Elena and Elijah had arrived at the compound, Marcel and Davina had been patiently awaiting there arrival whilst Klaus was starting to become frustrated; as soon as they walked through the door, he shook his head, "when I said immediately, Elijah, that didn't mean a slow walk, where have you been?"
"Rousseau's, it would seem we had some catching up to do," Elijah patted his hand on his brother's shoulder and proceeded to walk towards Davina and Marcel.
"Have you been drinking?" Klaus asked Elena, instantly catching the smell of scotch on her breath and his suspicions rising.
"Just a bit," she lied, lifting her shoulders lightly and offering a kind smile, the bottle was nearly empty when they had left.
"I see you managed to mend fences with Elijah then," he observed, trying to figure out if her sudden sense of relaxation came from the liquor or the company of his brother.
"We did, thank you again, Klaus, for the talk we had, it meant a lot," she smiled and pressed her hand onto his arm, before following Elijah over to the others.
"Hey guys," she spoke, her tone of voice far too chipper for the current situation they were in, maybe the scotch had got to her more than she initially thought, "so, what's going on?"
"You okay, 'Lena?" Marcel tilted his head slightly at her, an amused smile spread on his lips.
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine," she grinned, waving her hand slightly in front of her in a 'don't worry' gesture.
"I looked through every grimoire I have and found a few of ways to fix the imbalance," Davina spoke hastily, interrupting the vampire in his tracks, "you're not going to like anything I'm about to say."
She walked towards a table in the centre of the room and began flickering through one of her ancestors grimoires; Elena shared a look of worry between the two brothers before joining Davina at the table, "what is it, Davina?"
"The balance is sensitive, if it becomes too far gone, it will start to effect everyone on this earth, from humans to vampires and everything in between, even The Originals can be more prone to violent and savagery outbursts."
"You mean, more than normal, right?" Elena mused, shooting a quick smirk at Klaus and Elijah.
"Way more than normal," a small grin hopped onto the young witches face at Elena's words, "they won't even be aware of what they are doing."
"Okay," Elena pursed her lips together and glanced over the pages of the grimoires, they weren't in a familiar language but she wanted to help, "so, tell us, what can we do?"
"We could finish the harvest, it may not fix it completely but it will tip the scales and prolong the changing of the supernatural creatures."
"No," Elena and Marcel exclaimed simultaneously, their gaze shifting onto each for a quick moment before returning their attention back to Davina, "not an option, D."
"The ancestors are angry with me, Marcel, if I don't complete the harvest, they'll stop helping us, it just might have to be something we consider," she placed her hand on his shoulder reassuringly.
"No, Marcel's right, we can't lose you, Davina," Elena's voice was filled with concern and compassion.
"Next, we could bring the factions within the city together under a unification treaty that prevents the increase of supernatural related deaths, it was used centuries ago to stop warring between villages."
"No," Klaus spoke in his usual business tone, his frustration apparent, "they're our enemies, we wouldn't be able to trust them."
"Niklaus, this may be one of the better ideas; I do recall mother uniting the witches and werewolves when we were boys, we lived in harmony for years."
"I'm with Klaus on this one, it took me nearly a century to stop the beasts and witches from attacking us in the Quarter and then they went ahead and murdered three girls, just for power, it's not an option," Marcel said with disdain.
"Look, you guys said you wanted the quick options and these are them, anything else will take years of good acts to sate the balance and by the time that happens, we'll all be dead because The Great evil will have killed us," she argued back, folding her arms across her chest, "so, fix it, start playing nice with the other kids in the playground and stop killing people, got it?"
Elena loved Davina's fire, she was brave, courageous and she stopped at nothing to save her friends, "you really can't argue with that, guys and if you do, you're fighting me as well, I agree with Davina."
"Elena, this is absurd, how can you side with the witch?" Klaus asked, standing closer to her and Davina, "the hatred between factions runs deep, there's been 300 years worth of bloodshed in attempt to tame the fighting."
"Exactly why this needs to happen, it's in the past, just leave it there and move on," she argued back, her voice was calm but it seemed to have an effect on Klaus, he looked too deeply into her statement and related there own personal situation to this one; his face softened slightly and his eyes had a flash of sadness within them.
"It's not always that simple to just move on, little warrior," tension between the two built and a hint of guilt punched straight through her chest.
"We can try," Elijah quickly interjected, even if it was just to save the two from an all out argument; he neared them both and distracted them, his hand going on his brothers shoulder, "this act of unification may just be what we need, there is something out there that's stronger than any of us, Niklaus and it would be preferable to have an army behind us."
"I shall take it under consideration," he shot daggers at Elijah before moving away from them both.
