For Blood, Then For Love | By : TheGreatWicked Category: +A through F > Assassin's Creed Views: 1982 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: I don't own the Assassins' Creed games or any characters from the Assassins Creed game franchise but it would sure be nice if I did, I make no profit off of these stories, I just enjoy them |
For Blood, Then for Love Summary: Herein lie the personal accounts of Leah Vesuvia Rachel Rahamin, emissary and scholar to the Levantine Assassin Order. When there is no blood to die for what would you die for then? Would you look beyond your own suffering and find love? Or would you allow yourself to wither away? When you cannot live for blood or family, you must learn to live for love and make your own of both. Malik/OFC Authors Note: A HUGE apology if I have any of this is incorrect, I mean NO disrespect at all! If any of it is wrong let me know and I will fix it straight away! Secondly: The character of Al Mualim is a tricky guy to write, I've read a lot of fanfiction where he is seen as a frightening giant with not a lick of a sense of humor or even a kind disposition. I haven't played the game yet as my copy seems to have vanished… I suspect Narggles. I have, however, been watching video clips of characters to best nail their personalities and as such I've decided to portray Al Mualim as a fairly kind hearted man. Not to say that he's a barrel of cute and cuddly, but I like the image of a father figure, not a 'master' know what I mean? Anyhow thats what I'm going for, hope you all like it. Lastly: Since there is so little information on some of the characters at this time I'm going to state that for story telling facts that Malik and Kadar's father Faheem is alive and well. I'll add more characters as they come into play, once more read, review and enjoy! It was Uncle's idea to press onward, the last six years had been hard on us both and it was not even a fortnight ago that he had come to my room and informed me that he had greatly desired to see Masyaf. It had been his home as long as it had been mine and I could not lie, I too had greatly missed it. But as much as I had longed to see it, I worried about Uncle's health. The last two years had been hard, he would tired of traveling sooner, his aches and pains would weary him more and at night he would toss and turn missing the comfort that his mattress afforded him. To me, this was not a wise idea, I worried for him greatly, as he once doted upon me as a child, I now doted upon him. But onward we press and within two days we will be looking upon the mountainous defenses of Masyaf Castle. Its high towers and walls both a frightening and comforting visage, you would have to be mad to ever think of mounting an attack. The natural mountains that surrounded it a first line of defense and even if you made it past that then you would have to deal with those who dwelled within. Those in the white robes. The Assassins. It was for this reason that many decided to make the trip to Masyaf, to begin a new life there, for those who called Masyaf home, would be protected always. It was my home. Yet, even now as I think upon the mountains, towers and walls it will not the same as it had once been. Six years wis a long time and whether my travels and experiences had made me paranoid or overly cautious, I cannot say. I now see things that I had not noticed before, things that my training had taught me to look for. Large wooden beans held back by a series of ropes and pulleys to fend off attackers. Armed men on the walls poised to attack, swords at the ready. Hidden alcoves where assassins in their pristine white robes hid in the shadows waiting to strike. Is it the death of childhood innocence? Or had they always been there? I cannot not say, but I do remember something that Uncle had told me long ago: Childhood is over the moment you know you're going to die. Six years have seen many changes in Masyaf and even more changes in myself. I wam no longer the girl I had been on the day I left. Time moves on as only time knows how, surely there are some things that had changed, and there were some that had not. Yet, as I soon will be looking upon my home, I feel an unfamiliarity with this place, the world was darker, shadows longer and I was less sure of the things I had always known. There were many changes and I found myself thinking upon this place that I had always known and although I was home I felt I did not truly know this place and these people. ~An excerpt from the journal of Leah Vesuvia Rachel Rahamin OOO "Leah," The shear mass of the mountains did little to hold back the harsh desert sands, it was still abrasive and made the hood she wore a real comfort. The woman turned to face the source of the voice, not much of her face was visible, through the hood and scarf only her eyes could be seen, very unusual. As a child some had thought she had been touched by the devil, others said angels, or Allah himself. One eye the color of deep jade, the other blue gray like the sea after the storm. Stray wisps of dark brown hair loose and flying in the desert wind. She gave no vocal response to the voice but faced him, "Are you alright?" "Of course," Her response was nonchalant, not a shred of emotion. The elderly man looked on in skepticism, knowing from years of experience that although the woman has good at hiding her thoughts and emotions he was much better at reading them. With