The Medici Girl

A Gathering of Templars

Ezio did not hesitate to knock on Leonardo's door before entering with Contessina directly behind him. The shop had not changed since he had been there the last time; maybe a little messier than the last time with papers thrown everywhere. He looked at Contessina who only shrugged as Leonardo came from around the corner. 

"Ezio!" The artist was shocked to see the both of them standing there. "You're here! In Firenze. And alive!" Leonardo let his shock disipate into excitement on seeing his friend for the first time in over a year. The artist went up to Ezio with a broad smile on his face and put his hands on the younger man's arms. 

"Look at this place, the past two years have been kind to you." Ezio motioned to the workshop around them seeing all the different inventions and paintings Leonardo had been working on. 

"But you are not the same, are you?" Leonardo said backing away from the Assassin with a sad look on his face. "I thought so. And Contessina, how could I forget!" He went over to the blond woman behind Ezio and kissed both her cheeks in greeting. "As lovely as ever." He turned back to Ezio. "It is good to see you both here together." 

"Leonardo, do you have parchment and a quill I can borrow?" Contessina asked her friend. 

"Si, over there on that table." The artist said pointing to the table in the center of the room. "Take what you need." He smiled at Contessina as she went to the table and sat down to write a letter. Ezio watched her for a moment wondering what she was up too and then turned his attention back to Leonardo. 

"I was hoping you could help me with something." The young man pulled two codex pages from the inside of his robes and handed it to Leonardo. "This one is in better shape than the last one and this one has seen better days." 

"I see that." The artist unrolled a scroll and looked at the drawings. "This one is quite different from the last, but it looks as though it has the same pattern." Leonardo moved to the table where Contessina was busying herself with the letter. "And this one looks like a diagram of different assassination techniques." The words caught Contessina's attention and she looked up to see Ezio looking down at the scrolls in front of Leonardo. 

"What is this?" She asked looking at the second scroll. "It looks like a weapon." 

"Can you make it for me?" Ezio asked as he looked down on the designs in front of him. 

"If I can hollow it out without destroying the integrity of the blade, it shouldn't take too long. In the meantime, I'll have my assistant set up some dummies in the yard so you can practice these." Leonardo handed Ezio the scroll with the diagrams on it. "Eh! Vincenzo!" 

"Are you coming Contessina?" Ezio asked her and she looked up at him with a smile. 

"In a moment, I need to finish this." She said before going back to writing. He sat down next to her while there was a commotion in the back of the workshop as Vincenzo came running in. 

"Who are you writing to?" He leaned over closer to her to see what she had on the paper, but she shirked away and glared at him. "What?"

"I'm writing to Giuliano." She said hiding the contents of the letter from her husband. "To make sure he goes to church in the morning." 

"Oh." He knew it was a complete lie, but he did not pry any further. 

"Don't look so disappointed, I have sent you plenty letters during our time apart and you didn't reply to most of them." Contessina said making a jab at Ezio's ego for fun. "I should have told you I was writing to my lover." 

"You have a lover?" He smirked knowing she was lying from the blush on her cheeks in response. "What is his name?" 

"Wouldn't you like to know." Contessina put the quill down after signing her name at the bottom of the page and then folded it up before stuffing it in the inside of Ezio's doublet.