Okay. How's about this for a concession:
Anastasia and her siblings are still alive, and it is all thanks to the selfless bravery of Rasputin.
Here, Rasputin would indeed be an immensely powerful mage - perhaps even studied under Baba Yaga herself. And he knew what was coming from his divinations. As such, he went to the Tsar and found that his young daughters were magically potent - little Anastasia especially so! But that only makes sense as magic dwells most readily in the young hearts that still believe in it.
In the time leading up to Red October, Rasputin spent as much time as he could educating the young girls in magic theory, and practical spells for defense and healing. While it was not generally known what he was doing spending so much time with the Tsar's daughters, the Bolsheviks felt nothing good could come of it for them. Rasputin, however, knew this day would come - he didn't even need to divine it to know it was coming. It cost the Bolsheviks dearly, though. Rasputin came prepared to fight his final battle and he took out an entire platoon before he fell.
When the Bolsheviks came for the Tsar and his family, Anastasia was famed for single-handedly holding off their attacks and keeping her sibling alive despite having seen her mother and father murdered before her eyes.
But Anastasia was always special that way. Seeing her parents martyred only firmed her resolve and in that instant her power increased by an entire magnitude.
While she had no offensive spells, she was said to have glowed with a blinding light that, for several hours, left the attackers blind, deaf, and dumb. This gave the White Russian Army the chance they needed to rally to the young Tsarenya and her family, and then sweep them away to the safety of Britain.
What's great is that Elizabeth and Anastasia should be relatively close in age. And I cannot see any way these two wouldn't become fast friends.
Many years later, General Secretary Josef Stalin's personal memoirs will surface. It will tell of a quiet chance meeting between Stalin and Anastasia during WWII. (Stalin wrote that he was quite charmed by the Tsarenya, noting that she was the very model of a young woman of Mother Russia, and deeply regretted that he could not let her return home, for such was her charisma that he knew for certain that a revolution would spring up behind her in within a few short years and undo his life's work.
Not sure what the source of Anastasia's power would be, but I think it would be very fitting if it was the very spirit and soul of Russia itself.
Anastasia and her siblings are still alive, and it is all thanks to the selfless bravery of Rasputin.
Here, Rasputin would indeed be an immensely powerful mage - perhaps even studied under Baba Yaga herself. And he knew what was coming from his divinations. As such, he went to the Tsar and found that his young daughters were magically potent - little Anastasia especially so! But that only makes sense as magic dwells most readily in the young hearts that still believe in it.
In the time leading up to Red October, Rasputin spent as much time as he could educating the young girls in magic theory, and practical spells for defense and healing. While it was not generally known what he was doing spending so much time with the Tsar's daughters, the Bolsheviks felt nothing good could come of it for them. Rasputin, however, knew this day would come - he didn't even need to divine it to know it was coming. It cost the Bolsheviks dearly, though. Rasputin came prepared to fight his final battle and he took out an entire platoon before he fell.
When the Bolsheviks came for the Tsar and his family, Anastasia was famed for single-handedly holding off their attacks and keeping her sibling alive despite having seen her mother and father murdered before her eyes.
But Anastasia was always special that way. Seeing her parents martyred only firmed her resolve and in that instant her power increased by an entire magnitude.
While she had no offensive spells, she was said to have glowed with a blinding light that, for several hours, left the attackers blind, deaf, and dumb. This gave the White Russian Army the chance they needed to rally to the young Tsarenya and her family, and then sweep them away to the safety of Britain.
What's great is that Elizabeth and Anastasia should be relatively close in age. And I cannot see any way these two wouldn't become fast friends.
Many years later, General Secretary Josef Stalin's personal memoirs will surface. It will tell of a quiet chance meeting between Stalin and Anastasia during WWII. (Stalin wrote that he was quite charmed by the Tsarenya, noting that she was the very model of a young woman of Mother Russia, and deeply regretted that he could not let her return home, for such was her charisma that he knew for certain that a revolution would spring up behind her in within a few short years and undo his life's work.
Not sure what the source of Anastasia's power would be, but I think it would be very fitting if it was the very spirit and soul of Russia itself.