Hello loves!
Right, I haven't actually got much to say right now, my life's been pretty boring lately… But I would like to address a review and apologise as I go through it.
hiareportsyou – I've realised that whilst my own mind is a complete mess, the minds of the people reading my fanfictions probably are a lot more orderly. So, I'll need to try and get into a habit of explaining why I have Aria do things that might otherwise seem confusing. I have Aria following the Mikaelsons around because she doesn't actually want to help Dahlia. Like at all. If that's not completely obvious already. She's basically just trying to do as little as possible to avoid Dahlia paying her even more attention (if that's even possible at this point). At this point, she doesn't want to study the Grimoire much – though that will definitely change in the future – and she's already kind of created her anchor, I don't want to go into too much depth over that part. So, summing it up, she wants to help Dahlia as little as possible and wants to avoid Dahlia's Grimoire. She is terrified of this thousand-year-old witch bitch. She's taken to following Elijah around because she thinks he is the best choice to keep in sync with the living world considering all the honey pots old 'Lijah has his hands in. Hopefully that has cleared up any confusion.
BTW, this chapter will entirely replace episode 15 of season 1 of The Originals but I'll try my best to mention the key plot points if not in clarity then at least passing conversation.
Now let's get on with it! I own nothing.
~*•°•*~
Aria faded back into her room at the Abattoir and her hand instinctively went up to her nose, pulling it away and finding her hand covered in blood. A handkerchief was suddenly held out in front of her and, without startling or even so much as looking up at Dahlia, she took it and wiped away the blood.
"You went back."
"Clearly." Aria mumbled before sighing and looking up to Dahlia, "Sophie Deveraux is dead. Elijah talked with her niece, Monique and she sent him a message from Celeste. He discovered all the bodies she has inhabited over the past few decades and found one in particular. Clara Summerlin."
"What was so special about this one?"
"Because Rebekah had some business with Clara's friend, one who I have reason to believe is another of the resurrected witches. Genevieve. In 1919, at Rebekah's request, Genevieve summoned Mikael to New Orleans so that he would drive Klaus out of town, letting her be with Marcel. They loved each other. Klaus has now found out and before he could stab Rebekah with Papa Tunde's cursed blade as a punishment, I managed to take it from him."
Dahlia smirked.
"You created a foothold in the form of the blade."
Aria nodded and watched Dahlia as the woman seemed to drift into a world of her own.
"This is good. Now, we can begin to augment your power, teach you how to grow." Dahlia snapped out of her trance and looked toward Aria, a gleam in her eyes that had Aria on edge, "You should get some rest for now, tomorrow we will be busy. Very busy indeed." She spoke before leaving the room.
Aria sighed and, only hesitating slightly, she moved to lie down. Staring up at the ceiling of the canopy bed, she let her thoughts run wild.
What had happened to Davina? Guiltily, she realised that she hadn't actually paid the slightly younger witch much mind in the past few days. Then again, she'd been killed, resurrected, threatened, had her family threatened, been tutored by an apparently not so dead witch and being able to access the living world again just to name a few things. Surely Davina wouldn't blame her.
Then again, what was happening to her?
The Ancestors had rejected Aria considering she technically wasn't a part of their Coven but Davina was. And they surely wouldn't be happy with her. Would they be hurting her? Was it possible for her to be hurt whilst in Limbo?
With all those thoughts in mind, the teenage witch gently drifted into a fitful sleep.
~*•°•*~
Sapphire eyes fluttered open as curtains were flung open in Aria's room by Dahlia the next morning. She let out a small sigh of annoyance as she sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes before she let them focus. Dahlia had moved away from the windows and was now standing at the foot of her bed observing her.
"Can I help you?"
The witch paid no mind to Aria's mildly annoyed words, "Today you won't be going to the living world as usual." She announced.
Aria's eyes widened and all sleepiness she'd been experiencing a moment ago vanished, "What? Why?"
"There is something I need to teach you now that you've finally established a foothold." She said simply, "Now get dressed." She said before leaving the young witch alone.
Aria narrowed her eyes at the now closed door before throwing the covers back irritably and walking to the small closet, grumbling all her way.
She chose to wear a light grey long sleeved top with a black leather jacket. She paired it with black jeans and burgundy ankle boots, adding a slightly darker grey cotton scarf, a silver ring on her right ring finger, a small silver chain necklace and simple silver stud earrings. She left her hair down and it hung in gentle waves to a few inches below her shoulders.
With a deep breath, she reached out to the door handle and opened it before walking down the hallways and stairs until she reached the courtyard where Dahlia was waiting, dressed in black as usual. She quickly took a glance at Aria's outfit before nodding slightly in approval and holding her hand out for Aria to take.
Reluctantly, Aria took it and felt her world spinning like never before, not even when she'd visited the living world for the first time since her death. Where were they going? She let out a small scream as they landed, almost falling over at the sudden pause.
"Where the hell are we?" She demanded, slowing her breathing as she stood up.
Dahlia ignored her question, "Follow me."
~*•°•*~
"Where the hell are we going? We've been walking for ages." Aria asked in frustration after about a twenty-minute walk.
