Born of Chaos ☽ E. Mikaelson¹

fifteen ☽ the other side

Cora had heard stories of witches between life and death who'd gone to the Other Side and come back. The last thing that she'd expected, however, was to live through that herself. She knew that she hadn't woken up from what she'd done because she was staring at her own body at the compound. She didn't know how long it had been since she fell unconscious, but if she was here...on the Other Side, well, that didn't exactly bode well for her.

The Other Side was cold and being there, Cora felt empty. Alas, there was no time to wallow in it because she had to figure out how to fix herself. She knew that she might be able to connect with a witch in the land of the living if there was someone who had a talisman connected to her. Preferably a witch who might be able to do something about her whole magic dilemma.

While thinking, Cora stared at her physical body as though it was going to give her any ideas. Her eyes stopped when she realized her neck was bare.

Her necklace.

Davina.

Cora walked through the compound, trying to find the young witch and found her in her room. Davina was still wearing Cora's necklace which meant that Cora had an anchor to the physical realm. She stopped short in front of Davina and took a deep breath.

"Here goes nothing."

Cora reached out, touching the purple crystal. Davina jumped back like she'd been electrocuted, dropping the paintbrush that had previously rested in her hand. She looked around the room warily and then Cora tried again, focusing on connecting with the young witch.

"Cora," Davina said quietly, looking directly at her. "How–what is happening?"

"Stuck on the Other Side right now," Cora informed the girl with a half-smile. "Lucky for me, you're still wearing my necklace."

"You're–" A look of guilt flashed across Davina's face. "Dead?"

Cora wished she could reach out and hug the poor girl. But she needed to be back on the physical plane for that.

"No, not yet, but I might be without a jumpstart. I need your help."

"Anything."

"There's a contact on my phone, Theo Hurst. He's been working on a restoration ritual for my magic and you'll need this...cursed object which stole some of my magic. It's...hidden under my weapons. Which, please be careful. Some of them are not witch-friendly," Cora warned, knowing that the girl could rather easily hurt herself on anything there. "Also, I don't know if it needs to be said but whatever you do, don't put on the cuff. Now, this is hard part, you'll need another, more experienced witch to help. Just talk to Elijah, he'll help you figure it out."

"Okay."

"You look scared, Davina," Cora observed softly with a sympathetic smile. "Take a deep breath. I'll try to speak with you again later."

Cora took her hand from the talisman and had the weird sensation of feeling light-headed despite the fact that she was nothing more than a spirit. Davina took a deep breath and nodded before leaving the room.

☽

There was something interesting about exploring the Quarter while being nothing more than a spirit. Cora felt more connected to the magic and by extension, the ancestors that it flowed through. In all honesty, it was not a good feeling, probably because she didn't belong and never had.

One of the perks of being a chaos witch was she got treated just about as well as witches that used Expression. For argument's sake, chaos was not dark magic. Technically. Maybe. Cora was still unclear on some of the specifics of her magic after 27 years of living with it.