That Afternoon...
"Altaïr. Wake up, Altaïr. You can't sleep forever; it's not healthy."
My dark colored eyes slowly began opening, only to spot a blurry figure standing over me and watching me. Whoever it was had to be shaking me a bit in order to wake me, and was successful in doing so. Judging by the sound of the person's feminine yet barely noticeable Hungarian accent, I assumed it was Alexandra who had woken me up from my slumber. Blinking, I looked over toward the middle of the room, noticing the sunlight entering the room, yet the way it entered the room, it had be to be later in the day than just morning. I slowly sat up and stretched a little, cracking the few bones in my back and releasing the tension that had built up over time, before allowing my arms to fall onto my lap.
"Morning already," I spoke; wanting to make sure it was, indeed, the afternoon.
Alexandra, with a small smile, got to her feet and looked toward the light as I had done moments before.
"Actually, I would consider it more to be in the afternoon," she stated, placing her hands on her hips as I lifted my fallen hood to shield my face once again. "We had a long day yesterday, and I wanted to let you have as much sleep as you could. I was the first to wake up, but that was a few hours ago. Ada woke up a few minutes afterwards."
"You slept for quite some time, Altaïr," Ada said. I looked over at her and noticed her standing against the wall furthest away from us. "You must have had a rough day yesterday."
"I think we all did, Altaïr and Cynthia especially," Alexandra said, glancing over at her and placing her hands on her hips. "Rest is something we all needed...but..."
Her head lowered a bit, eyes becoming deep with thought. Something on her face told me something was going to happen soon, very soon. Tomorrow, I supposed, or at least sometime this week. After a long moment, realization entered my mind, making my hands clench, before looking up at Alexandra once again.
"The wedding is tomorrow…is it not?"
Alexandra looked at me, watching me for a long moment, before looking away and answering.
"We...we overheard one of the guards saying that it was, indeed, tomorrow. They also said it would end at noon. When it starts, though...I do not know..."
Silence took over as I got to my feet and leaned against the wall, the ever present tension of Cynthia's wedding clouding our minds as it had before. Minutes seemed to slip away, the tension growing with every second. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, forty minutes, an hour. They all went by at a painstakingly slow pace, making me grow more and more impatient to get out of the prison. Without my weapons, it was pointless to try. Yes, I could have fought my way through with nothing but my bare hands, maybe steal a sword and use that, but how long would that last? I would be able to hold my own, but how long would it take before they would take hold of me and throw me back in the cell? My eyes narrowed even more. No, I thought. That would never happen. No way in hell would they be able to hold me down. They were weak in comparison to someone who had been training all his life.
From time to time, I watched Alexandra pace the room, clearly trying to keep her mind off the situation, but instead simply leaned against the wall right next to me for a few minutes before repeating the previous actions. She repeated this action several times in the past hour before deciding to sit on the cold floor and hugging her knees to her chest. Although she appeared to have lost all faith in ever escaping, I could see in her eyes that she would not give up until her friend was safe from the Templars' grasp. The same went for Ada, who kept looking up at the sky with a hopeful and determined expression on her face. They both refused to give up hope; they refused to allow themselves to think that Cynthia was going to go through with the wedding to someone who planned to ruin not just her life but others as well. I knew this because I felt the same way. I too, would not allow Abel to take Cynthia for himself only to throw her away and send the Kingdom to hell. Not after the pain he put her through now and what he planned to do to her along with the innocent civilians. I would not allow her to marry him, not while I was still alive and breathing. He was going to die by my blade, no matter what.
Suddenly, I heard the sound of a door slowly creaking open, grabbing our attention immediately. Then, the sound of footsteps walking in near sync slowly began coming towards us. I stayed where I was, but remained cautious at the same time. The footsteps grew louder, yet I did not dare to move from my spot. Alexandra had been glaring in the direction of the noise already knowing full well who it was, while Ada simply remained in her spot. After a brief moment, three guards appeared and stopped in front of our cell, each one with a hand on the hilts of their blades. They seemed to know what we were capable of even though we were stripped of our weapons.
"What do you want?" Questioned Alexandra. The first man smirked, earning a hardened glare from the Hungarian woman who appeared useless behind bars.
"Relax, woman," he stated, which in turn caused Alexandra to stand up rather quickly and harden her glare. "I have a message from Lord Abel himself," He looked over at me, "to the Assassin."
At that moment, I walked over to the bars of the cells, holding back the urge to grab hold of them.
"What does he want?"
