JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Jun 25, 2024 18:27:48 GMT
Relief had nearly driven her to her knees when she had seen them both. She had been spared seeing Hector and Linc at their worst, although the words, razor edged and intended to cut deep into Magnus’ heart had carried up from the basement at times. Imagining colour rising into their faces with each flush of anger and their eyes glittering as if fever had given the virus some physical shape that Jo had found herself checking for as she folded Linc and then Magnus into a hug. With Magnus blood and immunity thrumming in their veins there had been no sign of it.
Vaccinating the sick with a remedy created from another’s immunity was neither new, or novel, but she hadn’t allowed herself to believe it would work this time. All the way back in the 1400s people had been trying to make themselves immune to smallpox. The disease had swept through some of the places she had been staying and like she would time and time again in the following centuries, Jo had played dumb as to why she hadn’t succumbed to the disease. She imagined that Magnus and Hector had done the same, drifting through the waves of plague, seemingly luckily untouched. Only it had eventually caught up to Hector.
Jo studied the man who was back in the chair behind his desk. If she hadn’t known what had happened in the last couple of months, she would never have believed that Hector had been anything but eternally, elegantly put together. ”How have you been?” she asked lightly, her lips curving in a small smile. Hector was always better at handling his emotions than Linc was, but he had to have been questioning every change in mood he went through. Was a burst of irritation at a rude customer too explosive? Was a little maudlin moment a sign that some unheard of depression was rolling in like a storm cloud on the horizon? It wasn’t that far a leap from negotiating the open sea, trying to judge the direction of the wind or the pull of the tide, but it was harder when you had to predict the emotional weather of your own life.
This was her second visit this week. On Monday night she’d lingered in the bar downstairs for an hour with Linc and Hector, using the wait for Magnus to close the shop for the night to check up on them both. Now, on Friday, it was a pit stop between her office hours – classes were now thankfully over for the semester, leaving only the lighter load of summer school – and walking over to the shop to meet up with Magnus. Neither time had she seen any recurrence of the virus in either of them. Soon the check ups would stop altogether, the fear that this was just the eye of the storm vanishing altogether. It had been the same way when she’d nursed Magnus and her sons. The paralysing fear that she and Kaegan would lose almost everybody that they loved all at once slowly easing.
Medicine had come a long way in seven hundred years. No more laying all your hopes and prayers for a miraculous recovery in God’s hands. No more foraging for the right herbs either. In Mystic Falls that probably would have been a dangerous prospect for most. Speaking of those dangers … They’d been talking for a good forty five minutes or so, if she was much longer Magnus might start wondering what was keeping her. ”I should head off. I’ll come by again in a couple of days.” Jo murmured her goodbyes as she hugged Hector and then headed out of his office.
In the time that they’d been talking the place had started to fill up. Crowds stretched along the bar, clamouring for their first drinks of the night, some were already on the dance floor. Jo let the door shut behind her and made her way into the fray. How any of them tolerated it for more than a few minutes at a time was beyond her. The music alone had her yearning for a time before electricity had been invented, when she could’ve stepped out of the castle walls into cool, verdant woods.
Distracted by the thought, wondering how Magnus would feel about al fresco dining tonight, she didn’t notice the woman coming towards her until the last second. ”Sorry.” The apology spilled out as she went to side step around her to avoid collision. Under the lights her features were cut sharply by shadow, but she could almost picture them dappled by the tree canopy above. Jo frowned faintly, taking a step back. ”I didn’t see you there.” She hadn’t the last time either, the memory of her erased altogether by her compulsion, a demand to forget her that had broken with Philippa’s bite. ”It’s been a while. I suppose all roads lead to Mystic Falls in the end though.” Her voice was dry, just a hint of humour edging it, although there was nothing funny about her first encounter with the supernatural.
