Author's Note: When I last updated this I did not think it would be nearly six months before my next update. Of course it's not like I didn't write anything during that time, I wrote a lot of things actually, you should check them out. But it did take longer than I wanted. On the bright side, it is the longest chapter so far, so there's plenty to read. So read, enjoy, and let me know what you think.
Hanging On By A Thread
"Ugh, why is this so hard..." Hope said barely resisting the urge to slam her face into the book she had been reading. After the close call with the vampires a month ago she had been trying to come up with a spell that could serve as warning system against vampires but it was proving much more difficult than she had imagined it would be. The problem she kept running into was the energy cost, the amount required to power a spell that could cover the entire town and be sustained was just too much.
Letting out another groan Hope let her face fall into the book for a moment, frustrated at how little progress she'd made. She had honestly thought she'd be able to figure it out fairly quickly, and in a way she had. She had the structure of the spell worked out, and was rather proud of what she had come up with, but powering it was proving more difficult.
Oh sure, she could cast it, but keeping it powered constantly was another story unless she wanted to just link it to herself. And that was a terrible idea for a whole variety of reasons, not the least being that she wouldn't be able to leave the boundaries of the spell without it breaking then.
"Bad day?" Someone asked from above her, Hope looking up to see Dorian standing near the table she was at, an amused smile on his face. "Or does that book just make a good pillow?"
"Neither. Just can't figure out this spell," Hope said, sitting up straight in her chair, slightly embarrassed at how she had been acting. At least there wasn't anyone in the library to actually see her besides Dorian.
"Well, how about I have a look? Maybe another perspective will help," Dorian offered, taking a seat across from Hope. As Hope passed him her notes he let out a low whistle in appreciation, the spell she had come up with was a thing of beauty. "This is for that project Crowett has her class working on isn't it?"
That had been Dr. Saltzman's solution to finding a way to create a vampire detection spell, outsource it to the witch students at the school, in particular Mrs. Crowett's Spellcrafting class. He had of course reached out to the various witches that were friends of the school as well but there was no harm in letting the students try as well. In particular when one certain student knew the reason for needing the spell already and would have been trying to create one anyways. "So the spell design works, but I can't figure out how to power it. The area it needs to cover is just too large."
"Hmm," Dorian hummed, looking at he arrays Hope had drawn out. He was no witch but he had studied more about magic than probably any human alive, he knew the theory as well as anyone. And as he wasn't a witch he didn't have the unavoidable biases witches did when it came to spell crafting. "You're looking at this the wrong way."
"How do you mean?" Hope asked, looking over at her notes and trying to see whatever Dorian had noticed. The point of the spell was to warn them if vampires where in the town and give them an incentive to stay out, the spell she created accomplished both of those goals.
"You're treating this as if you need the spell to be a fortress, a solid impenetrable barrier that covers the town. All we really need though is a boundary," Dorian said, taking a pen and drawing a large circle around the perimeter. Seeing Hope focused on what he was saying he continued, drawing a series of smaller circles on top of the original large one to show what he meant. "You see, we take your spell and instead of covering the whole town we just trace around the outside, encircling the area we need. Not a single spell surrounding the town but dozens of smaller ones, each overlapping to leave no gaps and form a composite that does the job of the larger circle while each being able to be charged separately."
Setting the pen down he leaned back in his chair, "Of course that isn't without trade-offs. It'll be far narrower, maybe a fifty-feet wide and not going too high, but will still enclose the town. And any vampire that crosses over would trigger it, alerting us to their presence, which is all we really need. A fence, not a fortress."
"That... how did I miss that?" Hope said, not sure how she couldn't see that. She had been so focused on covering the entire town that she had never considered simply creating a perimeter around it. Hell if they laid it out right then it could be used to pinpoint where it was breached as well. And with it only being along the perimeter she didn't need to create as strong a loophole for the vampires at the school to remain inside.
"That should reduce the power consumption enough to make it possible. Each component will need to be charged separately but they're small enough for that to be viable." That would likely become a recurring assignment for the witches at the school. Depending on the final design they would likely only need to be recharged every few months, and doing so would be a nice practical lessons for the students.
Hope looked over the notes once more, trying to see if there were any flaws in what they had come up with. She'd need to tweak the spell a bit so that she could overlap them, and then sit down with Dr. Saltzman and a town map to figure out what route the perimeter needed to follow. But it would work. "Thanks Dorian," Hope said, gathering up her stuff to leave.
When she had first started struggling she had considered contacting her family for advice. Between Freya, Vincent, Davina, and Kol she had no shortage of family to ask. Even Rebekah knew a surprising amount about witchcraft. But she hadn't wanted to. She had wanted to figure this out on her own. And she had. She had created her own barrier spell without needing to use the cheat code that her family was. As dumb as it was that put a smile on her face as she headed out of the library doors.
Her good mood didn't get to last that long, or very far even. She had barely made it down the hallway before she was nearly knocked down by a werewolf being flung into the wall in front of her. Stopping she turned and glared down the connecting hallway the werewolf had been thrown from, where she could see Jed. The young werewolf was panting heavily, with one hand held gingerly to his side and had a nice bruise setting in over his left eye. "Seriously?"
"You gonna stay down?" Jed asked, ignoring Hope as he focused on his opponent. For the last three weeks he had been cementing his status as alpha, by taking on all challengers, at all times, and winning.
"Fuck you," came the response from the downed werewolf. Jed's opponent was a boy roughly the same age as him, with curly dirty blonde hair, who had just started at the school and didn't seem inclined to stop fighting anytime soon. Pushing himself to his feet he got ready to charge, only to have Hope step in between the two wolves.
"That's enough. Take the pissing contest outside," Hope said, looking between the two wolves but focusing her glare at Jed, he knew better. They had already attracted a crowd around them, a few younger wolves, a couple of witches that had just started here, and at least one vampire who took one look at what was going on and vamped away. That was good, the last thing they needed was a vampire going into a frenzy over a split lip or busted nose.
"Fuck off bitch," the wolf behind her said, shoving Hope out his way to continue his fight with Jed. At least that was what he intended to have happen, instead he found his wrist caught in a vice like grip as Hope turned and grabbed it. Glaring, his eyes glowed yellow as he went to take a swing at Hope while trying to rip his hand free. That ended up being a mistake.
