Eugene pulled himself up over the stone railing, his red hand still stinging madly, and rushed over to Rapunzel, embracing her tightly. She replied the same way, both of them relieved that they had won and lived. After a moment, she and Eugene released each other and then grabbed the dagger and pulled it out with all their might. It was tough but after a few tries they got it out and tossed it aside.
"Thanks so much, Eugene," she said to him. "And you too, Altair," she added, looking up at him.
"It's okay," he replied. "Are you both unhurt?" he asked.
They nodded and he knelt down and gently turned his master over on to his back, placing one hand on the back of his head as his eyes flickered open and shut several times. He had struck him from behind in the stomach, knocking out all of the breath inside him. Altair knew he did not have long left so he was determined to try and make his master's passing easy and not painful.
As he lifted him up, the treasure rolled out from his hand away from them, stopping near the side of the pond, almost as if it were alive itself and did not want to be drowned.
"Rest now, master," he said calmly to him. "It's over for you,"
Al Mualim replied with a weak cough and looked up at Altair's eyes, now calm with reassurance as if he was telling him he would be okay as he passed on from this world.
"I-imposs-ssible!" he croaked weakly. "The…student! He should…should n-never defeat the teacher!"
"Nothing is true," Altair replied. "Everything is permitted. Those are what you taught me,"
Al Mualim breathed another weak breath and gave a slight cough. "S-so it seems," he breathed, his life slipping away. "Go…go and claim your prize," he lifted his arm, pointing his hand towards the treasure.
Altair glanced up at it with a disappointed look on his face as if it was something he had thrown aside and hoped never to see again before looking back at Al Mualim with the same expression on his face.
"You held fire in your hand, old man!" he said to him in a voice that sounded as if he had been expecting better of his master. "It should have been destroyed,"
Al Mualim gave a slight laugh at this, only to stop with a cough. "De-destroy the…the only thing t-that could…end the C-Crusades and…create true peace? No! N-never!"
"Then I will destroy it!" Altair said to him, his voice telling him his mind was made up over his decision.
Al Mualim gave weak smile upon hearing Altair's words. "We'll…we'll see about that!" he breathed.
Then, with one final breath, his head cocked backwards and he moved no more. All life was gone from him now. Altair gently placed his body on the ground and stood up, picking up his sword from the ground.
"What are you gonna do?" Eugene asked him.
"I'm going to destroy it," he replied walking over to the treasure.
Just then, as he was about six feet from the treasure, his sword raised, it suddenly began to glow a bright orange colour. Altair stopped dead in his tracks, watching it with wary eyes as if he was a deer on the savannah keeping an eye on a lion nearby to see if it would attack him. The object glowed brighter and brighter, drawing the looks of Eugene, Rapunzel and Pascal, all of who were shocked upon seeing what it was doing. In fact, that question filled all of the four's minds. What was it doing?
Then, as if answering their questions, the treasure suddenly sent out a kind of array of holographic lines into the air, startling the four for a moment. Then about ten feet above the object, a ball began to form, becoming clearer with every passing second. They watched it as what looked like landmasses on it appeared, followed by darker patches between the landmasses. The three recognized a great deal of many of them as they had seen them on maps. By the looks of it then…this treasure was showing them a map of the world! Seeing it made them breathless with amazement as they had no idea what their world looked like.
"What is that?" Eugene gasped, standing up.
"I…I don't know," Altair replied, mesmerized by all of this.
Then, tiny dots began to appear randomly all over the surface of the ball on the landmasses. Some were really close together whilst others were spread out. There were some in England, Scotland, the Middle East, France, Russia, Africa, the faraway lands of China and Mongolia and India, and some on large places they had never seen before to the west of Europe and Africa.
"What are those?" Rapunzel asked, whispering in shock.
Altair shook his head in reply and, cautiously, stepped forward towards the treasure, keeping his sword close.
Suddenly, a great pain seemed to strike his head as he collapsed onto his knees, gripping his temple tightly and gritting his teeth in pain.
"Altair!" Eugene and Rapunzel exclaimed fearfully in unison, rushing forward towards him.
"No!" he grunted, halting them where they were as the pain overwhelming his body like a blaze raging in a forest. "St-stay back!"
They reluctantly obeyed him, taking a few paces back from him, but watched him with utmost fear in their eyes as he began to breathe heavily and even shake slightly. What was happening to him?
Then, a voice began to speak inside Altair's mind. It was the same one that belonged to the man who had been his former mentor. It was Al Mualim's.
"I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly," he said calmly to him. "I have perceived that this also was a chasing at wind…for in much wisdom…is much grief. And he that increaseth knowledge…will increaseth his sorrow!"
Altair grunted in pain, gripping his temple tighter as if he was trying to crush it and get this voice out of his head.
"GO AWAY!" his mind screamed at his master's voice.
