Hey everyone!
Merry Christmas. It's a few days away, but things are about to get really busy for me so this will probably be the last posting for anything until sometime next week.
As of this moment in time there are ten planned chapters, and it should stay that way unless they get really long and I have to split them in two parts.
As usual I do not own the vampire diaries or any of the characters.
The memory felt different than the ones that came before. It might have been the fog through which things were viewed, slowly lifting to reveal the forest bracketing what had once been their home.
It might have been overwhelming sense of foreboding as she held her shell shocked husband and had him tell her he could hear their unborn child's heart beating.
Or it might have been the fact that she could feel Kol's presence, lingering invisibly as the memory unfolded.
Her conscious mind registered the moon on the declining side of full as it prepared to lower above them. It cast long shadows across his face that still weren't deep enough to conceal the pulse of veins below his red eyes.
He had been fine hours earlier when, overcome by the loss of her beloved father so soon after his little brother, he left her resting in their bed. He had wanted to stay with her, to hold her through the night until the sun forced them to greet another day. She had wanted it too, but his mother had insisted on a family dinner that her sorrow and morning sickness simply would not allow.
She should have woken when he crawled into their bed and wrapped his arms around her, not when he called to her desperately from the threshold of their house.
She traced the thickest line where it spidered across his cheek, gently bringing her finger down to his red lip, wet with a sticky substance that felt suspiciously like blood.
"What has happened?" She moved her hand back up, struggling not to focus on the crimson staining the edge of his mouth.
Energy moved beneath her palm, connecting them together as it always had. She touched the dark stain on his tunic; fingered the dried blood on his chest. Such a wound should have taken him from her straight to Valhalla, yet he stood whole if somewhat altered.
"My mother…" he began, cutting off on a choked syllable.
She could feel the turmoil twisting beneath his skin. It poured out, causing the vegetation at their feet to shrivel.
"Take a deep breath, my love," she stroked his cheek and glanced down, teasing him with a soft look through her lashes: "the earth has done nothing to you."
He laughed then, wet and slightly hysterical, but some green returned to the ground.
Her fingers journeyed back to his chest, lightly fingering the circle of blood
The scene played out from there, detailing the night of his mother's spell. Only when the tears slipped over her cheeks did his voice whisper in the back of her mind.
I don't remember this darling.
At least I'm not the only one to forget something, she managed to laugh in her mind.
Do you feel that, Elena? Under your hand? His question sounded strained.
She concentrated, toning out the words being said and focusing on what she could feel. With a jolt she recognized what felt different. It wasn't wrong, or blasphemous as so many stories had relayed, but it did counteract everything she knew.
Magic!
The moment she had thought the word the memory of Kol fell to his knees, overcome by a great pain. She shouted his name as a surge of dark magic caught her attention.
Her instincts split between providing immediate comfort and locating the source of sudden distress.
In her current life she suspected almost everyone she knew would have immediately chastised her for playing any part other than the fair maid of delicate constitution, but in her memory those people didn't exist. Nobody had ever told her, the daughter of a shield maiden, to stand down from a fight or let her loved ones suffer; from a young age she had been encouraged to run straight into the thick of things, especially when somebody she cared about was threatened.
So she did what she would have done had it been Caroline or Bonnie, and she knew where to go. Only in the tenth century nobody stopped her from leaving her husband's side and running between towering trees in her linen underdress.
Had she been less engrossed in the unfolding of events she might have asked the presence that was Kol what the heck was going on, but the memory had gripped her tightly, and she could think of nothing beyond the pounding of her own heart and the bright glow of fire through the trees.
On bleeding soles she burst into the clearing and tumbled. She tucked and rolled, looking over her shoulder as she straightened up.
Finn, curled over on his knees, barely registered what had to have been a hard blow because, like Kol, he was too busy gasping for pained breaths.
She ignored the scrapes on her hands and knees, unaware of how dangerous even a drop of blood was in Finn's current condition, and scrambled to her aching feet.
The wind shifted, dissipating the layer of heavy smoke so she could spy her in-laws across the fire.
