Chapter Summaries

King Lettenhove revealed that he had persuaded King Niedamir to invade Talgar and arranged for Redania to claim a share, while Philippa delayed a message meant for Earl Troy. As the Liberation Army faced Niedamir’s larger force outside Panhu City, Istredd asked Lynn for a way to defeat it.

• King Lettenhove told King Idi that King Niedamir would take two-thirds of Talgar and King Vizimir of Redania would receive the rest.
• King Vizimir gave Dijkstra a sealed letter for Earl Troy, and Philippa persuaded Dijkstra to delay its delivery.
• Istredd’s eight-thousand-strong Liberation Army marched east, while King Niedamir left three thousand soldiers at Panhu City and led twelve thousand to meet them.
• The Liberation Army established positions opposite Niedamir’s camp, and the nobles argued over how to fight.
• After the nobles left, Istredd asked Lynn for a solution, and Lynn said he had been thinking about how to defeat the enemy.

Lynn persuaded Istredd to use a nighttime surprise attack on the Hengfors League Army’s siege force at Panhu City, hoping to cut off the main army’s retreat and defeat it from both sides. He led the witchers to the city under cover of darkness and, while they rested, went alone to scout the enemy camps.

• Lynn proposed that the witchers circle around the League’s main force and attack the troops besieging Panhu City.
• Istredd judged the plan feasible and agreed to it.
• That night, Lynn led the witchers out on foot, avoiding their own sentries and the enemy’s main force.
• After two or three hours of running, the witchers reached Panhu City and saw the League’s two camps surrounding it.
• Lynn ordered the witchers to rest, then went alone to scout the camps.

Lynn and the witchers launched a night raid on the southern camp, killing its commander and routing the survivors toward the northern camp. The northern commander sent a detachment to reinforce the southern camp, then spotted a large force approaching his camp.

• Lynn scouted both camps, recovered his stamina, and distributed potions and alchemical bombs before leading the witchers toward the southern camp.
• The witchers silently killed the southern camp’s sentries and sleeping professional soldiers, then switched to two-handed swords when they were discovered.
• Lynn and the witchers used alchemical bombs to break up the enemy’s formation, and Lynn killed the noble rallying the soldiers.
• The southern camp fell, and the witchers drove most of its routed troops toward the northern camp.
• The northern commander sent an adjutant with a detachment to reinforce the southern camp while keeping most troops at the northern camp.
• The commander spotted a large body of troops approaching the northern camp.

Lynn and the witchers destroyed both armies besieging Panhu City, and Lynn entered the city after dawn. King Niedamir refused to retreat and ordered his twelve thousand troops to attack Istredd’s Kovir Restoration Army, believing the enemy had only four thousand soldiers left.

• A black-robed figure revealed himself as the attacker at the northern camp, killed the commander and two knights, and used Dragon's Dream bombs to rout the soldiers.
• Lynn counted the witchers after the battle and found that none were missing or wounded; they burned the enemy dead before Lynn entered Panhu City.
• King Niedamir learned that the siege camps had fallen and, despite the nobles urging retreat, persuaded most of them to attack the Kovir Restoration Army.
• Istredd kept his eight thousand troops in their prepared positions as Niedamir's twelve thousand men advanced, and he ordered the longbowmen to ready themselves.

The Kovir Restoration Army used its longbowmen and defensive positions to inflict heavy losses on King Niedamir’s allied forces, but the attackers continued pressing forward. As Istredd held his cavalry in reserve and waited for reinforcements, Met began preparing a spell for Niedamir.

• Three thousand Restoration Army longbowmen fired repeated volleys into the advancing allied troops, causing heavy casualties and panic among the peasant levies.
• The nobles’ enforcement squads drove the retreating peasant levies back into the assault, and the allied soldiers reached the fence, where they fought the Restoration Army’s pikemen.
• King Niedamir realized the Restoration Army had eight thousand soldiers, but he and the other nobles continued the attack because retreating risked a rout.
• Niedamir asked Master Met to help win the battle and promised to make him an earl with real power; Met drew a magic circle and began chanting while Niedamir’s guards secured the area.
• Istredd kept his five hundred cavalrymen in reserve, hoping the witchers and Panhu City’s garrison would arrive before he committed them.
• Istredd suddenly heard someone beside him shout.

Istredd rallied the Restoration Army’s collapsing right flank while Lynn waited for the right moment to attack the Allies. The Earl of Panhu City’s surprise assault from behind disrupted the Allies and gave Lynn’s force an opening to join the battle.

• A sorcerer’s blasts devastated the Restoration Army’s right flank, causing its peasant levies to flee.
• Istredd led his guards into the fight and helped rally the retreating levies.
• Lynn held his force back as he waited for the Allies to be distracted, while the Earl of Panhu City led eight hundred infantry around behind them.
• The Earl of Panhu City’s troops attacked the Allies from behind and drove them back, as Lynn prepared to attack.

