a/n: Sorry for the chapter title swaps - and sorry if the flashbacks feel confusing.
They're v out of order, but I'm placing them based on story relevance rather than Maci Canon/timeline order. Hope ya enjoy x
Comment and vote <3
Bea

"Leaving a police precinct is not where I expected to run into you," Lucien started.

"Were you trying to run into me?"

"I was going to send that little item to The Compound and hope an invitation to a Halloween bash would give us a chance to talk," He countered, "Though I guess this – "

Daytime New Orleans.

"Makes for slightly easier communication."

Rather than blaring music and costumes.

"Suspect or victim?" He joked.

"Something of both," MJ glanced at a magazine stand on a corner, "You keep up with the news?"

"Some terrible murders."

"Terrible indeed."

"That you all already believe me the culprit of."

"You would be the perfect candidate."

"I've read up on it," Lucien reasoned, "Poor men – though, perhaps that's bad phrasing on my part. They were all anything but poor in life."

MJ narrowed her eyes.

"You all point fingers at me, but I might become the next target."

She raised an eyebrow.

"Look at my cufflinks!" He held out his arms, gold shining, "My Shoes. All in line with them."

"Then it's a good thing you have a healing factor."

"One could say the same about you, yet two originals were still running around trying to locate a man targetting you."

"So you know about that."

"Elijah mentioned everything you were dealing with."

MJ tilted her head, "Elijah?"

"When he came to me."

"Didn't Elijah come to you after you'd been eavesdropping on my friends?"

Lucien clicked his teeth.

"Where they were talking about everything?"

Silence.

"Something about me," MJ looked towards him as they walked, "I'm what some would call a bridge."

He chuckled.

"I got caught up on everyone's nights over the past week. Got the timeline in order. Elijah saying you played dumb about Levi being in town with him too when you would've heard everyone else talking."

"And you think one small slip-up makes me a liar?"

"I think you're working really hard to craft a specific narrative."

"Food for thought," He stopped walking, gesturing to a café a few doors down, "If I'd had any familiarity with what you were all dealing with that night? Elijah would've taken that as the end of the story, blamed it all on me, and possibly killed me."

MJ had to consider that.

Her phone beeped.

A concerned message from Kol.

"I know how it feels, Mira," Lucien's hand came forward to guide her face away from the screen, "To let the Mikaelson lens shape how you view those around you."

She didn't like having his fingers against her chin.

Resting on the bottom of the vertical scar.

Pressing into it.

"To let it define who you are."

"I define me."

"And when you are young, it is so easy to think that."

Holding her eyes on him.

"When you are actually speaking with someone else's voice."

"I don't think you know me well enough to make a comment like that."

"I don't need to know you. I know the family."

Age was always a complicated topic with MJ.

"And I know that keeping MiMi Pasare alive and well, and in her best form, is in my best interest."

"You talk as if they manipulate me – while trying to do exactly that yourself."

"Except I was their servant once too."

"Don't you dare call me their servant."

"Aren't all witches treated like that at one time or another?"

Not incorrect.

"And Kol always tended to entertain himself with the help."

MJ slapped him, sending his hand flying back down to his side.

He turned his head back to face her, fighting off a smile, "I always did like a bit of fire."

"For someone who wanted to make a better impression," MJ noticed the pedestrians, "You're doing a shockingly bad job."

Glancing them at the half-attack.

"And for someone who wants to seem like an ally, you're bad-mouthing them a lot."

"Not bad-mouthing," Lucien rebutted, "Being honest."

"So 'honest,'" MJ nodded, "Claiming to not be killing citizens in my safe places when it matches your trauma."

"Ah," Lucien took a step forward, queueing them to walk, "So you think you know my story."

"Pieces."

"Can you truly know anything when your source isn't the person himself?"

She shook her head but continued to walk with him, approaching the café.

"Miss Pasare – "

"Why call me that?" She didn't like it, "You know my name, so why 'Pasare.'"

"Is it not the name you wanted the world to know you by?"

"When I was seventeen, trying to hide," MJ lifted her chin, "Castle though – something tells me that's not your real one either."

"What else would it be?"

"Projection," She scanned the window of the café, "You were a servant. In a castle. Resentful to your superiors – "

"Should I not have been?"

"If you're looking for sympathy about how hard you, a white man, had it through history, you are preaching at the entirely wrong person."

"Poor had more in common with – "

"No," MJ hated that take, "Thinking you know the pain of something literally created to lift you up just because you grew up poor is insulting to the actual systemic issues in society. You know Selene."

"A Princess in our court."

"And how did the Mikaelsons meet her?" MJ crossed her arms, "By seeing her captured as some ethnic spy and having to literally scream for respect."

Yes, MJ knew that the past wasn't kind to people.

There was a reason she initially poked holes in Kol's comment about her in a previous era before she'd realised what he was trying to say. The romanticisation of eras was bad. Period pieces on TV were highly unrepresentative of what it would've been like. But there was a difference between knowing Lucien suffered, feeling sympathy for that, and allowing him to keep on the path he was.

He was trying to make her connect with him by making parallels that were not there.

"You were mistreated," MJ forced herself to say it, "And by all means – eat the rich."

He laughed.

"My issue is that your little displays are fucking with things."

"Again, who says it is me?"

MJ really looked at him.

The complete adamance he wasn't the culprit.

"You want to retell me your story?" MJ motioned to the café door, "Fine."

How can you beat your enemy if you don't know your enemy?

There was a difference between letting him tell her 'his version' and allowing him to force a connective string between them.

She wouldn't let herself be tricked by Lucien.

THE VAMPIRES
A Gentleman Calls

"Just because I am a ruthless killer does not mean that is all I am."

MJ and Lucien sat in the café, the small bag he'd given her on the floor by her feet, a tiny yellow painted vase in the middle, a single piece of lavender poking out of it, her senses strong enough to only need that one piece to feel slightly calmer. The menu had been pressed down on his side of the table, both having already ordered, MJ letting him somewhat ramble.

"I did suffer as a human."

MJ tapped her fingers.

"My father set my fate," He specified, "No child should carry the weight of their parent's mistakes."

She swallowed slowly.

"I am not one to take my anger out on those simply tied to the people who caused it. It isn't fair."

"And yet you loiter around, following the allies of your sire."

"My intrigue in Nik's human friend is not out of threat, manipulation, or ill intent."

"But you do have an interest in her?"

"Camille O'Connell seems to be having even more problems with the police than you."

"That might be true."

"I couldn't help but notice one of their little officers following me this morning."

MJ tried not to tense.

If that was true, and one was still trailing him, her name would be pulled back into the mix, and Kinney would not consider that a coincidence. Not with Levi dying, after he'd already pointed out how all the people who'd hurt her died.

"Such a clearly supernatural problem, yet they chase the last human standing in the Mikaelson circuit?"

"Only the last mortal standing if you don't count witches as human."

He shifted, "Bad phrasing."

"Yep."

"I repeat, none of my intrigue in any of you is because of ill intent."

"Okay."

"Everyone I see here is one and the same."

Beyond MJ and Cami, she knew he'd technically been scoping out Marcel – and he knew about Vincent, Hayley, and Jackson.

"Souls caught in the orbit of the Mikaelson Family, yet somehow surviving to tell the tale."

"Just about," MJ watched as a server appeared with their drinks, offering a smile as it was placed down, then staring at the chocolate powder shape on top of her cappuccino, "Only just made it."

"The brothers said," He waited until the human had returned to the counter, "Neither turned you. Meaning, Elijah?"

He was watching her blank expression.

"Rebekah?"

"None of your business."

"Smart," He smiled, "Or dangerous."

MJ picked up the tiny silver spoon to break the foam.

"The sire line is automatic kinship."

