Assassanna's Creed is a fan made parody, Frozen, Assassin's Creed, and all characters within both franchises are property Walt Disney Studios and Ubisoft, respectively. Please support the official releases.
Down in the basement workshop of the mill, a young boy worked in by candle light until a series of knocks rapped the door to the tune of the Flow My Tears' first line. Young William falls silent, three long seconds pass and the second line is played in dendric percussion.
Willie's short reach forces him to hop out of his chair, away from his precious work and pull a rather discreet lever to unlock the door while grabbing one of the double barreled pistols and taking careful aim, only to relax when he saw a familiar redhead in her new set of assassin robes.
"Hello, Princess." The boy said with a deep bow and a smile.
"C'mon, Willie, it's just me. Don't you technically outrank me anyway?" Anna had returned the smile and gave a small wave, but inside she took quite notice how steady the boy's hand was with the pistol, and she could practically feel from the weapon itself he had used it before. She would not dismiss it entirely instead keep it noted the child could defend himself.
"I wish. I'm just an apprentice." The boy sat back at his workbench and began to search for something.
Growing curious, Anna asked: "How did you get involved in with the Seelie and Assassins anyhow? I mean, you're pretty young for this, aren't you?"
Willie spun on his seat and huffed. "I'm only… Six years younger than you. And some people have been assassins their whole lives anyway. Moira's never been anything but a killer."
"Explains a lot."
Willie snickers. "Yeah, really does, huh? Though I think being a bloody Teuchter has more to do with it."
"That's not a nice thing to call her… Whatever it means." Anna shook her head and took a seat. "still, that doesn't exactly answer my question."
"Sure it does, just not the right answer." The boy smiled with mischief. "But that's not the reason I called you down here. The boys got together and thought it was time you got a hidden blade of your own. But me, hidden blades are fast on their way to becoming relics of the past. They're already relics, outstripped by a design dating back to the 1500's. And I've further perfected the mechanism."
"Well why can't I just use Orelov's?"
"Well for starters, it's not yours. For second, you ended up breaking it."
Anna blinked and then looked at the too-large bracer that belonged to her mentor, the past several days a blurr, she ejects the hidden blade only to find the mechanism jammed and by the time it's cleared, all that comes out is a snapped off stump of a blade.
"When did this happen?"
"Moira said it was around the thirty seventh time she saw you stab your first kill." Hopping off his stool with a small wooden box, he looked down at it, paused, and frowned. "You're really sure you want to do this?"
"I am so tired of everyone asking me that question?! 'Do you want to be an Assassin?' 'Anna, are you sure it's a good idea to be an assassin?' 'Are you really made of the stuff assassins are made out of?' Yes, yes, and yes already! And by the way, every assassin I've seen so far has been made of the same squishy red stuff as any other human is made of! They're people! I'm a people! Not some inhuman monster!"
For several seconds, there was silence, only broken with Anna's heavy breathing and the subtle grinding of her teeth and clenching of her fists.
"Maybe I should ask a related question then: are you alright?"
"Why wouldn't I be? I'm not dead!"
"I'm not talking about if you're body is hurt, I'm asking about your mind?"
Anna sighed, muttering something about 'nosy kids'. "Look, I'm sorry about blowing up, but the past few months have been crazy. Someone tried to kill my sister and Orelov died in the process…"
Willie set the box aside. "I know I'm a kid, but, in this work, you learn to listen to people, especially when they don't listen to you a lot, so, if you need to talk to someone, it does get lonely down here."
"Thanks, Willie. That… Weirdly makes me feel a lot better, if not depressed because I need to vent to a kid."
"Gee, thanks."
"So what is it you wanted to show me?"
The boy began to grin a sort of grin Anna was more used to seeing on Moira, which made the princess nearly jump from her seat and into a stance when Willie grabbed the wooden box from earlier and thrust it towards Anna, opening the lid and revealing its contents.
Inside was a simple-looking leather gauntlet for her right hand, unmarked and long. Anna was briefly tempted to try to spare the child's feelings over the rather unremarkable piece of work. It was certainly at least market quality and that was something impressive for his age.
