A/N: I have big plans for this fanfic. This story (or a similar one to be precise) has been on my mind for years and I'm more than happy that I finally managed to write a plot-plan and start with the actual story. I have spent a lot of time on background stories to make the fic more attractive, but so far I haven't come up with much. I'll just make that up as I go.

Also, as the website doesn't allow me to add 2 OCs, I'll have to add here that I have another pairing which is: OC/Rauf (The OCs are the twins)

This story was inspired by the Elders Scrolls: Skyrim's thieves guild.

Anyway, have fun reading (even though it's not much right now)


Chapter 1: The Twins

Slowly and creeping, like an extremely deadly plague, the darkness laid itself on the wilderness. The sandy area around Jerusalem was silent except for two huntresses who were following their prey utterly quiet and as lethal as the all-consuming darkness.

One of them was a young woman, clad in black and equipped with a bow. Her companion was currently sneaking alongside the woman, never taking its eyes off her and waiting for a signal to attack. The woman waited until the hare was showing signs of relaxation as it was deeming itself safe.

The small animal suddenly sat up and the woman could see that the hare was checking its surroundings one last time for any danger. Having seen no threat, the hare returned to eating a tuft of grass that looked way too dry to be satisfying. Now or never, the woman thought and gave a short nod to her companion, a cheetah that quickly lunged forward on the signal and caught the hare off-guard. The poor thing never stood a chance against the young woman and her feline companion.

Ranya stood up and strode over to Soraya who held the hare in a deadly grip in her mouth. Their prey gave its last kick before it stopped moving altogether. Ranya hold out her hand in front of Soraya who laid her kill carefully into her palm.

The woman secured the hare on her belt and petted Soraya's head. Noticing that it was going to be completely dark soon, she seized her bow and headed back home.


Ilyas was going through several drawers as he was trying to find a particular item. He was searching for a golden necklace which he was told he would find in the house of a wealthy citizen. His mentor had said that the contract had come from another noble man who claimed that whoever owned this house had obtained the necklace in an unfair way. Ilyas guessed that gambling and hubris had probably played a role in that.

He sighed. He had gone through every drawer and looked under everything that might have served as a stash for the necklace. He was running out of time, even though this had been his first room to go through, the timeframe for him wasn't much bigger than that. With luck he could search one more room before someone came up and caught him.

The thief carefully peaked out from the room onto the hallway. Finding no one and also hearing no sound he silently made his way to the next room. It looked like the first room, a bed on one wall and shelves and cupboards decorating the other walls. On the bed side was a window which would come in handy if he would hear someone. Ilyas returned to his work. After a short amount of time he found an interesting casket. It wasn't much decorated but it was locked with a tiny metal lock. He knew that the owner of this place was wealthy but locks that were that small cost too much to be placed on simple caskets. Something important must be in there then. Ilyas took out his tools and started to pick the lock. After two broken picklocks the lock opened and revealed lots of shiny things. There was a lot of golden jewelry but thankfully the contractee had given them a detailed description of the necklace. Still going through the contents of the casket, Ilyas could hear footsteps coming up the stairs. With a lot more haste now he searched the golden valuables and was overly relieved when he felt a locket that resembled the description. He put it quickly into one of his many pockets and closed the casket to stash it in the drawer.

Ilyas sprinted to the window and leaped out, grabbing onto the facade to climb down.

He smiled triumphantly as he headed back to the hideout.


Ranya closed the entrance behind her and Soraya. She was glad that they had found this tunnel in one of their early exploration tours as it was much easier to get her cheetah into their hideout that way instead of going through the main gates of the city. As hunting was forbidden as well without a special permission, she would have been stopped there anyway.

She took a torch that they had stored at every used entrance and lighted it at an already lighted torch that was hanging on the tunnel wall.

Ranya quickly followed Soraya as she was beginning to feel tired but still had about half an hour to walk since their hideout was set in the south of the rich district and therefore under the middle part of the whole city.

She silently cursed herself for not having brought her coat. Every time she went through this tunnel after dawn she was freezing but she somehow never learned to bring a coat and put it at the entrance so that she didn't have to carry it while she was away but also didn't have to freeze on her way back down there.

