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Description
August 25, 1882; Padang, Sumatra

Cut sent the the Rajawali siblings to Padang later that year to check up on her contact.

Apsarini was rather disheartened as she walked through the streets of the city. Everything looked drab and broken, with a few sheds lining a few street corners alongside broken buildings for those who didn’t have proper homes. People in messy clothes walked the streets, save a few people who clearly had money to flaunt. The streets were worn and muddy in areas, and even the local vegetation seemed depressed given the shade all the leaves had turned. This was clearly a city still recovering.

A terrible tsunami had hit the city back in 1833, and it brought severe damage to the area, which was already trying to recover from a previous tsunami that struck in 1797. These undead houses lining the street deeply hurt Apsarini’s heart. Especially when she caught sight of the occasional shining mansion over the hills, all of them belonging to rich Dutch aristocrats or their puppets, each a symbol of the Templars’ ambivalence towards her people. While the citizens worked away and slowly built themselves back up from poverty, the foreign nobles and soldiers sat in the comfort of their gleaming homes full of servants. It made Apsarini’s fists clench just to think about it.

“So who's this contact again?” Apsarini asked her brother as they walked, trying and failing to take her mind off the scenery.

“A Dutch geologist,” Jaga told her. “His name is Rogier Verbeek.”

“A geologist?”

“Yes.”

“So the man studies rocks?”

Jaga gave a semi-humored look. “Well, he does more than just that,” he said. “The man’s been commissioned several times by the Dutch government to explore these islands and chart out their geographical mysteries.”

“So he studies rocks.”

“He knows a lot of the local budaya, and has seen a lot of scripts and ciphers during that time. He's one of the few allies the Assassins have left here, and may well be our only hope at decrypting the documents we stole.”

“Still doesn't change the fact that he studies rocks.”

Jaga laughed. “No, I suppose not.”

Apsarini smirked and went back to watching the city. Her smile instantly faded again. She slowed her pace, slipping behind Jaga a slight bit. She suddenly felt a tug on her kebaya. She looked down, and her heart ached at the sight of a little girl with big puppy dog eyes looking up at her.

“Please, ma’am,” she said, her voice soft and scared. “Can you spare a few syiling ? My family is hungry and the bad men won't let us have any food without more money…”

Apsarini immediately pulled out her purse and dropped a handful of gulden into the girl's hand. The girl's eyes lit up, not expecting such a quick response, or any charity at all.

“Thank you ma’am…” was all she could say.

“It's okay,” Apsarini said, smiling. “You need it more than I do. Now, what do you mean by the ‘bad men’?”

“The Dutch soldiers in the city. The ones that have been hurting a lot of people here. They're not nice at all…”

Apsarini made up her mind. “I'll be sure to take care of them. I promise. I won't let them bully you anymore.”

“You mean it?”

“I do. Now you'd better run home and get your parents to show them they can afford another meal now.”

“Yes ma'am. Terima kasih.”

“Sama-sama.”

And with that, the girl scampered away, pocket full of coins. Apsarini smiled.

“Apsarini! You keeping up?” she suddenly heard her brother call from up ahead. She spun around and saw how far she had fallen behind.

“Coming!” she said, and then she sprinted over to his side.

“What happened?” Jaga asked.

“Nothing,” Apsarini said.

“It's never nothing with you, little sister.”

“Well it was. So hush.”

“Alright alright.”

The two turned and continued on their way to the home of Rogier Verbeek. Apsarini kept herself quiet about what she had heard. Jaga was never one to stray from a mission, nor did he ever approve of her doing so. She was determined to help the people here, and wasn't about to let him get in the way of that. For now she played nice. For now she just followed him to their destination, waiting for this mission to end so she could get right on with the next one. The one that mattered.

They came up on the small little home that the Dutch government had set up for Verbeek for his time in the city. Apsarini knocked on the front door. No response. She knocked again, still nothing. She pulled an irritated face. She hammered on the door again, harder and faster.

