part one of two

It was always Esther's favorite story to tell her children.

"It all started with a witch," she would say, and that much never changed. "She wasn't a particularly strong one, but she had a passion for witchcraft. She fell in love with a man who her parents deemed unworthy of her affections, and she was forbidden to marry him. This was after her protests that they were meant to be."

At this point Rebekah, a young girl, would have propped her chin on her hands, watching as her mother continued to tell her tale.

"Her parents arranged for her to marry someone more noble, and she could do nothing about it," she went on, smiling at her daughter's furrowed brows and frown. The young girl was a hopeless romantic at the age of seven, and she disliked anything getting getting in the way of true romance. "And though she found her partner agreeable she never felt that connection she had felt with her first, and who believed to be her true, love ever again," Esther lamented.

"And then what happens?" Rebekah would ask, her eyes bright.

"You've heard this story a hundred times, Rebekah," one of Esther's sons was sure to whine, though it was usually Kol. His views on the matters of the heart were hardly set, but he couldn't bear listening to the same story over and over.

"It's more than a story, Kol," her mother would be prompt to remind him, silencing her son for the moment. Often his response was flopping back on his bed, knowing it was too late to outside, and pretend to sleep. He couldn't help but listen to the story though, because he mother had taught him it as history rather than myth.

"Now where was I darling?" She would ask Rebekah.

"She's about to have her daughter!"

Esther would recollect her thoughts and then go on with the story. "So the witch has been married to the man whom her parents arranged her with for about a year when they have their firstborn, a baby girl. Her husband had wanted a son, and saw their daughter as little more than a bargaining chip for the future. Fearing her daughter would be subject to a similar fate as her own she cast a spell. She placed a unique mark on her daughter that would appear on her soulmate, her true love, so her daughter's true feeling could never be invalidated. What she didn't know what that she had messed up the spell, and her mishap changed the witches forever. Any child with the blood of a witch coursing through their veins was given a special mark, and some humans were surprised to find they had been marked as well."

Rebekah would look down at the intricate design on her wrist, and traced the lines with her finger. She wondered if mark's match was a witch too or merely a human.

"Eventually the origin of the marks was revealed, after a few short years of children being born with a mark on each of their bodies," their mother would explain. "And so, with that realization, the soulmate marks were accepted, and helped many couples in finding each other and staying together," she finished, giving Rebekah a soft smile.

After her first explanation of the soulmate marks, Rebekah had many questions. She eventually got to the point where she had asked about everything she wanted to know. That was until one day when out of the blue Rebekah had a question again.

"How did you and father find out you shared a mark?" She once asked, which made Esther take a long pause. She said little on the matter, but her children would come to understand exactly what she meant.

"The marks are a way of telling fate, but you can't expect fate to do everyone on its own," she hesitantly replied, "knowing who you're meant to be with is only half the battle. Unfortunately the universe likes to take it's time."

•••

As vampires the Mikaelson children kept their marks. Rebekah once mused that perhaps destiny and fate were intertwined, because their marks had yet to find their matches as mortals.

It wasn't until Finn met Sage had the sibling realized some of them hadn't outlived their soulmates with their immortality. They were all powerful vampires though just getting used to what the world immortal really meant. At that point love was a distant thought for half of the family.

It wasn't until the 15th century that an original would meet their match once more, but due to their marks being tucked behind their ears it wasn't clear to Elijah that Katerina Petrova was his soulmate for years to come. Looking back he should have known, recognized the feeling when he felt laid his eyes on her, but there's little help on dwelling on the past.

Rebekah, the one who had always wanted the happily ever after, was taken aback when she discovered who the fates wanted her be with. Years before she had become convinced she had found the man she was destined to be with, only to realize that while fate didn't always follow through, you can't escape it when it wants to find you.

It was the roaring twenties and in Chicago the Mikaelson's had run into Stefan Salvatore, who was at the time known as The Ripper. Rebekah didn't know at the time that the man who shared her mark would turn out to a man she would be happy to spend her days with, but she had yet to tell him the story behind their matching design.

Klaus had even found his match, in the 21st century. No one expected his mark to have a pair after they figured out the werewolf gene was also a part of his genetics. So it was a surprise to everyone, especially Klaus, when he met Caroline Forbes and discovered the outline of a triangle on her back. He hadn't told her of the connection yet, and he doubted she would believe him. He decided he would wait until she was ready to hear the news.

In all their thousand years Kol was the one left alone, with a mark shaped vaguely like star on the back of his neck. He didn't mind it though, when he wasn't daggered he was traveling the globe feasting or trying to make nice with his family, though usually that only lead to him be daggered again.

