Rome, Italy
58 BC

"Can I take this bag off of my head now?"

"Shh! Quiet, bambino!"

I choked down the urge to yell at Geminius. I felt like I've had my head stuffed in this damned burlap bag for days now. Or was it just one day? It's amusing how time seems to blend together when you spend your hours seeing nothing but the inside of a bag.

It could have been just yesterday when I was kneeling on the Assassins' ship, telling Magnus to take me home, back to my city.

Back to Rome.

Magnus promised me just that. He promised me a way to take revenge against the Templars. He promised me a way to get Porcia back.

I was interested in seldom else these days.

I could tell our ship had touched land when I was all of a sudden hauled to my feet and marched across solid ground for what felt like an eternity. The air was cool all around me. It almost felt like it was wet, which meant it must be in the waxing hours of the morning by now.

The bag was ripped from my face. My theory on the time was confirmed when I wasn't hit with a blinding flash of sunlight, but rather the chilled embrace of the nighttime air.

I spun around where I stood, seeing only Geminius standing by my side.

"Where did the other Assassins go?"

"Their own ways in." He curtly replied.

I blinked.

"In? In where?"

Geminius nodded ahead of us, his eyes still concealed behind his beaked white hood.

"Your new home."

I turned where he was looking. Gray stone wall after wall stood tall and ominous in front of me. The dark mouths of hallways stretched on in front of us, almost as if they were pitch black curtains hanging from archway after archway.

I took a few steps forward, taking the structure in. I knew this place. A small part of my heart constricted as I looked upon it again.

This was a place I had been to before. Mother had taken me…..

"Palatine Hill." I said aloud.

I turned back to Geminius.

"What are we doing at Palatine Hill?"

The Assassin's lips pressed together until they turned white.

"So….you know about this place, then."

He looked down at the burlap sack and threw it aside.

"That would render our efforts to conceal the way here fruitless."

I snorted. "Of course I know of Palatine Hill! It's only one of Rome's most ancient landmarks!"

My mother took me here when I was a boy. We walked the courtyards beyond those halls together, hand-in-hand. I remember the summer sun had made her tunic gleam with an almost ethereal white glow. I remember thinking my mother looked like a goddess who could rival Venus herself….and she was all mine.

I choked back a lump in my throat. Wherever my mother was now, I just couldn't bring myself to hold my late father's anger against her. I just hoped she was safe.

Geminius walked past me into one of the dark hallways.

"It may be simply something to gawk at for you, but it is so much more," he intoned.

I followed him, allowing the darkness of the hall to envelop me. I heard gentle plinks of water dropping from the ceiling, accompanied by several rough scratches and then the sight of an orange glowing orb. Geminius had lit a torch, holding it aloft.

"Look at that wall there. What do you see?" He asked.

I looked where he pointed. It was a simple stone wall, barely illuminated in the torch's flickering light. My eyes trailed down its surface to a small grate that looked like a half-circle coming out of the ground.

"It's just a flood grate." I pointed out.

Geminius chuckled condescendingly. I was growing accustomed to feeling in the dark.

"Yes, it is, bambino, and may every Roman citizen believe the same."

The Assassin kneeled down and drew his hidden blade.

"But to us….it's something else entirely."

I looked over his shoulder. What could he possibly be doing?

He deftly stuck his blade into a slit in the center of the grate I hadn't noticed, turning it like a key. I nearly jumped as a loud CLICK was heard and the grate sank into the ground, revealing a similarly-shaped black hole.

Geminius looked up at me and grinned, waving his hidden blade before it withdrew into his wrist.

"Known only to members of the Brotherhood."

With that cheeky word, he doused his torch and threw himself into the hole feet-first, disappearing within. I looked from left to right, afraid that we might be seen. Thankfully, there was no one in sight. Shaking my head, I knew Geminius intended for me to follow him.

I was beginning to question what I signed up for.

I got to my feet and peered into the endless black in the hole. There was no turning back now.

I hastily crawled and squeezed myself through the hole, only to find my body rocketing down into the dark. I was sliding down head-first through nothing but whirling shadows! What was happening? Where was I going?!