Davina and Marcel had been watching the trio carefully, his eyebrow cocked when the two brothers had ended up in a spat about Elena, there was a tension there they couldn't ignore but they had too, "so, anyway," Davina proceeded on, "there's a few more, we could consecrate the bones of a witch who practiced in dark magic during an enlightening ritual, her magic would be a channel for good then, we could awaken Elena's traveler magic and teach her the old ways, there's a wedding ritual that can be performed to purge evil from a lost and troubled soul and unless there's any miracle babies born between now and the 6th full moon of the year, then everything else wouldn't work."
Everyone looked at Davina with shock, especially Elena as the young witch finished reading from the grimoire; once her eyes lifted from the pages and onto the others, she shrugged, "what? It's just what the book says."
"Are you insane? Consecrate a dark witch?" Klaus spoke abruptly.
"And what's traveler magic?" Elena queried quickly afterwards.
"Marriage?" Marcel exclaimed, his eyes widening slightly.
"What nonsense is this?" Klaus continued and the bickering amongst them all had began.
"Enough," Elijah exclaimed loud enough to talk over everyone, silence filled the room as he approached the table, "fighting amongst ourselves isn't going to further our cause, I'm almost certain we don't have to complete every task on that list, we'll start with the unification spell and go from there."
It took a few minutes of deep and silent contemplation before everyone reluctantly nodded their heads in agreement; Elijah was on top of this, he always believed New Orleans was a great place, it was there home once and he only ever dreamed of harmonious living amongst them, "Niklaus, your hybrids would be able to track the alphas in the werewolf packs, attempt to reason with them and summon them to a meeting; Marcel, encourage your vampires to co-operate, I'll handle the witches and Davina, you work on the ritual."
"You got it," Marcel stood from his chair, he had always been a loyal soldier but he was King now, he struggled with the orders.
"Seriously, what is travelers magic?" Elena blurted out, turning her attention to Davina, "I've heard it twice now and you won't tell me what it means."
There was a momentary silence from Davina before she spun on her heel and headed up the stairs into the main house, "come with me, I'll show you."
Elijah and Klaus had intended on following her, purely out of instinct to protect her but Elena turned around in front of them and held up her hands, "I'll be safe."
They looked at each other for a long moment before nodding their heads, Elena rolled her eyes slightly at the need to ask for permission before ascending the staircase and following Davina.
She lead her into a private room at the back of the compound, it was a dull and dusty library but books that are hundreds of years old would bring that; Davina reached up onto one of the shelves and pulled out an ancient grimoire. She lay it on the desk in the centre of the room and blew off a layer of old dust, "this grimoire is 900 years old, it belonged to one of my ancestors and it was given to me by my mum before she handed me over to the witches for sacrifice."
"Oh, Davina," Elena spoke with a voice of sadness, placing her hand on her arm reassuringly, "I know how you feel, Klaus had to sacrifice me to become a hybrid, I actually died."
"He's a monster," she shook her head slightly at her words, "I can't believe he would do that to you."
"He's different now," Elena admitted, "less monster, more actual person."
"I still don't trust him."
"I didn't at first either but he grows on you," she smiled to herself, remembering only the good times between them before forcing herself back to reality, "so, the travelers, what are they?"
"The travelers are an ancient community of gifted witches," Davina read straight from the passage in her grimoire, "they would practice magic in a collective and draw power from each other, that is, until they were cursed."
"Cursed?" Elena's brow furrowed.
"2000 years ago there was a traveler by the name of Qetsiyah, she was in love with another traveler by the name of Silas, she created an immortality spell so they could be together forever but this went against nature and so all travelers were cursed, there power weakened and they were forced to constantly be on the move, never settling down or find peace in one place."
"Oh my god," Elena lips parted, completely shocked that her ancestry could be even more complicated and messed up, "what happened to Silas and Qetsiyah?"
"It turns out, Silas fell for another woman by the name of Amara and they betrayed Qetsiyah by taking the immortality potion and to keep the balance in order," Davina's eyes widened slightly, pausing for a long moment before she showed the book to Elena, "they created shadow-selves to make up for them never dying, or better known as, doppelgängers."
"Amara was the first doppelgänger?" Elena repeated, shock still overcoming her, "but how does this information help us right now? I'm not a traveler, I don't have any magic and I would rather not have cursed magic either."
"You haven't awakened your traveler magic yet but I might be able to write a spell that won't just give you cursed magic but practicing witch magic."
"Woah, hold up," Elena shot up into a standing position, taking a step back, "you want to make me a witch?"
"You're already a servant of nature, Elena, you're the doppelgänger, a traveler, a magical being and you're at the heart of our battle to protect the balance, you're good and pure, the ancestors will accept you."
"I need to think about this first, Davina, it's a lot," she pursed her lips together, her mind racing with a thousand different thoughts.
