Chapter 2

A Family of Nightingales

Date : 31/08/1888

Time : 06:32 am

Location : London

The best part of beauty is that which no picture can express.

Francis Bacon

Much time had passed since that horrible night when Lukas had adopted Stella. Since then she had been raised amongst the Nightingale family in their mansion just outside London. Due to her being albino Lukas feared how the public as well as his fellow Templars would see her. And that was the tip of the iceberg, if just one his Templar associates were to discover the identity of her father his reputation would fall and all his plans and ideology with it. Because of the damage this would give his reputation he hid her away in his mansion never letting her venture outside, giving her everything she needed but not the freedom she needed to grow.

Stella was leaning over top of her balcony overlooking the cityscape obscured slightly by several trees from the garden. She was 18 now, she had long silvery hair which covered her left eye, her eyes themselves retained their faint icy blue colour but she wore dark eyeliner and crimson lipstick in an attempt to give herself some colour. Her skin was as white as the winter snow, she wore a black and purple gothic dress and an amulet bearing the shape of the Templar cross.

She did this every morning getting up especially early to do so, just to look at the world she feared she could never be a part of but so yearned to be. Stella had always been quite comfortable with this life in Nightingale Manor but she knew there was more to life than just sitting in her home with her father's work. This lust for going outside the boundaries of the mansion was not strong enough to overcome her father, not many parent are as strict nor as scary as Lukas was. She still remembered the fear he struck into her the first time she tried to escape. As a five year old, he caught her and beat her with a cane over and over until she could not stand, he told her it was for her own good, to beat the will to escape out of her. The second time he caught her he locked her in his dungeon for a day along with all the prisoners claiming that this was the way the world would treat her is she stepped outside the mansion. Time and time again this would happen and despite the fear Stella knew she would not be able to stop herself from escaping even knowing the danger. Whilst reflecting on her past and present conundrum she heard her door creek open. She spun around and walked back into her bedroom to find her father. Lukas had changed considerably less than Stella in appearance beyond a few new wrinkles and the occasional grey hair, what had changed even less was his personality still as hateful and prejudice. A visit from her father Stella knew spelt ether good news or bad news, it was hard to tell which as he always looks moderately cross.

"Stella my dear what where you doing out there so early in the morning."

She hesitated knowing that an unfavourable answer could set him off and so early in the morning "I was just looking out at the city."

"Ugh. Why? There's no beauty in this city." He moved across the room and closed the doors to the balcony

"Father in the morning its actually looks qu…

"It's a rat's nest plagued with corruption and deviants. Rotting as the infestation of all the wrongs in the world take hold. Assassins, criminals, prostitutes, so many vile beings in one place could not spawn any thing of beauty!" he said though gritted teeth "So dear what do you think it is quite?"

Stella felt her stomach move closer to her mouth "It's quite ugly actually."

Lukas smiled. "Yes. Yes it is. And don't stutter. Right now seeing as your up I thought I might show you your next area of research."

Lukas had kept his promise to use Stella for his own ends whilst keeping her inside the mansion. She had a keen mind and intellect on the borderline of genius and so he put her to use by studying the precursor race. Her research was remarkable. She had studied such artefacts as the Observatory and even the Apple of Eden before it was later reclaimed by the Assassins, She was also one of the few people in all of human history who could read their language, no easy task as their language is always coded, working out their inscriptions involve solving complicated mathematical conundrums. Of course Lukas had all the credit for this as Stella could not be seen or even heard of by his allies.

"This was found in the hands of an Assassin, how it came to be in his possession I don't know. Not that it matters now." He handed her over a cylindrical tube shaped object made of a grey gold metal and covered in golden lights "Put on your gloves first."

"Yes father." She slipped on her black safety gloves and took it from him and looked at it. It felt warm to touch but gave a vibe of tingling energy, it felt special as if it was meant for her.

"Well." Said Lukas "Any thoughts."

"It looks like some sort of container. Perhaps there is information or some kind of secret inside. If we can unlock it."

Lukas gave a half smile "Well. Get to work on it."

"Oh. Yes. Yes father." Stella walked to her study desk on the other side of the room next to her bed.

"And Stella." Lukas said in a serious tone "I don't like you looking out at the city. It lures you into its grasp and takes you off the path and gives you the desire to run away. You have to stay here for your own sake."

"Of course father."

"Thank you my dear. You know I love you very much but I cannot protect you from them. If you were to go outside they could not accept you, society hates those who look different and you are so very very…Abnormal."

A tear came to Stella's eye "I know, I know."

"I realise how hard it must be for you but it is the only way. And you are appreciated and welcome in this house, always." Lukas slowly slithered away and left her to think on his lies. Stella always feared what people would think of her but that thought alone was not enough to make her hold back from escaping.

