"And you're sure this is not the moonstone?"

Elijah examined the stone Luka had managed to take from the younger Bennett witch. He trusted that Jonas knew what he was doing when it came to magic and that he had enough sense not to lie to him. Yet it was difficult to believe that the stone in his hand was not the same one his mother had used to bind his younger brother's werewolf side all those years ago. If it was truly a fake, then it was a remarkable one.

A perfect replication of the moonstone they were seeking, in size, in weight, in colour, and in shape. There was not a single flaw that would make him question what it was, except for the fact that Jonas assured him there was no curse attached to it. No spell bound within the stone. It was just that… a stone.

"I've checked it a dozen times since Luka gave it to me. There is no spell bound in that stone, Elijah. If I was going to lie to you, I'd at least try to make it sound believable."

"True." Elijah mused. "A remarkable feat is it not. To match the true moonstone so perfectly that you did not suspect until you examined it properly."

"Quite remarkable. Beyond the ability of young Bonnie. Her grandmother might have been the one to pull it off…"

"But you doubt that."

Jonas sighed softly and rubbed his face.

"If Sheila Bennett had created it, I would expect to have felt at least a trace of her power upon the stone. Yet there is nothing." He shook his head slightly, "There is no magic on that stone that is within my ability to perceive."

"Then perhaps they crafted it with tools." Elijah suggested, placing it back down on the desk.

"Perhaps." Jonas agreed, sounding rather doubtful.

"What more have you learned about the supernatural inhabitants of the town?"

"The werewolf who accompanied Stefan Salvatore to help rescue Miss Gilbert is named Mason Lockwood. He is the only one of the Lockwood's to have triggered his curse. Neither his nephew nor his brother have. The Mayor despite being a part of the town's secret council and therefore very aware of vampires, does not seem to know about his own curse. The nephew Tyler Lockwood almost definitely does as he, like his uncle, is a part of the Salvatore's circle."

"Ah yes. The Salvatore brothers. What have you learned of Damon Salvatore? He seemed rather more interested in contacting my brother than attempting to protect the doppelganger like his brother. I'm curious to know why."

Incredibly curious in fact. Damon Salvatore had not accompanied his brother when Stefan had come to the rescue of the fair Elena. Nor had he accompanied him when Stefan had once again ridden to her rescue in Richmond, when she had been attempting to hand herself over to Niklaus. Yet Damon Salvatore had gone to Richmond before that, in the company of Rose-Marie to seek out the vampire Slater, apparently in order to ask him how to contact Niklaus himself, yet he had not mentioned why. It was indeed most curious. Damon did not seem to have the same regard for Elena's life that his brother had, yet he cared enough about her aunt and brother, to supply them with vervain jewellery and warn them both about vampires. Something which had severely increased the difficulty of gaining access to Miss Gilbert's home. Oh, he'd managed it in the end, he was nothing if not charming, and it had not taken long to ease Miss Sommars suspicions and gain an invite into the house.

"Like Stefan, Damon was turned by Katherine in 1864. He settled in New York some point between 1870 and 1880 and he's lived there ever since, up until last August when he moved into the Boarding House. He travelled quite a lot in the past, been to a lot of places, but he seems to favour Europe, mostly England. He fought in World War One and World War Two, but what my contact was able to find of his service records were almost completely redacted. He disappeared for a time in the fifties, when he reappeared it was in the company of Lorenzo St John and Maggie James, who also live at the Salvatore Boarding House." Jonas told him.

"What about more recent history?" Elijah asked, "I can read the whole file later. If his life was in New York, then why did he move here, why now?" And why was he trying to contact Niklaus?

Elijah didn't voice aloud that last question, for one, it was highly unlikely Jonas would know the answer. Mostly though, he kept silent, because a normally dormant part of his mind was telling him to. Warning him to keep silent, gather information, and act only once he had all the facts.

"He has a young goddaughter. Maya Nicholls, she lives with him, apparently, he is her legal guardian. The common consensus seems to be that he moved here for her, decided Mystic Falls was a better place to raise a teenager than New York."

Intriguing. He had heard as much from Elena when he'd questioned her about the list of people, she wanted protected. Both the Salvatore brothers had been on the list as had their two friends Lorenzo and Maggie, and the girl, Maya. He had been intrigued then and he was intrigued now. It wasn't unheard of for a vampire to take in and raise a child, but it wasn't a common occurrence either.

"Yes, I'd heard as much. What were you able to find out about her?"

