When she got to the courtyard for lunch the next day, Hayley was enjoying some grapes.
"So, which restaurant's missing a compelled chef?" she asked as the three Mikaelson siblings made their way toward her from different parts of the house. There was a giant array of fruit and baked goods on the table of the courtyard, with one medium sized platter covered with a silver lid near the edge.
Klaus furrowed his eyebrows as his sister looked at him, thinking this was his doing. "It's certainly a card I've played in the past, but I had no hand in this..."
"I didn't do this," said Hilda. "No offense to any of you but I don't care about having such bountiful breakfasts. A bagel is sufficient for me."
Hayley pursed her lips and looked up at Elijah. "Well, then, I guess we have you to thank?"
He was equally confused. "This wasn't my doing..."
Hayley frowned. "Then, where did this all come from? There's no way the wolves—"
She flinched as the silver lid began to rattle, as though something was inside of it. Hilda was the first to step forward, pulling the lid off. She jumped back as two starlings fluttered out and flew to the roof of the Compound. Where they had been was a piece of folded parchment.
"What the hell was that?" asked Hayley.
Klaus took the parchment and opened it up, gritting his teeth. "An invitation from our mother."
Hilda swore loudly. "Seriously? What the bloody hell does she want?" She snatched the parchment from her brother and saw it read 'Dinner, Your Home, 8PM.' "Oh, you've got to be bloody joking..."
Hayley crossed her arms. "It is times like this I'm really glad I never knew my mother."
"We have enough enemies here," muttered Klaus. "And now, the war for our home is to be fought against my own family."
"Your wretched mother and her disciples tried to put a carving knife through our baby's heart," said Hayley sharply. "I will happily add to the body count."
This made both Klaus and Hilda smile, but their elder brother was displeased with them for finding humor in it.
"You will do no such thing," said Elijah, pointing a finger at her dramatically. "Esther's a master in the art of possession. We know whose body she currently inhabits. We must decipher her intentions before she finds a new host."
"Well, her last invitation was an assassination attempt on all her children," said Klaus. "I think we can assume her intentions are decidedly foul."
"A Binding Spell can be done," mused Hilda thoughtfully. "To mark her. First, though, you need to find a witch willing to do it, and that will likely require different items depending on the witch."
Elijah nodded. "Well then, we have this afternoon to prepare for the worst. I will get the Binding Spell underway. Sister, if you would please, the preparations. I expect you would prefer a busy task."
He then walked off, and Hayley rolled her eyes. "The bloom is off the rose, I see," said Klaus to the younger hybrid, who growled. "Shut up."
Hilda tried not to think of how bad things were likely going to get. Taking her phone and some earbuds, she put on some music and started writing instructions for the servants. She did the cleaning herself, fixing up the dining room. Elijah texted her briefly to let her know that the spell was going to be done by a witch named Lenore, but soon after she had learned that Lenore had been kidnapped by Esther. Hilda had broken two wine glasses out of frustration, however, her brothers had assured her that they would take care about it.
So all Hilda did was taste and criticize food.
"Do we seriously need to wear this?" asked Hilda when they came downstairs at five to eight. Elijah had insisted on them wearing their Sunday best. Both brothers donned a fancy suit, and Hilda had been asked to pick out one of her more elegant gowns. She was currently in a burgundy off-the-shoulder silk dress that swept across the floor unless she held the skirt up.
"Appearance is a way of showing respect, Hilda," said Elijah. "Mother will be more likely to surrender her true intentions."
Klaus and Hilda shared an irritated look. "Will she really give a rat's arse about our outfits?" muttered Hilda.
"I highly doubt her guard will drop just 'cause I'm dressed like a bloody lawyer," added Klaus.
Elijah smiled as he lit the candles on the table. "We need every advantage we can get."
"You always did excel in diplomacy," Klaus noted. "Just know, if she tries anything, I'll tear her new body to pieces.
"You three haven't changed a bit!"
They turned to see an unexpected guest. "Linens and silk to disguise your pathetic self-loathing," said the man in the doorway, facing Elijah. He faced KLaus. "And you— despite the arrogant façade, you're still the same paranoid little boy, full of hate and fear." Finally, he faced Hilda. "You, perhaps, I appreciate more than before. As psychotic and selfish as you are behind that full face of makeup, you're the only one who mourned me."
Elijah stepped forward. "Forgive me, I don't believe I've had the pleasure."
