{"sf1_id":767449,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Russian into Danger","author":"StGeorgesHorse","words":2280,"posted_at":"2014-10-13T11:44:00.000Z","tags":["Discovery","Human","Leonardo Da Vinci","Plot Development","Story Progression","Werewolf","back story"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/767449-russian-into-danger","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/767449","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=767449\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"#54 of The Moonrise Chronicles\n\nThe end for now my friends. Three hundred and twenty two pages and 140,675 words, this story came a long ways from it's humble beginnings as a stand alone horror story.","content":"                They\nremained at the hotel for several more days, occasionally meeting with the\npope. He would have loved to spend more time with them, but he did have a lot\nof appointments to keep. In the mean time, they kept themselves occupied.\nLeonardo remained with his nose buried in the computer, much to the chagrin of\nEmile, who was truly infatuated with the old man. But for the moment, it was\ninformation that the master wanted. He was a glutton for learning.\n                He\nmarveled at simple things like ball point pens, and wondered at the \"magic\"\nthat had done away with an ink well. The printer was another marvel for him,\nand he nearly broke it taking it apart to examine it. He was like a kid in a\ncandy shop. No device was too small or too simple to attract his attention. \n                He\nsplit his time between researching the big family names he knew to be the kind,\nfollowing them through history. He laughed at times, at some of the false\npresumptions that had been made about some of the people he had known. \"I would\nexpect a certain about of incorrect information being out and about, since we\ndid purposely cloud some of the things we did, but some of this stuff is almost\noutrageous!\"\n                Maggie\nwould sit with him sometimes, helping him navigate the web, but he was learning\nhis way around it on his own. When she got bored, she looked up Edward and\ntried to talk him into doing something fun, but he was feeling ill at ease.\n                \"Sorry\nMags. I'm just not feeling it right now. I still don't know how we're going to\nget back home.\"\n                \"Leave\nthat to me.\"\n                He grabbed\nher and gave her a Dutch rub. \"And how do you propose to do that? Are you going\nto sprout wings and fly us home?\"\n                She\npulled away from his rough attention \"Maybe. Who knows what the rings can do?\"\n                He\nlaughed. \"A winged werewolf? Now that would be truly frightening!\"\n                \"Laugh\nall you want! But never under estimate me.\" She was scowling a little.\n                He sobered\nup. \"You know, I try not to. There's a lot more to you than even I can fathom.\"\n                \"And\ndon't you forget it!\"\n                He\nsighed. \"Like you'd ever let me!\"\n                One\nmorning Maggie was walking by the computer and stopped suddenly as Leonardo was\nflipping through some images. He was enamored with the idea of photography. As\nhe said it, it's not as satisfying as\npainting I'm sure, but to capture a pure image of a person is remarkable.\nHe had been writing huge lists of names and families as he found them, and his\nlists had grown enormous. He didn't explain fully what he was doing, but it was\nobvious he was tracing the lines of the Kind. \n                His\nlists were based off of families he knew, and in no way reflected a complete\nlist of all the kind that had ever existed. There was no way of predicting his\nown lineage with this effort.  But as he\nsaid, there was no point in worrying about any other families right now. The\nlines tended to interweave themselves, and they often reemerged stronger, but\nnot always within the entire family.\n                He was\nvery keen on studying what he could on genetics. The study made sense to him,\nand so many things fell into place when he understood about dominant and\nrecessive genes. It explained why some had the power and others didn't. He was\ninterested to learn that a bite could induce someone who was a carrier of the\ngenes to transform, as had been the case with Edward. He delved into antibodies\nand immunity too.\n                The\nproblem he had was that he only knew of full werewolf lines from his own time,\nand piecing Edward's backwards was only partially successful. And Maggie was a\nfull blown enigma. It was that is right up to that moment she walked by the\ncomputer. She halted and stared as an image flipped across the screen before\ndisappearing.\n                \"Wait!