Tag: request

Dear Arno,

I confess I’m not entirely sure what to say here. ‘It was good to see you again’ somehow rings hollow, an empty space unfit to contain the totality of my feelings. And yet I am pleased–pleased that the Assassins have not changed you completely. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. You never were one to be easily awed.

It seems we have both found ourselves at an impasse in the hunt for my father’s killer. Perhaps together, we can accomplish what neither of us alone could. It’s nice to think that after all this time, we’re still better together than apart.

Yours,
Élise

Paris
September 23, 1788

Dear Arno,

I never thought I could be so bored in Paris. Can you imagine it? The greatest city in the world, and here I am, stuck in endless lectures from dawn to dusk. It’s worse than that winter we spent in Strasbourg. Do you remember? When it snowed for a week straight and we couldn’t leave the house, and all the books in the library were in German? We convinced that cook the house was haunted by some young Frankish prince, and the poor man refused to leave his kitchen without a rosary in one hand and a Bible in the other.

I miss those days. The things I’m learning from Father’s friends are–well, I wish I could I tell you about them. Someday, perhaps, but not now, and not like this. But still I find myself missing those days. Missing home. Missing you. Next time Father comes to Paris, you must persuade him to bring you along.

I remain always your,
Élise

“The Leaving of Liverpool” from Assassin’s Creed Rogue (Lyrics from World Music)

Farewell to you, my own true love
I am going far away
I am bound for California
And I know that I’ll return some day.

So fare thee well, my own true love
And when I return, united we will be
It’s not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me
But my darling when I think of thee.

And the sun is on the harbor now
And I wish I could remain
But now I know it will be some long time
Before I see you again.

So fare thee well, my own true love
And when I return, united we will be
It’s not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me
But my darling when I think of thee.

So farewell to you, my own true love
I am going far away
I am bound for California
And I know that I’ll return some day.

So fare thee well, my own true love
And when I return, united we will be
It’s not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me
But my darling when I think of thee.

Once more!

So fare thee well, my own true love
And when I return, united we will be
It’s not the leaving of Liverpool that grieves me
But my darling when I think of thee.

“Young Edwin in the Lowlands Low” (Lyrics from Mainly Norfolk)

Come all you wild young people and listen to my song:
Which I unfold concerning gold that guides so many wrong.
Young Emma was a servant maid, she loved a sailor bold
He ploughed the main much gold to gain for his love so we’ve been told.

He ploughed the main for seven years and then he returned home,
As soon as he set foot on shore unto his love did go.
He went unto Young Emma’s house his gold all for the show,
That he has gained upon the main all in the lowlands low.

‘My father keeps a public house down by the side of the sea.
You go there and stay the night, and there you wait for me.
I’ll meet you in the morning, but don’t let my parents know
That your name it is Young Edwin that ploughed the lowlands low.’

Young Edwin he sat drinking till time to go to bed,
He little thought a sword that night would part his body and head.
And Edwin he got into bed and scarcely was asleep
When Emma’s cruel parents soft into his room did creep.

They stabbed him, dragged him out of bed, and to the sea did go,
They sent his body floating down to the lowlands low.
As Emma she laid sleeping, she had a dreadful dream,
She dreamed she saw Young Edwin’s blood, flowing like a stream.

‘Father, where’s the stranger come here last night to stay?’
‘Oh, he is dead, no tales can tell,’ her father he did say.
‘Then father, cruel father, you will die a public show
For murdering my Edwin who ploughed the lowlands low.’

Note: “Edwin” is interchangeable with Edward or Edmund in this song (the game does not have either versions, however.)

The Creed of the Assassin Brotherhood teaches us that nothing is forbidden to us. Once I thought that meant we were free to do as we would. To pursue our ideals, no matter the cost.

I understand now. Not a grant of permission. The Creed is a warning.

Ideals too easily give away to dogma. Dogma becomes fanaticism.

No higher power sits in judgment of us. No supreme being watches to punish us for our sins.

In the end, only we ourselves can guard against our obsessions. Only we can decide whether the road we walk carries too high a toll. 

We believe ourselves redeemers, avengers, saviors. We make war on those who oppose us, and they in turn make war on us. We dream of leaving our stamp upon the world…

…even as we give our lives in a conflict that will be recorded in no history book.

All that we do, all that we are, begins and ends with ourselves.