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AURORA DE MARTEL
Vampire
Posts: 167
Age:
1041
Status:
In a Relationship
Partner:
Damien Beck
Played by:
Jodi
The king may rule the kingdom, but it’s the queen who moves the board
Last seen Nov 11, 2024 12:09:59 GMT
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Post by AURORA DE MARTEL on Jul 12, 2024 19:05:15 GMT
Stepping into the club was risky, considering she wasn’t exactly welcomed there by the owner. Tristan had already paid Hector a visit, throwing casual warning around which resulted in Aurora being unofficially banned. It didn’t bother her though. It wasn’t like she was itching to get to the club every weekend, not when she had a boyfriend who could take her to a swanky bar in Dubai. But she hadn’t come to the club for a cocktail, she wanted to speak to Hector. Damien had told her Hector had somehow been cured, so it was now safe to approach him. She was hoping to grill him on where he contracted the virus and more importantly what he knew about Elijah’s current mental state. The question was had Hector told Elijah that Tristan was behind this? It was plausible. Hector wanted Tristan dead, but didn’t have the skills to kill Tristan himself. Hector was nothing but a child to her and Tristan. So, instead he could have directed Elijah off towards Tristan with the idea he was behind the virus. Either way, she was ready to wrap her hands around Hector’s throat and squeeze the truth from him. A look of mild disgust washed over her face as he stepped into the club. Straight away her heel stuck to the floor, which was covered in a mysterious liquid. The air was thick with the smell of sweat and alcohol. She couldn’t comprehend this was how the younger generation had fun nowadays. Drinking themselves into a black hole in a dark club. A frown cut across her face as a young girl stumbled past her, barely keeping herself upright in her heels. Aurora still held onto some old school values, such as how women were supposed to present themselves. It wasn’t in a way which the females in the club were presenting themselves. The harsh lights flashing above didn’t provide the best lightning. Aurora caught a glimpse of the women just as she darted to the side, apologising for being in the way. Aurora offered her a sharp smile. “Apology accepted.” She was just about to move past the woman when she spoke again. “Pardon?” Her eyes moved quickly over the strangers features, trying to find something familiar about the women, but there was nothing. JOHANNA BAI
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Jul 22, 2024 21:37:33 GMT
Ananda had never breathed a word. After he and Elizabeth had rushed her into their home, he’d revealed that Elizabeth wasn’t like them. She’d stared at them both, her mouth, still full of the foul and beautiful taste of the blood she had drained, hanging open. There had always been stories on the road of weird and wonderful creatures, but for the two of them they had always been just that. The Gods and Goddesses who had created their very world, things that would give you your very heart’s desire for a price, people who could change their appearance on a whim. It was all wild and hard to believe, although she had held onto her belief in Bai-Ulgan and Tengri long after she had stepped foot in the hallowed aisles of the churches the English had used for worship.
In that moment that Philippa’s fangs had latched onto her throat, Jo had realised just how wrong she had been to dismiss it all. Thousands of miles on the road and she hadn’t come across a single one of them? It had to have been a lie. It had been right under their noses, but even with her insatiable inquisitiveness she had missed it all. Until England.
Gathering the herbs she needed to cook had been an almost daily endeavour at the castle. More than her own family, she’d had the entire court to feed. The men hunted in the woods, bringing in enough meat most of the time, but venison or wild boar wasn’t enough alone. There were still some who looked at the greens she brought in from the stream or the fields with wariness, but she hadn’t let that bother her, especially not with her own boys. IF you wanted to keep your own teeth, or avoid ill health, they were necessary. If she had to, she would hide them in the soups and stews, watching out for her own family with the knowledge she had gathered from her mother before her untimely passing.
The moment she set eyes on the woman under the flashing lights of the club, Jo could see her basket hitting the ground in her mind’s eye. Don’t scream. She hadn’t. Just like with Philippa, her voice had been trapped in her throat. Her mind had thrashed against the order, but she had been unable to so much as lift a finger against the woman. Fangs at her throat, blood hot against her skin. The order given afterwards to forget all that had happened. Compulsion.
A shiver had run through her as it had become clear on that first night afterwards. Ananda and Elizabeth had been the only ones who had ever heard the tale. Controlled like a puppet by one of those things months before she had tried to protect Magnus from Philippa. She had thought then that perhaps the woman had been the one to turn Philippa. Now Jo knew that she had been nothing more than a meal to her – disposable, although thankfully it hadn’t just been her drained corpse that had been left behind for her husband or sons to find.
