Disclaimer: I don't TVD, no matter how much I wish I did. Any recognizable characters, plots and dialogue belong to the L.J. Smith and the CW.

AN: Thanks again to everyone who has reviewed, favorited, and alerted this story. Every one makes me smile. I'm still struggling to wrap my head around the fact that someone other than just me enjoys my writing…

Esther

After her toast, Esther stayed to mingle with her guests for a short while, mostly to converse with the town's mayor. She wanted to convey, at least for a time, the image of a happy family. Since the mayor knew what Esther's children were, she was understandably on edge. Esther wanted to assure her, in not so many words, that while she was there, her children would be respectful of the town's laws. Once she had cemented the happy family image and ensured that her targets had drank their spelled champagne, Esther retreated to her room once more.

She had also taken notice of the lack of interaction between Elijah and Elena. Her spell had worked, then. She had worried that the curse wouldn't take, what with the soulmate prerequisite. She had always assumed, however, that Elijah was destined to be with one of the doppelgängers. It was only a shame that he would never get to know the happiness of true, requited love.

"Mother?" Finn asked. He had come to her when the last guest left. He stood to the side while she was lost in thought, but his word broke her from her reverie.

She shook her head slightly to dislodge the remaining sympathy for any of her children. "Yes, it is time. Thank you, Finn."

Esther unrolled the scroll of parchment. Earlier, she had carefully written out the names of her children and Elena using the old language. She ran her fingers over the runes, remembering each of her children back when they had been human and innocent. She lingered last over Elijah's name, seeing that boy still in the man who lived even now, but sparing one would ruin the entire plan.

"Are you having second thoughts?" Finn asked as he watched his mother's actions, not missing which name it was that seemed to be stymieing her. He rested his hand on the back of her chair and leaned over to examine the parchment as well. The room's dim candlelight made it harder to read, but his enhanced vision helped. The top center name was Niklaus'. To the left and slightly below was Rebekah, and beneath her name, Kol's. Working down on the other side, first Finn saw his own name, and below that, Elijah's. Slightly right of and beneath Elijah's name was that of the doppelgänger.

Esther contemplated Elena's name. It did add a level of difficulty to add someone not of the family's blood, but Esther felt it was necessary. If allowed to live, the doppelgänger's blood could allow another to create vampires all over again. No, it was as necessary to end Elena's life as that of Esther's children, and there were too many people willing to stand between Elena and death. It would be easiest to take her out with the linking magic.

"This is the right way forward," Finn said as if reading her thoughts. His voice was even and reassuring.

Esther sighed. "I know," she agreed. She stood from her chair and turned to look at him before reaching up to caress his cheek. Her loyal, self-sacrificing son. She needed to check, though she would follow through with the plan no matter what his answer was. "You realize what completing the spell means, yes? That once it has been cast, you, your siblings, and the doppelgänger will all be linked - as though as one."

"I understand," Finn said, nodding. "When it is time, I will be ready to do what is required."

"Then, it is time. We must complete the link."

She picked up the asthame from her altar. Some of Elena's blood remained on the blade, aiding in her inclusion in the spell. Finn held out his hand, and she cut quickly. Together, they held his bleeding hand over the parchment as a pool of blood took form.

Esther braced his hand between hers as she began to chant. As soon as the last word passed her lips, the pool of blood began to move - flowing upward and outward on the parchment until it formed a tree connecting all of the names. Most connected only to the main trunk, but there was a singular connection between Elena and Elijah's names.

Once all the connections had formed, the edges of the parchment ignited. It burned toward the center of the page, and when the blood ignited, it burned brighter. When the connection between Elena and Elijah caught, it burned brilliant, blinding white. Both Finn and Esther needed to look away until the flames went out.

"What was that?" Finn asked.

"It does not matter," Esther deflected. "It is done. You are one."

Meanwhile

Kol

Doors and empty corridors passed. After the last guest had left, Kol took to wandering the house Nik said he had built for all of them. It had enough space, there was no doubt about that, but it was more maze than house. Perfect for someone who lived in and yet feared the shadows. It might have annoyed Kol on any other day, but tonight it suited his wandering thoughts and suspicions.

Among the things keeping his mind from rest were questions about why the doppelgänger believed there was a linking spell in the champagne, and if it were true, what that meant. It bothered him to suspect his mother, the woman who bore him and raised him up to a point, and a doppelgänger stranger in equal measure. On top of that, he wanted to know why his brother, so obviously in love with said doppelgänger, had acted as though she didn't exist toward the end of the ball.

