On the road

Adriana's car was a dark red model from the 2000's with two seats at the front and a large backseat. The trio decided that Massimo would drive while Cosima and Eloisa would sit at the back, leaving the enormous quantities of snacks at the passenger seat.

"There's a lot more traffic than usual leaving Florencia."

Complained Massimo after ten minutes had passed since getting stuck in traffic.

"Maybe people are feeling that something is not right in the city, first you had kidnappings, then you had a bomb, and all of this in less than a week!"

Cosima made an hypothesis, it didn't had a strong basis but it couldn't be outright be refuted.

"There is a lot of people in the modern world, why do they all live in Florencia? Is the rest of Italy like this too?"

Eloisa asked, half amazed by the sheer number of persons and half concerned about the environment.

"Jobs are in the cities, so people moved to the cities. There are still small towns and few thousand people cities. But places like Roma and Milan are even bigger than Florencia."

"The world sure has changed."

"Two centuries are a lot of time, imagine, in less than seventy years we passed from inventing airplanes to going to the moon!"

"PEOPLE WENT TO THE MOON!!!???"

Cosima believed that this was the first time she had seen Eloisa so surprised since she told her that Italy was a Republic.

Gray clouds covered the sky, the rain was approaching and Cosima was waiting for it to start, the sound of the drops against the glass and the sliding of the windshield wipers were amazing for her. Repetitive sound was the thing that made her relax the most.

"Which are the elemental affinities Eloisa?" Asked Cosima wanting to learn something while driving.

"Well, Massimo! Pay attention too! I don't know which they are today because there was a debate and... Forget about this, let's start from the beginning. Ahhhhh... Affinities, yes, affinities are like talents you have, do you have any talents?"

"I'm good at chess and at drawing."

Cosima answered after taking her time thinking.

"Memory and sports I would say."

Added Massimo grabbing a cookie from the snacks.

"See! You have talents, well affinities are exactly that! You don't have to study them to be a great manasi but if you do you have more chances of being one. Now, elemental affinities are like being in the army, everyone in the army is a soldier... the general isn't... and neither the medics... Skip that! Imagine they are all soldiers, yes? Then, different soldiers are in different areas, like the infantry or the artillery or the cavalry! Just like us!"

"No Cosima, you lost me with the army."

Cosima shook her head with a smile, even if she was confused she was having fun.

"Forgive me, I don't have experience teaching."

Eloisa was very worried about this. She really was beginning to realize that being good at something doesn't mean that you are good at explaining it and that frustrated her.

"Try to use another analogy, maybe we can understand with another example!"

Cosima tried to cheer her up. Massimo gave her a snack.

"Let's try it again without examples, let's say it as it is. Elemental affinities are a group of affinities. Like how all types of music are still art, but not all art is music. The elemental affinities according to the concesus of 1762 in Aarhus are fire, air, water, earth, and even if I don't agree with the next, electricity, ice and metal. There are some extremist positions that argue for the inclusion of light, darkness, wood and similar, but take account that this information is two centuries old and probably changed."

"So, in retrospective, elemental affinities are just an amount of different affinities that are grouped together."

"You could see it like that. At the end of the day, those are the most useful to have during a conflict if you don't have time to do rituals or long spells, hence why I used the army analogy."

"What about noble houses? Talk me about them."

"What would I know, I'm from the eighteenth century, probably most of the houses that were my allies and enemies simply don't exist anymore... my own house don't exist anymore! You probably know more about them than me!"

"I have never engaged with other nobles or with politics, I just use the Farfali fortune sometimes to buy food I want, like cannolies."

"Cannolies? If I had so much money I would try caviar, I heard it's very expensive and good."

Massimo intervened, fantasying about all the food he has never tried before.

"Caviar is not good, it's just that it's so expensive rich people lie to themselves saying yeah it was marvelous because if you spent ten thousand euros for food and you didn't like it you would be crying!"

"I think you didn't like the caviar."

"Absolutely not!"

"It isn't that bad!"

Protested Eloisa in half offended half funny way.

The rain started and since the conversation had died out, Massimo put some music. They had a problem because Cosima wanted pop music while Massimo preferred rock and Eloisa argued that music should be pure instrumental and adding voices killed the purpose.

While they abandoned Florencia; Domenico was in a wine tasting at the Ponte Vecchio. Being by himself, he looked at the watch in his wrist annoyed.

"They are late."

He had called for a reunion with Edoardo and Lorenzo about the restructuration of the Order because of the incident with the fourteenth summon; but they were already twenty minutes late. Was he not clear about the location?

A man wearing a bit hat and all black robes approached him from behind. Normally, one would think that a man dressed like that would stand out from the rest but no one seemed to notice him. Domenico quickly understood that he was doing something similar to what he had done to kidnap Massimo.

"Voice came to me that the fourteenth difficulted affairs. Is that the truth?"

"Mr. Adalberto! I didn't expect to find you here. Were you looking for me?"