There was a sudden loud snap, followed by a scream as the werewolf fell to his knees, his right wrist still in Hope's grasp. And now also bent violently the wrong way from her breaking it the instant he tried to attack her. "I said to take it outside," Hope said, her own eyes glowing gold as she glared at the downed werewolf before shifting her gaze to Jed. "Understood?"
Jed took a step back out reflex before steeling himself and nodding. Hope was right they couldn't do this in the hallways of the school, there was too much that could go wrong. "Understood."
"Good boy," Hope said, condescension clear in her voice as she finally released the werewolf's wrist and left him sobbing on the floor. She actually rolled her eyes at the sight, it was just a broken wrist, they didn't hurt that bad. And he'd be healed in a couple of days at worst. Turning she made to leave, ignoring the looks she was getting before stopping near Jed. "Congratulations on becoming alpha. Now keep your pack in line. And away from me."
Jed could only nod dully at that, not wanting to even say anything lest he piss her off more. He had heard about what had happened when Javier had tried to force Hope to join before, from the man himself, and had no intention of repeating that mistake. Besides while Hope didn't seem to care, he hadn't forgotten her role in bringing him to the Salvatore School, he owed her. Even if she was far less friendly and much more intimidating than she had been when they had met for some reason.
"You hear about the fight yet?" Penelope said as she set down in the cafeteria, straddling the bench seats as she leaned over to Josie, her eyes shining at the chance to gossip.
"No, what happened?" Josie asked, turning to look at Penelope. How the girl seemed to already be so in tune with the gossip machine at the school she had no idea, she was worse than Lizzie.
"Let me guess, another wolf with more muscles than brains got his ass kicked challenging Jed?" Lizzie chimed in, setting her food on the table as she walked up. The stupid alpha fights had been going on for weeks, and so far Jed had won all of them. By now that barely counted as news.
"Half right. But then Brodie took a swing at Hope," Penelope said, both twins turning and giving her their full attention at that. "Next thing I saw he's on the floor screaming and his wrist now goes sideways."
"Sounds like Hope," Lizzie said, shrugging and turning her attention to her lunch while Josie nodded in agreement. She had seen what Hope could do in a fight, why anyone thought it was a good idea to attack her she didn't know. Even she wasn't that crazy.
"Really? I just told you Hope broke a guy's wrist and you don't seem to care?" Penelope said, unsure how to take that. She had kind of gotten used to the werewolves fighting but those only ended in some nasty bruises at most. Hope had casually snapped a guy's wrist in two and yet neither of the girls in front of her considered it worth noting.
"Sorry, it's just... you get used to these things after a while," Josie said, picking up on what Penelope was saying. She had mostly gone to private schools before coming here, the worst fight Penelope had probably seen in person likely ended with a busted nose. Most of the students that went here had seen much worse by the time they were ten. Some had even been the cause of it.
"Seriously, you get used to it," Lizzie said, words distorted by a mouthful of jello as she had decided to have desert first. Swallowing she pointed to a spot across the room, "Mom broke Christa's neck right over there about this time last year. It happens."
Penelope's eyes went wide at that, looking at the spot and wondering what the hell had happened. "Christa's a vampire. Kaylee's nose had started bleeding and Christa could barely control herself. Mom stopped her before she could hurt anyone," Josie said, filling in the details her sister hadn't bothered with.
Penelope had to remind herself that this was her new life, and one she had wanted. There was just a bit of culture shock. Simply reading about the violence supernaturals commonly were a part of was nothing like actually seeing it. If someone had done what Hope had in one of her former schools there would have been suspensions, meetings with parents, and possibly police involvement. Here that was just a Tuesday morning... well Thursday but the point stood.
"Ignoring the boring gossip, did you hear about Alyssa's latest blowup?" Lizzie said, smiling as she remembered seeing the girl being pulled into her dad's office earlier that day. "Rumor is she was crushing on Jake and he rejected her, then she goes nuts and tried to stake him with a pencil."
"It was a mechanical pencil Lizzie. It wouldn't have worked," Josie added, getting Lizzie to roll her eyes at that.
"Whatever. All I know is that he has a pencil through his hand and she has detention for at least a week," Lizzie said, just happy the witch would be gone for awhile. At least Hope wouldn't actually curse her when they got into it, Alyssa had no such restraints and her spells had only gotten nastier as they got older.
"I'm glad I came to you before just trying to map this out myself." Hope said, looking at the map she had drawn with Dr. Saltzman's input. The town wasn't exactly laid out in a nice simple square that could easily be fenced off, it bent and turned, banking the river that the waterfall it was named for flowed in to. Add in the considerably large school grounds and you ended up with a perimeter close to twenty miles long that her spell needed to cover. "Also do you think witches are the only people that still have paper maps?"
Alaric chuckled at that, the thought having occurred to him a few times as well. "Well fortunately you can print Google Maps. It just takes a lot of paper. And ink," The ink was the expensive part of that, making him wince for a moment at how much they'd used before shrugging it off.
"I guess that's true," Hope replied, having not thought of that. She hadn't ever really thought about where Freya had gotten the very large maps she used before, she had a feeling they were custom made though.
"This is going to take forever to actually set up." That was the downside of the method she had used, as it was no longer a single solid spell but now dozens chained together she needed to do each segment separately. She could create the base arrays easily enough but the perimeter they were bound to would need to be drawn out for each component.
"Not as long as you might think, at least once I recruit the other witches to help," Dr. Saltzman said, getting Hope to look over at him in mild surprise. "You didn't really think I'd have you do this much work by yourself, did you?"
"I'm more surprised that you think they'll be able too, the spell is pretty complex," Hope pointed out, not having that high an opinion of most of her fellow witches. Alyssa Chang might actually be the best among them but the chances she would willingly help were below zero. She supposed some of the upperclassman might be able to help but she wouldn't recognize any of them if they burst through the door at this moment.
"They're better you seem to think, if we gave them the arrays they could recreate them at the least," Alaric replied, refraining from rolling his eyes at her low opinion of the school's witches. While the other witches her age might not be able to help the senior witches certainly could, the spell was complex but not that complex.
Then again he didn't actually intend to give them the arrays to let them try. While he had been fine with letting them try to create a vampire detection spell it was quite another thing to hand one out to them. But there were still other ways they could help. "That wasn't what I was planning on doing anyways though. It's better if you work with Emma and create the arrays we need, and then I can have the witches help set up the perimeters around town."
