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It had been more than six months since the spring banquet on Bald Mountain. The villagers had turned the magical acorns into oil and fed the land with it. They were still as magical as usual. Carl touched his right ear and closed his eyes to think. The wrinkles on his head deepened. "It\'s time to pick the ladies\' sacrifice again. What should I make this year? And who should I pick?"

Carson still could not figure it out no matter how long he took. He drew a deep hit from his pipe and puffed out smoke from his nose. It was then he saw a few silhouettes appearing behind that wall of smoke he just blew. Five strangers on horses slowly approached the village.

***

"Who are you people?" Carson stopped them at the entrance. Lower Velen would never receive any guests for months on end in most cases. Five of them showing up at once was rare. To make things weirder, these guests were sturdily built. They were also equipped with two swords. The look in their eyes was different from anything Carson had seen. The look in their eyes reminded him of experienced hunters and beasts like vipers and falcons. He frowned.

"Hello sir, we\'re travelers who came from the swamp in the east." The youngest visitor smiled at him and looked at the wooden sign at the entrance. "We\'re witchers who go around these lands. Do not worry. We only kill monsters, not humans."

Carson took a step back and looked at their pendants cautiously. He froze up the moment he saw Felix\'s pendant. "A Cat? What business do you have with my village?"

"We just have a question for you. Have you seen any crows passing through your village?"

"Crows? There\'s no crows in my village!" Carson raised his voice. "You have to leave now. You\'re not welcome here."

Carson\'s shout alerted the young men in the village. They came holding hoes, scythes, and pitchforks. The villagers surrounded the witchers, obviously loath to see them here. The witchers found it odd, however. Most people would never threaten them with violence no matter how much they disliked witchers, especially when there were five of them there. That was basically a death wish.

What makes them so confident?

Tension started rising in the air, and Felix was already holding the hilt of his blade. He was in a hurry, and patience was not something he had in abundance. Carl\'s missing, and the kidnapper led us here to this village. The villagers aren\'t even scared of us. Why\'d the kidnapper lead us here? Are they playing with us? Or do they want us to kill everyone here? Felix\'s eyes gleamed crimson for a moment. His knuckles were getting white from holding the hilt of his blade too tightly. Serrit and Auckes were tensing up as well. They could start fighting at any time.

Letho and Roy exchanged looks. "Calm down, Vulture," Roy said, then he turned to the villagers. "Villagers, we bear you no ill will, or we wouldn\'t have come through the entrance in the first place." He looked into Carson\'s eyes. "We would have ambushed you at night if we were actually here for your lives." He smirked. "Your wives and children would wake up to see you dead if that were the case."

Roy\'s warning spread fear across the villagers, as if by magic. However, it riled up some of the more aggressive villagers instead. "I\'ll kill you!" a villager with thick chest hair roared. His eyes widened, and he thrusted his pitchfork ahead at Roy. Roy, however, was not fazed. He stared at the villager and allowed his attack to go through.

The yellow shield around him broke into pieces, but the pitchfork could not penetrate the armor, no matter how hard the villager tried. The man noticed an eerie silence falling around him, and he gulped. He gave the other villagers a weird look, as if he were asking, \'Why\'d you guys stay back?\'

"You\'d better think long and hard before you attack," Roy said. "Your pitchfork isn\'t nearly as sharp as my swords, and you\'re not nearly as tough as the monsters we have to deal with. I can defeat you easily. Wanna try?"

The villagers took a step back and tossed their \'weapons\' away.

"What do you want, witchers?"

"An answer." Roy took the dagger from Felix and showed it to them. "It doesn\'t matter if you haven\'t seen the crows, but you must have seen this dagger before. Now calm down. This is a token the ladies gave us. They guided us here. I think they must have some message for us."

***

Lower Velen was a sizable village with about a hundred families in it, and Carson\'s house was in the centermost part of the village. "Are you sure the ladies gave you this holy relic, witcher?" Carson was observing the dagger and confirmed that it was the one in the north of the swamp.

"You can see it that way if you want." Roy was standing beside the window, looking at the villagers who were going about their lives. Velen was Temeria\'s poorest place, but the villagers looked surprisingly healthy. They were not scrawny or pasty like most malnourished villagers. In fact, they looked strong. "I\'ll tell you what happened. The Lady of the Woods left a bloody message on that unfortunate bastard and led us here. We buried the guy, of course. You\'re the chief here, Carson. Tell us how to take back the child she took from us."

"The lady took your child away?"

"She stole him from us, to be precise! She stole my apprentice, an eight-year-old child, right under my nose!" Felix roared angrily. She kills her own people without any hesitation. I don\'t think she\'s going to be nice to my apprentice.

"Hold your tongue! Do not slander the lady of Velen!" Carson flew into a rage, then horror grasped him. He tossed the dagger back to the witchers. "Leave. I will not allow your foolishness to drag this village down."

"Oh, we\'ll leave. As soon as you tell us what we want." Felix closed in until he was inches away from Carson. He glared at the old man, and his voice dripped with venom. "Tell us where to find her. Tell us how to take the child back."

Carson\'s face turned red with fear, but he kept his mouth shut no matter how fiercely Felix was glaring.

"You won\'t talk, huh?" Felix grabbed his beard. "Why don\'t I keep you mute then? Permanently, of course."

Auckes grinned toothily and added to the threat. "We can always kill all the villagers if we can\'t find Carl."

