"Woah, woah… We don't need to see you strip; we know you've lost your extra weight." Venus says and I hesitate to continue… I'm afraid…
"No, this is something you should see. You'll be able to see that she's not lying to you." Zeph says firmly, I hold onto the camisole underneath with one hand and pull the long-sleeved shirt off. I wait to hear the gasp of my mom, or of Venus. But neither of them make a sound.
"Don't think this will just make me believe you." She says to Zeph and me as she stands up and comes over to me, "These all look older than just a couple of years, which can't be the case because I know that less than two years ago during our trip she didn't have any of these. You must have had someone put makeup on her for this gag of yours…" She says as she reaches out and takes my arm in her hand and runs her hand over the surface of my skin. She rubs at a couple of the larger scars as though to rub them away like makeup. That's when she gasps, and she grabs my other arm and tries the same with a few of the larger ones, with the same result. She rubs with enough force that the body I had before would have bruised.
"If it were that easy, I wouldn't have had to wear long-sleeved shirts this whole time." I same quietly to her. Her crystalline blue eyes look up to meet mine.
"This one?" She points to the one that caught Zeph's attention the first time he saw it.
"Saved an orphan from getting cut down by a sword… The guy called me a demon because he didn't end up chopping my hand off." I answer, Zeph snorts.
"You didn't mention that part when I asked…" He chuckles, Venus picks up my right hand and points to the three-inch one that gave me away to Kiyoshi.
"What about this one?"
"I stopped a young Kiyoshi from getting killed by a rival gang." Her jaw drops a little.
"He told me about what happened then… He told me once that that incident is one of the reasons he fights so steadfastly for the Brotherhood now…" Venus says.
Then mom comes over and she moves her hands between a few scars from bullets that I got some thirty-five years ago.
"That was you…" She whispers barely loud enough to hear, "I wondered when I saw the mask… But now I'm sure." She pulls me into a hug, "San Antonio, 1984. An abandoned Abstergo warehouse in the middle of the night." She says as she steps back. Abandoned Abstergo warehouse in San Antonio? In 1984… But how could she know that's when… I gasp a little and cover my mouth.
"That was you, mom?" I remember jumping between gunfire and an Assassin whose cell had been ambushed searching an old Abstergo warehouse. I hadn't intended on going inside but my gut had been practically screaming at me to intervene and save the Assassins inside.
"Not just me… I had been pregnant with Nyx at the time… You saved both of us." We all sit back down, "You had been like a phantom, there blocking the bullets from hitting me one moment and then in a flash faster than I could see, all the Abstergo agents were down. Then you just vanished. Bill often said that if he hadn't seen it himself, he would never have believed it."
"Bill?" I ask her.
"William Miles. He had just become my brother-in-law and had led our cell to that location. But your actions also made my decisions possible. I'd had the leverage to ask to temporarily leave the Brotherhood to raise my family because Bill had given me the credit for saving the rest of the cell. But if you hadn't acted that night… None of you would even be here."
"And apparently ensured the existence of Desmond Miles… Thereby making sure the world would continue to exist." I add to the list…
"Wow… Kudos." Aquilo says giving an impressed nod.
"Like I said. Superhero." Zeph adds, the rest chuckle at his comment. I roll my eyes at him, "What? It's true. Now you really can't deny it. You ensured to continuation of the world be saving a man whose kid saved the world. Also your family… Uncle and Cousin."
"Right… If William Miles is your brother-in-law… That means he is dad's brother. Making Desmond Miles— who is something of a historical landmark— my cousin. Strange…"
"You're one to talk." Venus jokes.
It takes hours—likely the better part of the day. Between mom, Venus, Zeph, and Lio the questions seemed never ending. We jumped between so many topics of the explanation that I think they now have a fairly solid, if rudimentary, understanding of my story to this point. Compared to what Yusuf once knew they barely know anything at all, but when compared to almost everyone I've known in the last five hundred years… They have a practically encyclopedic knowledge.
"Raea…" Aquilo says, the first time he's used my nickname since our sparring match, I look over at him, "I'm sorry… I didn't give you the chance to explain yourself after our match… Zeph told me that it had been his idea because he was fairly sure I wouldn't listen if you just told me… And he was probably right. But I didn't—"
"Lio… Like I said, I shouldn't have let your goading get to me… I didn't have to let you feel what I made you feel at the end. I was just losing my patience because you kept trying to win. So, really, not completely your fault."
