The Duchy of Toussaint, Caroberta Woods, Mère-Lachaiselongue Cemetery, Regis's Alchemy Workshop.
By human standards of aesthetics, choosing candles to illuminate a crypt was something of a mistake. Combined with the incessant howling of wind through the cracks, it gave the higher vampire's dwelling an exceedingly eerie atmosphere.
Fortunately, it was summer, so the place could at least serve as a cool retreat from the heat.
The other aspects of its living conditions were quite satisfactory. The tables and chairs were made of sturdy materials, the bookshelves housed an extensive collection, the alchemy workbench was fully equipped with tools, and there were even several spacious, comfortable coffins!
At that very moment, Angoulême, the Golden Eagle of Temeria, was fast asleep in a clean guest chamber.
Given her constitution, she was still too young and had greatly overestimated her ability to handle Mandrake Cordial.
Alchemically processed mandrake could alleviate asthma symptoms and serve as an anesthetic during surgery or a painkiller when setting broken bones. It was also a potent hallucinogen and deliriant.
Naturally, a witcher and a higher vampire possessed constitutions capable of disregarding its side effects, so the two continued drinking and conversing.
There was only one jug, which they shared.
...
Thanks to the memories of his previous life, Victor already knew a great deal about Regis's character and past deeds. Nevertheless, personal relationships had to develop gradually, and more importantly, he needed to ensure that his memories did not contain any serious discrepancies with reality.
During their conversation, the witcher learned that the hook-nosed higher vampire had indeed been resurrected by Dettlaff and had subsequently hidden away in the North to recuperate.
Not long ago, Regis had sensed his blood brother's furious emotions through their blood bond. Realizing that Dettlaff was in trouble, he had hurried to Toussaint to find him.
From the higher vampire's perspective, although he had been living in seclusion while recovering from his injuries, the Dovahkiin was hardly an unknown figure. Regis had already heard many accounts of his exploits and the songs composed about him.
Furthermore, the information Angoulême had revealed before falling asleep was sufficient for him to place considerably more trust in Victor.
The witcher, who bore four scars across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose and had ocean-blue, comma-shaped patterns in his pupils, was the Dragonborn from a land east of Zerrikania. He was also Ciri's close brother, perhaps an especially close one.
Despite his youth, he was far from an ordinary witcher.
He was a prominent rising star of the School of the Wolf and an accomplished alchemist.
He hunted dragons, treated kings like brothers, and frequently slept with sorceresses...
And judging from the fragments of Angoulême's account, which Regis had cleverly interrupted by getting her drunk before she could finish, Victor occasionally even slept with kings!?
"Could it possibly be the Grand Duke of Toussaint?" Regis speculated boldly. "The affairs of city folk are certainly complicated! If memory serves, Anarietta was romantically involved with Dandelion some years ago, wasn't she?
"Still, both gentlemen are poets, so perhaps they don't mind sharing their affections. It's even possible that the three of them..."
...Ahem.
The higher vampire's imagination was extraordinarily elaborate, and recording every one of his fanciful conjectures would require tens of thousands of words. There was no need to pad the story with all that nonsense!
His baseless speculations were unimportant anyway.
In short, the conversation conducted over Mandrake Cordial was an overwhelming success.
Regis, who wanted to help Dettlaff, and Victor, who wanted to stop the Beast, exchanged knowing glances and recognized that they had found exactly the right person to work with.
The jug of Mandrake Cordial was set aside.
The conversation that followed would require clear heads.
...
Some time later.
"Hmm... Let us consider the three victims thus far.
"Count Crespi, who won the knightly tournament on numerous occasions, had his 'honor' replaced by the 'humiliation' of the pillory.
"Ramon du Lac, who once served as the duchess's tutor, had his 'wisdom' mocked by the 'ridiculousness' of his nightclothes.
"And Count Louis de la Croix had 'coins' stuffed down his throat, the very opposite of 'generosity.'
"Murders based on the Five Virtues! A fascinating hypothesis... Although the details do not fit perfectly, it is certainly fascinating.
"According to your explanation, then, the next murder will be equally conspicuous, continuing to spread fear and unease among the city's inhabitants. Moreover, it will condemn the victim for lacking the fourth of the Five Virtues: valor.
