I had to steady my trembling breath and my shaky hands as Altair and I walked up to the gate of Masyaf village. Too many years had passed and the village was in complete disrepair. I stopped at the gate and felt my breathing hitch. The sands blew across my path and swirled in the wind, causing a mini tornado at my feet.
"Alanna?" Altair stopped at my side. He knew my fears of this place and the way I had left. I awoke to nothing. No answers to the questions that I had. No one to confide in.
"I just need a minute." I could hear my voice shake. My nerves were jumping and the tremble in my normally steady hands worsened. "I thought I would never come back here. Ever."
He took my hand, and held it, trying to help me steady myself. "I know what you mean. I had no intentions of ever coming back here as well, but you know as well as I do that this place is the best shot we have for staying under the radar."
I breathed in and breathed out. I knew what he was saying. I really did, but it did not calm my fears. Ezio walked up behind us. He had been quiet most of the trip, adding small comments here and there, but nothing as the way of conversation.
"Alanna, you need to relax. What terrifies you of this place? Why are you so strung out over coming back here?" He asked as he laid a hand on my trembling shoulder.
"Too many memories. Too many bad memories." I tried to back away from the gate, but they held me fast. "Please, I think I will stay out her for a time. I think I'm going to be sick." And I promptly expelled my lunch in a nearby bush.
I felt hands on my back and keeping my braid from flipping forward. Hot tears ran down my face as I relieved the contents of my stomach into the barren bush. I shook more and felt the sting of the memories come flooding back. The night I escaped, the training sessions, the run in with a few of the older assassins. I bit my lip to stop myself from crying out. Using the pain to focus my mind and calm myself.
"Alanna, you need to talk to us." I could hear Altair's voice in the back of my pain induced calmness. "What is going on?" His voice was borderline hysterics. "Alanna, please talk to us."
"I'm…I'm alright." I sat back onto my legs and wiped my mouth with the back of my hand. "I was teased a lot when I was here. By many of the men here. I was beat as well. You never knew. I never told anyone. They always made sure the marks were hidden from prying eyes and the beatings were done away from onlookers. Abbas joined in on few of them. I had no one to turn to. No one to tell them to stop."
Altair dropped to his knees beside me and gathered me in his arms. "You should have come to me. I would have had them punished." He rocked me gently and my trembles subsided for a time.
"Then they would have thought I was your whore. They already believed we shared a bed behind Maria's back. I was nothing more than your plaything. Something to amuse you." I shuttered at the names they would call me. The things they spat in their drunken rants. "I was their amusement. Their toy."
"Alanna, you should not have dealt with it. You should have told." He whispered into my ear.
Ezio knelt next to us and laid a hand on my knee. "You should have come clean, but the bastards are dead and they can no longer harm you."
"But the memories still linger. Still dog my heels and chewed at my mind when I am unaware. I have tried in vain to repress those memories and hold onto the ones that really matter, but I have not succeeded." I closed my eyes and tried to think of a better time.
I thought about Darim and Sef running around the practice field. Sef barely two and on chubby legs. Darim chasing after his baby brother and Maria watching them like only a mother would. I would keep my distance as I knew I should and wonder if I would be the same with any children I bore. Now I knew I would never see that day. I would never watch children that I had run and play.
"Are you going to be alright?" Ezio asked and I finally looked at him.
I nodded slowly and took myself from Altair's arms. "I think I might be ready."
They helped me to my feet and led me to the gates once more. I could feel the fear creeping up in me once more, but I knew it was something I could control. I had to steady myself and confront my demons in this place that was once my home.
Gently, they led me to the well that once supplied water to the town. It had long since grown stagnant from no use. I could smell the stench from my place a few feet away. My eyes drank in the buildings that were once houses and shops to the people that called this place home. Long abandoned for nature to claim once more, but on the wind that blew through, I could hear the hustle and bustle of the people as they moved through their day.
The trees shook from the wind, leaves long shed from the winter that had just finished rolling in. I could smell the snow in the air, and the chill that would accompany it. I could hear the ground crunch under our feet as we walked the path that had been laid out for us many years ago. I was coming full circle, and coming home.
Our feet stopped at the base of the path that led to the old citadel. I felt Altair's hand grip mine a bit tighter. The whispers of the past crept into my ears as we steadied our beating hearts and continued our journey.
