14th May 1563

Annibale stared at the book. He had come right back to Gemma after he finished reading. She promised he could come back with questions should he have them. He had read it, the essays that he wrote, espousing all the ideals that became their reality today.

Gemma, with her brown hair and sparkling blue eyes, stared right at him, her lips always curved into a sly smile. “What would you like, Signore?”

“Can I know a little about who brought this to you?” Annibale asked.

Gemma stared at him. “A woman, she also had an interesting little request. She would like to meet anyone who would ask that question.”

He raised his eyebrow. “Why?”

“Saying something about it being rather typical for someone to ask just where I got the book from.” She gave a slight smile, sliding something to him.. “So, here’s where she would be, when you meet her, tell you’re asking about a book of hers.”

This was intriguing, to find a certain understanding just what this was at long last. Even if the circumstances were less than ideal. But it was his only lead as it seemed, he could leave it alone, or he could take a leap. Annibale always picked the riskier choices, for he knew they still had a chance.

“Thank you,” he said, taking the address.

Baldassare stayed, hearing the entire conversation, his eyes bewildered.

“Are you seriously considering actually going?” Baldassare whispered into his ear. He wasn’t too sure that this was the way to go.

“Yes, is there something wrong,” Annibale said.

Baldassare gave him a look, disbelief covering his entire face.

“Well, I dealt with the woman directly. So far, she’s rather nice, rather generous in fact,” Gemma said as a reassurance, with a bright smile, focused on Baldassare.. “I’ll go if I were you. So far, I haven’t had a reason to say no to her.”

Baldassare folded his arms, unconvinced that this is the best idea.

Annibale was a lot more optimistic about the result of such an investigation.

“Thank you.” Annibale moved, his mind still made up that he had to go, he needed to go.

They walked until they were on the outside of the bookstore, near Baldassare’s workplace, a distance from Annibale’s office.

Annibale smirked. “Come on, I thought you said that you’ll like an adventure.”

“I do, but this doesn’t seem like the best way to approach something like this. At least in my mind.”

Baldassare remained skeptical.

Annibale, however, was confident that this was what he needed.

“It may be a bad idea, or it may give us the clue that we need to crack this.”

Baldassare still looked at him with a raised eyebrow, not buying a single thing. “Fine, it may not be a bad idea, but it could be worse. I do hope that it’s within the city.”

“If it wasn’t, I would not have accepted it.”

“You like to gallivant around the entire country, I still remembered the time when you said that the trip to a nearby town was short.”

“It was short, compared to going to either Lonoa or Marallo, which is a day, that is just an hour, so tiny in comparison,” Annibale said. “Besides, Gemma has met with her. Her tongue is glib, but I do not think that she lies.”

Annibale could tell that she sold out of need, a desperation that came only from being in charge, an immense weight on her shoulders. He could respect her for her methods to do what she could for it.

“You’re right, but how do you know she is so?”

“She convinced me to buy it, that is something as I didn’t even know I needed it, not that I regret it.”

“I suppose,” Baldassare said. “Fine, this may not be a bad idea.”

He gave a smile, before remembering where it was. In the older part of the town, hence, there would be quite a distance even if they were to take the tram.

“So, how are we going to get there/”

“By carriage,” he said, stretching out his hand to catch one. He didn’t use Salvatore, not always, since he could find his way back.

A carriage stopped, seeing their chance to get some business. Annibale moved to get on.

The coachman asked. “Where would you like to go, Signore?”

“This location, please. If it’s a little too far, it’s fine.”

“No, it’s okay, if you’re willing to pay.”

Baldassare looked at him, since he didn’t earn that much, blowing most of his earnings on rare books, antiques or tomes.

“Don’t worry, I’ll foot the bill,” he said.

Annibale was a little more than optimistic, the city was safe even as there were regions that were less than safe. But for him, he never worried much about any of them.

“If you say so,” Baldassare said. “Although, if I knew you were so hung up on this, I would have tried to find out more about your family. Even if I didn’t think you were anyone important till you became a Marquis.”

Annibale gave a shrug. “No one cares if you hold a title these days, since so many of them like mine, hold nothing other than a pretty title; they care more whether you can even do anything.”

