Juray dodged the cockatrice as it flew towards her, talons extended. As it missed her, she threw her hand out, casting Aard. The Sign hit the monster directly in the side, throwing it off balance and sending it crashing to the ground. Juray then leapt at it while it was stunned, plunging her silver blade through its back. The rooster-looking creature gave a final shriek as it died, Juray wincing from the sheer volume of its vocal defense, hence the reason cockatrices were called shriekers. Juray claimed her trophy before heading over to Shadowmount to head back to Crow's Perch.

Chet was sitting outside his house when Juray arrived with her trophy. He looked wide-eyed between her and the cockatrice head.

"Shrieker won't bother you anymore," she said, matter-of-factly.

"Thank you, Mistress Witcher," he replied. "Your reward," he held out a coin purse. "'Tain't much, but as they say, 'take care of the pennies.'"

Juray looked over at Symko, the orphan boy who Chet had taken in after his father was killed by the cockatrice and she closed Chet's hand around the purse. "Keep the coin. You took in an orphan. You need it more than I do."

Chet blinked in surprise, his mouth working for a moment when Juray took her hand away. "And they call Witchers unfeelin' and inhuman. I thank you. From the bottom of my heart."

Juray smiled. "He'll always have the image of his father's body haunt him. You just take care of him and over time it won't haunt him as much."

Chet nodded and turned to Symko. "Come on, boy. Let's get some supper in you."

~~~

Juray headed toward Lindenvale to wait for Geralt when she came upon a familiar face.

"White Demon! Snow Demon! May the pellar have a word with you?"

"How did you even know where to find me?" Juray asked, dismounting. The question was genuine. She was pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

"The spirits told me where you would appear."

"Of course they did. What do you need?"

"A service of the Witchers the pellar must ask."

"And what service would that be?"

"A Witcherly service. A service for those that fear no evil. Forefathers' Eve is nigh and we've rites to conduct. We've wandering souls to help pass on, but the circle we must protect from the damned souls."

"Does sound like a Witcher's job. Where are you conducting the rite?"

"Fyke Isle. In the circle of stones. Tonight at midnight."

"Fyke Isle is cursed."

"Nay, no longer. The White Wolf has lifted it."

"That must have been the favor he was doing for Kiera. I'll meet you there, then."

"The pellar knew the Winter Demon would not refuse."

Juray turned and mounted Shadowmount, turning back towards the pellar. To find he was already gone. "How does a crazy old man move so fast?"

~~~

Geralt had informed Kiera that Graham had been able to lift the curse with his love for Annabelle, although that love had cost him his life. Kiera then asked if Geralt could find out what happened to a courier that was supposed to deliver a package for her. Geralt agreed with a sigh before leaving Kiera's hut and being met by the pellar that helped them search for Anna and Tamara.

"Stoppity- stop!" he called. "A word with you, the pellar would 'ave!"

Geralt stopped as the pellar approached him.

"Ask a service of the Witcher, the pellar must. A Witcherly service, that's to say..."

"What do you need? Tell me."

"A man who fears no evil, the pellar needs. Forefathers' Eve is nigh, we've rites to conduct. Wandering souls to emerge, damned souls, too. We've the circle to protect from these wretches."

"Seems like you could use a Witcher. So yeah, I'll help."

"You'd not refuse, the pellar knew! The time's come to gather the folk. Across the lake we must travel. To Fyke Isle. There, in the circle of stones, we shall meet."

