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Chapter 108

They reached a rooftop near the Palazzo Vecchio just in time to watch as Savonarola was dragged by several men to the same platform on which Ezio's father and brothers once stood. Several other men carried the torches that had produced the smoke they saw just a little earlier. Dry hay and kindling were being piled around a large makeshift wooden stake.

"God bears witness to this sacrilege!" Savonarola could barely be heard crying over the crowd. "That you would handle his prophet this way! Blasphemers! Heretics! You will burn for this! Do you hear me? You'll burn!" The last words came with a shriek as he was tied to the stake and the men carrying torches slowly approached.

"What are they doing?" Rosa asked Ezio in a horrified tone that indicated she already knew the answer.

"I'm going down there," Ezio replied, leaping onto the ground a moment later. Rosa kept her vantage point on the rooftop.

The fires were set below Savonarola's feet as the men who were carrying him stepped away. Ezio could barely make out what the monk said as the crowd cheered.

"O Lord, show mercy. Deliver me from evil's embrace. Surrounded as I am by sin, I cry out to you for salvation."

Ezio had to make a decision, and fast. He could let the man burn and escape with the Apple, but then he would suffer needlessly, and the city would be left with a power vacuum. On the other hand, if he killed Savonarola to save him from the fire, the crowd might turn on him, or he might get burned in the process.

"No one deserves to die in such pain," he decided, pushing his way through the crowd. With one leap onto the platform and another onto the stake, he released his hidden blade and plunged it into the monk, who looked at him with horrified eyes.

"It's you," Savonarola managed to speak. "I knew this day you come. Please...show mercy."

"I have," Ezio reminded him, indicating the flames that began to rise around them. "Va' ora, che sia il tuo Dio a giudicarti. Requiescat in pace."

With the fire surrounding him and the confusion of the crowd quickly transforming back into anger, Ezio jumped off the stake and back onto the platform. As the flames caught the monk's robes, Ezio raised his hand to get their attention.

"Silencio! Silencio!" he called to them, and they reluctantly obeyed, if for no other reason than curiosity. He had to speak fast, or he would lose them again. With all eyes on him, he decided the best course of action was to be honest with them about what was on his mind.

"Twenty-two years ago, I stood where I stand now...and watched my loved ones die, betrayed by those I had called friends."

They were practically silent now, and Ezio noticed for the first time that the other Assassins, including his uncle, had gathered in the back. Rosa was still on the rooftop, watching and listening as well.

"Vengeance clouded my mind," he continued. "It would have consumed me, were it not for the wisdom of a few strangers, who taught me to look past my instincts. They never preached answers, but guided me to learn from myself."

Ezio nodded to the others with a hint of a smile, then turned his attention to the crowd again.

"We don't need anyone to tell us what to do. Not Savonarola, not the Medici. We are free to follow our own path. There are those who will take that freedom from us, and too many of you gladly give it. But it our ability to choose...whatever you think is true...that makes us human."

He thought about those words for a moment. He believed them entirely, and he knew the Assassins did as well.

Nothing is true. Everything is permitted.

He looked up at Rosa, who, like everyone else standing before him, was waiting for the next thing to come out of his mouth. He realized that his words were as much for her as they were for everyone else. This was her chance to see what it truly meant to follow the Creed and be an Assassin...to be free enough to, in turn, liberate those they served. Just as the others had imparted this wisdom onto him, he could share it with her now.

"There is no book or teacher to give you the answers, to show you the path," he told his audience, making sure he was loud enough for Rosa to hear. "Choose you own way. Do not follow me...or anyone else."

With that, he dropped down from the platform and onto the ground. The crowd parted for him to pass through, and he made his way to the other Assassins who were waiting for him.

"You've come a long way, nipote," Mario said, patting him on the shoulder. "Your father would be very proud."