XXX
Story: [The Devils of Tarbes]
Summary: Visha dies in the war, Tanya doesn't. Visha goes to magic-school, Tanya is kidnapped. They're both pretty okay with that.
Fandom: (Zero no Tsukaima) / (Youjo Senki)
Genre: Drama? Romance
XXX
Viktoriya hated the war.
She hadn't exactly been all that excited about it when she'd first been drafted, but whatever hopes she'd had about it all had died a quick death long before she'd landed on the Rhine front.
Then again, perhaps that wasn't entirely accurate.
Viktoriya hated the war, hated the deaths, hated the blood, hated-... Perhaps what she hated the most was that she'd gotten used to it. She hated that the idea of a peaceful life was so far removed from her experiences that she couldn't even really imagine it.
Perhaps she'd been too young to join, so young that most of her memories simply revolved around the war, one way or the other. But if that was the case, what did that say about the Major?
Tanya von Degurechaff had joined the war at an unprecedented early age, and had gone from strength to strength, climbing her way to the top with blood and violence on the front-lines of the Empire's war-machine.
Viktoriya knew that the Major hated the war too. She did everything in her power to protect them as much as she could, and she'd be the first to cheer them up when everything seemed bound for hell, but for all that the Major was a perfect soldier in every way and would never complain, Viktoriya knew that she hated the war.
Still, sometimes, when Viktoriya lay awake at night, she'd remember that simple bitter phrase. To praise the war for its horrors, in the hopes that it would deter further bloodshed.
But Viktoriya couldn't really see the horrors anymore, she just saw targets and ammunition and another day of flying next to the Major as the world around them burned to ash. It was just normal.
How could the horrors of war deter anyone at all, if the people who saw them the most simply brushed them off and kept moving, a distorted sense of normalcy about it all?
She hated that thought. She hated the idea that even if they somehow managed to win the war, there would inevitably be another one, because nobody would actually be deterred from drowning the world in war once more.
In truth, perhaps the only thing keeping Viktoriya from despairing at it all, was the certainty that the Major would push onward. That the Major wouldn't hesitate, that she'd go to war again and again and again, as many times as the Empire needed her to.
And Viktoriya, no matter how much of a burden she ever became to the war-effort, didn't want to ever leave Tanya von Degurechaff's side.
That's why, in hindsight, it'd been obvious what she would do.
There'd probably been better ways to do it, but in the end she hadn't been able to think of any of them at the time. So she'd moved in front of the bullet, and her shield had shattered.
And then her world had turned dark.
XXX
Viktoriya had experienced miracles in her life. Lots of them, honestly. The Major tended to scatter them around herself with the careless grace of a farmer strewing seeds.
Even so, being reborn into an entirely different world was on a very different level.
Her new name was supposed to be 'Louise Francoise Le Blanc de La Valliere', which was a bit of a mouthful. Thankfully, most people just called her 'Louise' or 'Miss Valliere'.
Religion was different, worshiping the supposed Founder of magic, Brimir. Nobles were nobles because of the magic they could wield, even though there were enough bastard-children scattered amidst the commoners over the millennia of recorded civilization that Viktoriya was fairly certain that there was every chance that pretty much anyone on the street could wield a wand if they were given the opportunity.
Needless to say, the nobles had made sure there were plenty of laws and regulations to make certain that commoners wouldn't be given the opportunity.
This world relied so thoroughly on magic to perform anything at all that Viktoriya couldn't help but be a little bit appalled. There were so many inventions that could've been achieved, if people had only tried, but apparently non-magical inventions were heavily frowned upon by the Church.
It was a little bit horrifying, honestly.
Still, as a single individual, there wasn't much Viktoriya could do about that. She might've been born into a noble family of very high status, but she was also the third daughter, and-... Well, Viktoriya had probably not been the child anyone in her family had really expected, even before magic had been brought into the picture.
It was hard to pretend to be a child, when she'd been a soldier not that long ago. It made her feel like an imposter, sometimes. As if she'd stolen their 'true' daughter away from them.
She didn't actually tell any of them about that, because she was pretty sure that reincarnation wasn't really on the list of miracles that the Church approved of, and she didn't want to be treated like a crazy person.
Then, of course, her family started to educate her on magic.
Viktoriya hated it.
No matter what she did, no matter how she tried to compensate for not having a computation-orb and instead having to rely on a wand, no matter if she tried the Empire's way of doing it or Halkeginia's-... In the end, the results were always the exact same.
The spell destabilized, and then exploded.
Levitation-spells, fire-spells, water-spells, wind-spells, earth-spells, mage-blade, transmutations, flying, even explosion-spells managed to explode wrong.
And no matter how her new tutors twisted and poked at her, nobody could find anything wrong. Her magic just always destabilized and exploded, no matter what.
But perhaps, the true reason was simply that Viktoriya wasn't Louise?
Not that she could ever explain that to her parents.
XXX
Tanya's memories were a bit fuzzy in the aftermath of Visha being shot down.
Understanding that the enemy couldn't be underestimated any further, Tanya had resorted to the Type 95, with predictably explosive results. Apparently, under the influence of that cursed thing, she'd gone on a rampage and taken out the heavily fortified base that the plan had been to avoid.
She couldn't fault the result of forcing the Allied Kingdom out of the area, but clearly that immediate success hadn't been enough to shake her subordinates from their sudden reminder of their own mortality.
