the-secret-crusade-oliver-bowden

He taught them to protect the Order at all times; that the
Brotherhood was ‘more important than you, Altaïr. It is more important
than you, Abbas. It is more important than Masyaf and myself.’ Thus, the
action of one Assassin should never call harm up upon the Order. The
Assassin should never compromise the Brotherhood.
And though Altaïr would one day disregard this doctrine, too, it was
not for want of Al Mualim’s tutoring. He taught them that men had
created boundaries and declared all within those boundaries to be ‘true’
and ‘real’, but in fact they were false perimeters, imposed by those who
would presume to be leaders. He showed them that the bounds of reality
were infinitely broader than mankind’s limited imagination was able to
conceive, and that only the few could see beyond those boundaries –
only a few dared even question their existence.
And they were the Assassins.
And because the Assassins were able to see the world as it truly was,
then to the Assassin everything was possible – everything was permitted.
Every day, as Altaïr and Abbas learned more and more about the
Order, they also grew closer. They spent almost all day with one
another. Whatever Al Mualim taught them, their own day-to-day reality
was in fact insubstantial. It consisted of each other, the governesses, Al
Mualim’s classes and a succession of combat trainers, each with a
different speciality. And far from everything being permitted, virtually
nothing was. Any entertainment was provided by the boys themselves,
and so they spent long hours talking when they should have been
studying. A subject they rarely discussed was their fathers. At first Abbas
had talked only of Ahmad returning one day to Masyaf, but as the
months turned into years he spoke of it less. Altaïr would see him