"That is so you, my Raea." Mom says before laughing a little, "You always try to take more than your share of any blame. You have also always been quick to bear your burdens completely alone. Never asking for help from anyone. But always the first to offer help to someone you love. And I'm sorry it took me so long to realize that… It was because of those tendencies that you lost interest in everything we had been teaching you. Perhaps if I had been more observant of you, I could have helped you through your struggles better."
"That also hasn't changed. She wasn't going to tell us at all." Zeph pipes up.
"Really? Why?" Vee asks, "What did you think we would do? Send you away?"
"Well, I can't say that hasn't crossed my mind… I've been called a lot of things over the years… Demon, monster, cursed… I guess I was worried you'd think the same of me… I wasn't planning on telling any of you for a couple of decades until the point when my unchanging appearance started to get your attention." I answer while looking between each of them, "The reason was partially to protect you all from this, the Assassins and the Templars both."
"Oh? We needed protecting, did we?" Mom asks crossing her arms.
"Hey, to be fair, I had no idea that you were all already Assassins." I hold both of my arms up in surrender.
"That is true… Sorry." Mom says.
"No it's okay, I know you only did it to protect me. And honestly… You would have been right… The person I was before all this would not have handle any of it very well." I confess. Then Lio stands up and walks over to me, and he takes my right hand. He leans towards it and holds his fingers over the ring from Yusuf. Mom then stands up and leaves the circle of chairs to the cooler of snacks that is next to the power generator.
"Raea… I'm so sorry." He says before leaning in and hugging me even stronger than his last hug. I put my arms around him and hug him back.
"You saw all of Ezio's memories with me?" I ask him.
"Yeah…" He answers.
"Even… Masyaf?" I continue.
"… Yes." He answers slower before giving a tighter squeeze and releasing me before sitting back down. I wonder if that was what had changed his mind about me… Although… If he hadn't seen it, I wouldn't have told him about it. And I hope that as few people as possible saw it.
"Okay… What am I missing this time?" Vee asks.
"Ezio's memories? Do you mean what you were working until the Abstergo raid?" Mom asks Lio as she comes back with water bottles to pass around.
"Yeah… It must have been her being reintroduced to our life as she is… But it altered Ezio's memories in my DNA. Probably all of ours… Anyway, I followed them all the way through, because we were trying to figure out if the woman there was like the Sage… Evidently that's not the case." Lio answers.
"Evidently… Does anyone else know about you?" Mom asks me.
"You guys, Emmett… For reasons. And Kiyoshi… Because he recognized me."
"And Rebecca because she was running the memories for me." Lio adds.
"Oh… Well. Rebecca too." I add. Silvija comes to mind but I don't bring her up, she doesn't need to be brought further into this than she already is, especially since it took so long to get Abstergo off her case in the first place.
"You know you'll have to tell your father at some point…" Mom adds to the end of the discussion. I take a deep breath in.
"Yup… I'm aware… Still trying to figure that out… I didn't exactly plan to have this all out in the open so… Soon. I had been hoping for a couple of decades with my family… Peaceful, not getting involved with the Assassins or the Templars—But hey… I guess plans are made to be utterly destroyed."
"I don't think that's how the saying goes…" Zeph quips.
Astra… ea… A quick flash of light from the tunnel that disappears deeper into the caves draws my eye again, then I feel my brain get foggy for a moment.
"Well, I think we could all use a while to process information, yeah?" Zeph says before standing up and stretching. Bringing me back to myself.
"Yeah…" I say before standing up and walking away from the circle of chairs and Lio follows me over to the cots where I sit down. He sits down next to me.
"I really am sorry… I… I saw how… In Masyaf… I saw Ezio find you…" I reach over and pull my bag to me; I reach in and pull out the little painting that's getting more attention in the last couple of weeks than it did for four-hundred years. I pass it over to him and he just looks at it warmly. Then I fish out the ring that had once been on Yusuf's hand from my shirt and place it next the painting in his hand.
"Ezio… Had found me there and pulled me out of the darkness that had been closing in on me again. He helped me hold onto the light that Yusuf had given me. Also… I'm really sorry you had to deal with seeing the memories in Venice. That isn't a time I look upon fondly… I had been in a dark place, easily darker than after Yusuf's death. I had been suffering betrayals and human hatred for so long that I couldn't find the strength to keep caring. All of that happening made me only more worried about there only being five hundred years before seeing you again… Only five hundred years to figure out how to try to be myself again. My time with Leonardo had helped me see what I was becoming… And I didn't like it. So I made a lot of effort to try to be human again through drawing and Ezio…"
"You really thought that sex was the answer?" He asks humorously.
