The Bright Side of The Moon - Part 2

When I got back to the den that night, everyone was getting ready to sleep. I quietly climbed up to my bed in the bunk beds’ room, and hoped no one would say a thing. I was nearly falling asleep when my bunk mate whispered:

- They say you only become a true Assassin when you lose someone dear.

My eyes shot open and I realized when I sat up I was shaking violently. I slid my fingers through my dark black hair, which was starting to get a little long. It already covered my whole ears, forehead and back of the neck. Maybe I should get Farah to cut it…

I heard a sigh from below and sighed myself. I lied down again and turned to the wall, closing my eyes to the cruelty of this twisted, broken world.



“Ari!”

Huh? Who…?

“Ari, c’mon, we’ll be late!”

Farah? Wait, is this a dream? It’s all too bright…

“Geez, don’t just stand around! Let’s go, it’ll be dark soon!”

Farah’s figure appeared before me, pulling me by my hand. The scenario changed from an infinite white to a field of flowers, with many types and colors of flowers and a setting sun. A path spread out in front of us.

I stopped spacing out and started to walk with her, our fingers intertwined. She smiled, and I slowly replied.

We suddenly stopped. Before I could ask, the field had turned all stained with a scarlet liquid. Blood. The sun was a deep red, and the sky looked weird, with shades of dark orange and dark red too.

My eyes were wide open, and I realized my mouth was too. It took a moment before I looked at Farah, who had her back turned to me. I put my hand in her shoulder to turn her, and I gasped as the image of horror itself looked at me.

The figure of Farah had her eyeballs empty, and blood coming out of them, but she was smiling innocently. Her normally colorful and long dress was torn apart in several ends, and stained with blood.

I was paralyzed and lost the strength in my legs. Falling back on my hands, I was completely stunned. Then, before I could wake up or anything, the horrific figure whispered:

“ I can finally see who is the real you.”

My eyelids shot open with an agonizing scream as background. I gasped when I realized it belonged to myself. There was only a faint light coming in through the window’s shutters. I slowly looked around the dark room, to find some Assassins with their hidden blades drawn out. I sighed and apologized quietly. They exchanged looks between themselves and sighed, withdrawing their blades and getting back to their beds.

I couldn’t sleep after that, and just sulked until the morning roll-call came.



I probably looked undead for the rest of the day. I was dead tired and couldn’t get that gruesome image of Farah out of my head. The Den’s Master Assassin asked about it, but I just said I didn’t sleep well. He said I’d have to carry out an errand on the other end of the city, so I’d better get the key for the sewer shortcut, which was in the tower sentinels’ possession at the moment. I sighed quietly and nodded my head to him.

I climbed the Den’s tower and met the sentinels’ leader. We chatted briefly, when I learned about some news about the city.

- Though it’s good a lot of buildings are getting renewed because of the Assassins’ dominance – the leader commented, looking at the horizon –, that also caught the attention of the Templars around the area. – he scratched his head and sighed, turning to me. – We should lay low for a while if we don’t want trouble in our dens.

I agreed with a mumble, and said goodbye to the tower defenders, waving my hand with the key hanging from the middle finger.

Leaving the Den, I followed the crowd to the sewer structure square nearby. A sigh of relief escaped through my lips, and I realized I’d been sighing a lot lately. Oh well, I’m getting used to all this… I sighed again. Damn it!

I looked around for guards with my hood up and walked quickly to the entrance of the sewers, but right before reaching it, I felt a hand on my shoulder. I flinched and turned around sharply, alarmed. I let out a moan mixed with a sighed, followed by closing my eyes and pressing my forehead with my hand.

- Farah, I almost had a heart attack…

The green-eyed girl looked amused, and muffled a chuckle.

- Sorry. I’ve been looking around hoping to find you, actually… - she was fidgeting.

- R-really? – I said, blushing and looking around to spot any guards lurking – I’m glad to hear that, but listen…

- I wonder if you’re free today. – the girl inquired, grinning encouragingly.

Her words weighed on my back like an anvil.

- I’m sorry, I have to run some errands for the Master today… - I whined.

- Oh… - disappoint took over Farah’s face.

