Lytta Neyd

Astrid Lyttneyd Ásgeirrfinnbjornsdottir, better known as Lytta Neyd or Coral (for the color of her favorite lipstick), was a sorceress and one of the fourteen mages who fell during the Battle of Sodden Hill.
==Biography==
She was from the Skellige Isles but soon shortened her name to just Lytta Neyd due to her long, hard to pronounce name. Like a true Skelliger, she loved the sea and knew a good deal about different types of boats.
=== Belohun's advisor ===
A year after Geralt left Yennefer for the first time, Lytta made her way to Kerack under orders of Rissberg mages to try and get the witcher Geralt to help with a problem and decided the best way to do this was to have the witcher thrown in jail under false accusations, for her to anonymously bail him out, and he'd then seek her out for it. Thus she met with Kerack's king, Belohun, and while the king allowed her to stay and act as an advisor to him for the duration, he originally had a problem with one of her well known skills: she made a living by creating magical concoctions to prevent and/or abort pregnancies. While this was fine across most of the continent, it was considered immoral to Belohun, who believed a woman busy with children wouldn't stray from home.
After back and forth, the king soon revealed his real reason: he was taking a new, young wife soon and he wanted to have an heir with her and so didn't want her having access to these concoctions. After Lytta agreed to not sell any to his betrothed she was allowed to continue her practice. She then brought up one more thing for the king: that Geralt had embezzled funds from the royal purse. Falling for the misinformation, the king summarily had the visiting witcher thrown into jail shortly after his arrival.
=== Meeting Geralt ===
Four days later, Lytta was then furiously approached by the witcher after she'd bailed him out and he learned she was the reason he was both thrown in jail and released. As they talked, she tried to seduce Geralt but he did his best to ignore it and instead pretended to look like he was interested in her assistant, Mozaïk, before leaving. Mad and feeling humiliated, Lytta took out her anger by casting a spell that flipped Mozaïk's left hand 180 degrees so her palm was facing up.
The next day she was once again approached by Geralt, who had run into Mozaïk and saw what Lytta had done to the girl's hand. However, things soon took a different turn and Geralt found himself in Lytta's bed and ended up staying with her for another four days.
Sometime after the Summer Solstice, she decided to help Geralt find out what became of his swords and performed hydromancy. However, when Geralt initially concentrated, his thoughts drifted off and the first vision was of Yennefer, much to Lytta's chagrin, before changing focus and showing visions near Fort Ravelin, a woman standing on a tree limb, and the Borsody Auction House, before switching to a vision of a hill. However, she realized this last vision wasn't for Geralt but instead directed at her. A few days later she then informed Geralt he was being "asked" to go to those that'd sent Lytta to talk to him in the first place: the mages at Rissberg Castle. There, one of her former lovers, Algernon Guincamp (better known as Pinety) wrote to keep in touch with Lytta and informed her about Geralt's arrival, who Pinety didn't much care for.
By mid to late July, Geralt returned from his trip but for Lytta their short-term romance had lost its passion and she sent him away to wait a couple days, making it clear things were over between them. That same day she was visited by Pinety, who'd dropped in to say goodbye.
=== The storm ===
Roughly a month later, Belohun's wedding was taking place and Lytta attended the festivities, eventually getting Geralt alone and pretending to remark on the ships coming into port, notably one with black sails, before talking about the aftereffects of what happened at Rissberg. However, she finally cut to the chase of why she really got him alone: she wanted to have one last pleasant memory of them together. Before Geralt could respond the wedding party arrived and made its way through before the king started to give a speech. As he did, the wind briefly revealed his betrothed's face who spotted Lytta in the crowd and immediately filled with hatred towards the sorceress.
Lytta, putting things together, pulled Geralt aside once more, this time revealing the betrothed was an ousted former Aretuza student by the name of Ildiko Breckl, and the feelings of hatred was mutual. However, something more sinister was afoot: she'd recognized the ship with black sails as the Acherontia, a ship infamous for causing bad things to happen wherever it appeared. Geralt then excused himself and rushed off on learning this new information.
