The first thing Freya did the next day was get ahold of a computer so that she could do some research. Thankfully, the internet had been around the last time she'd woken up, and she'd learned to use it a little. She was far from an export, but she could handle a simple search. The first thing she needed to do was try to find out what happened to the Gilberts in Mystic Falls and why they'd left. Of course, it could be as simple as them taking a vacation to New Orleans, but Freya got the feeling it wasn't that simple.
Normally, Freya wouldn't even bother with this. She'd simply use magic to find her child. Locator spells were a godsend when it came to things like this, however, her daughter was in a body that wasn't technically hers. Freya's blood wouldn't work, like it normally would because she technically wasn't related to her daughter by blood anymore. She would need something belonging to Elena Gilbert, which she didn't have. The irony of the situation was not lost on Freya. The desperate measures she'd used to protect her child were inhibiting her ability to find her.
Freya started with a simple search for Miranda and Grayson Gilbert. Mystic Falls was a small town, so she hoped that there would be some news about them. It turned out there was, but it was not the news she was hoping for.
Freya clicked on the first article she found, which was titled, 'Tragedy strikes Founding Family.' As soon as Freya opened the article, she found a photo of the Gilberts, as well as her daughter. She then started reading the article. She was horrified. The Gilberts were killed in a car accident almost two years ago. Her daughter almost died too. When Freya read that, her stomach dropped. Out of all the dangers Freya envisioned for her daughter, something as simple as a car accident didn't even enter her mind. She could only thank God that her little girl survived. The emotional damage it caused had to be extreme though.
Freya felt extreme guilt well up inside her body. Her little girl had been alone to suffer the loss of another set of parents. The Gilberts may not have been her parents when she entered their daughter's body, but from the moment she had, she became their daughter too. She had all their daughter's memories and emotional attachments. Freya knew that would happen from the moment she chose to do what she did. She knew she'd be sharing her daughter with another mother. She accepted that. What she didn't expect was for her daughter to lose another mother and the only father she'd ever had. And Freya wasn't there to help her through it. She was alone.
Freya took a deep breath. "Alright, I can't do anything about what's already happened. All I can do is find her and help her through it now." The problem was that she had no idea what happened to her daughter after the Gilberts died. Was she put into Foster Care? Did she run away? No option Freya thought of gave her much comfort. She shouldn't have done this. It only caused her daughter pain. On the other hand, though, she couldn't think of any other way to ensure her safety from Dahlia. The risk seemed worth it. Now, however, she wasn't so sure.
"Okay, Freye, stop, you need to focus. All that matters is finding Brenna. No, Elena. She's Elena now," Freya said to herself. Elena was the name her daughter went by now. She wouldn't confuse her by calling her anything else. She needed to find Elena and let her know that everything would be okay. And Freya would find her. She didn't care if she had to check every high school in the state looking for her. One way or another, she was going to find her daughter, and she would never leave her again.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Elena was in her new room unpacking some of her things. She had to admit, despite her reluctance to move, New Orleans seemed pretty cool. It was definitely the exact opposite of Mystic Falls. It was a big city filled with crowds, and she had a feeling there would be plenty of things for her to do. She was actually starting to get excited now that she was there.
Soon, Elena heard a knock on her opened door. She turned to see Jeremy.
"Hey, I think your bag must have been mixed in with mine," Jeremy said as he held up a bag in one hand and a binder in another.
"Oh my God!" Elena said with a gasp before running over and grabbing the binder. That was the binder with the copies of her mother's grimoire."
"I looked inside that briefly. Is it what I think it is?" Jeremy asked. He'd seen what looked like a bunch of spells in it.
"Shh! If anyone finds out I have this, I'm dead," Elena whispered.
"It's fine. Kol is the only one home. You know he's cool," Jeremy said.
"Yeah, he already knows about it," Elena said before putting the binder down on her bed and then taking her bag from Jeremy.
"Is that your spell book?" Jeremy asked.
"No, it's a copy of my mom's. I'm not supposed to have it. If the others find out, they'll take it from me," Elena said.
"I take it your mom didn't give it to you," Jeremy said with a smirk. It was pretty amazing how good of an actor his sister was when she needed to be. For years, she pretended to be this responsible adult who rarely ever went over the line, but the truth was that she was just mischievous as he had ever been.
"Of course not. I wasn't supposed to even touch it. I guess that's part of why I did it. I also wanted to see if I could help her find a spell to stop Dahlia. After I lost her, it became the only thing I had left of her," Elena explained.
"I don't know much about magic, but a lot of it looks pretty impressive. I can't believe you managed to hide it from Elijah for so long," Jeremy said.
"I don't bring it out when he's home. I got caught with it by Uncle Kol, and I was extremely lucky that he didn't tell anyone," Elena said.
"Don't take this the wrong way, but maybe you should tell the others," Jeremy said.
Elena looked at him like he'd grown another head.
Jeremy chuckled at the look on her face. "Hey, I'm not going to tell them or anything, but maybe they could put it to good use. You said you took that book to try to help your mom with her spells. Maybe the others can help."
Elena had considered that. That was why she'd shown it to her Uncle Kol. He hadn't seen anything that would help, at least not that he'd told her. "There's nothing they could do. I've looked at it hundreds of times. Uncle Kol has flipped through it too. We haven't seen anything.