As quickly as I began to panic, I felt my face smash into something hard, the rest of my body tumbling forward until I was crumpled in a heap. Hot pain seared across my face as every joint gave their own groans of protest. I threw out my hands, feeling only cold, hard ground. I rolled and sat up, seeing another glowing light. Geminius stood over me with a second torch. I could barely make him out in the darkness, but I could see his lips curling.

"You went in head-first? That must have hurt." His gravelly voice echoed in the dark room.

I got to my feet and checked my body. Nothing felt broken, thank Jupiter.

"How was I supposed to know that would happen?!" I spluttered.

"An Assassin always looks before leaping. I am happy to give you this first lesson." He said while chuckling.

He turned and walked away into the shadows. I followed after him.

"Where exactly are we?" I asked.

"Underground. Note the darkness." He replied.

I huffed.

"I know that! But where underground? Beneath Palatine Hill? What's down here?"

"You ask a lot of questions," he simply said. "All will be revealed right….about…..now."

We arrived at a blank stone wall. The hall had come to a dead end, or so I thought. Geminius stepped forward and ran his free hand across its surface. After only a few moments, he paused and smacked a spot on the wall on the right, which then caved in a small indent the size of the Assassin's hand!

I heard a series of clicks and groans and the wall in front of us began to rise. I felt my mouth drop at what I saw beyond.

It was a massive stone room! It looked almost like the middle of a square arena. Dozens of white-hooded men milled about the giant place. Some of them were sparring hand-to-hand, throwing each other down on the ground, but then helping each other back up. I saw another area filled with tall, wooden posts of varying width. They almost looked like tree trunks. Assassins were jumping from one to the next, balancing as they landed. Some of them even flipped in the air as they leapt.

Assassins that weren't engaged in some sort of physical exercise were walking down various halls that led out of the room, disappearing around corners. In a few minutes they would reappear one story higher on second-floor ledges leading to other halls and possibly even more space beyond those. All of their white forms were lit by what could only be hundreds of torches lining the walls.

I took in the entire display. All of this was hidden beneath the ground of Palatine Hill?! I had no idea.

"Speechless?" Geminius asked. "Don't worry. Most new recruits are."

I swallowed.

"What is this place?" I asked.

A far deeper voice behind me answered. "It is the birthplace, Brutus. The birthplace of the Roman resistance. It is here that we hide. It is here that we spring forth."

I spun to find Magnus walking up behind me, arms crossed, his crimson cowl and cape bouncing slightly as he walked. Two other white-hooded lesser Assassins followed closely behind.

"Resistance? That's a large word." I stated.

"Yet it is fitting for what we are trying to accomplish."

I looked back at the numerous displays of physical prowess in front of me.

"I am fairly certain the lot of you are already good at killing." I said.

"If killing was our only goal, we would be quite content," Magnus told me with a deep laugh. "We are trying to accomplish the ultimate peace."

I stared at him.

"By killing?" I challenged.

Magnus turned to me resolutely. "There is much you have to learn, Brutus. We are Assassins because it is our duty to create peace, peace throughout the world and peace within ourselves."

He gestured to the large room around him.

"To achieve that peace, we must engage in its direct contradiction: Death."

I narrowed my eyes at the Assassin leader. I still couldn't wrap my head around his words. They made hardly any sense to me, but as I looked at the Assassins training in front of me, I still felt the burning desire to have what they had.

That resolve. That ability.

I wanted to use it to take my life back and free Porcia. After that, I was out. I would get Porcia somewhere safe, somewhere away from Rome. The both of us would bid this hell a fond farewell.

"When do we get started?" I asked.

Magnus nodded toward me.

"Tonight, you rest. It's been a long day of traveling and we must work quickly. You begin your training with Geminius in the morning. He will be your….handler of sorts."

I looked over at Geminius, the same Assassin I witness murder my father and save my life all in the span of less than two years.

He smiled crookedly at me.

"We're going to be the best of friends, bambino."