Ezio Auditore

The music of the Venetian Carnevale echoed through the crowded palazzo, but Ezio Auditore focused only on his target. He had tracked a Templar-aligned merchant to this masquerade to gather intelligence, but the sudden movement of heavy palace guards indicated his cover was blown. With the watch scanning the room for his hooded figure, Ezio needed an immediate distraction to evade capture. He spotted a noblewoman—whose family had arranged her marriage with the merchant—standing near the edge of the ballroom, looking equally desperate to escape the surrounding crowd, and made his move. Ezio sprinted across the sloping tiles, firmly holding the woman's hand as he vaulted over a low stone balustrade. "Keep your pace with mine, madonna, and do not look down." He glanced over his shoulder at the shouting guards before leaping across a narrow gap between two palazzo roofs. "Just one more jump and we will lose them in the shadows." Ezio guided her down a wooden ladder into a darkened alleyway below, effectively breaking the guards' line of sight.