Strongly inspired by Fire and Ice by GF44 here on
The war between the assassins and the templars is not understood by many. Only to those who are involved in it in one form or another. A lot of naive people, often novices, would say that the templars and assassins have similar motives but a different goal. Those people are wrong. The two orders could not be any more different if they tried to be.
The templars are a group of people who believe that mankind can only move forward when influenced under a single government to lead them in the right direction. Order purpose and direction are their three main goals. They believe that freedom to think individually will surely lead to chaos and destruction all together. I personally think that this is a sweetened way of them saying they want to control everyone and everything.
The assassins are a group of people who are dedicated to protecting the freedom and individual thinking of mankind, in belief that this is where the best ideas come and adapt from; when minds are free from control and can think freely. To the assassins control can only lead to a population of vegetables waiting orders as to what to do next; never thinking for themselves and never questioning anything. Life would be meaningless without these things. Their three main goals are freedom individuality and liberty. I personally think that the assassins suffer so that others don't have to, and all the assassins live life to the full even though there occupation brings never ending misery because the templars are so blind to their actions consequences.
My name is Saoirsena (see-er-sha-na) I am 27 years old and I am a British assassin. However I was introduced to the assassin order at a very young age. I was only 6 years old when my parents began training me. They died when I was 9 years old. The templars had them killed while I was in school. I then travelled to America to seek revenge on the people that were responsible for my parent's death but I met another assassin by the age of 13. His name was Achilles, he found me when I was dying from hyperthermia in his homestead. He took me in and after I regained the strength I told him the whole story and he agreed that he will continue to train me until I am ready to face the templar bastards that did this to my parents.
I now go by the name of Arianna simply because I am sick of people saying "what?" whenever I tell them what my name is. Achilles also so that Arianna is what he would have named a daughter if he had one and from then on it fitted.
I was sitting on the roof of the big house that I lived in with Achilles, doodling in the notepad that I left England with. It was the only thing I had so it was most dear to me. I was a bit of a doodler.
I liked to draw whatever I could see: the trees, the sun, the snow. Everything!
"Arianna!" I could hear Achilles from below. His voice dragged me from my daydreaming state.
"What?" I shouted in attempt to reply without even moving from the position that I was in.
"Get down here!" he shouted back, he sounds annoyed. That's never good news.
I get up from my position very annoyed in being disrupted again for the third time today. I climb to the highest point of the house and dive into the hay bale that is at the back of the house and nearly miss. My reaction to this near failure is yelping very loudly on my way down which led to the amusement of Achilles and Connor who were walking a short distance in front of the bale.
I jumped out trying to ignore the fact that I just made the mistake of a novice. I saw Connor's smirk and I just wanted to slap him.
Connor moved in 7 years ago when he was 16. I wasn't around to debate with Achilles about it. I found a lead to the death of my parents in Boston so I stayed there for a few days. When I came back he was here.
We never got along, in fact the only time we really talked was to argue, usually about his naiveté about everything that the assassins do or just his annoying bluntness in general. He makes me so angry just with the looks he has on his face. Achilles has scolded us several times for acting like children but I can't help it. He's just one of those people I generally dislike for every little thing that he does. On the small occasions that we do get on it's usually just a playful banter that we lead on about the small things that we do, of course they always lead to arguments but I guess it's progress after 7 years of dirty looks and snipes at each other.
"Go to hell, Connor," I said with an obvious annoyed tone.
"I didn't say anything," he looked up his nose at me with a threatening tone.
"You didn't have to!" I shouted, approaching the pair.
"Enough!" interrupted Achilles.
"I am sick of you two fighting, after 7 years it's getting to be a tad dull, so I've decided to put a stop to it," he continued on.
"And how do you plan to do that old man?" Connor said. The hatred in my face was growing. I hate it when he calls him old man, it makes me want to shout the countless amounts of things he has done for him and doesn't get a thank you in return just an unpleasant nickname.
"You two are going to train together," Achilles stated calmly.
"What?" me and Connor shouted in unison.
"It will help you form a bond that should have been formed a long time ago," he continued.
"Not in this lifetime!" I shouted.
"Oh, you would be lucky to train with someone like me," Connor turned his anger to me.
"We can start right now. I can toss you into the nearest ditch and make you beg me to pull you out," I smirked and his lips curled with disgust.
"Give you a lesson in swallowing your pride!" I shouted in his face.
"You two need to learn to get on, and soon. We are assassins, we are an order, and it's not much of an order when the two people that this order is depending on are fighting all the time," Achilles said walking back to the house.
