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Athanasia POV

(at the ball)

"What do you want? Has your daddy told you to come and threaten me?" Florin smirked. I could feel Oktai scowling at him from my side, but I knew better than to insult our one ticket to the top.

"Not quite. I'd like to share some information with you, actually. Information that might prove extremely attractive to your superiors," I smiled cunningly.

"What is this nonsense, you intend to bait us into an attack just to slaughter us like the last time?"

I grabbed Florin by the wrist, leading him to a more isolated corner of the room, away from the prying ears of Lamashtu. "Now, now, you wouldn't want my family to think you're up to something, would we? You're going to hear us out before you make a decision," I said, compelling him to bend to my will.

Florin's expression softened into a forced smile.

"That's what I thought," I smiled. "Oktai, fy nghariad, would you care to explain to my little friend here how your power works?"

"Of course," he nodded. "You don't need to worry about our discussion reaching Aro's ears. I can hide this entire conversation from him as long as you're not thinking about it when he's reading your thoughts."

"And why should I believe you?" Florin spat.

"Because we can have your coven pardoned. If you help us overthrow Aro, we can end your persecution - my father's guarantee," I said, my hand still gripping his wrist tighter just in case he decided to do anything rash. Florin continued to scowl at us from behind his transparent smile.

"Now that I've piqued your interest, I can tell you a few more things that may be of help. I can assume you're wondering why Caius would be wanting to kill his brother and pardon your discrepancies." Florin nodded. "Aro, despite his infinite wisdom, still doesn't know when not to cross a line. His reign is coming to an end. My father is tired of being his number two and would like to extend the olive branch of forgiveness to those who also know what it's like to be humiliated by him."

"You don't even have the firepower needed for such a feat. While the witch twins remain loyal to Aro, no one could even come close to finishing him. And Caius was the one who found the most pleasure in killing us, even if it was Aro who ordered the attack. How can I be sure that such a demon wouldn't be worse than Aro?"

"Even vampires can change, Florin. We will visit you with a copy of a formal pardon if the circumstances arise in which we are able to carry out our plan. It all hinges on the loyalties of Aro's daughter, but should we succeed in getting her on our side, we will have the leg up," Oktai explained.
"Why would she ever come to your side? She's no doubt just as brainwashed as the rest of you."

"It's a question of time and releasing secrets at the right moment," I said, gripping his wrist a little tighter "so we can't divulge this right this moment, you will have to take our word for now."

"I understand," Florin answered, his face going blank for a moment in response to me giving it all I had with my gift.

"I suggest you remember our scents so we will not be ambushed when the time comes for us to pay you a visit," Oktai added. Florin nodded again, clearly still a little dazed.

"Athy, why are you all going to leave?" Pandora asked, stopping me in my tracks. It was the day after the ball and I was yet to sleep so initially I thought I'd been hearing things out of fatigue. After my argument with mum and dad, Oktai and I had gone back to the party. I had known for a while that mum was going to choose to leave instead of fight and the fact that dad was siding with her on the matter didn't even seem to surprise me, despite him helping Oktai and I formulate a potential plan for revenge just in case.

But I knew better. After hearing all that mum had told me over the years about Aro, I knew that leaving him alive now would just cause the same thing to happen again. Whether it be forcing another human to get pregnant or trampling other covens just to steal their gifted members, history would always be cursed to repeat itself if he was allowed to live on. That was why Oktai and I had begun putting our own measures in place, in case of an opportunity. And this opportunity had just presented itself to me on a silver platter.

"I don't know what you're talking about," I yawned, internally doing backflips at my stroke of luck. As far as I was aware, she'd been asleep during the debate, but I wanted to bait out of her exactly how much she'd heard, not entirely trusting that this wasn't a set-up by Aro.

"Athy, please, I don't know why you want to get revenge on my father or why you'd need to use me against my will. Tell me the truth, tell me what mum doesn't want me to know!" she continued. So she'd heard everything…

I decided to keep up my apathetic façade. I couldn't risk her blabbing to Aro about this after all. I needed to make sure she was completely on board before implicating myself.

"If it involves mum, then why not ask her?"

Pandora's expression became more and more frustrated at my lack of cooperation.

