Assassin's Creed Chronos_Retribution (Ezio x OC)

30 - Greatest Change II

August 17, 1503

Roma, Italy

"You are looking well."

Catherine looked up from her desk, ever flooded with papers and maps and books, to regard her companion. It had been many years now that she'd known Niccolò Machiavelli, and it was only now that he seemed to finally be showing even the tiniest bit of his age. Granted, he wasn't yet forty—she mentally sent a bit of empathy for her husband, who hated he'd hit such a number—but he had begun to show a few wrinkles in his brow, and she swore she could see a bit of gray in his short hair. To be fair, he had a rather stressful life, courting the Borgia while being aligned with the Assassins. He kept them safe from the court's eyes, all while risking his own—and his family. His first—a daughter—wasn't even a year, and it seemed his wife was with child again already. She knew the pain, though, and yet not at all. He led a far different role than she did in the Order, and never wished to take his.

"You look tired," she chuckled, standing up to greet him with a warm clasp of their arms.

He chuckled, "It seems even my servants are stretched thin between the house and the needs of my wife—I have decided to take it upon myself to care for my little Primerana in their stead. It is... more difficult than I realized. Certainly, you mothers are indominable creatures."

"How else do you think we stand you incorrigible men?" she snickered back, earning a laugh.

"Ah, that does indeed explain it. Are you sure you would not rather be a politician of the court than an Assassin of the Order? You would do well."

She waved him off with a laugh, "God, no. I have no taste for the courts. It's too pompous and back-stabbing. Okay, so being an Assassin means a lot of that, but it's physical. Politics involves too much deceit for my taste. I prefer to be honest. Bluntly so."

"As you have proven time and time again. Ah, but you are right. You are better suited as a Mentor of the Order. You and Ezio both had made it more than I could have ever hoped. You two are, perhaps, some of the best Assassins to come from our Brotherhood."

"Well, Ezio is. I'm still not back in it—just the trainer and, uh, 'information master'. I'd say spymaster, but that's not right," she chuckled, motioning to her cluttered desk.

"Come now, you truly believe you were ever not an Assassin?" he mused, almost wryly.

She raised a brow, "I did tell Ezio I couldn't be one—not until I'd proven myself again."

"Of course, and yet you did great work with the Banker, the French general, and Micheletto."

"Ezio needed my help—I told him he could ask if need be, since I have more experience than my students."

"So, you have said, but did you truly think you were not one of us?" the man pressed, and this time there was a certain look to his eyes. She opened her mouth to retort but bit her lip for a moment.

"I was unworthy of it. I broke the tenants."

"Oh? And which of them did you break? Have you killed innocents? Have you exposed the Brotherhood? Did you bring harm?"

"Yes—I got my students hurt last year."

"Micheletto had already planned to destroy you, and it was a spy you and Ezio rooted out that threatened our Brotherhood. By all means, you broke no tenants. And there have plenty of great Assassins before you that broke all three and yet remain. Altair himself was such a man, and yet we revere him."

She wanted to reply, but bit her lip again instead, ".... Dammit. You're right. Can't I at least believe I was able to do so?"

"What good would that do, my friend?" he smiled, wryly this time.