9 The Allure Of Tatia

Silas and Amara, the world's first true immortals created by the immortality spell, and Qetsiyah, the witch who created that immortality spell, all belonged to a sub-culture of witches known as, 'The Travelers'.

Silas and Qetsiyah were the most powerful members of Travelers around their time, while Amara was a handmaiden of Qetsiyah.

The Travelers were not a fan of immortality, so they killed Qetsiyah for making the immortality available, but the creation of immortality spell still caused a schism among the witch communities around the world.

Some were conservatives who wanted to maintain the balance of nature by not using the magic to create abnormalities like Immortals. This faction eventually became all those Witches who wanted to serve nature.

On the other hand, a group of witches that would become the Travelers known today believed that they could use their pure magic to perform greater things, much like a member of theirs, Qetsiyah, who had created the immortality spell.

The witches, fearing the power the Travelers possessed and to ensure that the balance of Nature would never again be disrupted by the Travelers, placed a curse on them, to prevent them from drawing power from Nature, and effectively cutting them off from the use of traditional magic, which was their preferred form of magic.

Another consequence of the curse was that the Travelers were unable to gather in groups, as disasters and plagues would occur any time they attempted to congregate together, causing them to stop trying, in fear of decimating their coven.

And so, because they were unable to settle down together, the Travelers spent centuries and centuries drifting all over the world, which resulted them being known as 'The Travelers'.

And so, since the time that curse was placed on them, the Travelers had been trying to break the curse on their coven.

But unfortunately, to do that, they needed the blood of both the doppelgängers to break the curse, both Amara's doppelgänger and Silas doppelgänger, at the same time.

Somewhere around in fifth century, the obsession of their leader, Markos, led him to cast a powerful spell on all the future doppelgängers of Silas and Amara.

This spell was designed to bring them together, and thus acted as a sort of love spell that affected all the doppelgängers. It was to be active for the next few centuries until the Travelers had the blood of both the doppelgängers.

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When the Mikaelson family settled in Mystic Falls, there was a girl named, Tatia. She was a doppelgänger of Amara, just like Kol was a doppelgänger of Silas.

Due to Markos' love spell, Tatia was very much drawn to Kol, but unfortunately, this spell was nowhere strong enough to affect Kol in any way, and he had no interest in her otherwise. He never really liked those innocent, naive type girls.

As a result, Tatia married someone else and even had a child. She lived happily until her husband passed away in a battle, which was not an uncommon thing in this era.

Now at this point in time, both Nicklaus and Elijah were smitten with Tatia.

But Tatia never made a decision between Nicklau or Elijah, so over time, the two brothers grew estranged. They quarrelled many times, traded harsh words, and even came to blows.

"Eww.!! It looks so disgusting, I can barely even look at it, and you expect me to eat it.!?", Astrid spoke in a sarcastic, yet skeptic tone while looking at the various kinds of seafood in front of her.

Currently, Kol and Astrid were sitting in an open space in front of the Mikaelson family house, and Kol was giving her a taste of seafood.

"C'mon.! I promise you'll love it. Trust me, Ok.?", Kol replied in a fed up tone, but spoke the last part while holding her hands and speaking in a soft, loving voice.

"Alright.! I'll give it a try, but I'm spitting it right out, if it tastes as bad as it looks.", seeing him asking so nicely, Astrid couldn't refuse.

"Oh don't worry darling.! If you don't like it, then I'm the one who'll have a hard time making it up to you.", Kol paused as he reached for something in the platter.

"Here.!", he continued as he showed it to her.

"I'll try it with you.! Let's start small. This is an Oyster. Just eat it like I do.", he spoke as he waited for her to pick up an Oyster from the platter.

"This is the shell, you're not suppose to eat this, but rather the good stuff inside.", he showed her in somewhat comical manner.

"Just put it in front of your mouth, and, empty it. Like this.!", as he spoke, Kol simultaneously put the Oyster shell in front of his lips, and emptied its contents in his mouth.

Astrid followed his every action, and did the same as he did.

As she slowly chewed on it, she carefully tasted it, while giving it a review, "It's kind of salty, but not bad.! It's different from the regular food.".

"That sattles it.!! I'm calling it monster food.!", she spoke sarcastically.

"That would make us monsters now that we're eating it, wouldn't it.!?", Kol replied thoughtfully.

