The Last Wish

Geralt sees birds circling around the mutilated corpses of two travelers. He concludes that a few days prior, the pair had been traveling home from the direction of a nearby forest when something attacked them. However, other features of the scene puzzle him, and he decides to investigate.

In the forest, Geralt finds a tower. While descending a slope to the tower wall, he senses someone watching him. He spots a girl with enormous, black eyes following their movements, but when he greets her, she disappears into the forest at an enormous speed.

No one answers at the tower gate, so Geralt and Roach enter the courtyard. Suddenly, a humanoid monster charges them; however, the creature stops upon seeing Geralt’s sword. He roars and threatens Geralt, ordering him to leave, but when Geralt doesn’t flee, his tone becomes cheeky and quizzical. He tries to direct Geralt back to the highway, but when Geralt requests some water as a guest, the monster relents and invites him in.

The tower is a magical mansion that responds to the commands and desires of the monster, Nivellen, even making a full meal appear before their eyes. The magical nature of the mansion came with Nivellen’s change of appearance 12 years before; however, he declines to tell Geralt how he came to look as he does.

Nivellen points Geralt in the direction of an old portrait to show him what he used to look like. When Geralt can easily see the faraway portrait, even though it is beyond human sight, Geralt admits that he’s a witcher. Nivellen knows that witchers kill monsters and lays out a hypothetical battle between them. Nivellen believes he is likely to win.

Geralt does not believe Nivellen is a monster since he can touch silver. Nivellen dismisses this because of his appearance, but Geralt argues that that his appearance might be a spell that can be undone. However, Nivellen doesn’t want it undone.

Nivellen came from a family of thieves and con artists. His father used to watch the highway from the tower and rob anyone who came by. After his father was killed, Nivellen took over the gang, but he was so young and soft that he quickly lost control of the others, who ran wild. After robbing a temple, they made Nivellen rape a priestess, who cursed Nivellen before killing herself. A few days later, he awoke looking as he does now; he scared off most of the servants and, in a blind rage, murdered the rest.

Several months later, Nivellen saw a man picking roses for his daughter from the tower’s rosebushes. Nivellen demanded the man’s daughter or his life, but the girl was only eight, so Nivellen sent the man away with gold. Word spread. Local families sent their daughters to live with Nivellen for a time in exchange for small fortunes.

Geralt has by now deduced that Nivellen now lives with the girl Geralt saw in the forest—she must be why other young women have been going home empty-handed. Geralt offers to help Nivellen with his appearance or the girl, but Nivellen declines.

Nivellen accidentally reveals that his current companion’s name is Vereena. They love each other. Geralt is surprised—he thinks Vereena is a rusalka, an entity malicious toward humans, and that Nivellen is afraid Vereena will leave him if he reverts to his human form. Nivellen knows that Geralt is tracking the merchants, but Nivellen is unaware that they were murdered.

That night in the forest, Geralt hears the screams of a tortured woman. The next day, he investigates to find warm ashes and charred bones. Later, when a “devil’s ring” of mushrooms spooks Roach, Geralt recalls Nivellen’s statement that animals like him, which leads to a revelation about Vereena.

When Geralt returns to the tower, Vereena is singing through her closed mouth in a language he doesn’t recognize. Geralt accuses Vereena of turning Nivellen into a true monster so that they can rule the forest together. He has realized that she is a bruxa—a kind of vampire—rather than a rusalka. Vereena attacks. The two battle for some time, until Nivellen impales her, but she pulls herself along the pole toward Nivellen. Before she kills Nivellen, Geralt decapitates her. Nivellen returns to his human form.