❈ | 034 | Video

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[The girl on the screen is older and taller, though not by much on either account: a few feet, a few inches. Her hair has been allowed to grow out, though it's pinned (messily) at the back of her head. She looks a little less like a child, a little more like the person she could grow into. The surroundings are different, though: gone is the cell from the House of Black and White, with its tiny bed and small chest for clothes. This is a bigger room, enough space for two girls to grow in and live in and fight in. It's the room she shared with Sansa in Winterfell, all old stone with furs on the bed.

She still chews her lip, though. She has a lot on her mind.]

I'm afraid.

[She doesn't sound it, even makes a face and looks a touch angry at saying it out loud. She doesn't like admitting it, she never has, but this feels important. Behind her, Nymeria lounges on the bed, huge and daunting. She is older, bigger, too.]

Not scared - maybe I was the whole time. I hated feeling like a scared little girl, so I stopped. I stopped everything but anger. Anything else hurt.

[She reaches up and touches her chest.] I had a hole, here, after my family died. I didn't think it'd ever heal, so - I stuffed it with other things, till it scabbed over. Anger, and revenge.

[She rubs the spot over her heart, then drops her hand again, tugging at the edge of her shirt.]

But I'm not so angry, anymore. I have pictures, of everyone, [and there is indeed a photo album sitting open behind her on the bed, near Nymeria's paws] and I realized I was forgetting what they looked like. But I remember what all the Lannisters look like. I remember every stupid golden hair. But I don't remember what Rickon looked like. He was only three. Or four - I don't remember anymore.

[Chewing on her lip again, Arya leans back and grabs the photo album, dragging it into her lap. These were gifts, from Christmases past, things she never asked for, never wanted, but needed very badly. She pulls out one picture, holds it up for the camera except pretend he looks younger.]

This is him.

[She gives it a moment, then tucks it away, and closes up the album beside her.] I don't have any pictures of the people who killed him. I don't want any. I think - I'd rather remember what my brother looked like, than the person who killed him.

Comments

[outlets]

And you understand these words now?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Yes. I think I do.

I used to think it meant you could do whatever you want, so long as you can. But it doesn't.

[outlets]

Then what does it mean to you now?

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Consequences are permitted, too. You can't just act, you have to understand before you do.

[outlets]

[He smiles with pride he's not entirely certain he has a right to just yet. Still, he'll take it as a good sign that there's hope for her.]

Va bene. You've learned much, piccina.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

Sì.

[But she's still cheeky as fuq.]

[outlets]

[He chuckles. Quite frankly, he wouldn't have it any other way.]

Well, it is good to see that the years have not yet made you so grim.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

If they did, everyone would be too grim to walk by twenty.

And you'd probably have to drag yourself along the ground.

[outlets]

[Ezio laughs.]

The day I become too grim is the day I give up. I do not intend to see that for many years if I can help it. You should hope the same for yourself.

[So hey, talk to him a few decades when he's an old Mentor and super jaded. It'll be fabulous.]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[Clearly they need a future flood or something.]

I can't imagine you grim.

[outlets]

[Clearly!]

Truthfully, nor can I. Not much can be accomplished by allowing our sorrows to cloud our minds. There is a time and place for it.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I guess. It's easier to let anger cloud it.

[outlets]

[Ezio is (perhaps oddly) somber for a moment. He's been there. In the very beginning, his anger was all he had. He hasn't forgotten it or let it go, but he's learned to control it far better.]

It is.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

How did you deal with it?

[outlets]

I cannot say it was any one thing that I did or did not do, or even simply the passing of time.

But I do think honoring the memories of my brothers and especially that of my father became more important to me than my anger. I knew that I could never possibly finish my father's work if I allowed the anger to consume me.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

[She lets that settle in, quiet and thoughtful, more so than she's ever been.]

How did you honor their memories?

[outlets]

I sought revenge for their deaths, but I sought to stop the Templars from gaining power and control.

[At first the Assassins were a vehicle for his revenge. But over time, their cause became his.]

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

And they fought the Templars, too.

[She doesn't look away, but she's not really seeing him anymore. She knows what her father and brothers fought for, and it's not her father's words that come to mind.

Family, Duty, Honor. She's has Tully blood, too.]

I think I understand.

[outlets]

You can still do the same for your family, piccina.

[fearcutsdeeperthanswords]

I know.

[A beat]

I think I will.

[outlets]

I believe you will.