CHALLENGE V: Category B: La Cospirazione: Part IV

[mrcp6d]

Part I by @W Navarre

Part II by @KevinyWu

Part III by @ZlatanXVIGustaf

La Cospirazione: Part IV 

Alesio arrived late to the De Fiori castle in Tergiversa. He was weak, weary, and haggard, and as soon as he entered he felt in his heart that something was wrong.  “Capri!” he cried loudly, and the echoes of his shout reverberated off all the walls, down the long halls, and throughout the castle. But there was no answer.

Alesio dashed forward, slamming through all the doors of all the rooms, wildly calling Capri, and Cadgie, and the servants! Not a soul was there!

The servants had all gone out deeply frightened, some of them searching with the royal guard for Capri and others burying Alesio’s brother. It took the wounded man only a few hours to learn all this, and in spite of his wounded side, with gritted teeth and burning eyes he leapt on his horse and rode madly back to Illaryian.

Later that day the doors of the Palazzo of Illaryian burst wide open with a resounding clang.

“Where is Capri!” roared Alesio with all of his might. “Luca di Carlo, son of an olive merchant, I demand your presence!” Alesio flung a heavy gauntlet onto the ground, and the tiled floor cracked. It was Cadgie De Fiori’s gauntlet.  Footsteps then sounded in the corridor, and Luca appeared all out of breath, running up to Alesio and grasping his hand.

“What is it man? Why, you are pale! Accidenti! Alesio, you frighten me!” Luca cried, startled.

“Capri has been kidnapped,” Alesio flung out the words. “My brother is dead!”

Luca gasped and gnashed his teeth. “Impossibile!”

Luca dropped Alesio’s hand and spinning round paced the length of the room.  Alesio sunk back against the wall. “The only clue left was this, sir,” he said, holding out a small slip of paper.  Luca leapt up and grasped it eagerly.

“Signore, Ercilia has given me the word. Capri is to be taken, and the Captain of the Guard sla–” The paper was torn, but Luca grasped at the ray of hope it offered.

“Ercilia De Cioto!” he cried eagerly, marching to the edge of the hall and crying, “Man!”

As a footman approached Luca looked briefly at Alesio, and then he spoke rapidly.

“To the stables! Fit out the horses, order the Royal Guard to arms! We march for the De Cioto palace!”

“The palace of the Amancios, signore?” the footman gasped. “The Amancios,” he warned, trembling, “still are very powerful, although the Rego is dead, and Ercilia is a popular and influential friend of the people.”

“Go, man! Il demone take the Ciotos and their influence,” he cried excitedly, “if they dare go about murdering the Fioris in secret, besides the very throne! Come Alesio! Peste, man, you do not even mention your own wound,” Luca sprang to Alesio’s side to offer his hand.  Alesio pushed himself off the wall and bowed, refusing the hand but saying, “It is a trifle, sir. Do you think there is hope, Luca?” he added with a slight tremor.

Luca di Carlo’s eyes glinted. “They will pay,” he averred. “And we will find Capricia! Even if every Cioto has to be interrogated and each of their mansions ransacked! To horse!”

And without another word they sped out of the room.

 .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. 

Very early the next morning, just after dawn, the doors of Amancio Palace were crashed through with a deafening noise.  Luca leapt off his horse and shouted with a powerful voice, “Smash every piece of furniture, search every wall, and do not let a man escape! Find the girl!”

“Capri De Fiori!” cried Alesio. “Where is she?” He sprinted up the stairs as the soldiers marched through the archways and doors, crushing and searching everything, everywhere, and seizing the weapons from the startled guards.

Meanwhile Arama De Cioto, a thin girl with a long flowing black cape around her neck, snatched a narrow rapier from the wall and leapt down the stairs at the head of a group of retainers.  Alesio met her midway and dashed aside one of her men. “De Cioto!” he snapped, adjusting the sword in his hand. “Do not cross swords with me, girl: tell me, where is Capri, my daughter?!”

“Signore De Fiori!” she cried astonished in response. “I see there is blood on your mail,” she breathed sharply, dashing up with her sword and trapping Alesio against a corner of the balustrade.  She raised her hand and her retainers passed them both quickly. Descending the stairs they threw themselves upon the Royal Guard with fury and loud cries and shouting broke out.

Luca watched nervously, pacing up and down and shouting commands to his men. Then he saw Alesio with Arama De Cioto on the parapet of the staircase and with a start he rushed towards them. As there were soldiers on the ground floor, blocking off the stairs, Luca jumped up and grasped the top of the balustrades. As he pulled himself up he saw Alesio fling the slim girl back and heard him say, “What do you have against us Fiori, you Ciotos? Hand me back my girl and we will leave you in all the peace your mind can achieve!”

