Hello! I will be posting the first two chapters of this new story together!

If you have any constructive critiquing I'm more than happy to listen. Just bear in mind if you decide to critique that I only write as a hobby for my own enjoyment.

I hope you enjoy!

Thanks!

Disclaimer, I do not own Assassin's Creed or any of it's content or characters. I do own any original characters that appear.


I check myself in the mirror, wiping away a couple of mascara smudges from around my forest green eyes. But my hair has gone into disarray… I try to flatten out the warm blonde frizz with absolutely zero success. I should have listened to my gut when I thought about putting my mini hair oil in my bag before we left the hotel room. That hair oil is some kind of miracle… It can turn my frizzy mess of honey blonde hair into a semi-attractive collection of loose, wavy curls.

I step back to try and get a better look at myself in the small bathroom mirror. I maybe should have thought about taking a backup shirt with me… I bit my lip as I look up and down the person in the mirror, I feel a twinge of that victory that I had initially felt upon seeing my goal weight on the scale. And to think that all it took was two years of consistent hard work and a total diet overhaul. I hadn't really been bothered by my weight, but I had to draw the line once it started to get in the way of my everyday life. That was one of the hardest things for me to ever admit to myself… I hadn't ever considered myself to be fat… Only a little on the heavier end… So, when I had to admit to myself that it was getting out of hand, it really took a toll on how I saw myself in the mirror… Or when I was having a bath, or putting on that pair of pants that fit just last month...

And there is no way I could have achieved anything without Vee… She helped me every step of the way too. Far beyond what I had expected of her… She had even helped me by introducing me to the people that coached me in all the skills that my parents had fostered when I had been younger. All the classes that my parents had sent me to that I had given up on back when I became more interested in art were now fully realized skills. Like the mixed martial arts classes, along with some varied other fighting skills, some fencing and basic swordplay, shooting in both archery and guns, and parkour. Most of which had come back to me as easily as I had originally gained them, despite the years of those skills going completely unused.

And now, looking in that mirror, instead of the effort not to dwell on my looks I find myself smiling that the person in the reflection. Sure I may not be the perfect model of body weight, with the remaining pudge around my stomach, chin, and thighs, but simply the fact that I can look in the mirror and smile is something I never felt before this point. And now, when I take a bath, I can focus on relaxing instead of thinking about my body. And the pants don't fit because they fall off if there isn't a belt.

"Alright. Let's go." I say to encourage myself.

I step out of the bathroom to find a scene that is pretty typical of my sister being… Well, anywhere, really. Venus simply attracts this… A group of attractive looking Italian men are standing around her chatting her up, most likely inviting her to party at night. I can already see where this is going over the next few minutes here. She is very charismatic, so naturally, she easily draws this kind of attention. She is usually very graceful about it as well…

God, my parents could not have named her more perfectly. Venus, the Roman goddess of beauty, and my sister lives up to her name… Vee is gorgeous head to toe. She has sleek platinum blonde hair that seems to be consistently, flawlessly cascading down her back. She has rich, azure eyes and even without makeup her face looks nearly flawless. And her petite frame with slightly toned muscles contribute to her having the most coveted body type in modern terms.

Me? I don't really know… Astraea… The starry maiden, a lesser known Greek goddess of justice. Daughter of Astraeus, the titan god of dusk, and Eos, the titan goddess of dawn. Astraea was said to have stayed among men longer than all the other immortal gods, and when she left the world of man, Zeus placed her among the stars in the constellation Virgo. They named me that for the fact that the night I was born had been an amazingly clear night full of stars with the constellation Virgo just reaching the peak of its trek across the sky. I can't say I've ever really felt any kind of affinity towards her.

She spots me walking towards her and smiles, and I can see her get their attention and begin to talk. Most likely telling them that her sister is just on her way back… As I near I can hear that she is in fact getting ready to introduce me once I get closer.