That would cut the work down drastically Hope had to admit, as a couple of dozen witches could certainly do the work faster than she could alone. But that would only work if they actually did it right. "Are you sure they can manage it?"
Alaric's head dropped slightly, giving Hope a light glare. "It's basically just walking in a circle," Alaric said, voice flat at how low Hope's opinion was of the witches. "They can manage."
"I don't know..." Hope mused sarcastically, before giving in and laughing. Ok fine, they could probably manage to walk in a circle to set the perimeter.
Alaric just shook his head, a slight smile on his face as Hope laughed. He'd give Bonnie a call later and have her look over the spell too, just to make sure he hadn't missed anything but everything looked to be in order. Then once Caroline was back they could test it out to make sure everything worked before actually getting to work setting it up. "Should make Donovan happy at least, he's been hounding me for updates."
Before Hope could say anything the door to the office opened, Caroline blurring into the room before coming to a sudden halt upon seeing Hope. "Hope? What are you in here for?... Oh god, don't tell me he did decided to host another fight between you and the werewolves."
Hope laughed a little at that as Alaric just shook his head, "That was one time. And it worked."
"Uh huh," Caroline mused, looking between the two suspiciously. She still wasn't happy that Hope had fought with Javier last year, even if the results had turned out alright.
"It's fine. Jed's taking over as alpha and he knows to leave me alone," Hope said, not concerned about it. Besides the idiot from earlier that day the wolves had kept their distance, like she wanted.
"Oh, well, that's good then," Caroline replied, sharing a look with Alaric who only shrugged in response. Neither of them liked how much Hope had isolated herself from the rest of the students but it wasn't like they could force her to make friends.
"Well I think I'm done here anyways," Hope said, knowing that Caroline hadn't vamped into the office expecting to find her there. "Let me know when you want me to start working on the arrays."
"I will," Alaric said, giving Hope a nod as she left office. Turning his attention towards Caroline he wondered what had brought her back to Mystic Falls so suddenly. Last he had talked to her she wasn't planning on being back until the week before the twins birthday, which was still over a month away.
"So, care to explain how Hope ended up having to kill a vampire to save you?" Caroline asked after making sure the door to the office was shut. It wouldn't do to have the rest of the school hearing what she was certain was about to be another argument between it's two headmasters.
"How did you even hear about that?" Alaric asked, moving to behind the desk and pulling out a bottle of scotch. Pouring two glasses he offered one to Caroline, the vampire glaring at it for a moment before giving in and downing it.
"Bonnie called me, asking if I had run across any vampire detection spells while researching the Gemini curse. I asked why, she said that Donovan had asked her to create one after a close call. Then I call him to check up and find out that I would've needed to break out my best black dress for your funeral if not for Hope," Caroline said, her voice getting colder as she went on. She was the vampire, Alaric was the human, he was the one that was supposed to stay safe at home and make sure their girls would never be in danger of losing both their parents while she searched for ways to protect them.
Alaric just sighed, before pouring himself another drink. He had been hoping that Caroline wouldn't find out about that, and only partly because Hope had been involved. It wasn't like he didn't take precautions, a powerful protection spell courtesy of Bonnie being just one of them. "So, do you want to fight over something that's already happened and we did the best we could with? Or would you like to see what I'm doing to make sure it doesn't happen again?"
Sitting on one of the benches near the lake Hope finished shading in the last of the treeline she was working on, using magic to shift the color of her pencil to whatever she needed as she drew. It was a bit of a cheat but it made it far easier to do spontaneous full color work when she only needed a single pencil. And getting the colors right on the actual lake with the sun reflecting off of it was going to be hard enough as it was.
Looking up to the lake she raised her pencil in front of her, eyeing it before using a spell to shift the color to what she was seeing. Glancing between them she nodded in satisfaction, lowering her head to draw when a flash of motion out out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Looking up she was mildly surprised to see that someone else had come out to the lakeside this afternoon, Hope recognizing the girl as the new witch that had been hanging around Josie and Lizzie lately.
Curious she watched the girl for a moment, trying in vain to remember her name. She was fairly sure it started with a P... so Penelope maybe? Or Paige? Hope's nose scrunched up at that, it didn't sound right at all. It was probably Penelope, there weren't a lot of names that started with a P. Surprised at the path her thoughts had gone down Hope shook her head to clear it, turning her attention back to the girl.
Penelope walked out to the end of the pier before raising her hands and calling out a spell, the water from the lake rising up to condense in a ball, swirling around as it compacted before suddenly collapsing. Even from as far away as she was Hope could make out the frown on Penelope's face as the spell failed, before she tried again. Straining her hearing Hope could just make out the incantation, inlecebra aquatigue, as Penelope attempted it once more.
Recognizing the spell Hope nodded to herself, turning her attention back to her drawing pad. She had been curious what the witch had come out here to do but the spell was little more than a training spell, designed to teach young witches how to control something that was quite literally as fluid as possible. It had been a pain in the ass back when she had learned it, but then again she had been nine at the time.
Try as she might Hope couldn't help but glance over to Penelope as she kept practicing the spell. She had assumed that she'd only try a couple of times before calling it a day and leaving but Penelope had been at it for twenty minutes now. Hearing Penelope curse as she lost control of the spell again Hope smiled slightly before shaking her head as she tried to focus on her art once more. Looking down though she realized that she had barely added anything since Penelope had come out to the lake.
Sighing Hope closed up her sketchbook, deciding that she wasn't going to getting anything more done today with the distractions. Standing up to leave she looked Penelope's way once more, laughing slightly as she saw the girl slam her foot down in frustration at the spell coming apart once more. Her brow furrowed in concern though as she saw her stumble slightly at the action though, causing Hope to debate what she should do internally before giving in and walking down to the pier.
It didn't take her long to reach the pier, by which time Penelope had drawn in another sphere of water that she was struggling to contain. Shaking her head Hope raised one hand, whispering a spell as she overrode Penelope's control, drawing the water and the girl's attention over to her. "I think that's enough for today."
Penelope just blinked in surprise, not having expected anyone to be watching her, much less the infamous Hope. She couldn't remember seeing the girl approach anyone in the short time she had been at the school and now she was just standing on the pier, an annoyingly perfect sphere of water spinning above her fingertips. "Oh come on, how is that so easy for you?"
