A/N- I had to remind myself where this story was headed and fell into a little rut but I'm back now.
Anyone walking through Waldenberg park on that chilly February morning would have noticed the woman strolling along the riverside.
How could they not? She was beautiful, tall and angular, she was dressed in dark colours and resembled an off-duty model so much so that a few of the younger woman that walked past her double-checked to make sure they hadn't seen her splashed across a fashion magazine, walking the runways of Paris and New York.
They hadn't.
Nadia Petrova had every inch of her mother's beauty- perhaps more- but none of her dramatic flare and love of the show. She wore high end clothes because she enjoyed the luxury but she had never attended a fashion show and she certainly had never modeled.
Although her dancing caught the eyes of anyone who cared to watch.
She smiles as she remembers her husband, Suleyman, dead now these five hundred years but a man who had loved her and given her several children, some who had followed him to the grave, others that lived scattered across the world, awaiting her word.
But this was something she had to face alone.
Hidden away.
Like she was something to be ashamed of.
Furiously she rips off her beret and pulls out her pins throwing them into the Mississippi, letting her brunette curls fly free in the biting wind. Her hair cascades down her back and she shakes her head, running her fingers across her scalp to ease the pain. Almost immediately her reverie is interrupted,
"Darling Nadia" Giacomo chides gently, reaching for the scarf she wears around her neck to cover her hair,
"We do not want your beautiful locks becoming tangled beyond saving"
She snorts, she knows the truth as well as he.
He doesn't want any of the supernatural creatures of Niklaus' kingdom to see her and notice just how greatly she resembled Katerina Petrova.
They don't want people knowing who she is and why she is here in New Orleans.
Or, more accurately, Katerina doesn't.
Nadia had imagined her reunion with her mother a great many times, for quite a few centuries she had imagined catching her as she flew through one location or another, a tearful meeting and then both of them fleeing from Niklaus Mikaelson's wrath. However, despite all the times she had come so close to finding her she had always been just out of reach, sometimes by a few days, sometimes a few years, sometimes having never even been there at all.
So when Nadia had heard the strangest of stories, that Katherine Pierce had not only become human but had made her peace with Klaus and become lovers with his brother Elijah, living not only on the same continent, but in the same state, in the same city as them she had been dumbfounded.
She had cautiously put out feelers, making alliances with the Travellers to seek out more information and confirmation of these rumours before daring to set foot in the US South.
And when she had landed in Louisiana she'd paid well- she'd nearly had to part with the emerald ring Suleyman had given her- to find out more about her mother's life.
Katherine Pierce had many myths ascribed to her name but one of the more favourite ones to constantly be filtered through the rumour mill was her love story with the Original Elijah.
Betrothed to his brother in the beginning, the supposedly noble Elijah had still managed to seduce or - depending on the story- fall for the young and allegedly virginal Katerina Petrova. In agony over the thought of losing her to death at Klaus' hands, he had confessed that they needed her blood to break the curse upon his brother and free his hybrid nature, he had told her that he planned to give her a potion that would resurrect her from the dead and then apparently been shocked beyond belief when Katerina heard all this and ran for the hills.
As any sane woman would do.
He had betrayed his brother for a woman who had fled into the night and tricked another man who loved her- interesting pattern there- into making her a vampire and thus had begun her five hundred years dancing destruction upon the world as she always raced ahead just out of reach of the Original who had loved her and the one who wanted her dead.
Yet despite the long, long- ridiculously exaggerated- list of men- and women- who claimed to have loved or been loved by Katherine Pierce, the Original Elijah had always held a place in her heart and her in his.
At least, Nadia assumes that was why they had come together to conspire to steal the cure and trade it to Klaus in return for her freedom and then when she had in turn had the cure shoved down her throat by her doppelganger she had gone to New Orleans, murdered Marcellus Gerard to save the life of Klaus' unborn son and then won her freedom just in time for her to be reunited with Elijah in Mexico- even Nadia had had trouble piecing the story together at that point- and brought to New Orleans as his beloved partner.