Up the winding path until we came to the protective gate that once kept the enemy out. It was rusted and falling apart from being left to elements. Sadness washed over me as I thought of this once majestic place and the souls that filled the halls with life. They had moved on. Taking the fight underground. Abandoning this fortress so the Templars would have a smaller chance of destroying them in one place.
"Do you think anyone has ever thought of coming back here? Bringing the order back to its roots?" I asked as we looked on.
"No, I don't think they would come back here. The only thing most remember about this place anymore is betrayal. The way Al Mualim betrayed us and attempted to destroy us." Altair shook his head and I watched his hand go to the small horizontal scar on his stomach.
I knew what it was from. The sleep of the dead. I had heard stories about it and Malik had told me it was so Al Mualim could remake Altair. Create the perfect assassin to do his bidding, but the old man had not counted on how strong willed he was when he began. How the Master Assassin that listened to no one would begin to listen to the world around him. Drink in the knowledge that had been kept from him. He had come out a better man for it.
Ezio looked at the gate. "We are not getting through here. Do you know another way around?"
Altair nodded, as did I. This was once our home, our playground. We knew her cracks and crevices as well as we knew each other. "Follow me." The once Grandmaster of this decaying fortress walked around the side and began to climb. I followed him, and Ezio brought up the rear.
Up the wall we went like the old days. I almost could feel my robes' weight once more. The way the fabric would rub on my skin with each movement. The leather gloves that I wore once to protect the soft pads of my hands from the sharp rocks that we held on to when we climbed the walls and rock ledges. Mine had long been destroyed from overuse and time. My robes were no more than dust in some hole in Monteriggioni where I buried them. That was where I buried the last of my life. The last part of Masyaf, until today.
I made it to the top of the wall and looked on at the crumbling parapets of Masyaf Castle. No lord had ever lived here. No kings graced her halls, but her protectors were her kings and her lords. And now, there was nothing that graced her halls but birds and vermin.
Finding a way down was as easy as going up. Our boots kicked up the dirt as we landed and swirled in the dying light. The sun was fading into the mountains. The chill was beginning to seep into my bones and I rubbed my arms to stave it off.
"I guess we will camp in the gardens tonight and do a once through to see if we can set up shop here." I heard Altair say as he headed into the door less portal to the interior of the fortress. We followed in his footsteps and up the stairs he went. He did not stop to look at anything, for his eyes stayed forward and his strides were determined.
He did not stop until he was outside in the gardens. The once beautifully carved pillars lay broken all around. Time, it seemed, ravaged all the beauty that was once here. I sighed as I kicked a small piece of stone from my path and watched it bounce and skid off the side of the small stone landing we stood on.
Altair moved to the grassy area that crunched under the heels of his hiking boots. Ezio and I walked behind him and stopped next to him as he looked over at the small reflecting pool one level down. The pillars that once rose from it lay broken as well, filling the pool with chunks of stone and dirt.
I knew this was where we would stay for the night, and we began to set up the tent we had brought. I walked the garden collecting small branches that had fallen from the trees that graced the small oasis. Setting them down, I saw it from the corner of my eye. My bench. The one I would sit upon and look out in the direction of my first home.
Walking over to it, I heard the dried grass crunch under the sole of my boots. The stone slab was cracked in places and I had doubts that it would hold my weight any longer, but I knelt down and touched the place I once spent hours at, watching the mountains and listening to the river below. Malik had told me once in humor that I was going to leave my mark on Masyaf and it would be an imprint of my rump on that stone. I laughed at him and said he was right.
A small smile graced my lips as I thought of the one man at the time that believed in me and pushed me. Altair watched from afar, and nodded his approval at my progress. He could not be directly involved in my training, so that was to fall on Malik, but in Jerusalem, we would talk when we could. I would listen to his words and hoped one day I would be as good as he was. I guess that day had come and gone.
"I remember you spending every free moment here for the first year or two. Always looking out at Acre, even though you could not see the city." Altair's voice brought me back to reality and from my thoughts.
I stood and smiled. "You and Malik were always telling me that I needed to leave it behind. My life was no longer there. It was here in this place."
"But your heart laid there. In the city that created you. Made you what you were." He smiled as well.
"Just as your heart lay here in these stone walls. This place was your home, your life. You were born here, and remade here. I was reborn here as well. Born into a life I knew nothing about, until you thought I could be something more than a common thief." I kept my eyes upon the horizon and watched the last remaining rays of sun fade away, bathing the sky in the fiery colors that only a sunset can bring.