"Though I think I like this setting. How about you be the mama monster, and I be the daddy monster tonight.!? That will definitely send them off to the afterlife.", Kol spoke in a mischievous tone.

Kol was referring at how they were going to scare off Astrid's aunt and uncle tonight.

By this point, nobody lived at Astrid's old house as her aunt and uncle had left because of all the rumours that spread about it being haunted. This was due to Kol repeatedly using illusion spells to scare off Astrid's aunt and uncle.

This village sure had witches who lived together with townspeople in peace, but even their reassurance was of no use in this case because Kol and Astrid spent nearly every night in that old house and never forgot to scare off Astrid's aunt and uncle for treating her so badly over the years.

This had become a routine thing for the couple, and they spent considerable amount of their time in thinking about different scary scenarios every day.

"Sure.! But we have to think about what kind of monster it's gonna be. Disgusting looking one.? or a terrifying looking one.? I'm thinking, something like this.", she spoke in a thoughtful tone as she picked up something from the platter.

"An Octopus.!? Yeah, sure, we can go with something like octopus monsters with legs.!", Kol spoke while nodding.

Then changing the subject, Astrid asked, "Anyway, putting aside the horror show of the day, what is that.!? It looks like a fish, yet different.", while pointing at something interesting looking in the platter.

"Oh that's just a Deep-fried Pomfret. Let's try this next.!", Kol replied as he reached for it.

They continued this little date of theirs in this romantic, not so romantic atmosphere, while not minding their surroundings.

But not long after, "Cleng.!", "Cleng.!", "Cleng.!", "Cleng.!", sounds of metal hitting metal.

They were interrupted by the sound of swords clashing, coming from not far away.

They turned their heads to look in that direction, but were unable to see anything because of the crowd blocking the view.

Just as Kol was about to use his X-ray vision to take a better look, "C'mon Henrik.! Our brothers are fighting again.", he heard Rebekah's voice, and saw her and Henrik running off towards the source of that sound.

"It appears your brothers are fighting. I bet it's over that girl again.! What was her name.? Tatia.!? Let's go take a look.!", Astrid had also noticed Rebekah and Henrik, so she quickly put two and two together, and pulled Kol to go along with herself to watch the show.

Elijah went for the swing from his right, but Nicklaus blocked it, "Cleng.!".

So Elijah used his wrists to transfer the momentum of the rebound to a down to up swing from Nicklaus's left, "Cleng.!", but Nicklaus blocked it once again.

This time Elijah used his entire body to transfer the momentum of his previous two swings to go for the straight, up to down chop with everything he had.

But this time Nicklaus didn't block or deflect it, instead he drew him in.

And just when Elijah was about to connect, Nicklaus used his sword to block Elijah's sword with a soft hand, and pushed him back with everything he had.

This managed to successfully disrupt Elijah's balance and rhythm.

Nicklaus was holding his sword with just one hand, while Elijah was using both hands. Indicating that Nicklaus was being playful while Elijah was relatively more serious.

Each and every strike was performed masterfully by Nicklaus, so much so that only the veterans like Kol or Mikael would had, if they went for the same strategy he did.

On the other hand, Elijah just started waving his sword around without even studying his opponent first. If this was on a battlefield, then Elijah would had lost his life.

While regaining his balance, Elijah noticed Rebekah and Kol.

"Oh look.! Our siblings have arrived, to watch my fast approaching victory.", Elijah spoke as he got ready to attack once again.

Nicklaus replied back in a playful mood, "On the contrary Elijah.!", "Cleng.!", but before he could continue, he was interrupted by Elijah's sword Slash that came from the left.

But Nicklaus easily deflected it.

This time Elijah appeared to be more serious, but still, after no more than five strokes, Nicklaus was completely controlling the rhythm without Elijah even realising it.

"Sllhiinnng.!", Nicklaus slid his sword on Elijah's sword while simultaneously shifting his weight forward.

But before Nicklaus could take the opportunity to tackle him with his shoulder, Elijah forcefully changed the angle of his sword, and pushed Nicklaus to the left, hence disrupting his balance.

But this action also slightly disrupted Elijah's balance, so he had to turn a full circle as he raised his sword to use his momentum into a big right horizontal slash. Still expecting Nicklaus to be standing up.

