Chapter 11
Venice 1488 (two years later)
Leonardo Da Vinci was up late working in his study reviewing the large masses of codex pages Ezio had accumulated over the past two years. He had been racking his brain with equations and theories, rearranging the numbers and letters countless times and was beginning to wonder if he was only imaging solutions rather than actually seeing them before him. "What if I switch every second letter, and replace it with every third..." nothing. He only succeeded in creating another incomprehensible jumble. The ancient pages stubbornly refused to share their deepest secrets with the inventor. Leonardo growled in frustration heaving the scroll back onto his work bench clumsily toppling over a small bottle of ink. The little bottle wickedly rolled across the desk spilling a dark brew over his stacks of paper. "Maledizione!" He cursed under his breath as he wiped away dark blots from his scattered files. He quickly snatched a document from the mess in a clumsy panic, fanning it in his hands as it severely bled with ink, when something suddenly stole away his curious gaze. "Could it be possible...?" he gasped as the document in his hands floated silently to the floor. He plunged back into his desk as he began to rearrange the codex pages, over lapping and twisting them at different angles. He mumbled inaudible words to himself as the wheels turned fervently in his animated mind. "How did I not think of this before!" he elated at he began jotting notes immediately.
"Messere? What is going on?" Leonardo's assistant entered the room with armfuls of blank canvasses.
"Salaì! I need you to retrieve Ezio Auditore for me immediately! I must show him this discovery at once!" The young apprentice shrugged his shoulders gesturing to his instructor that he was already busy with a previous task. "Forget those canvases boy! This is far more important!" Salaì sighed in exasperation as he abandoned the pieces against the wall and reluctantly shuffled out the door, nearly colliding into Alcina on his way out.
"Pardon me signora," he nodded politely as she stepped out of his way, catching the door as he exited.
"Where is he off to in such a hurry?" she smiled warmly.
"Oh Alcina, how wonderful to see you. You could not have arrived at a better time! Come look at this!"
"What have you found this time? Some new way to make a man fly?" she rolled her eyes with humor.
He waved away her comment, "No not this time I'm afraid. Come see! I made several copies of the codex pages Ezio has brought me. They fascinate me so much, I am constantly reviewing them, hoping to make new discoveries. It's so amazing to see what history can teach us! Every time I look at these I learn more and more, in fact, just the other day I..."
"Leonardo..." she politely interrupted his rambling.
"Oh yes, sorry, forgive my unbridled enthusiasm. Here, take a look. Now, I have gathered that each page has it's own codes which translate into messages. Some of these messages even depict instructions to recreate weapons of the ancient assassins, that is how I made both yours and Ezio' hidden blades. What I have just discovered, however, is when you put the codex pages together... there is even more to the message."
Her eyes followed his wandering hands, pointing and rearranging the scrolls and sketches on his desk, "So, what do they all say?"
"Let us find out shall we?" he smiled with childlike excitement. "The prophet... will appear... when the second piece... is brought to... the floating city. Come grande! This is so exciting!" Alcina's eyes flared in thought as she rationalized over the ancient words.
"Leonardo... do you think you could review the page my father left for me. Perhaps there is more to this riddle."
"Excellent idea!" he shuffled through his chaotic stacks of papers. "I know I just had it... Ah-ha! Here it is!" he turned and flipped the scroll over the others, jotting down any kind of suspicious text or indications thereof. After several minutes of examining the artifact, he reviewed his findings he had scrolled across his scratch paper, eyes wide with fascination. "Mio Dio..." he gasped. "Listen to this! I can't believe all this was right under my nose and I never thought to look. It's so simple really, any fool could have seen..."
"Leonardo!" she intruded sternly.
He chuckled in embarrassment, "Yes of course." He cleared his throat, " 'The prophet... shall open the vault... through the blood... of the protector... only then... shall the message be passed... and the prophecy complete...' Alcina, are you alright? You look pale..."
"Yes... I'm fine..." she winced. Her thoughts recollecting the searing image of her fathers outstretched hand, the faint gasping of his last words.
"What is the matter? Come, have a seat," Leonardo tried to guide her to sit by the fire but she waved a hand in refusal.
"Leonardo... there is something I should tell you, but you must make a promise to me before I do..."
"Certamente, anything," he gave her shoulder a friendly pat.
"You must promise... that you will not tell Ezio." He looked at her unreadable expression with confused eyes as he replied with a worried nod.
.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.
"Leonardo?" Ezio entered the workshop with a loud knock.
"Ah Ezio, thank you for coming."
"I received your message. Your assistant said it was rather urgent. Is everything alright?"
"Yes, yes of course. Everything is fine..." Leonardo seemed more twitchy than usual, almost nervous. Ezio's expression brooded in suspicion, something wasn't quite right here. "So... what was it you needed?"
"Ah yes, I uh, I had been reviewing the codex pages. Come, have a look." Ezio approached the ink spotted desk, eyeing the documents sprawled in an un-orderly fashion.
"What happened here?" he examined the mess.
"Oh, it's nothing." Ezio eyed Leonardo's anxious demeanor, still not convinced. "I discovered more hidden writings with the codex pages, listen to this, 'The prophet will appear when the second piece is brought to the floating city.' Does this mean anything to you?"
