Cearbhail:

It has been a really long time, hasn't it? I'm sorry for that, but... Chronicles of the Commonwealth, Changing Fates, Inquisition... and I was waiting until Veselle was done before starting up this second arc. Somewhere down the line, I kind of forgot what I planned on doing, but I remembered the gist... well ... that and I had two ways I wanted this opening to go. I won't share my thoughts about it until the next chapter comes out though. It's kind of split up and I'll work on the next one after I do one for Inquisition. Anyway... a year later... here we go!

Oh... and happy new year. 2017! Yeah! I sure hope it's a good one. I waited until tonight to do this... the very first chapter for 2017. Let the fun begin.

Enjoy ^^ ...

[Malik Ishtar]

Bricksville Den Log: September 13th, 1191. Friday's Closing Log.

It's been a little over a year since we've settled in this town. It's hard to imagine just how fast we've settled here. The whole village has done all it can to help the witch coven settle in; they even have their own hall dedicated to their practice. And ever since its opening, the witches have a place to practice their craft without having to hide who they are. A few children and parents have taken up the craft as well; a few even had their own books of whatever it is they do from family archives. Likewise, the den I've set up in town is expansive; it's no downtrodden pub in a desolate part of town. It's a small mansion, completed with a training yard behind the den. It took a few months to get everything set up: creating the mannequins, armor, weapons, archery targets… I'm sure you get it. Once we had our training yard set up, I was more than happy to resume training Red and Locksley. Having Brian joining us is good too, still a little young for what we do, but he'll get there one day. Perhaps in a year or so.

As far as everything else going on this week, we've been preparing for Vicky's 13th birthday. It's been a week-long event, between getting everything set up in secret (which is really hard with Vicky being the young seer she is). We believe she knows every little thing we're planning, but she hasn't come out and ruin any of our surprises yet, even though she pretends to, I'm sure. Brian is the busiest of us all, trying his best to keep Vicky away from the Den. Even with his company, Vicky seems more distant than usual. It's like she doesn't want today to happen. Who wouldn't enjoy a birthday party? And it's her 13th… which is a very important birthday for witches, Red told me. It's when her… "Power?" awakens.

We're trying our best to prepare for anything the Templars can do; the last year hasn't been the most productive ever. We've stayed out of Nottingham as much as possible, fearing retribution for any action we take against it. We'll stay here, train up our new Den, and when we're ready, take the march to Nottingham, reestablish our second Den. I'll let Red or Locksley run it… but only after they pass their initiation into the Order. I'm waiting on the rites from Master, he's sending them to me now via Victoria: Red's familiar robin. Once I know how to perform the Assassin Rites, like the one I went through, then I will begin testing them. I feel they are ready. I know Locksley is; he's been more of an Assassin than anyone I've met. I'll probably let him run the den in Nottingham.

As for the party we've been planning, we have the entire town participating. Vicky is one of the town favorites so everyone is ready to celebrate her 13th. Everyone's been planning in secret… well, as secret as we can with a girl that's able to see the future. Anyway, I have some last-minute things to look over. And I want to make sure the Templars do not get involved, not that they would. They've left us alone the past year so… I'm guessing it won't be any worse. They probably thought we all left or died off. Though I doubt it. We still conduct operations to mess with King John; just yesterday, Robin and his men took on a caravan transporting newly crafted weapons to London via wagon.

Malik Ishtar, Bricksville Den Master.

…

It felt like a long time since I've really done anything worth mentioning. Each and every journal update seemed repetitive, each one about training, birthdays, slight improvements to the training yard and the whatnot. I'll gladly take boring updates against the chaos that took us nearly two years ago. And a lot has happened since that time. Olin started training with the Assassins; Brian earned his third rank: Assistant. Because of Olin's training with his old clan, he has already earned a rank above Brian: Soldier. He's progressed very quickly since then. I imagine in a year or so, he'll likely be able to beat Locksley in a fight; me too if he's careful. And I'm not the fumbling novice I was when I first arrived here. My training and Laila's has not been neglected. Along with the occasional letter of inspiration from Master Al Mualim, we also received training texts: instructions on how to properly train new Assassins, as well as continue refining the skills of full Assassins like myself.

