Klaus fought with me in this chapter. Between that and doing some research re-reading The Wanderer's Havamal; an Old Norse code of ethics, claiming to be the stories of Odin himself. I also had to re-read the Poetic Edda. And the English history I added. It took a few extra days to write this one.

TW: Mentions of gruesome past fetal death. Not overly descriptive.

-18-

Niklaus

Klaus tore through the mansion, letting his bedroom door slam against the wall in his haste. He stripped as he walked, peeling the blood soaked clothes from his body and tossing them anywhere without a care. He'd have someone replace whatever got stained in his fury. Klaus had itched to kill something when he left Isolde's and so he did, violently.

It didn't help.

He turned the shower on as hot as it could go and didn't bother waiting on it to heat before he stepped under the spray. He braced himself against the tiles and let the stream pelt his head while he released a harsh breath. Emotions warred within him and he growled deeply against the torrent of rage, hurt, and more prominently arousal.

He wanted to return to Isolde's house after he'd ripped the throat out of the unfortunate woman who'd come out of a bar across town looking far too much like Isolde for Klaus to spare her, in the mood he was in. Klaus had dragged her deep into the forest and made his feast feel every bit of his rage, relishing in her screams like he was receiving justice for the way he'd been treated.

Klaus had dropped the woman's lifeless body to the forest floor without a care, mind on Isolde as he wiped at the blood that dripped from his jaw. The audacity of his mate, to use Mikael's word against him. To call him weak.

That was inexcusable.

Half of him wanted to return to her house and rip her heart out to see how long it would take for her to regenerate, and how long it might take if he did it repeatedly.

He could easily get Rebekah to unknowingly distract Theon. Klaus' brother's would take more work but he could get them to go away, too.

The other half of Klaus wanted to pin his irritating mate between him and the concrete she'd broken when she slammed him into it and show her what wasn't weak about him. To rail her against the ground until his name was the only thing she could speak as she bared her neck in submission.

He growled again as his fingers curled against the shower tiles, causing them to crack. His cock was hard and pulsing at the thought of making Isolde submit. Her long, graceful neck turned just so and awaiting his mark. Rich green eyes lowering to the ground at his feet. This time, Klaus' growl was more of a moan as he wrapped his hand around his cock and gave it a squeeze.

Klaus' eyes closed and he let his head fall against the shower wall, the steady stream of hot water beating down on his back.

His mind began to supply flashes of images. Isolde on her knees, tied up and spread before him. Begging. Begging for him. Klaus began to pump his fist over his cock frantically, panting and groaning, green eyes in his mind.

His fantasy shifted moments later. Isolde, laughing at something he said. Her melodic voice, haunting his soul with the pain in the poetry she'd written. Her bright smile when he told him she liked him, that he was fun, just that morning as they went into the store together.

Her arm wrapping around him and her head laying against his shoulder, calming the self-deprecating thoughts that her headless body had stirred within him. The feeling of affection when Isolde ensured Elena's bloodline for his hybrids.

The flash of her sadistic smile as her eyes met his and she one by one rid him of his feeling of safety when he realized just how strong his mate was, and how easy it would be to let himself be swept up in that feeling.

Klaus had never in a thousand years felt truly safe until tonight when he'd locked eyes with her over the table, wearing matching sadistic grins.

Klaus fell to his knees on the shower floor with a grunt as his release hit the tiles, washing down the drain. His throat was raw and his eyes stung. He furiously wiped at them, refusing to acknowledge the tears. He let himself pretend they were just water from the shower.

He knew he had a temper. He also knew that sometimes when he lost his temper he chose not to hold back, anger and hurt rising inside him and making him lash out. Kol and Rebekah brought that response out from Klaus more often than anyone else, and the younger Mikaelson's knew how to press him.

Admittedly, he could have stopped raging long enough to hear what Theon was saying. Klaus had felt that tightened cord of anger in his chest begin to unfurl when the elder immortal cited that misinformation had been spread about Vampires, so it had also been spread about his people. Klaus was settling in to listen, then Rebekah started and Klaus' concern for his sister's wellbeing won out.