"I'm not looking for kin; I'm looking for people who can see beyond themselves," She clarified, "It doesn't matter who my sire is. I don't want any sire line destroyed."

"Because, you see the point I was making," He leant forward, "One in the same."

She just scooped the foam up, placing it in her mouth.

"Each of us has our share of scars."

Bubbles across her tongue.

"Some more permanent than others."

"In all honesty," MJ used the opening, "You're lucky."

"Hm?"

"Your odds?" She tried to seem unbothered, "Ten centuries and only eight romantic partners weren't murdered for loving them. Being just their server probably saved your life."

Lucien snorted.

"And they gave you a way to heal your scars before they could be made permanent."

He was locked in a stare-off with her.

"Tristan De Martel did the same cuts on our victims, on you."

"I met the Mikaelsons at their most rampant," He didn't let her divert him.

"Sure you did," MJ let herself look amused.

"Nowhere to go, feeding – murdering everyone they could, no understanding for their abilities."

"You met them at their weakest," She corrected, "Most desperate. Not rampant. Rampant means unrestrained.'"

"Desperate people are often the most dangerous."

"The point of this story?" MJ tapped the table, "You trusted them, and then you and Klaus liked the same woman. Not the most original backstory."

She'd seen it a few too many times to find it anywhere close to interesting.

Lucien could've sacrificed himself for Klaus when Mikael arrived, putting Klaus in an actually conflicting position where Lucien seemed to have cared more for him than his family. Reappearing now, making killing him that much harder. Making the division between Elijah and himself that much more prominent.

But no.

Once again, MJ was back to the same old love triangle, and she just did not care anymore.

Out of all of history, how had the Mikaelson managed to find the most basic cardboard man to somehow make necessary?

Where was the flavour?

The intrigue?

The difference to justify the level of supposed importance?

"So you know of others locked up and tortured."

"Like four or five of them."

"For love?"

Considering how Damon blamed everything on falling for Katherine, "Yeah."

Or Mason getting tortured cos of Katherine.

Caroline and the wolves because she cared about Tyler.

Elena, after killing the hunter because of her sire bond to Damon.

Damon and Enzo with Augustine.

Stefan, after every ripper bender?

"And they didn't even have Klaus swooping in to try and save them."

"Try being the key word," Lucien didn't sound resentful, "Unable to because Kol had left them vulnerable to manipulation."

"Sure," MJ knew that was an oversimplification, "But Selene came to your aid."

"I've always quite liked witches."

"But Tristan still cut you up pretty bad," MJ ignored the comment, "And now you recreate that pain on other people."

"I share a deeply personal tale of woe," Lucien's face was blank, "One meant to garnish sympathy and inspire kinship – yet all you take away is an admission of guilt."

"Your arrival in town is a little too in-sync with everything going wrong."

"Uh," He rolled his eyes, "Okay."

A hoarse laugh.

"Given that you seem incapable of comprehending a sophisticated solution allow me to posit an equally simple one."

MJ wanted to slap him again.

"These murders are an attempt to disparage my good name, thus poisoning me against the one person I came here to protect."

"Klaus," MJ knew that'd be his route.

"If someone wants to weaken my ability to protect Niklaus," Lucien started to sip his coffee, "Perhaps it's because they would like to see him dead?"

She allowed the 'bait,' "When was the last time you saw Tristan?"

"No idea."

"Supernatural memory not work the way it used to?"

"I don't have any interest in remaining in contact with him," He placed the cup back down, "I don't meet him deliberately; therefore, I have no idea when I last ran into him and his little gang of vampires."

MJ had never liked gangs of vampires previous to Diego's group.

"You say everything aligns with my arrival," He shook his head, "Have you not noticed the number of new faces lurking around you."

Her neck felt cold, "He's here too."

"Obviously," He nodded, "The Strix."

The people Pri had told her about when MJ and Kol had gone to New York.

"I've spotted a few of them since my arrival, and while I have done nothing but present myself to you, they have evaded."

An annoyingly good point.

"Almost like they are hiding something. You mentioned murders happening in a triangle?"

So he'd been eavesdropping then too.

"What do you know of The Strix?"

"Enough."

"Meaning?"

"Selene threw Tristan through a window for suggesting she joined. It was created by Elijah to build a community of undead, but he abandoned it because of what it became."

"That's the reason he gives?" Lucien's lips twitched, "Elijah only left out of loyalty to Niklaus. Now that loyalty is removed, I think you'll find he'll fit right back in."

"You keep talking allusively – like I couldn't just force my way into your mind right now."

"Hardly respectful of you," He sipped again, "Don't you support a right to privacy in our own heads?"

MJ didn't want to do it, given her history, but she would if she had.

"I am innocent. And I will continue this conversation for as long as it takes for you to believe that."

"You don't care about me believing that," MJ shut down, "You care about Klaus."

He shrugged.

"And if you've done your research, you'll know I matter to him."

"And therefore gaining your approval is the key to gaining his?" Lucien shook his head, "You need to stop selling yourself so short."

MJ narrowed her eyes.

"You are MiMi Pasare. I am talking to you because I want to know you."

"What's so interesting about me?"

"Your species? Your history? Your different names?" He listed, "What isn't?"

"Let me make something clear," She tried to sound as bored as he had earlier, "MiMi Pasare is a persona. Any background research you've done based on it is completely curated to paint me a certain way."

"I may have read through the information, but who says I'm basing my intrigue on that?"

"The way you keep bringing it up."

"Oh," His chin tilted down, "I've known about you long before your presence became what it is now, MiMi Ruiz."

She narrowed her eyes.

"That little girl mattered to some important people."

The list of people who called her that was short.

"You really should reach out to Maci," He dangled the information, "She threw quite the fit about what happened to you. Had to talk her out of the retaliation massacre that would have cost New York its supernatural society."

MJ stilled.

"I only put two-and-two together the other night."

Her mind felt like it had fallen off a cliff, processing the fact Lucien's first impression of her was the knowledge she'd been attacked by two vampires and buried alive. Almost powerless to stop it. Skin crawling at the word.

She was practically the most powerful woman in the country now –

She didn't want to be thought of or feel powerless anymore.

He smiled at the win that was her taken aback state, "A fourteen-year-old unearthing and wiping out the entire Muller tomb?"

"What can I say," MJ's voice was low, "Got quite the resume."

"If it is any comfort to you," He softened his tone, "Time does heal all wounds."

MJ let herself slowly meet his eyes again.

"You might think I want to recreate my pain because part of you cannot fathom that one day the things that hurt you will be nothing but dust in the wind. But they will be, Mira."

"Tell that to the witches," MJ stirred her drink, "They've been holding their grudges for longer than vampires have been a thing."

"Do you?"

"Hold grudges?"

"The witch who broke the hybrid curse," He spoke the title like it was some heroic event, "A sacrifice of three people, knowing Niklaus – three innocents."

MJ let herself focus on the wall behind him.

Just above his head, so it would still look like she was focused on him.

But drifting into the pale orange splashed over bumpy brick, a photo of all the staff at a Christmas party, smiling and pulling faces at the camera, dated from the previous year. Jenna hadn't really gotten a last Christmas. She had, but not one where she understood the mess of Jeremy, Elena, and Ric's lives. Carol and MJ meant to get one, just the two of them, before her passing.

"Given the kidnapping aspect, I can assume you didn't wish to be involved."

"Joys of not really counting as a witch, I guess," MJ used her status to her gain, "Never really been good at the whole 'holding onto pain' thing. That gene must come with the natural magic store."

If she phrased it that way, maybe MJ could pretend her kindness came from it instead of so much grief making it too hard to hate everyone who'd ever hurt her.

"No matter how you phrase it or who you pretend to blame, your biggest damage is directly Klaus's fault," MJ shrugged, "He let you be blamed."