He was usually able to ignore the reality that there was something out there for him. They could be dead for all he knew, and he would've missed his opportunity. If anyone, in particular Rebekah pestered him about the subject, he probably due to his brother keeping him from away from the world for such expanses of time.

"So how are you liking modern day New Orleans, brother?" Elijah asked Kol. He had torn himself aways from his travels to visit his family who had recently moved back to a city they used to call home.

"Still has the same charm," the younger brother replied. He had two stints in the city, both ending abruptly in a dagger. He hoped the time would be the charm, the charm being able to coexist with his brother without getting put into a coma for a few days.

Kol had left his family in Mystic Falls after a close call with Elena and Jeremy Gilbert. The oak stake had nearly pierced his heart when he was able to get away, but the idea of actual death lead Kol to travel far away from Virginia.

It wasn't until out of the blue he got a call from Elijah telling him to come down to see someone. He arrived in New Orleans to find that he was an uncle to a baby the world thought was thought, and that shouldn't have even been there in the first place. He had yet to meet the supposed bundle of joy, she was safely tucked away with Rebekah. but he couldn't be informed of the news over phone according to Klaus.

He should've left the city after he got the information, but he ended up lingering. The reason as to why he did was unbeknownst to his family as well as Kol himself. It just felt right at the time to take up temporary residence in The Abattoir.

•••

A more recent trend with Witches was to unmark their newborn children.

Over the centuries it became clear that knowing who you were destined to be with only caused trouble. In more outdated times it was okay, but with the changing ways of society waiting and hoping for one person was not as widely accepted. It also had a way of breaking up couples that were happy together, just because they weren't destined to be together from some outer source.

For a few people it worked out great, but knowing your fate is not something many people wanted. So since the early twentieth century there had been a movement for witches to abolish their children's soulmate marks. A large number of people wanted their children to choose their own partners, and they encouraged others to the same. It was a simple spell, but it had become so ingrained in their culture that people were hesitant to change a tradition.

Most members of The New Orleans Coven had taken to getting rid of their children's marks, but Davina Claire's parents had opted not to. Her parents hadn't had a very prosperous marriage, her father even left them shortly after she was born. Their hope was that by leaving her soulmate mark she could avoid a marriage like their own, which was unhappy and formed of two markless witches. Her mom was always a strong believer that magic anyway, which she proved when she was willing to sacrifice her daughter up in the Harvest.

She had a habit of keeping her hair down to cover the mark that was placed on the back of her neck, but when she was in the church attic she tried putting it up more often. It wasn't like anyone was going to see it and declare that they were her true love… true soulmate, she wasn't quite sure there was a connection between the two. But when she got out of the attic the habit of pulling up hair remained, even if it was only every once in a while.

"Did you get a tattoo?" Josh asked with surprise one day. They were hanging out at Marcel's place and Davina's hair was up in a loose bun, which meant her mark was fully visible. She whipped her head back around to face her friend. "Is it like a flame or something?" he asked her, and Davina shook her head.

"No," she said tersely, reaching up to brush her fingers against the spot. After apparent confusion on Josh's face she clarified. "I mean yes, it's a flame or something, but it's not a tattoo." In truth Davina always saw it as more of a star, just a curvy one, but she figured that being the Harvest witch of fire would make a flame fitting.

Josh gave her a look, one with a slightly raised brow, which he gave her to prompt a more extensive explanation.

"It's just a witch thing," she said, trying to wave away the topic.

She never had that strong of a belief in soulmates. She had been so convinced that Tim would have a star on the back of his neck too, but when she finally discovered that he was mark free she fought the idea of that she could have a soulmate. She was stubborn and her actions and denial had lead Tim to his death.

She tried to take the marks a lot more seriously after that. She decided to respect the fact that she couldn't just ignore it.

When she finally relented she kept the guilt over her first love's death out of her synopsis. She just told him the basic information behind the myth and that not everyone had them anymore. She could tell Josh wanted to ask about Tim, but she was happy he didn't.

"So should I keep an eye out for a person with a flame on the back of their necks?" he asked after a pause of silence.

Davina gave him a smile and shrugged. "I highly doubt he's going to be wandering around New Orleans."

"Such little faith in fate," her friend accused.

She simply shrugged. After The Harvest she was never sure exactly what to think.

•••

"Still lingering around town, Kol?" Marcel asked as the original in question poured himself a drink. Marcel was still no match for the youngest Mikaelson, but he was no longer a child being tormented by a psychopath. That and Klaus was in the room, and Kol had been on his best behavior over the past weeks.

Kol didn't reply, he just took a long sip of his drink. He didn't feel like bringing up old trifles. He had found that digging up graves was no way to live if you didn't want a stake in your heart, or in the worst case, a white oak stake.

