Making his way back into Roma once more, and then back down into the tunnels once he'd found an entrance that wasn't being watched by whatever unfriendly eyes might have been concealing themselves within the crowds of Roma as they went about their daily business, Ezio allowed himself to relax the rest of the way as he continued onward in the direction of the Brotherhood's hideout on Isola Tiberina. He always found it rather amusing, those times he would find his thoughts wandering in such a direction, that whoever had been responsible for constructing the tunnel-system that ran underneath nearly the length and breadth of Roma had somehow contrived to make their way underneath the river itself.
He was near-certain that Leonardo would have cheerfully talked his ear off about the subject, if he'd been in any kind of position to begin such a conversation in the first place.
Making his way back up and out of the mouth of the tunnel once more, Ezio smiled as he caught sight of little Maria and a group of recruits. The group of them looked like they were training, and since he had no desire to interrupt them as well as having the news to deliver to Leonardo about the last of the war machines that the Borgia had forced him to create for them, Ezio continued on his way with a smile. All other considerations aside, it was good to know that the Brotherhood was growing apace.
Good to know that, even when other considerations inevitably called him and his away from Roma again, the Brotherhood would endure.
Once he'd managed to find Leonardo again, Ezio smiled as he saw his inventor friend making yet another of the elaborately detailed sketches that he seemed to be so fond of working on when he found a spare moment or two to himself. Pausing for a moment, knowing that he wouldn't have wished to be interrupted when he was hard at work the way Leonardo seemed to be, Ezio felt again the subtle sensation of Aeon pushing against the confines of the Apple once more.
Removing the artifact from its resting place within his robes, and taking care to be as subtle as he could even in spite of the fact that he already knew that Aeon could hardly help the rather ostentatious way he was made to enter and exit the world, Ezio glanced briefly over at Aeon as he reformed once more from the light of the Apple. It was not that he could truly bring himself to think of such a sight as mundane, not when he recalled what such a thing ultimately signified, but he had been the one who spent the most time working beside the phantasmal man in black. And, as much as he might not have wished to admit to it, even such a fantastic sight could begin to seem normal after so many times as he himself had seen it.
"Nearly a perfect likeness; I'm rather impressed," Aeon said, after making his way over to where Leonardo was sitting.
"Grazie," the inventor said, turning a surprised sort of smile onto the man in black where he was standing; clearly not having expected his work to be scrutinized so soon. "And for showing them to me, as well," the inventor said, smiling all the more widely.
Ezio, his curiosity piqued by the strange discussion that the pair of them seemed to be having, made his way over to see just what the pair of them were talking about. Looking down at the sketch that Leonardo had been laboring over for only he truly knew how long, Ezio found that it seemed to be the Ethereal Blades that Aeon used in battle. However, what he was looking at clearly lacked both hilt and blade, and he couldn't help but wonder just how in the wide world Aeon thought that the sketch resembled the weapons he used to such deadly effect.
Still, when Leonardo asked to see Aeon's Ethereal Blades once again, Ezio found himself surprised as to just how much Leonardo's sketch did actually resemble the reality of Aeon's fantastical weapons. Lacking hilts or blades, and in fact seeming to be a simple cylinder with some decoration on the sides. It was all the more unsettling to think, then, just how deadly such an unassuming weapon could become in Aeon's hands. Truly, even though it was plain for anyone to see just how readily Aeon gave his aid to the Brotherhood, Ezio knew that he would always find the man in black more than a bit unsettling.
This, then, was simply one more thing that would stick in his mind when Ezio found himself thinking of Aeon, he knew.
"I've also been developing something for you too, amico," Leonardo said, gathering up what seemed to be a rolled up sack of some kind or other, once he and Aeon had finished with their discussion. "It's a device to allow you to drift gently down from a great height. It's based on the same theory as the lifting-bag that Maria and I designed, so I'm certain it will stand you in good stead," he said, smiling happily; out of the corner of his right eye, Ezio saw Aeon returning to the Apple once more. "Still, I would like to know how it works out for you."
"I'll make sure to tell you how it goes, if I ever find myself in need of it," he said, smiling at the pure enthusiasm he could see shining from Leonardo's entire face; truly, his escape from the Borgia had done the man a world of good. "Grazie, for everything you've done."
"I could hardly do anything less, amico," Leonardo said, his smile as bright as ever, but with a certain darkness still lurking in the depths of his eyes.
Ezio held the man's gaze for just a bit longer, knowing that he wasn't the only one who had an all-too-vivid recollection of those weeks upon weeks that the pair of them had been out of contact with one another. Fitting, since he hadn't been the one who'd ultimately ended up in the hands of the Borgia. It was only natural that such a thing would leave more marks than were immediately evident.