Elena tried not to let her nerves get to her as she watched the Mikaelsons' ball proceed from her spot on the stairs. Everyone on the floor was dancing, laughing and smiling as most were unknowingly surrounded by creatures that could kill them before they could blink. For a moment she tried to imagine herself as one of them – utterly oblivious and enjoying the night as a simple excuse to dress up.

Letting out a resigned sigh, she closed her eyes and shook her head back and forth, dispelling the fantasy. She was now not only aware of the supernatural world but very much a member of it herself. Adding to her nervousness was the fact that Ester had requested to speak to her in private. Whatever it was that the Original Witch wanted, it was guaranteed to complicate her life even further.

Just as Elena prepared herself to seek out the Originals' mother she was intercepted by Elijah.

"Elena. I understand my mother requested to see you."

She tried not to let his words add to her already frayed nerves and struggled to keep her voice steady as she responded, "Uh, yeah. Why, is something wrong?"

"Well, her ability to forgive my brother after everything he's done to destroy this family strikes me as a little strange to say the least."

"Do you think that it's an act?"

The disturbed look on his face was a clear response when he answered, "It has me asking questions I never thought I'd ask. Can I depend on you to tell me what she says?"

Seeing the opportunity Damon and Stefan had told her they sought, Elena carefully formed her response before she said, "Of course, but I'd appreciate a little bit of your trust myself. Stefan and Damon told me that you have another sister, Dagmar I think? I noticed that she isn't here tonight. Is it too much to ask that you tell me about her – let me know how much of a threat she is and if I should be worried?"

A strange expression immediately crossed the Original's face, a mix between sadness and fondness.

"That seems to me a fair question. Dagmar is Kol's older twin sister and was the only one of us to inherit my mother's ability of performing magic. However she called on her powers as she wanted to rather than following my mother's will and because of that that our mother treated Dagmar with disdain from a young age. She was Mikael's favorite of us all."

Elijah paused his description, and Elena noticed that he seemed to be fighting off a grimace but didn't entirely succeed.

"When she was sixteen she was found with a young man she had loved - but our father had forbidden her to marry because of his social standing - in a manner that afterwards deemed her 'impure.' He was betrothed to another, and to save his own reputation declared that she had bewitched him with her magic. Since she was no longer considered to be worthy to marry anyone, her previous prospects vanished. My father's affection for her also seemingly vanished overnight."

He paused, and cleared his throat before continuing.

"Our mother and father insisted that we distance ourselves from her so we would not be associated with someone baring the scorn and disgust of the rest of the village, and we followed their instruction.

Except Kol, that is. The two were and continue to be best friends and are fiercely loyal and protective of each other. Their connection is beyond anything I've seen, one I'm fairly sure is rooted in magic. They had a saying as children that they've loosely translated to rhyme in English - 'Two halves, one whole, two bodies, one soul" – and I wouldn't be surprised if it was true. His name and hers quite literally translate to "darkness" and "light" respectively.

Regardless, life continued that way for the next three years, at which point the events that led to my siblings and I being turned into vampires took place.

Though we all struggled with the transition, Dagmar was by far the most affected. Not only had her only friend outside of the family been Tatia, who was sacrificed as a part of our mother's spell, her connection with her magic was disabled.

However unlike witches that are turned now, Dagmar's magic still exists –it is her ability to channel and use it that has been severed. The pent up powers seems to have made her prone to a degree of instability. As far as I have seen she has worked on it enough to have a good handle on it, but there are a few triggers that unfortunately cause her brief fits of psychosis.

Dagmar is the only one of our siblings to be daggered and then undaggered multiple times by Niklaus. From what I have been able to gather, she has actually only been animated for about 120 years, decades less than your Salvatore brothers. Klaus daggered her shortly after Finn, only a few decades after our transition, and undaggered her six centuries later. Only twenty years later did she wreak enough havoc to be daggered once again. After that I know that she was animated during the Revolutionary War, a time she spent with Kol, and then stayed with Bekah and I for a few months in the 1860's. She was daggered a final time in 1996 when Klaus and I encountered her yet again and they had a disagreement that spiraled out of control.

Dagmar leaving us is not unusual. She never stayed with any of us for an extended period of time apart from Kol; her time with myself and Rebekah was after encountering each other by mere coincidence.

Though she can become ruthlessly bloodthirsty, and occasionally acts upon her instability, you have no reason to see her as a threat. She has only turned a handful of people, and only with their clear consent. While her death count is high, when she is thinking rationally she is careful with who she selects to kill rather than simply compel after feeding.

Dag won't return to Mystic Falls anytime this century by choice – especially if Kol lets her know that Esther is here. The only thing that would draw her back would be if she believed Kol was in danger."

Elena's eyes were wide open by the time that Elijah finished his tale nearly ten minutes later. She had never imagined that the story she would hear would be so sad, or told in such depth. It was comforting to hear that the girl would not be a threat, but the rest of the story instead left her feeling guilty to have pried into the young woman's life.

Feeling as though it was the least she could offer, Elena smiled gently and said, "Thank you for telling me all of that. I'll find you after I talk to your mother, okay?"