- Bullied and neglected, Yennefer accidentally finds a means of escape. Geralt's hunt for a so-called devil goes to hell. Ciri seeks safety in numbers.
- In a village a young man romances a young woman, giving her a daisy. She is disdainful, tossing it aside, but lets him kiss her, anyway. She glances back and asks where is her daisy, it's not where she threw it, a humpbacked girl has picked it up. The couple torments the young girl, tossing her to the ground, but she suddenly finds herself in a cave, alone except for a young man who tells her she "portalled" into the cave, the Tower of the Gull, Aretuza. He suddenly declares her a virgin and she slaps him reflexively. He tells her she has performed magic; he digs in a bag for a flower, and eats a piece of a petal to create a new portal so she can escape. He warns her someone will be searching for her; she asks his name, Istredd, but runs before he can learn hers. Back on the farm she carries food to the pigs. The farmer is abusive, tossing her to the ground, splashing her with slop. A finely dressed woman arrives on a buggy and asks about buying a pig. The man says they're ten marks. She glances at the girl and asks how much for her? She offers him four marks. Her mother protests, the woman is a witch, but the man says she's not his daughter, he accepts the four marks, the child is sold. The girl glares at the witch, refusing to go with her.
The girl is locked in a room somewhere far away; screaming to be released, she breaks the mirror on the wall, and cries softly she was sold for less than a pig. She breaks the mirror, and stares at the shards...
Cirilla hides from Nilfgaard troops searching for her in the snowy woods. She blackens her hair with mud, and continues to elude them. Finding a bush with berries, she tries to pluck some to eat, but is stopped by a young boy who signals the berries are poisonous. He beckons her to his hiding place where he's trapping rats to eat. Ciri refuses at first, but his fire is warm and the rats are food. She asks the boy who he is, where he comes from, but he is silent. She tells him her troubles. Walking in the woods with him, Ciri realizes his hands are cold, and she offers him one of her gloves which he takes with a look of wonder. They find a camp of Cintrans, and she runs toward them, but the boy disappears.
In a Posada pub, Jasker the Bard sings a bawdy song to the patrons. They heckle him, but he takes it in stride, then he notices Geralt sitting in the corner, silent. He teases the Witcher, but Geralt has no interest in banter. Jasker recognizes Geralt; a patron overhears their conversation, offers to hire Geralt to rid him of "a devil" stealing grain. The man pays him, and Geralt goes in search, trailing Jasker who is annoying him: Jasker is determined to follow, he thinks learning of Geralt's experiences and adventures will help him write creative music and he offers to help Geralt fix his reputation.
In Aretuza, Rectoress Tissaia DeVries sits by Yennefer's bedside. She calls her Piglet, and orders her to the greenhouse, where Yennefer attends her first lesson in Chaos and spell casting. All the girls are potential witches. One wants to go home, but the Rectoress tells her she's in a new home. The lectures the girls on lifting a rock on each of their desks. There is also a flower, but it is not explained, but all the girls are to practice. Fringilla lifts the rock as instructed, but her hand begins to shrivel, to her horror. The Rectoress congratulates the hysterical girl, explaining the flower should have powered her attempt to lift the rock, and she demonstrates: the Rectoress uses the flower, it withers, she do not. "Sometimes the best thing a flower can do for us is die." All the girls lift their flowers and begin lifting their rocks, but Yennefer is unable; the Rectoress is sympathetic, she's weakened by her suicide attempt.
Wandering down into the Tower of the Gull, Yennefer introduces herself to Istredd.
Cirilla enters the camp, observing the people who have escaped Nilfgaard in an aloof manner. She sees a soup cauldron and tries to serve herself food, but is pushed out of the way by a woman who has been waiting in line. The woman curses the Queen, shocking Ciri, then a young man approaches her, saying his late father made the fine cloak she wears. He explains his brother died in the elf uprising and now he kills elves and cuts off their ears and wears them on his belt. He takes her to his tent and introduces her to his mother; she, too, curses the Queen. She offers Ciri - who has introduced herself as Fiona - a fresh pair of shoes, and the dwarf servant, Abbott, brings her a pair: when Ciri hesitates, the woman tells her, "Don't worry, he's one of the clean ones."
Jasker continues to follow Geralt, trying to convince the Witcher he will be useful. He tells Geralt the place they're traveling is Dol Blathana, given to humans by the elves before they "retreated into their Golden Palaces." Geralt hunts for the Devil, while Jasker continues to chatter nervously. An iron ball is thrown at them, and Jasker excitedly tries to look at the Devil, but he's knocked out with another iron ball. The Devil is Torque, the Sylvan, he says humans filled food they left out for him with iron balls in an attempt to make him sick. Geralt warns Torque he cannot remain where he is, and Torque tells Geralt he can't remain either, then someone knocks the Witcher out from behind.
Tissaia quietly lectures the girls in reading minds, they're partnered up and are expected to find out one another's "greatest fear". The class quietly continues into the night, and Yennefer speaks up, her partner Annika's greatest fear is snakes. Tissaia calls Yennefer forward, criticizes her inability to perform tasks menial or magical, then disdains now Yennefer has the temerity to lie? She scoffs that the Piglet's fear she will never be loved is likely correct.
In the cave, Yennefer complains to Istredd, and he tells her his thought transference lesson took him three days. Yennefer is irritated, good for him, but she can't do anything. He offers to help her read his mind. She refuses, but then stares at him, sees the moon jellyfish in the water, hears the sound of cicadas, tastes and smells warm bread. She asks are these things Istredd loves, and he replies these are things he thought she would love. She smiles tremulously, recognizing his feelings.
