Ezio and Rosa continued to stare at each other, aghast, until Antonio broke the silence.

"My child," his question was addressed to Rosa, who hesitantly faced him. "You know of my laws."

"Yes, father," she whispered, "I do."

"Do you know this man?" He continued, voice colder than ice. Rosa did not reply, only stood paralyzed in her father's glare.

"Stop," Ezio interrupted weakly, raising his head in an effort to express his desperation, "Do not punish her! It's…It's my fault! She didn't want to meet with me, she told me of her rules-"

"Yet she did not push you away and she did not drown you." Antonio snapped angrily, then to Rosa said, "Did you? Did you meet with this man?"

"Yes." She answered finally. The room had gone completely quiet, and the merfolk showed no reaction to these words.

Antonio turned to Ezio, whose nerves were almost reaching the same petrified level as Rosa's.

The merman spread his hand out to his daughter and asked, "Do you know this woman?"

"Yes." Ezio replied without hesitation.

At this, Antonio's harsh exterior began to melt. Soon he no longer looked furious, but aggrieved. He returned to speaking with his daughter.

"Child," he said softly, "If you have interacted with an Earth-walker, the punishment is exile. Your fins will be cut and you will be an outcast. I-" he paused and swallowed hard, "I will never see you again. I cannot make an exception for my own daughter, child."

Antonio looked down for a moment, and when eye contact was re-established, his were brimmed with tears.

"I love you," he spoke clearly, "so I will ask you one more time. Daughter, do you know this man?"

Rosa blinked hard, trying to keep her own tears from spilling out. So many thoughts whizzed through her head- the choice was simple. The consequences were not so.

The room waited patiently, though the silence was another type of torture. Even before she said it, Ezio knew her response. He bowed his head in defeat, and when she spoke the words, he was not surprised. She was given a second chance, and there was no reason why she should not take it.

"No, father," her voice wavered, "I do not know him."

"Very well," Antonio nodded, relief visibly flooding him. To the guards, he ordered, "Take him to the Earth-walker cell while I decide what is to be done to him."

As Ezio was dragged across the lagoon he felt countless eyes burning into him, but a single green pair were the only ones that hurt.

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The cell was moist, but relatively dry. The rocks that composed its floor were mostly smooth, polished by thousands of water droplets from the ceiling over many years. Some seaweed bloomed through a crack in the wall at the other end, but a cell was still a cell. An old, tattered fishing net kept Ezio from walking free, pinned against the sides of the cavern. If only he'd had something sharp, he could easily have freed himself…

However, a quick search found nothing of use in the cage, and soon afterwards Ezio resigned to lying down, defeated. There was no escape, but it didn't bother him as much as it should've.

It bothered him, ironically, that Rosa saved herself instead of choosing exile with him. Perhaps he had been right after all- she really didn't love him as much as he thought. But if that was the case, why did he still feel so damaged? He shouldn't care, in any case. He only came here to tell her he was going to get married to someone else.

Then she would be the one to feel this pain…

"Wonderful, Ezio," he muttered to himself as he frowned up at the ceiling, "great going. Now nobody likes you."

"Shut up." His merguard snapped.

Ezio sat up to stare at the young merman. He stared back, still as vicious and angry as he had been when Ezio had first appeared.

"Why do you hate me so much?" Ezio asked for lack of a better time-killer.

"I don't hate you," the guard shook his head. Ezio snorted. "I am just very irritated."

"Why are you very irritated?" Ezio pressed on.

"Because!" The guard replied, sending him a particularly evil glare, "I was very carefully courting the king's daughter, and then suddenly she stopped having anything to do with me! And now I know why…"

Ezio laughed bitterly and lay back down.

"What's so funny?"

"I'm sorry I stole the king's daughter from you," Ezio smiled emptily, "you can have her back. You probably haven't heard the news, but I'm getting married soon. To another Earth-walker."

"You are?" For a moment, the merman seemed completely taken aback, "But then…Why are you here? Why did you come back to see her?"

Ezio shrugged, staring at the ceiling once more. There was a snail there that he hadn't noticed previously. "Because I love her."

