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"Most likely you know nothing at all of guilt... For you were created to do terrible things, no? I very much wish I were like you." |
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| - Giltine to Geralt, Witch's Lament | |||
Giltine was a Redanian woman and the daughter of Potrim and Juna who lived in Neisse during the 13th century.[1]
Biography[]
Throughout her childhood, Giltine was assaulted and groomed by her father who valued her more than his wife Juna. At a certain point in her teenage years, she fell pregnant with his child, and so her father hired a lamia working nearby to help terminate the birth. Traumatised by this and her youth, Giltine soon after heard a traveler tell Potrim of two witches in the Kestrel Mountains that could help with emotions and so she fled to their mountainous retreat. The two witches, Milda and Zemyna, began teaching the group that had gathered, including Giltine, about the five stages of a true lament - exordium, laudatio, comploratio, consolatio, exhortatio.[1]
A short while later, following Potrim's wishes, the witcher Geralt of Rivia arrived at the retreat to convince Giltine to come home, having been told by her father she had been kidnapped. Controlled by her desire to heal her grief, Giltine refused to go, stating she would rather slit her wrists than return in that pain. The following day, the group met to continue their tutelage, joined by Geralt, and before he was attacked by member Bandura, Giltine admitted her pregnancy and termination, much to the witcher's surprise. Finally, during the night, he was able to convince her to leave the retreat as her admission had helped her heal.
After returning to her family manor, Giltine was reunited with her father and mother, the latter becoming so overjoyed and mentally broken that she randomly bit Potrim's nose. As night fell, Giltine took her revenge for years of abuse, cutting her father's throat with a sword while her mother could only watch blankly, her mind almost completely gone. As the witcher burst in, the lamia that had assisted Giltine possessed her and called for the guards, blaming Potrim's death on Geralt. As Giltine was now lady of the manor, they followed her orders, knocking him to the ground and only holding off killing him on Giltine's, or technically the lamia's, orders. Geralt was strapped to a chair where he awoke to Giltine and Juna explaining the lamia's motivations, before Giltine left, burning Neisse as she went until she arrived at Agobard's house. As she explained her reasoning for Agobard's coming execution, Geralt ran over, having been let free by Juna, and killed the guards and knocked out Giltine.
Wishing to take Giltine outside of the lamia's reach for possession, the witcher took her back to the witches' retreat where she continued her healing.[1]