Jo’s lips curled faintly, the edges of her smile as sharp as the woman’s before they melted away, leaving her mouth stretched in a thin line. There was no recognition on the woman’s face. Why remember a snack from more than seven hundred years ago? Dark brows drew together faintly. ”You truly do not remember. Not surprising, I suppose. It was some time ago.” The smile was back, storm grey eyes narrowing. ”England, Edward III’s court. A little walk in the gardens I imagine. There was a cook from the castle foraging there. You told me not to scream, did you not?” Right before those delicate hands had gripped her hard and her fangs had torn into her throat.
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AURORA DE MARTEL
Vampire
Posts: 167
Age:
1041
Status:
In a Relationship
Partner:
Damien Beck
Played by:
Jodi
The king may rule the kingdom, but it’s the queen who moves the board
Last seen Nov 11, 2024 12:09:59 GMT
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Post by AURORA DE MARTEL on Aug 14, 2024 16:34:36 GMT
There was an entire world out there yet it seemed every single vampire was living in Mystic Falls. Every corner she turned it felt like she was facing someone from her past, which was never good. There weren’t many friends she kept by her side throughout her life. It was through a mixture of choice and having no option. The first century of being a vampire she had no option but to keep everyone at arm's length. The group were convinced Mikeal was coming for them. They could only trust one another. That state of paranoia became a part of Aurora though and she spent the rest of her life wondering whether she could trust anyone apart from her brother and Lucien. She gave Damien the same cold shoulder when they met, asking herself whether someone had sent him to kill her family. With Damien the anxiety faded almost immediately as she was too preoccupied being caught up in this whirlwind romance with a handsome reaper. Tristan had warned Aurora she needed to be careful with these men she met instead of haphazardly giving her heart to them. According to Tristan all it took was a nice compliment from a man and Aurora was falling in love with him, which wasn’t entirely true. She didn’t fall at Damien’s feet the moment they met, although it was tempting with his charming attitude. Someone from her past was now standing in front of her. Apparently. She had zero memory of this woman, which wasn’t uncommon. Aurora had met plenty of people throughout her lifetime. Green eyes narrowed at the woman as she spoke again. “Around the middle of thirteen hundreds…” Her voice trailed off as she did her best to cast her mind that far back. Her and Lucien had been following a dead end trail back to England. There were promises of someone who knew how to kill Elijah and the rest of his family. Mirroring the Mikaelsons behaviour they compelled the staff into believing she and Lucien were people of importance. Eventually her lips twisted into a faint smile, “I remember. You should count yourself lucky my travel companion did not find you otherwise we would not be having this conversation.” The pair were under strict instructions not to slaughter everyone inside the court, but Lucien wasn't keen to follow Tristan’s instructions. A few bodies here and there would go unnoticed. “It seems you must understand our existence spans for centuries. Names, faces, even the lives I have crossed paths with… they tend to fade into the abyss of time.” Centuries had passed since they met, meaning this woman was now one of her kind. “I do not believe we exchanged names last time. I am Lady Aurora de Martel. “ She offered her hand out to the stranger. JOHANNA BAI [/b][/div] [/div]
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Aug 22, 2024 19:27:37 GMT
There were plenty of faces that had faded from her memory over the centuries, the sharpest edges of details dulling until they were barely visible, even when she tried her best to hold onto them. As though she were superstitious she would try and picture them again and again, but that had only seemed to make the details softer in the end, like a thumb worrying at the face on a coin, fine etchings slowly disappearing. Jo had desperately hung the memories of her parents and the time she’d had in England. Replaying it, picturing it all continuing to happen without her. ]
To try and figure out how she had ended up on the road again, alone, her heart aching, she had gone over every minute that had led up to her being turned. The first moment she’d realised that something was going on between Philippa and Kaegan, when she had decided to do something about it. Before that, when her discovery that there was something far more terrifying in the world than being forced to marry a man of her step-mother’s choosing.
