To: Boris Volkov, Izh District, Northeastern Sector
Dearest Father,
I wanted to write you earlier. When I sat down to write and remembered everything, I cried. The tears made the paper wet, and the ink ran. It destroyed what I said. Today Colonel Romanov has told me he will send me to town with an important letter. This reminded me I had not written since my last letter. I am now sure Ilya is dead. He is one of the soldiers who was with us starting on the train. When our strike force started. There are not many of those soldiers left.
I talked about Ilya in my last letter. I am sorry that I did not tell you I loved him. With all my heart. There. I have said it without crying, so I will be able to mail this letter. I am sorry that I did not tell you I loved him. He was a very handsome man and I wanted you to meet him. It is strange to find love at war. And Mother said I would never find a husband if I joined the Army. That a sharpshooter may as well be a widow. Well. Maybe this is what she meant. Soldiers die in war.
Maybe Mother was right.1
…
I hope the colonel’s important letter asks for me to be promoted. I am sure a promotion for me is not why he sends it, but I hope I am mentioned. I have been a good soldier. Everybody says so, even Vitold, who is like a rat and a very bad soldier. Who I shot by accident. He said I was too good of a soldier, to repeat him exactly. I think he is jealous. And he is a veteran steam knight! This fact still amazes me. His attitude is so unpatriotic. His squad leader is named Mikolai. I mentioned them both in my last letter. They are very close and love each other well. But they are so different. Vitold is common. Mikolai is mysterious, and I think he is a noble.
Secretly. Maybe a bastard noble. But very well born. He is educated and looks young for how old he is and speaks with such authority and everyone treats him with respect. They do not like him. They do respect him. I understand the difference. You told me about it. Now I have seen it with my own eyes. With the general. And with Mikolai. And I want to be liked and respected. Both at the same time.
With love, Katya
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To [REDACTED];
After the [REDACTED] in [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] - remember that little episode, my old friend? I do, and you should never forget that I [REDACTED] - I hope you trust in my good judgement and discretion. It drives me crazy that I can’t talk about this with the general, because I don’t want to set off his paranoia; the frothing lunatic is as likely to have me executed as anyone else.
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But I am certain I have a soldier who is not who he claims to be. He claims to be “Mikolai Stepanovich,” and presented himself as a ten year veteran of the steam knights, accompanied by his friend, “Vitold Szpak,” who has apparently accompanied him for some years. The two are very familiar with one another. The former is a tall gaunt man, with a long narrow nose, bright blue eyes, and dark wavy hair. The latter is a short man, on the edge of being pudgy, with straight medium brown hair and medium brown eyes.
Neither has the characteristic build of (nor any of the sorts of scars common in) the steam knight corps, though they have gained several since boarding the train. They are sloppy in formation and combat, though their continued survival suggests to me that they are veterans of some kind of training. We picked them up at [REDACTED] on [REDACTED]. I have since written back to the keeper of records at [REDACTED] asking for a complete listing of every steam knight who has been posted at [REDACTED] between [REDACTED] and [REDACTED], and neither of their names are anywhere on the list.
Yes, you might suggest that it is sloppy record-keeping, and I agree in advance that the records I received were in poor order, but you would think that a stolid veteran of the corps would be likely to be recorded. I sent letters to [REDACTED] and [REDACTED] asking if they remembered any steam knights of those names, and they have also sent replies in the negative. I suspect that whoever these men are – and their names are likeliest assumed ones – they are not in fact genuine steam knights, and their identities are fabricated. This leaves the question of who they are, who is paying them, and who aided in their disguise.
I have enclosed good likenesses of them. “Mikolai” speaks with an accent that sounds like it comes from some hut deep in the middle of rural Ruthenia, but his vocabulary is too extensive and his diction much too polished for that to be anything but an affectation. He’s fond of melodramatic pronouncements and starts outlandish rumors about himself to keep the troops fascinated with him.
I’ve heard that he can see straight through walls, trees, and the thickest dark of moonless night; that he and the general had tea with Baba Yaga one night; that when he walks through the wounded, he avoids looking at the ones that will die in the night, while those he speaks to will be on their feet in the morning; and all sorts of superstitious nonsense. Mikolai’s troopers - of whom, I have only been able to talk to “Vitold” - obey him like his words were that of God Himself speaking to His most loyal crusaders, and he has managed to get the general himself to trust him. I can’t get the man to trust his breakfast to be loyal to the plate it’s lying on, but he trusts “Mikolai” to be loyal somehow.
I can clearly place “Vitold’s” accent as being from one of the larger Polish settlements on one or another side of the border with Lithuania; it is strongly regional but he is clearly unfamiliar with life outside of towns. The man couldn’t tell planted turnips from weeds, and is clearly inexperienced with both dogs and horses. On the other hand, it could be that he is a much better actor than “Mikolai”; perhaps is even really the master pretending to be the servant. I feel I may be forced to take matters into my own hands soon.
Colonel I. I. Romanov
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1 Ed.: Water damage has obscured what may be several more sentences between this one and the next.