"But, unlike you," He gestured to his, "I am a representation of perfection. I was healed."

1002 AD

Klaus had done as Marceline instructed that night, adding to her hidden supplies despite the way Lucien hissed at him. But he still felt like it wasn't enough. Though Elijah headed Tristan's warning, avoiding the cellar, Klaus was determined to get back to it, leaving him to turn to the princess for help.

When she returned to dress the marks from the whips on his back, Marceline snuck him down too.

"You know it'll sting, Luci," She spoke softly, placing a long strip of linen soaked in cleansing oils and enchanted to heal over the first one, his face automatically wincing, "And open your mouth."

He'd kept it close, glaring at Klaus as he held a bowl in the corner.

"I brought you water," He lifted it towards his friend, "Drink."

Lucien finally caved, letting it go over his tongue, forced to spit it out the second it touched the cuts on his face, too much pain to swallow.

"What did he do to me?" He sobbed, fighting against the chains, "I – I – "

"Nothing I won't fix," Marceline was glaring at the blood, "I'll take you with me when I leave."

That just made Lucian cry harder, thinking of the way people would look at him, able to see the reflection of his face in the bowl.

"I am sorry, my friend," Klaus freed him from his chains to take him in his arms as Lucien sunk closer to the floor, Marceline sighing but letting them have the moment, "I am – "

He was cut off by Lucien swiping up the dagger Tristan had discarded earlier from the floor, the metal driven into his abdomen.

"Lucien!" Marceline shoved herself back, "That – "

Klaus just stood up, glaring, "Are you mad?"

He'd reacted initially, but it wasn't like there were any long-term effects.

"You know what I am!" He pulled the weapon out, "This rage is pointless."

Marceline could see Lucien's eyes fixed on the weapon, "Niklaus – "

"You cannot hurt me!" He sliced Lucien's hand himself, his own blood still on it.

"Fool!" Marceline summoned it to her hand, "That's how you infect someone!"

"I can't be infect – "

Both went silent as Lucien opened the hand curiously rather than in pain.

It had healed.

Marceline's eyes went wide as Lucien grinned, her eyes darting to Klaus, too, slightly relieved to see him as confused as she was. The family still didn't know what she and Kol had been up to together, and she hadn't thought to do anything with his blood beyond taking a small sample for magic analysis.

As their eyes moved up from the hand, they could watch as Lucien's face healed too.

"My blood healed you...?"

"I am – " Lucien backed away from Klaus in joy, "I am like you?"

"Elijah called it an affliction," Marceline whispered, "Like a disease."

And diseases spread through blood.

Lucien took the shock as confirmation, fleeing the room in glee, every wound healing up like it had never existed.

October 2013

"Of course, I wasn't," Lucien admitted, "Not yet."

MJ knew how the story ended, but it was interesting to see how he phrased it versus the Mikaelson's.

"Not that it would have mattered, anyway. All I wanted was revenge."

1002

Lucien had beelined for Aurora's chambers, knowing Tristan would've been with his sister if Marceline thought it safe to bring Klaus to him. She was facing the door while he clutched her hands, holding her close without hugging her, spinning when she gasped at the sight in the doorway. Just because Lucien had healed didn't mean the blood staining from the injuries had been washed away, leaving him like a ghoul in the night, haunting them for their mistreatment.

"Tristan!" She shrieked.

"How, by all that is damned, are you free?"

Lucien lunged at him, thinking he'd have speed and strength, only for a guard to stab a sword through his chest before contact could even be made.

He took his last living breath on the cold stone floors of that castle in France, the siblings standing over him. Tristan's face was unbothered, colour returning to it now the surprise problem was gone, Aurora welling up, trying not to react openly at the sight of a dear friend taken from her like it was nothing. For something that almost could've been viewed as her fault.

The same way everyone in the castle had painted her mother's death.

The guard repeated the gesture one final time to ensure he didn't get back up, blood puddling around him.

October 2013

Kol stood outside the doors to the large open space, watching as Elijah walked over the magically created threshold. Maybe it was wiser to have a witch just enchant your house rather than rely on some other mortal, but Kol also thought MJ's set-up was even better.

She had a protection spell, then a voice note of Tyler, her apartment in his name.

Not close enough to be killed by any vampire with common sense and raging motivation, and now a werewolf, meaning if anyone did go through the chase to find him, they'd probably end up dying and needing MJ's help.

The penthouse felt like an odd mishmash, and Kol couldn't determine whether he liked it.

"Lucien?" Elijah checked.

They couldn't hear anything, but after chasing Levi, and the sensory problems that had caused, it was always better to be safe than sorry.

"That," Kol noticed a pile-up of ingredients.

By the floor-to-ceiling windows that looked over the currently sunny city, a collection of wooden squares built together as a mix of a desk and a shelving unit. Only a little wide and not high enough to write on, but useful for placing things like drinks down or using picture frames. Each section stuffed the storage beneath with books and trinkets, a few glasses over the surface to show he didn't tidy up after himself.

"This?" Elijah pointed to the layout, "Indicates a spell."

"Indeed," Kol tried not to laugh at the declaration, "Bring them to me."

"I do not have that many hands."

"Then tell me what they are," He leant on the doorframe.

"A single glass," Elijah clicked something, "If we follow Niklaus's story, he was brought here, the witch made a drink for herself, and then he drank her blood."

"Meaning she is not a natural prophet," Kol declared, "But blood is part of the make-up of whatever spell she is using."

"The flowers," Elijah crouched down to look at them closer, "Anemones and marigolds."

"Bring me the cup," Kol narrowed his eyes, "Floromancy has always been an odd one."

Elijah did as instructed.

"Anemones indicate something coming to an end; marigold is meant to simplify a question. You use it to get a yes or no answer," Kol sniffed the glass, "Chamomile."

A pause.

His eyes returned to the coloured petals across the room from him.

Only one of each...

"The whole point of marigold is that you use two of them," He frowned, "Chamomile is also about giving a direction. Something will or will not type questions."

"We will be ruined; we will be not."

"What exactly was Klaus told," Kol hadn't been listening.

"That nothing lasts forever."

"Could've told you that myself."

"And that a beast will be our undoing."

Kol tilted his head, bringing the cup to his lips.

"Brother – "

He was already drinking, scrunching up his nose, then sighing in defeat, "Not poisoned. Sorry to disappoint you."

Elijah rolled his eyes.

"And I was correct; to get any visions, I need her blood."

A slight suck against his front teeth.

"Though, it's not just chamomile," He sipped again, "Bit of normal tea leaf in there, as well as a few burnt herbs – whoever the witch was tried to cover all her bases, though I can't help but question the anemones."

"You believe in prophecy."

"I believe it more than Mira," He admitted, "If a witch gives you a warning, you shouldn't ignore it."

"And yet?"

"Prophecy is complicated," Kol shrugged, "MJ's stance is based on knowing a prophet."

"How can one be a prophet if prophecy does not exist?"

"That's where the complication lies," Kol was back to scanning the room, "I've spoken to Benjiro. His attitude comes from knowing that the future has multiple paths."

Kol's mind was caught on something.

"...He told me the fate I ended up having..."

Elijah looked at him carefully, "You knew you were going to die?"

"'There are futures where you have happiness,'" Kol's voice became hesitant, "Original vampire or not."

Elijah couldn't help but note what the first part of that sentence implied Kol had asked about.

Can I be happy?

Do I get to be happy?

It felt uncharacteristic for Kol to have asked something like that, especially to someone Elijah could only dub as a near stranger, and yet?

"I thought he was just being off with the phrasing – too many vampires in his life crying about immortality. Making a joke. Like, yes, even vampires can be happy – but no! I was resurrected as a mortal, and it was only through that resurrection I got a second chance," He blinked three times, "Pause."

