They came at last upon Talal's warehouse within the barbican, and as they entered, he noticed that even Altaïr himself seemed to be rather unsettled by the place where they now stood. True, this was not the most comfortable of places – very far from it, in fact – but Altaïr seemed rather more unsettled than he could account for even from that.
"Alnesr, have you noticed anything untoward about this place?"
"Is there something I should be noticing, Altaïr?" he asked, scanning what he could see of the interior of the warehouse in the enveloping gloom.
"You have not taken note of the absence of guards here? Even of acolytes?"
Altaïr voice carried no inflection, but the glance the elder Assassin gave him was subtly reproving, and Alnesr winced slightly. He was so concerned with what was inside this warehouse, he had neglected to take note of what was not. Before he could speak, the door behind them slammed shut and he heard the distinct sound of a bolt being thrown. Shaking his head as Altaïr cursed softly behind him, Alnesr drew his own blade even as the elder Assassin did the same.
The crept forward as one, and Alnesr felt his eyes slowly beginning to readjust to the newly-darkened gloom inside the warehouse. He had also begun to smell something that reminded him a great deal of livestock, but the scent was somehow more human than animal. Clenching his jaw, steadying himself for whatever it was that he might soon see, Alnesr followed Altaïr deeper into the warehouse.
The first things he saw were mundane, and rather simple things at that: crates and barrels, all of them presumably filled with provisions for the journey that Talal thought he was going to make. However, what caught his attention next was neither of those: it was a cage, one in which a wan, pitiful figure of a man. One who was even then turning to regard the two of them with plaintive, sunken eyes that watered freely as they approached.
The man in the cage began pleading for their help, but he was not the only one. There were others, some in shackles and some held beneath grates in the floor. And all of them, it seemed, had seen their salvation and were now calling out for it.
"Alnesr, do you still remember your training to break locks?"
"I do," he said, knowing just what it was that Altaïr would ask of him next.
"Free these people, then. I will see to Talal, and ensure that you are kept safe while you work."
"As you say, Altaïr," he nodded, moving to the cage where the poor wretch inside it even now watched him with awe and gratitude. "Good hunting, brother."
However, as he went to work on the lock before him, Alnesr could hear the voice of another. A voice from on high; a voice telling them that they should not have come to this place.
~AC1~
As Alnesr worked to free the prisoners that Talal had taken, Altaïr himself moved forward. It had been a novice's mistake, that which had lead him to trap both himself and Alnesr inside Talal's warehouse and behind a door that was now barred behind them, but he would personally see that neither of them paid for his own mistake with their lives. Not Alnesr, nor any of the prisoners that his former Apprentice sought to free; none of them would be allowed to die for his foolishness.
"But, you are not the kind to listen to such warnings," said a man that he suspected all the more now was Talal. "Lest you compromise your Brotherhood." Talal paused once more, and his tone seemed rather regretful when he continued. "A pity about the child; we could have saved him, if we had been given the chance. Though perhaps we still can; time will tell."
Altaïr knew that Talal meant to goad him with such words; to make him lose himself in fury, and hence endanger more than merely his own life, and so he set them aside. He knew Alnesr's skill well enough to know that the younger Assassin would be able to protect himself and those he now guarded from whatever it was that Talal might contrive in an attempt to harm him.
"Still, did you truly think that you and yours would escape my notice here, of all places?" Talal continued; Altaïr could not truly tell if he was disappointed or not by the lack of success that his goading was met with. "The two of you were known to me the moment you entered this city; such is my reach. And it is hard to mistake a boy with yellow eyes, little Assassin."
This he had clearly directed at Alnesr, but whether his former Apprentice had truly taken note of such words he did not know; Alnesr continued with his work of freeing Talal's prisoners and sending them as close as he could to safety as though Talal himself had not spoken at all.
"So, there are slaves here," Altaïr said, trying his hand at a bit of goading himself. "But where are the slavers?"
"Behold my work, in all its glory," Talal said, seeming to put aside Altaïr's own words just as easily as Alnesr had put aside his.
More torches flared to life, and he could now see Alnesr's good work all the more clearly; the younger Assassin darted between cages, grates, and shackled prisoners, and it took him the work of but a few moments to have them free once more. Some of them, those newly freed for the most part, would attempt to take their shelter behind him, but Alnesr would quickly wave them off and direct them to safer ground.
"What now, slaver?"
"Do not call me that," Talal snapped. "I will allow that your boy has upset the system I had emplaced, and it will take some time to see it set to rights once more. I will even allow the fact that the child believes himself to be acting in good faith to these people; that is a good thing, for it means that my brothers and I will have a far easier time in saving him than I had at first thought."
"You do these people no kindness, keeping them here as you have done," he said, choosing once again to ignore the insinuations made towards Alnesr.
"Imprisoning them?" Talal scoffed. "I keep them safe. Preparing them for the journey that lies ahead."
"The journey?" he scoffed in return. "You mean to say, the life of servitude you so generously gift them with after you have stolen their own lives?"
"You know nothing," Talal snapped. "It becomes clear to me that only one Assassin shall find his life spared, this day."
