Diksha Sundriyal
The third season of Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ follows Geralt, Ciri, and Yennefer as they roam the Continent while dodging the enemies who want to get Ciri and claim her power for their use. Geralt and Yennefer train Ciri, helping her hone the otherwise wildly chaotic powers. In between this, they also have to save Ciri from intermittent attacks. Of all these enemies, the one they have to be most beware of is Rience.
The mage who wields fire magic was tasked to find Ciri by a mysterious character. Geralt and Yennefer realize that there is a much more powerful force behind Rience when he attacks them at Shaerrawedd. They know that killing Rience will not solve the problem. They will have to cut the problem at its root. In the fifth episode, they discover the true identity of Rience’s master. Who is he? Let’s find out. SPOILERS AHEAD
The Force Behind Rience
When Rience attacks Ciri at Shaerrawedd, he underestimates the combined power of Geralt and Yennefer. He opens a portal to escape, but Yennefer doesn’t let it close. This allows Geralt to cross over and follow Rience. He finds himself in an abandoned castle. He gets a glimpse of a mine with scarlet ammonite outside the window. A brief fight takes place between Rience and Geralt, but when the Witcher sees that the situation at Shaerrawedd is getting worse, he leaves Rience and goes back.
Later, Yennefer mentions that while she was trying to keep the portal open, the magic felt much darker and stronger. This confirms that Rience is not working of his own volition. Someone else has an ulterior motive behind hiring him. Geralt follows Rience to the abandoned castle but doesn’t find him there. Instead, he finds Teryn, a half-elf who bears a striking resemblance to Ciri. She has been mind controlled to believe that she is Ciri. In trying to help Teryn, Geralt discovers that she used to study at Aretuza and was kidnapped by someone there. This means that Rience’s employer is at Aretuza, where Yennefer and Ciri are headed.
At Arretuza, Yennefer proposes the idea of a conclave to bring all sorcerers together to unite the north against Nilfgaard. Meanwhile, Triss is worried about the girls who have been mysteriously disappearing. Tissaia dismisses her concerns, believing the girls are running away because they cannot survive the training. Later, Triss shares this information with Istredd, who reveals that the Book of Monoliths is missing from the library. The book contains information about the first war between the elves and humans and how elves were defeated, among other things.
Triss deduces that whoever has the book might also be behind the girls’ disappearance. She shares this information with Yennefer, who doesn’t think about it seriously until much later. When her idea for the conclave is accepted, Yennefer is sent to Redania to ask Phillipa to come to Aretuza. She uses a secure portal to travel there, but someone messes with the portal on her way back. She finds herself on the edge of a cliff and then is attacked by an illusion resembling Geralt. She succeeds in getting out of there, but this confirms that someone at Aretuza doesn’t want the conclave to take place.
When Yennefer puts all the pieces together, she concludes that Stregobor is the perpetrator. At the party, she sneaks into his office and discovers the belongings of the missing girls, whose names she finds in Stregobor’s notebook. Later, Istredd finds the Book of Monoliths hidden there, which leaves no doubt about Stregobor’s guilt. However, while the mage confesses his hatred for the half-elves, he doesn’t admit to the crimes he is accused of.
Stregobor is imprisoned to be put before a trial after the conclave. However, later that night, Yennefer and Geralt realize that the real culprit is Vilgefortz. Geralt notices that the bracelet Tissaia got from Vilgefortz is made of the same material that Lydia’s earrings were made of. The material is a scarlet ammonite found in the mines of West Redania, where Geralt had followed Rience and found Teryn, who mentioned the woman with the funny voice. The Witcher realizes the girl must have been talking about Lydia, who speaks telepathically because her face is an illusion.
Moreover, when Geralt talks about Vilgefortz’s favorite painting, The First Landing, which the mage admires at the party, Yennefer reveals that the botched portal took her to the same place. Moreover, even though Vilgefortz is in favor of the conclave and wants to establish peace, he talks about nothing but the preparation for war to Geralt. Does this mean he has given up on peace, or is it because he knows there will never be peace? In any case, all this information leaves no doubt about the fact that Vilgefortz is the one who sent Rience after Ciri.
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