Ofelia had Paola to take her to one of the headquarters, there she was introduced to twenty others who weren't trained at all, and together they sat down with Teodora Contanto, Bartolomeo d'alviano, Paola and Antonio de Magianis to speak about the Brotherhood, the laws of the Creed and the meaning of it.
It had been a magical night in Ofelia's eyes, and she had listened to them speaking for hours.
Because of how they all lived in different cities, and had their own business to take care of, they had meetings once every twice month.
They had gotten to choose which one of the teachers that they wanted to become apprentices too, and of course Ofelia had chosen Paola.
Either they could have chosen to follow Bartolomeo, and learn how to go into battle, using swords and armor and without "all that unnecessary crap, that only makes you look like a circus monkey."
Teodora taught the ways of the courtesans just like Paola, and Antonio taught the ways of the thieves.
Paola did at first take care of four other novices, but later on she let go of the rest, claiming that they were "useless" and so Teodora took care of them and Paola only had Ofelia left.
Usually after two years, the apprentices had climbed enough ranks and it was time for them to choose another teacher, but instead of learning from one of the other teachers in the group, and having to share its attention, Ofelia had decided to follow La Volpe since she believed that he was a greater teacher than the others.
After the years that had passed since he started training her she still believed she had been right, since she had the highest rank of them all.
When two years had passed once again it was time to choose another teacher, only this time someone who wasn't one of the usual teachers, you had to find a Teacher who worked on his own but who still belonged to the creed, and so that was what had gotten Ofelia to Ezio after spending one last year with La Volpe.
The times when they all met up again after two months, was for training against each other and giving signed contracts of the missions you have completed to the teacher you first had so that the teacher can keep track on your progress.
But to meet the others when she wasn't forced to do so wasn't something that Ofelia liked to waste her time on, and to do it didn't make her happy.
The others Ofelia still after five years hadn't talked to, their names she hadn't kept in mind, other than this boy who always seemed to want to talk to her when they fought against each other or even walked past each other at the headquarters, other than that she usually succeeded to avoid them.
His name was Cristiano Bianchi, he had reached rank seven the last time Ofelia had heard of him, and was now a Guerriero, a warrior.
He had been trained firstly by Bartolomeo d'alviano, and so he had learn his skills with swords.
He was strong, quick with a blade and thanks to Antonio de Magianis who had become his second teacher he was also quick on his feet.
But he didn't know how to persuade someone, how to make them turn their attention to something else even when the blade was visible to them.
And he knew nothing about being careful or alert, which Ofelia clearly knew better than him.
I watched him as he sat there, the wind passing him by and the fireworks putting him in the shadows and only enlightening his back once in a while.
Clearly he saw me as well, and recognized me, Ofelia, even though I was wearing the mask.
He slowly raised his hand towards his hooded face, and while holding three fingers to his forehead he did a quick salute towards me, I only frowned in answer.
Suddenly he brought his hood down from his face and stood up quickly, towering up into his tall length.
I blinked confusedly as he started walking towards the edge of the rooftop while sheathing and unsheathing his blade as he went, it seemed to be a habit of his.
Where was he going to go? On that side of the building there was nothing else but water waiting for him underneath, both I and Ofelia thought as we watched him.
And that's when he suddenly made a graceful jump out into the air, bringing his arms up and turned in the air so that he now was falling head first as he went.
"Idioto!" I hissed under my breath as I saw him disappear.
None of us are able to swim, water is our only threat. Ofelia thought dryly as she saw him disappear into the water and out of our sight.
I shook my head, Cristiano was according to Ofelia foolish but not stupid enough to commit such a suicide, clearly he must've learned how to swim which was going to become a problem to me and Ofelia since neither of us knew how to swim, therefore he had taken an advantage over us.
"Could this day possibly get any worse?" I thought, both because of how I myself felt and how Ofelia felt.
She didn't like to worry about somebody taking her place as the leader, even though she could easily get it back by simply learning how to swim.
Only that such a thing needed a teacher, and to ask someone to help her learn such a silly thing was insulting and ridiculous, at least according to her.
The fireworks thundered in my ears as well as the crowds cheering and screaming, and It wasn't until the woman had run pass me that I understood that it was something with her screaming that didn't match the others.
"Guards, Guards! There's an Assassin in the castello! He killed the dodge!" The woman screamed terrified as she ran pass me, my eyes quickly went to her, while she ran away from the assassin that she had spoken of, before I spun around to watch the guards over by the castello entrance.
It was Ezio, no doubt about it, I thought with a sigh as I watched the guards shouting to each other before hurrying inside.
The fireworks were still going off high above me, and everything I saw turned into the colors of the fireworks before it went black until the next one went off.
Suddenly a man next to me yelped as he suddenly fell to the ground with a black then red, caused by the fireworks, silhouette falling on top of him.
He must've climbed over the rooftop, clever. Ofelia thought dryly.
"My apologies Messere." Ezio chuckled as he quickly got back to his feet and left the terrified and surprised man on the ground with his mouth wide open.
Ezio adjusted his clothing as he finally looked up from the man on the ground and seemed to search the streets for a way out of there.
