Chapter One: The Quest
Annika calmly escorted the Council out of the front door of Val Hall, to all outwards appearances she appeared the gracious hostess but those who knew her best, her Valkyrie sisters, felt the storm brewing underneath. With the resounding thud of the front door, Annika returned to the living room where Valkyrie sat on every available surface, from the couches haphazardly laid out, to the top of the grandfather clock that was always six hours ahead. Taking a deep breath, she looked to the room, "Well?"
Valkyrie began shouting, voices overlapping, "Return Klaus to the throne? No Way!" "Sending a Valkyrie to find him is suicide!" "How dare Veritas volunteer our faction to find the hybrid king!" They kept escalating their volume, until cracks in the windows appeared from voices bordering on a Valkyrie shriek. Waving her hand in impatience, causing the Valkyrie present to turn their volume down. Plopping down in a spare arm chair, she sounded exhausted when she agreed, "I know that our faction should not have been volunteered for this search and rescue mission, but we have no choice. All of Veritas agreed that we are the most likely to come back from an encounter with Klaus. We must send one of our sisters, we have no other option."
Annika looked around the room waiting for someone to volunteer, understanding when no one raised their hand, many of the Valkyrie had personal experiences with the hybrid and would much rather let him rot in whatever hell he was currently experiencing. With another deep sigh, she looked to their soothsayer, Nïx. Though one of the most beautiful of all the Valkyrie, she was also driven insane by the ever-present visions that whirled through her head, and she'd lived through three thousand years of them. She lived more in the future than in the present, and the rare moments of lucidity were to be taken advantage of. Her black hair was loose with two tight braids that shot back from her temples, reminiscent of her ancient Norse upbringing. She stared blankly at the wall, and her bat, Bertil, cuddled in her arms. It was Regin the Radiant, her skin emitting an ever-present glow, and Nïx's partner in crime, who elbowed the soothsayer to gain her attention, and answer Annika's unspoken question.
Nïx hung her head backwards off the couch, the bat flying to perch on the edge of the sofa, looking upside down at Annika. "You want to know who must go to rescue the bastard hybrid king?"
Annika nodded, and all Valkyrie were silent, dreading that their name would be called by the soothsayer. If you were to be chosen there was no choice, you were going, Nïx was more than just a mad immortal, she was the most powerful seer in the Lore, you ignored her words at your own peril. Nïx tapped her chin in thought, still hanging upside down from the couch. After a few seconds of thought, she was flipping right side up and was raising her hand in the air, "I know! I know! Call on me!"
Annika pointed to Nïx as if calling on her for the Price is Right. Jumping up, excited, looked vacantly around at the room, before announcing the group that would find the hybrid king. "To find the hybrid that you seek, a group of four must meet, from the vampires, the Ripper whose guilt consumes him, from the witches, the one who struggles with being the last, from those fashionable Sorceri, the one who makes you doubt what you know, and from the Valkyrie," She paused dramatically spinning around with the grace of a ballerina, with her finger pointing out, "the one who's light shines the brightest."
She held her breath as she slowed her spin, making a clucking sound with her voice, like the wheel from Wheel of Fortune. Coming to a stop, pointing at the Valkyrie that stood behind Annika's right-hand side. Annika had two adopted daughters that she'd loved as her own, one was not present, probably snuggled up with her werewolf husband, back in Scotland. The second was one of the youngest Valkyrie present she'd barely frozen into her immortality, and after the debacle with Emma this past year, Annika had barely let her out of her sight. Annika shook her head immediately standing in front of the much younger Valkyrie. "No Nïx, we can't send her, I just lost Emma to a dog, you would have me lose Caroline on a suicide mission!"
Caroline, placing her hand gently on her foster mother's shaking shoulder. Her blonde hair braided around her head in a pseudo crown, her blue eyes sparkling with determination, she calmly moved from Annika's shadow. Stepping in front of her, with a serenity that earned her the respect of several of the violent Valkyrie, appreciating her battle readiness; considering the vacant eyes of Nïx, saying simply, "I accept." Before turning on her heel and heading to her room to begin packing.
