Ezio stands over the body of the dead traitor, heart beating rapidly. Her brash exclamation and the blood on her hands make it hard to catch her breath, but Ezio knows that she needs to escape. A nearby bird perch catches her eye and she darts forward, up the small stone side of the building and onto the perch. She teeters there on the precipice, staring at the hay cart below her, feeling more lost, pained, and unrestricted than she has in her entire life. After doing this, Ezio, the daughter of the banker has died. There is no going back.
She inhales deeply and clenches her thighs before pushing up and off the wooden bird perch. After a flip in the air, Ezio lands in the hay with a soft thump.
A few minutes pass before he emerges, feeling better than he has felt all week. A light fills his eyes, and it's still pained, still a shadow of itself, but it's momentarily untainted by the dark sparks of vengeance, as he hears the guards shouting above him and he rolls out of the hay and dashes up onto the rooftops and through the town.
Ezio Auditore da Firenze slips through the streets of his childhood and away from the guards' sight.
He is new again, and he remembers the words he found in his father's old wooden chest. In that moment he thinks maybe he understands.
"Nothing is true. Everything is permitted."
