After years of searching, of confusions and misdirection, of loss, and of missing out on the normal life he could have had, this is it. He has both the apple and the staff, and there is nobody left to stop him from reaching... whatever comes next. Ezio has no idea what's waiting for him, but he's never seen anything as strange as the sights from today.
He holds the apple high, and a panel of wall slides open, revealing a tunnel behind it. Without hesitation, Ezio follows it. At the end of the hall, he finds a dim room, barely illuminated by glowing lines on the walls. He glances at them, but then quickly away again. As strange as they are- as strange as all of this is- the most interesting piece of this room is the woman who stands at the opposite end.
She glows softly, bright but not so bright that he can't look at her. And she's not really there- Ezio can see the dim lines of the wall behind her, and he wonders for a second if she could be a being made of light. He doesn't wonder long, though- she starts to talk, and very quickly his awe and curiosity gives way to annoyance. He's come this far, and now he finds that she has no interest in him, only cryptic warning and stories that don't make sense. When he tries to ask questions, the woman (she calls herself Minerva) turns an angry look on him, and says, "I do not wish to speak to you, but through you."
"What-"
"You anchor him, but please, be silent!"
That kind of makes him angry. He's spent years searching out codex pages to find this place, the apple wasn't easy to find either, and getting past Rodrigo-
He's all ready to argue, but Minerva doesn't give him a chance to say so much as a word. It's sort of a let down, because it's not like anything she's saying makes sense anyway. He can follow parts of it, but the more she goes on, the more confused he gets- she wasn't lying when she said her words were meant for someone other than him.
She finishes- finally. Whatever else this woman is, she's definitely long winded. By the end of her speech, Ezio's shifting his weight restlessly, hoping she'll stop long enough for him to ask questions. She doesn't, of course. When she finishes, she merely lets out a deep sigh and says- "It is finished. The rest is up to you, Desmond."
She's not even looking at him- her eyes are fixed on a point behind him and a little to the left, but when Ezio turns around, there's nobody there. "Desmond?" he repeats. "Who is Desmond?"
There's no answer from Minerva, and when Ezio turns back to her, she's gone. "Of course," Ezio mutters. He feels sort of deflated. He's seen more in the last few minutes than he could ever have imagined when he was young, before all this started, and now- all he wants now is to get home, and pick up the pieces of a life he's ignored for far too long. He's heard secrets man was never meant to know, and it turns out they make less sense than an old man's drunken ramblings.
Rodrigo is gone when Ezio comes back to the place where he left the apple and the staff. Of course he is, because it's just that kind of a day. He draws near them and suddenly hesitates. Out of the corner of his eye, he can see a man, strangely dressed, watching him closely. But when Ezio turns toward him, but the man only seems to be there when Ezio isn't quite looking at him. It's strange, but-
"Ezio!" A voice pulls him out of his thoughts, and he looks up to see his uncle standing above him.
Of course. Time to go home. When he glances back one last time, the stranger has vanished.