Author: Shadow (Vladimira)
Disclaimer: I don't own Willow, Tara, *sigh* Buffy, Faith *droll* and rest of the Scoobies. I also don't own history facts if someone was wondering about that.
Feedback: Very very welcomed!
Spoilers: None. Well except the one where Willow and Tara love each other but you all knew that already... right? This is completely AU.
Notes: Most of the history facts in this fic are real except they probably didn't happen at the same time. Well in my universe strangest of the things happen.
I kidnapped Willow, Tara and others and brought them to my hometown. They could use some European air!
This is happening somewhere in 19 th century I think.
OK here it goes. Hope you like it!
Thanks to Rachel for beta-ing this!
Chapter 1: Evanescence
Rain was falling heavily, and every once in a while lightning would light up the sky. There was no living soul outside. On top of a small hill, there was a big Palace from which you could see the sea very well. A girl with blonde curls was looking through the window; she had a nice light blue dress that fit her perfectly. When she looked closer through the rain, she could see someone with very long hair dancing in the rain at the harbor. She guessed it must be a girl, cause she could see the margins of her dress and at first, she thought that the girl must be insane. But, after looking at her for a moment, she could see the energy that was pouring out of the girl- it was as if life was incredibly strong in her. Her movements were mesmerizing. Like a divine song.
“That is our Countess Willow.” A strong male voice brought her away from her musings. The blonde turned and looked at her father, smiling softly.
“ Hello Father. You’re back already?”
He sat next to her on the windowsill and gently tugged on her blonde curls. “I said that I had to get home to my daughter. Of course I had to promise that I would stay longer next time.” His voice was gentle, and loving.
The girl giggled, and her gaze fell back on the girl in the harbor. “Willow is such a strange name. Pretty. But strange,” her voice was little above a whisper, but her father heard her very well. “ Have you met her?”
“ I once traveled on her fathers ship. People consider the Countess strange.”
The blonde nestled in her father’s arms, her eyes never leaving the girl in the rain. “Is she strange?” She was curious about the dancing girl.
Tara was new in town. Her father had lived in Rijeka for years now while she was at school. Now she just wanted to spend some time with him, so she’d moved to the Palace.
“ You’ll meet her. Her father is coming here tonight. He and I have some business to discuss. She's probably going to come with him. You can judge for yourself.”
The blonde smiled softly to herself. So, she was going to meet this strange girl who likes dancing in the rain. As she looked, Countess Willow reached for the sky with her hands spread wide open.
“ Do you have to go away to do this business?” She was a properly brought up young lady, and knew she had no right asking her father private things like that. But he had always encouraged her to talk with him openly. And she really wanted to spend time with him.
“ Yes. I'll probably have to go to Spain for some time. But I'll come back soon I promise.”
It had always been like this, she remembered. Her father was always on some mission leaving her behind to wait for him. Before she could say anything he stood up.
“ I have to get ready for our guests. I advise you to do the same.”
He closed the big wooden door behind him, and Tara was once again alone in the room. She’d tried everything, even leaving school to be with him, and he still never had any time to just be with her. Before her mother passed away, he’d been the best father she could have wished for. They used to read together, lying in the grass, laughing hard. But then everything changed.
Her eyes went back to the dancing girl and she noticed a tall shadow approaching the Countess. The other girl noticed it too, and jumped into its arms. That's probably her father, she thought, noticing that the shadow was dressed in a captain's uniform.
“I better get ready” she mumbled to herself, and left her place by the window, gazing for the last time at the mysterious girl she was going to meet.
Some time later, she was reading a book called Maleus Maleficarum, a gift she had received from the Holy Inquisition she met during her travel to Rijeka. The book disgusted her, but she had recalled her mother's advice not to meddle in their business. So she just smiled and thanked them, promising she was going to read it.
A soft knock on the door woke her up, and the maid told her that she had a visitor.
“ Let her in.”
The maid bowed, and let the visitor pass by her, bowing even more to her. A girl with long, reddish hair giggled, and pulled the maid's head up.
“Ne moras se klanjati predamnom.”
She addressed maid in a language Tara recognized as Croatian. She couldn't understand a word of it, but somehow it seemed natural for a girl who liked dancing in the rain to speak the language of the common folk. Tara’s knowledge of the Austria- Hungary Empire reminded her that the noblemen spoke Latin or German. Never Croatian.
