The Witcheress

Chapter Four: Devil By The Well

I went to speak to the man that posted the notice. When I entered his house, he was terrified.

"Who are you and what do you want?"

"I'm here about the notice. There's a devil in a well?"

"There's only one well in the village with clean water and right now, it's haunted by a ghost that we call the devil. Me daughter's really sick and she needs that water to get better. Will you help, witcher?"

"Let's talk about my pay first."

Eventually, we got to an agreement of 250 crowns.

"I'll go get rid of the ghost. Mind telling me where the well is located."

"North-East from 'ere. Not far though. You should see three houses. The well is right in the middle of them. Also, witcher, mind bringing me a vial of the water for me daughter? I'll double your pay."

"Fine."

I couldn't say no to extra coin. I mounted Spider and went North-East from the village. It didn't take long before I got to the three houses that the man mentioned. There were a few wraiths around the well. They weren't very easy to kill but I managed to kill them anyway. I investigated the houses and one had a lot of ears on the floor. There was only one explanation. These houses belonged to the Crones of Crookback Bog before they moved to the swamps in Velen. There were many myths about them, some saying that they have been all over Temeria, including White Orchard. I never believed them, but now I do.

As I investigated more, I found an old diary. It belonged to a woman. It said something about a bracelet that her husband gave her, but her mother wanted to sell it as they were really poor.

"Better find this bracelet so I can lift this curse."

"What curse?"

I looked around and saw Geralt standing at the door of the house.

"It's for a contract. Need to lift the curse of this well so the village can use the water."

"Don't you think that this monster will be too strong for you?"

"Now that I think about it, yes. It's a good thing you're here. Don't worry, I'll give you half of the coin."

"So, you need a bracelet to lift the curse. I think I saw one in the well. I'll get the bracelet while you get the corpse that's hanging on the rope."

Geralt and I walked in silence towards the well. I looked down to see how deep it was.

"Are you sure you'll survive? It's a really deep hole."

"I will. There's a lot of water down there. It's just hard to see if you're not using your witcher senses."

I completely forgot that witchers had better senses than normal people. I activated mine and saw that Geralt wasn't wrong. There really was a giant pool of water.

"Oh, Geralt, before I forget, can you take this vial and fill it with the water down there? It's for extra coin."

Geralt took the vial and looked down.

"Wish me luck. If I'm not back in about 10-15 minutes, you can assume that I'm dead."

As soon as he jumped down, I grabbed the rope that the corpse was hanging from. For some reason, it was heavier than a normal corpse. I still managed to lift it up and place it on the ground. I examined it and I found out that the woman was somewhere in her thirties. Minutes later, Geralt came back holding two things. A glass vial full of water and a pretty but dirty bracelet.

"Ready to lift the curse?"

"Not yet. I need to apply some specter oil to my sword so it's easier to kill the wraith."

And that's exactly what I did. Once I applied the oil, Geralt placed the bracelet beside the corpse and burned them using Igni. Seconds later, a wraith appeared. It wasn't a normal wraith though, it was a noonwraith. Normal wraiths have swords, noonwraiths have no weapons. They use magic to kill their enemies.

"Hide!"

I didn't. I didn't want to waste the specter oil on my sword, so I attacked the wraith from behind while Geralt attacked it from the front.

"What the hell are you doing? I told you to hide!"

"Didn't want to waste the oil."

"That's your excuse for possibly dying? If this battle ends up being your last, Vesemir and Yennefer are gonna kill me!"

Just as he finished saying that, the wraith fell to the ground. It was dead.

"Well, this battle won't be my last."

"It could've been. Next time I tell you to hide, you will hide. Don't want you killing dangerous monsters like this one."

"Aren't witchers supposed to kill monsters?"

"You can kill monsters, just less dangerous ones for now. Stuff like wild dogs and wolves. Once you get better at fighting, you can kill more dangerous ones."

"Like, drowners?"

"Exactly. Let's go now. We need to get our coin from the man."

We called our horses over and mounted them. We rode South-West and not long after, we got to the village. We dismounted our horses right in front of the man's house and went inside.

"We lifted the curse. No more monsters haunting the well."

"That's amazin' news! And, by any chance, you got the vial with the water?"

"Right here."

Geralt took out the vial from his pocket and handed it to the man. The man looked like one of the beggers in Novigrad when someone gives them 100 crowns.

"Thank ye so much! I dunno how to repay you!"

"250 crowns each will be fine."

The man's smile turned into a frown.

"I'm afraid I ain't got that kind o' money. I can give ye florens or orens and ye can convert 'em to crowns at Vivaldi's bank in Novigrad."

We both looked at the man, annoyed, yet we still accepted the florens and orens. We were going to go to Novigrad one day to look for Ciri there, we could easily make a quick stop to Vivaldi's bank.

We left the man's house. It was silent until I remembered a very important question that I had to answer.

"Got anything about Ciri?"

"Yes, a spy by the name of Hendrik."