I sat back in my seat, my eyes looking up at the ceiling. Even so early in the morning and yet I could already see the bright sunlight breaking through the window. I cannot believe how many days have passed since I was told to come here. My original mission was to come to Nottingham, mess with King John, and create a series of problems that would force the King of England to return from his crusade. I had to do this while doing what I could to help the lower people. We're Assassins: it's what we do. We protect people from disillusioned bigots who grasp more power than they deserve to handle. I tried to do some good… but I did some bad to start with. I came to town, seeking any allies I could find. I found Locksley and Little Red, a local woman that studied some kind of forbidden religion. She had a group of others just like her, living in what they called a 'family'. This family was the Nottingham Coven, a group of magically-inclined individuals that existed in a time where their practice was feared and barely tolerated. They lived in the worst parts of the town, barely surviving off what they could make themselves. The few that worked in the better part of the town made enough to help support the community. The rest tended gardens and livestock for the community.

As I met with the leader of the Nottingham Coven Bo-Peep… a strange elder woman with eyes as piercing as my Master's. She told me a little story about how her family was abused by slavers, how innocent girls were abducted and transported away to be slave labor for rich nobles in France… of all places. She forced me to assist her in reclaiming the newest batch of captured girls heading to France on a ship leaving in the dead of the night. I did not know it at the time, but this one event would shape my life in the best and worst ways.

There were a lot of setbacks… a lot of people died because of my reckless actions. I was delayed from reaching the ship, and instead let a person I barely knew lead a rescue mission with Red. I did not know much of the plan at the time though. I was preoccupied with fighting knights that had discovered me; and Locksley was busy creating a diversion in a nearby mine. His diversion was suspended when he was captured, and I became the diversion by taking the fight to the knights outside the castle. While I was doing this, my new friend Little Red was sailing away on a ship going to France. She met this man, Zorro, as well as my younger sister, Laila, and the three of them managed to blow a hole in the bottom of the ship, nearly drown every captured person on the vessel, and then rammed the entire ship into the port town in Nottingham, destroying the entire dock and killing many innocent lives, including a few of the captured girls.

To cover their escape, I blew up a tower wall, knocking down a central defense point in Nottingham's town. We all escaped, barely, but it was not without repercussion. As if destroying a whole part of the town was not enough. When I thought the situation could not get worse… it did. The King got word of what happened to the slaver's ship, and he knew an Assassin was to blame. The people I was trying to protect were massacred in the dead of the night under the King's orders. He used the situation I created to start a city-wide purge of the underprivileged: the family I mentioned earlier. And when I learned that everyone had been massacred via word of a few children that escaped the carnage… we raced into town, but arrived too late. Bo-Peep and the few remaining leaders of the family were strung up to hang. She shared with me a final word… protect her family… whatever remained of it. And then she was killed.

From that day forward, we'd been slowly recovering. I started training Little Red and Locksley in secret, with Zorro tagging along. The training was slow, but I did what I could with what I had. And what I had was my younger sister. Another problem I had to deal with. Our dad was not a very forgiving man… especially when Laila is involved. He would no doubt come to collect her one day, but as long as she's here… she's under my protection. The five of us started training as the colder months started setting in, and while we recovered, things started to calm down. Things didn't stay calm for very long however. Little Red started dating Olin, a slave that was captured and brought in to help rebuild the port Zorro helped destroy with the help of the survivors of the Nottingham Coven. And Zorro turned himself over to King John as part of his own penance for destroying the port. It was around this time I discovered a plot of King John to take over Europe using some kinds of mythical devices, and I started making plans to make sure that he did not obtain them.

So, after discovering the location of a spear King John wanted, one of those mythical ones, I tracked it down to a wrecked caravan. Through the use of my Eagle Sight, I was able to find out that the killer was a person using a pair of sickles. He fought the caravan, took the spear, and left in such a way that I could not track him past the point of him entering Nottingham. Whoever stole this spear was in the same town as me, and no matter how I looked, I couldn't find him. After Zorro turned himself in for his crime, he was locked away in the dungeon; imprisoned until the knights' tournament. During his captivity, he managed to learn that King John was keeping a whole cell full of witches, family members of the Nottingham Coven. Laila and I went investigating, and it ended up with her and me fighting Zorro and two other newly promoted knights, two knights he would be working with from this day forward.