Ezio rested a gloved hand on his chin and pondered, "Only the prophet may open it... two pieces of Eden..." his eyes scrawling the codex pages, searching for clues.
"What? What are you saying?" Leonardo interjected in curiosity.
"My Uncle Mario once spoke of a prophecy hidden within the codex pages. The prophecy leads to an ancient vault that holds something... something very powerful."
"Ezio did you not take these codex pages from the Templars?" Ezio solemnly nodded, hand still resting on his chin. "That must mean they must know if this vault too... this is not good..." Leonardo shook his head in worry.
Ezio picked his brain, accumulating every detail, every face, every moment of the past 12 years. "The prophet... two pieces of Eden... why?" His body went suddenly ridgid, the blood in his face pounding as his expression transformed to sudden terror.
"What? What is it?" Leonardo pried, "Ezio what is going on?"
Ezio failed to find words as the steps of his twisted journey began to play out and the riddles of his unanswered questions began to crack and reveal themselves. "What if that is why they sent the ship to Cyprus? To recover an artifact... to recover one of these Pieces of Eden and... and bring it back to Venezia."
"Then the prophet will appear..." Leonardo whispered.
"Only the prophet can open the vault... my God!" Ezio felt as if his heart had stopped beating entirely as he began to fear the worst. "When my uncle told me of the codex pages, I was too young, too brash to think it anything but an old man's fantasy! The killing of my father and brothers, of my father's allies... it was all part of his plan! His plan to find the vault..." his hands clasped into tight fists, "The Spaniard..."
"Rodrigo Borgia," Leonardo confirmed.
"As soon as that boat arrives, I intend to meet it the minute it docks," Ezio scowled in a menacing whisper. He breathed a deep breath, relaxing his tense frame. "Thank you Leonardo... you are a good friend. If I cannot trust you, there is no one."
Leonardo distressfully nodded his head as a guilty twinge painfully crept into his gut and breached his face.
"What is wrong Leonardo?"
"Nothing, absolutely nothing," he frantically gathered the codex pages and aimlessly organized his desk.
"Leonardo..." he persisted.
"This is all just troubling news, I am alright," he frantically fumbling over the documents.
Ezio stared searchingly at Leonardo's worried expression, "There is something you are not telling me old friend." Leonardo's wandering gaze betrayed him as Ezio followed his stare to Alcina's scroll. "Leonardo... Where is Alcina?" Ezio's tone grew more and more urgent.
"I..." Leonardo's voice broke, crumbling his cover-up, "I promised..." Leonardo shook his head in worry.
"Promised what? Leonardo! Tell me what is going on!" Ezio briskly approached him as Leonardo flumped into the chair he had once offered to Alcina just a few hours before. He covered his face in his hand as he exhaled a disappointed groan. "Forgive me Alcina."
"Where is she Leonardo? Is she alright?"
"Ezio... there is more to the prophecy."
Ezio sat across from him, apprehensively hunching forward, "Continue then..."
Leonardo massaged his temples with his hands, as he stammered, "Her father's codex page mentioned a... a protector," he shrugged.
"Protector of what?"
He shook his head, "a protector whose... whose blood was necessary to open the vault." Leonardo ignored Ezio's suspicious eyes boring into him.
"What does this have to do with Alcina?"
"I... I can't..." Leonardo's words began to falter.
"Leonardo!" Ezio rose to his feet, raising his voice in urgency.
"Alright, alright!" he gestured for Ezio to calm down. "Alcina told me, her father's dying words were for her to defend the prophet, and that..." his words droned.
"That what?"
"That... she is the protector..."
A wave of dread crushed over Ezio, pushing him back into the chair beneath him, "Caro Dio..." he whispered as he caught his heavy head in his hands, his heart once again stopping in his throat. "Where is she now?" he choked.
"She would not tell me," Leonardo shook his head in guilt, "Please forgive me Ezio, I did not realize the danger of all of this until after she made me promise not to tell you..." A pause of tedious silence only made Leonardo feel all the more guilty.
Ezio softly cleared his throat, forcing composure, "Do not blame yourself Leonardo, it is not your fault." He began to feel a growing heaviness begin to weigh on his heart, this new information would change everything. Another long silence slowly crept across the room as he took in the severity of this new turn. The assassin finally looked up from his hands, still hunching over in his seat, "She is the key... the key the Templars need to open the vault." The intertwining strands of her fate were woven and knotted to his own so much more than he could have ever imagined. "It all makes sense now," he whispered, the crackling of the fireplace drowning his words.
"What do you mean?"
"That is why they killed her family, and kidnapped her brother. They knew she would come back for him..."
"Falling right into their hands..." Leonardo stared, wide eyed. "Merda... Do you have any idea where she would have gone to?"
"Wherever the Patriarch is, she will follow. But the ship doesn't return until tomorrow, so that gives us time." Leonardo once again forced in a painful breath. "What is it?" Ezio questioned his worried expression.
Leonardo bowed his head clenching the bridge of his nose in his fingers, "The ship does not dock tomorrow... it returned a few hours ago."
...
translations:
- Come grande- how grand
- Maledizione- damn
- Mio Dio- my God
- Certamente- certainly
- Caro Dio- dear God
- Merda- shit