"Oh my sweet little Celestine." he cooed.
"Don't go…" she mumbled and this surprised him.
"I swear, I won't."
"Bene…"
She hugged him tighter and she suddenly went limp. She's suffering from severe exhaustion, dehydration and fatigue ever since they started their mission from the cemetery grounds to the catacombs until they got to Xavier.
She huffed out one last of her remaining vigor and she almost passed out, fortunately Arno caught her and carefully laid her down on her bed. He removed her greaves, boots and her coat; without malice he continued to unbutton her vest and blouse so that she won't feel constricted as she sleeps. He also detached her blade and gauntlets from her arms and put them safe on her nightstand. Arno brushed away the thin strands of Celestine's hair from her face as she slowly goes to sleep, he kissed her forehead long and hard, rubbed his thumb against her cheek and sat down on the other side of her sleeping spot, playing with her locks very softly as it plops silently on the pillow once he lets it slide from his fingers.
Arno's POV
There she lies down, sleeping soundly. Even after everything that has happened—that stress, that frustration and even her own revenge, I suppose one can never overcome something that is so tiresome. She's not fragile—I have seen and proven that myself—she's just very exhausted with everything that has happen.
I suppose she has gotten through a lot. I mean, witnessing your parents being killed right in front of you and apparently leaving you for dead because your enemy thought of you lowly, that's pretty much enough a reason to stake vengeance in your heart.
Celestine is impressive though.
With that amount of revenge—it's so remarkable that it has not corrupted her at all.
For how many years?
Eight?
That's right… Eight years. She contained that vengeance for eight years until the right time comes—and it did.
That is really impressive. She really has the mind of an Assassin. Not to mention, the body for it too. Don't get me wrong, I have seen how she moves her body in combat and in defense—but of course I, myself, have seen her skin firsthand but now is not the right time to think of such things.
Her breathing was heavy, as if her body demanded it but still she looks peaceful. But then it came to my mind about what happened back in the dead-end pocket of the catacombs where we faced Xavier for the first time.
He looked so young. I assume he's bound to be the youngest Grandmaster in all of the Templar Order's history. He almost looks like me and Celestine's age but… how? And why?
Did Germain really took that boy in on purpose? Did he really plotted this? Perhaps Germain was half-certain that he will come to an end one day but why take an apprentice? Does he really think that boy, Xavier, can live up and continue whatever legacy he leaves as he dies? If so, then that old man has a way in hiding things—the same way he hid his true identity from me when I first met him in the house in Le Marais.
Let's just see if that little boy is just as cunning as his Master. He was already a dead giveaway when he did that little trick with his own type of smoke bomb. That is both cowardly and cunning.
Come to think of it…
I'm getting pretty tired myself.
Celestine's POV
Upon waking up, I found myself stripped of my robes, my vest was taken off and my blouse had three buttons undone and of course, my greaves and boots were set on the floor. I turned to look at my side and found a sleeping Arno. Well, it seems that he is lousier than me when he must have slept yesterday.
I seem to have slept for the entire day until I reached the next day which is today, hmm?
I must have a lot to take in…
About yesterday though, back in the Brotherhood's Court, how is it that they weren't hard on me this time? I suppose if I would recall it and then analyze it, it seems that I haven't broken a tenet of the Creed. In fact, my blade only touched a portion of Xavier's flesh even when I was supposed to stab him.
And believe me, he is no innocent at all.
I rolled to my side and fixed up the mess lying down right next to me by the name of Arno Victor Dorian. I bit my lip as I smiled and resisted my laugh that is about to burst from my mouth—if I laughed out loud, I would have disturbed the big baby—I took down his hood, fixed the loose locks tickling his face and took off his gauntlets and blade. My finger gently caressed the lining of his stubble and his lips were tempting me in the most facile manner. I pressed my mouth gently to his warm lips, long and hard as my hand cradled his fine jawline.
When I pulled away, he was still asleep—good—I carefully got out of bed to go to the kitchen and have some tea prepared for the two of us. I didn't even bother putting on my vest again, my blouse is just fine I just needed to straighten it up so I won't look like I wasn't being put to bed and made love with him. As I got out of my bedroom and quietly closed the door so that he won't be disturb, I bumped into the maid who regularly does her housekeeping duties in my bedroom when I was at the top of the stairs and told her not to attend to the room for now since Arno is asleep.
"Celestine?" a soft and pallid voice echoed across the second floor hall.
I was already on the ninth step of the stairs when I looked up past the banisters and saw Juliette.
Ahh, Juliette. Look at how much you've grown—although you have Uncle's eyes but you're still very beautiful. A young girl at the age of seventeen, how time flies.
"Juliette? Something wrong?" I casually spoke as I pursed a smile.
"It's just that…"
I retracted my smile and then went back upstairs to her. "What?"
"I heard what happened yesterday," she mumbled nervously, "Is it true?"
I didn't reply.
"Is it true that you met with the man who killed your parents?"
"Yes, that is true. Where did you get that information?"
