Diamond Legacies: Part 2

The drama commences. This Volturi plot is only a small part of the story but important none the less. If you're confused who characters are/can't remember check the wikia! 

Part 2 

Micah 

“Ivana-Chloe-Jane” I heard the excited musical voice of Esther Josephson fill my house as I sat outside with my book I borrowed from my father. I heard Ivana greet her parents and guide them into our sitting area.

I remained out of the way for a while before I decided it was time to at least say hello before doing some more research on a case I was dealing with.

“Micah my darling. How are you?” Esther greeted me as I made an appearance at the door way. The threesome had been speaking Bulgarian for the past hour but they converted to English for my benefit.

“I am well Esther, how are you?” I asked her. She smiled at me.

“Exceptional,” she responded and I couldn’t help but smile back at her. There was something about Esther that made the room feel brighter. Her soul was captivating, every time I saw her I saw something different in it I didn’t see the last time. She was the most complicated creature I had ever met. Staring at her too long honestly gave me a headache. I wouldn’t be able to work out Esther if I spent the next century in a room with her. She was a being of immense complexity, her millennia of life, combined with her limitless abilities and magic was like a never-ending puzzle for me. It was like learning about the universe for the first time. As a child I’d spend hours with Esther, just listening to her stories, she was my favourite person as a child. Perhaps it was inevitable that her daughter should be my favourite person now.

I stayed for pleasantries but retired to my study soon after. I liked spending time with Ivana’s parents here, it was like they were different people around their youngest daughter. They spent the last twenty years devoted to only her, I was one of the rare people that have seen the soft side of Esther Josephson and one of the only people except close family that have ever seen Aleksander Balev be a normal functioning person and not Esther’s personal bodyguard and shadow. Aleksander as Ivana’s father was one of my favourite things to witness. Although his soul had dark and complicated bits to it, it was mostly full of his love for Esther and his daughters. Seeing him around Ivana was like seeing a different man to the one in the Volturi. Should I ever have the chance of being a father, he along with my own have been exceptional role models and I would aim to be exactly like them. Entirely devoted to their child they waited so long to get to raise. Aleksander and my father were very alike and yet Carlisle rarely saw this side of Aleksander. I liked to think that with time that might change, they could be good friends if they made the effort to know each other. Esther on the other hand was always this person around family. She viewed my entirely family as hers, her and my father have been close for centuries and yet within Volturi walls she was someone else. All the Volturi Cullen’s had the same shift in personality within those mansion walls. It was like a persona they all changed into. The Volturi was one of my favourite places to be, just to get to watch the inner conflict and decision process of the leaders and their advisers. It was truly fascinating to me as to how they kept our world at peace and helped those that required it. That and they had the largest book library in the world. The older generations of the Cullen’s donated every book they had to it. Whilst most books in the world were now digital my family had kept physical copies and they were now all in one place. Any Cullen or Volturi was allowed into the library and could read any book they wanted. There were even some there that weren’t digitalised. It was my favourite room. My father still had some himself and the one I had in my hands was one of his. The books in the Volturi weren’t allowed to be taken out of the room but my father had his own collection I was free to use when I wanted. There was just something about holding a book in my hands that was so much better than a digital version. The fact books were so rare now and haven’t been printed on paper in the last hundred years made it even more special.

I had barely opened my book again when my phone alerted me of a message. It was the Volturi requesting my assistance. More often than not it wasn’t the hospital requesting my presence, I was called into the Volturi far more.

I didn’t mind though, I liked to help when I could.

I took my exit through my window since it would be faster than the stairs and took off running in the direction of the Volturi Estate on the outskirts of Chicago.

“Hey kid, they’re in the conference room,” Zac Cullen greeted me as he was exiting the Estate, with his wife on his arm. “Is Es at yours?” he asked. He was one of the very rare people that were allowed to shorten Esther’s name. I’d only ever heard himself, Eddie and Chloe ever call her anything different than Esther. I nodded in response. “Thanks,” he said and he held up his hand for a high five as I passed. Zac had been a brother to me growing up as much as my parents other adopted children. He was very much part of that generation of my family and he often came to visit me growing up in Forks with his wife Madeleine. His essence was a fun one to be around, it was very light hearted, much like Emmett’s. They were both optimists that tried to see the good in most things and joke around.

I took the usual detour through the visitor lounge where the hybrid Olivia was on duty.

“Evening,” she smirked at me. Olivia had been one of the only people I had started somewhat a relationship with in my life. I could never stick with anyone because the whole, I can see your soul and every essence of your being right down to your darkest sins and bad habits sort of put people off, if it hadn’t already put me off to start with. Olivia was one of the longer lasting relationships but she wasn’t a sharing type. Although she liked Ivana, she didn’t like my unwavering loyalty to Ivana over her. Which in itself is entirely understandable, I just wasn’t willing to give up my best friend for a relationship that I already knew wasn’t likely to ever end in anything serious.

