So in case there is a lot of confusion later on in the story, I changed the number of Dream Reapers from fifty to ninety million. I know, drastic change, but I figured that since they've been around for thousands of years - since humans first existed - then obviously they have a fairly large number.
Hope you like it. :)
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Chapter Ten
The next morning, when Elijah came down the stairs and to the main foyer, he was met by Vanessa. She was instructing a servant to prepare for "the doors" to be opened at eight o'clock that night. The servant hurried off, glancing up at Elijah with slightly nervous eyes before rushing down the hallway.
Vanessa turned to him, and plastered on a fake smile. "Ah, Mr. Mikaelson. I trust you slept well?"
Elijah blinked a few times, then narrowed his eyes. "Yes. I did. And you?"
She smiled a little wider. "I did, thank you."
"Where, if I may ask, has Avarice gone?"
Her smile fell, only for a moment, before she returned it as quickly as it had gone. "She has gone out for a little while. Not to worry, she will be back later tonight."
"Yes..." he hummed. "Eight o'clock, if I heard correctly?"
He saw the corners of her lips twitch a little. She clearly hadn't thought that anyone had heard her. "Yes, sir. Eight o'clock."
He nodded to her, then started heading to the dining room.
Avarice was hiding something. He wondered what it was, but decided that he had no right to question her. They were still living because of her; the only thing they needed to do was show their gratefulness.
Aspin and Levi did not join them for breakfast. When Rebekah asked Vanessa why, she explained that they didn't actually live with Avarice, but that they did spend a large amount of time there. When his siblings questioned where Avarice was, he told them that he had been informed that she would return later on.
Two mornings the Mikaelson's had been in the castle, and two mornings Avarice had not joined them.
Even though he knew it was not his right to ask, he still wanted to know. What exactly was their saviour hiding from them?
*
When Avarice knocked on the door, she knew that Hayley would be very surprised. After all, Avarice had cloaked the house completely. No one could see it unless they were Avarice, Mary, Hope, or Hayley. And Avarice wasn't supposed to come back yet.
"Avarice," Hayley said, blinking a few times before pulling the door open all the way to let her in. "I thought you weren't coming back for another week. Didn't you say you could only come once a week?"
She smiled a little."Ah, I said I wouldn't be. I never said I couldn't come back."
"So, why the change of mind, then?" she asked, shutting the door.
Avarice swallowed a little. She didn't quite know how Hayley would feel about what she was going to do. Not that Avarice was planning on telling her. At least, not until the deed was done.
"Well, your daughter needs her family back as soon as possible. I have the cures for Rebekah and Freya, so I decided that I would try them now so that I would have enough time to make adjustments if they happened to fail."
Hayley's eyes widened a little as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You already have Rebekah and Freya's cures? You've gotta be joking."
The corners of her lips twitched upwards a little. "I would not joke about something as important as this, my dear."
Hayley was quiet for a second, then nodded. "All right, well... I guess I'll show you were the attic is. That's where I've put them for the time being."
Avarice nodded in reply.
A few minutes later, Hayley was gone from the attic, while Avarice stared down at the four coffins that took up nearly the entire space.
She went to Freya's first. She had created a cure herself, and had it in a covered syringe she had placed in her pocket. She injected the nearly black serum into Freya's wrist, where Avarice could then hear it travel throughout her blood.
Her senses were nearly as strong as that of the Mikaelson's, and like them, she quickly learned to control them. Unlike the Mikaelson's, however, Avarice did not remember being a human. In fact, she was almost convinced that she never even was in the first place. One day, she just... Existed. She wasn't changed, she was created.
She and the Mikaelson's were more alike, and she had realized this the more she watched them.
She was frightened of losing everyone, just like Niklaus. She was protective of everyone she loved like Elijah. She was stubborn like Freya. And she was the girl who loved too much, just like Rebekah.
Avarice focused on Freya's body, which was quite honestly grotesque. The poor girl's body had been through a great deal since she had been poisoned. Her cheeks and eye sockets were sunken in, and her skin was much lighter than it should have been. She was so pale that she looked like she was supposed to be a spirit rather than a witch.
As the serum rushed throughout Freya's frame, her skin seemed to gain new layers. Her eye sockets seemed to raise and her cheekbones seemed to sink, making her face go straight back to the way it had been before she had been harmed. Her skin colour changed to the colour it had been before, and her heart seemed to beat faster.
Freya was cured. Now on to Rebekah.
She closed Freya's coffin, and then went to Rebekah's. Rebekah certainly looked better than her sister, except for the rather large red and white mark that mutilated her left wrist. The mark looked more like a scar, and was shaped in the form of a skull with a pair of very, very long vampire fangs.
Avarice's job was to take souls away and carry them somewhere else. Now, what was to stop her from taking magic from a person and putting it into someone else?
She took Rebekah's wrist into her hand, covering the mark with her palm while her fingers wrapped all the way around it. Her wrist seemed thin in Avarice's hand. Hopefully, not for long.
She reached deep into Rebekah's soul, finding the centre of her power. Rebekah was strong.
Avarice liked to think of it as searching through a thousand pieces of string. Only one had what she was looking for, and she needed to scan through each and every little string to find the one she needed.
When she finally found the piece of Rebekah's soul that she needed, she stole it away from her. She absorbed it and let it run through her own veins wildly, like a surge of an illness or poison that rushed throughout her entire body.
She felt it fade from Rebekah, and when it was gone at last, and yanked her hand away. She fell back against the casket, sitting on the floor for a few moments. She took deep breaths, feeling her brain pulse within her skull and her bones ache.
Rebekah was cured as well.
She stood with a minor bit of difficulty, closed the casket lid, and left the attic. Hayley was downstairs with Hope, who was playing with the rattle that Avarice had given her.
"Hey, are you all right?" Hayley asked, quickly standing and rushing over to her. "You look sick. Really sick."
"Don't you worry about me, Hayley," Avarice said, chuckling a little. "I'm perfectly fine. At least, I will be once I get home and rest for a while."
Hayley looked concerned, but then was quick to ask about her family. "So... You did it? You cured Freya and Rebekah?"
She nodded. "Yes, I believe so. If not, then we certainly have enough time to try something else."
Hayley was reluctant, almost insisting that Avarice stay for a little while longer and rest, but Avarice told her that it was better she get back to her world as quickly as she could.
And so, she went back to the Reaper's World, making sure to pull her sleeve down over her left wrist as far as she possibly could.