Annika sent a glare at Nïx for naming Caroline, who's bout of lucidity seemed to be fading, and followed the young blonde Valkyrie to her room. Caroline was more than just a Valkyrie; she was a symbol of hope to her coven. When a female warrior dies courageously in battle, Wöden and Freya strike her with lightning, removing her to their hall in Valhalla, pregnant with an immortal Valkyrie daughter. At least that was how it had been, thousands of years ago, when most Valkyries were born. Wöden and Freya were gods, and gods were powered by prayers, and there weren't exactly alters to ancient Norse gods on every corner. But somehow, when Elizabeth Forbes had screamed for courage as she strode forward in battle, a police officer, hoping to save children from human trafficking, an ancient crack of thunder boomed through the clear sky. Every Valkyrie had felt down in their bones, the presence of their parents. Nine months later, a full Valkyrie daughter had arrived on the steps of Val Hall. The first full Valkyrie to be born in over a thousand years. Many within their coven believed that her birth meant that the coming Accession, would see the Valkyrie victorious. Others worried that their gods had spent their last powers on a full-blooded Valkyrie daughter because they'd hoped it would prevent their extinction. The golden Valkyrie with baby blue eyes, became a symbol of hope.
Caroline, focusing on collecting the supplies she would need for the journey, purposely ignoring Annika hovering in the doorway. Mentally listing off the potential things she could possibly need on a journey to find five immortals who had last been seen when poodle skirts were all the rage, what does one need when rescuing some of the Lore's most dangerous immortals? Despite this trepidation at her targets, she couldn't ignore a thrum of excitement radiating down her spin, her very own mission! Reaching under her bed to grab to the long circular tube that held her two razor sharp short swords, she affectionately pulled them out to admire them, before slinging them over her shoulder. she was one of the most proficient warriors in this medium, seconded only by her aunt, Regin the Radiant. Then again, her aunt had been studying for the last thousand years, so she gave herself a little leeway.
Annika, understanding her foster daughter would not be persuaded from this foolish quest had to stop herself from forbidding her to leave Val Hall. The first words Caroline said over her shoulder were proof of her plan to see it through. "Who are the other three?"
She leaned against the doorway as Caroline continued to pack, ticking off on her fingers the other three individuals that Nïx mentioned. "Regin said that she's summoning the other three to Val Hall now. The first, the Vampire, would have to be Stefan Salvatore, formerly known as the Ripper of Monterey. I heard that he's pledged his allegiance to the Forebearers, despite having red eyes, he's been supposedly abstaining from drinking straight from the flesh since Kristoff found him almost a century ago." She could barely keep her disgust for vampires out of her tone. Vampires were eternal enemies of the Valkyrie. Annika moved over to hop on the dresser that Caroline was pulling clothes out of, stuffing them into a duffel. Peeking at Annika, she gestured her hand for the other Valkyrie to continue.
"The Witch would be your good friend Bonnie Bennett," Caroline's eyes snapped up at that.
"Bonnie? Why would you think that the witch is Bonnie?" She obviously felt fine risking her own life, but she wasn't about to throw her still mortal best friend into harm's way. Immortals froze into their immortality at their prime, living and dying as mortals until that time. Bonnie was still extremely vulnerable.
Annika rolled her eyes, "Everyone knows that she's the last of the Bennett line, and the most powerful Bennett to boot. She's second only to Mariketa in raw power." Mariketa the Awaited was the leader of all Wiccae and had recently killed a god. Bonnie was posed to become the witch's right-hand, that is, if she could get control of her unstable powers.
Caroline, about to argue that it could be anyone else, suddenly decided against it. Annika had translated Nïx's vague predictions for over a thousand years, and everyone in Lore knew that Nïx was never wrong, shed trust her foster mothers interpretation. Guess the young Bonnie was about to be thrust into the harsh reality of the outside world. Cocooned in the Animal House of Witches since birth, Bonnie barely experienced the Lorekind in New Orleans, Caroline couldn't imagine where they would be forced to go to find the hybrid king.