As they neared the Vault, which was the name they had given the entire underground hideout, Soraya started to become restless. She began jumping excitedly and ran a little ahead until she eventually stopped to let Ranya catch up. Ranya was used to that behavior, it meant that her dear twin brother was at home. Even though it had been Ranya who had raised Soraya, the cheetah loved both twins individually and listened to each of them.

"Alright Soraya, you can go", Ranya said with a smile when she thought she had tortured her friend enough. Soraya gave something off that sounded like a stuttered bark, as she did often when she was very excited and sprinted off towards the Vault. Just a few minutes later Ranya arrived there as well.

She entered the first room of the hideout that was the home of the thieves guild. All tunnels that were still in use connected to this room, which was why they always had one or two of them stand guard.

"Good evening, Rani. How was the hunt?", Abdul, who was alone on watch, asked as he leaned against one of the pillars.

"We caught a hare. Not much but better than nothing."

The middle aged thief smiled in response and nodded. "True. Hannah is already preparing dinner, you better go to her straight away."

Ranya nodded and followed the portal that led to the main room, where most of the activity took place. Entering the main room from the first room, one had the cooking area to their left side and could see the big door that lead to their library, where the thieves not only stored books but also had a training area. Ranya went light-footed to the cooking area where she could already see Hannah, an elderly woman who had joined the guild very early.

The guild had been founded twenty-two years ago, when Ranya and her brother had been just two years old, by their uncle Ismail, who was also their mentor now. Back then Ismail was in dire need of something like a hideout and also someone who could watch the children, as his sister, who was the twins' mother, had died shortly before. He had allied to some of the other homeless people who begged and stole to survive and luckily one of them had found an entrance to what was their Vault today. With a lot of kindness in his heart, Ismail had taken in everyone he had befriended in that time and also whoever those friends brought to him. One of them had been Hannah, who had been an unmarried woman and because of that had to live on the street. Together they built a home down there and became a family, but they mostly referred to themselves as a guild.

Every one of them had their own place in the guild, as Ranya was for example often hunting, but she was also as busy being a thief. Hannah was too old for any jobs or missions, which was why she had become the guild's mother, she was always cooking for them and cleaned the Vault as if it was a palace that needed to be tidy at all times. This spectrum of work would bore Ranya to no end, but Hannah was quite happy with her daily routine and nobody interfered with how she handled everything. Sometimes she would request help however, but nobody complained too loudly.

"Rani, my dear, how was the hunt?", Hannah asked her fosterling as she was standing by the kettle.

Ranya detached the hare from her belt and held it out to the woman. Hannah's eyes were beaming as she saw the little animal. "That will go perfectly with the soup! Thank you, dear!" Hannah took the hare and put it on a table before she hugged Ranya tightly. The young thief was often surprised how easy it was to make Hannah happy, to be honest she had never seen the old woman angry or even sad. Without her, the guild wouldn't be as much of a family as it was.

"Have you seen Soraya by any chance?", Ranya asked after Hannah had let go of her. The woman started right away with skinning the hare.

"How could I not? She almost knocked me over when I was standing there." She pointed towards the middle of the giant vault.

"Anyway, she ran into the library, your brother and uncle are there, too."

Ranya thanked Hannah for the information and wasted no time. She greeted her fellow thieves on her way and entered the library. She wasn't really sure why they called it a library, as they had not more than 2 shelves filled with books. Not even half of one wall was covered with books and the rest of the rather big room consisted of a training area for sword combat and archery. They had some dummies made out of hay for practice that had to be repaired regularly. Then there were also some tables and chairs should someone find the patience to read one of the books. In the library was also the mentor's bureau that was separated from the library by shelves in which they stored weapons and also some other materials, such as leather.

Ranya couldn't see Soraya nor her brother in the library, which was why she continued for the bureau. The curtains that served as a door were pulled back and she could see Soraya who was jumping excitedly around her uncle and brother.

"Rani! Back from the hunt I see", said her brother and strode over to her to give her a quick hug.

"And you're back from the burglary. Were you successful?", she asked Ilyas who nodded in response and pointed at their uncle's desk on which she could see a golden necklace.

In the meantime Soraya had calmed down and laid down on the ground in a corner. "Sometimes I think that she is secretly a dog", Ismail said and motioned for them to sit down in the sitting part of the room where carpets and pillows filled the corner. Before joining them he closed the curtain-door and Ranya wasn't surprised as Soraya stood up again to make herself comfortable behind Ranya and Ilyas, pressing tightly against their backs.

