For once not an OC story! Just ran into my end when I was playing Assassin's Creed 2, running around Venice. Guess what I don't own? Assassin's Creed.
For years they'd watched him. Watched him return every other week, going every time to his mother's room.
Claudia tried to discourage him first, starting from the very day they arrived at Monteriggioni:
"Ezio, look at her. I still can't get her to talk! She spends all day and night in front of those feathers Petruccio used to collect. She can't let him go."
Mario, who had been listening in the shadows, gently placed a hand to his face.
A few years later, Mario took it upon himself to discourage his nephew, hoping to do a better job than Claudia. He waited until the next time Ezio showed his face, again depositing a feather.
"Ezio, that must be fifty by now. While it is admirable, collecting those feathers is a vain effort." As he turned to walk away, he told his nephew of a new weapon available.
Neither succeeded at their joint task, and as such, they left Ezio to it. Left him to roof leaping at the sight of a single feather, stopping conversations to climb a ladder.
Maria remained withdrawn, praying over the feathers her youngest son had collected. Over the feathers he had intended to give to her.
Ezio gently sighed, spinning the final feather between his two fingers. Is was probably a lost hope, like Mario and Claudia had told him. But he owed it to Petruccio's memory.
Stepping through to his mother's room, Ezio opened the box for the final time.
As he turned to leave, a small voice rang through the room, heard even by the two Auditores standing outside.
"Thank you, for not forgetting about me."