only her eyes visible he could see the conflict deep within them. "I trust you have not forgotten our agreement," She ripped her eyes away and back to the sands, looking at nothing that would give her thoughts away, she did not want to talk on the subject of which the man spoke of. Yet she couldn't forget it, she had spent the last six years half dreading their return to Masyaf. "I have not." She replied hoping to say no more. "I will book no resistance from you, Leah. We had a bargain." Leah wore a pained expression and inwardly rolled her eyes, she knew better then to give her uncle any sass. Only had to learn that once. A sharp backhand from him at an early age had set her straight when once her quick tongue had spoken before her wit caught up. Once more Leah's gaze was cast out across the sands, looking on the mountains with a pang of regret and sadness. The last six years had gone by so swiftly, there were times when Leah would glance back through her journal and wonder where it was that the time had been stolen to. Nonetheless she could not forget that day and the compromise that she had struck as a young girl in her eagerness to see the world. It had been only six years ago, that she had left this place as the sun was rising, it seemed appropriate now that as she returned the sun had just set, and the brilliant shades of yellow, orange, red, purple and eventually the inky blackness of night. Her heart fell in her chest, she had been so eager to leave, so anxious to leave and explore, she wanted to learn. When her uncle had first made the proposition to her she did not think on it as she was known to do, instead she snatched it and heartily agreed to her Uncle. There was no way around it, she knew that it was bound to happen eventually, it was the way of the world. It happened everywhere and to everyone, although Leah had always been an exception to most rules there was one that she was not. Not even one as special as Leah. Always an exceptions to rules yet this rule was absolute. She looked to the darkening horizon and sighed heavily thinking it an appropriate visual metaphor. "I know what I must do." She finally replied as they continued onward, she looked out into the deserts and watched as the sands danced for her, playing out an old memory. OOO Although she remembered it everyday she didn't like to think on it, part of her wondered if that pain and danger was what her Uncle sought to protect her from when he traveled. Was that why he always denied her to accompany him when he left? Leah never knew and for years she accepted that it would never change. Yet with each year that passed as she grew older, her inquisitive nature peaked its nose around the corner again and again. However time and time again she ignored it, or at least she tried to, she felt her spirit diminish. It wasn't until the eve of her fifteenth birthday that she spoke of it. Her uncle had been in his personal study accompanied by Rebecca, lecturing him for his lack of concern for the state of his chambers. If Leah was controlled, organized, neat and punctual her uncle was most certainly the polar opposite. Not to say that he was volatile, just he had his own agenda. Not to say that he was a mess, he just had so many thoughts in his head it was hard to keep track of them all. Not to say that he was a slob, he just had greater matters to attend to. And it wasn't that he had no concept of time or respect for it, merely that he had earned his right to take his time. "I say someday you will not have a woman as good as I to tend to you! What would you do if I suddenly decided to cease my work here?" Rebecca often grew tired of Hamid's antics and more so his often hidden smirk beneath the graying strands of his beard, he knew she was only jesting. The exchanges often made him laugh, this drove Rebecca to agony. "You jest, Rebecca, surely. What would you do with yourself if you did not have Leah and I to look after?" "In the first place I need not look after Leah, that girl is the only reason your ways have not yet driven me mad!" He chuckled softly, indeed, while he had not been looking Leah had grown up, and while most girls her age were either betrothed or married, Leah remained and he greatly dreaded the day she would belong to another man. He hoped the one was worthy. "And in the second place, I would have the time to rest my senses and enjoy myself!" Leah leaned against the door frame making herself known, having learned years ago that she could not hide from anyone in Masyaf Castle. She smiled at the exchange and joined in. "Uncle are you baiting our dear Rebecca once more? It is not kind, Uncle." Rebecca threw up her arms in exclamation. "Ah! The angel speaks!" She stepped forth to stand beside Leah, placing her arms about the girl. She often referred to Leah as an angel, yet everything in life comes in pairs and if Leah could be an angel she could certainly be a trickster as well. "Talk sense to this man! Perhaps he would listen to your wise council." Her uncle leaned back in his chair awaiting the talking he was expecting, yet Leah's eyes said there was something else. "Uncle, it is unkind for you to play a game without inviting me!" Rebecca threw her arms up once more in exclamation, Leah the trickster had emerged from the door in the guise of an angel. "You have corrupted this girl, Hamid! She continues this work of yours to drive me to madness! And when you die, which may in