"We put Katherine upstairs with Stefan and preserved their bodies with a spell for now…" Kaspar said as he descended the stairway and met Damon in the entry way at the bottom, Misha close behind on his heels
Damon nodded solemnly as Kaspar passed him and started walking down the hallway toward the kitchen, passing Kol as he came in the opposite direction with a blue ceramic mug in his hands.
"Don't worry," Misha said, putting a hand on Damon's shoulder as he stepped down off the bottom stair and now stood in front of the vampire, "when this is all over, we'll make sure they receive a proper burial."
"I have a feeling they won't be the only two we'll be burying…" Damon sighed in a worried tone, looking over his shoulder into the back parlor where Caroline sat on the couch nearly catatonic as Rebekah wrapped a blanket around her shoulders and Kol attempted to get her to drink from the mug in his hands.
"You mean Klaus?" Misha asked, meeting Damon's eyes as the vampire now turned back to face him and Damon nodded slowly.
"For Caroline's sake, I sure hope he knows what the Hell he's doing," Damon admonished
"Don't worry, Klaus will be fine," Misha said in a soothing tone, relinquishing his hold on Damon with a small smirk before stepping past him to make his way down the hallway to join his brother in the kitchen.
"Hey, earlier, when all of this was going down, you said he was clever for turning himself over to Dominic in Caroline's place…" Damon said, narrowing his eyes in curiosity as he followed the warlock with his gaze, "What do you know that we don't?"
Misha immediately stopped in his tracks and turned back to face the vampire with a wry smile as his dark eyes shifted to look above Damon's head.
"It's not what I know," Misha quipped, "It's what Klaus knows…about himself…about the body he possesses and what it's capable of."
Then after a moment, the warlock gave a wink and turned back, resuming his stride down the hall toward the kitchen, leaving Damon dumbfounded.
"Okay…" Damon mused with raised eyebrow, before turning around and following where Misha's gaze had fallen in the space above his head…
To the large half circle transom window above the front doorway…
And the full moon that now shone brightly through it from it's place high in the night sky.
# # # # # #
"John?" Jeremy scoffed in surprise, "You think the compass is buried with John?"
"Think about it, Jer," Elena said into the speaker phone, Elijah still sitting at her side, "He used the compass to make the device drop those vampires in the town square that night during the festival and we haven't seen the device or the compass since. Look, I don't like this idea any more than you do—"
"You're damn right I don't like this idea!" Jeremy retorted, "What if you're wrong? We would have dug up your Father and my Uncle's body—not to mention, Jenna's body— for nothing!"
"Jeremy—" Bonnie soothed, but Jeremy continued
"No! I want proof. We need proof before we just go digging people up! You're not the one who is going to be wielding the shovel on this one, Elena!"
"Stefan, Damon and the others don't have time for proof!" Elena shouted, "If we don't find that compass and discover some way to stop the hunter they are going to be just as dead as Jenna and John!"
"Hey…Elena…" Elijah soothed, placing a hand on Elena's shoulder to steady her, "Stop…"
Elena closed her eyes and took a breath to steady herself, judging the silence on the other end of the phone for a moment before speaking.
"I'm—I'm sorry, Jer," she relented softly
"Yeah…me, too," Jeremy finally replied, "We—we'll contact Misha and see about getting that shovel."
Elena nodded silently, then handed Elijah the phone
"Bonnie," Elijah said into the speaker, watching Elena get up and walk over to the window to clear her head, "Do you think you could tell me a little bit more about the spell that trapped Dominic's soul in the compass?"
"Better…" Bonnie replied, "I can show you. Hang on, I'll text you guys a picture and you can see for yourself. Why? What at are you thinking?"
"Well, I'm curious as to how we can free Dominic's soul from a binding spell like the one you are describing. Generally, with something as dark as soul summoning and trapping, the unbinding of it all cannot be performed by just any witch—"
"Ah…" Bonnie sighed in realization as Elijah heard Elena's cell phone ding and he slid the screen to reveal the picture the witch had just sent, widening the screen and zooming in on the drawings from Emily's book, "You're thinking we might need to find out more about this hooded figure who helped Emily. She might be the key."
