Embracing The Light (Arno Dorian x OC), an Assassin's Creed Fanfiction

Chapter 21 : Rescue

"Mademoiselle Joseph." Trenet called the young woman who was nearing her, completely out of breath. "Where's your mentor ?"
Rosalie approached the three masters who were all staring at her with confusion. After she got out of the Palais de la Cité, the young woman waited some time around there in case Arno would manage to join her by any possible way, but he never came. So she decided to do as he demanded, and returned to the sanctuary where the masters were waiting for her.
Once she arrived inside the meeting room, she slowed down. "Arno... is still at the palace."
"What ?!"
"The guards... They got him... I've managed to... to escape but..."
"Take your time." Beylier calmly told her. "Breathe."
Rosalie obeyed and tried to control her breath. As soon as she did, she started over. "We've got the archives." she then put the book on the table and continued. "We found out that Anne de Marbeuf and her... partner Payen both have been sentenced to death a year ago, so those Templars were surely imposters. But then we got caught. Arno he... he sacrificed himself so I could run away."
"Is he dead ?" Trenet then asked.
"No !" Rosalie quickly replied, louder than she thought she would. "I... don't know. I have to go back there !"
"You cannot."
"But he is in danger !"
"And you merely are an apprentice !" Trenet said back. "If you go back there on your own, you surely won't be able to get out. It is already a miracle that you've made it through the first time. Besides, we do not even know if he's still alive..."
"He is alive." Rosalie harshly answered. "I know he is."
The Mentor silently sighed before she added. "We will talk about this tomorrow."
"What ?! So we're just going to leave him there for a whole night ?"
"We cannot make up a rescue plan right now. We have to know where exactly he is first."
"He must be at the Conciergerie, the palace's prison. Where else could he be, for Heaven's sake ?!"
Trenet did not appreciate the young woman's insolence. "Do not forget who you're speaking to." she started to raise her voice.
"Actually," Quémar intervened, "Mademoiselle Joseph might be right. If they thought that Arno was a royalist spy, they might have locked him up inside the prison of the palace to interrogate him..."
Rosalie nodded at him and internally thanked the master.
"...unless they've killed him right on spot." he added.
The young woman then sighed as she looked away, feeling even more desperate. Then, her eyes met Trenet's and the Mentor relaxed as she advised her softly. "Go back to your house and try to rest. We will start to search for him tomorrow morning."
But this was far from relieving Rosalie who shook her head and sighed again. "Unbelievable." She then turned her back and left the meeting room, as she was sure the masters were not going to be of any help to her.
Rosalie's blood was boiling inside her body as she was climbing down the stairs. She was frustrated and mad at the Assassins for refusing to rescue Arno. And the fact that Trenet told her to « rest » after all that she went through : how was she supposed to rest, knowing that her friend was far from her, trapped somewhere cold and lifeless, and all of this because he had saved her life ? No, Rosalie was not done yet.
As she was leading towards the exit door, she stopped in front of the armory. She stared inside for a moment, then looked around and noticed that no one was here. Then, the young woman got an idea which her masters would not approve at all. As she slowly entered the armory and looked at all the weapons and items, her eyes fell on the phantom blades Arno had shown her earlier. She neared them and grabbed one to analyze it. The blade seemed sharper than her tranquilizing blade, and much deadlier. As she checked behind her one last time, she grabbed a couple of the phantom blades and placed them under her hidden blade before she quickly left the armory.