There wasn't a block of salt large enough for Nadia to handle this story. Even when she'd received confirmation by her mother she still had so many questions,
Chief among them being that if Elijah was such a noble man, so trustworthy, why was it that months after Nadia had arrived in New Orleans, Katerina was still so determined to keep her daughter hidden away?
It can't have been shame, otherwise the woman likely wouldn't have invited the Salvatore's and the doppelganger to town to shock everyone with their incestuous ménage-a-trois and that was provided one ignored the rumours regarding Elijah and Katerina's sex life.
Besides, while Nadia's appearance would have wreaked havoc upon her during her human lifetime, by now everyone knew that Katherine Pierce was not in any way a virgin and surely it didn't matter that she had born a child out of wedlock?
And it can't have been embarrassment over Nadia, yes she had converted to Islam and married a Muslim but as that man had been Sultan of the Ottoman Empire and she had become the first legal wife of a Sultan in history, surely there was no shame in having a Sultana as a daughter?
Especially when her mother knew nothing about it.
So what was it?
Unless her mother wasn't as free from the Original family's tyranny as she let others believe?
"Perhaps freedom itself is the greatest illusion of all" she murmurs softly, confusing Giacomo, but she shakes her head in lieu of offering an explanation,
"I wish to speak to my mother" she tells him before remembering that here in New Orleans she is not Hurrem Sultana but Nadia Petrova, lovechild of Katerina,
"Please" she adds and he smiles,
"Come back to my apartment and I shall call her at once"
Fortunately there was ample excuse for Katherine to be visiting Giacomo's bookshop, every week she came by to purchase a book for Caroline Forbes.
Not that the library in the Mikaelson mansion didn't house an ample selection of books, but these were all priceless first additions and Caroline was more comfortable with twenty-dollar paperbacks that she could highlight, dog-ear and write little notes in.
So, under the pretext of knowing Caroline's tastes best, she would come every week to browse and pick up either a classic or newer fiction for her to read before passing on to the baby vampire.
Of course there were still some who found cause to gossip in Katherine's visiting Giacomo every week, especially when the fact that he was hopelessly in love with her was the worst kept secret in New Orleans but Elijah himself was famously unworried about the man's adoration of his lover and considering how handsome Elijah was and how plain the Italian knight was by comparison, it was generally assumed that the rumours were unfounded.
So when Katherine Pierce breezed through the bookstore only an hour later and spent only a minute at the desk checking the latest orders for anything Caroline might enjoy before slipping into the hallway and up the backstairs to see her daughter, nobody even blinked.
Giacomo stands and bows to her before gesturing to the silver platter on which he has served the finest rose tea imported directly from Bulgaria.
"Were you followed?" he asks casually and she shrugs, "I'm the Princess of New Orleans, I assume I was followed by spies from at least two different factions in town"
She is unconcerned and Nadia frowns, "Should you not be worried?"
Her mother shakes her head, "I avoided Klaus' minions successfully for hundreds of years and I didn't have the skills then that I did now"
She changes the subject then, sitting down on the couch across from her, "You wanted to see me, daughter of mine?"
"I wanted to know how much longer I am going to be hidden away like this?" she demands, her frustration breaking through,
"I am glad that you get to spend your days in mansions and gardens finally free at last but I do not like being forced to stay hidden in the shadows while you do"
Katerina's face fell and Nadia felt momentarily guilty, "I'm sorry" her mother apologised,
"I know this isn't what you wanted or imagined but we have to be careful"
"Of what?!" she asks bewildered, "Of Klaus? Your supposed ally? Of Rebekah, who admittedly has been defaming you in certain quarters?"