The woods had been green and peaceful and like a foolish child she had believed there was nothing in them to be afraid of. Perhaps if the memory hadn’t been stripped from her by the woman who had bitten into her throat, she would have seen who Philippa truly was before the blood had been forced down her throat and her neck snapped. Two snakes in the grass, only one had managed to truly hide herself. Until now.
”Mm hmm,” Jo muttered in confirmation, the sound alone making her throat feel tight. She could have lifted a hand and point at the exact spots the woman’s fangs had entered her throat. The blood on her clothes had been dismissed as a small slip out in the woods, reassurances laid on before Kaegan could fuss over her. It had been far more difficult to hide what had happened the second time around. Philippa hadn’t just wiped the knowledge that she was a vampire from her mind, wickedly, the queen had decided to turn her instead, twisting her entire life and unknowingly revealing just what had happened before.
Jo’s hands tightened into fists at her sides, her knuckles pressing white against her skin. There was a chance this woman and Philippa had known one another, perhaps she had even been the one to turn Philippa. Magnus could have known her, the possibilities that suddenly swam into her mind left her feeling slightly sick. Dark brows rose further, before they dipped into a full on frown. ”I should count myself lucky that you had restraint?” A tight chuckle left her lips before she shook her head. ”I cannot say I was glad that matters how played out as they had when I was turned, but distance has softened my views on my fate.” What had happened with Philippa had led her and Magnus to where they were now, saving a boy’s life in the process.
Her lips curved faintly, the smile still tight. She had not understood at all at first, not until she had seen had she was not aging. Watching the lines grow on her husband’s face and her sons become fathers themselves had made it clear that time was no longer going to march for her the same way. ”Especially when they were little more than a way to slake your thirst for a moment,” she said with a nod. It was a cold way of seeing things, but she couldn’t admit to remembering every vein she had sipped from over the centuries, and this woman was older still. Slowly loosening her hand from its tight ball, Jo shook the woman’s offered hand. A lady, that explained a lot. ”Johanna Bai. It feels right to finally put a name to the face, my lady.” Manners drew the title out of her. ”I was never truly privy to the queen’s life … were you there then to see her?” Elijah Mikaelson had been the one to turn her, but it didn’t mean there were not others involved.
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AURORA DE MARTEL
Vampire
Posts: 167
Age:
1041
Status:
In a Relationship
Partner:
Damien Beck
Played by:
Jodi
The king may rule the kingdom, but it’s the queen who moves the board
Last seen Nov 11, 2024 12:09:59 GMT
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Post by AURORA DE MARTEL on Sept 14, 2024 20:50:48 GMT
Centuries had dulled Aurora’s own recollections, faces and names fading away, yet some wounds remain sharp, forever untouched by time’s erosion. This woman didn’t meet that criteria, which was no reflection on her. It wasn’t too long ago she slaughtered a monastery of Monks whose faces she’d now forgotten. The both of them remained trapped in ageless eternity though. A cruel fate, one that had shaped Aurora into something colder, sharper. The world was harsh and if Aurora was to remain the soft human she once was she wouldn’t survive. The woman’s fate had nothing to do with Aurora. The last time she saw the woman she was a human. Someone else had stepped in, snatching away the human inside of her. “By the time I met you I had mastered the skill of restraint around three hundred years prior.” If they hadn’t then Mikeal would have come for them. “Hmm, yes it seems one of our kind found you years later… it is nice to see you have survived this long.” Her voice was laced with sincerity. There became a point in life where all the old vampires band together having survived through everything. They’d lived through countless eras without being killed. That stood for something. There was a faint smile on Aurora’s face at the woman's comment. Sometimes a meal was just a meal, there was no time to exchange names. The stranger should know by now that’s how vampires worked. Her lips worked their way into a more genuine smile as Johanna shook her hand. “Bai. Mongolian?” Clearly her manners hadn’t been misplaced over the years. “Not particularly. We compelled the staff into thinking otherwise though. We were looking for a witch, but our journey was futile.” There was no one there who could help the pair. As soon as they became apparent they disappeared, following yet another pointless trail. JOHANNA BAI
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Sept 27, 2024 21:06:33 GMT
With Elizabeth and Ananda’s help her control had come on rapidly. Stumbling to their home with the guard’s blood still on her hands, half paralysed by the fear that she would do the same to Kaegan or their boys. It had only taken a small nick to the guard’s wrist to set the blood lust off. A momentary lapse of concentration could have Kaegan slipping with his knife, one of their boys could take a fall. There were a thousand ways to cause a wound and she’d had to learn how to deal with them all. Wrapping her self-control tight around that part of her that wanted to just fill her mouth with that coppery taste. For some control took years to find – as Linc was learning now. By the time someone had turned three-hundred years old, it had probably been easy to release her. A vampire that old knew that another meal would be easy to catch and there were few things in the world that could beat them in battle.