Shaking head.

"Does that mean I have to be human to be happy? I – " He locked eyes with Elijah, remembering who he was with, "Prophecy doesn't exist."

Elijah let himself nod.

"There are multiple options. Beni's entire point was that fixating on one outcome forces that outcome," He pointed back to the desk, "Anemones are about the end of relationships. By adding it to the mix, Lucien's witch deliberately focuses on a future where our family is ended."

Elijah let him move forward, "i.e. Spinning a tale for us."

"Exactly," Kol curled his tongue up, "Nosy among the books. Look for anything magical."

Elijah did.

Taking the glass off of him like he thought Kol might throw it...or keep drinking and somehow end up poisoned. Placing it back exactly where they'd taken it from and kneeling to flick through paper after paper. Kol pushing onto tiptoes, really not enjoying not being able to look himself.

"Nothing inherently grimoire-esque," Elijah murmured, "Leaving it so out in the open would also not be a smart course of action."

"You say that," Kol countered, "The most obvious place is often the one less searched."

He knew a silver dagger was literally sitting in MJ's apartment because she kept getting too distracted to hide it in the alt-realm with all the others. And no one had noticed. Elijah had visited her home on her birthday and had not spotted it directly on the coffee table.

"Most of these are perfectly average," Elijah repeated, pulling out everything to scan covers, "Cookery books, tracking of the stock market and housing prices. To-do lists – art books – "

Kol perked up, "Art books?"

Elijah motioned to a grainy-looking sketchbook he'd placed among the pile on the floor, continuing to pull things out.

"I want to see it."

Elijah paused to face him.

"Do I have to say please?"

"Just because," He stood up, dusting his trousers down, "This is your expertise, does not mean you can command me."

"You 'command' me all the bloody time, so yes, I can."

"Hm."

Kol snatched the book the second a corner was over the threshold.

Scanning messy pencil lines casting almost familiar shapes.

Elijah watched his eyes go from calm to bouncing, "What is it?"

"Nothing," Kol pulled out his phone, "Nothing for you, anyway."

"Kol."

"When has Lucien ever practised sketching?"

"Habits form over centuries."

"True," Kol started to take pictures of one of the pages, "But I think this'd give Nik a right laugh."

Elijah looked ready to snatch it back, "Reminder that the longer we take to find what Lucien is hiding, the longer he spends with Mira."

Kol took another picture, "Uh-huh."

"If you are hiding something from me – "

"Elijah," Kol showed the page to him, "You think this means something?"

Art almost always meant something.

And yet.

Indirect scribbles, arcs, and shadings.

"If you wish to speed up, you can continue pulling those pages out, but I physically cannot help until you find something."

Elijah sighed, returning to the shelf.

Listening to how Kol continued to turn through the thick pages, a few more pictures.

"I know you, brother," Elijah started putting the books back, "You may think you conduct business behind closed doors, but I am not stupid."

"Not a statement your actions back up, 'Lijah."

"You always have alternate informants," He ignored the diss, "What intel do you have to give those drawings relevance that I do not?"

"Almost sound jealous that people like talking to me."

Elijah leant on the tabletop, watching him, "Perhaps you are personable, but people do not stay blind to your intentions forever. Manipulation only gets you so far."

"Ha-ha."

"Maci was your longest confident, and we both know you do not seek her out anymore."

Kol closed the book, "Now you want to talk about her?"

"She was your first primary informant."

1002

The scream had instantly caught Maci's attention, even if she had only just returned to the Court.

It was the middle of the night, most fast asleep, the chapel a short walk away, adding that much more safety for the creatures of the night to use to feed. That was the excuse Maci had been given anyway. She also just had a feeling that Kol got off on feeding from nuns – the sexist little pig.

That she was somehow sitting in her assigned living quarters with.

"Bex almost fed on Aurora!" Kol looked offended, "Not fair! I've been plotting that for weeks!"

She and Elijah had been out in the local area, enjoying a chance to dine without eyes on them, only to walk right into the chaos. Elijah had been fuming, Aurora had been trembling, fleeing the sight of two of the siblings and Lucien, feasting to their heart's desires, leaving Maci to jump to action.

She'd grabbed the woman's arm, dismissed Elijah to deal with the blood of it all, and then talked Aurora into a state of sleep.

Then, she'd found Kol's feeding spot, yanked him away from the corpse he was burying – by the ear, and had her maid brew them drinks.

"Why!?" Maci complained, "The girl is such a whiner."

"Then why did you help her?"

She leaned back in her chair while Kol's feet were propped on the table before them, "Leaving her without any would've just resulted in more."

A beat.

"You're brother's taste is ridiculous; the women they claim are utter nightmares."

"You insult yourself, darling."

"Elijah does not get to claim me, nor will he ever do so."

"No claim, just a constant appearance in his bed."

She didn't respond.

Kol raised an eyebrow.

Still.

Nothing.

"Did you find a lie to explain the new one?"

Maci knew he was referring to Lucien, "She was happy to learn he wasn't dead."

"And the part where you told her that he was, in fact," Kol winked, "Beautifully murdered."

Maci didn't respond.

Kol narrowed his eyes, not used to her being quiet.

Her tired gaze had him leaning forward, "You're considering it."

"What?"

Kol held her eyes as he summoned fangs, watching how her pupils were pinned to how his face changed. The black lines across his cheeks. The turn from soft brown to black, then red. Lips to his wrist, piercing skin and holding it forward, the only thing to break her stare.

Maci shifted away.

"No need to be scared," He almost teased, moving to kneel against the table, open wound inches away from her face, "But you need to make your choice quick..."

It was healing up.

Maci swallowed nervously.

Her chest heaving up.

Holding there.

"And gone," He sat back down, "Bore."

"I wasn't thinking about that," She hissed.

"Sure you weren't."

"Why would I want to be immortal?"

He snarled, "Why would you want to die?"

"Kol," Maci leant her elbows against her knees, "I am to return home in a week or two."

His reaction haltered.

It wasn't that he'd been mad about her response.

In all honesty, Kol wasn't sure he'd felt anything other than irritation since he'd turned, but he wasn't exactly going to complain about that. The detachment gave him freedom. It was the benefit of immortality in his eyes. But he also hadn't been confronted by the idea of someone he'd gotten to know well exiting his life since he turned, either.

"A letter arrived yesterday. Who knows when the guide will arrive to escort me back."

"Why the sudden call?"

"My stay here was only ever temporary."

And, she'd initially been trying to make it as short as possible.

"You'll be left to create chaos without me, and I will return to my duties."

"Meaning?"

"My home is complicated," She hadn't spoken to Kol about it, "There's a man who fancies himself my future husband."

Kol knew the French Court had all been trying to get her hand.

Maci had just shut it down so easily he assumed she'd have the same control there too.

"He's bored of my avoidance."

"...You're getting married off?"

"I'll get to test him," She shrugged, "He shall fail."

Yet, for the first time since they met, Maci looked unsure.

"I shall remain in charge of my life until the next."

"Take Elijah," Kol suggested, "And us, home with you. Present your own choice."

Maci laughed, "And what if I don't want to be with Elijah until the end of my days either?"

Silence.

"Your brother is smart and noble, and a million things I enjoy – "

"And you bore me again – "

"But he is not my forever," She laid it out, "And I am not his."

Something clear if she genuinely was uninterested in turning.

"And he is clearly still mourning the loss of someone who is not me."

Kol blinked, surprised, "He's told you about Tatia?"

"Only briefly," She smiled in victory, "Nice to finally have a name."

"Elijah hasn't thought about her since we left."

"To your knowledge."

"As his brother, who had to listen to his woes, and who knows, he would be throwing her name out every five seconds if his heart was still attached to her. You're using that as an excuse."