Then Rebekah and Kol both started on him, backing him into a corner. They disagreed with his methods for protecting their family. Fine. But no one else had ever cared as much as Klaus did about protecting Kol and Rebekah, that neither of his younger siblings acknowledged how much Klaus cared upset him. He told himself that so long as they were both safe he didn't care if they hated him for it.

(A lie- he cared. He cared a great deal. But acknowledging that would open a whole different thought process he was inclined to ignore.)

He still had a chance of calming, but then Kol accused him of thinking to harm Isolde. Threatened to hurt him, even. Klaus took exception to this.

It didn't hurt much, being slammed against concrete. He felt fine, physically, just moments after impact. That had surprised him until he saw out of the corner of his eyes shadows disappearing from under his body.

Isolde used her shadows to cushion his impact.

Then every word from her mouth was like a knife in his chest. "Fight me." How could he?

"Hurt me." No, he didn't want to hurt his mate. He wanted to protect her. Did she think so lowly of him that she believed he wanted to hurt her?

"...need to learn that you can't keep attacking the people you care about every time they've upset you. That is the sign of a weak leader."

Weakness, that was an insult he'd heard daily for a large portion of his life, and hearing it from her sultry voice twisted the knife in his heart. But she wasn't done.

"I know you're better than that. I know you can do better."

And that was the crux of his dilemma.

Isolde had said she knew he was better. That he could do better.

No one but Elijah had ever expressed that they believed Klaus could do better, that he was better than his behavior suggested.

At that point he couldn't stop the roiling emotions that swelled inside. He had to get away, because Isolde saw too much, she understood too much and it scared him even if he didn't want to admit it aloud.

Klaus gathered himself with a few deep breaths, feeling his irritation and hurt ease. He turned the nozzle off and stepped out of the shower, uncaringly letting the water drip off of him as he walked back through his room to his closet. He stood and looked himself in his full length mirror, glaring at the haunted look in his eyes. He willed himself to get his demons under control.

But he couldn't.

He'd thrown some clothes on and wandered down to his studio, angrily brushing paint across a fresh canvas. He began calculating and discarding plan after plan on how to best spite Isolde for taking Kol's side in a dispute that hadn't involved her in the first place.

By the time Finn and Elijah came sauntering into the mansion speaking animatedly in the old language, Klaus had a half formed idea and a nearly completed portrait.

"Niklaus." A nearly grinning Elijah entered Klaus' studio without a care, just missing knocking some paints off a precariously stacked pile, and Klaus tossed a heated glare at his favorite brother.

"If you've come to berate me, save your breath. I'll not hear it."

"I've come with good news, brother." Even Klaus' foul mood couldn't pierce Elijah's.

"Every one of our enemies in this insipid town is dead?" Klaus asked, brushing paint more furiously than before. Just a bit more green and he could get the color of the eyes right.

"Stefan is alive. The rest are no more. That is not the news, Niklaus." Elijah laid his hands on Klaus' shoulders and Klaus stopped painting. Heaving a sigh, Klaus turned around with a raised brow, his plan shifting with new information.

"Well then what is it, Elijah? Since you're so adamant…"

Elijah directed him out of the studio and into the living room where a giant of a man sat near Finn, speaking animatedly in the old language with a glass of water. Both the couch and glass looked comically small compared to the man himself. Like an adult playing pretend in a child's toy house.

Elijah thumped Klaus on the back and stepped aside as both Finn and the large man stood.

"Evidently, Niklaus, we have extended family that still live." Elijah said just as the man took a few steps forward with an outstretched hand. "This is Dáinn, and he is Mikael's father's brother. Our Great Uncle. He works under Isolde as one of her Scouts. Dáinn, this is our brother Niklaus."

Klaus looked down at the proffered hand and then back up at his supposed Great Uncle in blatant skepticism. "First a sister we all thought long dead and an Aunt we've never heard of, now an Uncle?" He turned his head to show his doubt to Elijah. "And we're just meant to welcome him, then?"

Finn sucked in a breath, making to speak but Dáinn removed his hand and instead placed it upon Finn's shoulder, turning his back to Niklaus.

"Hraðmælt tunga, nema haldendur eigi oft sér ógótt of gelr." Dáinn said, with a single raised brow.