Annika continuing, while Caroline started zipping up the duffle bag and slung the cylinder containing her swords over her shoulder. "The last is the tricky one, the sorceress. It's Katerina Petrova, though I'm told she prefers Kat now, the Queen of Illusions, she and her twin sister, Elena, Queen of Persuasion, haven't officially aligned with Pravus or Veritas. We assume that she's, in typical Sorceri fashion, were waiting to see which side is going to win, then join the fray." Annika uttered this with all the disdai she felt for those who wouldn't take a stand in a battle, along with the general hatred Valkyrie felt for the fickle Sorceri species.
Nodding and slinging the duffle over her shoulder, she walked out of her room, ignoring the eyes of the curious Valkyrie. This was her first quest, first mission, her first anything really. Unlike Emmaline, her foster sister, she felt no desire to leave Val Hall, after all it was on Emma's little Paris adventure that the Lykae had caught her. If she'd listened to Caroline… Shaking her head, she'd gone down that road before, she eventually came to terms with her sister's choice to stay in Scotland with her new hubby. Emma even extended an invitation to Caroline to come to their Castle in Scotland whenever she wanted. Not that Caroline would ever take her up on that offer, yes, she forgave Emma for picking him over her coven, but she did not forgive the Lykae for making Emma make the choice. She wasn't bitter about it, she wasn't.
Jogging down the stairs, she heard the front door of Val Hall open and close, and the hiss of several Valkyries along with several muttered curses aimed at the vampire hesitating in the entryway. Caroline glanced towards the door, quickly noticing Bonnie standing frozen clutching an overstuffed backpack, her gaze consistently darting to the vampire standing next to her. Walking briskly forward to stand next to her best friend, she placed a calming hand on her shoulder, before taking in Stefan Salvatore. His dark blonde hair was unkempt in a style that mortals paid hundreds to imitate, and leaner than she expected; however, she noticed beneath the relaxed pose was someone who could commit great violence. Attempting to convey a nonthreatening aura to the hissing lethal beings, Caroline sensed he was on edge, shocking her when he looked directly into her eyes, taking them off the room of predators. His eyes told her everything in an instant that she needed to know about his intentions and whether he would be a liability on this trip. His green eyes, which were still tinged slightly red, were blatantly haunted by all he'd done and seen but most of all, they were kind and considerate. Caroline prided herself on being able to read people, and within a few seconds of meeting Stefan Salvatore, she knew that they were going to be friends. It was a lesser known fact in the Lore, that when a red eyed vampire forbeared for long enough, the red eyes that would distinguish them as someone who had drunk a being to death, would slowly fade to the color they were before they turned. It was so rare that a vampire, after being red eyed, could not kill for long enough to complete the process.
Hitching her bag over her shoulder again, she glanced back at Regin, "The Sorceress?"
Regin shrugged, "Called her house, the bitch picked up, I told her what was up and she hung up, saying that finding Klaus was the least of her priorities."
Looking to Nïx who was cuddling the bat perched on her shoulder, hopefully she was having a rare lucid moment, "Can we proceed without her?"
Nïx snickered, petting her bat and as if no one else was in the room began talking to the animal, "They never listen do they Bertil? What did I say? What did I say?" The last sounding as if she'd genuinely forgotten. Without another word, she leapt up striding towards her room.
Looking at Stefan and Bonnie, "Looks like we're going to have a pay a visit to this Sorceress."
Bonnie was obviously nervous, Sorceri and witches tended to not get along. Patting the witch's hand reassuringly, she glared probingly at Regin, who easily stated, "She lives over on Audubon St, one of the big fancy mansions."
