Mission

Chapter 361

Within the living room of a three-storey house in Novigrad's slums sat nine witchers around a long table. One was bald, some had amber eyes, one looked like a fire had disfigured him, some had scars on their faces, one had white hair and beard, and one was a young, handsome witcher who looked relatively normal compared to his companions.

Since nobody was talking, the young witcher stood up and scanned everyone. "Everyone here is from different schools. Everyone has their idea about how the brotherhood should be run, and everyone can voice their opinions. First, we're going to talk about the mission, basic rules, short-term and long-term goals of the brotherhoo—"

"Hey kid, I need some answers." Felix turned his displeased gaze to Roy. "I don't remember agreeing to this brotherhood."

And the meeting went off to a less-than-ideal start. The Wolves stared at Roy. He told us this was going to be magnificent. Said the Cats have joined, but that part was false?

***

Roy was about to say something, but Letho explained, "Felix, I know it's a bit rude of him, but he means well. You traveled with us for a long while now. You should know the predicament we're in. Time is not on our side. If we keep to ourselves and refuse to work together, we'll be wiped out at this rate. Don't you remember? We only managed to establish ourselves in Novigrad because we worked together."

Kiyan gave his companion a look of plea.

"It's alright, Letho. I wasn't trying to berate him. This is just a reminder for him to tell us before he makes another decision involving me the next time." Felix said, "From now on, I'm a part of the brotherhood."

Felix was a Cat, but he didn't feel at home at the school. Almost everyone there was a bloodthirsty killer. He sat back down happily. "Guess I have a team now."

The little episode notwithstanding, the meeting was heading in the right direction.

Lambert glared at Roy. "You probably told a lot of lies to get us here, didn't you?"

"No. Only this one. I should have talked to Felix sooner," Roy admitted.

"It's alright. Not like we can change the past, and you were already punished last night. I'll just let this slide," Lambert interrupted.

Eskel and Geralt nodded as well. The Cats might have only joined a moment ago, but the fact was they supported Roy's cause. Now that the Wolves were here as well, they must go on with the brotherhood.

Roy wiped the sweat off his forehead. Good thing I didn't resist last night.

"Let's talk business. I suggest our mission be unity and teamwork." Lambert looked at everyone. He announced, "We're uniting every witcher we can find. Cats, Vipers, Wolves, and everyone we might run into in the future. Manticores, Griffins, Bears… Us aside, we're going to find as many witchers as possible and lead them into the brotherhood."

Eskel shook his head. "A caveat. We're denying entrance to witchers who have done unspeakable horrors."

"Agreed. We're allowed to fight in self-defense, but harming the innocent is taboo," Geralt said.

The Vipers nodded as well. The Wolves had a code of neutrality to follow, and the Vipers weren't the kind to kill innocents either.

The Cats exchanged a look, and Kiyan said, "I'm fine with it. Thirty years in prison taught me something. If I hurt someone for no reason, then I'm no better than the scum who abducted me just to perform their experiments on me."

They were impressed that Kiyan could still be rational even after he was locked up in his own body for thirty years.

"I've heard of your tale. You're a real man." Eskel gave him a thumbs up.

Lambert had nothing but respect for the guy. He was shocked when they first met, and that was rude of him. Fortunately, Kiyan didn't really mind.

Kiyan nodded at the Wolves.

"Very well. We'll go with the code of neutrality." Felix shrugged and looked outside the window. In the yard stood a scrawny boy swinging his sword on a spinning dummy. He said, "But we're not going to sit around when danger festers. If we notice any possible threats to us, I suggest we get rid of them before they become a menace. We'll decide if something is a menace through a majority vote."

"I second that."

"Agreed."

***

"Teamwork is a simple creed." Lambert continued, "If any member runs into something they can't settle, we're obligated to help them. Barring heinous acts, of course. We're a team here, and team members help one another out. We're going to make sure nobody tramples on the brotherhood."

Roy left the table and wrote down two big words on the wall with a charcoal pen. The words read 'Unity' and 'Teamwork.'

"Does anyone else have any idea about the brotherhood?"

"Expansion." Letho said, "Aside from uniting all witchers, we need to make some changes. We need to improve the Trial recipe and train up new witchers. New blood is key to the brotherhood's longevity and our strength in the face of all the threats that might come our way."