"It becomes clear to me, that the man I face is a coward," he returned, raising his sword in more of a taunting gesture to the room at large, than to any one opponent that he might soon be facing. "Who can only hide in the shadows and strike with words."
"You desire me to come into the light? So that you might see the man that brought you and the little one here to me?"
"Alnesr and I were not brought here by any machinations of yours, slaver. We came of our own will."
"Truly?" Talal laughed in derision. "And, tell me: who unbarred the door that you walked through? Who cleared the path? Did either of you even once raise your blades against a single one of my men? No. All of this was done for you, not by you." Something in the ceiling opened, spilling a circle of daylight onto the stone floor. "Now, Assassin: step into the light, and I will do you a final kindness."
Altaïr knew that if Talal had truly desired his death at this time, the slaver had more than enough archers to ensure that even he would fall under such an onslaught. Even so, as he stepped forward and to the edges of the circle, the sight of Talal's own men – masked and armed as they were – was slightly unsettling to him. Particularly now, since more than his own life was riding on the outcome of this battle.
The eyes of Talal's masked men were like any of those who dealt in death; even Altaïr's own found a reflection of himself in them.
There were six of them, and it seemed as though Alnesr's assessment held true: with two of them, they would have had a good chance of defeating these ones.
"And now I stand before you," Talal said cordially, spreading his hands as though he was a gracious host who had merely invited Altaïr into his home. "What is it that you would ask of me?"
"Only that you come down, so that we may settle this with honor," he said, calmly raising his sword; he was not going to be taken in by simple tricks, not after he had already been so deceived before.
"Why must these matters always end in violence?" Talal wondered aloud, his tone now one of gentle-seeming disappointment. "It seems that I truly cannot help you, Assassin; since you refuse to help yourself. So be it; I cannot allow my work to be undone, and I cannot allow your intransigence to threaten my brothers. Men: kill the elder Assassin, but spare the boy and bind him."
"Alnesr, stand ready!" he called, as Talal's men divided into two groups, and one of them moved to attack him with raised swords.
He distantly heard, over the rush of battle in his ears, Alnesr calling back to him, but then Talal's men were upon him and there was no more time for reflection on things like that. Wading into the midst of his attackers, his sword raised to deal more swiftly with them, Altaïr briefly recalled the lessons that Master Mualim had taught him. As he closed with his chosen opponent, wearing a smile that was little more than a baring of teeth and intent, Altaïr could only hope that Alnesr was doing the same.
There was no time for him to call out to the younger Assassin again, and Altaïr hoped that there was no cause for him to do such, either; he could only trust in Alnesr's skill, as the younger Assassin so clearly trusted in Altaïr's own.
~AC1~
Two more of the men attempting to attack him fell to Alnesr's blade, and were swiftly set upon by those who had once been their prisoners. Those selfsame former prisoners held no mercy for those who had kept them in bondage, and even as he continued to deal with the men still attempting to bar his path, Alnesr could hear the sounds of the still-lucid guards being kicked and beaten by the crowd that surged at his back.
"Talal seeks to escape from this place!" one of the stronger men, who had naturally been at the forefront of the crowd, called out. "Assassin!"
His remaining opponent was swiftly pulled into the surging crowd, and Alnesr quickly lost sight of him "I thank you for your aid," he called back "Go now; return to your homes and your lives. My brother and I will attend to the rest."
Turning away as the crowd disbursed behind him, Alnesr turned quickly to follow the path that Altaïr had, likely as not, taken in his pursuit of Talal as the slaver had attempted to make his escape. Once he had gained the rooftop, Alnesr quickly spotted Altaïr, just before the elder Assassin leaped from the rooftop in pursuit of someone. It seemed that he had indeed found just where Talal was trying to escape from.
Dashing along the path that Altaïr had previously taken, he leaped down into the crowds just in time to see Talal brought low by Altaïr's hidden blade. As the crowds parted, clearly not a one of them wished to risk becoming a party to the violence being carried out here; just as clearly, none of them fully understood an Assassin's dedication to preserving innocent lives.
He could hear Altaïr speaking more clearly, now: "You've nowhere to run now. Share your secrets with me."
"My part is played, Assassin," Talal wheezed, the life clearly beginning to leave him in earnest. "The brotherhood is not so weak that my death will stop our work."
"What brotherhood do you speak of, slaver?" he asked, looking down at the man who then looked back at him.
"Al Mualim is not the only one with designs upon the Holy Land, child. But that's all you and yours will hear from me."
"Then we are finished," Altaïr said firmly, already moving as though to rise. "Beg forgiveness from your God."
"There is no God, Assassin," Talal laughed weakly, death coming all the swifter now. "And, even if there ever was, he's long since abandoned us. Long since abandoned the men and women I took into my care."
"Your care?" Alnesr barely forced himself not to snarl, even as Altaïr rose back to his feet beside him.
"Beggars; whores; addicts; lepers. Do any of those strike you as proper slaves, little Assassin? No, I took them not to sell, but to save."
"Yes, I have seen the salvation you would offer them," he snapped, not entirely able to keep the snarl from his voice when he did. "I have met the man that you would send those in your care to; I have seen his cruelty with my own eyes, and ended it with my own hands."