A/N: This chapter was so long I had to split it into two parts beacuse my internet wouldn't let it. Hey, Hollywood is doing it all the time! I see no harm in it! (Sarcasm)

Chapter 26:Now

During "Dreamy"

Several months passed after the event with Red and the clan of werewolves, and finding the cabin that Snow was now staying at. Both Red and I passed by as much as we could, and Snow was learning quickly from the little archery lessons I had given her. She was getting good enough that we both decided that I didn't need to teach her anymore, and I began to only stop by as little as once, maybe twice every month. Although the liberation of responsibilities on the people I cared for was taking it's toll on me; every passing month made me feel more and more aimless, like a true Nomad Assassin. With Arendelle in a frozen ruin, the Templars were once again the might of the realm, the other Assassins and I finding it harder and harder to hide from George and Regina. Even with David's deal to give us the information we needed to know the inner workings of his "father's" kingdom, it wasn't as helpful as we wanted. Having a prince as our inside man was nowhere near as good as having a whole kingdom back us with the support from it's queen and princess.

The Cracked Lute was where I found myself going to often when I felt myself losing my way in this war. Assassins had ran it for generations, and we got little jobs from the modest bureau run there.

I had just received another job from them. When they saw my hood and I ordered my ale, I found the job written at the bottom of my flagon. Two hundred gold pieces for torching a Templar operated plantation and killing everyone working there that faithfully serving the Red Cross.

I sat there thinking over the job as I heard the loud chortlings and chatter of the patrons. Most of them were dwarves, as the Lute was on a plot of land close to a dwarven diamond mine. Say what you will about dwarves, but one thing that even I admit with absolutely no deniability, is that no Assassin weapon can match the magical strength of a dwarf's pickaxe.

I suddenly heard a voice among the patrons from a lifetime ago. "It's not in his head. It's in his heart."

I turned and looked back. Belle. The same woman who had last had seen me facing off against Ingrid, and who I ended up leaving alone on that mountain pass with every fear in the world. She was talking with a few of the dwarves a few tables away. It amazed me that she even found her way home after everything.

"You're in love." She said to one of them.

The other one scoffed. "Oh, that's impossible." He said, chuckling. "Dwarves can't fall in love."

Belle only smiled. "Trust me." She said. "I know love, and you are in it."

The skeptic one got up and went back to the other dwarves as the lovestruck one got up and sat down with Belle.

"What's it like?" He asked her.

"It's the most wonderful and amazing thing in this world." She said, grinning as anyone who had someone they cared for, would. "Love is hope. It fuels our dreams." She looked precautious at the dwarf. "And if you're in it, you need to enjoy it. Because love doesn't always last forever."

I got up and walked over. "Take a page from her book, mate. She knows what she's talking about." I stood beside him.

Belle looked up at me in shock and surprise, but without any words; She had thought I was dead this whole time. The dwarf looked up at me from his seat, then at her, with more questions. He didn't seem to notice how shook Belle was.

"But if love's so great, then why do I feel so bad right now?"

"Because you need to be with the person you love." She explained.

I never had really been in love with any one girl, but I had my share of a few nights with them. I felt sick at the fact that I had to get close to a few lovesick Templar women just so I could get close enough to slit their throats and take their lives.

"What, you never heard the term 'lovesick', mate?" I asked him.

"No." He replied. "Besides, how do I know she feels the same way? All she talked about was going to see some fireflies, not loving me."

Oh, Jaysus. Like you have to spell everything out for these dwarves. It's astonishingly stupid.

Belle looked at the dwarf inquisitively. "What- what did she tell you about these fireflies?"

He thought for a second. "Uh, that she was going to see them on the hilltop tonight. That she heard they were the most beautiful sight in all the land."

Both Belle and I only chuckled at how clueless he was. As I said, I have never really felt what it's like to love a woman, but even I know an invitation for a romantic setting when I see one.

The dwarf however, was even more confused. "What?" He asked us.