“Patience, little sister,” Jaga told her.

“You know I don’t have any of that,” she responded. “Are you sure he’s even-”

“Coming! Een moment!” they suddenly heard from inside. Soon after, the door finally swung open and revealed the owner of the house. He was a bit on the weighty side, and his hair and beard were a tad unkempt. His semi-formal suit had a matching ruggedness to them. But he wore a friendly smile, and had a welcoming pose. He seemed like the kind of man who enjoyed the occasional party but didn't pay much mind to the ideals of social status like the rest of his people.

“Dr. Verbeek?” Jaga asked.

“Indeed! How may I assist you two?”

Apsarini responded by holding up her forearm, revealing the insignia on her bracer. Verbeek’s eyes lit up.

“Ah!” he said. “You're Mrs. Dhien’s agents, aren't you? Most excellent! Give me just a moment to grab something. I've somewhere I must be off to, so we can walk and talk.”

Before the siblings could respond, Verbeek rushed back inside his house and returned moments later holding a bag of documents and folders.

“Right then!” he said. “Mari pergi.”

And then he stepped forward and motioned for them to follow. Apsarini gave her brother a look, to which he replied with a shrug. The two went to Verbeek’s side, and they all began to take a stroll through the city streets.

“So, Dr. Verbeek,” Jaga said, “how goes the research? Have you found anything important?”

“Well good lad, I believe so, though I'm not entirely sure just yet. Those Templars are crafty with their encryptions, and I've only managed to crack bits and pieces so far.”

“Such as?”

“Well, there are repeated mentions of someone named Arend Michaël, who it seems was on the hunt for some sort of trinket before disappearing at sea.”

“Is there a mention about the nature of his disappearance? A location, perhaps?”

“I'm afraid not, though I'll certainly keep digging if you believe it important.”

“That would certainly be helpful, yes.”

Behind them, Apsarini was completely tuned out to the conversation. She was too focused on watching the streets like a hawk, clenching her fists at every sight of suffering she laid eyes on. Children covered in bruises, families begging for food, guards pushing everyone away.

When the three reached the market, Apsarini suddenly caught sight of the little girl from earlier, standing beside her family with a handful of jingling coins. They had returned to the vendor they had attempted to buy from earlier, now having the money to get the food they needed.

“We have the coins, sir,” the girl said, standing on her tiptoes to reach over the edge of the counter and put the money down. “May we please have the vegetables we need now?”

“That will be ninety gulden, girl.”

The family seemed shocked. “What?” asked the mother.

“You told us last time it was only thirty!” the father complained.

“Well now it's ninety. Pay up or get lost.”

“This is absurd!”

“He said the price is ninety,” said a guard that suddenly approached, his voice authoritative and cruel. “If you can't handle that, I suggest you go rot in the gutters with all the other peasants.”

“But sir! We need food to make it through the week! Please, think of the children.”

“If it were up to me, none of you maggots would be able procreate in the first place. We've enough rats in the world.”

“Please sir…” the girl said. “We're very hungry and…”

And the guard smacked her to the ground. The father rushed forward in fury, but the guard thwacked him to the ground as well using the handle of his pistol. The man went sprawling. The mother was shaking. The girl was crying. Apsarini couldn't take it any more.

“Hey! Anak haram!” she shouted at the guard, stepping away from Jaga and Verbeek, who immediately stopped talking and stared at her.

“Apsarini,” Jaga warned. “What are you-?”

She ignored him. She stepped tall in front of the guard, who gave her an arrogant glare.

“Leave. Them. Alone,” she demanded.

“Best shove off, girl. ‘fore I'm forced to teach you a lesson too.”

She saw him begin to raise his pistol, and without taking her eyes from his, she whipped out her own gun and fired at his hand. Her bullet smacked into his gun and knocked it away. The bystanders all stared. The guard looked shocked.

“Nice trick…” he said, trying to sound tough but being betrayed by the nervous tone in his voice.

