The Fiasco at Scala

The Forsaken, part seven

7. The blow of a bugle horn shattered the silence of the countryside, with a procession of royal soldiers and bounty hunters led by king Vico arriving at the foot of the villa. Donning elaborate black robes, the king ordered the property owner to surrender the fugitives she was harboring. When she called out defiantly with Ennio and Ilaria by her side, Vico stormed the property with his heavily armed forces.

 In his anger, Vico slew the Frenchman before setting his sights on the seemingly vulnerable trio of resisters, who had barricaded themselves inside the villa with the gun workers. Ilaria and Nonna formed Ennio and the workers into a conveyor of rifles, creating a constant volley of pellets, arrows, lances and small bombs. The siege dragged on, resulting in the destruction of most of the villa and forcing the defenders outside to fight. Vico watched from a safe distance away from the intense fighting while his forces did what they could to neutralize the threat to the king's rule. 

Wave upon wave of soldiers and bounty hunters were torn apart as Ilaria sunk her small sword into the attacking crowd, with the Piazzas and villa workers continuing their musket blasts. When the battle was nearing its climax, Nonna gave Ilaria and Ennio a map to the Marquis' manor before they took to one of her horses and rode off the property in a different direction into the depths of the forest. Just as they were almost out of reach of anymore incoming firepower, a rogue bomb flew through the air in the direction of the speeding horse, exploding and blowing Ilaria and Ennio off on separate paths down a tall rolling hill into the obscure corners of the woods. 

They both awoke in the darkened twigs and vines to find the horse gone and each holding opposite ends of the map, lost in the abyss and trying to find ways to the Marquis on their own. Back on the ruins of the villa, the workers had been executed one by one as bait for Vico to interrogate a captured Nonna on where Ilaria and Ennio were going. Nonna Piazza remained defiant until the end when Vico shot her with one of her own firearms. The mad king told his soldiers to take all the weapons they could find and fall back to the capital. On the way back home in his carriage, Vico clearly realized his new power was not infinite in stopping his sister from retaking her throne. He had to take matters into his own hands, but how?.