The girl shook her head and laughed. “Capri is dead, signore!”

Before Luca could leap down and grab Alesio’s hand he sprang forward and struck Arama a fierce blow at her side. Her thin rapier shattered in two and she shrank back as the sword cut through her leather coat and blood seeped through it, turning it from blue to red.

“How dare you,” breathed Alesio with fury. Luca put his hand on De Fiori’s shoulder.

But just then a shout rang out. “Capri! Capri è vivo!” cried the soldiers of the Royal Guard.

“Out, now out of here!” Luca exclaimed, grasping Alesio’s cape and dragging him towards the lower stairs. Luca let him go, looking back as he sprang down the stairs.

The sound of shouting and approaching men could be heard from the floor above. Alesio waited no longer and muttered, “You will pay dearly, De Ciotos.”

Arama clinched her firsts and watched them leave as her men rushed past her. Then she leapt vivaciously up the stairs holding her side tightly. Just as she reached the window the troops had forced their way out, with Capri De Fiori, and were hurrying to their gondolas and horses.

“Goodbye, Luca,” she murmured with laughing eyes and a quick smile. “Ci vediamo domani!”

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-. 

The palazzo grounds of Illaryian once more:

“It is quite difficult, girl,” Luca said with a sigh. “You can’t imagine it. If only you were Rego.”

“I don’t want to be Rego, capretto.”

“Well what happened. Don’t leave out a single detail.”

“Very well, signore. The assassin failed to kill Alesio.”

“I noticed,” Luca remarked dryly.

“And my guard took Capri as your men dueled the Captain of the Guard. The paper slipped out of my hand. Touché, you know that, signore, it was your suggestion. When Alesio came to the De Fiori castle in Tergiversa he found it empty, and he came here. You managed it all nicely from there. Il fastidio, my side hurts. Well, what would he have said had he known that Luca Di Carlo had hired the assassin who slipped my name to him, and the men who killed Cadgie? And them all?” She laughed merrily. “They are certainly unsuspecting.”

 “Accidenti! It is over at least,” Luca rejoined, flinging a gold coin into a pool in the courtyard.

“Over?” laughed the girl. She blinked her eyes. “I doubt that! It will be over when you find a knife in your back,” she added.

“That is so, Arama di Athena De Cioto,” Luca wryly frowned, with a cheerful look at the girl by his side. “Thank you for pointing it out, De Cioto. That is just so.”

 .-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.

[zoth33]

So much detail on the architecture.  The different roof techniques.  The columns, arches, doorways, and color choices are all great.  The water with the plants in it is a great detail.  The figs all look great too.  Nice story too.  

[Kai NRG]

So cool to see all these Varlyrian builds!  The pillared house here is particularly good.

[mrcp6d]

On 5/31/2020 at 9:03 PM, zoth33 said:

So much detail on the architecture.  The different roof techniques.  The columns, arches, doorways, and color choices are all great.  The water with the plants in it is a great detail.  The figs all look great too.  Nice story too.  

Thanks!  KevinyWu and I both lifted the water plants from Zlatan's build for this and his previous MOCs for Varlyrio; I thought they gave us a common thread among our team's exterior builds.

10 hours ago, Kai NRG said:

So cool to see all these Varlyrian builds!  The pillared house here is particularly good.

Yeah, that one is my favorite too. 

[KevinyWu]

This is one of the best all-lego scenes I've seen, and not just because of the excellent buildings and canal. The picture is shot from the perfect angle, and the minifigure placements and details are spot on! They really immerse you into the scene

[Aurore]

So many intrigues and trahison in this story!

And really a great build. The architecture of the houses looks gorgeous, and I love the details in the posing, such as that poor fisherman falling into water...

[Garmadon]

You may definitely color me impressed by your use of space here, mrcp6d! - same goes for all your team, but you have managed an all-LEGO exterior scene on a 32x32, and that is downright crazy!  The canal and water plants are great here, as in all your team's entries, and the tile corner and roofs are excellent as well!  Very nice work with all the activity in the scene too, and the fisherman toppling into the canal is a great detail!  

Re: the story - hey Navarre!  I had like three builds completely figured out in response to this after Part III, and you had to go mess them all up here!    Very nice job with the entire story though; that is exactly the kind of intrigue the whole concept of Varlyrian politics is meant for, and even if it backfired in part for the De Fiori's, I'm still certainly glad I gave you the opportunity to get it all started!  And I believe you should be hearing from a De Fiori or two before too long...