The Chosen One

Twenty Two: Meeting with Esther

Jessica

                 The room that Finn ushered Elena and I into, was small and only furnished with a sofa, chairs and coffee table.

                Esther stood between the sofa and coffee table. Smoke rose from a slowly burning, small bundle of plant sprigs that she held in her hand. As I entered the room with Elena at my side, I couldn't help but watch her a bit warily. Just because we were hoping that she was secretly on our side didn't mean that she was. Caution was still a wise notion.

                 Apparently Elena and I both had a speculative expression on our faces, so she explained what it was that she held.

                "It's sage." Esther told us. "I have spelled it so we may speak freely without fear of being overheard." She turned her attention to her son. "You may go Finn. That will be all. Thank you."

                  Finn stepped through the open doorway and closed the double doors, leaving Esther, Elena and I alone in the small room. Esther looked back and forth between the two of us.

                    "The two of you must have many questions for me." She indicated the sofa. "Please have a seat."

                     Elena took a seat on the sofa, while I sat in a chair near the end of the sofa.

                     "How are you alive? Are you like a ghost or something?" Elena questioned, folding her hands on top of her lap.

                    Esther sat down on the sofa, laying the burning sage on the coffee table. "Not exactly. The witch Iana preserved my body with a spell. She was a close friend of mine and happens to be an ancestor to your friend Bonnie."

                   "So that is why only Bonnie and her mother could open the casket." Elena surmised.

                  "They complete the Bennett bloodline. I drew power from them and their ancestors who were on the other side with me." Esther confirmed.

                   "You've been on the other side for a thousand years?" I asked a bit bewildered.

                   Esther switched her gaze from Elena and over to me. "Yes. It was nature's way of punishing me for turning my family into vampires. But there is a way for me to undo the evil that I created."

                   Her meaning was not lost on either of us as me and Elena now looked upon Esther with a renewed sense of hope.

                "You are going to help us kill Klaus. Aren't you?" Elena questioned, traces of relief in her voice.

                "One thing at a time." Esther directed her full gaze onto me. "First I would like to offer you my help Jessica."

               "Can you undo the prophecy?" I asked her hopeful that she could solve the sole problem.

                Esther gently shook her head, putting a damper on my hope. "Truth cannot be unmade."

               "So it is true? Jessica is the best possible match for Klaus?" Elena asked apparently just as disturbed at the news as much as I was.

              "Every single being in this world has another being out there who is the best suitable mate for them. You have the unfortunate luck in being Klaus's." Esther paused looking back and forth between the two of us. "Love is one of the most powerful things in the world. Having the love of someone gives you that person's undying loyalty." Esther focused on me now. "If Klaus can gain your love and hence your loyalty, you would be giving him an immense addition of power."