"Well… Maybe I did… For the record it didn't work… Not with Ezio anyway…"
"WHAT?!" Vee shouts as she drops down onto the platform in front of us, "You had sex with Ezio Auditore?! Do you realize how fucked up that is?! He is LITERALLY our ancestor!" Vee shouts at me.
"Well, I didn't know that now, did I?" She opens her mouth to continue and raises her index finger at me, but no words come out, "Yeah. So to me? He was a charming, handsome man who wanted to spend time with me. Plus, like I said… It didn't work so it was literally only once."
"You also said it like it did work with someone though… Who was it? Were they related to us? Hmm?" She interrogates, but with a large smile. The one she always wore if I ever told her that I was having a crush on someone, since it happened so rarely.
"I'm reasonably sure that no… He is not. Unless we're somehow related to Emmett too."
"So he's one of Emmett's ancestors! Who is it, huh?" She waggles her eyebrows at me. And I look at the painting still in Lio's hands, which he then passes to Vee after I nod at him. She takes the painting and gasps, "Isn't this Yusuf Tazim? The one who had been leading the Istanbul Brotherhood until…" She pauses then looks at me and leaps a hug at me, "Oh, Raea… I'm so sorry…" I reach my arms around her and hug her back.
"Raea?" Mom stops at the edge of the wooden platform area.
"Yeah?" I ask her as Venus steps back a little to let me stand.
"I want to get your opinion on something…"
"Oh, are you going to take her to the entrance?" Vee asks, suddenly particularly interested. Entrance?
"Yes. We've been trying to puzzle out what this place needs to open… We've gotten no answers." Mom answers before going on about some puzzle.
"This place?"
"It'll be easier to show you, it's this way." She points to where the voice has been calling me from and definitely the source of the strange feeling I've had since getting here.
"Okay…"
"You can all come too, since you're obviously not interested at all…" She says to Lio and Vee, and apparently Zeph who was listening in from across the room.
We then walk towards the tunnel leading into the dark, mom turns on a flashlight and leads the way. The entire trek is full of twists and turns. We go through several points where the tunnels branch off in several different directions. The network of tunnels seeming more and more like a labyrinth, but mom steadfastly and efficiently leads us through each turn. Although, every turn she chooses is a tunnel that has a warm glow just around the corner until we arrive, then it's as if the glow vanished. Every turn mom leads us down follows this glowing light… But by the way the rest are using their flashlights, I don't think they can see the same glow I can. The warm glow coloured like a summer sunset.
Astraea… Astr…
The further in we go the more dominant the voice calling me is, but like with the glowing, no one else seems to react to it. So I try not to react to it… That is until I hear the voice as though it's whispering right into my ear.
I jump to the side and look at the plain stone wall of the cave's tunnel.
"What? Did you see something?" Zeph asks, as I had apparently hopped almost on top of him.
"No… I thought I heard something, must've just been an echo." I shrug and we continue along behind mom, then the edges of the tunnel split away from us and we enter into a huge cavern in the shape of a perfect dome. The tell-tale shimmers running along ridges in the walls show that it is an Isu creation. They all stop at the edges of the space and I just wander towards the middle, I look to the ground and see where the cave's rough floor gives way to the impeccably smooth floor of Isu construction, where the shimmering lights flow also flow through the grooves. I stop to admire it for a moment.
"Can you guys get working on turning the lights on?" Mom instructs the rest, "It's beautiful, isn't it? We found the almost a year ago, right after our trip to Greece. It took about five months of exploration to find this place though…" Mom says as she walks up to me, "Come on, I'll show you what we found at the other side…" She takes my hand, and we walk onto the smooth circular floor area.
The moment my foot makes contact with the floor, the entire space comes to life. Instead of the soft blue light of a sleeping Isu construction, the light shifts to the typical vibrant gold. The gold spread across the floor from where mom and I stepped on, and then from the bottom of the walls upward until the whole dome is lit with the warm golden light. The dome now boasting a perfect recreation of the night sky's stars.
At the crown of the dome is a symbol I haven't seen for a painfully long time. My hand covers my mouth as it drops open. The symbol of the dawn and the dusk… The symbol that Astraeus and Eos shared.
"Holy shit!" Zeph exclaims from the left side of the room where he is holding a handful of cables.
"Wow…" Vee gapes at the dome.
"Do we still need to turn on the lights?" Lio asks wryly.
"Apparently not… What did you do?" Mom turns and asks me.
"What did I do? It never did this before?"
"If it did, we would never had needed lights…" She points around at the lights that are placed around the base of the dome pointing at the walls and the floor. As well as what appears to be an Isu console at the opposite end of the rotunda space.
