Private Log

[agestocome]

The bells were ringing again, heralding the arrival of another traveller. It was a jarring change to a lifetime of running from the site of a job, hands bloody, with the peal of bronze bells following him over the rooftops... A sound for a new life, rather than the end of one. Still, Altair couldn't help but clench and unclench his fists until the noise stopped, too attuned to the silence of the dead city below to relax.

There were no guards to make noise for him to hear, of course. The creatures would not emerge for some hours yet, and a woman he knew only peripherally had left the compound minutes before in search of the latest arrival. Nothing stirred but the faint sounds of people within the building across the road, and the scratchings of a small body climbing the wall to his right. That he ignored, too, for the time being. He had thinking to do, and he'd rather she didn't lose her concentration and fall having come so high.

Comments

[knifewithnoname]

The girl pulled herself onto the roof, they were harder to climb on here because they were stupid and pointy. But she had been practicing, practicing by following this man around. He had first caught her eyes a few days after her arrival to this strange city and she had soon taken to following him.

Mostly to see if she could, he was better than even her sister at climbing and sometimes she struggled to keep up. He had stopped now though so she crept closer, taking refuge behind a chimney and watched with wide eyes.

[agestocome]

She climbed well enough, but there was much room for improvement, for discipline. Things he couldn't teach her simply by leading her through increasingly difficult courses. Not that his own reactions didn't betray him regularly in this city of futuristic angles and surfaces. He shook his head slightly. He was inclined to be charitable.

"You may join me," he called, when it appeared that she would come no closer than the chimney on her own. "That climb was well done."

[knifewithnoname]

She wrinkled her nose, hating that she had been caught. "You were no supposed to be seeing me." She said softly but beamed at the praise anyways and clambered up the last part of the roof. She didn't go too near, not inside grabbing distance and she watched him warily.

[agestocome]

"I trained for my entire life to see what others do not think to look for," He made no moves other than a slight tilt of his head, so that he might look at her properly. A door slammed below them; the searcher returned with their newest comrade. "This is the first time we have spoken."

[knifewithnoname]

She wrinkled her nose again, she had been trained too. But he was older than her, of course she wouldn't be as good.

"Yes it do be being, you do be being good, I did no be knowing you had been spotting me."

[agestocome]

"You 'did not know'," he corrected, absently. "I hadn't, for some time." They had all been in close quarters, and he had been too occupied to notice a small girl trailing him. Careless, but then it had been an extraordinary several weeks. "Do you have a name?"

[knifewithnoname]

She ignored the correction, as she did every time someone tried to correct her speech and beamed again at the fact he hadn't noticed for a while. Maybe she hadn't lost all her skills in this strange city where nothing made sense and everything was too quiet after all.

"No."

[agestocome]

He considered her again. Was it a personal choice, or a ritual from wherever she had originated? Anonymity was prized, but to be nameless was to be without history or future... Still, he could not guess at the values she brought with her.

"A shame. You deserve one."

[knifewithnoname]

She blinked at him, green eyes staring at him like he had sprouted wings, stood on his head and sang. She really didn't know what to think about that statement.

Having a name meant someone cared about you enough to give you one, and people cared enough to remember it. The girl knew this.

But she didn't need a name, she figured. Her guardians gave her what she needed and if they didn't think she needed a name who was she to argue?

And the idea that she deserved one, when all she had done was remained hidden for a while and keep up with his climbing...

She just looked at him in a mixture of suspicion and confusion.

[agestocome]

He returned her look, expression carefully blank. Too used to the struggles and inner conflict of those brought back to Masyaf, too similar to the results of the old teachings in young minds. Every child like her was another reason to bring about change.

"Sageera, for you are still young. It's yours, if you want it."

[knifewithnoname]

"Sageera," She tested the word, stumbling only slightly over the middle sound. She was still confused at him giving her a name at all but she liked it.

"I do be thanking you."

[agestocome]

He nodded, and shifted back on his heels. "Tell me then, Sageera. Why have you followed me?"

[knifewithnoname]

"Because you did be seeming interesting." She told him honestly still watching him warily.

"You do no be being stupid like the others."

[agestocome]

He stayed quiet, the slight lift of one eyebrow hard to discern in the shadows of his hood. No one would call what he did intelligent or sensible. In fact, it would have been outright foolhardy if he wasn't so sure of his abilities. Arrogance wasn't just his failing, then.

Sometimes he wondered about the odd points of view his profession nurtured.

[knifewithnoname]

She watched him cautiously, not sure if his silence was one if thought or if she had insulted him in some way.

She watched him, whilst calculating her escape routes, the best way to go to escape him and wondering if she would be able to outrun him, an adult who was better at her than climbing.