“I won’t let you keep abusing these people,” said Apsarini.

“Yeah? And what's it to you?”

She flicked her wrist. Her blade sprung out with a metallic snick. The guard’s eyes widened in fear, and he took a few steps back.

“Oh stront...” he said. Apsarini stepped forward, blade raised, and the guard began to run.

Apsarini sprinted after him, ignoring Jaga’s pleas behind her. Her shoes hit hard on the ground as she ran, never slowing down, never breaking her stride. The guard was breathing heavily as he ran, stumbling over stones and shoving people out of his way as he went. He pushed a vegetable cart over, hoping to slow down his pursuer. But Apsarini would not be heeded. She jumped onto a stack of crates and lunged upwards, using the various poles and ropes that hung from the building walls to ascend to the rooftops and continue the chase.

She leapt from rooftop to rooftop, hooking her digits into every nook and cranny she could latch onto to in order to keep from slipping down the sloping roofs.

The guard was sloppy, stumbling over his own feet and looking over his shoulder in fear every few seconds. Apsarini was quick, she was agile, and it wasn't long before she was running directly above him. Never slowing down, she leapt down from the rooftops and descended down upon him like a bird of prey. She crashed down hard onto his back, pinning him to the ground. He struggled and squirmed to escape, but she had him held tight. She flicked her blade out again, and held it to his throat.

“Wait! Wait!” he yelled.

“You have five seconds to tell me why I should,” she spat.

“I… I… I was just following orders! The boss told me I had to do stuff like that… o… or else!”

“What boss? Who?”

“Jacobus Waleson! Waleson is our commanding officer here in Padang! He told us we had to be cruel, that we had to keep the people in line. I had no choice, I swear.”

She could hear the lie in his voice. He did have a choice. The bigotry he displayed earlier was a conscious decision.

“Thank you for the information,” she told him. “I'll look forward to ending Waleson as well.”

“As well?”

She slit his throat. She stood from the corpse. “Berehat dengan aman.” she said quietly. She quickly hid the body, and made her way back across town. She blended into the crowds, vanishing amongst the people.

She thought about what the guard said as she walked. So, the Templars were behind this. Go figure. Whenever a disaster struck, they were always there to take advantage of it. Well no more, she decided. If Jacobus Waleson was behind the abuse displayed upon Padang’s citizens, then he would die. She'd make she of it.

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

“Here's your ninety gulden,” Apsarini told the vendor as she bitterly smacked a pile of coins onto his counter. He looked at her, clearly frightened.

“Um… you can have a discount, ma’am…” he stuttered out. Apsarini gave a smirk.

“Oh why thank you,” she said sarcastically as she subtracted sixty coins from her count and took a basket of vegetables from the man's hand. She walked away, leaving the vendor sighing in relief, and she rounded the corner to find the little girl and her family. She smiled softly and handed the basket to the girl.

“Thank you so much, ma'am,” the girl said, eyes sparkling.

Apsarini simply patted her shoulder and smiled. She turned to the parents.

“Listen,” she said. “You won't have to endure these men any longer. I'll make sure of it.”

“How?” the mother asked.

“I learned of their leader, and he will fall to my blade.”

“Well, we wish you the best of luck, and we thank you for your kindness.”

Apsarini simply smiled humbly. “My duty is to the people. It's no trouble my friends. Now, you should probably get home before more guards show up.”

The family nodded and turned to leave, heading down the nearest street and making their way home. Apsarini herself started formulating a plan, walking down a different street and pondering the details of the assassination.

But her thought process was suddenly interrupted by a hand grabbing her hard on the arm and spinning her around.

“Apsarini!” Jaga scolded. “What was that?”

“I-” she started to say.

“You ran off from us, from me!”

“I had to teach that guard a lesson!”

“He was on the run, Apsarini! He learned his lesson.”

“We was going to get more of his friends! The guard patrol in the city would've gone up had he escaped!”

