Assassin's Creed: The Virgin Girl
Chapter I
The sun was burning hot and heavy on the city of Damascus. The citizens went about their daily business, almost completely unaware of this heat, having become used to it through generations of these temperatures. The streets were crowded as always, with men going about their routine, merchants yelling out their goods, and beggar women and madmen roaming the around fountains.
As Altair jumped from rooftop to rooftop, to bring Tamir, a notorious weapons dealer and black marketer, to his death, he saw a heavily protected caravan push through the crowd, guarded by the target's men. Interested, he stopped in his track and watched as they guided it along the swarming streets. An archer came up behind him and began to yell at him, but Altair quickly silenced him with a blade in his throat without even having to turn to look the man in the eye.
One of the guards broke away from the sentry and headed towards the Souk Al-Silaah. Afraid that he might have seen him, Altair raced the man to the Souk, in case he were to warn the target of an assassin.
He managed to beat the guard to the place. Jumping down from the rooftop, he blended with the crowd. He saw the man approach Tamir and whisper something into his ear. Tamir smiled and said, rather quietly, "I can't wait to, 'break her in'." Both men laughed, and the guard left.
A little later, Tamir fell into a conversation with another man, who claimed not to have enough time or men to fill his clients' orders. Tamir became enraged and publicly stabbed and slashed at the man until he lay dead in the reddening water. The people around them were horrified, but too scared to speak up. Altair was careful not to make eye contact with the target, less he should put him above the crowd. Shortly after a well-timed attack, Tamir lay dead, and the assassin was hopping rooftop to rooftop, guards giving chase, the bell tolling loudly in the background.
After reporting back to the Bureau Leader of his success, the Rafiq suggested that Altair return to Al Mualim with his news. The assassin agreed, and sat on the pillows in the next room to recuperate before his long trip back. Altair contemplated what he saw on the street and heard from Tamir before his death. What had arrived that the man was so excited about; what could it mean, "break her in"? Could he have ordered something so dangerous, that it had him actually eager? Altair decided he would find out.
Managing to gather information of Tamir's home from the people on the streets, Altair headed for the Rich District of Damascus.
The black marketer's house was not the fanciest or the largest, but it was certainly much better than anything one would find on the common street. Altair climbed up to the second floor, where a window had been thrown open to relieve the room of gathering heat.
Looking in, he saw a young girl pacing the room nervously. She was a tiny thing in both weight and height; she was so delicate. Her olive skin looked smooth to the touch, unmarked by any moles or scars. Her hair was hip length and jet black. It was brushed to a fine sheen and naturally straight. Her eyes were large, rimmed with a thick set of long lashes, and coloured a light brown, showing almost burnt orange in the sunlight shining through the open window. She was dressed scandalously, in heavy, golden jewelry draped around her thin neck and voluptuous hips, clamped around her upper arm and jingling around her wrists as bangles. The silk of her long, slit skirt and top were a dark red and flowed gently as she walked around.
The girl sighed nervously and flipped her long hair over her shoulder. She walked to the open window and placed her hands on the sill, only to stiffen and look down to see manly, rough fingers gripping the window beneath her own. Her eyes widened. All in one movement, she gasped, pulled her hands away and backed up from the window. A scream crept up her throat, but in less than a second, those same fingers were over her mouth, and she was on the floor, her hair and skirts pooled around her and a man in a white hood hunched over her. She looked up to meet the eyes of the man who might very well kill her, but could not see anything except his nose and scarred lips.
A blade came snapping out from the man's gauntlet and he held it hovering along her throat. She began to shake and tears pooled in her eyes.
"I do not kill the innocent, but if you scream, I will have no choice but to end your life. Do you understand?" His voice was dark and heavy. The girl nodded quickly, and Altair slowly removed his hand from her mouth. He got up, expecting the girl to do the same, but she just backed away from him a few feet, legs too unsteady to support her, eyes full of fear, and tears caught in her spider-like lashes. "What can you tell me about Tamir? Is he expecting something to come in today? A weapon, or poison, perhaps?"
The girl swallowed and hesitantly answered. "I do not know much about the man of whom you speak. I am not sure if he is expecting weapons, but he did purchase something off of an illegal market recently, and it came today."
"What is it?" Altair's interest was piqued and he took a step towards the girl.