"… my younger sister, Astraea…" I really wish she wouldn't tell all the strange men my name. It's not like any of them are going to suddenly fall for me like they do for her. I see them all turn in my direction, eyes scanning the crowds I just waded through towards them. Predictably, every single pair of eyes simply passes over the plain-Jane approaching them, looking for what must be the supremely attractive younger sister of the babe they're fawning over. When, in reality, I am pretty average. I don't have that easy magnetism that she exudes from every pore. Even her five feet and three inches gives her this extra adorable factor. Where for me my five feet and seven inches only adds to my averageness.

She bounds forward and links arms with me, "This is her! See! She's so much taller than I am… Raea, these guys were just inviting me to a party tonight! I asked and they said it should be fine for you to come too!" She glows, she thinks the best of me, and I love her for it…

They go from a visible excitement, eyes wide and darting through the crowd… To narrowed eyes evaluating the less than ideal woman now being presented to them. Perfectly typical reaction of this kind man to me. Especially when being introduced by Vee. Probably because they were expecting someone who looks remotely like her, i.e. drop-dead gorgeous.

It has certainly improved from the previous reactions of borderline disgust that used to greet me upon introduction by Venus. My weight distribution has always been atypical so even when I was heavier, I could hide it pretty well most days, but not enough to be attractive. Usually the squishy lumps were all too visible if I wasn't actively sucking it all in… Now I am but 175 pounds and a good portion of that is actually muscle mass now. Even if they are, according to my brothers, 'soft muscles', which they undoubtedly said mostly to tease me. Although, I do still have more of a tummy than the average girl, especially girls like Venus.

As for the guys currently in front of us? I can hear them not-so-whispering to each other in Italian, they don't know I understand most it. And they are not saying nice things, it isn't as venomous as it would have been at my previous weight, but I guess I'm just not their cup of tea. They probably were looking for a supermodel bodied girl. I make out that one of them is pretty sure bringing me to aforementioned party would basically discredit them. Resulting in no further invitations to subsequent parties.

However, unfortunately for them… Vee also knows enough Italian to understand the gist of they are saying. I look over at her and I can see the expression on her face changed from jovial and borderline innocence to unbridled rage. One of the guys notices this, and elbows his neighbour, who looks at Vee. I can practically see the gears turning in his head as he comes to the conclusion that she can not only understand Italian but must also have heard everything he and his neighbour were whispering.

"Do not ever approach me again." She hisses at the lot of them, as she tugs me around and she marches down the cobbled street tugging me along beside her. Sometimes, I think she is touchier about my body than I am, being that lately I only seem to see my improvements from what I had been to now…

But I will forever be grateful to my most adamant defender.


"I can not believe them. I was talking to them and they had said that… That they didn't care much about body types. That they can look past the surface!" She makes a mocking impression of the Italian guys and then clicks her tongue making the tsk sound, "Maybe if the surface was a puddle you could step in without getting your shoes wet!" Vee has been venting out the bathroom door in the hotel room for almost a whole hour. She even did it while she was showering. This is one of the things I love so much about Vee… She defends me so completely… "I mean really! You have lost so much weight since… I really thought that maybe things with males would change too… I'm sorry Raea… Please know I think you are beautiful."

"Hey, it doesn't really bother me anymore." She steps out of the bathroom with her hair in a towel, toothbrush in hand, "I know how much work we both put into this and we certainly got the results." I gesture to my body.

"I know… But that isn't the point. I'm just so sick of that kind of guy only talking to me until you come and then acting as if you're some kind of heinous monster."

"Like I'm your duff, you mean?" I see her clench the toothbrush in her fist hard enough for her knuckles to go white for a second.

"Yes. They literally treat you like the literal definition of a duff. You're not even fat or ugly at all!" She stuffs the toothbrush into her mouth and begins to aggressively brush her teeth. She is usually pretty articulate… But when she gets riled up, sometimes she loses her finesse…

"I mean… My hair did kind of look like a disaster there for a while… All that humidity in that cramped, slanted staircase to get to the top of the dome really did a number on the frizz level… Not to mention the level of sweat I produced. I guess it was worse than I thought if I looked like a monster." I hear a snort from the bathroom, followed by some grunts of pain. After a few minutes Vee staggers out of the bathroom.

