Legacies: Infinite Journey

It was the middle of the afternoon. The library was basically vacant, with only a few students in it studying for their tests or trying to comprehend concepts not understood in the classes.

However, amongst the students, the one who got the most attention was the young man hidden behind a pile of books, with him reading one book at basically a few minutes before proceeding to the next, using these minutes to read and carefully comprehend what was written in these books.

Suddenly, someone approached the young man, sitting by his side. "Found anything?" Hope asked, looking at him reading books and more books, having been doing it ever since she saw him this morning.

Right now, she was wearing a blue blouse, light blue jeans and a pair of black boots. Her pendant hung on the necklace around her neck and some normal jewelry she usually wore.

"No." John shook his head, closing one book and opening another. "What were you doing?"

"Ending a painting I have been working on recently." She said, sitting by his side as she grabbed one of the books to give it a look.

"Can I see it later?" John asked.

"What, the painting?"

"Yes. I want to appreciate my friend's talent." He said after reading one more book at super speed, not finding the answers he was looking for. "Do you mind?"

"No, it will be good to have a second opinion." She answered after a short silence. A little happy she could share her passion with someone. "Can I ask what exactly you are searching for by trying to find these answers?"

"Right now, just the satisfaction of satiating my curiosity. Not to mention that studying such an enigmatic concept as nature itself gives me the thrill of being a real mage or something." His explanation brought out a smile from him. "Who knows, maybe these answers make me world-famous across the world as a magical researcher? I could be the new Merlin of the world or something."

Hope laughed at his comment. "Sorry to break it to you, but Merlin is just a mythical figure here."

"Really? There was no Merlin across the centuries?"

"Believe me, I asked my family when I thought of it. But my uncle just said Merlin was an invention of the Arthurian Tales. No real warlock or anything." Hope said, remembering what was told to her by her family. And if her 1.000 years-old uncle who lived in that time said so, there wasn't much to say otherwise.

Well, at least if Hope knew what John knew.

Well, that might be true if Merlin was just a warlock. In Arthurian tales, Merlin was not a pure human, he was half-demon. That would be enough for Malivore to consume him. But that implies many things. If he is a half-demon, then there are demons, and if there are demons there is hell. Well, at least a dimension similar to it, and not a creation of a psychic who died. If there was an actual hell, I am sure most of the characters shown to have found peace would actually be sent to the real hell. And if there was a real hell, would it permit a copy as Arcadius' Hell to exist? Actually, if Merlin existed, would it fall before a being like Malivore? I mean, it's Merlin we are talking about here. Great, more questions to be answered. And worse, this book here also helps in nothing. Closing the book with a tired sigh, John threw his head back, staring at the library's ceiling.

"Nothing?"

"Nothing. It's the 214th book, and I found nothing significant that could actually help me."

"Maybe it's because this is just the surface collection of the school."

"Are you telling me Dr. Saltzman keeps the most important books hidden somewhere?" John said, looking directly at her.

"Yes. Grimoires focused on offensive spells or black magic are locked and kept by him so students don't accidently throw a plague in the town or burn the school." She explained, with John actually understanding why Alaric would do it.

It just needed an angry warlock or witch to take a lapse of conscience and do something terrible. If they had black magic knowledge at their disposal, surely something terrible might happen.

However, John didn't care if it was locked or anything. He wanted them.

"Do you know where they are?" He asked.

"Yes, but Dr. Saltzman has a spell put on them that alerts him if they are moved."

"I bet I can break them." John said. It was common knowledge in the supernatural world that if you don't know the correct spell to undo it, you can always force it to break it. It just requires a huge amount of magic.

"I don't doubt it, but it's better if we just make sure to stay out of trouble." Hope said, taking out her phone from her pocket. "Let me ask my aunt Freya if she has anything that might help you. My family's collection doesn't lose in comparison to the school's, we even have some good things that the school lacks." She said with a little bit of pride.

To that, John nodded. "Thanks. Your help is appreciated."

"Don't need to be so formal. It's nothing big." She replied.