"Esther?" Disbelief coloured her tone. Surely the matriarch was not the one causing so much pain. She wanted to deny it, but even she knew she was projecting the memory of her long dead mother onto his.
"What are you doing?" She rushed forward to stop it.
Mikael seized her waist. She struggled and jabbed, doing everything she had been taught, but his arms bore the strength of steel.
"Stop!" Tears streamed down her cheeks, hot and angry, tinged with sorrow, but Esther didn't listen. She turned her pleading to Mikael, hoping to make him see sense; even the hardest of warriors loved their children. "She's hurting them!"
"It will be over soon." His tone, normally so hard with his children, was kind in her ear; or what passed for kind with Mikael.
"This must be done," Esther met her eyes. Through the clearing energy flowed, rushing in from Finn and where she had left Kol; magic so strong she could almost see it pour into the stones before the flames. "They will grow too powerful."
Esther took a third stone from a pouch attached to her belt. The obsidian sparkled with malice, sending dread down Elena's spine.
"As will you." Something akin to triumph flashed in the older witch's eyes before they turned somber and focused on her husband. "She must drink."
Her struggle renewed and when Mikael loosed one arm to reach for his wine skein she broke free. He was slowed by the rapid growth of vines across his feet long enough for her to knock Esther over and scoop up the three stones and parchment that contained the spell.
She started to run, looking back only when Esther shouted. She expected to find Mikael on her heels. Instead she saw him locked in a struggle with Finn, psychically fine after having his magic stripped away.
He called for her to go, and she took advantage of his help, using her youthful speed to outrun Esther.
She scrambled for an idea with every laboured step. They would expect her to return home, to tell her husband everything that had happened, but going back placed her in an easy to find location with the spell Esther needed to lay a curse at her feet. Instead of turning north she veered east, following the pale horizon through towering trees until she slipped into the tunnels and was forced to either slow or cut her feet to ribbons.
She knew the path, and she took it with her eyes glued to the ground, examining the darkness for anything sharp. As a result it took longer than ever to reach the opening and step inside.
Her feet crossed the magic barrier, and she allowed herself a moment to slump over, finally taking the time to catch her breath. With a thought three tallow candles lit, casting a flickering light on the roughened stone. Her eyes sought names a few feet above the ground and traced the runes carved in a child's hand.
The cave was their place: the spot they had once used to practice magic during the full moon, and other things when they got older. Thanks to the protection spells placed on the door they were the only ones who could enter and there were few places to gain true privacy in their little village. She knew every inch of space, including the hollow behind a handful of rocks that had been spelled to be impervious to elements.
Once she caught her breath she stashed her stolen things there with every intention of returning to the cave at the earliest opportunity to study the spell and reverse it.
She didn't see much on the return to the village and reasoned that it was because of the uneventful nature of the trip. The woods passed in a blur until she stood near their home and tried to find her voice through the violent shivers wracking her body. She tried to shout for Kol or any one of the siblings gathered around him and thought they couldn't have heard her squeak, but then he turned around and through the heartache plastered across his face she saw concern.
She limped another step and her knees buckled. His arms caught her before she could hit the ground. A warm cloak from one of his brothers covered her frozen body.
He asked if she was hurt.
She opened her mouth to answer his question and tell him what she had done, but before she could force a single syllable through her chattering teeth a wave of magic hit them all. Thumps indicated his siblings hitting the ground, but his body absorbed the impact of her fall. She caught a glimpse of Rebekah's hair before a spell forced her into a near sleep.
She wasn't sure how much time passed before she registered the distant sound of voices, too low for her ears to understand.
Bloody hell, Kol's voice breathed in her mind. Evidently he could understand just fine the words that refused to register.
What is it? What are they saying? Every instinct told her to reach out and hold his hand. She cursed his incorporeal nature when she couldn't.
Mother… she was going to turn you too.
The voices rang in clear after that.
"The spell must be finished," Esther said in a low voice.
"She is with child, a fact I'm surprised you didn't know." There was something unfamiliar in Mikael's voice. With a jolt she realized it was emotion - hardly any, but present all the same; he cared about the fate of his grandchild. "Your spell will have to wait until she delivers."
