Just Beyond My Reach 28

Chapter 29: The Four Lessons (Part I)

Year One

Lesson 1: Business First. Wants Later

It was sad to me when we arrived at Venice that evening, the sun shining lightly over the mountains across the sea, the sea that I would soon be crossing. The boat leaving for the trip around the Adriatic Sea would be leaving in a few days, so that gave us some time to stock up for the ride over. That night, Tamair payed for an Inn, which was odd considering that I had never before slept in a place where I had to pay for it. It was rather nice, actually, despite the fact that others had slept in the little room before we had.

Since we had slept on the way over, we weren't exactly tired. It's probably a good thing that Venice is a big town and it wouldn't look so suspicious if a few people were walking around at night since there were many others. After a moment of discussion, we decided to go through the city to get some supplies and something to eat. For some reason, Tamair insisted that I wear a scarf to hide my face when we went walking around town.

"Why?" I asked him, looking at the faded blue scarf he had handed me.

"You're still wanted around this city from Ezio's little attack on the Doge," Tamair explained, taking the scarf from me and wrapping it around my head.

"But I don't want to wear it," I complained as he draped the cloth over my forehead, shadowing my eyes while he lightly knotted it under my chin.

"It's either wear it or you're going to be killed." Tamair made sure that I was able to see properly before he led me out of the Inn and onto the Venice streets.

We didn't say much as we walked around. I blamed the awful smell—if you opened your mouth, you could pretty much taste it. But it was really because we had nothing to say. Tamair was a guy that wasn't much for words, I figured out, and I always just felt like an idiot whenever I asked him a question. We did, however, discuss what to get to eat. Any meat was out of the question, considering we wouldn't be able to cook it anyways, so our meals relied on grains, dairy products and fruits.

Tamair was, surprisingly, rich. As least for a random guy who just popped out of nowhere. And the way he spent money told me that he really didn't care whether he had the Florins or not. It led me to wonder just how he had gotten Italian money since he was from Israel. But I answered my own unspoken question when I remembered that Tamair had been in Italy for thirteen years and he had probably hoarded enough money by the same pick pocketing skills Ezio had learned.

Even though we weren't very tired, we still went back to the Inn and went to our room. Tamair let me have the one big bed after he saw me realize there was only one with wide, worried eyes. I climbed into the bed in the party dress which was torn, bloody and dirty now, and I sat there, my head tilted to the side to watch Tamair write in a small book as he sat on the floor, leaning against the wall. I found it strange that he trusted me so much, strange how he would shed himself of all armor and even place his weapons aside. Not only was it a form of showing me that he trusted me, but it showed that he was completely confident in himself. I had yet to figure out whether or not it was arrogance or if it was a reasonable confidence. Sometime during the late of the night, Tamair still writing in his little book, I fell asleep watching him.

The next day was much the same. Both of us slept into the day time and then we spent what rest of day-light we had to go clothes shopping for me. Tamair frowned upon my dress.

"As pretty as you are in it," he said, pulling the scarf over my head again before we left the Inn, "I think we need to get you some clothes you can move properly in."

"I couldn't agree more!" I exalted, smiling brightly as he knotted the scarf under my chin. Tamair pulled his hood over his face and ushered me out of the Inn with a hand on my lower back. Instead of just waltzing down the street like we had before, Tamair pulled me to a stop and looked around warily for a moment before continuing to lead me down the street. I wondered why he was being so careful, but I didn't have enough curiosity within me to ask him why.

The tailor shop had such wonderful choices of clothes! I remember running around the shop eagerly, dying to get out of the dress that made me feel like I was running around naked. Tamair just watched me quietly with a small smirk as I went through all of the clothes. I finally was able to pick a outfit that I liked enough, the design much similar to the clothes that I had taken from Ezio, only it had a much more fancy design—the same shade of black vest but with gold stitching around the edges, and a dressy shirt that stopped around my wrists instead of my elbows, and dark slacks that I absolutely loved. Tamair even gave me the pleasure of buying me some boots and it was nice to have shoes again.

All of the clothes, of course, were too big for me, so the tailor had to fit them to my size, which took a few hours of just Tamair and I lounging around in the shop, wordless. I didn't let the lack of conversation bother me—I was much too happy about getting out of my stupid dress. Throughout the waiting period, though, Tamair took the sudden liberty to yank up my sleeve without so much as a low grunt and re-dress my cut. Even though I was surprised at the sudden movement, I didn't say anything and watched him quietly, suddenly wondering what was going on in that head of his. The look in his eyes was that saddened, regretful look again, but it wasn't as intense this time.

Once dressed like a man again, I would have ran out into the streets and started singing for the feeling of having my thighs not touch anymore when I walked, but Tamair held me back into the shop until the cloth was draped back over my head.

