The Starry Maiden

Show and Tell

"Woah, woah... We don't need to see you strip; we know you've lost your extra weight." Venus says and I hesitate to continue... I'm afraid...

"No, this is something you should see. You'll be able to see that she's not lying to you." Zeph says firmly, I hold onto the camisole underneath with one hand and pull the long-sleeved shirt off. I wait to hear the gasp of my mom, or of Venus. But neither of them make a sound.

"Don't think this will just make me believe you." She says to Zeph and me as she stands up and comes over to me, "These all look older than just a couple of years, which can't be the case because I know that less than two years ago during our trip she didn't have any of these. You must have had someone put makeup on her for this gag of yours..." She says as she reaches out and takes my arm in her hand and runs her hand over the surface of my skin. She rubs at a couple of the larger scars as though to rub them away like makeup. That's when she gasps, and she grabs my other arm and tries the same with a few of the larger ones, with the same result. She rubs with enough force that the body I had before would have bruised.

"If it were that easy, I wouldn't have had to wear long-sleeved shirts this whole time." I same quietly to her. Her crystalline blue eyes look up to meet mine.

"This one?" She points to the one that caught Zeph's attention the first time he saw it.

"Saved an orphan from getting cut down by a sword... The guy called me a demon because he didn't end up chopping my hand off." I answer, Zeph snorts.

"You didn't mention that part when I asked..." He chuckles, Venus picks up my right hand and points to the three-inch one that gave me away to Kiyoshi.

"What about this one?"

"I stopped a young Kiyoshi from getting killed by a rival gang." Her jaw drops a little.

"He told me about what happened then... He told me once that that incident is one of the reasons he fights so steadfastly for the Brotherhood now..." Venus says.

Then mom comes over and she moves her hands between a few scars from bullets that I got some thirty-five years ago.

"That was you..." She whispers barely loud enough to hear, "I wondered when I saw the mask... But now I'm sure." She pulls me into a hug, "San Antonio, 1984. An abandoned Abstergo warehouse in the middle of the night." She says as she steps back. Abandoned Abstergo warehouse in San Antonio? In 1984... But how could she know that's when... I gasp a little and cover my mouth.

"That was you, mom?" I remember jumping between gunfire and an Assassin whose cell had been ambushed searching an old Abstergo warehouse. I hadn't intended on going inside but my gut had been practically screaming at me to intervene and save the Assassins inside.

"Not just me... I had been pregnant with Nyx at the time... You saved both of us." We all sit back down, "You had been like a phantom, there blocking the bullets from hitting me one moment and then in a flash faster than I could see, all the Abstergo agents were down. Then you just vanished. Bill often said that if he hadn't seen it himself, he would never have believed it."

"Bill?" I ask her.

"William Miles. He had just become my brother-in-law and had led our cell to that location. But your actions also made my decisions possible. I'd had the leverage to ask to temporarily leave the Brotherhood to raise my family because Bill had given me the credit for saving the rest of the cell. But if you hadn't acted that night... None of you would even be here."

"And apparently ensured the existence of Desmond Miles... Thereby making sure the world would continue to exist." I add to the list...

"Wow... Kudos." Aquilo says giving an impressed nod.