Disclaimer:I do not own Ezio or any other mentioned Assassin's Creed characters, they are the property of Ubisoft. As for the historical characters mentioned… well.. I guess they belong to history… or themselves…
To answer an observation posed by a reviewer… "Would Ezio be too young to be arrested by the Office of the Night?"
Answer:
If there were such an office today, probably…. And Ezio would be regarded as a victim instead of a participant.
in the 1400s? Maybe not.
Why? In medieval times… and even up to the 1600s, the legal age of marriage was about 14 for boys and 12 for girls.
Although there is historical evidence that people in the renaissance Florence did marry later than was the norm for the rest of Europe, I would think that at 13, most boys would be regarded as a step away from becoming recognised as grown men.
Ezio later heard from Federico that his mother fainted when officials from the Office of the Night showed up at the doorstep of the Auditore home.
Soon after he and Leonardo were dragged off by a group that consisted of armed men and what appeared to be several priests to a grey stone building that was well-lit late into the night, the tan-haired young man was led away to be questioned individually. Although he was not in the same room when with Leonardo and his interrogators, some of the conversation was so loud he could make out what they were saying from his nearby cell.
"We KNOW that you… and another … would be found committing the "unspeakable act" …" this voice sounded pretty intimidating.
"Who's the bastard who gave you my name? I demand to see my accuser!" Leonardo protested.
"So you admit to the "act"?"
"No! I admit to nothing!" the young man exclaimed.
"IS… this Ezio Auditore your intended … partner?"
"I have NO IDEA who he IS!" Leonardo exploded again.
"And WHY… would someone his age be out at such a late hour… on the city streets…hmmmm?" this other person had a voice that sounded a bit like a hissing snake. "Perhaps you prefer them… young…"
"Ezio is almost a man!"
"So you KNOW him!" the hissing voice accused.
"NO I DO NOT!" Leonardo sounded pretty exasperated at this point. "I have never seen him before tonight…"
"Are you SURE?" the hissing voice was getting to be pretty annoying.
"How DARE you doubt my…."
The other interrogator interjected, "Signor! YOUR NAME has come up quite a few times… mentioned… by various parties in cases that we handle here… you can see why we have problems accepting the truth of what you say…"
There was quite a bit of ruckus after that. However, Ezio had little time to focus on what they were actually saying as he was taken out of the cell by a guard. Apparently, his father arrived at the Office in a huge huff. To Ezio's amazement, the older Auditore seemed to have completely dropped his mild-mannered demeanor when dealing with the officials of the Office.
"He is simply too young to be of… that persuasion!" his father insisted, after giving Ezio a glare that would have cowed a grown man.
Despite his father's best efforts, they led Ezio to a small room where two somberly-dressed officials grilled him repeatedly about Leonardo and asked all kinds of odd questions their "relationship". One of the questioners had a sour expression, almost as if he had swallowed a lemon just moments before. The other seemed to resemble his father a bit. They did not allow his father to speak directly to him and through the closed door he could hear Giovanni arguing with the officials outside.
He was sure Leonardo was getting the same treatment in another room. He had absolutely no idea what the whole fuss was about. He didn't know the tan-haired young man, except for the fact that they had "met at the hay pile" and could not explain why he was out so late except to say that he had "gotten lost".
"But how did you know to meet your partner at this hay pile?" the sour man leaned over and practically stared down Ezio.
"I don't know... we just met!" the boy stubbornly insisted. Which was really the truth, but the officials who questioned him didn't seem to believe him.
"We are not really against you," the fatherly questioner seemed to be trying to calm tensions in the room. "We just want to know what you know about this Leonardo fellow…"
"I don't know anything about him!"
"But the guard who brought you here noted that you and he were… "chatting like friends", " despite the comforting demeanor, something inside the boy cautioned him against revealing too much to the fatherly man.
"The guard is a liar!" Ezio spat.
The sour man now moved closer the pair, almost pushing aside the other questioner, "Enough with your defiance! Tell us what we want to know!"
"Matteo…" the fatherly man tried to calm his associate.
The one called Matteo glared menacingly at Ezio, "Did he enter you from…"
Before the question could be completed by the sour-as-a-lemon Matteo, his father practically burst into the room, shouting into the faces of both interrogators, demanding the release of his son. The rest of the night was quite a blur for Ezio. He only remembered that there was a short scuffle between his father and the officials and that after everyone calmed down, the men at the Office of the Night had a long talk with his father. By daybreak, he was sent back home with a stern warning about not engaging in "unnatural acts". Ezio guessed that this Leonardo must have been part of a crime, and that they were both set free because the Office was unable to prove that the "act" had taken place.
On the way back, Ezio kept his gaze firmly on the cobblestone street. He was too afraid to look into his father's face much less ask his father if he could go back to the hay pile to retrieve the lamp he had lost during the scuffle. Giovanni appeared grim and somewhat distant. They did not speak to each other until after lunch, when he was able to clean up and get a bit of rest.
