CH 35: Templar mark

(Ali's POV)

With that son of a bitch Francesco dead, the plan to take over the city failed Jacopo de' Pazzi fled Florence and so the Medici regained the control of the city. Me and Ezio then met up with Lorenzo on the Ponte Vecchio.

As Ezio stood beside him and me to her other side, Lorenzo spared us a glance before looking at the river :"When I was six years old I fell into the Arno. I soon found myself drifting down, and into darkness, certain my life was at an end.

Instead I woke to the sound of my mother weeping, at her side stood a stranger, soaking and smiling at me. My mother explained that he had saved me. And so began a long and prosperous relationship between two families; yours and mine. I am sorry I could not save your father and brothers."

But Ezio just shook her head, long having been over the death of her father and brothers :"You have nothing to apologize for. I believe Jacopo de' Pazzi played a part in their deaths. The attack on you as well. I need to find him."

An enraged expression took over Lorenzo's face as he swung his arm in annoyance :"That coward fled before we could arrest him!" Ezio looked at him with an expressionless face as she asked :"Have you any leads?"

Lorenzo :"No. They've hidden themselves well."

Ezio :"They?"

Lorenzo :"Jacopo was not the only conspirator to escape."

Ezio :"If they work with Jacopo, they were surely involved in the plot against my family as well. Give me their names."

Lorenzo :"Antonio Maffei, Archbishop Francesco Salviati, Stefano da Bagnone, and Bernardo Baroncelli."

Ezio :"Bene. (Good) I will go and see my uncle. He has men stationed in the countryside."

But just when Ezio was about to turn around, Lorenzo called out and took out something for her :"Wait...before you go..." and the object that he handed her, was actually a codex page :"A Codex page!"

Lorenzo :"I took it from the files of Francesco de' Pazzi, seeing as he clearly no longer needs it. I've always had an interest of things of antiquity. As did your father."

Ezio :"It is meaningful to us as well."

Lorenzo :"Then consider it a gift! Che il Signore ci protegga (God save us all)."

We then separated ways and walked away. Ezio stretched a bit as she sighed :"sigh, chi avrebbe saputo che le cose potevano essere così problematiche (who would have known that things could be so problematic)."

I chuckled softly as I grabbed her hand gently and caused her to look at me with a questioning but smiling face :"dato che le cose sono diventate così serie e fastidiose, che ne dici di rilassarci per oggi (since things have gotten so serious and and annoying, how about we relax for today). How about a date, signora?")

She covered her mouth as she giggled with a small blush and nodded :"se mi dessi l'onore (if you would give me the honor), Ashkim (my love)." I brought her beautiful, delicate but strong left hand up and kissed it with a warm smile :"l'onore è tutto mio (the honor is all mine), manim harnamanam (my everything)."

She looked at me with a curious and loving look as she tilted her head a bit :"oh? Another new Turkish word? What does that mean?" I locked my fingers with hers as I squeezed a bit :"it means my everything. You know that I'm not just sweet talking since I don't bluff and speak my heart."

She blushed a charming crimson as she smiled gently and brought my hand to her lips as she kissed the back of it softly with a loving smile :"I know, Ashkim (my love). And I can say the same, manim harnamanam (my everything). Hehehe, did I say it right?"

I chuckled with a happy mood as I nodded :"haha, yup, you said it right. Gotta say, you are becoming a Turk for yourself, Ashkim (my love)." She raised her head with pride as she smiled :"huhu, it's me we are talking about here. Of course I'm good at what I do."

My smile grew into a smirk as I looked at her with a mischievous look as I spoke in Turkish :"yakhji, yakhji (alright, alright). Ozzon nan chikhma indi (don't get full of yourself now)." She was taken aback before she slowly turned her head to me and pouted adorably :"mmuu, now your just being mean. I will ignore you if you tease me like that again. Hmph."

I chuckled at her cuteness as I squeezed her hand before whispering in her ear with a deep and hungry voice:"sorry, sorry. I have to admit, you are good at progressing in bed." She blushed as she looked at me from the corner of her eye :"…pervert… don't talk like that while we're outside…"

I sighed a hot breath right beside her ear as I growled before biting my bottom lip and chuckling a little darkly :"sure, I will talk like that when we're inside and I'm inside of you, Ash, kim (lo, ve). For now let's go to our date."

She blushed even more as she pouted her lips at me before slapping my arm softly and walking ahead. We started our date from then as we just walked around and honestly, we didn't do anything out of the norm of what we always do.

There wasn't much to do anyway in the 15th century to begin with for dates. So we just walked around and visited places. We also bought a few snacks and ate them as we walked

-

After strolling around like how we always do whenever we have free time while holding hands, we finally decided to pay a visit to Leonardo so that he would decoded the Codex page.

