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September 5, 12985 BCE; Siberia

Arktalaki stood at the entrance of the cave, waiting. Iwakuk was by her side, panting excitedly. Arktalaki gave her companion a quick pet before turning her eyes back to the forest. Her golden eyes pierced out from under her hood, watching for anything. Her robes flowed in the wind, and she still hadn't gotten used to the weight of them. It felt odd, like they were somehow tailored perfectly for her and yet somehow didn't feel fitting. She had earned the right to wear them though. After months of the Mentor’s training, months of learning to sneak and stab with every brand of blade mankind had devised, she had earned the right to dawn these skins. In the Mentor’s eyes, she was a full Assassin. In her own eyes though, it didn't quite feel that way. She never felt like she had done enough to earn that title despite her weeks of work. She had yet to christen her blades with Templar blood, and she felt as though the feeling would only be complete once it was so.

“Where is she?” she mumbled to herself as she gazed up at the stars. She tapped her foot impatiently. The Mentor had told her packing would only take an hour or so, and yet here Arktalaki was, waiting in the middle of the night. “The night winds are going to catch us at this rate…” she complained.

“I'm here, I'm here,” she suddenly heard behind her. Arktalaki turned and saw the Mentor walking out of the cave with a sled of supplies dragging behind her.

“What took you so long?” Arktalaki asked.

“I wanted to make sure we had all we will need.”

Arktalaki rolled her eyes. “We're ready to head out then?” she asked, swallowing her annoyance. The Mentor nodded, but suddenly she paused. Her gaze seemed to trail off and her expression darkened. That worried Arktalaki. “What is it?” she asked.

The Mentor pointed towards where she was looking. Arktalaki looked upwards, towards the massive hills surrounding them and over the snowy canopies. She saw a cloud of smoke rising in the distance, blanketing an orange radiance that was glowing from afar.

“We will not get very far until the Templar in control of this area is dead,” the Mentor said. “All who attempt to leave meet the same fate…”

Arktalaki strained her ears towards the glow. Her heart suddenly sank. She heard the screaming of innocents coming from that direction. “Oh no…” she said. “We have to go now! The Templar has to die!”

She began running forward, and Iwakuk followed close behind. The Mentor dragged her sled in the same direction, albeit much slower. Arktalaki ran and ran through the trees until she came upon the site of the settlement in the valley below. It was all up in flames, and the people who lived there were running in terror from the Mahanuq warriors who were well into the slaughter. It was practically an identical scene to the terrible night at Arktalaki’s settlement. Arktalaki’s blood boiled. She clenched her fists in rage. She yanked her sleeve knives out of their sheathes.

“Those monsters! I'll kill them a-!”

She started charging forward, but she was stopped by a hand that grabbed her shoulder. The wrinkled hand of the Mentor. Arktalaki looked at her, and the Mentor gave her a look of disapproval.

“What are you doing?” Arktalaki said. “We have to get down there and stop this!”

“You charge down there right now and you'll get slaughtered with the rest,” the Mentor lectured. “If you want to end this, you need to go for the leader of the raid. Templars are lost without their leaders.”

She pulled Arktalaki around and pointed towards the edge of the settlement. There was a brute of a man watching the whole scene with a despicable smile on his face. Arktalaki gasped. She recognized him. He was one of the warriors that was there with Tanaguq when she was hiding in the basket.

“They call him Uuginix,” the Mentor said. “One of Tanaguq’s lower lackeys. He leads constant raids on harmless settlements like this in hopes of gaining more favor with his master.”

“He will die tonight for that!”

Arktalaki suddenly wrenched her shoulder free from the Mentor’s grip and charged down towards the edge of the raid. She ignored the Mentor’s protests as she ran as fast as she could, leaping over burning structures and dodging as many flames as she could until she found herself face to face with Uuginix. The Templar was already armed and ready with a spear, which he used to block her first attack and shove her to the ground.

“Well well, isn't this a surprise?” he mocked. “I remember you from a few dozen raids back. The little girl who escaped the Mahanuq.”

Arktalaki let out a shout and thrust upwards, trying to swipe her blades across his neck. He dodged and grabbed her arm though, and tossed her into a pile of debris.

“Those robes… that hood…” he said as he approached her. “I know those skins… but… that can't be. Their kind was wiped out years ago.”

“Should've checked your work, you fish-skinned snake!” Arktalaki spat.

But Uuginix just laughed instead. “I'll be sure to inform Tanaguq of the Assassins’ return once I finish you off just as we did your family.”