"You made me spew toothpaste water. Out. My. Nose. That really hurt!" I could see that her eyes were still watering. She goes back into the bathroom to finish up while I do my best not to burst out in laughter.

I finish repacking my suitcase, stuffing in my newest additions. We have been touring Italy from north to the south for almost two months now after starting in late August, just after my twenty-fifth birthday. Our next big stop is Naples, we leave for there in the morning. We are planning to stay in Naples for a while and during that time we'll visit the island of Capri for a day, Pompeii, Herculaneum, and a few other choice locations. Vee had taken the entire three months off of work to go touring with me to celebrate my graduation from my bachelor's degree. Our mom wasn't able to get any time off, but she did end up having some business in Naples, so she says she managed to get a few days off while we will be there to tour around the area with us, including our day trip to Capri. As for our dad and other siblings their respective jobs have kept them very busy and won't even be able to join us at all.

"Mum is meeting us in Naples, right?"

"Yep. She's coming to Capri with us, but she wants to join us for our tour of Pompeii too." She says without leaving the bathroom.

"Cool, that'll be great." I set my suitcase back onto the floor, ready for my pyjamas to join my other things inside in the morning before it gets zipped and locked up for the train ride to Naples. I very purposefully place my keys to my luggage lock on the table. I don't want to have to buy another luggage while I'm travelling.

Another? Whatever could you mean? Well. Let me inform you as to what happens when things get hairy on travel stuff.

So. We had gotten onto the train to our next stop on our tour. This train ride took us through some very lovely scenic mountain towns. But. After one of these mountain towns the train suddenly stopped. Then we start coasting backwards… I had been a little alarmed and Vee had mostly just been curious.

Then we sat. And we sat. And we sat some more. Then the sun set. Then we sat. Then finally we were told that only people going all the way to the end location, i.e. our stop, would be continuing. They had everyone get off the train. Then there was confusion. So everyone got back on the train. Then more confusion, so everyone got back off the train. Then we were told as riders going to the end destination to go to the front cars. So off we go to the front cars, where all the seat numbers were adjusted to reflect the seat numbers matching the tickets. But alas, we get to our seats and the Canadian couple who had been sitting across from us were in out seats. Why? Well, because a group of guys had just gotten back on and sat where they had been sitting before, not realizing that the seats had changed numbers. It caused a whole hullabaloo, but it did all get straightened out in the end.

Then we were on the tracks and moving again. Fast-forward to us arriving and needing to catch a cab. Well, so did everyone else on the train, because we arrived in the city at a lovely one o'clock in the morning. An hour later, we were finally in a cab on the way to the hotel. We check in and go up to our space, for this section we had actually ended up with some kind of suite with a little kitchenette. We'll get to why this is important in a minute.

We settle at our beds and I go to my backpack to fetch my luggage keys. Only… I couldn't find them. I dumped the whole bag out while Venus had gone to wash her face before bed. Nope. No keys… I thought that I must have dropped them somewhere… Maybe in all that off and on at the train…

I remember Venus' face when I told her I couldn't find my luggage keys. She tried to reason with me to just sleep in my clothes, but I was tired and was not wanting to sleep in clothes that I had been seating in all day long. She didn't even say anything back.

What did she do? Well. That kitchenette? She went over to it and started opening drawers until she got what she wanted. A nice long, sharp kitchen knife. Why a knife? So that she could go over to my suitcase, shank it, and saw the knife down one side of the suitcase and tear it open.

Problem solved. Until morning when I had to go buy a new suitcase.

I chuckle at the memory; I had never seen Venus so completely done with anything before.