She sighed.

"What's your actual problem with Elijah?"

"I will not compete with a ghost," She repeated, "And the love in his eyes at the memory of her?"

A headshake, Kol reminding himself he couldn't zone out without her setting fire to him.

"I deserve better than that."

"Nice to know that someone here has self-respect," Kol smiled coolly, "No ghosts to compete with elsewhere in the family."

"Sleeping with you is inviting you to drink my blood."

"So what?" He gestured out, "I wouldn't kill you."

"I want a man who loves all of me. Not parts."

Kol stuck his chin up, "I am the definition of adoring what is inside you."

She laughed at the wording.

"And the outside is hardly sickly."

"I won't climb into bed with a man," Maci leaned forward again, "Who doesn't know how to make me enjoy it."

"You would."

"Hmmmm – "

"They always do."

"Or you simply kill them before they can critique."

His expression was pure offence, "I wouldn't kill – "

"It's not the murder that makes you unsatisfactory."

A small sip of her late-night tea.

"Kol – you would have to consider the feelings of your partner to truly please them. And we both know you don't do that."

He pulled a face.

"You only care for your own needs."

A rest back.

"Therefore, you have no clue how to make love to somebody – only how to bring them a momentary rush you enjoy more than they do."

"They enjoy it fine."

"They could be enjoying it better."

"Prove it."

"Okay."

Not the answers he'd been expecting, perking up, only for her to pull out a piece of paper.

"Draw it."

"...Draw what?"

"My insides. That you think you know so well," Maci offered him a pencil too, "Show me exactly where you'd touch, and if you actually label the right things? In the right places? I'll consider it."

He took the pencil slowly.

Narrowing is eyes at the challenge.

Kol wasn't one to back down from anything but her confidence gave him pause. Could he draw it? Her phrasing implied more than one important spot -

"For someone anti-love," He spoke while tossing the pencil up, "You're implying good relations can only come from it – I disagree."

"The best comes when you are both trying to give the other a good time; my phrasing is irrelevant," Maci argued, "You're focused on how these women can please you. The moment it is only about you is the moment you are not doing it right."

It took two to tango.

"And just because they seem to finish doesn't mean they're finishing well."

He scoffed.

"And it doesn't mean they're not acting; women trained to not bruise a man's ego."

He looked genuinely hurt by the comment.

"One day, you'll figure it out," She snickered, "But until then, it's just a fact. A woman's pleasure is never discussed because society doesn't value it – my rambling is about the world, not just you."

"Sure."

"Come on, Kol!" She elbowed, "You never care when I insult you."

He grinned, "Momentary offence doesn't mean that I care – just think that you're underestimating my abilities."

"You're a twenty-something-year-old man who grew up in a village with six siblings, with whom you shared a room with all but one," She called out, "What you are is sexually repressed."

"God, it is like you are trying to engage with me."

"You make my core dry up."

"As the wounds deepen, my desire grows."

She hit his arm that time, making him laugh again.

"Why play around with Elijah if you don't care for him?"

"I care for him plenty," Maci looked offended at the idea she didn't, "I'm lucky to have met him."

Kol gagged.

"And I would love nothing more than to think about a world where it could continue – where we visit my home," She blinked quickly, calming herself, "But it will end, and I will not be devastated. I am not a fool."

His brows lifted tauntingly.

"And I am certainly not going to expect him to shackle himself to me for eternity."

Not when she wasn't planning on living for eternity.

"Will we be allowed to visit you?" Kol pondered, "Given that you will soon be a queen, and we have eternity to bother you."

"Maybe."

"You judge me for being unattached, but you're just as much."

"In different ways," She reasoned, "I care for people, but I also don't set myself up for pain. You don't care for anyone."

"And if I told you that I cared for you?"

"I'd call you a liar."

He grinned in agreement, "You're fun, but you're mortal."

"Therefore insignificant. How beautifully nihilist of you."

"I'd miss being able to talk like this."

"You mean, talk without your siblings telling you to shut up?"

"You'd miss it too."

"Quite possibly."

October 2013

"You've spoken to her," Kol realised.

MJ had made the suggestion, and he'd denied it, but Elijah's comment was too pointed. Klaus didn't know about the pair's fallout, yet Elijah was referencing it.

"I think Tristan De Martel might have done something to her," He admitted, "She wouldn't have abandoned her home, and making it seem like she did would only help Tristan."

"Wouldn't she?" Kol tossed the book over the threshold, done with it, "She's fled kingdoms before."

"Different," Elijah locked eyes with him, "Marcel's summarisation of how she comes and goes is too harsh. We both know she simply moves on. Complete abandonment is out of character."

"She fled her own wedding. Leaving her people to be conquered."

"Ah yes," Elijah pointed at him, "Niklaus's adamant stance I turned her that day."

Kol raised a challenging eyebrow.

"We both know you were there."

"And you think she'd let me kill her?"

"I don't believe her fiancé would've been able to do it."

"Why would I have used your blood?"

"Maybe you didn't," Elijah challenged, "Maybe you both lied, and the reason she has been so hard to contact is that she died with you."

"Maci Roux is alive and well," A woman commented from an open doorway, "And you two are wasting a lot of time for people trying to avoid Lucien."

Red hair, pale skin, and an odd air about her.

Kol huffed, "You're the witch?"

"I prefer Alexis," She walked between them, offering both a smile, "Should I assume your brother sent you for more information?"

"No," Elijah answered, "We are here of our own accord."

"I will not hide your visit from Lucien."

"As we hoped he would not have hidden his visit to our witch."

"Calling MiMi Pasare yours shows your lack of understanding of who she is," Alexis opened her arms out, "You cannot own the internet, no matter how hard people may try."

"We don't own her," Kol stood as close to the barrier as he could, "And she's not the internet. She's a person."

"She can be both," Alexis reasoned, "With that lineage..."

Creeping towards the door.

"...Bennett, Ruiz..." An odd focus on Kol instead of finishing the sentence, "Rounding it out soon enough."

Elijah looked at Kol too.

His head shook, "I have no idea what you are implying."

"Meanwhile, I know of a lot," Alexis inspected the ingredients they'd flipped through, "If you wish to see some of it...there is still some tea remaining."

~***~

"And so, I died," Lucien finished his drink, "For a little while."

MJ wouldn't act like she didn't have sympathy. Tristan sounded like a right shithead, and it was a bad situation, but that didn't mean she had to trust Lucien. Given her history, she should've been all over him – in a friendly manner. Like Enzo. But her instincts were just 'nope!'

"Talk about trauma – not the wounds themselves, or even the execution, but the humiliation of being judged by one's supposed betters," He scrunched up his nose, "I will never again stand for such judgment."

MJ narrowed her eyes, something Lucien noted, instantly dropping the slight seriousness he'd gained to try and smile.

"Why should I undermine my safety by leaving a trail of dead bodies?"

Of course, MJ could see where he was coming from.

"Why commit myself to these preposterous murders?"

It was a lot of effort.

"Unlike my enemies, I have nothing to gain."

The door to the shop swung open like it might fall off its hinges, a fuming Klaus marching in, dragging a chair over from a different table and plopping himself down with a hard thud.

"Nik!" Lucien cheered.

"Careful," MJ relaxed, "What did that door ever do to you?"

"I love," He scowled, "How you complain about lack of communication then only alert Kol to this fun little meet-up."

"I knew he was at home."

"Hm."

"You might not care about random murders," MJ reminded him, "But I do. If he can help?"

"Whatever Lucien's said is almost certainly a lie."

"Oh, come on, Nik!" Lucien scoffed, "Why should I lie?"

"To get us to focus on Tristan," MJ answered, "While you lurk like a snake in the grass waiting to bite."

"Well," He smiled, "I do like biting."

