So here's another update at last.
Thank you so much Pyro for the wonderful updates, which is kinda why I've had the motivation to update. I'm on some pretty trippy painkillers right now so in between being high as a kite and my next dose I'm writing.
Pyro- as someone who does know how to use some types of swords (personally the Telwar is one of my favourite swords as while as the Syrian Shamshir) it also annoys me to no end when people assume all sword styles are interchangeable. For instance I can't spar one handed. I need either a knife or small shield in the other hand or a two handed weapon. If I have an empty hand i tend to try to block attacks with a blade that I don't have and either end up with bashed fingered or have to scurry to adjust my stance. I also have an unbridled hatred for any kind of switchblade
/pocketknife /folded knife weapon. One day I'll lose a finger to those damn things. Every time I try to close one I end up needing stitches. (Which only makes me wonder how much pain poor Altair had to face when that finger of his got lopped off. My great gramps is missing the same finger and I've recently got the old man fixated on the AC series. It kinda makes both of us laugh)
Anyway, the choice of sword came mostly from the fact that it's the one I know personally the best. I know the attack and defence forms, as while as common mistakes (having made them myself). It's easier then trying to research sword forms for a specific blade type or fighting style.
As for your ch9 comment. Yeah, betrayal sucks. Been there. But I needed a way not just to push him towards the assassins but as a catalyst to making him grow up. He still had that slightly innocent view on life. If he had kept it in its entirety I don't believe it would have been reasonable for him to join the brotherhood as his mind would keep trying to find another way besides killing. In short he would be to irresponsible to handle the mental aspect.
Anyway, next chapter.
•••••••••••••
Alessandro paced his room. If he kept this up he'd wear a hole in the floor. He didn't understand why the Borgia were so interested in one missing guard. He didn't even know much about the Borgia beyond that they were entirely self serving and only cared for their own interests.
Well, that and they seemed to hate the assassins with a somewhat disturbing passion.
He needed more information.
Who were the Borgia really? Who was Ezio really? What did they really want with Italy? Where were all these orders coming from? Why were they so desperate to capture him again? Why did they hate the assassins so much? When did this all begin? Was it recent or did it go back?
Some of those he could answer and some he had partial answers to. He knew Ezio was an assassin, that he killed people. But he also knew him as a good friend and an honourable man. He knew that Ezio was fighting for freedom, for the 'liberation of Roma' to use his words. But not what that actually meant.
What was freedom really?
He knew the Borgia hated the assassins for their tendency to kill certain key individuals and for constantly messing up their plans. But he sensed there was some deeper story then what appeared on the surface.
He knew he could go to Ezio, ask his questions. But he had been warned once before about being careful. He wasn't quite sure he wanted to know the answers.
But was being blind to the truth any better?
He knew there would be no easy answers.
While he was probably to deep to back out now, if he got any deeper the. There would be no turning back.
Could he really throw his lot in with the assassins? With people who killed?
But the guards hadn't been precisely innocent either and he knew that before joining. Yet he joined with them easily enough.
It was doing him no good going over this alone. He was just confusing himself further.
It used to be that he would bounce his thoughts of his father but he didn't want the old man any more involved then he already was.
Ezio then?
Alessandro made for where he knew Ezio's room to be before he lost his nerve. He wasn't quite comfortable in discussing something so personal but he needed to be doing something.
And what he had been doing was of no help.
He kicked on the door and entered when Ezio acknowledged him.
The assassin looked exhausted, though he barely registered this before he started pacing again.
•_•
Ezio leaned back in his chair, arms crossed in front of him. He knew something was bothering the young man in front of him. He had seen it building over the last few days, ever since his father had almost been taken hostage.
And now it has boiled over.
"Who are you really?" The man asked seemingly randomly.
Ezio knew better. He also knew what the former guard was really asking. Alessandro wasn't questioning his loyalty or his honour or anything else like that. The young man just wanted answers to what the hell was going on.
"I am an assassin. I am also your friend." He reminded.
"I, and the other assassins and our allies, work against the Templars" he said quietly.
So Alessandro finally wanted to ask the important questions then?
•_•
Alessandro stopped pacing again from shock.
"Templars? As in the Knights Templar?" Alessandro said confused.
"The very same." Ezio replied.
"But weren't they around during the crusades?" Alessandro asked, trying to dredge up what he remembered from history. Why had he never paid attention to his lessons?
"Yes they were. After the crusades ended they simply went underground. They never really dissolved like they were supposed to have." Ezio explained, choosing his words carefully so as to not overwhelm the boy anymore then he already would be.
Okay, ancient order of Templars still around. While it was hard to believe he knew Ezio wouldn't lie outright to him. He wondered if he really could handle the answers to his other questions if they were all going to be as shocking.