Hope smiled at that, a genuine one that reached her eyes, before it shifted to a grin. Splitting her fingers out she broke the sphere apart into four smaller ones, each controlled by one of her fingers as she made them interweave in the space above her hand. "Practice, a lot of it," Hope answered, before flicking her wrist and sending the water back into the lake. "I think you've done enough for today though."
"No I haven't. I still can't do this stupid spell right," Penelope retorted. Pushing a strand of hair that had fallen in front of her eyes back she noticed for the first time how damp it was, not having realized that she had actually started sweating while practicing.
"You're clearly exhausted, continuing would actually be dangerous," Hope pointed out, trying to keep from rolling her eyes.
"Dangerous how?" Penelope asked, tilting her head slightly. It was just a basic spell, one every other witch here had mastered already.
"Why do you think you're sweating so much?" Hope asked, Penelope looking down at herself reflexively. "Even with earth magic there's a cost to using it. It takes energy, less than with other forms of magic sure, but energy all the same. And overdrawing yourself can lead to some nasty side effects.
"Seriously? And why didn't anyone tell me that?" Penelope asked, not doubting what Hope was saying but rather pissed that no one had warned her.
"Probably thought you knew. Or didn't think anyone would try enough for it to matter," Hope guessed. "The only reason it's even a problem is because you did so many spells back-to-back, if you had rested more in between it wouldn't have been a problem."
Penelope's face showed visible confusion as she took that all in, trying to work out how she had messed up. The little bit of magic she'd learned already had come from her dad's books and she'd picked those spells up quickly enough. But as she had learned after coming here those had all been rather simple spells, and she was rather behind what her fellow witches could do. Thus why she had been pushing herself so hard.
"Think of it like doing push-ups, if you had to do twenty every hour you'd be fine. But if I made you do two hundred all at once you'd end up collapsing. Same principle with magic," Hope added, thinking of the simplest way to explain as she noticed Penelope's confusion. It wasn't a perfect analogy, in part because the cost of overdrawing their magic could have very severe side effects, but it made sense.
"I'd probably collapse after the twenty," Penelope admitted, her face twisting in displeasure at the idea. What Hope said made sense though, of course actual magic wouldn't be as easy as just saying some words in the right order. This wasn't Harry Potter. "What about you, how much would it take for you to collapse?"
"Doing push-ups?" Hope asked, quirking an eyebrow at the question. Because she was fairly sure she could go all day and into the night if she really wanted to. Werewolf strength and stamina plus vampiric regeneration meant she didn't really suffer the effects that anyone else would.
"No... ok, actually I am curious about that too but we can leave it for later," Penelope replied, needing a minute to think about it. Hope was part werewolf right? So she had to be fit. But then again she didn't look as if she'd be able to do even a single push-up correctly. "I meant magic, how long would you need to use the same spell I was before it was an issue?"
"Why does it matter?" Hope asked guardedly, not seeing the point. She had only come here to keep the new girl from giving herself an aneurysm, not to play twenty questions.
"I'm curious. You don't seem any different than any other witch here but the way everyone talks..." Penelope said, finishing with a shrug. "I guess I want to see how I stack up."
Hope gave a dry little laugh at that, shaking her head slightly. "Trust me, I'm the last person you want to compare yourself to. Go ask the twins instead, you're friends with them."
"They siphon other people's magic, they're only as strong as whoever they siphon from," Penelope pointed out, repeating what she'd learned from Josie. And even with that handicap they both had so much more control than she did that it was honestly a little depressing to compare herself to them.
"That's not quite accurate..." Hope said, tilting her head slightly as she regarded Penelope. It was true that the twins needed to siphon magic to power their spells but they were also designed to channel magic. If they did it right they could channel even the most powerful magics in the world, magics that would kill most other witches. As they had shown when removing the Hollow from her.
"Come on, what's the harm?" Penelope pushed, now mostly just wanting Hope to do so because she was being obstinate about it.
"You do realize that you're missing the whole point of the spell, right?" Hope said instead, the confused look Penelope gave her answering her question. "Right, of course not. The point isn't to see how much water you can draw in, but how much control you can exert over it. Draw in less and then work on changing it's shape into something more complicated."
When she had first learned it that was what she had done. Of course there were a few differences between them, the first being that she was nine when she started learning it. And the second being that she had levitated a swimming pool's worth of water when she had first tried. It had taken her a week to learn to limit her magic enough to draw in a small enough amount to start practicing the spell the way you were supposed to.
Sighing Penelope blew a strand of hair up out of her face, "I guess learning magic isn't as easy as I thought it would be."
"Whoever said it was easy?" Hope asked, smiling as Penelope just shrugged. The downcast look the girl had actually made her sympathetic to her, which was why she ended up tearing a page out of her sketch pad and writing down a few things for her. "Here, take this. It's a list of some of the books I read when I was first learning magic. They'll help you learn the theory behind it, along with some basic practice spells."
"Uh, thanks..." Penelope said awkwardly, taking the list from Hope. Glancing down she was surprised at how much was there, Hope had even marked which ones were for theory and which for practical work. "Does everyone here read these?"
"Does everyone ever read all that the teacher assigns?" Hope pointed out rhetorically, even when given literal magic spell-books teens still whined about having to read. "Some of them are required reading for the beginner classes, the rest are the ones I found most useful. Your choice what you do with them."
"Right..." Penelope said, looking down at the list again. Glancing back up she was surprised to see that Hope had turned and started to walk away, apparently having decided that she was done talking. "Hey, Hope!"
"What?" Hope answered slowly, stopping and turning to look back at her.
"If I have any more questions, can I come to you?" Penelope asked, hoping she would say yes. Hope had been the first person that was actually willing to explain to her how any of this magic stuff worked. Everyone else seemed to just expect her to know it already.
Hope looked at her in suspicion for a moment before shaking it off, "Sure, but I can't promise I'll be able to help." She had only helped today because she felt like it. And maybe part of her was impressed that Penelope had been willing to push herself so hard. Giving the girl a slight nod and small smile she turned and headed back to the school, doubting the girl would actually come up to her again anyways.
Stumbling as she exited the circle Caroline held one hand to her head, still wincing at how it was pounding. "Well it definitely works," she said through gritted teeth, her head still pounding. It had felt like her head was being split in two while inside the circle, not quite to the level of the worst pain infliction spells but enough that she hadn't wanted to spend any longer inside than she had too. And it was still throbbing now.