"Oh, bother." I sighed, smirking. "Mate, she wasn't telling you about the fireflies. She was inviting you to go be with her."

He looked at me and Belle hopefully. "You think so?"

She nodded. "I've had my heart broken enough to know when somebody's reaching out. Now go." She said. "Find your love. Find your hope. Find your dreams."

"You got a real chance here, mate. Seize the first opportunity you see to be with this girl, and don't ever look back."

He got up, grinning as he grabbed his satchel. "I'm Dreamy, by the way." He said as he prepared to leave.

"Belle." She replied.

I raised my hand from the table in a small wave. "Asgeir."

Dreamy grinned as he headed out for the door, leaving me to face the confused woman.

"How are you here, Asgeir?!" She exclaimed. "I saw that woman! She knocked you out and then disappeared with you in a cloud of smoke! What happened?"

I shook my head, thinking hard about what to say. Arendelle was already in ruins. Nothing she could do or say could help something as dire as this, especially for someone so innocent and untouched by our war against the Templars. She needn't know anything. Why should she?

"Anna and I ended up fine." I explained. "The woman is currently in the dungeon of Queen Elsa's castle, and the kingdom is safe."

Belle smiled. "Oh, that is a relief." She said. "I haven't heard any news from Arendelle for a long time."

"Not a surprise." I replied. "Neither of these realms really know much about the other. Nothing much there has changed in the last year, anyways."

Some people might even say that it hasn't changed so much; it might as well be completely frozen.

Belle then glanced at a poster on a column a few tables from her. I looked over at it, and back at her.

"What's that?" I asked.

"Some kind of beast that's roaming the land nearby. They call it a Yaoguai."

The drawing on the poster showed the beast. It looked like a massive lion with giant teeth, and a mane made out of pure fire. A reward was posted right below it for killing it, but I cannot remember how much it was. And even if I wanted to take care of the job myself, I knew what Belle was thinking.

"You think you could take down a creature like that?" I asked.

"What?" She asked, suddenly snapping to her senses. "Oh, no." She scoffed, waving her hand. "No, I don't think I'm brave enough to face it. The last time I faced a beast it…" She looked down at her half drank pint. "It didn't go over very well."

So she had faced her Beast, but she wasn't with her. I wondered what was different than the story if she was no longer with him.

"So?" I asked her. "You face a monster once, but you shouldn't let that one time shut you down forever. It only teaches you what not to do the next time." I tried to keep my smile up as I thought about what I would do the next time I faced Ingrid. "You know how I'm a hunter, right? Well, the last fearsome creature I faced I barely escaped with my life. But that has taught me how when I face it next time, I shouldn't wait for it to make the first move. I need to jump right in, and quickly. No hesitating or anything."

I looked at the poster. There was a sign up sheet to get on a wagon heading to where it was last seen, its departure date; dawn two days from tonight.

"Not every story in real life has a happy ending, but that doesn't mean that every story doesn't. Make this story one of the few, and show these men that a woman with a book can do just as much as a man with a sword."

I then pulled out a silver piece from my pocket and placed it beside her pint. "Next round is on me." I said, getting up, raising my hood and heading out into the night.

Assassins often have to ask ourselves what we regret. Most of us answer that it's the souls of every person we didn't save from the Templars that haunt us the most, but I have a much grimmer answer. Every day I say to myself that the one thing I regret more than anything in the world was knowing Elsa and Anna. Half the time I wish that my father hadn't even told them that they existed. So I could be spared all the pain and misery I now feel from the memory of them. The memory of them once brought me joy, as it was all I had left, but now I can't forget how I felt when Ingrid killed them both. All it is left to me now is just ice in my veins. I now wish that they hadn't existed so that I would be spared all this misery. And almost every living thing that I have touched since has faced pain just as much. I'm no longer just a suffering victim of pain, but almost a…harbinger of pain. A bringer of death. A White…heh. Well, you get the picture. And soon afterwards, I added the dwarf to that list of people I wished I had never met. Because when he found me a few nights later, everything about him had changed.