“And a dead body wouldn't have caused that?” He jabbed a finger towards her hidden blade, which still visibly had some blood on it.

“I hid the body,” Apsarini retorted.

“Oh, well that just fixes everything doesn't it?”

Apsarini hated his tone.

“Well sorry for taking time out of my day risking my life to stop these Templars from abusing the people! God forbid I actually do my job!”

“Our job here was to meet with Dr. Verbeek and return to the Mentor once we have our information. Yes, things are clearly bad here, Apsarini, but it's not our responsibility to deal with things we aren't instructed or prepared to handle.”

“Not our responsibility?! Jaga-!”

“I don't want to hear it! This discussion is over, little sister.”

“But-!”

“Lebih!”

She glared at him bitterly, and he stood his ground by staring right back. She gave an angered hmph and shoved past him.

“Apsarini!” she called after her. She ignored him. She just up and walked away. She didn't turn to see him drop his shoulders and lower his head in a mix of anger and regret. She didn't even hear him sigh in defeat, she was too far away already.

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

August 26, 1882; Padang, Sumatra

That night, Apsarini slept in one of the little camp communities of Padang, resting in one of the many tents.

But she couldn't sleep. Not for long at least. There was a short hour when she drifted off and awoke to find a letter from Jaga sitting next to her makeshift pillow:

Apsarini,

I apologize for my outburst earlier, it was wrong of me to yell like that. But I meant what I said. We leave for Buitenzorg tomorrow morning. Be ready to go by then.
I love you, little sister.

- Jaga

She groaned. She didn't want to leave. She couldn't leave. Not while Waleson still drew breath. She was an Assassin. It was her duty to protect the people. She couldn't bare to stand by and let the Templars bully them around.

And so she made up her mind. She wouldn't stand by. She was going to do something. She was going to kill Waleson, and she would do it tonight. She didn't care what Jaga said. She had a responsibility to these people. And so she strapped on her blades, loaded her pistol, and darted out of her tent, lunging into the night with a goal in mind, and a vengeful fury in her heart.

Description
August 25, 1882; Padang, Sumatra

Cut sent the the Rajawali siblings to Padang later that year to check up on her contact.

Apsarini was rather disheartened as she walked through the streets of the city. Everything looked drab and broken, with a few sheds lining a few street corners alongside broken buildings for those who didn’t have proper homes. People in messy clothes walked the streets, save a few people who clearly had money to flaunt. The streets were worn and muddy in areas, and even the local vegetation seemed depressed given the shade all the leaves had turned. This was clearly a city still recovering.

A terrible tsunami had hit the city back in 1833, and it brought severe damage to the area, which was already trying to recover from a previous tsunami that struck in 1797. These undead houses lining the street deeply hurt Apsarini’s heart. Especially when she caught sight of the occasional shining mansion over the hills, all of them belonging to rich Dutch aristocrats or their puppets, each a symbol of the Templars’ ambivalence towards her people. While the citizens worked away and slowly built themselves back up from poverty, the foreign nobles and soldiers sat in the comfort of their gleaming homes full of servants. It made Apsarini’s fists clench just to think about it.

“So who's this contact again?” Apsarini asked her brother as they walked, trying and failing to take her mind off the scenery.

“A Dutch geologist,” Jaga told her. “His name is Rogier Verbeek.”

“A geologist?”

“Yes.”

“So the man studies rocks?”

Jaga gave a semi-humored look. “Well, he does more than just that,” he said. “The man’s been commissioned several times by the Dutch government to explore these islands and chart out their geographical mysteries.”

“So he studies rocks.”

“He knows a lot of the local budaya, and has seen a lot of scripts and ciphers during that time. He's one of the few allies the Assassins have left here, and may well be our only hope at decrypting the documents we stole.”

“Still doesn't change the fact that he studies rocks.”

Jaga laughed. “No, I suppose not.”

Apsarini smirked and went back to watching the city. Her smile instantly faded again. She slowed her pace, slipping behind Jaga a slight bit. She suddenly felt a tug on her kebaya. She looked down, and her heart ached at the sight of a little girl with big puppy dog eyes looking up at her.