"Told you it would," Hope commented, a smug look on her face. Caroline had insisted on testing it out, despite her assurance. "Should be more than enough to let any vampire know that they're not welcome." It was only a secondary function but it was an important one. The idea was that the headache would be enough to let vampires know that the town was off-limits to them. Hopefully even the dumbest vampires would be able to take the hint.
"The tags work as well," Alaric said from where he was watching, a handful of small metal tags in front of him. The largest of them was glowing a bright red, while another smaller tag glowed red as well. The idea was simple, the large tag told him the perimeter had been activated, the smaller one told him which segment it had been. It couldn't tell them if the vampire had crossed or taken the warning and left but there were others ways to tell that, as long as they actually knew that they needed to do so.
"Should probably add a sound to the main tag as well," Hope said, the idea coming to her now. It glowed pretty brightly but that wouldn't be enough to wake someone. Should be simple enough, and it would be fun to see just how annoying of an alarm she could create.
Alaric winced at that, already dreading being awoken at three in the morning by it. But it was a good idea. "Right, should make a few more main tags, so that we have spares. And I guess we should give one to Donovan as well," Alaric said, thinking out loud. It would be a gesture of goodwill to the Sheriff and that was never a bad thing.
"Sure, that's easy enough," Hope said, before looking over to where the circle had been set. Focusing she lifted one hand, pulling the metal rods they'd stuck into the ground up with it. That had been an improvement to her original design they'd made in the last week, thanks to an insight from Bonnie. Instead of using something like chalk or blood to draw the circles they'd tethered each onto a series of metal rods that could be driven into the ground instead. Each rod was only a foot or so long, and there were seven to each circle, six to create the perimeter, one at the center. Well they weren't really circles anymore but the principle was still the same.
"How many of these are we making again?" Hope asked, pulling the rods into a bundle and tying them together. She had made this set, and she knew some of the older students were helping make more, but they needed a lot.
"Too many," Alaric said, shaking his head slightly. The rods were a good idea, far less detectable and easier to set up but also far more costly. Fortunately Caroline had taken care of persuading the mayor to purchase the materials needed for them. After all it was for the good of Mystic Falls, it was only right that they chip in. "But they should be finished in a few days time."
"And how are we coming on adding a loophole for our students?" Caroline asked, finally rejoining the conversation as her headache faded. She hadn't been expecting the headache to linger like that, but at least it confirmed that any vamp that intentionally crossed the boundary couldn't say they weren't warned.
"Already done. Care to try it out?" Hope asked, pulling a ring out of her pocket and tossing it over to Caroline.
"Is this one of mine?" Caroline asked, eyeing the ring curiously. She vaguely remembered it, but if it was it wasn't one she had worn in awhile.
"The fact that you have so many you can't tell is a problem," Alaric chimed in, shaking his head. If it had only been Caroline that had a taste for extravagance that would've been one thing, but unfortunately she passed it down onto their daughters as well.
"Bite me," Caroline retorted, sliding the ring onto one finger. As she did Hope motioned with her hand, lifting the rods back into the air, before driving them into the ground with a flick of her wrist. Taking a deep breath as Hope activated the barrier once more Caroline steeled herself, before speeding into the center of it.
"Didn't trust me?" Hope asked, an amused expression on her face as Caroline sighed in relief from the center of the circle.
"Of course I did," Caroline dismissed, not having meant for it to be so apparent how nervous she had been. The first time had been quite painful though, so she hadn't been looking to repeat it.
"Of course," Hope replied, a slight smile on her face. "Anyways, it can be tied into a daylight ring without causing any problems. As I already did with that one."
"I'd suggest waiting until we're inside to take off your current ring," Alaric said, Caroline stopping and looking up from the much gaudier daylight right she wore. "Don't want to have to explain to our daughters that you incinerated yourself swapping your jewelry."
Caroline started to retort back before Hope cut her off, "We're done here then? Good." Hope said shortly, her tone far less playful than it had just been. Avoiding making eye contact with either of them she turned and walked off, heading into the school.
Alaric and Caroline just looked at each other for a moment, wondering what that had been about before realization dawned on them. "Ah, fuck," Alaric groaned, smacking himself in the forehead. Hayley, of course. Hell, the year anniversary of her death wasn't that far off now. How had they forgotten that?
"Nice one," Caroline said, shaking her head. Alaric had a point about waiting until she was indoors to test the new ring, as it was obviously better to be cautious with something that could kill her in an instant. But there was this thing known as tact and his had clearly been lacking.
"Come on," Alaric said, giving Caroline a look, "You didn't realize it either." Neither of them had, that was the problem. It was all too easy to forget what Hope had gone through at times, and that it hadn't been quite a year since she had lost both of her parents.
"Perhaps, but I'm not the one that stuck their foot in their mouth," Caroline replied, smirking at Alaric. Looking around she realized something else they had missed. "For that, you can be the one to dig the spikes up."
Alaric just looked at her before his gaze flickered to the ground, where the seven spikes for the boundary spell where embedded. "You can't be seri-" He started to say, before Caroline simply left, disappearing in a blur of vampiric speed. Sighing he just shook his head, before walking off to go get shovel. Perhaps he'd get lucky and Hope hadn't sent them too far into the ground. He kind of doubted it though.
Walking down the stairs into the main assembly hall Penelope looked around, hoping to see Josie somewhere. Pouting when she didn't see her among the group of witches she looked for Lizzie instead, as the blonde was still better company that no one, even if they didn't click like her and Josie did. She was nowhere to be found either though, but she did spot one witch sitting off by herself.
"Mind if I sit here?" Penelope asked as she approached Hope, having to fight the instinct to step back as Hope looked up from her book with a glare. The look faded after a second though, Hope giving her a slight smile.
"Might as well, not like anyone else will," Hope said, not caring too much either way.
"Thanks," Penelope said, sitting down beside the girl. They had only talked once since that day on the pier, and that had mostly been her thanking Hope after having made progress on the spell. "So, any idea what this is all about?
It was the first time there had been an assembly like this since she had started, and as it seemed to be only witches so far she couldn't help but be curious. "Yes," Hope answered shortly, having been the one that created the spell that was the reason they were all here.
Penelope just looked at Hope, waiting for her to expound before realizing she had no intention to. "You going to clue me in?" She asked, wanting to know both why they were here and why Hope seemed to know already.