“ Znam Konteso,” the maid responded, and silently left the room, leaving the two girls all alone. Now for the first time, the redhead laid her eyes on Tara. A slow intake of breath was heard, and then Willow gasped loudly.
“Du bist schön.”
The look on Tara's face reminded Willow that her father had warned her that the blonde didn't speak German, so she translated herself into Latin.
“ I said you were beautiful.”
When the girl blushed, Willow couldn't shake the feeling that she’d said something wrong. She wasn't the most sociable countess in town. Most of the noblemen didn't like her much; cause she was strange, so she didn't spend much time with them and had never learned how to behave when they were around.
“ Sorry, I just say anything that comes into my mind. I grew up on a ship, so words like beautiful are actually the best of my vocabulary.”
Tara giggled, not being able to imagine Willow saying any bad words. She noticed that her red hair was loose, and that two green eyes were watching her carefully. Oh, I'm loving her already! She smiled, and spoke for the first time.
“You are free to say anything you want when you are with me. My name is Tara. Governess Tara.”
Willow smiled back, before remembering that she had to introduce herself Oh Goddess I can't wait to get back on the ship. This is killing me.
“ Countess Willow Amalia Rosenberg of Austria. Pleased to meet you.”
Tara curtsied like she was taught to do when she met someone with a higher rank than hers. Then she remembered another thing.
“ Oh sorry. I should have let you introduce yourself first since you outrank me.”
Willow looked puzzled for a moment, before bursting in to laughter.
“ Really?” she mumbled still laughing “Cause I have no idea about that stuff. I mostly do the wrong thing.”
Now even Tara joined her in laughter.
“Me too! I keep forgetting when to curtsy, and who should be introduced first. My best friend Elizabeth is always teasing me about it.”
She motioned for Willow to sit in the chair and then, waiting for Willow to sit first, sat in the opposite one.
“ Don't do that. You don't have to act like I'm a countess. You're my friend now, and I hate when my friends are acting like that.”
Tara sighed “Really? Cause Elizabeth's my friend and I still have to bow every time we meet. Though she is the princess...”
Tara trailed off, leaving Willow looking amused “Your best friend is the princess of England?”
When the blonde just nodded, she laughed. It was such a nice laugh, Tara thought. Like her whole being was laughing. It was completely opposite to the way that other girls laughed; superficially and false, thinking that no one saw through their mask. But she did. Tara had the ability to feel what other people were feeling. She’d told her mother that once, and she’d made her promise that she would never say it again, scared of Inquisition. But this girl was really laughing, there was nothing superficial and false about Willow.
“Sorry for laughing like that, but you don't strike me as a person who likes to spend time with royalty.”
She wasn't. Elizabeth had chosen her as a companion by pure accident when she was in Spain once. Tara was the first person she’d met there, so it was natural for her to cling to her. At first, that had annoyed Tara as Elizabeth was acting like a spoiled brat. But after a while, she found it nice to spend some time with someone her age, even if that someone was acting like a child. Soon, Tara found herself explaining their friendship to Willow, who was smiling the whole time. When she finished, Willow stood up, making Tara automatically stand up too. Before she knew what happened Willow had grabbed her hand, and from that moment everything became a blur for her. She could feel Willow's heat and life coming from their joined hands. The Power that flew between them didn't seem to surprise Willow, but it sure did surprise Tara. Through cloudy recollections, she could remember exiting the Palace, and walking over Corso and then the smell of the sea brought her back to herself.
The rain had stopped falling a while ago, so the air was still fresh, but people weren't too keen on leaving their houses. She followed Willow, who was leading her over the docks, never letting go off her hand.
“ Where are we going?”
She wasn't sure which part of her asked that. Just suddenly her mouth formed the words. By now Tara was very much aware that she lost control over everything with Willow around. The redhead turned to her, and took her other hand too, smiling widely.
“ I want you to meet the people that are my family.”
And before she knew it, they were climbing on the huge ship, the biggest she’d ever seen. Still following Willow's lead, she found herself in a place that looked like a kitchen. In the back, a woman was standing yelling at a girl with dark hair and eyes. Tara noticed that the girl was their age, and that the woman was screaming in a language she could not recognize. Willow said something, and both of them turned around.
“Now Countess, could you please tell this troublemaker that I will ship her back home if she ever comes near my kitchen again?”
