From the Ashes of Victory: The Complete Series, page 191
part #0 of From the Ashes of Victory Series
"I've got a few more centuries in me, I would've waited. Glad I didn't have to, though."
"Me, too. And it is gratifying to see you better. You seem much recovered." Vickie's features pinched into an inward curse. "That is, grief can—"
"I know what you mean, it's all right. And true. I feel better. Paying a visit to Niamh after I came home helped," Millie said. And even more than she let on. She'd been able to sleep the entire night every night since; the kind of deep, restful sleep she hadn't had since Germany.
"I'm glad to hear it." Few in Millie's life understood exactly the kind of help she'd meant better than Vickie, and it made her all the more grateful for her friendship.
Still, whether it was the reminder of the events around Niamh's death or the simple fact it was a bit nippy this early, Vickie's gaze flicked to the coppery fuzz dusting Millie's head. "Sorry."
Millie ran a hand over the first sprouts of what would become an entire jungle of curls if she let it. "Don't be. I actually wanted to talk to you about it."
Vickie's brow knitted itself together. "Oh?"
"I'm thinking about shaving it down to the skin again. Starting to look like a bottle brush." Just long enough to be stiff, her hair was grippier than the soles of her shoes. "What do you think?"
"I think I am not the one to ask, let alone about aesthetics. You should do what makes you happy. Or perhaps more importantly, what makes Elise happy," Vickie said.
"Learning all the right lessons, I see," Millie teased. "She said she was fine either way. I will say though, you can deflect all you want about 'aesthetics', but I understand your choices about wardrobe better now. 'Might go get a few suits made if I keep it like this."
"Freeing, isn't it? They'll certainly be easier to find in your size, at least."
Millie chuckled. "Come shoe shopping with me some time if you want to talk about that."
"Touché."
A moment of contemplative silence passed before Millie's true reason for bringing it up came rushing out. "Vickie… walking the deck of the ferry with Elise on my arm and no-one looking at us twice… it felt incredible. Like we had stepped into the future."
A tiny crook lifted the corner of Vickie's lips. No-one had been more supportive of Millie and Elise's relationship, but it was still hard to believe that Vickie truly understood now. Her eyes spoke it louder and more eloquently than even she was capable of putting into words. "Much has changed with remarkable swiftness already. Perhaps… hopefully, that future is none too distant."
"Wouldn't that be something?"
"It would." Vickie's thoughts seemed to drift somewhere else. "Katya quite likes the sight of me in a tuxedo…" They snapped right back quicker than they'd left. Mostly. "Er, that is…"
Millie smiled. "I bet she does. Now, since we live next door to each other, we can gabble on as much as we want later. It's a bit echo-y and… big in here, anyway."
"Indeed," Vickie said, clearly grateful for the lifeline. "What were the ideas you wanted to go over before I commandeered this exercise?"
"I want you to drop me."
Vickie peered up at Millie with a raised eyebrow. Not a single sign of objection, just curiosity, as Millie had hoped. "Drop you?" She looked up at the ceiling nearly three stories away. "To what purpose?"
Some of Millie's euphoric haze faded, burned off by the sobering light that had lit up Vickie's features earlier. "I want to practice falling. I didn't have a backup plan for getting Selene out of the tower; I didn't anticipate her being hurt. Having to leave Kat behind… Vickie—"
She held up a hand. "Please don't. It was Katya's choice. Continue."
Millie nodded her thanks. They'd talked about it already more than once, but every time it came up the urge to apologise came right back with it. "If something like that happens again, I want to be better prepared."
"Understandable. Why do you need me?"
"I don't want to know when it's going to happen. I want not only to be able to fall better, but react faster, not need a plan. And, quite frankly, jumping off the roof over and over again would make me look like a maniac. Bad example for the girls, too," Millie said.
"Agreed on all counts. Very well." Vickie looked from Millie up to the ceiling and back as if judging the distance, but with her Manifest, she probably knew it down to some unit of measure you had to be a doctor of physics to even have heard of. "What would you have me do?"