"Hmm... nope," Hope said, smirking slightly as she saw Penelope pout. It was fun teasing others, and she had been asked that she not let anyone know that she was the one that had created the spell. Honestly she didn't see why it mattered, but it wasn't like she had anyone to go around telling to start with.
"What? Why not?" Penelope asked, honestly not having been expecting Hope not to tell her. If you knew a secret then you were supposed to tell people, that's how it usually worked.
"Because..." Hope started before narrowing her eyes and glaring at someone behind Penelope, "Oh, great."
"Wow, was every other seat taken?" Lizzie said as she walked over to them, Josie at her side.
"Yes well, everyone else was trying not to leave any room for you," Hope retorted, rolling her eyes at the blonde. Did she have to try and start with her the moment she walked in?
"Guys, can you at least try and get along?" Josie asked, honestly fed up with the snark. She knew why Lizzie was always going at Hope but Hope didn't help things by always rising to her taunts. And then she got dragged in as well and everything got worse. "At least until we get our assignment and can leave?"
"Assignment?" Penelope asked, patting the seat next to her for Josie to take. She should've known the headmasters daughters would know what was going on as well.
"Apparently they want all the witches to help with setting up a new boundary spell around town," Lizzie said, taking the seat next to Josie and putting her feet up on the back of the seat in front of her. "Didn't think they were going to have literally every witch help out though."
"See would that have been so hard to tell me?" Penelope asked, turning to glare playfully at Hope.
Hope just rolled her eyes and huffed at that, ignoring the witches. Narrowing her eyes, Josie wondered how Hope had already known about the spell, having just found out from their parents themselves. "Wait, we only know because our Mom wanted to make sure we'd be okay paired up with another witch to siphon from. So how did you know?"
Hope just shook her head slightly, not intending to answer. Then Lizzie chimed in, "Ugh, Dad probably told her after she concussed him in one of their dumb training sessions. Because she gets special priv-"
"Actually it's because I'm the one who made the spell," Hope said sharply, cutting off Lizzie before she could really get started. She'd heard it all before after all. That she got special treatment, a special room, special lessons. How unfair it all was. Like she hadn't earned everything she'd received.
All three witches stopped and turned to look at her at that, more than a little surprised. They could all cast magic to varying degrees of course, and Josie and Lizzie were quite advanced for their age. But Hope had said she had made the spell. As in created an entirely new spell that their parents had decided was important enough to enlist the entire school's witch population to help set up.
"What?" Hope said hesitantly, her cheeks tinged red as she squirmed under the sudden scrutiny. It wasn't that big of a deal was it? Maybe this was why Dr. Saltzman hadn't wanted her to tell anyone.
"You made-" Penelope started before hearing Caroline calling for everyone's attention. Shifting in her seat she turned her attention to the front, although she couldn't help but look over at Hope once more. Just how much did the girl know about magic if she was able to create her own spells?
"Thank you," Caroline said as she saw the gathered witches focusing on her. "Now I'm sure all of you are curious as to why we've assembled you here. Well the Salvatore School is taking on a little project at the behest of Mystic Falls and we need everyone here's cooperation. We have been asked to..."
Shaking her head as Caroline continued, Hope wondered why she was even bothering with such a story. Sure Donovan had asked if it was possible to create a new boundary to keep vampires out but that was a far cry from Caroline was insinuating. And yes the Mayor had purchased the needed supplies for the spell, but that was the result of being compelled, not because he had any actual knowledge of what was going on. Barely paying attention to the speech now she almost missed hearing Caroline say they'd be paired up for the project. Well that was annoying, but with any luck they'd just let her work alone since she was the one that created the spell. That would be better for everyone.
Every now and then Hope would forget that her luck sucked. And then the universe would do something to remind her of it. Such as sticking her with Lizzie as her partner for setting up the boundary spell. "Could you at least try and keep up?" Hope complained, turning and glaring at Lizzie who was lagging behind her.
"Not everyone is part furry, Hope. Slow down," Lizzie snapped back, Hope's mouth dropping at that insult.
"I dare you to call one of the wolves a furry," Hope replied, glaring back at Lizzie. Still she stopped to let her catch up, her foot tapping the ground in annoyance the entire time. She just didn't see why she needed to have a partner anyways, it wasn't like she needed Lizzie to help with the spell. She was pretty much just babysitting.
The teachers were handling setting up the boundary near the more populated areas of the town while the students were responsible for setting it up around the school's grounds and out in the more secluded parts around town. All they needed to do was drive in the rods in the right place and then charge them with magic, so it had been made simple enough for even the younger witches to help.
"Whatever, I don't even see why I need to be here. Can't you handle this yourself?" Lizzie complained, honestly not seeing the point. This was probably her Mom's attempt to try to make her and Hope work together and get along.
"My thoughts exactly," Hope agreed, rolling her eyes as Lizzie finally caught up to her. "Here, give me your bag."
"Why?" Lizzie asked, clutching the bag with the metal rods in them tighter out of reflex. They were supposed to set up six of the circles for the boundary, with the rods divided into two bags for each of them to carry.
"Because I have super strength, while you have been literally dragging it behind you. It'll be faster if I just carry it," Hope pointed out, a little surprised Lizzie hadn't just given it to her immediately.
"Fine, but you better not go telling my parents I was slacking," Lizzie said, handing the bag over to Hope. It wasn't that heavy, maybe twenty pounds, but it wasn't like she was strong either.
"I don't care about you enough to bother doing that," Hope retorted, Lizzie glaring at her in response. Not bothering to wait for a response, Hope turned and headed to where they were supposed to set up the first circle, this time not bothering to slow down despite Lizzie's shouts to.
If they weren't going to let her work alone then couldn't they have paired her up with one of the witches that would've been too afraid to talk with her? Or even with Josie, they could at least get along when they needed to. The only way this could have been more annoying was if she'd gotten stuck with Alyssa but it'd been Penelope that ended up being the one to fall on that grenade.
Reaching the area for the first circle she pulled out the necessary rods, charging the center rod and burying it into the ground with a quick spell. Seeing Lizzie finally reaching her she separated out three rods, holding them out for her to take. "Here, take care of setting these up, I'll handle the rest."
Lizzie just glared at Hope, before reaching out and taking the rods, "Fine. Sooner we're done, sooner I'm rid of you." Grabbing Hope's arm by the wrist she siphoned from it, practically throwing it down after a few seconds.