Klaus looked up from his phone, ignoring the uncomfortable tension between his adoptive son and neither. "I'm going to need Davina's assistance in figuring out the root of a spell," he informed Marcel. He was currently on the track of making the city a safer place for Hope so she could come home. Most people were not aware that his recent actions had been motivated by his daughter, but they knew he was working on something important.

"She's not going to help you," he said simply, which was the truth, "not unless you give her motivation. But, knowing your methods, I'm just going to say she won't help you."

"What did you do to upset the poor girl, Klaus?" Kol inquired, trying to stay up to date on the never ending drama of The Big Easy. He had heard her name thrown around here and there but didn't know why she was so opposed to Klaus.

"He killed the boy she loved," Marcel said in a simple explanation. He then directed his attention to the hybrid in the house. "Why don't you just find another witch, Klaus?" he asked.

"I need a witch with real power to do it," he reasoned. "I had one try but it was no use." The look on Marcel's face made Klaus reconsider his persuasion technique. "No harm will come to the little witch, or to any of her friends," he promised Marcel, "whoever created spell obviously took precautions, and I just need someone with the capability to track them down."

"I'll see what I can do," he relented. Klaus looked desperate enough, and that might be enough for Davina to be willing to help him. Marcel knew she wouldn't want to pass up an opportunity to keeping proving to him she had the upper hand, but she would be helping someone she hated in the process.

Despite Marcel's doubts she arrived at The Abattoir forty minutes later, bag in hand filled with supplies for the spell. Klaus had wanted to the spell later that night but if Davina was going to help him it would be on her own terms. Five hours was that big of a difference, but it was enough to make her a little more willing.

She stood tall as she walked over to Klaus, seeing him for the first time in over a month. She gave Marcel a small smile, even if it was strained from his request. She didn't recognize the third person in the room, though she had an idea. Josh had mentioned that the youngest Mikaelson brother had made his way down to New Orleans, and the brunette who was sitting in the courtyard fit the bill.

"It should be simple spell," she said simply, diverting her eyes from the unexpected person in the room. He was staring at her without much shame, so she chose to ignore him. The only Mikaelson who had been fully decent to her was Rebekah, but she had left months before.

"I trust you have everyone you need," Klaus asked her, moving over to the table where Davina had dumped out her bag's contents.

"I just need something to trace back to them," she reminded, looking to him for that much. "The object with the spell preferably." She'd brought a map and the herbs need, but she was missing a key component.

"On the side table over there," the possible brother commented, but she wasn't quite sure where 'over there' was or what it was she was looking for.

"The rocks over there," Klaus clarified, motioning behind her.

She began to whip her head around to look when she heard the possible brother finally introduce himself.

"As my brother has failed to introduce me," she heard him start as she went to pick up the rocks. She'd have to hear the story behind the connection before she based her spell around them, but she felt the spell when she touched got near them. "I'm Kol Mikaelson, and you-" he suddenly stopped speaking, though she hadn't heard anyone cut him off.

She picked up the hesitantly rocks and turned back around to see three very different expressions.

Marcel looked pissed, Klaus looked amused, and Kol, well, she didn't know him well enough to place his expression. Though it looked like shock. He had just stood up from his seat, but he was frozen in place.

"Did I pick up the wrong rocks or something?" she asked, not being able to keep what Marcel fondly called her teenage attitude from making it's way into her voice.

"You didn't tell me you had a mark, D," Marcel said simply, and he sounded angry about it. She had always assumed he noticed it, and chose not to comment on Tim's lack of one out of sincerity, but realized he hadn't. Wearing her hair up really did to seem change things.

The rocks felt heavier in her hands than before. Marcel had a temper, but he wouldn't get that mad over something that little. It didn't affect him anyway. She followed where his view was directed and stiffened herself.

"I didn't think it was important," she muttered in defense, trying not to focus on Kol who was looking at her in a very different way than just moments before. She slowly made her way back to the table to put the rocks down. "Up until recently I didn't like to think it actually would work," she added, when it was clear no one else wanted to speak. After more silence she added a quick explanation, "You know with Tim and all."

"Who's Tim?" Kol abruptly asked, shaken out of his stunned state.

The youngest Mikaelson had just seen something he didn't think he would ever see, a match to his soulmate mark. Even though he tried to avoid his own he knew the design well enough to spot it in an instance, and the location on the back of the neck aligned with his. It was an odd feeling to see the star shape on someone else, since it had been unique to him for over a thousand years, but the more troubling thing was what they entailed.

Klaus ignored his brother question, and looked at Davina like she had just told him the funniest story. In his mind, she had. He never thought he would see the day.

"Well little witch, it seems you and Kol are a perfect match."