This was the first person they'd lost to combat since the 203'd had been formed, and the men were obviously unsettled by it. It didn't help matters that Visha had been something of a friendly younger sister in the eyes of her fellow soldiers.
So Tanya's men were too somber for their usual battle-crazed bloodthirst, and Tanya wasn't quite sure how to best stabilize the morale. Cracking jokes would be seen as disrespectful of Visha's memory, and Tanya refused to try and comfort people by resorting to religion.
On top of that, Tanya had just lost an excellent subordinate, and she wasn't sure where to even begin training someone to take her place. She hadn't had a decent cup of coffee for weeks.
All in all, Tanya was willing to admit that Visha's death had been a source of stress for her. And now, in the middle of her funeral when Tanya was expected to hold a speech, she'd apparently managed to catch a cold or something.
Her throat felt like it was burning, and her nose and eyes felt irritated. It was almost to the point where she was worried that the crowd wouldn't be able to hear what she was saying.
For a renowned public speaker, it was utterly humiliating.
XXX
Everyone could see that Lieutenant Serebryakov's death had affected Major Degurechaff severely.
Ignoring the honestly somewhat terrifying immediate reaction to her death, Major Degurechaff hadn't smiled a single time in the months afterwards. Somewhat famous for her jokes and her bloodthirsty smile, the expression on her face these days were more in line with that brief moment in Arene, when she was very nearly forced to execute a rookie for disobeying orders.
The awkward, heartfelt speech she'd held during the Lieutenant's funeral had also been a clue.
It was obvious to everyone that the Major cared about all of her subordinates, but the idea that she'd falter during a speech held in their memory? The idea that her voice would sound hoarse, and she'd be constantly forced to pause to gather herself to keep from crying?
For all that the Major cared about all members of the 203'd, Lieutenant Serebryakov had always been her favorite. Everyone in the 203'd had known that, but seeing it now it was clear to the world in general that they'd been very close.
Still, in the wake of single-handedly wiping out a fortified base that'd been housing nearly six-thousand soldiers? In the wake of opening her comms, not to praise the Lord and give her enemy their last rites, but to give them the very blunt and terrifyingly absolute command of 'die'?
It was no surprise to anyone that, even among the 203'd, people were starting to replace the 'White' of her Name with 'Rusted'.
There was no doubt in anyone's mind that Major Tanya von Degurechaff was out for bloodied vengeance, and considering how drenched in crimson she'd already become, 'Rusted Silver' just fit her an awful lot better.
XXX
Viktoriya was supposed to be the playmate of the Princess, and she honestly didn't have the faintest idea of how to make that work.
Viktoriya hadn't been a child for a very long time, and even then her childhood had been colored by her parents fleeing the communist revolution in Russy. She hadn't been exactly friendless, but she probably hadn't been far removed from it either.
What did children even do?
Most of the time, Viktoriya just went with whatever 'Ann' asked of her. It'd probably be better to be considered a pushover that followed the Princess's lead, than to make her strangeness even more apparent.
Sure, that landed her in hot water more than once, because 'Ann' wasn't exactly a perfectly behaved angel. In fact, Viktoriya would easily admit that the girl was probably more than a bit spoiled. However, Viktoriya obeying her even to her own detriment didn't raise any eyebrows.
Possibly, it was just taken for granted that a noble would obey a royal. As if it was a fact of the world.
Viktoriya thought it was all rather silly, but then she couldn't really bring herself to be overly upset with 'Ann' for landing her in trouble. Oh, she might not appreciate it, but the punishments were a far cry from the hellish Rhine front.
Also, no matter how much her poker-faced mother stared her down, Viktoriya couldn't really bring herself to be all that intimidated.
The Major was a lot scarier than that, and Tanya was still someone that Viktoriya considered a friend.
No, things were working out more or less alright in her new life, with the exception of her continuous failures with magic.
Viktoriya desperately missed the feeling of the open sky around her, even if she could appreciate the lack of blood and violence and death.
It was a peaceful kind of existence, even if it felt awkward.
XXX
Tanya hated this.
It'd been months since Visha had died, and things hadn't improved at all.
The 203'd was as grim as ever, making Tanya unable to crack jokes to try and boost morale. And even her superiors had been infected by it, despite the fact that they probably hadn't met Visha more than in passing.
How was Tanya supposed to get herself promoted off the front-line, if all her superiors did upon her reporting her newest success was to nod somberly and send her back to her men?
She hated it, she hated it, she hated it.
Everywhere she looked, there were more grim faces. People averting their eyes from her own, as if they were unwilling to associate with her at all now that she'd lost one single soldier.
And through it all, she'd been unable to drink even a half-decent cup of coffee, because apparently nobody except Visha knew how to operate a damn coffee-machine. And making her own coffee would be seen as Tanya not trusting her subordinates with their tasks, which would make this mess even worse.
Tanya was starting to worry that she might start showing stress-related symptoms any day now.
Which was ridiculous because she certainly hadn't been made a victim of stress on the damn Rhine front.
XXX
Major Degurechaff had gone from a serious girl, and an excellent soldier, into something... hollow.
It was difficult to describe, but it was clear to everyone around her that something big had changed in her since Lieutenant Serebryakov's death. Perhaps it'd been the dawning of her own mortality, perhaps it'd been losing a dear friend, perhaps it'd been the perceived failure of keeping all of her men alive.