“Please, ma’am,” she said, her voice soft and scared. “Can you spare a few syiling ? My family is hungry and the bad men won't let us have any food without more money…”

Apsarini immediately pulled out her purse and dropped a handful of gulden into the girl's hand. The girl's eyes lit up, not expecting such a quick response, or any charity at all.

“Thank you ma’am…” was all she could say.

“It's okay,” Apsarini said, smiling. “You need it more than I do. Now, what do you mean by the ‘bad men’?”

“The Dutch soldiers in the city. The ones that have been hurting a lot of people here. They're not nice at all…”

Apsarini made up her mind. “I'll be sure to take care of them. I promise. I won't let them bully you anymore.”

“You mean it?”

“I do. Now you'd better run home and get your parents to show them they can afford another meal now.”

“Yes ma'am. Terima kasih.”

“Sama-sama.”

And with that, the girl scampered away, pocket full of coins. Apsarini smiled.

“Apsarini! You keeping up?” she suddenly heard her brother call from up ahead. She spun around and saw how far she had fallen behind.

“Coming!” she said, and then she sprinted over to his side.

“What happened?” Jaga asked.

“Nothing,” Apsarini said.

“It's never nothing with you, little sister.”

“Well it was. So hush.”

“Alright alright.”

The two turned and continued on their way to the home of Rogier Verbeek. Apsarini kept herself quiet about what she had heard. Jaga was never one to stray from a mission, nor did he ever approve of her doing so. She was determined to help the people here, and wasn't about to let him get in the way of that. For now she played nice. For now she just followed him to their destination, waiting for this mission to end so she could get right on with the next one. The one that mattered.

They came up on the small little home that the Dutch government had set up for Verbeek for his time in the city. Apsarini knocked on the front door. No response. She knocked again, still nothing. She pulled an irritated face. She hammered on the door again, harder and faster.

“Patience, little sister,” Jaga told her.

“You know I don’t have any of that,” she responded. “Are you sure he’s even-”

“Coming! Een moment!” they suddenly heard from inside. Soon after, the door finally swung open and revealed the owner of the house. He was a bit on the weighty side, and his hair and beard were a tad unkempt. His semi-formal suit had a matching ruggedness to them. But he wore a friendly smile, and had a welcoming pose. He seemed like the kind of man who enjoyed the occasional party but didn't pay much mind to the ideals of social status like the rest of his people.

“Dr. Verbeek?” Jaga asked.

“Indeed! How may I assist you two?”

Apsarini responded by holding up her forearm, revealing the insignia on her bracer. Verbeek’s eyes lit up.

“Ah!” he said. “You're Mrs. Dhien’s agents, aren't you? Most excellent! Give me just a moment to grab something. I've somewhere I must be off to, so we can walk and talk.”

Before the siblings could respond, Verbeek rushed back inside his house and returned moments later holding a bag of documents and folders.

“Right then!” he said. “Mari pergi.”

And then he stepped forward and motioned for them to follow. Apsarini gave her brother a look, to which he replied with a shrug. The two went to Verbeek’s side, and they all began to take a stroll through the city streets.

“So, Dr. Verbeek,” Jaga said, “how goes the research? Have you found anything important?”

“Well good lad, I believe so, though I'm not entirely sure just yet. Those Templars are crafty with their encryptions, and I've only managed to crack bits and pieces so far.”

“Such as?”

“Well, there are repeated mentions of someone named Arend Michaël, who it seems was on the hunt for some sort of trinket before disappearing at sea.”

“Is there a mention about the nature of his disappearance? A location, perhaps?”

“I'm afraid not, though I'll certainly keep digging if you believe it important.”

“That would certainly be helpful, yes.”

Behind them, Apsarini was completely tuned out to the conversation. She was too focused on watching the streets like a hawk, clenching her fists at every sight of suffering she laid eyes on. Children covered in bruises, families begging for food, guards pushing everyone away.

