For the third night in a row, Ezio entered his home. Furniture and clothes were strewn about the courtyard. The guards had made a mess of the decorations. Exotic and expensive paintings had been torn apart, books had been knocked off the bookstands. It was more a work of rage than an actual search for evidence. The guards knew there was no evidence, they must have been sent by the Pazzi family to instill fear on the Auditores. The usually well kept villa looked like a storm had torn through it.
Ezio made his way to his father's study. He walked over to his father's table. Various invoices and documents were littered across the heavy table. A shadow flicked behind him. Ezio tunred around just as a body collided with him. Ezio stumbled and fell backwards. No. It can't be. He's dead. Giovanni looked deathly pale. His neck was stuck at an odd angle and his limbs worked like a puppet's would. Giovanni raised his head and looked at Ezio with ghostly eyes. He opened his mouth slowly and screamed. It was a terrifying scream. Ezio watched in horror as the body of Giovanni Auditore crumbled to blood as the scream died down. With a yell, Ezio woke up.
Paola came into his room with a candle held aloft.
"Same dream?" she asked quietly.
Ezio nodded. He was shivering from head to toe and covered in sweat. Grabbing a nearby towel he wiped his face.
"It's my father, he keeps screaming until his body turns to blood. I don't think I can keep up with this Paola. I just want to leave and never come back. And yet I don't want to leave without seeing that Uberto Alberti is brought to justice."
Paola did not reply immediately. She placed the candle on the bed stand and sat on top of the bed. She looked at Ezio as if she were sizing him up. Ezio avoided her eyes.
"The Gonfaloniere is a powerful man in the city dear Ezio. He managed to have your father arrested without proof and had your family executed without a fair trial. And all this he did under the nose of Lorenzo. How do you hope to bring him to justice when he controls the judicial system itself. The city guards favor him for his bold decisions. Lorenzo has lost his sway considerably. I'm sorry to say this Ezio but I don't think Alberti will be brought to justice anytime soon."
Ezio knew Paola's words to be true. Already posters had been put up all over the city with bounty on Ezio's capture, dead or alive. Alberti wanted Ezio dead.
"That's not the form of justice I was talking about." Ezio replied quietly.
She closed her eyes for a brief second.
"You are not a killer Ezio." How wrong she would be.
"I killed those guards Paola. The night I retrieved the documents my father had assembled. Two guards came looking for me inside my home. They attacked me and somehow I killed them."
Paola looked shocked. She shook her head a little and asked,
"Why didn't you tell me about this?"
Ezio simply waived off her question and replied.
"It doesn't matter. Point is I killed those guards. And I can kill Uberto."
Paola's reply was swift.
"You killed those guards in self defense Ezio. That was your survival instinct acting on your behalf. To kill in that manner is one thing but to take a man's life in cold blood is a different matter altogether."
"I suppose so. But there's something strange that I have to tell you. When I killed those guards, I felt like I was embracing some dark instinct inside me, like I was setting free a monster that had been living inside me. It felt like I was reliving some past life filled with death and violence."
Something passed over Paola's expression.
"Get some sleep Ezio. I have something to teach you tomorrow morning. Meet me in the gardens."
With that, Paola woke up and left. Ezio was too tired to ask her what she had in mind. He fell into an uneasy sleep.
The guard was unconscious. Ezio dragged his body behind a clump of bushes and made his way inside the gallery. Paola's training had proved to be useful. Over the course of a week, Ezio had learned to pickpocket and to blend within a crowd. He had even visited Leonardo and had the hidden blade repaired. Ezio began searching for Alberti. There was a general murmur in the crowd. Ezio heard snatches of conversation about his family. Ignoring them, he made his way towards the center of the gallery. There he stood, Uberto Alberti, bold as brass. A wine cup was clutched in his right hand. He seemed to be engrossed in a deep conversation with a popular banker whose name Ezio forgot.
"Yes, a truly horrible thing to happen." Uberto was saying. "It came to me as a shock when I learned that Giovanni was the man behind the conspiracy. I trusted the man like a brother and he was working behind my back the whole time. What disgusted me more was how he had managed to manipulate his sons into believing they were doing the right thing. You know I tried to talk sense into the boys. I pleaded with them to testify against their father and be discharged with honor. I told them they didn't have to face punishment if they gave proof of Giovanni's ill-doings. Of course, I was mistaken to think they could be brought to see sense. Giovanni had wrapped their heads around too well. Those boys died believing they did the right thing. I still can't sleep well. The faces of those boys haunt me day and night."
