Time of Contempt

Background

Yennefer plans to enroll Ciri at the Aretuza school of magic on Thanedd Island while attending a conference of mages there. Early in the morning after the reception, Geralt stumbles on an attempted coup organized by Dijkstra and Philippa Eilhart, who have ambushed several mages, including Vilgefortz, whom they intend to accuse of conspiring with Nilfgaard. Tissaia de Vries releases the captured mages and drops the field that inhibits magic inside Aretuza, which proves disastrous when they attack the Northern mages while a Scoia'tael commando working with Nilfgaard invades the compound.

Vilgefortz defeats and severely wounds Geralt at the Tower of Gulls, and Ciri escapes through an unstable magic portal that collapses the Tower and leaves Vilgefortz's face scarred. Geralt recuperates in the forest of Brokilon, while Aedirn, Rivia and Lyria fall quickly to the Nilfgaardian invaders. Ciri awakens in the Korath desert, survives with the help of a unicorn, and joins the Rats, a bandit group, calling herself Falka.