Nearing Masayaf, just after midday, the sun high overhead, Altair had expected anything but the chaos he saw. Contrary to the bright, sunny day. The town was in shambles. Buildings having been damaged by stray weapons or some even torn down on purpose. Altair could just barely see past the buildings and trees to the cluster of men closer to the castle. It seemed the enemies had made it as far as the gates.

To his left, Kaaf had been standing in stunned silence, jaw agape, unable to react to the scene in front of him. Shaking him out of his shock with a hand on his shoulder, Altair looked him over briefly before speaking, just one look and it was obvious the younger man had little to no combat experience. "There's nothing you can do here, stay out of sight." Before he rushed towards the castle, already preparing his weapons.

"Do you really think you can beat me with such predictable tactics?" Asked the imposing figure seated across from Nasira. That had been her very best strategy, and it had crumpled into failure with a single move from him. She was begining to think it would be impossible for her to overtake him at this rate. But Nasira couldn't allow herself to give in, she had to defeat him, if only to wipe that smug smirk off his face.

Slumping where she sat, trying not to feel dejected, to keep fighting, the young woman started to hear noises filtering in on a draft that, somehow, managed to snake it's way into the room she was in. There were no windows, and no exterior walls, they were quite deep within the building, secluded from the outside. Yet she heard clanging in the distance, as well as voices. They must've been quite loud to reach this corner of the building, even if they were reduced to mere whispers by then. But she couldn't tell if they were excited cheers, or screams.

"What's going on out th-" She started to ask, but was cut off before she could finish.

"Nothing you need to worry about. Besides, shouldn't you be more focused on yourself?" His deep voice gave away no hint of emotion, however the downturned coner of his lip and the way his eyes would occasionally dart towards the door gave away his concern. She had no idea what was going on out there, but she could guess it wasn't simply the usual sounds of training in the courtyard. Unable to leave this room for a couple of hours, Nasira hadn't seen anyone except him since being brought here.

Knowing she couldn't leave until she'd beaten this man, Nasira started once again to formulate a new strategy. She would need something innovative, unpredictable, and far more intelligent than she herself even thought she was capable of.

The town was a mess. It seemed the assassins had at least seen it coming early enough to evacuate most of the villagers to the castle, and the gates had yet to fall. There was the occasional body strewn upon the ground. Villagers who'd refused to leave their house, enemy soldiers who'd been shot down. He had only seen a single assassin's body so far. Aside from the dead, the houses had been half destroyed by the fights. Dirt had been torn up and tossed all about, covering everything in sight.

Making his way up to the castle, heading around the bulk of the fighting, along the side walls, avoiding anyone's gaze, and shooting down any lone soldiers he passed. The large crowd of enemies were all just standing there, unsure how to break through the castles defenses. Hiding behind barriers to block the crossbow fire from inside the castle walls.

It pained Altair to admit it, but the group was too large for him to simply storm in alone and attempt to kill them all. No, he would need to get a signal to the others to launch an assault. Then, he could use the chaos to sneak through and attack the leader directly.

Going a short distance away from the group, just around one side of the castle wall, he could see up onto one of the towers, several of his men were there. Vigilantly aiming their crossbows, waiting for one of the soldiers to shift up just enough out of cover for an opening. Letting out a piercing whistle, Altair drew their attention long enough to give a series of hand signals to impart the plan.

They had just been sitting here, at a complete standstill, for an hour, waiting for an opportunity. His men were still in perfect condition, but the castle walls were solid and seemingly impenetrable. They had taken cover in the watchtower outside the gates, avoiding the fire of the sentries along the walls.

He had been assured by his superiors that this would be simple, the bulk of the enemy forces should have been out on missions elsewhere, including the assassin's mentor. Yet they hadn't expected nearly this much resistance. Feeling a sense of dread, as if perhaps his superiors had lied to him, he could do nothing but continue with the plan. If they died, he'd be turned into a martyr for the cause, if they lived, he would be gloriously rewarded for his accomplishments.

His only security was knowing that the assassins hadn't made a move during the entire hour either, meaning they too were either at a loss or too low on troops to launch a proper attack. For if they could have gotten rid of him and his men, they would've done so immediately.

