Sangriesta Nuova

[Seraphina Alighieri]

This is the answer to my prayer. She just stared and blinked away her tears. She caressed his cheek, and stood on her toes moving to kiss him. She stopped watching for a visual sign of consent. He lowered his head to her and she kissed him. Surrendering tom her passions.

She took a small step back as the kiss ended and looked into his eyes.

Her voice shook when she spoke.

"how long are you staying?"

[Gabriel Faile]

He smiled as the kiss ended. It had been to long since they had shared such a wonderous moment. Gabriel grinned as she spoke. Her voice was like heaven ringing through his ears. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked down at the ground before back into her beautiful eyes.
"As long as I'm able."
[desc]With a smile he stepped down and and looked up at her upon the second step. He put on a solomn look and walked past her. He looked up at her and grinned like an old fool. He grabbed her by the waist and spun her around down in front of him before hugging her again.[/ic]
"But let's not let dat ruin our fun mon cheré."

[Svetlana_Popova]

The cab pulls up to the cathedral, Svetlana pays the driver, and steps out of the car. As she lights her cigarette, she sees Seraphina's brief case laying on the ground. She frowns slightly, stoops over and picks it up. She looks around and sees Seraphina standing on the stairs in a passionate embrace with a man. She smiles to herself, takes a drag of her cigarette and walks up the stairs to the pair. She sets the briefcase down next to Seraphina and with a smirk she says.

"Hi Gabriel."

As she walks up the stairs, she says loudly.

"I told you so."

With a laugh, she flips the cigarette onto the ground and walks into the cathedral.

[Seraphina Alighieri]

She grew cold when he let go of her. She loved his smile a rush of joy filled her, but once he turned solemn she began to reach out for him fearing the worst. Hearing his words the old fear began to creep back, the sense of separation, she hoped it was lie. Just as the darkness loomed he smiled broadly and slipped his hands around her waist.

She returned his smile as he spun her around, and pulled her close to him.

"Nothing could spoil this,"

she said as she snuggled in closer to him.

"I have missed you, Caro, so much."

She heard a thud behind her, and turned her head towards the sound. At her feet was her briefcase. She heard Svetlana say Gabriel's name and cringed but not nearly as much as when she screamed i told you so to Seraphina.

She hollered after Svetlana before the door closed.

"You get to deal with the scaffolding, Signorina Popova."

She turned back to Gabriel and looked him in the eyes, she knew she could hide nothing from him. The sadness of knowing he would leave again and being afraid of the fear was right there in her eyes. She sighed and silently commanded her voice to be steady.

"She is assisting me on the restoration of the the Tomba de Medici."

She looked towards Sangriesta Nuova the sacred home of the Medici.

"It is a long story. I am not so sure she isn't A descendant of Rasputin."

[Gabriel Faile]

With a smile he hugged her again and nodded to her statements about Svetlana. He laughed and held her tight.
"I guess I should be letting you go den."
When she gave him a worried look he shoved his right hand deep into his pocket and lifted her chin with two fingers on his left. He looked happily into her eyes.
"Don worry, I'll be seeing you after work. Dress nice. I owe you a pleasant evening."
He placed a gentle kiss upon her lips and smiled.
"I'll see you after work mon amour. An we'll swap stories. Now go."
He said in more than a pleasant tone as he spun her around again to face the stairs with a heartfeld smile.

[Svetlana_Popova]

Svetlana walks into the Cathedral and sees the scaffolding being put together in the wrong place.

"Imbrogliate! State mettendolo nel posto errato! Dovrebbe essere sopra dalle tombe. Non in su qui nella parte anteriore!"

She sighs heavily as they move the scaffolding to the correct place and makes her way over to the students standing by the madonnas.

"Sono il professor Popova. Assistand del professor Alighieri. Il vostro professore sarà in breve. Li suggerisco tutto l'inizio dove avete terminato ieri. Se avete qualunque domande, chiedami prego."

With another sigh she walks over to where the scaffolding is being put in place and supervises its construction.

[Seraphina Alighieri]

She looked over her shoulder at Gabriel after he had spun hr around her head still swimming.

"I will see you at 7 then at my place I assume?"

She shot him the coquettish smile she had mastered when they were together in Venice, before turning and waking up the stairs withe all of the control she could muster to not run back and kiss him again. Knowing he would be there. She was grinning like an idiot.

She stopped at the doors to compose herself, but she couldn't wipe the mile off of her face she hadn't smiled this much since Venice.

She pushed open the doors with all of the authority of the Maestra she was. She cast her about to take stock of things. Svetlana was barking commands in mangled Italian. Seeing things were under control she picked up where she left off on the Madonna.

