Hi everyone,

once again, big thanks to everyone who has read / reviewed / favourited / followed! It really means a lot to me as this is the first time I have ever written fiction at all, and it was a little bit of an experiment for me to see if I could pull off an entire story. Still really nervous about the whole thing! :)

I meant to update yesterday, but I had a terrible day (aka hangover ;)), so I will upload a few more chapters today to make up for it.

As a quick note, Gilles de Rais and Prelati are actual historical personalities. More on them to come, there is still a lot of story ahead! :)

Happy Sunday! :)

CHAPTER EIGHT

THE HEART OF A WARRIOR

The next day brought Elijah and Kol. After an uneventful remainder of the night, Elena and the Salvatores left rather early in the morning, and Caroline settled next to the fireplace in the study after having agreed with Klaus on going to see her mom sometime later in the day. She was totally engrossed in her book, and Klaus had left her to it. He had been very quiet all morning, and Caroline was not sure what to make of it. His moods seemed to change on a regular basis, and she had seen so many facets to him in little over twenty-four hours that she was seriously confused. And intrigued. What puzzled her most was how he seemed to be affected by everything that had happened so far. It was not that he was openly displaying any emotions, but it was clear to her that he was utterly strained, more so than she had ever seen him, and it worried her. It worried her to see the almighty Klaus like that, and it worried her even more that she was apparently so attuned to his moods that she noticed every little change that was going on in him. Then again, it was good to know that the Original's seemingly indestructible shell was not so impermeable after all. He has feelings alright.

The arrival of the two other Mikaelson brothers a couple of hours later gave another indication of that fact. Caroline had just finished a chapter and a blood bag – where did Klaus find all that B positive? – when she heard noises from the front door. Curios and just a little grateful for the distraction, she strolled out into the hallway to see who it was. She arrived just in time to witness Klaus greet his brothers. He gave Kol a nod and a quick pat on the shoulder. Then he turned to Elijah, and Caroline found herself fascinated at how those two needed no words. There was a silent exchange going on between them, and even without knowing Elijah all that well, she could see the faint hint of worry in his eyes at what he saw in his younger brother's. The wordless communication came to an abrupt end as Kol spotted her standing next to the study doors.

"Well," he exclaimed with a somewhat lewd look in her direction, "I have to admit it, Nik – I never thought you'd end up getting it on with her after all!"

Klaus was in his brother's face immediately. He didn't snarl, and he didn't lay a finger on Kol. But his voice was so threatening that Caroline's eyes actually widened.

"In view of the fact that you have just set foot in the house, Kol, I will let that pass this time. However, should I hear anything of the sort from you ever again, or should you feel inclined to make Caroline's life only the slightest bit difficult, I give you my word that you will beg me to dagger you. Caroline is our guest until further notice, for reasons I will yet explain, and you will treat her as such. Mark my words, brother. One wrong move, one wrong word, and you will regret the day you were undaggered."

Caroline could see the genuine surprise on Kol's face at his brother's absolute determination. He nodded, then looked at her and nodded again. She gave him a small smile and saw the corners of his mouth lift a fraction in return.

Elijah looked at Klaus thoughtfully. Then he, too, turned towards Caroline, smiling and inclining his head in a small bow. "Miss Forbes. It will be a pleasure having you underfoot, however dismal the circumstances. I am certain my brother has already asked you to make yourself at home, but please, let me tell you that you are indeed most welcome. I shall be looking forward to speaking more with you later." Caroline beamed at him, not able to help being charmed by his manners – and noticing Klaus' eyes narrow almost imperceptibly at her reaction.

"Where's Bekah?" Kol wanted to know. "She hasn't been here for a while, has she? Her scent is completely gone. So where is she?" Caroline remembered that she had wanted to ask Klaus how the talk with his sister went, but between all the events of the previous day, she had just plain forgotten about it.

"She… will be back soon," Klaus muttered. Elijah looked at him quizzically, heaving a sigh.

"What happened this time, Niklaus?" he asked evenly.