Nodding again, John decided to wait as he practiced a few spells.

"Igni." A small flame erupted from John's finger tip. "Ventus." A small wind spiraled around, fueling the small fire. "Ventus, circularis current." Again a wind started to form, but surrounding the small fire.

The wind started to run around the fire, sucking the air within it, decreasing the size of the flame as the oxygen which fueled the flame alongside John's magic. However, due to the latter, the fire never ceased as there was a constant flux of fuel for it to burn.

"Interesting." John muttered, thinking of something.

"Okay, I talked to my aunt." Hope said, turning off her phone. "She will ask someone to deliver some of the grimoires from our collection to the school."

"Thanks, this will help me a lot." John thanked her, showing a smile to her. "How about we see that painting of yours now?"

"Okay, follow me." She nodded, rising from her seat and walking to her room.

After going up the stairs and reaching the last floor, Hope opened her door and entered her room, with John following her right after.

Hope's room was as spacious as his, but thoroughly more decorated as she spent half of her life in the school.

The room was located in a corner of the building, having two windows, one lining up with the door and another one bigger to the right side, giving the room a good view of the school's campus. Leftward of the entrance was the bed, which was stuck to the wall. It was a king-size bed with a lot of pillows of different colors. A painting was held over it

Nearby the great window was Hope's wooden carved desk, where her books, pens and some art materials were placed.

Between the bed and the desk, situated in the middle of the room near the wall people face when entering the room were Hope's art materials like canvas, paint-brush, white blankets to cover the floor and paints.

Among the items, the most eye-catching of them was the canvas placed on an easel. A mix of blue and white was painted over it, with brown lines spread over a field of gray green behind the blue lake in the middle of it.

"The school's lake in winter?" John asked, but it was more of an affirmation. The painting was almost a reflection of the view someone would see when standing near the great window in the room.

"Yes." She replied, standing by his side as she watched her work. "What do you think?"

Taking a few more steps, John approached the work and resisted the urge to touch it, his eyes revealing what he thought of the painting. "It's good. Calm like…"

"Like what?" She approached.

Turning to her, he smiled warmly. "Like a snowy morning where you just see the amount of snow falling from across the glass window is less and less, an indication that the season is going away, that time is passing. But even though you know it will come back one day, you can't let go of the sadness of seeing it going away."

"A little poetic." She commented, a small joyful smile on her face as she sat on the wood seat in front of the canvas.

"The moment took me." He replied, continuing to appreciate the work his friend created. "It's really beautiful."

"Thanks." She said, grabbing one of the chairs nearby and patting its seat. "Come here, seat."

"Thanks." John sat down next to her. His eyes roaming around the room as they stopped when spotting a small portrait on her desk.

Following his eyes, Hope noticed what he was looking at. Getting up from her seat, she walked to her desk and grabbed the portrait before walking back and handing it to John, which earned her a glare. "You are curious about them, right? That's my family." She said.

"The Original Family, hm?" John muttered. "Let me guess, this is your father." He pointed at the man holding the hand of a mini version of Hope.

"Yes." She replied, her voice melting down when looking at the picture of her father. "The one behind me is my mother."

"Now I see where your beauty comes from." John said.

"Stop joking." She pushed his arm playfully.

John raised his hands to his chest, putting on an act. "I am being totally honest." He said with a laugh at the end. "No, seriously. I really mean it. Your mom is beautiful just as you are."

Looking at him, Hope returned her look to the portrait. "Thanks." She whispered, trying to pass the moment as she started to name the other people in the picture. "This is my uncle Elijah and this one is uncle Kol. This one sitting on my father's side is aunt Rebekah and the one beside Elijah is aunt Freya." She named them all in one go.

"Can I say something?" John asked, proceeding when she nodded. "Your aunt Rebekah seems like a Barbie version of your father."

Hearing it, Hope's laugh got stuck for a moment before she let it out. "Hahaha! You are not the first one to say this." She said between laughs. "If you ever meet her, don't let her hear you saying it. She will punch you in the face."