This was a dialect of Old Norse Klaus was unfamiliar with, more guttural and lilted in different ways. He caught some words but he couldn't piece it all together and that grated.

Finn glared at Klaus over Dáinn's shoulder then looked back at the elder man apologetically. "Okkarr faðir gerði eigi…" Dáinn just squeezed Finn's shoulder and thumped him on the back before turning back to Klaus.

How Finn knew this dialect Klaus wasn't certain. But the revelation made Klaus' lips press into a thin line.

"I am Dáinn, son of Halvar, of Noregr, and your father's uncle. Will you close your door to guest and kin?"

"Of course we won't." Elijah interjected, walking around Klaus and subtly situating himself between the two men, he gestured back to the couch. "Please, tell us more of how you came to be in Isolde's service."

With one last glance at Klaus, Dáinn retook his seat and Klaus' brothers followed. Klaus, for his part, leaned against the column at the entrance to the living room with his arms crossed. He wondered if Dáinn had anything interesting to tell them that could help to piece together more of Isolde.

Klaus knew one thing. Isolde hadn't told them everything, there was still far more to uncover and he would see it done.

Dáinn picked his glass off the end table and took a swig. "We first met the Alexanders in England. Our warrior's were pushing west like most of our people at that time. Locked in fierce battle in what was once called Essex. This battle is now known as the Battle of Maldon."

"We were losing, despite what the poem may say. Many of us were glad of it, for the opportunity to enter Valhalla. Our King was power greedy and lost to his own madness. Most of us were following simply because our families would be killed or starve through the winter if we didn't. Most of us didn't care for the expansion of territory so long as we had enough farmland to keep us fed." Dáinn lowered his now empty glass and Finn reached over with a decanter, filling the glass.

Klaus pursed his lips. That was his bourbon and Finn was just handing it out willy nilly.

Dáinn continued after another long drink of his whiskey. Klaus briefly wondered how much it would take for a man Dáinn's size to get absolutely pissed. "The monarchs, or the Alexanders as you know them, were nearby during this. King Emeric had taken to the Northman and had stood by with his family to watch us for years; assessing, calculating. He wanted to see our might and for over a hundred years we did not disappoint. It wasn't until that day, on the battlefield where we met them, that they'd ever intervened."

With a casual shrug and a smile, Dáinn leaned back into the couch cushions. "They turned the tides on the Saxon's in a matter of a minute or two when they entered the field. We thought Óðinn and Þórr themselves had come to bless us with their aid or take us to Valhalla. It was not only the men, whom I now know as King Theon and King Emeric, but the women were just as frighteningly strong. We thought Queen Vera to be Freyja, for her might was terrifying. Even over a thousand years later I can remember the way the earth rose to pull the Saxon's under, leaving emptiness where men once stood."

"While they all drew our awe and reverence, it was my Empress who brought us to our knees in fear. Ice covered the battlefield mid-summer. Darkness jolted from her body to end the life of dozens of men in mere seconds. Hel, we thought, Hel has set upon them all to rain down her fury." There was no mistaking the admiration in his voice or the idolization in his eyes when he spoke of Isolde, and that perhaps warmed Klaus to Dáinn just a smidgen.

"When it was over, they came to what remained of the Northmen and healed our injuries and we quickly realized they weren't our gods, but they weren't human either." He drank from his glass, draining it in one go. "They returned with us to Noregr, now known as Norway, and stayed among us for some time. Some of us chose to join them. I lost my wife and my children were married off over those years and when it was time for the monarchs to move on, I asked to join the Shade and I've been in her service since."

"Our father never told any of this." Elijah mused, leaning back in the leather armchair with crossed legs.

"Mikael wasn't born until later. I was already almost thirty when my younger brother had his children. My Empress made me Shade in my twenty-eighth year. I believe Mikael was born in my thirty-sixth. He was the youngest of my youngest brother's children."

"Are you here to take vengeance, then?" Klaus interrupted, getting to the crux of his own problem with this newfound Great Uncle. "Justice for your dead nephew?"