He started to yell at me at first, but the barkeep demanded us to take it outside. When we came outside, over by the stables, he socked me right in the jaw. The little bastard had quite a punch as well. I rubbed my face, but only looked down at him, not hitting back. He was an innocent, and unless he was really asking for it, I would not hit him back just yet. Something was bothering him, and I would let him take it out for a few minutes.

"You feel better n-?" He hit me again.

He punched and kicked me as much as he could until I finally had had enough of it, and grabbed his fist. Glaring down at him, I squeezed his fist until he pulled away, growling at me.

"What is the matter with you, Dreamy?" I asked. "Things were fine until a few-"

"It's Grumpy now." He replied.

"Gru- what?" I said, confused. Wait, this arsehole was that dwarf from the story?

"You were the one who said that I should go after her! Well guess what, mate?!" He yelled. "I can't be with her! She's a fairy! And I'm a dwarf! If I ran off with her, the Blue Fairy would clip her wings! She said so herself!"

Oh, that fucking moth. She would pay for this one.

"This is all your fault, Asgeir!" Grumpy snarled. "You could've just left me be, but instead you thought that encouraging me to go after my dreams wouldn't do any harm! I hope you are satisfied, because you broke my spirit!"

He stormed back into the tavern leaving me out in the dark.

The forests I was now standing in were where the Blue Fairy had appeared to people most of the time. I took a long drink from my flask. I hadn't done this confrontation to her before, but I figured a few drinks would get me in the right frame of mind. I was drunk enough at this point that I was more angry than tipsy, and was now yelling at the top of my lungs at the night sky, my voice echoing through the darkened forest.

"REUL GHORM! REUL FUCKING GHORM! I WANT TO TALK TO YOU, YOU FUCKING WASP!"

She appeared to me, floating down from the sky in a ball of blue light. She scowled down at me as I yelled at her.

"What is your fucking deal?!" I screamed. "I thought you were over this cruelty when you clipped Tink's wings, but this proves that you still think yourself some kind of god! If none of us follow your bullshit rules, we all must pay! Not all fairies are like you, and I'm glad for that. But you, I know you to be no more than a devil with angels wings!"

Blue only looked down at me without any words, keeping her snooty sneer on her face as she looked down at me, then turned and started to float away.

"Don't you fucking leave!" I yelled out. "I'm not done with you, yet!"

I pulled out both my flintlocks and shot them both at her. Neither shot hit her, but she turned and looked down at me.

"You Assassins don't know anything past the pain and misery you inflict on other people. You don't get the right to judge me or any other fairy, until you learn to see the good in other people. Even Templars."

She turned and went back to floating away as I yelled out at the night sky once more.

"She hurt another, Tink." I said. "I don't know what I'm going to do anymore. Any time these days when I try to do good, something ends up happening that pushes me into an even darker place than before."

Tink sat beside me on the log, taking a drink from my flask. After having my fill of screaming at the moon, I used a bean to travel to Neverland. Pan was a dangerous monster too dangerous for any Assassin to face, but he apparently was once one of us, so he would leave us alone as long as we did the same and didn't interfere with his business. And for me, that meant that no matter how much I wanted to do it, I couldn't take Tink with me when I left Neverland again. She fit into his plans, I guessed.

"You said it yourself when she first clipped my wings, Asgeir. Blue hurts everyone that doesn't follow her rules." She kept silent as we both sat there in quiet contemplation. Even if I wanted to kill Blue, (and I wanted to very badly), by our laws, she was still innocent. Nothing I really had left to do but find something else to fight for that she hadn't touched.

I got up and pulled out a bottle from my satchel. I had been getting into a bad habit lately, but both Tink and I agreed that some habits helped, no matter what other people said.

"Thanks." She said as she took the bottle from me, handing me back my flask. Both of them were full of fine whiskey.

"You're welcome." I replied. "I'll be back the soonest I can, Tink."