Everyone nodded. This was the core of their missions. Out of all the witchers here, only Letho and Felix had students. Everyone else was looking forward to taking in one of their own, especially Auckes. The Law of Surprise wasn't a surefire way to get a student, however.

Lambert smiled and looked at his companions. "This is why we're here. If we can't recruit new blood, we'll be the only ones holding up this whole show. A few dozen witchers can't handle the crisis Roy told us about."

Roy nodded and wrote down 'Expansion' on the wall. Then he raised his right hand.

"I think that's enough for the missions," Auckes said. "We're just starting out, so let's keep things simple. The problems will show themselves once we start running the show. We'll rectify them by then."

"I disagree." Serrit shook his head. "If we want the organization to grow, we need to look out for any potential problems before they even rear their heads."

"Alright, then I'll add one more." Roy fell into a pause. "Equality. I think members should get along like family and share all the resources we have. Everyone is on equal footing. Nobody is superior to anyone else."

"Let's take that a step further. If the brotherhood does become successful enough to rival any force of these lands, should we see ourselves as superior to anyone else like the nobles of today?" asked Serrit. "Should we think of ourselves as the betters of humans or any other ancient race? Should we look down on them like they're beneath us?"

Serrit's questions threw everyone into silence.

"You think too much, mate. That day will never come." Lambert shook his head. "And we don't scorn sentient life forms just like how we hate being looked down on. Simple as that."

"I think Serrit has a point." Geralt tapped his finger on the table and attracted everyone's attention. "We're not better than anyone else. In other words, all sentient life forms are equal."

The White Wolf raised his head and said aloud, "We treat our members, humans, and non-humans equally. Arrogance isn't our creed. Discrimination only leads to downfall."

Felix cocked his eyebrow. "I don't mind treating humans, dwarves, elves, halflings, and gnomes as equals, but do you include monsters in that list of equality?"

"Of course. Harmless monsters have the right to live," Geralt answered seriously.

"You're truly a friend of monsters, Geralt. Protector of beasts." Felix shook his head. "But we're not the Circle of Druids. Sorry, but I disagree with your opinion. First we treat our members as equals, and then humans and ancient races. That's all." Felix argued, "Monsters aren't on that list. How are we supposed to get our components for the Trials if we can't kill monsters?"

"There's always going to be evil monsters for us to kill."

The brotherhood finally got into its first argument about equality. In the end, everyone cast their votes, and the majority would win. Geralt was the only one who agreed on treating harmless monsters as equals. Even Eskel and Lambert disagreed with their friend.

Roy agreed with part of Geralt's ideals, and he did let go of the beasts in Oxenfurt's zoo as well as the trolls in Kaer Morhen, but he didn't think they should impose that line of thinking on everyone else. At least not at the moment.

In the end, the brotherhood's missions were finally settled. They were unity, teamwork, equality, and expansion.

***

Expansion took precedence. Unity was limited to non-evil witchers, and equality would start within the brotherhood before they extended it to everyone else. Geralt thought it was a shame they couldn't reach an agreement on equality, but he didn't push his ideals on everyone else.

"Alright, now for the rules." Roy heaved a sigh of relief. "Me first. Traitors will be punished. Nobody is allowed to work with any outsiders to sabotage the brotherhood. No conspiracies either. If you run into any disagreements with the members, you're going to settle it among yourselves and only turn to the brotherhood if the disagreement escalates."

"Once we get to the next stage and open up the recipes and diagrams to all members, they're not allowed to leak any of that information to anyone else. We'll have to vote for that to happen." Roy looked at Letho.

Letho had a solemn look in his eyes. "Anyone who betrays the brotherhood will be hunted down by every single member. It is a crime punishable by death."

"Agreed." Lambert looked grim as well. "Traitors make me sick to my stomach. Loyalty is the baseline of every organization. They enjoy all the privileges we offer, so they must bear the same level of responsibility."

Nobody objected to that.

"My turn." Eskel suggested, "No harming civilians and marring the brotherhood's reputation. Anyone who's already a member or will be a member must follow this rule. Building up a reputation is hard, but destroying it is easy."

***

Roy wrote down two rules on the wall.

1. No betraying the brotherhood and its members.

2. No committing heinous acts unprovoked.

Everyone kept discussing and fleshing out the details of the brotherhood.