Regardless, the Major had gone from being a passionate patriot willing to walk into the most dire of circumstances for the sake of her country, to someone determined to drag their enemies straight into hell along with her.
It was terrifying to see that young face distorted by that kind of avenging fury.
If Tanya von Degurechaff had been born to be the perfect soldier, ruthless and brilliant in equal measures, at some point she'd turned herself into the perfect hero. As in, the kind of mythological heroes who performed great deeds, tearing themselves to shreds in the process.
If it hadn't been for the fact that the Major's aerial mages couldn't cross the ocean on their own, nobody would've been surprised to have the girl return to report that she'd taken Londinium on her own, and had decimated the entirety of the Albish countryside in the process.
From perfectly obeying her orders, even as she worked to her utmost to bring the Empire to victory, to pushing herself beyond her own limits in order to annihilate as many enemies as she could manage.
There'd been attempts to push her into taking a sabbatical of some kind, so that she could perhaps do her grieving in peace, but the Major had turned down every such offer with a glare colder than the arctic.
She was determined to see the war through to the end.
Or, perhaps, she was simply determined to have the war end her own life, so that she might be reunited with what was probably the closest thing the girl had ever had to a childhood friend.
XXX
Viktoriya knew that some age-differences were fairly inevitable when it came to courtship among nobility. For all that the larger age-gaps were heavily frowned upon, the fact of the matter was that there weren't an inexhaustible amount of nobles to choose from.
In other words, if someone wanted to get married, they could easily look around and realize that everyone else their age were either politically inadvisable choices, or already spoken for. Which would force the person to seek people further and further away from their age-group.
However, even then there had to be some kind of limit.
Or maybe Viktoriya just really didn't like Jean-Jacques of Wardes because he came off as kind of sleazy.
Viktoriya had heard a lot of men talk about women, having been surrounded by them for years and years. But even with all of the crudeness and heartfelt longing that she'd heard from her fellow soldiers, there'd always been a certain level of honesty in it.
Wardes didn't really have that, and the comforting words slipping out of his mouth gave her the creeps.
Viktoriya couldn't exactly put her finger on it, but it reminded her vaguely of someone in a poker-game bluffing to their utmost because they'd spotted an easy mark. And having that kind of attention aimed her way was just severely discomforting.
Despite this, it wasn't like she could really offer up a solid argument for her parents to refuse the man's courtship of her. From a logical perspective it would even be a good thing to have an established courtship already arranged before she arrived at the school for young nobles, since it would give her an easy way to dodge out of any possible teenage-romance trying to make an appearance.
It was less that Viktoriya was uninterested in romance, and more that Viktoriya didn't really know how to deal with it at all. She'd hit puberty after she'd been drafted, and she'd been in the military ever since.
She'd met plenty of good men, and even seen a lot of them with barely any clothes on, but it'd never really been something she'd put any kind of thought into. The next mealtime had always seemed more important, not to mention whatever plans the enemy or the Major would think up next.
No, for all that Viktoriya would really rather not deal with Wardes ever again, she kept her mouth shut and politely agreed to whatever her parents decided on. It wasn't like anything was going to happen until a bunch of years from now, after all.
And trying to figure out how to get her magic working, before she was shipped off to the Tristain Academy of Magic, was a lot more important.
XXX
Viktoriya wasn't quite sure if she liked or disliked the Academy.
On the one hand,it was a boarding school where she had to spend time with spoiled teenagers who were either trying to suck up to her for her perceived status as a Valliere, or mocking her endlessly for her magic constantly misfiring.
On the other hand, they had a lot of books on magical theory that was sure to be helpful sooner or later, and the chefs were top-notch.
On the whole, it wasn't the Rhine-front. For good or bad.
However, she'd been very much looking forward to the Familiar Summoning Ritual. It was another one of those pieces of magic that she could've never imagined before waking up in Halkeginia, and it was supposed to give her a familiar that 'reflected herself'.
Viktoriya kind of doubted that she'd be lucky enough to summon something like a dragon or a gryphon, but she could at least hope, right? It wasn't like there were a lot of other options available to her if she ever wanted to fly again.
Still, for all of its pettiness, the bullying really wasn't anything she hadn't survived before. She'd been drafted after all, and that was the kind of thing all of the volunteers looked down upon, no matter if she succeeded or not. The only exception to that had been the Major.
Sighing softly to herself as her name was called, Viktoriya dutifully made her way over to the summoning-circle, and recited the spell that she'd long-since memorized. It would probably misfire, just like all of the rest, but she'd be expected to at least try.
And explode it did. But misfire? Well, that was probably up for debate.
"Major?" Viktoriya stared at the girl in front of her, barely into her teens and still just a little bit older than she remembered her being.
Tanya von Degurechaff turned towards her, rifle readied, computation-orb active, and not a single glimpse of recognition in her eyes.
Somehow, that hurt a lot more than any of her failures with magic during all of these years.
XXX
The voice wasn't one she remembered, the face wasn't one she recognized either, but the tone was familiar in an eerily distant way.
More importantly, Tanya was currently surrounded by unknowns.
She'd been mid-flight when some kind of green light had appeared directly in front of her, not giving her any time to evade, and then gravity had flipped a few times over, and now she was here. Wherever 'here' was.
