Romance routes: Anca, Lacra and Marat

Follow the character’s quest, then explicitly accept the relationship. Anca has a second opportunity to express your feelings at the end of her expedition. Lacra’s invitation depends on your connection with her and the choices at the end of her night quest. Marat first needs to trust you with his private task; afterwards, his meeting is time-sensitive.

Choose a character below to start from your current objective. The final conversations and later outcomes are folded away so you can stop before their spoilers.

Find your current route

Character	Quest to look for	Most useful next check
Anca	Where Old Devils Lie → Stronger Than Achilles	Has her research finished, and are you returning during the required phase?
Lacra	The Night of Horrors, after Our Rotten Roots	Return at night and hear out her personal story during the expedition.
Marat / Crake	Distant Shadows → A Closer Look	Has he offered the private job? If the later meeting is available, go to it promptly.

Finish the companion route before committing to your final confrontation with Brencis. Check the ending routes and save points before departure. Do not assume an unfinished personal quest will remain available afterwards. Before advancing time, check the selected objective and its warnings.

Keep a save before a final relationship conversation if you want to reconsider it. With Anca or Marat, choosing to give in to hunger can kill the person you came to meet. Resolve a feeding problem before the conversation; the combat and recovery guide explains the relevant preparation.

Anca

Reach the end of her expedition

Return after her research. After the prologue, check Anca’s research objective in Where Old Devils Lie. Once she is ready, ask whether she found anything of interest in the books. An unavailable conversation can mean the research wait has not finished.
Solve Enolf’s map clues. Work in Maragir. The first clue points to an isolated shrine near the mountains, away from settlements; the reflection clue points to the small pond fed by melting snow. A cross near a settlement and a forest away from the mountains do not fit those clues.
Return before noon and follow the search. Follow Anca, find the lake, then follow the streams upriver toward the ruins. Use the current Journal marker as the route changes rather than going back to the first search area.
Investigate the entrance and painting. The ruins lead into Stronger Than Achilles. Its objective calls for a daytime return. You need for the rune activation, so arrive able to use Witchcraft. Its first rank is learned at the end of Smoke and Ashes; you do not need to find a separate Manual for that initial ability.
Continue through the trials. Inspect the idol, withstand the endurance trial, explore the side chambers and investigate the inscribed tablet. Use Focus Mode when the objective calls for an inspection. Activate the runes with Astral Communion and survive the ensuing trial. If the Journal tells you to clear the ruins for Anca, finish that objective before expecting her to continue.
Finish the Font of Life sequence and leave together. The relationship conversation comes after this part of the expedition. Finding the Font or choosing who uses it is not itself the final acceptance of the relationship.

At the broken trial, Anca explains her personal reason for seeking the Font. You can express love there, but missing that earlier declaration does not by itself remove the later opportunity.

Show Anca’s final relationship choices

Start with “There's a conversation we need to finish.”. Continue with “I beg to differ.”; “I meant what I said.” is the alternative available after the earlier declaration.

If “I love you.” appears, it provides a declaration here. “Let's do something fun for once.” also continues toward the relationship choice. Finally, choose “Screw decency. I want you, too.”.

The options to forget the conversation or remain friends take a different path. Do not select one merely because the earlier declaration is missing: use the available continuation above.

Lacra

Begin the night quest and hear her story

Work with Lacra through Our Rotten Roots. Her follow-up is The Night of Horrors. If the Journal says to wait one day, complete that wait and return to talk; do not confuse it with the later instruction to meet at night.
Ask about the idea she wanted to discuss. Agree to investigate the ancient vrakhir. If you postpone the departure, return to the conversation about searching for him. At the phase choice, wait with her or return at night as the objective requests.
Follow the wisps. The quest leads through its marked fights and investigations, then into the sunken crypt and hidden cave. Inspect the stone slab, rockslide and sarcophagus when their objectives appear; return to Lacra when the Journal asks you to check in.
Hear out the family conversation after the swamp encounter. Before leaving that conversation, ask “Did you have another child?” or “What happened to your husband? And what did Brencis do?”. These questions can establish the concern that supports her later invitation. You do not have to select every flirtatious line throughout the game.

Her later invitation is conditional. If she moves straight to preparations and departure, quest progress alone was not enough to establish the connection for that scene.