"Of Elijah" Katerina blurted out, interrupting her child and looking miserable. There's a clattering of china against silver and both women glance at Giacomo who is studying his love with a concerned expression,
"I wish you had told me you felt this way" he states in the closest he will ever come to reprimanding Katherine Pierce,
"I haven't even discussed this with Klaus" she admitted reluctantly, "But Elijah's…changed, ever since Mystic Falls, his temper has been erratic, he isn't sleeping and he questions everyone's motives…even mine, even Caroline's"
Nadia frowns, "He's the Prince of the most dangerous kingdom in the world, he should be questioning everyone's motives, especially those closest to him. Klaus is known to be one of the greatest schemers and manipulators in the world. Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia turned to him for advice, and surely you have conspired to wipe out the entire family at some point or another?"
"Yes but where there is questioning someone's motives and then obsessing over it, which Elijah is swinging to more often than not"
Nadia snaps her fingers impatiently, as she used to when the entire harem was under her command,
"This is foolish, I am tired…"
"Nadia" Katerina scolds in the most motherly tone she's ever adopted, "I'm spending every night in Elijah's bed and I still can't guarantee my safety anymore when I wake up in the morning! How am I supposed to ensure yours?"
Nadia grits her teeth, "Is it really as bad as that?"
Her mother closes her eyes and despite being an immortal eighteen year old woman, suddenly looks very tired and much older,
"Yes…for the moment it is every bit as bad as that"
It is on the tip of Nadia's tongue to reveal everything to her mother, the slaughter of her village, her enslavement, her joining of the harem and her quick rise to favourite, her long and hard path battling every woman and eunuch until she was not only Suleyman's only love, but his wife and regent when he was at war.
She knows how to scheme with the best of them and would be Katerina's greatest ally in this battle.
But her mother closes her eyes and Nadia remembers that for all the myths and rumours, for all the men and women that have been loved and lost, she does adore Elijah, she doesn't wish to go to war against him, only to help him through this tough time.
She relents with a sigh, "Then I will stay here until it is safe for the both of us"
The day Erik had been born was one of the happiest days in Elijah's life.
That child had marked the start of a new life for the Original Family, one where peace and lack of infighting was slowly becoming the norm, one where they lived with one another in general harmony and focused on future holidays as opposed to future power struggles.
In the deepest chambers of his heart Elijah liked to pretend that Erik was his grandchild rather than his nephew, that Niklaus was his son and he alone could heal the centuries of pain heaped upon his little brother by the men who had hurt and neglected him.
However, for all the love he felt for the child, lately he had found him grating.
Especially now that he was walking.
Elijah was in the ground floor parlour enjoyably immersing himself in the Master and Margarita when he heard the heavy, rapid footfall that was the portent of Erik's arrival.
It was late in the afternoon and it had been a trying day spent with irritating politicians and factional problems that could have easily been avoided if not for inflated egos.
He wanted nothing more than to lay his head in Katerina's lap and have her stroke his hair, he wanted to close his eyes and feign sleep which was so foreign a concept to him these days.
Instead he had to force a smile onto his face as his squealing nephew came barrelling into the room,
"Lijah" the boy shrieked happily, "Lijah, Lijah, Lijah!"
"Hello Erik" he keeps his voice light, "How are you?"
He receives a giggle in response and what could be a murmur of 'Good' before the toddler begins traversing the room and Elijah listens in vain for Raina, wondering where the damn nanny is and he can hear the heartbeat down in the kitchen.
Meanwhile Erik is standing in the fireplace, looking up the chimney and calling for some mythical creature he likely discovered through the ridiculous fairy tales read to him by Raina or Niklaus.
With an irritated sigh, Elijah crosses the room and scoops his nephew up and sets him down on the carpet,
"We don't stand in fireplaces" he tells him firmly but Erik only giggles again and rubs his tiny fist across his uncles chin before thundering over to the other side of the room.
Elijah frowns as a scent tickles his nose and straightens up to find himself staring into the mirror above the fireplace,
Erik had rubbed ash over his skin.