"I will be sure to introduce myself properly when I meet your aunt." John said.

Hope, however, noticed that John didn't add an "if" as she did. "How are you so sure you will meet my aunt?" She asked with a little bit of a daring tone in her voice as she stared deep down at his eyes.

"Because, I am sure that we will spend a long time in each other's company. In one way or another…" He said, leaving the statement open in the end as he stared back at her. None of the two dared to look away for a moment.

And they stayed like that until Hope decided to break the silence first. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Go ahead." He nodded, noticing the abrupt shift in her emotional state.

"If you ever had the option of living a normal life or how your life is now, which would you choose?" She asked, her eyes seeking the answer he would say as she waited for his answer.

Then, John knew why the sudden shift. His words reminded her of immortality, which was followed by her wondering about life and then the sudden question. Due to her family circumstances, Hope always wondered what would have happened if she was born into a normal life, into one with no interference from the supernatural. Would she have a simple and peaceful life with her family as she wished?

She probably asked herself the same question many times. And most probably the answers were always "yes".

However, for John, someone who lived his life thinking he was normal, had a different opinion of her.

"I would choose this one probably every chance given." He replied, his voice not waving for a second as this was something he truly believed he would do.

"Why?" She asked once again, seeking a deeper and more meaningful answer.

"Because this is a life I always wished for." John replied, laying his back on the chair. "All my life, I heard that life is good because it's short. I don't think so. Life is good because we try to enjoy it to the best of it because we know it is short. My life expectancy becoming infinite doesn't change much, it only changes that I now have more time to enjoy as much as I want and enjoy it to the fullest. Now, I can go to every big city in the world and not have to choose what attractions to see or decide what place to go. I am free of time, one of the shackles that restrain all beings. And being free of it means I can decide what to do with it without worrying about running out of it in the future."

"And the dangers of this life? Don't you worry about them?" She changed what the question was about.

"Would I be safer if I was human? A sneeze and I can go to the hospital. A step wrongly taken and my feet can be injured to the point I won't be walking normally for months. If I didn't know of the supernatural side of things, would my life be better? Without the knowledge of their existence, I could go hiking in the mountains during a full moon and be killed by a werewolf or walk into the night and be sucked dry by a vampire." He detailed the possibilities of how a normal life without knowledge of how the world really is can go.

"But if it was in a completely normal world? No witches, no werewolves and no vampires. Only humans. A world safer than the one we live in." She changed the question once again, but the answer would be the same.

"It won't change my opinion. Besides, who said we can't live a normal life as we are right now?" It was his turn to ask as he stared at her. "We have the time to live a normal life. To simply end school and go to a good university. Find people we love and build a house with them or simply travel the world as we experience the things it has to offer to us. We can follow the same paths normal people take and enjoy it to the fullest. And if we someday get tired of it, we can always find new ways to live, new people to love and new places to go." He shared his thoughts, what he really thought between choosing a normal life or the ones they were living now.

However, even all of this seemed not to change Hope's view much as she had a single question left.

"And what if, in the end, after living everything this universe has to offer, what are we gonna do?"

For that question John didn't delay even a second to answer. "We find another universe or we watch as the universe ends."

She gave a small laugh at his answer. "And how do you expect to find another universe?" Hope asked, finding it a little funny how simple he said that.

"We will seek it. Because I know, somewhere there, there is much more than only this universe." He said, moving his chair closer to her. "And however that ends, what is important is that we will have each other there. Remember, I am here with you now, you werewitchre."

"You liked that nickname, didn't you?" She laughed.

"More than you can imagine and I admit to myself." He replied, putting his hand over her shoulder. "Come here." He said, pulling her in a hug.

"Why the hug?"

"I wanted it. Felt the right thing to do." He said simply.

To that, Hope didn't answer with words and just put her arms over his torso.

After a while, they let go of each other and silently sat there as John watched her painting.

Seeing this, Hope got her art materials and handed a brush to John. "Mind help me?"

"Well, I am not exactly an artist but I can try to paint something." He said as he grabbed the paint-brush.