There was only a single adult included in the group, a man who looked every inch a wary soldier, even if he was unarmed. It was possible that that was an illusion, but Tanya had gotten very good at seeing through those over the years, and the closest thing to a computation-orb that she could spot was the man's staff.
Actually, a number of students had either staffs or small wooden-... Were those wands? Where the hell was she that wands were still a thing?
They were standing in the courtyard of a castle, and the castle looked very much like it belonged in the Ildoan countryside, except that it looked good as new. Well, there were signs of wear on the stones, but that just made it more obvious that it was still in use.
A European castle, mages with wands, and a strange portal that'd suddenly brought her here.
There was no doubt, this was definitely another one of Being X's ploys. Though what exactly they were hoping to gain by throwing her back in time – or was this another new world? – Tanya couldn't imagine.
Tanya turned her attention back to the one who'd spoken up. She'd called her 'Major', but it'd sounded like-... It reminded Tanya a bit of how her subordinates sometimes used to call her, stunned and awed and happy to see her despite the straightening of their backs.
'Admiration', that was the word.
She hadn't heard someone call her like that since-... Since she'd lost Lieutenant Serebryakov.
These days, whatever admiration was being felt was overshadowed by a furious determination not to let her down. They'd gone from jokingly trading barbs, to snapping their mouths shut as if she was a moment away from leveling her gun at them for disrespect.
Losing the Lieutenant had been a massive blow for morale, and – even in the years since – the 203'd hadn't managed to recover from it. It wasn't even anything that Tanya could order them to improve upon, because for all of the grimness surrounding them, there had been no arguing with their excellent results in the field.
The girl looked to be about Tanya's age, and had long pink hair, and the kind of slack-jawed expression on her face that Tanya would expect from someone meeting an idol.
How in the hell could this girl know anything at all about Tanya if this was back in time, or another world entirely? Tanya doubted that Being X had given the girl prophetic dreams about her, because in that case she ought to be reaching for some kind of weapon. That was usually how people on Being X's side reacted to Tanya.
The girl blinked as her eyes met Tanya's, before snapping off a perfect Imperial salute with the kind of instinctual ease of someone who'd been doing it for years. And then she paused, looking suddenly nervous as she appeared to remember where she was.
It was the exact same expression that Tanya remembered seeing on-...
A chill went down Tanya's spine.
"Visha?" Tanya could barely recognize her own voice, her mouth having gone dry in terror at the idea that Being X would so brazenly reach out and interfere with her life once more.
She hated Being X, but she was also painfully aware that their meddling tended to be subtle and indirect, not reaching out and grabbing people around her and forcing them to reincarnate elsewhere.
Who was to say that the enemies she'd shot down over the years hadn't reincarnated here as well? An endless horde of malicious individuals all out for vengeance? How was she supposed to fight back against that kind of loosely connected danger?
Damn that self-proclaimed god!
XXX
Viktoriya hadn't even really needed to fake the outrage she'd aimed at Professor Colbert when he'd tried to push her to 'finish the summoning-contract'.
The idea of turning the Major into a familiar was horrifying. In no small part because she might use that as an excuse to send Viktoriya back to that hellish training of hers, but also because it was Tanya von Degurechaff, and the idea that Viktoriya would somehow be higher-ranked than her was enough to make Viktoriya break into a cold-sweat.
However, the nobles of this world were extremely religious and were all wholly convinced that magic was proof of their nobility. As in, since the Major could use magic, she'd be considered a noble. Probably not to the point where they'd consider her a 'proper' noble, but as long as Viktoriya leaned on that argument it should be fine.
After all, even if refusing to bind a familiar summoned by the ritual would be heretical, the idea of binding a noble to another noble like that was significantly more heretical still. Or, at least, Viktoriya was pretty sure she could spin it like that.
The Major was better at this kind of stuff than Viktoriya was, but Viktoriya didn't have the time to lean on her this time. She needed to make sure that nobody could argue against Viktoriya not binding the Major as her familiar, before anyone kicked up enough of a fuss that the Church – who cared a lot about what classified as heresy or not – decided to start paying attention to the situation, and perhaps decide that the familiar-bond was more important than the Major's ability with magic.
In a fight between the Church and the Major, Viktoriya would put her money on the Major. But she also knew that the Major was a very devout person, and even if the Church worshiped 'Brimir' rather than god, Viktoriya doubted that the Major would be happy to raise a hand against the clergy.
No, it would be best to avoid – or at the very least postpone – that kind of confrontation. And the trick to doing that was to 'notice' that the Major was a mage, and then loudly decry the idea of binding a fellow noble as her familiar, whilst at the same time apologizing profusely and publicly to the Major about involving her in Viktoriya's magical mishap.
And if the Major's voice echoed in her ears, then that wasn't anyone's business but her own. She was just surprised, that was all. She'd never heard the Major-... no, Tanya, sound so-...
She'd sounded like she'd been choking back tears.
XXX
The language of this world sounded a lot like a very strange mix between Francois and Ildoan. It wasn't anything that Tanya felt remotely comfortable to hold a discussion in, but she was fairly convinced she could pick up the gist of it without too much hardship.
For example, this world was highly religious, and magic was seen as proof of their Founder's favor. In other words, only mages were allowed to be nobles, and the idea of enslaving a noble was heresy.
As apparently Tanya had gotten tangled into a holy summoning-ritual that was supposed to let the user enslave whatever animal came out of it? Tanya was breathtakingly relieved that it was Visha on the other side, or things could've ended really badly.
