We left off with Ciri being guided by Nemune to the Plot. Ciri appears at Vilgefortz' castle, castle Stygga, and... walks in the front door. Vilgefortz, Stellen, and Leo Bonhart are all rather surprised by this. Vilgefortz, however, is not above some monologuing - about how this castle is shielding against Ciri's time shifting, meaning she can't just poof if she decides things are getting bad. That sucks. On the other hand, it means the Wild Hunt can't find her here, which is probably good.
However, we get back to bad very quickly - Vilgefortz is going to get her pregnant with a artificial insemination and then harvest her fetus and placenta so he can use her fetal stem cells and placental blood to cure his cancer give himself super-powers. He pointedly says that the whole "your sons's son will rule the world" was bullshit he made up to get the Emperor to give him carte blanche to find her. This has all been about Vilgefortz wanting the power to travel in time for himself.
Is it just me, or has Vilgefortz been reading Dune? Seriously, this "fake prophesy" sounds like the first three Dune novels. I like to imagine that, like Tolkien, the works of Frank Herbert are also known in the Witcher-verse.
At this point, Ciri is willing to do just about anything to get Yennefer released and put an end to everyone chasing her. Leo Bonhart protests about using artificial insemination (he wants to rape her) but Vilgefortz has standards [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvenEvilHasStandards] and insists on the purely medical version.
Before this can get any worse, Geralt and his party show up and start storming the palace. Vilgefortz orders Ciri taken to a cell while he and the other people with PC class levels head off to deal with the problem. Ciri immediately escapes - and almost as immediately runs into Regis, who is "scouting" the place.
Regis is getting his blood-lust on - apparently, like Joss Whedon vampires, blood can power him up to bad-ass combat level (in addition to getting him drunk). So, instead of just being invisible and strong, blood-lust Regis can leap across rooms and tear people's heads off to chug down what comes pouring out. Unlike Whedon vampires, Regis doesn't get head-bumpy - he goes full Giant Bat. Damn.
Ciri insists on saving Yennefer, which Regis reports to Geralt. Geralt is surprised that Yennefer is also here, but is more worried about Ciri. They head in.
And this is where things get bad. So far, all of the protagonists have possessed plot armor. They might get wounded, but it always ends up okay. Not this time.
Milva clears a room with her arrows, but ends up facing an expert archer sniper. She and the archer both take aim - and they kill each other. Just like that, Milva has shown how bad-ass she is and then died from an arrow to the hip (and when I say to the hip, I mean through the abdomen, shattering her hip into bony shrapnel that turned her insides into shredded meat).
The party splits at this point. Geralt ends up finding Yennefer while Cahir and Angoulême find Ciri. However, the enemy also finds them. Ciri, Cahir, and Angoulême face off against Leo Bonhart while Geralt and Yennefer face Vilgefortz. Skellen decides to wait outside and see how the Boss Fights turn out.
Angoulême gets stabbed by a soldier while protecting Ciri. It is unclear if the wound would have been fatal if treated, but there is no time to do so. Meanwhile, Cahir challenges Leo Bonhart (Cahir is pretending to be Geralt) and fights him while Ciri flees with Angoulême. Leo Bonhart kills Cahir easily, and Angoulême bleeds out, leaving Ciri alone to face Leo Bonhart.
Meanwhile, Vilgefortz and Yennefer are shooting lightning bolts at one another. I'm guessing this is because Fire Magic equals insanity causing magical orgasms (at least it did back in Times of Contempt) and thus electrical spells are a safer way to get the same result. Anyway, Vilgefortz clearly has the advantage - until Regis appears and, like Boo, goes for the Eyes. He costs Vilgefortz some blood, but pays for it by being melted - apparently Vampires don't burn, but they can melt? Considering some of Regis's previous comments, I actually wonder if he's really dead. However, since it took him 50 years to heal last time, and that was less trauma, if Regis IS alive, he's going to be stuck healing for at least half a century, and thus is still negated for this fight. I kinda hope he is - I liked Regis.
Anyway, Vilgefortz pulls out his electric beat stick to kick Geralt's ass again, but his depth-perception isn't fully functional yet, and Geralt's new medallion (given to him by Green Eyes) comes with a Displacement effect that gives him a 50% miss chance, so Vilgefortz isn't kicking his ass quite so hard this time. Apparently Vilgefortz forgot to cast "True Seeing" - or maybe Divination is one of his forbidden schools? Okay, I'll stop with the D&D jokes.
Yennefer gives Geralt some support, and between that and his displacement effect, Geralt manages to kill Vilgefortz.
