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Red Ribbons

Patrizia Villanova


Her husband fell down the stairs. Her eldest died of a stomach ailment. That's what happened. It was tragic.

One person, a well-meaning relative, tried to warn Patrizia of what actually happened, in case he had designs on her, too. She rewarded this faithful service with a shriek of outrage and a Coins curse so utterly thorough that, six months later, the completely bankrupt relative killed himself from the shame of it. Nobody has spoken ill of her boy to her since then.

For a while, Patrizia focused on securing her daughter Francesca's fortunes. They talked with visitors, peered into the strands, and finally decided that a Vestini husband would be most advantageous for her and for the family. They tugged and twisted, aligning Fortune so that it favored a Vestini-Villanova match - and then Giovanni resolved it by taking a Vestini bride for himself, and sending poor Francesca off to the Lucani. It was a pity - she was a good strega. But it was true that you had to look after these client states, make sure they didn't get too uppity.

Patrizia was the dowager queen of the Dionna strega. She did not have the most powerful sorcery, but she had the most power. Even if her son rarely paid heed to her, she still had resources in Palazzo Villanova, her husband's old retainers whose Rods strands she still cultivated. When she was fifty-five, she stepped neatly into the island's Tessatore. It put her in a position to keep an eye on the feminine side of the plots unwinding around Dionna, and she watched for any strands that came too close to her own home. She never minded much what happened inside the palazzo - Valentina Vestini was at least competent enough to police her own house.

It honestly never occurred to Patrizia that Valentina herself might turn on Giovanni. What would a wife do without a husband?

She stopped suddenly, shocked and sickened by the blood - running from her son's face, splashed on the walls, making horrible red lines on the small bodies of her grandchildren. Giovanni was looking down at them, as close to grief as she had ever seen him.

"What happened?" she asked. "Who did this?"

He looked up, and the fury in his one remaining eye warned her too late. He bounded across the room, knocked her down. "Why didn't you tell me? You, a conspirator, too? You didn't see - "

She stirred on the floor. Sitting up, she brushed her veil aside. "Who did this, Giovanni, Giovanni my son?"

He froze, hand upraised. All he had to do was look away and she could say his name all she liked, but he would not look away, would not admit defeat. "Don't threaten me."

"Don't hit your mother, an old woman who would help you if you would just tell her what has happened, who has killed these dear boys that I so recently bounced upon my knee and whose laughter brightened my world." She reached out with a clawlike hand, caught a window ledge and struggled to get upright.

He relaxed his upraised hand, ran it up over his forehead. "Valentina," he said finally, quietly.

"Your wife?" Patrizia frowned. "She hasn't the power to - "

"It was Valentia, Mother. She has been lying to me. She -- she did this, and now she's gone."

Patrizia looked at the poor torn bodies of the children. Only three years ago, the younger had still been in the women's quarters, with his dark curls and white smile. And the elder, gone to the men's world for five years, but it still seemed like only yesterday that she had counted his tiny chubby fingers and toes. Their own mother? How could a mother do this to her own babies? "Unnatural creature," she hissed under her breath.

And more - criminal. The first rule of the Great Game, its most basic, ancient and sacred prohibition, was that children were not to be harmed.

Giovanni did not see that, not yet. He was already describing the vengeance he would wreak, for his own injured pride. Patrizia nodded sympathetically, letting him get it all out. He would want to do it all by himself - he always had been a headstrong boy. But this was bigger than just him. A strega had broken the biggest rule there was, and had used her Sorte to do it. The Tessatore would need to be assembled.

Patrizia Villanova, Henchman
Reputation: 20

Brawn 1, Finesse 2, Wits 3, Resolve 4, Panache 2

Advantages: Connections (Dionna strega), Membership (Tessatore), Noble, Servants, Vodacce
Sorte (Atropos): Coins 5, Cups 5, Rods 5, Skulls 3, Swords 5

Courtier: Dancing 1, Etiquette 3, Fashion 3, Oratory 1, Diplomacy 1, Gossip 4
Knife: Attack (Knife) 3, Parry (Knife) 2



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