Beyond that, this place was a school in a small kingdom that happened to be right in the middle of a bunch of much larger kingdoms. One of those kingdoms – named Albion, but apparently with no relation to the Allied Kingdom – was in the midst of a civil war, and another – named Germania, but again with no relation to the Empire – was somewhat infamous for allowing commoners to purchase a noble title.
Being a small country, with strong and scary neighbors, obviously Tristain was planning to ally with another kingdom. In this case, the alliance that was being courted was with Germania, which hopefully said some good things about Tristain's good sense.
Tradition was useful, but nobles were generally really particular about only marrying other nobles, and if there wasn't a constant influx of new blood from somewhere, the whole lot of them would likely die from inbreeding sooner or later.
Solving that problem by allowing rich merchants to purchase a title of their own, thus contributing magnificently to the country's coffers in the process, was a very clever tactic.
However, as with most elite groups, the nobles would likely despise this kind of rationality, seeing as it 'diluted' their own importance by making the group of nobles larger. Exclusivity was a very good selling point, but only until the people you were selling it to began to realize how many others they were sharing that 'exclusivity' with.
The fact that Tristain's monarchy were willing to expose their own nobility to that same kind of 'dilution' by courting the more powerful country? It said some good things about their ability to outmaneuver the disapproval of their nobles, or at least some sensible things about their willingness to reform their society to cut away some of their less useful members.
Regardless, with how Visha had constantly brought their attention back to Tanya's magical ability, it seemed that Tanya had for now been classified as a fellow noble. A very foreign noble, considering that none of them had heard of her family-name before. Not to mention how apparently all of Halkeginia shared a single language, so it was rather blatantly obvious that Tanya must be from faraway lands indeed to have such a fractured grasp of their language.
It was possible that there'd be members of the school who'd assume that her issues with speaking meant that she was simply unintelligent in some manner, but Tanya shouldn't have any issues with proving them wrong. It would take her a while to master the language to the point of adequacy, but in the meantime there were plenty of ways to outsmart people without using words. Though, admittedly, that wasn't really a priority.
Much more important was for Tanya to establish an acceptable identity that didn't constantly bring to mind whatever questionable traditions could be traced back to her arrival.
Visha might've stopped Tanya from being enslaved by calling her a fellow noble, but who was to say for how long that kind of thing would remain valid. Perhaps Tanya would be considered a spy and arrested, perhaps some obnoxious priest would show their face and proclaim that it was 'god's will' that Tanya be a slave, perhaps something else and equally unexpected would happen.
In the end, all that Tanya could do was work with what she had available to her.
And part of that was pumping Visha for as much information as she could manage.
XXX
Of course Kirche had been aware of Louise de la Valliere long before she actually met the girl. Their families had been rivals for generations, and it was just common sense to keep an eye on them for when they would inevitably clash once again.
For all that she'd known about her however, Kirche had quickly found that she'd vastly underestimated how bad Louise was with magic – practical demonstrations at least, her theoretical work was second to none.
But despite her many failures with magic, and despite her lackluster figure, Kirche had never quite 'figured out' Louise.
Kirche was good at reading people. She liked reading people, in no small part because of how their attentions would inevitably be dragged towards herself. It was great fun to see the devout second-guess themselves, or to see the proud falter in their steps.
Tabitha was a good friend, and could be rather enigmatic at times, but that was mostly down to the girl just having a good poker-face. Once Kirche had gotten to know her, it'd quickly became clear who Tabitha was as a person.
Kirche still didn't have a single clue about what made Louise tick.
The girl was dutifully devout, dedicated to her studies, and perfectly polite even in the face of outright mockery. Despite this she didn't seem to actually care about any of it. Not the Founder Brimir, or her failures with magic, or even with how people looked at her.
Louise de la Valliere was like a doll, disturbing though it was to make the comparison considering some of the personal secrets that Tabitha had entrusted Kirche with. She acted out her part, but didn't think or feel much of anything at all about the part.
If Kirche hadn't known that the Valliere had no need for such a thing – and that they were ideologically opposed to it – she would've probably assumed that Louise was in fact some kind of golem. Created by her parents to act out a part, and unable to become emotionally invested enough in the script to actually do something with it.
That is, that's what Kirche would've thought up until Louise summoned a familiar.
A human familiar.
Tanya von Degurechaff was a noble from a distant land, and Kirche had seen more life-like expressions from Louise in those few frantic minutes than she'd seen in the months before that.
Now, Kirche wasn't a mind-reader or anything, but she was very good at reading people.
And she could've sworn-...
For a moment there. For one breathtaking moment, Kirche had been certain that Louise had summoned her long-lost lover.
The moment of recognition from both sides, the awe and wonder in their eyes, the tremble of their fingers as if terrified of reaching out and being proven wrong-...
For one moment, Kirche had been convinced that Louise de la Valliere and Tanya von Degurechaff were long-lost lovers, reunited again despite their own certainty that it could never happen.
And then Kirche actually met Tanya von Degurechaff, and all of her convictions about their supposed relationship went flying out the window.
Clearly, the girl was some kind of devil in disguise.
XXX
Jean wasn't entirely sure what to think of Tanya von Degurechaff.
