Word reaches the Roman Council of Watchers that the previous slayer has died in China. The council performs the standard divination that is called for in such an event. The map declares her to be in Pisa. The council's oracle gives a cryptic but by no means generic description - she is Italian and she is Spanish, with dark hair and sad grey eyes, with passion in her heart and fire in her mind. Her features will echo those of a man's. It's little to go on, but not less than the oracle is usually able to give. Unfortunate that they didn't identify such a nearby potential beforehand, but they will find her soon enough.

Anselm is selected to train the new slayer. He travels to Pisa in search of her.

The new slayer is not waiting for her watcher to arrive to start her training; She has been undergoing informal combat training for years before her powers awoke. In fact, that's exactly what she's doing right now.

Someone in a tavern had had too much to drink and made unflattering comments about Cardinal Borgia where the good Cardinal's nephew could hear. The fellow had friends, so when Cesare threw a mug at him it quickly escalated into a full-on brawl.

The first two of Cesare's assailants go down to a single punch each. The third gets in a hit of his own before Cesare picks him up and slams him into a table, breaking it.

"Do you think we ought to help him?"

"Cesare seems to be handling this quite well on his own; we would be superfluous. He is full of youthful vigor and can handle himself."

"We are of an age, Alessandro, or nearly so. We have as much 'youthful vigor' as he does."

"Evidently not."

Cesare has finished plowing through the drunkard's friends and has moved on to the instigator himself.

"Cardinal Borgia! Is a better man than you!" A fist lands. Something breaks.

"How dare a pig like you" Another blow; another broken bone.

"belittle a cardinal of the sacred college" A knee this time; the offender is bent over, gasping for breath.

"Ah, now we should do something. Cesare! Stop, you will kill him."

Cesare stops. "I - I did not mean to -"

"Oh, worry not, he still breathes. His death does not stain your soul. Now let us get that drink we came for."

He leads Cesare to a now-empty table at the much quieter tavern and orders drinks. The three of them sit, and drink, and discuss god and beautiful women well into the night.

His magic is unhelpful for the first several days, except insofar as it disqualifies all of the households he checks. He'd not expected the girl to be so difficult to find, but there are only so many teenage girls in Pisa. He'll find her eventually.

One night the candle smoke and restlessness gets to be too much. Cesare lights a torch and walks the streets of pisa, hoping that the fresh air and night sky will help him clear his head.

The air is fresh! The sky is full of stars! That man over there has a woman pinned to a wall! He looks like he might be biting into her neck or something as she struggles weakly against him.

Cesare pauses for a moment, thinks, and after a moment decides to do something. He brandishes his torch. "Hey!"

The man leaps back from the flame. His face is hideously deformed, some monstrous being with bloodstained fangs. He snarls.

The woman flees in a panic, clutching her neck. 

????????

"Demon! Go back to hell!"

Cesare draws a dagger and takes another swing with the torch.

The vampire is a little concerned by this. Mostly when he does that people run away. The dagger's not very terrifying, though, so he lunges at Cesare and attempts to wrest the torch from his hands.

Cesare is pretty sure this is not how fights are supposed to go. Usually people are supposed to pay attention to the sharp weapons. There are reasons for that. He stabs the demon in the eye.

The vampire rapidly changes his assessment of the entire situation. He would like to keep his eyes, actually, those take forever to grow back.

He screams in pain and flees down the darkened street.

Cesare is full of adrenaline! This is exciting! He chases the demon.

The demon isn't thinking clearly, it just wants to get away. It heads for the Camposanto Monumentale, Pisa's massive indoor cemetery.

Cesare gains some ground on the fiend, but not quickly enough for his taste. He throws his dagger, which buries itself in the demon's leg. When the demon falls he catches up, pulls the dagger out, and grabs the creature by the hair.

"When you get to Hell, tell them that Cesare Borgia sent you back," he whispers, and cuts the creature's throat.

(Killing a demon isn't a sin, right? He's pretty sure it's not a sin.)

The creature is impolite enough that it doesn't actually die. It just sort of sits there choking on its own blood, ineffectually grabbing at its assailant.

This is inconvenient and disconcerting! Cesare will just have to drag this demon over to the nearest church and perform an exorcism. He's never done an exorcism before but it'll probably be really obvious if it doesn't work.