Hello everyone!
Thank you so much for reading this far! Would you believe that after this chapter I have only one more month of updates left before this is finished? I can hardly believe I've gotten this far! And thank you so much reading my story! I hope you enjoy the last handful of chapters as they come out!
My eyes open, revealing an undulating and unending landscape with no visible source of light, despite it being well lit. Looking around I discover that everything is the same.
The floor's waves swell and in the distance it looks as though there are higher structures. I begin to walk towards them, but no matter how far I walk, they are always just out of sight. I keep walking, then I run for a while. But the structures never get closer. They stay firmly set in the ever-foggy distance.
I wander the space a little more before sitting down.
After a while, my mind begins to wander and things begin to appear, things from my past. An image of the journal I –kind of—kept while living with Astraeus and Eos. The diadem I often wore in public so that the humans wouldn't approach me as one of them and so that I could avoid—most of— the mistreatment they often suffered at the hands of so many of the Isu. Various weapons that I've favoured over the years.
Then I see one thing I never wanted to see again; I crawl backwards away from it, but it starts to get closer to me opening to reveal the writing carved along the inside.
The box I sank in.
Could this be…
"The Memory Corridor." I whip around to see a near gleeful Moore standing there, he is dressed in a white lab coat with a business suit beneath it. "It's meant to be the transition space between the real world and the world of memories in the Animus. I have plugged into a separate Animus to temporarily join you here." He looks around, "Awfully desolate place, but it is meant to be. It's a place where you're meant to leave yourself behind to step into the shoes of another. Although usually one's appearance here reflects what memories are being loaded… I was curious to see what this experiment in imprisonment might result in." I watch him as he circles me, surveying me up and down, "This is curious indeed… Is this how you see yourself?" I look down at myself to see that I'm dressed in the Assassins robes that I once wore darting around the rooftops of late Renaissance-Era Istanbul, I glance to my left hand and spy the ring sitting there, "Where did this self-image come from I wonder… Did you use an Animus with them to see the Auditore memories of the past?" He knows his history, I remain silent. Can they see all of the things around. I whip around to see all of the images from before have vanished, "Never mind that, for now. I am most interested in how it is that it took near on a dozen tranquilizer darts, and a sniper shot to your shoulder to stop you? What did you find in the Isu site Aurora was excavating?" So he thinks that some Isu artifact in the site mom was excavation did this… Alright… That's better than him knowing the truth. I can work with this.
"I… I don't really know what happened to me that made this happen." I start and he raises his eyebrows, "We had run away from the place where we had been staying, and went to this cave… In the cave mom showed me something… And everything lit up, it was unbelievable."
"Did you see an object? A sphere perhaps?" He fishes for what kind of artifact it was, his excitement palpable.
"But why I am here? Why for so long?" As I finish asking the questions he smiles in an unsettling way.
"Because by keeping you unconscious we can keep you without having any more… Complications." That's what he's calling my near escape? A complication. He gestures to the blank space, "This is a wonderful prison, no? A place where, if you aren't connecting to any ancestor's memories, all you have for company is your own mind. You can call this a punishment for trying to escape. That was quite the effort though, you had my guard teams utterly bamboozled. We all believed the meek act quite thoroughly. I must applaud your performance. But why did you stay so long then? Were you trying to get something?"
"I… Had hoped that I would be able to talk Nyx out of staying… But yesterday… I realized that she is too infatuated with this… I won't be able to reach her anymore."
"Yes, your sister is quite a blessing for me. See, I was only able to find you because of her. I had hoped that I would be able to turn you to our purpose before your mother got a hold of you, but now I see that I waited too long. None-the-less, you have now become quite the prize, no? Whatever was in that mountain before it crumbled changed you. And I am going to find out how." Moore says with a sinister happiness. And that tells me that they did in fact find the cave that I had crumbled. But were unable to tell what exactly had been found within the mountain.
"What do you mean?" I cautiously ask.
"Why I'm going to get to the bottom of what changed with you…" He waves his arm, and a video feed appears in the air. It's a video feed of me in some kind of tank, not unlike I had once been placed in by Ilios all those millennia ago, "We have been working awfully hard at keeping you unconscious… Your body is incredible. The rate at which it has been metabolizing any sedatives is nothing short of extraordinary. To keep you unconscious we have had to use a sedative with a strength that nears an elephant tranquilizer." If I'm in there, and they've loaded me into the Animus… And he is visiting through I connection… Well. Now isn't that just a great coinkydink. I just need to keep him talking… All while I sneak a little of my power through the feed that has him visiting my little digital prison. Through that I can initiate my original plan of sneaking a message on the outbound information to the satellite and onto the web.
