The Starry Maiden

My Star

Yusuf

Near Vancouver

He had seen her. He knows he had, and he wanted to keep his eyes open to take in her appearance, because something hadn't seemed right, but his eyes were so heavy... As if they had been getting pulled down by someone.

He tries to sort through his memories, but everything seems jumbled... He could remember Ezio leaving and asking him to watch out for his lady, Sofia Sartor, while he had travelled to Cappadocia to investigate the Byzantines. He could remember the Byzantines rushing her book shop... And... The next parts of his memories are inexplicably fuzzy. What happened after the fight in the book shop?

His eyes fly open, he shoots up from lying down, and he is immediately lost in his surroundings. There is a box of light showing moving people... But so small. There is the sound of water falling but looking out the clearest window he had ever seen he sees the sun shining. He sits up and watches out the window, covered by sheer fabric, but not covered enough to stop Yusuf from seeing outside. Where the world looks more alien than ever.

"Woah, woah... Slow down..." Yusuf turns to face where the voice came from, speaking in a language he almost recognizes but doesn't really know... He doesn't know what was said, but he understood well enough. The person there is a man with shaggy looking brown hair and cool grey eyes.

"Shit... I forgot..." More words that go unrecognized as the man scratches his head, but somehow the meaning seems to gently float across Yusuf's mind, like someone whispering the meaning to him. "Uh... Old... Arabic? Oh, wait... Old Turkish?" The man stumbles a little bit over unfamiliar words in his mouth, but the last words Yusuf knows. The man sighs and then simply holds a hand up to his chest, "Zephyr." And then he points to Yusuf.

"Yusuf." He complies, slightly confused when the man nods as though he already knew that. "Where am I?" Yusuf asks in his own tongue, before realizing that this man, Zephyr, probably won't understand. The name sounds familiar, where has he heard it before? Why is everything so fuzzy in his mind?

The man's eyes grow large, and he opens his mouth to speak until the sound of the falling water stops and he closes his mouth. Then he opens and closes his mouth for another minute as though he were hunting for the words to say, before simply standing and going to the door on the other side of the room from where Yusuf is in the bed.

As he goes over to the door he scratches his head the whole way. Yusuf takes the opportunity to take a better look around the room. He is on an unbelievably soft bed, never had he ever lain on something so luxurious until now. There is also that box of light, showing the small people. Is it some kind of puppet device?

Yusuf puts his feet on the ground to stand but his legs crumple beneath him as he attempts the feat, landing him right back on the bed. He has not felt this weak in a long time.

He looks back outside seeing some trees and things that keep going by the too fast for him to get a good look at what they were. Next he looks around the room again, his mind beginning to clear and his instincts as an Assassin begin to come back. And although they were never as sharp as Ezio's he had learnt to trust them, and despite the unfamiliar setting he doesn't feel as though he is in any danger. Then the man, Zephyr, comes back around into the space accompanied by another man, this man has a burlier build, but unmistakably the same face. This man, looks at Zephyr, then back to Yusuf, puts his hand on his chest and says, "Aquilo."

Zephyr and Aquilo. Those names together chime through Yusuf's memories of his long talks with Astraea. But if these are really her brothers then... It has been a lot longer than he first realized...

"Astraea's brothers." He says in his own tongue. They both wear expressions of shock on their faces. But then they both nod at the same time, "Do you understand me?"