Brotherhood Sanctuary, Essen, Germany – September 1940
Jan went looking for Elisabeth. Still not knowing the layout of the place, he had to ask for directions from the few passing Assassins that he met. Eventually, he came to a shooting range. It was more accurately just a long hall with bullet-ridden targets on the far end, and an improvised shooting gallery made of planks of wood held together by rusting nails. She was aiming down her rifle when Jan came into the hall.
Her shot seemed to crack the very air in the hall. Instinctively, Jan closed his ears and grimaced. Gunshots are loud, but down there in what was basically a cave, surrounded by stone walls on all sides, Jan's ears ached. As his hearing returned, he touched his ears to make sure no blood was flowing and, more importantly, that his ear drums were intact.
It was then he noticed her taking off a headband, but it had flaps of leather attached on each side covering both ears. She turned around and noticed Jan's presence. Her temple was red from the grip of the headband.
"Oh, hello," she said as she put down her rifle. "The initiation ceremony's done?"
"Yeah, a little heads up would've been nice." Nobody had told Jan basically anything ever since he left his cell in Silesia. "I completely forgot that I haven't been initiated yet." After all, it all felt real and serious. The gunfights, the battle, the torture. He was in a literal warzone, and a prisoner of the Templars for almost a year. Anyone would think he was already a full-fledged Assassin, including himself.
"What's passed is past." She smiled and downed a bottle of water. She straightened out her long, blonde hair. There was something otherworldly about it. Its blonde colour was no different from the other blonde women he'd seen, but hers seemed to be glowing. He thought he could see strands of grey and silver amongst the golden strands, but when she moved it vanished.
"What're you looking at?" She was staring daggers at him. She wasn't scowling, but she wasn't smiling either. There was a deadly caution in her eyes, as if to say if you keep looking at me like that the target isn't going to be the only one with a bullet in it. Jan averted his gaze and felt the blood rush to his cheeks. Then he remembered what he came for.
"After the initiation ceremony as the Masters left one after the other, one stayed behind and stared at me," he began. He had no idea how Elisabeth would respond to this. "He told me to come see him, and he said to ask you about it."
"Was he the one sitting on the far left?"
He nodded. She sighed.
"What?" Jan had expected recognition, or maybe confusion. Not a sigh.
"Nothing. Come with me." She threw the headband with its odd flaps onto a crate and went straight out of the room.
Jan followed two paces behind her, closely following her steps. First, it was at the castle in Silesia. Then, when he first came here. And now, this. Every time, it seemed like she knew her way around whereas he was as lost as a young boy. This Elisabeth intrigued him. Who was she? What is she?
"How old are you?" he blurted out without thinking.
"Why do you ask?" she didn't stop as she answered him.
"Just curious."
"I see."
Guess I'm not getting a straight answer.
Eventually they reached a simple wooden door. With Jan next to her, Elisabeth knocked loudly on the door.
"Come in," called out a voice from inside.
Elisabeth opened the door, and they came into a cozy, warm study. On the far and left walls were bookshelves filled to the brim with heavy tomes. On the right was a fireplace, the heat of the flames welcome on Jan's skin. The halls they were in were not cold, but they were a bit chilly. A luxurious red and gold carpet lay on the ground. Right in front of the bookshelves on the far walls was a large, oaken desk. Jan didn't know much about carpentry, but by the carvings on the front the desk looked ancient and sturdy. Sitting behind it was a Master, still decked in the robes he had worn for Jan's initiation but with his hood pulled back.
"Ah, I was waiting for you two." He stood up and walked to the front of the desk. "You sure took your time."
His appearance took Jan by his surprise. The Masters on the Council were the most revered of the Brotherhood. They had decades of experience and wisdom beyond the grasp of other, younger Assassins. And yet here stood a man in front of him, one of the Masters on the Council, and he was no older than his father. Beneath the robe, his body was lean, strong, and fit. He was tall, just slightly above Jan. His face was fresh, showing no wrinkles in the orange light of the fire. His brown hair was combed neatly, and his facial hair was recently shaven.
"Welcome, Elisabeth, Jan. Do close the door. It's quite chilly."
The words stoic and wise usually came to Jan's mind when thinking of Masters on the Council. But he was smiling warmly at him, welcoming even. Unlike a master, or a wise grandfather, he felt more like a kind but skilled older brother.
"Was there really any need for that mysterious introduction?" she asked, her tone clearly annoyed.
"Come now, Elisabeth, even as Assassins we must have a little fun once in a while?"
"Even during a war?"
"Especially during a war. Morale and joy keep a long way in keeping the morale of troops high."
He chuckled to himself, with no response from either of the younger Assassins. Then, he turned to Jan and stood straight.
"Allow me to introduce myself, initiate. Lutz Börngen, Master Assassin, and youngest member of the Brotherhood Council, at your service." He finished his introduction with an exaggerated bow.
Jan nodded and followed up with his own introduction, which was technically unnecessary.
"You must be wondering why I asked you here," he asked Jan as he went back to his seat behind the desk. "If you'll pardon me the cliché line."
"Well, yes, I am curious. I'm also curious why you had me ask Elisabeth."