The particles fill his lungs and he finds himself unable to breathe comfortably. His annoyance is growing into anger and he turns to his nephew just as one tiny hand reaches up to touch the ornamental glass globe sitting on the side table.
Only with vampiric speed is Elijah able to pull Erik clear in time and the glass shatters loudly, dancing across the hardwood floor, the sound driving like a pick axe into his brain.
And he can't breathe.
Erik had been frightened by the noise and the sudden movement, he'd begun whimpering with the threat of an all-out scream before Elijah's firm hand silenced him,
"How many times have I told you not to touch things without asking!" he shouts and his nephew stares up at him wide-eyed, his cheek turning a blistering red,
"You could have killed yourself you stupid boy!"
"Elijah?"
Katherine appears in the doorway, taking in the scene and then hiding her emotions behind the mask he hated so much,
"And where the hell have you been?" he demands angrily,
"Not out with your friends, you don't have any"
Her fingers tighten on the doorframe but she only shrugs, "Shoe shopping, tea?"
He rejects her offer with a scowl, glaring as Erik scurries away from him and into the hallway,
"I'm going out" he tells her, striding past her and stopping to grab her before pressing a bruising kiss to her lips,
"I'll wait up" she promises with a flirtatious smile that doesn't reach her eyes, he glares but lets it go.
In lieu of a temple to his gods being available, Elijah sought out the Christ-God that Niklaus prayed to, St Anne's Church was open all day and night and thankfully empty when he slid through the ajar door and strode up to the pew where his family name was inscribed in gold.
Every Sunday they attended Mass, Niklaus with the crucifix he wore only because it had been given to him by Cesare Borgia and Katerina with the white mantilla lace draped over her gorgeous brunette curls, even though she spent most of the ceremony day-dreaming about shoe shopping or sinful deeds. The family attended purely to show their support and participation within the community.
But right now he could use divine intervention.
Elijah groaned and leant forward until his face was resting on his fists,
What was happening to him?!
She was not suited to this.
But still Katherine stepped into the nursery for the first time ever and followed the sound of muffled weeping to the chest of drawers.
Erik was pressed up against the wall, curled up into a little ball clearly terrified out of his wits.
The mark of Elijah's hand was still flaming his chubby little cheek and Katherine wondered if this was the first time the little boy had been struck.
Her father had strapped her across her hand whenever she'd disobeyed him and smacked her on the face three times during her pregnancy, she'd got off rather lightly as well. However even as she'd avoided involving herself in Erik's life she had a rather sneaking suspicion- alright, she was pretty certain- that Elijah didn't usually punish his nephew so…forcefully.
And the last time he'd spoken to her like that she'd set his car on fire as a warning against him doing it again.
But the Mikaelson's didn't own enough cars for her to commit vehicle arson every time he spoke to her cruelly these days.
Ever since Mystic Falls…
She couldn't think about that now, not when there was a terrified child who was probably having flashbacks to his kidnapping by Tyler Lockwood and who had to be calmed down before Klaus got home and found out what had happened.
She couldn't help Elijah if he was daggered and locked away somewhere.
"Hey…little hybrid…thing" she bends down in her skinny jeans and notes that this is not a comfortable position in tight denim,
"How about you…stop crying and…come out?"
Erik blubbers and holds his hands in front of his face in a defensive position and she rolls her eyes,
"I am the last person you have to worry about in this house" she points out, sliding a hand under the drawer and wondering whether she could yank him out without causing bodily harm,
"My life is dependent on me not pissing off your dad…hey…you want some money?"
Her lip curls with disgust as a clammy hand grips hers but she eases him out and sets him on the carpet, wincing when he throws himself into her lap,
"I'll give you ten bucks if you stop crying" she offers but he continues wailing into her jeans, his tears and snot staining the denim and she pats his head cautiously, "There, there…good puppy thing"
Raina thankfully came into the room then and dropped to the floor in one move, holding out her arms and the ball of snot and drool shot across to her,
"Ina" he sobbed, burying his face in her neck, "Hurt, Ina!"