"Please take me with you this time, brother." She halfheartedly begged. "Please?"

I shook my head. "Pan scares me just as much as he scares you, Tink. Maybe almost as much as the other monster that slaughtered my family. As much as I hate to say it, what he says goes."

Tink started tearing up, then jumped up and grabbed me in a hug.

"Goodbye, Asgeir!" She exclaimed. "I'll miss you!"

I nodded sadly as she pulled away. "As will I." I replied, dropping the bean onto the ground, the floor collapsing below me.

During "Heart of Darkness"

Every time I visited Snow after she had hijacked David's carriage and fell in love with him, I knew that what she really wanted from me wasn't teachings in archery anymore, but what was going on with him. And unfortunately, I had last seen her to tell her that her man was going to marry Abigail. I had received the news from him weeks ago, and no matter how much we both hated it, this was something the Assassins could not pull him out of. He had to go through with it.

I returned to the cottage another month later. As I walked out of the brush I saw a familiar hood.

"Red!" I called out.

She turned and grinned. "Asgeir!" She cried as we both ran for each other, and hugged.

"Here for Snow?" I asked.

She looked at me puzzled. "Oh, you don't know?" She asked. "She's gone. She left to go break up Prince James' wedding."

I shook my head, smiling a little. "That girl. Always full of surprises."

We suddenly heard a man's voice calling out. "Snow! Snow White! Snow! Are you there?!"

Red and I walked through the brush towards the voice, into a clearing beside the cottage. It was David.

"She's gone!" I called out.

David looked over at us as we approached.

"She never came back after she went to find you." Red said.

He looked at us, determined. "Then I'll find her." He said as he guided his horse over nearby, readying to mount it. "I will always find her. And I will convince her that we belong together. I will always fight for her, no matter what comes between us."

Red only grinned. "It won't be much of a fight."

"What are you talking about?"

"Brother, Snow wants to be with you more than anything." I said. "You're all that she's thought about for weeks

He raised his eyebrow at us. "Don't mock me. Snow told me that we can't be together because she doesn't love me."

"No." She replied. "She left here to break up your wedding, because she's in love with you."

Something occurred to me in that instant. "But unless, something changed her mind along the way?" I said

David shook his head angrily. "Not something. Someone!"

"James?"

We heard shouting as we saw armoured riders galloping. No mistaking the arms on their doublets. It was George and his men.

"Who are they?" Red asked

"That someone: King George!"

"BRING ME HIS HEAD!" The shite Templar king thundered. "AND THE ASSASSIN'S TOO!"

"Come on!" David called as he grabbed Red wrist and pulled her up onto his horse. I shook my head when he offered his hand

"Go on!" I can run just as fast!"

David nodded, turning his horse before spurring it into a gallop. The guards shot their crossbows at us, but they all missed as we headed off into the woods.

The soldiers seemed to let up as the day went on, but not by much. It was that they were getting tired faster than the three of us. While David and Red kept riding on their horseback, I was keeping up within the treetops. The guards were now divided on whether or not to shoot me down, or their prince. Eventually I realized we needed a good distraction to escape, and I had just the thing. I jumped down onto a lower branch as I kept running, but I grabbed the grenade I needed and pulled the pin on it as I dropped it. It hit the ground just as David and Red rode past it, but went off at the right time causing a massive explosion of shrapnel and dirt to blow several of George's soldiers away. I wouldn't stay behind to kill George just yet. I knew that I would have to eventually be given the approval to do so. It didn't feel right, here in the forest. And I had to help David and Red get out of here.

We rode on for days until we were certain that we had lost them, and then took to setting up camp in a large clearing in the forest.

David explained what had happened with Snow while we sat by the fire. "Snow, she… I invited her to the castle, asking her that she come to me for us to run away together. I found her, but George must have gotten to her first. She told me that she didn't love me anymore, and walked right out of the castle."

"Templar control freak shites." I growled. "George can't get away with this, Jimmy."

