#virtuouslongings && 001

[cognoscente]

@virtuouslongings // plotted starter

       DEATH THAT HATH SUCKED THE HONEY OF HIS BREATH, hath had no power yet upon his beauty. Golden curls framed pale cheeks yet his lips remained crimson. Death had not conquered them yet, had not conquered HIM yet. As if he was in deep slumber he rested upon the cushions, still faces imprinted in colored frescos everlasting were their only witnesses, their eyes watching the two siblings... for mortality would separate them soon enough till one brother would join the other. He could not let Giuliano alone in the chapel, he could not bear the thought. His mother was finally resting after relentlessly indulging to her laments and it was his DUTY to guard him. IN DEATH since he failed to do so in life. Long fingers were tightly wrapped around the dagger, the dried blood upon it serving as a reminder of all that happened. And however much he tried, Lorenzo could NOT LET GO. How could he? Giuliano gave it to him to defend himself, to defend them BOTH.   “  I failed you, brother.  ”   He spoke as if the dead could listen, ignorant of the fact that one still among the living was watching him. 

            HANDS WERE TREMBLING yet his mind was calm. He could not afford to be broken, not when the stakes were so high, not when he had waged war with the POPE himself.    “  I lost my soul today. I will not meet you in heaven. But I will make sure your killers are in HELL with me.  ”   Even his voice had turned cold, the passion of youth long forgotten. It seemed a lifetime ago, yet it had only been a day. At the sound of slippers echoing on the stone floor, his dagger was automatically raised, putting himself over the remains of his brother. ALAS! It was not the ghost of Francesco Pazzi that came to haunt him but only his wife, small and fragile in the candlelight.

“ You ought to be asleep, Clarice. This is no place for you. ”