"What do you mean? Won't that kill me?" I look at the me floating in the tank, they have an oxygen mask over my face. Which is likely why my mind is able to still be active. They probably haven't noticed much else of what my body is capable of yet…
"Apparently not. And we are trying to discover why. But you could help me by telling me what all happened in that Isu site." He slyly says with the tones of someone offering a helping hand.
"Well… We had gotten there… It was a while before they took me to see that place… What did you call it?" I find a secure connection out of the link between us.
"The Isu site. The Isu were the beings who lived on this earth long before humanity. You could say that they effectively created humanity. They built many marvels and created many objects of unbelievable power." He waves his arm and images fill the space around us, video clips featuring recordings of Isu from the memories of others, like Edward Kenway entering the Observatory, images of Apples of Eden and other Pieces of Eden. A sword, the Staff, the Trident.
I begin to compile information relevant to this place.
He lectures about everything from the Isu, to the Templars and the Assassins, to the forces of Chaos and Order. He does have a decent handle on everything, but there are, understandably, holes in his knowledge. Holes that he has conveniently filled with falsehoods that line up with his beliefs. As people so often do rather than admit that their knowledge is incomplete or perhaps unknowable.
He talks long enough for me to have time to thread a message into the information set to leave the facility at the end of the day and I still had plenty of time before he said goodbye and left. It was fortunate that it took so long since I'd never had to use my power quite like that before, it did take a couple of hiccups but once I began to treat less like using my power and more like I were hacking something it got a lot smoother.
I just hope that my message makes it to the right eyes.
Then there were hours.
Then what seemed like days.
Until a light sparkles in my periphery vision, and Mesonyx appears inside my endless void.
"Raea…" She practically whispers, "I… I wish you could have listened. I just want what's best for all of us. And none of the rest of them understand. But especially now, you should be the one who understands. After everything that the Isu artifact has done to you… You'll never have children." She looks down to see the prim business suit she is wearing.
"Why is that the one thing that sticks out to you? I was never really sure I even wanted children from the beginning. I know you know that because you once teased me for a whole year for saying I don't want children when I grow up."
"I know… And I'm sorry… Sorry for the way I acted when we were younger… Even when I was in high school. I guess I just felt so threatened by how easily you learnt everything. It's one of the reasons that I chose to embrace history. It was the one thing that I was undeniably better than you at. It seems so childish now." She sits down on the ground of the Memory Corridor, "Did our family ever tell you what I had been doing the last few years?"
"Besides betraying them?" She squints her eyes.
"Yes." She bites out, "I had been following the trail of the Instruments of the First Will." That zany Juno cult? Ugh, they were always so creepy… I haven't heard too much on them lately, "They are a cult that worship the Isu and believe that control of humanity should be returned to their care." Yes… Little do the Templars know that it had been a cult closer to the Instruments that had given rise to what grew to be the current incarnation of the Templars; much in the same way as the Hidden Ones became the Assassins. "I had come across some information and while following up on it I had run into a Templar doing the exact same hunt as me. Because even the Templars know that the Instruments carry a dangerous ideal." I notice her face as she talks about meeting this Templar.
"You fell in love with this Templar… Didn't you?" As the words leave my mouth she looks at me with wide eyes that soften before she answers.
"Yes, I did. And he has been so patient with me… It all started with the two of us following up on our various information together… Mostly ignoring that we were Templar and Assassin. We had put it aside in the interest of tracking down that cult. But after a while, things began to change. We grew to trust each other, and the more he spoke about the Templars, the more I realized that I had never been given the choice of how I want to fight for peace. I realized that true peace will only ever come from absolute Order." No wonder there's no chance of talking her out of this… She is completely in love—not jut with this man, but with her new life— and from experience, I know how that can be. But she doesn't know that I too have a love that made me want to change my whole life. "I hope that I can help you see that too… And now that I know what this Isu artifact has done to you… And you know too, I just don't understand how you can still be so against the Templars. The Assassins would only use you for what you've become."
"And the Templars would give me a choice? A real choice? Can you guarantee that? Can you guarantee that, beyond a shadow of a doubt, if I say I just want an ordinary life… Would they let me have it? Look at my current position." I wave my arm and bring up the video feed of me in the tank, she winces at the sight, "Can you really stand there and tell me that with all they might gain from having me like this for weeks, or months, or years; that they will let me choose to leave?" I ask her with my voice getting sterner with each question. Because I know the answer. The Templars would sacrifice a continent of people if it meant they could have what they wanted. The freedom of one girl is well worth what they would gain from having me indefinitely imprisoned like this.
