05 | Bad Omens

"𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐃𝐈𝐃 𝐂𝐎𝐑𝐃𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐀 say?" Mary asked.

She was in her and her husband's chambers. Francis was already out dealing with his father about the new assessment to be held an hour from now in the throne room. Mary was with her ladies, aiding her in getting dressed, among other things.

"The Queen's Crown was already in her possession since last night, Your Majesty. She said she found it in the archives." Lady Isabella answered.

Mary's jaw tightened while her gaze was fixed towards the mirror in front of her. It looked like she was watching her ladies dress her, but in fact, she was deep in thought.

"You may go. Lady Isabella and I shall take it from here." Mary ordered her other ladies. They took a few steps away from the Queen of Scots and simultaneously did a curtsy before walking out of the room in line, leaving Mary to Isabella.

She approached Mary and began continuing what the other ladies were doing. There was no struggle in Isabella as she helped dress her. It was as if she had been doing it for a long time. And she had been. Lady Isabella had been one of her ladies long before she was married to the dauphin.

"Will I be able to handle it?" Mary asked, dreading the answer. All people in the court were to go through the entire process, even the royals. Francis was already there attempting to persuade King Henry to either abandon this assessment or exclude him and Mary from it. It wasn't like he was a warlock or that he knew his wife was a siphoner. It's simply because he hated the idea of being subjected to what he believed was a waste of time and resources.

"Word is, a siphoner cannot withhold that much dark magic from the crown for more than a couple seconds." Lady Isabella answered.

Mary didn't bother to respond to that. Instead, after she finished getting dressed, she requested Isabella to leave her for a moment to her thoughts. While everyone was preparing the throne room and whispering in the corridors about the upcoming assessment, Mary was devising a plan in her head on how she could go through with it without getting caught.

Her family had been keeping the same secret for decades. She would not be the one to expose her entire bloodline. She refused to be that person.

• ─────────────── •

Only a couple of minutes left before the assessment. Mary was counting as every minute passed that brought her closer to Kol's revenge. The door opened and the guard announced her husband. Francis came in with a baffled look on his face, his gaze going over the crates that settled in the middle of the room before shifting his gaze towards his wife who was saging the entire room.

"Lady Isabella informed me you have moved back to your old quarters. Is something the matter?" Francis asked as he approached her, his eyes squinting from the smoke that emitted from the sage that Mary just blew out and put down.

"Nothing, my love." She answered. She looked at her husband and placed her palm on the side of his face, her thumb gently caressing his cheek. "We should make our way to the throne room. Wouldn't want to make this show any longer than we have to endure now, would we?"

Mary smiled at him and withdrew her hand before walking around him and approached the door, only for Francis to turn around and speak once again. "You're not...upset with me, are you?"

The young queen's forehead creased at the assumptions of the dauphin. She observed his expression and saw how he was on edge, as if he couldn't find it in himself to relax. Mary used one hand to pick up the front of her skirt and walked back to her husband, stopping in front of him carefully while not breaking eye contact.

"No. Why ever would I?" Mary said, her tone expressing how ridiculous his previous statement was.

"Well, it's been a while since we've..." Francis trailed off, hesitant and careful about his next words while Mary urged him to continue, patiently waiting for his sentence to finish. "...consummated our marriage."

Mary straightened her posture as her lips parted, a sigh leaving her lips while Francis was now on a nervous rant.

"It seems as though you are not interested in it anymore and now you want a separate chamber. I wonder if I had done something to have caused your sudden disinterest." Francis said, his hands anxiously intertwined in front of him. The queen could not help but smile at her husband before shaking her head and taking the dauphin's hands with hers.

"You've done nothing wrong!" She exclaimed with still a sincere smile on her lips. "I've just been distracted. My mind, it's kind of a crowded place at the moment."

"Does this have something to do with the Mikaelsons?" Francis asked, his eyes searching Mary's for a clue of some sort, about what had been going inside her head.

Mary was a bit taken aback by his guess, and she tried to conceal it from her face. "What?"

"With all the privy information they're conferring to you about England, I'm sure it has got you feeling troubled." The dauphin answered.

She didn't realize that she was holding her breath from before he answered until she released it. A smile tugged on her lips as a way to recover from the anxious expression that surely appeared on her face.

"Right. Of course, I am. These matters are not to be taken lightly." Mary answered. "We should continue this conversation after the assessment, yes?"