"Elise says you know how to properly fly now. Sideways, like a real rave-"
Vickie cleared her throat. "I have… achieved a degree of horizontal levitation that—"
"You can fly, Vickie."
The floor held a sudden fascination. "Yes."
That Kat had found a way to get Vickie to concede an argument gracefully made her already formidable talents even more impressive.
"But you're really just flying your clothes, right? You just happen to be in them?"
"I am."
"So do it to mine. Fling me up to the ceiling and let go. You might even be able to see what I'm doing wrong," Millie said, tossing an extra bit of meat at the Raven's feet.
"Impacting the ground would do much the same."
"Not if I land on my head. So will you help?"
A new smile split Vickie's lips, revealing teeth eager to sink into a new challenge. "I would be delighted."
Normally, the witches of EVE lined up outside the residence to welcome a sister witch, for the first time or the hundredth. For Sveta's return, Katya waited on the airfield tarmac. The time it took for her plane to taxi was long enough, there was no reason to wait any longer, or make Sveta feel any less missed.
At Katya's side was Vita, eyes for all the mechanical bits and bobs necessary to bear one of the highest-profile diplomats in the world all the way to Longstown from Paris in less time than it took a train to do it from London.
"Could you magic it over here faster?" Katya asked only half in jest. She could sense Sveta's Manifest as the plane approached, and the wait was becoming excruciating.
"I would rather spare the pilot any surprises, my light. Her declaring an emergency now would have quite the opposite effect of the one you intended," Vita said.
How far things had come that Katya barely registered that the pilot was a woman. In Longstown that was the norm, and one of the reasons so many pilots outside of it were women; many had been involved in the development of the aircraft themselves and knew Long hardware better than anyone.
But all that mattered to Katya was that whoever was at the controls had gotten it on the ground in one piece, which meant Sveta was home, and Katya's Coven, however temporarily, could be at least be partly reassembled.
When the door finally opened, Sveta emerged, green eyes surveying the place she had called home for so long. Her auburn hair had been shorn into a short bob, and she was dressed as the impeccable professional she was, in a suit-and-skirt combination of neutral greys and dark blue. In each hand she held a briefcase, with two flat document satchels slung over each shoulder.
When her attention finally turned downward, her smile struck Katya right where she'd needed to be struck, the long-needed scratch to an itch she hadn't been able to reach in months.
"Hello again, Headmistress. Permission to disembark?" Sveta said as she clunked down the metal stairs.
"Granted… what was your title again?" Katya teased.
"'The British Representative to the Committee on Women's Affairs.' It should be longer for all that I do, but introductions are tedious enough as it is."
They held each other's gaze for a beat before Sveta's smile completely inverted, and she threw her arms around Katya, fingertips clutching at her back. "I'm so sorry for everything that's happened. Had I gone to Germany with Angelique, none of it would have—"
"Ssh, it's all right. The only ones to blame are dead."
Sveta sniffed and pulled back to look Katya in the eye. Gold filaments threaded their way across twin fields of mossy green as Sveta opened her Manifest to Katya's thoughts. "We can talk about that later, I promise."
Katya nodded. "Thank you."
"And thank you for not hiding the happy parts," Sveta said with a renewed smile, turning to Vita with a wink. "Hello Doctor, it's good to see you again."
Chit-chat and conversation appropriate for public ears saw them along the considerable walk back to EVE, where Carice was waiting at the gate. "Svetlana! Ya skuchal po tebe!"
"I missed you too, Mistress," Sveta said. "Hmm, it sounds funnier in English."
Carice set her hands on Sveta's shoulders and looked her up and down, faint golden fireflies dancing amidst her redwood eyes. "Look at you! A diplomat. A credit to all of witchkind."
"Thank you, Mistress. Now I know where all those lines on Papa's face came from," Sveta said. "But I wouldn't be doing anything else."
More welcomes, from students and staff alike, bore them into the main building and up the stairs to the conference room, where Millie and Elise were already waiting.
