And here I thought I'd be updating so much more while I was on winter break... Ah well, haha. Thanks so much for all the reviews, favorites, and follows, everyone!

Welcome to the Brotherhood

Achilles came for me the Friday after my meeting with Haytham. We hadn't spoken since our last angry phone conversation and I could see that he was still a bit miffed.

I waited patiently for him to bring it up. But Achilles simply drove, keeping his thoughts to himself and his eyes on the road ahead. Still, the drive to his estate would take over two hours, and I knew he couldn't stay silent for that long.

My patience was rewarded less than forty-five minutes later.

"How was your visit last weekend?" he asked. There was no anger in his tone; only a genuine curiosity, which caught me completely off guard.

"Okay," I said after a moment's hesitation. Achilles glanced at me from the corner of his eye before he returned his attention to the highway.

"Was it worth putting this meeting off?"

I scowled at him. "You're not going to let it go, are you?"

"You've been looking forward to this since you were a boy. I'm just surprised you'd put it off for the Grand Master of the Order we're supposed to be fighting."

"I wasn't visiting him as an Assassin. I was visiting him as his son."

Achilles made a tsking noise. "Sometimes I have a hard time understanding you, boy."

"And I have a hard time understanding you. Wouldn't you want me to get close to him? He doesn't know what I am."

"Yet."

"He won't know."

"And if he tries to sway you into the Order?"

"He won't. He didn't bring it up once when I met him."

"He will sooner or later. I can promise you that."

"And if he doesn't? What if he just wants to get to know me?"

Achilles gave a dry laugh. "This is Haytham Kenway we're talking about. He'll bring it up in due time. Just you wait."

I fell silent then, my hands clenching into fists on my lap. It probably wasn't a good idea to mention that I'd been emailing Haytham back and forth for the last week; just short messages about classes and the like, maybe four or five in all over the past few days. I still felt strange around him - that familial bond I had expected hadn't quite formed just yet - but he was...interesting. Almost nothing I'd been told.

Achilles said nothing more on the subject as he drove. He asked the usual questions about my classes and what I'd been up to, which I answered. He didn't bring up Haytham again until we'd reached his estate and I was helping him out of the car.

"Today, your father will officially and completely become your enemy," he said. His voice was brimming with an excitement I hadn't heard from him in a long time. "Today is the day we've both been training for."

I couldn't help but share his excitement as I followed him into the house. The building was silent - as usual, unfortunately - but otherwise, it hadn't changed a bit since I left for the university. The Davenport Estate (that's what Achilles liked to call it) was warm and grand, despite the fact that only Achilles and me lived there. Despite that, it was more of a home to me than the reservation had been after my mother passed away.

Achilles led the way to his hidden basement door beneath the staircase. It was cooler down there, and the air smelled of earth and damp. There was a tinge of sweat there, too; remnants from our training sessions so many months ago. I felt a familiar thrill run up and down my spine as I trailed behind him into the room where he kept the majority of his Assassin life's work: weapons, clothing, even printouts of a few of the current Templar leaders in the Americas.

My attention was drawn to the middle of the room, though. Where he kept the white hooded jacket I'd had my eyes on since day I arrived.

Achilles made his way to the wall of Templars first though, and tapped a few of the images with the tip of his cane.

"We're going to start planning our assaults very soon," he said. "We'll start small, so you don't attract too much attention. The Templars have spent years and years thinking that our faction of the Assassins has gone quiet."

"You want me to start right away?" I asked. I was nervous, of course, but excited too. And Achilles caught on right away, because he gave an amused chuckle and shook his head.

"No, no. Not just yet. You're more than ready though. I trust you to do an excellent job."

My heart soared at his words, and I fought to keep my expression neutral. Praise from Achilles was hard to come by, even when I'd lived alongside him for so many years.

"We'll continue as normal for a bit longer. The man I want you to pursue is out on the west coast, so you'll have to wait anyway."

"What about Charles Lee?"