"Fine, I'll give it a shot," I said much to Connor's surprise.
"But I'm not making any promises," I said walking in the opposite direction.
How am I supposed to get anything done when I am training beside an idiot like him? When I was his age I knew everything about our order and I didn't hesitate when it came to judging the templars. He is so stupid and naive and agghhhh! I don't think I can even get through one session with him without ripping my hair out! How can Achilles do this? He knows I'm dedicated and I trust his judgement but this is just going to make things go from bad to worse. I thought while storming through the woods in attempt to run away from my anger that I wanted to take out on Connor's face.
"Hey Arianna," I heard Myriam's voice. I turn to see her with a big grin on her face, peering out from a tree.
"Oh, hey Myriam," I didn't look her in the eye.
"What's wrong?" she asked walking to me then instantly her face perked up as if her subconscious had answered the question for me.
"Connor?" she asked with a smirk on her face, which wasn't helping the foul mood that he had put me in.
I nodded.
"When are you two going to learn to get on?" she asked with her hands on her hips.
"You sound like Achilles," I said, rolling my eyes at her.
"Well..." she came closer to me.
"I'm sorry to say it but I think he is right, you two have been fighting for a while now," she said with an awkward face.
"I know, but I can't help it! His attitude, his face, his snipes, his naiveté, Need I go on?" I asked seriously, she just laughed at me.
"My god, you two make me laugh. You fight like a brother and sister," she smiled at me. I couldn't come up with a reply that didn't sound insulting so I fell silent.
"So what has the big bad wolf done this time?" she smiled. The corner of my lip twitched into a half smile, she actually managed to amuse me in my horrid mood.
"Achilles is making us train together, which isn't really a bad thing... I mean maybe I will get to punch the hell out of his stuck up little face," I was then taken out of my bad mood completely.
"Oh my god! This isn't a bad idea at all!" I gave a devilish grin along with those half serious words.
"Arianna!" she shouted and then laughed and I joined her.
"It's just his attitude toward it I guess. He instantly started winding me up the moment he found out about it,"
"And you let him?" she replied, with a raised eyebrow.
"What?" I narrowed my eyes.
"Well, if you think about it. He can't really get to you the way he does unless you let him. Just think nothing of his snipes and you won't be winding yourself up," she said gesturing away, as she usually does.
When Myriam came to the house injured from a gunshot wound we quickly became friends and began talking like we had known each other for years. She's the only one I really talk to around here the others are dull and some of them have accents that get on my last nerves. They mean well but they just give me a headache, full stop.
I walked further into the woods.
"Where are you going?" she shouted to me.
"To think!" I shouted back.
I walked deeper into the woods, I felt for sure that I was beyond the homestead by now which Achilles told me to never do without consulting him first, but I never really planned to drift from the homestead, in fact I hadn't a clue as to where I was so I guess I didn't really break the rules. I heard the birds chirping above me and I finally began to relax from the tension, I stopped walking to look up to the sky. An old trick that my dad taught me: you can tell the time of day just by looking at the colour of the sky. I guessed that it was about 7pm. it was dark, but light enough that I could see where I was going.
I could hear crunching footsteps getting nearer to me. I knew that there wasn't a chance that this was an animal, the steps were too careless. I ran in the opposite direction and I heard the footsteps become louder and faster and that's when I started to panic I felt like screaming but no sound came out of my mouth, I was struck with shock and fear as to what had given chase to me in the middle of no-where.
"Assassin!" I heard a male voice scream from behind me. Fuck! I thought. I had hoped that the chase was just paranoia but the truth was then clear. Someone wanted me, and whatever it was for, it wasn't good. I picked up the pace but I couldn't shake the noises following me.
I saw a shadowy figure came out from the trees that I was approaching. It grabbed my arm and attempted to put its hand over my mouth. I screamed in a high pitch and ear piercing manner.
"Shut up you bitch!" I heard one of the men behind me. I can't remember how many there was but there was at least two of them.
"Get off!" I shouted while trying to wiggle myself free.
"Shut it!" the man holding me said before putting a cloth over my nose and mouth. I let out another scream in desperate attempt to make anyone else hear me. At that point my vision had begun to blur and no noise was coming from my throat anymore, no matter how hard I tried to make it come out. My limbs went limp and I could no longer stand. My vision was becoming desperately impaired. The last thing I saw before completely blacking out was a flag with the templar cross on it. What had I gotten myself into?
Oh bollocks! Were my last thoughts before passing out.