When Esther answered, it was with an edge to her voice that she couldn't interpret.
"Waiting will give her the opportunity to reverse what was done."
"Then make her forget… make them all forget."
"That does take the cruelty away," Esther agreed.
A low chant sent dark fog spiralling towards her, but rather than settle as it had the night Esther cast the spell it gave way to soft white light.
She shot up in her soft twenty-first century bed with a gasp, reflexively tightening her hold on the large hand in her palm. The world seemed to stretch to the spaces between heartbeats as she looked down and followed the line of an arm up until she met Kol's eyes.
"Don't," she swallowed, recognizing the glint in his gaze. "You can't kill her."
"Kill who?" Caroline interjected in a nervous tone.
Elena glanced to the left where her friends kept vigil on the other side of her bed, but the brunt of her focus remained on Kol. They didn't ask any questions after she met their eyes anyway, instead going silent.
"I think you'll find I can, darling," he scoffed, "or have you forgotten that both of us are entirely capable of murder?"
"I haven't forgotten," she rolled her eyes. "I remember everything, including several things you and I need to talk about. And I want to kill Esther too, but we can't; she'll just find another way back to try and kill everyone again. Personally I'd rather not start a grudge match with her."
"I want her to suffer," he seethed through clenched teeth, "like she made us suffer."
"And she will," her lips curled up in a smirk that she sensed unnerved her friends. It would have unnerved her earlier that day, but that was before. "I have a wholly unholy idea."
Some of his rage seeped away, replaced by intrigue and a devilish smirk. She could be just as devious as him, and he remembered it well.
"What did you have in mind?"
She turned her gaze on mirror, intent on straightening out her hair before marching into battle. Her gaze locked on the blue eyes staring back at her. The screech tore from her throat unbidden.
The tunnels stretched out ahead, dark beyond the three-foot beam cast by what had to be the cheapest flashlight from her house. Light didn't matter though. As long as she refrained from thinking about Esther's ritual, her sudden shift in appearance, or her husband's - husband's - warm hand at the small of her back she could navigate just fine since she knew the tunnels like the back of her hand - both versions of her hand.
"What exactly are we doing down here?" Bonnie's voice echoed, bouncing off rough stone walls.
"Breaking the Bennett bloodline will only slow Esther down," Kol reigned in his snarl, but she could feel the rage he directed at his mother who had ceased to be 'mother' with the unveiling of the past.
"That spell broke my bloodline?"
She sounded incredulous, but a glance at her watch revealed too much time had passed. Elena couldn't turn around to offer the comfort Bonnie needed when she learned the truth.
"Think of it like disownment," he gently steered Elena out of the way so her feet wouldn't land in loose rocks. "You denied your ancestral bloodline so you can no longer draw power from them, and they can no longer draw power from you."
"For centuries covens have used that spell to cast witches out." Elena narrowed her eyes, squinting into the dark. "Sometimes the spell was used voluntarily so a witch could leave and start their own coven. There was one witch and warlock in Haiti that used it. They were a part of a cult that worshipped an ancient immortal called Silas and didn't agree with letting him bring about the end of time, so they left their coven."
"What happened to the coven?" Caroline eyes flicked between Kol and Elena as their expressions hardened, and they exchanged a look; the type of look that spoke volumes because both people had known each other for years - centuries in their case.
She took the brief moment provided by the exchange to really drink in Elena's appearance and came to the conclusion that aside from her eyes she still looked much the same. Her face seemed a little thinner, lips a tad fuller, and her skin a shade or two paler that might have been caused by the dim nature of the tunnel. Whoever she had been before - still was? - had to have been related to Tatia in some manner.
"Let's just say they left in the nick of time." Elena turned back to the tunnel and began running her hand along the cave wall. She slipped into a hidden opening.
"What would have happened if they hadn't left?" Bonnie went to follow and found herself stopped at the entrance, watching Kol hold the flashlight as Elena knelt and moved handfuls of rock.