The man looked offended. "Oh, you mean you don't recognize me? So much for the unbreakable bonds of family, huh? Always and forever indeed."
Hilda knew right away. "Finn," she breathed. "But... that's not what I expected you to look like."
"I'm not in my proper body, sister, surely you know how this works," he told her, smirking at the confused brothers behind Hilda. "Now that the introductions are out of the way, let's eat!"
Hilda was not in the mood for food anymore.
Klaus, of course, was at the head of the table. Elijah was beside him, and Finn was at his left. Hilda sat across from Elijah, leaving the opposite head of the table and the seat across from Finn (to Hilda's right) empty.
The compelled servants came around doing what Hilda had told him to do. They gently poured wine into the glasses in front of each sibling. When Finn acquired his, he wafted the scent of it to his nose. "What an aromatic bordot."
"Well, it was a challenge for Hilda to find a good pairing," said Klaus snarkily. "What wine goes well with treachery?"
Finn was amused. "Don't pout, brother. Tonight is meant to be a happy occasion!" He waved over a servant and whispered something in their ear.
"What exactly are we celebrating?" asked Elijah a bit impatiently.
"Why, my return, of course!" said Finn, as though this was obvious. "I spent nine hundred years—" he glanced at Klaus for confirmation, "right? Lying daggered in a box. I awoke for only a brief time before I was killed. And as I mentioned before, the sister that sits across from you is the only one of you who was saddened by my death. But nevermind that. I'm rather enjoying this new body. Strolling about your lovely city that, uh, you've made your home. But, do tell me— what'd I miss? Regale me with your contributions to society! Medicine? Philosophy? Art? Or, have you three merely cut a path of destruction across time?"
Klaus rolled his eyes. "The last time we met, you were helping our mother try to annihilate the lot of us! Let's not throw stones in glass houses."
Finn chuckled as the servants started to set plates, glasses, and silverware on the two empty spots. "What of you, Hilda? I hear you've been traveling quite a bit."
Hilda cast him a cheeky smile. "Why don't you ask your spy?" she said. "I know you had someone check tabs on me the other day. And why, if I may ask, are the servants being told to set two places and not one?"
"Mother will sit at the head," said Finn. "And, as for the seat across from me, that's reserved for another of our clan.Care to wager an educated guess? How about a paranoid one?"
Hilda's glass shattered in her hands, spilling her blood and the wine onto the table.
She stared at Finn in shock. "No," she muttered. "No. No— no. Kol would never—"
"And yet," he said, confirming her suspicions, "our mother has made such a compelling argument that even he, the wildest of us Mikaelsons, has seen the error of his ways and accepted his new form with vigor! Change, dear siblings, is inevitable."
"Go back," said Hilda, swiping up her bloody hand to stop Klaus from retorting. "Kol is alive?"
Finn held his hands out as if he didn't understand why this was confusing her. "Did you really think Mother would put me in the body of a teenager?"
"Am I to understand that you have seen Kol?" asked Elijah, staring at his sister.
Hilda leaned back in her chair. "I didn't know... I thought that was Finn... the boy I told you that called me that nickname... he was with Davina!"
Finn shrugged. "Kol has a mind of his own, as you well know."
"He didn't bloody tell me he was alive, Finn! I understand perfectly well that you wouldn't have told me if you saw me, but Kol—"
"Mother is very potent with her spells," said Finn. "Kol was not physically able to tell you anything. I'm certain he tried. But, of course, even with all the magic he knows, he is no match for our mother. And neither are any of you."
Klaus growled. "You would dare face us as a mortal? The only thing inevitable is your death." He threw the knife he was holding at Finn, who flicked his wrist and deflected it, causing it to lodge in the chair beside him.
"Oh," he said casually, plucking the knife off the chair and holding it aloft. "I suppose the honor of carving should go to the oldest. We have much to discuss."
"Yes, we do," pressed Hilda. "Am I to understand that the three of you came back into the bodies of witches?"
Finn nodded, sitting up as the servants brought around more wine for them. "I imagine you ought to be more inclined to follow along. You and Kol only became the raging bloodthirsty beasts you are because you missed having magic. Join us, Hilda. You, my sister, are the most intelligent of us all. Your knowledge of magic would come in handy. You would get to experience the feeling of magic flooding through your veins, as it did one thousand years ago. Wouldn't you enjoy that? And from what I hear, you've grown to fancy that man our mother made into an Original to finish you off. If you were to accept her offer, to transfer your essence into the body of a witch, Mother could turn him back into a human and you two could be together."
