Work Text:
When Arno had been a child soulmates were a thing of fairy tales. They were the ones that would be your best shoulder to lean on, the closest friend you could ever have, the best lover that you could marry and spend your life with. It was this enchanting thing that reminded her of colored glass.
Beautiful.
Completely out of reach.
Because the day that her father had died was the day that Arno gave up on love. The only love she had ever felt was from her father and mourning him hurt. It hurt in the worst possible way and nothing could uplift her from the dark pit that she had fallen in.
Julie would comfort her, offer her the role of a mother, something that she had never felt before. Something that she blocked away because this woman, madam de la Serre, already has a daughter. Already has someone to love, and Arno wants nothing to do with any of it.
Élise is different though. The older sister that Arno had never had, the friend that she was never able to make. The young french girl had offered to teach her how to use a sword. How to hide your true colors, because being a 'woman of society' was something that went against Templar society.
Templars.
Arno learns about Templars by Élise wishing to teach her the things that she already knew. That mainly only included on how to act in public. To act as a member of society, because behind closed doors gender did not matter to the Templars. It made them seem more socially advanced and for a time Arno wanted to be one. She wanted to have Élise confidence with a knowledge of her future.
She wanted to look towards the cursive that was written upon her thigh, and she wanted to know that her chosen would be by her side.
Fate, however, disagreed with her.
When Arno is an Assassin the memories of her childhood fade away.
Dreams of being a Templar are gone, because she has to follow in her fathers steps. She has to liberate France whilst trying to not lose the little family that she had left.
Her mentor, LaHoche, the Axeman didn't know of who raised her or her connection to future Grandmaster Élise de la Serre. He did know of her soulmark however and that had been something that had nawed away at her ever since. It had been a long week of roaming and sleeping in the wet, filthy streets of Paris when they finally were able to go to the Café. It was a moment of pure relief from the world and in that moment Arno decided to work up courage. Greencoat wasn't here, and Ice Cream had been down stairs amongst the crowd of people leaving only herself and Axe. One to many exchanges of words and heated glances later, Arno found herself pinned beneath her mentor as the man left a trail of kisses down her neck. They were so close-the tension between them building-before Axe saw her inner thigh.
Shay Patrick Cormac, was written in black ink against her lightly tanned skin.
She had thought that her soulmark wouldn't matter. That maybe he would want her for being who she is.
Then Axe had left, cursing, before Greencoat had walked in to see a half-naked Arno in tears. He had comforted her until Axe returnes the next day. With an apology and a book. The book itself was a record, written by the French Brotherhood, detailing chosens between Assassins and Templars. The first had been of an Assassin named Altaïr Ibn-Al-Sayf and a Templar named Maria Thorpe. It read that they were the cause for the others death and it only repeated as Arno read through the next set of names. Aguilar de Nerha, Maria de Al-Adalucia, and Alonso de Ojeda. Two Assassins and a Templar; all being the reason that the other died.
Page after page that was all Arno saw, and a sense of dread began to fill her as she read the last name upon the page. Haytham Kenway and Ziio. It was the most recent.
Then it dawned on her, that sense of dread eating away at her very being, until she finay said the words out loud.
"My chosen...is a Templar?"
Axe frowned, nodding in a sense of resolution, causing Greencoat to leave the room.
This-this made her want to puke. There was the chance that this was propaganda, but then again if she was living proof...
"I'm sorry Arno."
From that day on, Arno tried to keep her dedication to the Brotherhood as concrete as possible.
Then there had been Axe, and she had tried to make it work, but in the end she didn't want to ruin his chances. Élise of course thought that that had been an idiotic thing to do. An obvious reaction of her upbringing, because the French Rite had different views on soulmarks than the Brotherhood. Élise said that things like that did not matter, after Arno had spoken to her of what had happened, and it should have made her feel better, not worse.
It wasn't supposed to drag her into that dark pit once again, because what if she was wrong. What if everything that Arno has done ever since she learned that her soulmate was a Templar only made things worse. Was the reason that everything seemed to be crumbling around her.
Then, then she saw him, the one whose name was written upon her thigh. The one that was colorful glass and dark pages all together.
The clothing that he wore was made of cloth and leather, a mixture of black and crimson, showing the Templar cross that might as well have been a fear in physical form. Long dark hair was tied back and there was a scar going over one brown eye. The man was old enough to be her father, older by a decade at least, and he was pointing a rifle towards her chest.
"Hello lass. I hear that your the Assassin that was raised by Templars. How sweet."
They're relationship was one of a flame hanging over a cart of gun powder.
There was this unspoken agreement between the two of them. A knowledge of who the other was and what that could mean for them. They weren't like a normal couple though. There was no form of partnership, or friendship, or romance in sight. Just a Templar that spoke of a ship and a place that was always winter. Of a land that Arno had never thought about stepping on.
However, their meetings were not always of simple things. Sometimes they discussed childhoods and what they had each done for their own Orders.
Eventually time began to pass between the two and not long after a date finally came that Arno was dreading. A dread that she didn't know she had, because Shay was going to have to leave soon. He had a Grandmaster and a ship to return to. Arno needed to go back to her responsibilities involving the Brotherhood and Élise.
They couldn't stay together.
A truth that Arno didn't want to believe; one that left this bitter taste in her mouth and a weight on her heart.
"Let me go with you."
Arno had not been one to wear a dress no matter what the occasion was, yet here she was. Standing on a deck, ready to board a ship that would take her to the New World.
Élise hugged her tightly, making snarky comments about not having to dress like a mummy, and Arno knew that she was going to miss this. Miss the woman that she had been raised with ever since her fathers passing.
"Here. Take this. Return it to my Café."
Arno said in a soft tone, trying to keep her last request with a steady tongue. The book was the one that Axe had given her almost a year ago.
"I will, and Arno?" Élise asked and Arno took one last glance towards her friend.
"It's ok to open your heart. Even if it's been a while."
"Ready lass?"
"As ready as I'll ever be," and in that moment Arno took his hand. Giving her whole life too.
Élise pulled back the leather cover as the ship left the ports. Written inside was Assassin propaganda by the looks of it, but upon closer inspection the French Templar almost laughed.
Arno Victor Dorian and Shay Patrick Cormac
They both lived, and against all odds Arno didn't stab the Irishman.