We managed to escape with help of our resident Goose. She made it so that we were all reset, sitting at a table, eating dinner; the knights teleported away to the castle. My sister and I discussed what we would do about the captured witches in the castle. Everyone assumed that freeing the witches would result in a response from King John, a response that would lead to the destruction of the Nottingham Coven. We hated having to leave the witches there, but from what we heard from Zorro, their treatment in the cell was tolerable. They weren't tortured, fed well, and for the most part just lived their lives in the cell. I wanted to free them, I really did, but weighing the options of their lives in exchange for being murdered later… we reasoned that the operation could wait until our den was stronger. Soon, we'll be able to take them back.

After fleeing the castle, things started slowing down again. I got involved with a small village in the woods, a village that needed help repelling the knights encroaching on their town: Bricksville. The Templars had already taken a lumbermill and a farming community called Strawsville, all owned by the Pig Family. King John decided he wanted all the resources these locations had, and he didn't want to pay for them, let alone let anyone else profit from it, so he took the farm and lumbermill with force. The villagers happened upon me by accident; well, me and a witch by the name of Ashley. Ashley wasn't a fighter and didn't have any experience with combat magick. We were quite the team though. She had a special gift of making alchemical potions. She created the Fear Mist, a strong hallucinogenic that pretty much crumbled the knights as they marched up on the city. Shortly after the battle started, the rest of the Nottingham Coven arrived in the skies, flying on broomsticks. The battle was quick; and it ended with me standing over a fallen Templar agent: Wolfe. Little Red assassinated him, serving him the justice he so rightly deserved for all he did to her family.

Ever since that day, we'd been here in Bricksville. We sent a few witches who have the ability to cloak themselves into Nottingham to give us status updates, not to mention raid the old house for some of our stuff. The witches returned with a few bags of clothes, tomes, wands and whatnot. Anything related to Assassins was stolen, including our old robes. Laila was kind enough to make us new ones, ones that went along with our new town's fashion style. Just us being here has inspired new fashion styles. Everyone dresses more like us, Laila taking charge as the new clothier. And ever since we made ourselves more at home in this town, the more and more recruits we have stepping up. Locksley and his men took charge in leading the town's defense force, training them in our new defensive program. Red and Vicky are teaching the new coven here how to defend against magickal attacks, if they were ever to occur. Don't forget… King John still has a few witches of his own locked away, and they have been known to make magickal items for the knights to use: like exploding arrows. We're not taking any chances here.

I leaned forward, looking back at the logbook we've been keeping for this year. 9 months into this year… I cannot believe it's been a full year and nine months since we moved here. Almost two years. Two years of training the town, teaching it how to defend it against the Templars, the knights, and anyone else that would want to attack it. Two years of training up our new Den as well as the new Coven. It's amazing how time flies. Hard to believe it sometimes, just how we've gotten here. When we first started, I thought it was going to be just me running around Nottingham creating shenanigans and doing whatever random thing I could do to annoy King John, maybe have him look up at me, shaking his fist as he cursed my name as I threw my smoke bomb, escaping back to my hideout. I never thought it would devolve to this state. Things… things never go the way you plan them to, do they? Nothing is true; Everything is permitted. Long story short, nothing you know is true, and any outcome could and possibly will happen.

How can you plan for the unpredictable? You can't. You can only do what you can to prepare for any scenario and pray to the world that nothing gets in your face, laughing at you as they take what you have and show you a missing piece, just big enough to exploit the whole structure you've made. It would be my luck that something would happen soon. It's just… it's a feeling I get whenever something wrong is about to happen. I haven't had one since Sukey almost killed herself and her brother in a ritual. They both practice blood magick, something I find disgusting and sick, but… I guess they know how to use the energy in their blood to boost other rituals. The ritual they were planning on doing, one that would teleport the captured witches from Nottingham's dungeon to us, but it didn't work. They almost died performing this ritual too. In order to keep the two from trying this again, and to keep anyone from attempting any brave castle-storming, I had to come up with a plan of action. It was not an easy plan for me; I'd been inside the castle, and I knew what we had to face. And there's always the thought that… the witches could escape if they really wished to. If they haven't… they might not want to. If that's the case, we might end up fighting more than just knights. My plan had to be perfect.