"Fine. I\'ll talk." Carson sighed. He explained, "But understand that I\'m not talking because you threatened me. I\'m just doing what the lady wants me to." He took a deep breath, possibly praying to the lady, then he said, "I think I can guess why she led you here."

"Explain."

He heaved a few times to calm down, then he explained, "She wants you to learn one basic rule—sacrifice something to her."

"What kind of rule is that?" Roy looked at the wall. The portrait of the Ladies was hanging on it as well.

"Velen is the Ladies\' territory. Every living being must live by their rules, witchers included. You\'ll have to give them something of equal value if you want the boy back."

"What? That\'s daylight robbery!" Felix sneered. "The boy is mine! She must give him back to me!"

"No. Everyone and everything in Velen belongs to the Ladies. They can take anyone and anything they want no matter for what reason," Carson said stiffly. "You should be glad. The children taken in by the Ladies live happy lives."

By sleeping forever under their bellies’ skin? Roy added quietly and calmed Felix\'s rage down.

"Fine. We accept their terms. So what kind of sacrifice should we make? And will they give the boy back in one piece if we do that?"

"Your ear, hair, limbs, and eyes. That\'s usually what they demand." Carson\'s eyes glinted. "Well, just some of it."

"Impossible. We\'re not lizards. We can\'t regenerate our body parts."

"You can give them something else." Carson paused for a moment. "The Ladies prefer powerful men or magical creatures."

"You mean they want monsters from the swamp?"

Carson nodded. "The stronger the monster you hunt, the happier they\'ll be. Perhaps they\'ll give the boy back if you give them a good monster."

"Perhaps?" Felix was upset by the vague answer.

"Don\'t worry. Do your best and the Ladies will grant you your wish."

"Just like how she granted yours?" Roy gazed at the chief. "They grant you bountiful crops and safety in exchange for some sacrifice?"

"That is correct," Carson admitted. He looked like he was proud about it as well. "I know that the people of Lower Velen are a lot happier than everyone else in this land."

"I wonder if the people who had their legs, ears, and eyes taken from them think so as well."

"At least it\'s a better fate than death!"

"Then you are nothing but livestock," Letho mocked. Serrit and Auckes scoffed as well.

"You know nothing, witchers!" Carson retorted, "Not everyone is blessed with powers like you. Velen is a poor, dangerous place. We need someone to rely on if we want to survive. Half of these people would have died if not for the Ladies. They gave us the right to survive!" Carson\'s voice was starting to tremble, and respect filled his eyes.

They sacrifice a few to save the many, huh? It was a decade earlier or so, but the situation was just like how Roy pictured. The people of this impoverished land enslaved themselves and called a trio of monsters their masters. I\'m not wasting my time changing their minds. "What should we do after we bring the sacrifice back?"

"I\'ll tell you about that when the time comes," Carson said. "But be quick. Come back with the sacrifice tomorrow if you can."

***

The witchers left in a hurry.

"I noticed something just now," Letho said. "The women in the portrait… Their eyes were moving."

"Carson got one point right," Roy said. "Velen is their turf. They have a lot of ways to spy on us. Through that portrait, for example."

"Are we actually going to do this?" Auckes looked frustrated. "I don\'t like being ordered around."

"I can\'t do this alone, my friends. We\'re dealing with a group of legendary creatures here." Felix took off his sunglasses and gave his companions a pleading look. "Can I make a request? Please work with me and save Carl. As for the reward…"

"I wanna whoop your ass once after we get out of this alive." Auckes wrapped his arm around Felix\'s shoulder and held it tightly. "We\'re not doing this to help you, Vulture. Carl is a nice kid. And…" He looked ahead coldly. "I\'d like to meet these Ladies of the Wood."

"You can whoop me ten times if you help me out." Gratitude flashed in Felix\'s eyes.

The other witchers exchanged looks. Since Auckes wanted to help, then they would as well.

"We\'ll expose their fraud," Serrit growled.

"I\'d like to meet this ruler of Velen." Letho looked indifferent.

Roy hesitated for a moment. The Ladies of the Wood were not powerful fighters per se. They were on par with the leshen in terms of power. The veteran witchers could defeat them in a fair battle if they wanted to. However, the problem was they knew a lot of spells, and their summoning trick was the hardest one to handle.

It won\'t be easy defeating them on their own turf. Roy\'s eyes glinted with cunning. "We\'ll save Carl no matter what, but we won\'t go with the crones\' plan. We need an exit strategy too."

"What do you mean?"

"Remember that book? She Who Knows? The book spoke of the Ladies and the mother whom they sealed." Roy looked to a hill standing far from where they were. "We\'re ditching the swamp for The Whispering Hillock. We\'ll go straight for The Mother and find out her daughters\' weakness."

The witchers finally understood what he was getting at, but it was preposterous.

"Are you sure The Mother is real and not just some made-up entity?" Serrit crossed his arms and cocked his eyebrow. He did not believe the book.

"Yes. There\'s a reason for Carl\'s sleepwalking and the villagers\' unusual hostility against us." Roy was sure. "And I have a feeling that a powerful magical entity is sealed beneath that hillock. It can only be The Mother. And this won\'t be a wild goose chase either. The Whispering Hillock is a good hunting place with or without The Mother."

The Viper School witchers had perfect faith in Roy\'s prophetic abilities after they gained the blueprints for the Manticore and Viper equipment. They nodded in silence.

Felix could see that they had come to a decision, and he clenched his fists. "Then to the Whispering Hillock it is!"

***

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