Elario, Lykaios & the Painted Lady(Live the Creed)

[Elario Luminus]

Kayle frowned slightly as he heard Lear's question. In his mind, he had a flash of a memory - or maybe a thought? - of a dark room with a single light and a shadowy figure, before he refocused on the matter at hand. For some reason, he wanted to salute this man, but that only made him more confused. Watching this "Anthony" silently, he waited for an answer, all the while keeping an eye for any sudden movements around them.

[Lykaios]

Anthony looked over Lear, and smiled at him. "Yeah, that's right. I am an Assassin, and you guys just fought and killed some Templars. Frankly, I'm surprised and impressed." he said, and focused on Lear, who felt a cold shiver down his spine. He'd really just killed some people. It was a thought that disturbed him. But what worried him, was how little it disturbed him, to what one would expect.

"You killed at least one of them. In hot blood, in self defence; but you really killed him. Which I have to say is something few people can fall into. But you fell into 'kill or be killed' quite easily. Obviously, you felt your own life far more important than his. I'm sorry you both were dragged into this world, but it's better you know the truth, than live in the shadows." Anthony said, resting a hand on Lear's shoulder, in comfort.

"So, mind telling me your names? And, we should leave here. You should come with me, to my Brotherhood safehouse, if you are okay with that?" he finished off.

"You can call me Phantom. Right now, I'm not comfortable with sharing my real name with you. And you can call him Knight." Lear said, motioning his thumb towards Kayle. "And right now, I'm not sure I should trust you with taking us some place." he said, and looked at Kayle.
"What do you think, man?"

[Elario Luminus]

Kayle wasn't sure. Every mental reaction to what just happened screamed at him to run the bloody hell away, but his instincts told him, very convincingly, to follow this Anthony guy. While the two things he trusted most warred inside him, he looked to Lear. He couldn't help but notice that his brother-in-arms was apprehensive and a little shocked about what had just passed, and Kayle didn't blame him. Something clicked in him then, and his instincts took over. He simply had to know what Anthony was talking about. He turned to Anthony and nodded once.
'We should go with him. He tells us he's an Assassin, and we just killed what were undoubtedly Templars. He's right; we were dragged into this world. We know nothing of it, so it's best if we hear what he has to say.'

[Lykaios]

Lear furrowed his brows in frustration briefly. He trusted his brother-in-arms judgment on most occassions, but he was uncomfortable with their present predicament. He couldn't simply refuse, as Kayle was going out on trust. This Anthony guy looked like an Assassin, and Kayle was right about them having killed Templar representatives. Lear was just uncomfortable with the concept of trusting his life to this man after having just killed another. As complicit as he felt, he had to trust his friends judgment.

"Alright. We'll go with you, but I'm telling you now, I'm not sure about any of this. This is just too messed up to be collected."
"I understand, Phantom. Just, follow me, and you can decide once you've seen our world for yourself."
"Fine. Let's go, right Knight?"


----------------- Some time later ---------------------

Anthony had led them into the Perth Underground train station, and onto the platform below. Once the platform had emptied out, Anthony activated a hidden lever, and a door that was otherwise completely invisible to the naked eye, opened up and Anthony led them inside. Once inside, the door immediately closed up and sealed up again, to continue looking as though the door was never there. From there, the three walked for a while, before coming up in a hidden entrance to a facility Lear never thought he'd enter...an Assassin Sanctuary.

[Elario Luminus]

Kayle was in wonder as he walked into the Sanctuary; it felt so alien to him, yet so familiar, like he'd been there hundreds of times before. It felt like home to him, which is something that he'd not felt for a while.
"Phantom, ain't this amazing? We're in the heart of everything we ever wanted to be. We're here, in this Sanctuary. And you wanted to say no. For shame." He chuckled and gently shoved his friend in a playful manner. After his little jest, he decided to start taking things in.

The area had opened up from the hallway into a small but, at the same time large, hall. The walls were a smooth dark grey, which was to be expected, but across the wall, spaced every few meters, were white wall scrolls with the Assassins emblem depicted in black. There were doorways that lead down further into the ground, and Kayle was sure that they led to more things the Assassins used. At the very opposite wall from them was an altar of sorts, but it wasn't dedicated to any god; it was covered in schematic drawings, blueprints, diagrams and stationery. As Kayle looked up, he saw that there was a wide and long scroll of fabric, also white, that stretched the expanse of the ceiling.

