percy | harry.
I only ever talked about it once. Because my companions learned a bit and wanted to know the rest. So I told them. Not all of it. I can't tell anyone all of it. There's a lot I don't remember about those years. I don't know why it's easier to tell a stranger.
The Briarwoods came to Whitestone...I don't remember why. I don't remember much about that night, but they had allies. People we trusted who turned on us. I learned later it was all in the service of a dark god. Vecna, a god of whispers and secrets. There was a temple of Ioun far beneath the castle that they wanted to use for their purposes. To serve Vecna. I don't remember my family being killed. Not really. Bits of it. They never tried to kill me. They wanted to know things, so they took me to the dungeon and Anna, Dr. Ripley, tortured me and asked me things I didn't know. I think she chose me because, even then, before the guns, she was interested in my inventions and my tinkering. My potential. Otherwise, she might have let me die and chosen someone different. I was tortured and there were bodies left there. Family members. I don't remember how they died but I remember their bodies. Cassandra got me out. She helped me escape, and we ran. There were arrows. I saw her get hit. There was blood and she fell. I thought she was dead. Or I think I did. I'm not sure. I made it to the river before I fell. I remember drowning, but not much else. I don't know. There's a lot I don't know. Or don't remember. I ended up on a boat. I don't know how. I was there for two years, I think, before the dreams started and I started to remember how to be a person. And then I made my guns. It wasn't long after that I tried to kill Ripley and ended up in another dungeon, which is where my companions found me. It's been five years since the massacre, and even though the Briarwoods and most of the people involved are dead now, I don't know that I'll ever be able to let go of the things that happened when I was eighteen.