Valeria

Rome at night was utterly beautiful.

Valeria never admitted it to herself after Giulia was gone, but she still loved art. What had started as a mere trick for Guglielmo, had revealed itself true.

"That's when I fell in love with you, my darling Giulia. When you look at the art, your eyes shine so bright and make me believe everything is possible" he had said.

It troubled her that he had loved her for something that was not part of an act. It woke in her feelings she never searched the nature of.

Because if Andre was right, and their feelings had been awoken by love... no, she could not afford distractions. Guglielmo was dead, it didn't matter anymore.

But she still avoided Italy as much as she could.

The streets of a Rome were soaked in ancient history. New buildings were mixed with old roman columns, temples and altars. People walked around them as if they were part of the landscape.

And the statues, oh ... the statues. The busts were so perfect she could almost feel the smoothness of the marble underneath her fingers.

Walking arm in arm with Isaac in between pillars of history, she felt at peace. She might not belong anywhere, but history was a good place to be.

Isaac did not seem as captured by art as she was, worrying about the sanpietrini and how to correctly step on them without tripping.

The rest of the girls on the street seemed to find that extremely attractive for some reason.

Valeria rolled her eyes. She might not have been Andre, but she was still jealous of her friends.

-Let's go - she said pulling him away from his adoring fans.

The christening was held in an open park. The original church had been destroyed by the rebels because it contained references to the Fascist reign of Mussolini. There were around fifty people between the baker's family and friends, all dressed in fancy clothes and big smiles.

Any distraction from the destruction of the war was welcome in the city.

Valeria recognised the brother of the murdered victim and his wife, both wearing black in mourning. The man was in his fifties, a tick mustache covering half of his puffy face. The woman was pretty, wearing a black dress beautiful enough to make Valeria look like a broom with a sack on. For a second, she wished she was Giulia again, wearing one of those pompous gowns that made her feel like a princess.

She bit her lip and greeted the baker with a smile.

-Lovely to see you Alfredo! - she said in perfect Italian. - And congratulations to your daughter! I will be so excited to see her in Church next Sunday! -

Isaac shock his hand vigorously. -It is very nice to meet you Alfredo, my wife has spoken very highly of you. - his voice was so calm and smooth that put the baker instantly at ease.

That was one good reason to have Isaac about.

They moved through the crowd, meeting people, greeting acquaintances. Someone asked her where her dress was from and another if she was planning to stay married to her husband much longer. She had smiled at the handsome men who had made the suggestion and imagined what it would feel like to lose herself in his arms for a while. His smile was genuine, but his eyes kept moving from girl to girl, as if looking for the next target. In a flash, she saw Guglielmo's face and felt betrayed by her own heart. She had to leave all that behind. She declined the boy's offer for the time being.

Maybe later, if she managed to lose Isaac somewhere.

The mourning brother was sitting at a table alone, playing with his food without eating it. Valeria sat next to him and put a gloved hand over his.

-My deepest condolences- she said. - I didn't know your brother personally, but I am sure he was a great man -

The man laughed sadly. -Oh thank you very much my dear, but he was no sweet signore. - he said. -He was a genius you know, made all these machines. I wish I understood half of the stuff he told me. - he picked a piece of paper from his jacket and showed her a sketch. -The day before he was killed, he gave me this. Saying someone should have had a copy in case anything happened to him. I am going to try an build it, for him, but I have no idea what it could ever be. -

Valeria looked at the drawing. It took all of her to avoid gasping and destroying that tissue with her teeth.

She was no engineer, but she knew enough about science and mechanics. Living forever allowed her to learn about the newest technologies as they were being invented. When she had seen the first papers being published on the tech behind the atomic bomb, she had shivered. But what she was looking at right now was so much worse.

If her calculations were right, and they usually were, the amount of joules released by a mechanism of that magnitude would have been five times the ones of an atomic bomb.

There was no war, but a weapon that powerful would have been enough of a treat for a nation to hold the redins of the world forever.

-You must not build this - she warned him before she could stop herself. - No mortal should have this much power. -

A shiver went down her spine. Somebody was watching her.

She turned and she saw the beautifully dressed woman staring at her. There was no curiosity, no fear, no pain in her thoughts. The widow felt nothing.

The woman turned away from her and started to walk away.

She should have found Isaac, but he was lost in the crowd and it would have taken too long to find him. She jumped to her feet and followed the black dress. 

....

Author note: Thank you for reading my novel! I am so glad you finally got to properly meet Isaac. I know that just like a mother with her children, an author should have no favourites, but Isaac is definitely my second fav character of the whole novel. That is why at the end of Immortal Tales, a small set of short stories on his life will also be published. "Immortal Tales, the boy with magic". Enjoy!