I left the two children behind with Charon though not before naming them. Alba and Tramonto Di Santis. Dawn and sunset. Though my parents would most certainly be repulsed by the two creatures sharing our family name, but I felt connected to them. I killed their mother and needed to care for them.
Leonide drove me home, but I fell into oblivion long before we reached our destination as night had arrived and I was exhausted. I didn’t awake until the day after when the sun finally returned my vigor. Alessandro and Carlo were already waiting for me. Alessandro was worried and enraged while Carlo was serene.
Carlo did reprimand me though as I went against the order to just do reconnaissance while still showing pride over my success. He wasn’t as elated to hear about the two Daemon children I seem to have adopted while Alessandro was quite keen to meet them.
The days after we visited the children and gifted the Daemon clan with food and clothes. I was elevated in Torino as a devoted young woman because of my constant visit to the church and my many gifts to charity. Before I knew it, I had become quite the saint among the locals. The only surviving member of a wealthy family who devoted herself to feeding the poor. I soon took notice that my fellow countrymen loved such heroic tales.
I got the gratitude of the Sovereign for a successful mission and my name was never far from any conversation even among the Ascendants who had started to acknowledge our clan. A favorable thing for our clan but it also brought perils as a clan in the center of attention also draw the attention of less favorable things. Alessandro spends quite a lot of time bonding with larger clans for their favor as a result and I sought other acquaintances to keep me company.
I became a close friend with Angela who I quite happily paid to care for the Daemon Clan. We often met up at La Sibila with Vittoria and we had become quite the renowned trio in Torino. We became close enough that when spring came closer, Vittoria called upon me for aid.
In late February I went to a villa just outside of Turin on the hills of Cimena. I was quite surprised as the villa was quite known to have belonged to Paolo Camillo Thaon, Marquess of Revel. At least before his demise in 1948. I guess his daughters did not want the house as they had sold it to Vittoria who wanted a place to rest.
She normally lives in Villa Foscari, a mansion design in name by her father Andrea Palladio near Venice, but it was actually designed by Vittoria. In the older days, women were not allowed to take credit for their own effort and she had to use her father’s name.
Though this villa did not pale in comparison to Villa Foscari. Vittoria told me that the villa was originally from mid-1600 and renovated by the late Paolo Camillo Thaon who commissioned the royal architect Carlo Sada to transform it into a Neoclassical villa.
The grand villa’s façade is decorated with a double colonnade, in Ionic style on the lower floor and Corinthian style on the upper one. The porticoes have high triangular pediment which is adorned with statues above them. I marveled at the architecture while Vittoria showed disdain for neoclassicism and gave quite a lengthy speech of how it is inferior to the Palladian style which she herself uses.
It took us a while before we finally arrived at the lounge. The room was in bright pastel color as the walls were painted into paintings and had plenty of furniture to adorn the room. Vittoria was served tea while she had let a servant fetch a wine bottle with anything but wine in it. I filled a glass with the sanguine liquid before I turned to my friend.
“Now, my friend. What might you request of me?” I asked curiously as I noticed that Vittoria was uncharacteristically restless.
“Pardon my candor, but I’m quite distraught!” Vittoria exclaimed.
“My lover Domenico Bergera has gone missing!”
“Wait, you have a lover? That’s… Domenico Bergera? The Catholic priest?” I dubiously asked. Though I might be hailed as I saint, I had not much knowledge about the priesthood but I was fairly sure they weren’t allowed to be intimate.
“My dear, a lady must have some secrets and you must understand that Domenico’s position made it arduous to have a relationship in public,” Vittoria chuckled as she sipped her tea.
“True, but with a human priest?”
“Human? My dear, he was a Monarch!” Vittoria snorted and I understood the difficulty as Monarchs do not allow relationships between themselves and different clans. Those who do will have to face hardship from their own kin. Other clans were not as strict about interracial relationship as the Monarchs but I could understand the need for secrecy for Vittoria and her lover.
“Can’t the Monarchs send aid? Even if you don’t tell them about your relationship they should still care for one of their own,” I mused but Vittoria merely shook her head with a sigh.
“The issue with being a member of a large clan is that there are difficulties to keep track of everybody. Domenico came here from Venice with me to try his luck in Torino but as such he has no kin here and the Sovereign or the Herald has no clue of his disappearance,” Vittoria replied.
“Then can’t you do it?” I asked carefully as I didn’t want to accidentally insult her.