\"\n                The\nmaster nearly wet himself he was so intent on his work. \"What? Why?\"\n                \"Who\nwas that woman you just had up on the screen?\"\n                He\nbacktracked and pulled up the image. \"This person?\"\n                She\npushed him aside. \"I know that face. I know this photograph. I've seen it\nbefore.\"\n                Leonardo\nmoved over so that she could squeeze into the space. \"I see. Well, you would\nknow her better than I would. She is far after my time.\"\n                Maggie\nwas running her finger over the screen, tracing the shape of the woman's, or\nrather, the young lady's face.  Edward\nnoticed the change in her demeanor. He came and crouched down alongside her.\n                \"What's\nthe matter Mags?\"\n                She\nlooked up at him. \"Do you know who this person is?\"\n                He\nlooked at the name on the webpage. \"Well, according to this she is Anastasia Nicholaevna.\"\nHe stopped. \"Why does that sound familiar?\"\n                Leonardo\nshifted the page. It moved to one on a royal family. The royal family in fact. That of Tsar Nicholas of Russia. This\nphoto was of one of the daughters of Tsar Nicholas. \n                \"Well,\nthere you go Mags. This photo is of the fabled daughter of the last Russian\ntsar. You probably saw her picture in school or the library.\"\n                She\nreached over and grabbed him by the hair. She leaned into his ear. \"Don't\npatronize me. Don't do it.\"\n                He was\nrather taken aback. \"But I wasn't. Where else could you have seen this\nphotograph?\"\n                She was\nstill staring at the screen. \"In my grandmother's house.\"\n                \"And\nwhy would your grandmother have this photograph?\"\n                Maggie\nturned to him, her eyes wide. \"Because it was the only photograph she had of\nherself from when she was a young girl!\"\n                Edward\nslipped and fell all the way to the floor. \"What?!!!\"\n                She\nturned to him, her mouth hanging open. \"I'm telling you, this is a photograph\nof my grandmother.\"\n                \"But Mags,\nthat would make her well over a hundred years old now!\"\n                \"Well,\nshe looked old the last time I saw her; older in fact that I never thought my\nmother could have been her child.\"\n                Edward\nwas still trying to grasp this information. She had mentioned her grandmother's\nname once before. What had she said? Anna Nicholson. This woman had been hiding\nin plain sight all along! Everyone of an age knew the story of the fake\nAnastasia. Now he wondered if she had been a ruse, a distraction to divert\nattention away from the real thing.\n                Edward\nturned to the master. \"How old can the kind live to?\"\n                \"Well\nbeyond the normal span of the average person. But when we don't age normally,\nit becomes obvious. And that attracts attention. Then they must go underground,\nor change their name and their appearance. It doesn't do well to attract\nunwanted attention.\"\n                Edward\ncocked his head to look at the master. \"Do you mean like having a life and\ndeath fight on the ground of your old home?\"\n                \"Exactly\nlike that!\"\n                The\nirony was lost on the master. He was more interested in Maggie's grandmother.\n\"Is this woman still alive?\"\n                Maggie\nshook her head. \"I don't know. She might be, but she seems to have disappeared\nafter my mother died.\"\n                He pressed\nher for more information. \"Curious. Would your mother's death have attracted\nattention to her?\"\n                \"Yes, I\nthink so. She would have been my only living relative, and therefore my only\nreal legal guardian.\"\n                \"Yes,\nso it makes sense. If they discovered her real age, that information would have\nraised suspicion. I think she did you a favor by vanishing. But it seems to\ncorroborate what you seen to know about your history. And that family has ties\nto the kind. Who was your grandmother married to?\"\n                \"I\ndon't know. There were never any photographs of my grandfather around.\"\n                \"Hmmmm.\nSo this gets more interesting, doesn't it?\"\n                She\nreturned to staring at the screen. \"So my great grandfather was the ruler of\nRussia?\"\n                \"So it\nseems.\"\n                Edward\nsnapped out of his shock. \"But it's impossible. Anastasia was killed in like,\nnineteen seventeen or nineteen eighteen.\"\n                Leonardo\nwas unimpressed. \"Yes, and a short while ago you were completely dead. Never\nunderestimated the Kind. We are tough and resilient. Was she impaled with\nsilver?\"\n                \"Not\nthat I know of. She was shot with a gun.