The Eagle and The Rat [Arno Victor Dorain]

III - Cloches de L'église

Arno swung another drink back. The whiskey here was divine, full-bodied and a little tough to get down, just what he needed to get his mind off of the confrontation he just had.

"Christ almighty," Horace deadpanned, watching his friend, as he gently sipped his own wine, "that drink won't do you any good in the morning."

Arno shook his head. "If I drink enough, I might not even be conscious enough to remember."

"What a joke," Axel said, throwing one back himself, "you've got the strongest palette I've ever seen, and you're almost a decade younger than me. Probably a century younger than Horace."

"Hilarious, Axel," Horace replied, scratching his bread. "I'm serious, Arno. You're gonna drown in all that alcohol."

He disregarded his friend's words, tuning them out in favor of the soft music that was being played somewhere.

He closed his eyes for a moment, letting him focus on his sense of hearing. He knew this song. The light notes, the playful rhythm. It was the same song that had been playing the night he snuck into Elise's party.

Suddenly, he was all too sober.

"Look'e there," Axel said, pulling Arno closer to him as their faces almost pressed together. Arno looked in the direction where Axel was facing. A robe clad girl with tiny decorative feathers stuck on her hood was sneaking out the garden area of the bar, slipping past other tavern-goers and even other Assassins.

"What's she up to now?" Horace asked, stepping closer to the two, "that woman doesn't know how to take a break. She's just come back from Egypt and already out to cause trouble."

Axel hummed, "Well, we better not let her have all the fun, should we?"

He shared a glance between both of his friends before walking away from the table. Arno was quick to follow, and Horace joined momentarily. They ran into the cold dark night, pulling their hoods up, as they scaled the nearest building. As they reached the rooftops, they congregated at the edge, hidden almost perfectly in the night sky.

"Where is she?" Arno asked, looking about the nearby roofs.

Horace pointed towards the ground, where Maxime was running past the civilians who had been partying that night, as well, not crashing into one at all.

"What's she doing down there?" Arno asked, watching as Axel jumped to the next roof in attempts to keep a close eye on where Maxime was headed.

"Street rats never learn to fly," Horace answered jokingly, "God knows where she's off to this late. Best we go back inside."

"No way!" Axel exclaimed, "if she's up to no good like you said, then who knows what troubles she might run into. Can't have our newest Master Assassin winding up dead on the first day, can we?"

"You say that as if she isn't a Master Assassin," Horace retored, "let her be. She probably won't like us prying."

The two looked towards Arno, waiting for his deciding vote on the matter. He opened his mouth to respond but found no words to say.

It's not like he had a vested interest in Maxime, only the fact that she was now another obstacle between him and his father's killer. Should he be find out for sneaking where he doesn't belong could put him in jeopardy.

Should he not... Well, if he found some blackmail on her, he'd have an ace in his pocket for later.

He smirked to himself, Axel knowing very well he had won. "What do we have to lose?" Arno backed up to get a better running start to jump to the next roof. When he landed in the other side, he looked behind to Horace. "Are you joining us?"