"But why would you choose to leave? We could fight for the whole of humanity! For a true and lasting peace!" I take the last steps up to Mesonyx.
"I once heard a great man say something about the world, 'The world is a tapestry of many colours and patterns. A just leader would celebrate this, not seek to unravel it.' A true and lasting peace cannot be found by oppressing the natural balance of order and chaos. True peace must be chosen. Balance must chosen. Out of freewill, not tyrannical rule." She looks confused for a moment, and then she gathers her thoughts.
"They really managed to infect your mind with that drivel. You know nothing, you have seen nothing of the cruelty and evil of mankind!" She stands and begins to shout at me.
My emotions flood up and the Memory Corridor fills with the shouts of victory muffled by the wood of a box. A speech in Ancient Greek words filling the space around us, Mesonyx looking around in fear. The crudely carved words flashing in and out. The sounds of jeering and cheering mix together with the rumbling of pounding feet on wood. The splashing of water nearby. And the daunting feeling of being completely helpless fills the Corridor.
"I know nothing?"
The damning sound of the box being shoved overboard and the space fills with the image water rising all around us. Then I realize what I'm letting slip and I reel in my emotions.
"Mesonyx, please…" I start and she looks up at me with anger in her eyes.
"I am not 'Mesonyx.' My name is Adeline Harris. And you… You are dead to me." Her eyes glaze over before she fizzles out of the Memory Corridor.
Then nothing…
Again time passes, with just me and my own thoughts for company. Until I receive another visit from the ever-curious Moore.
"I hear you've grown quite adept at controlling the space in here." He says and I turn to face him, "You know, I never did get an answer as to why you fancy this outfit… I wonder what you think makes a just ruler." He is sharp. He knows that the quote I gave to Nyx—Adeline—was said at the very least near in time to when this outfit originated. "Maybe I could get answers from this space if I rile you up like my dear Adeline did. I do wish you could be happy for her, she married the love of her life, and started herself anew. Without any pesky familial traditions tying her back or forcing her into a mold she doesn't fit. And her future is bright and shining, much like yours could be."
"I am happy that she can be happy. But I wish it didn't have to be at the expense of losing family. Even if she's gained some family, the others will not forgive…"
"Yes, that family is nothing if not stubborn. Although… I was recently told that somehow or another you've managed to relay a message of some kind that was discovered some days after it hit the dark web. One of our hackers saw it and traced it's origin to a batch of data that came from here." He takes a few steps closer, making an attempt at being menacing, "How did you manage that? Hmm?" I figured they would eventually find the message I put out into the world, "Because if our hacker found it independently, then it is likely that a number of parties have already found it. Not to mention that we haven't been able to remove this message."
"A message? I don't know what you mean… I had thought about trying it before all this for sure… But I was never alone with a computer console long enough to do anything… Your guards made sure of that." He squints his eyes at me, before turning away. If I can plant the tiniest seeds of doubt in his mind about his people then I call that a win.
"Fine, but we are keeping an eye on you in here. And it doesn't seem as though that message has done anything yet anyway… There hasn't been any activity in our area. No one is coming for you." He smiles wickedly.
"Care to bet on that?" I smirk at him. And I see his condescending expression turn sour just before he fizzles out of the space entirely.
Pro-tip. If you're trying to manipulate someone into getting riled up, try to make sure that you aren't going to riled up by them first.
I have now decided that time is impossible to track in here. They've taken whatever computer is hosting this feed off of any connections to any other computers in the facility. I am now completely isolated in the digital world of the Memory Corridor… And this empty space just continues to get… Emptier. For all I know, I could have been getting digital visits every day and have only been here for a couple of days… Who knows? Zachariah Moore does. My only clue is that Moore said it had been a few days since my message had reached the dark web. But I can't go and just let him know that I am losing track of time… I need to play my cards a little closer to my chest than that. If he knows I want to know the date, well, that would be something he can use against me. And he would.
I just hope that I can either find a way out of here soon, on my own… Somehow. Or I can hope that my message did reach the right people. Even if it were Erudito, they would at least have the courtesy of passing a little note on to the Assassins.
One thing I wish I could do without facing any consequences is to summon my memories here… I could see Astraeus, Eos, Dike, and the rest… Or perhaps I could revisit my times with Kassandra, Herodotus, and Barnabas. Those were some seriously amusing times.
But I know they are monitoring this feed. And if I were to do something like that I might as well just tell them all about me… At the pace they seem to be going they still think that this supposed mystery artifact is what altered me. And I intend on letting them believe that for as long as I can. Ideally, indefinitely.