Lying down in the tent, Ciri lies awake, the mother of the family who has taken her in reassures her she will take care of her. Ciri says she's looking for Geralt of Rivia, and the woman asks, is he a knight? Ciri does not know. She explains her parents died when she was a baby, and her grandmother died in the Nilfgaard attack. The woman is sympathetic; Ciri is also sympathetic, her remorse is real, she had never known this sort of thing before, she had always been protected.
Thunder crashes and Tissaia opens Yennefer's door, telling her to get up. The girls follow Tissaia into the Tower of the Gull, standing beneath an opening to the sky: they're going to capture lightning in a bottle. Doralis is first, but she is knocked out by the lightning strike. Annika captures the lightning, but she can't control it, and it explodes in her face. Yennefer is knocked aside by the next strike. Sabrina captures it, she is the first to hold it without incident. Angered by her error, Yennefer tries to hit Tissaia with another lightning strike, but Tissaia deflects it. As they exit the cave, Tissaia stops Yennefer, what she did was foolish, and dangerous, and she has to consider that others have different strengths, Sabrina controls her emotions, but Yennefer, like Tissaia, is consumed by her emotions. This admission surprises Yennefer. Tissaia tells her she cannot succumb to weakness, and muses does Yennefer actually has what it takes to Ascend?
Jasker and Geralt are tied up in a mountain cave. An elven woman abuses them. Jasker rails at her about the elven palaces and the woman scoffs, do they like her palace? Geralt head butts her, and she coughs uncontrollably. Jasker asks what is the problem, and Torque explains she is ill. Jasker asks Filavandril about why they left Dol Blathana, and Filavandril asks Jasker if he really believes anyone would voluntarily leave their home and starve in the wilderness? He rebukes the woman, Teruvial, she wasn't supposed to hurt anyone, but she is non-plussed, what does it matter if two humans die? Geralt corrects her, he's not human; he says to let Jasker go. Filavandril says he has no choice but to kill them, he says Chaos was even polluted so humans could use it against them. Geralt says Chaos is as it always was, Filavandril is simply choosing to starve. Filavandril says the humans called the massacre of the elves, "The Great Cleansing," and explains to the Witcher he does not want to kill, but he feels cornered. Geralt says they can leave, stop trying to live where they are, rebuild their people, prove they're more than humans say they are. Teruvial offers there are elves who will gladly fight, and Filavandril unsheathes his knife, but Torque defends the Witcher. Geralt offers his throat if that's what Filavandril really wants.
Yennefer approaches Istredd in the cave, Tissaia is going to send her away, she knows about them. Istredd cannot share the magic he has learned to make the portal, it's not the same magic they are taught, and Yennefer cries that he still does not love her enough. He shows her the skulls all over the cave, they're elf skulls from centuries ago, he tells her elves built Aretuza before humans invaded the continent. He tells her after the Conjunction of the Spheres, elves taught humans magic, but then humans killed them and took over. He says he knows the truth, and wants to honor the elves, not lie about them. Gently embracing Yennefer, he shows her a flower like the one he used the first time they met, Yennefer eats a small piece as he did, and he tells her the elven incantation. Speaking it, she opens a portal, and Istredd is stunned, it's huge and how did she learn to do it so fast? Yennefer tells him her real father - not the farmer who married her mother - was half-elf. He was killed in The Great Cleansing. Yennefer has grown up believing she is hunchbacked because she is cursed by her elven blood, and this is also why no one could ever love her. Istredd kisses her.
Yennefer sits in the Rectoress' office, she has brought the flower Istredd gave her, Tissaia says she just wanted to see if Yennefer could keep control of her emotions and get the flower from the boy. Yennefer asks if she can Ascend, and Tissaia says, "Listen for the knock." In another office, Stregobor says to Istredd he's been working on her for months, what has he learned from Yennefer? And Istredd reluctantly admits he has learned she is part elf.
Nilfgaard has found the Cintran camp and attacks. The mother tells Abbott to find her sons, and then hands him a big bag of possessions which he drops. She calls him stupid, and he takes a knife and kills her which Cirilla backs up against the wall of the tent. She is pulled through the tent wall by the boy who joined her before and they run.
Yennefer sits in her room, she hears Tissaia knock on Annika and Doralis' doors. Yennefer follows them and another girl to a grotto deep in the bottom of the Tower of the Gull, and as Tissaia enchants the girls, Yennefer watches her turn the girls into eels. Tissaia orders Yennefer to push them into the pool. Yennefer realizes the girls still have power to generate for Aretuza. "Sometimes the best thing a flower can do is die," says Tissaia.
Jasker admires his new lute - given to him by Filavandril - while he walks with Geralt, amazed that Filavandril just let them go. He starts singing a song he promises will change public opinion of Geralt.
Ciri and the boy drink water from a stream, and Ciri sees he has taken off his hat - he's an elf! He introduces himself as Dara, while Cirilla tells him honestly she is Ciri.
Jasker continues his tune, and Geralt realizes he's changing facts of their meeting with Filavandril; he berates Jasker for being disrespectful, but Jasker replies, "Respect doesn't make history." Geralt groans as he rides on without the Bard.
Yennefer pushes the eels into the pool and smiles at Tissaia, who smiles in return.
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