Summer, 1908
My father had bundled me into a carriage to send me off to my grandparents. I fiddled with my skirt, its irritating fabric beginning to stick to my skin. The heat was something which I had often hated. It always made my fancy gowns seem heavier, made my skin wet with sweat and caused my hair to need washing much more often. In the carriage, I pulled a book from inside of my soft cardigan and flicked to the page I had been reading previously.
Getting lost in the fiction in front of me, I hadn't realised that the carriage had stopped until a knock came at the window. I jumped at the sound, turning to see a fully grown man with a wide grin on his face. He had messy brown hair and these eyes that shone ever so delicately in the low light of the carriage lanterns. He wore a smart, brown suit. He opened the door with an outstretched arm to welcome me. I took his hand to help myself out of the carriage and breathed in the strong smell coming from the bluebells around the estate. The man in front of me cleared his throat.
"Mother and father are waiting for you in their study. Come with me, I will take you to them." He stuck out his elbow. I looped my arm with his, feeling as if I was unnecessarily being treated like a lady, despite being only fifteen.
The cobbled path up to the house was free from weeds. It had obviously been tended to very recently, since there was no sign of anything growing back either. There were bushes right the way up along the sides of the path to separate it from the lush grass. I watched as a gardener carried a small bunch of flowers indoors and set them into a vase by the front window. He then exited again, stopping in front of me and the other man to bow slightly.
"Master Frye, Miss Frye." He smiled widely. "One of the maids inside will take your jacket from you." I nodded.
"Thank you."
The man beside me lead me into the main entrance hall and began to peel my cardigan away from my shoulders. Around us, teenagers, who were possibly only a few years older than me, were dashing about. I knew that my Podge trained young people into some kind of Order. I knew little of the Order, apart from what my father told me. These people where here as my Nana and Podge had bought this manor - previously known as Owers Manor - and turned it into a training facility. The teenagers and young adults usually lived here as well, making training a lot easier as the students were rarely late to a session.
"You don't remember who I am, do you?" The man beside me asked.
"No, sorry. I don't." I blushed as he hung my cardigan up.
"Your uncle Elias!" I widened my eyes and gasped, jumping into his arms.
"Oh my goodness, I am so sorry!" He chuckled, hugging me tightly.
"I missed you, wee one."
"Missed you too, Eli." We treated each other like we were siblings, and I loved that our relationship was like that. "You're twenty six now, aren't you? I think I see a few grey hairs." I pointed out once I had stepped backwards.
"Aren't fifteen year olds supposed to be taller than you?"
"Ew, what is that smell? Is that you?" We both laughed at one another.
"Right, come on. Best not keep those two old fogies waiting."
We entered the grand study. The large desk in the centre of the room housed three chairs - two behind it and one in front of it. There was a globe in the corner and the walls were covered in maps. The curtains had been pulled back and light streamed in, casting a bright glow on the two figures behind the desk.
The one on the left was a woman. She had wavy, brown hair down to her middle back with no traces of any grey hairs. She wore a beautiful, emerald green dress with a pair of black ankle boots and a black cardigan. Her face bore a few wrinkles - mainly laugh lines around her eyes and mouth, due to the fact that she found my Podge absolutely hilarious. The woman in front of me was my Nana, and she was just as gorgeous as I remembered her being. Her dazzlingly bright blue eyes were glittering back at me with a certain charm and allure. I, however, had not received those eyes, which was quite a disappointment to me. I would forever be jealous of them.
My Podge - or grandfather, as normal people would call him - was beside her. His scarred, wrinkled hand sat atop hers on the desk. He was in a navy blue suit, something which looked like he had been forced into it by his wife. He too wore the same laugh lines on his face, and his features had grown smoky since the last time I had seen him. A mop of dark, brown hair, laced evenly with greys, sat on top of his head. It had been combed through, but there had been no other attempt made to tame it. He had brown eyes the colour of tea without milk.
Jacob and Carina Frye.
The two of them stood at the sight of me with wide smiles, before they both bundled me into a warm hug.
"Nana, Podge, I missed you." I breathed into Nana's shoulder.
"We missed you too, wee one." Podge answered in a deep voice.
"How have you both been? Well, I hope." I asked once we were finished embracing.
"We have been amazingly well. How is Ethan - your father?"
"He is very well. He told me to tell you not to worry about him." Nana grinned and chuckled loudly.