"She's thirteen according to a couple of the people I managed to get to talk. Attends a private school somewhere, but nobody seems to know where exactly, or what it's even called. None of them really knew much about her. Cute, friendly, polite, adores her godfather. That's about all anyone could tell me."

"I see."

"Do you think the Salvatore's have the genuine moonstone?"

"Rose was in the company of Damon Salvatore when he spoke to Slater. It's not too much of a stretch to imagine that she was also with him when I compelled Slater to call her and tell her what he did about the moonstone. A few days later young Bonnie, who we know to be a part of the Salvatore circle turns up with a fake moonstone asking Luka to help her de-spell. I think, Jonas. That Damon Salvatore is a great deal craftier than I realised."

"You think it was a test?"

"I think, they wanted to know if you were truly new to town, or if you were here under false pretences." Elijah picked up the moonstone again and run a thumb across it's smooth surface. "I think they got their answer. And I think it's time I went and had a conversation with Katerina."

"Do you think the real stone is still in the tomb with her?"

"If they're capable of making one excellent forgery, then why not more?" Elijah stood up, "No Jonas. I think your first guess was correct. I think Damon Salvatore has the real moonstone. I am merely curious to see what Katerina might be able to tell me about him. Know your enemy. It was true when Sun Tzu said it, and true now."

"You think he's your enemy?"

"I think it wouldn't do to underestimate him."

The first thing Katherine felt was a sharp pain in her lips, as if they had been sliced by a razor. She tried to move them, but they were stuck together by dried blood. She felt a warm trickle on her chin, and instinctively licked it. The metallic taste of blood filled her mouth, and she swallowed it greedily. It was like a sip of water in the desert, after days of thirst. She felt a surge of life in her veins; as her skin rehydrated, and her body began to function more normally, she was able to open her eyes, and who she saw sent her scrambling back in fright.

"Elijah."

It came out as much more of a pathetic sounding whisper than she would have preferred, if there was one person, she did not want to appear weak in front of it was him. Maybe he would assume it was due to the partial desiccation she was still suffering from, he had given her only enough blood to revive her, but she doubted it. She hadn't quite been able to keep the fear out of her voice when she had whispered his name.

"Good evening, Katerina. Thank you for having the good sense to be frightened."

Elijah's calm tone, with his crisp English accent was far more frightening than any amount of rage and fury would be. She quickly assessed the situation and her options. He was inside the tomb with her so the spell must have been lowered or removed. He was not only older than her but an Original, even under normal circumstances he was faster and stronger than her. These were not normal circumstances, the blood he had given her had done nothing to quell the desperate thirst that her forced abstinence had left her with. She was at a fraction of her normal strength and speed. There was no way she could escape him right now.

Elijah's lips curved into a smile. She wondered how much of her thoughts had played out across her face just now. She cursed herself silently, she usually had far better control than this. He crouched down in front of her and with a hand on her chin forced her to meet his eyes.

"Now, Katerina. First you shall not exit until I say so. When Klaus comes, he'll want to know exactly where you are. Second you shall answer every question I ask you with complete honesty."

Katerina felt the compulsions take hold of her mind. She had spent the last five centuries running from the Originals. She had learnt as much as she could about them, subscribing fully to the concept 'know your enemy'. That they could compel other vampires was news to her, she wondered what other tricks they had, that she had failed to discover.

"Good." Elijah said, seeing the compulsion take hold. "Tell me about Damon Salvatore."

"What do you want to know?"

Elijah pulled something out of his pocket and Katherine felt another spike of shock go through her. It was the moonstone, but that wasn't possible, because she had the moonstone. She had found it lying next to her when she had woken up, and she could still feel it pressed against her chest from where she had tucked it inside her dress. Yet Elijah had an exact copy of the stone.

"How was he able to make such a perfect replica of the true moonstone that it was only when my witch examined it, that we discovered it was a forgery?"

"Maya."

The name slipped out before Katherine could even try to fight it. Not that it would have done any good. Elijah had her well and truly caught in his compulsion. As long as he asked direct questions, she could not prevaricate, or avoid answering in any way. It hadn't taken her long to put the pieces together, if they both had a stone, if they had both initially been fooled by said stones, if Lucy had initially been fooled by the stone. There was only one possibility.

She knew wixen, knew their abilities, knew they could create such perfect copies of an object that they were all but indistinguishable from the original. Unless of course the original was magical in some way, and they deliberately created a non-magical copy.

