Hello everyone! So, since I published The Medici Girl, I found myself picking up where I left off on a little story I did years ago called Eternum. The only thing about that story was the plot was very hard to follow and lacked context. I was trying to accomplish something with it and reading it again I found I needed to start over. So, this is the result. Lots of stories about Assassins that no one knows about.

I've been replaying Unity and it gave me an opportunity to expand on the story a bit more (to be clear, this is not a novelization, just my interpretation of the story and I will stick to the canon like I did with my previous story) and since the game had problems in the past, I kind of want to play around with it. Arno is a great character; Elise hinders him through the rest of the game. Honestly, she is the main conflict with the story in general and I want to expand on that a little more.

Now, French is my second language (I grew up in South Louisiana where it is mandatory to learn four years of French in grade school) but I hate writing it, so I will do my best to incorporate it into dialogue.

Eva looked around the cafe seeing the layer of dust that settled on the tables and chairs scattered about the room while her mother walked around observing the rundown establishment. The dark-haired young woman remembers running through the lively atmosphere as a child when her father was alive. Now it was so quiet and there were fleeting memories of her father chasing her through the building as she giggled. Those were happier times for her and her mother, Charlotte.

She swiped a finger across the surface of the bar where hot coffee would be laid out for guests once upon a time and looked at the amount of dust that had accumulated there. How long had it been? Twelve years since her father died and four since she had last been in the cafe. She pressed her thumb and pointer finger together before wiping them on the light blue fabric of her dress. She made a hum as she turned over a teacup and watched as dust fell off of the bottom back on to the beautiful wood countertop. She had no idea why her mother had brought her there, but all it did was stir up unwanted memories of times long gone. As much as she wanted to see Cafe Theatre alive again, Eva did not think there was any way to restore it to its former glory without her father.

"Look at this place." Her mother said with a hint of pain in her voice. The very thought of being in the place Henri Gouze had cared for so well and seeing it in such a state was enough to cause Eva to be angry. "Oh, if Henri saw it now, he would have a bit of a fit." The young woman turned away from the bar to look at her mother.

"I'm sure he would, Mama." Eva said right as a young man walked in with a broad smile on his face on seeing her. "Oh look, it's Raphael, the bane of my existence." She said with a deadpan look on her face as he pulled his green hood off of his head to reveal his Spanish features. "What do you want cousin?"

"Enough of that, Evangeline." Her mother told her as the young man stood there with his arms crossed and a smirk on his face. Eva stuck her tongue out at him, and he rolled his eyes.

"How mature, Eva." Raphael leaned up against the column as his aunt and cousin looked at the mess around them. They had been lucky enough to avoid any rioters or looters during the last two years, but it seemed no one really dared come to Saint Louis. "Actually, I heard you were looking for a steward for this place, Tante Charlotte." He pushed off the column and walked up to her. "So, I decided to come over with a suggestion."

"Please don't tell me you want to take over, Raphael. You are far too busy with your contracts in Spain to stick around here." Charlotte told her nephew, but she was a little worried he may forgo his duties to the Brotherhood being the only one who went between the Spanish Assassins and the French. "I could not ask you to do it either." He put his hands on her shoulders being that he was six foot tall.

"I appreciate that Tante, but I had someone else in mind." Raphael gave her a smile. "He is a friend of mine, and before you say anything, it isn't Jean." He held up a finger. "Or Francois." Eva knew Raphael's friends well enough to know they could be trouble when they wanted to be. Francois was the one that caused the most trouble and it almost always involved a woman while Jean was levelheaded until someone insulted him.

"Well, who is it Raph?" Eva became annoyed that he was playing the guessing game with them. She hated when he did that. "Is it someone we know?"

"No, actually, I don't think you've met him." The young woman gave her mother a wary look as Raphael was sometimes off on his judgement of character and he had been in the past. The Spaniard held his hand up. "Don't worry, Jean and Francois can vouch for Arno. We have done missions with him over the last few months and he is very honorable." Eva had a few things to say about who is honorable and who is not. She bit her bottom lip at the thought of someone besides her father taking stewardship over the cafe. "Clearly this doesn't sit well with you, Little Eva." A smirk appeared on the Assassin's face along with a teasing glint in his chocolate eyes.

"Call me little one more time and we will see how well you sit for the next three days." The young woman glared at her cousin. "You won't be able to sit at all." She put a fist up in a threatening manner along with the serious tone in her voice, but to Raphael, she was as vicious as a little dog. Which was to say, not vicious at all.

"Eva, calm down Mon Cheri." Her mother put a hand on her raised forearm and pushed it down to the girl's side. "Why don't you go make sure the rest of the building is in proper order while I talk to your cousin." Charlotte did not ask her daughter to do this, she demanded it and so Eva had no choice but to obey.