At first, she hesitated in answering even though I already have a guess and it's apparently a correct one.
"Well, it's… from Adrien."
"Juliette, if you truly love Adrien you shouldn't be so hesitant in mentioning him—let alone in saying his name. Just by saying it with conviction, everyone else, including him, could see how much he means to you."
It's just so precious to have someone who is proud to show you to the world that you belong to them as they to you.
I have never thought of it, though. Is Arno proud of me not because of my status but for my entirety?
"Well now, I have to go to the kitchen to get some breakfast prepared." I patted her shoulder and then continued on downstairs.
I greeted the intendant who was staring out in the window out in the front of his office and checking the time in his bronze pocketwatch. He turned to me as I greeted him even though I just address him as "monsieur", temporarily exiting from his daydream to greet me back to which I appreciate.
I strolled my way across the café, seeing the maids ready the tables and chairs while the waiters and bartenders are beginning to fix the drinks and wipe the glasses clean after a fresh rinse.
"Bonjour!" I greeted them all and they greeted back in unison.
For some reason, this is a good feeling after getting myself into such trouble with Xavier.
Xavier…
I rushed to the kitchen and then boiled a pot of tea for me and Arno. While it was still heating up, I readied the tray, the cups and saucers and maybe even some cinnamon-sprinkled bread. When the teapot whistled and turned down the fire, I also managed to sneak out a single apple for myself while I bring the tray all the way back to the bedroom.
Luckily there was a chair where I could put down the tray for the moment as I open the bedroom door and as I got inside, Arno was already awake and sitting up rubbing his temples with his fingers reaching both ends.
"Buongiorno, tesoro. How was your sleep?" I greeted him and setting the tray down on my desk.
"I think my wake was better than my sleep, all thanks to a sweet kiss minutes before I woke up."
I smiled and scoffed, "Cunning. As you always were, Arno." I chuckled.
He chuckled back and I walked up to the bed to sit down right next to him.
"Well, how are you, Celestine?"
"I'm doing fine, if I could say so myself."
"Really now?"
"Prometto." I assured him.
"How about I serve you the tea this time so that you don't have to work yourself out."
Before I could even object to that, he already got out of bed and walked up to the tray and poured tea into both cups. He placed two cinnamon breads onto one saucer and we shared the lovingly hearty meal—just like ordinary days.
If I kill Xavier, will it always be like this? No more worries? At least not a major problem because we can deal with the pests like the extremists but…
It sure does feel different. Knowing that Xavier is here planning out his tyranny in Paris—he's probably hiding underground like the disgusting rodent that he is—I suppose everything is unusual and eventually… the unusual will become the usual.
Personally, I wouldn't want that. I want to save Arno. The Brotherhood. Juliette. My Brothers Octavien, Felix and Siegfried.
I want to save Paris from a deranged apprentice-turned-grandmaster.
After our breakfast, I brought the tray back down to the kitchen until I was hindered by the elderly maid who tended my wound on my back.
"Oh, oh! Child, let me have that, I insist. Better not be tiring yourself after yesterday."
I was surprised with the last thing she said, "You know about that too?"
"Everyone heard—you pursued your parents' murderer and then reported to the Council. That must be very tiring of you to catch him."
How much do these people know?
She took hold of the tray, bowed and smiled at me as she dismisses herself from me and made her way to the kitchen to have the dishes and cups washed. I stood there at the foot of the stairs, leaning on the marble and gold-adorned pole of the banister as I try to assess myself how much intrigue the news about me has spread across from the Brotherhood to the Café Theatre. Does that mean the safehouses know about it too? Well, of course, given that Arno and I originally got the mission to purge the Templar nest in the catacombs came from a log in one of the clubhouses—the other houses are bound to know as well. Assassins are good intels and good hiders of secrets as well but I suppose the word of mouth cannot be avoided by prying ears and eyes. I'm just hoping that some of those prying ears and eyes don't belong to a Templar or any of their affiliations or else we are going to have a difficult time in resolving the situation.
Then I wonder: does Xavier have a right-hand man? Most Templar Grandmasters do not but is he a new mix?
I guess I have to answer my questions myself.
From my right I heard chattering men and just by their voices I could already tell who they are.
"Celestine?"
"Felix, brothers… good to see you all." I greeted calmly, contrast to Felix's impression.
"How are you doing?" Siegfried.
"I'm alright despite the news spreading like wildfire."
They start to bombard me with comments and questions that I don't know who to answer first and next until…
"Alright, alright, boys—the girl just got up from her rest, don't you think it's too soon for you to corner her with such controversies?"
I turned around and found Arno making his way downstairs. His coat tidied up and his shirt all neatly tucked and buttoned, he must have fixed himself while I was here.
"Any other news though?" Arno.
"The Mentors have sent out more of our brothers to scout out Xavier's whereabouts and also his affiliations." Octavien.
"It is likely that Xavier prefers to hide underground like a sewer rat." I added.
"So he's somewhere in the catacombs?" Felix.
