Although Aerio had seen what happened to his childhood home, he didn't remember it. One thing was to know, another was to remember. He had only been shown the monstrosities that were committed that day, but it frustrated him that he didn't remember any of it. He couldn't recall the emotions that tore him apart or the anger he felt that suddenly made him capable of killing three experienced knights. Sometimes Aerio had felt the anger, and he could only assume that it originated from that fateful day, but his lacking memory frustrated him.
The landscape around him was still the same as before. He was still in that castle, but it was different now. The scenery around him had turned greyer, subduing the colors he had once seen. Older figures, some with their chains, others not, were in conversation with one another. Aerio looked at them, partly wondering what they were talking about, but mostly Aerio was busy feeling betrayed. The previous God showed him his childhood home brought to pieces. Now he wondered: why did the Gods take the memory of that away from him?
"The Gods never commits an act before it has been carefully considered." Aerio heard a voice behind him. A man, without any chain of knowledge approached him. The man's face looked partly family, but Aerio was too furious to pay him any mind. "You can be angry and ignore me all you want, but you cannot ignore the Gods. They are the ones deciding your destiny." The man continued. Aerio turned towards him. "The Gods have ignored me all my life. Especially at a time of need when I was young and watched my family get slaughtered." Aerio snapped. "Believe me, old man, I have not ignored the Gods, they have ignored me."
"We have not ignored you, champion. We have all witnessed your journey of life." The voice that answered was female. It sounded old and wise, much wiser than the man Aerio had just snapped at. "Then I suppose you have all the answers I seek." Aerio answered bluntly. There was a massive tone of sarcasm in his voice. Aerio knew the Goddess would not take a liking to it. "Sarcasm will not get you far, champion." She answered in a stricter tone.
"But you are correct in assuming we have the answers you seek. It was our decision to take them from you, and that is one we have all agreed to uphold." Aerio sensed his anger flare. "Those memories concern my childhood! I have a right to know them!" The Goddess did not respond. "You erased the memories of that day, the one I had to relive in the previous realm! Now you're telling me that neither you nor any of the other Gods are going to give them back to me?" There was still no response. How was man supposed to trust the Gods if they did not give back what they had stolen?
"The Crone will not make a decision this grave unless it's been carefully thought out." The man behind Aerio started to speak. Aerio shook his head frustrated. "So, what, she and the other Gods decided that to erase my memories of that day was in my best interests? How in the seven hells would they even know 'my best interests'?" Aerio questioned. The blood was boiling in his veins. At this point, he didn't care if the Gods found him disrespectful. Aerio felt like he had been done wrong and he wasn't going to hide it.
"How would they know that it was in my best interests to not remember what happened that day? I remember glimpses of that day, but not nearly enough to tell people who I am, where I come from. I catch small glimpses, I hear the screams my mother and sisters made that day, but I don't remember what I felt, what I thought." Aerio argued back. "You think you would better off knowing?" The man asked. "...to remember the smell of your sisters' flesh and blood, remember the sight of the knife cutting through their flesh while they screamed or your mother's repeated screams when the men raped and beat her?"
He didn't know why, but Aerio felt emotions twist and turn inside him. It almost seemed as though a part of him remembered that day, those features that the man mentioned. Aerio even had to turn his head away before he could form any response. "At least...I would know where I came from. I would remember my own name, my own heritage, which from what I saw in the last realm was quite a big one. Instead, I lost all memory and wandered into nothingness..."
"Why do you think the Crone and the other Gods of The Seven decided that to remove that from your mind was the best for you?" The man asked. As much as Aerio was angry, he was curious. He wanted to know what had triggered that idea. He honestly couldn't think of one reason that would make that action reasonable. "Think about this: you were a child, your mind was fragile and you went through a tremendous trauma. However, you were extremely talented in archery and other combat-forms at a very young age. Have you ever thought that maybe you were meant to find out when you were older, like right now, when you possessed the right abilities?"
Aerio looked at him confused. "The right abilities for what?" He asked. "Let me show you." The Crone suddenly answered.
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"I beg the Gods of The Seven for forgiveness for the acts I'm about commit." Aerio prayed in the sept. He took a deep breath before he rose to his feet and walked towards the great hall. The Lord of The Twins and his family were tied firmly to their chairs as Aerio walked in. He removed his dark, heavy cloak, placing it on the table before he looked over his sharp tools. At the edge of the table, he saw a letter with the king's seal. He picked it up and read it.
