Once she'd left the confines of the Rosa in Fiore – safe as the place might have been, no one who'd been outside of it could truly call the brothel expansive – Maria found herself called upon by what seemed to be another of Gilberto's thieves.

"So, this is another problem with the Cento Occhi?" she asked, wondering just how many such problems that she herself would be called upon to solve before the end.

"Sí," the thief she'd met with said. "We and the poor of Roma have an agreement: we do not prey on them, and they do not see us. But, these Cento Occhi banditti do not abide by that rule. Or any rules at all, it seems, so no one would miss them if they happened to disappear."

"Sí, it certainly seems that way," she said, feeling a morbid sort of amusement even as she did. "Well, give me their locations, and I'll be certain to deal with them."

"Grazie," the thief said, giving her the requested locations and then letting her go on her way after he'd wished her luck in her hunt.

After she'd thanked Gilberto's man for his consideration, Maria made her way out to the neighborhood where she'd heard that the bandits she was after were presently working out of. It didn't take her long to spot them, particularly with the aid of the second-sight that she and Ezio had both shared for each of their respective lives. After she'd tracked them for a bit, getting a feel for their patterns and how each man moved, a crossbow-bolt each served to dispatch them.

Making her way back down onto the streets of Roma once again, Maria quickly tracked down the thief she'd talked with that first time. Reporting her success to the man, and in turn receiving a promise that he would tell her if there was anything else that she could assist with considering their current struggle with the Borgia, Maria bid Gilberto's man farewell. She wondered for a moment if she should pay a visit to the man herself, but decided to return to the Rosa first.

There was every chance that Mother and Claudia would need her assistance with something, after all.

~AC: Bro~

Finding himself stopped on a rooftop by one of La Volpe's thieves was hardly a common occurrence, but as Ezio had come to recognize the challenging glint of another's eyes – man or woman, they all looked the same when they had something to prove – he grinned back.

"I can't help but think you have something to say to me, amico."

"You are the famous Ezio Auditore?" the man, his skin browned deeply by Roma's steady drenching of sunlight. "I have to admit, I expected a much younger man. Let's see if you live up to your legend, sí?"

"Bene," he said, chuckling softly. "Let's see how you measure up."

The pair of them exchanged grins sharp with challenge, before taking off on a course that would take each of them to a spot that the man – who had identified himself as Vincento, a former house painter who had found himself run out of business by the Borgia, which was a common enough theme among La Volpe's thieves that he'd almost come to expect it at this point – and he had spoken about just before they'd set off. The pair of them weren't running the same path, of course, not only to cut down on the temptation that other men would have likely had to sabotage each other, but also t keep him and Vincento from tripping over the other when one of them pulled ahead.

In the end, he did manage to make it to the end-point first, but it was a close enough victory for Vincento to feel more than a little vindicated, at least.

"So, it looks like you do have some life left in you, old man," Vincento said, grinning as he lightly punched Ezio's right flank.

Laughing, Ezio slapped the man's back with a firm, companionable hand. "Your generation hasn't gotten the best of me yet, fratellino."

Leaving Vincento and his thoroughly amused laughter behind, Ezio made his way back down to the streets of Roma, vanishing into the depths of Roma's hidden tunnel-system at last.

~AC: Bro~

When she'd returned to the Rosa in Fiore at last, it was only to be sent out again, this time to meet with Agnella on horseback.

"You and your brother have managed to rid us of the ambassadors who were conspiring with the Borgia, but now it is time to deal with those who conspired with them," Agnella said, turning back to look over her right shoulder.

Maria nodded. "That would be where I come in, sí?"

A simple confirmation was all the pair of them needed to keep moving, and for a moment Maria found herself wishing that she'd had the time to call upon even one of the recruits that she and Ezio had worked to bring into the Brotherhood, but this was a situation that called for speed above all. And she still had the crossbow she'd bought for herself as soon as she could, so that would do for the present.

As the pair of them closed with the first of the ambassadors, Maria loosed a bolt into his head as Agnella pointed him out to her, and the both of them rode on. All in all, she was called upon to do the same sort of thing seven more times, occasionally supplementing her crossbow with throwing-knives when she wasn't given enough time to reload the weapon.

Returning to the Rosa once more, after having signaled to enough of the Brotherhood's recruits to set up an ambush for the Borgia guards that had begun following in her and Agnella's wake as the pair of them sought to continue about their work, Maria sighed in relief as she and Agnella drew within sight of the protected grounds of the bordello again. Nothing sounded better to her at this moment, though she could possibly be persuaded to have a hot meal beforehand.

Still, more than anything, Maria was simply pleased to be returning to the closest she had to a home in these uncertain times.