"Hmmm…" Elijah said, studying the picture hard for clues, "Perhaps the only key. As you know, in many spells involving dark magic, the spell can only be reversed by the witch who cast it—"
Suddenly, Elijah caught sight of a symbol at the corner of one of the four drawings of the compass that made him stop mid-sentence.
After a few moments of awkward silence, Bonnie's voice emanated again through the speaker phone.
"Elijah?"
The imploring voice caused Elena to turn back from the window toward the original.
"Elijah…" she whispered as she walked quickly back to his side, eying him curiously as she sat down on the bed next to him and took in his blank expression.
"Elena, is he okay?" Bonnie asked through the phone
"Um…I don't know," Elena responded as she took Elijah's face in her hands and turned his gaze toward her, "Elijah?"
"It is ancestral magic…" Elijah said absentmindedly before his eyes finally lifted from the phone screen to meet Elena's.
"What?" Elena asked quirking an eyebrow as she looked sideways down at the image
"Oh, my …" Bonnie whispered then continued in a clearer voice, "Are you sure?"
"I'm sure. I've seen this sigil—this family mark—on the edge of the bottom drawing before, many years ago when our family lived in New Orleans," Elijah answered, giving a sad smile then kissing the inside of Elena's palms before lowering her hands from his face and focusing on the phone again and Bonnie's voice.
"What exactly is 'ancestral magic'?" Elena asked, confused, looking from the phone to Elijah
"Ancestral magic is the oldest and strongest form of magic there is," Bonnie explained, "It makes sense that Emily found it in someplace like New Orleans and that Elijah is familiar with it. It originates in the oldest parts of the world, where all of a witch's ancestors are buried in one location, allowing them to channel their spirits and making their magical connections stronger and more potent. Elijah, you said that the sigil is familiar to you. Do you know which family in New Orleans it belongs to? Perhaps we could track down the ancestors of the witch who cast the original spell that way. Maybe we could ask for their help and—"
"That won't be necessary," Elijah interjected in a knowing voice, "The witch who cast the original spell on Johnathan Gilbert's compass is still alive."
"What?" Bonnie and Elena chimed in unison
"Well, at least that's one less body we have to dig up." Jeremy added
# # # # # # #
A small smile crossed her face as Vivienne shut the refrigerator door and looked over her shoulder toward the presence of the vampire that now appeared in the doorway of the kitchen.
"After almost half a millennium together, you still think you can sneak up on me," Vivenne quipped
But, her face immediately fell when she beheld the look on his face.
"Remember when you asked if there was anything you could do to help?" Elijah asked, trying desperately to keep his voice even and looking away to control his conflicting emotions.
"Elijah?" Vivienne whispered, confused as she took a step forward, but Elijah immediately held up a hand to silence her and she quickly obeyed, stopping abruptly in her tracks as she watched him slowly raise his left hand and Elena's cell phone in it, turning the screen so that she could see the picture on it.
Vivienne gasped softly as she beheld the drawing that Bonnie had sent of the Gilbert Compass spell from Emily Bennett's grimoir.
Elijah now slowly raised his eyes to meet the witch's, "It was you, wasn't it? The hooded woman in the French quarter who gave the spell to Emily Bennett…"
"Elijah, listen, I'm sorry. I—I didn't realize that the vampire hunter you left behind in Mystic Falls was the original vampire hunter until you said something about it out on the veranda just now—" Vivienne started
But, Elijah raised his hand again quickly to silence her, his eyes dark eyes imploring her as he held the phone closer to her.
"I don't want to hear platitudes," he said, "All I want is the truth, Vivienne."
"Very well," Vivienne exhaled as she walked over and took a seat at the kitchen table, then began "The truth is that I did give the spell to Emily Bennett. The year was 1864 and she had come to the French Quarter looking for a necromancer... and I had come to the same place looking to get rid of a demonic soul."