The Happily Wedded Couple [Albania]

[Northern Italy]

Tirana, Albania... 1945

It had been months since he had last been to Albania. The last time he had been here, he had been pushing Greek forces out of the country. With many jobs to complete, Feliciano's once frequent visits to Albania had ceased completely, with the Italian High Command for Balkan Operations moving to Thessaloniki, Greece had become a major hub for the Italian Military. No longer did thousands of Italian troops clog the Albanian streets, there was a military presence in Albania's cities, but it was small compared to what it once was before and during the war.

Why was Feliciano here? To see the wife he hated of course. His dear cousin Era Kastrati or how the outside world knew her as Albania. He was here to see if there was an Albanian resistance group operating within the country, he was also going to inform his dear wife of the new laws passed in Rome in accordance with Italian policies on the new territories. Operazione I1 was to be put in place and Era was going to accept this, peacefully or not so peacefully. Oh and of course! An invitation to the victory party in Rome for the Italian Empire!

So Feliciano was going to make Era aware that her nation and people will go through Italianization. Would it eventually kill her? Of course! That was the whole point... Take over the population culturally and linguistically, you could keep a nation down using guns and knives, but if you wanted to put them down, one had to either mass murder or culturally shift the population to a different culture. It would take many many years, but eventually and inevitably, it will bear fruit.

He sat down in a conference room within the Italian Military Headquarters in Albania. Drinking an espresso while reading a newspaper, he had notified Era that he was coming for a visit and expressed great "joy" that he was seeing his wife after so long. In reality, Feliciano couldn't care less about Era's condition and only demanded her absolute loyalty to him.

They were no longer cousins who had played so innocently and happily now, it was a new time and age. Though he did love Era back then, their time spent away from each other (mostly due to being under foreign occupation), almost made her seem like a stranger to Feliciano, it didn't help matters that he had grown to become a Great Power either.  

Sipping his espresso once more, he quickly became interested in the sports part of the newspaper as he waited for Era to arrive.

@shqipeshqiptare

[Deleted]

Cover up, cover up
Cover up that you're ruthless
Nobody, nobody
Nobody's ever gonna notice
And I am catching up
And I am seeing red
How about I prove I'm right
And raise it overhead?

Era hadn't seen her dear husband in a while now, and that was quite frankly fine by her.

Once upon a time, she had thought of him as family. Even if he had been a little annoying, he was her cousin, and she had been fond of him in between stopping him from stealing from her.

But that was centuries ago. Era was no longer the little girl she had been, and she understood all too well that Feliciano meant her genuine harm now. All she wanted from him now, because of it, was for him to leave her -- and those she cared about -- alone.

She had been lucky, for a while, as he had turned his attention elsewhere, focused on more prestigious nations like Greece and more openly rebellious nations like Ethiopia. Era felt guilty for being glad of this: she knew that her temporary good fortune came at the expense of others, but she couldn't help but breathe a little easier knowing that at least she herself was getting a bit of a reprieve. For a little while, her beloved home was mostly safe.

Although her husband had not told her exactly why they were meeting, Era had a sneaking suspicion that it was because that time was coming to an end. Why else would he come in person, after all? Normal reports of the state of things could be delivered by mail or through intermediaries; if Feliciano was here himself, it must be more than that.

Naturally, Era was apprehensive about whatever it might actually be, but her fears could not be allowed to show on her face. Fortunately, she had plenty of practice at that; it was almost easy, by now, to hide her feelings and fake a perfectly bland expression. She could pretend to be happy, or at least thoughtless, well enough to fool anyone except her brother -- and that was because he knew her all the way through. And so she went out into the streets now looking for all the world like a perfectly ordinary young woman, her face all but blank and everything about her perfectly unremarkable. No one would even remember seeing her.

Upon arriving at the building described, she found Feliciano in the specified conference room, with coffee and a newspaper. He could almost be mistaken for an ordinary man with a soul, she reflected; it was only her prior knowledge of him that told her he was anything else. Funny how those who do evil look so much like everyone else.

"Buongiorno," she greeted him quietly, just letting him know she was there. If he wanted to keep reading for a bit, she would let him; otherwise the meeting could begin.

