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A Matter of Blood & Legacy | Career

25 July, 2025
Vero Villa, Near Taormina Sicily
Image posted by the member
Terrible Presence in Effect
| Aura of Unease Present |
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There is something that is just... not right about him. A chill in the air, a sense felt deep in the bones. The shadows might seem more lively, the night might play more tricks on his opponents' eyes. Yet there is one, undeniable truth -- the source is him.
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For ease of writing, all dialogue is in Italian

Leonardo's head was bowed as he gingerly exited the fireplace of the House of Vero with soot dancing at his heels. It was a good deal lower than the Chiadovini Demesne's, but this was due mostly to its antiquity that far outstripped the petty Renaissance architecture of his family's own home.

His host, a Noé Rocco Vero, was already in motion and ready to receive his guest. "Mister Chiadovini! I am most honored that you accepted our invitation. Welcome to our Villa. Come, come." And with the ease of practice that betrayed his patient and gracious nature, the youngest heir of his name seemed to flutter to the Chiadovini's side and began to brush lingering Floo powder from his cloak's shoulders. Noé gesticulated towards the rest of the sitting room. "Would you care for a coffee? Refreshment?"

The eyes of the darker heir followed his Sicilian host with an air of mingled intensity and bemusement. Noé, as he had determined from the first time he had met the Vero side of the family, had always seemed to be the most enthusiastic and eager of the seven brothers--besides Ottone, though it seemed that that member of their family was always away on some exotic task or other. Noé seemed to have taken the most after his own father, and had been the one most interested in continuing to handle the family's affairs as Marius was beginning to get on in years.

"You are most kind, Noé." He nodded back to his host. "I don't suppose that a caffè ristretto would be possible?"

Noé waved his hand merrily with an easy smile. "Handily! We can speak as we make it. Come, come!" He hummed to himself as he seemed to almost flutter to the door. "We have quite a bit to discuss, as I understand." Those hazel eyes seemed to glow with a mirthful golden gleam for but a moment before the salt and pepper hair of the youngest Vero son turned the corner. With his arms still concealed beneath his velvet cloak, Leonardo followed without so much as the breeze of his movement disturbing his surroundings.

The House of Vero was not as fantastic as that of the Chiadovinis', but it certainly breathed an air of antiquity that plainly seeped from the very bones of the villa─a more "modern" taste of architecture that was built over the former Roman villa that had once been. Here and there were there elements of that old home, an archway that possessed original stone or a layout that was slightly inconsistent with what the modern architect would have suggested. Marius had come into his familial home again because none of his eldest sisters had produced heirs to inherit after his own father; after he had had seven sons and a daughter himself. This home... was truly the only inheritance he had received from his own family. Humble but of very old blood indeed.

Noé was busily tending to the coffee by the time Leonardo had followed the footsteps into the kitchen, and he stood like a black shadow in the doorway as if unsure whether to advance or step aside. Noé noticed immediately and invited him in. "Sir Chiadovini, please! This is your home as well─your family's blood helped to maintain these walls just as much as our own."

The look of brief disgust that twisted the Chiadovini's lips was only just caught fast enough to avoid being perceived. "Your hospitality is truly most gracious." Was all he coolly remarked, finally allowing a thin smile to grace his features. "I am happy that your family still finds pride in its history."

Noé chuckled. "It is a rare thing nowadays, I understand. But! Perhaps it is because we have learned when to appreciate the things that came before, and have wisdom enough to realize that the truly old blood is beginning to thin in the water." He paused for a moment, his smile wavering, before he continued as if in an attempt to make his hands busier. "Of course... that is to say..."

"I understand the sentiment." The Chiadovini determined himself to spare the Vero from having to explain himself or attempt to backtrack. "The Veros are a noble house. I anticipate that they shall be for years to come still."

The Vero son had finished with the Chiadovini's beverage, and he offered it to the elder Seer. The smell of the strong espresso finally managed to alleviate the worst of the tenseness in the man's shoulders, and he allowed himself to finally accept that for the time being he was indeed among kin─or, at least, with a friend. The Veros were an old house, perhaps a bit ambitious at times a tad beyond that which one might consider disconcerting if it became a matter of obtaining temporary victory in a circumstance, but ultimately loyal. The Chiadovinis had made a wise decision in electing to intertwine their branches with the house─they mutually benefited from their allegiance, and due to the events which led to their first partnership the Chiadovinis had always held a certain and particular sway over the Veros that they could cash in upon if it so suited their needs.

"Years, generations, perhaps." Noé musingly hummed aloud as he began to prepare something for himself. "Though I have felt, indescribably, that perhaps our flame is beginning to flicker. The Guttering is a natural thing for candles whom have burned bright and fast just as much as low and proud." He closed his eyes for a moment, as if he would see something in the darkness there. Finally, he opened his eyes again. "It is there, somewhere, something just beyond that which I can glimpse... Something I shall perhaps never fully make out."