"If I can make you a fully practicing witch, with your compassion and pure soul, you'll tip the balance exponentially and you'll be a force to reckoned with," Davina was trying to convince her with a passion and Elena was extremely overwhelmed, "you're a doppelgänger as well, you live with the Mikaelson family and you're a warrior, the ancestors would never deny you power."
"I have to go," Elena spoke, taking in all the information Davina gave her and gave her a quick hug, "thank you for everything, I promise I'll think about it."
And she high tailed it out of there, walking as quick as she could to not raise alarm but she was sure she was going to have a panic attack courtesy of the information overload; she walked hastily down the stairs and met with the others in the foyer, "can we go?"
"What happened?" Klaus was instantly on the defence.
"Of course, I'll take you home," Elijah was calmer, his concern comes in waves and he never allows himself to act without hearing the facts, most of the time.
"Everything okay, E?" Marcel spoke, placing his hand on her shoulder.
"Davina will fill you in, I just need to get out of here," she pecked a quick kiss on his cheek and said her goodbyes before exiting the compound, the original brothers close behind her.
Once they had returned to the compound, Elena told them everything Davina had said, reiterating it word-for-word; she sipped away at a large scotch and ice Klaus had poured for her to settle her nerves and Elijah offered the listening ears and comforting words.
"How is this even possible?" Elijah said, baffled to say the least.
"If you become a witch, Elena, you'll become an even bigger target, you'll never be safe and I promised to protect you until the day one of us dies," Klaus was in defence mode, being highly protective and somewhat homicidal.
"Or I'd be able to protect myself, considering I'd be the new and improved Sabrina the teenage witch," she spoke, her tone of voice rife with sarcasm and disdain; she took a large gulp of scotch and stood up from the kitchen table, beginning a fast pace up and down the kitchen, "either way, I feel guilty, I can't say no because the world depends on it and if I do go through with it, then I'll be miserable."
"You may very well enjoy becoming a witch, practicing magic is an art and despite the sarcasm and pop culture reference I am not familiar with, you would be able to protect yourself, as well," Elijah was ever the optimist.
"Or she would be forced to spend her time learning a whole new way of life, countless hours buried in grimoires and the study of magic and I'll say it again, she'll become a bigger target," Klaus spoke and without even realising it, the two brothers had began a pro's and con's list for her.
"Great points, guys but I don't feel any closer to a decision," she stopped her pacing and slumped back into the chair, finishing the remainder of her scotch and resting her head on the table, "at some point in my life, I would like the hardest decision I have to face to be something as minuscule and unimportant as what curtains will match the sofa."
Klaus and Elijah both smirked, a small snicker escaping from their lips.
"I'm glad you find my torment so amusing," she spoke into the table, before lifting her head and placing it in her hands, "all joking aside, there isn't really anything to talk about, if this is what I have to do to protect everyone I love, then I'll do it."
"This is a big decision, you should not agree to it so lightly, once you become a witch, there is no reversing it, you will be tied to the supernatural world until the day you die," Elijah's tone of voice was serious, she had a million doubts in her mind but there was always something she would be certain off..
"I'll always be tied to the supernatural world, Elijah, I can't imagine my life without both of you in it," her voice was filled with emotion as she shared her inner desires, "that's one decision I have made, to be here as part of this wildly dysfunctional family and if that means becoming a witch to protect it, then that's what I'll do."
"You are a part of this family, Elena, you're the best part of it and you always will be but I can't allow you to become a witch, you'll come to regret it and it could very well mean the end of your life," Klaus was unreadable, she didn't understand how he can be so kind and compassionate one minute and then the next, the complete opposite.
"This is her decision, Niklaus, as she is an important member of this family, we should support her decisions, not dismiss them," Elijah defended, his collected demeanour shining through.
"Ah yes, the noble brother, quick to defend the sweet Elena, I will have no part in this," Klaus quickly shot up from his chair and stormed out of the kitchen; a small sigh escaped her lips, she had to start accepting that she wasn't going to please everybody and it wasn't her responsibility too either.
"He will cool down and come to his senses, you needn't worry," Elijah reassured.
"I'm going to call Davina and tell her I'm in, the quicker she does the spell the better," she stood from her chair and exited the kitchen, pulling her phone from her pocket and dialling her number.
"Klaus?" She saw him stood by the very same window in the living room she stares out of to find comfort and relaxation; she approached him, eyeing up his back as she placed her hand on the top of his arm and squeezed gently, "I know you don't approve and I'm sorry for that but I also know you're only fighting me on this because you're concerned, so help me with it, don't close me off, your temper will be the ruin of our relationship, Nik, not my choices."
He remained silent but Elena knew he would, he still had to calm his temper before he could be reasoned with, so she carried on with the call, taking herself outside, she dialled Davina's number and pressed the speaker to her ear.
"Hey, Elena, everything okay?" She spoke upon answering.
"I'm ready to do this, write the spell," she responded quickly before she changed her mind.
"I'm on it."