paradisalogs | Presents

Entry tags:

giovanni auditore

Presents

Who: Giovanni Auditore - OPEN
What: Christmas in June events
When: Run into him anytime
Where: Outside the castle
Rating: I doubt anything that requires a warning will happen

Presents under a tree.

As he neared the Castle this is what had stopped him in his tracks and brought him off the cleared pathway back into the snow. It was a custom to give presents to those you cared about but these... they were just wrapped packages with elegant bows. They held no names. Like most things of the castle they held no substance.

It was an act of remembrance, to open a few of the packages and set something down inside each of them. A few coins for Federico, a silk handkerchief for Claudia, feathers for Petruccio... and surprisingly nothing for Maria. The woman he loved but could no longer remember. He held the fourth box thinking there should be another, deciding it should be Ezio, and then dismissing it with a frown. Ezio was not the name that eluded him. There was some one else?

Potentially dark thoughts broke the instant the horse's nose bumped into his shoulder. The animal was on his own and unequipped. A dark mahogany colored stallion with coal black hair and a single white cap on a back hind leg. More striking even than the animal was the bright red bow tied around his neck. Curious.

Giovanni placed the package down and stood to pet the animal's muzzle surprised to find the tag hanging from the bow held his name.

"Now why would you be wearing this...?"

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At first, Maria could think of anything remotely appropriate to say. She knew memories and abilities could be tampered with as part of these so-called losses, but losing such an important part of one's life was more than a little horrifying. Even if it had been her own spouse, a man she never loved, she wouldn't want to forget those years.

"I'm sorry," she said, for lack of anything more. "That's much too high a price to pay."

"Paying high prices seems to be the reason I am here."

Why did he continue to speak tot he lady, to tell her so much about himself when really they were strangers to one another? Was it really all in the name? It felt right to confide his feelings, even the ones he could not mention to Ezio, to this Maria.

"I died at home, along with my eldest and youngest sons... Perhaps I have been brought here to feed the castle's need for loss."

It was an extraordinarily awkward subject, but Maria didn't feel the need to make her excuses and find a quick exit. Maybe it was because she'd grown too comfortable with the idea, or maybe it was as simple as human kindness.

"If that's true, then this is a twisted place," she said. "You don't deserve that. No one does."

Almost no one.

"No."

Maybe it was a fit punishment to traitors, the family friend who was no true friend at all, but it was not the Assassin way. That was just the desire for revenge talking.

He might have tried to smile but he knew even before the attempt it would have failed. Determination though, this easily came out as a low undercurrent in his words.

"And maybe I can make the castle see the error in that thinking."

He did have little left to loose.

"Thank you for listening. I know it can not have been easy consoling a stranger."

"Think nothing of it."

She shook her head an offered him an awkward, if heartfelt, smile.

"If we couldn't listen to each other, we'd be very alone here, wouldn't we? Perhaps the castle listens...but it doesn't speak back to us."

And she still felt ludicrous even suggesting that much.

"You are most kind."

Gracious as she was being about it all he had placed her in an embarrassing situation. Giovanni courteously bowed at her smile hoping she had not been too disturbed by his lack of composure. Normally he was much more put together... but he hadn't been himself since his arrival.

"Maybe the castle can not speak to us as other people might but it does so through it's spells and tricks? It does seem to know what we are thinking."

He waved to the horse who stared back at the pair as if wondering why they were still talking.

"I was not thinking of a horse this evening but the night before the snow arrived I had thought it would be interesting to take up riding again. Maybe see how far away from the castle one could go."

"That sounds like a fine idea, though I'd advise you bring along supplies in case it's a long distance," she said. "I'd like to know more about the land myself."

She paused then, as something occurred to her. Giovanni...she hadn't known his name, but she had heard it before.

"Giovanni," Maria said. "You wouldn't happen to be Giovanni Auditore, would you?"

There was a time, when he had first arrived to the castle, when some one suddenly calling out his name would have put him more on guard. He might have thought them an enemy or at least wondered how they could have come upon that information, now though?

"You must have met Ezio?"

The question was very casually said with no hint of surprise at all. He had come to find out that Ezio spoke a great deal on a great many subjects to the point where some one not knowing his name was more rare than some one who did.

"If you are a friend of his I would prefer if what was said here today remained only between us. He has enough to worry about without having to watch out for his father as well."

"I have. We're...acquaintances."

Perhaps friends, really, but Maria wasn't sure whether she could give them that label. Then again, he put up with her teasing and a jab to the kidneys quite well; that might be enough.

"I won't say anything to him," she continued. "Actually, there's someone else we may both know—a peer of yours, in a way." She didn't want to come out and say the word Assassin, even with no one else around. "Have you met Altaïr?"

Discretion in all her words, acquaintance instead of friend, peer instead of assassin... Just who was this lady?

Altair had spoken of other matters mostly concerning the brotherhood and his experiences with them, but never of a Maria. Then again they were only just beginning to understand and learning to trust one another. He stepped away from both lady and horse, pacing around the pair of them through the thick snow as he considered an answer.

"You are from his time then?"

A veiled way of confirming that he had met Altair and understood, at least in part, what she was speaking of.

Her words clearly prompted some thought in Giovanni, but she couldn't begin to guess what specifically he was thinking. It was only normal for a man in his position to be cautious, she supposed.

"We were traveling together before I found myself here," she said, nodding in acknowledgment. "From my perspective, anyway. He was taken somewhat earlier. But I've updated him on his immediate future."

Well, that was one way of putting it.

"Differences in time again. They are very common here."

His eyes wandered from her face to her hands, looking for some sign of the Brotherhood. Either a burned ring around a digit or since she was from Altair's time, a finger missing entirely would have marked her as a member of the Brotherhood. But finding neither...

