Night fell once more, and the four Vipers were found sitting on the ground in a stark bedroom on the top floor of the main castle, discussing something.

"Are they mad?" Serrit stared at Roy in disbelief. "They failed to make you give up and decided to play along?"

The veteran Vipers let Roy do what he wanted, as they thought Roy's plan would end in failure and teach the young Viper a lesson, but their plan backfired, much to their dismay.

"No. They made the right decision. They know we have to band together if we want to live and prosper." Roy laughed happily. "Once they come to Novigrad with us, we'll have nine members in the brotherhood."

Two Cats, four Vipers, and three Wolves. Nine witchers to witness the beginnings of a brotherhood.

Stars shone and candlelight flickered. Letho took another trip down memory lane. When was the last time something like this happened? About fifty years ago? Ivar Evil-Eye was on the plaza of Gorthur Gvaed, delivering a speech to us. "The kid's done it." Letho gave Roy a look of approval.

He took the kid in over a year ago, and he was still very much a newbie, but he managed to gather witchers from three different schools together for some reason. And he convinced them to join the brotherhood, which was still a new concept.

No matter what would happen to the brotherhood, what Roy did was an act that would go down in history. Either he would become the butt of everyone's joke or a legendary figure praised by legions of witchers.

"I knew you'd manage." Auckes grinned and thumped his chest. "Nobody's gonna mess with us now that we have nine witchers on our side. We can mess with anyone in Novigrad!"

"Shut it, fool. You think Eternal Fire's army is a bunch of noodlearms? So what if there's nine of us? Lay low!" Serrit smacked his head. "Only three Wolves? Vesemir isn't coming?"

"Not sure. He has a lot to consider, but he might change his mind." Roy shook his head. He didn't push Vesemir too much, since the grandmaster was an ancient man. Who knows what he might do?

He would rather convince him with a gentler approach. I hope he'll come to Novigrad and spend his life teaching newbies after he's done meeting up with his old flame.

"What's going through your mind, kid?" Letho knocked on the red tablecloth and asked, "You put too much effort into the brotherhood. What about the school's revival?"

"That's a big problem, Roy," Auckes interrupted. "I've been looking forward to buying land in Kovir and building a new fortress. But if you do this, we'll be spending a lot of time in Novigrad. We won't have enough time to rebuild the school."

"There's something you guys need to understand," Roy said patiently. "Even if we throw in a crate of coins to buy up a plot of land and build the strongest fortress we can imagine, it's still useless without any new blood. Instead of building an empty castle, I think we should spend the coins on recruitment and rebuild our fortress when we have a sizable troop."

Roy shot up and circled the veteran Vipers. He pointed into the air and gushed, "And then we can tell the newbies, 'Look, people. This here is our home!'"

Letho smacked Roy's head.

"Ow!"

The veteran witcher pulled his hand back and nodded. "Don't pull that stunt on us, kid. Sit back down."

Roy pouted and sat back down.

Letho scanned his companions. They nodded at him, and he paced around solemnly. "The fortress and solidarity among new witchers aside, this brotherhood is going to take up a huge amount of coins. Supporting nine witchers alone is already a monumental task, and now you want to establish an orphanage? Raising children is a costly endeavor. Food, clothing, and shelter don't come cheap, and Novigrad's prices are a cut above the rest. Even if Gawain is generous enough to sponsor most of the coins, we'll have to cough up a huge sum every year. In the short term? Yes, maybe. But the money will dry up sooner than you can say 'drowner.' And that's including the crowns you have as well as the profit from our shops."

Roy rubbed his chin. "I think we can save on the orphanage costs if we open it up in the rural area."

"Not enough. You're still missing the whole picture," Serrit continued. "We need to run the orphanage and improve the Trial recipe at the same time. Training the kids without mutating them is just going to be a waste of time. We need a laboratory. A good one."

"We have one under the Temple Island."

"And what about the mage?" Serrit asked. "We're being serious this time, so we need a permanent mage, not some contractual, part-time guy. Lytta coming over once every few months while holding down a job isn't what we're looking for. And you don't know any other mage either. How are you going to convince her into giving up her lucrative job as a royal consultant just to work for us? Our future is uncertain. You think she's going to work for love? All sorceresses love money, and hiring her is going to cost a mountain of crowns. And that's not it. You still have to include the costs for the recipe improvement as well as preparations for the Trials."

The barrage of questions was slowly wiping Roy's smile off his face. Shit. I don't have enough coins to deal with this. Coral's case is gonna be an issue. I can't ask a lady to work for free. But how can I get her to work with us?

Auckes suddenly wiggled his eyebrows. "Roy, you can always sleep with her as payment."

"I am sorry?" Roy shot Auckes a dirty glare. I'm not that kind of person! He shook his head and muttered, "And I don't think I'm strong enough to satisfy her needs."

"What did you say?"

"I mean, this isn't my decision to make." Roy said solemnly, "We don't have enough coins, but we have nine witchers. All of us can work and make money for the cause. We have enough time to come up with another income stream before we use up our assets." Roy had an idea. Some special resources were going to be incredibly valuable when the first Northern War inevitably came. And that's our ticket to crown town. I'm going to talk with Gawain and come up with a sch plan.

The talk about money came to an end.

"We're gonna have to choose a leader once we return to Novigrad. Any suggestions?" Serrit puffed his chest proudly.

"We'll talk once everyone is here." Excluding everyone else is just being petty, but for the brotherhood's future, I think we should pick one from the Viper School. Either Letho, Serrit, or

Witchers were mostly proud, so democracy would work better.

"We have a lot of details to flesh out." Like the mission, short and long-term plans, responsibilities, and more. We'll hold a discussion with all members once we return to Novigrad.

The brotherhood business was put aside for now, and Roy raised a question. "How much do you know about cyclops?"

"Why do you want to know about something that dangerous?" Auckes' interest was piqued. "Do they have one here in Kaer Morhen?"

Roy nodded. "There's one in the mountains, and they pose a big problem for the Wolves. I want to get rid of it before we leave Kaer Morhen."

"Let's talk about something else. There's something you haven't told us." Letho crossed his arms unhappily. "You didn't tell us what happened at the Elemental Circle. Did your Sign change?"

"You'll see soon enough."

***

***