sleeping beauty [the originals]

lxx.

The Mikaelsons had planned a brunch. There, they would interrogate Freya and find out her motivations. The compound was all set up, a table set with cutlery and plates and glasses. Klaus stood at the head of the table, waiting for Elijah to show up while Isla was pouring herself a glass of water. She had found herself a lot more thirsty these days, but she merely dismissed it as being in the humidity of New Orleans again.

Upon hearing footsteps, she looked up to see her older brother walking in, wearing a suit as usual. She wasn't the only one to notice his return.

"There you are. Finally." Klaus remarked. Elijah took his jacket off and placed it somewhere in the room.

"I was delayed." Klaus chuckled.

"Our guest of honor will be here momentarily." Isla walked over to join the other two at the table.

"Strange." Elijah commented. "The house is conspicuously absent of our lupine guests. I do hope it wasn't on my account." Isla assumed he meant Hayley and Jackson.

"I sent Hayley and her poorly groomed husband off to spend the day with their werewolf brethren to test the limits of their new abilities, leaving me to deal with family business as I see fit." Klaus explained, walking around the room to see if Freya had shown up.

"Niklaus, Rebekah's situation has taken a turn. We may need Freya's assistance, so whatever you are planning here, don't." Elijah announced. The other two Mikaelsons turned their gaze to Elijah.

"What Rebekah situation?" Isla asked, confused. Having been gone for four months, she had missed quite a bit of family drama. The two brothers shot each other a look.

"Rebekah is currently inhabiting the body of a witch, courtesy of our mother. A witch who just so happened to take the lives of witch children in order to draw from their power." Isla grimaced, feeling a chill go down her spine. She couldn't imagine ever wanting to kill a child. "The witches are growing restless and I cannot keep them at bay for much longer. Which is why Niklaus shouldn't try anything today." Klaus chuckled at his older brother's remark.

"All I'm planning is a simple chat with a long lost relative. Similar to our chat with Isla not too long ago." Isla rolled her eyes, taking another sip of water. "You yourself said to hear her out." Elijah furrowed his brows.

"And you yourself said that would be idiocy." He shot back.

"Did I?" Klaus asked in a mocking tone, his eyes pointed to the ceiling as if he was trying to recall a memory. "Well, that does sound like me. Regardless, on the off chance Freya has some information that could protect my daughter, I prefer she share it on my terms." He looked toward the door. "Ah. I think I hear her now. Sister." All three pairs of eyes glanced over to the eldest Mikaelson, who was walking into the room. "Well, come in, come in. Make yourself comfortable." He gestured to the table. Freya looked around the room at her three siblings.

Freya began looking at some objects in the room. She picked one up and turned it over in her hands.

"This witch hoop, it's Danish. Is it from when you all lived in Copenhagen in the 1500s?" Isla shrugged. She wouldn't know. She was still in a box at that point.

"Quite the eye." Klaus remarked.

"Forgive me." Elijah interrupted. "Are we here to discuss family heirlooms, or do we have more pressing concerns?" Klaus dismissed Elijah's comment, keeping his focus on Freya.

"Please excuse my brother's lack of decorum. He's been in a foul mood of late, but he is right." Klaus sighed. "I did ask you here in the hopes that you would share some of Dahlia's secrets. So, without further ado, let's get to it." The four Mikaelsons sat down. Just in time, Isla thought. She had been famished and was excited to eat some food.

"The first thing you should know is that Dahlia's the most powerful witch I have ever seen." Freya began. "She craves more power still. Right now, she is like me, limited to one year of life in a century. But she wants to be free of that restriction, to gain true immortality, and that is why she will come here, drawn by your daughter." She aimed that last part at Klaus. "To take the child's power for herself. She will kill anyone who would defy her."

"And yet you would defy her." Elijah remarked, skeptical. Freya shrugged.

"I don't have a choice. She will never let me be free. My one chance is to align with you and kill her." The room was silent for a moment.

"Well, now that we're all suitably motivated, let's talk specifics." Klaus broke the silence, expecting Freya to say more.

"For you to understand, I need to start from the beginning. After taking me from my family, Dahlia used me to forge a new brand of connective magic. One that augmented my power even as it allowed her to draw from me. Once we were bonded, Dahlia became unstoppable. She wasted no time proving her might. The chief of a nearby village threatened to run us off, accusing Dahlia of witchcraft. She decided to make an example out of the entire encampment. Men, women, children. She killed them all with a wave of her hand." Isla gasped, feeling dread settle in the pit of her stomach.

"That was my first inkling of the power Dahlia had." Freya continued. "Over the course of a thousand years, she's only grown stronger, and she will bring all her power to bear against you when she comes for your child." Though her gaze was focused on Klaus, she quickly glanced over to Isla, which only confused her.

At that moment, Elijah's phone rang. He pulled it out of his pocket to check it, then quickly got up from the table.

"Rebekah, how are you feeling?" He asked. Though Isla couldn't hear the conversation on the other end, she assumed it was not good. Once he finished his phone call, he sat back down and food was placed on the table. Ravenous, Isla filled her plate with the various foods.

"Your stories are fascinating, and Dahlia does indeed sound dreadful, but Elijah and I have killed our fair share of evil witches." Klaus explained.

"Not like her." Freya clarified.

"What are her weaknesses?" Elijah asked.

"She's paranoid. Obsessed with power." Freya replied. "She hungers constantly for what's been denied her, be it love or revenge." Elijah nodded.

"Yes. I think I'm familiar with the type." He glanced over at Klaus, who chuckled at the insinuation.

"When I was a child, she would tell me tales of her own youth, of being victimized by those stronger than her. Dahlia vowed never to be weak again. She bargained for the firstborn of Esther's bloodline, intending to raise us in her own image, forming a coven of her own from which she could draw endless power. That plan was foiled the day she learned that Esther had ended her bloodline by turning her children into vampires."

"And burying one of them." Isla remarked, which gained attention from Freya.

"And so the burden fell to me. Dahlia demanded I bear the firstborn that would add to her power, but I would not allow a child of mine to live as I did, as a slave. So I vowed never to love, never to have a child of my own. Of course, the more I resisted, the harder Dahlia fought to control me." She explained with tears in her eyes. "Until the day when she took the last of what little freedom I had left. And so we slept, our magic accruing over time until we woke, filled with immense power and allowed to live a single year of life. That has been the existence I have suffered for the last ten centuries." Isla could emphasize with Freya's predicament a little, she could relate to missing the last thousand years while asleep. Klaus, however, did not empathize quite as much.

"Well, it's quite the ordeal, isn't it? But it does beg the question, why not end it yourself? A high enough bridge, a tight enough noose. You must have considered it." Freya sighed.

"Long ago, I did consider it, but Dahlia would never give me even that freedom. I would later learn the spell made me like her. Immortal and impervious to harm." She wiped the tears from her eyes. "So you see, I am like you, a creature of great power cursed for all time."