Chapter 20: Kol's Awakening
As Max led the way to a grove of trees, he deactivated the Rune of Privacy, almost immediately sensing the presences of 3 very annoying ghosts.
'How the Hell did they instantly find me the moment I deactivated my privacy rune?' Max thought to himself as he walked, though his face betrayed nothing pertaining to his thoughts. 'I should do a spiritual cleanse soon, make sure Qetsiyah doesn't have me spiritually bugged.'
"Is this the place?" Marcus asked curiously, snapping Max from his thoughts.
"Yes," was Max's answer.
Max had led them to an encirclement of trees — specifically, a Rowan Oak Sacred Grove — and a naturally created one at that. It was basically an encirclement of Rowan Oak trees surrounding a massive Great Oak tree, or, in this case, a naturally occurring Nematon.
'I found this hours ago when experimenting with my seer abilities. It literally came to me in a vision,' Max thought to himself, feeling the natural power this grove gave off, let alone the Nematon itself. 'It's an old grove, at least 1,000 years old, but I sense it has been untouched for at least 800 or so years. It's a wellspring of raw, untapped power, and perfectly capable of being the power and protection necessary to awaken Kol and bypass Esther's curse with my biological matter manipulation + adaptive magic to allow Kol to access his witch side while still being an Original vampire.'
"Xaw dna tlas morf mrof noitamrof cigam!" Max chanted in Logomancy.
[Logomancy. Read as: "Magic formation form from salt and wax."]
Instantly, the jar of salt Max pulled out of his satchel had its lid explode as a great wind caused the salt within to trail out and for a triangle magic formation to form before the tree in front of the trio.
At each circle of the 3 sides of the triangle magic formation, a candle of wax appeared. They were unlit… or they were, until—
"Phesmatos Incendia," Max chanted, and, with a wave of his hand, the 3 candles lit up. Then, turning to his observer covenmates, he said, "Give me a bit of room to work, please. I am about to begin."
Kai wordlessly looked at Marcus, who nodded, gesturing to the side. Kai, looking back at Max, noticing his eyes closed in focus, narrowed his eyes before following Marcus to the side.
Max activated the Rune of Focus, the tattooed rune glowing a brilliant white-blue despite previously not seeming to be there —- A special magic camouflage effect Max had to prevent anyone from seeing the rune unless he activated it and wanted them to. He felt his focus intensify, but he still held on to the Verbatim Stone with both hands, drawing on its power in a casual but careful manner.
And then he started chanting.
"By time and by space, by blood and by place, by designation and by fate, I summon that whom I seek before me in this formation proper!" Max began the chant: "Vocã Kol Mikaelson."
Almost instantly, a casket appeared at the center of the triangle, and, with a wave of his hand, Max ripped the lid off the casket, telekinetically throwing it beyond the treeline of the grove.
Then, walking up to the tree, he placed a hand on it, feeling the mystical energy course through and enter into himself alongside the boost from the full moon and the Verbatim Stone, which he had hovering above a pale-blue and veiny, still-daggered Kol Mikaelson, radiant in its multi-colored light and powerful aura.
Taking a deep breath, Max muttered, "Now, let us begin. It is time."
And he began chanting immediately, magically drawing out the dagger inside the chest of the Original vampire while brilliant golden threads of magic released themselves from the palm of Max's hands, trailing into the casket and into the body of the Original as he had already begun his work.
[Moments Ago, The Other Side]:
[Kol Mikaelson]:
The last few hours had not been kind to Kol Mikaelson.
"Ever since that portal left the manor this morning for some meeting, I haven't been able to sense his presence," Kol murmured out loud in frustration, pacing the floor back and forth on the Westphall Manor floor. "It's frustrating not knowing his whereabouts. Maybe I shouldn't have let him go to begin with…"
"Pfft… Like you would have been able to stop him from doing whatever it is he wanted to do," snarked Emily Bennett, with a dismissive wave of her hand.
This only served to annoy Kol more, but he wasn't foolish enough to act on that annoyance, especially with Qetsiyah directly across the room, eyes closed in focus.
'She's been searching the Other Side for Max ever since his presence vanished from her radar earlier this evening…,' Kol thought to himself. 'And yet she still hasn't found him? Is something shielding her from him?'
Suddenly, an unexpected thought came to Kol — One that made a shiver traverse down his spine. 'Could Max have somehow found a way to shield himself from her?'
The thought gave Kol goosebumps. He knew Max to be a highly gifted witch, but to be already capable of shielding himself from one of the most powerful witches on Earth? Scratch that, arguably the strongest witch to ever live, is more like it. One would at least have to have already begun approaching that level of magic power to even stand a chance of accomplishing this feat. Even when Kol was still a witch, before he was forced to become a vampire, while he was himself a skilled warlock, he was nowhere near Qetsiyah's level of magic power. Hell, his mother created vampires from a spell Qetsiyah herself invented!
Taking a breath, Kol sighed out his stress. Intending to cool off his mind and worries, Kol walked to the window and looked out the pane of glass, watching the crimson-violet–indigo skies of the setted sun. The moon was already showing its full form from above the clouds, gracing the world below in its lunar light.
'How much stronger have you become, my little witch, and why hide from me?' Kol thought to himself, a tad bit disappointed in being left out of the loop, which was unreasonable, Kol knew. Still, it was a strike, however indirect, to his pride.
"I've found him," suddenly Qetsiyah exclaimed, garnering both Kol's and Emily's attention.
