Note: I changed the dates of around two key events in AC2 by just a few years to better fit the story and reduce some of the massive unexplained time jumps in the original AC2, all of that so we can have a much more compact story, so keep that in mind while you read. And in case it wasn't clear, this is NOT an Ezio/OC romance. Thanks.

In a heavily damaged and now abandoned Monteriggioni, Nerissa de' Pazzi and Ezio Auditore are engaged in a ferocious battle on a rooftop of the old fortress town. The center of the town that used to be a major stronghold for the Auditore family outside of Florence was now mostly in ruins. The once shining and imposing Villa Auditore was now only a shell of its former self, and the once lively marketplace of the Tuscan town seemed now as sinister as a graveyard.

After several sword clashes and right before they were about to charge at each other once again, Nerissa looked at the glowing mark on her right palm with a sad look on her face, before closing her fist, after which the mark spread further throughout her body. The blue glowing mark was now extended to her arm and its patterns were also visible on the right side of her face.

Ezio possessed a mark of his own as well, a green one, and he also allowed his mark to spread through his body, after which the two individuals exchanged sword blows once again. Ever since these marks had appeared, nothing had ever been the same for the two Florentine nobles, a sort of major turning point for them if you wish.

Thus, it does truly beg the question: What were those marks exactly? And perhaps more importantly, Why was Nerissa fighting Ezio? And why in such a desolate place?

Things were not always this way. As a young girl of noble blood growing up in 15th century Florence, she was not supposed to become a fighter. Thus, we could reflect on Nerissa's history and examine a much different time, several years before their battle in Monteriggioni when Ezio and her were not adversaries. A time during which she even had some form of esteem for the young man.

Florence, April 1483

Nerissa was walking in the streets of Florence with her mother. It was an ordinary day, and they were on their way to a flower shop and yet, for the past few months, she had not been able to stop thinking about the Auditore and what had happened to them in December of 1481. A relatively influential family in the city that was suddenly accused of treason on dubious charges and saw three of its members publicly executed.

This had led to increased anxiety for Nerissa. If it could happen to the Auditore, could it happen to her own family as well? She had been particularly thinking of Ezio, who had managed to flee the city alongside his mother and sister shortly after the tragedy.

Several witnesses reported that after the execution of his father and brothers, Ezio murdered the Gonfaloniere di Giustizia, the holder of the highest political office in the Republic of Florence, a man named Uberto Alberti, in broad daylight out of revenge, and then proudly claimed in front of everyone that "the Auditore were not dead", before getting away. Since leaving the city, she had not heard of him, therefore his current whereabouts were unknown to her.

Murder, especially in this manner, was not exactly something she would associate Ezio with, under normal circumstances, but these were not normal times. Nerissa did not personally believe that the Auditore were guilty, so she could not exactly blame Ezio for wanting revenge after this horrific situation (though maybe not by doing it so publicly), especially since as she understood it, Alberti used to be a good friend of Ezio's father Giovanni, so there was a huge sense of betrayal after Alberti massively facilitated the arrest and execution of Ezio's family members with no clear proof of wrongdoing.

Nevertheless, at the same time, planned murder was something she still had trouble reconciling with Ezio and the image of him she had come to develop, even though she obviously did not think of him as one without flaws.

The truth was, Nerissa had only interacted with Ezio a few times before the incident. But she had also not only heard great things about him, but some of those things she had even witnessed herself. An example would be her seeing Ezio volunteering at a city hospital that she was passing by with her mother one day, and being later told that Ezio went there often to help.

Another, perhaps more interesting thing she had witnessed which marked her even more, happened during a race organized in the city and Ezio was among 8 participants for this competition, and there was a massive prize to be won.

However, while he was dominating the race, had the number one spot, and was about to win, one of the participants fell and broke his ankle while running and let out a powerful scream. Ezio, despite being ahead of everyone else, pretty much abandoned his advantage in the race after hearing the scream and went to check on the injured participant, while the others continued to run and ignored everything else. Ezio alerted a few nearby guards for help so that doctors could check on the injured and make sure that he is fine.

So unsurprisingly, Ezio did not win and did not get the prize, but he didn't seem to mind that much. One thing he had won though, was respect in the eyes of many.