The night chased the color from the sky, and darkness descended upon the land. The three of us sat around the fire telling stories of our adventures, or what I could recall. They decided to fill me in on a few missing years of our time in Rome and how I would slink around the city for them, a full-fledged assassin, as a scantily clad courtesan. I could hear Altair's teeth grind as Ezio began to laugh about how men would follow me and call out for a night with the tanned mistress that walked the streets. I chuckled and leaned into him, and assured him that he was the only one that would have me now.
We began to yawn and knew it was time to sleep. The others would be showing up in the next few days. We had been hasty in our arrival and made it here several days before we thought we would. The difference between us and them was we could find our way here in our sleep with no guide.
I crawled into the sleeping bag between the two guys and felt sleep's embrace once my head was down. I let the sounds of the night lull me into a restless sleep.
*/*/*/*/*/*
I don't know how much time past as I tossed and turned in that sleeping bag between Altair and Ezio, but I bolted awake, heart hammering in my chest and sweat pouring down my face. The nightmares had returned, and I let my face rest in my hands. The men to either side of me did not stir, completely oblivious to the war that raged in my mind. I found the tent stifling, so quietly I left the confines of the canvas and stepped into the chill of the early morning.
Snow had begun to fall, and it collected on the landscape, turning everything to white. I smiled at the symbolism behind it. When I left here, the land was white, and to come back only to have to be bathed in white once more as I slept.
Slipping into the ancient hall, I wandered up the staircase to what once held Altair's study. The large table was still there, dust thick on its mahogany surface. I ran my fingers across it as I walked past, leaving trails through the dirt. I wandered through the dining hall, and the barracks. Nothing was left of our time here. Everything was gone, right down to the cooking kettle. Scavengers must have come sometime in the centuries, making off with anything they could carry.
Still I walked. Down the halls that had seen better days. Through the winding staircase and when I came to a stop, my breath caught in my throat. I was here. To the place that was my cocoon for a hundred years. My crypt. My trembling fingers raised and traced the ancient cravings of my name. Weather had not striped the words from the stone. They were the same now as they were when they had laid me to my eternal rest.
My eternal rest. Hah! What a joke. It was not rest I would have for eternity, but a never ending life. I let my hand drop back to my side and watched my breath come out into mist. I stepped away from the empty room and moved onto another I was most familiar with.
Altair's had been shut. Must likely by someone who sought riches from the famed Grandmaster. I gently opened the door and walked in. The room was dark and I turned on my light. The beams caught the dust that drifted lazily in the air. The light caught the stone that had his name inscribed on it. I touched the letters and shook my head. It was, again, the same.
I sighed and hung my head, hand still on the marker. "I should have never come here." I turned to see something move in the shadows. My light swung around, revealing nothing. I sighed in relief. I was jumping at things.
But something ate at me. Something told me to move and run. I stepped from the crypt and I saw it again. This time farther down. I gave chase and lost it around a corner, but my light found a stone that brought tears to my eyes. Malik's final resting place.
Was it him that brought me here? To show me that he was resting in peace, maybe with Kadar? I wiped the tears away, and smiled a bit. He was my friend, my mentor and the man who would never let me lie down and die. "Thank you, Malik." And I laid a gentle kiss on the stone.
Altair
I woke up with a start and found Alanna's bag long empty. "Ezio." I called out to the man who's light snores filled the small space. "Wake up."
He moved in his sleep and turned to face me. Eyes slowly coming back to life, still sleep heavy, but blinking. "What is the emergency?"
"Alanna's gone." I had already shed the bag and was pulling on my socks and boots.
He shook his head. "She's a big girl, Altair. Let her be." Rolling back over, I heard him snore once more.
I didn't like that she had taken off. No one knew how stable the walls that held this place aloft. I was not going to lose her to a cave in or a dark hole. Not when we had come this far.
I unzipped the tent and sighed in relief when I saw her walk out of the open doorway. She smiled at me and wiggled her fingers as she came down the stairs. She walked over to me and greeted me in a most unusual way. Grabbing me by the front of my jacket, she kissed me. My eyes widened at her boldness, but hey, I wasn't complaining. I pulled her to me and kissed her with the same intensity she gave.
When she pulled back, we were both breathless. "What was that for?" I asked as she laid her cheek against my chest and wrapped her arms around my waist.