Francis took a few seconds to himself before returning Mary's smile and nodding.

• ─────────────── •

As foreseen, the throne room was already crowded with two types of people; the loyal, honest ones that honor the law and the crown, and the vultures that prey on the vulnerability of the people in the court. The latter could be interpreted into a number of things, but all is fitting.

The guards announced King Henry's arrival and everyone averted their gaze towards the entrance and bowed respectfully as he passed everyone on his way towards his throne.

Once everyone was seemingly complete, the court witch, Cordelia, entered the room. She was easily distinguishable from the others. With her curly hair as white as snow, she can be seen amidst the ocean of people, just like now. She took the center of the room where the guards followed, dragging a wheeled table. The table was covered with green velvet linens and on top was the Queen's Crown resting upon a red silky pillow with gold silver tassels hanging on each end of the four corners.

The particular object was not at all what Mary had in mind. She imagined it to be glorious, glinting at the contact of the sun's rays, embedded with expensive and powerful crystals and stones, engraved with intricate but meaningful patterns. But the Queen's Crown was made of one thing and one thing only.

Bones.

Literal people's bones were fashioned into a crown. The bottom were two layers of long bones bound together by the ends, causing it to have two rough square forms, one on top of the other placed diagonally. Mary swore the top was decorated with finger bones with the tips filed until they were sharp. Were those the spikes Kol was talking about?

"The crown is made from the bones of the most powerful witches that walked the face of the Earth. Even in death, their bones were brimming with magic, mostly dark ones." Cordelia said, briefly looking at the crown before continuing.

"I used the bones to link each dead witches' magic to one another and create a surge of power that only a siphoner can feel. The magic will be so great, they don't even need to siphon it. It will force its way into their body and corrupt it." She added.

Francis could not be any less enthused. The court witch's access to magic was limited and not because she didn't have enough power, the law and the crown simply limited her. The witches outside the court, well, Francis had never seen at least one of them. So he couldn't help but think about how completely unnecessary all this was as he stood beside his witch wife.

"Such a circumstance when we do encounter a siphoner and they fall victim to the crown, the only way to relieve the pain that the magic has brought inside of them, is out." Cordelia finished.

Mary took a deep breath when Cordelia pushed the table forward for all to see, signaling the beginning of the assessment. Cordelia instructed that the royals be the ones to go first.

"What's the matter, Your Majesty? Having stage fright?" Kol's whispering voice appeared behind her as he passed by. She didn't need to look to see the smirk plastered on his face. She could practically hear it. The mere sound of Kol's voice, whether it be mocking or normal–even though his voice is naturally taunting–always sent her in deep vexation. Only Kol Mikaelson himself was capable of sending the Queen of Scots in such a wave of fury.

"What was that?" Francis asked when he saw Kol sneakily whisper near Mary. The young queen turned towards Francis, hiding her irritation behind her smile.

"Nothing. He said they just got another word from England." Mary whispered towards Francis as she quickly developed a lie.

Francis took a glimpse at Kol with his eyebrow raised as the vampire was making his way toward his siblings.

"How long are you planning to play your games with the Queen of Scots, brother?" Klaus asked when he felt Kol's presence beside him. Neither of them bothered to look at each other. They simply fixated their gaze towards the dark object at the center of the room.

"Until he realizes that Her Majesty will never be interested in him no matter how much he seeks her attention." Rebekah commented. Her condescending tone did not go unnoticed by the subject of their conversation.

"I do not seek her attention." Kol denied, his usually cool and smug expression replaced with a visibly annoyed one.

"You seek her wrath. I'm having trouble understanding how quarreling with a sixteen-year-old can gain you anything but two whole nations waging war against our house." Elijah pointed out.

"That's the thing, Elijah. She's barely grown up and she thinks she can boss us around." He replied. He looked at Mary as he spoke before rolling his eyes.

"You're right, how insulting. It's not like she's a queen and has absolutely every right to do so." Rebekah sarcastically said. Kol turned to his sister with the most unamused look and Rebekah arched an eyebrow at him. "Well, I didn't say I like it."