"I know. But there can be a better way towards defeating him than killing him."

Red nodded. "He and the other kingdoms are too powerful, even with how they are almost bankrupt now. You'd never get close enough to him."

I was about to reply when I noticed a star up above Red. It was brighter than any I had seen before, and it was also bigger. In fact, it looked to be getting bigger and-

"RED!"

She darted out of the way just as I lunged forwards and dove to take the arrow. It landed right in my back and out the front of my chest. I got up groaning as the riders came out of the tree line.

"Move! MOVE!" I called out. David and Red followed as she looked at me in horror at how the arrow was sticking right through me, and I wasn't even blinking. David only gave me a look of acknowledgement of he remembered what afflicted me. We ran over to David's horse.

"Red, Asgeir, c'mon!"

Red and I both looked at each other, understanding. We had a better purpose than going with him.

"Go, James!" I called out as I raised my hood. "We got this!"

"No, I'm not leaving you both!" He called.

"Find Snow!" Red ordered. "That's all that matters!"

"But what're you two doing?!" He asked.

As I pulled the arrow right through my chest and snapping it in half, I suddenly noticed the light that was flooding the field. Moonlight.

"Giving you a head start." She said as unfastened her hood and dropped it onto the ground.

David looked confused, but turned his horse and yelled out as he kicked and spurred it off into the darkness.

I cracked my neck as I drew my cutlasses.

"Ever killed any Templars before, Red?"

"I don't think so." She replied as we started sprinting towards the guards, her eyes glowing

"You never forget your first." I said as she got down on all four and grew in size. I yelled out a charge as the battle began. But as Red and I fought, the Assassins and the Wolf together, I knew that this battle was more than anything a start of what was coming. All out war.

Three years after the casting of the Dark Curse, in an undisclosed location near the southern coast of British Columbia.

Steven had done all he could in his position to support me in my search for the town. The town where everyone in the Enchanted Forest was apparently banished to. But unfortunately it wasn't much. During my last visit he had given me a set of encrypted coordinates that led me to this place. Long into the night, I could see the distant light pollution from Vancouver in the sky as I searched around for whatever I was supposed to see.

It was in the middle of the summer months, so warm that night that I only had the hood of my hoodie hanging over my head with the rest of the sweater flapping behind me as I looked among the trees in the dark, the light of a flashlight the only help I had left.

Several times throughout the few hours I spent, I was practically begging myself to quit this. Whatever Steven told me I would find here was long gone, and I really shouldn't have been surprised. The Modern Day Assassins were just as Nomad-like as Arendelle's branch for the last few years. Whatever there had been in this location, it was now dead. Nothing left to really find.

I shook my head, getting ready to head back to the boat I had used to get here, when I suddenly felt something strange about the ground when I walked a few steps back. I was standing on a raised platform made of metal, covered in dead, yellow pine needles. I brushed away as much of them as I could, blowing away some of them. I shined my flashlight down on the platform, and then shook my head at the symbolism of it all. Right in the center of the metal platform, the Assassin insignia shone in the beam of light from my flashlight. And there was no mistaking the key that the slot in the center was asking for. I extended my blade and inserted it into the slot, then turned.

The door began to turn, so I got up and stepped away as it turned a whole circle before opening upwards, like a regular door on hinges. I looked cautiously down the trapdoor where a ladder led down into darkness. Clearly this is what Steven was sending me to, and with very little left in terms of friends who could help me find the town, I climbed up and started down the ladder.

It was sickeningly wet with water or whatever it was. I didn't even want to think what other gross substances it was covered in, and just tried my best not to fall. The immediate thought that came to me was that falling down this shaft wouldn't kill me, but some part of me was very afraid of whatever was down there. Some kind of secret weapon? Another precursor vault? A message meant for me just as there was one Ezio received from someone called Desmond? I suddenly made a misstep, slipping and making a wild grab for a rung on the ladder. My hoodie slipped off my head and fell down the shaft, and I heard a soft "thunk". There was a bottom to this thing, at least that I could be sure of.

