Hey guys, here's the next chapter. By the way, I loved The Originals, and am rather excited for it.
She walked down the streets of Houston until she saw him sitting at an outside table of a restaurant. She walked over and sat down with him.
"You have news I presume?"
"Of course," She said smugly, "I always do, some good, and some not so much."
"Go on,"
"A hunter has finally emerged."
He leaned forward, shock evident on his, though hope and glee were definitely present as well.
"You are certain?"
"Positive, after nine centuries of being in hiding, one has finally made himself known. His name is Connor Jordan, here," She handed him a file, "Is his profile. And that's not all the good news I have."
"What else?"
"The Hybrid desires Immortal's Bane, he was well on his way to claiming quite a few of the pieces, before the hunter escaped."
"Escaped?"
"Yes, he's missing, but this might actually be a good thing for us."
"How?" His joy was replaced by anger.
"He managed to get on the bad side of the Mad God, I assure you he will not be much use to anyone much longer, however there is a bright side. The Mad God has taken a liking to a human boy by the name of Jeremy Gilbert, there are whispers that he even loves the human."
"The Mad God does not know how to love."
"Regardless, Connor Jordan's mark is incomplete, so no one can see it yet, no one that is, except for Jeremy Gilbert."
Comprehension entered his eyes.
"You didn't give me this file so I'd know who to take did you?"
"No, I gave it to you so you'd know who to kill."
He laughed, "It just so happens that I have some useful information as well."
"Really, what?"
"Jormungandr has been sighted."
She stared, "What?"
"Yes, he attacked a coven of witches near the border between France and Germany, who know what it means if he is active again."
"Yes, it, it means,"
"Our lord Loki is regaining strength, his children are making preparations for his arrival. My guess is someone got trapped on the Cursed Isle somehow, and he tricked the person into draining every once of blood in order to feed. We must act now, the blood will not sustain him for long, then the great serpent will return to slumber, and we will have lose a valuable ally."
"Then we move quickly then, but what of the Mad God? In order to open Lucifer's Crypt and free our lord, we need both the hunter's mark of opening, and the mark of vampirism, not to mention we need the five swords to even find the Cursed Isle."
"Leave the swords to us, we know the location of most of them, even though the Mad God hid them well. If what you say of his feelings for the potential are true, then he will help us because we will have the his precious love."
"Do not underestimate him, he is an Original, and by far he is the most dangerous of them."
"Ah yes, your incessant belief that he has powers the others do not, you worry too much and look too deeply into things."
"I'm being serious, I have seen him do things no other can; it's almost like he has…"
"What? Magic? Vampire can't use magic, they lose the ability to connect to any source of power, even their own internal source; he is no more or less than the others. Everything is finally ready."
"I leave you to it then," she said, giving up.
She got up to leave when he grabbed her arm.
"Be careful, I know you and I but heads from time to time, but it would be a shame if you died."
"Don't worry," Katherine said, "If there's one thing I'm good at, it's staying alive."
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Jeremy had to admit that he was enjoying himself; the Crossroads was a pretty cool place. Elena fed on a few people, and only gotten ripped off of them twice. Kol knew quite a few of the people here, and was reminiscing with them, or meeting the new faces. Jeremy felt a little nervous about that, but he reminded himself that there was nothing to be jealous about.
"Having fun?"
Jeremy turned to see a girl standing in front of him. She had a very blunt sort of look on her face.
"Uh, yeah, who are who?"
"My name's Hayley," She said sticking out her hand, which Jeremy took.
"I couldn't help noticing, well everyone couldn't help noticing, that you came here with an Original, and well I was wondering if you knew anything about the others?"
"Yeah, I know a few things, why?"
"Well, I have this friend, who was kind of the bad side of another Original, Klaus, he was one of his hybrids."
"You mean Tyler?"
"Yeah, so, is he okay?"
"Yeah he's fine, he's probably at home, or with Caroline."
"Wait," she looked annoyed, "He has a home? He told he lived in a trailer park."
"Seriously? He lives in the biggest house in Mystic Falls."
"Huh, thanks, I'll remember that." She walked off
"Making friends I see," Kol said, appearing right behind Jeremy and grabbing him around the waste.
"Yeah, but I don't supposed that there's a place we could go that's a little quieter is there? I'm getting tired."
"Sure, come with me."
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Bonnie woke up inside her room, she heard movement downstairs, when she went down to investigate, she found Ayana there, drinking what looked like herbal tea.
"What happened?"
"You blacked out, the Spirit Journey seems to have taken more out of you than I originally thought, I though you'd like to wake up in your own bed this time, so I brought you here."
"You were telling me a story, about," She didn't want to say the name again.