Then she picked it up and noticed the weight.
"What the… Did you make this out of lead?"
He just smiled wider. "Try it on."
She slipped the glove on, it slide easily up to her elbow, a faint jingling of metal made her realize that between leather layers was a fine mail and steel plates. Once it was completely on, she admired how it supported her wrists, would not obstruct her grip, and feel the fine padding of shot along the knuckles to add mass to her strikes. Testingly, she flicked her wrist and from a discrete slip on the underside, a blued hidden blade flicked out, this blade not like others she had seen, the simple point curled in on itself to form a hook.
"A design from Istanbul, part hook, part blade, and elegant design."
Anna spent the next few moments in silence, testing the cestus. A few experimental jabs and a hook, flicking the blade in and out from its sheath.
"It's… I-... Thank you." The princess said after taking it all in.
Nodding, the young man then produced a second, larger box. "Now, there's still more…" Opening the lid he revealed a set of three, over-under double barreled pistols with strange, conical bullets with a wooden cap on the bottom of one left out of its paper cartridge. Anna felt she had to pick up the unwrapped one to be sure what she was seeing.
"The barrels of each pistol are precision rifled, you can thank Shaun for that. But the bullets are my design. the groves use a bit of large to lubricate the barrel, you only need to ram them in once. The caps on the bottom help the bullets expand once inside the body by pushing into the soft lead. I've tested these before for both rifle variants and pistol. They're far more effective than the standard balls."
Loading the six barrels and then strapping them to her person, the princess smiled and gave the boy a hug, noticing how he immediately froze momentarily in her arms, and when she released him, he jumped back as though he had been burned.
"Sorry!" Anna quickly apologized, inwardly scolding herself.
William just shook his head. "It's my fault. It's been years, I should be over it by now."
Anna took one look at his expression and knew what he meant. "Well, you can't say it really is your fault, can you? I mean… You… Didn't kill them, did you?"
The ordeal of an orphaned child.
In good spirit, William just laughed a bit sadly and replied. "Nothing like that, my father was a librarian who also collected rare trinkets, my aunt… Part of a greater conspiracy the assassins fight. When my dad refused to part with something he planned as a gift for my mum, my auntie went… A bit overboard in her revenge." He then slipped off his gloves and rolled up his sleeves to reveal the mangled burn scar tissue running up their length. "I was still smart enough to keep my face pretty and cute though. Just don't ask me to go topless."
Anna winced a bit, half of it sympathetic, the other half recalling her own memories of slowly freezing from the inside out.
Alone. In that dark room.
Betrayed.
"Oye, you alright?" Willie asked.
"Yeah, fine!" The princess snapped out of her momentary flashback.
"Looks like you do got some scars of your own. Seeing your pretty face though, definitely all gotta be on the inside."
"Well, yeah, I mean my sister nearly- and it was totally an accident, froze me from the ins- Wait, you think I'm pretty?" Anna was torn between being flattered or wondering if her life had discovered a new nadir when the compliment of a child actually helped make her day.
"Well, why wouldn't you be seen as pretty?" There was some genuine curiosity in his voice. "I mean you have a nice face and lovely b-…" the boy trailed off and turned a bit red.
Anna noticed his gaze drop down over a few key parts of her body and she glared. "What else is nice about me?" she asked, challenging him to finish his sentence
William immediately dashed over and grabbed a broken pocket watch, holding it up to the princess's face. "Look at the time! don't you have a meeting with the other adults you need to get to! And I need to build more implements of death!"
Anna was not convinced, but she was still surprised that he was strong enough to begin pushing her out. (Or she was still only a hundred twenty pounds wet and frozen)
"Hey! don't shov- Watch where those hands go, mister! -I'm leaving! I'm leaving!"
After she sealed the basement door behind her and traversed the stairs and ladders until she came upon a hidden door which led to the secret meeting room of the mill. Pushing the trapdoor open, she felt a strong hand wrap around hers and help her up.
"Easy there, Princess Anna."
Anna's eyes went wide and she looked up at who had greeted her.
"Master?!"