Pennsylvania 1013
With eyes set upon the picture of a grassy plain and lit fire embers that swarmed like fireflies, the dark sky was overwhelmed by the glowing lights. Set around the logs that were burning pyres, a humbly dressed woman - a witch no doubt, her hands circled flames, making them inflame more, her face was painted with long lines of red, her hair as black as the night sky tied up tight behind her back before it was cut from her and fed to the fire, then she began chanting an array of words that made no sense to him, but his mother was once like the woman who lay in plain sight before him. This must mean something, he imagined.
Elijah stood still before the pure as the woman surrounded by red lines turned her eyes to face him. Suddenly, her changing had stopped and she and the rest of her people formed an armada around him. Their fire made him remember the times that he and his family slept by the warm flames on cold nights and danced around the embers to worship the gods and offer them what little they could. Though he was no longer like the people who swarmed round him like clansmen with their wooden spears and wooden birches - hoping it might keep him away. Human fear takes its toll when something beyond understanding rests in the presence of those with a soul given by the gods.
He was pardoned and granted the salutations of the witch who now stood before him; she was not particularly tall, barely within width of his chest, her hair that had just been thrown to the flames now her crowned head bore a picture of baldness, her skin was pale and her bones were visible it was as though her life was fleeting fast.
"You are him?"She asked, her voice was deep.
"My name ... is Elijah Mikaelson." he spoke, looking all around him.
"We've been expecting you." another young girl appeared through the crowd.
Elijah looked at her, his face was like ice that had melted from the look of Tatia. Very much alive.
Her beauty was a sight to behold, but a wound was reopened and it was like she were salt feeling the cut and making it fester pain deeply incised. She never moved another step, yet Elijah irresistibly came to gesture at her with his hand almost within touch of the skin on her cheeks that were cold in spite of the warmth of fire that was touching everyone standing close. She showed him no emotion, but the look of death. Elijah had not found it in himself to forgive what he had done to his one love. It was his wish to maybe rewrite the wrongs of the last, but something else told him that tonight had a much deeper purpose for him.
"Elijah." the young witch spoke to him. "You were brought here tonight, so that I could tell you something."
Elijah forgot about Tatia, and watched in bewilderment at the girl. Witches had shunned him and his family for years, but now tonight, a witch had actually spoke to him and insisted to help him. If tonight might alter his fate, it would bring him the peace he yearned for.
"Show me." he showed her his trust.
"Follow me." she led him to the centre of the pyre.
Tatia stood behind the two of them, her expression hadn't changed, but her hand had taken a hold over his before he was lead to the eruptions of flames. His gaze turned towards her, she nested her head on his chest in comfort, Elijah felt consoled as she let him lay a kiss on the tip of her forehead.
"Do what's right." she whispered to him.
Elijah followed the young which as she called him to stand beside her. The fires embers began to swarm and touch his skin, roasting him like an offering or a meal for the people surrounding him. The young girl touched the side of his face and bent her neck to the side revealing a line of blood, it was quite clear; she wanted to die, she wanted Elijah to drink her blood. If it was her wish, how could he refuse her? He drank, suddenly everyone's throats became torn out as the blood seeped from their veins, Elijah stopped as the girl tripped and cast herself into the fire, her body incinerated as everyone else's went up in flames consecutively. Only one body did not, in the back from every other one, Elijah noticed his neck bloody and his life dying, his willpower brought him to the corpse in a matter of seconds, his eyes were still blinking open, but he had nothing to do to save his life.
"You can save him." Tatia spoke from behind.
She was still alive. Kneeling beside Elijah, she brought him his wrist, gesturing with her teeth to bite, his fangs gushed blood from his arm, draping the blood of his skin to the mans mouth, he drank from him as the wound on his neck healed. Slowly, he started to breathe again, Elijah rejoiced at the good he'd done, but it was short lived as his body incinerated, like all the others, Elijah watched in horror. When the flames had all burnt, the body of the last man lay as a pile of black cinders. Elijah closed his eyes in vain. Coughing woke him up, the man's body regained life as the cinders fell from his face, Elijah observed with relief at the miraculous revival of the man who's life he'd saved with just a sip of his own vampire blood. It puzzled him that his blood could bring back life into any human who drank from and then died with the blood still running through their system. His eyes turned back to face Tatia, but she was gone. Had she just been a ghost, he imagined.
Elijah watched as the man's eyes opened and his skin was covered with black soot. Whoever he was, Elijah suddenly realised that the bite on his wrist had healed again just as his wounds were healing. He was no human anymore, Elijah realised.
"You did what was right." Tatia was standing behind him again.
Elijah wondered where she'd disappeared to, but was too distracted by her joy. Her hair was drawn back to reveal another line of blood stretching from her neck.
"No." Elijah begged.
"Don't fear, this is what's meant to be, I'm supposed to be dead, remember, but my life, this time will pay for the survival of another." Tatia bent and offered the man her blood.
He fed without remorse, Tatia didn't scream like how Elijah remembered when her life was taken by his hand. She fell not so soon after, Elijah caught her as she breathed, her eyes grew tired and were closing slowly.
Elijah held onto her hand in her last breath, her mind opened up to him and he was shown their first kiss, watching in the distance. Tatia held his hand by his side.
"Remember ... I will always love you." she finished before kissing him in their vision.