"Most of us like biting," She smiled falsely, "You're not special."

"Ooh," He mocked, "You wound me."

"Has he told you about the prophecy yet?" Klaus hadn't seen her in a few days, "If you stopped galivanting through the town with the glow-in-the-dark reporter, you'd realise we had bigger problems than a few bodies."

"Prophecy is stupid," MJ glanced at Lucien, "And knowing he's whispering one in your ear makes him look like even more of a liar."

"The witch with no faith?"

"The witch has been punished for predictions that never came to fruition."

"Never?"

The stupid Floare prophecy moment didn't count.

Spirit Walkers were deliberately vague.

MJ had been told about two paths; she'd just fallen down the wrong one.

Mock prophecy about how all siphoners were evil had ruined her, and they weren't true.

"This prophecy talks of a beast coming to destroy this family," Lucien stressed, "If you had any love for them, you would heed my warning."

"Let me guess," MJ tapped her spoon on the cup, "Something about two, three, one?"

He straightened up, "You've already heard it?"

"Levi practically spat it at me – but oh right! You don't have any connection to him?"

"Two already fallen, three remain, one beast for each remaining," Lucien stressed, "The end of the Mikaelson family, meaning the end of all vampires."

"Our beast has been dealt with," MJ wasn't going to let him scare her, "Levi Ajan is properly – "

A head tilt and expression with each descriptor.

"Finally, entirely dead."

Her fears about the universe creating something new to balance out the recent destruction of the immortal white oak stake did not mean she needed to listen to Lucien.

Their paranoia only benefitted their enemies.

Ish.

If MJ let herself be as paranoid as her brain really was, a lot of things might not have happened...

"I get news of people trying to find ways to kill you; I come to inform you – protect you," Lucien turned to Klaus, "I find The Strix already infiltrating a city meant to be the centralist point for anyone of your line."

Klaus's jaw clenched.

"If that doesn't scream 'targeted attack,' I don't know what does!"

"Whatever Tristan's role in this charade may be," Klaus started with Lucien's defence, "Have no fear. I will discover it."

"If you even are scared of Tristan," MJ suggested, "And not just trying to point fingers."

"I'm not scared of Tristan!" Lucien looked disgusted, "I just know him well enough to identify his patterns, and this lines up."

"Know him well enough," She repeated, "But not well enough to keep tabs."

He flopped back.

"Or remember when you last saw him – or hold any animosity towards your trauma. Hence why you wouldn't recreate it and are therefore innocent?" MJ put on her best 'dumb kid' face, "But you just said that you know him – and to know somebody, after a thousand years of potential character development where they might've changed paths, you need to have spent time with them. But you haven't? And you don't keep track of him?"

Klaus smiled tauntingly, "Seem to have gotten your story a little muddled."

"You trust a fledging spinning my words over someone who has represented you for a thousand years?"

"I do."

"And you haven't represented him," MJ corrected, "The sire-line wasn't a known thing until three years ago. His legacy is entirely his own."

"We may not have known about the magic tying us all together," He reasoned, "But before the Mikaelsons decided to turn invisible."

After they left New Orleans.

"Vampires understood the hierarchy."

How people like Rose and Trevor knew to fear them while Stefan and Damon thought they were myths – though, in Stefan's case, that was compelled.

"Being directly turned was an honour, and those we then turned stuck with us."

"It was also an honour to be murdered by us," Klaus declared, "And, first, I'm going to drain you of vervain. Then, I'm going to ask you a few questions, and once you've answered, if I'm feeling sentimental, perhaps I'll grant you a painless death."

Lucien sighed like a tired dad, leaning against the table to deal with a tantrum-throwing child.

"Enough posturing!"

"Agreed," MJ looked to Klaus, lifting a hand, "Let's get to the point."

Her gaze was then fixed on Lucien, both eyes turning orange.

Doing the thing she'd wanted to avoid.

Cold wood slammed into her face as an invisible force shoved MJ down, Klaus rushing to his feet.

Ready to lunge at Lucien, only for the vampire's eyes to be wide.

MJ blinked firmly, rubbing her cheeks and processing the buzzing in her ears.

"Mira," Klaus didn't dare look away from his sire.

"...I don't know," She tilted her head to scan the honest surprise on his face, listening to the suddenly rapid heartbeat.

For the first time, Lucien's heartbeat had changed.

"You're working with a siphoner?" She had to assume, "That's how you cured the werewolf bite, and they put on a spell to protect your head."

He regained his composure slowly, "No."

She didn't like the reaction he'd given her.

"Like I said earlier," He cracked his neck to the side, "Quite like witches. Made a few deals over the years. That one longer lasting than I thought."

MJ considered what that told her.

At some point, a witch had protected Lucien's head, and Lucien seemed to have been under the impression it might've worn off – but it hadn't?

She moved to siphon it when Klaus put his arm out to stop her.

He'd seen her have bad reactions to siphoning unknown magic before.

"Ask me anything you want," Lucien assured them, "As I've said, I am only here to protect my sire."

"And yet you lied about your werewolf bite," Klaus shut down, "Why?"

"I simply didn't want to bother you!" He groaned, "Don't you have greater concerns than a little wolf bite I can cure on my own?"

Yes, Klaus did have bigger problems.

A literal baby technically relied on him.

That didn't change the fact it was still incredibly shady, considering Klaus and MJ were meant to be the only two cures walking about the city.

"Let's discuss these absurd murders," Lucien finally encouraged, "If it were true that I was scattering bodies about and scarring up faces, then you would be right to assume I'm mentally unstable."

MJ thought his desperation to dodge the bite question told them everything.

"I'm not, by the way."

"Used to say the same," MJ was good at denial, "Believing yourself to be stable and actually being it are two different things, and age doesn't seem to do anything other than induce insanity."

"And yet you chose to date one of the oldest creatures in existence."

"We'll spend eternity going insane together," She meant it as a joke, but Lucien almost seemed sympathetic, "What?"

"A pretty thing filled with life and passions to entertain him for the next decade or so," Lucien laid it out, "Then a newer model appears. Untouched and unknown. What happens to you then?"

"Nothing."

"He either cheats on you, murders you, or compels you away!" Lucien preached, "Most likely a combination of all three. But you think you'll have eternity?"

MJ wanted to laugh at his assessment of their relationship.

"You gave me the statics – this family's romantic partners do not last," His eyes gleamed, avoiding Klaus, "Have you ever considered that while they paint a sob story, it is a deliberate choice they need to remain content? In control of the time constantly passing them by?"

Klaus was growling.

"A thousand years gets repetitive."

"You once again sound like you think they're terrible people."

"We're all terrible people," He dismissed, "My assessment isn't so much about them, but the world we live in!"

"The world?"

"How many stories of rich men coupling up with twenty-year-old cheeks do you need to read to know this is a problem?" He tried to seem like a philanthropist concerned by the issue, "Scorned wives. Maturity and manipulative power dynamics!"

"Because you care so much about ensuring young women aren't manipulated?"

"Depends on the woman," He shrugged, "At least have some self-awareness that you're not in a fairy tale."

"Lucien," MJ was calm, "Why are you so desperate to avoid the real issues here?"

"I'm not the one avoiding the issues in my life."

"You're deliberately dodging the truth around how you cured your wolf bite, and you're desperately trying to poke holes in my relationship to distract me. In the hopes my head becomes muddled, so I actually believe your Tristan-pointing-fingers."

"Who would benefit most from you thinking that I am this untrustworthy murderer?" He was asking Klaus, "Who else but Tristan?"

"Ah," Klaus patronised.

"If you don't trust me," He lowered his voice, "If you kill me and are forced to stand alone?"

MJ hated the keyword of that rephrase, knowing 'alone' would echo in Klaus's mind.

"Wouldn't that benefit him?"