"And the Borgia…? They're Templars too aren't they?" Alessandro stated more then asked but the question was still there.
"Yes," was Ezio's reply and Alessandro resumed his pacing.
"Where are the orders coming from? Why do they want to get their hands on me so badly?" He asked.
Ezio sighed before answering. "I don't know where the orders are coming from but I know they're being given with the Borgia's blessing and support. As to why? Your guess is as good as mine. Your not the first guard to leave the ranks, through proper channels or… extenuating circumstances. I have no idea why they are so set on getting to you."
Ezio knew it wasn't what he wanted to hear but it was the truth.
He only hoped the distraught man in front of him could accept it.
"So if the Templars are still around and the enemies of the assassins… then this all started centuries ago?" Alessandro asked baffled at the amount of time these two factions had been fighting against each other.
"Yes." Ezio answered not bothering to go into the whole history of the orders.
"So why?" He asked.
Ezio raised his eyebrows at the young man. That wasn't exactly a specific question.
"Why do these two sides… the Templars…" his mind still had difficulty wrapping itself around the idea of an ancient, supposedly extinct, order was still around.
"And the assassins hate each other?" Ezio finished for him.
"The assassins fight for freedom while the Templars fight for control. The assassins believe that everyone should think for themselves, rather then have ideals forced on them." Ezio explained carefully. "The Templars think that somebody needs to step up and lead humanity for their own good, whether they like it or not."
"Whether you can accept that explanation or not is up to you, but it is the truth as I know it." The assassin said. He knew if he tried to make the Templars into the bad guys rather then just present the facts he would almost certainly lose Alessandro. As an ally maybe, but almost certainly as a friend.
"I'm not to keen on being controlled by anyone right now." Alessandro said and Ezio allowed himself to relax.
He hadn't missed the warning in that statement, but he wouldn't lose his friend tonight at least.
Alessandro felt that he was in over his head much more deeply then he had been before. He also realized now how much Ezio had been trying to protect him from and he had unconsciously clutched onto that protection like a drowning man. And in a very real sense he was drowning.
He didn't know what to do or where to turn next.
He also understood that while Ezio could provide opportunities and a way of figuring those things out, the assassin wouldn't just give him the answers he really needed.
Not because Ezio didn't want to but rather because he couldn't.
Those were for Alessandro to figure out himself.
"I will continue to investigate what the Templars want with you." Ezio said, breaking the silence unexpectedly.
"But it's not the only thing they are up to and I can't ignore some of the more… serious plots."
Alessandro knew that by 'serious' be actually meant 'more important' but he didn't begrudge his friend for that.
"Why is this such a hard decision?" Alessandro muttered.
"It would effect your entire life from here on in." Ezio answered softly.
"You wouldn't be able to go back and taking a life is never easy. It should never become easy either." The assassin said quietly.
Ezio knew they were coming to a head. Alessandro would either accept things as he had explained, and most likely join the assassins. Or he would reject it, either out of disbelief or fear.
All the master assassin could do was wait and hope.
Meanwhile Alessandro had once more resumed his pacing. Fingers tapping on the hilt of his dagger.
Only one more question remained that he could find an answer to right now.
Could he really throw his lot in with the assassins?
•••••••••••••
Sorry for the cliffy, but I doubt that anyone hasn't already figured out the answer to that particular question already anyway.
Sorry for the lack of updates. I finally found out why I've been having such bad stomach aches the last few years. Back in '05 I had a nasty riding accident that I shouldn't have survived and apparently the doctors missed the fact that my intestine managed to tear near where it joins the stomach... (I guess it got lost among the more serious injuries at the time) Short story, I've been leaking inside for years (and I just though my stomach was getting bigger because of my sweet tooth) from a very small rip. (Stomach acid and intestinal stuff is bad for you, who woulda thought, eh?) It took forever to find a doctor to take me seriously (apparently if you're female it must be PMS.) it wasn't until they tried to do some scan thingy and realized there was so much fluid in my abdomen that they couldn't properly see what was inside anymore. So if I'm sparse on updates it's probably because I'm high on painkillers at the moment. Also, doctors are secretly sadists! Anyone who can be happy at a job that involves cutting people open and poking at their insides is probably either a serial killer or a doctor. Fun fact: if you think invasive surgery without anesthesia was a thing reserved for the long distant past, no, no it isn't. It turns out that most anesthesias are also muscle relaxants. The heart is a big muscle. It's also easier to keep it beating then to restart it. And die to previous injuries from my accident and a few afterwords, my pulse is already really slow. Slowing it further and then stressing my body is apparently inadvisable. Ever have anyone poke things inside you without painkillers? It's not fun. Doctors are evil, despite being helpful.