[Gabriel Faile]

He smiled as she entered her doors. Immediatly he had another cigarette in his mouth. He cupped his hands around the end as he lit it with a cheap dollar store lighter. No reason to buy a new Zippo. He loved the one he had now. He laughed to himself and stuffed it back into his black jeans pocket as he started off towards the inner city. He might as well get lost for a few hours. See the sights.

[Svetlana_Popova]

She stood up slowly from her hunched over position in front of one of the tombs and admired her handy work. With a smile of satisfaction, she glances down at her watch and blinks. With no trace of a Russian accent she swears about it being 2am.

She says to herself with a slight Italian accent and a chuckle.
"Well, goes to show I like doing this to much."

She dusts herself off, and heads back to her hotel, swinging by a Chinese restruant on the way called " The Lame Duck."

[Svetlana_Popova]

Back at the hotel, she changes into a one piece swimming suit and heads down to the pool. She sets a towel and two cell phones and a pager on one of the chairs and dives into the pool. As she swims lap after lap, she contemplates everything that has lead her here. She decided that she was no longer the niave little girl that roamed all of Europe, but a hardened warrior of life.

[Svetlana_Popova]

She is suddenly startled out of her reflections of life by the ring of one of her communicators. She quickly jumps out of the pool, grabbing a towel and wrapping it around her slim waist, she notes which communicator is buzzing and with a flicker of amusement and flips it open.

"Novello."

"Signora Novello, è stato un certo tempo da quando ci siamo sentiti l'ultima volta da voi."

"Franco, li assicuro che sono benissimo e godendo il mio soggiorno a New York."

"Quello sembra essere il mistress di problema. Il vostro padre ha fatto alcuno che controlla e che sa che non foste a New York.

Her face turns ghostly white as her mind races to come up with an excuse. After a brief pause, she laughs.

"Che cosa lo significate non sono a New York? Certamente siete Franco scherzoso."

"Mistress, sapete che non ho senso di umore."

"Dica al mio padre a che stia rimanendo con alcuni amici ed ecco perchè non può trovarmi alcune annotazioni di prenotazione dell'hotel."

"Sì La Mia Signora."

She closes the communicator with a heavy sigh and thinks to herself, Why do parents have to be so nosy? She unwraps the towel, and throws it onto a chair and dives back into the pool, her thoughts turning to her mission at hand.

[Svetlana_Popova]

She slowly climbs out of the pool, reveling in the exhaustion of her muscles from swimming 200 laps. She wraps herself in the towel, grabs her gear and heads to the locker room, and changes into some sweats. She pulls her long black hair into a ponytail and then grabs her quarterstaff and heads into the gym. With the rapid twirling of her staff, she moves from one stance to another, sweat pouring down her face and into her eyes. As exhaustion burns in her arms, she pushes herself harder until she drops the quarterstaff with a lound wooden bang on the floor.

"Bravo. Вы очень хороши с тем штатом."

Her blood runs cold as she hears the familiar voice. She stoops over and picks up her staff, trying to hide the shock and anger at him being here. She immediately puts on her deep russian accent and her eyes steel cold blue.

"Возможно вы хотел были бы чувствовать конец моего штата?'

He frowns slightly.

"Как много по мере того как я хотел был бы показать вам некоторое всепокорное, увы, которое не почему я приходил."

"препятствуйте мне угадать. Вы должны здесь проверить вверх на моем прогрессе."

"Да, то...."

She cuts him off.

"Она с ее любовником по мере того как мы говорим. Я принимаю иметь обед и делать некоторые другие сортированные работы. Теперь если вы извините меня, то, я полить."

Leaving Sasha stammering, she bows slightly to Sasha, turns on her heel and walks into the locker room. She grabs the rest of her stuff, and heads back up to her room to shower.

ooc Translation:
Sasha: "Bravo. You are very good with that staff."
Svetlana: "Perhaps you would like to feel the end of my staff?"
Sasha: "As much as I would like to show you some humility, alas that is not why I am here."
Svetlana: "Let me guess. You are here to check up on my progress."
Sasha: "Yes, that is..."
Svetlana: "She is with her lover as we speak. I assume having dinner and doing some other assorted activities. Now if you will excuse me, I need to shower."

[Svetlana_Popova]

Once to her room, she slams the door shut.

"Идиот!

It's not like she wasn't doing what she was told to. She throws her towel and belongings onto the bed and stomps into the bathroom, letting a long running line of swearing go in nearly every language she knows. She turns on the water to scalding hot, slips out of her clothes and relaxes into the shower, still swearing. She slowly begins to calm down as the hot water splashes across her porcelin skin. By the end of the shower, she is singing Bolero.

She gets out of the shower and looks at the clock. She blinks as she realizes it is 4am. With a sigh, she gets into bed and instantly falls into a dreamless sleep.