She raised herself to her feet and looked straight into his face, still cowering a bit. "Me." There was silence for a moment.
Altair was confused. What was so special about this girl? "And who are you?"
"I am just a girl, sir. Tamir took me from a trader because he was told I am… untouched."
Altair swallowed hard. He turned his back on the girl and headed for the window, but she stopped him and grabbed his arm. She was nothing important, just a trophy for selfish men like Tamir, who thought himself deserving of all such prizes in the world.
"Please!" she said, pulling him back. "Are you sent here to kill him? I know enough to understand Tamir has made many enemies." Altair yanked his arm away, but the girl grabbed it again and held on tighter, enough for him to feel her long manicured nails biting his skin through the fabric of his clothes. "Please, kill him! I beg of you, I do not wish to be… to be in service to a man like him!"
Altair freed himself again. "Tamir is dead. You are free to g—"
At that moment two guards opened the door, having heard a commotion inside—and froze. "HEY!"
The assassin looked at the girl once more and saw the fear in her eyes, but she was not his responsibility. He tore his arm from her grip, jumped from the window and heard the girl scream as the guards grabbed her. He heard them yell, heard many feet running after him. Cutting down a few side streets and alleys, Altair thought he'd lost them, but soon found himself surrounded. He pulled out his sword. It hissed as it came out of the sheath, almost like a battle cry and glinted in the bright, hot sun as he raised it for a first strike.
A few weeks and two dead men later, Altair returned to Damascus to assassinate Abu'l Nuqoud, the Merchant King. Running along the windows of Abu's grand palace, chasing the target, he saw a bright flash of gold and turquoise. It was the girl again. She had gone unchanged in the weeks of his absence, save for her clothes, which had become even less. Along with the usual amount of jewelry, she sported bangles on both of her ankles now, her skirt had been reduced to a floor length loin cloth, and her top was enough only to cover her breasts, exposing her entire midsection. The girl was fleeing from the guards in all the confusion.
Altair jumped, and like an eagle, nabbed his prey, stabbing Abu'l Nuqoud through the throat. He was just about to run for it, when a jingling was heard flying through the air. He looked up and saw the girl. She had jumped from the balcony. If the assassin hadn't guessed her trajectory and moved out of the way, the girl would have soared down, right on top of his back. Landing badly, but managing to roll out of it, she stood, getting ready to run. Her eyes met with Altair's and they both cried, "You!" at the same time.
"Stop! Stop the infidels! They are escaping!"
The assassin grabbed the girl by the wrist and pulled her along. "What are you doing here?" he shouted as they ran.
She didn't say anything, but the look in her eyes told him that she wasn't there by her choice.
They managed to escape, the bell toll ringing loudly in their ears, the girl's heart fluttering like a frightened bird. Altair hid the girl on top of one of buildings and left to firstly, draw the guards away, and secondly, consult with the Rafiq in the Bureau once all was clear. She sat there for an agonizingly long time, afraid that he had just left her there, but he returned.
Altair dragged her roughly from her hiding place and pinned the girl to a wall, pressing his arm against her throat and pointing his hidden blade at her temple. She grabbed his arm in natural defense, trying to keep him from choking her to death as she struggled against the hold.
"This is the second time I have seen you in the home of these Templar scum. Why were you in Abu'l Noqoud's palace?" Altair questioned.
It was a moment before the girl responded. She swallowed and said, "It is like I told you before! I was sold to him! Tamir offered a high price to the man who kidnapped me because he was told that I am 'intact.'" She swallowed again, for Altair was pushing awfully hard on her throat. "When you killed him, I managed to escape, and I was going to flee the city but a woman whose husband ran a brothel lured me into a trap with false pretenses. She questioned me and had me examined. Abu'l Noqoud often had his men collect women from the brothel for a night's pleasure, and when he got word about me, he didn't want to just… to just rent me…"
Altair held her there for a moment longer before he released her and retracted his blade. The girl fell to her knees, gasping and coughing, massaging her thin neck. She thought it would bruise after this.
The girl looked up at Altair. From this angle, she could see his eyes beneath his hood. They were hard and cold, the eyes of a killer.