Caroline nodded to the pair, who followed her out the front door of Val Hall. She casually offered up, a lock of hair to the cloaked beings that hovered around the manor. The Ancient Scourge, were an unfailing form of protection, but came at an enormous cost. The spectral beings required payment in Valkyrie hair to enter and leave the manor, and when they collected enough to create a braid, they would have control over all Valkyries for a brief time. Another problem, for another time. Noticing Stefan looking around in shock at the metal poles stuck in the ground, even flinching slightly as the marked lightning struck them. Valkyrie gave off lightning with strong emotion, and Val Hall was almost always lit up like the Fourth of July.
Shifting her bag on her shoulder, she moved down the street to her aunt Myst's house, the only place she could park her brand-new Mercedes-Benz without the other Valkyrie feeling free to use it. Their motto may be "Share and Share Alike" but not all of them prescribed to that ideal. Caroline's secret motto was more like "touch and die." Plus, Caroline saw how her aunt Nïx's Bentley was treated and would dread such a fate to befall her treasured car.
Her aunt, Myst the Coveted, was out with her new leech husband, a general in the Forbearer army, Nikolai Wroth, scouring the country side for his brothers. Not that Caroline particularly cared where he was, leeches doing leech business. It still stunned her that not one but two of her aunts had fallen in love with the species. To say the Valkyries hatred of vampires ran deep was a colossal understatement. Pulling the garage opener from her bag, she ignored the other luxury cars in the garage, Valkyries liked luxury, inheriting Freyja's acquisitiveness. Her new black Mercedes, renting herself out as a sell sword for various operations, but limited herself to domestic travel only, Annika's requirement, had taken forever to save up for it, and its onyx paint reflecting in the luminescence lights, made her feel great satisfaction.
Driving a fast car was better than sex for her. At least any sex she'd had. Based on the screams and lightning she'd seen and heard coming from her aunt's house, she was doing something wrong.
She'd only slept with two Loreans in her immortal life, a woefully low number if the nymphs were to be believed. The first was shortly after she froze into her immortality, with a berserker whom she'd grown up with, and was still friends with today. Matt. The second, her boyfriend of five years, a werewolf named Tyler. They ended up breaking up because he'd cheated on her, Lykae had one mate out there chosen for them by fate, but Tyler cheating on her with some unnamed nymph was a dagger in her already troubled self-confidence.
Sighing out loud, earning an arched eyebrow from Bonnie, she shook off thoughts of her lackluster love life, placing her duffle carefully inside the trunk of her car. Bonnie and Stefan followed her lead, however, she noticed Stefan seemed to be sniffing around uncomfortably, most likely smelling remnants of Wroth around. Vampires were notoriously territorial and defend their homes viciously, Stefan was no doubt wary of being uninvited in another vampire's home.
Scoffing in disgust, if anyone should be uncomfortable with him being here, was revealing her aunt's house to this leech, it should be her. Snapping the trunk shut loudly, making the vampire to jump with surprise, and Caroline smothered a smirk.
Moving briskly around, entering the car. Bonnie quickly claimed shotgun, and the vampire climbed silently into the backseat. Glancing at Bonnie ramrod straight in her seat, and smiling menacingly, "Looks like we're off to see a sorceress."
Reaching up to pound on the proud entryway of the sorceress's house. She heard the echo from within, but no response came. Reaching up again, she tried the doorbell, but noticed that the wires were hanging disconnected, appearing as if they had been ripped from the wall with no care for rewiring. Someone hated to be bothered.
Sighing she shifted her shoulder against one door and looked to Stefan, indicating the other. "Step back Bonnie."
Working in tandem the Valkyrie and vampire burst through the entryway of a Sorceress's mansion. The hallway was whitewashed, everything from the walls to the floor, even the arched ceiling was a glittering white. Instead of producing the sterile image it should have, it sent chills down her spine thinking that the color choice was deliberately picked so blood splatter would be stark against it. The House of Witches may be mercenaries selling their spells for money, but Sorceri, often killing other Sorceri for their powers, were the far vicious and selfish of the two-magical species. The house echoed with odd, out-of-place laughter, causing her to crouch into a defensive stance and move slowly forward.