Kol simply rolled his eyes again before the siblings finally averted their attention back at the assessment. King Henry and Queen Catherine had already had their turn. As expected, their only reaction was the prick itself. Francis stepped forward, failing to hide how he found all of it absolutely ridiculous as Cordelia instructed him to press down the pad of his index finger against one of the bone spikes of the crown. His jaw only tightened when the spike pricked his finger, narrowly jabbing his flesh.

It was Mary's turn. Her brown eyes momentarily looked over to Lady Isabella. She nodded at her Queen, reassuring her that she could do this, even if she herself had no idea if she really could. But it was best to keep that to herself.

The Queen of Scotland deeply exhaled and gathered as much courage as she could. From the outside, it seemed like there was nothing wrong. She was the epitome of confidence and grace. But from the inside, she was dreading every step she took moving closer to the very thing that could expose not just her, but her entire bloodline.

Mary sent Cordelia a polite smile which the court witch genuinely returned once Mary had finally stopped before the Queen's Crown. She pressed and smooth down the front of her dress as she straightened her posture and took a deep breath. Her right hand raised and approached the middle spike of the crown. Her fingers were slightly apart instead of folding them and leaving her index finger outward. It took everything in her sixteen-year-old body to keep her hand from shaking. She shouldn't show any weakness, not when Kol was watching her, enjoying the scene.

After what felt like hours, Mary brought down her finger against the spike. For a brief moment, Mary thought she was spared, or maybe the worst had already happened and she was already on her way to peace. The first thing she felt was the light pierce of her finger against the crown. Then the feeling of a few thick drops of blood trickling down to her palm when she brought her hand in front of her face to look at the wound. Then nothing. She couldn't feel anything. She felt normal. She almost smiled.

Then it came all at once. It started from her finger, trailing up to her arm, swallowing her chest, numbing her legs, and aching her head. Her whole body fought the urge to jolt from the burning sensation combined with a powerful electrical surge streaming through her veins. This was what Cordelia was talking about, the pain that came with the magic. The pain being her insides feeling like they were burning into crisps and the magic being the electric rush charging her to the rim.

Mary was convinced that her teeth would break from clenching harshly while trying desperately not to go off right then and there.

"You are free to move on, Your Majesty." Cordelia said. Though she did not miss the single trickle of sweat that formed on her temple. The court witch kept her smile from surfacing after coming to a realization.

Second part was done. Moving on to the third and hardest part, escaping the room full of people without imploding. Mary turned around quickly and accidentally knocked over the wine that Lady Isabella was going to give her, spilling it all over the front of her dress. Isabella gasped at what she had done.

"My sincerest apologies, Your Majesty. It was an accident." Lady Isabella said. Mary was not even the slightest bit surprised, not because she didn't see this coming because she did, but because the slightest change in her emotion, however fake they may be, could trigger burst the jar lid open and let out the magic from inside her. "I should escort Her Majesty back to her chambers to change."

The Queen of Scots carefully bowed her head before the King and Queen of France before turning back around and walking out of the room. Her eyes met Kol's as she was squeezing Lady Isabella's hand. She witnessed his head toward her but far from being respectful. He was ridiculing her, poking fun at her, finding amusement in her misery. At that moment, Mary hated him even more.

Once they were both out of the people's sight, Mary's elegant walk broke into a sprint when she held the front of her dress up and started running down the empty corridors. Lady Isabella was closely behind, making sure that her Queen would reach her chamber safely and their plan would succeed.

Mary's eyes were brimming with tears, her eyesight starting to get blurry before she could reach her chambers. When she saw the door of her quarters, there was a hint of relief in her. The guards were standing still from beside the door, clueless about the young queen's situation.

As soon as she felt the different air inside her room after her guards opened the door for her, she shut the door closed and locked it. Her jaw unclenched and her panting got mixed with her cries of pain. She took one step at a time towards the center of her room as she peeled the layers of her dress one by one, desperate to get more air inside her lungs—hopelessly hoping that if she inhaled enough air, it would extinguish the fire burning her insides.

She stepped out of her dress, leaving her in her undergarments and corset. She didn't have the time to untie her corset before she collapsed to her knees in the middle of her chambers. Her neck and forehead were sweating, the hairs of her arms were standing, her chest was heaving up and down, and her eyes...her eyes were many times brighter blue than her normal brown eyes. It looked like stars ablazing before exploding. She cried out one last cry before the next thing that came out of her lips was a screech.

