Appiano, after a rather quick and simple lunch, was quickly walking down the carpeted hallway that lead to the family's library. As he walked, he saw one his manservants, a lean light green guy with azure hair wearing a brown and rust red suit as uniform, bringing a black ebony cane.
"Arcibaldo, please tell to the others that I will be busy in the library," Appiano said, quickly passing by him "and to not start to clean it 'til I am done. Understood."
"As you will." Arcibaldo answered back, increasing the pace of his walking. Appiano sighed, as he then turned around in a short dark corridor that lead to a solid door with a morrhead-shaped bronze handle and a couple of plates with Appiano's great-great grandfahter monogram engraved onto them made of the same material. Appiano turned the handle left, making it clang loudly, and then carefully pushing inwards, revealing the library's interior.
"Very well," he said to himself, as he scanned the shelves full of books of all kinds, ceramic decorations and framed photographs and portraits, just next to the door, from the top to the bottom. "If I remember correctly my parents stored our family's chronicles on the top shelves, just next to a photo of granpa holding a flag in a landscape of ruins..."
Appiano now looked more closely, starting from the fourth shelf from the ground. He saw a photo with a smooth and rounded silver frame standing in-betwen some books.
"Maybe it's there?" Appiano said to himself, as he turned his head away form the shelves and towards his right, there a foldable rolling ladder stood by. He went to take it, kicking the folded steps away to fully extend it, and lifting it up with a grunt into the metal rail just above the fourht shelf. He tried a couple of times, until the wheels entered in the rail, at which point Appiano simply gave a pull to the ladder and then stopped it where he needed it.
"Okay," Appiano said, rubbing his hand togehter, before putting his left foot on the first step and his right hand on the fifth "Time to check if I was correct."
Hopped up and climbed the ladder until it was halfway throught, at which point he stopped to look at the photo. It was a photo of Appiano's father sitting on a zebra-striped sofa, holding a cocktail glass in one hand and keeping his other hand around the neck of a chubby woman with long curly hair and five different kinds of necklaces around her fat long neck.
"That woman kinda looks like Aunt Filomena... but didn't Aunt Filomena used to live in a dump as home or something?" Appiano muttered to himself, as he went back to climbing the ladder up "Anyways, this is not the shelf I'm lookign for, moving on now."
He did so, passing by a small porcelain set in an Orientalist-like style representing a decapitation, an etire row of books about culinary arts and another row of classic novels. Finally, when he gripped on the third-to-last step with his right hand, Appiano saw another photo. The photo was framed by a golden wreath, topped by a brass plaque held by a eagle of the same material, and with the plaque engraved with writing and the oblique checkered stripe of the family inside a circle.
"Field Marshal Francesco Odoacre Appiani-Tholosano; Torrelavega 1955." Appiano read at low voice, as he then looked at the photo itself.
It was in blakc and white. It depicted a tall man, looking no older than thirty-five, wearing a uniform, with a coat too large, trousers seemingly too seemingly tight and a softcap on hsi head and the officer's hat in hsi right hand, standing with legs and arms crossed against a tank's side, while the landscape beehidn him and the tank showed three ruined houses and a bent streetsign reading "Calle El Cid Campeador."
"Well," Appiano muttered to himself, as he started to look at his left onto the long row of leather, silk and cloth-paper boudn books "That's my grandfather standing next to a tank alright. Let's look for the family's chronicles then."
Appiano took the very first one in his left hand, spreading his legs a little to keep up his balance and not fall off the ladder onto the floor. He then turned his head towards the book's cover, seeing a coat of arms, held by a rampant lion and a rearing pegasus, and divided inn two halves, with one half depicting the familair oblique stripe and the other one depicting a double-tailed sea siten holding its tail fins. The chracters, seemingly carved in the leather cover, were ornate, almost overly so, with a style that resembled stylyzed classical columns and triangular roofs.
"History of the House Appiani-Tholosano; 1809-1911." Appiano read, as he quickly put the tome back into the row "Too late in time." That begin said, he then extended his right hand, putting it on the rail, before dragging himself and the ladder precisely where he had laid his hand, and also allowing him to see the books' backs and thus recognzie them much more quickly.
"Historia 1720-1809; Historia 1655-1720; Historia 1600-1655..." he kept looking at the books' backs until... "Historia 1410-1469!"
