AN: Here is another chapter of this story. Thanks Dancergirlxo for your review. And thanks to everyone who added the story to their favorite list. This chapter is a bit crazy and full of information but I hope you like it and don't feel puzzled. Please let me know what you think. Thanks.

Chapter 14: Mother Of Travelers

"Over five thousand years ago... when practicing magic was like a religion to the witches and humans not only knew of their existence but worshiped them as well; there lived a witch named Zuriel."

"Zuriel was a very powerful witch but she was different from others. In that ancient time, witches only performed magic to either please mother nature or to do good for the humankind. But Zuriel used to practice magic to explore her own powers and strength. She enjoyed creating new and different spells everyday. In the beginning, no one was really concerned about Zuriel's excessive curiosity to know the unknown and achieve the unachievable. But very soon her work started to draw attention of others. The results of her spells were unquestionable but her methods were unacceptable as it included sacrifices of living beings and rather unholy artifacts."

"Cast out by her own people, Zuriel decided to travel elsewhere far away from her homeland. A couple of witches followed her into the unknown. They were too astonished by her powers to leave her. They become the first travelers and Zuriel named herself the mother of travelers. And she vowed to protect her followers for eternity."

"With passing time, more and more witches started to join the traveler group. It happened because of the travelers' different ways of practicing magic and being able to do things other witches couldn't even imagine to do. The travelers became powerful very fast but it wasn't enough for Zuriel. She wanted to know more, do more and be unique. And like any mortal being, the mother of travelers as well wished to achieve immortality. Mankind always desire to become immortal but they don't know how to get that. But Zuriel knew that magic could give her what she wanted. However, creating an immortality spell proved to be very difficult. But the difficulty only made Zuriel more obsessed. And at one point, she succeeded. She found a way to become immortal. But unfortunately she could never become immortal because before she had the chance to perform the spells, the witches got to her and stopped her."

"According to the witches, becoming immortal meant violating the basic rule of nature that all living beings must die. They couldn't let it happen. Killing Zuriel wasn't enough though. They imprisoned the mother of travelers into the darkness. A place created by the witches where Zuriel got trapped after her death instead of moving on to afterlife. A place existing within the world but still completely detached from it. A place where one could only know darkness and nothingness."

"Is it like the other side?" One of the travelers named Jared asked Markos.

"No, the darkness is far worse. When I was on the other side, I could still see everything that was going on in this world. I was still here. Only people couldn't see me. But the darkness is a prison rather than a supernatural limbo" explained Markos.

"And the mother of travelers is still trapped in there?" Jared asked for confirmation.

"Yes" replied Markos. "And I believe that after I destroyed the other side all the dead supernatural beings went there."

"Someone sucked them in. And if I'm not wrong, it's Zuriel. She must've found a way to do it though I've no idea why or for what."

"What are you planning to do Markos?" Jared asked with a frown of confusion on his face.

"I'm going to bring our mother back to the world of living. She was the most powerful traveler. During her time, travelers were most powerful beings. She could make us great once again. Not to mention, she could give us the immortality that we still don't have" said Markos with a gleam of greed in his eyes.

"But we already know the immortality spell. Why aren't we using that?" Jared asked curiously.

"The spell we know is the one Qetsiyah and Silas created for immortality. Not only it got us cursed for centuries but it has many flaws. We'd need to drink blood to stay alive. Not to mention we would lose our magic. But the immortality spell Zuriel created, it could make us immortals without those flaws. Nothing will be able to stop us from ruling over the world then. Nothing."

At that moment another traveler came in and informed Markos that the little girl was waking up. Markos and Jared started walking towards the place where they were keeping the girl and the Salvatore vampire. Jared was still full of questions about the mother of travelers but there was another more important question. Markos didn't really tell anyone yet why he brought the girl here. Jared could tell, she was important but why and how?

"Why we have this girl here?" He asked with mild curiosity but actually he was very interested to know.

"Because her soul, the one she is sharing with the original vampire, it was once Zuriel's soul as well" said Markos which shocked Jared to no limits.

"What? How do you know that?" He asked with shock in his voice.

