Third target ❖dream

[nelsangue]

[Her hood is pulled low as she walks through a darkened street, press of the crowd around her as she pushes her way past men with heavy boxes and ladies with long dresses that sweep across dirty ground. She blends with the crowd and they are none the wiser as to who moves through them, not even the guards, resplendent in their bright armour,

Comments

[ebony_bone]

[She doesn't hesitate to catch up with Ezio after watching the scene, avoiding the bard neatly and matching pace with Ezio.]

You spoke of revolution before. Perhaps I should have guessed you were an instigator.

[nelsangue]

[She smiles beneath her cowl, more comfortable here - even in a dream.]

I had hoped to keep things secret even if they seem like the very distant past for many. And it was Machiavelli who helped to put me on this path here.

[ebony_bone]

I can understand.

[She was used to keeping secrets, ones that she shouldn't have to keep, but it was a habit ingrained into her by a lifetime of fear. Even here, there was an element of it simply not being anyone else's business. Still, she answered people's questions, when they had them.]

Who is Machiavelli?

[nelsangue]

[As long as she keeps her role as Assassin to herself then she feels safer; she might not know these people but some secrets are best kept close.]

Niccolò Machiavelli is a friend of mine, a philosopher and writer. The situation in Roma...it called to him.

[He's an Assassin too but she is sure that will be stricken from the history books as well as her.]

[ebony_bone]

I have not met any philosophers or writers interested in such things, myself.

[Books had been something of a luxury, where she was from, but the brothers in the temple had put quite a bit of emphasis on her studies while she was growing up there. She'd never thought of it as much of an advantage, as a soldier, only in that she was a well-educated as possible.]

[nelsangue]

If I am honest, there are times that the man drives me insane.

[There's a smile as she says it because Machiavelli and La Volpe had caused far too many headaches she'd had to mediate between as if they were too spoiled children.]

You have met soldiers though?

[ebony_bone]

Perhaps it's better I've avoided encountering any, then.

[She smiles back, though it's a quiet and muted expression, and really quite brief.]

Yes. I was raised by them. Though they would not call themselves soldiers.

[Resistance fighters, brothers of the house of masks, some of them priests. No armies and no ranks. Those came from the North, not from within the South.]

[nelsangue]

They have an annoying habit of complicating a situation that is already complicated.

[A gaggle of vigilantes are not too far off, spouting furious accusations against the Borgia that make her smirk perhaps a little. It is heartening to know that there are so many who choose the same side as she when it feels as if all the known world might as well be against her.]

Oh? What would they call themselves then madonna?

[ebony_bone]

But still useful enough to inspire, it seems.

[The group catch her attention, too, always alert and observant despite her blinded eye.]

Brothers. Resistance fighters.

[nelsangue]

[She laughs quietly and continues on. There is no real destination - it is a time where she merely travels, picks up information and sees if there are those who need her aid as there so often are. A guard gallops past, horse and rider decked in heavily plated armour and there is an uneasy feeling in her guit. She never knows what they might be up to.]

Every world must have such things to fight against unfair rule and tyranny. To stand up for the people especially if they have been subjugated.

[ebony_bone]

My world is split in two. One part is free. The other, where I was born... I am told the word is 'fascism'.

[nelsangue]

Two completely separate halves with such different ideologies? [Fascism isn't a word that exists in her life but she guesses that it must mean oppression of some sort if one part of the world is free.]

So strange to have such a split. Corruption is more in pockets - it is corrupt in Roma because the Pope is the most powerful man in the world. He may crown kings, give his support to things. His influence is great. And his son as captain of the Papal Army extends that influence through means the Pope himself is unable to.

[ebony_bone]

There was a war. Perhaps there are pockets of different thinking. It is the simplest way of explaining. [And it was easy to have an idealised notion of the North, living in the South. One was freedom and the other was fear. Very few had the chance to find out if it was true.]

[She listens to Ezio's explanation quietly.] A poison, then. Quiet. In places where there should be trust. [Corruption was never an issue she'd really dealt with. There was nothing secret about anything Prevent did, because there was no one to hold them to account for any of it.] There hasn't been a Pope in my world for many years. And most priests are allies.

[nelsangue]

I hope for your sake that there are; if I have been taught anything over the years it is that there are always pockets of people who share ideologies. They band together tightly when they are oppressed, for both good and ill. [There must surely be small groups of Templar out there in other countries where they do not have influence or sway yet.]

[She laughs unexpectedly.] Poison is a favourite of this family; cantarella is their poison of choice and Lucrezia is certainly a master of it. [But she nods; she knows that they have a sympathetic Pope now but the dream has not given her this.] There are some priests who only want what they are taught but men are men and will always have ambition.

[ebony_bone]

Yes. They are who I fought beside. [She'd done her part against Prevent before travelling to the North, although some would say her escorting a dreamchaser for so many years was more important than any of the damage she inflicted on Prevent.]

Then that is not so surprising. [A small smile.] Yes. There are those that go with the soldiers, to use their faith for luxury. But most work to help the people. [She tilts her head slightly.] I would say both have ambition, in their way.

[nelsangue]

And if we are talking then you must have been successful then.

[She nods at that.]

Here it is the word of God that is law [or that is what is believed] and if you oppose the church you will not get far. There was a priest I knew who managed to take Firenze for his own, to try to have people give up all their worldly possessions to live the same monastic life as he did but it did not end well.

[Which is an understatement but still, she should not speak of the Templars, not yet when no one seems to know of them or their reach and influence.]