"You're looking rather bored today… Perhaps you could do with some mental stimulation." Moore appears and conjures a digital chess board.
"Oh, how original. The villain playing chess with the captive… Why don't you cut to the chase and get asking your questions… I know you have them." Moore waves the board away.
"I only offered because I heard from Adeline that you were gifted in the game. But if you're so eager to answer questions, who am I to refuse?" He brings up the feed of me in the tank again, "Where did you get all the scars? Were they always there? According to Adeline you had been on a trip in Italy in 2017 and didn't appear to have any scars then. So how did you get so many? And how do none of them look to be less than two years old?"
"I thought you had all those answers. Isn't that what you wanted me to believe prior to putting me in that?" I gesture to the tank and shrug.
"Perhaps, but I have fully given up on bringing you into our fold. Your mind is far too polluted for the Father of Understanding to clear. Your mind will reject his ideals." His says in his superior, holier-than-thou tone.
How I would love to see his face as I tell him that his Father of Understanding was only one side of a triangle.
"You talk about this Father as though you've actually met him. But there are no gods on this world. Not anymore." His eyes narrow at me.
"And what makes you so sure of that? There is as a matter of fact, at least one god that has made his appearances throughout history. The husband of Juno. Aita, whose DNA patterns turn up in humans from time to time. More than once he has risen to heights of our Order. He is often addressed as the Sage… And I wonder… Perhaps you could be something like that? And it had been something in that mountain that triggered the change." He struts over to me and puts his hand on my chin and turns my face side to side, "If we look into history will we find your face, as we have found his before?" Maybe not in the way your expecting…
"That doesn't sound possible… I am me. Not some long dead member of an ancient society." I counter, hoping to make him ditch that thought. Because I have been unfortunately drawn to many of the largest events that involved the Assassins and Templars. He turns my face to look at him directly.
"Have you ever dreamt of a world with resplendent towering cities? Or of people who seem to glow from the inside with power? What possibilities could we be overlooking? The Sages often demonstrate some level of power that the Isu once had… For all we know, you already have the answers. Though… Even if you did you would obviously have no reason to tell us… How would we be able to extract that information, I wonder…" I feel my lip rise from disgust. He just smiles maliciously before he exits out of this digital prison.
If they think torture will work on me… They are in for a big surprise.
Undefined time passes as I stay in this strange digital nothingness. Occasionally, my mind wanders and I find it bringing images into the space with me. But once the images begin to crowd the space I reign in my thoughts and focus again. But it's beginning to get harder to keep my mind…
I lay down on the shifting floor and look at the shimmering digital sky.
Images of Poseidon's party flit through my mind… The human slaves waiting on the Isu at every corner. Dike and I chatting at the edge of the scene. A sinister smile from Juno and Aita as they stare from the other side of the hall.
"ILIOS!" My voice echoes all around me, the sensation of the shimmering liquid pulling me under and putting me asleep.
Flashes of time passing…
Humans changing their weapons, clothes, armour, and dwellings.
Dike as she finally said her final goodbye, laying in the desolate ruins of where she once lived. Before disappearing forever.
I jolt upright and suddenly all of the mind fog clears taking with it the images that had been floating around me.
I put a hand to my head and narrow my eyes, why can't I hold onto myself? What's going on?
"Ah, but that was such exciting progress… We might have to make the mixture a little stronger. Because those were definitely some interesting results." I stand up quickly to face Moore, who seems so elated he can hardly contain his unnerving smirk.
"What do you mean?" I ask.
"Why, we have been experimenting with different drugs. We wanted to see if there were any that would make your mind… More malleable. I think we've almost got it now… But I came because I wanted to ask about those images that were coming up. We couldn't see what you looked like, but some of those in the visions were Isu, beyond any doubt."
Shit. So this inability to keep my mind steady is because they are drugging my body.
Fucking Templars.
"I don't know who they were… I feel weird…" I say weakly before letting myself fall to the ground. Moore comes and kneels down in front of me.
How I wish throttling him here would affect him there.
"I think you are lying to me." He says darkly, "I think you do have the memories from a lifetime when you were an Isu. And many more since then. I also think that you are actively trying not to let me see any of it." He grabs my chin, "But you can not stop me. I will use anything I must to find whatever it is inside of you that makes you like the Sages."
He releases my face and stands back up.
"But it doesn't have to be this way. If you willingly let us see your memories then we don't have to cause you suffering. You just have to—"
"Give up everything I believe to be right? I don't think so." I say, as my rising emotions cause my mind to grow clearer, I stand up begin to take steps towards him. Each step I take forward he takes one back, with his arrogant expression fading into alarm with each step, "Try all you like. You will get nothing more from me." He fizzles out of the space as he trips backwards over his own feet.
