Fire and Liberty

Chapter Twelve

You asked for the table furthest from everyone else. It was up a set of stairs in the far back corner and being the middle of the day nearly no one was even haunting the place. After drinks and a few platters of food were dropped off, the three of you were left alone to discuss the truth behind everything that's been going on.

You grabbed your beer and sucked down a few large gulps. Rancid but you weren't sure you could get through this sober. You licked your lips and set the drink back down on the table. "Alright. No lying. I sense even the hint of a lie from either of you and I'm walking out of here."

"I've no reason to lie," quipped Haytham. "Ask away."

"Did you burn down the village?"

"As I said," Haytham huffed and shifted in his seat, "I did no such thing. Our pursuits here in the colonies do not involve the native people."

Ratonhnhaké:ton:ton leaned forward sharply and pressed a firm hand into the table. "Then explain how your lackey ended up near my village the day it burned."

"Charles went there looking for a precursor site against my direct orders." Haytham rubbed his fingers across his brow in frustration. "He would need them alive to find the temple. Burning the village would have been counterproductive."

You believed him. They truly had no reason to burn down the Mohawk village. From what you remembered, Haytham had admired them. And as you glanced at his son, loved one of them? It was hard for you to imagine but perhaps Haytham protected Mohawk people because he had been in love.

Ratonhnhaké:ton:ton didn't believe it as he retorted sharply, "Am I to trust you after all the crimes you have committed?"

"Crimes?" Haytham raised his chin and tilted his head in annoyed disbelief. "Says the man who calls himself an Assassin."

You took another few large mouthfuls of beer, your expression crumpling as the bitterness coated your tongue.

Ratonhnhaké:ton:ton's brows pinched and his eyes narrowed. "You and the rest of the Templars are monsters who must be brought to justice. If I must be that hand of justice then so be it."

"Is that what this is all about? Petty revenge over an event that was not in any way our fault? Our organization has no reason to cause your people any suffering."

"No." He hesitated while looking Haytham squarely in the eye. "This goes beyond me. It goes beyond just my people. This is about giving all people a voice so that they can be free to make their own choices."

Haytham gave a short bark of a laugh and turned his gaze to you. "Surely you are not buying into this fairytale he is weaving?"

You fiddled with the handle of your mug. You wanted to lie and say you didn't. You wanted to pretend that Ratonhnhaké:ton's words hadn't affected you. But they did.

His brows arched upwards like a desperate plea. "Humanity as a whole is greedy and cannot be trusted to make difficult important decisions. 'The temper of the multitudes is fickle.' The will of the mob changes too quickly to make a stable government."

You leaned toward him, your elbow pressed onto the surface of the table. "Perhaps. But it seems to me that the age of kings and tyrants has gone on long enough. What good have they done for society?"

"I care not for the king."

"Because you elect yourself as the shaper of mankind's next era? Haven't the people carried the heavy weight of nobles long enough?"

He flinched away from you and for a moment it made you uneasy. Despite every negative thing you learned about him, he was still the man who raised you. You loved him. He was like a father to you.