Letters
January 17th, 1787
Lillian,
four weeks have passed since our arrival on the island and it has been naive of me to believe I would be able to end my search within a short amount of time.
My brothers' and sisters' and the other inhabitants' welcome was very warm and not only me but Caleb, Faulkner and the crew have been taken into their community like old friends. The Mentor, Consuela Palves, is a very generous woman and immediately offered me the brotherhood's help. She made me acquainted with some assassins whose ancestors were Mayan and who promised to contact their families and ask them for information about their temples. We have received no answers, yet but we already visited some abandoned temples. Without success. Unfortunately, the Spanish conquerors destroyed most of them and even inside the ruins, I could not find anything the keys could have led me to. For now, I can only hope for clues from the Mayan descendants and I am confident that I can start my search soon. Until then, I will try to adjust to life and customs here. It is interesting to me to see my brothers and sisters live and train together and I hope to learn from them and take some of their way of life and views on the brotherhood back home, even though there is much that needs getting used to.
Consuela's way of leading the brotherhood is more familial and open than I expected. She always says that to her, "brotherhood" is not a name, but a philosophy. Everyone here, novice or master, is treated equally and fairly and still, there is a discipline I greatly admire. In the last couple of weeks, I participated in different training sessions and watched the novices' training as well. Both gave me a good feeling of how the brotherhood operates and how it is structured and at the same time, it was very motivating and beneficial to match my skills with men and women who were trained the same way as I was. Many of them have been born into the brotherhood and have been Assassins since birth. I feel like I am learning a lot about myself, the Assassin I am. But I am sorry if I am unable to tell you adequately about these impressions. I wished you were here and could see all of this with your own eyes.
Caleb likes it here, too and he is spending a lot of time with the novices in his age. I spoke to the Masters and they allowed him to join their training. He enjoys it a lot and every night he tells me about his experiences and progress. You certainly know how he is when it comes to these kinds of things. He asked me to greet you and Emily and Faulkner and the crew are sending their regards to Davenport as well.
While it is still quite warm here, I hope the winter has not been too harsh on you. How are you? You and Emily? Do you manage?
Consuela reassured me that she would find a way to send you this letter without having to code it. It will be brought to you by an ally of ours. Give him your answer, if I should not be back until then, which I unfortunately doubt. But I hope we will come home soon and I can talk to you in person.
Please tell Emily that her father loves her very much. Just as much as he loves her mother.
Connor
February 9th, 1787
Connor,
you cannot believe how happy I was to receive your letter and I am even happier that you're getting the help you need. You know I have a lot of confidence in you and still I am relieved to know that you are not entirely alone with your search. I am sure that you will be successful. Don't let yourself be discouraged by difficulties even though I doubt you ever will.
I am happy for you to learn so much about the brotherhood. I can tell by your letter how special and important this is to you. I think I never heard you being so enthusiastic about and fascinated by something and it makes me even happier. Use the time you have there. I am sure it will teach you a lot. Who knows what the future holds? Didn't you tell me, you wanted to bring the Assassins back to Davenport?
But I ask you to keep an eye on Caleb. You know what I think about his training. He may be thrilled now, but I fear that he cannot grasp the consequences of being an Assassin. He admires you and hates the Templars. I do not want him to make giddy decisions out of admiration and hatred that could change his life, as well as threaten it. Please, take care of him and do not let others put even more nonsense into his head.
Here, at home, everything is fine. This year's winter was not harder than others and Emily and I managed. I told you, you do not have to worry about us. We have everything we need and the others are a great support as always. Just a few weeks ago, Big Dave came to repair the lock on the front door. It had been frozen and I was too enthusiastic in opening the door anyway. You see: Your wife is perfectly capable of helping herself out and if she overdoes it, someone comes to her rescue, as always.
By now, winter is retreating and it is beginning to get warmer. Yesterday, Emily found the first flowers by the stables and was so excited. Lately, she is very lively and I feel like I need more eyes and hands to keep her in check. I do not know if she got this restlessness and energy from you, or me or if we are both to blame. Every night I feel like she should be the one bringing me to bed, not the other way around. But I am happy that our daughter is such a bright girl. She really is a ray of sunshine and it seems like we are both distracting each other from how much we miss you and Caleb. Almost every evening, Emily asks me when her papa is going to return and we would sit down by the cliffs to search the horizon for the Aquila. Just as we will will tonight and I hope this letter will not have to reach you.
By the way: Mr. Pollux brought your letter this morning. He is quite an unusual man but very amusing. He told me many stories about his travels but not what exactly he does for the brotherhood. Do you know if he is an Assassin? I can hardly imagine it but he seems to be very trustworthy. I did not ask him why your letter was reeking of goats, though. I hope it got this stench during the travel and not because you have to sleep in a stable. That would worry me a lot more.
Please be careful and come back to us soon. We love you.
Lillian and Emily, who is responsible for this beautiful spot of ink in the lower corner. She says it is a cloud.
February 21st, 1787
Lillian,
shortly after I sent you my first letter, we finally received an answer from the remaining Mayans, who live mostly in New Spain, the island of Yucatán and we visited some of them. They live a simple life and their culture has been eradicated decades ago, but they are trying to preserve their traditions and legends. Unfortunately, they are quite distrustful and do not like to share their knowledge with strangers, even if they also belong to nations that have been suppressed by the colonists. They did not tell me much but I could draw an approximate map which I can hopefully use to search the old sites one by one. I also told them about the legends Xaman Ek told us. The one about the temple, the Mayan hid a divine object in and which they locked with keystones like the ones I have. Unfortunately to them, this legend is just that. A legend and they do not know where this temple could have been located. That means I have to continue my search. Mr. Faulkner and I already planned a route and this is our second day on sea to search the old sites one by one. I fear it might take a long while.