"You could've asked," Hope said, shaking her head as Lizzie stomped away from her. Whatever, it hadn't been like she was going to tell her no, she had more than enough magic to spare. Sighing she turned and got to work, Lizzie was right, the sooner they finished this the sooner they'd be free of each other.
It didn't take her long to finish up, the circle they were setting was fairly long but not that wide so they were fairly close together. Walking back to the center spike she wasn't too surprised to see Lizzie already waiting for her. "What took you so long?" Lizzie asked, her foot tapping the ground in impatience.
"Remember how the circles need to overlap? I went ahead and set up the start of the next one. So quit whining and get moving so we can finish," Hope explained, turning on her heel and heading for the next area.
"You couldn't have just told me you were going to do that? Then I wouldn't have been waiting back here," Lizzie said, glaring at Hope's back as she walked ahead of her. Was it really that hard for her to even try and cooperate? Not getting an answer in response she just shook her head, "Why are we doing this anyway? Mom didn't really explain."
That was true Hope admitted. For as much as Caroline had talked about what they were doing she had left out several details as to why they were doing so. "It's a boundary spell to warn if any vampires enter the town without permission."
"Why do we need that?" Lizzie asked, genuinely curious why they were bothering. It wasn't like vampires hadn't been living in Mystic Falls for years, her Mom being a great example.
"Because vampires get hungry, and when they're hungry and in some out of the way town they tend to not care if they kill their food," Hope explained, being more familiar with it than she would like. She loved her family but she was well aware of their history, and they had been far less restrained in their feeding habits before she had come along.
"So we're doing all of this on the off chance some rando might get eaten? Wow, talk about an overreaction," Lizzie said dismissively. Who cared if some random hobo got eaten, even Mystic Falls had enough they could afford to lose a few.
"I'll remember that next time your Dad is about to be eaten," Hope muttered under her breath without really meaning too. Hearing Lizzie stop behind her she realized she must have said it loud enough for her to hear, getting her to stop and turn back to her. "Lizzie, I didn't mea-"
"Shut up," Lizzie said, glaring at Hope. Her Dad had nearly been eaten? When, why? Was that why her Mom had suddenly come home early? Was that why Dad had been spending more time with them? Why had Hope been there? Dozens of questions raced through her mind at once, overwhelming her. "Shut up, shut up, shut up!"
"Lizzie," Hope said softly, letting the bags holding the supplies for the circle fall to the ground as she slowly approached the girl. She wasn't sure what was going on but Lizzie looked to be in pain, the blonde holding her head as she crouched down. Stepping to her slowly she reached out and took Lizzie's hand, hoping to be able to calm her down.
"Go away!" Lizzie shouted, subconsciously siphoning from Hope as she pushed her away. With the magic she pulled from Hope running through her though she didn't just do so physically but with a telekinetic blast that sent the tribrid flying across the woods and into a tree. Shocked Lizzie looked up, her eyes widening as she saw what she had down.
It hadn't been just Hope she'd sent flying, but the rods they were supposed to be setting as well. They had been blasted out as if from a shotgun, burying themselves into the nearby trees. Including the one she'd just flung Hope into, the girl being impaled by at least three of them that went through her stomach, blood dying them and Hope as it ran down from the wounds.
"No, no, no, no no no..." Lizzie said, just repeating it endlessly as she collapsed to the ground. She hadn't meant to. It wasn't her fault. What had she done. Hope. Hope was. What had she done.
All around her magic swirled in the air as Lizzie's mental state deteriorated even more, the shock of what she had done setting in. Leaves flew into the air all around her, the trees starting to vibrate as more magic poured out of her as she lost control. "Ad somnum,"and like that everything fell silent once more, Lizzie falling to the ground unconscious, the only sound being the pained breaths of Hope as she tried to stay conscious, the effort of having cast even that simple spell being draining for her.
"-you possibly think this was ok?" Caroline asked, glaring down at Alyssa. They had paired her with Penelope because she was new and one of the few witches that Alyssa hadn't already had a history of problems with. And now the poor girl had two busted eardrums that would've taken weeks to heal if not for her giving Penelope some of her blood.
"It was an accident!" Alyssa defended, not that she expected anyone to believe her. It was though, they had been arguing, then yelling, and then it just happened. It wasn't her fault.
"An accident? Like when you turned my daughters purple? Or stabbed Jake with a pencil?" Caroline asked, exasperation evident in her voice. She tried to be understanding whenever she could, and she knew that there were actual reasons for the girl being unstable, but her behavior kept getting worse. If this kept up... "Detention, for the next month."
"What?! But she's fine now. How is that fair?" Alyssa protested, sinking into the seat of the bus. She had just gotten out of her last detention a few days ago, and now she was stuck with another month's worth. It'd be nearly winter break by the time she was done with it.
"It's fair because you-" Caroline started before coming to a sudden halt. She could smell something that was all to familiar to her. Blood, a lot of it, freshly spilled. And there was something familiar about the way it smelled.
"Any more argument and it'll be two months," Caroline finished quickly, shutting Alyssa down as she stepped away from her. Exiting the bus she focused her senses, her eyes going wide in alarm as she realized why it had smelt familiar. Because it belonged to Hope. Not even bothering to let Alaric know what was going on she took off at full speed, heading to where Lizzie and Hope had been. Even as she ran a knot of dread weighed her down, the fear that she would be too late, that Hope or Lizzie would be seriously hurt. And the concern for what could have even happened in the first place.
The pain Hope felt was almost blinding. Not only had she been pierced through in multiple places but those same rods were now keeping her suspended against the tree, while her body weight and gravity tried to drag her down. And more worryingly they were keeping her from healing. Biting down on her lip hard enough to draw blood Hope forced herself to move, placing her hands and feet against the thick oak tree she'd been pinned to before pushing herself off of it.
It hurt even more to do so, feeling the wounds tear as what had already started to heal around the rods was torn apart once more. But she wasn't about to die because a teenager had lost her temper. With one last push she pushed herself off the rods, crying out as they cut a jagged line up her back as she fell from them.
Landing on the ground she just lay there, groaning softly as her body knit itself back together. Reaching slowly she felt around the wounds with one hand, trying to tell where she'd actually been pierced. One just under her belly button, another through her left side, and the last about two inches above that. She wasn't an expert on anatomy but she was pretty sure one of those had gone through her kidney. Or maybe her liver. Whichever was over there.
