"Destiny has many faces, Witcher."
Stregobor spoke firmly, now stood beside the fully armoured man next to the fountain in the centre of the inside garden. "Mine for example, is beautiful on the outside, but...hideous on the inside." He said, holding an apple in his right hand in front of him, slowly turning it around in his pale fingers. "She has stretched her bloody talons towards me." He spoke with a newfound anger.
"Wizards are all the same." Geralt stated as he lifted his head up slightly. His golden eyes fixed on the bearded man at arms length from him. "You talk nonsense while making wise and meaningful faces." He dipped his head slightly, eyes never leaving the man. "Speak normally." He sounded out carefully, he wasn't in the mood to solve riddles today. Stregobor stared at the mutant for a moment before he made the apple disappear in his hand, simply shimmering out of existence. He slightly nodded, a small admittance of defeat to the Witcher's words. "Have you ever heard of the...Curse of the Black Sun?" He asked Geralt. "First full eclipse in 1,200 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." Stregobor informed him like he was telling a story.
Geralt let out a deep hum as a response and lifted his arm up to rest on the stone fountain. "Doesn't rhyme. All good predictions rhyme." He backed up his previous statement. "I studied the girls born around the Black Sun, and I found horrendous internal mutations among them. I tried to cure them, locked them in towers for safekeeping, but the girls always died." Stregobor said, his voice low as he recounted the facts. Geralt's brows furrowed together slightly. "Internal mutations?" He asked, he wasn't fond of that word either, nor was he fond of the way that Stregobor tried to portray himself as a hero by saving the girls. Now he was just playing the victim.
"They were autopsied, of course, to confirm my suspicions. But eliminating these women was the lesser evil. They could've drowned the entire kingdoms in blood. If you'd been alive during Falka's Rebellion, seen what I saw..." Stregobor was immediately cut off by the Witcher. "Innocent Women are dead." He almost growled out. The only thing these women had done was to be born at the wrong time. Stregobor's hands fell to his side after a moment, he wasn't going to persuade or fool the Witcher to his side. "But not Renfri, the beautiful one." Geralt carried on after another grunt. "She's after you." He said, eyes looking to Stregobor with a small amused look.
"Daughter of King Fredefalk of Creyden. I delivered the princess myself in the middle of the afternoon in pitch black." Stregobor told him as he walked around the other side of the fountain, his back now turned to the man behind him, eyes wide with determination. "Under the Black Sun, so...she's cursed." Geralt carried on for him, keeping his eyes fixed on the wizard as he threw his arms out to the side, not seeing the whole point of this conversation it why it was such a big deal. "Do you consider me a fool, Witcher?" Stregobor almost snapped as he turned back around to face 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 eye with a comb." Stregobor said, almost looking disgusted by the acts Renfri had committed. "I admit what happened next was not ideal, but...with the lives of Aridea's own children on the line, we had to act. So I dispatched someone to follow Renfri into the woods. We found him in the brush, Renfri's antique brooch jammed into his ear. After that, I organised a manhunt to find the princess, but...eh...she was gone." Stregobor told him, letting out a little sound of disapproval.
"Two years." He stated as he walked away from the Witcher once again, almost completing an entire pace around the garden. "Until she reappeared, robbing and murdering merchants on the roads of Mahakam. Impaled then on sticks at first, but soon, she picked up sword skills. And now no man can defy her, it's said." He spoke as he looked over his shoulder sideways at Geralt. "You're not a man. You're a magician." Geralt replied, his jaw untensing for a brief moment to offer a small smirk at the wizard. "She's resistant to magic." Stregobor informed quickly. "That's impossible in humans." Geralt replied. "Not...mutated ones." Stregobor finished after a small pause.
Geralt's head lifted slightly, there was that word again, though, now he was speaking plainly, he did have his attention. "She's chased me for years, bent on revenge." Stregobor said, voice a little softer now. "And now she's tracked me here, just as you arrived. Destiny. Kill her." He added in a rough voice. Geralt's head had turned to the side slightly, lips pressed together as the word Destiny was spoken, it was still something that he didn't believe in. "I'll pay you anything." Stregobor whispered, the desperation coming through in his voice. "I kill monsters." Geralt replied sternly.
"The Kikimora kills because it's hungry, Renfri kills for pleasure. She is a monster. She is the last of Lilit's women. And she possesses the power to destroy us all." Stregobor warned as he stepped closer to the Witcher, cold hard eyes trained on Geralt's golden ones. "I don't believe anyone has that power." Geralt replied, closing the gap between him and the wizard. His jaw clenched again and he turned, walking away from Stregobor.
Stregobor was not done. "With the fate of the Continent at stake, is that a chance you're willing to take?" He asked, the man would have almost been pleading if it were not for his control. "There's your rhyme." He said to the Witcher who now stopped in his tracks to look back at Stregobor again. "Killing Renfri is...the lesser evil."
"Evil is evil, Stregobor. Lesser, greater, middling...it's all the same." Geralt replied as he shook his head. "I'm not judging you. I haven't only done good in my life either. But now, if I have to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all." He told him seriously. With that, Geralt turned and left, leaving Stregobor with the problem.