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It's not long before the door is open, revealing a frazzled and tense Stefan Salvatore. Castiana's mood lightens slightly at the sight of one of her brothers after all this time, but not by much as curiosity begins to wane in on her.
"Castiana?" He mutters in utter shock.
"Surprise, brother!" The small blonde smirks up at her older brother. "Is it alright if I come in, I hate this heat..." She says as she teeters on the heels of her feet; impatience threatening to make her just slide around his legs.
"Oh! Yes!" He smiles as he steps out of the way, revealing two eavesdroppers; looking to the familar female expectantly as he gives her a reassuring nod when she looks to him, confused and doubtful.
Castiana's eyes skim over the young girl. She notes that the outfit certainly isn't Katherine's style.
Too modest, and just screams victimized goody girl.
The posture also isn't Katherine's forté.
Cautious. Katherine's confident, she wouldn't show her nerves no matter the situation. She also wouldn't blantantly show her curiosity or confusion; she'd act as if she's already known everything while manipulating the situation to get the answers she actually didn't have.
"Come in." The girl says apprehensively, allowing Castiana to enter the large home.
"You must be Elena." She nods in acknowledgement to the dopplegänger before completely dismissing her presence-- not really caring for it.
Call it intuition or whatever, but something about the dopplegänger just gives Castiana the vibe that she can't be trusted. Even with Katherine's tendencies, at least Castiana knew she could trust Katherine's words; so long as they were worded carefully enough.
"Haven't the slightest clue who you are though, but you seem fine enough." She says as she looks over to the man in the suit; a slight shrug of her shoulders following her statement.
"Who--" Elena begins, but Castiana doesn't even bother listening or even looking at the dopplegänger as she starts making her way up the stairs to find her other brother, who she can sense is upset.
"What'd the dopplegänger and our brother do to get you so riled up?" The blonde asks with a small tilt of her head as she leans against the doorframe of her ravenette brother's room.
"Castiana. Didn't know you were making your way into town." Damon nods with his face still grim as his thoughts jumble together.
"What would you have done if you'd known? Get the tea set out?" The little girl asks sarcastically with a deadpanned expression.
Damon chuckles quietly beneath his breath before he sits down on the edge of his bed with a troubled look taking to his features.
"And I thought Stefan was the brooder of the family." Castiana says as she tries to lighten the mood before leaning off the doorframe and going to stand in front of her brother. "Seriously, tell me what's going on."
"Elena is willing to die in this sacrifice this crazy Original Hybrid guy wants to do to unlock his curse or whatever; so long as it means protecting the people she cares about. She's also trusting the guy's brother and his-- possibly functional and non-expired-- witch concoction that's supposed to bring her back to life."
Castiana nods slowly as she takes in his words before looking at him carefully.
"And what's your idea of a solution?"
"If she wants to come back to life, I can just give her some blood." He shrugs carelessly.
"Damon, I'm pretty sure no one in their right mind would want to come back to life as a vampire. There are a lot more bad things about being a vampire than there are good." Castiana sighs heavily. "She obviously wants to come back human; and if that concoction will do that, then let her try or find another witchy thing that'll do it. I don't really like her, but hearing that she's being so caring and selfless about the people she considers her friends or relatives that she'd be willing to die for them instead of sacrificing them-- or letting them sacrifice themselves for her-- so that she can run away and go on living another day-- or another hundred years-- is both shocking and very commendable. I also think she's very brave for willingly facing the possibility of dying and not coming back at all; and it further proves how caring and selfless she is because she's doing it for the sake of keeping everyone else alive and unharmed. It'd be really foolish and selfish discrediting something like that."
Damon furrows his brows as he listens to his younger sister.
"She's probably scared out of her mind as it is. So, you should be helping her get peace of mind before you lose her, in one way or another. And both can result in her being out of your life forever. So, choose which way you would want her to go: For her to live forever hating you and never wanting to see or talk to you ever again; and hurt that you couldn't trust her even just once. Or, to die knowing you at least tried to save her and trust her decisions despite how much you wanted things to be chosen differently; showing that you could be selfless for her and her wants and needs, which would gain her respect."
With that being said, Castiana leaves the room; having given him something to think about.
She heads back down the stairs, only just making it to the foyer when the man in the suit comes around and intercepts her path.
"You're very mature for your age." He more so observes than complements, making the blonde girl smirk in amusement.
"Oh? And how old do you think I am?"
The man looks down, putting his hands in his pockets as he smiles with mirth, almost looking as if he's going to chuckle even though nothing incredibly funny was said.
"I'm Elijah." He introduces himself as he looks back up at the girl, his humor clear on his face.
One of his hands leaves his pocket to stick out to her for a handshake.
"Cas." She replies simply, taking his much larger hand in her smaller one as she gives him a firm handshake. "You're one of the Originals. There are many stories about you. Don't really care if they're true or not, they make it more interesting."
"Yet, I have not heard anything concerning you." Elijah notices suggestively with a curious tone.
"An interesting mystery for you to solve, then. Isn't that nice?"
Castiana begins to make her way to the door to leave; pausing when she hears Elijah's next inquiry.
"Are you not going to stay and try to help Elena and your brothers?"
A small noise-- almost like a distasteful yet entertained scoff-- escapes the smaller girl's lips as she lightly shakes her head, as if disappointed he even had to ask when the answer is right in front of his face.