"We had a little disagreement. I went to see her yesterday, but she is as stubborn as ever. She will have to get over it, though, as I won't accept her obstinacy. She will move back in, and she will do so today. I will bring her back, daggered or otherwise, so if you would stay with Caroline, then I…"

"Niklaus," Elijah interrupted, a slight note of impatience to his melodious voice. "With your penchant for gunboat diplomacy, it will be another millennium before Rebekah even considers returning. Tell me where to find her, and I will go. But let us take a walk first, shall we?"

Klaus nodded and turned to Kol. "You will stay here with Caroline. And you'd do well to remember my words, brother."

"I missed you too, Nik," Kol sneered, rolling his eyes.

"May I suggest you put your disquietude to better use than attempting to pave a walkway into the desert ironwood you so tastefully chose as the study flooring?" Elijah's calm voice came from the door where he was standing, silently watching Klaus pacing back and forth restlessly. Caroline had already retired for the night, and Rebekah and Kol were nowhere to be seen. After Klaus had recounted the basic events to Elijah, actually right after Klaus had mentioned Prelati's name, the older Original had left and returned with Rebekah not two hours later. She and Klaus had scowled at each other, and Rebekah had gone to her room without so much as a second glance at him or Caroline.

Klaus paused for an instant, casting a fleeting look at his brother. "Feel free to remove yourself from my company, brother, if I irritate you."

"Did I say anything of the sort?" Elijah shook his head, entering the room and walking slowly towards the array of crystal carafes on the sideboard. "Will you join me for a drink, Niklaus?" he asked, standing pensively in front of the stately selection of beverages that had been refilled since Damon's raid.

Klaus sighed. Maybe a drink would indeed soothe his unrest to some extent. It had been long since he had last spent some time alone with his older brother. With all the events that had unfolded over the last months, he had quietly feared that Elijah might never be able to fully forgive him for his scheming, the daggering and many more things. That they would never share one of those peaceful evenings again, just being brothers and talking to each other like they had done so often over the centuries. He missed that, and he missed it sorely.

"Of course. Choose a drink for us, will you?" He seated himself on the couch facing the fireplace.

"Voilà, mon frère," Elijah said, handing him a crystal tumbler containing a generous fill of a dark amber liquid. Klaus raised the glass to his nose, inhaling deeply, and cast Elijah an appreciative glance.

"Royal Salute? What is the occasion?" he inquired.

"I see you haven't lost your touch for recognizing exquisiteness. I am glad. Well, first of all, the family is reunited once more. And secondly, a quiet evening with my brother has been rare in recent times, therefore the Royal Salute strikes me as an adequate choice to celebrate two such momentous events," Elijah replied with a faint smile, as if he had read Klaus' thoughts a moment ago. "To family," he said.

"To family." Klaus raised his glass to Elijah, silently admiring the Whisky's fiery colour and closing his eyes in pleasure for an instant while sipping his drink.

"I am surprised you came back immediately when I asked," he said after a moment of companionable silence, watching his brother cautiously. "You could be anywhere you wish, doing anything you desire, so why did you choose to actually come back to this godforsaken town when I called?"

Elijah briefly shook his head in disbelief.

"Niklaus. You and Rebekah and Kol are my family. We are reunited at last, we no longer need to run from our miserable excuse for a father or worry about mother's elaborate plans for sending us into oblivion. What makes you think I would want to be separated from my brothers and sister for any length of time?"

Klaus swallowed. "I daggered you, and more than once. Should you not feel hate, thirst for revenge? Should you not be outraged at my betrayal and side with the Salvatore posse on their next dozen pathetic plots to end my life?"

"You may be surprised to learn that I perfectly understand the motivations behind almost everything you have ever done, Niklaus. You are my brother, and of all our siblings, I have always been the closest to you, my comrade in arms and life. However estranged we may have grown periodically, we did spend almost a millennium together, and there is not a single being on the face of the Earth who knows you better than I do." Elijah sighed and looked at his younger brother earnestly. "I may not always agree with your choices, but that does not mean I have any wish to see you dead."

Klaus' eyes narrowed. "So what is my motivation behind daggering the lot of you whenever you start getting on my nerves, Dr. Freud?"