From early on, it'd been apparent that the girl was some form of soldier, what with the complicated-looking musket that she'd been summoned with. Not that Jean was entirely sure why a mage would need to rely on a musket, when they could simply use magic to likely much greater effect.
Perhaps their country frowned upon using magic to directly cause someone's death, perhaps the musket was simply something everyone was armed with regardless of if it would be useful, or perhaps the girl had some specific reason to rely on a musket to do the job.
Jean honestly didn't want to think too deeply on the subject, much like he didn't like thinking about fire and screams and ash in his mouth and blood on his hands-...
However, Miss Degurechaff was very open about speaking of her country, even if Jean was quite certain that the girl wasn't sharing anything that she didn't consider to be 'common knowledge' about it.
It'd caused a bit of a commotion to have the girl speak of the Empire of Germania and the Unified Kingdom of Albion, but beyond those two eerily familiar names, she'd mention a dozen others that nobody else had ever heard of.
In return, Miss Degurechaff had never heard of Halkeginia, Tristain, or even Gallia.
By all accounts, the girl came from a different world entirely. A world that had been steeped in war for years upon years. A war that she'd been part of since the very beginning, despite her young age.
She didn't speak of what exactly had happened during that war, but considering how her lips thinned, Jean was willing to guess that it was less due to lack of knowledge and more due to not wishing to speak of it.
Jean could understand that.
Beyond the name of her country, and some scattered anecdotes of her own personal history and the war, there wasn't much she would speak of. She had no family or friends beyond her subordinates and superiors, and the closest thing to a hobby that she was willing to express was a fondness for sweets.
Accepted into the army from an early age, promoted time and time again, and finally knighted. Tanya von Degurechaff was the commander of a battalion of mages, and despite her clear loyalties towards her country, she'd already resigned herself to living out the rest of her life in Tristain.
It'd been chilling, hearing a girl no older than their own students, explain in a patiently calm voice that there was no such thing as 'summoning-magic' in her world. And that even if she could somehow return, she'd likely only put her superiors in the awkward position of having to sentence her to death for desertion, since they'd never believe her.
In truth, Jean couldn't imagine what it might be like to be forced to abandon everything you'd fought your entire life to protect. He might've abandoned the military back then in due haste, but his name had still opened more than a few doors.
Miss Degurechaff didn't even have that. Her name was a complete unknown in this world, and she knew very little about Halkeginia or their traditions.
In light of that, when Miss Degurechaff had somewhat hesitantly asked to look at Jean's inventions to see if a new perspective on things would help, what could he do other than accept?
XXX
"What do you mean 'explode'?"
Viktoriya sighed, resigned to explaining it, but frustrated at the situation. "Whether I use the magical system of this world, or the one belonging to the Empire, every spell I use destabilizes and then explodes."
The Major had been very busy, trying to establish some form of life for herself in a world where she hadn't even existed a few days ago. Even so, it hadn't taken the Major long to realize that Viktoriya had maybe been avoiding the subject of 'magic' for a reason.
Saying that the Major had taken to Tristain's Academy of Magic like a duck to water would've been greatly exaggerating things. However, in the span of only a few days she'd managed to befriend several members of the staff, made some discrete inroads to having a legally official identity established by the Crown, and started poking at some of Professor Colbert's many inventions with the critical eye of someone who knew how they should work.
In other words, it was entirely possible that the Major would end up going down in the history of Halkeginia as the founder of the industrial revolution. Which wasn't something Viktoriya had even considered as a possibility.
Viktoriya had of course seen the stagnation of science in favor of the magic of nobles, but she'd always viewed it with the resignation of knowing that she couldn't exactly change anything about it. Except, mere days into her arrival, the Major had moved to do just that.
The Major really was a force of nature in some ways.
"So even explosive spells explode unpredictably and incorrectly." The Major summarized, a thoughtful frown on her face.
Viktoriya nodded, feeling defeated more than anything. She'd tried everything at this point.
"How about using the magical system of this world to create your own version of a spell?" The Major suggested.
Viktoriya blinked at her, feeling a bit stunned. "But-...?"
"As the nobility of this world have proven, magic is definitely biological." The Major explained. "With that in mind, their magical system might be tailored for their biology, which would explain your difficulties with the Empire's magic. You're a person born into this world, after all. However, if none of the spells that should work for you are working for you, you just need to invent one that does."
Viktoriya stared at the girl who made everything in her life suddenly seem so possible, and couldn't help but smile. There was a reason that the commander of the 203'd was considered a miracle-worker, and Viktoriya had nearly forgotten what it was like to stand by her side
XXX
Tanya doubted that Professor Colbert was the first person to attempt to invent something like this.
It was human nature to poke and prod at things to see how they worked, and then they would inevitably use that knowledge to make new things happen. Even in a world ruled by magic, there was no way that they would've simply discarded the idea of invention.
The fact that none of those inventions could be found likely meant that someone was simply suppressing the development of them.
Tanya felt like she had a fairly good understanding on the nature of nobles. They were people who'd been born into privilege, and who were determined to keep that privilege until they died. Through whatever means necessary.
In other words, anything that could be done to lessen the importance of magic would be highly discriminated against. Whether that be through economical sanctions, assassinations, religious denouncement, or sabotage.
In that sense, getting involved with Professor Colbert was a risk.
However, befriending Professor Colbert through his research was easy, and once she'd made friends with one of the professors, the others would be more willing to view her as a fellow noble. Regardless of her origin.