Klaus snorted. "You really think you will sway her with such an offer? Clearly you haven't done your research properly, because Alaric Saltzman is not romantically involved with our sister."
Hilda, however, was silent.
She heavily considered it. To be able to do magic again— that was all she and Kol ever wanted. Alaric wanted to be human, didn't he? If she were a witch and he could revert to being mortal once more...
"Don't tell me you're actually bloody thinking about it!" snapped Klaus, making her flinch. "Don't be absurd! As much as you and Kol loved your magic, you preferred immortality a thousand times to it!"
"Ah," said Finn as he took a sip from his wine. "You forget how she broke down when he died. Hilda, you could be with Kol again, yes, mortals, but practicing magic like you've always wanted to. Immortality was a blessing when you were together wreaking havoc all over the world but as you've seen, Originals can still be killed, and the White Oak stake is out of your possession. There is a chance you can die either way. Why not strengthen yourself with the power you and Kol were blessed with as children? You were prodigies. You can become mighty witches in any body and you can still be as strong as when you had your vampire bodies. The added bonus is being able to do all the spells you've only ever been able to read about."
Hilda didn't know what to say. She watched the servants clean where her wine and blood had been spilt, and she stared as they filled up a new, intact glass for her.
Finn chuckled, seeing that he had left her speechless. "Well, I'm rather enjoying my evening."
Klaus huffed angrily. "I'd rather enjoy you getting to the point."
"I had nine hundred years to learn to be patient," Finn noted. "Although, I am curious why you kept me daggered in a box for so long."
"You were daggered for being an ever-simpering sycophant," the hybrid snapped with a malicious smirk on his face. "Did Mother bring you back from the dead so you could wash her knickers?"
Finn immediately grew angry. "She raised me because I was treated unfairly! Cheated of all but the smallest portion of my life!" He faced the brother on his right. "Elijah, I can understand such cruelty coming from him. But I always thought of you as being the compassionate one! What did I do to deserve you turning your back on me? Were you afraid of Niklaus? Are you still?"
"Or perhaps," Finn continued, "jealous is what kept me locked in a box? You coveted the duties of the eldest brother, in which case you had near-on a millennium to fix the problems of this family, and instead, produced nine centuries of failure." He pinched the bridge of his nose. "Hilda, you must understand. You and Kol were daggered on and off for centuries as well. All for what? Wanting to enjoy the lives you never asked for? The lives that were forced upon you when our parents made us into vampires?"
Elijah held up his hand. "Finn, you might reside— somewhat parasitically, I might add— in another body, but I assure you, in nine hundred years, your tedious sentiments remain quite the same. You see, like Father, you've always despised our supernatural existence. Father, of course, slaughtered and consumed his own, whereas you became pretentious and dull... much like this meal. I will not ask you again— where is Mother?"
Klaus giggled in amusement at this, but he became serious as they saw someone enter the doorway. "Oh, my darling son," said the sixteen year old girl that Hilda assumed must be Esther, hosted by Cassie. Finn got to his feet immediately to greet her, but Esther remained with her eyes fixated on Elijah. "I've missed you, too."
Hilda gritted her teeth as she sat down. "Where is Kol?"
"Your brother is off on his own accord," said Esther blandly. "But I assure you, you will see him soon."
The younger Original sneered. "Why don't you say what you came here to say, so this wretched night can end?" she snapped.
Esther sighed. "It pains me that you and your brothers look at me with such disdain. I wish you could see that my every action has been to protect you!"
"Are you actually convinced that what you did was to protect us?" Hilda scoffed. "So, you're not only a liar, but you're also delusional? And they called Kol and I crazy..."
"If you can forget the hatred you and your brothers clint to— remember all the times I've mended and healed you."
"I'm sorry, you must have the wrong child," snarled Hilda. "Because you let Mikael abuse Kol and I while you treated Klaus like the prodigal son. I don't care who your favorite was, Esther, I really don't, but you never once stood up for Kol and I when Mikael beat us. Beat us simply for wanting to practice magic with you. We were patient while you taught us, we helped you making remedies and performing smaller spells while you worked on bigger ones, but never once did you defend us when that beast of a father came to hound us for preferring witchcraft to dueling. Kol and I had to heal ourselves every bloody time!"
