Elijah Mikaelson & The Dragon's Quest

Chapter 23

Angelica proceeded to share the mythology that she had spent days unraveling, telling the story in the same manner she did nearly 400 years ago, when she and Elijah, with Niklaus and Rebekah, would sit on the roof of the old estate, gazing up at the stars. She would regale them with stories of constellations and creation, of gods and goddesses, and this was no different only the situation was more dire:

All of the gods and goddesses worshipped since the beginning of time exist in the celestial realm of the Ancient Powers regardless of their associated country or culture of origin. This celestial realm is ruled by the Triumvirate consisting of the Nordic Odin, the Egyptian Ra, and the Greek Zeus.

It was in this celestial realm that the Nordic Fire Giant, Logi, and the Greek goddess, Athena, fell in love and their union produced a son whom they named Uriel. Uriel inherited his great stature and command of fire from his father and from his mother he inherited her talent for wisdom in all things, including war, diplomacy, commerce, medicine, and even a more artistic side that included poetry. Uriel was a great warrior having been born of parents whose skill in war and battle were renowned. It was these attributes that led Uriel to join the Army of the Heavens as an Archangel found in Christian belief.

Uriel fell in love with the Greek goddess Circe, the daughter of the Greek Sun god, Helios, and the Greek goddess, Hecate. Hecate was worshipped for her magic as the goddess of the crossroads, of ghosts, and even necromancy and her daughter shared in these qualities. Uriel and Circe were opposites, she of the magical belief and he of a more practical belief, but they found common ground both being born of fire.

Circe bore Uriel seven sons that became collectively known as the Nephilim. The Nephilim inherited the powers from the gods that created them, creating and controlling fire, possessing great intelligence and military strategy, possessing the powers of witchcraft and warlocks, and were highly charismatic beings. The Nephilim would pass between the realm of the gods and the realm of men, to interact directly with the humans, and these sons of the gods would lay with the daughters of men. But the resulting pregnancies would result in the death of the mortal mothers during childbirth as spawning a demi-god was no easy task. The resulting offspring were raised by the Nephilim in the earthly realm since they were viewed as half-breeds unworthy to reside in the celestial realm.

The oldest of the Nephilim was named Adameh and he had two sons, Cain and Abel. But the trickster goddess Lilith and the deceiver goddess Apate came to Cain and used their wiles to convince Cain to seize control of the celestial realm by leading a revolt against the Triumvirate. They promised him that the Pentadeae would support him in his quest and Cain agreed. Abel learned of his brother's treacherous plan and as he was headed to tell Adameh, Cain slew Abel.

Cain's murderous deed was discovered but not before Cain had caused a schism in the Nephilim and the Nephilim went to war against each other in the earthly realm. The followers of Cain sought to destroy the Triumvirate and rule the celestial realm. The followers of Adameh followed a more noble cause and sought to protect both the celestial realm and the earthly realm from Cain and his followers. Their firefights scorched the earth as battle after battle resulted in conflagrations that destroyed everything it touched. In the end, there was only one survivor of the War of the Nephilim, Adameh, who claimed victory upon the slaying of his own son, Cain.

The Triumvirate were grateful to Adameh for his loyalty and awarded Adameh the earthly realm to rule as his own kingdom, crowning him the Dragon King for his bravery, his loyalty and his ferocity in battle. But the Triumvirate recognized that the Nephilim were too dangerous to the celestial realm so they stripped Adameh and his descendants of the power to pass between the realms. The Triumvirate also placed barriers preventing the Ancient Powers from being able to pass between realms directly and only allowing indirect influence of the earthly realm.

Uriel and Circe mourned the loss of their children and grandchildren and sought counsel with the Triumvirate, pleading with them to allow Adameh to live in the earthly realm in happiness, to be able to love and be loved, to be surrounded by family. The Triumvirate considered the matter and agreed to grant their request with conditions. The Triumvirate sought a solution from the Elementum.

The Elementum were the four goddesses depicting earth, air, fire and water, the beginning of all things, of fertility. They are represented by the alpha symbol within the four-pointed star. The Baltic goddess Laima represents childbirth, marriage, death and fate. The Egyptian goddess Isis represents motherhood, magic and fertility. The Greek goddess Hera represents marriage, women, fertility, childbirth, empires, kings and heirs. Their fourth and final member is the Norse goddess Frigg who represents marriage, childbirth and prophecy.

Unbeknownst to the Triumvirate, Laima and Frigg had seen Apate and Lilith's influence in the War of the Nephilim and saw via fate and prophecy that the Pentadeae would conspire to enter the realm of earth to claim it for their own and add it to the realm of the underworld. They also saw in their visions that the descendants of Adameh would be critical to stopping the Pentadeae from succeeding with their dastardly plan.

So the Elementum proposed to the Triumvirate that Adameh and his descendants be allowed to sire one male dragon child to ensure the line of succession of the Dragon King in perpetuity, agreeing that a world full of dragons would result in disaster the likes of which they had just witnessed in the War of the Nephilim. They also proposed every king must have a queen, to know love and to be loved in return, and thus the Dragon King's wife would not only bear the Dragon a son and but would also survive the birth.

The Triumvirate accepted the proposal and the Elementum created change in Adameh to make it so. Adameh was left to the earthly realm and soon met Emblah and took her for his wife. Emblah bore Adameh a son, Seth, and Adameh was overjoyed that his beautiful Emblah survived. Through Seth, the lineage of the Dragon Kings descended down through Alexander. Angelica intentionally omitted commenting upon Henrik Finn being the youngest Dragon since Alaric was included in the conference call.

"Excuse me, Love," interrupted Niklaus, "will there be a test after this as I feel as though I should be taking notes for the final examination and I seem to have forgotten my pencil. The Triumvirate, the Elementum, the Pentadeae. What does this have to do with what happened to Davina Claire? And who put those pictograms up in the first place?" Angelica smiled at his question and Alaric could be seen rolling his eyes on the video conference monitor, annoyed by Niklaus' interruption and forgetting for the moment that his image was being broadcast. Alaric answered Niklaus, "It has everything to do with it, Klaus. Aside from the fact that you all discovered what will no doubt be the most significant archaeological find in history that will turn every belief system on its head, but this entire mythology just led you to the cult that kidnapped Davina. As the guardians of the youngest Dragon King your family is smack in the middle of this little soap opera."

Elijah looked at Alaric's image on the screen then to Angelica's now expressionless face, his mind raced, "Alaric and Caroline only knew Henrik Finn was a Mikaelson first-born witch, how much did Alaric know about Henrik Finn or even Angelica's additional gifts?" But Alaric sensed their concern, "Yes, I know about it but don't worry, Caroline believes only that Henrik Finn is a highly intelligent witch and living vampire. She doesn't know about the Dragon King and I won't be the one to tell her. Your secret is safe with me." Elijah asked, "Alaric, who told you?" Alaric answered him frankly, "Elijah, well, you just confirmed it, but it is obvious from the mythology contained within the pictograms and from being around Henrik Finn. He said nothing to me, but he had a little encounter with fire last night and as you already know, fire won't harm him so he's fine, but I put two and two together."

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