Ryuugazaki: Inshallah, I'll be able to finish a story.


Chapter Seven: My Little Boy, Now and Forever
(Wednesday, 15 November 1769 – Kanatahseton, Mohawk Valley, New York, British America)

I walked through the gate of my village, my home. Kanen'to:kon was with the men of the village. "Ratonhnhake:ton!" I saw him stand up. "You are here! Is your journey done?" I stayed silent and kept my eyes to the ground. "Is it?"

"It has just begun." He frowned. "You were not expecting that answer." He stared at me. "Where is Mother and Oia:ner?" I waited for no answer and went to the longhouse I shared with Mother and Oia:ner. I found Mother and Oia:ner doing needlework.

"Greetings, Ratonhnhake:ton!" I bent down and let Oia:ner kiss my forehead. I sat in between them. "How has your journey faired? Did you find what you sought?" Mother and Oia:ner stopped doing their needlework.

"I have found what I am seeking, Grandmother, but I have come to tell you both that my journey has only begun." Mother's lips became a line. "Mother, Achilles Davenport sends his greetings." Mother relaxed a bit.

"I am glad that Achilles is the one you sought after. He is a good man. I trust that he will treat you well." Mother started to unbraid her hair. "How does the Manor look? It has been a very long time since I've been there."

"Achilles Davenport said that the Manor is falling apart." Mother smirked. "He said that he could get the supplies to fix it, but that he cannot walk into a store and buy them himself. How weird." Mother smirked.

"What was the purpose of this trip, Ratonhnhake:ton?" Mother ran her fingers through her hair.

"I wanted to come tell you that I have found Achilles Davenport." She nodded. "I also wanted to tell you that I will come visit you when I can. My training is going to begin when I return there."

"You should have told me when you were leaving yourself." She picked up a lock of hair and stroked my face with it. I smiled. "I'm grateful that Mother came to tell me this, but I wanted to hear it from you." Oia:ner resumed her needlework.

"Do I have your blessing to start training, Mother?"

"Of course you do. So long that you tell me what you're doing." Mother was stern. "Who must you eliminate so that our home may know peace?"

"There are six men. Their names are William Johnson, Thomas Hickey, Benjamin Church, Nicholas Biddle, Charles Lee, and Haytham Kenway." Mother's face paled. "They all must be eliminated. It is the only way the land will know peace."

"I understand that this is so, but I am distraught that your father is one of those who must perish." Mother sighed. "I cared deeply for your father, you know." She continued her needlework.

"Why didn't you stay with him?"

"He was a Templar and he deceived me." She quickened her sewing. "I do not take such treachery lightly. How could I stay with someone who lied to me?" Mother stroked my head. "His eyes were fixed upon the future. He desired a future in which that he and his Templar brethren controlled all. Had I stayed with him knowing that he lied to me, you may have grown up with the same dark hunger that I saw in him." Mother kissed my forehead. "It was good that I left. It was good for the both of us." Mother reached under her mat and gave me a journal. I remember reading this journal the day I encountered Charles Lee.

Oia:ner left the longhouse. "This was your father's. He entrusted it to me and I took of it. Now, my son, I entrust this to you." Mother reached into her overdress and pulled out a bracelet. "Whenever you think that you're alone, remember that I will be by your side, now and forever." Mother stopped doing her needlework and rebraided her hair. She smiled warmly at me and I returned it. "Now go, my son. Go back to Davenport to begin your training. Write me and come visit me whenever you can." Tears started to form in our eyes. "Go quickly! Go before I go to Achilles myself and tell him that he can't have my little boy."

I squeezed my mother and bid her farewell. But then I returned. "Mother, if I were to write you, how would I send it to you? Strangers are not welcome in the village." Mother took the journal from me and wrote in it. She gave me the name she uses whenever she goes into the city.

"That's how. Address it to that name at that address and I will receive it." She smirked. I waved her farewell and left the village to return to Achilles Davenport.