Nerissa was there in the crowd and watched it happen and for her, it was a great testament to Ezio's character, and she was smiling in approval while she watched Ezio carry the injured man to safety as it also made her remember the day she met Ezio for the first time in 1481, which was several weeks before the events of the race. She had fallen into the Arno river and was rescued by him, and he carried her back to her mother, who was understandably very thankful.

There had been quite a tense situation between Ezio's family and her paternal uncle Francesco, and it would be an understatement to say that the latter absolutely despised the Auditore. Nerissa's parents, however, had never expressed any animosity towards the Auditore at all. It's also important to note that her father Daniele had never been close to Francesco. The latter had also been living in Rome for a while now, for business-related reasons, though he very regularly made trips to Florence, where his son Vieri stayed behind.

What Neri felt towards Ezio wasn't a crush. It was simply admiration and the traits displayed by Ezio that caused her to have particular esteem for him. Ezio is also 5 years older than she is.

Despite all of that, Ezio was known to have engaged in a fistfight against Vieri in the past. Several witnesses had reported that Vieri was the one to have started it and that it wasn't the only time Vieri had provoked Ezio, sometimes apparently going as far as directly harassing some of Ezio's loved ones.

Neri, knowing this information on top of knowing what type of person her cousin was and having seen in person several times before that Vieri took a lot of pleasure in creating trouble, in pointless and random cruelty, and in being an agitator, did not exactly hold that against Ezio.

And in her mind, fist fighting in self-defense was still leagues away from planned murder in broad daylight, even though wanting revenge was justified. Despite fully understanding his actions, Ezio killing someone like that just also felt weird to her at the same time, somehow. It was hard to explain.

However, all these thoughts were broken by her mother's voice: "Neri? Neri? Tout va bien ma chérie? (Are you alright dear?) to which Nerissa responded, "Oui Maman" (Yes mother).

"Good, let's grab the flowers and return home, it's getting late."

"Yes, you're right."

Nerissa's mother, Raphaëlle Rousseau from her maiden name (she was called Raffaella in Italy) was born and raised in France and therefore had been teaching Neri and her brother Marco her native language which Neri had mastered perfectly, including the Parisian accent when speaking in French. And so, Raphaelle would usually speak her native tongue with her kids outside of Italian.

It should be pointed out that for Daniele, a 15th century Florentine noble coming from a family of such standing, marrying a foreigner, someone from outside Italy entirely, wasn't exactly common. Thus, Raphaelle and Daniele faced some hardships, but they managed to seal their union in the end.

As they were about to enter the flower shop, they heard a comment from a woman that was behind them that said:

"Well, well, coming across you next to a flower shop wasn't exactly something I had expected to experience today. I thought we were supposed to see things that pleased us and made us happy around here."

Neri and her mother turned around to see who had said it, and it was Sina Albergo, the wife of Alfonso Albergo, a high-ranking captain in the service of Lorenzo de' Medici, the unofficial, but effective ruler of Florence.

"Excuse me?" said Raphaelle.

But Sina simply went on: "You know, when I see the monstrosity you produce (while pointing at Neri), I am glad to not be able to have children, at least I won't have to look at those every day. I'm not sure how you're even able to handle it if I'm being honest."

Raphaelle kept Neri close and as she was about to respond, a man came and told Sina off:

"I think we've heard enough, lady, you should go now. I'm sure the atmosphere will be much better without you around."

In the face of those words, Sina simply made an angry face and went away.

"I'm really sorry for the trouble, Signora Pazzi."

"Don't worry. Thank you, Alberto." said Raphaelle in return with a smile.

Alberto was a painter and a good friend of Nerissa's direct family. Shortly after that quick exchange, Alberto also left, and the pair entered the shop.

It obviously wasn't the first time Neri and Raphaelle had met Sina and each time she had spewed disgusting and hateful words towards them, often insulting their looks, notably Neri's blonde hair and green eyes, features she shared with Raphaelle.

From what Neri had heard, her uncle Francesco was personally responsible for causing the financial ruin of Alfonso and Sina in the past.

Ruin from which they were saved by Lorenzo de' Medici and Alfonso subsequently entering his service. Thus, the couple started to despise ANYONE named Pazzi, regardless of individual action or character. Only the name mattered. The fact that Francesco and Neri's great-uncle Jacopo de' Pazzi were also long-time bitter rivals of Lorenzo, probably didn't help.