I couldn't see the bottom of the shaft, even after a whole five minutes of climbing down. I wanted to go back, but I had been too focused in my climbing to notice that the door had shut behind me, until I looked up in fear. I kept climbing down, noticing the cold for the first time; I was shivering like crazy since my hoodie fell down the shaft, and I now regretted not having it zipped up like I should have. What was the whole point of me going this far west into Canada? Sure, it was supposed to be cold here, but I doubted Ingrid or the town were up here. And why all the secrecy? Something told me that whatever was down here was-

My foot slammed down on the hard, wet stone floor and I slipped and fell down. I rubbed my head as I got up, grabbing my flashlight and looking around. My hoodie was right in front of me in a crumpled mess on the floor, and as I slipped it on, I felt how wet and cold it was, trying hard not to notice. There was a small arched opening in the wall with the insignia right above me. No way left to go but forwards, so I ducked under the archway and went inside.

The next room was massive. I could feel how empty the air was and the space just at how my feet echoed off the stone floor. There were small columns of light coming down the sides of the room against the walls from holes that looked to be miles above where I stood. Under each column lay a basin of water above a large mesh drain cover. I could hear a couple dripping sounds come across the room down from above into the basins. I figured out that this vault was underneath the mountain where I was, and that on in the winter months was it truly secure from the Templars. The holes in the roof were inside rivers that were currently running dry at the moment, but when winter would come, the creeks would fill back up burying the vault under water and snow.

"WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR YOU, ASGEIR SWORTSSEN." I heard echo through the hall. This voice was deep and forceful

I shook my head as I walked forwards across the floor. Another Assassin symbol was carved into the floor. The ancient Assassins loved to show of their brand. Everywhere we lived.

"YOU DOUBT THAT WE CAN HELP YOU. AND YOU DOUBT EVEN YOURSELF." I heard another voice call, this time that of a woman's, but just as fearsome sounding.

I looked up or wherever I could to look for the source of the voices. "The things that I have seen and have happened to me don't make me doubt much in the faith of the divine powers of the precursors. But they make me doubt my faith in others. You aren't the first person I have heard of that has failed others because of their inability to deliver. And you're not the first people who hide in the shadows pretending to be some kinds of mytics."

"WE ARE NOT THE WIZARD OF OZ, REAPER. WE ARE NOT PEOPLE WHO CHOOSE TO LIE TO OTHERS TO SPARE THEM PAIN." I heard another voice call. Every time the voice paused, it changed to another's "WE ARE ASSASSINS JUST LIKE YOU ARE."

I chuckled a little. "Alright, I'll buy into some of this. Why am I here?"

"YOU ARE HERE BECAUSE YOU SEEK ANSWERS. MAYBE EVEN HELP."

I nodded as I kept walking towards the end of the great hall. Where were these people? The voices were so loud I couldn't tell where they were coming from. "You're right. I want help finding the bitch that killed my family so I can drive my blade into her throat."

"WE KNOW YOU, ASGEIR. AND WE KNOW THAT IN RECENT YEARS, YOU HAVE LOST YOUR WAY AND YOUR FAITH IN THE CREED. HOW COULD LIFE HAND YOU SUCH A RUTHLESS FATE WHEN YOU FIGHT TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT? WE CAN HELP YOU FIND WHAT YOU SEEK, BUT YOU WILL FIRST HAVE TO FACE OPPOSITION UNLIKE ANYTHING THE TEMPLARS OR YOUR ENEMIES ON YOUR OWN PERSONAL LIST HAVE PUT YOU THROUGH. UNTIL YOU LEARN THAT THIS WAR IS NOT ABOUT YOUR OWN PERSONAL SATISFACTION FOR REVENGE, YOU WILL NOT RECIEVE WHAT YOU NEED TO HUNT INGRID DOWN AND KILL HER. YOU WERE NOT FAITHFULLY READY THE FIRST TIME, AND YOU MAY NOT BE THE NEXT TIME."