So, I spent a few days thinking it up with Laila, Locksley, and Red. We came up with a small thing, just a small infiltration. Get in contact with the witches and see if they were even interested in leaving. If they were, we'd strike by the end of the night. I wanted to wait until Locksley and Laila were full Assassins. Make it their first mission as equals. The three of us will go ahead and take on the Crown, free those witches if they still live, and then bring them back with us to Bricksville. I just have to take it one day at a time until then. Master's package should arrive in a few days. So, I'm guessing we'll be ready to leave by the end of the month.

"Master?" I heard a small knock on the door. One of the new initiates, a young girl by the name Morrigan, a girl that was training both as one of my new Assassins and as a member of the Bricksville Coven, walked into the room, bowing to me. "Sir, Mistress Laila believes it's time to do our final walkthrough before we begin today's party. Vicky and Brian are due back from their trip to the lumbermill any minute from now."

I nodded. "Ok. Thank you, Novice."

She bowed to me through her thick black and red training robes. "I'll take my leave then." She turned around, quickly making her way out of the study. Morrigan was one of the odd ones we've picked up. She was one of the first volunteers to step forward to join the new Den. She's only 16 though, 14 when she tried to join us; she had to get permission from her parents before I could even slap a dagger in her hand. She's proven to be an… enthusiastic learner though. Never heard anyone laugh after plunging their first dagger into the throat of a training dummy made up of straw. It makes me nervous about the people I'm letting in my new den. I don't need murderers… I need assassins. I swear there's a difference.

I rose from the chair, closing the logbook as rushed to follow behind Morrigan. The mansion they let me use for the Bricksville Den was massive; massive enough for us all to have our own beds and armory. It felt a little… much. I didn't feel like I deserved this. Nicely adorned walls painted rich colors… I'm not used to this. Even after two years, I'm still not used to this. I don't know… it feels like I've been in a haze the past two years, ignoring almost everything until just now. I don't know why either. I'm guessing today's just that important. Today is Vicky's birthday, and while that's important to witches for some reason… a reason no one would discuss with me, I just don't feel that this birthday alone would be a reason for me to be hyper-analytical like this. I've just been too much out of tune with what's been going on. I might as well have been in a coma, only waking up just now, lost and dazed… slightly confused, maybe a little peckish.

"Brother." Laila called from ahead of me. She looked happier than usual, and that's saying something. My little sister, Laila, soon-to-be full Assassin, was always a perky person; quick to smile, quick to anger; quick to overreact and burn down half a town. She's a fun one though, and very reliable when it comes to doing weird missions. She craves the unpredictable, almost to a point where she'll do something unexpected during a mission just to mess with our enemy. "Nice to see you out of the study. I thought you'd be in there all day."

Morrigan stopped in front of my sister, bowing to her. "Mistress."

Laila patted Morrigan on the head, nodding. "You are dismissed. Go return to your training."

"Of course, Mistress." Morrigan turned on her heel racing down the hall towards the armory.

I looked over to Laila, smiling warmly to her. "Shall we go?"

Laila bowed in respect, nodding as she came up. "I'd be worried if we didn't. Vicky will be back soon. Morrigan's raven, Poe, is keeping a close eye on them. From the last report Poe gave us, it would seem that the two are almost finished with the 'emergency task' Phatty called in for us. It sure didn't long for the two of them to move the three fallen trees that landed on their old abandoned cabin so… they'll be back sooner than we thought. From what Poe observed, Vicky wasn't trying all that hard to move the trees though. I think your suspicions are correct: she's not eager about today." She looked down, contemplating something. "This whole week, she's been getting melancholier with each passing day. I wonder if something bad's going to happen."

