Elijah sat with me all through the night, never once stirring like a guardian angel until I woke up in the morning, or at least, my mind woke up. The rest of me was still on shut down mode. Feeling a refreshing and cooling breeze, I guessed that he had opened a window in order to allow some fresh air into the room, which combined with the scent of grass, moss and the hundreds of flowers all across the room, created a sensory paradise. He never said anything, just sat there quietly though I couldn't tell if he was sleeping or just sitting there, watching me breathe lightly without otherwise moving.
I wanted him to talk or do something so that I had more to do than just lay here doing nothing. All night I had been having these dreams and they made my head hurt as I saw things both in the near and far distant future. One thing that this comatose state did provide, I'll admit, was time. It's not like I could do anything else anyway, so I could lay back and dream, plan and see as much as I was allowed to see of what was coming for us, and to my disappointment, there was a lot of it. Thankfully I was saved from driving myself crazy when Bekah arrived, waltzing into the bedroom with a particular lightness to her step which made me frown inwardly with curiosity.
"So you have finally returned." Elijah mused, the presence of his voice informing me that he had actually been awake this entire time.
"Don't start. I've already heard enough from Kol." Rebekah quipped as she crossed over to my side and pointedly sat down next to me on the bed, reaching over to fuss with my hair. "How is she?"
"No change as of yet, and I am not anticipating any improvements anytime soon." I could feel Rebekah droop with disappointment. "Niklaus came and sat with her for a time during the night after mother called me to discuss Kol's behaviour." Elijah then added, almost like an afterthought and both Rebekah and I felt a kick of surprise. Klaus did?
"And why would our brother care to sit with Lia? Guard dog duty is not something he would do willingly."
"Nevertheless, he stayed. Surely Rebekah, you are not blind to the fact that Niklaus has grown somewhat affectionate over Ophelia in his own way. It appears Ophelia has managed to have something of a positive effect on him. I do not believe I have ever seen him so docile." I wonder how differently everyone would be talking around me if they knew I could actually hear them? Maybe this wasn't such a bad thing after all, I mean, I might as well get some enjoyment out of this since I'm stuck here for the foreseeable future, and I cannot wait to hold it over Klaus's head that whether he admitted it or not, he had been worried about me. "But leaving that matter aside, I have something else I need to discuss with you. I'm worried about mother. Have you not noticed her strange behaviour?"
"She's been dead for a thousand years, what's strange for her?" Hearing a rustle of movement, I then received a strong scent of burnt sage as Elijah revealed the compress that Esther had burned and spelled whilst talking to Elena the night before.
"Burned sage. She was doing a privacy spell. I found it whilst having a look in mother's study whilst Niklaus was watching Ophelia for me." A little irritated that they seemed to be under the impression that I needed to be watched, I scowled inwardly. I may be technically comatose right now, but I can still hear you guys and I'm not totally defenceless. I have some remnants of magic still, I can protect myself even like this and nature will protect me too.
"You know she fancies such things. Why don't you ask Finn? He's been doting on her."
"I don't trust Finn. He hates what we are. He always has."
"That's not true, and as for mother she returned for one reason, to make her family whole. She loves us. What trouble are you looking to find?"
"Before she collapsed, Ophelia gave me a warning. She warned me not to trust our mother, and I intend to take the advice of a druid who can catch glimpses of the future as well as my own intuition. Our mother is up to something, and I know that Elena Gilbert is somehow involved." Always with Elena Gilbert. Seriously, people need to find someone else to fixate on, because eventually I'm pretty sure Elena is going to get ripped to pieces with people trying to pull her every which way for their own purposes. I almost felt sorry for her.
"What are you going to do brother? I this is true and we cannot trust our own mother, how are we to know what she is planning?"
"That is what I intend to find out. I shall be in touch once I know more. Stay close to her. I do not wish for Ophelia to feel alone." Touched at Elijah's concern, Rebekah promised that she would and once Elijah was gone, she began to talk to me. She told me about how she had gone to try and apologise to Matt but he had brushed her off, wanting to be alone and because of his rejection, she'd ended up sleeping with Damon Salvatore because he'd been rejected by Elena. Again. Bekah, when I wake up I'm going to kick your ass. There are some guys you shouldn't touch with the longest pole in the world, and Damon Salvatore was one of them. He was one loose nut away from completely crazy and he was definitely bad news for her.