I growled. "I am ready! The longer I wander this world looking for the town, the longer Ingrid is out there trying to hurt other people. Don't you get it?! I'm doing what I swore to do! What I was asked!"

"NO. YOU ARE DOING AS YOU PLEASED! YOU HIDE BEHIND THE CREED AND SAY THAT YOU CAN SOLVE EVERY PROBLEM YOU FACE WITH THE FLICK OF A BLADE. KILLING EVERY TEMPLAR YOU COME ACROSS WILL NOT BRING BACK YOUR SISTERS."

I clenched my fists as I kept walking down toward the end. Somewhere at the end, there was something these cowards were hiding in the shadows that would have been able to help me take her down.

"And who are you to judge? You say you are Assassins, yet you judge me like Ingrid did. Like Zelena and even the fairies did. Divine strength does not give you the right to look down on other people! The Creed teaches us that all life is sacred! And that we are all equal!"

"WE ARE ASSASSINS, ASGEIR SWORTSSEN. THE SOULS OF ASSASSINS THAT HAVE LONG SINCE DIED, BUT WHAT LIES BEYOND THE VEIL OF DEATH DECIDED THAT IT IS FOR THE BEST THAT WE STAY HERE, HIDING IN THE DEEPEST DARKNESS, HIDDEN AWAY EVEN FROM THE MOST ELUSIVE OF ASSASSINS, AND THE MOST THOROUGH OF TEMPLARS. THE FEW ASSASSINS THAT KNOW OF US CALL US THE MASTERS. YOU MUST UNDERSTAND HOW IMPORTANT THIS IS, ASGEIR SWORTSSEN. IF ANYONE ASIDE FROM THE FEW ASSASSINS WE TRUST GAINED THE KNOWLEDGE AND THE STRENGTH THAT WE CARRY, ALL WOULD BE LOST. THIS IS YET ANOTHER VAULT THAT NO UNWORTHY ASSASSIN MAY FIND."

I started to see the end of the hall. A table lay there underneath a seventh beam of light.

"So if you will not help me find Ingrid, then why am I here?"

"YOU ONCE PROVED UNQUESTIONABLE LOYALTY AND COURAGE TOWARDS THE ASSASSINS, AND IN DOING SO, WE ONCE TRUSTED YOU. YOUR FATHER HIMSELF KNEW OF US, AND HE WANTED A BETTER PATH FOR YOU AND HIS BRANCH. YOU LOOK ON THE TABLE AND YOU WILL FIND A FOLDER. TAKE IT AND RETURN TO US WHEN EVERY ONE OF THE OBJECTIVES IN IT ARE FINISHED. IF YOU COMPLETE THEM, THEN WE WILL KNOW IF YOU ARE READY TO BEGIN THE PATH OF REDEMPTION."

I looked over the table. It looked like one people put in a conference room, with chair all around it, the Assassin insignia carved right into the center of it. I found the folder right at the head of it with a wax seal of the symbol keeping it shut. Fancy.

"BEFORE YOU GO, ASGEIR SWORTSSEN, THERE IS ONE THING YOU WILL NEED TO LEARN BEFORE YOU BEGIN THE HARDEST TRIALS OF YOUR LIFE."

"Nothing I haven't seen or heard can be as bad as what you have to offer me, Masters." I replied.

Oh, but I was very wrong. I was more wrong than I ever had been in my life. This would be the first step I would take into finding the information I now wish I had never known. The horrible truth.

"LIKE MOST ASSASSINS, YOU SHOULD BE AWARE OF THE ROGUE, SHAY PATRICK CORMAC."

"Aye." I replied. "What does he have to do with any of this?"

