Leonardo was positively thrilled when he saw what I'd bought him. I'd arrived at the door looking like I'd been in a hurry, because I really had. He ushered me inside and I showed the masks off to him, and I have to say, he looked rather dashing in his. He told me to show him the dress I planned on wearing for the ball, and he thought it was most beautiful—I'd chosen it myself. Dinner was short, and then Leonardo decided that perhaps we should go out, as he had a little bit of time. I didn't put my grand dress on, no way, but instead, one of the slightly-altered ones. We wore our masks as we walked down the street toward the festivities, talking and laughing, until the party completely swallowed us whole. And then we were moving around, dancing with whoever would taken our hands, laughing and clapping along with the music. I could swear at one point I saw a silhouette on the rooftops, but I didn't let it bother me. For the moment there was only the music and us.

That's when a young announcer revealed the news that there would be games held here, each a mystery until the previous was completed. I froze as he announced that the first game was a test of charm, but it wasn't that at all. It had nothing to do with the games, but who was standing behind the announcer, off to the left, in his dark cowl. His eyes shone like diamonds, and they were staring straight ahead, straight at me. I thought he'd recognised me, and that he was going to take me again, but then his gaze shifted to the rooftops, and I understood. He was searching for something. More like someone, I thought bitterly. I didn't relax for the rest of the night.

The first game could be played by pretty much everyone; we were simply given a ribbon, and had to stand in small groups. Where Leonardo and I chose to stand, there were three others with us; two women, very young and completely fascinated by everything here, and a drunk man, maybe in his thirties, who seemed to like the look of me. Every time I snuck a glance at him, he'd be staring straight at me. It was creepy. Our job was to wait for a rather charming man to come along and entice us enough to give him our ribbons. I tucked mine on my belt at the front, and waited for someone to approach us, but nothing really happened for some time. That's when I looked down and realized it was already gone, and a retreating form told me exactly who it was. I felt the beginning of a growl in the back of my throat. But even more importantly, I'd let my guard down completely. I ground my teeth together.

After only a few more minutes, with my ever-increasing bad mood, the announcer called out to the crowd because they'd found a winner. Leonardo was beside me in the crowd when they announced the winner, and that's when Ezio stepped forward. I tensed up, more so than I was already, and concentrated.

My torturer spoke to a larger, far larger man—I couldn't think of another way to describe him, he was just huge—and then his eyes flicked back to the crowd, back to Ezio, and then landed on me. My breath caught in my throat. Yes, he knew exactly who I was. "I look forward to the stories you will tell next time." I couldn't look away, because that would give me away. It's not like I had anything else to give away. Besides, he couldn't do anything with a crowd of this size around. And not with Venice's famed artist standing directly beside me, pulling on my arm to make sure I was alright. I really, really didn't want him to get in on this. He was still very much innocent.

He pulled on my arm again, and this time, my eyes flicked to him.

"What?"

"I said are you okay, Abigail. What's wrong?" his eyes were almost pleading.

"Nothing." I smiled, simply shrugging it off. I glanced quickly up at the stage. Ezio was gone, and the torturer—I didn't even know who he was—was preoccupied with someone else already.

"Nothing at all." I mumbled.

I went to see Antonio the following morning. He had a master head-ache, which I'm sure was really a hangover. He was prattling on about some girl who got stabbed the night before, and at first, I jumped to conclusions, but then he confirmed it was some Templar messenger or footman or something. I don't know. He seemed really disinclined to talk Ezio up.

I mentioned the ribbon game, and immediately he took a foothold.

"Well, yes. Last night was a step in the right direction, but we're still a work in progress. Ezio—" There was no way to be subtle about it.

"I don't care what Ezio's doing. I came here wanting a job, not an update." Antonio stared me down for a moment with his brow furrowed, and then got up, out of his seat with a profuse lack of co-ordination. The giant map he had in the middle of the room, he looked down at.

"It looks like we don't really have any form of work for you, Abigail. Unless you wanted to help Ezio out, but he seems pretty content to work by himself." My ears pricked up.

"What did he say?" I said too quickly. Antonio raised an eyebrow at me.

"...He simply mentioned that you'd decided you didn't want anything to do with us at the moment." My eyes narrowed.

I left the room, listening to the loud click of my shoes as I crossed the square courtyard to the door. My dress flew up around me in its many skirts, and my speed threw my hair out of my face; it was plain to see I wasn't happy. A silhouette out of the corner of my eye, up on the high balcony, barely caught my attention, but I flicked my hair and tapped my left hand on a blade, because he knew I knew he was watching me. He was doing everything right though; keeping his distance was wise.

Leonardo was somewhat pleased that I hadn't any work. He talked while he painted, and I sat myself on my desk, playing with the frills of my skirts. It was just chatting, really, he was saying something about this young woman who'd just been married, and she had always loved the boy, no matter what ridiculous antics they'd thrown at each other growing up. I laughed to myself a little bit, with one of those one-sided smiles, and looked up to Leonardo while he was painting. He seemed to be happy as long as I was. I raised my eyes for a moment, pursed my lips.

"Is marrying for love rare?"