Lynn and the witchers broke the Hengfors League army’s flank, forcing King Niedamir to flee and triggering the allied army’s collapse. By nightfall, the witchers had captured nearly every surviving Hengfors League noble except the king.

• Lynn led the witchers and two hundred Panhu City cavalrymen in a charge against King Niedamir’s position.
• The witchers threw Superior Grapeshot Bombs into the allied cavalry, routing them before they could stop the charge.
• Lynn’s force struck the allied flank, while his anti-magic zone prevented Met from casting his spell.
• Lynn and the witchers cut down nobles and knights, and the allied flank descended into chaos.
• King Niedamir fled with his guards and Met, so Lynn abandoned the pursuit and rallied his men to shout that the king had escaped.
• The Hengfors League army collapsed, and the witchers captured nearly all its surviving nobles during the pursuit.

Lynn and the witchers were rewarded for their victory over the Hengfors League, and the Kovir Restoration Army resumed its advance. At the border, nobles in King Lettenhove and King Idi’s army defected during battle, forcing the two kings to flee to Lan Exeter, where they learned the loyalist and surrender factions had conspired against them.

• Istredd knighted the witchers, made Lynn an earl, and promised him first choice of a fief when he became king.
• Lady Benigna awarded Lynn the Order of the Thistle, and during two months of rest in Talgar, Lynn released captured Hengfors nobles for ransom.
• The Kovir Restoration Army advanced with fifteen thousand troops to face King Lettenhove and King Idi’s forty-thousand-strong army at the border.
• As the battle began, noble troops on the left wing turned against the kings, while troops on the right left the battlefield, leaving the royal forces attacked from both sides.
• King Lettenhove and King Idi abandoned their army and fled to Lan Exeter, where they discovered the departing nobles had seized the city and protected the loyalists’ families.

King Lettenhove and King Idi fled after their defeat, but Idi was killed by ambushers and Lettenhove’s forces were overcome when Istredd’s army captured Lan Exeter. Istredd restored Kovir and Poviss to Thyssen rule, punished his enemies, rewarded his supporters, and turned to the witchers for their share.

• King Lettenhove fled toward a port to return to Lan Exeter, while King Idi took a hidden trail toward Poviss.
• King Idi and his retainers were ambushed by peasants, and King Idi was killed.
• King Lettenhove reached Lan Exeter, where his forces and the Wild Cats endured a week-long siege by Istredd’s army.
• Witchers from the Schools of the Viper and Cat infiltrated Lan Exeter at night, opened the gates, and let the Restoration Army capture the city.
• Lynn and the witchers found King Lettenhove as he tried to escape in women’s clothes, and the city fell after one week of siege.
• Istredd exterminated King Idi’s and King Lettenhove’s families, dealt with the nobles, and rewarded the Restoration Army before turning to the witchers.

Lynn chose the Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén, and Istredd made him a grand duke despite doubts that he could subdue its nobles. As Istredd returned to Lan Exeter, Philippa Eilhart tested his attitude toward the witchers, while Julia Ebbingmark was brought from prison to meet the surviving Wild Cats.

• Lynn chose Isparaden for its land, agricultural potential, proximity to Kaer Morhen, and strategic position beside Kaedwen.
• Istredd granted Lynn the Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén and raised his title from earl to grand duke, while the nobles doubted he could control the local powers.
• After the restoration army disbanded, Istredd set out for Lan Exeter with his remaining troops to oversee the transition of power.
• Philippa Eilhart visited Istredd in owl form, questioned him about the witchers, and warned him that they were dangerous, but his calm response stopped her from sowing discord.
• Julia Ebbingmark was taken from her cell with the other prisoners and brought to an open space, where she found thousands of surviving Wild Cats assembled.

Lynn recruited Julia Ebbingmark and three thousand former Wild Cats soldiers to serve him, then led them east with Istredd’s support. At the camp, Philippa Eilhart challenged Lynn over his defiance of the Witcher’s Code, but after he disabled her magic, she proposed cooperation.

• Lynn introduced himself to the prisoners as their lord and offered them mercenary pay, rewards, and the chance of advancement if they swore allegiance to him.
• Julia Ebbingmark asked whether the prisoners would be treated as soldiers or slaves, and she and most of the others pledged themselves to Lynn after he promised them fair treatment.
• Lynn moved the former Wild Cats into the siege camp, rearmed them, kept Julia as their commander, and set off east with three thousand soldiers.
• Istredd supplied Lynn’s army with funding and provisions, and the troops marched through the Principality of Talgar.
• Philippa Eilhart arrived at Lynn’s tent in owl form and challenged him over breaking the Witcher’s Code, while hinting that nobles might distrust him.
• Lynn accused Philippa of wanting to become Redania’s queen, then cut off her access to chaos magic, prompting her to suggest cooperation instead of fighting.

