The Great War || Elijah Mikaelson - Book 1

vii. Blind Faith

982 - Vinland (present-day America)

Elijah felt himself tossing and turning all night. His little brother slept in his cradle next to Elijah as Esther found Niklaus slept better when he was nearby. But tonight, every time Elijah would shift, his little brother would startle awake with a cry. Elijah would freeze each time, waiting for the angry words of his father for having his sleep disturbed, but they didn't come. Instead, Elijah gently rocked the cradle until his brother would fall back to sleep. Elijah wished he could follow suit.

His mind however was plagued by the images of Astra's mother on her knees in the thorns, frantically searching for something. Esther had told him that empaths were disturbed in the head and that's why they could manipulate others the way they could. Part of him worried his mother had been right.

Even though Elijah had his reservations about Astra, he still trudged out to the open space in the woods where they had been practicing in. Astra had never hurt him or even used her magic against him without asking since the day they met. He would give her a chance to explain what happened the previous day before he went running and screaming from her like his mother told him to.

However, when he got to the meadow, Astra was nowhere to be seen. Elijah came to a halt when he saw the empty field. Astra had always gotten there before him. It drove him crazy that no matter how hard he tried to get there before her, she was always waiting for him with a slightly annoyed expression on her face that she had been kept waiting.

So this morning was incredibly strange.

Elijah couldn't help but think it had to do with her mother. Maybe she was embarrassed by what Elijah witnessed. Or maybe her mother had harmed Astra. Elijah's heart began to race at the thought. He shouldn't have left her alone. He knew better but he had let his fear of Mikael drive his actions.

He took off back into the woods, in the direction of Astra's home. Afraid he would find her still lying on the forest floor, hurt or worse. He tried to push the images out of his head. He had never truly cared for anyone before Astra. He had his parents, but they didn't seem to want anything to do with him so they would send him out of the house most days. He had his brothers, but Finn seemed to hate him and Niklaus was just a baby. But against his better judgment, he had grown to care for Astra during their training sessions.

While they wouldn't talk, he would watch how she trained. She was more dedicated than many of the boys in their village. And after the day of the attack by the village boys, Elijah understood why. As Mikael told him, training was a means of survival but many of the village boys viewed it as a status symbol. Whoever was the strongest or fastest, was the best. But for Astra, it was a means to protect herself. She understood the importance of survival and Elijah admired that. He wondered if she wanted to train for more than just protection against the village boys. If she needed protection at home as well.

The trees nearly blurred around him as he sprinted faster than he even thought he could. He made it to the clearing in record time. His eyes scanned the area where they had found Helga the day before. But this time it was empty. Helga was nowhere to be seen, and mercifully neither was Astra. He searched the forest floor carefully, making sure he didn't miss her small frame under the brush or buried beneath the fallen leaves. He didn't find anything out of the ordinary. The forest floor looked much the same as it had the day before, there hadn't appeared to be a scuffle or anything which would have disturbed the area. And he knew without a doubt that if Astra was attacked, even by her own mother, she would have fought back so hard that it would have permanently damaged the forest around her.