"You have always made one fundamental error in your interactions with other people – and even more so in your dealings with us, your family. You assume that whenever someone is not in agreement with a particular action of yours, they automatically reject you in your entirety. You believe that criticizing you equals loathing you."

"You are quite mistaken. I know perfectly well that one thing has nothing to do with the other. And I do not appreciate your lecturing me, Elijah," Klaus hissed through clenched teeth. This was getting dangerously close to the truth, and he reflexively lashed out when someone guessed too accurately. Although Elijah was not guessing. He knew.

Smiling patiently, Elijah replied, "I am not lecturing you. Even though I would not consider it the worst of ideas – you could do with some lecturing. But all I am doing now is being sincere with you, which is something I remember you did use to honour in the past, and I don't believe there are too many people left these days who dare being honest with you."

The image of Caroline invaded Klaus' mind. She always dared. He shook his head to push her out of his thoughts.

"Be that as it may," Elijah continued, "I am quite certain your head is aware that one thing is not necessarily connected to the other. But your heart is not. Incited by our father, you have been telling yourself for centuries that you are not worthy of any sort of affection. At some point, you have started believing it in earnest."

Klaus was silent, staring unseeingly at the contents of his glass, while Elijah went on.

"Niklaus. You have a massive intellect. I daresay you are probably one of the most intelligent men I have ever encountered. Your ability to change strategies and reshuffle your plans within the blink of an eye as soon as any unforeseen obstacle arises is unsettling at the very least. Your soul has always been one of a philosopher, an artist. There is a great amount of darkness in you, but you have never been completely consumed by it like so many others we have encountered over the years. And most of all, you have the heart of a warrior. I have never met anyone who fights his fear the way you do. Don't get all worked up now," he said warningly when Klaus started to rise, "let me finish. Then you can go and rip my head off if it pleases you." Klaus sank back into the couch, trying to stay calm. He had no idea where all this came from, but he was no longer used to having to listen to things he did not want to hear.

"The bravest of men is not the one who knows no fear," Elijah went on, "but the one who battles it. Day after day, hour after hour. That is what you do, so very fiercely, and I admire you immensely for it."

Klaus' head snapped up and he stared at his brother incredulously.

"Yes, you heard me correctly. I admire you. As I said, I am not always d'accord with how you choose to live your life, but that does not diminish the way I see you. You have immense inner riches, Niklaus. There are so many facets to you that I doubt even Rebekah knows them all. You have lived for over a thousand years and you are still filled with a zest for life. You want to see, explore, taste. You can never get enough of it all, and that is the greatest gift ever to be bestowed on an immortal. Or on anyone, for that matter."

"Why are you telling me all of this?" Klaus muttered. This was completely unexpected, and as much as he had wished for a heartfelt talk with his brother, he did not like the direction the conversation had taken.

"I am telling you this, brother, because I believe it is high time you started to sheath your sword every once in a while and found some rest. You have battled the world – and yourself – incessantly for a thousand years, and you have been outrageously successful. However unconventional your methods, you were the one who kept this family together throughout all those turbulent centuries, which was by no means an easy task. And… you have seen things no one should ever have to see."

Klaus' knuckles turned white as he clenched the glass. It shattered into hundreds of tiny sparkling splinters, the precious liquid spilling over his hand and onto the floor.

"Elijah. Enough," he snarled under his breath, barely managing to maintain control of himself. He had never told his brother what exactly had happened that night, but Elijah was no fool. He knew that Klaus had changed after Tiffauges.

"Shame about the drink," Elijah commented evenly, raising from the couch and fixing another glass of Whisky. He handed it to Klaus, whose hand was completely steady when he accepted it.

"I am dead serious, brother. I do not wish to go into any details of this particular topic."

Elijah raised his hand. "Calm down, Niklaus. We will need to speak of it eventually, as the events of back then seem to be spilling into the present, and we have to know what it is that we are facing. Acquaint yourself with the thought, brother. We are going to have to touch on the subject soon. However, as I do have your undivided attention right now, I would like to ask something of you."

Klaus' eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What is it?"