\" \n                \"Just\nlike those men at my estate used? Those were no more bothersome that biting\nflies.\"\n                \"Meaning\nthat unless they used silver bullets, she would have survived being gunned\ndown?\"\n                \"Most\nlikely my dear. That's not to say everyone in the family would have survived,\nbut it seems simple enough that she could have. All she would have need was an\naccomplice; someone to dig her back up again after they buried her body.\"\n                Edward\nwas staring at Maggie. \"Looks like you're royalty kiddo, though a lot of good\nthat notoriety will do us. But I have to wonder who your grandfather was. He\nwas most likely a Russian too, don't you think?\"\n                The\nmaster spoke up. \"So it would seem, unless she had an accomplice who wasn't a\nlover.\"\n                \"What\nmakes you think she had a lover?\" ask Maggie.\n                \"It\nwould take love and courage to stand by and watch someone you care for die,\neven if it wasn't forever. Then, to dig them up and stay with them until they\nrecovered enough to leave one country for another. I do not pretend to know\nthis country from which you hale, but it must have offered some sort of refuge\nto her, and whoever her companion was.\"\n                Edward\nwas tapping his fingers on the floor. \"No. It just couldn't be.\"\n                Everyone\nwas looking at him. \n                \"Yes?\"\nasked Maggie quietly.\n                \"Oh,\nnothing. It's impossible.\"\n                She\npinched his nose. \"Look around you. We are all impossible, yet here we are. I\ndoubt you'll have anything to add to make this any more surreal than it already\nis.\"\n                \"I'm\nnot sure about that. I have a guess who your grandfather might have been.\"\n                \"Do\ntell!\"\n                He\nstood up and shoved her to the side, clicking away on the keyboard. Finding\nwhat he wanted, he pulled up the webpage. Maggie looked over his shoulder.\n\"You're kidding, right?\"\n                But Leonardo\nwas reading the information on the page. He had picked up the English language\nfairly well over the past few days, thanks to borrowing the rings. He scanned\nthe description and turned to Maggie. \"No, I think this has possibilities.\nLook, they tried to kill him by any number of means without success.\"\n                \"Yes,\nbut he eventually died, see!\" She pointed to the date; December 30, 1916.\n                \"Did\nhe? Who is to say? Maybe he let them think he was dead. To kill someone that\nlooks like you and substitute their body for yours is an old, old trick.\"\n                \"So you\nthink that my grandfather was Grigori Rasputin?\"\n                Leonardo\nreally knew very little about the tsars and this time period. \"It seems logical\nto assume for the moment that your grandmother is the tsar's daughter, and that\nher lover and husband was this Rasputin fellow. And according to this, he had\nthe gift of prophecy. He could see into the future. And it seems to me that you\nhave a knack for knowing things ahead of time. This is very curious indeed.\"\n                Maggie\nwas panting, and it looked very undignified in her human form. But she was\nobviously under stress right now. \"But Rasputin was crazy!\"\n                \"Crazy?\"\nasked the master. \"What is crazy to one man is brilliance to another. I will\nneed to read up on this family, and then see what I can find out about this Rasputin\nperson. But it looks to me like you will be going to Russia after all.\"\n                Edward\nwasn't so sure. \"We can't get back to the States, much less head into Russia.\nWe would have to go home, apply for passports, and then fly to Russia from\nthere. It'll take weeks, months even.\"\n                Maggie\nbit him. \"Shut up. I've already got it covered.\"\n                \"How!\"\nhe yelled, rubbing his wound.\n                \"The pope\nstill owes me a favor. And I think I know what it's going to be. We got flown\nin here on a papal jet, and I think we'll fly out the same way.\"\n                \"And\nyou think he's going to support you why?\"\n                \"Because\nhe's a good man, and he's a little curious about all this too. I'm still glad\nwe didn't tell him he has the blood in him though. I don't think he was ready\nfor that news just yet.\"\n                \"But\nMags, where will we go in Russia?\"\n                \"I\ndon't know yet. But if I have this foresight you think that I do, I believe\nthat I'll figure it out once we get there. Unless you're not coming, that is.\"\n                He\nsighed. What else could he do? \"I'm in. But what are we going to do about the\nothers?\"\n                She\nsmiled. \"Oh, they'll just be part of the favor I'm owed, so I think I got that\ncovered too!\""}