"Athy, please, you know she won't tell me! You said as much yourself!" she fussed. "I know you don't really hate me. You're just putting it on so I don't come after you when you leave me here. If you don't tell me, then I'll make you all forget about leaving - I'll make you stay!" That's the answer I was looking for. I had to be sure she was willing to use her power. Luckily for everyone, she was generally too self-righteous to use it without good cause, but I'd corrupted her now. Now she was selfish enough to at least threaten using it. But I had to be certain she could use it even under pressure.

"I know you wouldn't use your gift on us, Pandora. You wouldn't want to force us to stay here against our will."

"If you don't tell me, then I will, I'll make you forget everything and stay with me," she snapped, her face now twisted by merciless anger. Despite her resemblance to her father, it didn't suit her, but it's what was needed for my plan to work. I smiled.

"Is that what you're willing to do to find out the truth?" I asked calmly.

"Yes."

"You do realise as soon as I tell you, you won't be able to go back - your outlook on your purpose and your life will have changed."

"I understand."

"The only reason mum agreed to have you was so we could leave the coven. By 'we', I mean mum, Oktai, my dad and me. We didn't have another choice. If she didn't agree to have you, he would have made me do it, or kill us one by one until he got what he wanted."

Her expression softened slightly, her eyes unable to maintain contact with mine.

"Do you think someone like that should be in charge of our kind?" I asked her.

"No," she whispered to the floor.

"To him, your only purpose is to be used as a weapon. Your father only cares about you because of your ability. He's the same with everyone else here. We're only of value to him because our powers can keep him in power."

"That's not true, he really does care about Theo and me!" she protested. I'd never seen her lose her cool before. Pandora was such a well-behaved child and I had just opened the door to her dark side, polluting her view on her own life.

"Even if that's true, it won't stop him using you to kill, to ruin lives. Mum refuses to use you like that, she doesn't even want you knowing the truth of your existence. She'd prefer you stay ignorant to the sacrifice she had to make to bring you into this world. If you want to live with a parent who truly values you, then there is only one way. Are you willing to be used, just this once, to overthrow your own father from power? Or would you rather be used as a tool for destruction for the rest of your miserable life?"

"Athanasia, why did you have to drag her into this? She's just a child!" mum shouted, her fingers digging into my arms as she pinned me against the wall in her fury.

"She made me tell her," I shrugged. Mum was fuming. I could tell she wanted to slap me, despite resorting to violence only in matters of training.

"She said she'd make us forget about leaving if I didn't tell her," I added. Mum continued to glare at me, the result of six months of silent bickering coming to a head.

"Of course you'd manage to find a loophole," she muttered under her breath, loosening her grip on me and taking a seat at her desk, her head in her hands. She looked genuinely disappointed, but she was the one who had insisted we even stay this long in Volterra. It was almost inevitable that she'd overhear something that made her question her existence. I was just surprised that it took listening into this one conversation to completely change her mind. Maybe seeing others from outside of this cult had planted the seeds of doubt already.

"You're the one who thought it was a good idea to talk about that with her in the room!" I protested. "I know you don't really want to leave her. I bet you secretly planned to have her overhear so you wouldn't have a choice in taking your revenge. You really are just as despicable as the rest of us, mum."

"That's enough, Athanasia, we're leaving tonight," she growled, her eyes glowing. Had I hit the nail on the head, I wondered...

"I'm taking her to the ballet tonight, remember? You forced me to take her to see it - The Nutcracker."

"Fine, in that case I'll give you a day to sort everything out that you need to. Get packing and I'll tell your father that we're leaving in the morning," she said.

"Are you really content with leaving it all behind? The luxury. The friends. The power. You finally have a friend who went through the same thing as you, do you really want to leave Jojo? Do you really want to give up the role of a quee-"

"-That's enough Athy!" she roared. "I told you to pack your bags and get to the theatre."

"Very well, mum," I whispered.

I left her to stew in her anger with the knowledge that she'd most likely have changed her mind by the time we got back. She wouldn't want to cut her remaining time short with Pandora, especially knowing that she knew the truth. She'd prefer to stay and talk her out of fighting against her father, even if it got us killed by Aro before we left. His contract didn't mention any specifics on plotting to kill him, but if he read any sort of intent strong enough, he wouldn't hesitate in eliminating the threat.