All morning Stella was confined to her cluttered desk examining the artifact trying to translate its text. In most archaeology the relics have to be dusted and unearthed before their secrets can be revealed but the precursor materials are resistant to decay, dirt and degradation, to uncover their secrets you need only a keen mind and a strong enough will to unlock their puzzles. After near three hours of study she had determined one line

Here stands the Key, the answer to their rise and reclamation to the gates to Eden

Three hours seems like a lot to translate only this small section but to crack the enigma code protecting the information required hours of work and dedication, she was actually making good time. Time past and she was now getting nowhere in her studies, this was not aided when three o'clock her air head of a sister paid a visit. Amelia was quite near the opposite of Stella. Stella was uncomfortable with her looks (that's not to say she was not beautiful, however she was yet to see beyond her differences), unloved by her parents and incredibly smart. Amelia on the other hand was a looker and knew it, seen as the golden child by both her parents but unfortunately she was thick as shit, not that she would ever admit to it. In truth her mind did not truly matter as her parents were super rich and secretly ruled half the capital, if not for the events of this story she would probably have inherited their empire and had enough riches not to worry about a thing for the rest of her life. In spite of their differences they were very close, close enough that they would believe the lie that they were biologically sisters in spite of obvious distinctions. Contrary to Stella Amelia possessed thick blond hair green eyes and wore only the finest and most colourful clothes, on this particular day she wore a silky pink dress with tulip flowers emblazed upon it.

"Good afternoon Stella." Amelia said in cheerful childish spirit.

Stella turned away from her work "Hello. You know knocking before entering someone else's room has not gone out of fashion."

"Well tough." She skated across the room and peered over her shoulder to look at the artefact "Is that your new assignment." She reached out to touch it but Stella slapped her hand away

"NO! Put the gloves on if you want to touch. Never know how it will react."

Normally Amelia was not foolish enough to compromise her sister's orders on health and safety but the artefact gave a strange vibe and she could not resist "We've never had a problem like that before." Amelia reached out to touch it too fast for Stella to stop her. Touching the object with her bare hands caused a reaction. at first it burned her slightly but the marks soon faded, her hand print remained on the artefact in a gold hue and soon twisting flows of energy burst form the artefact glowing like the sun and siren like squeal filled the room.

"Idiot! Get under the desk." Stella threw it into the middle of the room and hid under the desk with her sister and watched as the light turned fiercer and fiercer. Suddenly the lights calmed down as the holographic image of a sphere appeared. Stella got up from under the desk and looked at his display, the sphere was lined with ribbons and marking each ribbon had the traditional precursor text on it.

"Stella." Amelia said in fear. She did not listen, she tried to touch the hologram and suddenly the image changed to a globe, it the n zoomed in to the UK and then again to London and marked in red a dot appeared in the Whitechapel area.

"It's a map." Said Stella in amazement.

"Turn it off!" Shouted Amelia still crouching over the desk.

"Ok don't yell." Stella took of her gloves and reached down to touch it again only her touch gave her a shock as if 1000 volts had been shot into her, the hologram faded and the siren noise stopped.

Stella lay on the floor half-conscious whilst the imagery from the artefact plagued her mind. Pictures of demons, madness and bloodshed, the artefact had uploaded terrible nightmarish images into her mind. The doors to the room suddenly swung open "What on this good earth was that noise!" Her mother Veronica burst into the room. Veronica was a tall frail woman who looked just as cruel and wicked as she was. Dark brown hair, thin piercing green eyes, blood red lipstick, not a sight for the faint hearted. Unlike Lukas who had become something close to a normal parent toward Stella, Veronica despised the child feeling no connection to her only seeing her as just another deviant and so an enemy. Deviants or deviancy is a term used by Templars. Deviants are those the Templars consider unworthy of living in civilised society and must be destroyed so as not to corrupt the development of mankind. Such deviants include criminals, prostitutes, homosexuals, the mentally and physically disabled, several religious creeds and of course their ancient enemy, the Assassins. When the Nightingale family became the leading family of the Templar machine they demanded that more time and resources were to be spent in annihilating deviants.

"STELLA!" Veronica shouted as Stella came out of her slumber "WAKE UP YOU SILLY GIRL!" Stella quickly stood up as fast as possible "What the hell is going on." Stella said nothing "Tell me!"

Amelia arose from under the table "It was me mother. I interfered with her research and compromised her safety."

Veronica gritted her teeth "Amelia. Leave us." Amelia walked away and Veronica turned back to Stella "Have you no idea child, have you any idea how to be safe. This commotion is your fault I know it, how you convinced your sister to take the blame is beyond me but you are at fault here."

"Mother please Ameli-

"I DON'T CARE! I don't give a shit for your excuses! You should know by now how to be safe around these objects and by not doing so you threaten your sister, your family and this entire household!" Veronica walked to the door in hurry and disgust. "Why do we bother keeping you? Had your father any sense he would throw you in the hole where we throw all the other godless deviants." She slammed the door.

Stella spent the rest of the afternoon on her bead in tears. It had suddenly all hit her. Her mother hating her, her father not loving her and her isolation from the rest of the world it was all too much. She kept looking at her hands trying to curse her own skin thinking she was at fault for all of this. Her sadness was interrupted by four quiet knocks on her bedroom door.

"Stella." It was Amelia

"Go away."

"I'm never going away." Amelia sat beside her weeping sister "I can't leave you. I'm your Sister."

Stella looked up at her "Thank you."

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be." Stella sat beside her "Why can't I be like them. Why can't I be normal and just live a normal life. I hate being this freak stuck up here confined by these walls."

Amelia held her hand "It's not you who's to blame."

"I know I'm a deviant. I deserve to be ashamed, but I'm their daughter and I love them. Why can't they love me back?"