"I'm gonna get you!"
The young boy scampered across the rooftops, giggling hysterically. His mother chased after him, going slow enough to make it fair. If she wanted, she could catch up easily.
It was a rare sight to see someone racing over the city of Florence, even rarer for it to be a woman and a child. The rooftops were usually empty except the occasional patrolling archer and they almost longed to be the playground of the free runners, the Assassins that used to fly across the city via this alternative route. But the last Assassin family of Florence had left ten years ago, the Auditores. But it was not out of choice. The year 1476 was a difficult time for them. Giovanni Auditore had been wrongly accused of treason and ordered to be executed alongside his 'conspirators', his sons Federico and Petruccio, the latter who was just thirteen. The remaining Auditores, Ezio, Claudia, and their mother Maria, fled to Monteriggioni where their uncle owned a villa, a safe house for the homeless nobles.
They were not seen since and all traces of the Auditores vanished with them. All but one.
"Got you!" Elisa swept up the boy in her arms as he squealed and struggled. "I win!"
"Mummia! Mummia! (Mummy) Let me go!" He shrieked as she began to tickle him.
"Never!" She laughed.
The sun began to set over the city, a warm glow illuminating the mother and child as they played on the vacant rooftops. It wasn't an unusual sight to see a single mother, far too often there were men who were perfectly happy to sleep with a woman and depart the next morning, leaving her with his child, unknown to the both of them. That's what many people thought when they saw Elisa with her child.
"Silly puttana(whore)," they whispered, one to another. "She should learn to keep her legs closed before she marries, so she won't be stuck with that little brat."
Those who knew better, spoke little of her situation. Elisa had fallen in love with a nobleman, which was often the case with the young women of Florence, but he had fallen in love with her too. He didn't leave her out of choice, he didn't leave his unborn baby out of choice either. He had been caught up in a terrible conspiracy and wrongly accused, along with his father and younger brother. Federico Auditore was executed aged just twenty, leaving behind his pregnant fiancee.
Elisa stopped tickling her son and they sat down on the edge of the building, both breathing heavily from the chase and laughter. It was a beautiful evening and Elisa pulled her son closer to her, holding him gently.
"Mummia?" He asked, his big brown eyes looking up dearly at his mother.
"Sì?"
"Can you tell me more stories about padre?"
It struck her deep in her heart every time he was brought up but she loved to speak of him, it was her way of keeping him alive.
"Did I tell you about when I hid ten thousand florins on a roof and he had to find it?"
The boy made a face.
"Maybe, but I've forgotten."
Elisa smiled.
"Well, he loved to play games, your padre. And he was a notorious slacker. He worked at the bank with your grandfather but not often. One day, he decided to steal ten thousand florins and told me that if I could hide it without him finding it, I'd win."
"And we know how you love to win." He poked her side and she giggled.
"Sì, so obviously I said yes. But he had this special sight-"
"The Eagle Vision!" He piped up. "It makes you see trails and coloured figures and gold things that you want!"
"Sì, now am I telling the story or are you?"
"Mi dispiace, madre. Go on."
"So anyway, he had the Eagle Vision so he could see the exact route I'd taken, even though I'd expertly hidden it. But I didn't know he had it, so I thought he was just very skilled at finding things, so I let him win."
"What did he win, Mummia?"
Elisa bit her lip. The truth was not to be told to someone as young as her son.
"He won a kiss." She said and leant down to kiss her son's forehead.
"Ew!" He stuck out his tongue. "Grown ups are gross."
She raised an eyebrow. If that's what he thought of a kiss then it's just as well she didn't tell him the whole story.
The young boy yawned and Elisa helped him up.
"Let's go then, Gio, you're getting tired."
Together, the mother and son jumped down onto the streets and made their way home. Elisa's son, Giovanni, was the spit of his father, keeping that part of Federico with her always. She had named him Giovanni after Federico's father, a kind and brave man as well as a deadly Assassin. Elisa hoped that as her son grew, he'd be as every part as handsome, brave, loyal and just as his father but his destiny as an Assassin would be kept secret, for now. She loved her son with every fibre of her being and she wasn't going to loose him if he ran away to fulfil his role as an Assassin and die young. He'd know of the reason of his Eagle Vision and his acute free running skills when the time came but not yet.
Not yet.