Among the Pazzi the couple hated, Neri's immediate family seemed pretty high on their list, though as implied, they still did not have the top spot.

Neri had asked her mother for even more details, but Raphaelle simply told her to forget about them.

After getting what they needed from the shop, they arrived at their home. Not long after, Nerissa's 5-year-old brother Marco rushed towards her to hug her "Neri! You're back! I missed you so much!"

This made Raphaelle chuckle, and she said to her son "But we weren't gone for THAT long Marco."

"I know but...it kinda felt long to me." responded the young boy. Neri simply smiled in the face of all this. Neri and Marco were very close, and he was extremely attached to her.

"Are you going to read me a story before bed tonight, big sister?"

"Yeah, anytime Marco." the 11-year-old girl responded while holding him tight.

Neri's father Daniele was still working. He was a merchant, and had a separate office building for his business, so he would come home much later during the night. The members of the house staff had been looking after Marco while Nerissa and her mother were running some errands.

Several hours later, the family ate dinner and then prepared to go to sleep, meaning it was time for Marco's story, so Neri went with him to his room. She was skimming through the books that were on the shelf, looking for something interesting, and at the same time she asked him:

"So, what kind of story would you like to hear tonight, Marco? I think we've gone through most of the stuff that's there already before."

"Whichever really, I'm fine with whatever you pick, Neri."

"Well, in that case…..How about…..this one?"

The book was called "Italy's first soldier."

Neri thus picked up a chair and started reading. After a few minutes, she had reached the end of the story:

"-and towards the end, he ordered a massive cavalry charge, one of the largest the world had ever seen, against the enemy center and their position became untenable. There was no doubt. The battle was won, the enemies were routed, the invaders were repelled and Italy was saved. Thus, after this tremendous feat and after inflicting such a devastating defeat to his opponents, he became known as Italy's first soldier (meaning best soldier in this case), as well as the finest commander that these lands had ever seen."

Marco was smiling from beginning to end. And once she was done, Neri put the book aside.

"That was amazing, Neri! I loved it, thank you!"

"You're welcome, Marco." Neri answered with a smile.

"Say, Neri, do you think I could be a soldier too when I grow up? It just sounds….so amazing."

"A soldier? I thought you wanted to do something else?"

"Well, yeah, but….I'm not sure, it sounds like soldiers live lives that are worth a thousand, you know?"

"I'm not sure, Marco. You need to keep in mind that the real thing will be a lot messier and uglier than what happens in books like these due to a lot of reasons.

As long as it's a respectable position with honorable conditions, I'm sure Mom and Dad will be fine with your future choice. You still have time to decide, you know?" Neri said.

"Yeah, I get it, and I'll think hard about it, don't worry." Marco said happily.

Marco then said, "But whatever I choose when I grow up, I hope you won't be too far away though, that would make me a bit sad. It'd be nice if we could at least stay in the same city most of the time when we're older, don't you think?"

"Don't worry Marco, even if I'm far away in another country, I'll make sure to visit during some of the summers whenever I can, okay?"

"Yeah, that sounds great!"

"Okay, time to sleep now Marco, sweet dreams."

Marco then said, "Goodnight Neri, I love you!"

She smiled and responded, "I love you too Marco, sleep well!" She then closed the door and left to go to her room.

But once in bed, she could barely close the eye. Deep down, she was still anxious and was still thinking about the Auditore tragedy. The "what if it happened to us as well" is a question she could not stop thinking about. In bed, she remembered a party she attended in 1481, before the Auditore incident.

As her mother and father were deeply engaged in discussions with some of the attendants, she looked around, simply out of curiosity, and immediately saw something that she considered worth examining from a closer distance. It was her cousin Vieri and Ezio. They looked like they were in a heated conversation, as always.

She knew that the two boys pretty much despised each other. So, she decided to get closer and see if she could do something, anything to help defuse the situation.

"...I really can't wait to see the look on your stupid face when you finally get put in your place. Trust me, Ezio….I'll make sure to enjoy EVERY second of it." proclaimed Vieri in an overly proud tone as always.

"I certainly can't wait for the day you start adopting different strategies, especially ones that don't involve dramatically running away like a little chicken after fights in which YOU were the aggressor. For all that tough talk, you haven't shown me anything that truly backs it up." Ezio threw at Vieri.

"You bastard..." Vieri threw back at him, seemingly about to get physical.

