Elijah Mikaelson & The Dragon's Legacy

Chapter 39

Remus lived in obscurity as Angelica was raised by the Duke and Duchess of Montecito. He worked tirelessly on his plan that was to come to fruition on Angelica's twenty fifth birthday, the day she would come into her dragon powers and be able to control fire. He needed her to be a fully realized dragon for his plan to work. He had successfully hidden Angelica from Romulus, who for his part followed every fake clue Remus left for him to follow and all in the direction away from Angelica. The ancient runes that were carved into Angelica's bones cloaked her from Romulus' senses, and the Dragon searched fruitlessly in vain for years. But Romulus did find Remus and nearly destroyed him but Remus went into hiding and lost track of Angelica for several years. He assumed the Duchess kept to the agreement and Angelica had been placed in the convent at sixteen years of age.

Remus set out in the summer of 1626 to the convent to retrieve Angelica ensuring he would arrive before her twenty fifth birthday, but she was not there. Remus was angry that the Duke and Duchess had not kept to the bargain and set out for Montecito. He arrived during the plague and blended in as a volunteer helping with the sick and the dying, and bestowing last rites when needed. It did not take him long to find Angelica nor did it take him long to find out she had been married for four years. Thankfully, the marriage had not produced a child as Angelica and her child would have died upon the child's birth. But it concerned Remus as the ability to produce a child was critical to his master plan so he had to find out where he went wrong in the engineering. He found it difficult to get close to Angelica as Rebekah kept her by her side. When she wasn't with Rebekah she was at the estate with Elijah and Niklaus, and of course, the Old Duke.

Remus found an opportunity one afternoon at the make-shift hospital and took advantage of a rare moment where Angelica was alone and used that moment to cast a spell that allowed him to question Angelica without her knowing. He had complete control over her because of those runes. She told him of the attack on the road while on the way to the convent, of her mother's death, of her savior and husband Elijah. Due to the shortness of time and Rebekah's imminent return, Remus did not delve deeply into the answers and did not learn of Elijah's true nature. He cleared her memory of their interaction and she resumed her nursing duties unaware.

Remus stayed in a camp just outside the village to ensure he had privacy. He worked on a plan to separate Angelica from the Mikaelsons and from the old Duke. He was impressed with how she had developed, he could see that she possessed all the characteristics he had engineered for her, he needed to examine her to determine why she had not conceived and he needed her under his control when she came into her dragon powers.

So Remus again took advantage of an opportunity when he came upon a trio of ruffians, who sought to steal the goods that would be found in the farmhouses now left vacant from those who had died in the plague. He only needed to manipulate the trio's leader into ignoring the farms and going for the bigger score at the estate house. His manipulations worked and before long the leader had changed the plan and focused their attention on the estate house. He even persuaded the leader into kidnapping the Duke's daughter as a generous ransom would surely be paid for her safe return, providing the leader ensured she was not harmed by him or his men. Once the men had spirited Angelica away, Remus would kill the men and Angelica would be under his influence.

But Remus in his haste failed to secure all aspects of the plan and it went terribly wrong in its implementation, as Angelica found out first hand. Angelica's death and transition to vampire impacted the cloaking spell emanating from the runes etched into her bones and she was now visible to Romulus' senses. The Dragon sensed her immediately and set out toward Southern Europe from the far reaches of Russia, following the scent like a homing beacon. Remus felt the cloaking spell fail, too, and he sped toward the house, arriving in time to observe the carnage left behind by the newly turned vampire Angelica, who was wailing over the butchered Duke and nearly catatonic.

Not risking discovery, Remus spoke an incantation making him able to move about the room without Angelica noticing his presence. Remus scolded himself for causing this disaster and then grew angry as he realized Angelica had been turned to a vampire. He knew he had little time and adjusted the cloaking spell to her new nature, leaving the estate mere seconds ahead of Elijah's arrival. For Romulus, once Angelica was cloaked he lost her scent but now knew she was still alive and that he had been searching in the wrong direction, the abomination was alive and somewhere in Southern Europe. Romulus spent years looking for Angelica throughout Southern Europe but his efforts proved fruitless once again thanks to the new cloaking spell.

On the day of the funeral, Remus blended in with the mourners and had his first opportunity to size up the Mikaelsons. He took note of Elijah, Niklaus and Rebekah, and of how they surrounded Angelica like a protecting force. Vampires were a relatively new development in the supernatural world being around for only 600 years, and little was known about them beyond their blood lust and their undead nature. But these vampires were different, he noted. He also observed they were drawn to her still even as a vampire. Angelica had an aura of pale, green light around her that Remus could see, and that aura reached out to each of the Mikaelsons and surrounded them as they stood near her. Remus was fascinated for a moment by the swirl of color as her aura and their respective auras reached back toward her, it was the most beautiful sight Remus had seen in a very long time. And one that intrigued Remus because as their auras danced and blended together, he saw that between Elijah and Angelica there was an additional golden thread emanating between the two of them, a mystical connection between Elijah and Angelica.

Remus followed the energy along that thread and deduced that Angelica's life force was somehow linked to Elijah's life force. Remus did not yet know that what he was seeing was the sire link that emanated from Elijah and connected Angelica to him. From Elijah, Rebekah, and Niklaus, he saw many of those gold strands of thread reaching out from them in all directions connecting to things unseen. But the link between Elijah and Angelica was strong and clear and on a mystical level, seemingly unbreakable.

There was no way for him to get close to her here. But he was sure that now he had a problem to solve since a mortal Angelica married to a vampire explained the reason no child was conceived, but now Angelica was a vampire herself which meant she was no longer able to produce a child either.

A rather fortuitous turn of events as birth of a child would have meant death for them both without having slain Romulus and Remus. "And what of her dragon abilities?" thought Remus. She turned twenty five after her transition to vampire and he saw no evidence that her dragon abilities were activated fully. She should have been able to produce fire by now and that did not happen. So Remus resigned himself that his master plan would be delayed, but not denied.

He would have to go back to his science and mystical spells in order to adjust to these new variables. He had to research the nature of the vampire, review his calculations, and develop solutions to enable Angelica to conceive. But he determined that Angelica would remain with Elijah for now since their union and status as vampires would ensure no offspring. This was perhaps the safest place for her to be at the moment.

Remus withdrew into relative seclusion to work on the plan, but as he was now approaching 65 years of age with no heir, that was his first priority. It was easy enough for Remus to find a wife amongst the peasants and with her he fathered one son. The son would be 15 years old when Remus died and his powers and persona transferred into his son. The 15-year-old Remus slew his mother/wife as she was no longer relevant and immediately resumed his work, spending nearly 60 years working on the solutions he needed. Due to his advancing age, he found himself another peasant wife and produced a son in 1685. By 1701 his plan was ready and it was time to separate Angelica from the Mikaelsons. In 1702, he had found the perfect pawn in the gullible, vindictive and immature Kol Mikaelson.

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