Show the mandrake decision and Lacra’s final choices

At the mandrake conversation, choose “[eat the mandrake]” to continue along this route. An initial refusal offers another chance to agree. Confirming that you want nothing to do with it bypasses the later relationship conversation.

When Lacra makes the invitation, choose “[drink]”. The intervening conversation has different versions depending on your replies. Continue with “[kiss her]” when it appears and let the scene finish.

Choosing to leave instead of kissing her ends that opportunity. Accepting the mandrake is an earlier step, not a substitute for accepting the later invitation and kiss.

Marat

Get the private task

Continue the manumits’ story through What Moves the Dead and the conversation after leaving the underground ruins. At the cemetery, offering to walk Marat back to the hideout increases his trust. If you go with him, continue the conversation at the hideout; if you leave separately, return when he has something to discuss.

Earlier conversations also matter. “All clear. I’m on it.” when accepting the missing-scouts job and “Just one more thing – you can count on me.” after the ambush are opportunities to build trust. They are useful choices rather than a requirement to select every friendly response.

The decisive check is whether Marat actually asks you to observe Ascar. If he says he has reconsidered and sent Drogos instead, the private task has been refused. Reaching the cemetery or seeing the wound-treatment conversation alone does not prove the route is open.

Follow Ascar and find Marat promptly

In Distant Shadows, Marat asks you to watch the beekeeper Ascar in Tantari, discreetly, from dawn until dusk. Go by day and follow the current observation objective. Use the indicated hiding positions; do not turn an observation step into a confrontation. If Ascar is absent, inspect the hut, window, beehive and trail as the Journal directs.

Return to Marat with the result. After his reaction, talk to Drogos and choose to go after him. A Closer Look points outside Farriers’s Gate, across the road from Greifberg.

Go straight to that meeting. There is a one-day opportunity after this follow-up is set up. Spending that day on other activities can send Marat back to the hideout and close the meeting. Saying you will leave him alone can also keep the “Find Marat” objective from being added, even though he initially goes to that same spot.

Show Marat’s final relationship choices

A direct path through the conversation is:

“May I join you, then?”
“I'm worried about you. What's wrong?”
“Please, just tell me the truth about Ascar.”
Hear his explanation, then “Hey. Nothing you say can change the way I see you.”.
When he kisses you, choose “[kiss him back]” and continue through the scene.

If you opened by saying he was hiding something, the response that you came because you care for him can still lead back to the conversation about Ascar. Dropping the subject, saying you are not interested after the first kiss, and returning the kiss are different outcomes. The first kiss alone does not confirm that you completed the relationship scene.

If an option or person is missing

Anca’s research conversation is absent: Finish the prologue and check whether her research wait has finished. Later objectives separately require a return before noon or during the day.
Anca has no “I meant what I said” option: That version depends on an earlier declaration. At the final conversation, “I beg to differ” provides another continuation.
Lacra ends the visit without an invitation: Review the earlier personal conversation. Asking about her child or her husband’s fate can establish the needed concern; if you have passed the scene, use a save from before that conversation to change it.
You refused the mandrake: An initial refusal offers a second decision. A confirmed refusal takes the route around the later relationship conversation.
Marat gives the private job to Drogos: This is a refusal of the task, not an instruction to wait for night. Revisit earlier trust-building choices in an earlier save if you want to change the route.
Marat is back at the hideout instead of his meeting spot: Check whether you spent the one-day opportunity. If you only lack the objective after telling Drogos you would leave him alone, check the meeting spot promptly.
The person is dead: The relationship conversation cannot repair that outcome. To change it, return to a save before the fatal decision.

Multiple relationships and later outcomes

Show relationship and epilogue spoilers

You can complete more than one of these relationship routes in a playthrough. Completing another relationship is not itself a requirement to abandon one of these three quests. You still need to meet each person’s entry conditions, time restrictions and final choices.

A completed relationship does not guarantee that the person will be present later. The campaign also accounts for deaths, cooperation, betrayal and departure. Do not treat a successful scene as protection from later story decisions.

Anca and Marat have relationship-aware epilogue conversations when they are present. Anca’s later conversation can still involve leaving; the romance and the future she chooses are separate questions. Lacra’s later situation also depends on her survival and connection with Coen. These distinctions explain why seeing the relationship scene and obtaining a particular final situation are different goals.