"Why are you so persistent about having me wear this thing?" I wondered, giddy enough to talk with the man.

"It's something you're going to have to get accustomed to in Jerusalem." Tamair explained. "Women aren't supposed to show skin."

"And if they do?"

"They're raped."

I frowned, following Tamair out of the shop after the Assassin quietly thanked the Tailor and paid him a handful of florins. "What are you talking about? Women dress worse than I do in my-"I giggled "-manly clothes."

Tamair sighed and looked back at me. "Narina, things are different in Israel than they are here in Italy. A different land means a different culture."

"Well, maybe it changed while you were away," I replied with an innocent tilt of my head. Never responding, Tamair looked back forward and led me back to the Inn.

Around evening of the next day, a couple of hours before the boat would be leaving for the Adriatic, a hard-core, full blast of melancholy hit me. Well I call it melancholy, but Tamair called it reality.

And I started to cry.

To avoid getting accusing glares from the occasional passerby, Tamair simply pulled me to his side, his arm about my shoulder as I pressed my face into his chest, as if he were a loving husband of some kind.

Truthfully, it all hit me. What I was doing. What would happen when I left. Whether it be for the Brotherhood or not, I was leaving the only home that I knew. And honestly, I had never been good with farewells. When I thought about it, I knew that it was all so foolish to even cry about it, but I couldn't help myself. Whether or not Ezio was a man-whore who was using me to his own desire, he had been the only one I knew for all my life. It was hard to let go of him, even though I knew deep inside that I would be returning. I just didn't know when.

Right when I was about to stop crying for the first time, Tamair still holding me gently to him, I suddenly remembered that I didn't get to say goodbye to any of the other Auditore men before they died, and then I made up the 'what-if' scenario of Ezio dying while I was away and that caused me to start crying all over again. I felt Tamair's chest rise and fall sharply under me as I pressed myself to him again, and I knew he must have been sick and tired of me already. But in a way, I was glad he let me get it all out, because having to deal with it on the boat would have been so much worse than enduring it out on the Venice docks.

I managed to clean myself up enough to be presentable by the time the boat came along. Tamair, once again being sort of on the richer side somehow, was able to pay for both of our tolls. We only had a small pack for both of us—the pack of the things Tamair had brought with him before he picked me up and the few food items we bought back in the markets. Down in the cabins, when I watched Tamair place the pack down, I pointed out a concern. "We don't have that much food," I whispered.

Tamair smiled at me softly. He had grown suddenly more...caring, or something of the same assortment, when I finished with my crying session. I think he was trying to make me feel better about it all in his own little subtle way.

"We only need enough food for this boat ride. Once we land in Acre, we'll go shopping again."

We stayed in our cabin for a good hour, discussing what we would do once we got to Acre and where we would go from there. It sounded like we would trade on and off with training and uncovering information. Actually, first things first, we had to uncover my 'hidden talent' in order to get anywhere. According to Tamair, however, it would be easy to do that. After I had asked him a million questions about what life was like over at the far away place across the sea, the boat creaked loudly and then, after a few sudden and uncomfortable lurches, I could feel the rock of the waves under the boat. I took a deep breath, feeling suddenly nauseous. I was actually doing this. I was actually leaving Italy!

Only moments later, Tamair gently took a hold of my wrist and led me out of the cabin and back up onto the deck. Although I was thoroughly confused, I kept my questions to myself, feeling as though I had already pelted him enough with them. He led me to the edge of the deck, next to the railing, and there, he quietly looked at Venice, which was already a lot farther away than I realized. It was strange to me as I stared out at the shrinking city that I felt a moment of panic, and I felt a sudden urge to throw myself over the edge of the boat so I could go back.

Tamair's grip slightly tightened. "You can't swim, remember?"

I stared up at the man in sudden wonderment, surprised that he just seemed to know what I was feeling. He didn't answer to my questioning look and he looked back at Venice. "This might be the last time you see Italy for a long while." Tamair didn't say anything else, but I understood what he was getting at. This was my last chance to gaze upon my once upon life before I went to a new one. Glance one more time at all that I loved.

I ended up standing on the deck, staring at the floating city with uncertainty tight in my tummy and tears forming then being blinked away in my eyes until Venice could no longer be seen; until it blended into the darkness of the mountains and the sea.

The trip across the Adriatic was strange.

The boat would make stops to other port towns along the coast that could always be seen on the far horizon to the east. Some weird and intriguing characters got onto the boat at those stops, all of them blabbing in a tongue that I couldn't understand. If there is anything the trip across the sea taught me, it was how big the world actually was, how vast all the knowledge in the world was. I would sit by idly sometimes on the deck and listen to the foreign words from the group across the way. At first, I shied away from these people, categorizing them as things and people who weren't even people. But after days of Tamair's encouragements to try and understand them, I began to find the people very interesting.