"Not as rare as one might think, but it's not often that people get the chance. It's lucky for you that you haven't had a father figure telling you to choose a suitor." And that was true. I suppose I didn't have one anymore. My mind flew back to his warm open arms, and how no matter what age I was, he was always bigger than me. I couldn't picture his face in my mind. Nor my mother's. My brother, all I could remember of him was his hair. I didn't even realize that I'd lapsed into silence, staring at the floor with my hands still.

Leonardo stopped to stare at me for a moment, and then put down his paintbrush.

"Tell me about them. Your family. What were they like?"

"Oh no, I shouldn't. Besides, I don't think I'll ever see them again. They're just a thing of the past now." And it hurt me for saying so.

"Please?" For a moment, I just stared at him with a frown, but then I bit my lip and shrugged. Oh fine. What could it hurt anyway?

"Well, where I came from, it didn't matter who you married. People were living to be over a hundred years old on the odd occasion. People drove—" I stuttered. I don't think there was a word for it yet. "…machines, everywhere, and used them to communicate and to pass time and watch plays and listen to music. I still have mine, though it's run out of power now. You could take a 'train'—I said the word in English—into the city, and all the buildings were twenty, fifty, hundreds of stories high." Leonardo's eyes were like dinner plates.

"And I suppose my family wasn't that bad off. We always had enough money for food, clothes. We never starved."

"But your mother and father, what were they like? How would Ezio have fared if he had've courted you?" I laughed for a moment, just thinking about it.

"I think my father would have scared him." I said with a smile. "All my past… suitors, have been afraid of him. The rules of courtship are far different where I am from; we're allowed to court before marriage. Freely. And they always found him scary. But courtship didn't necessarily mean marriage, so he liked to be scary, to make sure that they'd treat me well."

"And did it work?"

"Of course! Ezio is... was... would have been... Lucky, that he wasn't around. I imagine he'd have behaved better." The words formed a knot in my stomach. I mean, I wasn't upset at him still, I'd gotten past it pretty quickly, but a tight knot still meandered it's way into my stomach. He really had a very firm grip on me, little did he know. We fell into silence.

"What about your mother?" He prompted, before I got a chance to dwell in the nastier corners of my mind.

"She was lovely. She was a writer, so she was always at home. She had a novel she was working on, and she wrote weekly sections of a magazine. I have her hair." I smiled, pulling my hair over my shoulder and playing with it.

"So, your mother was educated then?" I did a double take, and then it clicked.

"Oh yes, yes, definitely! Yes. Everyone is. I mean yeah, there are still dumb people, but everyone has to go to school from five to eighteen years old. It's illegal if you don't go." He nodded, holding his chin between two fingers thoughtfully.

"Me disappearing must have broken her heart." Leonardo patted my knee, and I wrapped my arms around myself. Breathing in, out.

"Maybe not?" He suggested, and I looked at him quizzically.

"What do you mean?" He can't seriously be suggesting that my disappearance doesn't effect anything, can he?

"Well, I've been thinking about it for some time, and in the first place, it really doesn't seem possible. But if it was, what if you time travelling here has made your world freeze? So when your life here ends, or reaches a certain point, you will return to the same place with an entire new set of memories, but you will be the same as when you left. You'll come home and everything will be the same. What do you think of that?" I sat there, thinking it over, my heart slowly rising at the idea. What if they hadn't noticed I was gone, and years of tears were for nothing? It kind of made me smile. I could live with that. I looked over at Leonardo just as the door knocked. I could tell by the knocking who it was; the guards tended to announce their arrival like an ice cream truck. I wasn't in a rush to get out of the way. I wanted him to know I was here. The door was opened, and I jumped off the desk, making a beeline for the stairs. I turned the corner, but didn't go up the stairs. I wanted to hear this.

"I'm not here for her, I need your help, Leonardo."

"Another codex! Please, take a seat, and I'll be with you in a moment." A few moments passed. There was a faint scuffling on the desk.

"So how have things been? I see you're painting a portrait." Leonardo took a couple minutes to reply; I'd given up on standing and was now sitting on the bottom step.

"Well... A woman has asked me to paint a portrait of her for her husband's family portrait gallery. I'll be doing her husband next month, too." I giggled at the wording, and then froze because I think he'd have heard me. I waited for any indication that he had, but apparently not.

"Have you been going out at all during Carnevale? The festivities are great."

"Yes, a couple nights ago now. But I've been invited to a grand ball in a couple nights time, which will be good. Abigail has bought herself and me a mask for the occasion."

Silence. It stretched on, and on. I think I stopped breathing for a minute, there.

"How is she?"

More silence. I could hear my pulse behind my ears.

"She's well. She doesn't like not being able to work, but I feel better with her staying here than out there, doing something dangerous."

"Very true; but the timing of Carnevale couldn't have come better. It's making my work easier. I won another of the games tonight."

"Well that's good. We can't have you getting into trouble." And I could hear the smile in his voice. If anything, I'd think that Leonardo missed having Ezio around. But I didn't know if it was because I no longer wanted him in my life, or if Ezio just didn't visit that often. Really, I'd almost consider Leonardo my parent, or my big brother, or some equivalent. He immediately took me in, without question. He's generous, kind, and lovely company to have around. Ezio laughed.

"Indeed."

"But Ezio?" Leonardo said, quieter this time. I don't think Ezio gave a verbal reply, because it was Leonardo who spoke next. I strained to hear, barely catching the words.

"You really have no idea, about her. No idea at all."