Groaning once more Hope pushed herself up to her feet, the wounds close to fully healed already. "You got lucky," she said softly, looking over to where Lizzie lay. Any of the other witches would've been dead had they suffered the injuries she had. Although maybe she wouldn't have gone off like that if she'd been with someone else. "Hope!"
Turning Hope saw Caroline speeding into the clearing, not even that surprised. With as much blood as had spilled out of her any vampire in five miles could've smelled it. Caroline just stared at her, before realizing that Lizzie was laying unconscious on the ground. Rushing to her she pulled her daughter to her, before turning and glaring at Hope. "What did you do?" She growled out, her concern as a mother overriding her sense for a moment.
Rolling her eyes Hope just shook her head, "I got impaled to a tree by your crazy daughter. You know I didn't really believe all the rumors going around but they're true aren't they? She's actually crazy."
"She's not-... she can't control her brain chemistry," Caroline defended, shifting Lizzie to get a better look at her. There wasn't a mark on her so best guess was Hope had used a sleeping spell to knock her out. Once she woke up though... there was no way this would be good for her.
"Her brain- I had literal voices in my head telling me to kill everyone! And I was able to keep it under control!" Hope shouted back, honestly just needing an outlet for her anger. She believed that Lizzie hadn't meant to hurt her but that didn't change the fact that she had, had nearly killed her. This wasn't something that could just be passed off as an accident.
"And how well did Klaus handle it?" Caroline snapped back, her eyes widening as she realized what she had said. Fuck, she hadn't meant that. "Hope I didn't mean-"
"Yes, you did," Hope said, cutting her off. Pushing it from her mind she focused on Lizzie, if she was really as fragile as she appeared then this was only going to make her worse. It was better if she never knew it had happened.
As Hope took a step towards her and Lizzie, Caroline reflexively pulled her daughter in tighter to her. "What are you intending to do?" Caroline asked, her concern for her daughter still outweighing everything else.
"Helping her, something you clearly haven't been able to do," Hope snapped back, growing tired of the mistrust Caroline was showing her. If she had wanted to hurt Lizzie then she would have, and there wasn't anything anyone could have done to stop her. But that wasn't her intention.
"How?" Caroline asked cautiously, praying that Hope actually had someway to do so.
"Remembering this is only going to make her worse. So I'm going to take that away," Hope said, kneeling down beside Lizzie. Pausing she waited for Caroline to agree, not wanting to have to knock the woman out as well.
"Removing a memory will just create a gap. One that she'll notice and try to figure out why it's there," Caroline said, being familiar with the process. Compulsion was easily a vampire's most useful ability but repeated use led to nasty side effects. And a sudden gap in memories would become readily apparent the instant they had a reason to suspect something was wrong.
"I know," Hope said, having learned as much from what Cami had written, both in the memoirs and her own diaries. That had led to Freya creating a new spell, one that could conceal a memory without leaving the blank space that removing it would. "This spell works differently. She'll remember losing control, lashing out, and falling unconscious, but nothing else. The rest will be distorted, like it was a dream."
"That's..." Caroline started before trailing off. It was as much as she could hope for, more than she had hoped for really. Lizzie would still remember losing control but not what she had done. She'd be able to see the need for continuing her therapy and to actually take her medication but not be scarred by almost killing Hope. "Do it."
Nodding Hope reached out for Lizzie, placing her hands on either side of her head. "Occultus somnium memoria,"she cast softly, focusing on the spell. It was trickier then simply saying words but her vampire side helped with that, letting her easily slip into the girl's memories and change what she needed to.
"It's done. She won't remember what happened," Hope said, letting her hands fall away and leaning back for a moment.
"Thank you, Hope. I owe you immensely for this," Caroline said sincerely. Once she'd calmed down a little she had finally noticed the blood stained rods driven into the tree, as well as just how much blood drenched Hope. It was clear to her that if it had been anyone else then they would've been dead. Instead Hope was not only fine but had even been able to help her daughter.
"Just get her the help she needs. You don't need me to tell you how lucky she got," Hope said, rising to her feet. Looking down she couldn't help but wince at the blood covering her clothes. They were pretty much ruined, and that was before you counted the holes through her shirt and hoodie. It reminded her of the night that had been the reason for creating this damn boundary in the first place.
"We need to get you cleaned up. Then we can take both of you back to the school. Rick can finish up out here," Caroline said, her mind moving to how to keep anyone from finding out what had happened know that the immediate concerns had been resolved.
"I pretty sure I'm past cleaning up. Just take Lizzie back, I'm going to burn these clothes, shift, and then head back to the school," Hope said, already pulling her hoodie off. The only thing salvageable was her shoes but she wasn't particularly attached to them anyways so it wasn't real loss.
"Hope, are you sure you're okay?" Caroline asked finally, kicking herself for waiting so long to ask. Hope was the one that had actually been injured, it should've been the first thing she'd asked.
"Been through worse," Hope said, not exactly reassuring Caroline. "I'll be fine. A run in wolf form will help, let me clear my mind."
"Okay," Caroline said after a moment of hesitation. She did need to get Lizzie back to the bus, having her come too here would undo everything Hope had done for her. But she couldn't help but feel that she should be doing more for Hope. "If you need anything all you have to do is ask."
"Sure," Hope replied with a shrug, having no intention of doing so. Reaching out with her magic she pulled the many rods that had been thrown about to her, leaving them in a nice pile for Caroline to take back later. They did still need them to finish setting up the boundary spell after all but it wouldn't be her doing so.
Giving Hope one last look Caroline picked her daughter up, cradling her in her arms before rushing back to the bus. She had thought her daughter was doing better but clearly that wasn't the case. The irony that she'd been scolding Alyssa for what she had done when her own daughter had nearly killed another student wasn't lost on her either. It was clear that what they were doing wasn't enough, and that she needed to find someway to stop the Merge from ever taking place. Because as Lizzie currently was then simply finding out would be disastrous.
Author's: So I came up with the last scene with Lizzie first, and then had to work backwards to get to there. Plus I wanted to set up a few things for later chapters, mostly a foundation for Penelope and Hope. Funny thing the only time they ever speak to each other in the series is during the Mombie Dearest episode. And since so much time passes between here and the start of Legacies I can do pretty much whatever I want with them. Next chapters features Hope getting kidnapped, possibly for Christmas. You'll have to wait and see. Until then check out some of my other stories and leave me a review letting me know what you think. I always like getting those and they help my writing quite a bit.