"Yes, but he's bound to have a mansion—one that looks like any other nobleman's mansion." I replied.
"Celestine," Arno.
"Yes?"
"Do you think that Xavier inherited Germain's mansion as well?"
I blinked and allotted my attention to Arno, pressing him to continue his theory.
"When I first confronted Germain, he was still in the guise of a mere blacksmith, I infiltrated the mansion in Marais myself. I thought that the place was his… Do you think he would have handed it down for the boy as his last will?"
"That could be a fact but we still have to learn more about it."
We were all silent and then I realized, "Perhaps we should bring this matter to somewhere more private, I suppose."
The five of us went to the secret underground study hall for Assassins under the floors of the mansion, we passed through the theatre foyer, through the kitchen and then to the secret passage. As we got down silently so that we will not attract any unwanted attention from the customers of the café, I immediately went to one of the shelves to find the map of Paris. I took out two scrolls—one of which is the mapped out network of the catacombs under the feet of Paris and the other is a mere map of the surface of the city.
As I set down both maps on the large table and my brothers were kind enough to set down rocks as paperweights on the corners to keep the maps from scrolling back, I thanked them and then went on with my proposal.
"Alright, men. Across all of Paris, cemeteries are the primary entrances to the catacombs—be it open tombstones, mausoleums and even manholes that lead to the sewer maze—these are most likely Xavier's hiding spot, the underground labyrinth itself." I began.
"Won't that give him away, Celestine? I mean, if we have figured out already that he is bound to hide in the catacombs, how would we know where he is then?" Felix.
"That's a good question, Felix. Although I would like to add that Xavier still has a mansion handed down to him according to the will of his dead master, he's bound to lodge there as well." Arno.
"You two are both right but… if we are going to go back to the catacombs again, where is Xavier hiding?" Siegfried.
"The Templars tend to hide in wide pockets of the maze. Only a few gain access to the heart of it." Octavien.
"You don't mean the center of the catacombs itself?" I confirmed.
I noticed Arno has gotten quiet, "Arno, is there something wrong?"
"The heart of the catacombs… that is where I dueled and killed Germain."
"From what I heard, starting from the heart of the maze—its doorways lead to the other adjacent networks that splits and spreads farther—and also the interior of the maze has an altar and an oculus on the ceiling."
"That's correct, Celestine." Octavien, "Where did you learn that?"
"I spent my time here reviewing scrolls and maps, I came across a blueprint of the catacomb's heart one time."
"Clever." Arno smirked.
"How are we going to approach this?" Felix.
"There are scouts being sent out by the Masters, correct? If we ask them to share their information, which they are most likely going to do, we can split up and dig up some more information as to where Xavier is. Know which place he is frequently hiding—either the catacombs or his mansion in Marais? Know the people who is under his influences—the captain or general of the National Guard or the main leader of the extremists?"
They continued to listen.
"We wait for the scouts and then fish them out of what they know. See if Xavier spawns out of his sewer hole and fights like a man. Also, we could ask help from Bonaparte if worse comes to worst." I smiled at the idea of Napoleon audaciously firing cannons on the street that on a battlefield or at least a desolate meadow in the countryside where the camp of the National Guard's platoon is stationed.
I adjourned the meeting because the entire plot sounds half-baked without the information from the assigned Assassins. We were beginning to fix up the scrolls and putting them back to the shelves, in the corner of my eye I saw Octavien walking up to Arno.
"I have to say, Arno, she is quite a woman you have."
"I heard that." I said.
We all shared a hearty laugh and continued to clean up our mess, our brothers left first while I sat on the table and stretching my back after a hectic plot planning.
Arno walked up to me and held my waist as I stretch up.
"That was pretty impressive, amore." Arno.
"Molto grazie, amore." I said as I rewarded him with a kiss.
"Don't work too hard on this, though."
"I promise I won't."
"Good girl." He kissed my forehead and held me tight.
You know, knowing the fact in the game that there are a lot of passages in the mansion/Café Theatre, it pretty much reminds me of the movie of Anne Frank's life. Because my college had a school fair for the whole week last time and I walked into one event that premiered a movie of Anne Frank's life. While writing this chapter now involving Xavier's preferences for hiding in the catacombs or going into hiding in general, the secret passages for the Assassins within the walls of the mansion reminds me a lot of Anne Frank and her family's attempt to go into hiding in that claustrophobic attic-turned-house in her dad's office.
What I just wanted to open up in here is the game logic which I find hilarious and at the same time impractical because GAME LOGIC.
First, people don't seem to mind the Assassins living and roaming around in the mansion or the café that they are practically hanging out in.
Has anybody—especially the ACU gamers—ever wondered why not a single extremist or Templar attempted to go in casually or barge in brutally into the hideout of the Assassins?
Are the maids and waiters affiliated with the Assassins? Of course they are, obviously. They're headed by Madame Gouze who is also affiliated in the Brotherhood with an incognito profile.
It's probably all in my mind.
ALL HAIL GAME LOGIC. XD
Xielle.
