The Lady of the Woods

"That mother of theirs, can I talk to her normally?" asks Vincent as he walked through the swamps with O'Dimm.

"You can talk to her but if you will like what she has to say is questionable," says O'Dimm as he wasn't walking through the swamps but in the air over it.

"Why don't you help me a bit to walk over the swamps as well," says Vincent as O'Dimm smiles at him.

"You can do that on your own, my friend," says O'Dimm as he continued onwards while Vincent had to wrestle his way through the swamps.

"Yes, but I have to save my strength in case I get into a fight against that mother before going to the orphanage," says Vincent as he looked at O'Dimm.

"Well let's hope that you strike luck with that woman. I will leave you for now," says O'Dimm as he walks away.

"And there he goes leaving me in this mess," says Vincent as he walked through the swamps until reaching an Oaktree.

Vincent sees some Werewolves around but they fleed when they saw him. He enters a cave under the Oaktree walks in the dark guided by a sphere of light until he reaches the heart of the cave and finds pulsating hearts bonded to the roots of the Oaktree.

"You are not from here, traveler," says a feminine voice coming from the hearts.

"Well at least this is something new," says Vincent as normally it would be a shrine or a person talking to him but not some heart.

"I can feel that you are powerful. Are you the one who banished those traitorous children of mine?" asks the hearts as Vincent walked towards it.

"Yes, and I want that you stop giving me a bad reputation by killing people in the village of Downwarren. Some of them think that it was a curse sent by the Black Dragon while others know that it was you," says Vincent as he touched the heart to see the magic that was holding the spirit in place.

"I cursed them for following my daughters' teachings. But wasn't it you who wanted to punish them for following their teachings," says the hearts as Vincent smiles.

"I can just kill you here or I can free you depending on what you say next," says Vincent as he was curious about what she will choose.

"You can either follow me and never curse or kill anyone again without my permission or die here and now. Your choice think about it and then decide," says Vincent with a smile.

"I will need a body if you want me to follow you," says the feminine voice as Vincent turned around and walked in circles.

He was thinking about releasing the spirit and which body to give her when O'Dimm appears again and says, "It seems you are talking with each other."

"Demon!" shouts the voice as O'Dimm smiles.

"You call me a demon but what are you and your daughters if I am a demon," says O'Dimm as Vincent smiles.

"I thought you had things to do," says Vincent as O'Dimm turns to him.

"I have dealt with it faster than expected. The old man broke his neck after stumbling out of fear," says O'Dimm telling Vincent what happened.

"What did she do to be trapped in this cage?" asks Vincent as he looked at the hearts.

"What do you think?" asks O'Dimm making Vincent smile.

"I think it was a power struggle that she lost against the Crones, am I right?" asks Vincent as O'Dimm now smiles in return.

"Almost, she went mad and was about to destroy Velen in her madness when the Crones imprisoned her, or at least that's what the people wrote down," says O'Dimm as Vincent's smile disappeared.

"I want the truth, not some fable that someone wrote down," says Vincent as O'Dimm sighs.

"Fine, she was quite fair to her people but they have forgotten her over time since her daughters trapped her and took Velen over. She has no power over Velen since the Crones stripped it from her," says O'Dimm as Vincent was thinking again.

'Time in Solitude can make people go mad, spirits aren't an exception to that. If I were to free her I would need to make sure she is bound to me so she can't go against me,' think Vincent since the spirit would be a ticking time-bomb that could explode at any moment.

"Alright, I will free you," says Vincent as a new entrance appears behind them.

"You will need a wild black mare, raven feathers, and my remains," says the voice as Vincent looked at O'Dimm.

"Hey, this isn't my quest so don't look at me. I can tell you where to find the horse and feathers but the remains I leave them to you," says O'Dimm making it clear that he won't help him with that.

"My remains should be somewhere in the swa-," says the voice before Vincent stopped her.

"How about I get you a body of a woman with black hair that died recently. I can heal said body and once that body dies we can find you a better one. What do you say?" says Vincent since he didn't want to go search the whole swamps for the remains of the spirit.

He was thinking of placing a modified Soul Trap on the body to control the spirit and once that body dies Tamriel should be advanced enough to implant her soul into a machine as Flemeth did.

"You want me to possess a mortal body. Do you not have any ethics!" says the voice as Vincent flinched.

"I have them, but I won't run through the swamps looking for your remains when I don't know where they are. Do you know how big those swamps are? If we were in my world I wouldn't have offered this to you and had just killed you," says Vincent as he resting his ax on his shoulder.

"So be it a woman with black hair," says the voice as Vincent leaves through the new entrance followed by O'Dimm.

"So where are you going to find the corpse of a woman with black hair?" asks O'Dimm curious to find out how Vincent will finish this task.

"Are you going to kill someone or are going to open a tomb?" asks O'Dimm as they walked in the swamps again.

"Let's say, I will do something I am not fond of," says Vincent as he looked grim.

"What are you going to do?" asks O'Dimm as Vincent looked at him coldly making O'Dimm feel fear for a moment.

"I'm going to buy the life of a person," says Vincent as he wasn't proud of what he was going to do.

"And where are you going to do that?" asks O'Dimm as he was curious even if he was scared of Vincent right now.

"I will find a whore with children in Novigrad. I will give her a fair deal since she is going to be sacrificed to the spirit," says Vincent as he was fighting his way through the swamps.

"And that deal includes?" asks O'Dimm wanting to hear the details.

"Her life in exchange for a better future for her children. They will get the same education as my children and a fortune to spend their lives at ease," says Vincent as O'Dimm puts his hand on Vincent's shoulder.

Suddenly Vincent finds himself inside the city at a crossroad with O'Dimm by his side who says, "We don't have much time since in two days will be a full moon and you need to take Olgierd to the Temple. So let me help you a bit or we would have had to wait until the next full moon."

O'Dimm walked in front guiding Vincent through the city when they see a beggar with black hair and O'Dimm says, "She has three children, two daughters and one son. The perfect person to make the deal with."

"You really can't wait until the next full moon," says Vincent as O'Dimm glared at him.

"Fine, I will talk to her," says Vincent when he walked over to talk business with the beggar.

She was a widow who lost her husband to Nilfgaard and now she needed to feed her three children. They are nine, seven, and four years old. The oldest child was her son who was stealing bread once in a while and was lucky to not be caught until now while the two youngest were at their provisional home since they sold their first home to keep themselves afloat.

Vincent didn't tell her much just that he was from the Empire that has risen in the east that now occupied Aedirn. She needed some time to think about it but Vincent didn't give her the time since he knew the more time she thinks the lesser are the probabilities that she accepts the offer.

He pushed until she accepted it and she thought that Vincent would smile when she accepted but he had sad eyes because he knew what he was doing.

"I will take care of your children as if they are my own. You will be proud of them when you meet them again in the afterlife," says Vincent as he asked her to guide him and his friend towards the children so he could send them to his wives in Aedirn before they go to Nirn.

She guides him and O'Dimm to her temporary home and they find the children eating some bread when their mother informed them about what is going to happen. They thought that their mother had sold them to Vincent and the two oldest were furious with her while the youngest didn't know what was going on.

Vincent knocked them out while saying, "It's for the best that way. They wouldn't want to accept what you did but let me take a picture of you for them."

The woman was confused when suddenly a flash blinded her and Vincent was soon holding a picture of her in his hand. She and O'Dimm were quite surprised to see how it works as he tells her it's for the children to have something to remember her.

Vincent then sends them over by opening a small rift with a note on them for Serana and Ellana before closing it. Then he takes a dagger out and gives it to the woman who takes a deep breath to find her resolution before killing herself.