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 staucnh the flow of blood from the Patriarch, but ecven 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 of 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.