Afterlife

part ten

by Go-Go Spiders

Leonardo was far easier to convince than Claudia had been, although it helped that Leonardo had already seen something that should've been impossible.

"That is fascinating! Your brother can still manipulate the world around him even without a truly tangible body?" Leonardo said, interrupting Ezio partway through his condensed explanation of Federico's situation.

Leonardo was not as good a listener as he had claimed earlier.

Federico tapped Leonardo's shoulder, then took a few steps back and laughed as Leonardo spun around. "I'd say so," Federico said, even though Leonardo couldn't see or hear him.

"Amazing," said Leonardo, a look of wonder on his face, bringing his hand near where he judged Federico would be standing, unaware that he had moved. "Am I close?"

"Almost. Three steps forward," said Ezio.

Once he was close, Federico ducked behind Leonardo and tapped his other shoulder.

"Now he's behind you," said Ezio.

Leonardo laughed and then looked over his shoulder. He came closer than Claudia had to looking Federico in the eyes despite not being able to see his face. "I should thank you for helping me, Federico. You and your brother did me a great service."

"Prego," said Federico with a grin. "Just don't open the door to any more guards while we're here, all right?"

"He says you're welcome," said Ezio tiredly.

"It's so strange talking to someone I can't see. I wonder why only you and Paola can see and hear him, Ezio?" said Leonardo, idly stroking his beard. "I would think that at least Claudia, and possibly your mother or Paola's sister could see him too."

Ezio triggered his second sight in response, washing out the colors of the workshop into shades of hazy greys. The only spots of color in the room were Leonardo and Federico, who both shone a comforting blue. He raised his glowing eyes to Leonardo. "We can see what most others can't."

Leonardo stepped closer to Ezio and peered curiously at his eyes, which were still glowing gold. He touched Ezio's chin, tilting his face down, and then tilted it from side to side. The gold light in Ezio's eyes didn't waver or dim, no matter what the angle. "How are your eyes doing that? It's similar to how a cat's eyes would reflect light, but there's not much light in here to reflect - certainly not enough to make them shine that brightly." He paused, squinting. "But the pupil is the wrong shape for a cat's eye – overall, I'd say it looks more like an eagle's. Very curious. Besides ghosts, what can you see like that?"

"I can tell someone's intentions towards me like this. Guards and enemies look red, friends look blue, and people I'm specifically searching for look gold. I'm not sure of how it works, or why I have it. None of the other members of my family do." Feeling the twinges of a dull headache begin, he grimaced and switched back to his normal vision, much to Leonardo's visible disappointment.

"Tell him about how you scared Claudia half to death when you first developed your second sight," urged Federico. "Or that it took you an hour to figure out how to get your normal sight back."

Ezio rolled his eyes again.

"You and your brother's abilities are truly fascinating, Ezio. I would love to study both of you further at some point." He turned to look at Ezio on the other side of his workbench. "But, as to the reason you came to me in the first place, I believe I can help with that after all."

"My father's broken blade?" said Ezio. "I thought you said that you-?"

"What I told you was that I wouldn't be able to repair it without the original plans, but this changes things," said Leonardo. He gestured towards the yellowed scroll, which was unrolled on top of his workbench. "Come, look here." He pointed to a large diagram drawn in fading ink near the bottom of the page, which appeared to Ezio to be a mass of delicate springs and levers floating around a larger, even more intricate mechanism. "Does that look familiar?"

It took Ezio a moment to recognize the shape of the metal blade itself tucked inside, almost hidden by the other parts of the mechanism. But it appeared to be the exact same blade, right down to the elaborate engravings decorating its flat side.

Ezio nodded. "That would be the blade."

"From this sketch, you can see this is a page from the original plans – thankfully, the relevant one for our purposes," said Leonardo. "As to the writing, well, it's all written in a rather ingenious cipher; whoever designed this weapon wanted to make sure these plans couldn't be read by the wrong person, but I believe I've figured it out. You see, if we transpose the letters and then select every third..." Leonardo glanced up at Ezio's stupefied expression and then smiled. "Ah, I won't bore either of you with the details, but once I have all of it decoded, it should be sufficient for me to fix your father's weapon."