I began to understand Tamair better on the boat ride too. And it was more meaningful than his family story and his favorite cheese. I believe it was the sixth night on the boat, I wandered around for hours trying to find the man that I hadn't really talked to for the most part of the ride. I found him on deck, leaning against the railing, his face turned up towards the skies, his eyes closed.

Knowing that he was probably the best reflex Assassin I had ever seen, I was surprised when he didn't look down at me as I snuck up beside him. I sat there for a moment, staring at him quietly while the low buzz of the mixed languages around us blurred into a hum. His dark, spiky hair floated lightly on the sea breeze, his face lit up by the dim moonlight that was skewed by the clouds. Finally, after a minute or so, he sucked in a deep breath, and then looked down at me.

"Hey," I whispered.

He hesitated. "Hey."

"What you doing out here all by yourself?"

Tamair turned back out towards the sea. "I was just thinking."

A pause. "About?"

A soft smile appeared on his lips and he looked down at me. "Since when did you start worrying about what I think about?"

I shrugged. "You just looked...content and yet so worried at the same time."

Tamair's gaze shifted to a group of men standing near us, who had stopped and turned their gazes upon us. Something shifted in the air about Tamair, and he suddenly took a hold of my elbow, tugging me behind him. "Let's talk about this down in the cabin."

"You sure? This night air feels kind of nice. The nights are starting to get a lot warmer."

"I'm positive."

Down in the cabin, Tamair finally let go of me once the door was closed behind us.

"Why suddenly so gruff?"

"Mi dispace," Tamair said, giving me a weird smile. "Those men were listening to us."

I pouted. "Tamair, they got on two stops ago—I'm pretty sure they don't understand Italian."

"I wasn't worried that they'd understand, Narina." Tamair gave me a look, like he was surprised that I had thought otherwise. "I was worried about you, actually."

"Me?" I was the one to give the funny look now. "Why, exactly, might I ask?"

Tamair's brow furrowed. "You really don't give yourself enough credit. I guess that's another lesson to be taught on this adventure: Teach Narina how to be an actual lady."

"Hey," I said defensively. "I've worn a dress."

"Wearing a dress doesn't make you a woman, Narina," Tamair pointed out. "Have you not noticed that there are plenty of men who wear dresses."

"No, those are robes."

I received an annoyed look for that one. "Look, the point is that you need to learn."

Folding my arms, I held my head high. "No. I don't want to."

Tamair chuckled darkly suddenly. "Narina, my dear, what you want is not always what needs to be done."

"Why do I have to be a lady?" I whined, then shook my head and reached out to poke at Tamair's face. "Never mind. Forget about it. Answer my earlier question."

He cocked a brow at me. "What I was thinking about?" I nodded, but he only smiled and shook his head softly. "You don't really want to know."

"Oh, but I do," I said, putting my hands on my hips. "Or else I wouldn't have asked."

Tamair just sighed and lightly shrugged, turning around to his cot so he could pick up one of his swords that lay upon the blanket. "Just the usual, I guess. What needs to be done. What we're going to do. How different things might be." He paused, sitting down on my cot with the sword in his hand. "I haven't been home in years."

I watched him without a word for a moment or so,and then I slowly walked up to him. "You must have gotten lonely at times."

Tamair smiled. "During the first few years of being in Italy was the worst. I didn't understand anybody, I didn't know the lands. I was lucky enough that I was able to find my fellow Assassin's. But even that took me years."

"Really?" I sat down on the bed next to him.

"Yes. Took me about two years to find Monteriggioni. You know that big symbol that they have at the stairs leading up to the courtyard? That was the sign that told me I had found my way."

"You sound persistent," I pointed out. "I would have given up within the first few months."

"Narina," Tamair started, "if there's something worth fighting for, you don't give up. Right? I'm sure you've had situations like that."

I remembered the months that Ezio and I spent searching for La Volpe, the years that it took to train in the Villa courtyard, how long we had been fighting for the Brotherhood. I shifted on the bed, folding my hands in my lap, while looking down at the floor. "I guess...I guess you're right."

"But there were some times when I wanted to just go back home," Tamair explained. "But I had learned a valuable lesson, and I wouldn't be where I am today without it."

I shifted my gaze from the floor to him, up into his honey-brown eyes. He was rubbing a cloth against his sword, cleaning it to make the edges gleam and sparkle."And what lesson is that?"

Tamair bent his head down towards mine so his breath could press into my face. Through a grin, he whispered "Business comes first. You deal with your wants later."