Meanwhile, Ciri is facing Leo Bonhart. He corners her on a roof beam (don't ask) and, as he comes out to kill her, she remembers the Pendulum training that Geralt gave her back in book 1, The Blood of Elves. Instead of trying to block Bonhart's attacks, she uses them to launch her onto another beam and move around behind him. She presses her advantage, and when he turns keeps using the trick to evade him and launch new counter attacks. And, after wearing him down some, she strikes the killing blow. Leo Bonhart, who disemboweled her lover in front of her, falls to Ciri's blade. Vengeance is had.
Ciri, Geralt, and Yennefer finally meet up. They've defeated the big bads - but at great cost. Milva, Cahir, Angoulême... dead. Regis is ashes mixed with glass (maybe or maybe not dead, but effectively gone for the next 50-100 years at least). And, there is a small army led by Skellen waiting for them outside.
What follows is somehow even more badass than the preceding bossfights. Ciri and Geralt stand side by side and CUT THEIR WAY THROUGH SKELLEN'S MEN. As they murder their way through dozens of men, Geralt calmly critiques Ciri's technique. One of the soldiers fires a crossbow bolt at Ciri. Geralt steps in front of the bolt - and Ciri dives between his legs and cuts the bolt out of the air with her sword. Geralt threatens to spank her if she tries something that dangerous again. The last of Skellen's men break and run.
And, just when it seems they've won... the fucking Emperor of Nilfgaard arrives with an army and arrests Skellen. Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer lay down their arms and surrender.
This goes... surprisingly well, actually. All three are treated as guests (in the valuable hostage sort of way). And, the final shoe drops - Geralt recognizes Emhyr. He met him 16 years ago - as Duny. The Emperor of Nilfgaard is Ciri's biological father.
The final pieces finally come together. Emhyr's father died in a coup, and Emhyr himself was cursed and exiled. He ended up in Cintra, where he lied about his kingdom of origin not to hide being a commoner but to hide being an enemy. He married, had a child... and then a mage named Vilgefortz showed up and offered to help him.
We'll take a break for a moment for some theorizing on my part. We know that the Cintra royal family was being Eugeniced by Yennefer and others - probably Tissana de'Vries, and possibly Francesca Findabar, Daisy of the Valley, Queen of elves. I'm guessing that Vilgefortz learned of the Lara's line through Francesca. However, even they didn't know who this "Duny" was - he was a fly in their Eugenics ointment. But, for some reason, he worked - Ciri was a Source and had activated Elder Blood. So he was a lucky win. Vilgefortz wanted her... so he offered to help Duny reclaim Nilfgaard.
Since Vilgefortz is dead, we can't get the full details of his side, but, to Duny, Vilgefotz was an opportunity. He planned to relocate to Nilfgaard with his wife and daughter. His only problem - Calthe, Ciri's grandmother, the former queen. He wanted to slip away and make her think them dead - hence the plan to use the ship teleporter. However, Ciri's mom figured out that something bad was going on and arranged for Ciri to not be with them. Duny/Emhyr... well, he claims that she didn't get to the protected room. Geralt thinks that Emhyr strangled her. Whatever the truth, the storm that supposedly destroyed their ship was actually the deific response to her death at castle Stygga.
Duny became Emhyr again and reconquered Nilfgaard from the usurpers, the echos of which continue in the Nilfgaardian royal court. And then he set his sights on reclaiming Ciri. He invaded Cintra for that express purpose. When he failed to get her, he ended the war at Sodden Hill, having his ally Vilgefortz fight against his troops (and win) to cement his reputation as a patriot.
In any case, Emhyr didn't get the memo about the God Emperor plot being something Vilgefortz stole from his favorite novel, so he still plans to marry Ciri and have incest children with her. And, since Geralt knows his evil plot, Geralt has to die. However, Emhyr knows that Ciri would never forgive him if he killed her "parents" so he asks Geralt to commit suicide to spare her feelings. Geralt agrees - as does Yennefer, when she's asked. Yennefer has one final request for Emhyr - that he never make Ciri cry. Emhyr, who truly loves his daughter, agrees....
Geralt and Yennefer have a bath drawn. They're going to have a fine dinner, make love one last time, and then slit their wrists in the bath.
Meanwhile, Ciri talks to Emhyr. She knows she's going off to marry him... and that she'll never see Geralt or Yennefer again. She tries to keep up a brave face, but the past... well, year for everyone else, two years for her, have just been too much. She only just found Geralt and Yennefer again, and now she has to say goodbye (she thinks they're heading North again, not dying). So she breaks down crying - sobbing uncontrollably at the thought of spending so long finding Geralt and Yennefer only to never see them again.