There was also the knowledge that Tristain was a small country who'd likely be targeted by war in the near future, which meant that it would be desperate for anything that it could use to one-up the enemy.
In other words, if Tanya wanted an industrial revolution to happen, this particular place with these particular circumstances would be her best chance of success. And if it would also serve to undermine the religious worship of the Founder Brimir, then that was really just a farfetched bonus.
Founder Brimir was highly unlikely to also be Being X, but considering Visha and her own presence in this world, it was definitely a possibility.
Despite this laudable goal, on a more personal level Tanya found herself much more interested in unraveling the nature of Visha's magic.
By the simple process of elimination, if Visha couldn't perform any spells related to the four elements of a five-element system, then she was likely born with the fifth type of magic.
Visha didn't seem to have thought of that on her own, likely because such a thing would be heretical according to the people of Halkeginia, and she'd always been a fairly pious person. Which just proved that religion had no place in a reasonable world, when it clearly inhibited a brilliant young woman's ability to think straight.
No, Tanya was keeping quiet about that deduction, because there wasn't really any point in revealing it, even to Visha herself. After all, there weren't any spells that a Void-mage could simply pick up and learn, so Visha would have to invent them from scratch no matter what.
Better to simply side-step the inevitable argument of heresy, and let Visha come to terms with it by herself.
But still, watching Visha concentrating on trying to invent entirely new spells was a fascinating experience.
XXX
Tanya didn't appreciate the idea of being sent on some kind of dangerous undercover-mission by the princess of the country.
Oh, it was a lot better than being sent onto the front-lines, but considering how their mission would be taking them into an active war-zone, that was a bit like splitting hairs.
Regardless, when your superior asked you to do something for them as a personal favor, you didn't shut the door in their faces. Even if they were inexperienced with planning such things to the point where they tried to send a highly visible high-ranked officer along with you.
Tanya was very fond of meat-shields, but only when including them wouldn't immediately make the mission much more difficult to succeed with. She also wasn't happy with the idea of some idiot noble without any experience with undercover-missions suddenly being put in a place where he was directly in charge of their mission.
After all, the man clearly outranked them, so he would be assuming the position of leadership by default.
It was enough to make Tanya want to tear her hair out.
XXX
Henrietta had decided to rely on Louise for this mission, because she'd known that the girl had summoned a knight of some sort. A mage who'd lived through a war, despite her young age. And just as she'd known that Louise could be trusted with this kind of mission, she'd been convinced that her strange familiar would keep her safe.
Despite that, Henrietta wasn't entirely sure what she'd expected from her old friend's human familiar, but seeing the tiny girl begin bristling the moment Louise's fiance had been mentioned was-...
Henrietta considered herself fairly adept at reading people. She had to be, considering her position. And for all that the blonde girl offered some very logical reasons for not including someone as highly ranked as Wardes on their undercover mission, all that Henrietta could see was a burning furious jealousy in her eyes.
Considering that Louise's eyes rarely strayed far from her familiar, as well as the fond and awed smiles she sent the other girl's way, Henrietta was fairly convinced that whatever feelings there was between them were mutual.
And Henrietta was certainly not going to condemn her childhood friend to the same kind of loveless life that awaited herself. So she allowed herself to be convinced by the soundness of the argument, and she silently wished both of them well.
XXX
Entering an active war-zone seemed almost nostalgic to Viktoriya. It wasn't the same, of course, and they were really planning on skirting the edges of the fighting, but it definitely brought back memories.
Having Henrietta bring up Wardes had been-... The only time Viktoriya could remember feeling so much like sinking through the floor, had been during the war. Specifically, when she'd been desperately digging away with her shovel, in order to put as much dirt as possible between herself and the artillery raining down around them.
Viktoriya had a fiance. Who she never talked to, and whose only interest in her seemed to be related to her family. And Henrietta brought him up in front of the Major, of all people.
Tanya von Degurechaff had been a commoner born into an orphanage, who'd fought her way through the ranks with unparalleled excellence, to the point where she'd been granted the title of nobility.
In comparison, Viktoriya had been engaged to some knight on her noble family's behest, coasting along on their laurels as if they were her own.
Viktoriya had been more than happy that the Major had chosen to concentrate her attention on the awkward idea of sending a high-ranked and highly visible member of a knightly order on a secret mission.
It hadn't taken a lot for the Major to convince Henrietta that even the most secret of missions could be back-tracked if the people involved in them were public enough that people would be able to trace where they'd gone.
In other words, they could definitely do with the man's aid. However, if they brought him along, everyone would know that Henrietta had sent Wardes on a secret mission to Albion. Maybe they wouldn't be able to guess at the exact reason, but that it was somehow related to the royal family of Albion was only to be expected.
So, with Henrietta not actually wanting anyone to know about her message to the prince of Albion, she'd withdrawn the offer of sending Viktoriya's fiance along with them. Thank Brimir.
Now Viktoriya just had to go back to an active war-zone in order to save Tristain from the whims of a young maiden's heart. But at least she had the Major at her back again.
And really, she could feel her step lighten at the mere thought.
XXX
Tanya didn't know who the mage trying to kill them was, but that hadn't ever actually mattered before. More important than 'who' were the tactics that the mage was using.
In this case, it could be summed up as 'creates big earth-based automaton' and then 'stands on the automaton's shoulder and yells'.