Too excited for words, Kayle leaped forward to the altar and sifted through the paper drawings.
"Phantom, you realise that these are schematics for weapons and utensils? And that these diagrams are for some of the most business-related buildings in the CBD?"
Anthony chuckled and strode forward and clasped a hand on Kayle's shoulder. He leaned and whispered into his ear "The road to hell is paved with good intentions" and something clicked within Kayle's head, sending him into unconsciousness without warning.

[Lykaios]

Lear watched as Kayle's enthusiasm rose drastically by finding weapon schematics and building blueprints, and he couldn't help but share his brother's enthusiasm. They'd gone from being regular folk, to being drawn into the war between two factions most people would only be able to dream actually existed. Lear was enjoying the truth being what they'd hoped, but simultaneously wasn't liking that he had to be mistaken for an Assassin to be given the opportunity to become one, though.

"This is all kinds of awesome, sure. But remember Knight; we aren't quite safe yet..." he said, and looked over, to find Kayle falling down.

"KNIGHT!" he screamed and ran over, glaring at Anthony, he growled; "what have you done to my friend??"

[The Painted Lady]

"What is going on out here? I can hardly concentrate with all the noise."
Emily brushed her fringe to the side and out of her eyes as she entered the main hall of the Sanctuary. It was clear from the furrow of her brow that she wasn't in the best of moods currently.
"If you want me to complete these schematics sometime this century--"
She stopped herself mid-sentence, freezing at the scene before her. It wasn't as if it were an unusual picture; quite often Novices showed up looking a little worse for wear after dragging their sorry asses back from an overzealous scout, but what made it shocking was that it wasn't Novices this time. Instead...
"Lear?!"
She didn't even stop to think that he may have been hiding his identity. She hurried over, robes billowing behind her.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Her eyes dropped to the fallen comrade, widening in surprise. "What is going on?"
She turned to Anthony for the explanation.

[Elario Luminus]

Waving away the yells and protests, Anthony crouched down and gently slapped Kayle on the cheek. "Knight, wake up. You have some explanations to give."
Kayle jerked and sat upright quickly, feeling groggy and, somehow, hung over. He shook his head and blinked a couple of times. He refocused on Anthony, crouching over him, then saw Lear and Emily watching him with concern. A grin spreading across his face, he got up and clapped a hand on his Mentors shoulder. "I've got this." Anthony nodded and left the hall.

Kayle looked to Emily and winked. "I'm back now." Turning to Lear, he folded his arms.
"Phantom, I feel I have to apologise. This wasn't exactly how I wanted you to come here, and I haven't been entirely truthful with you for a while now."
Anthony returned, a black jacket and two metallic objects in his hands, and handed them to Kayle, who promptly stripped his home-made blades and strapped on these shinier blades, then replaced his jacket. After zipping the hoodie up, he tested the release on the blades.
"I'm an Assassin Disciple, and have been a part of the Order for about a year."

[Lykaios]

Anthony hadn't the time to respond to Lear's accusations before a familiar voice to Lear bridged the gap between the sudden tenseness in the room. Lear's mouth fell agape with surprise at seeing Emily come out complaining about schematics not being completed. Before Lear could voice his surprise and shock, Kayle had come to and seemed completely in control of the situation. As Kayle started to speak, Anthony delivered him a pair of very skillfully crafted hidden blades, and Kayle calmly strapped them on as though it were nothing. Lear was steadily becoming a bit aggravated. Particularly with the ending to his friends explanation.

"What the hell do you mean 'you've been part of the Order for about a year'?!" he raged, aggravation plain on his face as he spoke. "This wasn't something I could have been inducted into immediately with you? Considering everything? How did I not know this?" he paused a moment and looked at Emily, "Not know this of either of you? I assume you're both in the Order, or Emily wouldn't be dealing with schematics, correct?"

He backed off, clearly huffed about this development, and a bit disappointed.

"What's going on? Are you both Assassin's? For how long? Why wasn't I brought into this sooner? I thought you knew where my allegiances would have lie, if the Creed had proven real. And it is? How's this fair, guys? Huh??"

He finished, very obviously disturbed and aggrieved; tears beginning to form in the corners of his eyes. He was angry, upset and furious with it all. It wasn't fair they could have kept him in the dark for a year, when he could have been helping. He moved away from the three of them, and hesitated on what he should do. He was highly tempted to leave, due to this betrayal of secrecy. But he wanted to stay, and join, regardless of feeling as he did. In his mind, logically he saw it wasn't possible to tell him, in case of a lot of things. But simultaneously, his spirit was shaken that they would keep it secret from him.

"We're family, right?" he whispered.

