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Time for Troubles
Game Date: 05/05/06
Soldi, Quartus 16 Five Donatis - Angelo, Salvador, Gianina, Francesca, and Pietra - set out for Profeta Chiesa on Soldi. With them were Renato Vasari and Marco, as guardians for the ladies, two coachmen, a valet and a maid, and an outrider who rode ahead of the carriage to arrange lodging for that night's stay. Father Donati, nominally in charge of the group, rode in the carriage with Pietra; the ladies went by horse in the morning, but switched over to the carriage when the sun grew too hot. The trip was uneventful save for a spring downpour which soaked Salvador, Renato and Marco. (And the coachmen.) They made Profeta Chiesa that night, welcomed at the governor's palace. Veldi, Quartus 17 Prince Mondavi was not on the mainland, nor was he expected this month. That could be a lie, of course - the prince would not feel compelled to keep his nobles well-informed as to his clandestine movements - but it certainly didn't make any sense to hang around the city in case he would arrive. The group set out again. Veldi and Amordi, Marco was seen casually tasked by Signor Vasari to do all manner of physical chores - carrying trunks to the carriage, grooming the horses, and even acting as valet to Salvador and Angelo. He also, at Renato's say-so, got down off of his horse to walk or jog alongside it while they traveled. The servants speculated that Marco had lost some sort of bet on Veldi; when this continued into Amordi, they wondered what sort of a bet it was. Amordi, Quartus 18 After traveling all day Veldi (staying over at a friend of the family's residence) and all day Amordi, the group reached Agitazione as the sun was setting on Amordi. The old Lorenzo palace was their destination; this was Prince Mondavi's official residence on the mainland, but its steward was none other than his cousin Tigran Mondavi. When they'd left Monfalcone, their potential brother-in-law insisted that the Donati stay at the palazzo. The palazzo was under construction, being renovated. Many of the workers were Eisen... Lady Donati noted a young Vodacce man among them who was watching the carraige. She pointed this out and, when Don Salvador turned to look, the man waved in recognition. He hurried forward to meet them all. This was Signor Giulio Morenetti, a friend of Salvador's from university. He had studied architecture and geometry, and even as a student had been singularly obsessed with the Lorenzo palace. He was from Agitazione and had grown up with it, and he was convinced it was the very pinnacle of design and beauty. He had heard that the Chateau du Soleil in Charouse was supposed to be the most modern and elegant structure standing in Theah and had visited to see it; he found it a pale imitation of the Lorenzo Palace! The building was indeed different from others of its time, a visionary harbringer of trends of the future. At Salvador's suggestion, he was only too happy to give a tour of the palace the next day after breakfast. Father Donati said he'd meet them all there; he had business with the local bishop that would keep him away from the palace tonight, regrettably. He left, taking Pietra with him. Donna Gianina found the young man's strands extraordinary. His love for the palace was manifest to her Sight as a large split Queen of Cups. The strand was frayed more than any she'd ever seen, with endpoints hitting different features of the palace. It looked like nothing so much as a blue spiderweb, with Morenetti caught at its center. Hospitality was warm at the palace; Salvador put it to the test in an apparent effort to drink all the most expensive bottles of wine. Luxurious quarters were prepared and all headed to bed - but Francesca asked Marco for a word. She had intuited that all of this physical labor was somehow part of his training for Renato's brotherhood of the Rose and Cross, although neither Francesca nor Marco understood how carting trunks around would relate to being a better swordsman. But training or not, people were talking, and Renato was supposed to be discrete about this. Marco - less cautious with his eyes, with the two of them alone in the hallway - saw her point immediately and promised to bring it to Renato's attention. Terdi, Quartus 19 The tour was not quite the stone-by-stone examination of the palace that Giulio's enthusiasm had led some of them to fear. He did have a good eye for the picturesque and pointed out many of the palazzo's most attractive vistas. Finally, he led them out into the much-maligned courtyard - many leading Vodacce architects found it malformed and ugly. Giulio claimed that the problem wasn't with the palace, but rather with the flagstone courtyard - it had settled nearly three feet over the centuries, the weight of the flags pressing them down into the soft ground. If one stood on a box or stool of the right height, all the lines of the palace would suddenly converge into a perspective that was a marvel of geometric perfection. While everyone took turns standing on Giulio's box and making polite comments, Gianina's attention was absorbed in lines of another sort. She had seen on the tour many strands looping throughout the palace, which given its age and heritage wasn't too surprising. Out here, she could see great clusters of strands coming out from the palace and converging on a single point in the courtyard, not far from where Giulio had his box. Disturbingly, there were black strands among them. But as she looked closer, she saw that these were not exactly black strands. After seeing Angela's ghost, she had a good idea of what those strands should look like - black like the deepest ocean, or like a storm at midnight. These were black like a clear night sky, when you look up and feel as if you will fall up and into the milky light of the shining stars. Tiny lights shone within the strands. Where did the other end of those strands go? She turned to follow one - and got a fright perhaps worse even than Angela's ghost. A man was approaching, and these sparkling deadly strands completely enwrapped him. They tugged at his limbs, snaked around his chest, strangled his neck. They all arrowed straight back to the same point in the courtyard. Gianina was still catching her breath when the man started speaking, demanding to know why Signor Morenetti was not with the work crews. Giulio quickly made introductions, explaining to Don Alessandro Mondavi, the head architect on the reconstruction project, that the noble Donati had wished a tour and he had merely obliged. Don Alessandro softened somewhat at that, but did insist that the tour must be over now and Giulio must go back to work. Gianina found her voice as she was introduced to Don Alessandro. Shaking slightly, she pointed at the nexus of strands and told the Mondavi lord that he should, at all costs, avoid that spot. Alessandro frowned. "Avoid the spot? What spot? I'm sorry, Lady Donati, I don't understand - I go all about this place, every day." He moved to exactly where she was pointing, perhaps to try and see what the problem was. Lady Donati promptly fainted!
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