Earth.
'We gave you Eden. But we had between us created war and death and turned Eden into hell. The world burned until naught remained but ash. It should have ended then and there. But we built you in our image. We built you to survive!'
Ezio watched as from the total devastation that seemed to have been wrought upon the Earth by the Sun, a single ash-covered arm thrust skyward from the debris. Great visions of a windswept plain swept across the sky, which was the Roof of the Vault. Across it marched people - broken, ephemeral, but brave.
'And we rebuilt.' Minerva continued. 'It took strength and sacrifice and compassion, but we rebuilt! And as the Earth slowly healed, as life returned to the world, as the green shoots thrust up out of the generous earth once more. We endeavoured to ensure that such a tragedy would never be repeated.'
Ezio looked at the sky again. A horizon. On it, temples and shapes, carvings in stone like writing, libraries full of scrolls, ships, cities, music and dancing - shapes and forms from ancient times and ancient civilizations he didn't know, but recognized as the work of his fellow beings.
'But now we are dying,' Minerva was saying. 'And Time will work against us. Truth will be turned into myth and legend. What we built will be misunderstood. But Ezio, let my words preserve the message and make a record of our loss.'
An image arose of the building of the Vault, and others like it.
Ezio watched, as if in a dream.
'But let my words also bring hope. You must find the other temples. Temples like this. Built by those who knew how to turn away from war. They worked to protect us, to save us from the Fire. If you can find them, if their work can be saved, then so, too, might this world.'
Now Ezio saw the Earth again. The skyline of the Roof of the Vault showed a city like a vast San Gimigmano, a city of the future, a city of towers crushed together which made a twilight of the streets below, a city on an island far away. And then all coalesced once more into a vision of the Sun.
'But you must be quick,' said Minerva. 'For time grows short. Guard against the Templar Cross - for there are many who will stand in your way.'
Ezio looked up. He could see the Sun, burning angrily, as if waiting. And then it seemed to explode, though within the explosion he thought he could discern the Templar Cross.
The vision before him was fading. Minerva and Ezio were left all alone, and the voice of the goddess now seemed to be disappearing down a tunnel of infinite length. 'It is done. My people must now leave this world. All of us. But the Message is delivered. It is up to you now. We can do no more.'
And then there was darkness and silence, and the Vault became a dark underground room again, with nothing in it at all.
Ezio turned back. He re-entered the antechamber and saw Rodrigo lying on a bench, a dribble of green bile oozing from a corner of his mouth.
'I am dying,' said Rodrigo. 'I have taken the poison I kept back for the moment of my defeat, for there is no world for me to live in now. But tell me - tell me before I leave this place of wrath and tears for ever - tell me, in the Vault - what did you see? Whom did you meet?' Ezio looked at him. 'Nothing. Nobody,' he said.
He walked back out, through the Sistine Chapel and into the sunlight, to find his friends waiting there for him. There was a new world to be made.
List of Characters
Giovanni Auditore: father
Maria Auditore: mother
Ezio Auditore: second son of Giovanni
Federico Auditore: eldest son of Giovanni
Petruccio Auditore: youngest son of Giovanni
Claudia Auditore: daughter of Giovanni
Mario Auditore: brother of Giovanni
Annetta: Auditore family housekeeper
Paola: sister of Annetta
Orazio: servant of Mario Auditore
Duccio Dovizi: ex-boyfriend of Claudia
Giulio: secretary to Giovanni Auditore
Dottore Ceresa: family doctor
Gambalto: sergeant in command of Mario Auditore's guards
Cristina Calfucci: girlfriend of the young Ezio
Antonio Calfucci: father of Cristina
Manfredo d'Arzenta: son of wealthy family, later married to Cristina
Gianetta: friend of Cristina
Sandeo: Cristina's father's clerk
Jacopo de' Pazzi: member of Pazzi family, fifteenth-century Florentine bankers
Francesco de' Pazzi: nephew of Jacopo
Vieri de' Pazzi: son of Francesco
Stefano da Bagnone: priest, secretary to Jacopo
Father Giocondo: priest in San Gimignano
Terzago, Tebaldo, Capitano Roberto, Zohane and Bernardo: soldiers and guards in the service of the Pazzi family
Galeazzo Maria Sforza (Galeazzo): Duke of Milan, 1444-76
Caterina Sforza: daughter of Galeazzo, 1463-1509
Girolamo Riario, Duke of Forli: Caterina's husband, 1443-88
Bianca Riario: daughter of Caterina, 1478-1522
Ottaviano Riario: son of Caterina, 1479-1523
Cesare Riario: son of Caterina, 1480-1540
Giovanni Riario: son of Caterina, 1484-96
Galeazzo Riario: son of Caterina, 1485-1557
Nezetta: wet-nurse to Caterina's baby
Lodovico Sforza: Duke of Milan, brother of Galeazzo, 1452-1508
Ascanio Sforza: cardinal, brother of Galeazzo and Lodovico, 1455-1505
Lorenzo de' Medici, 'Lorenzo the Magnificent': Italian statesman, 1449-92
Clarice Orsini: wife of Lorenzo de' Medici, 1 453-87
Lucrezia de' Medici: daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, 1470-1553
Piero de' Medici: son of Lorenzo de' Medici, 1 471-1503
Maddalena de' Medici: daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici, 1473-1528
Giuliano de' Medici: brother of Lorenzo, 1 453-78
Fioretta Gorini: mistress of Giuliano de' Medici
Boetio: servant of Lorenzo de' Medici
Giovanni Lampugnani: conspirator in murder of Galeazzo, d. 1476
Carlo Visconti: conspirator in murder of Galeazzo, d. 1477
Gerolamo Olgiati: conspirator in murder of Galeazzo, 1453-77
Bernardo Baroncelli: conspirator in murder of Giuliano de' Medici
Uberto Alberti: Gonfaloniere of Florence (chief official of the Council of Magistrates)
Rodrigo Borgia: Spaniard, cardinal, later Pope Alexander VI, 1451-1503