Lynn persuaded Philippa to ally with him by revealing that Emhyr var Emreis was Duny and exposing Northern sorcerers' role in his return to Nilfgaard. After arranging for Dudu to profit from Kovir and Poviss's demand for carmine, Lynn marched on Malleore and lured its earl into delaying preparations; as a storm broke, the uneasy earl went to inspect the city walls.

• Lynn told Philippa that Emhyr var Emreis was Duny, explained his secret return to Nilfgaard, and urged her to investigate Northern sorcerers who had defected.
• Philippa agreed not to trouble Lynn, and he promised not to reveal her plan to seize the kingdom.
• Dudu sold carmine to merchants from Kovir and Poviss after a Toussaint noble had bought up Novigrad's supply.
• Lynn marched from Talgar to Malleore and demanded one hundred thousand lintars in war reparations from its earl.
• The Earl of Malleore accepted Lynn's grant of extra time as a chance to conscript defenders, while ordering a doubled night watch.
• As a thunderstorm began, the Earl of Malleore gathered his guards and went to inspect the city walls.

Lynn captured Malleore and Creyden, then rewarded brave soldiers with land and knighthoods as he built support for his rule. King Niedamir assembled an army to defend Creyden, but Kovir’s forces did not arrive, and the gathered nobles began arguing over whether to withdraw.

• Kovir’s army captured Malleore in a rain-soaked surprise attack, and Lynn announced new rules and lower taxes to the city’s citizens.
• Lynn granted knighthoods and fiefs to witchers and soldiers who had distinguished themselves, then recruited a garrison and reorganized Malleore’s officials.
• Lynn captured Creyden and continued granting land and titles, using the rewards to secure his soldiers’ loyalty and build a stronger central authority.
• King Niedamir reconciled with his domestic opponents and assembled an army to defend Creyden, but Kovir’s army did not appear.
• The nobles of Holopole demanded permission to take their troops home, while the nobles of Caingorn and Creyden argued that they should remain united against Kovir.

King Niedamir and the allied nobles pursued the Kovir army toward Holopole, but the Kovir forces lured them into a trap on the Braa River. After fireships wrecked their fleet, Kovir archers, witchers, and cavalry shattered the allied army, and Lynn led the final charge.

• The Kovir army marched away from Creyden toward Holopole, prompting Holopole’s nobles to demand pursuit.
• The Earl of Creyden proposed sending scouts and using boats to reach Holopole; after scouts confirmed the enemy’s direction, King Niedamir ordered the allied army upriver.
• The allied army camped overnight, then resumed its journey and found oil-soaked fireships blocking the Braa River, with Kovir forces waiting on both banks.
• Kovir soldiers ignited and released the fireships, setting the allied fleet ablaze and trapping soldiers in the narrow channel.
• King Niedamir rallied surviving soldiers behind a shield wall, but witchers blasted it apart with Superior Grapeshot Bombs and Kovir cavalry charged through the ranks.
• Lynn drew the Lady of the Lake’s Sword and led Kovir’s infantry into the shattered allied army as its soldiers fled.

After Kovir conquered the Hengfors League, Lynn divided its lands among his soldiers and learned that the Trial of the Grasses could be made far safer. Mousesack prepared to leave for Cintra, carrying Lynn’s warning that Nilfgaard would invade and that Calanthe should fortify the Marnadal Valley.

• Kovir’s soldiers slaughtered the surrendered Hengfors nobles, including King Niedamir, and Lynn took control of the League’s lands and granted much of them to his soldiers.
• Tissaia, Mousesack, and Aglaïs developed mild mutation and other preparations that raised the Trial of the Grasses’ survival rate to eighty-five percent, so Lynn planned to let each apprentice choose whether to undergo it.
• Mousesack told Lynn that Calanthe and Eist had invited him to serve as Cintra’s royal adviser, and Lynn let him leave after rewarding him and revealing that Duny was Emperor Emhyr var Emreis and that Vilgefortz had arranged the shipwreck.
• Lynn warned Mousesack that Nilfgaard would eventually invade the north and described his vision of Cintra burning beneath the Nilfgaardian sun.
• Mousesack doubted the prophecy, but Lynn urged him to tell Calanthe to strengthen the Marnadal Valley border and build a fortress there.

Lynn strengthened his rule over the Duchy of Hengfors by granting fiefs to Fringilla, Triss, and Keira Metz and organizing its administration. He persuaded Tissaia to move Aretuza Academy to the Dragon Mountains, and she departed to oversee the relocation.