"Your Podge here finally had that leak repaired in the other wing."
"Podge, it has been there forever. You have only just had it mended?" He smirked.
"I always said I wanted to live by a lake. But your Nana got annoyed with all of the migrating ducks appearing in the west wing." I giggled.
"There were in no way any ducks in there."
"There may as well have been." I smiled again. "I suppose you are curious as to what you are doing here?"
"Yes, actually. I tried to occupy myself with a book in the carriage, but I couldn't help wondering."
Nana moved me back a few steps then went over to the wall. She felt around for a little while, then pulled a brick from the wall. Behind that brick was a crank. She turned it three times and the floor began to shift. If I hadn't have moved backwards, I would have moved along with the carpet. Stairs had been built beneath this section of the floor. I cocked my head to the side slightly.
"What is this?" Nana and Podge didn't say a word, but simply descended the staircase and I followed them like a lost puppy.
A light flicked on. The room lit up. It was dark and wide, cases lining the walls. The doors of these cases were open, revealing weapons. Swords, Kukris, walking canes, brass knuckles, and this strange device on a bracer. Another blade, perhaps? And how on Earth were those walking canes weapons? They didn't fit in with everything else at all. Nana and Podge turned to face me, stood just in the way of the cases. There was a mannequin behind them, but I couldn't see it due to them standing in the way. Nana took my hands in hers.
"Your grandfather and I are very proud of you." This was serious. She rarely ever called Podge my 'grandfather'. "You are fifteen now, and you have come of the age where your training needs to be put into place. Of course, you still have quite a bit of training yet, but we will see to it that you get it."
"I don't understand."
"You won't." Podge started. "Your father hid the true reason of your weapons and agility training. I trust, however, that your father did keep up with it." I nodded. "Good. Well, perhaps you are ready."
"Ready for what?" They both stepped to the sides to reveal the mannequin.
It wore this gorgeous green fabric with slight brown detailing on the edge of the hood and the collar. Beneath the coat was a brown and green striped blouse. However, back to the coat. The sleeves looked as if they would reach my wrists and the bottoms would reach the back of my knees. A pair of leather trousers had been folded up and placed with a pair of black boots just in front of the mannequin. I marvelled at the buttons and the chains with a wide, fascinated smile. Then, Podge was beside me, holding a necklace and a ring.
"Do you wish to fulfil your purpose?" He asked.
"What is my purpose, Podge?"
"Lydia Frye, you were born into an assassin family. Your father had some knowledge into our Order, and your Nana and I both worked in London forty years ago, attempting to free the people from the Templar control. Do you wish to do the same?" I nodded.
"I do." He began to tell me of the tenets of the Creed, my responsibilities as an assassin and how I should conduct my work.
"Lydia Frye, I now initiate you into the Assassin Order." He clamped the necklace at the back of my neck and placed the ring on my finger. "These weapons and this uniform are yours to choose from and keep. The assassins need you, Lydia. Make us proud."
"I will, I promise." I grinned. "I will try my very best. I will succeed."
As I changed into my uniform and selected my weapons under Podge's watchful eye, I hadn't the heart to tell him that my father had already informed me that I was to be enrolled tonight. He seemed so excited to have me as an assassin that I just could not tell him. I embraced my new occupation. I was an assassin, and I wasn't going to let anyone down. Just as my father, Ethan Frye, had been a great assassin before wanting to focus on his family - on my mother and me.
My mother, Emilia Frye, never showed much interest in the assassins, but she agreed to become one of them to support my father. She wore her ring every day, refusing to take it off for anything. She then became completely infatuated with assassin history after thinking for years that she wouldn't take much of an interest in it at all. Over dinner, she would tell us little stories of my Nana, my Podge and my great aunt in 1868. They defeated the Grand Master, Crawford Starrick. She made them sound like devilish rogues, like pirates almost. They were like a fairy tale to me. I had always felt a special bond between myself and my grandparents, but I hadn't known that it would have been the fact that we were all destined to become assassins.
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(A/N) Taadaa! That's it! All finished. I really hope you enjoyed this super long fanfiction just as much as I enjoyed writing it. You won't even see this message until ages after I wrote it. Today is the 31st of March 2016, guys. YOU'RE ALL FUTURE PEOPLE
Okay, I'm done being a child. Fare ye well, readers. :D