Elijah took a deep breath and looked at this brother warmly. "I want you to ask yourself a question, and I want your word that you will give it some very serious thought for quite a while. Come to me when you have found your answer."

"What kind of question?"

"Do I have your word?"

Klaus tried to find a hidden trap, but he couldn't see one.

"Yes," he finally conceded, "you have my word. The question?"

"The question I want you to ask yourself is this: A man is what he fights for. When the smoke clears, and you get right down to it, what is it that you fight for, Niklaus?"

Klaus stared at Elijah and started to speak, but his brother held up his hand again and said sternly, "You gave your word. Do not answer me now. Think, and think hard. Come to me when you feel you are ready."

It was right then when Klaus finally understood he had not lost Elijah after all. This was his older brother, talking to him the way he used to, and as upset as Klaus was at feeling patronized, he couldn't stop the warmth spreading in his chest for an instant, although he managed to battle it down almost immediately.

"I will think about it, Elijah, I give you my word. I see no use, and I keep wondering whether this is some Kumbayah way of trying to make me back off from creating more Hybrids or whatever other of my activities it is you disapprove of, but I will humor you."

"Thank you Niklaus," Elijah replied with a smile.

"Now, I have a question for you myself. And you may answer it right away," Klaus sneered. He was his snide self again, and he hated himself for his earlier moment of weakness, even in front of the one person who truly knew him.

"Let's hear it."

"You are a strategist, a plotter, a fighter. You want to be in control, to have a hand in making the world turn in the direction you mean for it to. You crave that sort of power almost as much as I do. Well, your methods are admittedly somewhat less ostentatious than mine." Elijah raised an eyebrow, but otherwise remained silent.

"So here is the question. Why do you always remain one step behind me? Why have you always been my second in command and never once tried to overthrow me or start your own quest to rule the better part of the world?"

He had secretly pondered this for many centuries. Elijah was his equal in so many things, and he would have been more than capable to build his own realm of power. But he had chosen to remain at Klaus' side even when he had had many opportunities to leave. Only very rarely had their disagreements been severe enough to make Elijah stay away for any length of time, and he had always returned. Klaus had never truly understood that, and he waited tensely for an answer he was not positive he wanted to hear.

After some consideration, Elijah spoke. "You are of course aware that the limelight has never been for me, brother. I am not comfortable on a throne. My preference will always be for the shadows behind it, and your flame shines brightly enough to cast a very ample shadow. But you know me well, Niklaus, and you are right. I crave power, or shall we rather call it influence, though I would not necessarily go to the same lengths as you do to obtain it."

"Always so noble," Klaus taunted.

"I am far from being that. But I take my responsibilities and commitments very seriously, and I have decided a very long time ago that my allegiance is to you and to our family. Above… everything else. I remain one step behind you because someone needs to watch over you, Niklaus."

With narrowed eyes, Klaus set his tumbler on the side table and leaned towards his brother.

"I do hope I haven't heard you correctly. What could ever make you believe that I am in need of a bloody babysitter?" he spat. "I am perfectly capable of looking after myself and tending to my own business!" His face was livid with anger. Elijah remained totally unperturbed by his brother's display of outrage.

"Dear brother, you actually quite underline my earlier point, and I was not even criticizing you here. You need to listen more carefully. I did not say anything about watching you, but watching over you. There is a huge difference." He sighed, knowing that he was taking a great risk in saying what he was about to say next.

"You have been looking after us ever since we turned, and no matter what happened or what any of us did to oppose you, you kept us safe. Most of what you did was born out of your overwhelming need to protect. Contrary to what you believe, you should not have to bear the responsibility for our family alone, and that is why I am here and why I will always stand by you. Every being needs someone to watch over him, even the mightiest Original Hybrid to walk the Earth. None of us is an island, not even you. But more than anything I wish for that relentless warrior that you are to find a way of conquering the demons that have been haunting you for all these centuries. I am here because you are my brother and I will always love you, Niklaus."

Klaus looked at Elijah wordlessly, disbelief plain on his face. Then he silently turned his gaze back towards the fire.