“It has to mean something. And this is the first time that you ever bothered to look into your family.”

“It’s just curiosity, I know rather little about my family,” he said, not letting more, focusing on the street.

Baldassare was a little unconvinced, even as they were getting closer into the city.

Rovirna was an ancient city, here for millenniums, passing through most recorded events, even once the capital of a majestic empire.

The coachman easily slid into the cit.

Baldassare, whose family stayed here long before the unification came, having made it their home, he stayed closer to the older sections.

Far from a bustling city then, but a fallen city, a small tiny population. They were heading into that older section.

They got out, getting down, allowing Annibale to take in sight everything. He moved once he knew the street numbers until he reached onto the address. Baldassare followed him as Annibale knew how to walk better.

He looked up, seeing the location was a cafe.

“I should have known,” Annibale said, staring at the location. He should have expected this.

“A cafe?” Baldassare asked.

“It makes sense, when you’re tired, besides, people are here,” he said.

“That makes it seem less suspicious.” Baldassare could agree.

They both stepped inside. He was going to find Signora Baldoleto. It also meant that she was alone, perhaps one of the many people here. Baldassare still hesitant, but more put at ease.

“So, do you have any idea what you’re looking for?”

“Someone who is alone, a woman, I would say that maybe in her twenties, to even her forties,” he said. He cast his net wide.

“You sure about that wide a net?”

“Signora Baldoleto is too general. It could be a woman who never married but used it out of respect.”

Baldassare agreed, and they looked around. It was difficult to tell. Annibale had little luck. Most of them here didn’t fit his search.

Baldassare tapped his shoulder. “I think it’s her.”

His finger pointed to a woman alone, drinking from her cup. Her dark hair, with her blue eyes staring right at him, dressed in a gown of light blue, her hair tucked under a simple hat with a single feather as decoration.

He could agree, that seemed likely. Both of them moved, Annibale at first, not afraid of this ending badly. While Baldassare lurked behind.

The woman looked at them. “Are you looking for someone?”

“Yes,” he said. “I’m looking for a Signora Baldoleto.”

She gave a smile, not scrunching up, that was good. “You’re in luck for I am her. Where did your book come from/”

“Gemma,” Annibale said, sitting down.

“So, who are you?”

“Annibale de Moreni, I go by Annibale, or Signore de Moreni if you insist.”

“And I’m just Baldassare Cacamisse, his friend,” he said.

“I distinctly remember a Don Annibale, or rather a Marchese de Stressa.”

“But I’m not keen on such courtesies,” he replied. His mother wasn’t either, even if he wondered many times just why she accepted it.

“Preferable to be a citizen than a noble, that would make you rather similar to your grandfather,” she told her.

Annibale nodded. “Indeed, can’t say that I know him. My late mother never spoke of him, though she kept a portrait of him in the home, a gift from my granduncle.”

“Though what made you buy the book?” She asked.

“Did you expect anyone else to?”

“Quite a few people know about your grandfather, though he is nothing more than a footnote in the records. A major reformer, turned martyr for the ideals of liberty and freedom, one that many scholars admire to a degree.”

“It’s strange, given my granduncle never speaks of him, who is also his brother,” he said.

“Probably because you never asked, but anyway, have you read the book yet?”

“I did, and that made me more curious than before. How did you get the book?”

“It was a compilation of all his essays that he wrote, one that my uncle did, mostly with your grandfather. A chance to pass it down, more lasting than the papers that carried pamphlets..”

“His own memoirs, that’s what he said it was when he sent it to my uncle for safekeeping, besides his entire collection that he put in his trust.”

A cup of coffee came right before Annibale.

“We should split the bill.”

Clelia swept him off, “It’s no matter, I mean it’s difficult enough trying to find a buyer for these books. Most of them are personal collections, and I hope they go back to a descendant or a child if the owner could not be found. Unfortunately, the case for most of the books, few ever makes it back to the original hands.”

Annibale nodded, she took a sip of the coffee. “So, why did you do this?”

“An interest, perhaps, just to know where they were. Finishing what my uncle asked me to do, to get the books back into the world, when they were kept away so that they are not in the pyres,” she said. “They burned all of them, and I think I could say the same for your grandfather’s books when he fell.”