{Decorative lyrics from "Bury It" by Chvrches}

[Northern Italy]

Feliciano was disappointed when he saw that his new favorite team had been beaten in the latest game, hopefully Lazio could pick up its game. It would be disappointing for Il Duce's favorite team to fail this season. His thoughts of football however were soon cut short with Era's entry into the conference room. He hadn't seen Era in quite a while, in fact for about four years, his time of course had been chewed up by the suppression of armed resistance movements in Italian territories and numerous plans for large imperial projects of the Middle East.  

Era did not look drastically different from when he had last seen her in the war with Greece. Then again he had barely paid any attention to Era whatsoever so what would he know? Setting his paper aside and finishing off the rest of his coffee, he watched as Era took a seat at the table. There was no greeting, he just wanted this whole thing to be done with, he wasn't exactly interested on Era's opinion of the news he will bring to her, frankly because Era had no opinion her only job was to obey and be silent.

The Italian regarded Era with visible contempt, as he spoke up.

"I have asked for your presence here to tell you of the new laws that have recently been issued from Rome. More Italian colonists will be entering Albania and Italianization of the language, schools, signs and governmental procedures will take effect. Along with this we intend to further modernize Albanian infrastructure for Italians to use. Do you have any questions?"

The question was quite literally unnecessary as he would have no doubt what Era understood his words. He only asked to make the conversation sound normal, that attempting to annihilate another culture was a very casual and favorite hobby of the Italian.

[Deleted]

I never promised you
Anything I couldn't do
We try to bury it and rise above
You never promised me
You would see it differently
Bury it and rise above...

There were many ways in which Era's ways of understanding the world were fundamentally different from Feliciano's, but in an odd way, one of the most important was easily visible in their attitudes towards the sports news. Or perhaps it wasn't so odd, that a crucial difference between them should also be so all-pervasive that it extended into every facet of their lives.

It wasn't that Era didn't care about sports, though she admittedly prioritized them somewhat lower at times when she had to worry too much about basic matters of survival. It wasn't even that she disdained Italian sports, although she viewed them with the sort of detachment that comes with being thoroughly not Italian (no matter what anyone, especially Feliciano, said). The basic, fundamental difference between the two of them was that Era frankly did not care what "Il Duce" thought, about any given team or much of any other subject either. She barely respected the man, in much the same way that she had made displays of respect to the various Ottoman emperors while privately being of the opinion that some of them were genuinely idiots, and certainly did not view him with the sort of practically-religious awe that so many of the Italians she had met lately exhibited. She already had a perfectly good religion, one with considerably more to recommend it than the worship of Mussolini could ever offer, and accordingly was highly averse to treating anyone who was not, in fact, God as if they were.

When Era greeted her husband, he did not reply, though he obviously noticed her and even put the newspaper aside to fix her with a contemptuous stare. The girl looked down awkwardly, trying to telegraph submission as much as possible, and took a seat rather than keep standing around and looking uncomfortable. She was fifteen, smack in the middle of the most awkward phase of life. Her attitude was not entirely feigned.

She looked up when he began to speak of new laws from Rome, but as he proceeded to describe exactly what those laws entailed, she dropped her gaze back down to her thin, brown hands rather than meet his eyes as he casually informed her that she was under a death sentence. There was no doubt, of course, that he knew that that was what he was saying. Feliciano knew what Era was. He had to have known that she was the spirit of a nation, in the ancient sense, more than of the modern state that had been too recently constructed by and for that nation.

Entire nations, in that sense, are very difficult to kill. They are tenacious, because they have many sources of strength. And yet, most of the Ancients have died. Era had herself seen Rome, thought by so many to be the greatest of all the Ancients, killed in front of her. If an empire that lasted two thousand years could be destroyed in the end, and if the spirits of the ancient nations who had lived in the Balkans before her -- Thracia, Dacia, Graecia, Pannonia, Dalmatia, her father Illyria -- could vanish from the Earth and leave their descendants confused about their fates, how could Shqipëria be any less mortal than they were?

Era knew perfectly well what it would take to kill her, and that Feliciano's proposal would likely drain the life out of her. No doubt it would be slow, and -- if she did not resist -- quiet. She would weaken, perhaps become confused and forgetful as her culture and language were lost, and then eventually she would go to sleep some night and never wake up again. That was the kind of death that came to the very, very old, and yet here it was, staring her right in her teenaged face.