"That would be correct. Your servants are already waiting for you."

"How did you find us so quickly? The incident happened less than nine hours ago!"

"The manasies in particular have this indistinguishable aroma all the time, haven't you noticed it?"

"Not... at all."

"Most live a whole life without knowing; it annoys me. Drink that wine and follow me."

Domenico drank the rest of the wine in one gulp and followed Adalberto to his car, which was a very common one in black color, obviously. Inside, Edoardo and Lorenzo were sitting there in the most absolute silence. The car windows were tinted to the point he was unable to see through them and the air conditioning was at -12 Celsius.

Without a word, Adalberto began driving. Even if Domenico was the Gran Maestro of his Order; Adalberto's presence was enough to intimidate him. The three of them were sat on the backseat and while driving he started to speak.

"Without the Order presence, external elements will be able to interfere with the ritual. The greatest menace of all is obviously, the Church; I had planned to use the Order to make a series of attacks that would distract them but that is no longer possible. Either way, we have to be wary of other manasies or manasi associations."

Lorenzo and Edoardo remained silent; Domenico forced himself to answer.

"We can still save the Order—"

"Forget about your childish aspirations with your tiny order, I can't even remember it's name, that answers about how unimportant it was; for me it was just a tool for an end; but seeing this two here, maybe even you are able to find some deserving beings."

Edoardo was taken aback by how the Gran Maestro Domenico Abato was being treated by this man. It was the first time he had see him but he was acting like if he was their boss. Who in the world was him?

"Let's talk now about the ritual. Sure you know about the old manasies? Specially about the two problematic ones."

"Eloisa and Elettra?"

Lorenzo spoke for the first time, confident that he could answer any questions about them as the summoning was his area of expertise.

"Yes, the twelfth and the fourteenth. This two are specially problematic as the twelfth didn't agree to the ritual and probably will try to sabotage is and the fourteenth did it over an unjust promise; she simply was an opportunity too juicy to not include as a participant?"

"She? The information we were provided by Abato said that he was a man by the name of Federico Balossi, but she was someone completely different!"

Edoardo was completely surprised; Lorenzo, while having way more knowledge than him, he was very weak in all other aspects, but here he was talking bad about the Gran Maestro who was beside him to Adalberto with some courage he had never had before. The only way he could compare this was that a cat was criticizing the leopard in front of the lion.

But why couldn't he bring himself to speak? They were two primary forces that collaborating inside of him. The first was the weakest, and was the fact that he had respected Domenico since he became his master a decade ago; and the second, the principal force was, that the most he looked at Adalberto, the most convinced he was that something was wrong with him. Something that separated him from humans. His skin was very pale, but that wasn't uncommon between the manasies; his face was artistically perfect and the little bit of hair he was able to discern was silver. The rest of the body was covered by his clothes, so he couldn't exactly pinpoint what was wrong. Then he saw it. The eyes. It was the eyes, red iris with the hue of wine. But that eye color wasn't rare among manasies; it was the something behind him that scared him.

"The hunger."

Edoardo said on a voice so low he almost thought he didn't said it and neither Domenico or Lorenzo noticed it. But he was right, behind his hypnotizing eyes laid an indescribable hunger that if let loose, would devour not only him, but the whole Firenze.

"Yes, the hunger; that's what I have and that's what I crave to end. And that's what you will help me end."

Adalberto kept driving but his head turned to look directly at him. The eyes looking directly in his, dissecting, eating, ravaging his very soul. Edoardo remained there completely paralyzed. 

"Tell me manasi, are you aware about who is the first summoned?"

He directed this question to Lorenzo, momentarily forgetting about Edoardo's existence.

"No, I only was in charge from the second to the last. Domenico did the first."

"It would be beneficial if the first wins the ritual. Candido Loreio Segestes its his name. On the other hand, the twelfth anchor is Jessopo's masterpiece. Cosima Farfali; her survival is important; depending on who are the first to die, the ritual could be completed with more than one couple. But more important than anything; Eloisa Cobossi has to die."

"Gran Maestro?"

Edoardo heard the orders than Adalberto was giving, but he still wanted his master approval before acting. 

"Mister Adalberto hasn't stop speaking. Be silent"

Adalberto looked pleased with Domenico and continued talking.

"Right now; Cosima, Massimo and Eloisa are travelling to the Cobossi's Castle. You two will wait for they there. Ambush them. Kill Eloisa and Massimo, bring me Cosima in perfect condition."

"How are we going to arrive before them?"

Lorenzo asked after a while.

"I have resources for that."

Ten minutes after, the car stopped in some tiny mansion between Castello and Serpiolle.

The mansion looked like it was built in the first years of the twentieth century and had a garden of mushrooms next to a fountain. But that wasn't the thing in mind of Edoardo and Lorenzo, because a collection of old and luxurious cars were parked in front of the villa and in the middle of them, there was an helicopter.

"Welcome, to the Palazzo Scarlatto."