[The Painted Lady]

Emily held her hands up in an almost defensive manner.
"It's not as easy as that Lear," she tried to soothe.
"We don't have large say in matters like this. Although, it seems someone," she shot looks at both Kayle and Anthony, "hasn't bothered to keep me up to date. Otherwise I would have at least been slightly prepared for your arrival."
She brought a hand to her forehead as if to massage away a stress headache, before she continued on.
"I suppose now you're here though... and the fact Kayle has divulged some info over to you, there should be no reason why I can't."
Another set of emerald daggers were sent to the two Assassins. She was clearly quite dirty about being kept out of the loop.
"I've been a part of the Order since the start of the year. Not long before I turned nineteen. But I don't do the dirty work these guys get up to. I'm more of a..." she paused to ponder, "Leonardo or Rebecca role. A supporting act."
"Those blades there..."
She gestured to the bracers Kayle tested.
"Designed by yours truly." She planted her hands on her hips with a little bit of pride. "Thanks to a little playing around with the designs in the original codex. I've been trying to make it harder for assassin's to poison themselves upon release."
The bravado faded then, and she gave a sigh, stepping toward Lear to touch his arm.
"Look, please don't be upset. It's not like we were at liberty to tell you these things before now. And it's not as easy as nominating your friends to become assassins. I know I sure as hell wouldn't like to burden them with this." She looked over her shoulder to Kayle. "I'm not even sure his fiancé knows anything about the truth of the Order."

[Elario Luminus]

Nodding, Kayle retracted his blades. "These work very well, Emmy. Good job. And she's right," Kayle confirmed. "Emily doesn't know anything. Whenever I went out on missions, I told her that I was doing an all-boys night at home."'
He could see that this information was hurting his friend, and he felt bad for keeping it from him.
"Em's right; we're not exactly given free reign with this kind of responsibility. The only reason Em's in is because she has contacts inside the government, and she's crazy good at designing blueprints and drawings. She's also pretty mean at delivering what tactical information we need on a mission, exactly when we need it."
Kayle walked over towards one of the off-set halls, gesturing to Lear to follow him. "C'mon. I'll show you around while you get to grips."

[Lykaios]

Still angry and reeling, Lear knew they had the best intentions, but it was still hard to feel comfortable with, when he'd been so willing in the past to put his allegiances with the Assassin's. Frustrating as it was, they were his friends, and he was an initiate now. It was pretty hectic i his mind, but he was with two of his closest friends, and now he knew why they were always so busy all the time. Kayle and Em had said enough for him to have an idea now.

He took to following Kayle as he'd suggested, but he was momentarily silent; being incapable of coherency and calm for the time being.

[The Painted Lady]

Emily took hold of Lear's arm as they walked.
"Think of it as the same reason Giovanni Auditore kept his status from his children," she tried to assure. "We were just trying to keep you - and the rest of our friends - safe. Regardless of whether we knew if you'd be supportive or not."

[Elario Luminus]

As they walked through the underground passage ways, Kayle didn't say anything to Lear or Emily. Instead, he opened up a solid grey steel door below a sign that said WAR ROOM. After closing the door behind both his friends, he swept his arm over the room. "As the sign says, this is the War Room. Not literally, of course, as war nowadays is fought differently to how it was back in the 1500's. No, the wars we fight are different; less death-related attacks, and more of prevention of activities. Therefore, done with very few deaths. That is, very few deaths caused by us, at least," Kayle added, that afterthought laced with hatred and bitterness. "It's where we collect all our gathered information from whatever Em's heard and what's been listened into or pick-pocketed from our lazy days on the streets. If we can find a way to make everything we've got work in a way that makes logical sense, that's when we head out on missions. Any questions?"
Knowing that Lear would still be reeling about the Brotherhood actually existing, Kayle figured that he'd have a damn huge amount of questions, but he was banking on Lear's logical side before his emotional one.

[Lykaios]

Lear looked around as they walked through the sanctuary, acknowledging Emily's assurances while maintaining silence. She was smart, and he knew she was one to consider everyone else's safety before her own. As he thought about it more, he started to calm down and think logically about their situation. Now, his only wonders were about how they'd come into the livelihood of assassin life. Unfortunately, he still didn't trust his voice to display that feeling and concern. So, he simply smiled politely at Em, and followed as Kayle brought them to the 'War Room'. Lear ignored the irony in the name, and listened as Kayle explained it. He simply nodded and kept Em's arm in his own.

He looked around the room, impressed with the asthetic of the chamber. It stunned him, to see a Sanctuary first-hand, but he wasn't able to voice his amazement, either.