"The sooner we resolve this, the better. Best do it tonight, at midnight." Geralt turned and headed to Roach. It was still early, so he decided to figure out what happened to Kiera's courier first before heading back to Fyke Isle.

~~~

Juray arrived at the circle of stones on Fyke Island, hitching a ride on a boat with a few of the villagers that were participating in Forefathers' Eve, a couple staring at her the entire time. The pellar was preparing a bonfire, muttering nonsense to himself. Juray was aware of the villagers' eyes on her as if they were wondering why she was there. She could feel what she was assuming was drowners in the nearby water, but they seemed to be content leaving the people here alone. Just before midnight, Geralt arrived. Juray had expected him to join them, as the pellar had used the plural when he recruited her to help.

"Just in time," the pellar said when Geralt joined Juray. He turned towards the villagers gathered. "Good folk! Behold the ones who will protect us! You needn't fear!" He turned back to the Witchers. "Soon we shall summon the wandering souls. Beyond all help some will be. From these you must protect us. Evil creatures keep at bay. Keep at bay until the ritual's done."

Juray drew her silver sword. "Then we should start," she said.

Geralt nodded in agreement.

"Keep us from harm and let them not disturb the circle."

Geralt drew his own silver sword as the pellar began the ritual.

"What is this life? Well ye know."

"Fleeting torment ere we go," the crowd answered.

"What comes next, once life subsides?"

"Man his own fate decides."

"Soon will rise the dead, the buried."

"Each will say by what they're harried."

"Will ye grant these souls reprieve?"

"We're prepared to end their grief."

"Let's begin Forefathers' Eve!"

The drowners, along with a couple of water hags finally decided to come out of the water and the two Witchers made easy work of them.

"Ye who wander on the gale," the pellar continued. "Ever caught in this world's thrall, see this sign, gentle, pale. Ye we summon! Ye we call!"

"Ye we summon! Ye we call!"

"Hark! A sound I hear! 'Tis right? A spirit breaks the still of night!"

Juray and Geralt rejoined the others now that the monsters were dead, returning their silver swords to their places and Juray could feel others moving away in the water.

"Burn the incense ever higher! Spirit, join us round the fire!"

"Spirit, speak! This time is yours! Tell us of your ghostly woes!"

A spirit appeared in the flames of the bonfire and looked down upon the pellar. Juray noted the horrified look on his face as if he knew who the spirit was. The spirit didn't speak, only stared down at the pellar.

"Who are you?" Geralt asked.

The spirit pointed at the pellar. "He knows," he answered in a gravelly voice.

"Should we drive him away?"

The pellar shook his head, avoiding looking at the spirit. "Nay."

"I've come for you, patricide."

Juray realized that this was the pellar's father, the man the rumors said the pellar had killed before going crazy.

"Begone, foul force!" a man's voice said, Juray and Geralt turning towards the three men approaching. "I cast upon you the light of the Eternal Fire!"

The spirit sneered but disappeared.

"Abomination!"

Juray pegged the man speaking as the leader of these Witch Hunters.

"Stop this at once!"

"The errant souls!" the pellar explained. "We must help them!"

"Silence!" the second Witch Hunter cried. "I'll not tolerate necromancy!"

"You should leave," Juray said, her tone booking no argument. "You're disrupting the ritual."

"This is black magic. These folk disturb the dead. We cannot allow it, we will not!"

"And you know nothing of these people's customs, now get lost."

"Take the witch and disperse the others."

Geralt stepped between her and the Witch Hunters as Juray drew her steel sword.

"Geralt!" Juray cried. "Bring them away from the circle!"

"Good folk!" the pellar called. "Leave not these grounds! Ye cannot break the circle!"

Juray cast Aard on the Witch Hunter going for the pellar, the man flying and slamming into the stone wall the villagers were standing on, before spinning around to defend herself from the Witch Hunter coming at her back.

"All is quiet!" the crowd chanted. "All is gloom!"

Juray's sword sliced through the Witch Hunter's chest.

"What beings in the darkness loom?"

Geralt killed the leader, taking his head.

"'Tis an ill turn, an ill turn," the pellar lamented.

Juray returned her steel in favor of her silver, feeling what was approaching now.

"Woe are we! Blood has stained the hallowed ground."

Geralt noticed that Juray had switched swords.

"Yet we cannot stop what has begun."

"Can you continue?" Juray asked. "Without putting these people in danger?"

"What are you sensing?" Geralt asked.

"Wraiths."

"Gods willing they will be few. The pellar shall finish the rite."

Juray didn't look convinced as the pellar turned back towards the villagers.

"Good folk, we must the Eve complete! Prepare yourselves." He turned back to the fire. "Ye we summon, ye we call. Enter, souls, we'll judge ye all!"

"All is quiet, all is gloom. What beings in the darkness loom?"

Juray walked around the fire, holding up her sword.

"Something whispers, something peeps. Someone near our fire creeps."

"All is quiet, all is gloom. What beings in the darkness loom?"

"Geralt!"

Several wraiths approached the fire and Geralt joined Juray.

"The sacred ground is with blood-stained. We cannot the ritual complete!"

The wraiths charged at the Witchers.

"People! Save yourselves! If your lives you value, run!"

Between the two Witchers, and Juray's enhanced Yrden, they were able to kill the wraiths without a single living soul being harmed. The people had scattered, but the pellar had stayed behind.

"Alas," he said sadly. "All is lost."

"Someone had to have told the Witch Hunters about the ritual," Juray said, sheathing her sword. "They wouldn't have known it was tonight otherwise."

"That spirit they drove away," Geralt said. "Your father's ghost, right? Threatened to come back, likely to keep his word."

"Old man Ambros the pellar fears not."

"He called you a patricide. Get that right?"

"Aye."

"If we're going to help you, we have to know everything," Juray said. "Why'd you kill your father?"

"The pellar does not wish to speak of this."

"You can't hope to manage this alone. You say you're not afraid, but I can see it in your eyes. The wraith that your father is now will hold sway over you."

The pellar looked away.

"I can send him off. I have to. But I need to know where he's buried. He's holding on because his corpse hasn't turned to dust yet."

The pellar sighed. "Ambros lies in the swamp near Blackbough."

"I'll find him and see what I can do."

The pellar nodded before leaving.

"No 'we' to that?"

"Kiera done with you?"

"Not exactly. I'm still doing a favor for her."

"Then I'll deal with the pellar's father. You finish playing errand boy for Kiera. You know she probably has a long list of stuff for you to do."

Geralt gave her a look.

"I just need a ride back to Midcopse."

"I thought that was Shadowmount."