Not even an hour later Geralt returned, this time with Dandelion in toll, but with blood on his outfit. As Lytta asked what happened, the witcher merely told her she'd learn soon enough: Belohun's eldest son that'd been exiled, Viraxas, had returned and through a number of ploys, killed off his father and married Ildiko, who he'd been involved with for quite awhile, making him the new king. As the guests were asked to leave to mourn Belohun's death, Lytta, Geralt, Dandelion, and Mozaïk set off for a walk.
As they started to walk around the terrace they saw thousands of rats running away from the sea and suddenly a furious storm hit, sending such huge waves that villas on the high cliffs were starting to crumble and fall into the sea. Lytta teleported herself away while the rest remained behind, trying to help those caught in the surge waters and, after the storm ended just as quickly as it started, Lytta returned with her medical bag, commenting how she'd returned. This didn't appease Geralt though, who commented coolly she'd left, also signifying his answer to her earlier proposal. As Lytta gave an equally icy remark back she called to Mozaïk to come with her but her assistant decided to take Geralt's side, leaving her mentor.
=== Leaving Kerack ===
However, Lytta's time in Kerack's capital was to be short lived: while her villa had remained unscathed by the storm, Kerack's new ruler had made it forbidden to work any magic without the king's permission and mages weren't allowed to possess land or property and, if they did, they were to dispose of it and obtain a license or leave the kingdom. As Lytta was the only mage in Kerack who owned a house, she knew this was actually Ildiko's personal revenge coupled with the counselors', who saw Lytta's skills helping women as immoral. She thus moved to sell the villa and search for a new place to set up shop.
12 days after the storm, she visited Yennefer to relate all the latest news that happened, eventually touching on the subject that she'd been involved with Geralt, as surely Yennefer had heard. As Lytta tried to brush it off as it was purely business and he'd had no real interest in her, she tried to turn Yennefer's ire to Mozaïk, who'd now returned to her mentor, and to try and humiliate the young girl further, believing Geralt had used and left her after growing bored. However, Lytta was quickly shut down when Yennefer accidentally revealed that Geralt had left the young girl flowers and a letter on the morning he left and she realized Mozaïk only returned because Geralt had told her to do so. As Lytta sat there astounded, wondering why Geralt told her to return despite knowing she'd punish the girl, Yennefer commented that Lytta didn't know Geralt at all.
=== Sodden Hill ===
Many years later, around , Nilfgaard invaded the north and conquered Cintra. However, when they moved on Sodden, the rest of the north pushed back and the Battle of Sodden Hill took place. Lytta joined her fellow mages here to defend the north and, thanks to the mages' efforts, they were able to stop Nilfgaard. However, it came at a dear price: Lytta and 12 other mages perished during the battle, and the last memory Triss had of Lytta on that hill was of a "trunk with no arms and no legs which was screaming so horrifically". Lytta's name, along with the rest of the fallen mages, was carved into a stone obelisk on the hill to commemorate their deaths.
==Notes==
* She was a natural redhead, and while that hair color typically meant freckles, she didn't have any, having magically removed hers.
* She had a tattoo of an angelfish on her hip, the only indicator of her true age, as by the time takes place the angelfish had become synonymous of one being ostentatious rather than their original meaning of a coveted, rare artifact.
* In , she's mentioned a few times. In particular, she magically compressed a Nilfgaardian soldier and a nobleman.
== Gallery ==
Tw spanish book Lytta Neyd.jpg|On Spanish cover
Books Lytta poland.jpg|Lytta from back on Polish cover of the Season of Storms
Lytta neyd by Jana Komárková.png|Lytta by Jana Komarková in Czech translation of Season of Storms
Gwent cardart skellige coral alpha.jpg|Gwent alternative cardart
Denis_Gordeev_Coral.jpeg
Denis_Gordeev_Coral_1.jpeg
== References ==
== External links ==
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de:Lytta Neyd
pl:Lytta Neyd
pt-br:Lytta Neyd
ru:Литта Нейд
uk:Літта Нейд
cs:Lytta Neyd
Category:Humans
Category:Mages
Category:Sword of Destiny characters
Category:Blood of Elves characters
Category:The Lady of the Lake characters
Category:Season of Storms characters
Category:The Witcher 3 mentioned-only characters