RUSSIAN Empire - September 23, 1878 In the early morning light of her 25th birthday, Duchess Natalia stepped out, alone, into the forest. Following the voices that drew her there - the same voices she'd heard since accepting a mysterious crystal vial from an old woman at a flea market a week earlier - she ventured deeper and deeper into the tundra. At first delighted by the call of Nature, she soon grew frightened, realizing she was too deep in the snowy, barren land to find her way home.