Esther stared at her. "And who taught you the spells and remedies that were useful in healing yourselves?" She turned to Elijah. "Elijah, do you recall the day Niklaus challenged your father to a duel? Did I leave your brother to die alone? What did I say, when you came to me and asked me to help him?"
Elijah sighed. "That you would rather die than to see any of your children suffer." He drummed his fingers against the table. "I must say, however, that you have completely ignored the points that Hilda has made. While you taught the twins the magic that healed them... you never aided them in employing it, did you? No, in fact, it was Finn and I who had to aid them in applying the pastes to their backs after Mikael cracked a whip on them. And for the most part, they could only rely on each other. You saw them every day with a new bruise or a scar and you did nothing."
"The necklace," said Klaus suddenly.
They all stopped.
"The necklace," he repeated, his hands shaking with fury. "The one you gave me. It wasn't spelled to protect me, it made me weak!"
"I sought to protect you from yourself," said Esther indifferently. "If you had killed your father in that duel, or anyone else in the course of your life, you would have activated your curse!"
Klaus slammed his hands down on the table. "You ruined me!" he spat. "You left me to suffer at the hands of a father who valued only strength!"
"I kept you from becoming a beast for as long as I possibly could!" Esther countered.
Klaus slammed his hands down once again and stood up. "No, you lied to me! To hide your own transgressions because of your own fear! My whole life, I sought the approval I was denied by the man I thought was my father! I thought when the twins began to practice magic that Mikael would see my greatness but no— it only made it more obvious that I was not at the skill level he wanted me to be at! All because of that bloody necklace! You turned me into the weakling he hated." He scoffed loudly, seeing Esther had looked away. "LOOK AT ME! You rant and you rave about the monster I have become, but you, Mother— you are the author of everything I am."
Esther looked flustered at first, but then started to gasp. Finn frowned as the body of the young girl slumped back. Elijah managed to speed to her side and catch her before her head hit the table. He frowned. "She's gone."
He lunged immediately at Finn, who flicked his wrist with ease and threw Elijah into the nearest wall. Klaus and Hilda sped toward Finn, but they were thrown back just as easily, which gave Finn a chance to escape.
Klaus stood up furiously as the girl in the chair sat up. The hybrid sped to her side and seized her by the shoulders. "Where is our mother?!" he snapped.
She flinched, her eyes welling up with tears. "Where am I?" she murmured. "What's happening?"
Klaus seized Cassie by the throat, making her squeak as she tried to breathe. "Let her go, Nik," snapped Hilda. "Esther's not in her anymore."
When he didn't immediately let go, Elijah had to yank him back. "She's a puppet, Niklaus, look at her! She has absolutely no idea."
Cassie started to cry as Klaus let go of her. "What are you talking about? Who are you?"
"Shut up!" snapped Klaus. "Stop talking, right now!" He started to pace the room. "Our mother orchestrated this entire evening just to torture us, and then simply vanishes. Why?"
Hilda felt her blood running cold. "What if we are not the only minds she was hoping to poison tonight?" She faced her older brother. "Call Hayley. Right now."
Elijah dialed her number instantly. The line rang twice before the hybrid answered. "Elijah?" said Hayley a bit shakily. "I'm at Lenore's shop..."
The line went dead and Klaus swore loudly. "What would she want with Hayley?" asked Elijah.
"To kill her? To punish us?" suggested Klaus. "To learn the truth about the child? For one of any number of reasons, all of which will be rendered moot when I send her screaming back to hell."
The two brothers sped out, leaving Hilda to deal with the terrified Harvest girl in the seat.
Hilda sighed, not knowing what to do. "Look, child, I'm not going to try and take you back to wherever you came from. If I get near another witch tonight, I'm going to snap and rip some bloody heads off. So off you go, figure it out."
Cassie didn't care if Hilda led her back or not. Clearly, she just wanted to get out as soon as possible. As soon as the Original pointed her toward the exit to the Compound, she ran off, and Hilda let out a frustrated growl.
Kol was back. Finn was back. Esther was back and now in another body. Mikael was under Davina's control and had the White Oak stake.
She needed to speak with Alaric, but there was no time. Just as she pulled out her phone to dial his number, Hayley returned, out of breath.
"Your mother is a fucking psycho," she panted.
Hilda sighed. "Yeah... I know."