She kissed his forehead, "I know baby, I know"
She propped him under her chin and rocked him back and forth,
"What the fuck is going on with your fiancé?!" she demands, covering Erik's ear with her hand and Katherine shrugs,
"If I knew that don't you think I'd have it sorted by now?"
Raina glared and Katherine raised an eyebrow, "Threaten me or give me an ultimatum, I dare you"
The young woman swallowed and carried Erik over to the table where she gave him a set of crayons,
"Why don't you draw something for daddy sweetie?" she suggests and he looks down at the paper with interest, his tears slowly drying
"Something with lots of colours and then maybe some paint?"
Seeing her chance for freedom, Katherine is halfway down the hallway and contemplating whether to send the jeans to the dry cleaners or toss them before Raina catches up to her and snatches her arm, pulling her around to the window,
And Katherine was already on her last nerve.
"Hands off were-bitch" she snapped, "Or so help me I'll throw Wolfsbane in your juice"
Raina's face goes remarkably pale and even though she's not supposed to be an evil villainess anymore, Katherine does enjoy seeing the hint of fear in the girl's eyes.
But fear led people to do stupid things and she was not equipped to fight a werewolf even one who hadn't triggered the curse.
"Oh relax" Katherine waved her hand, "If I'd thought you were a threat you'd have never made it this far alive"
The girl swallows nervously, "How long have you known?"
She rolled her eyes, "Did you honestly think nobody would notice you taking Erik on day trips to the Bayou? Or that you were meeting with the same guy every week? A guy who bears a remarkable resemblance to Klaus considering they have nine centuries of separation between them"
Raina closes her eyes and clearly curses herself for her foolishness, "Are you going to tell Elijah?"
"I was planning to" Katherine admitted, "But then Mystic Falls happened and now…can you sense it?" she asks curiously, surprising even herself,
"The tingle on your skin, the raising of your hairs that tells us the storm is coming?"
Werewolves were close to the earth, surely they could feel the dark magic that was permeating the land, rising like foul vapour and weaving its tendrils into every aspect of life in the Quarter.
However Raina only shook her head, "But we can see it, see everything changing" she tells her,
"It's why we've been bringing the pack into Louisiana and why I've been taking Erik to meet with Cary, we don't want him to be frightened if we have to move in to protect him"
She accepts this with a shrug and shifts on her feet, "Good luck with that, however if I were you, I wouldn't let Klaus find out on his own, he tends to get annoyed when he's not the smartest guy in the Quarter"
"And you?" Raina challenges, "Are you planning on telling anyone what you are, who you are?"
Katherine's smile cuts like glass as she saunters away "Careful little wolf, accidents happen every day"
As far as she was concerned, nobody needed to know what she was capable of until the protection around Elijah failed.
The compound was thankfully empty when Rebekah swanned in that evening. The lights were off and all the doors closed and she took a moment to enjoy the peace and quiet before the depression set in.
It wasn't right or fair that she should have to be alone when her brothers were so close by. It wasn't fair that she, the Original Rebekah should be isolated in the heart of the new vampire kingdom.
It wasn't right that she wasn't surrounded by friends and admirers while Caroline bloody Forbes was now best friends with Camille and Katherine Pierce had chivalrous men falling over her without any threat to her relationship with Elijah.
These two were society darlings while Rebekah went mostly ignored, forgotten about by all except Francesca Correa and Oliver.
Olly.
She summons him now via text and he's there within the hour, walking through the dark halls to her well lit bedroom where she's waiting on the bed in her lingerie.
