Writer's Games Entries

Task 4: "The Crone" (E)

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..."