Prepare Esme's medicine with hot water and three spoonfuls of herbs, then finish giving it to her before Sacred Covenant. Buying the mixture alone does not finish Withering Away.
From the bedroom to the sword
- Finish Pieter's opening conversation. After All Good Things, check the bedside chest for optional clothing and equip it.
- Locate the chopping block beside the bedroom. Approach its axe and use the displayed interaction. Follow each chopping prompt until the objective becomes “Add the firewood to the stove”; use your current bindings rather than assuming a fixed keyboard sequence.
- Use the stove in the dining area. Let breakfast finish. Esme refusing food here is part of the scene; it is not evidence that you have already made the later medicine incorrectly.
- Go through the passage into the small rear room. Find the sword against the wall near the candle table. Pick it up, open the inventory and equip it before leaving for Anca.
No Add Firewood prompt at the stove?
Return indoors from the chopping block and enter the large room with the dining table. ATH places the stove in a corner near that room’s entrance. Approach the stove itself and use the displayed Add Firewood action, not a nearby container.
If the objective still says to split logs, finish the chopping interaction first. If it says to add firewood, check that the wood was received and that you are facing the dining-room stove. Successful placement starts breakfast; after the scene, the objective advances to picking up the sword. Do not keep repeating stove interactions once the journal has moved on.
Find Anca and choose whether to stay
- Knock at Anca's hut, then use Focus outside. Inspect the partly watered vegetable patch and empty water barrel. Follow the path around the house toward the river, speak with Anca and follow her home.
- Obtain the herbs and recipe. The requested price is 50 denarius, with a 25-denarius negotiation or credit available if you cannot afford it. You do not need to abandon the quest to raise the full asking price.
- Read the time cost before answering the storm invitation. Leaving costs one segment. Staying starts the optional Page-Turner lesson and takes two segments in total; it is an extra segment, not two additional ones.
Brew, serve and finish
- Return home and finish the conversation with Pieter after Vladimir leaves. Hand over the herbs and interact with the cooking pot.
- Choose hot water, then three spoonfuls. Do not substitute boiling or cold water. Continue the conversation about sword practice, check the brew when ready, and offer Esme a story so she drinks.
- Check the transition to Like Father, Like Son. Do not stop with the herbs in your bag or an unfinished pot interaction.
If you are stuck
For a missing sword objective, check the weapon slot as well as your inventory: carrying and equipping are separate actions. For the Anca search, inspect both garden clues before following the river path. For medicine, distinguish collecting ingredients from preparing and administering them.
The optional Latin lesson is a separate activity; use the Page-Turner walkthrough for its answers and herb collection. The later chapel outcome depends on completing the remedy correctly and in time. This does not establish Esme's survival through every possible later story branch.
Continue: Page-Turner: Latin answers, herbs and helping Anca
Page-Turner: Latin answers, herbs and helping Anca