But Nicklaus had already ducked while turning a full circle, and using his momentum to precisely cutt off Elijah's belt.

"They have come to laugh at you.!", Nicklaus completed his previous sentence in a proud and boastful manner.

At this point, Elijah was still standing in the same position. His sword was still raised as he looked down at his belt, unable to believe that he had lost to Nicklaus of all people.

Mikael and Esther were also observing this little show from among the crowd.

When Mikael saw Elijah's defeat, he was a little disappointed at him for his poor performance, but not too much since this was just a game.

Plus Elijah was quite diligent in his daily practice. Even though he wasn't a natural born talent, Elijah worked hard in every aspect, and never slacked off from his routine.

On the other hand, Nicklaus was a natural born talent, yet he only performed well in a game. He slacked off so much that it took for him wanting to impress a girl, just to properly wield a sword.

Mikael had tried everything with Nicklaus. He had tried scolding him, patiently teach him, took him hunting with himself, he had even severely beaten Nicklaus on many occasions, hoping to set him straight. Yet everything failed.

Mikael had tried everything he could think of to motivate Nicklaus to become a bit more diligent in his practice, yet Nicklaus just stayed stubborn and refused to learn the only thing that could save his life in this cruel era. The only thing that could help his family survive in this world filled with supernatural monsters.

Even after all that, Nicklaus was now wielding the sword like a master, just to impress a girl.!?

How could Mikael not be angry at this mockery of his poor parenting skills.!?

"Easily Mikael.! Nicklaus means well.!", noticing his change in mood, Esther tried to calm Mikael down.

"That is precisely, my problem.!", Mikael replied in a forceful tone as he walked over to Elijah to borrow his sword.

"So.! Why don't you teach me that trick, young warrior.!?", Mikael spoke as he turned around to face Nicklaus.

"Cleng.!", Nicklaus blocked a swing from his right, and replied, "Father we were just having fun.!".

"We fight for our survival. AND YOU FIND TIME, FOR FUN.!? I WANNA HAVE FUN.!! TEACH ME. C'MON.!!", "Cleng.!", Mikael yelled angrily while looking at Nicklaus in the eyes, and swinging his sword once more.

But Nicklaus was already afraid as he gripped his sword tightly with both hands, and looked down, not daring to meet Mikael's gaze.

"Cleng.!", "Cleng.!", Mikael first struck from Nicklaus's left, then used his wrist to turn the momentum from the rebound to strike from Nicklaus's right, thereby making Nicklaus loosen the grip on his sword slightly.

Taking this opportunity, "TING.!!", without wasting time in an another swing, Mikael used his full strength to strike once again at the same spot, thereby not giving Nicklaus enough time to tighten his grip, and forcing him to drop his sword.

Then Mikael tossed his own sword to his left hand as he walked quickly at the retreating Nicklaus.

When he passed him by, Mikael pushed Nicklaus on the chest and used his leg to trip him to the ground.

So Nicklaus fell down and layed on the ground. But this wasn't over just yet.

Mikael came back and put his knee on Nicklaus's chest, then touched the tip of his sword at his neck while looking down at him and speaking, "YOU are foolish and impulsive, my boy.!".

But Kol wasn't just going to stand by and watch. Usually he wouldn't bother to interfere, but Mikael often tended to loose himself in his anger, and that was not something Kol wished to see.

"Alright, this is enough old man. You've proven your point.", Kol spoke as he forcibly snatched Mikael's sword and pushed him back.

Back in Europe, Mikael was a wealthy landowner, and no matter the world or era, the rich and privileged always had deeper knowledge about the real workings of the world;; about what really goes on behind the veil.

Mikael had actually seen how dangerous this world really was. He had seen dragons burning down villages for pettiest of reasons. Creatures that lurked in the darkness of night. He knew how insignificant human life really was in this era.

Even in this land, their family were neighbours with the werewolves who could rip them apart whenever they wanted.

Unlike most people, Mikael was aware of the real dangers and that was why he was always on the edge most of the time.

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Hey guys.! I know it's a boring chapter with a lot of info. dump, but let's face it, this is the best week of the year. First christmas, then the new year.!!

We've had the party going on for two days now. It's crazy, and fu*king amazing.!! I hope you guys are having fun too. -- Happy New Year Everyone.!!