I couldn't answer that, but I sure couldn't ignore it. "Novice Morrigan!" I called to the armory.

The teenager rushed out in a hurry, "Yes, Master?"

"Go inform Master Locksley to be on the look for anything suspicious. Tell him to be prepared for anything."

Morrigan nodded. "Don't worry, Master. I'm on it." She took off, opening a window and jumping out without a second thought.

"Umm…" I looked over to Laila. "Do we have a hay pile down there?"

Laila shook her head. "No… no we don't."

I rushed to the window; we were two stories up. If Morrigan didn't plan that fall correctly she would be a stain on the floor. As I reached the window, I could see the teenager already sprinting down the road, not a limp or a scratch at all. Huh… she's a natural. I couldn't handle falls like that, not even as a full Assassin. The again… I'm a klutz.

I looked back at Laila, nodding. "One year and six months of training… and she just fell two stories without a single injury."

Laila shrugged. "Spell, maybe? She is part of the coven too."

"Or maybe you two are just weak." Olin laughed as he walked into the mansion, Red right beside him, clutching his arm in hers. They both looked pretty happy these days. They've been dating for the past two years, and just a month ago they decided to get married in her clan's tradition of handfasting. They were going to wait until Vicky's birthday was over though to actually tie the knot, which is what they do in handfasting. They didn't want to take any of the attention away from Vicky's special day with the news. As such, only my sister and I knew. I couldn't wait to see the look on Lucy's face when she finds out Olin's getting married to Red.

Olin waved to us, looking up at us from the first floor. "Master. We're all set up. You should come and get in your spot. If we want everything to go according to plan, we have to hurry. Morrigan just reported that Vicky is running back to the town as fast as she can. I think she's onto us." Vicky's running back now? I wonder what happened.

I glanced out the window. I didn't see any clouds coming in. Oh wait… there… off to the southern sky, I can see a few dark clouds starting to rise up. Vicky must be rushing home before the storm starts to come in. "Uh-oh…" I sighed, pointing to the clouds. "looks like the party might be cancelled."

Red flew up the stairs in a rush, joining me by the window. "Wow… that's… that's actually impressive. Those aren't rainclouds… they're Power clouds."

Both Laila and me looked at Red with our dumbfounded 'I don't get this culture' look we have from time to time whenever we hear something new.

Red scratched the back of her head. "Those clouds are just… well, let's say that you're a witch and… you're really strong. Well, those clouds will sometimes appear whenever you're powering up a spell. And it's Vicky's 13th birthday. She's earning her Power today; her own magick. So, those clouds might be hers building up. I'm not sure… I wasn't strong enough to make any, let alone ever see any. All I know is the night Mother Bo-Peep and Father Jingleheimer died, a storm very much like those clouds appeared in the town. And now… those are rolling in? Either someone powerful is coming, or it's Vicky's."

The way Vicky was running home, I doubt they were hers. She wouldn't be running if they were her clouds. They'd likely be centered around her anyway, not off from the south. "York's in the south." I mumbled out.

Red's face turned white, almost as white as her dress. "It's Vicky's birthday!" She breathed out, covering her mouth as soon as she said it. She backed away from the window, shaking her head. "It's Mother Goose. She's coming! It's her daughter's 13th birthday! Of course she'd come!" She spun on her heel, racing for the door. "I have to prepare. We're not ready for her to arrive!" Just like that Red raced down the staircase, running straight out the door.

Olin watched her leave, pausing to look at me. He gave me a quick wave, "Sorry, Master. She's my… well… betrothed. Bye." He took off following right behind her.

I felt a small bit of relief at hearing those clouds belonged to Mother Goose. I've been feeling pretty weird, and now that I know that it's probably because the Mother Goose was coming to town made me feel a bit better. I've never met her in person; this would be a very interesting day after all. And that would explain why Vicky was so melancholy this whole time; she hasn't seen her mother since she first joined us two years ago. She's probably apprehensive about the whole thing; scared of what her mother might say to her. From what I've heard over the two years I've known Vicky, the relationship she has with her mother is strained; her mother continually pushes hard expectations on her. I wonder exactly what kind of person Mother Goose is? Being one of the strongest witches in this land… I'm guessing she's pretty impressive. Maybe intimidating. I know Vicky was when I first met her.

