By the Victors (book)

Published in March 2019 and authored by literary newcomer Filip Mikhailov, this book is a historical biography that details the life of François Allègre, a French battlefield medic of World War II whose unique healing ability drew him into proximity of Kazimir Volken, and allowed him to live an abnormally long life. The content of this book is primarily focused on revealing details of Volken's activities between the 1940s and 1990s as Francois lived them.

Significance

By the Victors was actually written by Francois himself, of course, a deception that started as formal narrative experiment and turned into a lazy deflection of attention.

Currently in the keeping of: Available in major book outlets

Acknowledgments

with thanks

to my guardian angels

on pale and dark wings

and my love

for finding the end of the story

Contents, "in brief"

• The narrative begins in 1925, when Francois Allegre, as a young boy, first heard tell of the Moroi of Belgium, whose frightful presence massacred whole villages, withering them to dust. This story came from a wanderer, of whom there is no record, but was housed in Allegre's family home for a period of a few days.
• Although Allegre would not allude to this encounter until much later in life, he contextualised it as three things: one, the first time he ever heard of Kazimir Volken; two, that this incident occurred during the Rape of Belgium in 1914, during the first World War; and three, his belief that this wanderer bestowed upon him his healing ability, speaking of a final meeting between them in which the wanderer spoke of the rise of monsters, and asked him for his mercy. This is highly speculative, of course — unreliable by nature of anecdote, and abstracted through memory of a moment decades later.
• The book then moves onto Allegre's young adulthood, joining the French Resistance, and speaking in his journals openly and knowingly of his healing gift. He then ran with guerrilla soldiers and Allied soldiers both.

• His arrest in 1944 heralds a new chapter, and describes his deportation to the Dachau concentration camp, having been specifically singled out by Nazi intelligence for his gift. This chapter is lean on narrative speculation and uses old documentation to pinpoint exactly when Francois came under Kazimir Volken's responsibilities, and the nine-month period he spent as his test subject, and used as a tool to heal other prisoners undergoing horrific experimentation. It speculates, using contextual data from later journals, that this is when they realised the strange way their abilities interacted, in that Allegre's healing was directly harmful to Volken's vitality.
• This chapter ends with confirmation of Allegre's liberation at the hands of the Americans, in 1945, and Volken's arrest.

• This third part details Allegre's movements throughout Europe which appear to line up with other known Moroi related incidents, following an old path. Likewise, evidence of Allegre's own passage are evidenced by records of miracle healings in far flung corners of Europe, often for board and money.
• Allegre's move to America is estimated to occur somewhere in the mid-1950s when he tracked Volken's path to Nevada, where he has resumed his research at Fort Daedalus. Historians of SLC-Expressives know this to be the seeding place of the illicit experimentation of Evolved ability that would go on to inform such entities as the Company. Allegre's journals detail observations and movements in and around this facility until he was discovered and captured. There is no official record of Allegre's escape from Fort Daedalus, but it is known that the FBI raided this facility, and Kazimir Volken died at the hands of FBI agent Richard Santiago — whom he came to possess.

• Allegre continued on Volken's trail, which took him to South America, although never again seemed to make a direct move against Volken or his people. Instead, the trail of miracle healings, as they did in Europe, seemed to intensify, alighting on sites of conflict at Kazimir's hand and bestowing the healing gift as much as he could. The shared journal entries become philosophical, melancholy, and self-reflective of his own ability. It was around this time, too, that he realised he was using his healing power to extend his own life span — at 40, he described himself as still a young man.
• Volken's activities moved back to Europe, but Allegre stayed in South America, and then moved back to the United States. By now, Volken's resources far out stripped Allegre's, as the early formations of the Vanguard began to mount. Allegre's journals indicates extensive research as to what Volken was doing, although no record of this research remains, and is not possessed in the archives of the American government or any other intelligence agency. It is possible this intelligence was intercepted or destroyed.

• In epilogue, Allegre's last movements are lost to history, but there is record of Volken having sent an assassin by the name of Carlisle Dreyfus to Louisiana in 1994, alluding to making final some unfinished business.
• No trace of Francois Allegre remains, and the rest, as they say, is history.