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Summary
Chapter Six: The Voice of Reason
Geralt is in a cave with Nenneke where she is tending an incredible collection of plants that are growing in pots and vats, up rocks, and on trellises. Geralt recognizes many of them as rare species used in elixirs. Nenneke asks Geralt to stay a few days longer, but Geralt tells her that it’s time for him to leave. She asks him what his rush is and if it’s because he’s afraid that Yennefer will find him there. Geralt reluctantly admits that he’s avoiding Yennefer. Nenneke says that Yennefer had been there three months earlier and that they argued, so she doesn’t think Yennefer will be back soon. Nenneke also tells Geralt that Yennefer looked for him when she was at the temple. She explains that he and Yennefer only know each other superficially. Geralt says that he knows that Yennefer went to Nenneke looking for a cure, but Nenneke refuses to admit whether he is correct.
Geralt produces several jewels from a purse and hands them to Nenneke. He tells her that he bought them with his payment for breaking the striga’s curse in Wyzim. Geralt wants Nenneke to take the jewels, keeping some for the temple and giving the rest to Yennefer. Nenneke advises him not to give Yennefer the jewels because it will make Yennefer even more furious with him. She accuses him of being immature for running away from Yennefer. Geralt tries to explain what happened between them, but Nenneke cuts him off by telling him that she doesn’t want to be the go-between for him and Yennefer.
Geralt tells Nenneke that he’s not trying to appease or bribe her, but that he simply wants to help Yennefer pay for her treatments, which are expensive. Nenneke chides him and asks if he knows how much Yennefer can earn from helping a noble lady with an unwanted pregnancy. Nenneke explains that, like most sorceresses, Yennefer will never be able to have children. She tells Geralt that it was the price she paid for her magical gifts. Geralt suggests that sorcerers can raise the dead, so magic should be able to reverse the atrophy of Yennefer’s organs.
Nenneke tells Geralt that he ought to stop worrying about Yennefer and start worrying about himself since he’s making human mistakes that a witcher should not be making. When he says nothing, she presses further and tells him that he is sick. She observes that he’s not fit, has a rapid pulse, and that his reflexes are slow. She tells him that he needs to go to therapy and should sit for a trance. Geralt refuses the trance once again, because he does not want to know about his future. Nenneke accepts this and changes the subject, asking Geralt how he and Yennefer met. He says he will tell her after supper. Before they leave the cave, Geralt asks Nenneke why the plants there don’t grow anywhere else in the world anymore. Nenneke explains that the sun’s light has changed. The crystal roof filters out the lethal rays so some plants still grow there. Geralt asks Nenneke if people should shelter under a roof like that, and Nenneke tells him that it’s too late for that.
Analysis
Nenneke’s plant collection hints at a larger catastrophe in the natural world. Nenneke is fully aware of this disaster, while Geralt is not. Nenneke’s plants are so numerous that even Geralt doesn’t recognize some of them, despite his own learning and extensive travel. Geralt has said before that Nenneke is one of the best healers, and it’s likely that her huge collection of plants helps her in her work. The garden is also like a time capsule, preserving plants that have gone extinct elsewhere in the world. Nenneke had the foresight to create a garden that would be protected from changes in the sun, which suggests that she knows quite a lot about global events, despite her relative isolation in the temple. Her proactive work with her garden notwithstanding, she has a fatalistic attitude about how the sun’s changes will affect other life. She says that it’s too late for people to protect themselves, but she hasn’t tried at all to save herself or others.
This chapter features Geralt’s destiny as an important theme. In earlier chapters, Geralt has explained that he believes destiny is set in stone. This is a central part of “A Question of Price,” the chapter that comes right before this one. That provides additional context for the discussion of destiny in this chapter. It also provides narrative support for Geralt’s internal journey when it comes to his destiny. Geralt doesn’t want to participate in a trance with Iola because he is afraid of what his future holds. He believes that there’s nothing he can do to change it, and this leads him to refuse Nenneke’s offer. Geralt doesn’t give any hints about what specifically he is afraid of, but the fear itself is strong enough for him to avoid learning about his future.
While Yennefer has not yet been seen in the book, Nenneke’s conversation with Geralt reveals some details. Most significantly, we begin to understand that she is an important person in Geralt’s life. Though the dimensions of their relationship are unknown, it’s clear that there is tension between Geralt and Yennefer that has been brewing for some time. Despite this, Nenneke states that Geralt and Yennefer share a bond. While Nenneke doesn’t expound on what kind of bond it is, she implies that it causes problems between them. Though Nenneke shuts the conversation down before Geralt can reveal what happened between the two of them, it’s clear that the feelings he has for her are complicated by their situation and that she’s furious with him. Beyond her relationship with Geralt, we come to learn certain things about Yennefer’s life as well. She is a sorceress who, despite the fact that all sorceresses are rendered infertile, is seeking medical treatments to allow her to carry a child. Nenneke also calls her exceptional but does describe how exactly. While this short section provides more questions than answers, it teases at an intriguing love interest for Geralt.
Geralt’s inhumanity is the subject of conversation when Nenneke lectures him about making human mistakes. While the preceding stories have slowly revealed the ways that Geralt is no longer strictly human for having been transformed into a witcher, this is the most straightforward discussion of the subject so far in the book. Nenneke even reprimands him for trying to be human when he never will be. This comes after their conversation about how Yennefer is searching for ways to have a child, something that she gave up when she transformed into a sorceress. This suggests that one thing Yennefer and Geralt have in common is their difficulty accepting that they are not fully human. Nenneke’s argument is practical and the symptoms she names in Geralt, like delayed reaction time, are things that could put his life in danger in a fight against a monster. This supports the fact that witchers are capable of things that exceed human capabilities. Despite this, both Yennefer and Geralt seem to regret the sacrifices they have made for their superhuman powers.