He pinned her to the ground with his foot and raised his spear high. Arktalaki suddenly lost all sense of confidence. Her blood froze cold. She panicked and yelled in fear as the point of the spear came barreling down towards her. She shut her eyes and braced herself for the pain that was about to engulf her.

Except it never came.

Instead she heard the vicious roar of Iwakuk as the wolf came sprinting up and it lunged onto Uuginix’s chest. The Templar screamed and stumbled backwards as the wolf tore at his flesh with its claws.

“You mangy dog! Get off!” he screamed. He struggled with the animal for a while before he finally managed to kick it off. Unfortunately for him though, something else managed to lunge onto his back with a war cry. It was Arktalaki. She didn't waste time. She gripped her sleeve knife tight and drove it straight down, driving it deep into the Templar’s neck and sending a fountain of red into the air. The Templar gave one final cry of pain, and Arktalaki rode him down to the ground.

And then time began to slow.

Ava felt the familiar sensation of her mind coming back to her, but not her body. The simulation collapsed around Arktalaki and her prey as the dark, black digital void of the Animus took its place. Ava watched as her ancestor did her thing.

Arktalaki stood from Uuginix and yanked her knife out of his flesh. She pulled him to his other side to make eye contact. She didn't let go of the knife. She grabbed him by the skins and shook him hard.

“You bastard!” she shouted. “All of these innocent lives taken, and for what? A bit of power? A bit of control?”

“A… a bit of respect…” Uuginix gurgled.

“Respect? Respect! Nothing you've done here has been worthy of respect!”

“I suppose not. All I wanted was for Tanaguq to see me as more than just another fighter. I wanted him to see that I was powerful… I guess it was not… enough…”

He gave his final breath, and his body went limp. Arktalaki stared in angered bewilderment. “Not enough…?” she said. “Not enough! You monster! You despicable waste of human space! I hope you suffer for all the pain that you've wrought! Nothing good is deserved of you!”

She stabbed the body again with her knife, and again, and again, and again, violently and swiftly. She stabbed over and over as her tears blocked her vision and her blood warmed her face. As she did, Ava's mind (thankfully) turned away from the scene and passed it back to Arktalaki’s. The void disappeared, history returned, and Arktalaki kept crying and stabbing. “I hope you rot in the depths of the underworld, you-!”

“That's enough!”

Arktalaki suddenly felt herself being yanked off of the now bloody body. The Mentor pinned her against a tree when she tried to struggle back to her stabbing session. The old woman glared bitterly and disapprovingly at her pupil.

“Let me go!” Arktalaki insisted.

“No! I will not allow you to disrespect the dead in such a manner!”

“Disrespect!? He didn't show much respect when he burned down my home and watched my family die!”

“You are not him, Arktalaki! Do not become like him.”

That made Arktalaki’s blood go cold again. She stopped struggling as the words smacked her across the face. The Mentor released her grip and went over to the body. She kneeled down into the gesture that the Yi’alut do for the dead. “May you find the peace in death that you sought in life. Let your soul walk free.”

She stood from the body and returned to her student. She pointed her towards the hills. All the Templars were running with their tails between their legs. Many of the settlers were already gathering snow to dowse the flames.

“You sent them running, but they will regroup,” the Mentor said. “They know that they're oldest foe has risen up once more…”

Arktalaki said nothing. She just watched the scene unfold. The Mentor began to help the settlers put out the flames, and soon Arktalaki swallowed the last of her pride and pitched in to help as well.

------------

“We cannot thank you enough!” the leader of the settlement said to Arktalaki and the Mentor. The two Assassins and those who survived the attack had done their best to put out the fires and save what little supplies they could.

“It was no trouble,” Arktalaki said. “I… I lost my family the same way. I couldn't let it happen again…”

“Ah. I am very sorry for your loss. But you should be proud of what you did today. You saved our people!”

“Perhaps… though I'm not entirely proud of how…”

Her mind went back to her stabbing session. She couldn't break away from the guilt of letting such blind rage get to her. It had gone against everything her father had taught her…

“What will you do now, my friends?” The leader asked.

“We were travelling eastward,” the Mentor explained. “Our enemies travel that way as well, hoping to claim more lands. We hope to claim them first.”

“Well, if that is the case, would you consider allowing my people to follow you? It would be an honor to become a part of your tribe.”

Arktalaki thought about it. “Do you have enough supplies for travel?”

“We can make it work, I believe.”

Arktalaki looked at the Mentor, who nodded. “Very well then,” she said. “You may follow us.”

“Excellent news!”