"When I was on the other side, I was able to talk with other travelers who knew a lot about Zuriel. The mother of travelers wanted to become immortal but she wanted the immortality just for herself. She made sure that no one else could get it without her consent. Now unlike Qetsiyah whose immortality spell required feeding on blood, Zuriel was going to harness immortality from souls. She figured that if she combined enough souls with her own, it would provide her so much energy that she would never get old or die. Now like I said, Zuriel wanted the immortality only for herself, she made sure that the spells she created for immortality or we could say combining of souls would only work with her soul and her soul alone."

"If this girl was possessing any other ordinary human soul, she'd have never survived the spells." Markos explained to Jared how he figured it out that the girl and the original were actually sharing the soul of the mother of travelers.

"But this girl is sharing her soul with someone, not taking souls from another humans. Isn't it a different thing?" Jared pointed out but Markos already had the explanation to that.

"The witch who performed the spells on the girl, she only used the reverse spells of the combining spells. But if the soul wasn't Zuriel's then that wouldn't have worked either. I'm absolutely positive that this girl is possessing Zuriel's soul." Markos said confidently.

"So what do we do now?" Jared asked already having a hint as to what Markos was planning to do.

"Now we need to undo this soul sharing spell so that the soul would only be possessed by this girl. It is essential for my plan to have this soul intact and not divided between two people." Markos said with firm tone of voice but Jared had some doubts about this whole plan.

"Markos, you said yourself that Zuriel wanted the immortality only for herself. Even if you can bring her back, what makes you so sure that she'd help us or make us immortals. She could be a problem for us instead." He voiced his concerns but his leader didn't get worried about that. Instead Markos said-

"Well that's why we need the girl." The answer confused Jared.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"We'll give Zuriel her soul back only in exchange of immortality. She wouldn't be able to stay in the world of living without her soul and I'm very certain that once Zuriel is here, she wouldn't want to go back into the darkness." Markos stopped in front of the closed door to the room where the hostages were. He looked at Jared and said-

"Until I bring back Zuriel from the darkness, the girl must not come to any harm. If anything happens to her, we will lose the soul and then it'd be next to impossible to find it again." Jared nodded, understanding the importance of the girl's safety. They must keep her safe at any cost. Markos opened the door and entered the room.

Third Person's POV

Shanyra groaned out a little, feeling pain in her head as she slowly woke up. Someone had hit her head in order to knock her out. It took her a while to remember what had happened to her. A girl told her that Caroline was waiting outside for her. Shae followed the girl, not realizing that she was headed towards danger. Once outside, she didn't find Caroline but she was soon surrounded by travelers. One of them knocked her unconscious and brought her to god knows where. When Shae could take in her surroundings, she found that she was lying on the cold concrete floor. She tried to sit up but her hands and feet were bound with ropes. Not to mention her lips were sealed with duct tape. Shae immediately started struggling, panic settling in. What the hell was going on? Where was she?

"Stop struggling." Spoke up a familiar voice. "It'll only make you exhausted."

Shanyra stopped struggling and rolled over on her stomach. When she searched for the person who just spoke up, she found Damon sitting there, only a few feet away from her. He was tied up too. This increased Shae's confusion even more. What in god's name was happening here? She looked at Damon with questioning eyes. He understood her confusion and said-

"It's Markos."

"He captured me to lure out Stefan and Elena." Damon spoke with more annoyance than fear. But this certainly didn't explain to Shae, why Markos abducted her? She started making muffling noises to ask that question.

"What?" Damon asked frowning at Shae with confusion. She tried to make more sensible noises. It took Damon a while to understand but he got it in the end.

"Oh, you want to know why you are here?" Damon asked for confirmation. Shanyra vehemently nodded her head.

"I don't know." Damon said shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly.

"I've no idea why Markos suddenly got interested in you." He answered truthfully. It was true that he didn't know the reason Markos was interested in Shae and he wasn't suicidal enough to tell anyone that it was him who told the travelers about her. Otherwise Markos probably would've never heard about Shanyra's existence.