"Vieri please!" The two boys looked to their right to see the younger girl with a worried expression on her face. Neri then grabbed Vieri's arm,

"Please, just for once, don't. Not here." She pleaded to her cousin. "Please?" She added. Vieri simply removed his arm, rolled his eyes, and left.

"I'm really sorry this happened, Ezio." Neri said to him out of politeness.

"No no, it's fine, don't worry. I know you two are related, but you don't have to apologize just because of that, it's obviously not your fault. Those are his actions, not yours."

"I know. He and I aren't really close at all, but I just don't like hearing about or seeing you in heated situations with him. It makes me a bit sad."

"I understand." Ezio said with a smile.

This was another aspect of Ezio's personality that had contributed to Neri's respect for him. Despite his fiercely antagonistic relationship with Vieri, and the open disdain the latter's father had for him and the Auditore family, Ezio didn't just start being randomly negative and hateful towards everyone who shared the Pazzi name for no good, justifiable reason.

This was important to mention, as Neri and her immediate family were the targets of insults from individuals like Sina, due to the actions of other Pazzis, despite having done nothing themselves that would really justify that initial treatment.

"Ezio, I….I wanted to thank you again for saving me that day, in the river, it was very courageous of you." Neri then said.

"No, you really shouldn't, It felt natural, it was about saving a life." Ezio answered.

Neri smiled upon hearing this and all of a sudden, a young girl who seemed to be a few years older than Neri appeared from behind Ezio and said:

"Ezio!? Ezio? Cristina's looking for you."

Ezio then said, "Oh right, Sorry, I've got to go. Claudia, this is Nerissa, I think I've already told you about her. Why don't you get to know each other further?" After that, Ezio left the scene to go over to Cristina's side.

"Hi, I'm Claudia, Ezio's sister. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Nerissa, Vieri's cousin, sadly. Nice to meet you too."

"So, you're the one that big brother saved from the river, uh? I'm not surprised. He has always been courageous and helpful."

"Yeah, I can totally imagine that." said Neri.

After a short silence, Neri then asked:

"So, Claudia, do you have any specific hopes or wishes for the future? In let's say…..10 years?"

To which Claudia responded, "10 years? Well, I would be 21, and I just hope I will already be married by then, and living in a nice and beautiful house.

Speaking of which, I hope my future house staff is super large and top-notch, as I don't see myself having to work in any way. Not even house chores. I'd hate it. Could you imagine ME actually working every day? I wouldn't be able to handle such a life. All of that would frankly be below someone like me."

Neri had a look on her face that could be described as half amused and half embarrassed. Clearly not because of Claudia hoping to be married by then, no. It was rather her apparent disdain towards stuff like future house chores that made her slightly raise an eyebrow. Thus, in response, she simply answered:

"I see, that's….interesting."

"So, what about you?" Claudia then asked in return.

"Well, besides the usual stuff, I also hope I have the time and opportunity to be super personally involved in charity-related stuff around town when I'm older." Neri answered.

"Hmm, I see."

After this, they both said goodbye and returned to their respective families.

This happened around 2 years ago, and back in her bed, Neri couldn't help but wonder how Claudia was feeling right now, assuming she and Ezio were even still alive. The world that she thought to be relatively safe and secure was violently ripped from her with the unfortunate execution of her relatives.

How was she coping with it? And what effect did it have on her as a person? Considering that Claudia, even for a person of her rank, seemed to have a very high opinion of herself, those were intriguing questions to think about,

Neri had so many questions, but there came a point where her body simply gave up for the night, and she finally managed to fall asleep.

The next morning, she was woken up by her mother, who told her that she should get ready as her preceptor was about to arrive. Before Raphaelle left Neri's room to let her daughter prepare, the young girl asked:

"Mama? The Auditore…. Do you really believe all of the horrible stuff they had been accused of?"

"No, dear, of course not. I thought I had already told you that."

Strangely, she had never really discussed the incident in a detailed manner with either of her parents since it had happened, only in brief instances. After that, her mother left the room and Neri got ready for her lessons.

Several hours later, after her preceptor had left, Neri was in the living room practicing embroidery with her mother. Raphaelle had been teaching her for sometime now, and they were currently working on flower motifs.

"Here! I'm done Mama. How does it look?" Neri said, showing her work.

"Aww you're doing great, dear. That's amazing!" Raphaelle answered.