There was silence for a few minutes before the girl turned her face downward, not wanting him to see her tears, not wanting him to see her weakness. "Abu'l Noqoud was going to have his way with me today, after his party. He told me… told me that after that, I would be his slave, and if I did not comply," her voice became thick with grief now, "if I did not comply he would defile me, and let all his men defile me, and then deliver me a slow death." Altair remained quiet. "You should have killed me the first time you saw me." Her body shook with sobs, but no sound escaped. She didn't want to give Altair any pleasure or disgust in having to witness her weakness more than she could help it.
Altair stared at her for a long while, then kneeled in front of her and offered her his unarmed hand, in case she was frightened by his blade. "Come. I will not kill you, and I will not harm you in any way."
The assassin and the girl walked along the rooftops in silence for a very long time. At last, she turned to him. "Where are we going?" she asked.
"You are leaving this city," he replied.
"Please… you are… rescuing me?"
"Something like that… You seem to have very bad luck in Damascus. And also… I fear that if I have another assignment here, you will be there once again, and just get in my way."
The girl was slightly hurt by that and turned away abruptly, but soon turned back. "I'm sorry that you see it like that… but you have twice freed me from greedy men who only wanted my innocence… An action like that can be scary for a girl, especially if it is unwilling… I don't expect you to understand, as you might never have to encounter that the way I have, but you have saved me from a nightmare world… twice… I can never repay you…"
Altair remained silent.
"Can I at least know your name?"
The assassin jumped across the gap between buildings, expecting the girl to walk across the beam connecting the two, but she came soaring through the air right after him, bumping face first into his solid figure on her shaky landing, her jewelry jingling and her bare feet making soft stepping noises. He ripped a tarp from one of the rooftop gardens draped it around her, to hide her scandalous clothing for when they would cross the gate via the street. "Altair…" The girl looked up at him with her big, shining eyes. "I am called Altair Ibn La-Ahad."
The girl brushed a strand of hair from her face. "I am called Lilith Midamesek."
A corner of the man's scarred lips turned up in a smirk and he commented, "What a strange name."
Lilith looked down and gave a ghost of a laugh. "Yes, it is an ancient name, I'm told. My mother gave it to me before she…" Lilith stopped abruptly and turned away. "Shall we go?"
The two climbed down a nearby ladder and blended with a crowd of people exiting the city. Beyond the gates, they mounted a white horse and trotted away. It wasn't clear to the girl where they were going, she was just glad to be leaving. Altair planned to take her back to Masyaf and help her settle down as a civilian in the village there.
Sometime during the long trip, Lilith, who had been gripping onto Altair's shoulders, moved her hands down to his waist, encircling them about his belt. Her fingers rested on the hilt of one of his throwing knives. She suddenly became aware of just how armed Altair was.
Lilith pulled away, and hesitantly asked, "Why do you have so many weapons?" Altair remained silent, his eyes on the path ahead. "Are you a soldier?" She dismissed this immediately. If he was a soldier, he would have armour on to the fullest extent, and would be clinking just as much as she was. "You're not a… thug, are you?" Again, the man remained silent. Then it hit her and she gasped, "You're an assassin, aren't you?" Her voice was hushed, but her words felt heavy coming from between her lips.
"Be quiet," Altair grunted. The horse slowed its pace to a walk and the man hunched. Lilith looked over his shoulder and noticed a gang of soldiers approaching. She, too, hunched her head, in the hopes that they would go unaware of these two traveling citizens.
The guards slowed down and watched them pass. One of them broke away and approached the horse. "Hey!" he called, "Where are you heading t—" He didn't get to complete his sentence, for a blade had gone into his mouth and out the back of his head.
Suddenly there was a commotion, and Lilith and Altair were being dragged off their horse. The assassin immediately killed one of the guards and pulled out his sword to face the rest. While he was taking on five men at once, he caught a glimpse of Lilith. She was on the ground and two soldiers would be upon her soon. She had no weapon, and even if she did, she didn't seem the type to know how to use it. Lilith was just a girl after all, not a warrior.
Altair killed his five attackers in a matter of minutes. When he turned to aide Lilith, she had been stripped of the tarp he had given her and was being thrown over one of the soldiers' horses, kicking and screaming. The man sneered at Altair and rode off in the direction of Jerusalem, leaving his comrades to deal with the assassin.