"I have come to understand that I am lucky to have you. I could be walking this world alone, but for some reason they gave me you. My savior." I heard her sigh contently in my arms.
I couldn't help but chuckle. "You are my savior, Alanna. If not for you, I would have woken up in that crypt not knowing anything about what had happened or what was going on."
"Then I guess we saved each other."
"You know it. Now, what has put you in a good mood? Yesterday this place scared the hell out of you." I pulled back a bit and looked her in the face.
"I guess I finally confronted my demons, and now understand that they can no longer hurt me unless I let them." She smiled. "And now, you and I are going to take a tour of this place and you tell me if we can stay or not."
"First of all, I was saving something for you when we got here." I released her and climbed back in the tent. Ezio was still sawing logs and I let him sleep. He needed it. Grabbing the box from my pack, I stepped back out and zipped the tent back up.
She was standing there, looking up at the sky, light snow falling around her, and I captured the moment in my head. She was an innocent, as much as she tried to deny she wasn't. Right then and there, I saw the young woman I brought back from Acre, with nothing to her name but the clothes on her back, a few coins she got from me, and a dagger that was the world to her.
Her eyes met mine and I saw the blush creep up on her tanned cheeks like she had been caught doing something she should not have been doing. "I miss the snow." She merely said as I walked over to her.
I brushed the snowflake from her nose. "It looks good on you." And I led her inside.
I held her hand and marched out the front and over to the jump tower. The ladder was long gone and the only way up was to climb. "Race you to the top?" I grinned at her.
She looked up at the structure and then back at me. "I have never climbed it without the ladder."
"It's easy. Malik and I used to climb this whole place as kids without the aid of ladders or ropes." I pointed out the first handhold. "Come on. Race me."
A laugh escaped her lips. "What are you, ten?"
"Oh come on, Alanna." I smirked at her. "Afraid I will beat you?"
I knew I had her then because she smirked right back and began the ascent. I followed along and we reached the top together.
"You are in a good mood today." She commented as she stood with her back to my chest and I had my arms wrapped around her. We looked out at the falling snow and the world below.
"For hundreds of years now, we have been running from what we are. We have been hiding from the world and trying to lead a normal life. I had always resented this way of life. The immortality. It took everything away from me, but when I lost you, I realized, it gave me everything I needed as well. It just took a few hundred years and losing you to see that." I held her close and knew this was where I wanted to be.
I could feel her hands grip my arms. "When did you become so chivalrous?"
"I do it only for you and when no one else is around." I smiled at the words that came from my mouth. It was the same thing I said the night before she left. I wonder if she remembered when she had said them last.
My answer came swiftly when she turned my arms. ""Ah, you must protect your reputation of a cold, unfeeling person. I understand. You are a fake Altair Ibn La-Ahad. You want people be intimidated by you, but it does not work with me. I know what you really are."
"And what would that be?" She had remembered.
"You, Grandmaster, are mine, but not for the night. For as long as you will have me." She got on her tip toes and wrapped her arms around my neck.
A laugh escaped my lips as I looked down at her. "You actually remember that?"
She smiled. "A bit here and there. I know that was the night I left, if I am not mistaken?" I nodded. "Well, I am glad that some things are falling together. Now, you said you had something for me?"
I took her hands from my neck and pulled the box from the pocket of my coat. "I have been holding onto this for a long time now. I wanted to see if you remembered it."
She took it from my hand and opened it. I saw the tears gather in the corners of her eyes. "I…I joked around with you in Rome that I wanted a new dress for the one you made me ruin when we went through the villa." She pulled the necklace I had given her in Rome. "You found this in the marketplace and said it would look better on me than a new dress. I wore it forever, and that night in Paris, the night I left, the chain broke. I was heartbroken. You told me you would have it fixed."
I took it and slipped it around her neck and fastened the clasp. "I did have it fixed. I was going to give it back to you when we met up next. I never got that chance. I had it in a safe at one of my other places. I never got a chance to give it to you, until now."
"Thank you." She kissed me lightly. "You don't know how much this means to me."
A mushy scene, I know. I never had any nice interaction between them in the first story and I thought it was high time I did. You know her fears of Masyaf and now they have come full circle. No one else is going to die, I will promise you that. Well, none of the characters that are main. And since no one would think to look for them there, they are kind of embracing their freedom.