But for now, I had another duty to carry out. After my chat with Pandora, she'd gone to tell Theodotis about how his birth mother had been killed; unintentionally recruiting another member to our cause.

Though I had reminded her that she'd need to constantly keep encrypting and returning all of our mutinous thoughts every time we planned something new. That way, Oktai would be responsible for hiding only Pandora's thoughts. It was a good test to see whether Aro would remain ignorant to our plans. After all, the last thing he would suspect would be for his own brainwashed slave/daughter to be plotting his downfall. For now, I tried to hide from her the fact that we were aiming to kill him. I wasn't sure if she was willing to go all of the way. It was probably best to shield her from it until that part was over. Don't say I'd started going soft...

Just in case mum decided to go through with her vengeance, dad had already written and signed the letter that we were on our way to deliver. For the first time in my life, Tchaikovskiy could wait.

The misty Carpathian mountains loomed in front of us. We'd managed to give our guards the slip thanks to our collective abilities. They were currently enjoying an evening at the ballet in our place, whilst Theo, Panda and I were on a detour to Romania, as promised to Florin at the ball.

Oktai had gone on separately ahead of us alone to scout the area and alert them to our incoming delegation. His trail acted as our guiding path to help us navigate into the Romanians' domain.

There was a strange kind of cold elegance that lingered over the hills. The thin layer of frost that tickled the top of the grass and the refreshing aroma of fir trees, carried on the moisture in the air soothed the overwhelming sense of dread that had filled me ever since we stepped onto Romanian soil.

Pandora and Theo both gripped my hands tighter, succumbing to the intimidation too. I couldn't believe I'd mellowed enough to baby the two children, but I couldn't help but feel fearful as well. We were out of our depth, especially if something went wrong. Dad had told me that there should only be two members of the original coven left, excluding their messenger Florin, but my heartbeat quickened at the thought of letting my warrior go in ahead of us - alone.

But I trusted him. He was a stronger fighter than both mum and I and even dad had suggested he go in in advance as too many of us would appear like a threat to them - especially with the company I was currently keeping.

Where I expected to come upon a castle, similar to some of the beautiful turreted palaces we'd already passed on our journey, we were welcomed by a run-down-looking cabin in the woods. I could understand a little better the humiliation they faced by the Volturi. But so had my mum. Once surrounded by grandeur and roskosh and able to live as demi-Gods in their castles out in the open, they had been forced to pursue a more modest way of life at the cost of their coven and mates.

Checking that I was still in possession of the letter my dad had written, we approached the cabin, knocking on the wooden door. They had evidently heard us coming as we heard no snippets of hushed conversation during our approach. But to my dismay, although I could smell Oktai, undead and well as ever, there were more than just the three we had expected inside.

The door was opened by the one whose scent I was familiar with. Florin.

"Good evening, Athanasia, your mate informed us you were coming," he smiled slyly. I returned his look of sarcasm. We were on their land now, so I couldn't afford to get smart. But I had a duty to remain confident, because if they decided to, we could all easily be killed.

"It's a pleasure, Florin. Would we be able to come in?"

"As long as the brats don't use their powers. If they do, we'll be forced to kill them."

"You're as charming as ever Florin, but I can assure you, there'll be no need, they're both extremely well trained," I said, feeling Pandora and Theodotis stick to me even closer as we walked over the threshold, joining Oktai who was standing next to the door.

"Let me introduce you to my masters," Florin began, gesturing to two robust stone thrones that despite being seated either side of a crackling fireplace, looked colder than Lake Baikal in the winter.

The blond man was introduced as Vladimir and his brunet companion was apparently Stefan. However there were three others present in addition.

Stefan looked amused by our appearances and turned to mutter something to Vladimir.

"Ce existență jalnică. Acești copii s-au născut în această lume cu un singur scop, și anume de a ucide. Acum uită-te la ei. Aleargă spre noi, cerând ajutor să-și ucidă tatăl." (What a pitiful existence. These are the children who were born into this world for the sole purpose of killing. And now look at them running to us, asking us to help them kill their father.)