“We will rest here for the night, however. It will be too dangerous to move under the stars, especially given the poor condition we're all in after the attack.”

The man nodded. “Understood. I will be sure to inform the rest of the people here, chieftess.”

He turned and left before Arkalakai could say anything. “I… wait… chieftess?”

The Mentor chuckled and patted her pupil’s shoulder. “Looks like you've claimed your father's title,” she said.

“But… but I…”

“Better get to work on earning it.”

The Mentor reached into her skins and pulled something from within them. Arktalaki gasped. It was another of the magic disks. “This was on Uuginix's body,” the Mentor said as she handed Arktalaki the disk. “Just as I suspected. The Templars are moving east to find the remaining disks. I have no doubt the rest of their kind are hot on the trail. Good thing we're heading east, isn't it, chieftess?”

The Mentor gave a cheeky smile and patted Arktalaki’s shoulder before leaving her alone once again. Arktalaki stared down at the glowing disk in silent awe. Did this disk contain another memory from Eve? What new secrets lay inside if it did? And… would she have the courage to step into the unknown once more?

She decided to tuck it away into her skins for now. She had to get prepared for the night. She'd look into it later.

------------

September 6, 12985 BCE; Siberia

Arktalaki wasn't able to sleep that night. She had prepared her tent and blankets and everything, but she couldn't seem to turn off her mind. It kept wandering back to the disk. She sat in her tent with the artifact in her hands, and for a while she just stared at it.

“I have to…” she reasoned to herself. “If I don't, then the Templars will always be one step ahead of me and they'll find the Apple first. I can't allow that to happen… I have to know!”

She held the thing high and closed her eyes. She didn't know how exactly these things worked, but she figured if she just concentrated hard enough…

Sure enough, she began to hear the object hum louder and louder. She could see the light intensify through her closed eyelids. She began to feel that odd tingling throughout her fingertips and soon her whole body as well. Soon there was just white all around her and her body began to fizzle away along with her mind. Both were replaced by something else entirely, someone else entirely. She began to get a better view of the room and the people in it. Many of them were sitting around with their hooded heads held low. Others were trying to tinker with glitchy holograms. The entire place was definitely not in good condition, and neither were they. They were practically running off of pure zeal at this point. Eve sighed and shook her head. She wished all this could be easier...

Description
September 5, 12985 BCE; Siberia

Arktalaki stood at the entrance of the cave, waiting. Iwakuk was by her side, panting excitedly. Arktalaki gave her companion a quick pet before turning her eyes back to the forest. Her golden eyes pierced out from under her hood, watching for anything. Her robes flowed in the wind, and she still hadn't gotten used to the weight of them. It felt odd, like they were somehow tailored perfectly for her and yet somehow didn't feel fitting. She had earned the right to wear them though. After months of the Mentor’s training, months of learning to sneak and stab with every brand of blade mankind had devised, she had earned the right to dawn these skins. In the Mentor’s eyes, she was a full Assassin. In her own eyes though, it didn't quite feel that way. She never felt like she had done enough to earn that title despite her weeks of work. She had yet to christen her blades with Templar blood, and she felt as though the feeling would only be complete once it was so.

“Where is she?” she mumbled to herself as she gazed up at the stars. She tapped her foot impatiently. The Mentor had told her packing would only take an hour or so, and yet here Arktalaki was, waiting in the middle of the night. “The night winds are going to catch us at this rate…” she complained.

“I'm here, I'm here,” she suddenly heard behind her. Arktalaki turned and saw the Mentor walking out of the cave with a sled of supplies dragging behind her.

“What took you so long?” Arktalaki asked.

“I wanted to make sure we had all we will need.”

Arktalaki rolled her eyes. “We're ready to head out then?” she asked, swallowing her annoyance. The Mentor nodded, but suddenly she paused. Her gaze seemed to trail off and her expression darkened. That worried Arktalaki. “What is it?” she asked.

The Mentor pointed towards where she was looking. Arktalaki looked upwards, towards the massive hills surrounding them and over the snowy canopies. She saw a cloud of smoke rising in the distance, blanketing an orange radiance that was glowing from afar.

“We will not get very far until the Templar in control of this area is dead,” the Mentor said. “All who attempt to leave meet the same fate…”

Arktalaki strained her ears towards the glow. Her heart suddenly sank. She heard the screaming of innocents coming from that direction. “Oh no…” she said. “We have to go now! The Templar has to die!”