Not the best of tactics, for catching two unencumbered mages who weren't defending an immovable objective. Not technically the worst either, seeing as the mage was at least able to aim the automaton vaguely in their direction.
All in all, it was a rather pathetic showing, except for one thing. The mage had been looking for them, knowing that they'd been sent on some kind of mission.
Tanya didn't know if that meant that the mage was a spy, or if they were simply connected to a spy-network, or if it'd been some bizarrely contrived coincidence that had let this mage intercept them.
But, from the way that she was creating a scene, Tanya also knew that sooner or later someone rational would put the data-points together and realize that Tristain had sent an undercover mission to Albion.
It didn't matter if they eliminated the mage, or tracked down the entire spy-network that they might possibly be connected to. The 'secret' part of their mission had clearly been compromised.
Aborting the mission early wouldn't really matter either, because someone would figure out that they'd tried. And trying translated to 'doing' as far as politics was concerned. At least when it was a thing people could blame someone else for, preferably someone they disliked.
It wasn't rational at all, and Tanya loathed it. But at least if they completed the mission, they could blame someone on the Princess's side of things about the information-leak that made their mission not-perfect.
That said, disengaging from the unknown mage, and making their way to Albion wasn't exactly easy.
Tanya – and Visha, though not as well – could fly. That gave them a leg-up in maneuverability, but it wouldn't be enough to see them all the way to Albion.
Apparently, the flying island did some wonky things to the nearby wind-currents, so even if they'd managed to fly all the way there under their own power, they'd simply be smashed to pieces on Albion's edge.
So, they needed to find a suitable ship, but they'd have to shake off the mage before they could get to the 'harbor' and hire said ship. And the mage knew it too, because they kept moving back to the harbor whenever they lost sight of them.
Sometimes, Tanya truly despised having a rational enemy.
XXX
XXX
[Lots of stuff happened, Tanya kept networking with people, and technically becomes a spy-master etc etc. The war still went more-or-less the same as canon.
And now Visha has been tasked with single-handedly using her Void-magic to cover the retreat from Albion.]
XXX
Tanya had run out of excuses.
She had a clear path out. It wasn't necessarily an easy path, but it was definitely a lot less risky than staying. In fact, staying wasn't so much 'risky' as it was 'certain death'.
Visha had been asked to cover the army's retreat.
Visha, not Tanya.
Oh, Tanya had very politely and very officially accepted responsibility for Visha's safety from her parents. She had however also been careful to point out that war didn't really allow for 'good intentions', and she could probably lean on that in order to get out of any attempted vengeance that the Valliere family might decide to take on her for abandoning Visha.
She had her path out. The queen had very specifically ordered Visha to remain behind, and Tanya's magic would be extremely useful for aiding in the evacuation and retreat.
Logically, reasonably, Tanya's path was obvious.
But she wasn't taking it.
Empty eyes staring up at her from a familiar face-...
Tanya couldn't take it.
Her only option was to stay.
Stay and die by Visha's side.
Tanya supposed that this must be what love was. A crippling madness that stole away the ability for even reasonable individuals to make any kind of logical decision.
That it could dig its roots so deeply into even someone as sensible as herself proved that nobody was immune. Truly, it was no wonder why everyone acted so irrational all the time, if this was the truth of the matter.
Tanya could leave, but she couldn't leave Visha. Not again. She couldn't stand before Visha's coffin again. Never again. Better to just let it end here, side-by-side.
Who knew? This would be the second deaths for both of them, so maybe they could go to wherever came next together.
XXX
[Epic battle, during which Visha and Tanya constantly retreat towards the edge of Albion, banking on the unlikely hope that they might be able to leap off the edge to safety.
Note that mages can't survive the fall, because the height and the wind messes with the levitation-magic for that kind of distance. So it's not much of a hope.
However, a final attack causes an explosion large enough to break away a small piece of Albion's edge. Fade to black.]
XXX
"Repent, Viktoriya Serebryakov! Repent, Louise Francois le Blanc de la Valliere!" A voice boomed in the nothingness. "Denounce the Devil, denounce Tanya von Degurechaff!"
Tanya blinked blearily at the constantly shifting face of Being X.
Oh, guess the bastard still had jurisdiction here, despite not having met with Visha prior to her reincarnation – that Visha could remember anyway.
"Repent, and you can finally-...!" Being X was interrupted by a fist to the face.
"You're no god of mine!" Visha screamed at their face, and then she pulled out her rifle.
Standing in the endless void that was some kind of limbo between lives, and watching Visha drive back Being X with nothing more than magically-reinforced lead, Tanya would readily admit to never having loved her as fiercely as she did in that moment.
XXX
A/n: I'm very fond of Tanya. She's an extremely interesting character when done well. Unfortunately, writing her often felt like pulling teeth, and even if I managed to make a really extensive outline for this fic, that doesn't really matter if I can't bring myself to write the actual story.
But yeah, I couldn't bring myself to writing down the epilogue that I'd planned, if I didn't have the story leading up to it to support it.
It mainly just amounted to:
Tanya and Visha beat Being X
They escape limbo
They wake up underneath Albion as if they simply fell all that way and lived (specifically, they wake up some distance from Tarbes *hint hint title-drop*)
They go on to live long and happy lives together, sex included
The Pope keeps his mouth shut about same-sex relationships, because Tanya has so much blackmail on everyone thanks to her spy-network.