"Alright, Mama." She said as her mother let her arm go and allowed her to leave the room.

The brunette said nothing more as she walked away and to the doors on the side of the stage that lead to the foyer. The floors had seen better days and so did the carpet runner that went up the grand staircase. Someone could trip over the tattered mess if they were not careful. The brass sconces on the walls were in need of a good polish, while the walls could use a refreshing coat of paint and there was no telling what the dining room looked like. She was sure the books in the library needed to be rearranged because no one had touched them since her father died. No doubt Augustin would turn the large room upstairs into a training room since he was practically family.

Eva sighed as she moved remove the pins that held her hat on top of her head. One day, she would enjoy the feeling of not wearing a hat outside at all, but Charlotte insisted every time they left the house. She also wished that she could afford to live in a place on her own, but the only way for that to happen was for her to marry and that was not likely. Not with her attitude and the fact that she was born into a family of Assassins that went back generations. It had to take a miracle for a man to fall in love with her who could survive her family as well.

She let her dark curls fall down past her shoulders as she put the hat on the table next to the door and moved to the stairs. Eva gathered up the front of her skirts as she climbed the first step and up to the second floor without tripping over the runner. As soon as she took the last step the urge to sneeze became overwhelming, but she did her best to keep it in before going to the library where she was sure there was more stagnant dust waiting for her. Sure enough, the moment Eva walked in the door she sneezed again, this time it was enough to cause pain throughout her body. She was sure her mother tied the laces on her corset too tight that morning because she thought she cracked a rib at the force of her sneeze.

Composing herself, she went over to the desk in the center of the room where maps of France had been laid out from years before. The paper had not moved since her father last touched them years ago, even a smudge of ink from his thumb was still on the corner of a map that showed the catacombs beneath Paris. Beside the maps was an open book with a list of names and dates that corresponded with major events in history written in her father's handwriting. From what she could remember of her father, he was interested in bloodlines and he was working on tracing them back to a single origin. However, before he could finish his goal, he was killed by a Templar Assassin. She picked the book up carefully before flipping through the pages trying to read what had been written, but it was in a language she did not know.

Eva ran her hand delicately over the old pages of the book trying to understand what the dates meant and the names that were listed. What looked like short descriptions were written on the side of the names, but there was no context to what she could make out. Closing the book, she set it down on the desk once more before moving to the ladder that went up into the loft. Wearing a dress made it difficult to climb, but she was able to do so without falling at least. There was a time when she played up in the loft as a child; sometimes hiding in the dome room of the attic to get away from her mother, but those were times she wished would come back. Sighing, Eva decided to sit on one of the chairs up in the loft in order to process the nostalgia that ran through her at the moment.

She did not get to sit long when she spotted someone entering the library. At first, she thought it was Raphael, but then her cousin did not wear blue. He also seemed to not like removing his hood as all assassins did when they came into this part of the building, of course, he may not have known that. From what she could see of him as he slowly made his way deeper into the library, he was just as tall as Raphael, maybe taller than Francois and not as muscular as Jean. The young man carried a sword at his side and of course she could see the phantom blade on the inside of his forearm. Eva looked down on him from the loft as he moved to the desk where the maps were laid out and she was pretty sure he had not noticed her yet. She became a little upset when he went to pick up the book she had earlier.

"Don't touch that." The words slipped out of her mouth suddenly alerting him to her presence. She stood up and put her hand on the wood railing of the loft as he looked up at her with curious dark eyes.

"Why not? It looks like an interesting read." He picked up the book anyway, holding it up to her before he decided to open it in retaliation. "Oh yes, very engaging." He said in a mocking tone as he closed the book before setting it back down. Eva's hands gripped the railing as she seethed at his impertinence and she tried her best to remain civil.

"It was my father's." She moved to the ladder with heavy steps. "Therefore, you do not get to touch it." Eva gave him a glare before making her way down the ladder the best she could in her dress, and she had a feeling that he was enjoying watching her struggle. As soon as she touched the floor, the small amount of anxiety she had disappeared, and she smoothed out the skirt of her dress. "If you do not mind, monsieur, please keep your hands off of my father's things." She walked up to the desk before picking the book up and walking past him to the door.

"Raphael was right, you are a snob nosed brat." He said to her stopping her dead in her tracks and making her purse her lips in displeasure. She did not have to turn around to look at his face to know he was smirking at her; she could hear it in his mocking voice. She rolled her eyes and slowly turned around to gaze upon her tormentor with disgust. "Eva, right?"