Pulling her two short swords out, twirling them in her hands, gesturing silently for Bonnie to stand behind her. The frightened young witch was quick to cower behind the protection of the Valkyrie, she wasn't proficient in weapons like Caroline or supernaturally strong and fast like Stefan, even her magick too unreliable to create adequate protection. Creeping further into the entryway, her senses on high alert, looking for any sign of the sorceress. They made it all the way to the sweeping black staircase leading to the second floor before she heard an amused voice come from the landing on the upper level. "I wasn't expecting any guests today, what about you Kat?"
Glancing up, she saw the twin sorceresses on opposite landings glaring down at the three individuals who had broke into their house. Both twins were beautiful, their skin exotically tan, with dark brown eyes and lustrous brown hair. The one who spoke up, Elena, her hair pulled back into a ponytail, the straight mass reaching almost to her waist, immediately giving off the innocent vibe, and her clothes were surprisingly modest for a sorceress. Leather pants tucked into knee high boots, with a gold tank top baring only brief teases of her midriff. Instead of the typical Sorceri mask, she used gold glitter to create the illusion of a mask leaving her face bare of other makeup, again radiating the pure image.
"No, I wasn't expecting anyone to so rudely enter our home, Elena. Shall we teach them a lesson about entering a Sorceri abode?"
Glancing to the opposite landing, Kat stood as the exact opposite of her twin. Where Elena radiated purity, Katerina emitted wickedness. Her hair was loose in huge ringlet curls, and her lips were painted blood red, her drawn on mask was black reaching all the way to her hair line and surrounding her dark eyes, till they looked like the only light in darkness. Katerina wore a gold breastplate, molding to her breasts and locking tightly with her matching golden choker. She wore the same leather pants as Elena but had placed gold armor over her thighs, and strapped a sword to her mostly bare waist.
Surprising her, it was Stefan who spoke first, "We've come from Nïx, Elena. Kat needs to come with us for a recovery mission."
Elena's eyebrows rose in surprise, "What recovery mission is he talking about Kat?"
Kat shook her head, "Some foolish errand about returning the Mikaelsons to New Orleans."
Caroline spoke up to answer that preventing a war from Mikael was far from a foolish errand, but Elena interrupted, her voice twined with shock, "Mikaelsons? As in all of them?" Making eye contact with Kat and Caroline noticed the concern and fear in her eyes. Looks like Kat had some history with the illustrious family. Elena continued, her worry lowering her voice, "As in Klaus," a swallow of fear from the Sorceress, "and El –"
Kat quickly cut her off, "It doesn't matter who we're supposed to rescue, I told the Valkyrie on the phone, that finding the Mikaelsons was the least of my priorities."
Caroline's irritation rising at the way the sorceress coolly dismissed their quest. It was a real quest! They were trying to prevent a war! She wasn't going to let some arrogant sorceress ruin this chance to prove herself, to be not just a Valkyrie, but the Valkyrie. Her voice, harsh with impatience, glancing at both sorceresses not letting her short swords fall, "You know the consequences of ignoring my aunt's prophecies, even a Sorceri cannot be so foolish."
Katerina, clearly the more lethal of the two, lifting her hand daintily to her chest, "Foolish? Moi?"
Before Caroline could think of an appropriately cutting response, another voice echoed through the house, "Elena? Elena, I swear if you and Kat have been stealing from the bank again…"
A dark-haired, gorgeous vampire came up behind the demurer sorceress putting his hands on her hips and kissing her neck lovingly, with dark brown hair and bright blue eyes, arrogance and devilish humor radiated from him. "I didn't realize we had guests."
Looking briefly down at the trio below, Caroline couldn't help but notice the similarities between the vampire holding the sorceress and the one standing beside her. Raising her eyebrows at Stefan, gazing up at the vampire she assumed to be Elena's husband, another Forbearer. His eyes twinkling with mirth, his already pale complexion lost all semblance of color when he finally studied the group in earnest. Moving with vamp speed, he bolted down the stairs to stand just inches away from Stefan, his hand shaking as he reached out, "Brother?"