Dainn looked over toward Klaus, his mouth pressing into a thin line. "Mikael was a disgrace and a failure, he tarnished our family's reputation when he fled to the new world in fear of death. This is not the way of the warrior. Odin did not welcome Mikael into the halls of Valhalla." The words caused a stir in Finn and Elijah, Klaus' eyes narrowed suspiciously, agreeing in his own mind but saying nothing as their uncle continued unperturbed. "Had my Empress allowed it I would have killed him long ago."

"She should have." Klaus said off-handedly. "Would've saved us a lot of trouble."

"You are responsible for your own problems, son of Mikael." Dainn rumbled, voice low and deadly, conveying an underlying threat and a warning. "Just because my Empress is bound to you does not mean you have a pass to utilize her selfishly. This is also not the way of the warrior."

Klaus rolled his eyes and pushed off the wall. "How noble. It's a wonder why the Northmen lost their conquered territories to the Englishmen." He mocked, waving a flippant hand as he turned.

"Niklaus…" Elijah scolded.

But Klaus had already left.

Isolde

Isolde woke the next morning to Kol's lips ghosting over the nape of her neck. His arm was wrapped around her middle, his body pressed against her back.

Light was just creating over the horizon and Isolde could see the pinks and purples of the sun chasing away the night through her sheer window coverings.

As if realizing she was awake, Kol became more insistent and Isolde arched back into his touch pressing her rear against his morning erection.

"This was quite fast."

Isolde and a Kol broke apart from their embrace at the intrusion. Klaus sat in the corner chair with feigned nonchalance, Mura climbing into his lap in the next moment. Isolde thought she could see Klaus' eyes burning with suppressed anger, even as they drifted to her chest and back to her face.

"Problem, Nik?" Kol taunted, wrapping his arm more tightly around Isolde and dragging the bed sheet to cover her exposed chest.

Isolde fought the eyeroll.

"Should there be?" Klaus responded, though his eyes didn't leave Isolde's and she realized he wasn't planning on leaving.

But she wasn't going to let him play his games without playing right back. So Isolde carefully detached from Kol, planted a lingering kiss on his lips, and left the bed completely nude. She heard both men take a sharp breath and smirked to herself before turning around to face them both just as she made it to the bathroom door.

Unlike Kol, it seemed Klaus wasn't going to ignore the elephant in the room as his stare fell from her face to her lower belly in wide eyed horror at the mess of scarred flesh.

Klaus' Adam's apple bobbed. He didn't move from his seat but his voice was a dark growl dripping with malice and eyes ablaze when he spoke."Who did that to you?"

Isolde signed, ghosting a hand over her lower abdomen. "Apophis." Realizing Klaus was waiting for her to continue, she did. "The first time we fought him off we were human. We really couldn't do much, we just tried our best to push back Apophis' forces. It was Set who managed to wrangle him. Afterwards, we fought him toward the end of the Egyptian dynasty."

Kol was reaching out with the thin silk robe she had at the end of her bed and Isolde smiled at him, grateful for the gesture. This conversation did a one eighty from where it had been intended to go, but she wasn't trying to hide any of her history from them. She wrapped the robe around herself and tied it shut, leaning back against the wall beside her bathroom door.

Klaus had stopped petting Mura. The cat seemed to sense how tense he'd become and was now purring with abandon, trying to soothe him, Isolde figured.

"It wasn't a good time for a demonic invasion." Isolde chuckled but neither Klaus nor Kol did and she couldn't blame them. "I was five months pregnant with what would've been my eighth child."

At the boys' incredulous look Isolde waved a hand. "In the last five thousand years Theon has had thirty-seven children, and Vera twenty-three. Emeric has only had two. He's never had interest in any romantic or sexual relationships. The two he had were simply out of curiosity. They were twins."

"I apologize, Isolde. I didn't mean to seem judgmental about your children." Kol said, at some point he'd pulled his boxer briefs on under the covers and was now moving into a seated position at the end of the bed, facing her.

Isolde smiled softly at Kol. "It's alright, I didn't think you were." She looked back to Klaus. "Anyway, Set didn't come to our rescue that time. We were gods, we had our own power. He sat by in the rafters, waiting to see what we would do with it. To make a long battle short, we almost lost."

