CH 25: Useful Map

And after successfully stabbing him multiple times, she held him in her arms as he fell down. As his body laid on the ground but his head was held by Ezio, he let out his last words at death's door step :"you would have done the same. To save the ones you love."

But the words from before had caused the fire of rage to burn furiously in Ezio's heart as she let him die :"yes. I would. And I have." As Uberto finally died, Ezio stood up and roared :"the Auditore are not dead. I'm still here. ME! Ezio! Ezio Auditore!"

As the audience began to run away while shouting :"assassina! Run!" the guards noticed the panic inside of the yard and rushed inside. seeing that the odds are too much against them and they aren't trained professionally in using weapons, specially such a unique ones, they nodded at each other and took a run for it!

They took the path that they had come in, because the guards that were rushing in were the same heavily armored, axe wielding guards. And the reason as to why they took that path was because even though they were wearing so much armor, they were slower than the rest as well.

So the moment the two axe wielding guards swung their axe like a hammer at them, the two dodged and using the speed advantage, killed the two from behind! <I killed every guard myself just using the counter attack of the hidden blade, but that wouldn't make sense since they just got the blades>

And just like they planned, they took a run for it. Seeing the chance, the two used those objects that are just conveniently there and climbed up to the rooftops. The guards were still following them, but they were still far too slow to catch up to them.

And they completely lost the two when they got out of their line of sight and did a leap of faith into a haystack and Ali knew that they had gotten away successfully when the red edges of his vision disappeared.

After getting out of the haystack, the two went to the rooftops again when Ali looked at her :"let's go up. There are guards on the ground, but there is only one on the rooftops. I will take care of him and we will go back with peace at heart."

Ezio nodded and did as he asked, which was going up along with him and standing back while Ali killed the clueless guard from behind. And after some jumping around and climbing to here and there, they finally reached their destination.

And when they opened the door, Paola was already waiting for them there and gave Ezio a hug who said :"I think it's best we leave Firenze."

Paola :"where will you go?"

Ezio :"my uncle Mario owns a villa at Monteriggione."

Paola :"you two are still wanted, Ezio."

Ezio :"what would you have me do then?"

Paola :"I've seen posters all across the district. Tearing them down will help the city forget your face. No doubt the heralds also incite the public. Bribe them and they'll speak of other things. Or you could hunt those who bear false witness against you. They traded dignity for coin. Their loss would not be mourned. Do any of these things and you should be free to leave."

Ali and Ezio left the brothel and Ezio looked at Ali with a crooked eyebrow :"so, Ali. Does your magical gift have any use here for us as well." Her question caused Ali to smirked cockily :"well of course it does, Ashkim (my love).

A new mark has been added to it. And from the looks of it and how it's not moving, it's probably a poster of us. But there are guards in our way, so we better take the rooftops like always to avoid a fight. Follow me."

As they got off of the ground, they moved to the rooftops with ease and continued towards where Ali was leading them both to. After they finally made it there, both of them safely landed as Ali made a confused face :"who's brilliant idea was it to stick it here?"

There was a reason behind his sarcastic remark. after all, who could see a poster that was placed somewhere nobody could see or read unless they could climb there. Ezio shrugged as she tore it down and let it fall to the ground :"an easier job for us. No?"

Ali shook his head nonchalantly in a tilting motion a few times :"well, I guess you're right. Huh? So that's what that is for… I was curious as to what the purpose of it was. Guess I found out about it now. And it makes sense."

Ezio furrowed her eyebrows as she looked at him :"what? What are you mumbling about for yourself? Did something happen?"

Ali nodded with a curious look :"remember how I said that some new things sometimes get added to it? Well, after your… sigh, father and brothers' incident, a new "function" was added to my map. It was outside of my map, though.

It was in the form of a tilted square with the sides completely red and there was a symbol like the one on our clothes and blades. But after tearing off that poster, a quarter of the square turned white. But the rest are the same.

So I guess that shows if we are notorious or not. Which by how the symbol still not having any changes and being the same as before, it means that we still are. So I guess that by doing the things that Paola recommended, our notoriety will decrease and we won't be chased by guards on sight. Let's check out that theory. A moving eye mark has appeared on my map. That should be the official. But we should still go through the rooftops since there are guards around. Let's go."

Although Ezio was slightly confused, Ali was still about to do what they set off to do. So she just shrugged and followed after her lover. After running for a few seconds, they got to where Ali was talking about and climbed down.