I hold my new skirt up in front of me as I stand in front of the mirror. I hope I still feel bold enough to wear this tomorrow… Vee said it looked fantastic when I tried it on, but now I'm not so sure… I have been gratified that I have lost enough weight that I can even get something this pretty on, but I'm still not totally sold on this skirt… I've never felt pretty enough to wear something so feminine. I fish the yoga shorts out and put them on top of my suitcase with the skirt, and the shirt and camisole combo I plan on wearing tomorrow.

"Alright, all done now. Your turn, you gonna have a shower?" Vee steps out of the bathroom and puts her bathroom bag on top of her suitcase.

"Hmmm… Yeah, I think so… St. Peter's was ludicrously hard. I sweated up a storm…" I pinch the front of my shirt and pull it away from me, "My poor shirt will never be the same…" Venus laughs at the comment and adds her own.

"Your telling me! I thought my legs would give out!"

"I know, right!" We both chuckle as I head into the bathroom and close the door.

"I'm just going down to the lobby to grab a couple of snacks; I won't be long." Vee says from the other side of the door.

"Oki doki." I answer to the door as I close the shower curtain and turn on the water.

I let the shower wash away the day, and when I get out Vee is already back and watching a show on the TV. We chatter about our plans for the next few days until we both decide to go to sleep and turn off our lights.

It takes some time to hush my brain from the excitement of meeting up with mom, but eventually I manage to slip into sleep.


I look towards the horizon; the storm is getting darker…

A burst of lightning streaks across the sky.

I'm falling towards the turbulent surface of the sea, and the waves swallow me. The currents of the water grab me like a strong pair of hands, and they pull me deeper and deeper. The grip of the water only getting stronger the further it takes me.

The lightning shooting across the skies gets darker as the sea pulls me further below the surface. I reach upwards, grasping to reach the air again, when a shining winged figure in emerald and gold robes reaches down towards me. Our hands touch for a moment in a bright flash.

Then everything goes black around me.


"Hey… Are you alright?" I open my eyes to see Venus' face lit up by her bedside lamp, "You were gasping like you couldn't breathe or something…"

"Yeah… I'm okay. It was a nightmare… I think…" Was I in the sea, maybe? I try to remember the dream I just had, but the harder I try the further away it seems to get. And there's seems to be nothing I can do to stop it from slipping away.

"What was it about?" She sits back down on the edge of her bed, "It seemed bad…"

"I… don't remember…" I try again, I think there was a storm… And… Nope. It is really gone… All that remains is a sense of unease… And the sensation of something holding onto me and taking me far away.

"That's unusual for you. Most of the time you remember the tiniest details from your dreams."

"Yeah… Oh well, if I woke you up from it, maybe it's better off forgotten…" She shrugs, slips back under her covers, and turns off her light. I said that… But I don't know if I really believe it.

"Goodnight, Raea."

"Night, Vee…" I roll over and curl up under my covers and I wrap my arms around myself for comfort. It takes a while to shake the uneasy feeling left from the dream, but eventually I manage to slip into a dreamless black sleep.


"I'm sorry you two, I know I promised to go on that Pompeii tour. But this is really important." Mom spouts as she walks towards the car that had arrived to pick her up, slipping the cellphone into her pocket. Her strawberry blonde waves bouncing behind her as she walks away.

"No worries, Mom. Let me know if you can join us later on for supper or not." Vee waves her phone at mom.

"We'll see you later, mom!" I really want to say something else and I'm annoyed that I haven't been able to spend as much time with her as possible, but I'm not a child, and I was already aware that she was in Naples for work. So, predictably, even though she had said that she had arranged for some uninterrupted time to spend with us… She hasn't spent more than thirty minutes straight with us the past four days.

She waves one last time before sliding into the back seat of the car.

"I was really looking forward to spending some time with her… It feels like its been ages since we were able to spend time together." I feel my shoulders slump a little bit and Vee puts a hand on one.

"Don't worry, you'll be able to spend time with her later." She smiles at me, "Plus, we have to get going to that tour bus! We don't want to miss the tour of Pompeii right!" She nudges my shoulder with her fist, "You are an architecture nerd after all, right?"