Back in the real world, Elijah held her close, now Tatia was gone, taken from him again. Her hair formed a face around him as a tear streamed from his eye, the blood on her neck was clear as the night sky, it rested on his face. His progeny rose from the ground in an ash of attire. He breathed heavily.
"Stop, you don't have to be afraid. I can help you." Elijah offered.
The man's face was visible again.
"Am I like you now?" his voice was calm.
"What's your name?" Elijah asked him.
"It's Tristan. Tristan de Martel."
*****
Pennsylvania 2013
"You brought me here for a reason." Elena looked at the witch with grim eyes.
She watched in bewilderment at the strong will that Elena exhibited. It pained her not that she could be shown the strength of a girl who'd suffered a lot in her long life.
"All I want to know is .. why?"
Cassie sat forward, taking another sip of her tea, like she had been doing since Elena was seated at her table. She was thwarted by Elena's strength as she threw the thin table against her, Cassie dropped her cup and let it smash in two. Smearing her face with the napkin that lay across her lap, Cassie sat back and stared deviously at her.
"Well, that was very immature." Cassie remarked.
Elena pressed her back against her seat.
"You know, I'm not the one who brought you here, you decided to come upon receiving my call." Cassie informed.
Elena bowed her head slightly, knowing that she was right. After being cured of her own vampirism, it struck her that who she'd become when she turned was still with her - maybe this was always who she was and the vampirism only enhanced it. She used to be, and still was kind, caring and compassionate, as Elijah Mikaelson had once told her:
"Your compassion is a gift, Elena. Carry it with you ... Always and Forever." she recited in her mind.
Elena offered Cassie her own cup of tea, the room was clear and empty now that Cassie had sent her staff away. Cassie drew the cup and drank her tea without hesitation. At least she hadn't caused any irreparable harm.
"Follow me." Cassie said, stepping up from the table.
Elena gave her hand to Cassie, she held it with trust. The two of them walked the humble home before coming to the attic room where two doors larger than any were closed; handles as solid gold in a round doorknob shape were the entry to the other side. Just turning the knob wasn't enough.
"They've been spelled shut. Only I can open them." Cassie raised her hand on the door and quietly spoke, maybe chanted until the door creaked open slightly.
The room revealed an empty bedchamber, no light was to be seen, all but an empty bed with dust and cobwebs was all that could be seen. Cassie stood in the centre of the black circle that signified the burn of a flame. It finally occurred to Elena what this was all about. She hadn't just came as for some call from an anonymous source, but from a dream she'd had one night where she was another doppelganger and saw that an entire horde of people were burned from the death of one witch - a witch who was standing in front of her now. Cassie burned herself and an entire horde, all but one who was saved by the noble Elijah Mikaelson, but in the end her shadow lost her life to help Elijah save the life of a young man. Yet, here she was now, Cassie had clearly prepared whatever Elena was here for today for a reason.
"I think I understand it all now." Elena recalled.
Cassie came back, carrying with her a vial of darkness.
"Drink." Cassie ordered her after handing her it.
"Why me?" Elena asked.
"You are the only one who can see what you're about to see." Cassie popped the vial open.
"Bottoms up." Elena jested before drinking.
As she swallowed, she felt her eyes wither and lose her vision of Cassie and the room, it caused her panic, her eyes were nothing, they couldn't see anything, not until her vision became filled with a view of a tree whose oak was so white it could even be drawn upon. A white oak tree, no doubt. Only, the Originals had burned the old white oak tree and all that remained was an indestructible white oak stake that was crafted by their mother Esther. Her mind drifted quickly from the vision of the tree to a witch who held the stake above her head and turned it to ash - destroying the one stake that could kill the Originals, it was never indestructible. But did this mean that they are truly immortal, that nothing could kill them?
Back to the tree, Elena saw a memorial stone that rested just beneath the branches - no leaves had grown or fallen from the humble oak of the pale tree in years, but here she found a stone where the names of five Mikaelsons lay carved into the stone. This was their memorial, that meant that they were in danger and death was coming to take them away.
Elena focused as the tree vanished and her eyes showed her Cassie and the room where they both stood.
"Now do you understand? A thousand years ago, I gave my life to set the course for the Originals, Elijah turned his first vampire, Tristan de Martel, and that day was a day the Mikaelsons sealed their own fate." Cassie came to Elena with eyes that were both proud and concerned.
"The Mikaelsons will all die if what I just saw is true." Elena retorted.
"What did you see?" Cassie wondered.
"I saw a white oak tree with a stone that had their names carved in."
Cassie drew a knife from her sleeve and placed in on Elena's shoulder.
"You know this, you can see all that was, all that could be. Now go, deliver this message, and beware, for this must never fall into the wrong hands. There may be many who will seek you out for their own desires. Be careful, and stay strong." Cassie finished by cutting her throat with the knife.
Elena caught hold of her body before she hit the floor. Cassie's blood dripped onto the spot where the flame had once burned.
Alone in a dark room, Elena spoke to herself inside her mind that if what she now knew was the truth, it meant death and destruction, countless lives would be at stake, many of her friends were in jeopardy, and now only she could help alter what was to come. New Orleans awaited her, if that was where this future was to be taken.
Yet, how was it that she had a part in all of this, and now she was heading in the direction of Elijah Mikaelson.