The Vixen & the Fox II

Chapter 323

October faded into November as the nights lengthened and the days dimmed, the lights were starting their dance in full vibrancy when the overcast wasn't obscuring them. The people were settling into the night routines too. For the most part, Kol's family had taken over their occupied area of the village, the houses his siblings owned, and the Skulk came to visit; staying at the inn.

It was just before the Quad's eighth birthday though that they were readying for the memory rewrite spell. Kol was going over the final notes, and tweaks of the spell, along with the memories he was rewriting and bridging between Hope and her parents, uncles, and cousins. Kol was reading over his family's rewrites, the Quads, cousins, and other children had slipped in a few memory rewrites which had him chuckling a little. The barn was a bit drafty, but Kol was intent on making this work, he just needed things to blend well, and this was a larger spell than he was anticipating. A hand on his back had him jerking out of his readings as he turned to see Davina as she walked behind him to his other side, her lips pressed against his shoulder as she shivered a little.

"How's it going?" Davina asked softly.

"Well, it's going," Kol admitted as he stood up, pulling his wife in front of him. "There was a spell Esther used to do for Mikael, a mind melding spell, to stabilize someone's mental state by putting them in an enchanted sleep, I'm mixing that with a memory altering spell Esther used to use, but Dahlia created, and to seal the spell, I'm having a memory transference spell in the mix so it could meld seamlessly," Kol explained as he showed her the spell. "The only problem I'm having is breaching the mind... but I think we can pull it off, with my Ancestors help, because this would have to be a global rewrite, love, to affect the people it needs to affect. Not everyone needs to know about Hope, but it does need to be rewritten."

"I know," Davina nodded. "So, how can I help?"

"If you can manage the mind breaching spell, I'll focus on the other three, and we use the Skulk to amplify our power and our spell, it'll complete the rewrite in all minds, including the Skulk."

"All but you and I," Davina said softly. "We're casting it, Kol, we won't be apart of the rewrite."

"Which I think is why our family so lovingly and chaotically left us these notebooks so we'd know not only what we were rewriting but what we ought to remember so it aligns with them."

"Are you okay with this?" Davina asked softly. "Tampering with memories?"

"It... I'm not thrilled about it, but if it can help Hope, I will do it," Kol explained carefully. "I never liked compulsion or dream manipulation, love, and I know I helped you out a time or two as a vampire with keeping unwanted things out of your head with dream manipulation, but I'm still not a fan. It eliminates free will, and I'm still very big on free will. However, the family has, of their own free will, decided to submit to this, and if it will help Hope, then it will be worth it."

"And it helps Nik."

"Nik's but a wee lad, love, he'll never know differently, he'll never even be aware of the differences really, as much as I want to validate Freya and Keelin's worries about him not being accept because he was from the other timeline, I disagree, he's a little older than Rémy, love, and Rémy is just forming his first serious long term memories. So, the rewrite is more for Freya and Keelin and Vincent than Nik."

"Okay, fair," she conceded.

"And for us, the rewrite means, nothing. It changes nothing about how we view those children, or everything we've done so they can have a future," Kol admitted.

Davina nodded in agreement.

"Everything Big You did, it can be to save Hope, and Nik, her timeline can still be the ruins it was, but we salvaged what we could, and hopefully, it will be better, and that's not something we're rewriting," Kol informed her.