The Starry Maiden

The Hunt

With Silvija's help we got to an airport in Spain. Zeph used the email network ever popular within the Brotherhood, Hephaestus I think it's called, to let mom and Venus know how things are going and with the update that we'll be going to Vancouver. Silvija had also at that point taken Sefa to meet up with our mom and Venus, to get her sorted out with some cover identity in order to escape Abstergo's attention.

From Spain, we took a flight straight to Vancouver.

Once we had landed, Zeph found a... Venomous email from our mother. Stating that she was displeased with how we had just up and left the continent without coming to get them, or even contacting them directly, and that they would be leaving as soon as they were able. This email also stated that our father would be in the vicinity of the west coast and would be joining us at some point.

Hearing that made me realize how not ready I am to tell my dad. We had always been close while I was growing up, until I had lost interest in all the things that he wanted to share with me. Namely, everything that would have eventually led to me becoming an Assassin. It had been after that that we had drifted apart. He started to take more jobs—which I now assume would've all been for the Brotherhood—more often and was home less and less as I went through high school and subsequently graduated.

Now I'm in a café across the street from our mark. The sun is setting already, but we've now made all of our preparations. The guys are using alternate means to infiltrate the building. Mom had wanted us to wait for dad, but I don't want them to learn any more about Yusuf than they probably already have since they landed while we were just leaving Spain. Which has given them three days with him at this facility with a day and a half being the time we used to scrape together a rough plan of action. So we are going in now. I'm currently in the guise of a company worker, well dressed but not extravagantly so, with my hair tied into a tidy low bun. Which seemed to be the look of a great many of the woman coming and going from the building over the last day. I have the two bangles on, one could argue that they look exceptionally nice, but in current times costume jewellery can look very convincing. I opted to leave the hidden blade behind at our fallback location, which is a motel just in White Rock, near the southern edge of the city. As lovely as it is, the bulk of the hidden blades from back then is too obvious now.

Shaun managed to find and duplicate the frequency to gain access to the building through the entrance, so we fabricated a tag quickly for the look, but I will be using a fresh, blank smartphone to emit the wireless signal that will get me in. The other two are using alternate methods to get in. And luckily for us, Rebecca agreed to be our computer person for the adventure, carefully disguising our presence in the building. With Shaun naturally present as well... The price? Being let in on the whole story. She already knows most of it from supervising Aquilo in Ezio's memories, but this promise is to go further in depth with the details. This was not my idea, but Zeph made the decision on the fly, knowing that we would need some kind of technical assistance and we didn't readily have an extra person capable of what we would need. In our correspondence I learnt that Layla had gone on with the two of them. And I did manage to convince them to keep my whole business secret from her.

With so many people suddenly knowing my anxiety has been rising. And with Layla being the person Kassandra had been waiting for she must have the staff, and by extension, Aletheia. Who, I admit to being wary about at the best of times, if only that's how Astraeus and Eos tried to keep me with most Isu... Not that it helped with the whole Ilios situation.

I check the time on my phone, take a last swig of the tea on my table and make like I'm going back to work at the building across with my briefcase and everything. I canter to emphasize the look of someone who has taken a little too long of a break.