Sveta heaved her bags into a chair and made a beeline directly for Millie, eyes glazed over gold. She looked between her and Elise, confusion brewing on her face. "Extraordinary. It's so much stronger than when I left. Your magics are… mixed. How is that even possible?"
"Wish I knew, we've asked everyone there is to ask. Hello, by the way," Millie said.
Shaking her head with a self-effacing laugh, Sveta's eyes returned to normal with the closing off of her Manifest, letting her finish her greetings the old-fashioned way: with questions and heartfelt interest. She seemed almost relieved by the answers, and was freely tactile with others in a way that would have been impossible when Katya first met her.
More than an already-accomplished diplomat, Sveta was a witch in full control of her extraordinary gift, and Katya couldn't help the surge of pride that swelled within her. From barely being able to function around others, Sveta now threaded through conversation and social interaction with a seasoned aplomb that didn't require a psychic Manifest. It was in her blood—she'd been watching others do it since she was old enough to talk. But it was her extraordinary hard work at recovering from the events of the revolution that had made her into who she had become.
When Selene arrived it became time to get down to the business that had dragged Sveta away from some of the most important negotiations of the 20th century.
She started by explaining how she had time to return to EVE in the first place: "All the German political parties have agreed to continue the talks as they are, but with the election happening next week, we just lack people to talk to. We'll begin again in earnest once a government is formed. For now, I have quite a bit of work to discuss with you before we can catch up."
Sheafs upon sheafs worth of bloated files bound with string were disgorged from her four diplomatic bags. "Each of these is an item I officially need EVE's response to and input on. Some of them are, to be perfectly honest, perfunctory, as the language has largely been settled, but others will lack any kind of legitimacy without the most prominent witches in the world having their say. In very real ways, you will be speaking on behalf of all of witchkind in Europe, so please don't take it lightly."
Sveta glanced up, the gold in her eyes glittering above a tiny smile she did nothing to stop. "I know, Vita, but I have to say things like that now. For what it's worth, I'm genuinely looking forward to discussing these proposals with you. I miss talking to people who enjoy getting to the point without faffing about first."
"How is your coming here not seen as a conflict of interest?" Vita asked, proving Sveta's point whether she meant to or not.
"Because nothing I take away from here is binding. I'm to consult with you and help shape what will go into the final proposals, not draft them from scratch. That, and the considerable trust issues I illustrated between witches and… let's say 'authority', made it an easy sell. Quite frankly, no-one other than Angelique knows how to deal with you. Us."
"They still think us a den of harpies or some other such rubbish?" Vita asked with naked contempt.
"Superficially. It's a defence mechanism. The reality is that they are intimidated by the thought of coming up here and saying the wrong thing. You wield more power than you think, well beyond magic. They saw what happened in Germany and it scares the piss out of them," Sveta said with a smile. It faded quickly. "Not because of the fire, Katya. Because…"
It was only natural for a diplomat to want to choose her words carefully, but Katya could see in Sveta's eyes that her hesitation came from elsewhere. Even amongst her sisters, the choice wasn't how to speak, but if.
"Vita, a silencing screen, please," Katya said, and immediately got.
Sveta whistled. "I forgot about that. Useful trick in my circles. Thank you."
"What were you saying about Germany?" Vita asked so Katya wouldn't have to.
"Yes, thank you. Remember, the rest of the world thinks the Nazis started the fire, so that's not the issue. It's what you did for Helga. I don't have a complete picture, but from what I've picked up from the German delegation, her movement is growing faster than anyone could have thought, and at the perfect time. It's another reason so many are keen to get your input on all this." Sveta tossed a hand over the files on the table.
"Us? What do we have to do with how the German election will turn out?" Katya asked. She could think of an answer, she just hoped it wasn't the one forming behind Sveta's eyes.
"People think very loudly about witches when I'm about, strangely. And one of those thoughts is that you made her. That photograph of her at the rally standing alone covered in witchscale surrounded by falling bodies galvanised the country." Sveta's gaze flicked to Millie. "There are even whispers of her being a dark horse candidate for chancellor."