"Loki and Hecate," Ayana said, an understanding look in her eye/
"Hecate, Qetsiyah if you wish to use her true name, placed a curse upon Loki's true name, so that any witch who read or heard it would have that feeling you felt earlier, a warning to ensure that we'd know he was trouble."
"What happened though, and what does it have to do with me, us?"
"Everything."
Ayana took a deep breath, and then let it out.
"I hate telling this story, but it must be told, you must understand. Over 5,200 years ago there existed two witches, Qetsiyah, and the man I will call Loki. The two were powerful, very powerful, so much so that they were confused with gods by the ancient peoples. During this time, a warlord named Fenrir raged across the known continent, destroying, pillaging, raping, doing whatever he pleased. He was no mere man though; he was a warlock, and traitor to nature. However, it was Loki that saved everyone. Fenrir was attacking the land that would become Egypt, the homeland of Qetsiyah. Loki was a member of a migratory tribe, and he tracked Fenrir down. Qetsiyah was able to hold off Fenrir, but his dark magic was polluting nature, and weakening her. Loki, sensing how powerful she was, combined his powers with her, and performed a spell that cursed Fenrir. His magic was drained away, and every full moon, he would be forced to undergo a painful transformation into a wolf-like creature. Also, his life-span would be equal to three human ones, thereby prolonging the curse."
"Wait, are you saying that this was the creation of…"
"The first werewolf, yes. Fenrir's descendants had a dormant form of the curse, which only activated if they, like their ancestor, committed murder. Disgraced and feared, his descendants left the old world for the new world, but I digress. Loki stayed in Qetsiyah's homeland for a time, and got to know her. Soon, she fell in love with him."
"But he didn't love her."
"That depends on who you ask, some say he felt nothing for her, but I believe he did love her, but not in the way she loved him. My evidence for this is that Loki trusted her, so much so that he told her something he never told anyone else, the story of his little brother, who was raped and murdered by Fenrir, while he forced Loki to watch."
Bonnie felt like she was going to barf,
"He made him watch?!"
"Yes, humans, whether supernatural or not, are capable of wonders, but we are also capable of great atrocities. Watching that had a significant impact on Loki, he felt as if the spirits had betrayed them, but cursing them with weaknesses. After seeing all the death caused by Fenrir, he began to focus this one aspect alone; mortality."
"I don't like where this is going."
"Nor should you, this is not a happy tale. Silas became obsessed with the thought of immortality, and Qetsiyah was so in love with him, that she helped him, she refused to see what he was becoming. Eventually they figured out how, and he branded himself with the mark of vampirism."
"The what?"
"The mark of vampirism, the mark you no doubt saw on Kol during your journey. Before written language, the witches used a spiritual language, with a physical mark on the body providing balance between physical and metaphysical. However, as the first archaic witch scripts were written, the language became less and less used, which made most forget it, but not Qetsiyah, and not Loki. They used the spell, drawing upon a comment passing through the sky during a solar eclipse for their celestial power, the lake of Avalon for their conduit of nature, and the blood of a human from Loki's tribe as the physical source. These things turned him into the first vampire; the Primordial."
"But…" Bonnie said, feeling numb form the information she was receiving.
"But," Ayana said, nodding sadly, "But, with Loki's emotions heightened, he could no longer keep what he'd been hiding from her at bay; his hatred and contempt for nature, whom he blamed for what happened to his beloved little brother, and, that the girl used in the ritual was not just a friend of his, but his lover."
"Whoa,"
"Yes, when this realization came, the walls Qetsiyah built around herself fell away, and she realized what she had done. The spirits of nature also knew, and they gave her a choice; either she could deal with Loki, or they would, and they would give her a fate even he would not envy. So she dealt with him. His lover was pregnant, so she waited a time; children are sacred to witches, killing one is pure sin to us. So, when the child was brought into this world, she acted. She killed his lover, and used her death to desiccate him. She then took him to an island in the middle of the great ocean, and moulded it around him. The land became his tomb, the mountain became the fortress guarding it, and she placed many magical protections around him. She then went to the Lake of Avalon, to take a vial of its waters to offer him, if he ever got tired of his immortal existence in solitude, he could take it and die. But, she discovered that he had poisoned the waters, likely in anticipation of such a move. The waters were not strong enough to destroy him. However, she was resourceful, she manipulated the waters, altered their purpose, until she had a vial of pure water, water that would not destroy an immortal, but make them mortal. And then, she performed the greatest act of magic ever, save for Loki's creation of werewolf and vampire; she created the realm of Purgatory, you call it the Other Side."
"Wait, what?" Bonnie said eyes going wide.
"She could not allow Loki to gain any sort of freedom, so she created a prison for him, one that he could never escape, and in doing so, she doomed her own race as well, for all supernatural beings go to the Other Side."
