The Diadem (VA fanfic)

Chapter Two

Dimitri Anton Ivashkov Belikov grunted as he swung his fists towards the makeshift punching bag over and over again. Olena Belikova watched her son worriedly from the window while Yeva, Olena's own mother, was sipping a cup of tea like the situation was entirely normal. That's exactly the problem, this is his normal now, thought Olena. After Ivan Zeklos' death on Dimitri's twentieth birthday, her son was just never the same. After the tragedy, Dimitri had immediately became a guardian at St. Basil's Academy. His name became widespread knowledge when a few months later, he single handedly defeated four strigoi while defending ten moroi students out for dinner.

Perhaps that event, which was viewed as an accomplishment, was why he became the youngest guardian ever, at twenty, to be a part of the Royal Guard. When Queen Tatiana and her Royal Guard had been travelling back from Florence, they had been ambushed by three dozen strigoi. While the queen had been kept safe and unharmed, half of her royal guardians had been slaughtered. It was a scary moment in both dhampir and moroi history alike as it was the second biggest targeted royal attack ever recorded, second only to the Badica Princess Massacre which had taken place only a few short years earlier. The queen, of course, needed to rebuild her royal guard with the finest dhampir names of the current generations and Dimitri Belikov was one of them. He accepted without a thought, stoically honored to be given the privilege of wearing the red blazer of the Monarch's flotilla alongside the likes of Hans Croft and his old mentor Galina Pogorilaya. A legendary name that Olena had noticed to be evidently absent from the list of the flotilla was Arthur Schoenberg, but she didn't dwell on it.

A year later, Dimitri killed two more strigoi while protecting the queen, bringing him to a total of ten molnija marks and he also earned his first six zvezda marks on secret missions that were viewed as suicidal, although he defied the odds and returned every single time. Olena could tell that Dimitri was settling in this new life, finding worth in eradicating the threats before they could attack others although he put himself at risk. She even remembered Dimitri telling her that he and the queen had bonded over the mutual loss of their best friends to the strigoi. The shock that all the Belikovas, with the exception of Yeva who already saw it coming, felt when they heard Dimitri share a vague overview of the moment had been poignant. Olena reckoned that the queen might've been growing fond of her son in the way that the occasional kind moroi grew fond of their guardians.

And Olena was right, Tatiana did grow to care for Dimitri. So much so that when the mandatory dhampir blood tests were ordered and she found out that he was the son of her nephew Randall Ivashkov and therefore her dhampir great nephew, she honourably removed him from her guard saying she could not stand the thought of one of her great nephew's putting his life on the line for her own. After much arguing, Dimitri convinced her to allow him to continue guarding which was the complete opposite of Tatiana's wish that he continue to university and involve himself in moroi politics.

He was sent to the the Ancient Royal Court of Florence at twenty-one where he spent three whole years becoming part of the offensive dhampir group called the Hunters. He earned fourteen more zvezda marks, putting his total at surviving twenty attacks with uncountable kills, the most zvezda marks ever earned by a dhampir, even surpassing Schoenberg's sixteen. At the end of his three years at Florence, on his twenty-fourth birthday, Dimitri returned home to Olena for the first time in four years returning with ten molnija marks and 20 Zvezda marks. His neck was more covered than guardians three times his age. That was a month and a half ago and she could tell that her son was growing restless.

"You worry too much daughter. He will find the path to his salvation today at the door," Yeva said enigmatically before walking back upstairs with her cup of tea chuckling as she went. Some things never change, mama is one of them. I wonder if she'll be right this time.

As if on queue, there was a sudden knock on the door. Startled, Olena left the window and ran towards the door, talking rapidly to the delivery man. After two minutes she glanced down at the royal envelope in her hands. She sighed, your mama is always right Olena, you should know by now, she thought to herself reproachfully as she walked to the door to the backyard.

"Dimitri, a package for you from the Court of Pennsylvania," Olena said in Russian as she opened the house's back door.

++++++++++

Dimitri set the letter down on his childhood bed, fooling himself into thinking that he was contemplating the offer his former charge and great aunt Tatiana Ivashkov had extended to him. But there was no hesitation on his part, which worked just fine since the queen had more or less ordered him to drop his post in the court of Florence to fulfill this new crucial task in her words. He didn't tell him what the task was except that it involved the utmost discretion and that his charge was someone very important that he must protect more carefully than he protected her, his own great aunt and the Moroi queen.

Tatiana wanted him in Pennsylvania's court in two days at most. A flight had been arranged for him. In a few hours from now he had to be Novosibirsk to catch the court chartered jet. With renewed purpose, Dimitri packed his bags. It only took him a few minutes, he always traveled lightly, after all his life as a nomad guardian required it. He headed downstairs and saw that everyone, save for Yeva, was downstairs.

"Dimka breakfast is ready!" Olena said enthusiastically but stopped short when she saw him bags in hand, clad in his signature leather duster which she hadn't seen him wear since he left to guard the queen.

"Dimka?!" His sisters Karolina, Sonja and Viktoria exclaimed. "Where are you going Uncle Dimka?" Little Paul asked.

"I'm heading back to the American Royal Court. The queen wishes to meet with me about a possible assignment."

"But you don't have to take the assignment right Dimka?" Karolina asked a little aggressively and Dimitri visibly bristled, affronted and ready to defend himself.

Yeva walked back down the stairs and cleared her front. "You should all support him. His destiny has began its course starting today, to protect the thorns of the diadem. The road ahead will be full of tough choices, you must follow your heart. Do not forget what I have told you or else this will be our last farewell." And with that, she went back up the stairs, leaving behind her a sense of foreboding.

Olena sighed and smiled with watering eyes as she prepared to say goodbye to her only son that she had just got back. "I'm so proud of you Dimka, so proud. To be personally chosen by the queen and to be pursuing what you believe in... You turned out better than I could've hoped," She murmured as gathered Dimitri in her arms.

"I know mama, I know," Dimitri whispered in his mother's ear. "Goodbye mama, Vika, Karolina and Sonja. Goodbye Paul! I will contact you as soon as I can."

He walked out the door abruptly, hyperfocused like death in a duster. He was there and then he was gone. Olena gazed at the door that had shut a few minutes ago.

"Alright, time for breakfast," She said, not even bothering to infuse a semblance of joy in her tone. It hadn't even been ten minutes but her heart was already aching for her son to come back.