Baldassare remained at the side, curious as to one more. “Why now?”

“I didn’t inherit it until two years ago, and well, you only found this book later,” she answered him.

“So, you have been doing something like this for quite a while?” Baldassare asked.

“Well, tell me your family name, and I’ll see whether I can remember anything about your family.” She gave a smile and a hint.

“Cacamisse.” Baldassare asked.

“I don’t think there is much, but I think there was one who had a collection there,” she said. “But his grandfather was a lot more prolific.”

“Typical, since he is noble, while my father would have almost no change in opinion whether it was the Kingdom of Itoro, or under the revived Rovian empire, or we’re now speaking Terranian because we’re under Pannonia.”

“That is perhaps why,” she said. “But it’s a good thing to be so normal, you’re less likely to stumble onto tragedies that way.”

“I guess you’re right,” he said, remembering that he had both his parents, while Annibale had buried all of them, and his father was a mystery to him, save for his granduncle.

“Well, I was this tempted to pass it to someone else, most notably, writing to Signore de Moreni about this, or finding his son, who is going to more receptive.”

Baldassare raised his eyebrow.

“He’s talking about my granduncle or my cousins. All of them would have some interest in this book.”

“I didn’t get any reliable information about you, maybe other than that you ran a furniture company.”

“And I’ll make an unlikely candidate,” he said. “But I have an interest in such matters. It’s a hobby of mine.”

“I can see it, given that you shelled the price. But I wonder, what would you think about his words?”

“It’s written for the common person, a rallying cry, perhaps for their own revolution.”

Annibale could read the slightly old style, with words that sometimes fell out of use in Itoro in contrast to other places.

“And mostly, if you have further questions, we can meet again,” she said, suggesting that time was in short, and she had to go.

Annibale gave a nod, agreeing that it would be best, except he needed a method to contact her. “How should I find you?”

“Here’s my name card and my address, it’ll be fairly obvious for me to say that it’ll be easy for you to find me, if there is a need to. How about next week?”

He nodded, thanking her for the card that he could use later. “Next week, on the 22nd.”

“That would work with me, and Signore Cacamisse is more than welcome.” She stood up, leaving them.

Annibale left once he was done. Baldassare followed, his mind mostly curious.

“That was strange,” Baldassare said.

“It is, but I can without a doubt figure out a little more about my grandfather that my mother never told me much about. But I didn’t bother to ask,” he said.

“Why the sudden interest?” He asked.

“Well, maybe they could give me a feeling of my sense of direction next,” he said. “My mother sometimes mentioned that I reminded her of her father. At least a few times, I never thought too much of it. My father was far more silent on the matter.”

“That’s interesting, although he was a scholar, and I don’t see you as one.” Baldassare pointed out a wonderful truth.

“Not more in the feeling that I have his temperament.”

Baldassare nodded. “That explains more.”

Annibale adjusted his cravat. “Maybe I could be able to find a path more amenable to me, the path my mother set out for me, isn’t a complete disaster, but I realise I lack her discretion.”

“She was a successful investor, right? Didn’t she tell you anything of use?”

“Well, she did, but investing is a skill that requires boundless patience and experience. Not to mention, the ability to take losses. You’re going to fail more than you succeed, although she had an eye and a magical touch for picking the right ones.”

He could never understand how his mother made her fortune, although she gave him one piece of advice, one that he took to heart, that was using a network to get any money.

“Did you hit some sort of realisation?”

“I did. Well, I may not be following her in the right sense. I shouldn’t be advertising myself, instead I should seek them out. Those who come to me are often desperate, and those are actually do who are sustainable, they heard about me through my reputation as a businessman.”

“So, I guess this is a stop to any of your ambitions?” Baldassare asked.

“Not entirely, just a change in the way I’m doing things,” he said. “But first, I need some time to myself mostly to read this.”

“You’re probably right,” he said. “But to be honest, I feel a sense of curiosity about the revolution, and please tell me if you find anything interesting about your background.”

They had reached his office. Baldassare could leave and return on his own.

Annibale went up straight back to plan his next move now that he had come to his own realisation, faced with doubtless questions about Signora Baldoleto.