"Thanks! You're a great teacher." Neri said back.

In response, Raphaelle smiled and patted her head.

"Mama, when is Tante (Aunt) Madeleine coming to visit this year, by the way?" Neri then asked.

"Hmm, around July I think. I should write her a letter soon while we're at it. I can't wait to see my little sister again."

"Yeah, I feel the same. She's always so kind to everyone."

"That she is. She's a sweetheart." Raphaelle said smiling.

The next day, Neri was taken to a small palace by her mother in order for her to attend a history exposition event intended for kids aged 10 to 12. The whole thing was supposed to last around 3 and a half hours, and it was Neri's father who would be picking her up afterwards.

Neri was the first kid to arrive, and after her attendance was registered by the event organizers, Raphaelle kissed her on the forehead, said goodbye, and left. Since there were still several minutes left before the start of the exposition, Neri was guided towards a waiting room that was directly facing the one in which attendances were being registered, and both rooms had their doors fully opened.

Alone for a moment, Neri was soon joined inside the waiting room by two other kids, a boy, and a girl. They silently waved at Neri, who in turn waved back at them. They had matching outfits and looked very similar to each other. They were most likely siblings, Neri thought.

The boy and the girl then sat down opposite to Neri and started talking to each other, while Neri looked at the ground in silence, still having the same anxious thoughts that have been bothering her in recent times.

After a few minutes, the girl then addressed Neri:

"Hey! Are you okay?"

"Hum...yes. Why?" Neri answered after looking up.

"Well, it's just...You look kind of nervous." she said.

"Oh...no, it's fine. Don't worry about it." Neri assured her.

"That's great, then. By the way, my name is Oretta. I'm 12, well, nearly 12, and this is my twin brother Raffaele, nice to meet you." The girl told Neri with a smile.

"I'm Nerissa, you can call me Neri, and I'm 11, nice to meet you as well."

"Nerissa? Interesting. We went to Ferrara last year with our parents, and there was a girl with that name there. A very special girl, right Raffaele?" Oretta said, looking at her brother with a huge grin on her face.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Raffaele said, embarrassed.

"He had the BIGGEST crush on her, haha. It was adorable." Oretta said to Neri, chuckling.

"That's funny. To make things even weirder, mother basically has the female version of your name, Raffaele." Neri said with a smile.

"Huh….that's weird indeed." Raffaele said.

"Quite." Oretta added.

"By the way, what family are you guys from?" Neri asked.

"Pazzi. What about you?" Raffaele answered.

"What? No way! Me too." Neri said, shocked.

"Really? Wow. Talk about a coincidence." Raffaele said with a smile.

"From which branch are you from, Neri?" Oretta asked her.

"I am the daughter of Daniele di Antonio de' Pazzi."

"Daniele? I see. We're the children of Giovanni di Antonio de' Pazzi, so we're first cousins. Our Dad has briefly mentioned yours in passing a few times before, but that's about it. No semblance of a strong relationship between the two at all." Raffaele said.

"Same feeling on my end. A few mentions of your father, but beyond that, nothing." Neri said.

Neri then moved closer to the twins, and the three kids then kept talking until the time of the expo arrived, though their conversation quickly moved away from them being related, and they discussed other topics instead.

The expo was exactly what Neri was expecting, but she still enjoyed it. She stayed with the twins the whole time, and once the expo was over, all three of them were sitting on a bench in the hall, waiting for their respective parents.

Then, as Neri saw her father approaching from one direction, the twins also simultaneously saw their own dad Giovanni, arriving in the opposite direction.

"Papa!" Neri said, waving at her father with a smile.

Daniele was around 36 years old, relatively tall, and funnily enough, the only black-haired person in Neri's immediate family of four, as everyone else had blonde hair.

Daniele and Giovanni both arrived at the bench at pretty much the exact same time. After taking a quick look at their respective kids, they addressed each other:

"Giovanni." Daniele said.

"Daniele." Giovanni said in return.

Both men seemed relatively cold towards each other. A different kind of coldness though. Different from Daniele's interactions with Francesco.

"Neri, I see, you've met your cousins. Did everything go well?" Daniele asked.

"Yes, Papa. The expo was great. Raffaele and Oretta are super nice." She answered.

"That's great to hear, Neri." Daniele said.