After a few moments of processing, Bonnie asked
"He didn't take it did he, this cure she created for him?"
"No, for what reason, I do not know, though I suspect spite."
"So he's still there,"
"Oh yes, still there, with all of the locks in place."
"Locks, what locks?"
"Qetsiyah was very intelligent, and creative. No magic can be perfect, for true perfection is unnatural. So, witches make their magic as difficult to undo as possible. Qetsiyah created another witch mark; called the mark of opening, and forged by draconite blades, each one matching to one of the elements. The island, called the Cursed Isle, is impossible to find, provided you're looking for it, by any means other than the map. The five blades have to be lined up side-by-side, and the blades activated and turned properly, as instructed by the mark of opening. Once you find the island, then the fun begins. The enchantments don't activate unless you seek to open his tomb, but beware if they do, for millennia of dead witches have added their power to that place. Once you reach the fortress, called Lucifer's Crypt, you need a witch who is of Qetsiyah's blood to use magic to simply reveal the first door. In order to do this, she needs to activate the mark of opening, but the amount of power it would take, no witch has that much power, the only way to do so is to channel and object, and the only object with that much power is Qetsiyah's headstone, which is lost. Then, you read the first riddle, then place the proper sword into the slot. But, it must be the vessel of the mark of opening that does the first one, the next three don't matter which person does it. However, the last one, that is Qetsiyah's masterstroke," Ayana looked very said, as if she was about to cry.
"The last key hole demanding the sword is directly in front of his tomb, and the person who opens it must be the vessel of the mark of vampirism."
"Huh," Bonnie said, "Impressive really, I mean, there weren't supposed to be anyone else who bore that mark-"
"Exactly," Ayana said, "There wasn't supposed to be anyone else, and this is my shame, this is where I failed all of you," Tears were present in her eyes now, "I told you that children are sacred, well, if a witch child dies, their body is considered too holy for the ground to hold, so they are burned in sacred fire. I remember, I remember watching as the flames took Henrik's body away, I looked into Kol's eyes, and you know what I saw?"
Bonnie said nothing, Ayana seemed lost in her confession.
"I saw a powerful witch, oh yes, Kol was strong in the ways of magic, more powerful even than his mother, I, I saw a powerful witch, who despised nature, and he did, it was so obvious in his eyes, who, who despised nature, whom be blamed for what happened to his little brother."
"Just like him," Bonnie said, and then something else came to her, something form her vision.
"They're his descendants aren't they, the Mikaelsons,"
"Yes," Ayana said, crying and nodding, "They are, that is how Esther and Mikael came to know of the spell in the first place. Qetsiyah had already had children by the time she met him, but her husband had died, killed in Fenrir's first attack. She recorded everything in a book called the tome of shadow, this books contained vampirism, and it was passed down from mother to daughter in our family, until it came to me. And I failed, I should have stopped them, I should have burned that book the moment Mikael and Esther wanted to use the spell on their family. But I didn't, I did exactly the same thing she did millennia ago, I deluded myself into thinking everything was fine. And my whole family paid for it," She looked at Bonnie, sorrow in her eyes, "The spirits cursed my family, by binding their fates, to vampires. That is why you will never know a moments piece, that is why you will never be able to get out of the middle of things."
There was a moment of silence, but then Ayana spoke again.
"Nine hundred years ago, a witch named Aleysia couldn't take it anymore, so she took the tome of shadows from me, and used it to transcribe the mark of opening onto five hunters, with a little twist of her own. They felt compelled to hunt vampires, and their marks grew with every kill. She hoped that they'd be able to use the cure on, on him, and then use the daggers to put down the Originals, and then kill the vampires. She made the mark pass from person to person as the old ones died; new ones would take their place. It shouldn't have happened, generations of hunters have come and gone without even knowing their purpose, so it was for naught."
"What about you and Kol? You two have a strange relationship."
"By witch law, we must repay our debts, but if a whole family is saved, then the family is forever indebted to that person. Normally, it isn't that bad, because the person grows old and died, but if the person is an immortal, things get difficult. And Kol managed to do it, he saved the entire Bennett line during Europe's witch-hunts. In order to prevent Kol from having a hold over the whole family, as matriarch, I took the debt as my own."
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Damon pulled into New York in a rage, when his cellphone rang, again.
"What Stefan?"
"You need to calm down."
"No, I need to shove something sharp into that smug little pricks chest."
"No Damon, you do into Kol's city and try to threaten him, they are going to kill you. Damon there are nests in that city, nests, packs, covens, all of them loyal to Kol, if you go there trying to kill him, they will kill him."
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Connor Jordan watched as the Salvatore vampire argued with someone over the phone, and prepared his gun.
"And what do you think you're doing?" A voice from behind him said