"Well, I don't know what I did… But I know that I do have an energy signature similar to Isu… Different enough that some of them wouldn't treat me well, but similar enough that Astraeus and Eos effectively adopted me."
"You were adopted by the Isu?" Vee's jaw drops as she catches up to mom and me.
"Yeah… It had been Astraeus and Eos who found me on the beach… But I didn't have any memories…"
"Right, you mentioned that bit." Venus nods.
"Yeah, so they helped me heal, hoping that my memories would come back… But days turned into months, months into years… Then the years turned into decades… Whole families evolved, and I never changed. So they adopted me and did their best to find out what exactly I was."
"Wow." She breathes.
"Although, I don't remember them ever building this… But I really hope it is what I think it might be…" I remark as I kneel down and slide my fingers over the ridges that are now lit in the smooth stone floor.
"Wait… So Astraeus and Eos built this?"
"Yeah, that's their symbol up there," I point to the crown of the dome, "That symbol was all over their home, clothes, and other belongings. There are also the symbols of their children, the larger ones in the stars," I gesture to the symbols marking the 'wandering stars,' "And the four winds, of course." I point to the base of the dome about ten feet off the ground at each cardinal direction; with each direction connected by undulating swirls to symbolize wind.
"Yes, we named each of you after one of the children of Astraeus and Eos from Greek mytho—" Mom starts, "Um… Astraea? Are you saying I named you after yourself?" A few muffled snorts come from my siblings around the room and I just look at my mother.
"Yep… You definitely did." Then the snorts turn to laughter and I canter to the other side of the room, could this be it?
Dike and I had searched for so long… Searched for the last gift that Athena had told us about. They had never even told Dike where it was, let alone that they were building it. She had been in the dark until she brought me to Athena after retrieving me from the remains of Ilios' lab. Could this be what Athena said Astraeus and Eos built?
I get to the console to find that it isn't a console, just a message. A riddle.
Ugh… Athena obviously had a hand in the design of it, even if she didn't directly help build it.
And judging by that this riddle is either easier than it lets on… Or stupidly difficult… I suppose it would depend on what Athena's mood was. Unfortunately, it sounds as though it has been keyed for me specifically, so it's likely that even if they could read it my family likely won't be able to help. Fortunately, that would also mean that should anyone else have ever found this place previously they wouldn't have been able to gain entry.
For all I know this riddle could be solved simply by staying in this space for a specific amount of time…
"So can you use the console here at all to do anything?" Mom eagerly asks.
"Unfortunately, not. It isn't a console at all… It's just a riddle. One clearly directed at me, but it's hard to explain." I say.
"Surely you could let us help, right? Just do your best." Zeph says as he leans against the wall by the pedestal hosting the riddle.
"Well… Something about placement… Or locations… Uh… Designated location perhaps. Hmm… Sorry, Zeph. That's the best I can do. I'm guessing this riddle has been made with me in mind specifically. If I had to hazard a guess, it was Athena's idea to make sure that no one but me could enter this… Whatever it is."
"Jeez… Exclusive access to a multi-millennia old Isu cave. Membership has its privileges, I guess?" Lio says, "What makes you think they only want you to open it?"
"The top of the pedestal bears the symbol they used for me…" I brush my fingers over the etched and glowing surface of the pedestal, where my symbol of stars inside of Astraeus and Eos' dusk and dawn.
"You said the one up there is the symbol for Astraeus and Eos… So what is it doing here?" Venus asks pointing to how theirs is encircling mine.
"My guess is that they were saying 'Our Astraea.'" I look at the symbol and smile. I haven't even gotten to the inside and they're already reminding me how much I meant to them. I wish… I had gotten a real chance to say goodbye to them. "Guys… Do you mind if I get a little time alone…" My mom puts her hand on my back for a second and then stands.
"Of course… We'll just be back in the main area." I hear them go and when I look, I am indeed alone.
I allow myself a few minutes to just sit in the room, admiring all the work that must have gone into it. And letting myself grieve for all that was lost. While I know that it had to happen for the world as I had known it to come to life, it still hurt to have to everything wrenched from my hands so suddenly… Ilios had put me in the stasis chamber before the catastrophe. By the time Dike had found me the world had already been well on its way to being rebuilt with the few remaining Isu heralding the way for the humans, and I hadn't had a chance to say goodbye to Astraeus, Eos, or any of my adoptive brothers or sisters. Not before they had passed into the fogs of legend.
Every minute I spend in here, I am more convinced that this really is the vault that Athena had said they built for me. Which spurs me out of my small slump and into exploring the domed space.
