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You are pretty sure you don’t want to know the secrets behind those dead grey eyes. But like any foolhardy adventurer before you, some part of you just has to know. And so like the Baron before her, you open your mind and dive into Aedra’s past. You don’t like what you find any more than the Baron’s own past.
You are beginning to sense that your gift (curse? whatever.) reacted differently to different people. With the man in the chapel, you were brought to what was clearly a pivotal moment in his life. With the Baron, you were swept along in a tide of evil deeds, having little to no control as you were dragged from one atrocity to the next. Here in Aedra’s mind, all is still and as silent as the grave. Her memories are neatly categorized and separated, allowing you to pick and choose at will. But as soon as you open a memory, the calmness vanishes into vivid sensation.
Aedra’s first memories are of pain. She has no pleasant memories of childhood, no remembered father or mother to cling to. She is alone in the world, and the world hates her. Out of the goodness of his heart, the Baron has taken her in after her parents abandoned her as a baby. But there is a problem. A boy dressed all in black, only a few years older than her – you recognize him as Argan, her brother, but she does not. It is explained to her that this boy is responsible, and then the torture begins while he watches. There are dozens upon dozens of these memories, these being the sharpest and most defining memories from Aedra’s childhood.
You only have to see the one, a session in which the young girl, perhaps seven years old, has her fingers methodically smashed with a hammer – only for her hands to be healed and smashed again – to have seen enough. While a part of you might want to bear mute witness to all this poor girl has had to endure, your sanity couldn’t take it. It was enough to get the gist that growing up, Aedra was punished while Argan watched, and that she was told Argan was responsible. Understandably, she grew to hate the Boy in Black with an all-consuming intensity.
Next, you moved on to a memory off by itself, isolated in a dark corner. But even though this memory was at least partially repressed, you could sense it was for a pivotal moment in Aedra’s life. And so, with no small amount of trepidation, you step into that memory next.
Here, a teenaged Aedra is busy working in the manor’s kitchen, helping to prepare dinner for the Baron. She isn’t trusted with anything important, of course, but even plucking a chicken gave her a small sense of accomplishment. And then the guards arrive. “The Boy in Black sends his regards” they say, and reluctantly she follows them out of the kitchen at this signal. As they travel deeper into the manor, Aedra steels herself for the punishment to come, and is understandably surprised when they move on past the hallway leading to the chamber where such things are usually done. The guards answer her expressed confusion only with grunts, and lead her on deeper into the manor. Eventually they ascend up to the second floor, in an area that Aedra has never been allowed access to before. The journey ends at the private quarters of Cheran, one of the Baron’s sons. Their escort complete, the guards leave as Cheran explains that the Boy in Black has left for good, but that he asked for a parting gift to be delivered.
And then it starts. You had been sickened by the Baron’s actions down in the Vainglory Cache, but those were at least comprehendible in their evil. What Cheran did to Aedra was . . . depraved. You had been committed to opposing the Baron before, but now you realized that wasn’t enough. The Baron had to be destroyed, his entire family line wiped out, every last remnant of his organization exterminated! That was the only just – the only sane reaction to something so vile that its very existence was an affront to the universe!
When Cheran was finally finished with her, he announced that there was one last game to play. He made her stand on a stool, and then looped a coil of wire around her neck. The object of the game, he explained, was not to fall off the stool. If Aedra won, she got to live. Scarcely had the Baron’s son stepped back to grin savagely at her, pulling his foot back for a kick than the girl raised her head to meet his gaze. They locked eyes for a moment, and then Aedra deliberately hopped off the stool.
Immediately the wire noose went taut, slicing through the soft flesh of Aedra’s neck as if it wasn’t even there. Cheran simply stared at the dying girl for several long moments, dumbfounded, before he finally recovered enough to act. Cursing and swearing, he moved to cut her down, again surprised but unphased as Aedra weakly attempted to kick him away. He got her down, and then ran out into the hallway to demand help.
Somehow Aedra survived, but the scars, mental and physical, remained. Her throat was marred by a thick band of scar tissue, and she took to wearing scarfs to conceal the injury. For a long time she was completely mute, but eventually she learned how to speak again, even if only in a gravely whisper. And now her acceptance of her fate was replaced by a cold, implacable fury.
She convinced the Baron to allow her to undergo training to become one of his Hands, his private army of assassins. And she swore that one day, she would hunt down the Boy in Black, wherever he had gone, and repay him in full. She proved to be a quick study, and even Shiakti was impressed by her enthusiasm and remorselessness. Once her training was complete, she earned a place amongst the bodyguards of the Baron’s wife, disguised as one of her ladies in waiting. There she caught in the eye of Angelo, another of the Baron’s sons. And so began an illicit and secret relationship between the two of them, although it isn’t clear to you why Aedra is attracted to Angelo. You only see deeds and emotional displays – you aren’t privy to a person’s thoughts as well. But you can still infer, and none of it looks good.
Satisfied that you had seen enough of Aedra’s past to understand who she is and why, you sever the connection.