The Long Lost Heretic

Chapter 1

"Dr. Saltzman, you need to sleep." Hope comes into his office with a cup of coffee. "I'll sleep when i figure out how to save my daughters." He grabs the cup and nods a thanks to her. "Why don't you get some sleep?" He asks her. Hope shrugs. "I'm fine. Find anything new yet?" She asks as she sits on the chair in front of him.

Alaric shakes his head. "No, i keep running into dead end after dead end." Hope sighs. "Well, let me call my aunt Freya, maybe she's found something by now." She takes out her phone and calls her aunt. As it rings, there's a knock on the door. "Dad?" Josie pops her head in. "Hey sweetie, what's up?" Alaric leans back in his chair. "Any news?" Josie walks in and closes the door behind her. He shakes his head. "No, not yet. But don't worry, we won't stop until we find something." Hope steps to the side as she answers the call. "Hey aunt Freya, did you find anything?" She asks. "Yes and no." Freya sighs. "What do you mean? What does that mean?"

"I found a heretic who might have the answers you're looking for, only problem is, I don't know how to actually find them. It's like they've been cloaked or something." Freya flips through the pages of another one of Esther's grimoires. "Cloaked? Why would they be cloaked?" Hope turns towards Alaric. "Well, being one of the very few living heretics, I wouldn't want to be found either." Freya tells her. Hope sighs. "Is there any other way you can find them?" Freya thinks for a moment as she looks over the grimoire. "Well, if they're a heretic, then they have to have come from either Kol, Rebekah or your father." Hope shakes her head. "That's impossible, dad sacrificed himself, remember?" "Yes, but his sire line was broken so none of the vampires that he turned would have died with him. And that rules out Elijah too cause he died with Niklaus." Freya grabs another grimoire and starts flipping through the pages.

"Found it. How about your aunts and uncles and i all come to Mystic Falls to visit? And maybe i can try and find out who this heretic descended from." Freya suggests. "Yeah, ok. When do you think you'll be here?" Hope nods. "Probably a day or two. Until then, just let Josie and her sister know that we will figure this out, alright? I'm gonna find this heretic, see what they know and we'll go from there."

The wait for her aunt was agonizing to say the least. "Lizzie, if you pace any more, you're going to dig a hole in the floor." Josie tells her. "How are you so calm? There is a living heretic out there, who knows who or where they came from. Or what they're like. What if they're crazy like our uncle?" Lizzie shouts. "Or what if they're completely normal like our birth mother? Would you stop please? You're giving me a complex." Josie throws a pillow at her. Lizzie catches it and throws it back at her. "Again, how are you so calm?" "Because I don't want to worry unless we actually have something to worry about." Josie stands and grabs her hands. "Now please calm down." Lizzie takes a deep breath. "Ok, you're right. There's nothing to worry about. It'll be fine."

A knock interrupts them. "Hey, sorry. My family is here. They're all waiting for you guys in your dad's office." Hope smiles softly. Lizzie nods. "Ok, let's get this over with." She walks out. Josie slowly follows behind. "Is she ok?" Hope asks. "She's fine, she's just worried and overthinking again." Josie smiles. "You think we'll find this heretic?" She asks. Hope nods. "I hope so, no pun intended." Josie laughs. "I hope so too. Pun intended." Hope playfully shoves her. "Alright, is that everyone?" Freya asks. They all nod. "Ok, this is how it's gonna go. The three of you," she points to Rebekah, Kol and Marcel, "will each stand on one side of this table. I will take some blood from each of you and do the spell, whoevers blood starts moving, we'll know who they're sired from. After that, i will use that person as an anchor and a tracking of some sort to try and locate this heretic." She explains. "Sound good?" They all nod and start cutting their palms. As blood drips, Freya starts to perform the spell. After a few seconds, Rebekah's blood starts moving.

"Well, at least now we know who they're sired from." Kol looks as the blood drops continues to move. "Rebekah, i need you." Freya grabs her and walks over to Alaric's desk where a large map is laid out. "Girls, I'll need your help too if they're cloaked." Hope and the twins all walk over to her. Lizzie holds Freya's hand as Hope holds Rebekah's and Josie's. The twins start siphoning before they chant the spell. Freya cuts Rebekah's hand once again and watches as blood drips onto the map. As the blood starts to move towards the West, Rebekah holds her breath. "Oh bloody hell...." She whispered as the blood finally stops. "California? Who the hell is in California?" Lizzie asks. "Someone i had long forgotten, unfortunately." Rebekah sighs. "Who?" Josie asks her. "My daughter." Rebekah confesses.