I looked over to my sister. "Well, let's get moving. Now we have two people to surprise."

…

[Shadow]

All this birthday set-up… for a stupid witch. Everyone in town wore smiles on their faces as they finished getting the town ready for the little witch's arrival.

"This is sickening." I mumbled under my breath.

Mirror turned to me, scoffing. "Doesn't seem so bad. Look at that, a cake. Think we get to eat that if we do a job well done?"

I felt a hand plant itself on my shoulder. "If you do this correctly, I will let you enjoy the cake." Master Ripper nodded down to the gate. "Any second now, the girl will arrive. All we have to do is kill her when she's at the peak of her Power."

"Sir, there's a storm moving in." Edge, an archer watching our backs, said.

I looked over my shoulder; Master and Mirror turning as well. "Well, would you look at that?" Master Ripper said as he pulled out his collapsible spear. He flicked it, letting it snap the spear it was. "It would seem the prize to win is here." He looked over to Mirror and me. "The Mother Goose has decided to grace us with her presence. So, instead of killing the girl when she reaches her Power, I have something else planned. We're going to kill her as soon as she gets into town. We don't want to risk the Goose getting in our way. Remember: we have to kill the girl before she gets her Power, otherwise… it will be too late."

Yeah… I remember the brief we had every single day for the past two years. We've been planning out this very moment ever since the Assassins moved here. The original plan was to kill the girl as soon as she claimed her Power; doing so would disrupt the whole town, allowing us a quick escape. Not only that, but it would cripple the Goose's magickal hold as well. She was lending her own Power to her daughter until her own awakens, and until she reaches her max, she's pulling it all from her mother dearest. Killing her right at the moment she reaches her max… we would be crippling her mother's magick at her daughter's max. Might not be enough to cripple her for good, and she might recover, but at least before the next full moon… that witch would be easier for us to kill.

"So, we're changing plans?" Mirror asked, rubbing her nose. "This bitch… I can't wait to kill her. If she takes that fucking cake away from me… so help her. She'll be crying for death before I'm done with her."

Master Ripper nodded. "I don't like it either. So, here's how we're going to play this. Mirror and Edge, you will take on the pretenders: the ones called Red and Locksley. If my intel's correct, they should be at your level." Master Ripper glanced at me. He smirked through his thick mask, saying, "And you… I'm going to let you have your vengeance. The girl… and the boy. Have fun, Shadow."

I nodded. I've been training so long for this moment. Soon, Brian's head will decorate the ground, and I'll make that bitch witch pay for that memory she shoved in my head. I think I'll make her death a little slower.

"No slow deaths, no chance for comebacks. We're not stupid villains; we're Assassins. Real Assassins, not the fucking garbage Ishtar teaches." Master Ripper said with a grunt. "I'll take on the Ishtars. Make their deaths quick and painless. They may be incompetent but they're still my brother and sister. They deserve an honorable death. And once they're dispatched, I'll take out Goose. So, I'll need that girl dead before then. Got it?" Master Ripper turned to me.

I nodded. "Got it. Kill the girl as soon as I can. At least I can play with Brian some more if I kill her first."

I felt a smack against the back of my head. "No slow deaths… no chances for comebacks. We're not stupid… we're professional. If you keep thinking of playing with your prey… you'll only give them time to either escape or bite back. We don't want that. Oh… there's our spy now." Master Ripper pointed down to an initiate dressed in black and red robes. She waved up at us, eagerly waiting for the moment we sprung our attack.

"Raven's a good girl." Mirror said with a smirk.

Master Ripper nodded. "Yeah… and to think, Master Ishtar didn't even know I was standing right in front of him, offering her to him as his apprentice. This fool deserves his fate. If you get the chance… let Raven kill someone. She is my daughter after all. She should have some fun too."

Cearbhail:

A lot of stuff will happen. I'm still not settled on how I want this to go down... there are two very different... well, now three very different roads this can go down. I just hope it's not the third. Anyway... see you all sooner than you think. (quicker than a year this time).