"Do not stab the messenger," he teased, knowing full well that I was weaponless and I could do nothing to hurt him, but that did not mean I could not hurt him with my bare hands. "He wanted to send an apology to you and the others...for not being able to make it to their wedding."
"As if we would want to see that bastard get married off to Cynthia," Alexandra mumbled as the guard continued.
"Also," He chuckled, "he says that Cynthia has become...very happy now that she is marrying him and she no longer cares about you anymore." He raised one hand a bit. "Her words, not mine."
I roughly took hold of the bars, causing them to vibrate a bit, before they even had time to blink. It caused them to flinch back, but they knew they were safe for the time being.
"That lying little coward!" I snapped, gripping the bars of the cell tightly to a point when my knuckles turned white under my gloves. "I know full well that Cynthia would neveraccept that man as her husband! Not after everything he plans to do with both the Kingdom and her!"
"As I said, they were her words not mine." The first guard spoke in a nonchalant tone of voice before continuing. "There is also a message from Diana as well."
It was at that point that Alexandra ran right next to me, anger filling her features, before grabbing hold of the bars as well.
"What the hell does she want?!" She snapped angrily, making the guards flinch back once more. "She has no reason to try and speak to us after what she has done!"
"What the hell is with you people?" He questioned. "No need to get mad over something so futile."
The words of the guard were what made the Hungarian snap faster than I knew possible; he had crossed the line. Within just a few seconds, her hands shot out and grabbed hold of the guard's neck, pulling him toward her and making his chest slam into the cell bars. The sound of metal against armor caused the bars to vibrate and echo like the church bells in Acre. Releasing the bars, I took a small step back while the guards behind him unsheathed their weapons, yet did not try to make a move as Alexandra was "powerless" as their expressions clearly said.
"YOU HAVE THE NERVE TO SAY THAT AFTER EVERYTHING THAT WE HAVE GONE THROUGH?!" She roared with anger, her grip on his neck tightening even more. "You do not even know what happened to us that made us this way, so upset and angry! Ada and I were taken right off the street by Abel's pathetic men and taken all the way to this prison in Acre, while Altaïr and Cynthia tried to escape to...to Lord knows where! But they were stopped by both Abel and that bastard of a traitor Diana! Cynthia was taken all the way back to Jerusalem, while Altaïr was thrown in the same cell as Ada and I, waiting for Abel to decide our fate! Right now, I am outraged over the fact that my friend is getting married to a heartless bastard! So do not question us as to what is wrong with us, and do not assume that this is nothing more than a futile situation!"
That being said, she released the man and pushed him toward the others standing nearby, causing him to crash into them. As they staggered to keep standing, she walked away from the bars, running her hands through her hair and taking deep breaths. Ada immediately was at her side, trying to calm her down. Glancing over at the guards, I noticed that he was shaken up, but not as bad as I assumed when she had nearly choked the life out of him. After a moment, when the guard caught his breath once again, he stood up straight and cleared his throat, though he appeared a bit winded from before.
"A-alright, alright..." He spoke. "No need to need to shout…" Alexandra gave him a death glare, one that was filled with pure anger. "Moving on. Diana also said she is very sorry for what happened, and that she never meant for it to go this far."
"What a lying little..." Alexandra started, but cut herself in order to keep herself calm. "Anything else?"He shook his head in response, but she did not need to look at him to know what he said.
"Then, I suggest you leave." I hissed, no longer wanting to see or hear from them at that point. The guard said nothing else and simply walked away from us, followed by the other two. When I knew they were out of earshot, I sighed and turned around to Alexandra. "You know, I think you are the first person who has ever frightened me...even if it was for a brief moment."
She smirked slightly, turning to look at me with a mischievous look in her eyes, just as the door opened.
"Good. I hope I did."
Before I could say anything else, a sudden, abrupt thud and cry of pain was heard, making us look over at the strange noises coming from the direction of the guards. Metal clashing against one another sounded for a good few minutes, before more howls of pain. After a few more seconds, the door opened and the sound of footsteps came toward our cell. These, however, were much faster than the others, and sounded very different in comparison. I turned around completely, standing tall and kept my senses high, wondering who exactly it was coming toward us. Alexandra and Ada remained cautious, but did not move from their spots. Instead of another group of guards, though, a group of different, yet familiar people appeared in front of our cell, making my eyes widen with shock as I recognized who exactly it was.
"I guess I should consider you one lucky bastard, Altaïr," said Malik Al-Sayf, his voice straight yet held a bit of mocking tone to it while a few other Assassins stood by his side, "but that is only because we are brothers."
"Malik!" I exclaimed, walking over to the bars. "It's you!"