Remembering Ezio's similar code 'Business before pleasure', I replied "But what if what you want and Business is the same thing?"

Tamair started laughing all of a sudden, as if my words tickled him to the extreme. "My dear Narina, that is a later lesson." He stood from the bed, giving a test swing of his sword, the blade slicing through the air, and then he turned back to me. "The Pleasureful-Business Lesson is one that you need to learn as well. And it'll probably be more comfortable on both of our parts after we spend some time together."

I couldn't help but blush at that for some reason. "W...what do you mean by that?"

"Don't worry about it." He placed the sword down on the bed again, and threw a grin back at me. "We'll deal with it when I get the 'oomph' enough to teach you."

One of my hands pressed up against my cheek. "Should I be worried."

"No." Tamair's grin vanished and he stretched out. "Look, being persistent is a very valuable skill as an Assassin. I'll have to teach you how to determine what needs to be done, to spot out what is necessary." He paused and turned to me fully. "How's your arm doing? I haven't looked at it for a few days."

"Oh!" I rolled up my left sleeve, making the material bunch about my shoulder. "It's still a big scab, but I think it's doing okay as far as not getting an infection."

Tamair moved to the side of the bed to unwrap the bandages himself, and I took the notion that he thought I couldn't do it myself. Despite his somewhat intimidating demeanor, Tamair was gentle; as least with me he was. His fingers would pull the bandages off with great care as if he were afraid I would break if he made one wrong move. There was something strange about it all, and the more I thought about it, the more strange it got. Tamair cared and worried about me more than Ezio, Mario, Claudia Maria—anybody—ever had. I'm not saying that he loved me more; that's a totally different subject. He cared about me like I was some special artifact that couldn't get a speck of dust upon it. And even though it should of bothered me that he treated me like a thing instead of a person, I found it somewhat endearing.

The day finally came when Tamair walked into our cabin, interrupting me in my afternoon nap. I sat up in the cot groggily as I watched Tamair suit up in his armor that he hadn't worn for the most part of the trip.

His eyes landed on me. "We'll be stopping in Acre any moment now," he explained, pulling his hood over his face. "Get your things gathered." After yawning and stretching, I walked around the cabin, looking for anything that I might have left out, then I went up on deck again, following after Tamair, who kindly took the pack instead of making me drag it behind us.

Surprisingly, there were a lot of people getting off in Acre as well. And the land! I stared in wonderment at the port city, a dull gray color that seemed to be in serious need of joy. Although there could be trees seen in splotches throughout the city, you could see the sands beyond the town that stretched out into rolling hills. Oh, it all looked so warm, that sand! How I wanted to run and play in it, take it's warmth from them as if the high sun above us wasn't warm enough (which it was—it had me sweating already.)

Before the boat came to a complete stop in the port, Tamair pulled out the infamous blue cloth from one of his pockets and draped it over my head. When I gave him a saddened look he explained "It will keep you cool against the suns rays." The logic didn't make much sense to me, but, as he tied the knot under my chin, I began to understand what he was saying. The hot sun couldn't bounce off of my head and make me sweat from there. It was actually sort of comforting.

The boat finally stopped and Tamair took a hold of me from around my shoulders, making sure he didn't lose me in the face paced crowd pushing to get off of the boat. I stared in wide-eyed wonderment at everything I could look at: the people on the docks, the people in the town, the birds that circled in the sky, the guards that stood at the entry ways. I couldn't get enough of any of it.

"Not as beautiful as Italy," Tamair murmured to me, startling me and causing me to jump. "But it still has it's charms."

"Yes," I said with a small smile, turning back to gaze upon it all again. "It's definitely different."

All of the words that swarmed about me were so different; I couldn't understand any of them. Tamair, however, was able to catch onto a few of them, and he reacted to them differently. He had a light smile on his face, but his eyes were careful as if he were expecting danger. It must have been good to be home. I finally felt something twist inside of me, and I turned around to look back at the boat. It had been ten days on the boat—fourteen days since I had left Monteriggioni. They must have noticed that I was missing now. They would be looking for me, wouldn't they?And at this point, I felt horrible about that. I should have left a message with the thieves while I was in Venice, but the thought had never occurred to me. I felt the sudden urge to cry again, but I sucked it up and told myself that I had to be strong for both myself and Tamair.

The dark haired assassin led me through the town, making sure I was at his side by constantly throwing me looks. When he wasn't checking up on me though, I would catch him staring in wonderment just like me at the buildings about him, the people. I began to wonder what he had left Israel to be in; had it changed or was it all the same? I felt like it wasn't my place to ask him though, and I held my tongue. Just as Tamair had suggested before, we shopped for some food to replenish our supply. Even the food here was different than the food in Italy! Most of the food here though was fish, probably because Acre was a port town. There were different kinds of fruits that I had ever seen in any other market.