"Evangeline to you." The dark-haired woman did not know him well enough to trust him with her nickname just yet. He had to earn that privilege and since he had yet to give his name, he was doing a very poor job of earning her trust so far. "And you are?" She gave him a questioning gaze.

"Arno Victor Dorian." Apparently, he trusted her more with his name than she did him with hers. "I suppose we will be seeing a lot more of each other." He removed his hood which made her feel a little more comfortable around him even though she did not know him at all. Arno was certainly making an impression on her, just not the right kind.

"If this is your way of trying to make an advance on me, Monsieur Dorian, it is not going in your favor." Eva stuck her chin up before turning back around and leaving him there with a smirk on his face.

It was not long after she left that Raphael came in the room to find Arno sitting at the desk looking at the maps in front of him. The French-Spaniard man had run into a particularly irritated Eva on the way up the stairs and did not bother to question why she was such. He knew his cousin well enough to know that she had come face to face with his friend and she did have a problem with trusting people. Raphael knew it was not her fault. Eva had a lot of traumatic events in her past that caused her to lose faith in a lot of people. However, he knew that Arno could overcome the boundaries that Eva set in place just like Jean and Francois did.

"Your cousin is very..." Arno started.

"Is a very strong-willed girl." Raphael said as he dragged a chair over to the desk and sat in it backwards as he faced his friend. Crossing his arms over the back of the chair he watched as Arno looked up at the ceiling in thought.

"I was going to say charming." The blue clad assassin seemed to be trying his best not to insult the man in front of him, or the girl that had just given him the coldest welcome he had ever had. "She does not trust easily, does she?"

"Uh...No." Raphael said looking to the door and then to the maps. "Eva has seen a lot of people come and go in her life, so she protects herself by staying distant. That is how it is being born into the Brotherhood. You lose people you have known most of your life and then you must be able to carry on." There was nothing that could prepare an Assassin for the loss of a brother or family, but Raphael knew it was different for some. He was born into the Brotherhood while most of the other assassins had been orphans looking for a purpose. "You know this, Arno. You've changed since joining." Arno nodded coming to the realization that he had changed a long time ago.

"I'll do my best to earn her trust then." There was a distinct satisfaction in knowing that he had to work for Eva's trust. Arno knew the moment he laid eyes on her that she was not going to be one of those women who fell at a man's feet, or anyone's feet for that matter. The scowl she had on her face was enough to earn her a bit of teasing from him, but he honestly did not mean anything by it. The meeting between them did not go very well and that was likely his fault.

"Just so you know, she only began to really open up to Jean about six months ago and she has known him half her life." Raphael gave him a teasing look before standing up to put a hand on Arno's shoulder in pity. "This is Jean we are talking about though."

"What about Francois?" Arno asked curios to know how the most debonair man of the four assassins was able to charm his way into Eva's barriers. "I suppose he had an easy time of it since he is well...Francois."

"She still hates him." Raphael gave him a smirk before walking away and out of the room.

"Now that is surprising." Slightly put off by the fact that Francois of all people could not impress a woman gave Arno little hope that he could do better. He stood up before following Raphael out of the room and down the stairs back into the cafe, except Raphael stopped him upon hearing Eva's voice.

"Mama, how could you choose that insufferable oaf over me?" The Spaniard put a finger to his lips and motioned for Arno to get out of sight for the moment as his cousin ranted. Eva was clearly upset that her mother chose the young man to act as steward over the cafe, but it was ultimately Charlotte's decision. "Am I not capable of bringing this place back to life?" Both he and Raphael exchanged looks.

"What did Arno do to put you in such a foul mood, Evangeline?" The girl said nothing, only handed her mother the book that her father had left behind. "Why are you upset about an empty book?" Charlotte clearly did not understand what the significance of the book was to Eva and Raphael could only guess that his aunt could not see the writing within the pages. "I know you miss your father, but that does not give you an excuse to rant and rave about Monsieur Dorian like that. Whatever he did to upset you, mon cheri, you must forgive him for it. I suspect we will be seeing him a lot more from now on." Raphael turned to Arno and quietly pointed to the door next to the intendant's office.

"I think it's best we go out the back way." Arno agreed thinking it best to fight that battle another day when there was not a pressing ordeal to handle elsewhere. Both men put their hoods up before exiting the cafe into the street that ran behind the building. "Would you believe that Francois is completely smitten with her?" The green coat said as they walked down the street.

"Now it all makes sense." Who could ever try to fall for a girl like Evangeline other than his charming friend who has fallen in love with every woman he had ever laid eyes on? Or at least, that is what the suave assassin has mentioned multiple times to Arno. He had a feeling the next few weeks would be a little challenging as far as the girl was concerned.