The woman was in her late forties, and though she tried to act mad, she looked amused as far as Tara could tell. Letting her senses flow, she could feel the woman's fondness for both of the girls, and she knew that there was no way this woman would ever ship the brunette home. Wherever home was.
“ I could try but I can't deny her food. Everyone has a right to eat. Even no goods like her.”
At first the girl was grinning but when she heard the last sentence her expression became one of false hurt and she teasingly approached Willow. Then her gaze fell on Tara, who instantly squeezed Willow's hand tighter.
“ Don't worry, she doesn't bite” Willow whispered in her ear and Tara relaxed. The warmth of the redhead's breath was still lingering in her ear when the brunette eased back into the kitchen and winked to the woman.
“ And you say I'm the troublemaker! That's the Governor's daughter.”
The woman smacked the girl on the head, and Tara giggled.
“ How would you know that squid? “
“ Who are you calling squid, shrimp?”
And they were off again, only this time it was in Latin. Willow giggled, and tugged on Tara's hand.
“ Come, once they start it could last for hours. Or till one of them can't think of any more habitants of the sea. And they know a lot of them. I wanna show you the rest of the ship.”
They spent the next couple of hours touring the ship. Willow told Tara how the woman's name was La, and that she came from the Empire of China. She was their cook, and her son Zhao was also working on the ship. As far as Willow could remember, there wasn’t a time when La wasn't sailing with them. Willow really had grown up on the ship with her father, constantly sailing from China to Venice. They used to live in Vienna, but
when Willow was two, her father just took her and their belongings one day and they left. A couple of day's later they were in Rijeka where they’d lived for the next year, before her father got a job on a Chinese ship. And since then, Willow had lived on the ship, occasionally spending some time at their palace in China. She’d never known what had happened with her mother. That was the one thing she couldn't talk to her father about. It was as if a wall closed in between them every time she asked about it. Tara cried when Willow said she even didn't know what her mother's name was, or even whether she was dead or alive.
Beside Zhao, the only other friend close to her age Willow had was the brunette. Her father had made sure they felt like they were sisters, even though Willow didn't know if they really were. He’d called the brunette Faith, and given Willow her current name.
“ I know that Amalia is really my second name, but I just can't remember my first name. My father calls me Willow, and the same for Faith. I was four when he picked her up from the port in Tripolis. He said she was to be called Faith, and that we should act like sisters. Father is mysterious about some things, but he's really a good man.”
Willow was just finishing her story when they reached the Palace gates. When no one opened them, Willow peered between two spikes and noticed that the guard was lying on the ground in the pool of blood. Alert at once, she reached under her dress and pulled two sais from her boots. When Tara grinned she just waved at her.
“ Well where should I put them?” Willow asked, as though it was a common occurrence for women to walk around with weapons in their boots.
They entered the Palace, Willow went in first but Tara was right behind her. There was no one around except a couple of dead servants. After going through the whole Palace and not finding anyone who was alive, Willow sighed. Tara looked really pale-obviously not used to this kind of stuff-so Willow made her sit at the top of the stairs while she was thinking. She had no idea what could have happened, but if her father had taught her anything it was to not panic. First take care of everything, make sure you are safe. Then panic. They were his words, and they were screaming in her head now. Trying to look on the bright side, she concluded that if someone wanted their fathers dead, they would already be dead - like the servants.
Sitting next to Tara, Willow hugged the blonde girl tightly.
“We'll find out what’s happening and make it right. I promise.”
Tara looked right at Willow, and the redhead noticed for the first time just how blue her eyes really were. Managing a little smile, Tara nodded and looked around, thinking that her life would never be the same again.
Seduce my mind and you can have my body... find my soul and I'm yours forever.
Edited by: Shadow at: 8/22/03 4:09 am
I like it. More soon, please? 
. I love it.
Did you throw in the Spanish Inquisition (from the 1600s) here? Is it also around WWI? I like it, I like historical stories. And the picture you paint(write) of Rijeka, I feel like I'm there sort of. 
I like it. You have an interesting way of writing fics. Can't really explain it
, but you do it. 
How old are they? In their middle teens, since this is from the 19th century? So Faith is of noble birth, since she's the daughter of one of the Net?
Has there been a coup at the palace? Are we gonna find out when they get to their destination?
Can't wait.
Shadow,
The time period is great and having them being so different and not really fitting is so 
. Ican't wait to 
and see what happens to 
an 
next! Update soon, please? 