Just as he was having these thoughts, chaos broke out among his men. He could hear the crossbows firing, and peaking through the cracks of the watchtower, he saw a few assassins had appeared from around the sides of the building and started to charge on the men outside. He didn't have much time. Shouting out the orders he'd prepared in advance for just this situation, he started shooting his own bolts through the holes in the walls.

Only moments later, the sounds of skirmishes outside were mimicked inside, one of the assassins had made their way in and was taking out his men with ease. He understood in a mere instant that he had no chance against this man. The way he fought was simply overwhelming. He needed a distraction, anything to slow him.

His blade nearing the throat of another victim, Altair heard a voice call out, feigned confidence clear as day. He couldn't hide the tremor in his voice, though he certainly tried. "S-stop there! We have... We have your woman! If you want to see her again you'll put down your weapons and tell your friends to stand down as well." What was this man even talking about? What woman? Altair was sing-

They couldn't possibly know about Nasira. not to mention, they weren't technically anything to each other. He'd given Altair pause for a moment, but logically speaking, it would be impossible for them to know anything. The templar leader's face lit up briefly, as Altair's hesitation gave him hope. Instead however, without a second thought, Altair grabbed one of the fallen weapons by his feet and threw it directly into the other man's shoulder, making sure not to kill him.

Kicking away all his weapons while he was distracted by the pain, Altair took hold of the back of his shirt, dragging him outside, into direct line of sight of the men outside. His assassins had done a thorough job of taking out most of the templars, only a few remained, still fighting, though quickly falling, one after another.

Ignoring everything else, including the man's yelps, Altair continued to drag the man up to the castle gates heading towards the dungeon cells with him. He would be kept for questioning until he proved useless.

Now that the fighting was over, he had an overwhelming list of things to finish. Cleaning up the bodies, repairing the houses and shops, accounting for villagers, interrogations, informing the various bureaus in other cities so they could act accordingly, and so much more. These sorts of ambushes seemed more like a nuisance than a threat. First, he would find Malik, then the two of them would coordinate the rebuilding efforts.

And on his way, he would keep an eye out for Nasira. He didn't doubt that she'd been evacuated with everyone else, but he couldn't help feeling slightly anxious regardless.

Having made his way through half the castle by now, Altair had yet to locate either Malik or Nasira. Where could she have been? She wasn't with the other villagers when he'd gone in to give his reassurances that they were safe now, and she definitely hadn't been among the few bodies left outside. Altair had made sure to check the faces of each corpse in passing. And Malik should have been somewhere giving commands or easing the villagers concerns, but he was nowhere to be found.

Scouting every room of the castle, Altair methodically went through, checking every doorway, no matter how unlikely it was that either of them would be inside. Until, finally, he came upon one of the smaller libraries deep within the castle. Not many people used this room, it was out of the way, deep inside the castle, and it was unlikely you'd be aware of anything going on elsewhere if you were inside. Sound didn't travel well to this part of the castle. Only a few people used this room, and only when they wanted privacy.

As he was just about to open the door, he could hear a woman's voice coming from inside. He couldn't make out the words, but the tone was distressed and even mildly crazed. Quickly throwing the door open, thinking someone could be hurt inside, he wasn't entirely what to think of what he saw, though annoyance was prominent. The irritation creeping into his voice, he spoke. "The castle was under attack, and there's an entire town to repair. But you've just been sitting here, playing chatarunga?"

Hearing, and seeing, his friend's displeasure, Malik stood suddenly from his seat, upturning the chatarunga board inbetween him and Nasira in his haste. "If you're here, that must mean the threat has been dealt with. Well, it was fun Nasira, but I have to..." Pausing on the middle of his sentence as he looked back at Nasira, he saw pieces strewn all about the table, a few even on the floor. Amidst the mess, she simply sat, staring blankly at where the game board had been "Are you... Alright?"

