cunning grand duchess of russia
born seven years after her brother, tatiana had done all in her might to keep up with her brother. she learned how to read, write and dance from a young age, but her favorite knowledge is the one taught in secrecy, under night’s protective darkness. after continuously annoying alexei’s personal combat trainer for weeks, all at the delicate age of ten, tatia picked up archery and swordfighting as her extracurricular activity. she proves to be a natural in strategy and combat, though she keeps such talents hidden under tall glasses of wine and vodka, her struts, slips and tripping up all artfully played out in crucial times.
she was gifted an intricate sword at the seventeenth birthday by one of the kozak boys who fell in love with her. his name was ivan and he was her first love, a childhood sweetheart, a starcrossed lover. tatiana was aware the childish love will never take root, but she did not expect her father to discover it and cover the kozak’s home in hellish retribution. ivan’s family’s forge was destroyed and her love relocated. she was told he left her in pursuit of another, greater lady. years later she found out the family was eliminated. her rage turned into a weapon. into drunken stupor. into making herself a menace of the vyelobanin court, unmanageable by her father and his trusted men.
tatiana came willingly to santicarno. she was darkly pleased at the threat of the demon from the heavens, a sacrifice the perfect karma for what her father and his court had done to her childhood love. she pretended to forgive and she pretended to forget. it was a love she could not recall but it had been hers in a way so few things at russian court ever were. she finds dark pleasure and peace in the threat of carnage and seeing pyotr terrified and in sheer panic makes her feel better. if it comes to the vote, tatiya knows whose name she will suggesting.