"IT'S THE MISSING PAGES. EVERY ONE OF HIS JOURNALS WERE IN ASSASSINS HANDS, AND YOU HELD THEM ONCE AS WELL, BUT THERE IS SOMETHING ABOUT THEM THAT THEY ALL HAVE IN COMMON. THE LAST FEW PAGES LEFT IN THEM WERE TORN OUT."

"You know what was in them?"

"YES, BUT NO ASSASSIN ALIVE THAT ALREADY DOESN'T KNOW ABOUT WHAT WAS IN THEM IS READY TO KNOW. ONLY ONE PERSON ALIVE KNOWS WHAT WAS IN THEM, AND NOT ONLY DO YOU KNOW THEM, BUT THEY ARE THE ONE WHO DESTROYED THE PAGES IN THE FIRST PLACE."

I looked up towards the hall. I heard another drip from above as I started thinking about it. And it hit me like a shovel. It just didn't feel right to me. Why would Templars try to suppress information on their greatest warrior? It didn't seem like something they would do, and if that was the case, then that left only a handful of people. A face came to mind…No. Not him. It couldn't be.

"YES, ASGEIR SWORTSSEN. THE PAGES WERE NOT DESTROYED BY TEMPLARS LIKE YOU HAD ORIGINALLY BELIEVED. THEY WERE DESTROYED BY YOUR MENTOR, MATTHEW LUND."

The Gates: December 21st 2011

Now, after years of my last contact with the Masters, they had this package sent to me, asking me to go on this Year Walk. Would it be to show me the future? That's what the Ancient Norse believed. This seemed to all be leading me towards unearthing something that I could feel had been kept buried for far too long from any Assassin's eyes.

Elsa's candle was long gone by now. I'll even bet the current tipped it over and put it out over an hour ago. I had been sitting there most of the night, the dawn sky just starting to glow. I might as well have head back to my cabin and just try and get some sleep. I would take a look at the package when I woke up and would decide how I would go around to performing the ritual then.

They all doubted me because of what I turned into. I became a raging psychopath hellbent on torturing and killing whoever had any information leading to Ingrid, the one who did this to me. She broke my mind and infected me with something that now drove me to do horrible things costing me my hood, the last thing I had left to live for. Now no one in the brotherhood really trusts me, and they will keep a very close eye on me when the time comes. But it will all be useless. I know how the Assassins work, because I have been one for most of my life. None of them will stop me. I will hunt the c*** down, burn every hole she has left to hide in, smoke her out, show her a world of agony she has only begun to imagine, cut any friends she has right in half, and then, when she has lost everything and her world is a world of fire and steel instead of ice, only then will she be given the bittersweet release of the Reaper's Caress.

Now

Rory was just finishing up another one of his Irish songs, this time with the help of Torren backing him up. Turns out quite a few Assassins liked music as a hobby. I stood in the doorway to the inn's rooms.

"Come out ye black and tans/ come out and fight me like a man/ show yer wives how ye won medals down in Flanders/ Tell 'er how the IRA made you run the hell away/ from the green and lovely lanes of Kileshandra."

Matthew had gotten up from his seat and started for the door when he finished his pint. I stood right in front of him.

"Move, Asgeir."

I stood definitely at him with my arms crossed. He tossed his hands up carelessly to his shoulders.

"Can't a brother got to get some sleep?"

"No, a brother cannot." I said in a low voice to him. "Not until a brother knows that he has pissed of the wrong brother. Especially by hiding and destroying information that this brotherhood should have learned decades ago."

Matthew raised his eyebrows, daring me to hit him. "You may think that by burning those pages, I was hiding that shit to protect my own arse. But don't forget: everything that I have done since you got yanked out your precious Templar mummy's womb, I did it to protect you just as much as this branch."

I only shook my head slowly at him as I stepped off to the side. I was onto him now. And he was losing the trust of the branch. Jason and Zar now hated him for voting against my hood. I wanted him to know that I was sitting on the memory of those pages, so that I had what anyone ready to complete his vengeance would have: leverage. But Matthew wasn't the only one left in this town who I had a thing or two to do to. Time to go to war.