The voice spoke up again, still remaining calm. "Destroy it, Altair! Destroy it as you said you would!"
Altair tried to make his body obey. He raised his sword with his shaking hands, but it seemed that the treasure had some kind of telepathic hold over him. It was as if it had taken over his body and was making it not destroy it. By doing this, however, Altair knew that he was being seduced by the power it held.
"Destroy it, Altair!" came Al Mualim's voice again.
"I…I…I can't!" he gasped in reply.
"Yes you can, Altair," the voice said in a kind of smug voice as if it knew that despite the treasure losing someone who had claimed it and had been seduced by it, it would win over anyone and find a new host, which was probably what it was trying to do with Altair. "But you won't destroy it," the voice continued. "You let it seduce you!"
"No!" Altair growled, trying to raise his sword, but his arms seemed to disobey him. "I will destroy it!"
"No. No you won't, Altair," his master's voice said to him.
He was right. All of a sudden, the urge to destroy it left him. He lowered his sword, dropping it on the ground and approached the treasure, though this time more calmly now as if he was a regular person out on a stroll, and knelt down and picked it up. The holographic image above it disappeared almost instantly as he grasped it.
"A-Altair?" Rapunzel asked, a little hint of worry in her voice as if she was worried he had somehow been mind-controlled by this thing. "A-are you…okay?"
He looked over at her and, to hers, Eugene's and Pascal's surprise, he did not have red eyes or suddenly attack them or anything. He just calmly nodded and put the treasure in his robe pocket.
"I…I thought you were going to destroy it," Eugene said to him.
"I can't," he replied. "Besides, doing that may be something I can regret,"
"But…but…" Rapunzel stammered. "But…you might….you might end up letting it…y'know, take over you like it did to Al Mualim," she nodded at his body lying on the ground.
"You need not fear," he reassured her. "That shall not happen,"
He put his sword away and walked over to Al Mualim's body and picked it up under the shoulders and began dragging it towards the stairs.
"What are you gonna do with him?" Rapunzel asked.
"Even though-(grunt)-he's my master," Altair said between his grunts as he carried his master towards the stairs. "He-(grunt)-still deserves a…proper funeral," he paused for a moment and gently placed the body on the ground, resting his arms. For an old man, he was heavy. "Could one of you help me, please?" he asked them.
Eugene nodded and walked over and picked up Al Mualim's legs. The two carried him up the stairs and across the courtyard into the castle. As they carried it outside, a large crowd, which had been recovered and woken up from the spell that had engulfed them earlier on with Al Mualim, saw them and stood aside as Altair and Eugene carried the body through into the city. Rapunzel's mother and father asked her what they were doing but she just shrugged and told them that neither she nor Eugene knew what Altair was doing.
Altair and Eugene stopped at the gate next to a few guards. "Can you grab a few candles and some oil?" the hooded man asked them.
Probably realising what he was planning to do, they nodded and rushed off back into the castle to get what had been requested as the two men carried on out of the castle courtyard and into Corona's streets. Rapunzel was following now with a crowd building behind her.
"I wonder what he's gonna do?" she muttered to Pascal, who shrugged in reply.
Eventually, after about ten minutes though, it became clear. Altair and Eugene, with Rapunzel, her parents and large portion of the kingdom, had taken the body out into the forest on the mainland of the bay and set it on top of a large grave pile made out of logs, sticks and branches. The assassin then took the candle oil and poured it over the body and the grave pile and tossed a candle onto it. At once, a wave of fire swept up, the candle oil and the sticks fuelling it, feeding it as if it were some kind of monster so it could live on. Very quickly, it began to lick at the robes of Al Mualim's body and soon took hold of them both. So it was a kind of funeral service.
"Well, that's it," Eugene said to Altair as they stepped away from the grave pile, watching the fire burn, the glow of it reflecting off their eyes. "It's over,"
Altair nodded. "Yes, it is," he replied. He heaved a heavy sigh and bent his head forward, closing one hand into a fist and placed his other hand on it, obviously feeling the obligation to pay his respects to his dead master, even if he had tried to kill them and was actually a sworn enemy of him and the Creed. "Safety and peace forever be upon you, master," he muttered under his breath, raising his head and lowering his hands again, continuing to watch the flames burn away on the grave pile.
After a few moments, Altair turned and walked back towards the city. "Come, Salad," he said to him as he neared him. He nodded and followed him through the crowd that parted, allowing him to pass. Some decided to follow them. Rapunzel walked up to Eugene and rested her hand on his shoulder, her and Pascal joining Eugene in watching the body of the old man burn away on the grave pile.
"Can't believe It's all over," she said to him, a sense of relief in her voice.
He nodded. "Yeah," was his reply. "It's finished," and he turned away and began walking back towards Corona, Rapunzel following close behind.
It was a small funeral service, but it was one the entire town would remember forever as it would, along with the last few days, become a part of their history.
