Chapter 2: Some Things Aren't Fair
The next day of training didn't go much better either. "All you do is watch Ezio. You pay absolutely no attention to me!" Dante yelled at me. We were sitting on a bench in the courtyard once we were done training. "Well excuse me." I replied and rolled my eyes. "Tonight we should talk to Mario." My heart sank. Mario wasn't going to be happy about my, lately, short attention span.
That evening Dante dragged me to Mario's office. Mario, Ezio, Leonardo da Vinci, and Lorenzo were all in his office. Lorenzo is Mario's right hand man, who takes care of things that Mario is too busy to deal with. For one he's in charge of the Assassins. Or well, he thinks he's in charge of us. But he mainly only has power over the novices. Leonardo da Vinci has been here for the last couple of days telling Mario and Ezio about his latest invention. I unfortunately wasn't able to hear more details about this machine but it was apparently supposed to help make our lives easier. Please! The only thing that would make our lives easier would be the fall of the Templars... let's see da Vinci make that happen. Now that would be impressive.
"Dante, what is it?" Mario asked raising an eyebrow at me. I turned my head. "This little girl is impossible for me to teach! And I refuse to train her anymore!" Dante demanded. Who was he calling little! "What seems to be her problem?" Lorenzo asked. "All she does is stare over at Ezio in the middle of training. She is obviously in love with the guy and her emotions are getting in the way!" At that point I had had enough. I stomped hard on Dante's foot. Judging by the way he cried out and fell back, I'd say it must have felt like a fifty pound bag of bricks fell on his foot. Leonardo laughed out loud, Lorenzo slapped his forehead and let out a deep sigh, Ezio just stared at us like the fools we are, and Mario shook his head and chuckled.
"Lia, are you in love with Ezio?" Lorenzo asked chuckling a bit. "No! I just..." I paused for a moment. "Go on." Mario said to me. "I just wish I could be trained by Ezio!" Everyone went silent by my accidental outburst. Lorenzo decided to speak up. "Lia you know Ezio only trains the more experienced assassins. You're still new to this." So that's what they were calling it now; 'experienced'. More like promising, and according to Dante I showed very little promise. "All of these excuses! Stop being so nice! Just say it; I'm not good enough to be his pupil!" I yelled and then ran out of Mario's office.
After about an hour there was a knock on my door. Unlike most of the assassins who train here, I live in the villa Auditore. Because I don't have a family and because at my age it's hard to live on your own, I was allowed by Mario to live here with his family. The only other person outside the family who lives here is Lorenzo; since he can't get a wife or another purpose in his life other than being an assassin. I rarely see the Auditore family, since I live on the opposite wing of the villa. The only time I see them all is at dinner. I know there is Mario, Ezio, his mother Maria, and his sister Claudia. I don't know much about Maria or Claudia or Ezio's past. I sometimes wonder what happened to his father but being too afraid to ask I just guessed he'd passed away or something. Claudia is nice and very smart too. Maria doesn't talk much and keeps to herself but on the rare occasions she does speak, it's always with a soft gentle tone.
Another knock at the door then I hear a voice. "Lia, may I come in?" It sounded like Ezio. "Si, you may." I replied. Ezio stepped into the room, I was sitting on my bed. My back was to him so he couldn't see my tears. Assassins were not supposed to cry; emotions were signs of weakness. "Lia would you like to talk?" Ezio asked as he walked around my bed and touched my shoulder. "Not really." I said to him. He walked over and knelt in front of me to see my face. "Your eyes are puffy. Have you been crying?" He had a sympathetic look on his face. "No!" I shot back. He smiled. "It's alright. You don't have to lie." He placed his hand on mine that was resting on my knee. I smiled; somehow Ezio always knew how to make me feel better without even trying. Probably the gentle voice he always used with me when we were alone. It made me feel special because he didn't use that voice with anyone but me, not even his family. He stood up and walked over to the door. I turned to face him. "I need time to think about things. We'll talk more in the morning." With that he walked out of the room closing the door behind him. What was it he needed to think about and more importantly what did it have to do with me?