Once we bought our food, Tamair talking in his native tongue, he turned to me and nodded, suggesting that we head out now. When we approached the horse stables after walking out of the grand arch way that led into Acre, Tamair suddenly stopped and growled under his breath.

"What?" I asked.

"I don't have any money."

"What are you ta...oh, right," I trailed off, remembering the he was only semi-rich in Italy; being in a different country with different money did us no good. I sighed and already felt my feet aching. "Does that mean we have to walk?" Tamair saw my discomfort at the thought and he slowly shook his head.

"No." He handed me our pack of things and food. "Hold this and wait here."

I stood aside and watched as Tamair walked up to the stables, all the horses nickering loudly at him, making the man who ran the whole thing look up at the assassin. I wasn't exactly sure what Tamair said to the man, but judging from the look on the guys face, I take it that it wasn't any good. The man's eyes widened and his face went pale. Then he nodded vigorously, holding up his hands shakily.

Tamair approached me with two horses in tow, a broad smirk that peeped out from under his hood.

"What did you do?" I asked as he handed me the reigns to one of the horses.

"Don't worry about it." He took a hold of our packs and heaved them up onto the horse. "We've got the horses, right?"

I waited until he was done strapping on our things. "Tamair, how long will it take us to get to Jerusalem?"

He glanced up at me. "Two days. Maybe three. Depends on how smoothly we travel."

"It will take that long?"

"We've got a lot of land to cover," he grunted, pulling himself up into the saddle of his horse. "I suggest we get moving before the guards come and see that we've stolen some horses."

Sighing, I too climbed up onto my horse, shifted around a bit then pulled the cloth down over my eyes. I waited until Tamair took the lead and then followed up down the path that led up out of Acre.

I never could have prepared myself for the heat of the deserts.

I thought the summer days in Italy were bad—psh, Israel was ten times worse. I'm pretty sure I have never sweated so much in my entire life. The night of the first day, Tamair stopping us and creating a warm fire for us to rest next to, I complained up until the moment I passed out from exhaustion. The next day was much the same, getting up at the crack of dawn to being the sweaty and much too hot day all over again. There was nothing really exciting to see, aside from the occasional village that popped up. And the sand; I had thought I'd love it, but after you have the grains in your clothes, in your eyes, in every little crack it could fit, you soon grew tired of the stuff. And it's warmth was no comfort what-so-ever. And the days just seemed to drag on forever! I could only busy myself with bugging Tamair more, asking him unnecessary questions. In the end, I was glad that Tamair had me get used to the cloth over my head because it really did help with keeping me cool.

During the beginning of the evening of the second day, we rounded a curve on the path around a mountain and I took in with large eyes a grand city with a great amount of buildings squished together.

"Oh my-! Tamair!" I gasped. "Is this Jerusalem?" The city looked so much warmer than Acre had—I might have been because of the warm tiles that spotted some of the roofs along the city.

Tamair looked back at me, the wear of having to deal with me for the past few days clear in his eyes. "Yes. Welcome to Jerusalem."

July 13th, 1480

"Take another look through the city again," Ezio heard Ugo say when he walked into the courtyard. "Make sure you take a good look at all the people and things too. She could be anywhere."

"Ugo," Ezio greeted after the young thief watched his men take off down the streets.

"Ezio, have you any news?" Ugo wondered, turning towards the young man.

Ezio sadly shook his head. "I've seen no sign of her." Ezio turned and stared out at the streets. "From the looks of the horse, too, it looked like they were attacked with weapons. The hoofs of the horse were cut clean off."

"Do you think she made it out of that?"

"She obviously had," Ezio said, rubbing his head. "There's no sign of struggle and no human blood to be seen in the area."

Ugo fell silent and stared at Ezio for a moment. "Ezio, it's been about a month. I don't think—."

"I think that we need to look more," Ezio interrupted. "There's more of Italy to search, Ugo. I won't stop until I know where she is."

Ugo sighed, nodded and followed after his men on the street.

Ezio made sure Ugo was out of sight before he let out his breath, the sound unsteady and shaky.

August 21st, 1480

It seemed like the sixth time Ezio searched through the forest, but with help of Mario's men and a few of Caterina's soldiers searching the trees, he felt as though this was the time he'd find something.

The thieves have been searching Venice for months. La Volpe and Paola kept their eyes out on Florence. Lorenzo de'Medici sent out some of his men to other towns in Italy, searching out the districts that Ezio hadn't the time to get to before. The few of Mario's men that weren't helping with the forest had been sent to search out the border cities to make sure Narina wasn't there.