Flinching when the stranger's hand touched his face, recoiling as if burned, forcing Caroline to feel the need to interfere in this awkward family reunion. Shielding Stefan and giving him the chance to gain some semblance of composure, she stuck her hand out in a defensive manner at the new vampire, "Listen, I don't know who you are, but you see we're kind of on a time crunch, and Nïx says we need this second-rate sorceress to come with us, so it would be great if we could just get going."
With only the slight warning of Kat's black nails clenching the railing, she was trapped in one of the Sorceress's famous illusions, instead of the entryway, she was suddenly surrounded by the bodies of her loved ones. Annika's mouth hanging open on a silent scream of anguish, her own sword impaling her stomach, Emmaline, her foster sister, a wasted shell with patches of fried skin calling her name, and Bonnie, burning at the stake. The stench of Bonnie's burning flesh choking the air, making Caroline gasp, clawing at her throat, why couldn't she breath? As quickly as it began the illusion ended, gulping in clean air as she glared at the Sorceress.
Enjoying herself, Kat inspected her nails, exerting no effort at all to create such torment for another immortal, arching a perfect eyebrow, "You were saying?"
The dark-haired man's eyes not wavering from Stefan, who was avoiding eye contact with a forced aloofness. Without removing his eyes from the blonde vampire, he called to Kat, "Go with them Kat."
Kat sputtered at this order, "They want to fetch the Mikaelsons-"
Briefly glancing at his sister-by-fate, "You owe me, Kat. I'm calling the debt."
Kat grimaced briefly, tapping her nails on the wood, before groaning, the debt Kat owed was obviously large enough that she saw no other option but to acquiesce to his request. Turning away from the banister, disappearing into one of the rooms on the upper level, Caroline heard the sorceress muttering under her breath, and the slamming of drawers. Raising her eyebrows in surprise, turning back to the dark-haired man, "Uh, I'm definitely missing something. Who exactly are you?"
The man's seductive smile spread across his face, "Name's Damon Salvatore, Blondie. I'm that saucy sorceress's brother-in-law." Glancing affectionately at Elena, who lit up at his glance, but again nervously glanced at Stefan.
Following her gaze, eyebrows coming down in confusion at Stefan, "Salvatore?"
Stefan didn't meet her gaze, looking at the floor with unnatural interest. Damon answered instead, "Yes, darling, me and the perpetual forehead frown are related, brothers, in fact. However, more interesting tidbit, I haven't seen him in a century-and-a-half, I foolishly thought he was dead."
Though his voice sounded amused and seductive, Caroline detected something dark and tortured vibrating within him. His face smiled, and his voice charmed, but it's all a front for a twisted man; however, he'd only to look at Elena and his face lost its dark shadows. Caroline recognized the look, Emmaline's husband, Lachlan, wore the same starstruck expression whenever his gaze fell on his new wife. She couldn't hold down the tide of jealously that rose at yet another happy couple forcing their joy on others. Why couldn't she invoke that emotion in another? Was there something wrong with her?
She portrayed the brave, fierce warrior to the world, living with warriors of legend, it was an easy thing to imitate, but the bravery was always a front, masking her anxiety. She worried far too much what other people thought of her, creating the kind of debilitating insecurities that ruined her last relationship. Tyler grew sick of having to constantly reassure her, breaking up with her after five years even though he hadn't found his mate, growing tired of her neurotic insecurities, turning to a nymph instead.
"What did you do for Katerina to owe you?" Bonnie's weak voice breaking the silence.
"He didn't do anything important." Kat intoned from above, a duffle bag thrown over her shoulder, descending the stairs with confidence, glancing at Caroline, "Ready to go?"
With a brief glance at the three of them, Katerina Petrova, Queen of Illusions, was striding out the front door without a by your leave, turning only briefly around to glare impatiently at the three immortals, who were stunned at how easily she changed her mind. "Well, are you three coming or what?"