Prologue

A horse and its rider were moving swiftly across a desert in the night. The man dressed in white robes was following rumors that had spread to the edge of the Mediterranean of barren lands that were suddenly becoming rejuvenated. It had not been long from the time that he had secured the apple that he started to hear these rumors. The fanciful qualities to these stories led him to believe that the rejuvenation was the effect of a piece of Eden. Altair, the rider, had followed these rumors for weeks tracking them to their source, a temple located in the barren deserts of Persia.

After days in the sun he finally came in sight of the plateau in which the temple was hidden. Altair increased his pace so that he was able to reach the plateau within the day. With the increased pace he was able to reach the entrance by nightfall, but as he made camp a strange howling reverberated from within the plateau. Seconds after the howl quieted another man, dressed differently from the guards, came sprinting out of the opening in the side of the plateau. Altair stood to meet this possible threat, but did not attack as the man slowed to a stop in front of his fire. The man wore a strange head wrap in blue and red, some leather armor, and a sword at his hip, but the most interesting part of his attire was the gauntlet he wore. The points of each of the fingers was shaped into what appeared to be claws.

The stranger calmed his breathing and looked up at Altair who had yet to lower his guard. "What luck to find someone here. I don't know how I would have crossed the desert again without my donkey." Holding out his hand the man introduced himself as "Prince" which Altair raised an eyebrow to, but he immediately responded in kind. "What was it that you were running from?" Altair asked while looking into the opening in the rock.

"The end of the world, what else?" Prince said with a strained laugh. Altair looked at him unconvinced and replied "I don't know, but I must find out myself tomorrow."

"So I guess I can't hitch a ride with you across the desert. I should have known, why else would you be here of all places."

"You can come with me, but only if you accompany me back into the plateau while I investigate."

"Go back in there? That'll be the death of me!"

"So would be walking across the desert alone." Prince grumbled in response to the reason Altair placed before him.

"Alright, but wait until tomorrow."

"That's fine with me," Altair rolled onto his side to sleep, thus ending the conversation.

The next day Altair led the horse to the edge of an oasis that he spotted nearby then returned to the camp to head off into the plateau. He walked with Prince to the opening in the solid rock wall only to find a great chasm stretched between the edge he was standing on and the next ledge that lead into the gap.

"What are you waiting for? Let's get moving." Prince impatiently prodded Altair as he stood stock still.

"How am I supposed to cross this? It's too far for me to just jump."

"You have to be kidding me, you don't know how to wall run?"

"What are you talking about?"

The other man rolled his eyes and held up his gauntlet, "It's the reason I wear this. I can grip the wall while I run over short distances along it, here I'll show you." Prince then jumped up to a wall that had dozens of horizontal scratches on it and started running while dragging the clawed gauntlet behind him. He jumped off of the wall landing on the platform on the other side. "Now try that, even if you fall at least here you can get back up on that side." Prince encouraged Altair as he contemplated what weapons he could use to gain purchase on the wall as he ran. Finally settling on one of his curved knives Altair jumped at the wall and ran across it trailing the knife behind him. He landed safely on the other side with a grin.

"Now keep that in mind, I can tell you that technique will be most useful within this area." Grinning and staring at his knife Altair responded, "I can think of some other places where this would be very useful." In this manner Prince and Altair traversed the path to the center of the plateau, which expanded into a vast wasteland much like outside the cliffs. In the center of this wasteland was a giant temple that was covered by the shell of a tree. Two staircases wound up to a giant door that lead into the temple. Altair stood in awe of the place for a moment, then quickly started towards it.

Prince continually tried to persuade Altair from going to the temple, but without hesitation Altair continued on convinced that what he wanted would be within it. Even up to the doors of the temple Prince pleaded with him not to try to enter. The assassin ignored him and continued inside while the thief remained behind. The entrance hallway was quiet, but it was not until he looked at the door on the opposite side of the hallway that Altair started to be discouraged. The door was tainted black, not matching the earth tones of the rest of the hallway. But still he pushed onward even to the door which seemed to give off a stronger sense of warning with each step he took towards it.

Altair pushed open the door, sure that what he searched for would be inside, but all that appeared before him was a black void which engulfed him. In that second several hundred years in the future Desmond Miles jolted awake from his reclining position on the Animus.