The Target of His Heart (An Assassin's Creed Fanfic)

Ch. 12: The Great Escape [Part I]

For a moment, I did not respond to her, but remained focused on what I planned to do. I continued taking steps back until I felt my legs brush against the side of my bed. At that point, I began breathing deeply, as if I were unconsciously trying to calm my nerves.

"I am going to try something..." I finally responded, "...something absolutely crazy."

With those words spoken, my legs suddenly acted as I began sprinting toward the edge of the balcony as fast as I could. Diana attempted to stop me by grabbing my arm, realizing what I had just said, but was unable to grab a hold of me. A surge of excitement began to fill my body as the ledge of the balcony railing began to approach me, as if I were taking leap of faith if my own in order to gain the freedom I had desired for so long. Yes, I thought, a leap of faith, much like what Altaïr did nearly every single day as an Assassin. When I thought about it, doing something like this – leaping between gaps in order to reach the other side – made me feel a lot like Altaïr, a lot like an Assassin. Although I was a Templar, I truly felt like my supposed enemy. With that in mind, questions entered my head. If I were to leave Jerusalem for good and escape the wedding, would I still be considered a Templar, or one of them? If not, would I join the side with whom the Templars had been fighting against for so long? Would I become an enemy of the Templars; the people I used to love and respect?

My eyes narrowed a bit at the thoughts and questions, yet only one answer crossed my mind as my foot leapt onto the balcony's railing: Yes.

I felt my leg push against the railing, moving me forward and toward the building in front of me. My arms stretched out in front of me, praying that they would be long enough to reach and grasp the edge of the rooftop. It felt like time suddenly slowed down and all else fell silent, with the only sound being my shaky breathing. The wind brushed against my face and rustled my hair. It was almost as if I were flying across the sky, soaring through the air with as much elegance and grace as a dove taking flight for the very first time in its young life; as if it had no idea it could just spread its wings and allow the wind to take it places. Nothing in the world was able to break me from this moment, this leap of faith. It was as if everything in the world no longer existed in my life; nothing but that single moment in time, that single second. However, all things must come to an end eventually. That ending happened to be my hands connecting to the edge of the rooftop, my chest slamming into the side of the building and knocking me out of my thoughts.

The wind was knocked out of my body upon impact, yet I still held on tightly, gripping as if my life depended on it when in reality it did. Taking in a shaky breath, I pulled myself up onto the rooftop and quickly got to my feet. I sat on my knees for a moment, catching my stolen breath from the collision against the building, before slowly returning to my own two feet. I did not feel dizzy at all despite what had happened. In fact, I felt more alive, for lack of a better term. My arms were shaking, but not violently as most others' probably would have been. A smile crept onto my face as I looked down at my hands. So, I thought to myself as I clenched and unclenched my hands,this was the kind of thing Assassins did every single day: leap from building to building, leaps of faith, all of that stuff. If only I had realized that a long time ago, experienced it myself, and understood what it meant to be one of them. According to Altaïr, the Assassins were not supposed to be bloodthirsty killers as we had made them out to be, knowing full well that they did not go around killing all of the Templars at one time, but only the ones that were the most important. It was mainly the Templars who dealt the most damage to people, mypeople, and did not care much for others (that, or they did but were injuring them more than helping).

I clenched my hands tightly, eyes narrowing. Now was not the time to reminiscence about the past, but look toward the future.

"Cynthia!" I heard a hushed call. Blinking, I turned around and spotted Diana, her face contorted into one of shock and fear. "What the Hell was that?! Are you alright?!"