Emhyr looks at his crying daughter... and orders his men to leave. Emhyr may be a fucked up evil mastermind, but he has his honor. He promised to never make Ciri cry - but if he takes her from her family, then she'll cry forever, and he knows that now. He loves his daughter enough to give up ruling the world for her. He hugs Ciri and says "goodbye, daughter" - and leaves.
Ciri heads up to Geralt and Yennefer's room. They've finished dinner and are in the middle of love-making (and are just about to move on to suicide) when she arrives. Ciri, who last saw Geralt having sex with Green eyes, is tolerably amused. She relates the story I just did - that she broke down crying etc. Ciri is baffled. Geralt and Yennefer know the truth - but decide to leave Ciri in the dark. Confused is better than heartbroken.
And, with that, they head north.
....
Oh, I almost forgot. I entirely skipped over the Battle of Brena. Probably because it is so incredibly irrelevant to the plot. I mean, yes, it is the big turning point battle in the war, but as we just learned the entire war is just a feint in a gambit that no longer matters. Like Sodden Hill before it, the Battle of Brena doesn't actually matter - it's just an excuse for Nilfgaard to stop.
The battle chapter is pretty good, even if it is irrelevant. We get to see both sides and have an interesting historic perspective (including that Nilfgaardian military schools aren't immune to propaganda). Mostly, we get to see Marti Shrodinger, the healing mage from Thanned Island, actually do some healing. She's working with Shani and Iola the Second (Ciri's school friend from Blood of Elves) and Rusty, the halfling medic from whom originates the "sew red to red, yellow to yellow, and white to white, and everything will be all right" quote from the first game.
They get various people across their medical tables - Coen, the non-Wolf Witcher from Blood of Elves who helped train Ciri shows up, pierced in the heart by a pitchfork. We never did learn what Witcher school he was from. Also, Jarre, the scholar with a crush on Ciri (also from Blood of Elves) is one of the soldiers (there was a bit earlier in the book where he ran away from the temple and signed up, but again it was fairly irrelevant to the plot so I skipped it). He loses his hand and Rusty is forced to amputate.
The most relevant item from this section is the part where Squirrels show up and start executing the wounded in the medical tent. Rusty and the others throw themselves over the remaining wounded... and the Squirrels learn that they've been healing both sides, including one of their own commanders (Iorveth, I think?). The Squirrels leave with their proverbial tails between their legs and the four medics collapse from terror. And then get back to work.
Later, we learn that Rusty and Iola the Second die of the plague a year later. Marti gets murdered by one of the solders a week later in a lover's spat. Only Shani survives - to old age, as it happens.
The Redian reinforcements win the battle, routing the Nilfgaardian commanders. The Nilfgaardian general gives his commander's helmet to one of his minions to go get killed while he escapes - and then said general ends up getting killed by Yarpin and Zoltan. Since he has no commanders helmet, they have no idea he's important and leave his corpse in a swamp. Ah, irony.
And thus the battle ends. On his way home afterwards, Jarre (missing his hand) meets Toruviel and gives her bread. Later, he lies to Rayla about seeing her (he claims they saw no one) allowing Toruviel to escape. So yes, Jarre, the scholar with a crush on Ciri is the person who helped Toruviel.
I've gotta say, I was expecting to see more of Toruviel, Yavien, and Iorveth in this book. The way people talked about them while I was playing the game, I kinda expected them to have... well, speaking parts. Iorveth gets a little, but I don't think Yavien got more than mentioned, and Toruviel had WAY more dialog in the short story where she kicked the crap out of Dandelion. The way everyone acts like they know one another in the games, you'd think there'd have been a little more of them in here.
Ah well.
Back to Ciri, Geralt, and Yennefer. They're heading back to Tourisant to pick up Geralt's big pile of cash... only to find Dandelion about to be hung for cheating on the Countess. She pardons him at the last minute, but exiles him. So much for staying here. Onward north.
Not long thereafter, Yennefer gets a message from the Lodge - they want to talk to Ciri, and request that Yennefer and Ciri come to the next Lodge meeting. They agree (it's that or get hunted down by the Lodge) and tell Geralt they'll meet him in Rivia.
Geralt and Dandelion head to Rivia and hang out with Yarpen and Zoltan.
Yennefer and Ciri head to the Lodge meeting. Philippa yells at Yen for running off on them before, but Ciri tells them they can either be polite or go fuck themselves. Anyway, they want Ciri to go marry the prince of Kovir because... well, apparently none of the Lodge members have read Dune. Or maybe the prince is just the correct genetic code and they want to get back to their Eugenics project. Whatever. Ciri agrees on one condition - she gets to tell Geralt in person, in Rivia. After some debate, they choose to let her - provided Triss goes with them.
