Chapter Twenty
Ajal was a frightening man. He was intimidating, even to Elijah.
But now, as Elijah watched him, he saw nothing but pain. Speaking of the death of his friends was, of course, difficult. It would be for anyone. Even so, Elijah was surprised to see the so-called King of Death so very downtrodden at only memories. Then again, he knew just how damaging such memories could be.
Elijah was silent, and Ajal continued.
"In the year 917 AD, the Nightmares attacked. The Seven were at Kaige's castle, and it took them by surprise. No one saw it coming, and no one really knows exactly what happened except for Kaige and Avarice. She has never spoken about it to me, but Kaige has," Ajal said, his eyes seeming to fade. He spoke, but seemed as if he was not fully paying attention as he did not meet Elijah's eyes. "I responded the same way as you, you know. When he went to speak with me about what had happened, I was very closed off and angry with him. I wanted nothing to do with him and I did not want an explanation, but in the years following the incident, I began to understand his reasoning."
Elijah still stayed quiet. He wondered if he, too, would understand Kaige's reasoning. He wondered if he would take Avarice's side in this situation, or if he would see things from Kaige's point of view as he often did with Klaus.
"When they were separated, the mares were too strong. As it turned out, when mares touch the reapers, they do not die like you or your family members would. They go insane. They lose their minds."
"Would the same happen to Avarice?" Elijah asked.
He had hoped that Ajal would not hear the concern that lingered in his tone, but from the way his eyebrow cocked ever so slightly, Elijah knew that Ajal was fully aware of how he felt.
Ajal nodded. "Yes, it would. After the Seven were attacked, the four who had been touched by the mares seemed perfectly fine. But then it got worse."
"How so?"
"The four were not fine. They were the opposite. When the Seven went their separate ways, going back home for the majority of the year, the four who had been touched slowly began to lose their minds. Then they began to talk to each other, communicate and speak of what their thoughts. They realized that they were of like mind and then began to speak of what they wished to do. They decided that the Seven were the only reapers that should exist. In doing so, they decided to kill all of the reapers they had created in the thousands of years they had existed."
"How did Avarice find out?"
"She noticed that they were acting odd. She intercepted a message being passed between Bila and Eric. She warned Kaige and Jagger, then went to the mortal world to find a way to save them."
"Did she? Did she find a way?" Elijah asked, becoming more immersed in the story. It was beginning to remind him of the way Avarice acted with his family.
Ajal nodded. "Yes. It had turned out that there was only one way to do it, and it involved absorbing the magic. She would take the dark magic that was hidden within their blood and morph it into her own, both strengthening herself and saving them. I don't know the details, but she had a ritual done that made her into a siphoner. That's most likely how she managed to take away Rebekah's curse and felt the affects afterwards. She absorbed it into her own body."
Elijah had heard of the siphoners. They were each of a similar bloodline, so it was surprising that Avarice was able to make their power her own.
Ajal suddenly looked uncomfortable, and looked down at his feet.
"I don't know how, but one of them found out what Avarice was doing. They went to Kaige and confronted him. When they threatened to go to the mortal world and kill Avarice for not leaving them be with their goals, he lost it."
Elijah swallowed. He had suspected, from what Aspin, Levi, and Ajal had told him, that Kaige cared for Avarice in a way that she was not willing to say aloud. It seemed he was right to suspect it.
"Kaige always cared about her. And when he heard them threaten her life, he reacted badly. I was not there and did not witness him killing them myself, but all I know is that when Avarice came back, he had his scythe in his hand and was covered in their blood. She has told me many times before that my intervention was the only reason she did not kill him right that very moment."
Elijah was silent. What on earth was he supposed to say to that?
"And now, Mr. Mikaelson, you know why I have pardoned him, and why Avarice has not. I have forgiven him because I care for Avarice and would never wish her dead. She has not forgiven him because when faced with the choice of trading her life for theirs, she would give hers in a heartbeat. That is simply who she is. And that is why she will always hate Kaige for what he has done."
Elijah continued being quiet, but then nodded. "I see," was all he could seem to say.
He nodded. "Now you know. So, tell me, Mr. Mikaelson... What exactly will you do with this knowledge?"
Hell if he knew.
*
The blood on his hands was dark. For a moment, she had hoped that it was a human's blood, or maybe that it was the dust of a mare, but she knew it wasn't. It was the colour of her own blood. Dark like the night sky.
Her hands stayed on the handles of the two doors as she looked him in the eyes. He was staring at the ground, his scythe and hands dripped from the blood that covered them. His loose white shirt had been stained black.
She refused to look at them. She didn't want to feel sadness now. She only wanted to feel rage.
Even so, she did look at them, and felt her breath get caught in her throat. She had to raise a hand to her mouth in order to stop herself from gasping aloud. The other hand gripped the handle of the door much harder, and she knew she was not far from snapping it off completely.
Their blood coated the tile floor, and the light from the chandelier above them made the liquid shine as if it were oil. But it wasn't. It was the life-force of her friends, poured in puddles on the floor and scattered in splotches on Kaige's clothes.
"What have you done?" she asked, her voice low.
His head snapped up, and with the slightest movement of his palm, his scythe retracted and vanished from his hand.
"What have you done?" she repeated, feeling her eyes begin to sting.
Her voice cracked as if she hadn't used it in a century.
"Bring them back," she ordered.
It was futile to even ask. She knew that even if he wanted to, he could never do it. And neither could she.
"I said, bring them back!" she shouted, the rage filling her and making her arms shake.
She went forwards, and the closer to him she got, the closer she got to the blood. She stepped in it, not willing to avoid it if it meant straying further away from him. Her pace quickened, and right before she reached him, Ajal grabbed her from the side.
He held her arms at her sides as she shook and thrashed wildly, screaming for him to let her go. All the while, Kaige didn't even bother to move. His eyes glimmered from the tears that had flooded them.
She hadn't realized that she was crying until she felt a tear fall onto her arm, which she had attempted at reaching out to Kaige before Ajal pulled it back down and restrained her again.
"I will never forgive you," she said through clenched teeth.
Kaige only stared at her, not moving from his spot and staying silent. He hadn't said a single word.
"Never!" she screamed as loudly as she could.
Avarice jolted awake, her eyes wide and feeling as if she had not gotten enough air into her lungs. Her body tensed when she felt a cold hand on her left shoulder, and she quickly jumped up.
With only a few movements, she had pushed the person touching her to the bed, and was straddling them with her hands at their wrists. She had pinned them down in fear of who it was.
The fear that it was Kaige.
Instead, she was staring down at a very surprised Elijah.
She sat back up, slowly letting go of his wrists sitting up straight. She was still straddling him, and was too deep in shock to even comprehend it.
She kept on getting flashes of them within her own mind. She kept seeing their bodies with Kaige standing over them, but in her own thoughts, she didn't imagine him as horrified as she was. She imagined him smiling.
Elijah went to sit up too, which was a bit of a struggle with her still on top of him. But then she got off, and sat on the other side of the bed. Then she curled in on herself, holding her hands at her waist. She acted as if she wanted to vanish away from sight, and in reality, it was exactly what she wanted to do.
Her tears continued to run, but she was silent. She did not make a sound.
She didn't look back at him. Not even when she felt him lay down behind her. Not even when she felt his arm drape across her waist and pull her close so that he could tell her it was going to be all right. Not even when she seemed to tighten even more, and clutched his hand like it was the only thing keeping her grounded.
In a way, it was.
She drifted off to sleep with him holding her.
She did not have a single nightmare while she slept.