The guards let her in without issue.

"Caleb says to let her in," the second guard said as he came back to his post.

The estate was even larger than she had expected, a large villa was built on top of a small hill that overlooked the rest of the Lord's lands. A dozen buildings, a small vineyard, and garden and a large pond and running stream all hidden behind the well fortified and guarded walls.

Professor Hoat was waiting for her outside one of the larger buildings tucked away in a more wooded area further from the Lord's villa. He was a tall man, thin, with dusky brown hair. He looked to the tail end of his thirties, younger than she had expected.

He greeted her amicably and ushered her into the building and out of the sun.

"I'm pleased to meet you," Hoat said offering his hand, she took it, noting his slight eastern accent. "I have been anticipating you since our Lord Karlik received word of your visit from Oxenfurt. It is not often we are visited by a sorcerer from the royal court."

Yennefer pursed her lips into a tight smile and nodded at him. The building they were in was older than she had expected, old stone, reinforced and solid. Most likely a part of an old keep or castle that they had built over when they built the Lord's estate.

"You have traveled far. I am sure you do not wish to waste any more time. Your letter said you were looking for someone." The professor said, leading her down a hallway.

"Yes," Yennefer replied, "A young girl, ashen hair, green eyes, I am to believe she was heading this way."

"Cirilla," Hoat nodded. "Yes, yes she came here not too long ago. A troubled young woman."

Yennefer turned to look at the man as they made their way down the hall, truly look at him. His mind was a blur of different thoughts, difficult to read. Images of books, diagrams of creatures, a lab, vials of liquid, a theater of some sort, ropes and ties, chains, a feast, the jeers of a crowd, it all came quick and fast before fading out to nothing.

Unlike the brutes and fools she had been dealing with since trying to find Ciri the Professor was a well-educated man and if he specialized in monsters he would have had experience with magic before. It would be more difficult to read him, especially when they were on the move. She would need to put more effort into reading his mind but that could wait, for now, he was willing to talk and she honestly did not wish to relive the memories of Ciri gagging on another man's cock if she could help it.

"If you came from Oxenfurt, you must know I was expelled from the Academy," Hoat said, he motioned down another hallway and continued when Yennefer nodded. "Most of the men in Oxenfurt and the Academy are fools. Pompous and arrogant." He stated plainly and shook his head frustrated. Yennefer did not argue. "Could not see the truths so plainly in front of them. Thankfully the Lord here is not so short-sighted."

She followed him through into a workshop, a large hall with torches lining the walls, large windows letting in as much sunlight as possible. There were countless candles and incense, an attempt to mask the smell most likely, only to partial success.

On a table to her left were three drowner corpses laid bare and spread, their chests had been opened exposing their inner organs, a man stood over one of the creatures, his face covered with a mask, he glanced up for the briefest moment before going back to work on the corpse.

On the other side of the room another table, a dead water hag, in a similar state as the drowners, both of its limbs missing.

"Hag liver calms fever better than any weed or potion." Hoat offered as an explanation. Yennefer gave him a worried glance.

"This is what got you expelled from the Academy?" she asked, knowing there had to be more to the story, simple dissections would not warrant that.

Hoat continued through the hall, passing a dead fiend on another table. "These creatures are a resource gone unused for too long. They kill our livestock, destroy crops and property and even kill men and women. We in return kill them and leave their bodies to waste away when they could offer us so much."

"You're harvesting them," Yennefer said, eyeing the gars of organs that lined shelves and the tools laid bare beside each table, knives and saws, buckets and barrels. "To sell."

He shrugged in response.

"Still this hardly seems reason enough to expel you from the Academy," she asked.

They left the workshop and went down a flight of stairs, then another, and another. "The more I learned of these monsters the more I learned they were not so different from us. The same things drive them as all beasts. A drowner, or a great plains lion, or the peasant working the fields, all the same really."

They stopped in front of a large door, made from wood reinforced with iron with large bolts on each side. There was cloth pressed into the seams where it met the wall.

"But the Academy refused to listen," Hoat said bitterly as he pulled the cloth from the seams. "They called me perverse and **** me out." he shook his head and began unbolting the door.