For several moments, she made no reaction, just continuing to stare at the crooked board, before she picked up a couple of pieces that had fallen. Muttering, her eyes took on a strange glint. "I was so close... just a couple moves away...I finally would've beaten him..." Suddenly, her hands started to shake slightly, still gripping tightly to the pieces in her hands, as if her life depended on them.

Game after game she had faced humiliating defeat, she had finally found a strategy that he hadn't been able to predict and was so close to winning, so close... Almost as though an aura of hatred had appeared around her form, the air became thick with tension. Knowing it was his fault, but not wanting to do anything about it, Malik strode towards the door. "You might want to do something about that" he said in passing to Altair, nodding his head in the seething woman's direction, before he left the room.

Though far too conscious of her now to dare touching her to break her out of her trance, he opted to walk into her line of sight, on the opposite side of the table. Seeing Altair, for the first time in several days, Nasira felt a strange, bubbly feeling in her stomach, though she had no idea why. But it was enough to stop her train of thoughts and pull her attention away from the baord.

As soon as she noticed the blood on his clothes however, she started to worry. That's right, just before Malik had knocked over the game board, Altair had mentioned an attack. But if he was this deep inside the castle, calmly standing in front of her as if he had nowhere better to be, then they must have already delt with it.

Looking down again, she saw the mess around the table and sighed before she began to pick up the pieces, returning them to their places inside the boards hollow center. Altair must have misread her dejection as he said "it's nothing to be concerned about, I've never beated him at chatarunga either."

"I was only two or three turns away and I would've won! But he knocked over the board!" refusing to look at him, she got on the floor and started picking up the ones under the table.

She was so upset about this game, he wanted to push her just a little. He had seen her try to lie before, he knew she wasn't good at it. So, she most likely would have won, and Malik had no doubt overturned the evidence on purpose. Instead, he said "there's no need to be ashamed of losing, Malik is just better at these strategy games."

Nasira, forgetting for a moment who she was talking to, naturally reacted by peeking her head over the top of the table, about to burst out in anger. But she was stopped by the small, teasing grin on his face, a stark contrast to the blood still splattered across his cheek. His smiling face, directly across the table from her had her heart beating just a little faster. Though she was used to her heart picking up speed around him, something about this felt... Different.

Pursing her lips, no longer knowing how to retort, she settled for throwing the game piece she was holding at his head instead of responding. Of course, he caught it with ease. His grin only grew wider as he took that as a sign to continue." It's probably better that the game ended prematurely, in this state you might have attacked Malik if you had lost again."

Before Nasira could throw another game piece at him, not that it would have hit him, Altair remembered all the many things on his to do list. Promptly putting away the rest of the pieces, he lost his jovial grin as he said "we should head to where the rest of the villagers are waiting. You'll have to stay inside the castle until we've checked for any templar stragglers."

Right, seeing Altair again had distracted her. While she couldn't say it was a regular occurance, she'd experienced the village being attacked enough times to know she'd be stuck in the castle for some time. And once they were allowed outside, her house would likely be half destroyed again. Thankfully, the assassins always contributed to rebuilding the town, so it wouldn't cost her anything, and wouldn't take too long to fix. They probably felt responsible, since it was their war with the templars that caused it.

As the two began their trek down the many hallways, Altair attempted to be casual, however the question burned at his mind. "I didn't know you and Malik were so close." How long had they been on such good terms? Did they often spend days alone in the backrooms of the castle together? Even just the few moments he waited for her response were like torture. He couldn't even understand why he needed to know so badly, but he did.

Nasira thought she could hear an undertone of disappointment in his words, though, she assumed it was her imagination. "Uh, we aren't really. I don't actually know why he asked me here. We just met by chance in the market this morning." Now that she thought of it, he must have known about the assault on the town, and Malik was no coward. In any other situation he would have been out leading the assassins in their defense. It was a bit suspicious.

Relief, mixed with a tiny hint of guilt at having worried at all, filled him. But, why then, had Malik invited her instead of simply having her go with the other villagers? Altair wanted to ask more, but they had reached the intersection where they would part. Nasira heading off to the large hall where the others waited, and Altair towards his office. Saying brief goodbyes, knowing they'd run into each other again sooner or later, they went their separate ways.