~~~

Juray trudged through the swamp, using her Witcher senses to find the pellar's father while fighting off the creatures of the bog. She finally found a well-preserved body in the muck, the back of his head mashed from where someone had struck him with what Juray was guessing was an axe.

"Should have figured the swamp kept Ambros' body in good shape, you can even see where the pellar smashed his head in." She cast Igni on the body, it alighting easily. "Leave the world of the living, never to return again." Juray watched until the corpse was ash before leaving the swamp to head back to Blackbough.

The pellar gave Juray a warm smile when she showed up at his hut. "White Demon, wise demon, what can the pellar do for you?"

"Found your father's body," she informed him. "Burned it and made sure it was ashes before I left."

"Good you did. Return for me he would 'ave."

"Did you really kill him?"

"Aye. 'Twas an evil man. The pellar feared him once, but then grew brave. What his father did to his mother, the pellar could not look upon. So he split the father's head with an axe and left him in the swamp. But folk knew..."

"You should be safe now."

"Thank you. Come. I have a reward for your aid." The pellar motioned for Juray to follow him. She joined him at the table where he prepared amulets and other remedies.

He picked up one with a simple white stone and turned to her, holding it out. "The pellar made this especially for the Winter Demon. The stone is moonstone and holds the power of the moonlight. The omens have shown me that you will be in need of this when the time to face the Wild Hunt comes. Your power is within you, locked away. You may not have traveled the path of a sorceress, but the path of the Witcher will need the power locked away within you. This will aid you when you need that power."

Juray took the pendant. "Thank you, pellar."

"The moonlight shall charge it. And if herbs and remedies you ever need, for near nothing you will have them from me. Safe travels, Juray of Riverdell."

Juray left the pellar to do his work and headed to the inn to see if Geralt had arrived yet. Seeing that he still hadn't, she headed to the notice board to see if any jobs had been posted. While there were no Contracts, there was a complaint about a soothsayer in another town. In Juray's experience, fortune tellers were charlatans who made their coin off vulnerable and naive people and had exposed several of them. Having nothing better to do, Juray headed to the town in the notice. She was sure she'd be back in Lindenvale by the time Geralt finally dragged ass there.