Fantasy As Day Follows Night by TMaskedWriter

[Ramesh_Rocky]

Troy and Julie looked at each other and said "A secret passage!" together, trying to sound like Scooby-Doo characters.

"Si," Maria responded. "Only la familia know. And the driver because he has to come here too. And now you."

Once they were inside, Maria pulled a lever and the wall slid back into place. She gestured to several more lanterns hanging on hooks for them to each take one.

"You look lovely tonight, Maria," Julie said as they turned on the lanterns and started walking down the tunnel. "You're coming to the ball too, right? If Helena hasn't invited you, I'll..."

"I shall be there," Maria replied, holding up her hand so that they could see the emerald ring more clearly. "I too am a San Finzone, I am expected to attend."

The pair nodded and continued up through the passage. A few flights of stairs and some long tunnels later, they reached another set of hanging lanterns. They turned off their lanterns and hung them as Maria pulled another lever and the wall opened up into the study.

"Is not usual way visitors come in, but welcome to Finzione Castle," Maria said, closing the passage once everyone was inside. "This used to be war room in old days. La Contessa make it her study."

"So, nothing's changed, then," Julie said as Maria was about to open the door and let them into the rest of the castle. Maria stopped and turned around, a look of "Ok, I let it go cause it was funny at first, but that's enough talking shit about my friend" on her face.

"Julie, Troy. I think you only see bad in Contessa because of her past. You cannot have..." she paused as she searched for the English words "Special love like ours in big familia without being found out. Even if you do what she and you two do, they find out eventually. La Familia get angry, they come to castle and demand answers. They demand to see La Contessa. Some of them bring weapons."

"I can guess how that went," Troy said. Maria continued.

"Everyone leave castle thinking 'Hey, she San Finzione, but no by blood. And she make our little Maria happy, so we happy.' How many people find out they not who world tell them they supposed to be and all familia be happy?"

Julie walked up to Maria and took her hand. "Maria, you didn't find out who you are, Helen told you who she wanted to you be and you agreed. Because she made you agree. Then she did it to them. That's not the same thing." Maria turned to Troy.

"Troy, you familia from this part of world; you know there two kinds of hate. There the estupido kind: 'Eh, you skin no like mine; eh, you God no like mine,'" she crossed herself before continuing. "'Eh, you got something different between you legs.'" She stole a glance at Troy's pants, fondly remembering what was in there, before continuing.

"Then there the other hate, the kind they make opera about: 'Eh, you hurt me, so I gonna hurt you worse. Then you hurt me worse, so I hurt you again.' Two hundred years later, we both dead and people still hurting each other because they got same name as us; because of what we do before they born. Great-Grandmamma make this hate go away. No vendetta, no blood feud, everyone win."

"No," Troy said. "Helen takes what she wants, replaces dissent with false love, HELEN win!"

"Signor Equals, I choose false love over real hate forever."

Neither of them had a response to that, so they nodded. Maria did too, and then opened the door.

"Welcome to Castle Finzione," she said, revealing a stone hallway on the other side of the door. Troy & Julie stood there, blankly, expecting the door to open into a lavish ballroom. "Ballroom is down the hall. Come."

"That could have been really impressive," Julie said as they followed her.