The people listening to Uberto shook their heads, murmuring well wishes for the man who had killed Ezio's family.
Taking off his hood, Ezio walked up to Uberto, who has hid back to him. He tapped his shoulder lightly. Shock and disbelief etched his face as Uberto yelled for his guards.
"They're indisposed at the moment Messer Alberti." Ezio told him calmly.
"No! Stay back! Stay back Ezio, you are only making this worse on yourself. Surrender to the city guards and I promise you I will give you a fair trial."
Ezio laughed. It was a hollow sound that echoed across the silent courtyard. Everyone was looking between Ezio and Uberti. Some of the men were yelling for guards to no avail. The rest were looking at them with intrigue.
"Fair? Like the fair trial you provided my family?" Ezio yelled.
"Please, please Ezio forgive me, I'm sorry."
So am I. Ezio thought to himself as he flicked his wrist. The hidden blade mechanism triggered as the wicked blade cascaded out with a dull snick. Alberti stepped back as he saw the blade. Everyone tensed as cry for guards got louder. Alberti panicked and stumbled as he landed on his back. Seeing him crying and babbling gave him an impression of an overgrown baby. Ezio knelt beside him as he lifted his blade arm. Alberti was not even putting up a fight. That's when Ezio's thoughts began to race.
What am I doing? I am holding the life of a man and I don't even feel pity. Uberto killed my family and here I am, proving that I am no better than him. If I descend to his level, what does that make me? Am I really so blinded by hatred that I would strike down a fallen opponent?
Ezio was unable to commit the deed. Paola had warned him that this might happen. She had told him that his thoughts would jumble up and confuse him. She had specifically told him to remember his family's death. She had said that it would have given him the courage to kill. But he couldn't. What was the point? If he committed this act his family would not come back. The damage was done and the only thing he would do is tear up another family.
Alberti saw his hesitation and acted on it. He began to speak.
"Ezio please think about what you are about to do. I am truly sorry for what happened but I did it merely for survival. I had no choice. Don't think I'll ever forget the look in your father's eyes. It will haunt me till the day I die….."
He was rambling but Ezio wasn't listening to him. Ezio's mind was racing. His thoughts were clashing. The part in him that wanted to kill was shrinking and he was beginning to second-guess his judgement. People were screaming now and some of the men were beginning to come at him. And then he saw it.
Alberti was waving his hands in a wild gesture. He had gotten to his knees and was pleading when Ezio saw his hand. He was wearing a ring. A beautiful gold ring that Maria had given to Giovanni. He was wearing his dead father's ring. His father's murderer was wearing his ring! And then the memory of his family came to Ezio's mind.
His father's voice as he scolded Ezio for his shenanigans, Frederico's laughter as they had raced through the rooftops, Petruccio's delight when mother made his favorite dinner, his mother's amused looks as the family joked about during dinner, Claudia's tantrums that always made father laugh. All this was gone. His father and brothers were gone, mercilessly slaughtered. His mother and sister were alive but they would never be the same again. And this had happened because of Alberti. The man who had ripped his family apart was preaching morality to him. Rage built up inside him like a fire and then his mind was clear. Blood demands blood.
Ezio caught Alberti by the collar of his robes and yanked him to his feet. The hidden blade pierced Alberti's chest. Once, twice, thrice. The crowd reacted as screams shot up. The few men who had been coming at Ezio stopped dead and slowly began to back away. And yet no one ran. Fear had rendered them immobile. They watched as Uberto Alberti, Gonfaloniere of Firenze clutched his chest in a futile attempt to staunch his bleeding. Ezio let him go as he crumpled to the ground. Kneeling and groaning in pain, he looked up at Ezio and said,
"I did what I had to do, I wanted to survive. Would you not do the same?"
Ezio knelt infront of him and replied.
"I would. I have. My father promised you that their deaths would be avenged. Goodbye Uberto, I hope you spend your afterlife tormented by your crimes."
And with that Ezio drove the blade one last time into Uberto's neck. The Gonfaloniere was dead.
Paola congratulated him on his success. Ezio thanked her and requested to be left alone. That night Ezio slept a peaceful, dreamless sleep. When he woke up, he knew what had to be done. Ezio would cross every name off the list.