Both Klaus and Kol's brows shot up at this as Isolde continued. "In the end, I had to find a way to distract Apophis long enough for the twins and Emeric to try something insane. I did, and it didn't go so well-"

'Damn.' Isolde thought as her eyes began to fill with tears and her throat went sore. 'I was so sure I could get through this without the emotional backlash.'

She cleared her throat and her head, swallowing thickly. "I managed to distract him, but it wasn't the way I had intended. He caught me; reached right through the shadows and plunged his arm through my abdomen."

"Apophis killed your child and mangled your body." Klaus said on an exhale, like he hadn't meant to say it at all.

Isolde grimaced and turned her head from them in shame and rage still potent though the damage was done several millennia ago. She would never recover. "He didn't just kill my child." She felt a few tears fall and she wiped them away furiously. "He pulled my daughter out of me and tore her head off between his teeth. Then he forced me to watch while he chewed on her head and I could do nothing to save her."

Isolde knew there wasn't anything to be said about that, and she didn't want to keep talking about it. She met Klaus' eyes, satisfied with the horror she found there. "I have things to get done this morning. I'm going to shower first, then you're both welcome to accompany me if you'd like."

She left the door open even as she stepped under the stream of hot water, hotter than usual to try and shock the pain and anger she still felt out of her system.

Isolde knew she could heighten her hearing to find out just what Klaus and Kol were talking about but decided against it. She was already developing a strong protective instinct over Kol and she'd interfered between the two last night. Continuing to take sides would prove detrimental. Isolde knew to pick her battles. She'd only gotten physically involved last night because Kol had been trying to protect her against a perceived threat from Klaus when Klaus moved to attack.

At the same time, she couldn't be wholly neutral. If Finn, Elijah, and Klaus all accepted her they would be her partners. Meaning they would have rights in the Shade Empire. They would be Kings, regardless of if they wanted the title. Only Isolde's rule would be higher, with Marcus' being a close second to the Mikaelson's, but unable to overpower them.

Any sign of weakness or division within the Mikaelson family would be exploited by the Senate to get to Isolde.

She could hand the keys to her kingdom to her bonds and they could easily topple her Empire with their in-fighting. It was a precarious balance she was walking with them, and her people were in the middle of this whether she wanted them to be or not. She wasn't willing to risk her people, so the Mikaelson's needed to grow up if they wanted to pursue anything with Isolde.

They also needed to get control of their own kind. If they didn't, Emeric would never accept them into the family. And regardless of their personal opinions on the matter, Emeric's esteem was important. Not just politically but to Isolde herself. She valued Emeric's opinion over all others.

Isolde was rinsing shampoo from her hair when her shower curtain was pulled back. She didn't startle but she did raise a brow at Kol's devilish smirk as he leaned into the shower, water spraying on his head as he kissed her deeply in a way that made her heart rate increase. He pulled back with a grin.

"I'm heading home, darling. Nik is going to accompany you this morning." He looked as if he wasn't exactly happy about that, either. "One more for the road?" He leaned in again.

Isolde closed the distance with a laugh, throwing her arms around him. His shirt was drenched as she kissed him with tongue and teeth. When they pulled apart, they shared a heated look.

"Text me if I'm needed." Was the last thing out of his mouth before he was gone.

Sorry to cut it off like this. Up Next: lots of Klaus/Isolde.

Hospitality is one of the nine noble virtues and was/is so important that it's pretty much the entire first part of the Havamal. Klaus proved that he doesn't care about the old ways (which, like, that fits him, I think?) When Klaus did not welcome Dainn that was a huge misstep in both Dainn and Finn's eyes. Dainn tried to show Klaus this by turning his back to him. It's a warrior snub. It says 'I don't think much of your ability to harm me, so I turn my back to you knowing you will do nothing.'

Dainn said to Finn: A tongue which is quick to speak and cannot hold back its speech often hurts itself when it sings. (Called Klaus a senseless idiot, essentially.) Roughly translated. Comes straight from Havamal. Then Finn trails off, telling Dainn that their father didn't…. (Bother teaching his brothers the old ways was unsaid but understood.)

Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker just released so it may be a minute before the next chapter. I really want to finish the Hydaelyn/Zodiark arch. If you haven't played FFXIV and you like video games and fantasy you're missing out on an epic player immersive story where YOU are the badass main character.