As we once again stood in front of his workshop, I chuckled as I shook my head playfully :"stiamo facendo molte visite a Leonardo in questi giorni, eh (we are paying a lot of visits to Leonardo these day, huh)?"

She chuckled softly as she nodded :"you're right. He has been of great help to us whenever we have needed him. Let's go in. He will definitely get excited once he sees the new Codex page."

After knocking on the door, we opened the door and walked inside. Leonardo immediately turned around and walked up to us with a relieved expression.

Leonardo :"Ezio, Ali! Thank God you're all right! This madness with the Medici and the Pazzi, is this why you pursued Francesco?"

Ezio :"Not exactly..."

Leonardo :"Well, whatever your reasons, the city's safe again thanks to you! Now tell me: how may I be of service?"

I took out the Codex page from my waist bag that seemed to grab Leonardo's attention, but his attention was then pulled towards the Codex :"Ah! Another page!"

He turned around and walked back to his desk as he opened it and took a look at it :"Aha! It's a similar cipher to the last one. This won't take long. Interesting... oh... indeed... I see... It's another blade design – for delivering poison!"

Ezio :"Can you build it?"

Leonardo :"Sì (Yes). It won't take very long. I just need to find a way to hollow out the blade without sacrificing the–"

But he stopped talking when he noticed me and Ezio taking off our hidden blades as I chuckled :"it's all good, Leo. We aren't geniuses like you, so you can do just whatever you like."

He took the hidden blades that we would wear on our left hands and got to working on it. Seeing that we had nothing else to do, we just walked to the chairs and sat there as we waited for him to finish.

Seeing that he is so focused on what he's doing, I chuckled lightly as I whispered beside Ezio :"ha davvero talento, eh (he really is talented, huh)?"

Ezio nodded beside me with an approving smile :"you're right, Ashkim (my love). He is really talented in these things."

I chuckled with a yawn as I put my hands behind my head and laid back comfortably on the chair with one leg on the other :"yeah, unlike us.

We don't have a hand in these stuff at all. But I guess we make up for it with our talent for fighting and killing."

Ezio rolled her eyes playfully with a small smile :"yeah, yeah. You are really good at that. But I have to admit, you also have a pretty good hand in cooking and music. I expect you to cook me a meal when we have some time to relax."

I smiled as I nodded with a loving smile :"i tuoi desideri sono ordini (your wish is my command), Ashkim."

Since I had gotten here, it was really boring most of the time for someone like me from the 21st century.

So I had to really get some new hobbies to not literally die from boredom. Fighting was a nice rush of adrenaline and a good way to get some money, but it would still get boring sometimes.

So seeing that I needed more hobbies to fill my time, I picked up cooking and music! My family in my past life had a talent for cooking.

Especially me! Any meal that I would just help out a little in would taste damn amazing! And so, it became something that I would do from time to time.

It was hard at first, but I had a talent that I would get used to things really quick. So I was a rather good chef after 2 years of practice.

And Ezio really loved my cooking and some recipes that I remembered from my past life. She would always urge me to cook something for her whenever we had free time.

I also picked up music. I always liked music, but I had never tried my hand in it. I remember how I used to listen to music all the time even when I was reading or studying.

So not having anything to do here became a nice excuse to try my hand in it. I wasn't that good at it at the beginning, but as I said, I get used to things real quick.

So it was like this how I became better and better at cooking and music. I also tried to sing.

And because of my sexy, deep voice that was granted to me by the omniverse, it was just something else to listen to.

It had become quite normal for me to sing love songs that I remembered or wrote myself for Ezio. And honestly, she loved them all.

She would always blush and enjoy my music. She even memorized some of them and would sing them as well.

So it was a normal sight for others in the Villa to see me playing a 15th century guitar or flute while Ezio sang.

After we waited for a while as we chatted or just relaxed, Leonardo was finally finished and walked up to us.

Leonardo :"All done! I've filled your blades with a bit of poison to start with. Should you run out, just visit a doctor."

As we started to equip our hidden blades, Ezio looked at him with a bit of confusion :"Poison? From a doctor?"

Leonardo :"in enough doses, that which cures, can kill."

Ezio :"we are in your debt once more, my friend."

Leonardo :"Anytime, Ezio! Anytime!"

After we walked out and started to walked towards the city gate and Monteriggioni, Ezio looked at me with a slightly serious face :"we should go back and discuss the matters with uncle Mario."

I nodded with a small smile before I noticed something on my mini map :"or we can wait a while for that.

A new mark has appeared on my map. And by its appearance, it is NOT good news. It has the Templar's mark on it!"