I felt bad about just kissing her the night before and having to forget about her for a few days, so I made the stupidest promise ever:

- Ok, I’ll try to finish up real quick so we can meet later. Is that ok with you?

The brown-haired girl’s face lit up like the Romani’s faction. Not that I went there a lot.

- I have to go now, but when the sun hits the horizon, be at the same square we stopped at yesterday, the one near the Bazaar. – I opened the little rusty gate to the sewers.

- I-I’ll be there! – Farah promised eagerly.

I waved and climbed down the stairs to take the shortcut to the northern part of Constantinople.



My “little errand” was to see what had caused a riot in some areas around the Assassins’ HQ. After spending about an hour observing the activity in the region, I decided to walk around to gather information.

I heard the complaints of a merchant who swore either someone was stealing his merchandise or it was disappearing. Saw some women crying in a bench, saying someone stumbled upon them and suddenly their money was all gone. Even some painters had their paintings stolen while they were looking the other way. “That’s some pretty sneaky thief”, I thought to myself.

I also heard from the local thieves’ guild that it wasn’t one of their people, because they would know. I decided to trust their judgment; after all, they’re pretty united for people who live on other people’s unhappiness. They called it the “Shadow Demon”. Quite cool, huh?

While reflecting and pondering about where someone like that would lurk usually, I bumped into someone and at the sound of whispered apologies from the person, remembering the women from the bench, I immediately grabbed the part of my gear where my money pouch would normally be, just to grab a piece of empty leather.

Looking around for the culprit, I found a person who stood out in the crowd. I clenched my teeth and started tailing the suspect. Walking fast, but remaining one with the crowd, I sighed when the person in the black hood with a black cape and a purple scarf – something very unusual for a usually hot place like this – took a sharp turn under an archway to the right, a detour from the main street. This would make it a lot more complicated to follow them without being detected.

I waited for a while, leaning against one of the columns of the archway in a way I could easily see if the person turned and hide. As soon as they were a little further, I sprinted to the nearest haystack and kept observing every movement of the mysterious subject.

After a few turns, with me being meticulously hidden, the person started to walk faster each corner they turned. With that, I thought it’d be better to chase them through the roofs, so I climbed the windows of a house and crouched through the tiles silently until the person actually climbed a house too and started jumping and running wildly through the roofs. Such skill… I could barely keep up with it.

Just when I thought I could use the zip line to catch up and knock them down, the suspect drew out hook blade, to my surprise, and used it as naturally as breathing. “An Assassin?!”, I gasped. I drew out more energy from who knows where and sprinted even wilder through the roofs, getting to be on the zip line at the same time as the fleeting shadow. “Huh”, I thought, “He does honor his nickname…”

When my feet were a few meters away from the destination roof, the person drew another blade – a hidden blade, to my even greater shock. “So that’s really an…”

My train of thought was cut, so as the line I was riding on. I immediately retracted my hook blade and prepared for a harsh landing. The rope I just rode on parted, I threw myself at the roof and rolled once, landing on my knees. I let out a grumble and looked around for the runaway. Getting to the edge of the roof, I jumped to the ground, again rolling and landing on my knees. I slowly got up, looking around. It was a back garden whose only exit was an archway leading to a narrow passage and an alley. He was nowhere to be found. I mean, with that kind of agility and speed, it could only be a ma—

- Ooh, nice! Never had a stalker before! – said a playful voice.

I looked up to a tree to see the figure crouched in a branch.

- You--! – I couldn’t manage any other words, I was astonished by that stealth of…his? Now that I think about it…

- What? Am I so charming you have no words left? – the figure giggled. It was a tomboyish kind of giggle, but definitely feminine.

- Who are you? Are you an Assassin? – I inquired, now serious.

- Heeeh? Assassin? No, no. – she shook and tilted her head – I thought you knew, chasing me around like that…

- You’re the one who pickpocketed me! So back at you, who are you? – I answered.

- Hmmm. – the dark-vested figure reflected for a while – Fair enough.

The shadow jumped down from the tree. Her hood was still up, covering most past of her face, only making visible from the tip of the nose to the start of her neck. She wore a crooked smirk, which turned into a grin.