"Maya must have created a replica of the moonstone."

Elijah smiled. Katherine couldn't get a read on his expression, but she thought maybe he was a little bit impressed by what she had revealed.

"Did they trick you with a fake as well?"

"I don't know."

"Do you have what you believed to be the moonstone in your possession."

"Yes."

"Give it to me."

The command was enforced by a compulsion and Katherine pulled it out of her dress and held it out to Elijah. He plucked it out of her hand and after a brief look slipped it into the pocket of his suit.

"Tell me about her."

"Who?" Katherine asked, trying to figure out a way to avoid telling him anything.

There were several reasons why she didn't wish to tell Elijah anything about Maya. One of her ancestors had done her a big favour, many years ago, one she had never been able to repay. She owed the Salvatore's as well, she might never say it to them or admit it to anyone, but she owed them for what her actions had set in motion. And maybe protecting Maya would be enough to clear both of those debts. Last but not least, she liked Maya. She had no wish to put the young girl in the sights of any of the Original family.

"Damon Salvatore's goddaughter." Elijah caught her chin again and forced her to look at him, "Tell me about Damon Salvatore's goddaughter Maya."

"She's Maya Potter." Katherine replied no longer able to stop the words falling out of her mouth.

Surprise lit up Elijah's eyes, but he didn't say anything, gesturing for her to continue speaking.

"Damon's been a friend of the Potter family almost as long as he's been a vampire. He was on the same unit as Charlus Potter and Dorea Black during World War Two, though his unit was focused more on the fight against Gellert Grindelwald. Maya is their granddaughter; her mother was Jasmine Potter, and her father was Luke Evans. They were murdered by Voldemort on Halloween 1997, Maya survived. She lived with her aunts family on her father's side until she was twelve, when she moved in with Damon in New York."

"Why did they move to Mystic Falls?"

"I don't know for certain, but it coincided with the escape of Sirius Black from Azkaban prison."

Elijah nodded, accepting her conclusion. If he knew about the Wixen world, and Maya Potter in particular. Which she assumed he did, given the surprise he'd shown upon learning Maya's true surname. Then he probably knew enough to come to the same conclusion she had.

"Damon Salvatore."

"What about him?"

"Tell me everything you know."

She didn't bother trying to fight it this time, Eljah would just compel her to tell him anyway. She told him everything from the first time they'd met in 1864, everything she or her spies had observed over the years, finishing with him locking her in the tomb after ambushing her at the masquerade ball.

Elijah's expression remained impassive as she spoke. Not a single twitch to give away what he was thinking. She wondered what he was looking for, what information was he hoping to glean from her. If he got it, he didn't give that away either, once she was done talking, he merely nodded.

"Does he love Maya?"

"More than anyone else in the world, as far as I can tell."

"Thank you, Katerina, you have been most helpful."

He was gone before she could say anything else. Leaving her with nothing to do but wonder what he wanted with all the information he'd gleaned from her.

"Damon, what are you doing here?"

Damon grinned at Jenna, seeing the utter boredom in her eyes. He didn't blame her the Historical Society's High Tea wasn't really either of their cup of tea. Yet here they both were. Jenna because Carol Lockwood had roped her in, and himself, because it was the perfect opportunity to finally meet Elijah. Find out if the guy knew where his brother was or how to set up a meeting with him.

"I wanted to meet our visiting writer."

Jenna's eyes immediately turned suspicious.

"Elijah? Why?"

"Healthy curiosity." He suggested with a light shrug.

"You're lying."

"Would I do that?"

"Yes." Jenna stated, glancing around before looking at Damon and lowering her voice. "Please don't tell me Elijah is a; you-know-what."

Damon considered for a second teasing her about her inability to say the word vampire where people might overhear and think she'd gone crazy. There was a slightly panicked look in her eyes that stopped him though.

"I haven't actually met him yet, which one is he?"

Jenna tilted her head to the side slightly.

"Over there, talking to Carol Lockwood."

Damon glanced over at the dark-haired man wearing a suit, that Damon could tell from the cut and the way it hung, was both tailored and very expensive. He fit the description Damon had been given by Stefan and Rose, to a tee.

"Yep. He's a; you-know-what. An Original you-know-what, in fact."

Jenna muttered something extremely vulgar that luckily none of the society matrons overheard or they for sure would be sending the two of them disapproving looks by now.

"What is it?"

