Guardian Apprentice

by Cyblade Silver

It was Altair who found them first, bringing the Guardians to the attention of the Assassin Brotherhood. Now, with a Guardian living under his very roof, Ezio Auditore will have to work all the harder against the Templars to keep what remains of his family safe.

383. The people's brother

However, the telltale sight of what were unmistakably a pair of coffins, resting uneasily in that selfsame grass, brought him firmly back to the reality that he'd managed to transcend for a few short, precious moments. Turning his path toward the form of the monk who had interred what seemed to be two of his own – judging by the direction of the speech he was making to everyone and no one – Ezio paused for a long moment to listen. Apparently, these were two of the monk's own – all of them belonging to the Order of Minims – and the unfortunate pair before him had been poisoned by a man named Ristoro.

Even worse was the fact that the pair laid out before him had apparently been the man's own students, murdered in a particularly cruel way for questioning the man's proclivities; even if he hadn't had ties to the Borgia, Ezio would have been more than willing to deal with the man.

Finding out the man's location was a simple enough thing, after that; he'd gotten a good description of the church where Ristoro and his Borgia guards were staying, and as he made his way back up onto the rooftop of a nearby building so as to travel more quickly and easily through the more built-up sections of this still-rural part of Roma, Ezio found himself settling once again into the strange sort of routine that he'd made of his days. And, the fact that he was ridding the world of such a man as Ristoro had shown himself to be made his task all the simpler.

He knew that there was still danger, even in such outward simplicity as what he'd been asked to do, not so much because of the guards he would be facing – the Borgia lackeys posed less and less of a threat to him the more he found himself set against them; the more his legend grew, the more all of those who stood in his way seemed to fear him – but because of the straightforward simplicity of the task set before him. It would be all too simple, if he didn't keep a strict watch on himself, to find himself wishing that more of that very simplicity.

The Templars, it was clear, had allowed their natural desires for uncomplicated simplicity to push them to acts of madness; an Assassin had to keep a stricter watch on themselves.