Kol's feet brought him past Finn and Elijah's rooms, which were, as was fitting for his serious brothers, separated by a library. Kol heard nothing - not even slow heartbeats or breathing in either room, but the library echoed with pacing steps even more frantic than his own. They were accompanied by Elijah muttering. Seeing that the door was cracked open, Kol peered into the room, hoping Elijah was too caught up in his thoughts to notice he was being spied on.

The first thing Kol noticed was that Elijah was a mess. His suit coat had been flung over the back of a green leather armchair in front of the low-burning fireplace. Elijah had rolled his shirt sleeves up and kicked off his shoes as he padded back and forth between the window on the far wall and the fireplace. Even his desk was in disarray. Worn grimoires, open to seemingly random pages formed a loose stack. Amongst them, Elijah's own well-curated journals were tossed - some open, but most pushed precariously to the edge of the desk.

As Elijah paced, he continued to mutter, and Kol wondered what had managed to put his composed elder brother on edge.

"She didn't come meet me? Why? Shame or fear? Perhaps Mother forced her to do something, or maybe she acted willingly… But no, neither emotion has prevented her before. Perhaps she would hesitate, but not evade me. Maybe it was inability? But she's the most resilient person I've ever met. Add to that, Kol said he saw her and that she even tried to warn him of something, though what he said was gibberish. Why would Elena warn him but not me? How could I have missed her?"

Kol was entranced by Elijah's distress - all brought on by one girl! He watched as Elijah ran his hand roughly through his hair, which told him who it had come to be standing up in all directions.

"I saw her before she talked to Mother," Elijah said in the way of someone trying to recount their steps to find something misplaced. "She was right there, turned, and knocked on Mother's door. Finn let her in."

Kol frowned. Why had Finn let the doppelgänger into Mother's room? Did he know what Mother was planning? Could anything be done to turn him on their mother? Kol began to think of ways to coerce Finn while still listening to Elijah, just in case his rambling revealed any more interesting tidbits.

Elijah returned to the desk and anxiously pushed the chair back out of the way. He stood in front the chaos of books, flipping through grimoires with no obvious method, scanning pages before tossing them aside just as quickly.

"Hidden? What could have hidden her? A cloaking spell maybe, but I've had witches use nearly every iteration over the years, and nearly always there's been something to give them away. I heard no heartbeat. There was no scent. No sign of her whatsoever."

Elijah's words sparked another thought for Kol. A spell - well, curse, really - that an Italian witch in the 15th century had told him about. He'd been asking how to exact the worst revenge on a rival, and she told him about this spell, before telling him he would be hard pressed to find a witch who would cast it for him.

It was blacklisted in her coven and all the other covens she'd ever encountered. The curse erased every sign of two people from each other's reality. They couldn't sense each other in any way - sight, sound, scent, touch, and even taste. Even interactions around them regarding the other person were lost. But witches were about balance, and most considered it too cruel a fate to deprive soulmates of one another, no matter what they had done. And now, Kol had a sinking feeling he knew which unbalanced witch had created the curse.

The fact that Esther would use that spell on her own son… Kol sighed. If he was right, there truly was none of the mother they remembered left in the one who had returned to them.

Kol watched Elijah for a moment longer, but he doubted his brother was going to find an answer in the books in front of him. This was deep in witch lore, and if the curse was the one Kol was thinking of, it would exist in, most likely, only one grimoire. Kol decided, then and there, to check in with some other witch connections, but for now, he would keep his suspicions to himself.

He moved off to see what the rest of the family was up to. He found Nik in his studio painting an intricate portrait of the blonde he had been flirting with all night. Kol had to admit, the girl was pretty, but he found the fact that she appeared to keep Nik on his toes the most appealing thing about her. Kol chose not to interrupt Nik, leaving him to muse over the portrait and the girl who inspired it.

Next, he passed Rebekah's room, but found that she wasn't in. He wondered where she had gone, but knew that after she had been reprimanded earlier she had stormed from the room. Perhaps she was out cooling down. It wasn't like anything too terrible could happen to her.

Finally, Kol walked past his mother's room. Again, he couldn't hear anything on the other side of the door. But this time, there was one significant difference. There was the faint scent of sage in the air. His mother had always loved her privacy spells, but since her return, they had become the rule rather than the exception. More often than not, sage burned in her room, and her clothes carried the scent. Kol had noticed that Finn's clothes often smelled the same.

Kol's suspicions grew stronger. At the next opportunity, he needed to search his mother's room. He was starting to trust the doppelgänger's words more than his mother. He wanted to be more bothered about it than he was, but Kol had always valued his own life before most other things. Finn working willingly with their mother meant things were more treacherous than previously thought.

Something was happening, and Kol was officially worried. He needed to find a witchy ally. Fast.