The Eagle and The Rat [Arno Victor Dorain]

XI - Douce Vengeance

He did it. He killed who he thought was De La Serre's killer. He found what he thought was vengeance, but it was false. Everything was false- better yet, bigger than he had believed.

"What's the plan?" Arno had asked Bellec.

"Our plan? You're not an apprentice anymore," Bellec answered, "so study your surroundings. Devise your own plan. I'm not here to hold your hand.

As Arno teetered at the edge of the building, he thought to himself why exactly Pierre was here at all. To make fun of him? Send a final goodbye to a student?

Right, Arno reminded himself, this was a high-profile assassination. The first of many people who were behind De La Serre's death, as he would come to find.

"And if all other plans fail," he had said, as Arno stood to face him again, "why not sacrifice yourself for the cause? Your life for his. Before Altaïr, that was the Levantine approach."

It wasn't hard to see how Maxime had gotten her brash personality.

"You mean a dagger in broad daylight as I'm cut down where I stand?"

"Sends a powerful message," was his only response.

"I'll do it my way."

"Whatever you think's best," he finished, "Assassin."

His way was better. Getting to walk away from the dead body in the manor's bedroom felt... It should have felt good, but the vision was unexpected. Sivert did not work alone, and this issue had layers Arno was only now beginning to uncover. It was one thing to know about the Templar coup from the inside, but it was another to see it so vividly.

Le Roi des Thunes. He repeated it in his head like a mantra.

He jogged up the stairs of the lair, his steps against the marble ringing out like bullets in his head. It was all the adrenaline. He could hear the Council's voices, debating the course of action on a promising heist, but he didn't even remember stepping before the Council. He only came to when they addressed him.

"I take it justice has been done," Mentor Mirabeau stated, the faint lines of a smile on his face, likely ready to be done with this as much as Arno was.

It pained Arno so much to speak the truth. "Not entirely," he told them, "Sivert had an accomplice the night of Monsieur De La Serre's murder. He struck the killing blow."

And the entire room seemed to become annoyed at the thought of it, all except his very good friend Maxime, who was sitting silently next to her father.

"This raises troubling questions," Mirabeau went on, "what have you learned?"

"He was working with a man called le Roi des Thunes-"

"The King of beggars?" Master Beylier asked quickly, and as if giving blood to sharks, the Assassins before Arno all lost their annoyance and gave Beylier their undivided attention. "Are you sure?"

"You know him?"

"Of him," he answered, "the beggars pay him tribute. The man himself is a ghost. We've sent three Assassins after him. The first two found no trace. The third never returned."

"I can find him." Arno wasn't sure he could. He just wanted this to be over with. "I owe it to the memory of Monsieur De La Serre to uncover the truth."

Mirabeau turned his gaze away from Arno, his eye landing on the dark corner where the two Bellec's watched on. "Can he?" was all he asked.

A look was exchanged between the two, Bellec's hand landing on Maxime's shoulder and squeezing lightly. "The chances of a novice coming back from a mission like that are slim," Pierre said, "Max'll escort him. Finish the job if she has to." She nodded but said nothing else.