Chapter Text
Chapter 01
It all started with a book.
And, like all books, it started with a title.
The title was innocuous enough, An Unauthorized Biography of Tanya von Degurechaff. The first run was relatively small, and purely intended for academics and the recesses of dusty military libraries.
But, like some acts of passion, the bounds grew far beyond what its originator ever intended.
Under the title was the name of the author, Professur Frederick Wagner. As a lofty academic, he chose his own projects and intended this to be his final work as he slid into retirement in the post-war period. Despite cuts in the budget and privations experienced by crippling reparations, he had a comfortable pension awaiting him along with some savings and investments that had survived the Great War. Such being said, he had no need of further fame, had no need of remuneration or profits. Thusly, he felt free to pursue the truth without hinderances.
Naturally, there was a price to pay for such a draught of truth, that most heady of drinks.
The book was either too short or too long. The length of time covered, barely half a decade of a child's life should have had barely enough pages to keep the covers apart. Conversely, the tome far exceeded the wildest lives of such a small period.
The foreward, in part, set the tone for the entire book.
When I first started this project, I was prepared to be a light of reason, dispelling the shadows of rumor and myth. But, in the oddest twist, I found that the public accounts profoundly understated the accomplishments of this young woman (then only a child). The more I searched and verified, the more astonished I became. Unburied documents and whispered confidences painted a far different picture than the official record and, it must be said, made far more sense when correlated with confirmed evidence...
...she was, and is, a modern prophetess: telling of visions that she alone can see but only to have her words fall on deaf ears. Perhaps this modest tome can rectify this injustice somewhat.