Klaus huffed, head turning to the side.

"How would that benefit him?" MJ argued, "You're a better defence than the unkillable hybrid?"

"Exactly," Klaus stilled, "It's a fascinating theory. If not for my disinterest in your protection. I'm quite capable of protecting myself."

Lucien pushed his drink away, "Undoubtedly."

Simply calling Klaus weak wouldn't have ended well.

"But who looks after your family?"

MJ was listening to his heartbeat again, hearing it was slightly faster, but knowing it wasn't the most reliable way to lie detect.

"Your friends?" He nodded forward, "Camille, for instance?"

She glowered, hoping Klaus's tension at the statement didn't make Cami any higher on the hit list.

"Such associations make you vulnerable," He relaxed back, "And thus, in need of me."

"You want to play bodyguard to Cami?" MJ would never let him.

"She is the easiest example," Lucien seemed to pivot, "But to bring this all back to The Strix."

"Okay."

"If you have any care for your vamp population," Lucien shook his head sympathetically, "I'd be making sure the eradication has not already begun."

MJ hated how her gut sunk.

"Those vampires need someone like me."

She knew Marcel was throwing some kind of vampire summit to give updates about the murder cases and Crescents.

"Someone who has survived this long."

Her phone rang as the icing on the cake.

"Hopefully, that's not them screaming for help."

"It's not," MJ muttered, reading the ID as she answered, "Cami?"

"There's another body."

MJ froze, eyes locked on Lucien's smug expression, Klaus's eyes darting between all of them.

She didn't think that cleared Lucien of being responsible for the others, but she also didn't like it.

She wasn't wrong – she was too smart to be wrong.

"There's a body at the park, and one of the places we visited had a security footage blur twenty minutes ago."

She'd been with Lucien twenty minutes earlier.

"What do you want – "

"Where are you?"

"At the park – "

"Cami – "

"We needed to check identities before the cops swarmed in – "

"Cam – "

"MJ."

"We'll meet you there," MJ cave.d

"...We?"

"Klaus and me."

"See you soon," Cami seemed to sober up, "Be safe."

"I am," She hung up and stared at the vampire, "Congrats."

"Would you like my help now that you know I am innocent?"

"I'd like you to stop whatever performance you think you're doing and seem genuine for even a second."

Lucien motioned back, signalling that she could leave whenever she wished now something had happened.

Another body at the park...

"I will be waiting for my second chance," Lucien gleamed, "MiMi Pasare."

She hated how calling her that again felt like a power play.

MiMi Pasare was meant to be the power.

~***~

Alexis had made another cut into the flowers, using a small white bone spoon to mix it into the now cold tea water. Sipping while holding Kol and Elijah's eye contact. Seeming to enjoy how the longer she took, the more uncomfortable they became. Not with her, but with each other.

Mid-argument was always an exciting time to join a conversation.

"How much longer is this going to take?" Elijah prompted.

"One moment," She assured, "It needs to enter my system entirely."

She nodded to the door.

"Do you wish to see each other's, or?"

Kol glared at the windows, "I don't wish to see anything."

"You do not believe in my abilities?"

"I," He put hands to his chest, "Saw an entire Grecian coven drain their own blood to give their leader the power to see when Silas would return."

He was making a point for Elijah.

"The Dake and The Ganique Tribes had to enter sleeping states comparable with death to get indications of the future," He continued, "But you expect me to believe tea is enough to show us anything real?"

"Does MiMi not experience visions?"

He shifted, "Specific spirits reach out to her. It's different."

Except...

"Mira sees spirits," Elijah had connected the dots, "Her mind is naturally open to the state your past witches were trying to mimic."

"Are you death-kissed?" Kol challenged Alexis.

"It is okay to fear the future," She faced Elijah, "The remaining three will fall to friend, foe, and family."

New information for them.

"Since family is one of your concerns, and you two are brothers," She was pushing her hair off her neck, "I can understand how you might be more comfortable not seeing each other's."

"I am happy to let you," Elijah told Kol.

His eyes looked like he wanted to say yes.

"You believe witches, Kol. You followed their warnings about Silas."

"And what did that get me?" He sobered up slightly, "Isolated, acting rashly, and murdered."

"But you were not incorrect."

"They told me hell on earth," Kol reminded him, "That wasn't accurate."

He'd only gone so far out of fear for everything.

"Hell within the expression triangle."

"It could've been worse."

"Indeed," Kol put a smile on, "It could have become a permanent door, rendering death useless. However, the idea that Silas's return would cause that was entirely wrong."

Silas had needed Bonnie, three sacrifices of twelve, and he hadn't even planned to make it a doorway. He'd intended to destroy it, to reunite with his lost love. Damning the ghosts, not the living. It had all been a lie he'd used to manipulate people into helping him. Meaning everything Kol had believed and everything the witches he'd spoken to had seen had been wrong.

"As much as I appreciate your admission that I was, and am, smarter than you."

"Not what I said."

"I'm not getting baited," Kol put on a smile, "I don't need to know."

"And are you sure you wish to?" Alexis placed herself within Elijah's hold, "We are not looking at pleasantries."

"Oh," Elijah accepted Kol's stance, "I never could resist a good spoiler."

His teeth came out, diving right into her neck, Kol turning to face the wall again. Resting back and listening to how both of their breathing changed.

It was like Elijah's teeth had been sucked into a vacuum cleaner inside her bloodstream, struggling against her skin to push himself free. Fingers locking around her flesh and bruising in the panic.

Bringing Kol back to standing, hitting the barrier, "Elijah?"

As much as they didn't get along, he didn't like the change.

"Elijah!"

His elder brother was free, lurching back and panting, blood spilling down his chin and entirely wild, Alexis inching back too in panic – taken aback by the reaction.

"What did you show him?"

"Nothing I didn't already show Klaus," She didn't look away but quickly stepped towards the exit, "He – um – "

"Is fine," Kol spoke clearly, "Elijah."

The man turned to face the glass, looking at his reflection and leaning against the tabletop he'd previously been snooping through. Not seeming to register where he was or that they were there with him.

"Magic blood is always hit or miss," Kol tried to lighten the mood, "Don't take it too personally, love."

"I showed him what I could..."

"I don't think he's seeing anything you showed him."

It was a moment after he'd said it Kol remembered who Alexis was.

"Congratulations," He smiled like it was all normal, "It's a rare gift to allow the mind to wander so freely."

Make it seem normal.

Make it seem like anything but a weakness.

A gap in their family stability.

1002 AD

"I like to think our castles are quite similar," Maci picked up a rook, "But the colour...softer...?"

She shook her head, placing the piece on the board and gesturing to the room's stonework.

"All of this intense grey – migraine-inducing."

Elijah smiled while making his own move.

"I promise I'm not actually that negative of a person," Maci held his smile, "It's the European weather combined with the sombre pallet, combined with..."

"The De Martel's."

She nodded at his correct analysis.

Elijah's eyes smiled, "The temples sound beautiful."

"They are," She turned wistful, "Religious Buildings have so much charm to them."

He watched how she took in the board, "Are you religious?"

"Both of my parents believe in different practises," Maci picked up a pawn and took his bishop, "I believe..."

Elijah enjoyed seeing her pause.

Usually, everything out of Maci's mouth flowed smoothly, even moments of anger elegant, spitting powerful points people only dreamed of being able to articulate when emotional. Trained to perform her whole life.

Thinking was natural.

Exposing.

Not something she allowed many to witness – it wasn't Elijah's fault he'd started to feel special. Even if it had only been a few weeks of conversations, and walks, and afternoon plans.

And who didn't like feeling special?

"I don't know."

"That is a first."

"Perhaps there's some kind of god or two out there," Maci rested back, away from the game, "Perhaps there are a million higher powers constantly at war to see who can have the most devotees."