Appiano grabbed the book, finding it surprisingly light, compared to the weight the first one he had tried to lift. Appiano silently noticed that oddity to himself, as he moved the book close to his chest, almost embracing it. He slowly climbed down the ladder and then hopped off it, moving towards the Reinessance-style poplar table covered with a piece of dark green crude cloth with white hems covered in intricate designs. As for the armchair, it was dark red, with two ebony moorheads on the arms' end and a complicated vegetal motif on the frame of the padding, topped by an oval containing the Appiani's personal emblem.
Appiano lifted the book over his head, and put it onto the table, and, for good measure, he moved away the bronze head on the left side, so to have enough space for open up the book, before putting the silver tray with the purple inkpot and the feather on the right side. Appiano then sat down and quickly shuffed in his pockets, until he found the napkin that cntaiend the jewel.
After taking it out of his right pocket, Appiano unwrapped the napkin carefully and slowly, moved it carefully in front of him, so to keep it under his watch while he browsed the book for information.
Appiano opened the book to the frontespice, then quickly flippign the page and creating a small rip in the page. Appiano recoiled a little, as he then frantically opened one of the foru drawers of the table he was sitting behind. Looking inside it, in the midst of old papers and vintage trinkets, Appiano saw a small couple of shiny tweezers just laying htere.
"Oh Tengri, that was really close!" Appiano muttered to himself, as he then lifted the next page up and flipped it "had I applied more force to it, it would have been ripped away! And, likely, my life shortly after, albeit due to my father's wrath."
As he said that, he looked upon the text, but, seeing no dates anywhere close to the year when the jewel had arrived in his ancestors' hands, he kept flipping with the tweezers, but still taking great care in doing so.
When it was obvious that it was goign to take more time than he could afford to spend, Appiano sighed, closed the book again, and then opened it towards the end. Looking inside the page, he read the first date.
"Fifth of April 1432. I think that I will find what I'm looking for in ten pages," Appiano said to himself, as he grabbed the tweezers again and flipped ten pages, then he scanned the pages' writings. Halfway trhougth the page, Appiano stopped his scanning to actually read.
"Okay, this seems to be it. It's the sixteenth of March 1440 and it mentions a 'res insolita mercata'." Appiano said, as he then started to read the text.
"On the sixteenth of March of the Year of Our Lord 1440, Jacopo III bought from Ludwig I of Saluzzo, as mean of payment for his mercenary armies, four golden chandeliers said to have been made in Catai, armour from the finest ironsmith of Saluzzo, and a most interesting trinket said to have been owned by the Mongol Lord that has brought so much grief to the Empereor and to his ultimate fall."
Appiano grinned and nodded, as he skipped the part talking about the chandeliers and the armour to focus on the object he interested him the most right now.
"The trinket is similar to an amulet of old or a necklace of a poor maiden, as a thick rope serves to tie it around the neck. It's a quite refined ruby encased in dented steel, likely result of involvment in battle. Two waterfowl-like wings of the same material as the case are at the sides. On the top, there it lies a unicorn's head, which however seems to have been tarnished in its meaning from the Tengrist infedel, as it looks like a symbol of evil, rather than purity, as proven by the menacing traits given to the head and the glowing red small rubies as eyes."
Appiano glanced and looked up at the jewel he had brought back from school.
"Alright," he muttered to himself, as he took it in his hands and moved it closer, moving his fingers around the smooth and cold surface "the ruby is there. The metal indeed looks like steel and the wings actually resemble the one of a bird, not quite sure about a waterfowl thoguht. the unicorn head is there, so do the ruby eyes. I don't know what he meant by 'looks like a symbol of evil' thansk to the 'meaning traits,' but I guess we can check those off the list too."
Appiano then went back reading the book, skipping the already-read description of the look to read the rest instead.
"Legend has that this amulet is capable of improving the strenght of a man ten times over, make his sight as sharp as Linceum's, to turn the worst of the Thersites into warrier that can keep up with Achilles, to make a stuttering one able to capture the hearts and souls of a crowd with oratory, to control the mind of a man with not a weak will, and many other wonderous things." Appiano read this slowly, following the text with his right index, so o not miss any line.
"If the tales are to be believed, all of this requires the user to spit on their fingers, touch the ruby, and make the sign of the cross on the limb or organ that it is wished to improve, and, should one wish to have control upon a mind different from their own, they must follow with their index and their middle fingers the cuts of the ruby, then extend the fingers and say their command accomapined by 'e così sia fatta la mia volontà "
Appiano nodded,smiling, as he then grabbed the amulet in his hands and put it atop the book.