"Well, only surface, really." I chuckle, "That was only part of my double major." I double smack my chest, "At my CORE I am an art nerd! Although… That just makes Pompeii all the more interesting to me. There are some of the best-preserved Roman paintings in Pompeii from having been covered in ash so quickly!" Pompeii and Herculaneum of course but Herculaneum is for another day.

"NERD!" Vee teases as we begin to stroll to the bus.

We walk to the meeting point of the tour which is supposed to be just a few blocks away from here. Which was a key factor in choosing this tour over some of the other tours.

We take a few turns and the whole way to the bus is exactly how you'd expect the streets of an Italian city to look. With the potted plants on most of the rails just outside of the windows with open shutters. The narrow cobble stone street is lined with small cars and mopeds parked in pretty much any spot that would accommodate them. One of the more ornate buildings has a garden on the rooftop.

Vee and I chat about little things, but mostly I just absorb the surroundings. The sounds of the people laughing and chatting as we pass a small café bustling with the morning crowd. A couple comes from a side street and crosses the street holding hands. I spot the woman look down at their joined hands and smile. A part of me feels as though I witnessed something that was meant to be private, but the other part of me can't help but see the expression of how in love she looks. That's so amazing… Part of me feels so happy that two people are in love that way. There is also the part of me that seeing it causes my heart to clench, wishing I could know what she's feeling. But there is also somewhere in my heart that tells me it's not something I will ever have.

We turn down a side street to see a suddenly high volume of tourists signalling that we had arrived at the location of the meeting point for our tour.

"I have the papers, so I'll go sign us in with the tour guide." Vee volunteers.

Vee goes over to the person holding the big sign to sign us in and then we wait to load the bus.

The whole time my thoughts lingering on the couple enjoying a morning stroll together.


I know that Venus said I shouldn't go out on my own… But that is literally her just treating me like a juvenile. And she knows how much I hate that. I'm twenty-five now. I don't need a babysitter. Not to mention that I now have a fully honed arsenal of martial arts and the body that can use them properly… Unlike four years ago when I hit my worst weight… Sure I had known all the martial arts, but I was out of practice and certainly not in any shape to use it for more than maybe a minute.

I stroll down the dark street; I hear laughter coming from a pub on the next corner. I pull the strap of my bag further onto my shoulder and continue my walk down to the beach that I found on my maps app. I had been simply sitting in the hotel room, putzing on the internet… Doing nothing in particular, until I had looked over and spotted my little travel sketchbook just sitting on the desk in the corner of the room.

And with Vee gone to that party, it was the perfect opportunity to take some time to myself to draw.

I spot the top of a church just down the street at the next turn, the cross lit up at its peak. Hmm… Most churches around here have something interesting to them, so I stroll in that direction since I have no real timeline on when to get to the beach.

The outside of the church surprises me with its Greek styled pediment being held up by beautiful Ionic style columns. I look across the street to see a perfectly placed cement block jutting out from the base of the fence blocking off the train tracks. I head over to it and sit myself down in front of the church to draw the pediment and the columns for a few minutes.

Once I had finished at the church, I had moved down the street and found other cool buildings to draw and I just kept going at it until I feel my pocket buzz with a message from on my phone.

Vee 3 – Where are you?

You're not in the hotel room…

Are you okay?

Oops… It's 12:30 am… I've been strolling and drawing for two hours… And I haven't even gotten to that beach yet…

I answer Vee that I'm on my way back to the hotel right away, so she doesn't worry too much. But she is not going to be pleased that I left without even leaving a note for her or anything…

Sure enough… She had a real earful for me. She was worried that I had been abducted or something. Although, I'm not really sure what anyone would want with me… I'm pretty average.

Afterwards, Vee went and had a shower. She may have lectured me, but I could tell how worried she had been at coming back to an empty hotel room… I had been planning to be back before her, but then I got so carried away with my drawing.