Ironically, they were right back at his father's study at almost the same time yesterday when he ran off into the streets to find a solution to his night time terror.
"Ezio, do you know this … Leonardo.. person?"
"No, papa - "
"Is there ANYTHING that you want to tell me… about last night?"
There was a significant pause from the boy, before he reluctantly whispered, "No, papa."
"Son, you know you can tell me anything… if … if this… Leonardo… made you do anything that you did not want to… please, Ezio, you have to tell me," there was a genuine look of worry and concern in his father's eyes as he leaned down and put his hands on the boy's shoulders.
"Nothing happened, papa," he protested, eyes tearing up. "I didn't do anything wrong, I swear!"
There was a tense silence when father and son stared each other in the face.
"Why is everyone so angry?" the boy was trying very hard not to shed tears. Giovanni hugged his son, and prayed hard that all this fears were unfounded.
Ezio felt that he was being watched. At times, while walking around Florence, he noticed men, in groups of twos or threes following him. In general, they looked like thugs or some other type of lowlife. Sometimes they were accompanied by a "lady of the night" - a courtesan. Once or twice when he turned back to take a better look at them, they either disappeared or pretended not to look at him.
At first, he tried to lose them in the city crowds, but they were pretty good at keeping him in their sights. Sometimes, while strolling around the streets, he would suddenly break into a run and race through a maze of alleyways, hoping to throw them off his tail, but they were always somehow able to relocate him. He also noticed that Federico started spending more time with him. His older brother was well into his late teens and spent more time with his own friends and a never-ending strew of female admirers. The brothers drifted apart slowly over the years. Ezio could not remember when it began happening. He just noticed that Federico continued growing taller, stronger and faster, so that he was no longer able to keep up with his brother, especially when Federico ran over the city's rooftops. And over time, Federico found his own friends and stopped hanging around with his younger brother… that is, until quite recently.
The thirteen-year-old guessed that the recent change in his brother's habits had something to do with his father.
"You don't really need to follow me around," he grumbled to his brother as they were walking towards the marketplace.
"What makes you think that I'm following you?" Federico laughed. "Maybe it's you who are following me!"
"I'm not stupid you know." he scowled.
"Father's just really worried..."
"And how come he never worries about you?" Ezio shot back.
At that moment, he caught sight of some of the familiar unsavory men watching them from a street corner. Growling in annoyance, he stormed over to them.
"Who on earth ARE you people?" he yelled loudly.
Despite the obvious outburst, the men at the street corner pretended that they didn't hear him.
"What's going on, brother?" Federico stepped forward, putting himself in front of his little brother.
"These thugs have been following me around!"
What ensued was a shouting match between Federico and the two men at the street corner. In the midst of the chaos, Ezio took the opportunity to slip away. He really didn't want anyone following him around... or worse, "babysitting" him. He enjoyed the freedom he used to have roaming the streets. Prodding along in the crowds, he could melt into the throng, become anonymous. No one would be staring at him, or asking him questions he didn't want to answer. Most of all, as an insignificant face in a sea of faces, he could exist in a space where no one expected or demanded anything from him. He could be alone with his thoughts, away from his own inquiring family.
"Ezio?"
Ezio looked in the direction of the unfamiliar voice. A short distance away, a rather handsome young man dressed in a smallish, red cape beckoned to him.
It took Ezio a moment to recall the face of the man he had met at the hay pile that awful night. He wondered if it might be a good idea to run away, back to Federico. After all, this Leonardo character didn't seem to be on favorable terms with the authorities.
"Uh… Leonardo, is it?"
"I've been looking for you since… that night. If you'll follow me, I've got something that I believe belongs to you."
Despite the misgivings Ezio was feeling, there was indeed something attractive about this young man. And probably because of the annoyance he felt regarding his brother and everything else he decided to throw caution to the wind. Much to Ezio's relief, they ended up at a workshop with a lot of unfinished paintings instead of some dark alleyway.
"No one's here now right now," the tan-haired young man gestured at the empty studio. "They're all probably having lunch."
Leonardo went over to a workbench and dug around the boxes underneath it before pulling out the iron and glass lamp that Ezio had bought from the strange foreign merchant.
"I saw this on the hay pile while walking back here," he handed it over to the thirteen-year-old. "It seemed much too nice to be something left by the guard, so I assumed it must be yours."
Ezio gazed upwards into the face of the tan-haired young man, his eyes beamed with gratitude.
"Thank you," he whispered.
Leonardo gave Ezio a sidelong glance, laughed and scratched his head, "I am amazed that a lamp could be so important… I'm almost tempted to ask… 'Why?'"
The thirteen-year-old grew silent. The "Why?" was something he could not answer, he had to redirect the line of questioning.
"Are you a bad man?"
"I don't think I am," Leonardo smiled.
"So…. So why were the guards and priests chasing after you … you know… on the night we met."
There was an uncomfortable pause before the young man replied, "I wish I had a simple answer for you, my friend."