A deliberate word choice from the secret witch.

"Perhaps there is simply us, and the world, and the hope we hold at our cores."

Both had to phrase things carefully.

"And, in some, that hope is so strong it changes nature."

Eyebrows creasing on her own face as gentle words fell out.

"Whether that be the love between two people, or a family, or a friend."

Elijah had trained himself not to react when people spoke a phrase so close to home 'unintentionally.' But he was not as good of an actor as he thought. Eyes soft and betraying him. Maci staring at it, letting herself open up more at the revealed common belief.

"I'm always torn about whether I believe in destiny."

"Why?"

"Because I act like I have control of my future when every sign tells me I do not."

Elijah's eyes dipped, "Have you decided when you'll be returning to your father yet?"

"I am enjoying how long it takes for news to travel between my two worlds."

"Will you be punished if you never do?"

"Why would I wish to never return?"

He shrugged.

"I love my kingdom," Her eyes had a sudden sharpness to them that Elijah hadn't expected, "That much will always be true."

"And yet you talk down on the prospect of ruling it."

It had come up a few times.

"This kingdom would never have a queen."

"The politics behind my ascension is something this land will eventually face, too," She focused on the board, making another move, "Reliance on the female body to bring in the next ruler. I must be queen for there to be a king."

Elijah froze, "You're being married off?"

"One day," She nodded, "Potentially."

He hadn't expected his body to lock.

"Two years ago, my eldest brother joined those rebelling against my father," Marceline's eyes stayed pinned on the board, "He died in one of our prisons."

"Oh."

"Tabir remains fighting our father's battles."

Elijah had heard a lot about Maci's other older brother since their first chat. The pair were clearly close, her eyes shining in a special way whenever she was given an excuse to share a story about him.

"Potentially dying at any moment because of that."

Her tone may have been harsh and dismissive, but her body language was screaming to be heard; Elijah shifting forward in his seat, ready to offer a comforting hand.

"The other two are young, under watch, and unprepared for the role if something were to happen to my father."

"And they think your marriage to one of the enemies might stop it all."

"They think my connection with a different Dynasty's heir will lead the rebellion to lose steam, squashed under our combined forces," She explained, "Never surrender to the enemy. Simply adapt who your allies are."

"Do you think your connection with this man can save a kingdom?"

"I don't think it's about connection," Maci finally looked back up, "It's about finally picking a land to be my home for the rest of my life."

Since her mother's side of the family was trying to marry her into the French Court.

"I think it's about whether I am willing to give up my travel, and my education, and my ability to choose my fate."

"And are you?"

"Yes," She didn't miss a beat, "For my family and my people, I have to."

"Have is not the same as want."

"Want doesn't matter sometimes," She dismissed, "I will do what I have to, to ensure the survival of everything my ancestors have built."

"Then you are more selfless than you make yourself out to be."

"I'm a brat."

"You are beautiful."

"And you fighting a losing battle in your courtship of me."

"You are presumptuous about my intentions. We have done nothing but make innocent conversation."

"I am trained to spot a suitor from a mile away," She smiled slyly, "Men are not subtle at hiding their attraction."

"Then perhaps I simply enjoy losing."

She hesitated.

"Some people are worth losing to and for."

"You'll at least be graceful about it."

Their shared smile became long and heavy, neither wanting to look away first, even as they both made another two moves on the board.

"I love my father," Marceline thought it was simple, "I'd never betray him the way my brother did."

Family loyalty was something Elijah had recently fixated on.

"Refusing a wedding, and the army that wedding would create is doing that."

"If he's losing a war so badly he has to auction you off, is it really betrayal?"

"It's not an auction," She dismissed, "I have a certain amount of say."

He wasn't sure that was true, and neither was she.

"It's about family," Maci held her head high, "Family is worth everything."

Elijah counted the pieces on the board, unsure which one of them was winning.

"Don't you think?"

"I do."

"Then you understand why you must one day lose...whatever this is."

"...Marceline..."

"You always frown when you say my name."

"Because it is clear you do not like it."

"It is my name."

"It is who this court decided that you were, not who you wish to be."

"They decided I was a bastard," Her name for those first five years, "My mother decided I was Marceline."

"Then Maci."

"Is my father's daughter."

"Who I wish to stop hurting," He shook his head, "Because I see the hurt, Princess."

She didn't blink.

"In the way your lips twitch, and cheeks flatten, and eyebrows lift."

Maci simply forced her glance down, picking up another piece.

"You say we can never truly enjoy each other," His hands forward, "I would never do anything to endanger you or your family."

"Wouldn't you?"

Elijah didn't understand the odd challenge in her eye – like she knew something about him that he didn't.

Because Marceline always seemed to know everything.

"On our trip to the town," He spoke quietly, "You called yourself Lina."

She shifted in surprise.

"One of the sellers didn't recognise you and needed a name to send your order to, and you said Lina."

"...I think it sounds nice," She admitted, "And relatively close to the truth."

"Princess Maci Elia Ninee bint Khalaf may come with rules and impossible lines to walk, but Lina does not have to carry the weight of a crown in every step."

A beat.

"Unless you wish for that name to be something just for you."

"Use it," Her voice soft, "Like a signal that we can sneak away to the town together."

Before Elijah could say anything else, the sound of laughter acted as a prologue to the doors swinging open loudly, Rebekah and Kol stumbling in, freezing, and quickly readjusting their clothes to hide bloodstained sleeves. Marceline simply smiled at them, like she hadn't seen a thing, following Elijah's attempt to distract her with a swift move in their game.

"I swear," She made her own move back, "It's like you're letting me win."

"Quite possibly."

"Elijah doesn't let anyone but Nik win," Kol commented, both other siblings shooting him a glare.

At this point, Elijah was the only one who'd made contact with Marceline, and they didn't trust what might come out of Kol's mouth.

A long beat.

A lot of unwelcoming expressions.

Marceline took the hint, "I guess I'll be going."

"You don't have to?" Rebekah's eyes were staring at the shine of her jewellery, "Kol and I – "

"No, no," She put a hand out while standing up, "Family time matters."

The quiet returned to the room.

"And my handmaidens are probably concerned about my whereabouts."

They all watched her, straightening out her skirt as she went, the younger siblings shooting the older one a very pointed look about the gesture, despite the fact nothing beyond a meeting of minds had happened.

"I would just like to remind everyone," Rebekah plopped down, cloak falling back to reveal spots of blood along her neck, "That you, dear Elijah, voted against settling here."

"Hm."

"Scandalous," Kol fell onto the second sofa in the chamber, "Not at all worried about this relationship potentially revealing our deepest, darkest, disastrous, world ending, must never be spoken secret?"

Elijah rolled his eyes at the taunt.

"Since being boring and focused on blending into the shadows of history are all you seem to care about."

"Just because I'm not interested in your buffet trips doesn't mean I wish to disappear, Kol," He stood up, "It means I have class."

"You have a weakness," Kol's features were sharp, "One becoming more obvious every day."

"I have a way in," He put on a proud smile, "A princess on our side, who nobody is allowed to disobey, and who knows so much about the world that we will never find ourselves without an answer again."

"And that's definitely the only reason you spend all your time with her," Rebekah huffed, "That and that alone."

"I'm not foolish enough to be around someone of her status for any other reason."

Kol openly laughed, "I'm sure Tatia is so happy both you and Nik have been able to forget about your passionate and great love for her so swiftly."

Elijah simply turned to walk to his room instead of giving Kol the desired reaction.

"No, I!" He put on a weepy voice for Elijah, "I love her like the stars love the moon!"

A slightly higher voice for Klaus.

"I would cherish her more than you ever could."

Rebekah let herself laugh, adding her own impersonations into the pile.