1499 Firenze
A man watched his target carefully from afar. His target was shouting at the people enthusiastically, blissfully unaware of his surrounding. Now would be the time to strike, the man thought as he began to move through the crowd. Once he passed through the bulk of the crowd, he began to break into a run but another man grabbed ahold of him.
“I will not let you do as you as please!”
The man struggled to escape the grip of the man holding him back. He was winning the struggle but that was no consolation to him as his target ran away with the crowd instead of coming to view the odd spectacle he was engaged in.
Elsewhere a man was stabbed.
“Hah, I should be the merchant king. I don't understand why you hold the title when I am the richest man of all Italia. Through my own tact and business sense, I am more successful than you and your networks.”
“You think you will get away with this?! I'll make sure that you pay for this! GUARD! ARREST THIS MAN AND DESTROY HIS SHOP!”
However the guard he yelled at did not respond. He was too busy terrorizing another merchant.
“The guards have really been going overboard lately.”
“Yeah they really have been. I better stop bribing them, before the entire market is destroyed.”
“Hey let's forget this all happened.”
“Yeah, let's do that. It's only a small wound.”
“I'm still richer than you though. Hahaha!”
He laughed heartily as he ran away.
“You bastard! I'll get you for this!”
All was normal in the city of Firenze. But suddenly several parts of the city began flittering in between existence and non existence. People talking to each other could no longer be heard for stretches of time. Buildings, the skyline, and even parts of people were soon replaced by a criss crossing pattern of white. Most people were completely oblivious to the current state of events, but 11 special individuals did notice. And each of the 11 heard the same voice.
“Can you hear me in there?
Your bodies are becoming unstable.
You've been in the Animus for too long.
Your bodies are starting to reject the memories and you're losing synchronization with your ancestors.
You need to expedite the process and finish this training run quickly.
One more day is the absolute limit on how much longer we can allow you stay in there without causing severe side effects to your body.”
The eleven knew that it was time to end this...