"Of course Kol was an ass about it the moment I walked through the door. I have no idea how I survived having so many brothers all these centuries, none of them understand. Not really. It was always easier for men to live freely, especially a thousand years ago. Women were just pretty little things to be taken out and admired before then being shut away indoors, but that was never enough for me. That's why I love this modern age so much, I can be myself without fear of reproach." You're telling me. Although we still have a lot of things wrong with our society, it's still a lot better for some people than it used to be.
Rebekah worked on removing the makeup from my face, which felt amazing and like a godsend as she removed everything to leave me fresh faced before then applying toner and cleanser to clean my skin, doing everything for me as I continued to lay there in my garden of flowers. "You look like a real princess now, sleeping surrounded in flowers. Perhaps I should find you a prince to come and break the spell, then I can have you back to help me keep my brothers in line, or at least teach Kol some manners. It was wrong what he did, but I should probably tell you…I don't know if you can hear me or not, and if you cannot then I promise to tell you the truth again when you wake, but…it was me who asked Kol to attack Matt." What? "It was reckless of me. I was jealous of Caroline and angry with Elena for stabbing me in the back, and in that moment I forgot that Matt was your friend too and I asked Kol to help me hurt him. I changed my mind, though. Matt is such a kind person, he even gave me his coat when we went outside even though I can't feel the cold. I'm so sorry, Lia. Please don't be angry with me."
Despite her apology, I was angry. Rebekah should know how much Matt matters to me, how good and sweet he was and that he didn't deserve to be used as collateral to hurt someone else. I had wanted to keep him as far away from all this supernatural danger as possible but he always seemed to find his way back. I'd placed a few spells on him for his protection, just basic stuff like with my parents, but I guess I hadn't planned on someone actually going after him directly, let alone one of Rebekah's other brothers. I'd focused the magic primarily to make Klaus back off, not his psycho little brother. Huffing and yelling in my head, I berated and ranted at Rebekah for what she did despite knowing that she genuinely felt guilty and promised to make it up to me. I knew she had a hard time reigning in her temper, I mean, once she was angry, it was complete tunnel vision for her and whoever sparked her temper would be the one to pay for it no matter who else got hurt in the process.
Pointedly ignoring Rebekah from then on, I decided that I would focus on what was going on outside instead. Being stuck here, I was really able to work on my other powers that I had ignored up until now because I hadn't needed them. With my magic connection to the earth, I could feel the pulse and rhythm of the magic as it flowed like a heartbeat all around me, allowing me to connect and journey with it to see everything around the house. I worked on pushing it further, letting my spirit slip away in order to meld with nature's magic in order to see far and wide. At the moment I was limited to the town, which took me pretty much all day to reach, but it was a beginning. One day I wonder if I would be able to see across the entire state or further still.
I could also control things around my immediate environment, such as the atmosphere and temperature so I treated myself to a tropical paradise so that I didn't have to be stuck with a brisk wintery breeze all the time. The dry heat felt amazing, warming my skin and making me exceedingly comfortable as I turned it up and down according to my whim, playing around since I was now in the house alone. Everyone was out doing their own thing. Esther and Finn were plotting to kill everyone, Elijah and Rebekah were holding Elena hostage to force the Salvatore brothers to help them, and Kol was with Niklaus at the Grill, though the latter had been pulled away by Caroline who served as a distraction.
Although I couldn't see in the sense that I was used to seeing things with my eyes or in my dreams, it was like I could feel everything and everyone, like ants in one colony all clustered together. Breathing deeply, I allowed the magic of my spirit to soar, following the pulse of the earth before I found myself a means to see properly, through the eyes of something else. A crow. It was an ancient trick my people used to use in order to carry messages or observe the world in secret, and the animals of the earth were all allies to us. It was like an unspoken communication, a bond of trust between a druid and a creature no matter what they were, prey or predator, or whether they were creatures of the land or sea.
