Klaus and Elijah both were heated up when they returned from their tasks. "What happened?" I asked as their faces were red. "It is worse than we thought," Klaus said as he broke the neck off of a bottle of liquor and drank a large gulp of it before he continued, "I met the witch, Cassie. I studied her-- her presence, how she carried herself, the fervour with which she voiced her hatred of our kind. I looked into that girl's eyes, and I swear to you, Elijah, she's not just guided by our mother. She is our mother." 

Elijah, already overwhelmed and worried, is stunned by this revelation from Klaus.

"What is happening?" I asked as one of them worried on his face other was full of anger and wanted revenge. Klaus furiously said, "I'm going to kill her. I will boil her bones and feed them to the dogs if that's what it takes." Elijah tries to interrupt him, "Niklaus--" But Klaus is all panicky, the one person he hates so much and now even more as she attacked our daughter, "What? What could be more important than the return of our mother?"

Elijah sighs as he knows his piece is more important "...Our father. I saw him standing there in the flesh as you do now. He was enslaved by a spell cast by Davina. He holds the stake. If she chooses to release him..." Klaus is visibly shocked by this revelation, but it only serves to make him more determined. 

"Well, then there's only one question we need to ask, isn't there? Which of our parents do we kill first?"

We all move to the courtyard due to the commotion and see Hayley leading the Crescent wolves who aren't aligned with Cassie. Hayley doesn't notice us right away, and instead addresses her packmates, "Take any of the rooms on the first floor."

I walk over to speak to Hayley while the other two linger a few feet away. "Are we running a kennel now?" She replied quite in confidence, "I'll handle them."

I tried to tell her about the recent events, "Our family is under siege. It is not the time for guests."

"If they're not with us, they're with the witches. You asked me to step up. This is me stepping up" I smiled at her words "Well, it seems I'm a good influence on you after all." She smiles back at me.

"I don't see Oliver amongst them. Am I to assume you finished him off?" Klaus enquired, to which Hayley replied a wise answer "We made a deal. He'll pledge his loyalty to Cassie, report back, and tell me everything that he learn."

Klaus smiles, and those words of hers made me feel proud "Well done! I should definitely start leadership teaching classes", to which Klaus and Hayley chuckled, and Klaus turned to leave.

We lead several werewolf girls to their new bedrooms as Elijah descends the stairs to leave. "You girls can just go through here," I guided our new guests as Hayley and Elijah crossed paths before Elijah left.

"What was that?" I asked feeling heavy tension between them. "I don't know, he said that he'll be happy to give space to people here and leave me with my kind," I gave her a worried look and shrugged, making us both go back to our work.

The next morning in the courtyard, Hayley was munching on an array of fruit and other breakfast food when Nik and I came down the stairs to join her. "So, which restaurant's missing a compelled chef?"

I laughed and looked at Nik because it looked like his doing, but he had a confused look. "It's certainly a card I've played in the past, but I had no hand in this..." gestures to the food on the table for emphasis.

"Hmm. Well, then, I guess we have Elijah to thank?" I said.

But when Elijah returns to the compound and joins us and he too looks confused when he hears our conversation and notices the breakfast spread in front of us.

"This wasn't my doing..." He added, making the incident serious. Hayley frowns "Then, where did this all come from?"

Even before she could finish her words silver lid on the platter suddenly begins to rattle, which startled Hayley and Elijah so much that they jumped in fright for a moment. Klaus looked uneasy, and I found a way behind him as he lifted the platter, which released two starlings that flew up toward the ceiling, causing us to reflexively duck to avoid being hit.

This was a strange sight even for the Mikealson family drama list.

"What the hell was that?" I exclaimed, still shaken from the sight. Nik reaches for the invitation and opens it. It reads, "Dinner, Your Home, 8 PM"

"An invitation from our mother," Oh god, the one person I despise so much, even when she was dead, and now her return makes me wanna just rip her apart", Nik and Elijah stare at each other in concern, this was because we all know how problematic Esther is.

Nik stares at the invitation while he stands on the balcony overlooking the French Quarter. He eventually turns to head back into the bedroom, where I was lying flat on our bed.

"It is times like these I'm really glad I never knew your mother," He rolls his eyes at me "We have enough enemies here. And now, the war for our home is to be fought against our own family."

I was pretty annoyed by Esther due to her last act, "your wretched mother and her disciples tried to put a carving knife through our baby's heart. I will happily add to the body count," Klaus smiles at me, before he can say anything, Elijah enters the room.

"You will do no such thing. Esther's a master in the art of possession. We know whose body she currently inhabits. We must decipher her intentions before she finds a new host," Elijah said which made me look at him disappointed "Oh Elijah always thinking about others" Nik laughs at my words and added another joke to the situation before throwing his body onto the bed next to me, "well, her last invitation was an assassination attempt on all her children. I think we can assume her intentions are decidedly foul."

Elijah shrugs, "Well, then. We have--" He checks his watch "-- this afternoon to prepare for the worst."

Elijah leaves as I roll my eyes at him for always being good.

"Why do we have to invite the baby killer to our house" Nik looks at me with a straight face, wrapping his arms around me he said "she is my mother no matter what and also I promise you that she will never lay a finger on you" I pout then a big smile grew on my face just by looking at the love of my life.

"Oh, Nik, just don't protect me, protect everyone. No matter what Elijah says he is right we gotta be careful with Esther because she is a decisive bitch."

Later, Nik was in the dining room, where he was making arrangements for the evening's dinner with a group of caterers. One of the caterers gives him a choice of two different bottles of wine.

He instructs everyone on their commands and chooses a wine and dismisses the caterer just as Hayley and I enter the dining room.

Hayley just told me the latest wolf news, and it added another pawn to the story.

"So, I guess letting Oliver live paid off. He just informed me your mother has a partner-in-crime... another witch," Hayley told Nik while switching her eye contacts between me and Klaus. "Building alliances in her quest to destroy us, I imagine", Niklaus said sarcastically.

This new piece was all new for Hayley, making her confused, "Why does she hate you so much, Klaus? She had six kids-- it's not like she doesn't have the maternal gene." 

"Seven, actually", I added, to which Niklaus continued ", Yes, and I think at one time, she loved us very much."

Nik always gets overwhelmed by the topic of his family before being a vampire, he turns away and anxiously begins folding napkins on the table. I stepped forward and wrapped my arms around his body from behind. He held my hand and continued speaking.

"One died before I was born, years later, my brother Henrik was killed by the werewolves in our village. The loss of another child pushed my mother over the edge. So, she used her magic to turn us into immortals. I think that's when she loved us the most. But it was her undoing. It triggered a sequence of events that led to the reveal of her long-held secret. My birth father was the werewolf whose pack killed my little brother. Of course, when Mikael found out, he murdered my real father, and so, my mother lost her lover, too."

Hayley was stunned by the new information she learnt "Wow. No wonder she's crazy," I nodded "Yeah, look at me, I'm out of my mind having just given away Hope... I can't imagine if she'd actually died."

The room's atmosphere turned sad as Nik seemed a bit teary-eyed "You know, my siblings used to tell each other she didn't hate us-- she hated herself for what we've become. I think they believed that even after she tried to kill us all," I quietly asked, "What did you believe?"

Nik took a deep breath "I don't know. I just knew I wanted her dead."

I lifted myself a bit higher and kissed him. "Well, every good story needs a wicked witch," I added sarcastically as Hayley chuckled, and a small smile grew on his face. It'll be all the more satisfying when we melt her," Hayley added, to which all of us laughed. It felt like Nik seemed reassured by this and smiled at us appreciatively. 

I kissed him again and we bid our goodbye.