Elena was sitting on the couch with Freya. Freya was flipping through her grimoire has they waited for Esther to arrive with her own grimoire.
Freya glanced over at her sister as she looked through her book. "You okay?"
"Yeah, mostly. I guess I'm struggling to accept this new reality of ours, which is stupid because I literally asked for it," Elena asked.
"You didn't ask for anything. You made the best out of two terrible choices. That doesn't mean you need to be happy about it," Freya told her.
"Right," Elena said.
"We are going to figure all of this out. It won't be like this forever," Freya promised.
Just then, Esther came into the room with her grimoire, which she put down on the coffee table. "Alright, girls, shall we get started? First, Elena, I wanted to ascertain how much knowledge of have of defensive magic."
"We've done some work with that, but she's still new at this. We've only been training for a few months," Freya said.
"Yes, but surely she had the basics down by then," Esther said before turning to Elena. "You had already tapped into your magic before Finn found you in Ireland. How long had you been training prior to that?"
"I hadn't," Elena said.
Esther frowned slightly. "You mean to tell me that you'd just received your magic when Finn found you?"
"No," was all Elena said.
"Elena, I am not in the mood for games. How long before Finn found you had you noticed your powers?" Esther asked.
"Three months," she said.
"Three months? And you didn't receive any training during that time? I realize that your siblings would've been at a disadvantage, but Kol could've at least taught you the basics during that time, even without having powers anymore. Why was your magical education neglected?" Esther asked. She recalled Niklaus saying at breakfast that Elena had resisted learning, but surely the rest of them had insisted.
"I didn't tell them. Freya was the first person to find out. That's when I started learning," Elena said.
"Elena, that is completely unacceptable and irresponsible. Magic is very dangerous if left untrained. You could've gotten yourself or someone else hurt," Esther lectured.
"Alright, she made a mistake. She doesn't need to be reminded of it. She knows she should've told everyone," Freya said.
"I am her mother, and she will hear from me on this foolishness," Esther said as she glared at her oldest.
"Well, then how about just not now. Dahlia will be here in a day. We have other priorities than you berating your daughter for something that has been dealt with," Freya said.
"Fine," Esther said before turning to Elena. She could concede that now wasn't the time. "However, you and I will be speaking about this matter at length when this is over."
Elena only nodded in response.
Freya held out her grimoire for Esther. "This is the spell we're going to use."
Esther took the book and looked it over. "Yes, I think this will work. Dahlia taught you this, I assume."
"She used it on me. I was able to reverse it a while ago. You two will bond to me, and the combined magic will be enough to stop her," Freya said.
"It's a good plan, darling, but we're going to tweak one minor detail. I will do the spell. The two of you will bond to me," Esther said.
Freya laughed, but it wasn't a humorous laugh. She should've seen that coming. Of course, Esther wanted them to link to her. That would give her a lot of power over them. "Hell no."
"What difference does it make how this is done?" Elena wondered.
"Oh, it makes a lot of difference to her. It gives her power over us; in the same way it gave Dahlia power over me. She'll be more powerful than us and she can harness that power in ways we can't. She can attempt to keep that power even after Dahlia is dealt with," Freya said as she glared at Esther.
"You truly think so little of me?" Esther asked.
"Oh, you don't even want to go into how little I think of you," Freya said loathingly.
"Well, I'm afraid it's not your decision, dear. You've asked for my help, so we will do it my way," Esther said firmly.
"How do we know you'll break the link once Dahlia's gone?" Elena asked.
"You'll just have to trust me," Esther said.
"I reiterate, hell no," Freya said.
"Let's put the cards on the table, Freya. You don't have a choice. If you did, you wouldn't have let me in the door last night. You know that I'm your only hope of freeing yourself from Dahlia," Esther said.
"Fitting considering you're the reason she's a problem in the first place," Freya said.
"I agree, and that's why I'm going to be the one to end it. It's not up for discussion, dear," Esther said firmly.
"Freya, we really don't have a choice," Elena said. She hated it too, but there was no other option.
Unfortunately, Freya knew that. "If you don't break the spell afterwards, I will. If I can break it with Dahlia, I can break it with you."
"Noted. Shall we get started?" Esther asked.
"I'll start gathering what we need," Freya said before getting up and heading out of the room.
Elena got up to follow her. She definitely didn't want to stay there with Esther.
"Sit," Esther commanded when she noticed her youngest go to leave.
Elena sighed and sat back down. "If this is about me not training my magic sooner…"
"It's not. As I said, we'll discuss that later. I've decided to grant your request to see your adoptive brother. Once this crisis is over, you may invite him to visit," Esther said.
Elena's heart skipped a beat at the prospect of seeing her little brother. "Thank you."
"Mmhm. You know, despite your desire to make me so, I am not the devil. I can be reasonable," Esther said.
Elena had to bite her lip. If she were really reasonable, Elena wouldn't have had to beg for something so simple. If Esther were reasonable, she would've let her see Jeremy when she asked a year ago. However, Elena couldn't say those things without risking losing the chance to see her brother.
"However, let me be clear on something. This is a privilege I can take away at any time if you abuse it," Esther said.
And there it was, Elena thought. It was just as she thought. Seeing Jeremy was going to be used to keep her in line. "I understand. Can I go help Freya now?"
"Not yet. We need to clear the air. I told you yesterday that we were going to let the past go, and I intend to do that, but I do not want a repeat of it," Esther said.
"We're not going to run again," Elena promised. She'd made a deal, and she intended to honor it, no matter how much she hated it.
"That's good to hear. I will choose to trust you on that, but that isn't what I meant. I'm talking about the lies. You allowed me to believe that you had accepted your place in the family. You lied to me. I won't have that. I want the truth," Esther said.
"Why? So you can use it against me?" Elena asked.
"Don't be dramatic, Elena," Esther said.
"Dramatic? Whenever I told you how I felt, you punished me for it. You locked me up like a prisoner mere minutes after I met you," Elena said.
"You tried to run away," she said.
"Because I was terrified! I had known you less than an hour, and you ripped my world apart! What did you expect from me? No one is going to hear the things you told me and just accept it. That's what you wanted from me. You wanted me to instantly love you, and I couldn't do that," Elena said.
"You never tried, Elena. You wanted to hate me," Esther said.
Elena gave her a dumbfounded look. "Do you really believe that? You think I want to hate my own mother? Do you know how many times I wished things could be different? No matter how horrible you were to me, I still wished I could love you. When you healed me last night, it was the first time you ever showed me real care, that is until you ruined it. I liked it, even though I knew I shouldn't. I don't want to feel this way about you, but I can't feel anything else. That's about as honest as it gets. I can't ever love you. I made a deal, and I'll honor that deal, but you will always be the lesser of two evils."
"Elena," Esther started sadly.
"No, I'm done. I'm going to help Freya," Elena said before getting up and heading out of the room.