"Oh, that was just a bit of fun," he said. After a pause, he continued. "But that's not what you meant, is it?"
"No, it's not."
"Well, all your questions will be answered promptly. But first of all, Jan, why do you fight for the Assassins?"
"I already answered that at the initiation," Jan thought, his mind going back to the sudden rite he had just finished. Nobody even bothered to tell me about it.
"Yes, I know. But when faced with a test, we rarely answer the full truth. We'd rather give an answer that would increase our chances of passing or please the asker. I don't doubt that you were truthful with what you said, but I don't believe that you were truthful about the degree."
"The degree?"
"Indeed. Following in your brother's, father's, grandfather's ancestors' footsteps, carrying their torch, fighting for what's right – justice, equality, freedom – but also revenge. What I'm asking you now is, which one weighs the heaviest?"
Jan didn't immediately answer, mostly because he himself was not sure. His mind told him that it was the former, that he was doing this because it was the path laid out for him. But his heart said otherwise – he desperately wanted to find whoever was responsible for the murder of his father and slit the Templar's throat. As Jan contemplated, he looked into Lutz's eyes – they were large, bright, and sharp. The kind that could make people shed their defenses, being stripped bare just by one glance. At once, he knew that there was no lying.
"If I'm being honest, I don't know myself. I like to think that I'm doing it because it's the right thing, but I feel so much anger and hatred for what happened to my father. The injustice of it all. I can't say for sure that that's not what's driving me forward."
Lutz smiled, looking pleased.
"Driving me forward," he repeated. "An honest answer. Good. I disagree with the Council," he said as he picked up a pen from his desk and played with it. "I don't think revenge is such a bad thing. As you said, it drives you forward. Of course, you can't let it consume you completely. That'd defeat the purpose. But at times, we forget why we're fighting the Templars. Like right now. What is the Council doing as Hitler and his cronies invade Europe, bomb Britain, sink merchant ships, and murdering anybody they brand as lower than themselves? Absolutely nothing. Hiding behind the arguments that we should wait or we must assess the situation, or worse: there's nothing we can do at the moment."
Jan clenched his fists. Those sounded eerily similar to what had happened on Kristallnacht. And what did their wisdom lead to? The death of father.
"They say that this is the wise decision, that we must conserve our numbers. More Assassins are being killed as we speak. But I ask you, Jan." He pointed his finger at Jan. "Conserve our numbers for what?"
A lot of what he was saying was right. What was the point of all this waiting around? To 'conserve our numbers'? But then, what for? Isn't remaining underground and not fighting for the sake of our survival just cowardice?
"So, Jan, what do you think?"
"I think you're right. We shouldn't be cowering here, doing nothing. We should take the fight to them, make them think twice about killing more of our brothers and sisters."
Lutz smiled.
"Well-said."
He then nodded to Elisabeth, who nodded back and opened the door. She looked left and right down the hallway and then closed it back, before nodding once more. Satisfied, Lutz came closer to Jan. As he came closer, the left half of his face was hidden by the shadows. He looked like an apparition come to haunt Jan for his sins. If this was what the people whose lives ended as the hands of the Assassins last saw in their lives, he would be terrified. And rightly so.
"Not all the Assassins are blind to the folly of the Council." His tone had become more serious, having lost its lightness and humour. "There are those among us who remember the Creed, and what we stand for. Those among us who remember the Templars for what they truly are. Not simply those who believe in an opposing ideology, but monsters and beasts ready to consume the world for their own benefit. Those among us who remember well the struggles of our forebears – Altair during the Crusades, Ezio in the Renaissance, Connor in America.
"It is against the express wishes of the Council. We act to bring this war to an end before it can go any further, to bring the fight to the Templars. We will not go down into the darkness silently. If we are to go down, then we will bring them with us. It is tough. Whereas most Assassins need only to conceal themselves from two sides, our opponents and the world for their and our own safety, we must conceal ourselves from three – our own brothers."
He stepped aside and looked into the flames burning in the fireplace. Looking deadlier and older than he did just mere moments ago.
"It is a sad thing that I must say: conceal ourselves from our own brothers. What have the Assassins come to? But we must do what we must."
He turned back to Jan and held out his hand.
"So, Jan Adler, son of Ernst Adler, will you join us?"
Jan looked into his face and into Elisabeth's. After so many years of hiding, creeping, avoiding, for the first time Jan felt that this was the Brotherhood. The flame in his heart started burning as intensely as the fireplace, maybe even more so. His decision was made. He held out his hand and placed it on Lutz's.
"I will."
As Lutz did not have anything for them yet, he asked them to rest and prepare themselves for the coming escalation of the war. Jan and Elisabeth made their farewells and left his study. He had something on his mind, something that had been bugging him since Lutz's speech.
"Elisabeth."
"What?"
"Was my rescue his plan as well?"
"Yes. After Kevin came with the artefact, as part of the Council he heard what happened. We began searching for you, trying to find where they had imprisoned you. I don't know why he put so much effort into it."
"He's young for a Master on the Council."
"He's the youngest Assassin Master ever on the Council."
"How old is he?"
"Ten years older than you."
Ten years… He was only twenty eight.