And so begins the first arc of the story. I am going to have several arcs based on missions in Oblivion, but mutated with Assassin's Creed ideas. It is through Corruption and Conscience that our young hero starts to harness his ability, even though he already seems pretty strong.

If you have any ideas of what quests Ezio should go through, I'd be happy to hear your ideas. Thanks again for reading!

~Todd

Ezio walked out onto the dock, and looked around. The grass was a beautiful shade of blue green, shaded by the night sky. A whole night had passed by in that dungeon. In that situation…he had witnessed the emperor's murder, and killed the killer. He now had promised the Blade, Baurus, that he would return the Amulet of Kings to the final, and vanquish everyone related to the murder of the emperor.

He looked at the wrist blade, the symbol upon it now resembled that of hatred. The rising sun, depicted on the metal bracer of the weapon, now shown on the horizon, as the black sky now had shades of dark blue in it. The wind blew through his released hair, and he continued walking forward, his crossbow making noise as it jostled the captain's sword. He looked at the river before him; across it would be a small road to Cheydinhal. He leaped onto the gondola nearby the dock, and rowed across the Rumare River. Reaching the shore opposite, he heard the breathing of people.

Walking through the campsite, he saw some horses; transportation that would make his travel a lot shorter, and easier. He walked over to the horse and began to release it from the various locks that the people put on them, when a shadow from behind approached. Ezio stood, drawing his sword, and looked at the man before him. A bandit, he could tell by the way he held his knife.

"Yer gonna die, boy…" he muttered, bloodlust in his eyes. He leaped at him, but was easily thrown off balance, and tossed aside. He stumbled a bit, and Ezio continued untying the horse, and stood to redirect another attack. The bandit, at this point, got smart and called for help. The other bandits, three in total, appeared, and all surrounded him like clockwork. Two with swords, two with maces, and one of them had a quiver and bow accompanying his arsenal.

"Bring it on," Ezio said, sheathing his sword and drawing his dagger. One came at him with sword, another from behind with a mace as well. He ducked under the one from behind's attack, and jammed his knife into the man's shin, splitting the bone and spurting blood. He rose, skipping a beat by mistake and feeling a hard punch to his gut, followed by a near-fatal blow to his head, the major damage of the attack thwarted by the knife, which broke in exchange for his own life.

Tossing aside the useless hilt of a knife, Ezio rubbed his forehead a little, blood oozing from where the knife shattered before his face. He was staggered by the blow, and had to be on high-alert for any other incoming attacks. The bandit with the mace that stood before him made to bring a heavy attack downward upon Ezio, who dodged the attack, not willing to get killed by a simple bandit, after he had made such a solemn vow of vengeance for the emperor.

He strafed around the bandit, keeping his eye on all sides. Any attacks right now could get him killed. His vision was starting to blur from the attack, as a headache began to form. The bandit held his mace to the far right, and lunged forward swinging both the mace's weight and his own to the left, in an attempt to crush the intruder quickly.

Ezio leaned backward, falling on his rear, but he kicked at the bandit's shin during mid-lunge, bringing him down, hard. He grabbed his foe by the back of the neck, keeping him down as he looked up to see the other bandits. They had already decided a frontal attack was suicide, and the archer drew his bow and strung an arrow. He had let it fly as Ezio pulled the disgruntled ground-bound bandit forward, blocking the arrow with a body. The bandit was killed almost instantly, as the arrow went straight through his heart.

The third bandit yelled, charging the young man as he dropped the body. "No, don't!" the archer yelled, but the man was torn with grief. More than he himself had probably expected. Ezio drew his sword and held it out, partly out of fear, partly out of instinct. The blade impacted with the bandit's rib cage, leaving him alive long enough to grab Ezio's throat and begin choking him. Desperate for air, he looked around for something to release the bandit's grip. Out of the corner of his eye, he also saw another bandit readying an arrow. He was going to shoot on the chance that Ezio managed to break free of the death-grip.

The lack of air steadily made itself more pronounced. His whole body almost felt like it was shaking, his vision was blurring to the point that colors could barely even be made out. He looked at his belt, and saw his last weapon that would work. He grabbed the crossbow, and began beating him with the it, the splintering could almost be heard as the lathe connected with the bandit's face, and as he fell to the ground, bleeding with the sword still lodged in his side. The crossbow fired its last bolt into the leg of the archer bandit, breaking into pieces as the bolt launched from the dying weapon.

He ran at the last bandit, intending to finish the job. He landed down onto the bandit, his wrist-blade launched and slammed into the man's throat, killing him. He stood, looking down at his handiwork, thinking the words "Requiescat in pace". He mouthed the words, but said nothing.