"Hello?" I hear from below; my heart starts beating quicker.
I'm flying right now. And I didn't tell them I could do that. I look and see Venus entering the space and look around. I let myself sink slowly behind her and lightly land about ten feet away from her back.
"Hey, Vee," I say as I take a few loping steps to her.
"Sweet mother of Jesus!" She says as she turns around, "God… You startled me. That hasn't happened since we were kids; and you would do that all the time!" She comes up to me and ruffles my hair.
"Wow, you're right… I did do that all the time, didn't I?" I remember all those times I just happened to see her coming along and I hid to spring out at her. The hiding in nearly plain sight always seemed to come so naturally to me… I guess now I know why.
"All the time." She reiterates. Then we sit down on a boulder at the edge of the room, "I've brought you something to eat… Have you made any progress on getting in?" She looks around the inside of the dome, the constellations all shimmering with the golden light and sets a bag down next to us.
"A little… I still can't decide if Athena was trolling me with a stupidly simple riddle or if it's as hard as I'm making it feel…" I dig into the bag and snack on the food she brought, not realizing that I had even been hungry.
"Well, in mythology, riddles were kind of Athena's thing."
"Yeah… That they did not exaggerate. Also she was an amazing warrior and tactician. She actually was one of the Isu who helped me learn to fight then."
"I… I still am not really sure what to think of it all honestly…" Venus confesses.
"That's okay… It's a lot for anyone really… I don't expect you to be able to deal with it right out of the gate. Take as long as you need. Do you want me to not talk about it?" She just sits on the boulder and thinks about it for a minute.
"No… I don't think that will really help… Actually, I think if you talk with me about it more openly, like just now, it might get easier to understand." She leans against me resting her head on my shoulder and I lean my head on hers.
"Okay. Is there anything you want to hear about specifically?" She hums and haws a little bit but eventually she decides on something… And maybe something I wasn't terribly keen on talking about.
"So… How did you meet Ezio?"
"Uh…" She giggles at me.
"The Raea I took on that trip to Italy could barely even hold conversation with men, and here I find that you actually went and had sex with Ezio Auditore. Who, I would like to note, I've only ever seen in the mirror while living his memories. And… Damn. He may have taken a while to settle into being a man, but damn… A man he certainly became."
"So, what you're telling me, is that you went all shame-mode… Out of jealousy?" I tease and she sits right up and faces me.
"Alright, but seriously! He was good-looking once he grew up."
"Can't argue there…" I shrug, "Anyway… I had been modelling for and drawing with Leonardo—"
"Da Vinci?" Her jaw pops open.
"Yes. Da Vinci. Anyway, he had told me that he would be leaving his studio in Venice for one in Monteriggioni. Which… I didn't take well… I had been in a very dark place and I had been trying to find a way to feel human again. Drawing with Leonardo had brought art back into my life… I had almost forgotten how much drawing meant to me, and Leonardo had been helping me remember. So when I heard that he was planning to leave… I… Maybe lashed out a bit and left suddenly."
"You stormed out on Leonardo da Vinci?"
"Yeah… Like I said… A dark place. I had just been looking for a light. And it felt like Leonardo had given me a candle and the middle of the night. But I was afraid that if I wasn't with him the drawing might stop… I feared that maybe that candle would burn out and I wouldn't have any replacement to keep the light with me. That once I wasn't spending time doing art with him, that I would sink back into the darkness I was finally learning to let go."
"Oh… That actually makes a lot of sense… I remember that after mom and dad first told me about all this Assassin and Templar stuff, I had felt so small… It felt like the world I had known was just this little dollhouse with cute little furniture and fake everything. I felt alone in the dark. But I remember what helped me get past it all…"
"Oh?" I invite her to continue.
"It was you. I had gone out with you to some of the trails near Banff. Just one of the little hikes that ends with a lovely view. And at the end, even though your face was red with how much effort it took you to get to the top, because you had been bigger then, you still had the most awe-struck expression. The beauty of nature there took your breath away, and you just lived in that moment. It was then that I had realized that even if perhaps we had been living in this sheltered space made by our parents, that we were real. You were real. That day really helped me get past feeling small and hopeless in the world of the Assassins. That day made me feel like I had something worth protecting by being in this world." She just kind of sits there, I had never known she had been feeling like that then… I could tell she'd had a lot on her mind, but I had no idea the scope of it, until now. "Anyway… Continue. Ezio hasn't made an appearance yet."
"Well… Leonardo was friends with Ezio, who had already come to the city to help him move, so Leonardo asked if Ezio could find me to make sure I was okay after I stormed out."