When the three reached the market, Apsarini suddenly caught sight of the little girl from earlier, standing beside her family with a handful of jingling coins. They had returned to the vendor they had attempted to buy from earlier, now having the money to get the food they needed.

“We have the coins, sir,” the girl said, standing on her tiptoes to reach over the edge of the counter and put the money down. “May we please have the vegetables we need now?”

“That will be ninety gulden, girl.”

The family seemed shocked. “What?” asked the mother.

“You told us last time it was only thirty!” the father complained.

“Well now it's ninety. Pay up or get lost.”

“This is absurd!”

“He said the price is ninety,” said a guard that suddenly approached, his voice authoritative and cruel. “If you can't handle that, I suggest you go rot in the gutters with all the other peasants.”

“But sir! We need food to make it through the week! Please, think of the children.”

“If it were up to me, none of you maggots would be able procreate in the first place. We've enough rats in the world.”

“Please sir…” the girl said. “We're very hungry and…”

And the guard smacked her to the ground. The father rushed forward in fury, but the guard thwacked him to the ground as well using the handle of his pistol. The man went sprawling. The mother was shaking. The girl was crying. Apsarini couldn't take it any more.

“Hey! Anak haram!” she shouted at the guard, stepping away from Jaga and Verbeek, who immediately stopped talking and stared at her.

“Apsarini,” Jaga warned. “What are you-?”

She ignored him. She stepped tall in front of the guard, who gave her an arrogant glare.

“Leave. Them. Alone,” she demanded.

“Best shove off, girl. ‘fore I'm forced to teach you a lesson too.”

She saw him begin to raise his pistol, and without taking her eyes from his, she whipped out her own gun and fired at his hand. Her bullet smacked into his gun and knocked it away. The bystanders all stared. The guard looked shocked.

“Nice trick…” he said, trying to sound tough but being betrayed by the nervous tone in his voice.

“I won’t let you keep abusing these people,” said Apsarini.

“Yeah? And what's it to you?”

She flicked her wrist. Her blade sprung out with a metallic snick. The guard’s eyes widened in fear, and he took a few steps back.

“Oh stront...” he said. Apsarini stepped forward, blade raised, and the guard began to run.

Apsarini sprinted after him, ignoring Jaga’s pleas behind her. Her shoes hit hard on the ground as she ran, never slowing down, never breaking her stride. The guard was breathing heavily as he ran, stumbling over stones and shoving people out of his way as he went. He pushed a vegetable cart over, hoping to slow down his pursuer. But Apsarini would not be heeded. She jumped onto a stack of crates and lunged upwards, using the various poles and ropes that hung from the building walls to ascend to the rooftops and continue the chase.

She leapt from rooftop to rooftop, hooking her digits into every nook and cranny she could latch onto to in order to keep from slipping down the sloping roofs.

The guard was sloppy, stumbling over his own feet and looking over his shoulder in fear every few seconds. Apsarini was quick, she was agile, and it wasn't long before she was running directly above him. Never slowing down, she leapt down from the rooftops and descended down upon him like a bird of prey. She crashed down hard onto his back, pinning him to the ground. He struggled and squirmed to escape, but she had him held tight. She flicked her blade out again, and held it to his throat.

“Wait! Wait!” he yelled.

“You have five seconds to tell me why I should,” she spat.

“I… I… I was just following orders! The boss told me I had to do stuff like that… o… or else!”

“What boss? Who?”

“Jacobus Waleson! Waleson is our commanding officer here in Padang! He told us we had to be cruel, that we had to keep the people in line. I had no choice, I swear.”

She could hear the lie in his voice. He did have a choice. The bigotry he displayed earlier was a conscious decision.

“Thank you for the information,” she told him. “I'll look forward to ending Waleson as well.”

“As well?”

