Return to Inheritance

Chapter V

"Join your ranks?" she asked dumbfounded.

"Cinder said he would come tell you. He spoke with our master about it and he accepted for whatever reason."

"Well I've been sleeping so if he came he didn't wake me up. Do I have no say in this though?"

"You have the freedom of speech here, but I doubt it would help if you spoke your mind when only I can hear you. There isn't much I can do."

"I see," she whispered, rather sad.

"I think that joining the assassins is a great privilege. If I were you I'd be thankful. Of course, I am thankful for being one today," he said smiling to himself.

"I never really gave it a thought to be honest."

"Let me just tell you it's tough," he warned her. She laughed.

"Nothing is easy, obviously. Besides, I love challenges, but that's not my reason to think this is not my place."

"Hmm? What's holding you then?"

He doesn't know apparently. Everyone is going to find out eventually if I do join the assassins so I might as well give him the real and complete answer.

"It's because of my dad. He's apparently a master assassin." They were now climbing up the stairs so as to get out of the prison.

"I don't see your point."

"I haven't seen him since I was ten and ran away from home. That's why I ended up the captain of a pirate ship, because the man who adopted me was one."

"Why did you run away though? Did your father tend to harm or punish you?"

"Well, he always had a short temper and started shouting at me but that's not a reason for running away. No. He wanted me to marry a stranger."

"You were promised to someone when just ten?!"

"To marry later, but I wouldn't have a choice anymore, so I ran away. Nobody knew where I had gone, not even my friends. For ten years after that I've been happy, and now this happens."

"Well that's in the past. You should try to see what the future can bring you."

"I doubt it's going to be anything good with my father around." She looked down to her feet as she walked up the stairs. "Anyway," she then said, vibrating with energy and intending to change the subject. "Why is the Brotherhood hidden underground?" she asked.

"So it doesn't raise suspicion. We need a lot of space and anything larger than the average building bats to the eye. The only solution was to build everything underground. This happened hundreds of years ago when the Brotherhood was at its beginning."

"Makes sense."

"This way," he suddenly said, pointing further down the second hall she had seen since entering the hideout, if she could call it so.

"Don't you ever get lost in here?"

"Did at first. There were many doors I had business behind even as a kid, and so many more I wasn't allowed to go through or simply didn't know existed. You see, this place if full of secrets."

"So you joined the assassins while still a kid? That's amazing."

"All thanks to my grandfather. He used to be in the Brotherhood until he died. At least he died a happy man. He was shot down by a templar while on a secret rendez-vous with my grandmother."

"Why secret?"

"He wasn't legally married, although they did have a daughter. Nobody knew it was theirs and he didn't want anyone to find out so as to keep her safe. You see, assassins rarely ever make a family of their own because it would be hard to protect them. Besides, families require a lot of attention, but the job of an assassin is never-ending, literally. Because of it there are few happy cases, and in most of them one family member of each generation joins the Brotherhood. We like to think that we are a younger and ever-stronger version of our ancestors. The chance of learning when to or when not to take a life seems to be passed down through generations here."