“I would, but we have kept our distance as some of the Monarchs had taken notice of our close relationship. If I suddenly muster a search party for him then-“
“But I’m a close friend of you.”
“True, but I am willing to gamble. I hope that you as a member of a different clan would be able to feint ignorance if the Monarchs ask if it’s because of our relationship,” Vittoria mused as she took another sip on the tea.
I could merely sigh as I saw no reason to investigate. With some fortune, he might just have found his time spent in another’s bed. Though God helps him if he has as hell has no fury as a woman scorned.
“Have you at least some clues of his whereabouts?” I asked.
“Sì, the last thing he told me was that he had to investigate Manicomio di Pietra,” she told me as I felt a shiver rush through me at the name.
A mental asylum which was abandoned in 1855 to be replaced by Manicomio di Collegno. I remember the local boys making it a test of courage to enter the haunted place. Some are said to never return though I do think that it was an exaggeration as I can’t remember a single boy vanishing in the ruins.
“What business could he possibly have in the old mental asylum?” I asked, horrified by the prospect of entering those ruins.
“I’m not certain, though we were lovers he rarely told me the affairs of the Monarchs, I did hear him mention one time that he often meets his allies in the old ruins to discuss matters which cannot be heard by curious ears,” Vittoria replied with ease like she talked about yesterdays dinner.
“For what it’s worth, Angela is already in the ruins.”
“Pardon?! You already send Angela there? Alone?!” I exclaimed in horror.
“Certainly not! I recently came into the knowledge that she has decided to investigate the ruins in order to get old medical equipment or drugs. Whatever nonsense Mages desire,” Vittoria snorted dismissingly. I groaned at the ignorance of my companions. One seems to care not for her surroundings while the other throws herself at danger.
“I will go to Manicomio di Pietra to make sure that Angela is safe and while I’m there I will investigate to see if I can find any clues to the whereabouts of your lover though you shouldn’t get your hopes up. I fear that no traces most likely will be found,” I muttered and I took my farewell to have my driver take me to the old asylum.
Fortunately, it was still day so I did not have to worry about my strength as it was at its peak, but that did not hinder me from shiver before the old asylum. I could wind blowing through the cracks of the old building and the columns were overgrown by vines clinging to the walls like paint to a façade.
I saw no automobile so I could only assume that Angela had taken a tram here. Unlike Vittoria and myself, Angela was not wealthy and her kin did not give her anything more than food and a home. She needed to earn her own money and I know that she is an apprentice Alchemist among the Mage Clan. She most likely came here to find material for her potions and experiments.
The door which normally was barred had been opened and I could only assume that it was done by my friend. The children had often crawled through the cracks or the broken windows to their own peril but a grown man or woman was too large to do so. The only way would be through the door.
I walked past the broken fountain which once had made this place look welcoming only to hide the horrors which occurred inside the building. Horrors which had revealed themselves after the bombardments when the building was investigated as a possible substitute for a hospital. The torture devices which had been used by the so-called doctors were still there and witness of the horror inflicted on the innocent patient. It had been considered a crime against humanity and rightfully so.
So many years later and this place still is considered a small glimpse into the inferno on earth. Hell brought to life by human cruelty.
I took a deep breathe and entered the dark building. Darkness filled the room with only a few strings of light pushing themselves through the cracks in the walls and the roof. Dust and rubble covered the once white marble floor and the ones white walls were now gray with dirt. Rusty wheelchairs stood in the corners belts around the arms to restrain the patients.
I stood in the entrance, not sure if I wanted to go further, and raised my voice. “Angela? Are you present?”
No answer came my way and with a reluctant sigh, I entered, slowly making my way into the atmospheric Manicomio di Pietra. I looked at a plan of the layout to determine were to search for her and decided to visit the operational room as that’s were most of the tools and drugs should be, at least that is what I assumed as I was no doctor.
The operational room was deep inside the building, I had to walk past cells, I could hardly call them chambers, which most seemed locked though I did not try every single one. As I came closer to my goal, my senses went into a riot. If I would have been a human then I most likely would not have noticed but I was not and I scented the iron like the scent of blood. It covered the walls and floor in the room before me. The scent of blood did not bother me but the scent of rotting flesh did.
With a shakily breathe I opened the doors to the room only to be met by darkness. I raised my pendant to get some light and forced down a scream as two dark pits stared back at me.
A rotting corpse twisted into a mask of horror was strapped onto the table. I could see worms crawling all over the corpse.
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