Chapter four, Decisions
A/N: Finally! A chapter I'm excited to write! Still not all that happy, but very exciting nevertheless! I tried to get this up extra early to compensate for being a little late on the last one, so I hope you like it! And please do tell me wether you like it or not, I can't read minds and I will not think you're stalking me, no matter how many reviews you write, they will only give me a really nice, warm, fuzzy feeling inside. (Hope that doesn't sound creepy.) Now, let's get back to the story shall we?
After I somewhat calmed down again, I fell back into a dreamless slumber. And once I woke up, I realized Eva had left, I couldn't blame her, she probably still had a lot of work to do, so I slowly got up. Now calm, I thought my dream over once again. What the blood-soaked dress meant was obvious, that was Cassie's dress, I dreamt about that because I thought about her day and night. Then there was Peter, why I saw him was also obvious, but why was he chasing me? When he still visited he barely even acknowledged my existence, and he certainly never stared at me, so why would he chase me? And why was my imagination even coming up with such ideas, he was locked op to be executed anytime soon. Then there were the odd clothes I had been wearing underneath the dress, they felt so familiar, but I didn't recognize them. And why had falling felt so natural? I had always been scared of heights, but fear didn't even cross my mind when I was falling up until I was close to the ground. And who were those men? Why did I get the feeling I saw that one man before? And what did hitting the ground mean? Was I going to die?
Too many questions invaded my mind, and not nearly enough answers, so I decided to do something to distract myself. After getting dressed I went downstairs, where I found my mother sitting at the table, just starting her breakfast. 'Goeiemorgen, (Good morning) I was already wondering when you'd get up.' 'Goeiemorgen. (Good morning)' I replied as I sat down and grabbed some bread.
'We need to talk.' I looked up at my mother in surprise, what did she want to talk about? It probably wasn't about what happened, we already talked about that, so what was it? 'Wat is er? (What is it)' 'Something I should have told you earlier, come sit a little closer please, I don't want to risk other people hearing us, walls have ears you know.' I was surprised, to say the least. What did my mother hide that was so important that she was afraid that we were spied on? I thought as I moved to the chair next to my mother.
'There has been an attack on the prison last night,' my eyes grew big, 'the prison Peter is in?' 'Was in yes, he has been broken out and taken away. The guards didn't even notice a thing untill they were to prepare the execution early this morning, they found his cell empty.' I gasped, this couldn't actually be happening right? First my sister got killed at her wedding and now the murderer has been kidnapped?! This was just too surreal to be real. 'You say he was kidnapped? Who would do that? And why?'
'He was taken by a group of men known as the Templars, they are men who seek peace by controlling all of humanity.' 'Well, that sounds wrong, people should be free to make their own choices' I said. 'I'm glad you think so, there is also a group of people opposing the Templars, the Assassins. They fight for peace and justice through freedom. These two groups have been opposing each other for almost as long as the human race exists, and both seek pieces of eden, magical artifacts that can control minds and bodies. The Templars to influence the men of power and the Assassins to keep them from the Templars and for the information these artifacts contain as well.'
This was almost to much for me to take, first a war that has been raging for centuries, now magic as well? Everything my mother told me was giving me twice as many questions as answers. 'You speak of the Templars and Assassins as if they are two enormous organizations, how come I've never heard of them before?' 'Oh, but you have. This is all taking place underground, but there are people of might on both sides, influential merchants, nobleman, even priests side with them. Even your father was an Assassin.' Now it clicked, the Templars had Peter so that if we wanted justice for Cassandra's murder, we had to give them whatever they wanted, they were blackmailing us.
'When we got divorced, it wasn't only because we fought so much,' my mother went on, ' but also because he would be gone for so long, and I had to stay home, worried sick, and when he came back, he'd sometimes be severely injured. When he'd stay away longer then planned, we'd have no idea where he was, he had to keep our family strictly hidden from both sides to keep us out of danger. Just before he went on his last mission before we divorced, he gave me this,' my mother pulled a necklace with a key on it out her dress Nd gave it to me so I could take a better look at it.
The necklace itself was nothing special, but the key, the key was small and looked old and unpolished, but was engraved with many strange symbols. One in particular stood out, it looked like an upside down V with a small crescent underneath it, it reminded me most of an axe's blade with a point on the not-sharpened side. It seemed vaguely familiar, but I couldn't actually recall seeing it somewhere. I pointed it out at my mother. 'What does this one mean?' 'That is the symbol of the Assassins.' She explained. 'Do you know what this key unlocks?' 'No, your father never told me, he only told me to keep it at my person at all times for safekeeping and that if he carried it around, it might fall into the hands of the Templars. I didn't even think about it after that mission until your he,'
Her voice trailed off and she seemed at a loss for words for a second. 'After we got divorced your father started to drink, a lot, and in one of his drunk moods, he challenged a Templar in public. They started a fight, and your father was winning, the Templar had a few glasses himself to, but then more Templars arrived and they overpowered him. They took him to their headquarters for questioning, and when he refused to answer, even after they tortured hem, they eventually killed him.' I could see she was at the verge of tears now, 'When that happened, the Assassins assumed that the Templars had taken the key that he was supposed to carry with him, there was no way I could give it to them without endangering us, so I just kept it a secret.'
Tears were now streaming freely across her cheeks and I hugged my mother tightly. The things she had just told me still seemed unreal to me, but I could tell she was speaking the truth by her eyes. The information still hadn't quite settled within me after we had finished breakfast and I had gone back to my room, so I pondered some more on it. The Templars obviously found out about my mother having the key, but how? And why did they want it? Did they know what it unlocked? And was Peter just a hostage of sorts, or did he work for them, it didn't seem that way, he had looked very confused, and I didn't think he would ever purposefully kill Cassandra, he seemed to be after John though, which wouldn't make any sense if he was a templar. If he was, he would probably have attacked my mother instead.
I didn't quite know how to feel about my father as well. So he was dead? Why didn't that seem to affect me that much? If the Templars had found out about us, would the Assassins have as well? Should I search them out and ask for protection? Maybe even join them? No, joining them didn't seem like an option, even though, my father had treated me like a son more than like a daughter. He let me wear pants, and even wrestled with me, always correcting me, telling me what to do to fight properly, now that I thought about it. Did he do that incidentally? Or was it intentionally, meant to prepare me at actual fighting lessons? The more I thought about it, the more likely it seemed. He also always thought me to be weary with who to trust and what to do if strangers approached me.
Maybe he meant for me to follow in his footsteps, but even so, the Assassins probably would refuse to train me. Without even knowing, when thinking about my father, I had walked to my closet and had pulled out my pants and blouse. I smiled cheekily, maybe they didn't have to know I was a girl, with some chest bindings, and boys clothes, nobody could tell the difference. It was worth a shot, and even if they didn't accept me, they had to protect us. Now I just had to find a way to search them out.
A/N: I don't even know if they executed people in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century, but I don't really care either (for the story I mean). History never was one of my best subjects so if I don't get stuff right, it's because I either didn't know or just don't care, there's no use in pointing such things out - unless there's a really interesting story behind it, I love stuff like that actually - as I probably won't change it. Also, if you're not familiar with the Assassin's creed series, and don't know what Assassins, Templars or pieces of eden are and you still don't understand them, message me and I'll explain them further.
