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Towards the end of The Lady of the Lake, two travelers meet up with Boreas on the road: a pilgrim and an elf. It is fairly clear who the elf is. There is an implication we should know/figure out who the pilgrim is, when he states, with respect to the signing of Peace of Cintra,

"In truth, I was a little late."

Who was the pilgrim? Why did he consider himself late? (What could he have effected?)

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It was Sigismund Dijkstra

Although he introduced himself as Sigi Reuven

'The world has changed,' said the pilgrim. 'Something ends. I'm Sigi Reuven.'

Djikstra was the head of Redania's intelligence and at some stage a de-facto ruler of Redania. This was making him too powerful in the eyes of the nobility, hence a team of assassins was sent to imprison him. Fortunately for him, his past affair with Philippa Eilhart allowed him to escape using a magical portal. To honor his long-time assistant Ori, he has taken his surname:

'Good evening, ahem, ahem, my lord...'

'Shadow People,' Dijkstra read the front of the manuscript that he had taken from the table. 'Or the story of His Majesty's Secret Service, written by Oribasius Giafranco Paolo Reuven, law grad... Oh, Ori. At your age, such nonsense...'

'Ahem, ahem...'

'I came to say goodbye, Ori.'

Reuven looked at him in amazement.

'You see, my faithful friend,' said the spy, without waiting for the clerk to cough, 'I am old, and besides that, I am stupid. I said a word to one person. Only one. And only one word. It was one word too many, and one person too many. Pay attention, Ori. Do you hear?'

Ori Reuven rolled his astonished eyes and shook his head. Dijkstra was silent for amoment.

'You do not hear,' he said after a moment. 'And I hear them. In the corridors. Rats running around the city of Tretogor. Here we have them. Approaching on their soft little paws.'

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  • I thought the assassins came for him because he was uncovering the plot of who had murdered the King of Redania, meaning a threat to the peace treaty? And that the word too many was when he spoke with Phillipa asking for an audience with the Sorceress Lodge, probably about the above? The Lodge also wanted to remain secret. My take is that Philippa arranged the assassination.
    – Amarth
    Commented Nov 9, 2019 at 13:55
  • @Amarth there were probably more than one reasons - Hierarch Cyrus Engelkind Hemmelfar makes a note that he "needs to get rid of this ungodly spy"
    – Yasskier
    Commented Nov 10, 2019 at 20:43

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