Murmansk, October 1918
Maria was up early to fetch water. I had a surprise for the Romanov family and since she was the first to awake, I took her with me to the harbour. I told her to close her eyes before we came within sight of the harbour. When I let her open them, she saw the imperial yacht Standart moored in the distance. Her eyes adjusted for a moment before she turned and threw her arms around me, almost throwing me off balance. She missed me so much.
I did the same for her sisters when they awoke, taking them to the yacht one by one. Olga broke down in tears when she saw it and Tatiana almost fell to her knees, crying on my shoulder. Anastasia was the hardest to surprise. She kept trying to peek so I had to blindfold her. She burst into joy after I removed the blindfold. Another surprise for the Romanovs was their friend Anna Vyrubova, whom I managed to locate while in Petrograd. Geralt and I wanted to drop her off in Copenhagen while we continued to Murmansk, but she was eager to be reunited with the Romanov family.
No one in her family or entourage could believe it. Geralt and I liberated the Standart from under the very noses of the Petrograd Soviet. I didn't go into detail as to how we infiltrated Petrograd, the epicentre of Red Terror. What matters is we finally have a ship. Olga said she would've been horrified if she had known what I was planning. She will never forget this. It's been four years since the Romanov family last sailed on the Standart and three years since they last saw it. Soon they will get to sail on her again.
The Standart needs a refit for the long voyage ahead. We planned to depart on November 16, the day after Olga's birthday which would be her last in Russia, but she is prepared to leave as soon as the yacht is ready to sail. It doesn't matter to her where she celebrates her birthday. The Russia she loved is gone. At least she'll get to celebrate her birthday on the Standart, the imperial family's home from home.
While the Standart was in transit through Denmark, the Danish royal family supplied us with provisions for the journey. In return, they asked us to bring the imperial refugees to Copenhagen where they will be granted asylum. Fitting, seeing as the Standart was built there. A few refugees had grown too comfortable in Murmansk, believing evacuation was unnecessary now that the Allies were here. I had to explain to them that the war-weary Allied troops had no desire to fight another conflict and the White Army was politically divided. The anti-Bolshevik movement was a lost cause.
While the Standart was in transit through Denmark, the Danish royal family supplied us with provisions for the journey. In return, they asked us to bring the imperial refugees to Copenhagen where they will be granted asylum. Fitting, seeing as the Standart was built there. A few refugees had grown too comfortable in Murmansk, believing evacuation was unnecessary now that the Allies were here. I had to explain to them that the war-weary Allied troops had no desire to fight another conflict and the White Army was politically divided. The anti-Bolshevik movement was a lost cause.
Before Geralt and I captured the yacht, we went to Moscow to pay Lenin a visit at his dacha, the Bolshevik dictator responsible for murdering the Romanov family. He was recovering from a failed assassination attempt. I let him know I wasn't fooling around, driving a bayonet into the palm of his hand which pinned him to the bed. I threatened him at axe point to leave the Romanov family alone, then we disappeared into the darkness.
I ought to have done the world a favour and put Lenin down. But I didn't travel through time to kill a monster. We've meddled enough with history. The Russians can keep him since they love him so much. He won't live long anyway.
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