Damn it.
I really fucking hate Abstergo. And Moore.
They must be using some seriously powerful drugs…
As I calm down though, the fog begins to cloud my mind again. I sit down and choose two things to focus on with all my will. The darkness of night at the bottom of the Caspian Sea, if they want a memory they can watch this one for as long as they like. And I focus on the sheer joy I had felt only a few weeks ago, when Yusuf's eyes had opened, and he looked at me. The elation I felt at being called 'Najmay' once more.
And like that I stay.
And I wait.
And wait.
And wait.
Twice the fog seemed to grow thicker, and I had to steel myself again to fight the memories from surfacing out of my mind as it almost lost focus.
I hold onto Yusuf in my heart and the memory of the inside of the box at the bottom of the sea in my mind. But it is getting harder to separate things from my distant memories and those that are more recent.
I wonder… Did I actually see Yusuf? Or was that just a vision I dreamt of here in the Corridor? I'm not sure anymore…
Then the fog fades for a while and I hear someone entering the space. I turn to see Mesonyx—no, Adeline.
"So it turns out that you might be one of the Sages. Like how Juno's husband Aita appears in the DNA of people periodically. The last Aita Sage was discovered and taken by the Instruments of the First Will. Luckily, the Juno Cult died with her. Leaving only a smattering of loose followers without a path… But now, with the appearance of what could be another kind of Sage… I wonder if they will congregate to you instead…" Adeline muses as she struts around the space in some kind of show of her new self.
"You're talking like a cult is something I want… You would be deeply mistaken. Cults are useless. It makes a singular belief dangerous. And utter faith in one belief can be dangerous." I say slowly, without following her circle around me. My mind is weary, but her arrival has helped me to focus again.
"You're just spouting Brotherhood nonsense. The Ironies are too much. It is just that out-dated Assassin's string of words that try to justify how backwards the Assassins' beliefs are. And don't forget that the Assassins demand utter faith in them." She scoffs before standing in front of me, "It will only be a matter of time now though. Charles' father—my father-in-law now—is expected to arrive here in a matter of days. He is also Moore's superior in the Templar Order, and Moore assures me that he will be able to pry your secrets out of you. Easily." She tacks on the end to sound more final.
"Oh, so I assume this man, Harris, is some kind of torture expert? I wonder if you've ever witnessed true torture?" I ask her, my words forming and falling off my tongue before I have a chance to temper them.
"Sulien Harris is an admirable man. He would not resort to torture without provocation. He has been nothing but kind and welcoming to me. And if you allow us to have your memories I'm sure he would be just as welcoming to you." She says, returning to the boring tactics of trying to turn me over to the Templars.
"Oh, and I'm sure he'd be more than pleased to have me join his side just like you and Moore. Maybe it isn't actually Moore who is trying to collect our family." I chuckle darkly, "Don't fool yourself. Even though I am not actually an Assassin, I will never sympathize with the Templars. And I'm sure Moore is plenty aware of that. I don't imagine much will change for me after this Sulien Harris arrives."
"I thought that it would be worth a try to convert you again. If only to for the sake of how I treated you when we were kids." She pauses for a moment before continuing, "You say you aren't actually an Assassin, but those robes you wear here would say otherwise. Moore keeps wondering why your mind seems to present you this way." She gestures sharply to me, "You should have no ties to that kind of outfit. The Assassins no longer wear robes at all. They haven't for quite a while."
"I wouldn't expect you to understand… Not really. I wonder if there is a single person left who would…" I muse, if only to confuse them further, "But I suppose I believe one's appearance here reflects how they see themselves. Or perhaps the way they liked themself best. Have you looked at yourself yet?" I theorize aloud, she isn't wearing the business suit that she had been during her last visit… Now she is sporting a wedding dress. And she looks at herself with mild shock on her face.
"That is interesting… For me this is what I was wearing the moment I realized how completely in love Charles and I are. I wonder what that says about yours then… I can still see no reason for you to be attached to that archaic look." Yet, for me it makes perfect sense… This is what I wore most with Yusuf. And what I wore the day I found out I lost him.
"Have you told my family about your new identity yet?" She flinches at the remark before opening her mouth to speak, holding her finger pointing at me, she takes a few stomps towards me and then she suddenly fizzles out of the link with the Animus.
I sit down in the space waiting for either her to return and complete the surely lackluster rebuttal, or for the fog to come back in full force.
But I just keep waiting.
Until the digital space around begins to fall away, starting from the distant edges moving all the way to my location in the perpetual center.
Then everything is a peaceful black.