Alright guys - in this chapter we have some serious world-building. You don't need to remember specifics - when I reference the new info later on I'll be sure to include reminders of sorts. To be clear - THIS IS NOT CANON COMPLIANT WITH 'THE ORIGINALS'. Enjoy and let me know what you think thus far! xx

Five Weeks Later

Klaus walked into the living room of the mansion and found Vivienne ungracefully sprawled on the couch, playing with something in her lap. She looked for all intensive purposes like a very bored human.

The demon – she became annoyed when she was called one, so of course Klaus did it as often as he could – had become a startlingly easy fixture in their lives as his family had taken over New Orleans once more. Subduing all of their enemies had been simple when they had Vivienne standing beside them during negotiations, interceding whenever she believed one of the members of his family to be in danger. The reputation of the ally that stayed by the Mikaelsons' side had spread.

The change in the woman was obvious as well. Physically, it was drastic. To Kol's amusement and Rebekah's disgust, it had turned out that after a good wash, Vivienne's hair was a dirty blonde, not brown. Because of the outrageous tangles, she had chopped off two feet of it and it now only brushed her collar bones with relaxed waves. Seeing their occasionally talon-equipped, self proclaimed protector in torn skinny jeans and over sized men's v-necks was jarring. It was almost easy to forget what she was, unless one looked into her pitch black irises.

Vivienne's antiquated form of speech had lessened and become a bit more like the vernacular of modern humans while slang had also entered her conversations. She was less on edge, and to Klaus's amusement, turned out to be very snarky when she interacted with him.

Well, less on edge after he had stopped trying to kill her following their first few days together. He had weighed the pros and cons to murdering her and decided that ultimately having her on this plane would be beneficial to his family. But her hovering had to end. Especially since he was the one she had seemed to latch on to and follow around the most often.

Before he could address her, she looked up and made eye contact as she said in a tone that was entirely too normal for her bizarre question, "What are your three favorite colors?"

Klaus paused and stopped walking toward her, searching her expression for any ulterior motive that would indicate a greater significance to her questioning. Instead she only looked at him with an expectant face. Deciding to humor her, Klaus thought it over for a second before responding.

"Black, red, and blue."

A small frown covered Vivienne's face at his answer, and under her breath she muttered to herself, "That won't do. They won't look good at all together. Maybe black, red, and orange?"

Before he had to ask what the hell she was doing, she sat up faced him fully.

"I'm attempting to re-learn things from my time as a human, see if perhaps I retained things through muscle memory. The internet was quite easy, but that's because I was obsessed as a human and missed it the entire time I was in the underworld. That, and coffee. But today it's crafts, so I'm weaving bracelets."

Klaus stopped in his tracks as he had been approaching her. There was no way she was actually constructing 'friendship bracelets' – but peering at her hands and seeing the bundles of thin string, Klaus saw that was exactly the case. Who the bloody hell had made this woman an all-powerful demon?

Before he could mock her, Vivienne looked up again to meet his eyes and said in an entirely serious voice, "I'll be offended if you don't wear it." Only the slight twitch of a smile at the end of her sentence made it clear that she was joking, most likely trying to provoke a reaction out of him.

"You are as absurd as you are superfluous. My family has been united. You can stop trailing behind my very footsteps."

"No I can't. My job doesn't have an end date."

Klaus felt his interest peak at that. Vivienne had been fairly close-mouthed about the exact parameters of what it was she was doing on Earth. Each time they had tried to wheedle out of her who it was exactly that had sent her to guard them, she'd merely shrugged and responded, "A soul I guided. Took the longest to find peace of any I have been with."

However, Klaus still had a point to make before he could try to get a few explanations from her, so he decided to be straightforward.

"You hover. It's distracting."

Instead of growing offended as he had predicted, Vivienne snorted in amusement and looked down to her lap. She began measuring lengths of string in the colors she had been muttering about. Just when he thought she wouldn't say anything to answer his statement, she spoke in a lilting tone.

"You think yourself truly invulnerable. It's adorably hubristic."