"Yeah, but Finn was the more experienced witch when he was human, right? Maybe he could find something neither of you could," Jeremy said.
"Uncle Finn will definitely take it away, and tell Uncle Elijah," Elena said. Her Uncle Finn was very strict with her when it came to magic, much like her mother had been. He'd introduced him to Esther's Grimoire, but she was only allowed to see it with him in the room, and he was careful about what he allowed her to learn.
"I know it's important to you. You think it's the only thing you have left of your mom, and that may be true now, but it won't always be. You can use that binder to help your mom. You can have the real thing," Jeremy reasoned.
Elena was very hesitant, but she eventually nodded.
Xxxxxxxxxxx
Around dinnertime, Elena and Jeremy walked into the dining room. Elena was clutching the binder to her chest. It was strange how attached she became to it. It was almost like a security blanket.
"Hello, children. Dinner should be on the table any second," Elijah said from his chair. He then noticed Elena was holding something. "What's that? I know it's not homework. You don't start school until next week."
"It's my mom's," Elena said before putting the binder in front of her Uncle Finn and sitting down beside him. "I'm hoping you can use it to help her."
Finn opened the binder and started flipping pages. He then gaped at his niece in disbelief.
"What is it, brother?" Elijah asked.
"I think I'm looking at a photocopied grimoire," Finn said as he continued to stare at his niece. "I find it hard to believe that Freya was irresponsible enough to give this to you."
"No. I took her real grimoire and copied the pages at the library," Elena told him.
"So, you stole it," Finn surmised in an unimpressed tone.
"Borrowed?" Elena said in a questioning tone.
"Taking something without permission from the person's owner if theft, whether you return it or not," Elijah said sternly. "Why didn't you show us this before now?"
"Because I knew you'd take it away, and it's all I have left of her. But Jeremy made me see that I had to tell you in case you could use it to help Mom," Elena said.
"Well, I'm definitely taking this. These spells are dangerous. Please tell me that you've never attempted any of them," Finn said.
"She hasn't. She gave me her word," Kol said.
Elijah glowered at his youngest brother. "You knew about this?"
"I wasn't going to involve you," Elena told Kol as though he were an idiot. He'd kept her secret. She had no intention of snitching on him.
"If you can take responsibility, I should too. Look, I got her to promise not to attempt anything with those spells. I couldn't take it from her. It was all she had left of her mum," Kol said.
"And would you have changed your mind if the child got herself killed because she went against her word. She's sixteen and desperate to save her mother. You don't know what she would've done," Klaus said.
"Please don't be mad at him. I did it, not him," Elena said.
"Elena, this kind of behavior is not acceptable. You cannot take things that don't belong to you, and you can't hide things like this. You've already admitted that you knew we would not allow you to have that, and that your mother wouldn't. I would consider that willful disobedience," Elijah said sternly.
"Am I going to be punished?" Elena asked.
Elijah sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. As upset as he was about all of this, he understood why she did it. She definitely deserved to be punished for stealing her mother's things, but it wasn't his place to punish her for that. The deception was the only thing he could punish her for, and knowing why she'd hidden it made it hard for him to do so. "I imagine you will at some point, but not by me. I can't punish you for something you did years before we even met. As for the deception, I am very unhappy about that, but you did eventually come clean, and you're going to be losing the grimoire. I think that's punishment enough. However, when your mother returns, you will have to tell her what you did. I don't imagine she's going to be very pleased."
Elena cringed just thinking about it. She knew she was going to be in a lot of trouble. "I'd rather you punish me."
Kol laughed. "Your mum is more strict than Elijah? That seems impossible, and quite frightening."
"I wasn't supposed to touch her grimoire. She's going to be really upset," Elena said.
"What will she do to punish you?" Jeremy wondered.
"Probably block me from using magic for a while. That's what she would do when I abused magic or used it in ways I knew were dangerous. She warned me that if I ever touched her Grimoire without permission again, she'd do it," Elena said. It wasn't the first time she'd tried to steal a glance at her mother's spells. She'd been caught doing it before.
"Bloody hell. I always hated when Mother used to do that to me," Kol said.
"Witches can do that?" Jeremy asked surprised.
"Most powerful witches can. It's how they deter their kids from abusing magic or using too much at once. Mother used to do it to me all the time," Kol grumbled.
"That's because you never learned. You were constantly going too far with magic. You almost blew yourself up with one of her spells one time," Finn said.
Kol smiled fondly at the memory. "Yeah, I was ten. That was a nice day, until I was magically grounded."
"I believe it was used on Finn once or twice as well," Rebekah said teasingly as she smirked at her older brother.
"Yes, well, no one is perfect," Finn said.
Elena looked at her Uncle Finn. "Will you look at that to find a way to help my mom?"
"Of course, I will, child. And I'll tell you what? We can treat this as we do my mother's grimoire. You can look at it under my supervision," Finn told her. He didn't want to take it from her completely. He could see that she was attached to it. He understood. When he was a child, he'd hung onto Freya's favorite blanket. It made him feel close to her.
Elena smiled at her uncle. "Thanks, Uncle Finn."
"No more secrets, Elena. Understood?" Elijah asked.
Elena nodded. Moments later, dinner was brought out.