The stars were going out.
It begun gradually, when Vega disappeared from the sky. No one could explain why, and the next week, Altair had disappeared. Then more and more stars vanished from the sky. Leonardo was devastated, but in all honesty, Ezio was not an astronomer. He could care more about other things.
Ezio knew everything about Venezia. Every canal, every street, every corner, every tower, every palazzo. He knew every gargoyle, every gondola, and the fastest way to reach the top of San Marco's Basilica without alerting the guards around the Palazzo Ducale, Doge's palace (which was not up the staircases, if one wanted to know).
He also knew most of the people. He knew that the signor three houses down was cheating on his wife and going to La Rose Della Virtu, the bordello in the next district. He knew that his landlady doted upon her son, who worked as an archer regularly posted at the Palazzo Ducale. He knew that Leonardo was having difficulties focusing upon his latest commission – he was always such a procrastinator. He knew that Carlo Grimaldi, the right-hand man of Doge Mocenigo, was secretly planning to murder him within the week.
But if there was one thing he didn't know a thing about, it was the blond girl who had found him, cradling a broken arm after a bad fall that rainy night. She'd helped him back to Leonardo's house, insisting that she would care for Ezio until he healed properly. She even vehemently shooed away one of the many dottori in the city, claiming that their leeches and herbs would do nothing and that all Ezio really needed was a good cup of tea and some rest.
It was completely by coincidence, he swore to anyone who would listen, which was only Leonardo. Actually, he wasn't quite sure if Leonardo was even listening, as the artist had been too busy delightedly examining what the girl called a 'mobile phone'. Ezio had barely understood the concept and was far busier with his interest with the girl.
Her name was Rose, not Rosa, as she gently corrected him. Her clothes were certainly unusual – a strange blue jacket of what she told him was leather – but, he objected, leather can't be blue!
'In the future, it is,' she laughed. She explained to him that she wasn't from Italy – she wasn't even from this century! Five hundred and twenty-six years in the future, she smiled. For a girl out of her time, Ezio retorted, she seemed to be settling in well. 'I've done this loads of times,' Rose replied, tossing her head back and laughing again. Ezio found himself mesmerized by her, something that had only been created once before by a certain noble's daughter in Firenze. Created, and then torn apart mercilessly until now.
Love. Ezio Auditore was in love with Rose. But Rose was out of his time, and if he really was five-hundred and seven years older than her than just seven years, then he was far too old for her.
The issue of age aside, there was another slight complication in their love story.
Rose already loved someone else. A traveling man, she told him, her eyes growing distant and reminiscent. Showed me the world, he did. The most wonderful person you could ever meet. A dottore for the world.
'And where is he now?' Ezio wanted to know, the slightest hint (or was it more a blatant statement) of jealousy in his heart.
'Gone,' Rose replied. 'But I'm looking for him.'
'How would you go about doing that?' he asked.
'Ezio,' she sighed. 'If you could even begin to understand. It's very, very difficult for me to reach him. But I'll find him, one day. And when I do, the stars will come back. I swear it.'
And one day, she did. She'd flown to his home, chattering excitedly and so fast that Ezio had to stop her and have her explain in a way that was comprehensible to the majority of the population. Even then, he had difficulty understanding what she was saying, but he understood the main point.
Rose was leaving. Leaving to find that missing piece in her life.
Ezio hadn't wanted her to go. 'You have a life here,' he begged her. 'Ti prego, mia cara. Stay.' Don't leave me, he wanted to add.
But she hadn't. Rose only shook her head and from that gesture alone, Ezio knew that she would be willing to choose this travelling man over him any day. She held his hand, one last time, before walking out of that front door.
And that broke his heart.
The stars had come back, as Rose had promised, three weeks after her departure. Leonardo had whooped loudly in excitement, bouncing around his studio. But Ezio didn't even smile at his friend's joy.
Because the returning of the stars meant that Rose had found her dottore. And that in doing so, Ezio had lost his own dottore, his Rose.