Leonardo tipped his head, furrowing his brows slightly with a rare mischievous amusement. "I spoke of this once, and I shall say again─your methods are unique and remarkably accurate in their own respects. I do not think I would ever be able to mimic your ability." The coffee was put aside for a moment. "I suspect that you believe your visions weak merely because they come infrequently or manifest... gently." He absentmindedly rubbed the velvet of his cloak's collar between two fingers as he considered the possibility. "Your work as an Aurologist alone proves that you are sensitive to magic in ways that not many others are─to say nothing of your Sight, which I imagine is even more of a boon when utilized in tandem with your techniques."

"Oh Mister Chiadovini, you flatter." The salt-and-pepper-haired seer shook his head in a way that made those locks flutter slightly as a modestly skeptical smile came and went. "You know that you have no need to do so, I had already accepted the idea of partnership even before you put it forward in writing via Macbeth's letter a few weeks ago." Hazel eyes met silver with a glittering and gentle bemusement. "We both know that this meeting is a formality. And a celebration." He drank his coffee before stopping himself short and offering it in a sort of toast. "Ah! To us?"

Leonardo nodded slightly, taking his own coffee and accepting the toast. "To us. May the Veros ever prosper."

"And may the Chiadovinis forever foresee their greatness."

Leonardo drank to Noé's family; thus he begrudgingly accepted the blessing upon his own.

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The table of the Vero household was certainly magnificent. Noé, it seemed, had inherited the penchant for cooking, as did Ettore... whom Leonardo was attempting to ignore as he could not help noticing the features of the man who was around his own age shifting unnaturally and seeming at times to be curiously mimicking his own. The Veros were a family of many gifts, and many misfortunes.

The absence of four individuals who should have been seated in their own chairs at a table intended to seat for a party far larger than the family of the current generation was palpably sharp and almost ceremonial in its preservation. Three brothers who could not or perhaps would not sit with their own family for reasons either uncontrollable or self-inflicted. One sister who was away, having taken a life apart from the magical world because of her own circumstance. The second-youngest son, Ottone, who traveled often for his job and could not make the occasion. Moreno, the third oldest, who had died first among his siblings and before his parents─a tragedy the family still could not bring themselves to forget. Gitano, the eldest, whose scandals and lechery had resulted in his own banishment from the respectable societies of the wizarding world.

Sante was currently steering the conversation, speaking of matters pertaining to something related to his work as a curse-breaker and some poor fool who had tried to ambitiously attempt a hybrid curse which nearly resulted in a very messy outcome before it was successfully undone. Bonaventure was narrowly staring daggers at his elder brother, obviously unamused with the fantastic way that his sibling was regaling the tale. Marius, with grey hair turning mostly snowy-white and thin and with a beard that was full and well-groomed, seemed content to listen to his sons banter as Noé passed dishes around and chuckled now and again at the things that Sante said. Anete had gone to visit her daughter and was not in attendance at the side of Marius.

Eventually, Noé tapped his wineglass with a spoon to quiet down his siblings. Ettore's face quickly sloughed back into his natural facade almost as quickly as sand running through fingers as attentions turned to the youngest son. The young seer himself turned his attention towards Leonardo. "Today, we are celebrating the reunion of the Chiadovinis and the Veros in a partnership. The first in over a century." The kindly smile seemed to cause his eyes to glow as he spoke. "For centuries have our families been gracious to host the company of the other, reaffirming the vows that our fathers made to each other in the sacrifice of wedding their daughters to the other's son during a time of great uncertainty and turmoil. In the forging of blood ties, despite griefs and pains, a great friendship came to be. We, the sons of that vow, are the living proof of the goodwill that endured beyond the once-shallow alliance."

Leonardo only lifted his chin slightly, considering to himself the merits and truths of this regaling of family histories. Nobility was a passing Chiadovini virtue, in some ways, but cold calculation was their most paramount. The Veros were noble. The many-clawed-eagle crest that so closely resembled the griffin was indeed their rightful representative creature. The raven... perhaps the hydra would have befit the Chiadovinis more.

"Our families have not endured without their fair shares of tragedy, the cost of our alliance. But it has not come without its gifts as well." Noé spared a glance at Sante and Ettore, who both smiled back at him─one with a snakeish charm and the other with a gleefully childish disposition. "And it is those gifts, those opportunities, the strength of the blood that watered them, to which we are grateful─the reason that we find ourselves here today to welcome back our distant blood as old kin." Hazel eyes glittered with mirth. "And alas I have spoken for too long, so I close with a toast. To Mister Leonardo Chiadovini, whose wisdom and breadth of knowledge should truly astound anyone who has the wit to prise it from him. It shall be an honor to work with you during this new chapter in our lives. To the Veros, to the Chiadovinis. 'Stat fortuna domus, et avi numerantur avorum.' la: The fortune of the house stands fast, and grandfathers of grandfathers are counted."