He could feel the merguard's eyes on him for a while longer before he finally turned his back. With nothing better to do than wait, Ezio closed his eyes and hoped sleep would free him from this nightmare…

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

His ears awoke before his eyes opened. There was a noise, a faint cutting…The hissing of a knife on rope…

Ezio snapped awake, staring in disbelief as Rosa finished creating a hole in the net. His jaw dropped and he tried to say something, but the mermaid silenced him with a finger on his lips.

"Listen closely, Ezio," she whispered, "Two guards will enter this room in a few minutes. They have orders to drown you. But the-"

"Rosa," He pushed her hand away from him, "I have to tell you something."

"Ezio, I know you're getting married." Rosa said quietly.

Somehow, he wasn't surprised. It's natural for her to know, isn't it? She is Rosa, after all.

"Then why?" His gaze lowered to the ground and Ezio felt ashamed, "Why bother to save me? I threw you away…"

"Caro," she spoke gently and full of caring, something Ezio had rarely seen her do, "I don't care. Once I get you out of here you can go marry her. You will be happy and that's all that matters." Rosa swallowed and blinked, hesitating. Then she said, "I don't care about the exile and I don't care about the lagoon. It was boring here anyway. I just…" She paused again, and when she picked up this time her voice cracked, "I just don't want you to die."

There were no words. Ezio could not think of anything suitable to respond with to such an incredible display of loyalty. In that moment, as she sat nearly on top of his prone body, eyes closed in composition, he realized he had been wrong about Sofia.

When he raised himself and closed the distance between them with a kiss, the guilty, sinking feeling in his stomach vanished. Rosa returned the kiss by taking his face in her hands, deepening it. For a few seconds, the two were completely unaware of the world around them. It didn't matter who was human and who wasn't. It mattered that they were alone together, and that they were in love.

Rosa was the one to end it.

"You're going to escape, Ezio." She said solemnly, "And you're going to do it right now."

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

The water was much colder than it had been previously, and it stung his skin like needles when Rosa pulled him in. Once they were submerged, the chaotic, echoed shouts of the lagoon disappeared and were replaced with the rushing of liquid in his ears. Rosa was every bit the fast swimmer he remembered, but that didn't change the fact that the guards were right behind them and gaining.

Faded sunlight barely lit the water as the chase continued. As Rosa neared the surface, Ezio deduced that the sun had set nearly an hour ago.

A splash sent liquid flying everywhere as Rosa hurled him at the barrier. Ezio gulped air desperately as the mermaid surfaced beside him.

"Where is your friend?" Rosa cried.

"Leonardo-" Ezio coughed and frantically searched the horizon. Leonardo and the gondola were both long gone. "Rosa, he left!"

"Okay, then what now?"

She was right. Surely the guards were nearing the surface at that very moment. Ezio thought, though it was difficult with the waves pushing him under.

"Venice!" He shouted, receiving a mouthful of salt for his trouble, "Rosa, Venice!"

The mermaid gave no reply and instead pulled him beneath the surface, looping his arm with hers. She was about to take off when a cold grip suddenly enveloped Ezio's foot.

His air escaped him when his jaw dropped in shock, and he shook the locked appendage desperately in an effort to free himself. Something sharp dragged itself against his leg, slipping past fabric and lacerating skin.

A final tug from Rosa broke him from the mermen's grasp and suddenly the water was flashing past him. The blood from Ezio's wound streamed behind them like a red flag as they zoomed across the sea. Ezio's lungs began to ache, and the rushing in his ears started to fade. For the remainder of the dreamlike escape, he felt as though he were flying, flying so amazingly fast… Just as he began to tumble into darkness, he found himself thrust upon the surface once more and forcing air into his tired chest.

"We're here, Ezio," Rosa told him, haphazardly supporting him in the water, as his injured leg had numbed. When he looked up, he noticed she was right- the city loomed over them, and several ships sailed in the distance. None were close enough to get a good look at the two figures in the water, however, because Rosa had chosen an old, algae-encrusted vacant pier for her approach.

Except it wasn't entirely vacant. Perched on its tip, with his boots hanging off the end, a blonde man with a red had cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled down to them.

"Hello down there!"