"Neri is great as well, Dad." Oretta said to Giovanni.

"I see. Well, that's good to know." Giovanni said with a neutral expression before adding,

"Alright, I think we should go now, kids. We're going to be late." Giovanni said before giving a nod to Daniele, which the latter returned, and then turned around to leave.

"Bye, Neri!" Oretta said as they left.

"Yeah, see you!" Raffaele added.

Neri then waved at them.

As they were leaving the building in the opposite direction, and walking back home, Neri then told her father, "Papa, I really need to ask you something."

"Is it about what happened back there?"

"Well, yeah."

"Don't worry, we'll talk about it when we get home."

"Right."

Once there, they sat down in the living room, and Neri then asked:

"Why exactly are you not currently close to any of the other folk in the extended Pazzi family? The older ones, I mean.

I can clearly suspect why, for some like uncle Francesco, and probably Jacopo as well from what I've seen and heard, but I'd like to hear more details from you specifically because I barely know anything about most of the other adult Pazzi.

I didn't really want to ask Raffaele and Oretta too many questions about their dad, but your interaction with uncle Giovanni back there seemed pretty cold."

"Well, in Francesco's case, I've always found him to be greedy, cruel and incredibly conceited. I think that's the best way I can put it.

But, as you've indicated, it wasn't just about me and him. I found that a few others that I had the opportunity to interact with within the family in the past, like my uncle Jacopo to name one, seemed almost as bad as him, and I disagreed with many of their practices.

But obviously, not everyone was bad. I was very close to one of my aunts for example, and in most cases, for the ones I interacted with, it wasn't that the individuals were necessarily bad, but we just didn't get along for various other reasons.

Giovanni is a good example of that. We never really got along. He certainly has his flaws, but I don't think he's necessarily a bad person. He's complicated. Sometimes, you just don't click with certain people, and that's okay.

My parents and I were also not particularly close, and after they died, Jacopo became the "head" of the extended family. After that, Aunt Lisa, who I was really close to, took me in.

Francesco and a few others who were still too young went under Jacopo's care. Others were cared for by other aunts and uncles of mine. Giovanni however, was already old enough to fully take care of himself by that point. He's around 7 years older than I am.

Lisa's husband had also died before she took me in, a few years before, and sadly they had no children. She died 3 years before you were born. I almost never talk about her to anyone, to be honest, but she is always in my thoughts, and I am immensely grateful for everything.

But anyway, I'm really glad you met Raffaele and Oretta, and that they were nice to you. Regardless of what has happened between me and their dad, I sincerely hope you can get closer to them in the future.

I guess it's a shame that they live at the other end of town, otherwise you might run into them more often."

"Yes, I agree, Papa!" Neri said with a smile.

However, Daniele could notice that not everything was fine on Neri's side deep down, simply by looking closer at his daughter's face.

"Are you alright, Neri?"

"Well...actually, these past few months I've had some nightmares about bad things potentially happening to our family….to all four of us I mean….and they have been persistent. I guess….I can't really get them out of my head."

"I see, well, you should not dwell too much on these thoughts. It's normal to be scared of such things, especially at your young age.

But you shouldn't worry. If anyone wanted to hurt our family, I would do everything to keep you, Marco, and your mother safe. I will protect you at all costs."

In response, Neri simply smiled and said:

"You're right, Papa, thank you….thank you so much." and hugged her father. After which Daniele kissed her on the forehead, saying: "It's gonna be okay baby girl, don't worry."

In reality, his words though naturally well-intentioned had not really managed to make her feel more at ease. If something were to happen to her family, she was not sure how she would handle it, so she could not stop thinking about her possible response to such an event.

Unfortunately, she would not have to think or imagine much longer, as a mere week after her discussion with her father, catastrophe would engulf her family….

Author's note: For those who have played AC2, In case it wasn't clear, it should be mentioned that Ezio in this story, though he still has his usual charm, wit, and sarcasm as displayed in this chapter, is not a total womanizer who sleeps around like in the original AC2 before his family's death, though he still dated Cristina as implied during the flashback at the party. Neri's perspective and thoughts about him as a person wouldn't make sense otherwise. His bond with Cristina would also lose impact, otherwise.

Also, Giovanni, Oretta, and Raffaele de' Pazzi are all real historical characters. Raffaele, born in 1471, notably attained a certain level of fame later in life...