She finds solace in his arms, she finds her vanity soothed by his exclamations of her beauty, her taste, her skill. She enjoys his body and the warmth of his flesh, the physical sensations and afterwards holds onto him tighter when he made to leave,
"Where're you going?" she asks with a pout and he grins,
"I'd love to stay but I'd love to go on living even more, can't do that if Klaus comes home"
Rebekah sits up and the sheets fall down to her stomach, "No need to worry about that" she informs him, "He's at the mansion for the evening"
Olly grins and tosses his shirt back to the floor, unbuttoning his pants before pausing,
"What about Katherine?" he asks with a flicker of fear in his eyes, "She is one dangerous woman and I do not want her running to your brother, either of them"
Rebekah rolled her eyes, "I wouldn't worry about her, she's too busy admiring her own reflection to stick her nose into my life and if she did I'd bite it off"
Olly hops onto the bed, causing her to bounce slightly and pulls her into his arms, she smiles and he holds her tight,
"As long as I have my beautiful blonde gal to protect me from overbearing brothers and their cheating girlfriends I'm good"
Rebekah's head shoots up so quickly she's surprised she doesn't knock his jaw out of place, "Cheating?! Who?"
Ollie raises his eyebrows in surprise, "You haven't heard? Word round the Quarter is your sister-in-law-to-be is disappearing for hours at a time, completely drops off the grid, nobody can find her, not even your brothers, we all figured she was getting herself some side action"
Rebekah takes a moment to process all of this- Katherine Pierce cheating on her brother? Surely even the peasant wouldn't be that stupid, then again…
She smirks and settles back down, her imagination already running wild with the fantasies of Elijah publicly ending his relationship with Katherine, verbally abusing her and labelling her whore while everyone watched on in scandalous delight before Klaus stepped in and killed her…no, revoked her freedom and once again sent her scurrying off into the night, into exile and hiding while she, Rebekah got to bask in the sunlight.
Maybe she would even take part in Katherine's public humiliation and rip off her daylight jewellery, crushing it into the dirt and sentencing her to lifetimes in the darkness.
Celeste looks up from her spell book as Francesca and Oliver join her in the tomb,
"Any progress?" she demands and is irritated when only Oliver nods,
"I spoke to Rebekah last night about Katherine cheating and she's willing to run the whole nine yards with the idea" he reported proudly,
"So I'm guessing she'll spread the word around and with enough people saying it, anything becomes true"
Celeste inwardly smiled at the idea of Elijah soon being single again, she would put herself forward then and introduce herself to him as Sabine. He'd been attracted to her during their brief interaction in the twentieth century and he'd fall for her in this form as well. They'd become lovers and when enough time had passed she'd gently break the news to him that she was Celeste and she'd once again be the witch he utterly adored.
And this time she'd make damn sure Klaus was out of play and unable to harm her or sever her relationship with his brother.
She looks to Francesca and resists the urge to insult her, she needed the Correa mob but that didn't mean that she had to like them. The woman and her family were petty mobsters who thought that just because they could bully and belittle the humans until they were top dog in their world, they were something big in the supernatural community.
Yet, for all her power suits and strutting around, Francesca was taking weeks, sometimes months to achieve anything and kept arguing for delays, suggesting they take their time to figure everything out.
Celeste had taken her time. She had taken two hundred damn years, she knew what she wanted and how she was going to go about getting it.
However, for the sake of being co-operative, the three of them had a set plan.
First they'd destroy Katherine Pierce, then let Elijah run mad and go out of play while handling Caroline Forbes, Rebekah had proven time and time again she'd turn on Klaus with very little provocation and then when Klaus was at his most vulnerable they would strike and depose him.
When Celeste had finished with Klaus, her final move would be to sic Elijah on the Correa family, kill every last one of them and then assume their riches and businesses until they were the only power couple in the city.
And she would be happy.
A/N- Anyone who is interested in learning Turkish, speaks Turkish or doesn't mind English subtitles, watch the Magnificent Century on youtube. An absolutely gorgeous historical drama about Hurrem Sultana and Suleyman the Magnificent.