Achilles glanced up at the printouts, at the one of a moustached man with brown, gently tousled hair. His picture was near the top, close to my father's. His second-in-command, and the man who'd-

"Not yet, Connor. He's too powerful."

I opened my mouth to protest, but Achilles shook his head.

"You'll have your chance. I promise," he said. "But for now..."

First he reached for a wooden box that he'd placed atop one of the many shelves lining the walls. He held it in both hands and slowly opened the top.

"These used to be mine, back when I was young and spry enough to use them properly. But now they're yours, boy, and I know you'll make excellent use of them."

He lifted the lid with a sort of dramatic slowness, and my breath caught in the back of my throat when I looked inside.

"Hidden blades," I murmured. They were antique too, not like the makeshift ones I'd used in training. Achilles nodded to me with a half smile, and I reached forward to run my hands across the metal and leather of the gauntlets that covered the blades.

"I'd tell you to be careful, but that would defeat the purpose," he said as I took them from the box.

"Thank you," I said, weighing them in my hands.

"Don't you want to try them out? Go on."

I did as he urged and carefully slipped them over my wrists. They were surprisingly light, even lighter than I'd been expecting. It was strange, but they felt like they...belonged. I flexed my right wrist and the shining blade shot out of its hiding place with a muted shick.

"They suit you," Achilles said. There was a gentle note of something in his voice...pride? He gave me another rare grin and set the box aside.

"You can bring this with you. I have a feeling your RA wouldn't take too kindly to seeing you carry those things around the dorm," he said with another chuckle. He hobbled carefully to the jacket in the middle of the room and stood beside it. I followed him, still finding it somewhat difficult to catch my breath.

"You've earned the right to touch it now," he said.

And I did. I put my hand to the shoulder of the jacket, to the rough fabric of the hood. I thought back again to my first evening in the estate, when I'd tried to approach it and received a strict reprimand from Achilles.

"Don't think you can just come in here, throw those on and call yourself an Assassin," he'd said, and I'd stepped away so fast that I almost tripped over my own feet. Some first impression.

"It's been a long time since then, hasn't it?" he said, echoing my thoughts.

"It has," I agreed.

"You've come a very long way. We both have," he continued. "And now it's time for you to become one of us, fully and totally. Go on. Take the robes. You deserve this moment."

"What, no ceremony?" I asked somewhat jokingly as I took the jacket from its place in the middle of the room. Unlike the hidden blades, it felt heavier in my hands than I'd expected.

"You don't seem the type for all of that. But that changes nothing. You're one of us now - an Assassin."

I gently slipped the jacket on which, to my surprise, fit almost perfectly. It was a bit big, sure, but I'd fill it out in time.

"Welcome to the brotherhood, Connor," Achilles said. How long I'd waited to hear him say those words.

"What do we do next?" I asked, eager to begin my work now that the training phase was over and I was finally a full fledged Assassin. I kept repeating that over in my head: I'm an Assassin. I'm an Assassin. Soon I'd be pushing my way through the Templars, and - at long last - I'd get a chance to meet Charles Lee again, for the first time since I was a child. I eyed his picture on the wall.

"Tonight I'll take you out for dinner to celebrate," Achilles said as he made his way back to the stairs. "And tomorrow you're going to help me around the estate. There are quite a few chores that need doing while you're here."

My stomach dropped. "What about my new duties? What about-"

"Remember what I told you, boy. Those will start in due time. We can't go jumping headfirst into something this big."

"But-"

He held up a hand, and I fell silent once more. "In due time," he repeated, and began to climb the staircase back up to the first floor. "If you want an Assassin job to do, then keep in contact with your father. It wouldn't hurt to know what he's up to and what he plans."

"He's not going to go telling me Templar plans. We barely know each other."

"But you'll know each other just fine soon. I take back what I said about avoiding him. Keep in contact. The connection may prove useful to you in the future."

I nodded, but I wasn't sure I agreed. Not yet. Haytham didn't seem at all threatening to me.

But still. Achilles was rarely wrong. I'd learned that much in my time with him.