"It took you long enough, ancestor. I was afraid the Original here would have permanently imprinted his shoeprint on these fine marble flooring if he paced it any longer," Emily smirked at Kol's glare.
"Whatever, you old, scandalous hag," Kol chose to ignore the 19th century witch, choosing instead to look to the 2,000+ year old witch. "Can you take me there?"
Wordlessly, Qetsiyah snapped her fingers and the three of them appeared in a different place entirely: A woodsy area, likely a forest, encircled by rowan trees with a massive great oak at the center.
"A Rowan Oak Sacred Grove," Emily murmured in surprise. "With a Nemeton in the center, and it's a naturally occurring one? How quaint…"
But Kol's attention had already become distracted, no longer interested in the environment so much as who was in it. Max was there, and present, but he wasn't alone.
Two unfamiliar males were with him. A Caucasian with calculating, blue-grey eyes who was around Max's age .He may have been a year or two older than Max, but he was definitely not good company for Maximus. He radiated a mischievous nature, but one slightly different than Kol's. This one was cold and calculating, but also unhinged and untamed.
The other was an African American with simialr hazel-green eyes as Maximus, only this one's were more grey-silver than Max's, and that was all the traits he shared with Max, so Kol doubted they were relatives. He was dressed in dark clothes with bracelets and amulets that radiated magic power, so they were more than like totems and talismans.
'I lose him for only a few hours and he's already added to more men to his harem? Unbelievable.' Kol quipped, but when he saw Max summon his casket and magically pulled the lid off and send it flying as he begin to release golden threads of light from his hands and channel power from that strange stone, the full moon and the Nemeton, he decided it was OK. 'I doubt any man will have his attention or his heart as much as I. Plus, we're guys; more the merrier — It's definitely funner. So long as none of them hurt him, they can still draw breath.'
As Max chanted, slowly removing the dagger in Kol's chest that felt himself being pulled towards his body, the pull getting stronger by the second.
"Finally your presence absents," Emily quipped. "Do me a favor and do not return, Original."
"You say that like you won't miss me, love," Kol smirked before staring at Max's chanting form, taking note of the strong winds ruffling his hair and how the lit candles had their flames reach 6 meters high, which, in conjunction with the light of the full moon, gave the young warlock a haunted gaze of sorts, one that only served to bring out the brown-green of his hazel eyes much more effectively. "I wouldn't worry too much about that, though. I do, after all, have a reason to stay undaggered now."
With that, Kol stopped resisting his body's pull on his soul, and he closed his eyes, the last thing he heard on the Other Side being a soft "good luck" from the snarky, sarcastic Bennett ancestor. Then he found himself gasping awake.
[Maximus Westphall-Bennett POV]:
GASP!
With a sudden gasp, Max watched Kol Mikaelson finally awaken, the dagger finally removed and on the ground beside the Original's coffin.
He was still pale-blue with dark veins of dehydration from lack of blood in his system, but Max's heartbeat still sped faster than ever when Kol looked at him. The two locked eyes and Max felt a heat in his stomach he couldn't ignore just looking at the Original vampire. He was breathtakingly beautiful, even in this weakened, bloodless state.
Neither said a word but as the seconds passed, Max found himself questioning if he was still semi-sociopathic, because the feelings Kol were eliciting from him just from eye contact and a lopsided, Cheshire grin — 'Gods that grin,' Max thought, feeling the pool in his stomach increase in temperature. 'That cannot just be genetic, right?'
"Hello, little witch," Kol smirked, as Max walked up to Kol, picking up the dagger, and pricking
a finger, before offering the blood to the Original. "For me?"
Kol gingerly took Max's finger, his cold hand sending a shock through Max's nervous system. And as the vampire guided the finger to his lips, his darkened eyes never once left Max's. As the vampire sucked the finger, a sense of pleasure assaulted Max like never before. It was incomparable
and caused Max to release a moan, a tent forming in his pants, as Kol's grin merely grew.
And, as Kol's colouring returned, the veins retreating, Max managed to gather enough willpower to withdraw his own finger from Kol's mouth— though not before Marcus had released an awkward cough, breaking his trance.
Turning a shade of red, Max remembered that he still had to unlock Kol's witch side. He placed a palm on Kol's chest, golden threads of light connecting the threads Max had already woven into the Original's body. He focused deeply, eyes closed, because he knew if opened them, he'd see Kol looking down at him and he'd never be able to focus properly then.
He envisioned what he sensed — every organ, every bone structure, every blood vessel, the nervous system to cellular level and molecule in the body — He focused on that, every cell and molecule, empowering the dead ones with life, and unlocking the biological lock that prevented vampires from accessing their witch side.
GASP!
A sudden intake of breath told Max he had succeeded in his goals.
Opening his eyes, he noticed Kol looking at the palm of his hands in surprise, likely sensing his attunement to magic once more. "You gave me my magic back…". Kol was shocked, staring wide-eyed at Max. "And I can still feel my vampire side… I… Thank you, my little witch. This…this means a lot."
Max grinned in response, pride swelling from within himself at the praise. Then, remembering there was an audience, Max decided to introduce everyone, however internally he was already plotting his next move.
'It is about time to head to New Orleans, isn't it?' Max thought. 'After all, assimilating Inadu's power would be a huge help in the times to come. But, first, this grove and Nermerton would be very useful in my psychic world, wouldn't it?'