He walked over and searched the tents for anything to replace his crossbow. Surprisingly, he found nothing. That bandit with the bow was the only archer. Crossbows Ezio could work with, but bows he refused to. His vision continued to blur, but if he stayed here for the night, he would more than likely find other bandits in the morning. He walked back over to the horse, and mounted it after dislodging his sword from the dead man, riding off into the sunrise, in the direction of the rising sun.

Cheydinal appeared before him as the sun reached the top of the sky. Its walls boasted a stony-grey style of architecture, more often known as Nord. The cities East of the Imperial City and the ones West of it had very contrasting styles of architecture, pending on the country the city and province had proximity to. Ezio dismounted his horse and approached the city warily, looking around for more red robed people that might be after him now.

The large gate opened before him, and he walked into the vast, contrasting city. The cathedral stood most noticeably in the city, along with all of the two-story homes along the grass and dirt pathways. The concrete road stood in the middle, where people all gathered to ready for church. A few people in armor, presumably Cheydinhal guards, pulled a man aside rather forcefully. Interested, Ezio hid behind a nearby home, looking around the corner, and listening in, intently.

"I have no money to pay your taxes…" whimpered the man, staggering backward. The guard followed closely, his blade drawn.

"Then you die," he said, and looked at the man. "Captain Ulrich knows who you are…your execution was inevitable, anyway, citizen."

Ezio looked, launching the hidden blade and leaping from around the corner. He ran at full speed toward the guard, who, confused, could do nothing to defend against the rattled, blood-soaked man charging at him. Ezio leaped at him, his knee crashing into the lightweight cuirass of the guard, and sending him to the ground. Continuing the motion, the wrist-mounted blade went into the guard's neck, and killed him instantly. He closed the guard's eyes, and stood up, looking at the man.

"I did not save you because you could not pay taxes." He stated, looking at the man. "I saved you because the punishment was unjust and cruel. Now flee, before more guards arrive." The man stood, and fled to a nearby alleyway. Ezio looked over his shoulder, and walked into a separate alley, trying to remain inconspicuous.

He hopped a fence into a backyard, walking through the freshly-cut grass, the smell wafting in the afternoon sun. He hopped the fence again, seeing two guards facing the streets, but clearly guarding something behind them. Ezio stalked toward them; he needed to get out of the alleyway eventually. He was about to charge through, when he heard a voice.

"Pay your weekly taxes today!" he looked, and saw the gallows, before a large Temple. A Temple of the Nine, in Cheydinhal? He thought that there were only temples in the west…shaking off the small confusion with acceptance, he looked back to the gallows, a gathering of quite a few nooses. There were three men there: the proctor, a heavily armored man and what looked like a Guard Captain. They all usually got similar uniforms, as Ezio noticed from his travels to Kvatch when he was with his father.

A guard ran up to the gallows, looking at the captain. "Sir! The guard is dead, and Fiern isn't to be found!"

"Then he murdered the guard." The captain deduced. "He shall be sentenced to death immediately; no trials for murderous scum like him." He said. Ezio slapped himself silently, and looked forward. Now the poor man was going to die for charges well above what he had originally been charged for. The only way to save his life would be to put his own on the line.

He drew the wrist blade, and stabbed the first guard, pulling the Captain Blade's sword as well in response to the guard's response. He backed up, and ducked under the guard's horizontal attack. He punched forward, aiming at the guard's gut, but the guard reacted fast enough to grab Ezio's fist and shove him backwards. Ezio, in turn, was quick enough to defend himself from the guard's counterattack, using the bronze metal bracer on the weapon to deflect the stabbing motion the guard had started.

Two more guards approached, and a whole fight started. Now was the time to retreat. He launched the wrist blade, ducking under a sweeping attack of the longsword, and stabbing through the guard's armor. It shattered as it entered his heart, killing him instantly and rendering one of Ezio's best weapons useless.

He used the corpse as a shield as he shoved his way through the small crowd of guards, and sprinted away from the cluster of enemies as they all mobilized to chase. He got a good glimpse of the Guard Captain, who stared directly into his eyes, but made no motion to chase. Hopefully this would turn the mysterious guard death to him, rather than someone who had no choice in the matter of the guard's life.

While running at extremely high speeds, the environment naught but a blur. He picked out a beggar, who was motioning somehow to him to divert his course of fleeing in that direction. Stopping on one foot, his momentum curved and sent him toward the beggar, who continued motioning him to go in that direction, though he merely got out of the way, and made no moves to continue in that direction either.

His breath came fast and hard. He could feel the white-hot burn in his chest as he overexerted his running, and his adrenaline continued flowing. A small, abandoned looking house was before him, with hooded people standing before it. He heard an explosion behind him, but by instinct continued into the house, where the hooded people followed behind, closing the door.