fact be very soon this girl will be left to continue these horrid games!" It was all just games and silliness and they all meant no harm, it was almost a family game. Rebecca shook her head and went about her work, gathering laundry and cleaning up, refusing to be drawn into another verbal match with either of them. Leah stood behind her uncle and hugged him, placing a kiss to the top of his head, sneaking a glance at his work. His scratchy writing almost impossible to decipher with only a seconds glance, sometimes she wondered if he planned it that way. "What have you done today, my dear Leah?" "Work in the library, uncle. Nothing of great consequence." He paused placing a hand over her arm in love. Although Leah was his adopted niece and not blood, he loved her all the same. Hamid had never taken a wife, being that the only woman he had ever loved died in sickness many years ago. He'd often looked at Leah and thought that she would have been the daughter he never had with the woman he had loved long ago. "Nothing of consequence?" He eyes her in contemplation, as though searching for a hidden meaning. "Surely you must have found, read or heard something of interest?" Leah stood beside her uncle with a knowing grin, "Well, I may have heard something interesting…" "Aha!" Her uncle exclaimed throwing his quill down and pushing his scrolls aside, turning his attention to Leah in an extraordinary fashion. "And what has my little mouse heard?" Little mouse. His pet name for Leah, as a child she liked to try and tiptoe around him to catch him unawares. It never truly worked he always knew where she was but he often pretended and after a tantrum at having stumbled and given herself away, he began to call her his little mouse. Leah cracked her knuckles in nervousness, earning her a sharp chastisement from Rebecca, "A young lady should not be so crass!" She would say, and she would slap Leah's hands. yet still, whenever nervous she could not help herself. "There is excited talk among the scholars and there were whispers from the novices today." Her uncle watched and waited, knowing Leah often stalled when she greatly desired something and was nervous of asking. "They say that a great victory has occurred against the Crusaders and that there is cause to celebrate very soon." "I have heard similar talk," He replied, waiting further. "And with this victory a decision to perhaps strengthen our Order by reaching out to our brothers and sisters in far away lands." He nodded and she continued, wringing her hands now "I have heard talk that, perhaps it would be you to journey forth." "Well, that is something interesting." He replied suddenly loosing interest and understanding what Leah truly wanted to discuss. "I am grown very much now uncle, do you not agree?" "I would," He hesitated. "And would you think that I have grown smarter and stronger and calmer then in my youth?" "I suppose." This was it. Now or never. "Uncle, if this is so then I request to go with you." There it was. She waited as silent moments passed, even Rebecca stopped in the doorway to listen. It was she who comforted Leah when her uncle left and she who would dry Leah's tears and tell her stories to ease her sadness. She knew how greatly Leah wanted to travel and learn and see and grow, she hoped Hamid, would see this too. He sighed heavy like an old man should, an old man who was weary with a terrible knowledge. The sigh of a man who felt a great sadness and desires to end it by giving in but he knew he could not, he loved her too greatly to endanger her. He picked up his quill and reached for a scroll again. "My dearest child," Leah's hope diminished, he always called her 'child' as he was about to deny her. "I have said to you many times that the world is a dangerous place, and the open road is not a suitable place for a young woman of purity. But perhaps I have merely been a selfish old man," He paused now, as though wrestling within himself a moment. What reason was there to deny her? She had indeed grown up into a fine young lady, she was wise now and stronger and it was said that there was no finer shot with a bow in Masyaf. As the fight continued within him, a memory most horrid entered his mind. The memory of the sky so thick with black smoke that at high noon it was as dark as night, and the ground stained with the blood of many innocents. The groans of the dying and the silence of the dead, destruction everywhere. And the memory of a little child, her face smudged with soot from the smoke as her home burned, and dried blood on her clothes from her loved ones as they died around her. The fragility of that little child and how quickly it could have been snatched away. The world was often an unkind place to those who were not prepared, was Leah truly prepared to see it so? He didn't know. Did he want to know? With the decision to allow her to go he would loose a part of her, that part of that sweet little girl he saved so long ago. And yet if he denied her, more tears that were certain to be shed, hidden now. Alone. He knew what he had to do. "No." Leah felt her heart fall once more, only this time it would stay there. She knew better then to argue this now, the child within her would cry before her uncle and beg him to take her with him, but Leah was no longer a child. And she knew that she would shed her tears in private, she sadly sat down and cast a glance at Rebecca, who gave her a reassuring