| Opening Log

[shadowqueen]

Everyone's waking up at once, covered in bits of rubble, temporarily without abilities and with a lurking headache. The castle looms around them, irrepressibly gray, huge and silent. The only noises are the people, rustling as they extract themselves from their sarcophagi and look for exits along the arching walkways.

Better take a look around, and see if anyone else knows what's going on.

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Comments

[kaderp]

[Kadar rushes over and offers out his arm, kicking some rubble out of the way so she can move from the sarcophagus.]

It's like they put us there to die. [wonderful thing to say to a woman who was just locked inside of one, Kadar. you're such a charmer. but he sounds a little uncertain, more than anything; none of his Assassin training did anything to help him out in this situation.]

[enthusiast]

[She takes that arm, gladly, to get to her feet. Alarmed:]

To die? But why take us only to suffocate us in such a small space?

[She looks around the great room, momentarily stunned -- such a grand space with so little decoration, so little upkeep. Her first thought is that this is something out of one of her husband's stories; the caverns used by the Secta Luporum, and it strikes her that this could be the very situation he'd expressed so much dread about.

Sofia realizes she's still holding on to the boy's arm, and though she doesn't let go just yet, she looks to him, earnest and grateful.]

Thank you, for helping me escape. You were in a coffin as well?

[kaderp]

Yes, I was! I, I am little confused; I was somewhere else before I woke up here, and none of those that were accompanying me are here now. [he sounds a little uncertain.]

But there are-- [he gestures at the sarcophagi with skeletons still in them, worriedly.] --I wonder who put us here.

[enthusiast]

They took me from my garden, while I was sleeping.

[Sofia's eyes fall on the skeletons for an uncomfortable second, and she gently lets him go, daring to wander a little closer. Surely, they've been long dead, to be in this state at all.

She thinks of her husband, and her uncle, and the dinner they were supposed to be having later that day. She hadn't drifted off while reading with even the slightest imagination that she'd wake to find herself in the middle of crisis, yet again.

She glances back at him.]

Was there indication from those accompanying you that there was danger around?

[kaderp]

[he follows her, then realizes he's following her, and he's the Assassin here. It's his job to protect people, even if he doesn't know them, even if they're obviously not from Masyaf or Acre or Damascus or anything-- she's in trouble here just like he is.]

There was. We were in a -- very dangerous situation. [he shakes his head a little, uncertainly.] But nothing like this should have been in the area, and this doesn't look like the work of our enemies.

[enthusiast]

[She reaches out as if to touch the skeleton, but her hand stops short. Bad idea, she considers, before straightening up. She brushes the dust from her skirts. Kadar has the fortune to be dressed somewhat practically, but alas, there is no such thing as practical for a well-bred Venetian woman.]

Who were they?

[kaderp]

They were my brothers. One in blood, and the other in spirit. [he offers her another small smile, looking away from the skeletons. It feels like intruding in on someone else's grave.]

I would feel quite a bit better about the situation if they were here.

[enthusiast]

I'm sure there are many people out there who could make us feel safer, were they here... I'm sorry you've been taken from them.

[He does seem young. Not quite a child, but still young enough.]

And where are my manners? I am Sofia.

[kaderp]

[Novice, with a capital N, really. He'd be ashamed about it, if he wasn't busy worrying about Malik and Altaïr.]

I am Kadar. I'm sorry to meet you under these circumstances, but it's nice to know you, all the same.

[enthusiast]

[She smiles, as gracious as she can be, given the situation.]

Then let's re-introduce ourselves when we are rid of this place.

And, if you don't mind me asking... what is the work of your enemies?

[kaderp]

They aim to stop the freedom of information, in order to control humanity. [it's almost a recitation as it falls from his lips, matched with a wry smile that looks out of place on him.] They believe if they control everything, the world will be a better place.

[enthusiast]

[She pauses, glancing over him. Dare she?

She's Sofia, of course she will.]

The Templars, by any chance?

[kaderp]

[he eyes her for a moment, and then nods. it's not terribly unheard of for other people to know of the Templars-- the Assassins are visible enough...]

Yes, the Templars. My brothers and I were working against them just before I arrived here, as far as I remember...

[enthusiast]

My husband has worked against them for most of his life.

I worried that they played a part in this. It wouldn't be the first time.

[kaderp]

He has? Is he an Assassin? [an excited perk at the idea. Even if her husband isn't here, it would be good to have allies-- and wives of Assassins tend to be just as formidable as Assassins themselves, in their own ways.]

It would not surprise me if it was them, but I'm not certain. This-- isn't something I've ever heard of them doing before.

[enthusiast]

[She nods.]

Yes. He's the Mentor of the Italian Assassins. [Or was? They had been discussing retirement.]

I must admit I know little of their methods –– only their intentions.

[kaderp]

Oh! We have little contact with branches too far outside of Masyaf-- or, at least, if Al-Mualim does, he does not speak of it with us. [Kadar offers a small smile, then considers.]

They usually just-- kill us, or take us hostage for a trade. This is all very elaborate, and I don't understand why they would have taken me and not my brother or Altaïr... [he is the least valuable hostage. 'we have your novice!' 'you can keep him.']

[enthusiast]

Masyaf? Altaïr?

[Now that further confuses an already confusing situation. Sofia looks noticeably troubled by this. Ezio still hasn't told her what went on in the Library, but she's positive he didn't find all the Assassins sitting around drinking beer and playing card games in a five hundred year retirement.

This is certainly cause for concern.]

Something is amiss here. What year is it?

[kaderp]

[Kadar blinks. It would be strange of her to have heard of Altaïr, he thinks; he couldn't name any Assassins that weren't a part of Masyaf, and he doubted most others could, no matter how talented the outside Assassins might be.]

1191. Isn't it? [now he's worried.]

[enthusiast]

1513. The Assassins have not called Masyaf their home for hundreds of years.

[They're dead. They must be. This is purgatory of some sort.]

[kaderp]

[Kadar looks down for a moment, then reaches up to grab the point of his hood and tug on it. The never-ending Assassin gesture of 'I have too many feels'.]

What is the last thing you remember before arriving?

[enthusiast]

I spoke with my husband about leaving Venezia, and then sat down in the garden to read. I must have dozed off.

[kaderp]

I was in battle. [he hesitates for a long moment, then brings his hand up to press over his midsection.] I was stabbed... here.

[enthusiast]

[Gasp. And concern, reaching to place a hand on his arm for comfort.]

Are you alright?

[kaderp]

I-- am now. I don't understand how I am here, but-- they may be tied together-- with the reason I woke up in... a coffin.