"Bene," said Ezio, removing the hidden blade from his wrist and placing it on the workbench. "It's all yours, Leonardo."

As Leonardo gathered the tools he would need and began to place dry logs and tinder in the workshop's large fireplace, Ezio collapsed in a chair near the workshop's many bookcases. He was clearly exhausted after a day of running on rooftops and fighting guards, only barely able to stay awake. Showing off his second sight to Leonardo had sapped at his strength, but there was still a kind of inpatient, nervous energy that ran through him despite his exhaustion.

"Do you need any help?" Ezio asked Leonardo, his knee bouncing up and down. "You usually have assistants in your studio, don't you?"

"I do, but I sent them away so I could work on my sculpture in peace. But something like this I can handle by myself, Ezio," Leonardo said kindly, kneeling in front of the fireplace. He struck his firesteel against flint and watched the sparks fall onto the logs. Small flames began to engulf the dry leaves and thin twigs he'd used for tinder. "With the page deciphered, I can see exactly what I'll need to do. Besides, you look tired. Rest, and I'll take care of fixing your weapon."

"It's probably going to take a few hours," Federico told Ezio. "And we cannot do anything until it's repaired. Relax, little brother."

Ezio shook his head stubbornly. "I want to see how he fixes the blade."

Federico shrugged, realizing it would be easier to give in than to argue. "Whatever you say, little brother."

As Federico had guessed, within three minutes Ezio was fast asleep, his head slumped down onto his chest at an uncomfortable angle.

"It seems a shame that I did not get an opportunity to meet you while you were alive, Federico," said Leonardo suddenly, spreading out his tools across his workbench next to the ancient scroll and the hidden blade mechanism. "It would be nice to be able to put a face to you, but unless I spontaneously develop your brother's strange vision, that seems unlikely."

Federico started. As a ghost, he wasn't used to being spoken to by anyone but Ezio and Paola. "Probably. But stranger things have happened," he said, aware that without being able to hear him, there was no way Leonardo could respond - but even just the illusion that he was having a conversation with someone else was too much for him to resist.

"I was deeply sorry to hear about your death and the death of your father and youngest brother. Anyone with an ounce of sense could see that what happened to you and your family was a gross abuse of power. But I suppose there are always people who are thoughtless, foolish, greedy, and obsessed with power, and this city is certainly no exception," continued Leonardo sadly. Looking down at the diagram drawn on the scroll, he began to carefully disassemble the hidden blade.

Federico watched Leonardo work on the blade with interest. There was something almost soothing about how Leonardo's tools moved quickly and assuredly over the hidden blade, only occasionally pausing for Leonardo to glance at his notes or the scroll. Federico began to understand why his mother and Paola thought so highly of Leonardo - it was obvious the man was extraordinarily intelligent.

When nearly half of the hidden blade was lying in front of Leonardo meticulously broken down into its individual parts, he spoke up again. "I'm by no means a stupid man, Federico, but it wouldn't take a brilliant scholar to figure out why Ezio wants me to fix this weapon for him. He means to get revenge for the death of his family by killing Uberto Alberti." He carefully set the hidden blade down and sighed. "Who am I to deny him his vengeance? I can only hope he's able to use this weapon well."

"So do I," said Federico quietly.

So here's something that happened to me Thursday:

I had to run some documents to a courthouse for my job. Unfortunately, court was in session when I got there, so I had to go through a metal detector and have two guards look through my purse before I could drop them off. After the guards had looked through my purse, one of them asked, "Do you have any knives on you?"

This confused the hell out of me because a. the most dangerous items I had on me were my cell phone and e-reader (which were apparantly so dangerous they weren't even allowed inside the courthouse turned off) and b. that seemed like an oddly specific question to ask. "Um. No?"

It took me until I was in my car halfway back to the office to realize why he'd said that: he'd seen the Assassin's Creed book I had in my purse. Whoops. I'd completely forgotten I'd put that book in my purse that morning - probably not the best reading material to bring to court.

I'd be the worst assassin ever.