She began running forward, and Iwakuk followed close behind. The Mentor dragged her sled in the same direction, albeit much slower. Arktalaki ran and ran through the trees until she came upon the site of the settlement in the valley below. It was all up in flames, and the people who lived there were running in terror from the Mahanuq warriors who were well into the slaughter. It was practically an identical scene to the terrible night at Arktalaki’s settlement. Arktalaki’s blood boiled. She clenched her fists in rage. She yanked her sleeve knives out of their sheathes.

“Those monsters! I'll kill them a-!”

She started charging forward, but she was stopped by a hand that grabbed her shoulder. The wrinkled hand of the Mentor. Arktalaki looked at her, and the Mentor gave her a look of disapproval.

“What are you doing?” Arktalaki said. “We have to get down there and stop this!”

“You charge down there right now and you'll get slaughtered with the rest,” the Mentor lectured. “If you want to end this, you need to go for the leader of the raid. Templars are lost without their leaders.”

She pulled Arktalaki around and pointed towards the edge of the settlement. There was a brute of a man watching the whole scene with a despicable smile on his face. Arktalaki gasped. She recognized him. He was one of the warriors that was there with Tanaguq when she was hiding in the basket.

“They call him Uuginix,” the Mentor said. “One of Tanaguq’s lower lackeys. He leads constant raids on harmless settlements like this in hopes of gaining more favor with his master.”

“He will die tonight for that!”

Arktalaki suddenly wrenched her shoulder free from the Mentor’s grip and charged down towards the edge of the raid. She ignored the Mentor’s protests as she ran as fast as she could, leaping over burning structures and dodging as many flames as she could until she found herself face to face with Uuginix. The Templar was already armed and ready with a spear, which he used to block her first attack and shove her to the ground.

“Well well, isn't this a surprise?” he mocked. “I remember you from a few dozen raids back. The little girl who escaped the Mahanuq.”

Arktalaki let out a shout and thrust upwards, trying to swipe her blades across his neck. He dodged and grabbed her arm though, and tossed her into a pile of debris.

“Those robes… that hood…” he said as he approached her. “I know those skins… but… that can't be. Their kind was wiped out years ago.”

“Should've checked your work, you fish-skinned snake!” Arktalaki spat.

But Uuginix just laughed instead. “I'll be sure to inform Tanaguq of the Assassins’ return once I finish you off just as we did your family.”

He pinned her to the ground with his foot and raised his spear high. Arktalaki suddenly lost all sense of confidence. Her blood froze cold. She panicked and yelled in fear as the point of the spear came barreling down towards her. She shut her eyes and braced herself for the pain that was about to engulf her.

Except it never came.

Instead she heard the vicious roar of Iwakuk as the wolf came sprinting up and it lunged onto Uuginix’s chest. The Templar screamed and stumbled backwards as the wolf tore at his flesh with its claws.

“You mangy dog! Get off!” he screamed. He struggled with the animal for a while before he finally managed to kick it off. Unfortunately for him though, something else managed to lunge onto his back with a war cry. It was Arktalaki. She didn't waste time. She gripped her sleeve knife tight and drove it straight down, driving it deep into the Templar’s neck and sending a fountain of red into the air. The Templar gave one final cry of pain, and Arktalaki rode him down to the ground.

And then time began to slow.

Ava felt the familiar sensation of her mind coming back to her, but not her body. The simulation collapsed around Arktalaki and her prey as the dark, black digital void of the Animus took its place. Ava watched as her ancestor did her thing.

Arktalaki stood from Uuginix and yanked her knife out of his flesh. She pulled him to his other side to make eye contact. She didn't let go of the knife. She grabbed him by the skins and shook him hard.

“You bastard!” she shouted. “All of these innocent lives taken, and for what? A bit of power? A bit of control?”

“A… a bit of respect…” Uuginix gurgled.

“Respect? Respect! Nothing you've done here has been worthy of respect!”

“I suppose not. All I wanted was for Tanaguq to see me as more than just another fighter. I wanted him to see that I was powerful… I guess it was not… enough…”

He gave his final breath, and his body went limp. Arktalaki stared in angered bewilderment. “Not enough…?” she said. “Not enough! You monster! You despicable waste of human space! I hope you suffer for all the pain that you've wrought! Nothing good is deserved of you!”

She stabbed the body again with her knife, and again, and again, and again, violently and swiftly. She stabbed over and over as her tears blocked her vision and her blood warmed her face. As she did, Ava's mind (thankfully) turned away from the scene and passed it back to Arktalaki’s. The void disappeared, history returned, and Arktalaki kept crying and stabbing. “I hope you rot in the depths of the underworld, you-!”