"Don't worry, I will guide you. You just have to do this first." Hope said, sinking her brush on paint before passing it over the canvas, painting some trees around the lake. "Now, try it."

Nodding, John went ahead and did exactly what she did.

"Is that good?" He asked, a little unsure of what he was doing. He expected her to say something like he lacked originality.

"It's great. All you have to do now is this." She added some other tonality of brown to the trees. "Use the different tonalities to build the details of the trees."

"Uhmh." He nodded, doing exactly as she asked.

And for some time, that was all they did as Hope and John enjoyed the company of each other, painting the canvas as they slowly completed the scenery.

They did it from the afternoon through the evening, talking here and there, none with deep meanings behind them or anything. Just two friends talking.

When the time of dining arrived, both of them stayed two steps away from the canvas, looking at the painting both of them had finished together.

"It's perfect." Hope said, looking at the painting with a different attachment she had to the other paintings.

"I think the same." John replied, taking a good look at it. "Want to give it a name?"

"Have any ideas?" She asked.

Thinking for a while, John actually thought of something. "Longing Winter." He said.

Looking at the painting, one that described a winter that was passing, but seemed to never go away, Hope found it fitting. "It's a good name."

"I know." He answered with a cheeky smile. "But actually, there is something missing." John said, grabbing one of the paint-brushes.

However, before he could do what he intended to do, paint was thrown on him.

"Thought I wouldn't guess what you were trying to do?" Hope asked with a wide smile, holding the can of paint and the brush in both hands.

"I was actually talking about writing our names." He said as he sank his brush in the black paint.

Hearing it, Hope was a little out of reaction.

"However, I also like the idea you thought of." John said as he passed the brush over Hope's face, drawing a black line across her face.

"You!" Noticing what he did, she jumped on him as she drew a blue point on his cheek.

"No, you!" He replied with a smile, now splashing green paint on her blouse.

For a few moments, both of them just stayed there throwing paint on each other until they were as colorful as a rainbow.

Sitting down on the white blanket covering the floor so as to not mess the chairs.

"Thank you." Hope suddenly said.

"For what?" John asked.

"For making the last few days happier than I have ever been in months or years in this school." She answered, continuing to look at the canvas from the floor.

"Well, then I thank you for being my friend." He answered. "Should we go eat dinner?"

"We first have to take a shower I think." She replied.

"Fair enough." John said as he got up and then stretched out his hand to help Hope also get up.

"See you in 30 minutes?" He asked.

"See you in 30 minutes." She nodded.

[Josie's PoV]

I wonder if he is coming to have dinner right now. I thought to myself as I ate my own food.

Lunch with John yesterday was enjoyable, to say the least. The conversation was light and funny. And his admission of a lack of what to talk about during the conversation was quite cute.

Is it that strange thinking about someone when I just left a relationship? I asked myself.

I just broke up with Penelope a few weeks ago. Yes, I was mostly over it but it still saddens me a little. But I must forget it.

But what I found strange about my love life is that, most strangely, I had a crush on John after just ending a relationship.

At least I am not alone on that. I thought to myself. Almost every girl in the school, and even some boys, were too.

Well, it wasn't incomprehensible considering his physical advantages.

He was tall, over the 6' 4" mark. Muscular, much seeable from the fact he wears mostly short-sleeve t-shirts which almost stick to his torso. I heard dad already preparing some custom-made uniforms for him.

His hair was a glowing silky black and he previously had these honey-colored eyes that gave him a certain sweet aspect among his handsome features. But yesterday, when seeing his golden eyes for the first time, the first thing that came to my mind was just how majestic and beautiful they are, a feature that highlighted all of the others.

And besides all of that, he also wasn't rude to anyone. Yes, he stayed mostly to Hope. But he behaves nicely with anyone.

As for him and Hope getting along so well, it's probably because they bonded over the fact they are "lonely". None of them fits into the three groups of the school. No matter how much mom and dad tried to make the three species cooperate, everyone tried to stick to their equals.