"Quiet." Dahlia instructed before they stopped as they made it to one end of a village path. Aria looked around in confusion,
"Is this… a dreamscape?"
"Well done, Aria. Now, listen."
Aria sighed and closed her eyes to listen better, focusing her hearing before her eyes opened in confusion as metal scraping and screams reached her ears. Viking warriors were attacking the village. The duo rounded a corner to see two young girls hiding behind a large wheelbarrow of hay.
"Is that you?"
"And my sister, Esther." Dahlia finished.
"We're in your memories?" Aria asked incredulously. Dahlia nodded stoically.
"Now watch."
"The Vikings came while you were in the garden!" A young Esther whispered, visibly shaking in fear, "I'm scared, Dahlia."
The young Dahlia cupped Esther's face in her hands, "Don't be. I will protect us, Esther. Come what may, we must stick together, always and forever. Promise?"
Esther nodded, "I promise."
The duo clutched each other's hands before pressing their foreheads together before they began to hum to a tune. Aria watched with furrowed eyebrows as a Viking rounded the wheelbarrow and tried to pull them apart, dragging Esther away from Dahlia.
"No! No! Unhand her!" Dahlia yelled before thrusting her hands out violently and watching as the Viking was thrown to the ground. Instead of being able to break free from the Vikings surrounding them, two others ran over and threw sacks over their heads before dragging them away, oblivious to their struggling and screaming.
"The Vikings slaughtered the entire village." Aria said quietly.
Dahlia nodded emotionally, "Esther and I were the only ones who survived. We promised to stay together always and forever. A familiar promise to you, I'm sure. Now come, we must move on."
~*•°•*~
Dahlia led Aria to a small hovel full of lit candles, "Charming." Aria muttered as she looked around the room, a faint look of distaste on her face.
"This dismal hovel is where I endured the terrors of Viking captivity for years." Dahlia muttered, a slight sneer on her face as she pointed toward the door where a Viking brought in a struggling young Dahlia before throwing her on the floor.
She was dirty and dishevelled, her hair knotted and mussed and she had several cuts on her face as well as a fading black eye. As soon as the Viking left, she scrambled to her feet before running over to a table with a clutter of lit candles.
Dahlia began talking again as the younger version of her began to cast what looked like some form of sacrificial magic, "I performed the dark magic they demanded so that Esther would be free of their violent abuse. While she was out in the sun gathering herbs, I toiled in the grey of this room. But I never resented her. We'd made a promise."
"While this is all heart wrenching, Dahlia, why are you showing me this?" Aria asked in confusion and slight impatience.
"Just watch."
The door to the hovel opened and a smiling young Esther wearing a flower crown on her head, walked inside and joined Dahlia, a soft smile on her face.
"You've been with Mikael." The young Dahlia said unhappily.
Esther giggled softly, "We were only talking."
Dahlia frowned in slight jealousy of her sister's happiness but she forced herself to smile as she walked over to her,
"No matter. I have something to show you!" Esther looked at the bundle of sage in Dahlia's hands curiously, "This is potent sage soaked in serpent's blood! It will give us strength. We can get out of this place! Esther, together, we can live forever!"
Esther sighed, "Dahlia, stop." Dahlia's smile fell, "…I no longer wish to practice magic."
All witches in the room, past Dahlia, present Dahlia and even Aria looked stunned as they watched the memory, "She doesn't want to practise magic?" Aria echoed, "But… she made her children into vampires. Cast the Hybrid curse on Klaus…"
"Magic has kept us alive!" The young Dahlia protested.
"And Mikael will protect me now, sister!" Young Dahlia stepped away from her sister in betrayal as Esther continued, "We plan to marry… and have a family."
"I am your family. I am your sister. We promised each other-"
"You will always be my sister, Dahlia! But, I wish for children of my own. And..." Esther sighed, "I love him."
Esther turned to leave but Dahlia desperately grabbed onto her arm to pull her back, "Stay, Esther! Let's sing our song!"
"I don't remember that silly little tune anymore, Dahlia!" Esther yelled in annoyance. She sighed and tried to wipe the bloodstains from Dahlia's hands off of her dress before leaving the small hovel. Young Dahlia looked down at her hands in devastation as she fell to her knees, humming her and Esther's tune beneath her breath. A flash of sympathy and sadness Aria's features as her eyes strayed to the older Dahlia.
She looked just as heartbroken as the younger version of herself.
~*•°•*~
The next thing Aria knew, she was standing in the Abattoir Courtyard once more.
"Esther turned her back on witchcraft. On me." Dahlia explained, "She abandoned me for the Vikings that slaughtered our village."
"Why did you show me that?" Aria asked quietly.
Dahlia ignored the question, "The firstborns of my line possess devastating power, as I've already told you. You are not of my bloodline yet the power you possess is much like my own. However, you have had no one to help grow that power. Instead, you've been given herbs to suppress your magic, a lack of empathy from the Coven that is responsible for you and vampires as your family, ones that could not possibly begin to understand the extent of your power. That is why I pulled you back from death."
"I never asked."
"You didn't have to." Dahlia replied without missing a beat, "Now, there is something I need to do. Use the spell. Create a stronger foothold."