Ali quickly moved and killed the official before anyone noticed and moved back to Ezio before they ran to an alley. She looked at him with a curious expression as she asked :"so? Was your little experiment successful, Ashkim (my love)?"

Ali smirked proudly as he nodded :"yup! My theory was right. That tilted square means if we are notorious or not by how much the white parts have become red. Doing any of the things that Paola told us will turn the red into white."

As Ali talked, he also started drawing on the ground so Ali will know what he was talking about :"but it seems that each of them has an amount for themselves. The amount of the red parts they take away isn't the same.

Tearing down a poster took away about 25% of our notoriety which is the red part. But killing that official took away a whooping 75% of the notoriety! Making the mark entirely white! And the symbol in the square turned into a small picture of our hooded head. So I guess that we are safe now. But we should check if it's true or not. Let's get in a guard's field of vision and see how he reacts… yu know what? You stay back, I will do it myself."

Ezio quickly grabbed the arm of the lover who was about to hurry off and furrowed her eyebrows :"what? No! you aren't going alone! You know how they always are in a group! They will definitely gang up on you. I'm not letting you go alone."

Ali looked at her hand and then at her furrowing eyebrows and beautiful eyes filled with worry. So he sighed and gave her a soft smile :"fine. We will go together. But on ONE condition. You will stay hidden so that I will test the waters.

If they don't attack, then we can consider our little mission and experiment as a success. If not and they are still hostile, you can attck from behind and take one or two down by surprise. This is my only condition and I won't accept no for an answer. Deal?"

Seeing that Ali had put his foot down and made himself clear, she nodded with a defeated sigh as she knew just how stubborn Ali can be sometimes. She reluctantly let go of his hand as he nodded at a direction :"there is a group of them tight that way. Stay in the shadows."

And with that, Ali readied himself for battle in case an unexpected problem happened. He got out of the alley and walked towards the guards while Ezio followed after him after a few seconds. But thankfully, no sound or anything happened when Ali was inside the guards' field of vision.

So with a victorious smirk, he turned around and walked back towards Ezio in a rather relaxed but still alert state. Ezio also relaxed once she saw that everything is alright and awaited for Ali to walk back who said :"told you, I won't do something unless I'm rather positive in succeeding. Let's go back now."

As they walked back, but this time on the street like a normal person, they knocked on the door and entered to see Paola waiting for them :"Bentornato (welcome back, Ezio, Ali. Were you successful?" and after getting the answer of :"yes." From Ezio, she turned around and clapped her hands.

When Ali and Ezio looked up to where she was looking at, they saw Claudia and Maria walking down from the upper room along with the maid helping Maria. Ezio smiled as she looked at them :"Madre (mother)?

Claudia rushed down and into Ezio's open arms as she complained :"Ezio, Ali! Where have you been?! They wouldn't let us leave. And mother… ugh! She hasn't spoken a single word since we left the house. Father will need to sort things out…"

As Ezio and Ali hugged Maria who seems to have already known what has happened, a look of sadness made its way to the two lovers face as they looked away from Claudia :"where is father? And Federico? And Petruccio? Hmmm?"

They couldn't and didn't want to just break the sad news to the poor girl, but Ezio didn't know how or what to say :"something's happened." Which really confused Claudia :"what do you mean?" but because of what time they are in and the look of sadness on their faces, she understood.

But she didn't want that to be the truth as a sad look took over her face :"No. it's impossible!" her state saddened Ezio who wanted to comfort her :"Claudia…" but the news was too harsh and horrible, causing her to take a step back.

She turned around as tears began to form in her eyes :"No, no, no, no, no." but with Ezio's sentence, they began to fall as she began to cry :"I did everything I could, piccina (little one)…" she hugged her younger sister who continued to cry into her hands.

But unfortunately, time wasn't on their side. So Ezio grabbed her shoulders and looked at her :"listen, right now what matters is getting us all someplace safe. But to do that, I need you to stay focused. Do you understand?"

She continued to sob for a few seconds before she stopped and nodded to Ezio who said :"good. Will you watch over mother for me?" she nodded again before she walked to Maria's side and held her arm as they walked together.

Ezio turned to Paola and nodded :"then we are ready. Thank you again, for everything." She kissed Ali's cheek as a goodbye before hugging Ezio :"stay safe, Ezio, Ali. Stay vigilant. I suspect the road ahead is yet long." And with a final nod, they finally parted ways.