VI.  ALL IN DUE TIME

     IVY knew she had yet to completely process the information shared by her brothers. Her mind was in a slow sort of daze; not allowing her to fully comprehend and analyze what was happening.

She knew she should be more cautious; she always had been a bit naive, but at least she was aware of that.

She also knew that it wasn't entirely her fault that she couldn't completely grasp the severity of the situation; after all, to one second be standing over your brothers' corpses to then laying in a crypt supposedly over a hundred years later, would be confusing for anyone.

She barely even had time to process the death of her brothers and yet, they stood before her, not a year older than the day they died.

Ivy knew about vampires. How could she not? Ivy may have been naive, but she was not stupid. With a town filled with supernatural beings, it was easy to sense that something was off. And when Katherine Pierce entered the lives of the Salvatore's and the other inhabitants of Mystic Falls, Ivy could no longer ignore the clear signs of supernatural beings.

   There had always been whispers about the allusive Lockwood family and their tempers. Her father had once made remarks about the cave on the family land, but Ivy never took anything her father said too seriously.

   But Katherine Pierce forced her to no longer ignore the signs. Katherine was elegant and poised, but there was something so haunting about her.

  Her first initial reaction to the supernatural world was fear. Though, how could it not be? To have stories shared in her adolescence about the horrors of vampires feeding on humans and the tales of werewolves tearing villages apart— it was a natural reaction to become afraid.

   But Ivy tended to find beauty in the things that were deemed broken.

   Stefan had once told her that while it was her biggest strength; it was also her greatest weakness.

   Finding beauty in broken things came easy to her. It was like the Japanese philosophy and tradition of Kintsugi that she once studied, believing that things are more beautiful because they are broken.

  Being broken was a key part of beauty in Ivy's eyes. The human soul was fragile and could easily crack— so rather than fault those cracks, she chose to embrace them and allow them to aid in her growth as a woman.

   Things and people who are 'broken', typically have more depth and individuality. Learning lessons about life and yourself is almost impossible without the doom of anguish and heartbreak. Going through things allows a person to grow beyond what has hurt them and to become something stronger than they were before.

   Broken did not mean it was not able to be loved and cherished; it simply meant that someone had gone through a tragedy and still has remnants of their pain.

So rather than finding a hatred for all things supernatural like her father, Ivy found a way to love them.

   Witches, werewolves, and vampires alike, Ivy found a way to adore them all and to understand them to the best of her ability.

   Witches had always been fascinating to Ivy. To find out that the bedtime stories and tales shared by her mother, and later her older brother following her death, about witches and spells, were based on true concepts sparked a curiosity in Ivy. Unlike other beings, witches were not created with malicious intent to curse others. Instead, the original foundation of covens and witchcraft was centered around the connection with nature and the ancestors that passed the magic through their bloodlines. Witches could possess the ability to do magic, but choose to go about their lives without it.

But for so many supernatural beings, they did not choose their circumstances. For werewolves, it was a curse carried through bloodlines and triggered by death. For vampires, they only had to consume the blood of another vampire and die, which in a lot of cases, was not done by choice.

While she didn't know the exact origin of vampires, she figured that like werewolves, it was a result of magic.

   And for Ivy, it felt unfair to hold someone accountable for something they had no control over.

   And that was exactly what Ivy told Damon anytime he would inquire how she could view the supernatural world in the way she did.

She would never judge someone on the circumstances they were born into, like the werewolf curse; instead, she would allow their actions to form her opinion of them. Ivy was kind, but she was not foolish.

She saw the absolute best in people unless they gave her only nasty things to see.

There were only a few select people that she had deemed 'bad'; her father and a collection of her father's associates to name a few. Ivy always allowed for peoples' actions to speak for them rather than falling victim to gossip and whispers about a person.

And sure, in some cases, that mentality proved to hurt her, but she didn't allow it to change her. While it was a weakness; it was an even greater strength.

   THE stone slab Ivy was seated on caused goosebumps to rise on her skin. The thin fabric of her dress did little to ward off the cold touch of the marble, causing Ivy to resort to wrapping her arms around herself— curling in on her body in a defensive sort of manner.

The position of her body made her feel safe— providing her with a small comfort despite the uneasy feeling resting at the pit of her stomach. With her limbs wrapped around her, she could protect herself and give herself the comfort she so desperately sought.

   Stefan stayed at her side, eyeing her body language, while Damon approached the entrance to the mausoleum, beckoning the hooded women to come back in.

When Damon stepped away from the door and began to head back to his siblings, Ivy could see the women approaching from behind him. All of the women had their faces concealed by the hoods of their cloaks, hiding their faces from Ivy's gaze by tilting their head down so that any part of their face not covered by the dark green fabric was not visible due to the shadow the candlelight created on their faces.

