The Right Thing (The Witcher Netflix)

Moonlight

Merrian waited in the dark halls of the summer palace. She had been kneeling there for quite some time, listening to the wind outside as it howled through the crumbling walls of the palace. She listened for the sound of creaking, snapping bones, the sound of inhuman squeals of hunger, the soft scrape of claws against stone. She heard all this, and the scream of the man who she would never again consider her father. Ostrit was dead. And Geralt had gone to fight the damned thing alone, like an idiot. She waited until she could almost smell the rot coming off of the beast before silently standing and coming out of her hiding place opening her eyes to see the striga, staring at her with its own beady orbs. It made a few shrill noises before charging towards Merrian. She pivoted on her right foot and hit the creature with with bo staff, the runes glowing faintly as she dealt the sharp blow.

"Alright sister, I'm not abandoning you this time." Merrian growled and charged at the bleating beast, tackling it to the ground before slamming her staff on the stone floor underneath them, letting it crumble to dust as they fell through. She wrestled with it for a few moments before it flung her into the wall knocking the air out of her lungs. She sank to her knees and the striga slashed at her face, she managed to duck under the claws and hook her arm around its legs knocking it off balance, it fell backwards and scrambled up the wall before launching itself towards her. Merrian rolled away and the creature face planted into the stone wall behind her. Merrian shot up to her feet and sprinted down the hallway, turning the sharp corner and tapping her staff rhythmically to alert Geralt that she was coming.

"Come on sister! Never played a game of tag?!" Merrian shouted and raced through the halls as the striga bounded after her. She jumped the stairs completely and sprinted down the hall and turned the corner again. Geralt caught her around the waist and pressed her against the wall. His black eyes startled her, she could see her whole reflection in his enlarged irises. Her chest heaved as she stood there trembling with adrenaline, Geralt waited for a few more moments before he turned the corner and began his own fight with the striga.

Merrian's mind was whirling. She couldn't feel the floor beneath her feet, she slid down against the wall and a shaft of moonlight passed over her leg. She felt the tug of the bindings, pulling her towards the light. She managed to pull her leg free from the pale patch and tear off into the dark hallways. She ran towards Adda's bedroom, the pendant was there, she needed it. She flitted through the shadows and avoided the moonlight as much as she could. As she reached the bedroom she found Lord Ostrit, tied up to the bedposts, his entrails all over the floor, blood already starting to congeal on the cold stone. She saw the pendant and dove for it, as her hand encircled it she felt the aching in her neck again but this time stronger, more prominent than before. She slipped the chain around her neck and the pain slowly subsided, the bands around her limbs no longer tugged her towards the light. She finally looked down at the pendant and held it in her palm. A silver crescent moon, with an engraving on the back of it.

If you are the moon, then I am the wolf who howls in longing for your loving light.
~My Love~
Pherigrin

Pherigrin? Who was Pherigrin? Merrian had questions now, many questions that would not be answered until after dawn. She heard the crumble of stone below her and she hurried out of the room searching for where Geralt had fallen through with the striga. She jumped through the hole and landed on her feet lightly, the striga lay unconscious on the floor and Geralt was nowhere to be found. Merrian knelt on the floor in front of Adda's coffin. Her mother's coffin. So many things were wrong with this place, and this situation, she needed to process, meditate, she needed to talk with that tree again.

She slowly closed her eyes and took three deep breaths, solidifying her presence in the place between. The area you reside in before you wake after a dream. Merrian was very familiar with this place, it was here that she had learned her birthright with Margot. The tree stood there, tall and pale. It seemed displeased with Merrian's presence.