Ascendants: Tides of the Morn

Chapter 13

(Here comes chapter 13. Enjoy!)

I left the two children behind with Charon though not before naming them. Alba and Tramonto Di Santis. Dawn and sunset. Though my parents would most certainly be repulsed by the two creatures sharing our family name, but I felt connected to them. I killed their mother and needed to care for them.

Leonide drove me home, but I fell into oblivion long before we reached our destination as night had arrived and I was exhausted. I didn't awake until the day after when the sun finally returned my vigor. Alessandro and Carlo were already waiting for me. Alessandro was worried and enraged while Carlo was serene.

Carlo did reprimand me though as I went against the order to just do reconnaissance while still showing pride over my success. He wasn't as elated to hear about the two Daemon children I seem to have adopted while Alessandro was quite keen to meet them.

The days after we visited the children and gifted the Daemon clan with food and clothes. I was elevated in Torino as a devoted young woman because of my constant visit to the church and my many gifts to charity. Before I knew it, I had become quite the saint among the locals. The only surviving member of a wealthy family who devoted herself to feeding the poor. I soon took notice that my fellow countrymen loved such heroic tales.

I got the gratitude of the Sovereign for a successful mission and my name was never far from any conversation even among the Ascendants who had started to acknowledge our clan. A favorable thing for our clan but it also brought perils as a clan in the center of attention also draw the attention of less favorable things. Alessandro spends quite a lot of time bonding with larger clans for their favor as a result and I sought other acquaintances to keep me company.

I became a close friend with Angela who I quite happily paid to care for the Daemon Clan. We often met up at La Sibila with Vittoria and we had become quite the renowned trio in Torino. We became close enough that when spring came closer, Vittoria called upon me for aid.

In late February I went to a villa just outside of Turin on the hills of Cimena. I was quite surprised as the villa was quite known to have belonged to Paolo Camillo Thaon, Marquess of Revel. At least before his demise in 1948. I guess his daughters did not want the house as they had sold it to Vittoria who wanted a place to rest.

She normally lives in Villa Foscari, a mansion design in name by her father Andrea Palladio near Venice, but it was actually designed by Vittoria. In the older days, women were not allowed to take credit for their own effort and she had to use her father's name.

Though this villa did not pale in comparison to Villa Foscari. Vittoria told me that the villa was originally from mid-1600 and renovated by the late Paolo Camillo Thaon who commissioned the royal architect Carlo Sada to transform it into a Neoclassical villa.

The grand villa's façade is decorated with a double colonnade, in Ionic style on the lower floor and Corinthian style on the upper one. The porticoes have high triangular pediment which is adorned with statues above them. I marveled at the architecture while Vittoria showed disdain for neoclassicism and gave quite a lengthy speech of how it is inferior to the Palladian style which she herself uses.

It took us a while before we finally arrived at the lounge. The room was in bright pastel color as the walls were painted into paintings and had plenty of furniture to adorn the room. Vittoria was served tea while she had let a servant fetch a wine bottle with anything but wine in it. I filled a glass with the sanguine liquid before I turned to my friend.

"Now, my friend. What might you request of me?" I asked curiously as I noticed that Vittoria was uncharacteristically restless.

"Pardon my candor, but I'm quite distraught!" Vittoria exclaimed.