[Svetlana_Popova]

The insistant buzz of her alarm clock woke her from her deep sleep. She turns over and looks at the clock and rubs her eyes at the blinking 9:00. With a heavy sigh, she drags herself out of bed, flips on the coffee maker on the bathroom sink, and jumps into the shower.

After the quick shower, she wraps herself in a bath robe, grabs a cup of coffee, and sits down at a table next to her bed. She turns on her laptop and goes to check her email.

What's this? She says quietly to herself.

With avid curiosity, she opens the email from her cousin Dante. With a snort, she reads the email, and then opens the attachment.

With the fall of Einhardt's research facility, it leaves a huge opening for weapons research and manufacturing....

She skims through the proposal, snorting over the audacity of her cousin in wanting to start manufacturing weapons. She then opens another blank document and writes a brief recommendation for the board of the directors.

On reviewing this latest proposal from Dante, I have to ask myself why he is so bent on building weapons, and then it dawned on me. He is trying to use this company to further his own ends in war mongering and developing new armarment for himself to replace the one he destroyed. As such, I recommend that we yet again, deny this proposal as I do not see how it will benefit this company. It would only put our lives in jeopardy.

She reads over the recommendation again, and sends it off to the rest of the board members expecting to here from one of them soon in regards to placing a vote on the issue. She shakes her head slightly, shuts off her laptop and proceeds to get dressed for the day.

[Svetlana_Popova]

With a smile of satisfaction, Svetlana hits the send button on the email rejecting Dante's proposal. Chuckling to herself, she shuts the machine off, gets up and grabs her coat. With a quick glance around the hotel room, she turns and walks out the door. Once downstairs, she waves down a cab, and speeds off to Sangriesta.

[Svetlana_Popova]

The cab pulls up to the catherdral. She pays the driver and walks into Sangriesta. She looks around and sees that the scaffolding has been finished and is in the correct spot. She sees Seraphina's students working on their individual projects. With a smile and a nod to the students, she heads over to the tomb she has been working on. She puts on her gloves, picks up a chisel and a brush and begins the pain staking process of cleaning.

[Seraphina Alighieri]

Svets Cell Phone beeps letting her know that she has a message. It is from Seraphina.

Quickly she checks the message.

"signorina POpova, I do not how much I believe what you told me, but i need you. PLease Book Us both flight to L1 to arrive there in two days time. Contact General SIn with Information. Grazie Seraphina.

[Svetlana_Popova]

Svetlana looks over at her bag leaning against the wall as it beeps at her. She stands up slowly, dusts herself off, and pulls of her gloves. She walks over to her bag, and pulls out her communicator. She reads the message and frowns slightly. She puts the communicator back in her bag, and puts away her tools. She calls the students working in the cathedral over to her.

"Your Maestra and I will be going out of town for one to two weeks. The restoration should continue while this is going on. You can reach Maestra via email if you have any questions, or you can talk to her assistant. Any questions before I leave?"

The students shake their heads no, and Svetlana sends them back to what they are doing. She glances around the cathedrall and then walks out the door.

[Svetlana_Popova]

Arriving back at her hotel, Svetlana starts making plans for a trip to the colonies. She sits at a table in the corner of the room, her laptop open in front of her with a list of things to do.

- Call Seraphina's assistant to setup the flight
- Call General Sin's secretary to setup the time for the meet and security measures.
- Call a mercenary squad as a protective detail for Seraphina
- Call Sasha
- Call Father
- Email the board of directors
- Pack
- Sharpen blades
- Check balance on staff

She sighs as she looks over the list and begins to make her calls.

"Lucia, this is Svetlana. A friend of Seraphina's. Please setup a flight to Lagrange 1 for Seraphina, myself and a security squad. We want to leave in two to three days."

She hangs up on Lucia without saying good-bye and makes the next call on her list.

[Svetlana_Popova]

She looks at the comm unit with trepidation. Calling the colonies could potentially lead to some interesting things. With a heavy sigh, she calls General Sin's office. His secretary picks up the phone.

"Svetlana Popova. I am calling to make the arrangements regarding Ambassador Alighieri's visit."

His secretary makes a noise of surprise and begins to layout the plans of where the Ambassador and her cohorts will be staying.

"Now I do have some concerns about the Ambassador's safety while in the colonies. Since we are from Earth, I am sure there will be some people hostile enough to try and attempt something. I would prefer if we keep this visit under wraps. Any accomodations should be listed under my name. I also have the Ambassador traveling under a different name on her shuttle flight, but all you need to know is my name. If the General has any questions, please have him contact me."

The secretary agrees and makes a few notes to pass onto the General. With a nod, she says farewell to Svetlana and hangs up.