Sweating, Ezio breathed heavily and trudged through the trees, brushing aside the branches. It had seemed so long since he had seen his little Narina. He would settle for her angry tone and upset face right now. Anything that proved she was alive.

"Ser Ezio! Ser Ezio!"

Snapping his head around, Ezio watched as one of Mario's men ran up to him, the man broke out in a sweat, his eyes filled with a form of fear.

"What is it?"

"Shoes! W-we found shoes!"

Quickly, Ezio followed after the young lad, weaving through the trees with ease. Oh God, a sign of Narina! How many months Ezio had been waiting for this! They returned back to the path and run up a little bit into the mountains, and in a small, round clearing, the boy veered off of the path to the left. "They are over here, signore!"

Ezio pushed ahead of the boy, almost breaking off into a full sprint but he was stopped by the wide river that spread out before him. A group of men were spread out all about the small clearing. Now impatient, Ezio spun around and glared at the boy.

"Signore," the boy whispered, his finger pointing near the bank. "They're there."

Ezio snapped his head down to his feet, and indeed he spotted the worn, wet, and faded red slippers. Although he hadn't paid attention to Narina's feet during the party, the size was for sure the same length of the feet that had once before pressed into his calves.

"She must have fallen into the water," one of the men said. "Stuck her feet in to rest and fallen in."

"Check the river edges now!" Ezio demanded. "Follow it through the forest and try to find her!" Most of the men ran off along the edge of the river, there eyes on the rushing water.

But one of them stayed behind and stared at Ezio solemnly. "Ezio, ser... I thought Narina couldn't swim?"

Ezio stared at the man for a moment, then swiftly looked back down at the slippers, stooping over to pick them up. Squeezing them in his grasp Ezio growled, "She can't." Then he turned and began to stalk down the edge of the river.

Year Two

Lesson Two:To be Precise is Key

Tamair lived in the southern part of the city, in a small building that his family had lived in before. The place hadn't been touched in fourteen long years, so moving in took some...time. Everything was dusty and broken, the place obviously had been ran-sacked. I found Tamair lost in thought sometimes when he'd stare about the house, as if living in his memories.

At first, living away from home was hard. I found myself wanting to go back more often than not during the first few months. I'd lie awake at night in the straw filled bed that Tamair made for me the day we got there, staring out the window with cracked glass up at the stars, and sometimes I'd idly wonder if Ezio was also staring at the same stars. I wasn't going to lie—I missed him. But there was nothing I could do about it now.

During the first few months, since I was so homesick, Tamair just worked with me on uncovering some documents throughout the city. Most of the ones that we found were located around the house, places Tamair's father had hidden them before. With great care and patient words, Tamair taught me how to decipher some codes in the papers so that he could read them (since they were in Arabic.) It gave me something to think about aside from Italy and Ezio. I'm not sure how he pulled it off, but Tamair always had something for me to do.

The culture in this new land was something that I never really got the hang of. The women couldn't speak out of line, always had to be covered up. That was sort of a pain, too, considering that I was the loud-mouth type of person. And what's more is that I couldn't understand anybody except for the few times Tamair took the time to talk to me in Italian. I probably could have picked up on the language using the context in the way people would speak, but I never wanted to take the time to do that. According to Tamair, he said it would probably just be easier for him to do all the talking anyways.

Learning the lesson about business was easy, but it took the rest of the year. It was weird to consider that, during the winter, it didn't get all that much colder. Throughout the next January and February, though, Tamair chose to wrap up my first lesson about the business part and to move on to training me properly.

We climbed up onto the house roof one day when the sun was shrouded by clouds, making the day surprisingly warmer. The desert winter was close to ending, but we were getting still slight chilled days.

"Weapons such as sharp objects and heavy hits won't do you any good," Tamair said. "You can't kill anybody, so what is the use of swinging something about that you can't control?"

I frowned at that. "I'm not sure if I should take that as an insult or not."

Tamair only shrugged, grinning at me. "You need a weapon that won't kill, but strong enough to defend yourself. You need to use your body as your weapon."

"So, what? Am I supposed to dance my way to victory or something?"

A deep chuckle rumbled through Tamair's lips. "No. But in a way, yes."

I felt my shoulders slump down. "Well, great. Put me in some tights and a tutu; I'm ready."

Laughing, Tamair rolled his eyes at me, and even though I was confused with my words at the moment, he didn't even seemed to be bothered by them. "You're much too dramatic, Narina. I'll show you what I can teach you to do." He didn't give me much of a warning other than that. He simply just walked up to me, bright smile and everything, and then he pinched the base of my neck, the muscle between my shoulder and neck, and the pain that shot through me was immense. I dropped down to the roof, crying out in pain.