His eyes went to the rooftops, but as I followed his stare I saw perhaps ten archers who had taken over the night shifts and were watching us all, if he tried getting up there they would shoot him down before he had been able to reach the top.
It was a miracle that they hadn't noticed him as he had jumped down from the palazzo's ceiling.
Suddenly, Ofelia's hope had gotten a new boost and her excitement filled her body, and thereby spreading inside of me as well.
Since our minds were connected I realized what she was planning and decided to act on this, since what she believed was the right thing to do was what I had to do in order to not change anything.
If I did something that Ofelia hadn't done, hadn't wanted, I would've changed the way things would end out in the future, even if I did something little as perhaps not throwing that apple on the guard, because it would set the wrong things in motion.
And therefore I did what Ofelia would have done if I wasn't the one controlling this body.
And I decided to do so in exactly the right time, because right then, with Ezio starring down the streets and with the archers watching us all like hawks from above, the guards inside of the castello must have realized that the killer had in some kind of way been able to get passed them.
The four guards that had been guarding this entrance were now accompanied by ten others who had probably been guarding the other entrances, and they seemed furious.
"Spread out! He can't have gotten far!" One of the guards shouted as he rushed passed me, clearly going to signalize to the archers as well about the happenings.
Ezio seemed to swear as he saw the guard running towards a ladder standing against one of the walls.
Now was the time for me to come to his rescue, I thought as he brought his hood up, a satisfied smile spread across my lips.
Quickly I stepped towards him and grabbed his arm, just as he was about to run towards the opposite direction that Ofelia had come from earlier that evening.
Ezio turned around towards me as he felt my fingers tighten around his lower arm.
He seemed confused, and even brought his hood down as he watched me with a frown.
I grabbed his hand and smiled and he kept on watching me with suspicious eyes.
"Just walk with me." I whispered in his ear to make him understand, as I hooked my arm with his.
We started walking from the crowd just outside the castello and towards the street where Ofelia had come from earlier.
"Why don't we go that way, my friend is waiting for me by the water." Ezio said questioningly and lowering his voice at the last part of his sentence, he pointed towards the street that he had been about to run towards, I shook my head with a smile and patted his arm as if to say that he was silly.
"I know that, I'd say everybody who lives by the creed knows about your whereabouts Ezio. But there are guards everywhere if you go that way, another assassin had told me about his plans on causing a scene over there, follow me instead. I know where to go." I looked him in the eyes with a confident smile playing on my lips.
"Or would you like to end up like that man you just killed?" I said while watching the crowd.
"If the assassins know my every move or not doesn't exactly worry or concern me." Ezio said, mostly we were just trying to keep a calm conversation going as we went, to not seem too strange or attract any attention.
Though that was quite hard not to, to attract attention I mean, because every woman watched Ezio as he went by with his broad shoulders and charming smile, and every man watched me.
I myself felt like the stares from husbands and men were getting awkward and it felt as if their eyes would burn spots on my skin where ever they pleased to look, Ofelia on the other hand was only pleased to know that they enjoyed watching her.
"Madonna, don't think that saving my life will change my decision, I still work on my own." Ezio suddenly said as we went by people.
I shot a glance towards the rooftops, where the archers were standing with bows and crossbows at the ready.
Even though both I and Ofelia had hoped to change Ezio's mind, we weren't that surprised to hear him say it. If Ezio wasn't out for an apprentice, we simply had to find someone who was.
Only that would take some great time, and Ofelia had already wasted half a year searching for Ezio and then staying for two months now at her hiding place in Venezia while waiting for Ezio to arrive, all this time she had been without a teacher.
"I wasn't planning on changing your mind, but helping you. All though if you feel that having me near is upsetting you I'll be happy to leave you in the hands of faith." I answered coldly, yet with a smile on my lips.
I directed us towards the alley, yet there was about a hundred meters left before we were there.
We were in the middle of the big street, which made me feel stressed because of the amount of guards that were watching us.
Ezio chuckled to what I had said.
"My apologies Madonna, if I have offended you I beg for forgiveness, it was not my intentions. I just wanted to make it clear that I won't take you as my apprentice." He was speaking in an amused set of voice, and I shot a glance at his smirking face and rolled my eyes.
We walked past people in a hurry, but not running because that would catch the guards' attention.
Some turned to look at us, some didn't even realize that we were there as we pushed our way through the crowd together.
"Apology accepted, but please don't remind me of it or else I will leave you here." I warned to which Ezio simply chuckled quietly to.
"Did you leave anything that could lead them back to you?" I asked, mostly because that was a question that Ofelia used to ask herself after an assassination, something that Paola had taught her.
Ezio was quiet for a while as he shot a glance over his shoulder towards the guards.
They were speaking to the remaining guests from the castello, probably trying to hear if anyone had managed to spot the killer, but it didn't seem to pay off.
"Other than that woman who had seen me when I had killed the dodge then no, nothing can make them suspicious about me." Ezio said calmly.
And the woman who had seen him was probably already home, considering how quickly she had run by me before
But I shouldn't have jumped to such a hasty conclusion.
Because suddenly one of the men's around us had caught sight of us and had seen something that neither I nor Ezio had thought about.
"There, grab that man, he's got blood on him!" As we heard the voice from behind us we both stopped for a moment and turned around to see who the one to tell was.