It was a useful technique, and as I worked on perfecting it, it allowed me to finally see what was going on. The feeling of having wings was at first completely alien to me, struggling to figure out what to do until the crow took off for me and flew in the air, seemingly trying to teach me how to fly and as I felt the air currents underneath my wings, I couldn't help but laugh for pure exhilarating joy. The world looked so small beneath me, far down below where even the treetops were mere blurs of green branches as I flew among the clouds.
Never had I experienced such freedom as this, being able to literally spread my wings and take off into the skies and part of me wished to never come down ever again. However, unfortunately birds do eventually get tired, and I could also feel the ache of the crow's wings so I figured we should probably land somewhere. I chose the Grill, settling on a perch overlooking the back alley where they were dragging Kol's body out, a dagger stuck in his heart. Can't say I'm sorry to see him like that, in fact I'm pretty sure Kol deserved it though Klaus came to his brother's rescue after figuring out that something was wrong since all five siblings were now linked together.
Kind of surprising since yesterday Klaus had been ready to rip Kol's throat out. I guess he's in a more forgiving mood lately. He swept in and took out Alaric and pulled the dagger out of Kol, beginning the healing process so that he could be revived before he then turned on Damon after also throwing Stefan against a wall and knocking him out too. "I should have killed you months ago."
"Do it. That's not gonna stop Esther from killing you." Halting slightly and tilting his head, I ruffled my feathers as I continued to watch from the street above as Klaus demanded to know what Damon was talking about, growing suspicious and wary. "You didn't know I was friends with your mommy?
Yeah, we have a lot in common. She hates you as much as I do." God, Damon can be such a dick sometimes, and by that I meant all the time. Why does anyone even bother to deal with his crap?
"Leave him!" Before Klaus could kill Damon once and for all, Elijah happened to arrive, making me start and crow slightly as I remained connected with the bird, turning my heavily beaked head around to see Elijah standing at the top of the stairs. "We still need him, Niklaus."
"What did mother do? What did she do, Elijah?" Part of me felt sorry for Klaus. He had ridden all of his hope in having his family united as one after a thousand years of running from his father, only for his mother to betray him. I have no idea how he's going to recover from that, and I was worried about the bloodbath he might start once his rage gets the better of him. Elijah told him nothing at the moment, descending the steps and looking directly at Damon as Stefan recovered.
"You tell me where the witches are or I'll have my sister kill Elena right now." He threatened, which was kind of difficult for me to hear. I'd always had this image of Elijah in my head being honourable and above petty threats, yet here we were. I guess he was desperate, since he didn't know that I was still partly in action. He thought his family were on their own.
"You told me we had until after nine."
"I'm sure Rebekah would be more than happy to start her work early." Having no other choice, Damon and Stefan had to help Elijah, Klaus and Kol, which meant figuring out where Esther was with the Bennett witches. I already knew that she'd linked the siblings together and that she intended to undo the spell that had made them into vampires before killing them. Personally, I felt that Esther had spent a little too long being dead. I mean, this was clearly all a vendetta for being killed by Klaus, but also from regretting turning them in the first place. She'd been punished on the Other Side for what she'd done, and now she had to set it right, but even after undoing the spell it was a bit much killing them all anyway. I mean, once they're human, they're human. They'll age, grow old, be normal people. Killing them was just cold.
Besides, there was no way I was going to let that happen. I'd put stock in the fact that these guys were impossible to kill and that's why I'd allowed myself to get close to them, to care, and now even that was being threatened. Even if it meant saving Kol in the process, I won't let any of them die. Rebekah was too important to me, and Elijah was also someone I cared about, and Klaus…well I guess we were beginning to reach an accord with one another, and Finn was a nice enough guy, though a little twisted in the head to be offering himself up as a sacrifice. Four against one, it was a majority win, so after the Salvatore brothers finally admitted where it was possible Esther was holed up with the Bennett witches, I spread my wings and took off, fully intent on messing with Esther to get back at her for poisoning me.
Let's see which witch was better, shall we?