She slit his throat. She stood from the corpse. “Berehat dengan aman.” she said quietly. She quickly hid the body, and made her way back across town. She blended into the crowds, vanishing amongst the people.

She thought about what the guard said as she walked. So, the Templars were behind this. Go figure. Whenever a disaster struck, they were always there to take advantage of it. Well no more, she decided. If Jacobus Waleson was behind the abuse displayed upon Padang’s citizens, then he would die. She'd make she of it.

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

“Here's your ninety gulden,” Apsarini told the vendor as she bitterly smacked a pile of coins onto his counter. He looked at her, clearly frightened.

“Um… you can have a discount, ma’am…” he stuttered out. Apsarini gave a smirk.

“Oh why thank you,” she said sarcastically as she subtracted sixty coins from her count and took a basket of vegetables from the man's hand. She walked away, leaving the vendor sighing in relief, and she rounded the corner to find the little girl and her family. She smiled softly and handed the basket to the girl.

“Thank you so much, ma'am,” the girl said, eyes sparkling.

Apsarini simply patted her shoulder and smiled. She turned to the parents.

“Listen,” she said. “You won't have to endure these men any longer. I'll make sure of it.”

“How?” the mother asked.

“I learned of their leader, and he will fall to my blade.”

“Well, we wish you the best of luck, and we thank you for your kindness.”

Apsarini simply smiled humbly. “My duty is to the people. It's no trouble my friends. Now, you should probably get home before more guards show up.”

The family nodded and turned to leave, heading down the nearest street and making their way home. Apsarini herself started formulating a plan, walking down a different street and pondering the details of the assassination.

But her thought process was suddenly interrupted by a hand grabbing her hard on the arm and spinning her around.

“Apsarini!” Jaga scolded. “What was that?”

“I-” she started to say.

“You ran off from us, from me!”

“I had to teach that guard a lesson!”

“He was on the run, Apsarini! He learned his lesson.”

“We was going to get more of his friends! The guard patrol in the city would've gone up had he escaped!”

“And a dead body wouldn't have caused that?” He jabbed a finger towards her hidden blade, which still visibly had some blood on it.

“I hid the body,” Apsarini retorted.

“Oh, well that just fixes everything doesn't it?”

Apsarini hated his tone.

“Well sorry for taking time out of my day risking my life to stop these Templars from abusing the people! God forbid I actually do my job!”

“Our job here was to meet with Dr. Verbeek and return to the Mentor once we have our information. Yes, things are clearly bad here, Apsarini, but it's not our responsibility to deal with things we aren't instructed or prepared to handle.”

“Not our responsibility?! Jaga-!”

“I don't want to hear it! This discussion is over, little sister.”

“But-!”

“Lebih!”

She glared at him bitterly, and he stood his ground by staring right back. She gave an angered hmph and shoved past him.

“Apsarini!” she called after her. She ignored him. She just up and walked away. She didn't turn to see him drop his shoulders and lower his head in a mix of anger and regret. She didn't even hear him sigh in defeat, she was too far away already.

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

August 26, 1882; Padang, Sumatra

That night, Apsarini slept in one of the little camp communities of Padang, resting in one of the many tents.

But she couldn't sleep. Not for long at least. There was a short hour when she drifted off and awoke to find a letter from Jaga sitting next to her makeshift pillow:

Apsarini,

I apologize for my outburst earlier, it was wrong of me to yell like that. But I meant what I said. We leave for Buitenzorg tomorrow morning. Be ready to go by then.
I love you, little sister.

- Jaga

She groaned. She didn't want to leave. She couldn't leave. Not while Waleson still drew breath. She was an Assassin. It was her duty to protect the people. She couldn't bare to stand by and let the Templars bully them around.

And so she made up her mind. She wouldn't stand by. She was going to do something. She was going to kill Waleson, and she would do it tonight. She didn't care what Jaga said. She had a responsibility to these people. And so she strapped on her blades, loaded her pistol, and darted out of her tent, lunging into the night with a goal in mind, and a vengeful fury in her heart.