The recognition of the final line being of the work of Vergilius caught Leonardo slightly off guard for a moment, and the sons and patriarch of the Vero family toasted to Noé's words. With grace, Leonardo also toasted the speech.

The rest of the dinner was mostly unremarkable as he observed the brothers Vero partake in their familiar and endearing rivalries and recollections. Ettore cracked a joke about Bonaventure's first attempt at a garden, to which the latter fired back about the time Ettore couldn't figure out how to stop his hair from being a bright pink for nearly a week. Sante teasingly inquired Noé on why he couldn't find it in himself to take a more "exciting" job. The Vero house was... lively. Vivacious. Lacking in the cold walls and looming portraits with their many eyes and bloodless smiles of politeness. It was, truly, something very unique.

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There was, naturally, the matter of affairs pertaining to the work to be fulfilled despite the celebration, but Noé seemed to be in good nature about all of it. "Truly, Noé, travel is no issue for me. If need be, I can stay at my home in Venice and I can be around much more often on a daily basis outside your travels."

"Do not worry about traveling, Leonardo." His host reiterated once more. "I know when I am outclassed even in my own work. Your abilities, if you wished to pursue my job, would far outstrip my own even in a matter of months. I am here to serve as the bridge to your much loftier goals." He gave a wry look. "If anything, you have blessed me with the opportunity to learn from you as well." The Vero sifted through a few papers of notations and communiques, distracting himself for a moment. "I think it very reasonable to meet perhaps for one week out of the month to touch base, travel to my on-site work, and merely... well, mentor one another in the meanwhile. I'll let you know in advance if an exciting prospect comes up, which would naturally entail a much more fantastic prospect of travel than usual."

"Mister Vero, I am no stranger to the idea of sacrificing my pleasures for work."

"I know this. But you also have familial obligations to uphold now." Noé put the papers aside and crossed his arms as he fixed the elder seer with a very firm expression, one that caused his brows to furrow in a way that showed how infrequently his face took on that particular look. His voice turned soft. "We are both of the understanding, no matter how unspoken they may be, that your decisions are not hinging merely on desires for your own self-advancement anymore. That may still be a component, but it is no longer the sole reason."

Leonardo would neither confirm nor deny the observation. Noé rightly took his subsequent silence as the cause to continue. "I cannot imagine your situation, but I wish to help you in whatever way I can. If that should mean that we spend a little less time face-to-face, then so be it. You are an honest man, Leonardo. It is a commendable quality of yours. I am allowing you to use that quality to buy yourself some freedom. Be there for your son. I am not allowing you to negotiate on that matter."

It was all the more reason to perform his job well, he supposed. "Very well. But, Noé, in exchange that I ask you to remember that you have every right to insist on my immediate attention to any matter in the meanwhile. I am, for intents and purposes, working for you in the end."

Noé smiled. "We understand each other, then." And he extended a hand to the Chiadovini. Leonardo took it, and their deal was struck.

"Mister Chiadovini, you are hired."
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2,594 words
Reducio
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Statistics & Abilities
Stamina 7 ⬥ Strength 1 ⬥ Evasion 10 ⬥ Wisdom 15 ⬥ Accuracy 14 ⬥ Arcane Power 18
Seer ⬥ Fearless ⬥ Advanced Casting ⬥ Terrible Presence ⬥ Spell Spread ⬥ Crucio

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Seer
⬥ Uncanny Insight ~ 10% Auto-Dodge & Auto-Hit Rate
⬥ Prophesy ~ Vision Occurrence Chance 1ce/Thread (1/1)
⬥ Indiscriminate Knowledge ~ No Critical Failure Chance & +1 Critical Success Range
⬥ Fatespinning ~ Reroll an Ability Check 3ce/Thread (3/3)

Fearless ~ Immunity to Fear Effects, Spells, and Potions

Advanced Casting ~ +1 Critical Success Range while Casting Spells

Terrible Presence ~ Aura of +1 Critical Failure and 10% Automiss & Damage Reduction

Spell Spread ~ +2 Wisdom DC, +1 Critical Failure Range, -2 Accuracy, +1 Target

Crucio ~ Capability of Casting the Unforgivable Torturing Curse

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⟣𝙱𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚙𝚛𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚘𝚏 𝚖𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚞𝚖𝚋𝚜, / 𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚠𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚠𝚊𝚢 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚜⟢
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