Beyond Redania's borders, the rest of the world watched with wonder.
Emperor Emhyr saw the chaos as an opportunity to claim the North with little resistance. His spies moved swiftly, making deals with desperate Redanian nobles while his armies prepared for invasion.
The other Northern Kingdoms, already struggling to hold against Nilfgaard, were thrown into panic. If a single man could wipe out a kingdom's leadership in one night, then no one was safe. Every ruler, every noble, every general feared that they could be next.
This chaos only instigated a whole change in the political scenery of the land.
But the Crimson Reaper wasn't impervious to this. Now, he had a huge bounty on his head, along with Triss and others. But the question was: who would take the bounty? And even if someone did, would they be able to complete it? Besides, Emhyr had already announced a huge reward for Geralt publicly and even offered him a noble title in the lands of his own kingdom. He had also promised more rewards once he conquered Redania.
Of course, Liam didn't know any of this, nor did he care.
Geralt had already left for Skellige, and thus Liam was now free to deal with alchemy while Triss and the others just enjoyed some downtime in Kaer Morhen. Natasha wanted to leave with Geralt, but in the end, she changed her mind.
The beauty of this place was too much to be seen just once a day. She needed the full course. While Natasha roamed around Kaer Morhen, Steve was tending to Uma, as he found the creature quite amusing, and helped Vesemir.
Both of them were superhumans, so they shared that trait, and he loved interacting with the old man, who was knowledgeable. They had decided to take a short rest before leaving for Oxenfurt to meet with Tony and, after that, see where they should go to help Liam in his trial.
A few days had gone by since Geralt had left, and Liam was now being taught alchemy by Triss and Keira alike. But today was quite an amusing day for Liam, if one said so—in fact, amusing for everyone except Triss.
Morning had barely broken over Kaer Morhen when Triss Merigold found herself facing an enemy she could not fight. Her stomach churned violently, sending sharp cramps through her body. No, lads, it wasn't periods—mages and sorceresses couldn't have children, so there was no question of a monthly outburst.
Except for Yen. She could have a bad mood for no reason.
"Not used to Kaer Morhen's fine cuisine?" Keira teased as she noticed Triss's discomfort.
"It's not the food," Triss hissed.
But Keira wasn't wrong. The previous night, Vesemir had cooked a hearty stew for them—something that had seemed fine at the time, but now, Triss deeply regretted eating it. The worst part? This wasn't some minor stomachache. No, she had been running to relieve herself far too often, and she knew the others would start noticing.
And, of course, Liam did.
"You don't look so good," Liam said. "Dysentery?"
"Something like that," Triss groaned.
"I'll make you a potion. Should settle your stomach in no time," Liam said. He had made potions for this when he was in Velen. The people in the villages had far too many cases of it, so Liam had learned to make the potion quite early, alleviating the need for Keira to toil over such a simple remedy.
"No!" Triss didn't take even a second to refuse.
"No?" Liam was confused now.
"I… I'm allergic to all potions," Triss hesitated before blurting out. That made Liam pause.
"That makes no sense. You're a sorceress. You literally make potions."
"It's complicated." She clearly didn't want to explain further and left it at that.
"Alright, no potions."
Liam pulled out a small container from his inventory—a small container of pills.
"What's that?" Triss asked. She already knew that Liam carried a separate space with him, which further proved his conjecture that he was from a different dimension.
"Modern medicine," Liam replied casually. "Unlike potions, it won't mess with your body's natural magic. Just take one and drink some water."
"Modern medicine?" Triss was confused.
"There is no magic in this pill. You can take it," Liam said.
"Medicine? Is that what it's called?" Triss was skeptical and looked at the container. She had never seen potions in pill form because that was very difficult to make, and from her magical senses, she could also tell that the container and whatever was inside didn't contain even a small pinch of magic.
"Yes. It's from my lands," Liam said.
"If this makes it worse, I'll hex you," Triss said.
Moments later, Triss swallowed the pill with some water. Within half an hour, the intense stomach pain dulled, and she no longer felt the urgent need to run to the woods every few minutes. She let out a relieved sigh, resting back against the wall.
"So, you're allergic to potions but fine with his mysterious medicine? I swear, Triss, you're full of surprises," Keira said. It was not the first time Keira had seen those kinds of pills before. He had given them to some of the villagers before, seeing their symptoms, and surprisingly, they worked.
Those pills now made sense to Keira. They were not from the Continent to begin with. In the last few days, Natasha had told them about their world, while Keira and Triss had listened to her tales.
The more they listened, the more they thought Natasha was speaking of some kind of fairy tale. There were machines that could fly and roll on land? Glass so cheap that there were walls made of it? Weapons made entirely out of science that could destroy kingdoms forever?
But seeing the medicine today made both Keira and Triss realize that their world might really be what Natasha had been saying.