He looked over me for a moment.
"It looks like you are still in one piece," he spoke as he held up the keys that would open the cell door. "Good, I would not want to explain anything to both the Master and Cynthia."
My hands immediately fell upon the bars at the sound of Cynthia's name, and it caused Alexandra to approach Malik.
"You saw Cynthia?" She quickly questioned, her voice filling with worry. "Is she alright? Please tell me that bastard did not hurt her!"
"She is fine, my friend," he said just as he opened the cell. "Unhappy, but safe." Both Alexandra and I sighed with relief.
"How did you get here so fast, Malik?" Ada asked, getting up off the floor and over to the now-opened cell door. "It usually takes longer to come all the way here instead of how fast you did."
He chuckled at her words as Alexandra, Ada, and I stepped out quickly.
"Horseback, of course. Jerusalem and Acre aren't that far apart, you know. Plus," He smirked, "our horses are very fast on their feet. But we are not here to worry about that." He looked at me. "Altaïr, we have to get the three of you out of here and fast. The guards will notice their unconscious comrades in at least ten minutes. By then, we will be on our way to Jerusalem."
"How long will it take to get there?" I questioned as I made my way out of the prison, the others following close behind.
"If we leave now, we will most likely arrive in early hours of tomorrow morning," Malik said.
Pausing at the door, I quickly scanned the area in search of any other guards, taking note that Malik and the other Assassins that had joined him must have dealt with them fairly easily before coming to rescue us. It would not last though; as I was sure the guards would have heard the fighting.
"That should be enough time," I said out loud, "to reach the wedding before it is over and rescue Cynthia."
With that, we all quickly made our way out of the prison, escaping without spotting any guards nearby. However, just as we made it into the city, the city alarms were raised, signaling that they had discovered that we had escaped. Not wanting to deal with a fight, we all began sprinting out of the city as fast as we could, using the back alleys in order to stay out of sight. There were points when we had to stop in order to allow the guards pass without catching us, but it was only about two times throughout the entire escape. After what felt like hours of running around the city and hiding from guards, we were finally able to run out of the front gates, since the guards that were once posted there had run off in order to search for us.
Not wanting to give them a chance to return to their posts and catch us escaping with our lives, we all ran to the stables to find several horses standing there. Alexandra, Ada, and I were forced to steal three of the horses that were there, while Malik and the other three Assassins had their own. In a matter of seconds, we were already on our way back to Jerusalem, riding as fast and as hard as we could in order to make sure the guards would not be able to catch us. It was possible we had stolen some of their horses in order to make the escape, but at that point, my mind was only set to one thing: saving Cynthia from Abel.
My hands gripped the reins tightly, my eyes narrowing into a hard glare at the thought of the bastard. I had made a promise to Cynthia, a promise that no harm would ever come to her no matter what. That meant staying away from Abel and any, if not all, Templars as well, which she thanked me wholeheartedly for knowing she would feel much safe with me. It was a promise I intended to keep no matter what the cost would be, whether or not it be my own life. Abel was not going to get away with separating us for his sick little amusement. He was going to pay dearly for trying to ruin Cynthia's life even more than before. Hell, he was going to pay for whatever he did to Diana that made her speak about the whereabouts of Cynthia in Damascus as well. He had done enough for one lifetime, and was not going to continue to do so.
Abel will die, I thought, sighing heavily. I swear it...
"Altaïr." I turned my head slightly to notice Malik riding up from behind on his dark brown stallion.
"What is it?" I asked over the rushing wind colliding with my face.
"I just remembered," he spoke, "Cynthia wanted me to tell you something when I saw you."
Giving him my full attention, I turned my head over to him more.
"Out with it, then, what did she say?" He looked forward for a moment before looking back at me and speaking.
"One thing is for sure: she is very worried about you and the others. The look on her face said it all. She wanted me to tell you that she loves you and she misses you."
I remained silent for a long moment, taking in his words, before a small smile graced my lips. I knew she loved me no matter what Abel tried to say. Abel may have been smart for someone as evil as he was, but that did not mean he was smart enough to fool me. Cynthia would always love me; as conceited as it sounded, it was true. She never would accept Abel as her husband, and would rather be imprisoned or dead than to be his wife. It was only a matter of time before she was truly safe from his grasp, a matter of time before she was truly taken away from all of the danger and brought to Masyaf.
"Thank you, Malik." I said, sending a small nod and a smile in the Dai's direction. He simply nodded as I looked back ahead, my entire being filled with determination and confidence. Now, I was more determined than ever to stop the wedding and save Cynthia.