And what did she expect? a harsh thought came to the back of her mind. She was a woman. Everyone knew that women died young. Everyone knew why. Women had to work so hard to keep their homes running that it killed them. Women suffered and often died having babies -- sure, that didn't apply to Era in quite the same way, considering that she wasn't human, but sooner or later (and Feliciano's plan would surely push it in the direction of "sooner") the same forces that had created her would surely create a successor spirit for her, and she would have to give up her own life so that her successor could live. No, there was nothing unusual about any of what was being asked of her. This might as well have been written on her forehead as her fate, when she was born a girl. There was only one thing she could have done to save herself, and she had given up her chance centuries ago--

No. She cut her own thoughts off there. She wasn't even going to think about that, and she wasn't going to give up hope. Yes, it was true that she was a woman, but that didn't mean she was doomed, it wasn't why she was in this situation, and it really didn't mean that she had to die now. Era Kastrati had plenty to live for, even if she thought about herself on a human level: there were people who were counting on her, people she loved, and she was still so young. She wanted to live, for the sake of her friends and family, and for her own sake. And this was all the more true because she was so much more than a human. Shqipëria had everything to live for, everything to fight for.

Ironically, it was that last bit of her thoughts, the part where she was not despairing, that she most urgently needed to keep from showing on her face. That she was still staring fixedly at her own hands helped, but it was her long training at keeping her face bland, no matter what she had to react to, that made the most difference there. She heard Feliciano ask if she had any questions, and her years of serving as a bureaucrat took over. She had only one question, and it would be the same whether she should choose to fight for her life or submit totally without complaint.

"When do these laws go into effect?"

[Northern Italy]

Feliciano was having some doubts about whether Era was truly loyal to him. He was amused when he invaded Albania to find Era being quite cooperative with him, that despite the invasion the Albanian seemed quite obedient to Italian control of the nation directly. Years of Italian penetration into the Albanian economy, military and government had made the invasion easy, even when the invasion was badly organized and executed in general. Feliciano had been immediately suspicious of Era ever since he had invaded, his colonies in Africa had been quite a challenge to deal with and fought Italian troops ferociously to the point of very bloody methods to solve these colonial issues. Eventually he trusted Era's word that she was loyal.

However the invasion of Greece was what seemed to awaken Feliciano's guarded approach when dealing with Albania. Throughout the bungled invasion, he had received quite concerning papers from Italian generals on the front, Albanian troops were apparently involved with mass desertion, military sabotage and even defecting to the side of the Greeks to make matters worse Italian supply convoys had been harassed by Albanian partisans severely handicapping Feliciano's ability to supply his beleaguered soldiers. There was even an assassination attempt on his king, when he visited the Italian territory, fortunately it had failed. While there was no proof to tie Era to these actions, the events of the war had made the Northern Italian seriously reconsider his whole policy in the Balkans, the fact that Albanians had dared showed the slightest bit of resistance infuriated Feliciano. Did Era share the view of her people? Did she want Italian rule to end? Better to annihilate a threat, than keep it alive on it's knees.   

Nations were not easy to kill and Era was no exception, however Feliciano knew it was possible, the loss of his grandfather and friend was enough proof of that. He carefully studied Era and her response, Feliciano wanted the reaction, he wanted to detect a sign of resistance or at least some small bitterness in Era's voice to confirm his fears of an Albanian threat to Italian control yet he found none. Whether Era would comply or fight, surely she would realize there was only one conclusion, Era's inevitable death. The Italian army swarmed southern Europe and was well prepared to deal with any possibility of an uprising, Albanian peasants would hardly stand a match for his troops.

If Era complied or fought, there would only be one conclusion.... The one that Italy and Mussolini wanted.....

Feliciano just studied Era's reaction to the news of her being condemned to death and was surprised with what little emotions she showed. He seriously doubted that any nation would not react to being told they were going to die.... Era had to be planning something. Perhaps a movement of many Italian troops back into Albania would put such foolish thoughts aside.

"These laws will be in effect in three months to organize all arrangements. Please ask me if you have anymore questions on this matter, there is still another topic that we must discuss that is of the utmost importance, so it is best that you understand the laws before we continue"

Indeed.... The next topic was not going to be a happy one....