"I, King Benjamin Stark, First of His name, King of the Andals and of the First Men, Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and Protector of the Realms, proclaim Aerio of The Shadowlands, of House Peregrinus, the rightful title as Lord of The Shadowlands."
Aerio smiled to himself as he placed it back on the table, next to the sharper, more interesting objects he had bought. Aerio turned his head towards Lord Ursula and the rest of his family. Aerio mostly just focused on the Lord. He had to have been in his mid-thirties or something when giving the order to execute Aerio's family.
"You must be wondering how I managed to just stroll in here and tie you and your family up." Aerio spoke with a smile on his face. "It's amazing what a few friends from House of Black and White will do for the right price. One snap of my fingers, and your men were dead. I paid a little extra to make them suffer. That is the Ursula way, right?" The man refused to respond. Aerio noticed his stone cold face, but only found himself enjoying it. Aerio looked over his children instead. "Wonderful family you have here. I heard you lost two sons in battle. Your wife looks young. You must have been really desperate for heirs."
"Looks like one big happy family. You should have the opportunity to be one, especially now that the wars are over and Lord Benjamin Stark of Winterfell was crowned the rightful king of the Seven Kingdoms." Aerio went on. "I am the reason he sits on the Iron Throne. In return I got what had been rightfully mine all along – Lordship. However, I have had business to attend to first. I travelled back to Braavos, required the services of my former organization before I came here." The children, two boys and one girl, gave each other confused looks. Aerio noticed.
"Maybe your father hasn't told you, children, the story, but I am here to enlighten you...and repay it." Lord Ursula's stone cold face turned tenser. "Your father, Lord of The Twins, betrayed and killed my family for gold and Lordship of my family's land, The Shadowlands." Aerio turned his head towards the Lord. "Did you tell them what you had your men do to my family, in grotesque detail, I mean?" Aerio asked, standing on his feet. "Lord Peregrinus..." Aerio walked up to him with a knife in his hand and stabbed the Lord's hand. "You enjoyed my family's death...now I am going to enjoy the death of yours."
Aerio left the knife standing in the Lord's hand. He grunted quietly in pain as Aerio strolled past the children. "Here's a little story for you three. Your father murdered my family. You see, I watched it all happen, in gruesome detail if I might add. It was only by luck that I managed to kill his men and escape. The damage was already done however. Now, your father is going watch as I take my revenge, one heir..." Aerio said before he stood by the oldest son and placed his knife by the boys jaw. "...at the time." He completed bent closer to the boy's face.
"The King will find out about your actions and take back his royal decree regarding your lordship! The King will issue a warrant for your head should he ever find out what you're doing." Lord Ursula protested. Aerio cut the boy loose from the chair and held him solidly by the neck. He stopped right in front of Lord Ursula, with his knife pressed against the boy's throat. "I know the consequences of my actions, Lord Ursula, unlike you. I could have taken the Lordship of The Shadowlands, rebuilt my family's home and been in peace, but that is not the life I have known."
"For the longest time after what you did to my family, I didn't know who I was or where I was from. I started to put the pieces together little by little. I started to remember that my family had been slaughtered like animals. I started to remember that I came from a small castle with a great name. The trials of the Gods triggered all of my memories...and along with them, a desire for revenge." Aerio smiled before he looked at the other children. "I can torture the other two..." Aerio muttered before he sit the boy's throat right in front of Lord Ursula.
The Lord turned uncomfortable, his Lady and two remaining children cried and screamed for the boy who just fell dead on the floor. Aerio looked at him for a moment. "So young..." He muttered carelessly before he looked back on Lord Ursula. "The long road I was on, only prepared me for this moment I came to learn." Aerio said as he cleaned his knife and grabbed his daughter. Fear was visible on every feature on the Lord's face. "Now, tell me, Lord Ursula what should we do with this pretty one?"
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"The moment of retribution lies in your future. The moment when all of the pieces inside your head fits together, lies in your future. It will happen only when you and your mind is ready. That was how we always intended for you." Aerio took several deep breaths. For a moment, he was confused. He didn't see himself as a vengeful and sadistic murderer who would sacrifice titles and names for revenge. Then again, the anger he only had had a little taste of, could easily drive him in that direction.
"What you must remember is that the Gods never sets a man on a certain path unless it comes with a carefully thought out plan." The man said at last. Aerio looked over at him. "You fought through the trial of the Warrior, you survived the blazing heat of the Smith and you got through the realm of the Maiden." The man spoke. "What of this realm, then?" Aerio asked. "You will find out soon enough, Aerio...of House Peregrinus."