(note: Story cover has been updated May 2023 :) New chapter covers will be added slowly too)
Catherine Wolfe didn't know why she was chosen, or if she was at all. She only knew she'd been
pulled through time to help a family involved in a war she'd...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Seems that I have been held, in some dreaming state
A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from this slumber
Until I realize that it was you who held me under
Felt it in my fist, in my feet, in the hollows of my eyelids
Shaking through my skull, through my spine and down through my ribs
(Florence & the Machine - Blinding)
-------------------
August 5, 1476
Monteriggioni, Italy
It was well into the evening by the time they reached Monteriggioni, and Catherine guessed it took them almost twelve hours or more to reach the city by the dirt road. It was to be expected, she supposed. The horses had been kept at a steady pace, probably no more than four miles per hour, and they'd stopped to water and rest the beasts at about noon. They'd taken their breaks, too--nature called more than once for the men, and Catherine had to scuttle in the woods to relieve herself once or twice, too. Otherwise they had gone unmolested during the trip and there had been few, if any other people on the road. She vaguely recalled two men on horses and then an old man driving a cart full of supplies with his donkey. Otherwise, the only other people were those who were out and about on their land the road carved through. Some waved, but most just went about their business--even when they trod through what looked like a small town along the way. The Captain probably told her the name, but she had forgotten it and whatever it was known for not long after.
Mario's men themselves were enjoyable company. It had been mostly silence at first, but soon enough the Captain had inquired about her; asking where she was from and how she'd come to meet Giovanni. He asked if she was an Assassin, too, and at first she was taken aback by his bluntness, but then recalled how Mario was also an Assassin, so it would have been reasonable for his men to at least know about it, too. His Captain would, anyways. She told him as much as she had allowed the Auditore family, and he was kind and courteous about it; he expressed his interest and intrigue--she could tell it was more-so the complimentary form of it--and even talked about himself. He had met Mario some time ago, although he'd forgotten how long exactly. The man had saved his life, and so Ottavio owed Mario a great debt. For it, he joined his band of "merry men", as he put it, and he had never regretted it for the ten years he'd fought for Mario.