I snapped my head up at Tamair. "What the...what are...? What did you just do!" Just as soon as my power was taken away from me, it all came back and I immediately stood on my feet.

Tamair was still smiling softly. "Pressure Points are going to be your weapon, Narina. You can knock down the toughest opponent with a slightest pinch."

I rubbed at my neck, where it was starting to hurt. "Ow...that really hurt!"

"It's supposed to." Tamair reached up and pressed his fingers to a spot on my jaw line, and the same pressure of pain shot through me, only I ripped away before he could press harder.

"Stop it!" I whined, using my hands to cover my neck area. "Can't you just tell me where they are instead of showing me? I don't like pain."

"Most people don't, Narina." Tamair shook his head at me. "Besides, you'll learn better if I show you."

"No! No, no, no, no!" I ran away from his hand that was stretched out towards me again. Not wanting to go through the pain again, I jumped from the roof onto the one next door, and stared back at Tamair, who was laughing in a mocking way.

"Look at you coward away! What have they been teaching you over in Italy? How to run away and make everyone else fight your battles?"

That was a low blow, but I knew he was right. "Look, can't we just go about this another way? I mean, this 'hurting-Narina' method we're using really isn't going to be effective."

Tamair rolled his eyes, but shrugged. "Fine. I'll just tell you where these points are, then you can try them out on me."

I raised my brows at him. "You're willing to put yourself up as a target?"

He grinned. "You don't know what you're doing just yet; of course I'm going to let you test it out on me."

Tamair gave me a list of where these pressure points were on the body, him lightly pressing one finger to where the point was. At first, I would flinch away from his touch, worried about the pain that I thought for sure would follow, but Tamair would prove to be kind to me, his touch gentle and even somewhat comforting like he was telling me to trust him. As promised, Tamair let me try out some pinches on his neck, his wrists, let me squeeze his knees to try and get the one there. Like he had said, I didn't know what I was doing, and the only one that I could get enough to make him lightly flinch under my touch was the one on his neck, which was the easiest one, according to him.

"We'll spend some time working with these points. Our goal is that it'll almost be a second nature to know where they are. You won't even have to think twice about where you're pressing your fingers."

I nodded, but I was truthfully a little skeptical about how this pressure point thing would work. "How long do you think it will take to learn it to that degree?"

Tamair shrugged. "However long you want it to take." The young man held up a finger towards me. "But do not be mistaken, Narina. You can kill someone with this points. Well, obviously, you can't, but you can use this method of attack because you can control it. Understand?"

Slowly at first then more steady, I nodded. "Yes."

"Keep this in mind, Narina: to be precise is key." He gestured with his head to follow him down off of the building. "Let's go back inside. I'm getting hungry."

I felt my face light up at the mention of food. "Me too!" Before Tamair could drop down off of the roof, I ran up behind him and squeezed at his neck, giggling under my breath as his knees slightly buckled under him. I dropped down before he could and ran into the house, knowing that he'd get revenge on me in ten fold sometime later.

When spring time rolled around, the humidity sky-rocketing, Tamair took the liberty to teach me how to properly predict an enemies actions and then dodge them so I could find an opening to use my new-found 'pressure point' skills. I was still learning how to be more precise on my pinches, but it was a lot of hard work, and I couldn't help but feel bad since I had to test them all out on Tamair. Before long, his dark skin was bruised from my tweaks and I always apologized for them.

This particular day, we were outside of the city, hidden by a broken wall out in the sand about 20 feet away from the city walls. I was all suited up in the clothes I had gotten from Italy—but I normally had to wear a dress around the town because Tamair said I would raise too much suspicion if I wore man clothes around. Tamair, on the other hand, was without armor, but still in his assassin robes. Whenever we would train, the would be down, but in any other case aside from being in the safety of his home, Tamair would be wearing the hood.

"You have to be elusive and aloof," Tamair told me one day, swinging at me with a stick so I could practice some dodging techniques he had shown me. "Make sure your own intentions are not clear while you are judging your enemy's." With a vertical swing of the stick, I twisted on my left heel, sending me around to Tamair's side while I simultaneously tried to press the pressure point in the exposed nook of his under arm. Tamair took a hold of my pressing hand and twisted it up in the air, the stick dropping to the ground while I was uncomfortably twisted up against Tamair's side.

"Nice try," he said sincerely, "but I'm afraid that won't do."

I huffed loudly. "Man, this is a lot harder than I thought it would be!"

"You're still off a little bit on the point," Tamair said, letting me go. "I think we need to do some more practices on the pressure."

Groaning, I hunched over with my hands on my knees. "Right, right..." I looked back up at him. "How was my dodge?"

