Mystic Falls was home, i had never stayed in any place longer then i had stayed there and yet sometimes i needed a break. This one seemed long overdue, maybe it wasn't the place, the sights, the sounds. This time i thought it was the people.

I was in a constant battle of silence. What could i say to mediate one as well as the other? Nothing. Damon wanted what Klaus wouldn't give, he in turn needed what Damon couldn't.

So i had left, letting them run wild and free to settle their differences like adults. I was a powerful being, nothing could truly go wrong without at least someone i knew being able to fix it. Or so i hoped.

"I can't believe you have finally found a war of which you can't decide what side your on." Dante huffed his laugh as i sprawled out on his sofa. Leon having been kicked out the moment i arrived on their doorstep.

"I know where i stand Dante, when it comes down to it, i save Damon." I shrugged, a loyalty my friend had earned.

"Ah yes, the brother without shared blood. Tell me do you help him against Klaus?" I sucked my teeth at his question.

"Not exactly..." I mumbled.

"So you are without a side, you don't fight at all anymore." He mused as i rolled my eyes.

"Tell me what i am supposed to do, oh wise one." Dante snickered at me.

"Do what is written in stone, join the side you are meant to be on. Perhaps there you can make a difference and allow both sides to prosper." Wise words from a man who avoided doing that for ten years.

"Don't make the mistake i did." As if he had been reading my mind.

"So you suppose i what?" Dante was more then willing to tell me as he leant forward.

"Stop shooting down his advances, play the game like you know you want to." A laugh shot from me at the impossibility of it.

"And betray a friendship i have adored for over a century." Dante shrugged at my words.

"And you think Damon is being fair by standing in between you and your Shadowmate?" I scoffed.

"He has done no such thing." I bit back.

"Then your reason is nullified, Damon will understand and if not you will have gained an alliance far stronger." A tale of loss and gain, with things i wasn't willing to lose and others that i wasn't sure i wanted.

"You know what happened last time i was offered something stronger with a risk of losing something i loved." I mumbled. Of course he did, Leon had told him the origin of our power many times, never skipping a detail.

To sacrifice their lives in hopes of giving us immortality. Except i hadn't had a choice in what i chose, it was safe to say i wouldn't be alive today if i had.

"You are the master of all things war, Eris. If anyone can find a way to have both it will be you. Damon will understand just as your family understood how the hunter became an ally." I sighed.

"I need time to work a plan that elaborate out, i only hold that title because most of them succeed. To rush this would write failure into the seams of it all." Dante laughed despite my mood.

"And that is why you are who your are dear sister. Take all the time you need, stay the night, stay a week, a month whatever you want and desire because in the end i know you will get it anyway." I smiled in appreciation.

"I wouldn't want to burden you further then i have already." Dante scoffed.

"You could never do such a thing." Perhaps i had needed to hear that right now but there was one question lingering in my mind.

"And if we have failed to see one factor? What if Klaus doesn't want this to go any further then it has and im stuck alone like i have been for an eternity?" Dante smiled comfortingly as he took my hand in his, all worries washed away by the look in his eyes.

A hunter who had not be scathed by the hunt itself.

"How can you fear it when you have seen the joy in it all? Push for it because you know that there are moments ahead of you that you have seen." And he was right, there had been that night of the ritual. There were things to fight for even if they didn't span any further then the memories i had yet to endure.

"I think i will stay for a while if the offer was true." Dante nodded without hesitation.

"Your room is always ready, as is Ezra's and Kyrin's. You know how Leon is about family, how you all are." He laughed in amusement.

"Things are changing Dante, i don't think our family is ready for it." He sobered in his laughter at my words.

"I felt the way you did when i accepted the bond, a sense of vulnerability you cant shake. Its natural, tends to happen when you care for someone." A hum of discontent left me.

"It's stressful." I shuck in distaste.

"You can't remain alone forever Eris." Dante stood then, placing a kiss of content on my head before making his way up the stairs. I stayed for a moment debating on all the ifs and buts before i made my way to the front door, settling onto the porch.

The sky was as dark as all the troubles plaguing me in this moment and i wondered if the sun would still rise despite it. The ache of the unknown made it hard to breath but in that moment i decided to take what i wanted as i had always done, no longer would i bite my tongue in hopes that the troubles that haunted me would perish. I would do what i always had, take until there was nothing left to steal.

At the end of it all, no matter what side i stood on or by whom, i would have all that i wanted. Should change threaten my family i would make it so the world shuck with us. Mystic Falls was about to become victim to the plague of my rule, everything would go my way or no way at all. That was the wish of my wrath and none had a stronger will then I.

I felt it then, in my bones and inner mind. The build of smoke and threats twisting into one looming cloud. A week, i would give myself a week to secure a plan and then i would enact it.

Blessed be those who fall by my side and prayers to those who appose me.