"Well, that's interesting. Let's see if it actually works." He aid, as he then put his index and middle finger of his left hand in frotn of his mouth, spat on them, then he touched the ruby, before moving the two fingers away, creating a small strand of saliva from his fingers to the ruby. Appiano could notice that his spit had taken a slight reddish tint and that it was sparkling, even if the only source of light in the room came from an open window and, currently, the sun was not shining on that side of Appiano's villa.
"Uh-oh. That's interesting, guess this means it's working." Appiano said, rotating his wrist around to look at the reddened spit that was on his fingertips, waiting to be applied like an unguent upon a wound. Appiano then looked down at himself.
He looked at his crotch, smirking as he thought to see if the amulet was going to increase his potential piercing power or his propulsion.
"Nah, I have better options than that." Appiano shook his head and started to look elsehwere for a part of his body he could improve with his allegedly enchanced saliva, from his arms to his legs, to his ears.
"Umm... I'm not sure if I want to hear mosquitoes fart, or the actual smell of old books," He looked at his right arm "But I sure want to see if I will be able to lift this table and the book easily!"
That said, Appiano started to rub the saliva upon his biceps in a shape of a cross, and, almsot immediately, the site of the cross started to shin lightly and sparkle red, which made Appiano recoil and look at his arm with widened eyes and flailing it a little. his arm felt beating, as it it was growing an hearth of its own and, at the same time, electricity-like feeling crept from him arm to his shoulder, as his biceps, triceps and deltoid visibily grew in size, a if they had been throught intensive training and showed the signs of that in mere seconds.
"Woah..." Appiano muttered, as his arm stopped pulsating, and instead only felt tingling "I didn't expect to see this work this fast ... or actually working!"
Appiano, for test his strenght, set his hand udner the table, before pushing up. To much of his surprise, he lifted with very little effort, causing him to recoil in surprise once more and, thus, making the bronze had fall off on the floor and sending the tray across the table, spilling a couple of ink drops on the green cloth. Appiano blushed, as he put the table down slowly, and causing the amulet to move to the table's edge.
"Let's hope that the manservants will be kidn enough to not mention thei nk blots on the cloth..." appiano muttered to himself, before switching his mind to the other task at hand "Anyways. Yes, it works, and, yes, it's authentic. I can't wait until I will be able to show what this thing can do to Sunset."
With that said, Appiano got up from his chair, grabbed the book from the table with his right hand and put it in his armpit, before walkign in frotn of the table to grab the statue with his empowered hand, thusly lifting it with no trouble at all and putting it back on the table as if it was made of cardboard, smirking a little as he did so.
"I wonder... is there any other neat action I can do with this amulet?" Appiano muttered to himself, as he set the foot on the rolling ladder, holding the book with his stronger right hand "Maybe I could look at the other chronicles, or in the Mirabilia of Jacopo VI. After all, I'd think that he would've mentioned this amulet somewhere." He kept climbing while he thought about the next stop of his research on the jewel found at school.
Once he put the large tome back into place, Appiano rapidly climbed down the ladder to then look up scratching his unkempt short beard on his chin, trying to remember where the book he wanted to read was.
"Historical yes, but where? Family History, or General History? I only remember that it's not definitely a chronicle and that many, my parents included, treat it like a fiction novel, so it may be in the section dedicated to fiction written by my ancestors..." He kept scanning, passing from the Family History section, signaled by his grandfather's photo, to the General History, signaled by a silver chandelabre shaped like an elephant, and finally in the last part he mentioned to himself, which was signaled by a small portrait of a mustached man in Reinessance clothing with a poplar frame.
"Um, if I remember correctly the Mirabilia is considered a fiction novel by some, due to the presence of certain items that have no other sources of their existence and/or that cannot be replicated at all." Appiano said, before pushign the ladder foward to destination. Appiano climbed up the ladder, reaching the shelf where the portrait was, before actually looking around him.
He looked at his right, but, seeing that most of the books there were written by his maternal great-uncle, he ditched to look at his left. Lo and behold, he found what he was looking for at an elbow's lenght.
"Oh what a coincidence," he said, grabbing the somewhat thin book from its slot and pulling it out, climbing down the ladder at top speed, and, with the same velocity, going back at the table and sitting on the chair.