Tamair rolled his head, his neck popping a few times, then he rubbed at his stubbly face, a grin upon his lips. "Vicino alla perfezione (Near perfection)," he said. "You learn quick. I'm surprised."

I smiled proudly, opened my mouth to thank Tamair, but then he quickly approached me, pulling out a cloth from his pouch and hung it over my head. "Let's get back to the town," he hummed. "There are some documents that are in dire need of being looked upon."

I closed my mouth. "Okay, fine."

The gist of the information that we had gotten out of the documents Tamair's father had left behind was that the order had indeed been relocated to mostly Italy, Spain, France, Germany, and England. There was some more information on the origin of the new found Brotherhood, but there was only one small entry on that, and all that it said was stuff that we both knew—the new Order was started during the end of the crusades. Most of what we uncovered was useless information, records of the movement of the order across the lands. Not that that wasn't important, but it was stuff that we weren't exactly looking for.

When summer broke through with heated fury, I asked Tamair to teach me how to swim, considering that I had never gotten around to actually learning how to from Ezio. He told me he would whenever we would go to Acre again or any place near the sea, he would teach me then. And since it was summer, Tamair told me we would be traveling around a bit.

"I want to follow in Altair's footsteps," he said. "He went between Jerusalem, Acre, Damascus, and Masyaf, and I know that if I go between them, I'll find something valuable."

I lounged back in a chair in the small dining area in the front room. "Sounds like it'll take a long while."

"It probably will." Tamair then threw me a small scroll that landed in my lap. "Here's another thing that needs a little decoding. Have fun with it."

I wasn't going to lie; at first, I really regretting going with Tamair. The new lands, the new culture, the new rules were all too different for me—I couldn't handle it. And when we started to look at the documents, I was almost sure that it was all gibberish and that none of it could possibly help out Ezio back in Italy. I was glad, though, that I was wrong, and after a few months of living in the small home with Tamair, I began to realize just how much all of it would help out the Brotherhood.

March 6th, 1481

The spring air in Florence brushed up into Ezio's hood, tickling along his skin. Although the touch should have been comforting, he frowned at it's touch and turned his head away from the breeze, to look down on the Florence streets. The search had to be held off during the winter months, but Ezio still searched in what little way he could. Even though it was a warm winter, many of his search party had grown tired of looking for the brown haired girl that had slipped through Ezio's fingers. Now that it was spring again, Ezio once again gathered a small search party and insisted that they search out the lands again.

The man didn't know why he was so persistent of finding this woman. It had been ten months and there hadn't been any sign of her anywhere. Besides the shoes. The shoes are what made everyone slowly start losing hope.

However, Ezio didn't give up so easily. Sure, he found the shoes, but there had yet to be a body found. If Narina was to be dead, there would be a body, right?

But no. No! She isn't dead! He told himself so many times that he believed it. He tuned out Ugo's words, the others who tried to convince the Assassin that the blue-eyed beauty was someplace that no one could find her. Because he would find her. He'd find her alive. He'd bring her back home.

July 23rd, 1481

"Ezio?"

The young assassin sat up stiffly, jerking his head away from his head that had rubbed at his forehead. His mother stood in the door, staring quietly at him.

He cleared his throat. "Yes, Mother?"

Maria quietly walked into the room, her foot steps treading lightly on the floor. "My son, you do not look so well. Haven't you eaten today?"

Sighing, Ezio rubbed his eyes again and leaned back against his hand. "No. I must have lost track of time."

"Perhaps you need to take a break, then?" Maria stood beside her son, reaching out and resting her hand upon his shoulder. "You've been sitting in here all day."

"I'll come out in a bit and get something to eat," Ezio whispered. "I want to stay in here for a while longer."

Maria let her hand cup Ezio's cheek, and pulled it up so he looked up at her. "My son, have I not taught you that when you try to force something, you lose a hold of it?" Ezio didn't respond, adverting his eyes to the side as if he found something interesting upon the wall. "If you want to cherish it, then give it some rest." Maria dropped her hand and went back to the door. "Come and get something to eat quickly, Ezio." She left the room, closing the door behind her.

There was a long moment when Ezio didn't even move, his eyes still locked on the spot on the wall. Then, finally, he sighed, rubbed at his face again, and laid back on the bed that he was sitting upon, letting his fingers run across the bed spread as if he were trying to find some warmth there. And even though he knew his mother was right, he couldn't help but slip back into his memories, to relive them once more.

And even sitting in Narina's room all day didn't change the fact that it was getting harder and harder for Ezio to remember what Narina's voice sounded like. As much as he tried not to otherwise, he was starting to lose hold of her. And he knew that it would only be a matter of time until he couldn't even imagine her smile that he loved.

He had to find her.