"My sister kept most of the historical society's archives and Carol asked me to sort them out for him. She brought him over to the house the other day and he's been invited in Damon. He can get inside our house whenever he wants. What if he takes Elena?"

Damon glanced in Elijah's direction again and turned back to Jenna, giving her shoulder a supportive squeeze.

"If he was going to take Elena, he would have done it by now. Most likely killing you and Jeremy when he did. He hasn't."

"You suck at comforting people."

"Not the first person to tell me that." He smiled at her, "Try Alaric if you want comfort. I'm going to go introduce myself."

Before Jenna could object, he was strolling away, heading towards Carol and Elijah. Damon wasn't stupid, the Original had to have heard every word of his conversation with Jenna and he almost certainly knew who he was. Hopefully that would be enough to persuade him that a private conversation was in order. Which was exactly what he needed. He smiled winningly at Carol as he approached.

"Damon."

"Carol."

"What a surprise."

"Hi."

They exchanged kisses on the cheek and then Carol stepped back and kindly introduced him to the man he had come to meet.

"Elijah, I want you to meet Damon Salvatore. His family is one of Mystic Falls' founding families."

Damon turned his head and met Elijah's eyes with his own. The man kept a cool expression on his face, but there was a slight glimmer in his eyes that told Damon his assumptions had been correct.

"Mm-hm." He held his hand out to the older vampire, "Such a pleasure to meet you."

"No. Pleasure's mine."

Elijah shook his hand politely. They remained chatting with Carol for a few minutes later before subtly slipping away. Elijah followed him into the adjoining room without hesitation, which Damon was extremely glad about. He needed to have this conversation with Elijah where no one would be able to hear them.

"What can I do for you Damon?" Elijah asked, once the door was closed behind them.

"I was hoping we could have a word."

"Yes. I did overhear your conversation with the lovely Miss Sommers. I take it that Elena has not seen fit to inform anyone of the agreement we made."

"First I'm hearing about it, and I'm pretty sure Jenna doesn't know either."

"It's a fairly simple arrangement. Elena has agreed to stay put and stop trying to get herself killed so that when the time is right, I may use her to draw Klaus out of hiding so that I can kill him. In return I've agreed to ensure that her friends and family remain safe." He smiled dangerously, "This of course requires that none of her friends and family attempt to kill me again."

Damon winced. Whatever reason Elijah had for wanting to kill his own brother, it made one thing clear to Damon. He couldn't risk telling the vampire about Maya. Not yet anyway. He would need to play this very carefully.

"Yeah, sorry about that. If Pearl had known who you were she wouldn't have staked, you."

Surprise flickered across Elijah's face, as if he had not been expecting the apology.

"Should I expect an apology from Ms Zhu and your brother as well?"

"Stefan, definitely. Pearl's not big on apologies, but she might make an exception, you being an Original and all."

"How refreshing. Do you have any further questions of me? Or may I ask my own now?"

"Just one. You said you needed to draw Klaus out of hiding. Does that mean you don't know where he is?"

"I do not. Which leads me to my first question. Why are you trying to get in touch with him. Surely you must know he plans to kill Elena in the sacrifice."

"I have my reasons." Damon replied evasively.

"Hmm. Do you happen to have the true moonstone in your possession."

"Nope."

"Do you know where it is?"

"Not currently."

Which was true. He didn't know exactly where it was right this second. Aradia and Himiko had taken it and Maya, as well as the Bennetts to the academy, so that they could examine it and begin attempting to unravel the curse without needing to sacrifice anyone for it. The Academy was a big place, it could be anywhere on the grounds or in the building. It might not even be at the Academy; Aradia had mentioned recruiting Galen and the Horde's cursebreakers as well. So, for all he knew it could be at MACUSA headquarters or Gringotts right now. Elijah smiled again.

"Let me put it this way. Do you have access to the real moonstone, and will you give it to me?"

"Why do you want to kill your brother?" Damon countered.

"I have my reasons." Elijah replied, repeating what Damon had told him earlier. "I assure you Damon, I mean you no harm. You or your family."

He pulled two milky white stones out of his pocket and placed them down on the desk in the room.

"Tell your goddaughter that she did remarkable work. Jonas had to examine them both for a long time before he could definitively conclude that they were both fakes." He smiled at Damon and headed for the door, before pausing suddenly and looking back, "Oh and if you do happen to find yourself in possession of the real moonstone at any point. I would be very grateful if you delivered it to me."