The silence that followed took up physical space, displacing the air in the room so much it made Vita cough. "You cannot be serious."
Sveta gave a little shrug, arranging some of the files in an order only she knew the logic to. "She's a folk hero at this point, but also an inexperienced woman. The powers-that-be need her popularity, but also someone they can control. Make her a figurehead of sorts while the real politics goes on behind closed doors."
"Control a Manifested witch?" Millie asked.
"No-one accused said powers of being terribly smart. Besides, there's almost no chance of it happening; there's change, and then there's change. Regardless, your reputation now includes queenmaker, at least amongst a few."
"Bollocks to that," Katya said before she could stop herself. "Helga Manifested fighting for those 'few', to say nothing of everything she's done since. We won't take an ounce of credit for what she's done. All we did was give her advice and encouragement, nothing more."
"Yes, but that's complicated. The easy story is that she was nothing, then EVE showed up, Hitler tried to kill her and now she's beloved by the common folk for standing up to him on their behalf. I say let them have it. There's no-one more common than witches, and if people see us as a proxy and that gives them hope enough to change things?" Sveta threw up her hands. "At any rate, that's why I'm here."
Sveta opened the topmost file in front of her, but Vita gave voice to the primary concern amongst her audience before they found out what it contained.
"What of Versailles?"
"That's been sorted for weeks," Sveta said with what almost sounded like disinterest.
Katya nearly spat out her tea. "What? Then what are you doing here? Go sign it!"
"Because we have a chance at something much, much bigger than Versailles, my sisters." Sveta held up a stack of documents like a holy text. "Rewriting a peace treaty will change a lot, but what is under discussion to supersede it could change everything."
A shared look bounced around the table. "Go on," Vita said.
"Versailles has been amended before, some of the restrictions on Germany loosened. This all but unmakes it. The most egregiously punitive measures are going to be rolled back, the war guilt clauses softened considerably, debt forgiveness, German markets opened in exchange for favourable loan rates, lots of other menial details I've gone cross-eyed over more than once. The most important thing to take away is that much of the money pouring into Germany to help stabilise it is from Britain. It's already an immense amount, we just needed to crack the floodgates open to make it ungodly, tying us together at the hip. Angelique had long argued that punishing Germany was only going to build resentment, and the Nazis proved it. The first-hand accounts she brought back, plus all of those horrifying newsreels and pictures in the papers changed a lot of minds very quickly…" Sveta looked up to Millie. "I'm sorry. I know… that is, I don't, but I do…"
Millie found Elise's hand. "It's all right."
"What you saw, what you went through…" Sveta turned between Millie, Katya and Selene. "Niamh… what they tried to do to Helga, it has changed things. For the better. It shouldn't have taken what happened to shake people, but it did, and they were. It opened a window. And it hurts to see in your eyes and feel in your thoughts the pain it caused, but know that what you went through made a difference. None of it was in vain, my sisters. You may have shifted the course of history, even if only a little. The final nudge to push what we've been trying to do for years over the edge."
Elise leaned forward, and spoke for the first time. "Please elaborate on this bigger plan. What can it mean for us?"
Sveta nodded. "Yes, of course. That window you opened could lead to something much bigger. More than a true, final end to the war, we could seal a lasting peace. Permanently. Europe has been tearing itself apart since the fall of Rome. We could sew it together. Bind us so tightly that war becomes unthinkable by making what we helped build here in Britain true for the whole of Europe. Equal work, equal pay, yes. But also equal rights. Including for witches."
The impact of those words reverberated around the room, but shook no-one more than the three elders, who all went numb from shock at once.
Still, Sveta pressed on. "Real, liveable wages, higher health standards, higher education standards, help for working mothers, child care, all the things we've benefitted from over the last half-decade. People on the Continent see us and want it for themselves. When have we ever tried ensuring peace by empowering everyone? Removed the reasons to fight? Happy people are peaceful people."