"Poate că ar fi mai milostiv să le refuzăm ajutorul nostru. Amândoi suntem familiari cu sentimentul pierderii unei persoane dragi. Imaginează-ți cum ar fi fost dacă însuși persoana ar fi făcut-o." (Maybe it would be more merciful to decline our assistance. We are both familiar with how it feels like to lose someone we care about. Imagine how that would feel if it had been done by one own's hand.) Vladimir replied.

"Dar, vai, Vladimir, se pare că Caius ne știe prea bine." (But alas, Vladimir, it seems that Caius knows us too well.)

"Why don't you share your thoughts with us Stefan, not all of us here can understand," a stern-looking vampiress with dark auburn hair spoke from the darkness. The whites of her eyes appeared just as intimidating as her blood red irises and she did not take them off me despite my returning glare being just as foul.

"Erzsébet, what do you think? Should we kill them now - the spawn of those who took everything from us, or should we indulge their request?" Stefan spoke, his heavily accented voice taking me by surprise.

The vampiress approached us, carefully inspecting each of us in great detail. When she knelt down to look at Pandora, she stroked her face, taking in her visage from every angle as if checking a peach for bruises.

"Shame, this one's blood would be most interesting to bathe in. The blood of an immortal would surely be enough to sustain me for a century alone. It is unfortunate that she is such a runt."

Sensing Theo's reaction in advance, I slapped him discreetly on the wrist. Despite being weirded out by this woman's noncy behaviour towards Pandora, we were not on home territory. Our fate was riding on us keeping our cool here.

"Do not be fooled, Erzsébet, she may be a runt, but she has the power to return things to the way they were before," Florin smirked, catching my eye.

"Is that so?" she laughed, licking her lips. Oh how I'd love to take down this pervert, she was almost like an introverted female version of Aro. I'd expect nothing less from the infamous blood countess herself.

"I take it from your reaction, that you would be in support of this alliance?" Vladimir questioned.

"Yes, if what you said is true and Caius be allowed to take control of the Volturi, I have no doubt that I would be allowed to be a little less discreet in my indulgences."

"And what do you say: Nandor? Grigoriy?"

"Yes," they both answered.

"Then we are all on the same page," Vladimir continued. "As you can see, we have gathered some of our friends from over the centuries who have similar goals to us. Will you let me see this letter from Caius?"

I pulled the envelope from inside my travelling cloak. It had been closed with our coven's seal and bore all the hallmarks of a legitimate legal document. However, it had only been signed by dad, as well as Theodotis and Pandora. To make it truly valid, Aro would have to be deposed as it required a majority verdict to bring any decree into effect.

Florin took it from my hand and handed it to Vladimir. The blond vampire opened the envelope and read the note with haste before handing it to Stefan.

"Nice try, but this order is not tenable. It bears only one valid signature," Stefan smiled. "Besides, you are crazy to believe this will actually work."

"I'm sure my father-in-law explained that this is to ensure that our agreement is upheld until the end," Oktai answered calmly. "He does not mean it as a mark of disrespect, just as insurance that the plan is carried out with the utmost attention to detail."

"Very well," Stefan grimaced.

"What would you plan on doing should we take this letter straight to Aro and show him what his number two and ah… little weapons of mass destruction have been plotting without his knowledge?" Vladimir jeered.

"You would be detained upon arriving on Volterra soil and executed with the utmost haste. You would be signing your own death warrant as well as ours, even if you sent someone in your place," Oktai explained, his gaze flickering over to their lapdog Florin.

"Understood. If we are to collaborate in order to bring justice to the memories of our fallen comrades, we will be guaranteed complete pardon for our 'crimes' and you will be willing to guarantee our safety - am I correct?"

"Yes, sir."

"But we are not allowed to kill the witch twins?"

"No, they are just children and therefore cannot be held responsible under the current law."

"Pitiful… So what is your plan to overthrow the king, as it were?"

"I'm glad that you asked," I started.

The architects of destruction have made their plans, but can their building withstand the elements? Stay tuned for more next weekend as usual. Please leave a review to let me know your thoughts, thanks for reading!