Looting of the Hagia Sophia and Hagia Eirene

[Ganbarenippon]

The assault went though the Greek resistance like an axe through porridge. Even Orsini had claimed some lives this night, his mace dripping blood. As Phillipe mounted his horse Jacopo smiled his most wolfish smile and turned to his surviving men. "To Hagia Sophia! Once we are inside the loot is yours, we will pool it all and split it between us, equal shares for all. We have done God's work tonight my sons, and we have earned an eartly reward." He smiles tightly."But first you will find the Patriarch, if he remains, and bring him to me alive. There is to be no fire either. The church is to be kept whole. Now...forward!"

The small group of Italians made there way toward the heart of the Orthodox faith, the great church that still dominated the city, awe-inspiring in its beuaty. Jacopo noticed none of that as his men broke down the doors of the cathedral and boiled into the knave. "Find the patriarch, and remember the loot is to be shared!" Father Jacopo Orsini looked around the cathedral of Emperors. 'My prize. And the first step on the ladder.' He thinks in ultimate satisfaction. He beams.

The Patriarch of the Orthodox Christians panics at the sight of the soldiers who burst through his quarters. He struggles at first and attempts to escape. However, when he realizes that he cannot escape without being captured and humiliated, the Patriarch thrusts himself against one of the swords drawn against him. He spits out blood and curses the Latin invaders as the elderly man withers and dies in a pool of his own blood.

"No, you fools! I said alive." Orsini screams across the room and sprints over trying desperately to staunch the flow of blood from the Patriarch, but even he sees it is already too late. Cursing he wheels around desperately, the death of this man upset his schemes in a major way. He searches around the quarters with his eyes until he spies it. The Patriarch's Seal. Ripping it from the table alongside several letters bearing samples of the man's handwriting he walks back across to his men.

"Captain Girolamo, bring ten men and the patriarch's body." He pulls the other man closer. "Make sure these two who witnessed this are with us, and ensure any other men you pick are...discrete." He says in a low voice. "And see that the body is disguised."
"Yes father." The broad shouldered Pisan said saluting and telling off his men.

Jacopo wandered back into the main knave. His men had already begun to efficiently plunder the magnificent cathedral and the pile of treasure was already growing prodigious. No man of his was hoarding wealth for himself, for Jacopo had promised them all and equal share of the plunder and naught makes a ma more efficient than the sight of burgeoning wealth in front of his eyes. He called for his other commander Pietro of Vicenza and soon enough the blonde man emerged.

"My son, have the men move this plunder into the private apartments of the Patriarch and post four men on the door to better guard our wealth. Divide the rest of our men between plundering further and preventing any fire in the city from spreading. This may be a bastardized House of God but we will soon enough make this into a correct, Roman house of worship. I would not have it burn down. Let any enter if they wish, but explain that they are not to plunder on pain of excommunication."
"But what of us father?" Pietro asked quietly, watching as a man pried a ruby from one of the magnificent statues near the door.
"We are saving these treasures for the true Christian faith, and the greater glory of God." Jacopo replies with a twinkle in his eye. "Now be about it my son."
"As you wish father." The tall Lombard bowed and ran off to bark commands.

Jacopo moved back to the apartments to see if Captain Girolamo was ready.

[Ganbarenippon]

The body had been covered with heavy sackcloth so as to look like a sack of loot. Though the blood still leaked out of the bottom, so anybody who looked to closely would notice a body, but the city was full of bodies.
"With me." The priest said quietly, and led the men out of a back exit, so as to avoid the prying eyes of his other men. Slowly the men made their way through the large complex around the Hagia Sophia. The fires from the more distant sections of the city illuminated the bottoms of the clouds, making the night glow orange. In the distance the screams of the dying could be heard but they were far enough away to be of no concern just yet. Jacopo looked around, hefting his mace as he considered. Just then his eyes alighted upon the other church. 'Perfect.' "This way." He barked, striding off toward the Hagia Eirene.

The grand old church was often neglected and forgotten, sitting as it did in the shadow of St. Sophia yet it was a wealthy prize in it's own right; the oldest church in Constantinople. "Captain, an entrance if you will." The Pisan obliged by taking an axe to the door. He needn't have bothered the church was dark and empty, it's caretakers obviously fled. "Put the body there." He said gesturing to the entrance to the priestly apartments. The men did as they were bid and then formed up in a line, Girolamo behind them.

"Now, who was this man?" Jacopo asked gesturing to the body.
"The Patriarch of Constantinople father." Replied one of the men.
"Interesting..." Orsini nodded to Captain Girolamo. The man grunted in shock as two feet of steel bloomed from his chest where Girolamo's sword had taken him. Gurgling wetly he slid down to the floor soiling himself as he died. The other nine men looked on in shock. "I thought he was the elderly caretaker of this ancient church, come to prevent us saving the relics and treasures to safety." Jacopo says, as though nothing had just happened. "Now, who was this man?"
"Nobody father..."
"A caretaker..."
"Just an old priest..."
The men responded. Jacopo smiled beatifically at them all. "Excellent. Now, in payment fr your valiant efforts the nine of you and our noble Captain here shall take all the loot from this church as your own." The men looked at one another and Jacopo smiled coldly inside as he saw avarice overcome shock, fear, and even questions.
"The father is most generous." Girolamo said.
"I am my son. Now, best you men be about securing your wealth. We leave in twenty minutes for Hagia Sophia. Your wealth can be stored separately from that of your brothers." He said. "Oh...one more thing. The Patriarch escaped capture with a large number of monks and priests. Where he was bound we do not know."
"As you say father." The men muttered back to him.
"Get to your work then." Jacopo shooed the men off and they set to the altar and statues with a will.

Jacopo wandered back to the body of the man who had been the leader of the Orthodox Church. 'I would have let you live you old fool.' He though with as close to sadness as he ever came. 'All I wanted from you was a few letters now and then. Would that have been too much to ask for your life?' The thought hung bitterly in his mind as he brought his mace down repeatedly on the skull off the body. He imagined the head underneath his mace was that of the fool who sat the Throne of Saint Peter even as the bone and brain matter and blood spattered over his armour and face.

Jacopo Orsini smiled.