At Night

That morning, Quémar had explained to Arno and Rosalie that the Conciergerie was located at the ground floor of the palace, right under the Parliament. As Rosalie neared the building, she remarked at the north of the Palais de la Cité, just across the Seine river, an entry to the sewers passing right under the Conciergerie. The young woman gathered that she could use those underground paths to easily infiltrate the prison.
So, Rosalie did not wait any longer to climb down and reach the border of the river. She then quickly neared the entry she had noticed earlier and hesitantly glanced inside the tunnel. It was the very first time that she was on her own in such a risky mission. The words Trenet had said to her an hour ago kept ringing in Rosalie's brain. The Mentor was not wrong : she was a mere apprentice, not an accomplished Assassin. Maybe she should have listened to her in the first place and wait.
But on the other hand, Rosalie could not stop thinking about Arno, where he could be and with whom. She wanted to know he was safe and sound, she wanted him near her and nothing else. For she kept driving herself crazy as the worst scenarios kept growing inside her head. So, the young woman clenched her fists as she stepped inside the sewers plunged into darkness. She tried to mostly use her eagle vision to locate herself through the dark and, as she kept walking, she finally reached a ladder leading upstairs, and a smile grew on Rosalie's face as she climbed it up.
Once she straightened completely, the young woman looked around and it seemed that she was inside a tiny dark room As soon as she grabbed the doorknob nearby, she opened the door and tried to get out but her heart missed a beat and she stopped completely when she noticed a guard walking inside the hallway towards her. Rosalie then stayed inside the room as she kept the door slightly open discreetly to observe the guard who thankfully had not noticed her. When the man approached the room, Rosalie grabbed him by his arm and pulled him inside. Without letting him the time to understand what was happening, she covered his mouth with her valid hand and put her hidden blade into his throat.
"Repose en paix (Rest in peace)." she murmured to his ear.
As she did so, the young woman felt terrible, as if a part of her had broken. But she was ready to do anything to put all the odds in her favor to save Arno, so she lied the dead body down, and silently left the room as she checked that the corridor was deserted.
The Conciergerie looked like a huge labyrinth and Rosalie wondered how she was supposed to find Arno. As she was walking inside the hallway, she analyzed the place. The walls were entirely made of white stones on which torches were hanging to weakly brighten the corridor. Along her way, the young woman spotted many steel doors, supposedly prison cells, with a peephole on every single one of them, allowing her to look through and see who was inside each cell. She sometimes noticed a single man silently lying on his mattress, or a couple of women sharing one single cell together —probably families. But Arno was nowhere to be seen and Rosalie had reached the end of the hallway.
"Bon sang." she cursed. "Where could he possibly be ?"
The young woman tried to use her eagle vision and looked around, then heard a couple of male voices coming from a cell around the corner.
"Has he spoken yet ?" the first one asked.
"Not a single word." the second one replied. "That salopard is just a waste of time, we should kill him right away and move on."
"Do not rush, he might confess sooner or later."
Rosalie's heart was pounding inside her chest as she approached the cell which was only a few doors away. She prayed that they were talking about Arno as it would mean the man was still alive but, at the same time, she was worried about him. Even if he was not dead, he surely must have suffered a lot and thinking about it saddened the young woman who hurried to find him.
As soon as she reached the cell from which the voices came, she hesitantly looked through the doorhole and first noticed two jailers standing with their backs turned at the door, then a half-unconscious man who had his wrists chained to the ceiling and was barely standing on his knees as he kept his head down. Rosalie directly recognized that same man as Arno due to his uniform and she now felt fear and anger at the same time. Then, she watched one of the jailers place himself behind Arno and start whipping his back with a belt. When she saw her partner raise his head and show his face contorting in pain as he let out a weak cry, Rosalie's anger turned into rage.
As her face tensed, she heavily knocked the door to catch the jailers' attention. The two of them looked towards the door and the man who was watching the scene neared and looked through the hole but did not see anyone.
"Who is it ?" the other one asked but his companion shrugged.
"There's no one." he replied and moved away.
But then, they heard somone knock again and the man behind Arno started to lose his patience. "Just open then goddamn door already !" he then exclaimed.
As his friend sighed, he took out his keys and unlocked the steel door, but as soon as he opened it, Rosalie threw herself on him and, as she cut his throat with her hidden blade, she threw a phantom blade with her valid hand towards the second jailer's head, letting the two men fall on the ground.
Once she got rid of them, Rosalie's anger dissipated and she felt nothing else but fear as she saw Arno. The young woman quickly knelt in front of him as she took her hood off and held his head up with both of her hands to look properly at his face, hidden by his open hair. His bottom lip was slightly cut and he looked exhausted. This look of his broke Rosalie's heart to pieces.
"Arno !" she called him in a whisper to wake the man.
Then Arno started to slowly open his eyes, revealing his piercingly brown irises to Rosalie. A few seconds later, he seemed to have recognized the young woman.
"Rose ?" he murmured in a weak voice and Rosalie could not hide a sad smile.
"I'm here to get you out of this place. Can you stand ?"
Then, he let his head fall down and Rosalie gathered that he was too weakened. She then looked around and took the dead jailer's keys on the floor to unchain Arno. Once she did, she helped the man to get on his feet by grabbing his waist and holding his left hand to keep his arm above her shoulder. Even though Arno was heavy, Rosalie noticed how strong she had gotten thanks to her trainings, since a couple of months ago she would never have been capable of standing still while carrying a man.
"Come on." she encouraged Arno as he was trying to walk. "Lean on me."
"You... shouldn't have come... It's dangerous..." he weakly said.
"Don't be stupid. I wasn't going to leave you behind."
As they slowly exited the cell, the man kept his hand against the wall as he was putting one foot in front of the other. Rosalie kept checking behind them to see if any guards were coming as they were leading towards the tunnel from which the woman arrived.
Soon enough, when they turned around a corner, they came face to face with a guard who froze instantly as he saw them, and so did Rosalie. Arno slowly raised his head to look up and only had the time to notice Rosalie shooting the man's throat with her phantom blade. The woman then continued walking, without caring about the dead body, as Arno frowned.
"Where... where did you... get those blades ?" he muttered.
Rosalie first glanced at him out of the corner of her eye. "Trenet gave them to me." she lied.
They then finally managed to reach the room from which she came out earlier and, as soon as they got inside, Arno's eyes fell on the corpse lying dead in its own blood. He gathered that Rosalie was the one behind this, just as she killed the other men in front of him a moment ago and Arno struggled to believe that the same woman who did not dare to hurt one single man this morning managed now to assassinate four at once. But the man was too weak at that time to think about what could be the reason of her sudden change.