Assassin's Creed: The Pieces

"Maia...?" Banzo asked, looking inside the closet.

The hidden room was empty.
Quickly, the courtesan shooed the three assassin's into the doorway and before anyone could question them, the door silently shut.

Outside, the templars were finally storming up the stairs, barging into the room. As the man with the black sword strolled into the room where the assassin's lay, he quickly scanned the room.
There were four courtesans in the room, all giggling as they held their fans in front of their faces to hide blushes.
"Search." The templar ordered. Two templars barged into the room, searching every corner of the room turning beds over, pushing dressers aside, and finding nothing.
This is so humiliating. Fan thought, looking at the templars over the fan she was holding. She had slipped one of their dresses over her clothes, so she hoped none of the templars noticed the odd shapes or the bits of cloth poking out of the dress.

About half an hour passed before the templars finally gave up, leaving the brothel without so much as an apology.
Before they left, the leader could be heard muttering, "That little liar..."

The hidden door opened again, this time revealing the lady who had greeted them at the door. "Are you alright?" she asked.

"Just fine", Fred replied. "Well as fine as you can be after being stuck in that room with two other men... in a cramped dark room." Fred laughed.

Banzo got up, looking at Fred. "I suppose."

The woman laughed lightly. "Sorry for the poor accommodation. Those Templars just love to tear apart the city looking for traitors, infidels," she paused for a moment, "Assassins. But that's talk for another time, my name is Paola, leader of the Courtesan Guild of Florence. I assume you are Ezio's assassin's?"

Fan tore the dress off, smoothing out her thief attire beneath. "No one ever hears about this, got it?" She hissed at the others.

"You could say that, madam Paola. We're looking for one of our own." Banzo said.

Paola nodded. "A wounded assassin barged in a while ago and collapsed. She mentioned something about Ezio, so we treated her as best we could. She's in the next room, if you want to see her. I don't know if she'll be awake yet though."

Fred sighed, "Well at least she is alive..." he said in a sort of disappointed tone. "Wonder what happened to her." He said while turning to Banzo making sure he didn't hurt anything when Fred fell on him in the closet.

Emerging from the closet, Niccolo sighed. "That was close, eh brothers?" He said chuckling. When he remembered Maia's situation, his face quickly became somber again. "Is she alright?" He asked hopefully.

"Why don't you ask me yourself?"
Maia slowly walked into the room, limping slightly and holding her side. Other than her parrying dagger at her side, she appeared unarmed. As she entered, she grunted loudly, tightening her grip on her side.
"You should be in bed! You're not completely..." Paola began.
Maia waved her off as she slowly moved into the room. "So, where's tall, dark, and handsome?" She said jokingly, referring to Devin.

"Well........" Niccolo began, not sure how to break the news about Devin to Maia. "He was injured," he paused, reading Maia's reaction, "When we were distracting the Templars." He cast his eyes down in a forlorn mood.

"Maia, he was wounded, badly. But we were able to get him back to a thief hideout where they are helping him as we speak. It barley seems like you're able to walk right now, you should rest here until you are recovered." Banzo said.

"I'm fine." Maia insisted. She hadn't even batted an eye at the information that Devin was badly injured. "Did you get the documents translated?" she asked.

"Well if Banzo didn't, we can throw him back into the library till he does." Fred said jokingly. "Since everyone is alive, someone should go back and check on Devin..." he commented.

She scowled at Fred. "Let me see them." Maia said to Banzo.

Banzo handed the scroll which was neatly tied with a velvet piece of string to Maia. "Take a quick look, I haven't seen it yet."

Maia untied the string and tossed it aside carelessly, carefully opening the document. Her eyes rapidly scanned the document.
Finally, she looked up. "Who here has heard of the 'Pieces of Eden'?" She asked.

"Aren't those the magical thingys that Ezio used to talk about?" Fred stated.

Rolling his eyes at his brother Niccolo said, "Yes they are those 'magical thingys' that Ezio informed us all of." Chuckling a bit he continued, "They are the sources of the Templars plan to 'unite the world in peace'" Pausing for a moment, he asked Maia, "But what does this document have to do with the Pieces of Eden?"

"Maia, what does it say of the pieces?" Banzo asked.