Jo let out a long breath at the thought of how old this woman was. She hadn’t seen her as anything more than a young woman then, and that was perhaps what had made her so easy to lure close. What threat could she be? Oh, if only she had known, perhaps she would have taken more care around Philippa then. ”Someone of far less age and control decided to use turning me as a method of silencing me,” Jo admitted. ”It was only after that I realised she hadn’t been the only vampire I had ever met.” She’d had little choice but to keep silent about the Queen’s relationship with Magnus afterwards. A single word to anybody would have had Philippa outing her in turn, drawing the sort of violence down upon her that would’ve robbed her husband and sons of her at least a decade before she’d eventually had to leave.
”It’s nice to see you have survived too,” Jo said lightly, inclining her head towards the woman. Their first meeting hadn’t been a pleasant one for her, but from the distance of 700 years, and having fed from humans at times of desperation, she had understood the need to feed and could only feel grateful now that she hadn’t been left cold and dead in the woods that day. Few made it as long as either one of them had, Magnus and Hector also managing to defy the odds, and thank God they had. Finding Magnus here had made the long and often lonely centuries worth it.
There were probably few on earth who could have claimed connections to the Royal Houses of the time, although studying the woman before her, Jo suspected that she had moved in the same sorts of circles as Philippa had. As Aurora’s smile had grown, Jo’s own followed it, the tension bleeding out of her. Her eyes narrowed faintly though, their grey irises glimmering like storm clouds as she identified her name. ”It is,” she said lightly. ”Did you also visit the Khan’s palace? It seems your travels have taken you quite some way.” The road had been long and difficult then, one she’d never intended to travel back along, but circumstances had left her following it anyway. Leaving her family behind had left her heart aching with every step along it.
”I’m sure the court would have offered some welcome, although perhaps your way was best. There was one at court … my sister-in-law,” Jo managed hoarsely, it had been seven hundred years since Elizabeth had drawn breath, she saw no problem in telling the woman what she had been now. ”If she had known, she may have helped you. What did you need a witch’s help for?” It was perhaps impertinent to ask, but she doubted she would have been here now if she were still in search of a witch.
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AURORA DE MARTEL
Vampire
Posts: 167
Age:
1041
Status:
In a Relationship
Partner:
Damien Beck
Played by:
Jodi
The king may rule the kingdom, but it’s the queen who moves the board
Last seen Nov 11, 2024 12:09:59 GMT
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Post by AURORA DE MARTEL on Oct 10, 2024 10:27:09 GMT
The immortality and eternal blood lust was a path Aurora chose, albeit for all the wrong reasons– for love. For a man who belonged to a cruel and cold family. A family who would ultimately break what little sanity Aurora. There were traces of sadness on her face as Jo spoke of being killed to be silenced. “It’s a bizarre feeling when that compulsion lifts and you see the truth.” The lies you were fed and forced to believe. When Elijah was daggered the cloud lifted on her, Tristan and Lucien. “You can train your mind to resist compulsion. Even as vampires we can still be compelled.” There were moments where it felt like all she was doing was surviving, rather than living. Her aim was to make it to the next decade, then the decade after that and so on. There were times where there was zero happiness in her life, stolen from her by her own mind. The one thing that should have been helping her to navigate life was actively working against her. But then Damien stepped in, shining a light on that darkness, igniting a love inside of her she hadn’t felt for centuries. Europe had been their domain for centuries before slowly making their way to America in their later years. Tristan was convinced the answers to their prayers were hidden somewhere in Europe until he latched onto the idea they could find something in America. Aurora shook her head, “Never visited. My brother and I roamed most of Greece and Italy back then.” Searching, searching and searching so more. It was a never ending quest. There was a shared understanding in Jo’s eyes, a history of struggles that stretched across centuries. Aurora noted the way Jo spoke of her sister-in-law with a bittersweet nostalgia. It was disappointing to hear there had been a witch right under their noses the entire time. But then Jo asked what spell she was looking for. “A daylight ring for a friend.” While the woman hadn’t indicated she had any ties with the Mikaelsons she wasn’t willing to share her secret with Jo about their true search for a witch. To bring an end to the Mikaelsons. JOHANNA BAI - wrap with yours?