"May we therefore assume that the next victim will also be an elderly knight?"
"Exactly. The Beast's ritual killings are disguised as punishments for failures to uphold the chivalric virtues. In reality, however, they are acts of revenge for abuses committed in the past!"
The higher vampire shook his head and sighed. After pondering the matter for a moment, he stroked his temple.
"I shall do everything within my power to help you, but certain matters cannot be controlled through determination alone. The key to finding Dettlaff lies in his own willingness to be found.
"As far as my knowledge extends, if he does not wish to be found, you will never find him. It is as simple as that.
"Vampires can evade detection by the senses, and divination magic is equally ineffective against us. Even the most precise megascope would be of no use...
"Forgive me, I neglected to account for the existence of a prophet in that explanation. To tell the truth, I am quite astonished that you were able to discover my hiding place.
"Perhaps you would be willing to employ your abilities to determine Dettlaff's whereabouts?"
Victor rubbed his nose.
The vampire's request was perfectly reasonable. Unfortunately, his supposed prophetic abilities were nothing but a sham.
Regis's hiding place in this crypt had been something the vampire personally revealed to Geralt in Victor's memories of his previous life.
Dettlaff was another matter entirely.
The White Wolf did not possess that kind of relationship with him.
Perhaps Leo would know something, but Victor had forgotten to ask the fellow earlier.
Fortunately, the young man had not come entirely unprepared.
"Please give it some more thought, Regis. There must be a way. Perhaps this might help?"
The witcher produced a package wrapped in oilcloth and placed it on the table.
Its multiple layers of airtight sealing ensured that not even the faintest trace of its contents' scent could escape.
After carefully unwrapping it, he revealed a severed hand, cut cleanly through the wrist.
At the sight of the severed limb's razor-sharp claws and the strangely patterned ring on its finger, followed by the smell of blood emanating from the cut, the higher vampire's normally detached expression instantly crumbled.
His gaze sharpened, and his demeanor turned solemn.
"Where did you get this?"
"We fished it out of a river bend this morning. The Beast's latest victim, Count de la Croix, had been hacked into pieces, but his corpse somehow had three hands.
"The one wearing the ring was clearly different from the other two.
"Even more remarkably, it's still alive."
Victor had good reason to make that statement.
After all, he had been unable to put the severed hand into his herbal satchel.
Realizing just how irresistible the blood of a higher vampire would be to ordinary vampires, the witcher had immediately confiscated and sealed away this piece of evidence.
Regis picked up the severed hand, closed his eyes, brought it close to his face, and took a deep breath.
A faint expression of intoxicated pleasure instantly appeared on his face, and the slight parting of his lips revealed his sharp canine teeth.
Then he opened his eyes, removed the ring, and returned the severed hand to the table.
"There can be no doubt. This is Dettlaff's hand. Excellent. With this in our possession, we can now track him.
"Young witcher, have you ever heard of Covinarius's theory of tissue memory retention?"
"There's a copy of Alchemia Oblittera at Kaer Morhen, so old and battered it's practically disintegrating. But if I remember correctly, the author never managed to prove his theory."
Reclining in an armchair, Victor whistled and relaxed, leaning backward into a more comfortable position.
Regis chuckled softly.
"He did prove it. He simply never published his results. We were rather good pen pals, you see, so I know that he completed his research. In fact, I was the subject of his very first experiments."
"Is it really possible to reconstruct the experiences of an entire body using only a fragment of its tissue?"
"Precisely! Your extensive knowledge never ceases to astonish me. It makes conversing with you remarkably effortless.
"We shall brew a special decoction. Covinarius gave it a rather poetic name: 'Resonance.'
"Upon drinking it, one enters a hallucinatory trance resembling a dream and experiences events that provoked powerful emotions in the tissue's original owner.
"To put it another way, one could think of it as dreaming about fragments of another person's life."
"So we can glimpse the Beast's actions before he lost his hand..."
"Exactly. Though I am rather more hopeful that Resonance will reveal Dettlaff's current whereabouts. There is a great deal I wish to discuss with him."
At that moment, noticing Regis's movements, Victor smiled and raised his hand.
...
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