He struggled not to snarl at that. His pride was earned. Klaus was invincible. He was the most powerful creature on Earth, and his father was desiccated somewhere states away from them. He was working on finding a white oak stake to permanently end the man. Vivienne's dismissal of his power was incredibly irritating.

"You're quite infuriating."

"Join the club. Most of the time I feel the same."

Here was his opening. Vivienne was stubborn, and he knew if he continued trying to command her to stop she would only stay closer to him. So, he decided to see if she had retained certain social cues from her time as a human. Particularly the act of seduction and more accurately, being charmed.

"Aw, but other times you like me?"

Klaus spoke with a playful and smooth tone, but Vivienne seemed to stiffen up entirely as her hands froze the rapid movements they had begun with the strings. Klaus could see her breathe in and out deeply, staring down at her lap.

"I don't like it when you try to manipulate me, Klaus. Obviously nobody likes to be on the receiving end, but it's particularly insulting after all I have done for you. I'm not stupid. You want something. You can just ask me, you moron."

…Alright, Klaus had to hand it to her. It was a bit demeaning to treat her like a pushover or someone who could easily be tricked. As much as he wanted to deny it, he respected her. Vivienne was powerful, and beyond that, she had displayed nothing but fierce loyalty. So he went along with her suggestion.

"I want to know more about your duties in the underworld. And what exactly your mission is here."

Vivienne placed the beginning of her bracelet on the coffee table beside the sofa and turned to face him. She leaned forward and rested her elbows on her thighs, drumming her fingers along her knees.

"Not so hard, was it? I don't know where to start. My job description, I guess. I'm a Rusalka – it is both the name of my species, and the title of my position in the hierarchy of the underworld's creatures. To be clear, our titles come from many different pagan religions – no single one. The mortals who were allowed to leave the underworld still human belonged to many different times and places when they documented it. Anyway, I'm fairly low ranking.

The three Fates are the rulers. They're also known as the Norns in Norse mythology. They are the ones who occasionally tell us when someone is meant to die and how it will happen. Otherwise, they simply parse out duties to us underlings.

The Valkyries are the most powerful behind them. There are very few. Valkyries aren't born or created when one dies like the rest – their abilities and power are earned when the Fates bestow the position to someone they believe showed true valor.

The Banshees come next. To keep it brief, they are directly told when everyone will die.

Below them are the Fraveshi. Personal spirits of sorts. You must understand – only a fraction of souls enter the underworld, and I have no idea how they are chosen or if there is any specific criteria. Many go to the 'other side' or whatever heaven or hell exists. The underworld isn't truly a religious place of paradise, it is made up of several dimensions. The Fraveshi are sent to the souls who are chosen and bring them to the underworld.

That is where the Rusalkas come in. We're the ones who are assigned souls and it is our job to help them find peace. It means we travel through sections of the underworld - countless dimensions – to help them. It can take an hour for a soul to settle, or decades. Even centuries.

And as for what it is I'm doing here – I'm trying to protect your family. Keep you from physical harm. Try to ensure your happiness. Finn has been difficult to aid. His soul flickers and he longs for death. I don't know if you've been too busy," here Vivienne paused in her monologue, glaring at him harshly before she continued, "to notice, but a lot of the time I am away from you or Rebekah – bless her heart, the girl can be naïve - I try to help him see the beauty in the world. I wish you'd do the same.

Anyway. I was released from my duties. To be honest, I think the Fates see me as a bit of an experiment. What I asked for – it has never been done, to permanently walk the mortal plane once one has been made a 'demon'. So my request was granted. I wasn't given a day that I have to go back or anything."

Klaus didn't respond to her right away. He planned on writing down what she had said immediately and sharing it with his siblings, something she surely knew. In a way, Klaus hated learning all of this. Being made aware of entire worlds and dimensions of which he had no knowledge or reference. But it was incredibly useful to know this information now.

Vivienne had turned back to making her bracelets, and Klaus knew she was done speaking to him about these things. He had long since suspected that the reason she didn't like talking about the underworld was the fact that it reminded everyone that she was a demon – a creature that didn't rightfully belong among them.

But Klaus had to admit, Vivienne wasn't terrible company to keep.