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JOHANNA BAI
Vampire
Posts: 63
Age:
731
Occupation:
Geography Professor at Whitmore
Status:
It's Complicated
Partner:
Magnus Dane
Played by:
ANGE
Last seen Nov 5, 2024 18:42:09 GMT
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Post by JOHANNA BAI on Oct 24, 2024 18:29:16 GMT
”It came as quite a shock … in a series of them,” Jo said, agreeing lightly. If she had been allowed to remember what had happened to her, perhaps she would have seen the signs in Philippa before the queen had forced the blood past her lips and had snapped her neck. It might have been too late to save Magnus from the same fate, but she would still have tried, just with far more caution. The curtain on the supernatural world had come down with a rush on the night Philippa had turned her instead, revealing things she had never imagined, including in her own family. Elizabeth had explained all she could as she had taught her the safest way to feed – something Philippa had no intention of doing – including her own roots. At the time it had seemed enough to keep her safe until she’d had to leave. Apparently there were still things for her to learn after seven centuries.
Jo’s brow furrowed as Aurora explained there were ways to train her own mind to resist compulsion. Normal vampires had never seemed able to compel each other, no matter their age, they seemed to be on an even playing field. Except for the Original family. She stiffened faintly, nodding to the woman. ”Learning how sounds like a wise precaution.” Especially since there was a chance Elijah Mikaelson might come calling at the club again. Like Hector he was apparently infected with the virus, although if he had suffered the murderous mental decline as both Linc and Hector had, it hadn’t happened publicly. Perhaps it was one more thing the Mikaelsons were more immune to than their vampire progeny.
Relief had washed away fear in a breathless rush when Magnus’ blood had worked on his best friend and son. The nightmare that had been hanging open for them for months vanishing along with the virus from their system. As a human she had felt the same way when her sons would grow ill, when Kaegan or Magnus had, the powerlessness to help, the trust that you had to have in the cure you were trying to give them. Medicine had come so far in that time, but it still couldn’t cure everything. At times since she had found herself wistful for those simpler days, memories held onto so fiercely. Home, the one she had returned to after her supposed death had been one of them. Her family had been mostly gone, but she was able to stay for a time, to live in the world she’d been forced to run from all those years before. Cambulac had been much as she’d remembered it. Jo smiled softly now, recalling it in all its glory. ”You should have seen it. It was a true wonder. Greece and Italy had their charms too though. I spent time in both.” Both before and after those decades in England. Perhaps, like comets wandering in the sky, the two of them had passed each other again and again, usually at a distance just too far to see.
As it had then, the road her life was taking seemed to stretch out in front of her. Jo glanced past Aurora, towards the entrance into the club. Now the road always led back to Magnus, and to Linc, a second love and family she had never expected to find. Her gaze cut back to Aurora as she answered her question, a puff of breath passing for amusement. ”I’m sure if Elizabeth would have known, she would have been willing to help. I hope you found what you were looking for eventually. It was … good to see you. Perhaps our paths will cross again some time.” In a town as small as Mystic Falls, it would be no wonder if they did. A world that had seemed impossibly big when she had been a child always seemed to lead her back to her human life. Jo offered the woman a nod of farewell and moved past her into the crowd. This was another story to tell Magnus over dinner, one where, perhaps, he would find ties to his own past if he had known the woman.
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