Before Aria could reply, she was gone.
Reaching down to the Grimoire Dahlia had set on the table, Aria stopped short, eyebrows knitting together in confusion as a distant clattering reached her ears. As she turned around narrowed eyes searched the courtyard. She couldn't see anyone there. Scoffing quietly to herself and shaking her head, Aria went to reach the Grimoire again before more clattering reached her ears.
This time, Aria stood back up and turned around in confusion, "Dahlia? I thought you had to do something?"
No one responded.
"Dahlia?" Aria called out again, eyes starting to dart around the room cautiously.
Again, no one responded.
Usually, Aria's annoyance would raise and she'd start firing off insults as a bid to get Dahlia out of hiding wherever she was. But she didn't. Because of the very simple reason that she was afraid of the thousand-year-old witch. Dahlia had managed to single-handedly save Aria from permanent death. Her power rolled off of her in waves. There was no telling what else she could do.
So yes, she was scared.
Uncertainly, she picked up the Grimoire before raising it up and slowly edging towards the front doors of the Abattoir, book perfectly poised to hit someone, "Hello?"
She walked outside of the building and onto the street, eyes widening momentarily in surprise at the accuracy it had when compared to the actual street. She shook her head to get rid of the thoughts, instead focusing on the fact that if it wasn't Dahlia who was out here, then there was someone else.
And if someone got in, maybe she could get out.
Maybe she could break free from Dahlia.
"Hello?"
She spun around when something clattered to the ground in the Courtyard, "Who's there?"
"Aria."
Aria spun around, eyes wide and ready to throw the book down before sighing, "Dahlia. What are you doing out here?"
"What am I doing out here?" Dahlia echoed, a dark look flashing in her eyes, "What are you doing here?"
"There-there was something in the Courtyard. Someone. I-I thought…"
"You thought…?"
Aria silently cursed herself, "Nothing. I thought nothing. I was just confused."
Dahlia's eyes narrowed, "Very well. Go on."
Aria practically bolted.
~*•°•*~
Sighing in frustration, Aria slammed the Grimoire closed and leant onto her desk in her room, fingers tangling in her hair as she pulled on it in annoyance. Dahlia had been mysteriously absent since Aria had thought she'd seen someone almost four hours ago. In that time, she'd managed to fail spectacularly at figuring out what in hell could've been following her.
She'd heard whispers, seen things clatter to the ground and all the while Dahlia was nowhere near her. All adding up, someone else was in this world. But on a side note, where was she? What world had Dahlia put her in? Dahlia had never actually elaborated on that, simply choosing to say that she'd saved Aria from the brink of death and tied her to this world for a limited time.
Humming to herself in thought and mentally storing the information away for a later date, she refocused on the Grimoire, tracing the runic symbols on the front. ᛞᚨᚺᛚᛁᚨ. She was pretty sure that it just said Dahlia, though she couldn't even begin to guess what language it was written in.
Fingers drumming on the wooden desk in boredom, Aria blew a strand of hair that had fallen free from her messily and hastily put-up bun, only meant to get her hair out of her face as she studied the book intensely.
"No good it's going to do now." Aria muttered, arms reaching up behind her head to re-tie it into some form of respectability before sighing, eyes drifting back to the Grimoire before narrowing slightly in thought.
The way she saw it, she had two options. One, seeing Kol again or two, figuring out who else was in this forsaken place.
Curiosity killed the cat, Aria. She reminded herself.
Her fingers stopped drumming on the desk as she stood up, making her way out of the room and closing the door behind her.
~*•°•*~
She walked through the back alleys of the Quarter nervously. It had been about three hours since she'd decided to leave the Abattoir and, in that time, she had managed to search the entire Quarter, even going down the back alleys that only a select few in New Orleans actually knew about.
But she'd had no such luck finding whoever had been watching her for the past few days.
Turning another corner into a back alley next to the record store, she let out a sudden scream at the sight of a woman just… standing in the middle of the alley, black dress blending with the shadows, dirty blond hair hanging over her face and obscuring it from Aria's view. Hands flying out instinctively and eyes screwing shut, they only opened after she heard a sudden crack.
"Oh, no. What have I done?" Aria muttered fearfully, dropping to her knees beside the mystery woman before shaking her gently, "No, no, no. Wake up, wake up. Come on love, wake up. Please."
Who was she? Had Dahlia trapped her too? Well, no matter what happened, it wouldn't matter if she couldn't get her to wake up. A moment or two passed and, before Aria could overthink any more than she already had, the woman's eyes snapped open and she heaved in a deep breath, eyes darting to Aria's before widening further in surprise.
Scrambling up from the path, now realising the mystery woman might not have been entirely safe to begin with, Aria eyed her warily, "Who are you?"
"Who am I?" The woman questioned in disbelief, eyeing her just as cautiously as Aria was her, "Who are you?"
Aria narrowed her eyes, "I asked first."
The woman squared her jaw, watching Aria distrustfully, "I won't hurt you unless you hurt me." Aria said simply.
The woman sighed, "Freya. My name is Freya."
~*•°•*~
As Always, SecretMidnightRose