Kitsu

**Kitsu** was a young, elven student studying magic under Filavandrel when, in 1161, she disappeared in Kaedwen.

## Biography

In 1161, she, along with many other young elves in Kaedwen, was studying magic under Filavandrel and she was regarded as one of the few that still knew the old elven dialect, Ellylon. However, she went missing that year. Unknown to the others, she'd been kidnapped by Deglan to be experimented on by Reidrich to try and create new type of monsters so the witchers could continue to be needed and earn a living.

Reidrich, who'd been interested in crossbreeds for some time, tried to mix her with a mahr but the experiment failed and they thought she'd died and discarded her. Instead, Kitsu had used her new mahr abilities to merely create the illusion that she'd died and escaped into the wilderness. However, due to the experiments, her appearance and mindset changed to be almost animalistic, though she could still communicate with others. She created a powerful illusion to hide a section of the forest and made her home in the abandoned eleven school and began to kidnap more elven girls in turn to experiment on herself, though they all died from it save for one who she claimed as her daughter, Nesa.

In 1165, she bewitched a leshen which attacked a family passing through but Vesemir happened to be in the area and managed to kill it, but not before the creature spoke in Ellylon to stay out of the den. Shorty after this, Filavandrel found her den in the old school in his search for the young girls, but instead of killing him, Kitsu tied him up before going back out on her hunts.

Shortly after, Vesemir and Tetra came through the area to try and find whatever had bewitched the leshen. After noticing they passed the same elven statue twice in the same day, Vesemir commented Tetra must have gotten them lost. Tetra realized it was an illusion and cast a spell that dispelled Kitsu's powerful illusion, revealing ruins. As they got closer, they saw Kitsu who spoke in Ellylon before having a new version of a basilisk attack them. The pair managed to kill it off and Kitsu took off in a fox form but not before Vesemir injured her.

She later returned to her den only to find it had all been caved in and her "child" lost in the collapse and Tetra waiting for her. Tetra then lied and told Kitsu that Vesemir had collapsed it and killed her daughter, resulting in Kitsu agreeing to assist Tetra in attacking the witchers' keep, Kaer Morhen. To do so, Kitsu went to the Red Swamp and when Tetra summoned portals, Kitsu used her powers to summon the swamp's monsters to go through the portals and attack.

She eventually joined in the battle herself when Tetra cornered the school's mages. When Vesemir busted in to rescue them and Illyana Zerbst, Kitsu cast an illusion to try and draw Vesemir into a happy fantasy of him and Illyana being together and having a family but eventually gave herself away and Vesemir broke the illusion and began to attack the knights and Tetra. After an arduous fight, Vesemir stabbed both Tetra and Kitsu, only for Vesemir to realize this too had been another illusion of hers: instead of Kitsu, Vesemir had fatally killed Reidrich and severely injured Illyana while Tetra remained unharmed and Kitsu looked on as a fox from the ceiling beams. However, the actual Tetra was killed right after by Deglan. As Vesemir carried a dying Illyana out of the keep, he saw Kitsu's fox form watching from above, but Illyana told him "she [Kitsu] didn't ask for this." Vesemir then left her in peace as the basement area started to blow up.

## Notes

* While she's classified as a crossbreed, Kitsu's appearance and powerful illusions, as well as her fox form, were inspired by aguaras.

## References

1. ↑ Twitter: Let's name her Nesa
2. ↑ Twitter: Kitsu inspiration