Chapter 49: Grave Danger
"Mama, Mama, are you alright!"
"She's fine. She just swallowed some water and needs rest."
Young Everett's short legs moved in a blur. He frantically shook Mara's body, refusing to stop no matter how much Triss tried to persuade him.
It wasn't until Arthur walked over and firmly pressed down on the boy's head that he paused:
"Go fetch your mother a bottle of strong spirits. She's been soaking in the river for quite a while!"
Young Everett froze for a moment, then turned and dashed into the tavern. By the time he returned with the bottle, Mara was already wrapped in Arthur's cloak and could manage to sit up slightly.
"Good boy. Mama is fine now," Mara forced a smile, softly comforting him.
The bottle slipped from Young Everett's grip and hit the hard dirt floor with a thud. He threw himself into Mara's arms, sobbing uncontrollably.
"This child, I said she's fine! Why is he crying so hard?" Arthur picked up Young Everett, holding him close, and gave his backside a gentle pat: "This isn't the time to cling to your mother. She needs hot soup and rest right now!"
Young Everett buried his face in Arthur's shoulder, gradually calming his sobs.
Half an hour later, Mara lay in the guest room bed, sipping thick potato soup. She finally had the strength to recount what had happened after they parted:
"Not long after I separated from you all, a man came over and started talking to me."
"I was only focused on leaving that place quickly, but he sprayed some kind of fluid on my face, and I passed out."
"When I woke up, I was in a room with no windows. There was a group of strange people in black robes. They threatened me with horrible torture devices, demanding I confess to being a witch, or else they would use those things on me."
The torture implements had clearly left a deep trauma on Mara; she couldn't help but shudder just recalling them.
Arthur gently patted her hand, comforting her: "It's over. Their priest is dead."
"Dead?" Mara widened her eyes, trying to discern if Arthur was telling the truth.
Everyone nodded, confirming the priest's death. Adda even pointed toward the door:
"His body is still lying on the ground outside."
Mara finally relaxed and continued: "I've heard rumors about this sort of thing for years. So many new, unheard-of cults have emerged lately."
"They exploit the judicial immunity granted by the Novigrad Treaty, specializing in kidnapping wealthy but powerless widows and widowers. They just slap a charge of consorting with a fiend on them and use private torture until they squeeze the last copper coin out of those people."
At this point, a look of confusion crossed her face: "I kept thinking that no matter what terrifying punishment they used, I couldn't confess for the sake of my son."
"But they just made a lot of noise. In the end, they only locked me in that wooden cage and said they would use the water immersion test to see if I really was a witch."
Adda was curious: "What is the water immersion test?"
Triss said softly: "They are all vile practices, milady. You shouldn't concern yourself with such things."
But Kolgrim coldly stated the truth: "The person being tried is submerged in water. If they float, they are human. If they sink, they are a witch."
Adda grew more confused: "But people are naturally lighter than water, aren't they? I saw a maid jump into the river before, and she floated for a long time without sinking."
Kolgrim shook his head:
"It's not that simple. If the person being tried floats, those people will claim that a fiend is helping the accused escape the test, and then they'll continue the test only for a longer period."
Adda shivered: "Isn't that a certain death sentence?!"
Triss looked faintly angry: "Mister Witcher! Please do not subject the Princess to such grim knowledge!"
Kolgrim shrugged and stepped back.
Triss raised her hand and conjured the black-robed man's face, asking: "Did he look like this?"
Mara shook her head: "I thought he was just a noble looking for a dalliance at the time. I didn't even look at his face."
The trail of clues seemed to end there.
Triss comforted Mara for a few more moments, then walked out of the tavern to find Arthur still examining the priest's corpse.
"Did you find out how he died?"
Triss asked purely to ease the tension. The priest had no visible wounds on his body, and his skin was that strange, unnatural color. Anyone would assume he died from poisoning.
Arthur shook his head: "I checked his fingernails, teeth, and clothes. I couldn't find any place where poison might have been stored."
Triss slowly explained: "The one who escaped was a dropout from Aretuza. While they only have a rudimentary understanding of higher magic, they are very proficient in assassination, poisoning, and gathering information."
"I've heard they recently perfected a new method of poisoning giving the target a magically treated pill of poison, which can then be released or destroyed using magic."
Arthur nodded: "So magic can be used that way. I hadn't thought of that."
The light topic exhausted, an abrupt silence settled between the two.
Finally, Arthur broke it: "Why didn't you stop that bastard? Why did you stop me instead? You heard him he could have dealt with Mara beforehand, yet he made a huge spectacle of bringing her here. This was clearly aimed at us."
Everyone else was in the room, so Triss did not hold back this time:
"Because this is a situation I cannot handle."
"A portal appearing out of nowhere like that is absolutely not something a common mage can cast."
"Its proper name is Shadow Translocation. It utilizes powerful spatial magic to punch a shortcut through the Shadow Plane, allowing instantaneous travel to very distant places."
She bit her lip and said reluctantly: "I… if I faced the sorcerer who can cast Shadow Translocation, I wouldn't stand a chance."
This time, it was Arthur's expression that turned complex. Although Triss had never claimed to be Temeria's strongest sorceress, hearing her admit outright that she was inferior to an opponent still filled him with a sense of peril:
"If that's the case, why didn't he just deal with us himself?"
Triss managed a weak smile: "That requires talking about the history of the establishment of the Council of Sorcerers, which is a very long story."
"In short, for various reasons, sorcerers, regardless of their skill, rarely take to the field themselves for violent tasks like this. And sorcerer fighting sorcerer is generally assumed to be completely forbidden."
"So, even if someone violates the Code of Sorcerers, the Council rarely intervenes directly. Instead, they operate through outsourcing, hiring external parties to handle the matter."
Triss's words were subtle, but Arthur understood her meaning: during the early days of the Council of Sorcerers, a war may have broken out between mages. Its brutality was so extreme that even the victorious Council was unwilling to ignite another war among sorcerers.
Triss was subtly implying that the person who could spontaneously open a Shadow Translocation portal might refrain from attacking her, a Council member, but would have absolutely no qualms about dealing with Arthur, an unaffiliated party!
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