Mary was unaware, but the entire castle was shaking. It was quaking and the people in the throne room erupted into panic and chaos. Kol balanced himself on the trembling ground yet he still managed to break into a grin when he realized where the sudden earthquake came from.

Her eyes were squeezed shut and her hands were tangled in her hair as she sat on the floor. The longer she screamed, the better she was feeling. The pain was slowly dissipating the louder her scream got and the longer she kept at it. When she could no longer feel anything but extreme exhaustion, her scream trailed off and almost immediately, she fainted and hit her head on the floor.

It was only when the earthquake stopped that the banging on her door was audible.

"Mary!" Francis shouted. When the earthquake began, his first thought was of his wife. Despite the ground becoming impossible to stand on let alone run on, he tried his best to run towards Mary to make sure that she was safe. But when he got there, the guards were already banging the door, trying to kick the door down but nothing was working. They didn't know it was still spelled shut. His heart was beating so fast at the thought of something happening to his wife that every second that passed by during the earthquake, he thought nothing of his own well-being.

When the young queen collapsed, the door finally opened and Francis felt his heart drop to his feet at the sight of Mary lying on the floor.

"Mary?!" He dropped to his knees and brought the Queen's upper body to rest on his lap. He pushed the strands of auburn hair out of her face to see her peaceful face in deep slumber. Although he couldn't know what might've happened to her while she was locked inside, and despite knowing that she was still breathing, he wouldn't take the risk.

"Summon the physician now!" He ordered.

• ─────────────── •

To say that this day was eventful was an understatement. None of them were sure they even had a word to describe what had happened today.

Mary was already awake for a while, though her usual strength has not returned yet so she was bed ridden for the last two hours. Meanwhile, Francis was with Henry and Catherine, helping them attend to the things they needed to fix and deal with because of the quake. It took a huge amount of convincing from Mary to let him know that she was alright and that he should perform his duties as dauphin to his people. He didn't want to leave her, not while she was still recovering from what people assume to be a concussion.

"Are you sure nobody heard anything?" Mary asked Isabella.

The young brunette smiled. "None, Mary. Your spell worked. Not a single noise left this bedroom. Nobody suspects the earthquake was your doing."

Her fingers were fiddling with each other while she nodded, almost convinced.

"Lord Kol Mikaelson, Your Majesty." The guard announced.

Mary closed her eyes and sighed in frustration. She could already imagine Kol's semi-victory lap around the castle. She might not have been exposed, but it sure did take a toll on her. To him, that was still a win. Mary nodded at the guard and he let the vampire in. Lady Isabella curtsied before leaving the room, not before Kol and her made intimate eye contact to which the vampire found amusing as a smirk tugged on his lips.

"Find another plaything. I will not have you ruin Lady Isabella's virtue." Mary said.

"Oh, I thought that was you, Your Majesty. We certainly make a great pair, do we not?" Kol commented.

Mary rolled her eyes at the vampire's statement. Her hand balled into fist and the slightest irritation caused some of the things in her room to rattle. Kol let out an amused laugh.

"Relax, darling. The day that I see you as more than a spoiled brat will be over my dead body. And since I cannot be killed, I highly doubt that day will come." Kol pointed out as he made his way towards the queen's bed, sitting down on the edge to irritate her even more.

The objects around them stopped rattling and Kol looked to the side, an eyebrow raising when he saw the objects go still before looking back at the young woman.

"I see some of that dark magic is still inside you. Must be uncomfortable. I haven't the faintest idea how you still managed to stay hidden after all that." Kol stated.

"Part of being a Queen is being a very good liar. You'd do well to remember that." Mary said, her glare not sparing the vampire. "As I'm sure you're aware, I am not in the mood for jests and you, in particular. Leave my room at once if you're finished boasting."

Kol simply grinned at the young woman's hostility. He stood up from the bed and bowed to the young queen without breaking eye contact with her. It was a miracle that during the few seconds that Kol was leaving her room, she didn't hear a single word from him, a final warning or a follow-up bragging.

The moment Kol left the room and she was all alone, her mind became the crowdest place. Thoughts after thoughts. Plans after plans. She was devising something to get back at him.

It's not over. It will never be over until I win.

"Hic sum." the words muttered under her breath.

• ─────────────── •

Still haven't written anything *cries*. I'm begging for this semester to be over because oh my god there are so many works I have to finish. Anyway, I hope this chapter was okay!