“That's enough!”

Arktalaki suddenly felt herself being yanked off of the now bloody body. The Mentor pinned her against a tree when she tried to struggle back to her stabbing session. The old woman glared bitterly and disapprovingly at her pupil.

“Let me go!” Arktalaki insisted.

“No! I will not allow you to disrespect the dead in such a manner!”

“Disrespect!? He didn't show much respect when he burned down my home and watched my family die!”

“You are not him, Arktalaki! Do not become like him.”

That made Arktalaki’s blood go cold again. She stopped struggling as the words smacked her across the face. The Mentor released her grip and went over to the body. She kneeled down into the gesture that the Yi’alut do for the dead. “May you find the peace in death that you sought in life. Let your soul walk free.”

She stood from the body and returned to her student. She pointed her towards the hills. All the Templars were running with their tails between their legs. Many of the settlers were already gathering snow to dowse the flames.

“You sent them running, but they will regroup,” the Mentor said. “They know that they're oldest foe has risen up once more…”

Arktalaki said nothing. She just watched the scene unfold. The Mentor began to help the settlers put out the flames, and soon Arktalaki swallowed the last of her pride and pitched in to help as well.

------------

“We cannot thank you enough!” the leader of the settlement said to Arktalaki and the Mentor. The two Assassins and those who survived the attack had done their best to put out the fires and save what little supplies they could.

“It was no trouble,” Arktalaki said. “I… I lost my family the same way. I couldn't let it happen again…”

“Ah. I am very sorry for your loss. But you should be proud of what you did today. You saved our people!”

“Perhaps… though I'm not entirely proud of how…”

Her mind went back to her stabbing session. She couldn't break away from the guilt of letting such blind rage get to her. It had gone against everything her father had taught her…

“What will you do now, my friends?” The leader asked.

“We were travelling eastward,” the Mentor explained. “Our enemies travel that way as well, hoping to claim more lands. We hope to claim them first.”

“Well, if that is the case, would you consider allowing my people to follow you? It would be an honor to become a part of your tribe.”

Arktalaki thought about it. “Do you have enough supplies for travel?”

“We can make it work, I believe.”

Arktalaki looked at the Mentor, who nodded. “Very well then,” she said. “You may follow us.”

“Excellent news!”

“We will rest here for the night, however. It will be too dangerous to move under the stars, especially given the poor condition we're all in after the attack.”

The man nodded. “Understood. I will be sure to inform the rest of the people here, chieftess.”

He turned and left before Arkalakai could say anything. “I… wait… chieftess?”

The Mentor chuckled and patted her pupil’s shoulder. “Looks like you've claimed your father's title,” she said.

“But… but I…”

“Better get to work on earning it.”

The Mentor reached into her skins and pulled something from within them. Arktalaki gasped. It was another of the magic disks. “This was on Uuginix's body,” the Mentor said as she handed Arktalaki the disk. “Just as I suspected. The Templars are moving east to find the remaining disks. I have no doubt the rest of their kind are hot on the trail. Good thing we're heading east, isn't it, chieftess?”

The Mentor gave a cheeky smile and patted Arktalaki’s shoulder before leaving her alone once again. Arktalaki stared down at the glowing disk in silent awe. Did this disk contain another memory from Eve? What new secrets lay inside if it did? And… would she have the courage to step into the unknown once more?

She decided to tuck it away into her skins for now. She had to get prepared for the night. She'd look into it later.

------------

September 6, 12985 BCE; Siberia

Arktalaki wasn't able to sleep that night. She had prepared her tent and blankets and everything, but she couldn't seem to turn off her mind. It kept wandering back to the disk. She sat in her tent with the artifact in her hands, and for a while she just stared at it.

“I have to…” she reasoned to herself. “If I don't, then the Templars will always be one step ahead of me and they'll find the Apple first. I can't allow that to happen… I have to know!”

She held the thing high and closed her eyes. She didn't know how exactly these things worked, but she figured if she just concentrated hard enough…

Sure enough, she began to hear the object hum louder and louder. She could see the light intensify through her closed eyelids. She began to feel that odd tingling throughout her fingertips and soon her whole body as well. Soon there was just white all around her and her body began to fizzle away along with her mind. Both were replaced by something else entirely, someone else entirely. She began to get a better view of the room and the people in it. Many of them were sitting around with their hooded heads held low. Others were trying to tinker with glitchy holograms. The entire place was definitely not in good condition, and neither were they. They were practically running off of pure zeal at this point. Eve sighed and shook her head. She wished all this could be easier...