Ezio, I owe you everything. I owe the Auditores my life, you most of all... I think it is twice, now, you have saved my life. [Three times in Ezio's memory, soon to be four in Ezio's future.] I have never... never truly had someone to look after me, like you do, like your mother does. All of this is new to me.
[Leonardo falls silent a moment, his fingers not yet losing their grip upon Ezio's hand. The subject of his twenty-fourth birthday was painful, to say the least, and bringing it up to Ezio like this... he'd never expected to be this open about it with him, or with anyone except Paola.]
You know I am a sodomite, Ezio. So you must understand why, then, I knew Paola and La Rosa Colta so well. [He leans his head back against the wall, remembering, his eyes fluttering closed as he tries to center himself for the terrible memories that are soon to come.] Many of us would visit her to find someone, discreetly, who might satisfy our... predilections. It is through Paola that I met Jacopo Saltarelli. He was Giovanni Saltarelli's brother - long curly hair, always dressed in black, an athletic young man? Perhaps you might remember him, you were of the same age then. He always claimed to be a model for us artisans, but... well. He was not always just a model.
[Leonardo takes a small breath, anticipation making his stomach churn nervously.] There were four of us that night, in early April. Baccino, the tailor... he lived by the Or' San Michele, not far from the Loggia dei Cierchi. Then there was Bartolomeo di Pasquino, the goldsmith, with whom Jacopo was living at the time. And then there was Il Teri, Lionardo Tornabuoni himself - you would know him as the son of Piero de Medici, who is Lorenzo de Medici's cousin. And, of course, there was me... though I had not made a name for myself as Leonardo at the time, and was still simply Lionardo da Vinci. We all agreed to enjoy his company that night, and... well, I had best spare you the details there. We thought we would go our separate ways and that would be that. But then the anonymous accusation was placed in the tamburo. The Signoria were shocked, as they rightly were; to have not only the son of one of their notaries named, but one of the Medici family as well! We were all arrested on the 10th of April, and for a week we were held in the custody of the Signoria.
You must understand, Ezio... this was an important time for me. My father had just paid for a studio of my very own. I adored maestro Verrocchio, and I worked closely with him until his death, but it was time for me to start on my own as a painter, to truly make a name for myself. And here a few simple words on paper ruined it all for me. I spent my twenty-fourth birthday in the company of rats and cockroaches. I was freezing under moth-eaten blankets at night and burning in the heat of the day... and the stench... oh God in heaven, the stench!...
[As he talks, Leonardo has been instinctively curling up into a smaller and smaller ball, so that he's now got his knees tucked up directly to his chest, his free arm tightly hugging his legs. His hand squeezes Ezio's again as he places his head between his knees for a moment, trying to slow his stuttered breathing and force the tears forming in his eyes to disappear.]
I apologize once more for the biography lesson. (1/3)
[Leonardo falls silent a moment, his fingers not yet losing their grip upon Ezio's hand. The subject of his twenty-fourth birthday was painful, to say the least, and bringing it up to Ezio like this... he'd never expected to be this open about it with him, or with anyone except Paola.]
You know I am a sodomite, Ezio. So you must understand why, then, I knew Paola and La Rosa Colta so well. [He leans his head back against the wall, remembering, his eyes fluttering closed as he tries to center himself for the terrible memories that are soon to come.] Many of us would visit her to find someone, discreetly, who might satisfy our... predilections. It is through Paola that I met Jacopo Saltarelli. He was Giovanni Saltarelli's brother - long curly hair, always dressed in black, an athletic young man? Perhaps you might remember him, you were of the same age then. He always claimed to be a model for us artisans, but... well. He was not always just a model.
[Leonardo takes a small breath, anticipation making his stomach churn nervously.] There were four of us that night, in early April. Baccino, the tailor... he lived by the Or' San Michele, not far from the Loggia dei Cierchi. Then there was Bartolomeo di Pasquino, the goldsmith, with whom Jacopo was living at the time. And then there was Il Teri, Lionardo Tornabuoni himself - you would know him as the son of Piero de Medici, who is Lorenzo de Medici's cousin. And, of course, there was me... though I had not made a name for myself as Leonardo at the time, and was still simply Lionardo da Vinci. We all agreed to enjoy his company that night, and... well, I had best spare you the details there. We thought we would go our separate ways and that would be that. But then the anonymous accusation was placed in the tamburo. The Signoria were shocked, as they rightly were; to have not only the son of one of their notaries named, but one of the Medici family as well! We were all arrested on the 10th of April, and for a week we were held in the custody of the Signoria.
You must understand, Ezio... this was an important time for me. My father had just paid for a studio of my very own. I adored maestro Verrocchio, and I worked closely with him until his death, but it was time for me to start on my own as a painter, to truly make a name for myself. And here a few simple words on paper ruined it all for me. I spent my twenty-fourth birthday in the company of rats and cockroaches. I was freezing under moth-eaten blankets at night and burning in the heat of the day... and the stench... oh God in heaven, the stench!...
[As he talks, Leonardo has been instinctively curling up into a smaller and smaller ball, so that he's now got his knees tucked up directly to his chest, his free arm tightly hugging his legs. His hand squeezes Ezio's again as he places his head between his knees for a moment, trying to slow his stuttered breathing and force the tears forming in his eyes to disappear.]