- They call me the Shadow Demon. – she started walking around slowly, feet by feet, kicking the pebbles on the ground, and looked up to the skies  – Pretty cool, huh?

- Your skills could be used for so much better.

- Perhaps they could. – she smirked – But it wouldn’t be so fun.

- Of course it wouldn’t be fun. – I retorted – But it’d be fair. – I started walking towards her – Honest. Just. Rightful… Why don’t you join our Brotherhood?

- What’s with all these pretty-sounding words? – she interrupted.

I froze.

- Honesty, righteousness, justice… People talk about that all the time, but…Do they really care? – she kicked the ground – The society is a hypocrite. We are human. In the end, we just want to survive. Your Brotherhood, too, in the end… - she stopped - Tell me honestly, won’t you? Do you really do it for all that crap? – the figure turned to me.

The sun set on the horizon by this time. The red shades of the sky matched her dark figure somehow, and I wondered how well she’d fit in the darkness. I could only observe that for a while, since her words hit me hard. Was I doing it for justice?

Every day I’d wake up, go get assigned to a mission, carry it out somehow, kill the rest of my time with Farah, eat when I could, get paid when I did well and go to sleep at the end of the day. Every freaking normal, boring day. The only part in my days I felt alive was with Farah. She was definitely worth living for.

But, I didn’t join the Creed for justice. Righteousness, honesty, who cared? I wanted to survive. Why was I talking about that when not even I bought that crap?

- …Not everyone’s like me. – I managed to speak.

- Huh… Is that so… - the thief looked up to the skies again – Well, sometimes you just miss a reason.

- A reason?

- Yep. – she intertwined her fingers behind her head – A motivation. Something you can live for. – she sighed – Something that fuels your life, that keeps you going. Me, I just survive. – the thief turned to me again – I can’t join something that noble. Shame on you, who did it for surviving too. Well, I’ll be going now-- – the girl turned to the archway, making her scarf glide in the wind like a veil.

I felt ashamed of myself. What the heck was with her that could make me reflect so much about myself? And distract me to the point I would forget why I’m here in the first place! Geez, am I that weak?!

- I’m sorry, I forgot why I came here. – I smiled briefly.

- Hm? – she turned back to me – You’re not done ye—uwah!

I had charged at her with my hidden & hook blades drawn and attempted to slash her, when she turned and dodged it at an amazing speed.

- Tsk! – I made more attacks, but she just dodged them, without drawing her blades. Her purple scarf twisted with her moves in the wind.

- Well, aren’t you fun? You have the same blades as me! – she drew her blades and showed them.

- Where did you get these blades? – I stopped to catch my breath.

- These? Oh… - the demon smiled – These were a…gift, I suppose.

- You bastard! How dare you take a weapon of our Creed freely like that?! – I don’t know why, but even though I had no nobility whatsoever, I still defended the Creed like that. I guess it’s a little like defending your home, your parents, though I never met mine. I was consumed by anger briefly and slashed away at her. Not even my enhanced accuracy was enough to hit her, much less hurt her.

I stumbled and she knocked me down with a low kick. Falling on my back, she sat on my stomach, pressing me against the ground. With her feet, she kept my arms pinned too. I struggled against her strong limbs, but couldn’t even budge.

- What, and you call yourself an Assassin? – she chuckled.

That girl managed to get me very pissed. I don’t know exactly how, but I interlocked my legs with her arms and turned the situation around: I was then on top of her. I was about to punch her, when I unfurrowed my eyebrows.

Her hood had been pushed back, and her eyes were now visible, but their color was unbelievable. Her irises were bright purple. A vivid kind of purple. Like the kind of color you see in a flower.

I was so petrified by the sight I forgot what I was doing, and, though it was only for a moment, it was enough for her to headbutt me and throw a smoke bomb to make her escape.

- You’re an interesting guy, Assassin! – she laughed – But the way you are now, aren’t you a mess?

I was laid on my back, looking at the setting sun. What was I even doing?

I knew one thing for sure: It was nearly night and I had to get back to the Den, the only place I could ever come back to.