She expected the answer to come from her friend, but Kol was the one to turn into her flashlight beam.
"We couldn't have them actually raise the immortal so we killed them all."
Blood drained from Bonnie's face.
"You helped him kill an entire coven of witches?" She directed her question to Elena as she straightened up.
Elena shifted the three stones and parchment as she shrugged her shoulders. A few days earlier she would have been upset to know exactly what she had done, and to an extent she still was, but she knew what she was capable of just as she knew what that coven had been capable of.
"It was my idea." The stone closest to her palm pulsed; the familiar energy called to her, tied to her soul as it was. Esther had been miffed when she and Kol formed their own coven, but since she never took an interest in his magical education neither cared. Between joining their magic, the binding spells or their wedding and six hundred years of marriage when they weren't shy about blood sharing Elena wasn't sure their souls would ever truly part.
"I had grown rather fond of the world during my 400 years in it," she handed the stones to Kol as they left and began retracing their steps, "I wasn't going to take the chance they were right and risk everyone I loved."
Behind her back she felt her best friends exchanging another look. She turned her flashlight on the parchment as they walked to study the mechanisms of the spell.
"And yes, that included Klaus." On her left Kol stiffened. "Though back then I called him Nik."
They walked in silence for several minutes. She took the time to puzzle over the last line of runes. Had the spell been executed properly there would have been seals keeping the magic bound. Esther had planned to use Tatia's blood to do it; she had probably had some there in the clearing.
Elena had read the spell used to curse Klaus many times over the centuries out of a genuine desire to break it for him, and the spell she held looked identical save for the different stones.
And the fact that because she hid everything in their spot the spell binding Kol and Finn had never been completed.
"Elena? What exactly happened to you?" Caroline's voice broke her from the counter spell she was halfway to forming.
She jumped, ready to say she wasn't entirely sure as she had never seen the blow but Kol jumped in, growling in that voice she knew promised pain.
"Klaus killed her."
Her feet came to a halt.
Spell momentarily forgotten she tipped her head back to look at him in the dark. He must have read on her face that she needed more information; he had always been so good at that.
"You were late to dinner. Do you remember?" Some of the anger melted away, replaced by a bone deep weariness.
She nodded once, remembering clearly the reason for her delay. It was one of the things she needed to talk to him about once they cleaned up the current mess.
"Father was closing in, and as usual Elijah and Nik wanted to run. You and I had just started to feel at home in Italy. You were so tired of running and so was I; I told them we were going to stay."
Her stomach sank. She knew Nik's preferred way to deal with defiance, though then he had been less inclined to utilize it.
"Things escalated, words were said and antiques broken - honestly, I don't remember much of it. Then he had a dagger: said I had a choice to come willingly or to join Finn for the journey," he scoffed. His eyes gleamed; a fact none of them mentioned. "Then you were there, between us with a smile to rival the Tuscan sun, and no amount of supernatural reflexes could have stopped him."
"Klaus killed her?" Caroline whispered, feeling slightly sick.
"Nik killed me," Elena shook her head.
Her friends looked at her with varying levels of incredulity, but she understood the difference.
"He murdered you," Kol's hand cupped her cheek, thumb gently grazing warm skin. "You burned to ashes in front of me. I lost you."
She reached up, holding his wrist.
"I came back." Her soft voice echoed around them. She still wasn't sure how, but she had returned to complete her unfinished business. She blinked away her tears and managed a small smile. "It was an accident, but I'm back now."
"Don't tell me you're going to forgive him?" Kol's eyes narrowed.
Elena sighed. They didn't have time for a fight, but the odds of getting Kol to concentrate now were slim to none. So she reached deep inside herself for the no nonsense tone that once had five Original vampires following her orders.
"Yes," she lifted a single eyebrow. "You and I both know he never would have hurt me. And we were all aware of what happened when a dagger was used on a normal vampire, so if Nik killed me I know it was an accident. For that I will forgive him."
Her eyes settled on her friends when they made sounds of disbelief.
"Sacrificing me in a ritual? That he'll be making up to me for a very long time."
Any guesses on why Elena was late to dinner?
