[b]Title: Master and Mentor[/b]

[b]Characters: Ezio Auditore and Azumi Ian[/b]

[b]Summary: Ezio Auditore da Firenze, having just left his world, arrives in Haven City's South Town. He aims to see how the InterAssassin Order is faring under Azumi's leadership, and to help her find a way of setting up a communication system among the Order.[/b]

The crowds of Haven City's South Town region were large and closely packed enough for Ezio Auditore to conceal himself from the Krimzon Guard patrols as he wandered the area. He had been looking for any signs of the Haven City Assassins. While the task would have been difficult, seeing as how he had no idea how the current grandmaster handled robe appearance. But with his ability known as Eagle Sense, Ezio just had to look out for a person glowing blue, and then trail them back to their den.

Suddenly, Ezio caught the faint glow of blue footstep marks, all of which lead into an alley.

[i]How fortunate...[/i]

Walking into the alley, Ezio followed the footprint trail closely, and after an hour of walking, he found that the footsteps lead up a building beside the Hip Hog Saloon. He smirked, "It is comforting to know that she has kept with tradition..." Muttered Ezio, before scaling the building with the aid of his hookblade. Climbing onto the roof, Ezio saw a few loose planks. Pulling them aside, he let himself drop into the building and into a crowd of surprised men and women with large, pointy ears. Their clothing consisted of mismatched articles of clothing that resembled hooded robes, and Ezio assumed that the improvised assassin robes would do better to fool the intelligent Krimzon Guard.

The Assassins paid Ezio no mind, mostly because of his robes that resembled theirs marking him as one of their own.

Ezio kept looking into Eagle Sense, trying to single out the grandmaster of the den, whom he assumed would wear similar robes to the Assassins before him. As he made his way through the building, he found himself curiously fascinated by the metallic appearance of the interior. Dim lights lit the small rooms linked by long hallways, and various men and women were conversing all over the area. The South Town den had a large force already, and Ezio was already impressed. He would have an interesting time talking with her, once he found out what she looked like of course.

Someone was in the office at the back, yes. She had on black combat boots, brown pants, a blue, V-neck shirt, and a green jacket over it all. Over her head, a green, makeshift hood was hung, made from some gathered materials from the next door saloon. It was more for some privacy than a need to fit in, as she was busy with a great many things.

A hand was to the side of her head as she leaned over the table, switching between VISR channels... And he came in.

Ezio saw her at once as he entered what he assumed was an office, sitting behind a desk was a woman, and Ezio saw that she was illuminated in a gold light. Focusing out of Eagle Sense, Ezio saw that she was dressed in an attire unlike any of the Assassins in the building.

"Well, that was a waste of time," Ezio chuckled, "I assume you are Azumi Ian, correct?" Ezio asked, while approaching her table and taking a seat in a chair close beside it. He leaned across the table, resting his arms on it and staring straight at Azumi.

The woman froze, turning off the VISR as she opened her eye, keeping the hood down to hide her eyes and hair. The mouth made a very small frown. She had been careless again. Lack of sleep was getting to her, letting people sneak up on her. Still... hm, the hood and such did look familiar, like the files Cetea had shown her. By the age of the hair... more than forty a least, the rest too hard to tell due to her own perspectives with slipspace. She put her elbows on the table, looking at it, tense, almost on the verge of attack as usual. "I don't like to use my name around here, but yes. Who let you in? Or do you normally barge in where people didn't invite you?"

Ezio couldn't help but smile slightly. The bags under this woman's eyes showed signs of sleep deprivation, she seemed like she wanted to work past the need for rest. He could almost admire that, if not for the fact that it seemed to be taking a toll on her body.

His observations on Azumi's current physique, he thought on her tone, and the personality it might entail.

From the way she spoke to him, she either did not know about his status in the Order, or did not care. That alone told Ezio that she was fiesty, no-nonesense, and a judge of character rather than rank. If he were a younger man, he might have found her a worthy conquest.

After his assessment was complete, Ezio withdrew his hood and interlocked his fingers over the table. "I usually do, yes. Allow me to introduce myself, Ezio Auditore." He then chuckled, "And I must tell you that you remind me of my sister in many ways." He was sure that Claudia would have agreed.

Azumi froze for a moment. She was forgetting rank. Again. A sigh, and she nodded, pulling off her own hood. Short orange hair, baggy, brown eyes. At least she knew here men understood her rank and prowess in at least strategy. She hadn't shown much more here openly. "Sergeant Azumi Ian. I heard about you from a friend. No, not the way things normally go." She didn't bring up Interfering. "About your organization, about what I'm getting myself into here."

She lowered shook her head, trying to get her thoughts clear, to stifle a yawn. "Before we go on, is there any particular rank I should call you? You've been in this longer than I have."

Ezio shook his head, "Please, call me Ezio. Should I refer to you as [i]madonna[/i] Ian, or just Azumi?" He asked, his tone expressing a twinge of amusement. He had the habit of letting his assassins call him by name.

Azumi nodded to the informal attitude. She supposed that was good. "Call me what you want as long as it doesn't insult me. Not like it matters, what with us being on either equal rank or myself below yours." She looked into his eyes for a moment. He seemed nice enough, his posture not showing him to mean any harm, whether by accident or no, by unwilling or no. So she let herself relax, if ever so slightly. "Now, Ezio. Why are you here? Did one of mine send you over? I don't give out my name to random people. The Creed and all."

"You are partially correct, one of yours did come to me. Though she wanted to assist me, after doing so, I questioned her about the Interference Assassin Order. I then decided to put my current task aside for a moment and become an Interference once more. I did so mostly because I was curious as to how this sect is run." Ezio paused for a moment, "I must say that I am impressed. Though I do have one objection."

Ezio was silent once more as he thought of Azumi's talk of rank. Once she had introduced herself as a sergeant, he had no more need to guess. "My objection is reasonable, we are not a regular military group. We are a brotherhood, men and women united by the Creed. I will never do anything to remove your current authorative powers, but I will make a suggestion: focus less on rank. The Order is built on the foundation of trust, you should know every recruit on a personal level. They must dedicate themselves to you and your orders." Ezio then leaned forward again, "Of course, these are just suggestions. You can do as you wish as long as you are an efficient leader, which I have guessed you are."

Ezio then decided to ask only one question, "How is this sect faring?" He said.

The soldier sighed. "Sorry about that, Ezio. It's instinct. I'll try to keep that low." She looked at him, suddenly embarrassed at having missed such a key piece of all of this. Maybe she had to try and help her brotherhood more. She coughed into a hand in embarrassment to hide it, and answered. "On the whole, things are going well enough. We have a den here, and across the city in the slums. Most things here are relatively small. Kill a guy harassing someone here, help someone move out of the city there, pickpocket those guys. It's hard to make a serious impact. But we've expanded well enough."

She took out a map from under her chair, spreading it out on the table, pointing to key points, to the separation areas, the marked up portions. "Central castle here in the middle, as you probably saw. Too heavily guarded, and if we kill the Baron, it's too hard to keep things from falling into chaos. We need to know someone can fix the situation and not make it worse." A pause. "That's why we're allying ourselves with the Underground, stationed here in the slums. They help give troop movements, and we intercept what we need to." She looked to the door. "The Assassins are expanding, taking in more and more members. I'll try to slow the tide to keep us from getting to big too fast, but it seems like people like to have us as long as things don't go... less than stellar." She didn't really want to talk about the first mission.

She looked up at him again. "Any particular questions, Ezio?"