• Lynn planned to preserve Cintra’s troops and hold the city if Queen Calanthe refused to build a fortress in Marnadal Valley.
• Fringilla secretly left Nilfgaard, arrived in Caingorn, and accepted a fief from Lynn.
• Triss and Keira Metz joined Lynn’s service, and he granted each of them a distant fief.
• Lynn recruited clerks, assigned them across his territory, and replaced those unable to handle their duties.
• Lynn asked Tissaia to relocate Aretuza Academy to the Dragon Mountains, and she agreed.
• Tissaia left to oversee the move, while Lynn provided ships to carry the academy from Thanedd Island to the Duchy of Hengfors.

Isparaden’s nobles resisted Kovir’s new rule, but after learning how the Duchy of Hengfors had been conquered and reorganized, they withdrew most of their army from Kestrel Gap. Lynn Augustus then secretly approached the five nobles left to guard the pass, and one of them sent trusted men toward Hengfors after their meeting.

• Isparaden’s nobles mustered thirty thousand troops and waited at Kestrel Gap, but Kovir’s army destroyed the Hengfors League instead of attacking them.
• Spies reported that former Kovir soldiers ruled Hengfors, commoners received a more favorable tax share, and Lynn Augustus punished opposition harshly.
• The nobles argued over whether to invade Hengfors, then agreed to withdraw most of their forces and leave five nobles with a thousand soldiers each to guard Kestrel Gap.
• Letho entered Isparaden disguised as a caravan guard, parted from the caravan after passing the garrison, and headed toward the pass under cover of darkness.
• Lynn Augustus sent letters promising to preserve the five nobles’ titles and lands if they swore allegiance, but the bearded noble dismissed the offer as a scam.
• After the bearded noble persuaded the others to reject Lynn’s offer, one noble secretly sent trusted confidants along a mountain trail toward the Duchy of Hengfors.

Lynn secretly secured the allegiance of nobles in the Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén and consolidated his power in Novigrad while expanding his influence into Nazair. After relocating Aretuza Academy, he began studying magical theory to see whether it could strengthen his Signs.

• Lynn disguised himself as a trusted aide, entered Kestrel Gap, and used Axii to test a noble who agreed to serve as his inside man.
• Over the next two years, Lynn secretly won over about a quarter of Eszpádén’s nobles, many of whom offered him tribute from tolls along Kovir’s caravan routes.
• Lynn revealed himself as Novigrad’s master to Cleaver’s Gang and the Cutups, making them his allies and requiring tribute, cooperation, and loyalty against outside forces.
• Lynn sent the Syndicate to Nazair to conduct espionage and build an underground organization opposing Nilfgaardian rule.
• Aretuza Academy moved to the Duchy of Hengfors, and Tissaia destroyed Tor Lara before leaving Thanedd Island.
• Lynn began private lessons with Margarita Laux-Antille, hoping that studying magical theory would improve his Signs.

Lynn advanced his Signs to grandmaster level, built a paid militia, and used it to conquer the Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén. By 1263, he was overseeing young apprentices at Kaer Morhen, where they trained for a chance to become witchers.

• Lynn tested his grandmaster Igni Sign by evaporating a lake and reflected on the increased power and reduced magic cost of his Signs.
• Lynn assembled twenty thousand troops in the Duchy of Hengfors, including a militia that trained regularly and received full pay.
• After Kestrel Gap fell, Isparaden's nobles rejected Lynn's offer to surrender and led ten thousand troops against the Kovir army.
• Lynn's five hundred cavalrymen feigned retreat, drawing the disorganized noble army toward an ambush where defecting nobles and twenty thousand Kovir troops attacked.
• The noble army collapsed, most of Isparaden's nobles were wiped out, and Lynn took control of the Autonomous Dominion of Eszpádén.
• In 1263, Lynn visited the training grounds at Kaer Morhen, where young apprentices trained under his protection and could choose whether to undergo the improved Trial of the Grasses.

Lynn learned that Nilfgaard was invading Cintra, arranged defenses for his territory, and organized troops and witchers to support the kingdom. At Kaer Trolde Harbor, Crach told him that Cintra’s forces had repelled the Nilfgaardians at Marnadal Valley, though the war was underway.

• Fringilla reported that Nilfgaard was massing troops in Nazair, and Lynn told his agents in Cintra to warn Mousesack.
• Lynn traveled to Caingorn on Deathclaw and planned border defenses with Fringilla, Triss, Letho, Julia, and the other officers.
• Lynn assembled a force of three thousand Hengfors troops, two thousand Isparaden troops, and five hundred witchers to support Cintra, with supplies to be stored at Kaer Trolde Harbor.
• Lynn flew Deathclaw to Kaer Trolde Harbor, where Crach welcomed him and learned that the witcher intended to aid Cintra.
• Crach told Lynn that Mousesack’s warning had led Calanthe to reinforce Marnadal Valley, where Cintra’s army had driven Nilfgaard’s exhausted troops from the fortress.