At least I could make use of my time with the Assassins, just like you said. You are right, it is special to me but I fear it will take a while until I can make use of this new knowledge back at home. Furthermore, it is a decision I do not want to make without the other settlers and especially not without you. But we will talk about it when the time is right.
When it comes to Caleb, please do not worry. No one is putting any nonsense into his head. He may be volatile in his decisions and enthusiasm, but he is old enough to carry the consequences on his own and I know that he would never join the brotherhood out of levity. If he wants to become an Assassin, I will not stand in his way. I am sorry, Lillian, but I cannot make you a promise I cannot keep. You need to trust Caleb to make a wise decision for himself. He matured a lot over the last couple of years. I see it every day on board the Aquila or among the Assassins.
I am incredibly relieved to read that you and Emily are well. Winter was my greatest concern even though I know that the two of you get along. I hardly dare to ask how you managed to break the lock. But I remember a similar situation with a window. You tore at it so much that I feared you would break the frame. It could answer your question about where our daughter got her energy from, but I think she has it from us both and I am glad about it. I can well imagine how much she enjoys spring and tries to discover everything. I wished I could be there with you, even if only to take her off your shoulders. I believe that she is taking her toll on you and I admire you for still taking so good care of her. She is lucky to have you as her mother, Lillian, just as I am lucky to have you as my wife. I am sorry that I have to leave you alone for so long but if we are successful, I will be back soon and you do not have to hope for the ship's masts on the horizon any longer.
Unfortunately, I cannot tell you anything about Mr. Pollux. I only know that he is an Assassin and constantly travels between the former colonies and the Caribbean. He will be in Havannah, where we are going to anchor shortly and I hope we will be there in time so that I can give this letter to him. I fear the longer my search takes, the longer he will be our messenger but he seems very trustworthy and skilled in his travels. I think the stench of goat you wrote about is proof of that, although I do not know how it happened. It was not me who had to sleep among goats, do not worry.
Give Emily a kiss from me. I love you both.
Connor
March 14th, 1787
Connor,
it fills me with hope that you have found traces for your search and I pray for your success and health. It has been three weeks since you wrote your letter and my thoughts are always with you. I keep asking myself where you are right now, whether you have already found out something and especially how you are. I think, with each letter I wrote, I hoped that it would be the last and you would come home before it could even reach you. I hope the same about this one.
That is not the only reason why I will not say anything about Caleb. You certainly know that I have a different opinion on this and there is no point in discussing this via letters. There is much we have to talk about as soon as you are back, but before that, you should concentrate on the more important things. Everything else has time for later.
It is hard for me to believe that it has been almost four months since your departure. We have never been separated for so long before and I miss you horribly. Not only because of Emily, who keeps asking for you every morning and evening. Luckily she is occupied with exploring the world during the day and yes, it is tiring but I manage. It is nothing you should admire me for, I am her mother. But thank you for these words. They did me good and I can say the same about you. I am happy to be married to you. Please do not apologize for your travels. Everything is fine the way it is. I miss you, yes. But I know that our reunion will be that more special and I am already looking forward to the day I can hold you in my arms again. I miss being close to you. Talking to you. Every day I think of so many things I want to share with anyone and sometimes I unconditionally start looking for you. It is crazy and I realize once more how often you listen to everything I have to say, even though you are much more silent than me. I am grateful for it. Something I would like to tell you in person, too.
Just as much as I would deny knowing anything about this window incident you wrote about. I have also forgotten to have ever broken a lock, after all. By the way, I hope that the dried flower I will put into the envelope is going to survive the journey. Emily wanted you to have it. We had a walk in the woods yesterday and plugged a big bouquet of wildflowers. Noir and Cherry were with us and every time, the pony stepped onto a flower, Emily was indignant. You should have seen her face. She was sulking and I could hardly stop myself from laughing to explain to her that Cherry was not doing it on purpose.
If the flower should find its way to you, maybe it can cover the goat stench. I did not dare ask Mr. Pollux how he was travelling. Luckily your last letter did not smell as bad. More of rose-soap. As I said, I will not ask, even if this scent should come from you. I like roses after all.
I love you and the same can be said about our daughter. Come back home soon.
Lillian
April 23rd, 1787
Honoured Mrs. Kenway,
my name is Consuela Palves and I am the Mentor of the Carribean Brotherhood. Your husband came to us some months ago, asking for our help in searching for a certain Mayan temple. I think you know what I am talking about and I do not have to explain how I know your husband. There is something more important I have to tell you.
Mr. Pollux, the gentleman who should have brought you this letter, was also a messenger between your husband and us over the last couple of months. Connor had a schedule for his search and agreed to meet Pollux in regular timespans to keep him and us updated on his progress. I know that he sent you letters as well and I am aware that you would now prefer to hold one from Connor in your hands. But unfortunately, he did not come to his last meeting with Mr. Pollux. They should have met a few days ago but after Mr. Pollux waited for two days, the Aquila still did not show up. We already sent our ships to look for them but until now, they remain missing. The sea was rough and stormy lately. Ships easily lose their way or are overseen by searchers. But this will not hinder us and you should not worry too much. I promise we will find them.
I know that this promise cannot take all of your worries from you, but I will let you know should there be any news.
Until then I remain with best wishes,
Consuela Palves