The Mentor's Daughter

alla fine, sonunda, the end

"Get up! Everyone up! Ahmet's men are marching for the shop!" Yusuf's voice rang out, waking all of the Assassins in Sofia's shop. Sofia awoke, looking startled. I grabbed her arm.

"Get under that desk and stay there. Capito?" She nodded, I drew my sword. Yusuf was barking out instructions, going from the Yusuf I knew to a fierce, protective leader.

"Harim! Go with Deniz to fetch the others! There are too many for the few we have here!" Harim nodded and darted out the back with Deniz. As soon as the door closed, the door that faced the street exploded in, revealing heavily armored Janissary's. We charged.

I ducked under a sword and cut into the throat of it's owner. I grabbed the body and shoved it into the sword of another, than threw a knife at the man. I bent back to avoid being stabbed by two swords. When I stood up, my hidden blades found the hearts of the soldiers.

"MIRO NO!!" I heard Akil scream. I turned to see a Janissary holding little Miro by her collar with one hand, and drawing a knife with another. I reached for a throwing knife but had to duck under the axe that was swinging towards my neck. I threw the knife, but it found purchase after the fact. Miro cried out and both her and her Janissary captor fell.

There were so many! One was stupid enough to come at me without any evasive maneuver planned, and I managed to disarm him. I grabbed his forearm and brought my foot up, mangling his arm. Then I grabbed him around the neck and twisted as hard as I could.

I cried out as something caught me in my arm. I looked to see a knife buried in my left shoulder. I pulled it out, wincing. I turned to see Yusuf fighting eight soldiers. All but one came from the front, leaving Yusuf's back exposed.

"Yusuf no!" I was too late. The knife that the eighth Janissary was holding sank into Yusuf's back up to the hilt. His limp body was shoved into the wall as the Janissary's scrambled to kill the other Assassins. One came up behind me. I exhaustedly blocked his heavy blow, but managed to get kicked in the stomach hard. He managed to slice into my side before I killed him. Now I was breathing heavily, and bleeding. Another wave of Ahmet's men crashed through the door. I groaned as they fell upon the remaining Assassins.

I barely managed to kill two before three more came after me. I blocked two while the other flanked me. I tried to defend myself against all of them, but it was futile. I was weakened by exhaustion and blood loss while they were rested and strong. I plunged my sword, or at least I think it was my sword, into the skull of a Janissary pain exploded in my chest and I looked down to see a sword coming out of my stomach. It disappeared and I fell forward into darkness, my whole body going numb. It scared me so badly. I wanted to scream but I couldn't. My lips were somewhere in the dark, frozen in that moment of time.

I want to say the numbness broke when Harim grabbed me, but it didn't. The black relinquished control of my vision and lungs for a small ammount of time.

"Capricia. Wake up. Please!" I could just see the outline of his beautiful face. I longed to feel again. His strange, dark red hair through my fingers, his lips on my face and hands on my body. I felt something well up in my chest, a feeling that was sweet, warm, like his skin and his dark eyes.

"Harim..." I whispered. The warmth was the only thing I could feel now. He brought his face closer to mine. Close enough that I should feel the warmth coming off his body. I could see every detail of his perfect face. His slightly tanned European skin, his square jaw, high cheekbones, and slightly crooked nose from where he got into a fight with his friends when he was young. The brown scar that curled around his one eye and got thinner until it disappeared near his nose from torture. His beautiful, strangely colored hair, a mixture, like him, of the two worlds that met in Istanbul. He was the city.

He stroked my face, and I felt it. I was becoming cold, and it was warm against my chilled skin. I smiled weakly, and was forced to cough out liquid filling my throat. He rested his forehead against mine and our lips touched. Darkness was lapping at my vision. I would be gone, the image of him with me. I couldn't leave! Ezio, Yusuf, Harim, Dogan! Everyone! I had to say it, had to get it out now, while I could still feel him.

"Love." I choked out. A strangled sob escaped Harim's lips.

"Shh." He choked, he was holding me close now, and it felt good. "It'll all be over soon. I promise." I needed to summon enough strength to tell him what I wanted to tell my father.

"Dillo a mio padre che... lo perdono per aver lasciato... e che gli voglio bene e lui sarebbe stato un grande padre... a nessuno. Ti amo. Ti amo. I love you..." Time, pain, and all sense left me. Nothing was there, but so was everything. Everything I missed, loved, knew, and lost were spread out in front of me. The dark was heavy, but calm and inviting. There was no other option. The red that burned through me, that I had felt before was gone, leaving nothing but dark. The scene changed. I was on top of a tower. There was an eagle. Each one of it's feathers were beautiful, every detail flawless. I wanted to be like the eagle. So I did what all birds of prey do.

I spread my wings and flew.

The End.