Only A Northern Song ~ Game of Thrones / Willas Tyrell ~

Chapter Eighty Seven: The Brotherhood

The doors were barred shut, as they had been in the hall of the Twins five months ago, yet instead of the screams of northerners, the room was filled with the sounds of coughing and choking. Every single Frey barring a specific few were keeled over, clutching their throats, gasping for breath and fighting for their lives in vain.

Being locked in a room with crossbows and armed men with no aim but deception and murder was very similar to poison in that way. The wedding party had no way of fighting back against those who'd betrayed them, just like the poisoned Freys had no way of battling for their survival. The ones who hadn't had the poison slipped into their goblets were paralysed in fear, clutching their own throats nervously as they waited for the chemicals to attack them too, though some of the bolder ones had rushed to the doors, throwing themselves against them uselessly. Eddmina remembered doing the same herself in a different hall five months prior, except instead of shivering and humming through the memory, she smirked as she recalled the fear, knowing that if those Freys felt even a fraction of how she had felt that night, then she was pleased with her efforts of revenge.

"They won't open," Eddmina called from where she sat at the top table with a small smirk, seated next to Lord Frey who sipped at his own unpoisoned wine, watching all his male relations perish.

Except, it wasn't Lord Frey. The person had his face, wore his clothes, but it was her sister who truly sat next to her. Perhaps if things were different Eddmina would feel more curious or concerned over not just Arya's reappearance but her developed skill of shape-shifting and changing faces. It was the sort of thing straight out of one of Old Nan's stories, the sort of tale that would make them all laugh with how ridiculous it was. Yet, Eddmina had grown up a great deal since the last time she had been safe at home with one of the old woman's tales, and she'd learnt to not expect anything from the world. There's had once been a world of magic, and if creatures such as dragons had once existed then surely face-changers existed too, even if it did seem far-fetched that her thought-to-be-dead sister was one of them. In truth, the joy of having a sister back when she had felt so isolated had overshadowed any curiosity, as had the thrill of her sister sharing her need for vengeance. The sound of choking and pleas for mercy from the Freys could drown anything out, even the need for knowledge and clarity.

It was the screams of Lord Walder Frey's wife that snapped Eddmina out of her pleased daze. She hadn't realised that Lord Walder had brought his wife along to Riverrun, and almost regretted having her be present for the poisonings given how merciful the other Frey women had been towards her during her imprisonment. It was not the same wife who had attended the wedding, even if the girl was just as young and weary looking. Eddmina knew little about what happened to her mother after the wedding but she knew one of her last acts was to cut the throat of Lady Frey while Eddmina wept over her twin. It hadn't taken Lord Walder long to find another wife, just as he had promised them, and though the girl bore his surname, some slither of rationality in Eddmina's shredded mind told her it didn't make the girl answerable to his crimes. That was why Eddmina reached out and took the girl's hand, all without tearing her eyes away from the carnage of dying Frey men.

"Lady Frey, what is your name?" Eddmina asked, but the girl was clearly too scared to answer, merely shaking her head with wide eyes. "Lady Frey, I would ask you to please leave. Go out the door behind us, gather together any of the other women who were brought here, and go to the tower chambers. None of you will be harmed, you have my word."

"What... what do I say?" Lady Frey asked in a trembling voice. "What do I tell them?"

"You tell them that the north remembers," a light voice called from the other side of Eddmina, and she looked to see her sister once again, stood in Walder Frey's clothes but not his face, instead wearing her own slight smirk. "You tell them that winter came for House Frey."