On the other hand, the lack of information scared Shae more. What Markos was going to do to her? What did he want with her? She found a little hope thinking that Kol must be already looking for her. Shae hoped that he'd find her soon. Preferably before Markos kills her. Though she wasn't sure if that's what he really wanted to do. A little sob escaped Shae's breath as she felt pain in her head again. Not to mention, her hands and feet were getting bruised too due to the bindings. She wanted to go home. And the fact that Shae feared she might never go back home again, scared her to no limits. Tears fell from her eyes at the mere thought of it.

"Hey!" Damon called her rather softly, making Shae look at him again.

"Don't worry. I'm sure Kol is on his way here to save you." Damon said with assured tone of voice. And hopefully that dick would get him out of here as well. Damon thought to himself but he couldn't bring himself to count on that. Shanyra simply nodded her head. Right then, the door opened and Markos entered along with a few of his followers. He looked at Jared who walked over to Shae. She immediately tried to move away from him but it was a futile attempt. The man couched down beside her and said-

"Don't scream if you know what's good for you." Saying that Jared removed the duct tape from her mouth. Shanyra flinched a little because of the pain. Her lips looked all red and swollen. Just as told, she didn't make a single sound. The traveler then untied her hands and feet. Damon watched it with questioning eyes. Wondering, what they were planning to do to her? Damon didn't really care all that much about Shanyra but she was a little girl after all and shouldn't suffer from anything horrible. Not when she has already suffered once in her life. Shae glanced at Damon. Her eyes mirrored the same confusion as his, but along with fear in them.

"Step away from her." Markos said to Jared who obeyed the order right away. The leader of travelers himself then walked up to Shae. She was still sitting on the floor. Markos couched down in front of her to look at her face properly.

"Such a pretty little girl you are." He said with a friendly tone of voice but it did nothing to lessen Shae's fear.

"Your name is Shanyra Forbes, am I right?" Markos asked and Shae nodded her head in reply.

"Do you know who I am?" He asked and Shae nodded again.

"Do you know why I brought you here?" This time she shook her head.

"Do you want to know?" Markos asked. Shanyra nodded her head without a second thought.

"Then take my hand and come with me." Just as he said that, Damon immediately objected to it.

"Shae no, don't go anywhere with him. He's the bad guy remember." He warned Shanyra and forced her to rethink her decision. One of the followers punched Damon in the face to keep him quiet. Markos held his hand in front of Shae but she didn't take it. She has already changed her mind. Shanyra thought Markos would force her to come along now but he only sighed out heavily.

"Alright, I think speaking here wouldn't be a problem either." Markos said calmly, staying composed. He didn't seem mad at all that Shae refused to obey him. He even caressed her cheek softly. Something Shanyra couldn't appreciate at all.

"I've heard that you're keeping an original alive by sharing your soul with him." Markos started speaking as he looked straight into Shae's eyes. He didn't wait for the girl's response as he already knew the information to be true.

"I must admit, I was surprised when I heard about it. Quite an ancient magic this is. No one has ever attempted to perform the spell before. And even if someone did, he didn't succeed. That is of course until now." The way Markos spoke about it; it scared Shae even more which resulted in her heart beating a lot faster. She was having a really bad feeling about where this was going.

"You're an innocent human Shanyra, very innocent." The leader of the travelers said in a creepy manner. By then Shae's heart was pounding against her rib cage.

"But you are committing a sin by keeping an original vampire alive."

"That's why I brought you here. I'd break this bond and free you from the burden of sharing your soul with a monster." Shanyra's eyes widened immediately as she heard Markos say that. She knew it very well that if this soul sharing bond is broken then Kol would die. She couldn't let that happen. Kol can't die.

"No." She said at once.

"No?" repeated Markos in a questioning manner.

"You can't break this bond. I won't let you." Shae said with a strong tone of voice.

"Oh but I can and I will. I'd have appreciated it if you had cooperated with me but anyway." Saying that Markos put two fingers on both sides of her head.

"This is going to hurt a little."

With that warning, Markos started to chant. Shanyra immediately felt terrible pain in her head. She screamed at the top of her lungs. Not knowing that somewhere else an original was suffering just as much as her.