So Yennefer, Ciri, and Triss head to Rivia where the Pogom has started. Yennefer takes a moment - for reasons I cannot fucking fathom - to chew Triss out about having sex with Geralt YEARS ago. Yes, Triss is carrying a torch. On Thanned Island, Yennefer seemed pretty relaxed about that fact. Plus, Geralt just offered to commit suicide with her. What the HELL does Yennefer have to feel insecure about that she's taking it out on Triss?! Particularly now? Also, last we saw, Triss is in a relationship with Philippa. This is NOT the fucking TIME, Yennefer.
Triss, at least, gets to respond appropriately - she pretty much calls Yennefer a psychotic ****. I gotta say... I kinda agree. Sure, we've seen that Yennefer has a good side... but fuck, she just attacked her friend out of nowhere, for no reason, in the middle of a fucking emergency!
I met Yennefer for the first time in the Sword of Destiny short story collection. I did not like her. I still don't. Yennefer is an ungrateful *****, a paranoid and over-possessive psychotic, and just an all around jerk. Why Geralt loves her (aside from the fact that she used magic to make him love her in the Last Wish... magic that never actually seemed to stop working) I have no idea. Ciri, I can sort of understand - Ciri is the only person Yennefer treats with anything like human emotions, and even then she still calls Ciri a cruel nickname that is supposed to be ironic but mostly just makes Yen seem petty. She has her moments, but fuck... after reading the books, I like Philippa more as a person than Yennefer. Philippa, at least, is driven by patriotic ideals. Yes, Philippa is dark, but she's doing it for her nation - her people. She does bad things because, sometimes, a leader has to do bad things for the greater good. Philippa is a complex person, trying to do good by doing bad. Yen, on the other hand, is spoiled and petty person being cruel for no good reason. Yen is selfish and self-serving. The only reason she comes off as "good" is because she's also possessive - of Geralt and Ciri.
Remember me ranting about Triss in the first game? I know why now. Triss acted like Triss in the beginning of the game. And then she turned into Yen during Chapter 3. And Yennefer is an AWFUL PERSON - she makes Triss look bad.
... sorry, I just needed to rant a little there. Yennefer has seemed "better" this book, but as noted above, it's only because she was so focused on the survival of Geralt and Ciri. With that no longer an issue, she immediately reverted to horrific ****. She's just... an awful person. Ugh.
Anyway, Geralt goes out to defend the non-humans and gets stabbed. Ciri goes to help him, arriving too late. Yennefer and Triss follow, delayed in part because Yen felt that a life-threatening situation was a good time to ***** - no, stop, already talked about that. Ahem. Yen spends a few minutes failing at combat, and then Triss rains fucking ICE AND LIGHTNING on Rivia. So Yen accuses Triss, and then Triss saves her (and Ciri and Geralt's) life. Gods, Yen is ungrateful....
Ahem.
Anyway, so yeah... Geralt is dying. Not dead - he can still talk, albeit while coughing blood. Yen attempts to heal him and passes out. She does NOT die - the book clearly says "passed out". And Ciri loads them both on a boat to Avalon. Yes, Arthurian Avalon. Where Geralt is healed and awakens in Yennefer's arms. Ciri has wandered off to Earth, leaving them there. This could be actual magical healing (like Avalon is supposed to do) or a metaphor for death (in which case Ciri killed Yen so she could be with Geralt... probably for the best).
The point is, Geralt and Yen are alive (or whatever) but stranded on Avalon. Maybe they can hang out with King Arthur.
Speaking of which... the entire book was Ciri telling all this to Galahad. They're still on their way to Camelot. Ciri reconsiders fucking Galahad, but hasn't quite made up her mind about it yet.
And thus... The End.
Dangling Plot Threads:
The Wild Hunt: Well, the Wild Hunt was established in this book as those elves from another world, who were chasing Ciri and... just sorta gave up or she lost them or... something. I can see why this was used as the basis for the games - it is a major antagonist just left with no resolution.
The Prophesies: While it is implied that the "son's son" prophesy was just something Vilgefortz made up after reading Dune, there's still the Wolf's Blizzard... which will take place in 3000 years. Yes, that's right... it won't happen for three THOUSAND years. Considering the current level of technology in the Witcher universe, Nilfgaard will have a fucking SPACE PROGRAM in less than one thousand years. They don't need the Elder Blood - one Industrial Revolution will release enough Carbon Dioxide into the air to counteract the global cooling.
Emperor Emhyr: So, he's gonna marry Fake Ciri. And... then what? Conquer the north later? Not bother? We have no idea.