"There was something important you wanted to tell us, uncle", Ilyas said. That made Ranya uncomfortable. It wasn't often that the atmosphere between the small family was so solemn and every time it was, it didn't mean something good. Whatever their uncle wanted to tell them, he wouldn't do lightly, which meant that someone of the guild would be endangered or already was in danger.

"Indeed. Do you remember when I talked to you about the Assassins' Brotherhood?" The twins nodded hesitantly.

"Their mentor Al Mualim has requested help of us."

Ranya thought her uncle must be joking. The assassins were very capable of providing for themselves. Even though Ranya had never seen one of them, or at least she believed she had never seen an assassin, she often heard on the quiet how someone important was murdered by someone with a lot of skill, which meant that it couldn't have been your average murderer.

"Why would they need our help?", she asked then.

"They could probably do well without us, but I have been in close correspondence with Al Mualim lately. I've thought about closer alliance for quite some time and he doesn't seem very reluctant to that idea. In fact, I have had some of you complete missions for them for a few months. It was a test of some sort, he wanted first-hand proof of what we're capable of."

Ranya wasn't sure what to think about this. Normally people couldn't surprise her much as she usually knew what was up with everyone. That their uncle had kept something this important from them however was very unexpected.

"And what do they want us to do?", Ilyas asked.

"They want you to retrieve an artifact. I mentioned sometime that you, Rani, had been in Solomon's temple and that you have knowledge of some of the secret tunnels there. He believes that the artifact that he seeks is somewhere in there." Ranya knit her brows. She had been in the temple a few years ago on an exploration tour. The thieves weren't sure who had built their underground hideout, but they believed it was built around the same time as the temple. It might have served as a treasury or an escape underground route, but they had found no documentary proof. That had been Ranya's mission then, retrieving all existing information about their hideout and make sure it couldn't fall into anyone else's hands.

"The temple is currently occupied. Only a fool would dare to go there without more information", Ilyas noted.

"That is why you won't go alone. Al Mualim will send some of his men with you to ensure your safety and that the mission won't go wrong."

"Are you sure that's not a trap?", Ranya questioned.

"They are criminals, just as we are. With the current situation, I am not sure how long we can live as we did before. The war is gnawing on everyone, you cannot tell me you haven't noticed."

It was true. There weren't only the city guards that the thieves had to be cautious about. There were also crusaders even though the city was under saracen influence at the moment. The saracen regent, Majd Addin, wasn't very concerned about his citizens, which meant that the poor only became poorer and there weren't many rich people to steal from left. There were certainly some more or less wealthy crusaders in the city, but it wasn't easy to find them, even for the guild and it wasn't their intention to take anything from the poor. All of them have been poor before their joining and had lived on the street or worse. Through denunciations and forgery the guild had tried numerous times to disempower corrupt officials. But there had been no improvement. With the crusaders came also other factions, one of them being templars who were knights with big red crosses on their armor. They were more dangerous than most of the saracens or other crusaders, as they had enjoyed a thorough education and were impossible to strike down if faced in combat. Not even their best swordsmen, who were Ismail and Ilyas, would dare to fight them. All in all, the situation was bad, even though one might not notice in the Vault.

"I understand. What am I going to do?", Ranya asked. Ismail smiled. He seemed to be glad that he didn't have to argue with her, as it was sometimes the case.

"You and your brother will ride to their fortress. Al Mualim wants to see you personally. I told him that you are a woman and he doesn't seem to be doubtful of your abilities, but I will not send you alone. The roads are dangerous these times and since I have never been in Masyaf as well, I think it is best if you have someone to watch your back. I do not know if he will allow both of you to go on the mission and in case he does not, I want you, Ilyas, to stay in their fortress and wait for your sister's return."

Ilyas nodded in approval. "What about Soraya?", he asked.

"Oh, I don't think she will be a problem. You can take her with you and if the assassins have something against her, you can surely let her roam the area. As for the mission, Al Mualim will inform you about everything. He wouldn't send the details with a messenger pigeon. And you, Ilyas, can see whatever you can find out about our new friends." The twins nodded in response.

"Now off we go, I think Hannah will kill us if we miss dinner."