It is raining in Roma.
Gray clouds had been crowding the sky all day, but five minutes earlier they finally opened up and unleashed a torrent of rain upon the city. People hurried home, and guards who could made excuses to patrol under the arches. Their armor was unbearably heavy when wet, and difficult to dry out.
Ezio could sympathize there.
If there had been an important mission to deal with, he would have pressed on despite the weather. But he was only out to search for recruits and perhaps purchase a new weapon to replace the knife he had lost in a fight the day before. And it was unlikely anyone was sticking around in this rain. There were no guards around to bother.
So the assassin, like many of the guards, took refuge under a particularly large archway. He spotted a wooden ledge, and climbed up to it.
To his surprise, there was a familiar figure crouched on the ledge. His dark cloak and cowl had blended into the wall, and he was sitting so still Ezio hadn't sensed his presence.
"Ezio," La Volpe said without looking up.
"Volpe," Ezio settled on the ledge.
The thief sighed. "It is a miserable day."
"At least we are not Borgia guards, stuck out on the rooftops," Ezio replied.
La Volpe chuckled. "True." His expression was pensive, a bit of sadness reflected in his strange eyes. It was not an expression Ezio was used to seeing.
"Has something gone wrong?" the assassin asked, his lazy mood dissolving.
"No. At least, nothing that will cause a major setback," La Volpe shook his head. "A few of my thieves got in a fight with some Cento Occhi thieves this morning. Three were killed."
"I see," Ezio sighed heavily. Though the thief leader had never outright said it, Ezio knew La Volpe regarded his thieves in much the same way Ezio viewed his recruits. He went to great lengths to help them.
The conversation reminded the assassin of the recruits he had lost in the past months. He had been searching for replacements, but they weren't interchangeable. Carlotta, Paolo, Desideria... They had all held ambitions, hopes, and dream. He had sent them to their deaths. He had failed them.
Logically, they had known what burdens they took on when joining the Assassins. They had been willing to give up their lives. Each and every one of them had died bravely, fighting for what they believed in.
It didn't soothe his conscience.
"I am sorry," it was the only thing he could think to say. "I... I have lost three recruits in these past months." He hesitated. "It feels like failure. Like I have failed them, as a teacher and as il Mentor."
La Volpe glanced at him, and merely nodded. After a pause, he spoke in a voice barely louder than a whisper "I feel the same way."
Outside, the incessant rain pounded on the streets of Roma. Ezio thought he heard an eagle's cry, though what would draw out a bird of prey in this weather was beyond him. Perhaps it needed to feed its chicks.
There were no words that would absolve La Volpe's regret, his perceived guilt, so Ezio said no more. In fact, he almost left his fellow assassin to grieve in peace, but when he moved to leave La Volpe caught his gaze. A sudden flash of desperation in his eyes, desperate loneliness, stopped Ezio.
The assassin was not a man unafraid of displays of affection. If he had been, he never would have been able to deal with Leonardo. But he was not a particularly outwardly affectionate person either. Certainly not towards this particular colleague, a enigma mired in even more myth than Ezio himself.
Yet, now seemed the time to make an exception.
Ezio put an arm around La Volpe.
The thief did not jerk away. Ezio even thought a slight smile might have crossed his lips.
The two men sat in silence, lost in grief that they could share.
It is raining in Roma.