Lineage of Brotherhood

Chapter 4

He exited his room and went to the dining hall first. Food didn't clear away the feelings. He then retreated to the physical fitness room in hopes of some endorphins through a cardio workout would ease the yearning away. His mind wondered if it would be possible to use the animus once he had accomplished for Abstergo whatever it was they desired of him to find from his Ancestors memories, to see the memory of his mother again. To hear her voice one more time. He figured it was a unhealthy and hopeless folly. He would very likely finish his job, get paid and Devyn would be driving him in the company car back to the airport for the next flight out of there. He it wasn't good to dwell on memories. Yet, here he was working for a company that did just that to help the future.

He returned to his room and dug through his laptop bag and pulled out from the very depths of his wallet a picture strip made from one of those photo booths. She had insisted they do it, even though it was his 12th birthday and he thought it was stupid. Now he was glad he had something, which was better than nothing. It was no surprise with what he was experiencing now he wanted it to use it eventually for a more modern time period.

Feeling unsettled he put the picture photo strip away and back in his bag, then showered and turned on the movie In Time.

. . . .

When Dr. Vidic felt he had sufficiently motivated her, he left Devyn alone in the Animus as she slowly regained her wits. As far as she was concerned, she'd gotten off pretty easy. The doctor could go to a dark place when he was really upset. This was more of a reminder of what could happen if she continued to waste more of their time.

Eventually, Devyn left the Animus and headed towards her room. When she got there, she stopped to check and see if Talon was in his room, but she got no answer at his door.

Still feeling the dread of what could be coming her way if Abstergo lost faith in her, Devyn went to the fitness room to work out her nerves. When she got there, Talon was already there in the midst of his workout. She almost approached, but as she watched, she was reminded of running with Altaïr through Masyaf. Of what it was like to have him press against her as they rode together. She remembered how Esther felt, what she wanted in that moment.

Without alerting Talon, she skipped the workout and went back to her room. She did some yoga, shadowboxed a bit, and showered. At this point, she had been hoping to have sufficiently distracted herself, but the thought had already entered her mind. They had been pulled out of the moment so abruptly...

It wasn't long before she found herself at Talon's door again, still not even really sure if it was a good idea or not for her to be there. She raised a hand to knock, but didn't. She hesitated.

Abstergo had a tendency to be a pretty lonely place, most of the employees seemed to avoid her like the plague. Once the others had started dropping out of the program, there really wasn't anyone left for her to talk to in times like these.

Maybe if she just explained a little about what had just happened, how things might change, she might feel better about her talk with the Doctor. Maybe feeling less stressed about that would, in turn, relieve others kinds of stress she was feeling.

She gently knocked on the door. "Skye?"

. . . .

Talon was debating in his mind what was worse. Seeing images of Altair shadow him around or experiencing the lingering emotions of his ancestor. So, far he was preferring the shadow following him around. At least then he could tell the difference between him and the ghostly figure. The emotions were harder to decipher.

He couldn't agree that the feelings were entirely Altair's. Talon had get chemistry with Devyn. They simply got along well on a personality level. It was only natural that embers of physical attraction could be there if given the opportunity. Getting pulled so abruptly made those barely existent embers, now felt like it was an actual burning flame.