Part 2: Haytham
Ziio, I've seen him for myself.
When Charles came to me about a boy who bore your necklace, I thought it chance. Sixteen years on, now I am convinced that boy is my son. Your son. I am not so proud to claim him as my own. I know my place.
Still, it's strange. How our brief alliance has birthed a son with whom I will cross swords with. I never thought it possible. I thought that sixteen years would be time enough to sever the present from the past. It seems I was wrong. Time only serves to deal us the consequences of our actions.
When your village burned, and you with it, I could not grieve. My enemies and the Order would see it weakness. But I allowed myself a brief moment of memory. Memory of the wit of your tongue, of the soft of your touch. Memory of you walking away. Would the consequences have been different if I asked you to stay? Perhaps you would've left anyway. Or, you would've given me another chance. But that matters little now. What matters now is the boy.
He has your eyes, Ziio. But the nose and mouth of a Kenway. He swears like a pirate*, but in his eyes is the same stubborn conviction in yours. They tell me his name is Connor.
I tried to have him killed – thinking that perhaps his death would also be the death of my fondness for you. But when they dropped the floor under his legs and the rope caught around his neck, I acted as a father for once. I saved his life.* I do not know why. If I had let him hang that day, my troubles with him would be over. Perhaps it was dissatisfaction, then. Dissatisfaction that my son and enemy should die in such an unworthy manner. Perhaps I was giving him a second chance to prove himself. But my actions have dug my own grave. Connor will try to kill me.
I could've loved him, you know. If it were not for his abominable creed and his insufferable ignorance. His strength and courage is admirable. And sometimes I see myself when I look at him. I wish I could turn him to my cause. Perhaps then, our strife will be over. Perhaps then, we can finally understand each other – man and man, father and son. But it is too late now. We will never see eye to eye.
I am sorry, Ziio. Sixteen years ago, I could've loved you. Sixteen years ago, I could've loved Connor too.
-Fin.
Notes
*He swears like a pirate - Easter egg! Technically Connor doesn't swear. But allow me this moment of poetry to insert Edward's legacy plzkthxbai.
*I saved his life - Spoiler alert from Assassins Creed: Forsaken! Apparently it was Haytham who severed the rope when Charles Lee hung Connor. The game was vague enough to not show us exactly what happened, only letting us assume that it was the assassins who cut Connor free.