corpse that was gutted and absent of various organs. Geralt shoved his hand up the man's rotted chest and felt around for any other missing vital organs. "His heart's missing along with his liver." Geralt announced once he pulled out his arm from inside the man's body cavity. "Only one creature I know is that picky an eater. A striga."