"How did you come to be his traveling companion?"

"That's a rather long story."

Maria fidgeted in place slightly, not so much nervous as ill at ease. She did not regret abandoning the Templars' cause, but nor would she go back and change the years she spent among them if she had the chance. Most Assassins were unlikely to understand.

"Let us say...I was aligned with a faction whose ideals clashed with his. When I decided to leave, we had the chance to work together, and remained together for a time when that work was done."

Templars were untrustworthy. They cared nothing for friendship nor justice, they only worried about furthering their own cause. This was the message sorely beaten into Giovanni during his experiences with them in Firenze. Granted it was the bitterness he felt about the mistreatment of his family and a great desire for revenge that made those dark thoughts so lasting and had she caught him before the murder of his family he might have been more reasonable. People's positions and beliefs could evolve over time after all. A Templar was no different in that.

"He must have had a great many factions with which he clashed over the years."

But, there was one in particular that all Assassin's eventually learned about... that and her evasive words made him suspicious even as the rest of what she said caused one corner of his mouth to quirk up.

"From adversity, friendship. Or... something more?"

This was said with every bit of whimsy a teasing statement deserved.

"That man does not chose his traveling companions lightly."

So given that Altair must have been very impressed with the lady.

Maria was about to consider whether she could be more explicit in her explanation when Giovanni's expression gained a teasing edge, not so different from his son, and the ensuing insinuation prompted a brief scowl. Perhaps it was common to Assassins of the future or perhaps it was a family trait, but she didn't like this ridiculous sense of humor.

"I don't doubt that, but I wouldn't know," she said, attempting to keep the edge out of her voice. "It had only been a few weeks, and before that the topic never came up."

Arguments and attempted murder had made up most of their interactions. Even appreciating Altaïr's perspective as she did now, Maria still marveled sometimes that they had ever made it that far.

"I've been told he's something of a legend in the future," she said. "You might not want to tell him, though. It could go to his head."

Like father, like son, maybe it was an Auditore trait more than a Renaissance Assassin one.

"I believe I may already have stumbled into that pitfall. When we first met I was so surprised to see him..."

The Auditore DID have a statue of the man in their basement after all!

"But, if he becomes too arrogant over it I'm certain you will see him back to Earth?"

Maria tried not to laugh but couldn't hold back a smile despite herself.

"It may not be my place, but I'd do my best," she said. "Truly, he is only a man, whatever your order might think. He has his flaws."

Such a propensity for kidnapping and philosophy, and honestly she didn't know which was worse.

Va bene. She did have a nice smile, certainly better than the scowl he had nearly won himself earlier.

"We do have a bizarre habit of idolizing those that have gone before us."

You have no idea by how much, Maria. No idea. Be grateful there is not a statue of you some where as well.

"He has spoken a little of those flaws, but he is sill the one who helped found the order as I know it. I can not entirely forget that."

"I suppose we do at that."

A statue, or a drawing surrounded by flowers...but who would ever create such a thing?

"He's ambitious, I'll give you that," she said. "It must be nice for him to know some of those ambitions reach fruition."

Altair might be forgiven that tender portrait given that he was deeply in love with the lady at the time. A romantic would have no trouble understanding that.

Though that such a thing of beauty could come from the hand of a killer was no doubt a testament to Maria's good influences.

"In that there could be no harm. He does know the Brotherhood continues long after his time so hopefully that will help ease his burden while he is forced to remain here."

Who would ever create such a thing. Surely not Altaïr, not about her.

"It must be nice to have that kind of peace about your future," she said, and hesitated. Dare she even bring it up?

Well, now was the time, if any.

"Your son tried to tell me a bit about my own future, but I suspect he was teasing me," she added after a moment. "He seems like the type to enjoy that."

Perish the thought!

Was it nice? Some times he wondered if knowing of the future and what would happen was for the best. If his other two sons arrived with no knowledge of what had happened, would he tell them? It might be too painful to know what was to come when there would be nothing they could do to change it. Their being kept in the dark might be for the best.

Conversely, he had met Ezio and knew he would grow up as well as could be expected given what he had witnessed. A fine adult with strong convictions... if some what weakened by his long stay in Paradisa. Ezio and Claudia would go on to lead long lives, hopefully fulfilling ones. There was a good deal of comfort in that.

He did hesitate to answer as the pros and cons were weighed in him mind, but the lady had asked. If she really wanted to know who was he to keep the information from her?

"Ezio has always been of a mischievous nature, but if he spoke of your future, even as a way to tease you, I would think the information would be accurate."

Unless Ezio had changed so much that truth meant nothing to him, but his father suspected not.

"I wonder now what he may have said?"

"I don't know about that."

It was true, she didn't. But some part of Maria whispered that perhaps she didn't want to know either, because that would mean facing certain possibilities she had no idea how to handle. Even if the main path of her life had changed radically in the last few months, she still knew herself.

But if what Ezio had said was true...well, she was no longer sure about that.

"He seems to think that...Altaïr and I will end up married." She paused. "To each other."

What a strange thing, to say it out loud.

So that was it? A smile played at the corner of his lips even as he held a sympathetic hand out in the air. She had said it so tentatively that Giovanni wondered if she considered that a grim fate or... if there might be room left for felicitations.

"Would it be such a terrible thing if that were true?"

"It would be a most surprising thing, considering I've been married once and have no desire to repeat the experience," she replied with just a touch of sharpness. It wasn't Giovanni's fault—either this maybe-future or his son's teasing.

"Besides," she said, shaking her head, "It isn't as if he'd have any way of knowing, with centuries between us."

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