look of compassion before leaving the room. There were several moments of silence, where Leah sat looking at the floor, her uncle with a quill in his hand desiring to write and yet his hand did not move. He relinquished the quill and stood up walking to his window looking out at the stars searching for words to comfort Leah, but nothing he could say would make her smile. "I know you think you have grown Leah, and you have. You shine brightly with a strong heart and a wise mind. You are no longer a little child, and while I would have you travel and learn of the world I can think only of the day I found you." He paused, allowing Leah to think on the sour memory, hoping she would see what he saw. "The world is dangerous Leah and on the road, to travel the world. I would fear too much, that I could not protect you. I would give my life to keep you safe, Leah. But in the midst of chaos, those choices cannot always be made. I will not endanger what I treasure most." She had heard this many times and each time she felt as a small child again, but she was no child. She could not sulk this time, her uncle had taught her, that you must fight for the things you desire and fight for this she must. Leah stood up and approached her uncle, steeling herself. "I am not made of glass, uncle. I will not shatter. I am not a child, I am grown woman. And I am not weak, you need not protect me. I must do this to grow further, I cannot do this if I am locked away like a caged bird!" Leah did not shout but she spoke with conviction, feeling herself trembling within. Her uncle heard this and wished that she would let the subject go, he opened his mouth to speak but Leah continued. "Uncle! Did you not say that one day I would be able to go out among the world? Have not the other scholars say that it would be good for me? If I am to stay here for always then I will die from within!" It was at hearing this that her uncle had been gripping his staff with angry and torn hands, that he had had enough of her casual expressions of death. "Enough!" He shouted silencing Leah's spirit instantly. "You speak of death and yet you know so little!" He turned to face her, a different man now. No longer the wise old sage but now a shadow of the man he had once been: a bringer of death. "You think you shall die here? Of what? Within these walls you are protected by many because it is the seat of power within our Order! Your tongue has grown sharp too! You think that your meager skills with a bow will protect you? There are men out there Leah!" He pointed to the window to drive his point. "Men who do not care for troublesome women who think they are entitled to what they desire! You think they will spare your life? Your innocence? What are you to them? You are nothing but a troublesome little girl who knows nothing of which she speaks!" He turned once more to look upon Leah, the fire from within him had now been shushed at having seen her face. There sadness in Leah's eyes that he had never seen before, not only had he shattered her hopes of adventure but he had belittled her as well. It pained him now to look upon Leah, the fire that was always lit was now nearly out. She would fight him no more for this, she looked to the floor now as Rebecca came behind her placing her hands on the girls shoulders in a comforting manner. Although she did understand what Hamid was trying to tell Leah, she did not approve of what he had just spoken to her. She looked him in the eye trying to convey this to him and he understood, he had perhaps said things that need not have been said. His temper cooled, he instantly regretted his words. "Someday you may understand why I have said what I have, and done what I have done." He paused seeing no reaction from Leah at all. "Now go, 'Isha is upon us. And we all could use some rest." Leah nodded glumly and turned to leave as her uncle reached out to place a hand on her shoulder, recoiling instantly. OOO Her heart had been beaten but even a broken heart still beats, over time it learns to heal and hope again. Leah's heart was not as quick to heal, the few times that she had known sadness and born it upon her face she was inconsolable for weeks. She cried her tears alone and wore a vacant expression, her laughter was not heard, nor were her eyes awake and alive. As a child it had been Rebecca that had taught her that her sadness was to be kept behind closed doors and that it was practice to be a woman of iron on the outside. Through the years Leah had grown to accept this and she did just that, kept her tears silent, even when her Uncle had desired to wipe them away. She would cry later, alone with Rebecca holding her as a mother did her child. But on that night, she would have to hid her sadness, there was talk of a celebration in the air. OOO 'Isha: (evening prayer): Before retiring for the night, Muslims again take time to remember God's presence, guidance, mercy, and forgiveness. Phew! That was long! So, I think this may be the way in which chapters will go, not constant updates but very long. Read and review, and please if you review give me more then two or three words. Thanks everyone! And once more I have to apologize if I have anything wrong, let me know and what it is and what i should do and I will fix it right away! Its tough making an interesting, unique and historically accurate character in volatile times! ~Wicked
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