| 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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[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.

[enthusiast]

[Pause.]

I fear we're dead.

[kaderp]

I don't... feel dead. [he's a little unsure of that, now, but.] And if this is a hell or a heaven, it's foreign to me.

[enthusiast]

It is not as many texts would describe it, nor does it match Dante's vision of a purgatorio. Then again, how could man know what it looked like without venturing there himself?

[kaderp]

Dante? [the name is unfamiliar, but he doesn't dwell on it.] I can feel my heartbeat. I still take in air. And you have no memory of dying. It doesn't make any sense, to me.

[enthusiast]

Alighieri. He lived centuries after your time.

[She can't explain those things, either.]

Perhaps God lets us keep those things and takes our memories so that we do not suffer while we wait.

[kaderp]

...That may be. [he shifts a little awkwardly; the Assassins aren't really religious, but he still knows of God, his own and that of the Christians.]

Perhaps, then, the absence of my brothers means that... they are alive and all right.

[enthusiast]

[Sofia considers that she really doesn't want to be dead yet. She has a new life now, one she doesn't want to miss. She tries a smile.]

Of course... and let us hope that we are alive, too.

[kaderp]

[Kadar nods a little. He doesn't really believe he is, but he takes a breath. He's an Assassin; he needs to be strong, so he manages a smile.]

Well-- we can't know, yet. We should work on talking to-- everyone else here.

[enthusiast]

[She nods back.]

Right.

Thank you again, for helping me.