And well, Hope had no equal since her identity as a Mikaelson was revealed, her to be the daughter of none but Klaus Mikaelson and she inherited the advantages of all three species but no disadvantage.

There were many reasons for her to be lonely. Others' fear of her power, jealousy of her having so much of it, and again fear, but of her family.

The book in the library telling the history of vampires doesn't exactly describe her family so well. Klaus Mikaelson: The Great Evil. Esther Mikaelson: Creator of Monsters. Mikael: The Destroyer. Not to mention her uncles and aunts.

But the main reason for her to be lonely was herself. We were… between friends and classmates before she went to New Orleans that year, more directed to the first. But after she came back, she simply didn't talk to anyone. I even tried a little more to interact with her since I also had a crush on her. But after some time, I gave up. She was too saddened about her family's loss to try to interact with anyone else.

That's the reason why dad trains with her and takes her with him when a new supernatural appears in the state or the surroundings. So she might open up more and try to befriend others.

As for John, the groups also tried not to open up too much for the same reason they didn't for Hope, fear.

Yes, his physical attractiveness and easy-going personality helped people to interact with him. But it was still there in everyone, the fear of what he was, fear of the unknown.

We at least knew what Hope was, but the news of his species not even having a name traveled the same day he arrived at school. Dad still doesn't know how since he didn't tell anyone and Hope, who probably knew it too, wouldn't do such a thing. But things were done, and people were already aware of him. After all, new species in the supernatural world always means a break of the balance. And this balance has been swaying almost every day for the past 30 years, with things coming back to "normal" just recently, and no one wanted it to break apart.

And now that a new species appeared, the scales would change one way or another. It's what always happens. It's just a matter of time of what is going to happen.

I just hope nothing bad happens to him. I thought to myself, already half way into my dinner.

When I was starting to think I wouldn't meet him tonight, I heard it.

"Haha!"

That deep and resonant laugh that reached out to every corner of the room.

Looking up, my eyes focus on his figure entering the cafeteria alongside Hope, who shared the same laugh as his, a melodic one I haven't heard in a long time.

Something changed. I could see it. Whatever happened the last few hours seemed to shorten the distance between them.

Right now, they were walking side by side, pushing one another in playful manners as they shared laughs and smiles, ones even more natural than the ones from yesterday and today's morning. And their eyes, principally Hope's eyes, had a glow she never saw on them in a long while or ever before.

"Josie!" He called out my name, approaching my table.

"Hi." I replied. Looking at them, for a moment, my tongue slipped and my curiosity won over my rationality. "What were you doing? You seem different."

"Nothing much. Just helping Hope paint an unfinished painting in her room." His explanation turned on a certain alarm in my mind, simply because I know how much Hope treasures painting. I remember how much she cried when she lost the only painting she had painted with her father in a fire, one that I caused.

I felt extremely bad for it. Because of me, she lost the only thing she and her father did in the subject she loved so much, because I didn't have the courage to confess a crush I had on her directly and decided to burn the letter I put in her room under the door, igniting the fire.

Now, the only ones permitted to enter her room were the school's staff and that was with her presence. She convinced my father to accept this as she threatened to put a spell that would electrify anyone who tried to enter her room. To that my father readily agreed.

But despite all of this, I just heard both of them were in her room doing something considered precious, and almost sacred to Hope, together.

"We are going to get our food and sit, okay?" John said, going away with Hope as I nodded.

Looking at their backs, certain emotions run through my mind. On one hand, I was happy for them in finding a friend in each other and this friendship seems to be developing into something else. On the other, a thought I tried to swipe away continued to appear.

Why the fuck and I imagining the two of them together on my bed?! Was all I thought as the wish to hit my head against the table was almost too strong to resist it.

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Notice: Hello. I am sorry for the delay. I had a test this week and spent some time studying for it so the chapter was delayed a few days. For this, I will just tell you this chapter might be one of the last slice-of-life in a while as I plan to dive into the plot in the next chapters. That's it and thanks for your support - Author.