   While all of their faces were covered, Ivy could see the women who lead them, her face being the only one not hidden from her view. Her dark brown hair was pulled away from her face, tied up in a series of braids with small pieces of flowers woven into them. Given as her hair was pulled back from her face, Ivy was able to see the entirety of her face. The woman's ebony skin glowed under the light provided by the moon and candles— gleaming beautifully. Her large brown eyes were kind and soft— but Ivy could sense a great bit of wisdom both in her eyes and in the way she walked.

She conducted a room— Ivy could tell. She was the sort of person that when she spoke, people listened. The manner in which she moved had a certain elegance to it that blatantly stood out. Her movements were poised and practiced; oozing a sense of power into the air. While her gaze was sharp, it was not harsh.

   After she lead the other cloaked girls into the room— standing before them with her hands clasped at the front of her body, she eventually spoke. With a slight smile, she nodded at the Salvatore siblings, "I take it you may have some questions for me, but I fear I cannot reveal all that I know to you."

   Stefan crossed his arms over his chest, sparing a glance at Damon who was visibly irritated. "What do you mean you can't tell us?"

   The woman hummed under her breath, unclasping her hands to brush them over the front of her cloak, "Tonight is not the night I'm afraid. All in due time, my dears."

   "Why?"

   The woman smiled at Ivy after she spoke, pausing before responding, "You are not ready just yet. These sorts of things take time and patience. Trust me, when it is time, you will know."

   All of her words did little to put out of fire brewing in Ivy's head— an abundance of questions and theories forming as she stared into the woman's eyes. Ivy shook her head, more out of disbelief than anything else. "I am afraid I do not understand. How am I here?"

   "Magic," she said, shrugging her shoulders, "you are here because of magic, but I cannot share the specifics of it all yet. You are not ready; none of you are."

   Damon strode forward, resulting in the girls behind the uncloaked woman to tense up, an action that did not go unnoticed by Ivy. "You think we are just going to leave here without answers?"

   The woman, however, did not seem phased by Damon's approach, instead, she smiled at him. "I do not think anything; I know, child. I have given you the option to leave here tonight with your sister, with the knowledge you have gotten tonight. However, should you try to threaten us again, I can simply take your memory of what happened here and replace it with the narrative I so choose. I will allow you to decide your fate, but I will not allow you to threaten my girls."

   "Why are all witches so cynical about things? Just taunting that you know stuff, but won't tell us what it is exactly that you know. Yet, people wonder why I don't like witches."

   One of the cloaked girls scoffed, "Smart move Dracula, insult a coven of witches, especially when you're on their territory. A bit stupid really."

   Damon's jaw clenched, his eyes narrowing whilst she spoke. "Tell us what you know."

   "All in due time."

   Damon moved closer to the women, "Say that one more time, and I swear,"

   Ivy removed her arms from their placement around herself, reaching out to take Damon's wrist in her hand, effectively cutting him off in the middle of what she assumed was going to be a threat, "Damon, be smart. It is best if we leave tonight and allow things to unfold as they should. If you were to even try to fight, they clearly have us outnumbered."

   The woman smiled at Ivy as though she were proud of her assessment and like she knew something Ivy did not; which Ivy was sure she did given her previous words about not revealing too much to them.

   The woman grinned, her red lips pulling back to expose white teeth and a genuine smile, "As I said, everything will unfold when it is meant to. All in due time, my dears."

   Stefan, who had been silent at Ivy's side, finally spoke, "Thank you." It was barely audible; a broken whisper on the air as he leaned forward to grab ahold of his twin's hand, "Thank you. We thought, we thought she was dead all those years."

   "Never dead," the woman winked at them all with a grin pulling at the corners of her mouth, "just simply lost."

   "Truthfully, I haven't much to say. I think I have yet to grasp everything; I believe I am still in shock truly but thank you." Ivy clutched Stefan's hand in hers, sharing a smile with the witches.

   "There is no need to thank us for doing what we were meant to," the woman continued to smile, "you will know it all in due time. In the time until then, allow time to mend your relationship, for family is everything."

________

qotd: least favorite character in
the tvdu?

didn't really edit this chapter,
just allowed myself to
get lost in writing it
because i feel i do
my best when i allow that to happen.
hopefully, you all enjoyed <3

while it's a bit short and overall
a tad boring, i felt it necessary to
have a sort of filler chapter like
this to ease into the plot
more smoothly as opposed to
just tossing you all into conflict
and plot right away! hopefully
you all get my intention w that
and enjoyed this chapter!