“I’ve been summoned,” I told her and she went to the closest where the Cullen cloaks were kept. Basically, a room full of the blackest cloaks you could find.

“Here you go,” she said handing me one over and I pulled it on with one sweep. “I’ll sign you in,” she smiled and I smiled back.

“Thanks Olivia,” I said and as I left I eyed the very nervous looking vampire waiting on the sofa.

I made my way to the main conference room I knew the leaders would be congregated. The throne room had the guards lined which meant there was a court in session.

I could hear the talking behind the door as I reached it. I made a slight tap and the door swung open.

“Thank god,” Lidiya Cullen sighed as she pulled me into the room. “Debate over. Micah is here now,” she announced.

“What I said still stands!” Pancrazio argued to the room. I scanned around, the usual occupants were here. Pancrazio, Matthew, Chantelle, Lidiya and Anelie. As well as Ariella, Lizzy, Asta, Jonathan and Allesandra. The usual advisors. Benjamin and Lexi weren’t here which was becoming less unusual by the year. Where Benjamin was absent, his younger sisters took over in full force. They were both far more invested in the Volturi than their brother was now. Asta treated the Volturi like her whole life mission.

“We can all stop questioning this guys integrity and Micah can tell us,” Alle announced heading for the door.

“Hold on a minute Alle. Let’s catch Mikey up,” Chantelle called to her granddaughter and motioned for the council to sit. I took the spare seat and waited for the situation. Zio caught my attention.

“We have an issue with a vampire that’s come to us. He is saying that he’s heard of an uprising in Europe involving some of Lilim’s descendants. He seems like a very nervous guy, it took us an hour to get the full story from him as it was. We were going to call Esther in but she’s on her own time and I prefer to use all options before I put the most powerful creature in existence in front of this already nervous man. This is a very delicate situation, we need to know everything about this guy before we take anything he says seriously enough to take action. If he’s correct, then we could have one hell of a problem coming to our doorstep.” Pancrazio explained to me.

“Lilim? You mean the mega witch you all defeated sixty years ago?” I clarified. They were kidding right? My parents had told me those stories growing up, Ivana and I used to tell each other the stories growing up too, it was when her mother became unstoppable. Why would a bunch of witches want revenge now? Sixty years later?

“Correct.” Matthew nodded as I scanned their worried looking faces.

“And you don’t think that this constitutes enough of an emergency for Esther? That she wouldn’t want to know?” I asked looking at her daughters sitting on the opposite side of the table.

“She’s aware of what she needs to know. Zac has been sent to catch her up on the situation fully. At this very moment we do not need our mother charging in here taking the reins, she knows she will be needed when she’s needed. If… and I say this with little belief. If this vampire is telling the truth, then we will convene a family meeting and discuss further what we must do. Since this is a potential threat with anyone with the Cullen surname I know there will be many that wish to be in on the discussion,” Lidiya told me.

“So, what do you want me to do?” I asked for clarification.

“Tell us if this bastard is a liar,” Asta told me from my side. I could trust Asta to be brutally honest that was for sure. I sighed as I looked back at the group around the table.

“Alright let’s do this,” I said making the first move to stand. Pancrazio and Chantelle left first. The rest of us made our way to the throne room slowly after them. When we arrived, the court was resumed. The guards were standing in order at the walls and the very nervous vampire from the visitor lounge was in the middle of the room. The advisers and leaders took their places and I went to stand by Pancrazio.

“Nikolai, I would like you to meet someone.” Pancrazio announced motioning me to leave the stage with him. Pancrazio led me to the subject and introduced me. If the man had heard of me he didn’t show any recognition. Although the stories of my parents having a child spread through our world very little about my ability did. Even when I was used in court, it was never revealed what I could truly do. I would often examine a subject and report to a mind reader in the room, or alternatively to Zio privately.

I watched as Nikolai stood there staring at me. He was nervous, that was true. His soul was like that you would expect from a carnivorous vampire, his human personality worming its way in, still fighting over the bloodlust. I saw traits of a liar but no more than a usual person. Not enough to lie about something this big.

“Ask him,” I told Zio.

“Nikolai.” Zio began. “You have come to us with news of an uprising. You have risked your life getting this to us and worry for your safety from a coven of witches out for revenge for Lilim’s death fifty-eight years ago. Is this true?” Zio asked the man. Nikolai nodded strongly. His nervous stature straightening slightly. His soul flickered with truth.

With the news of an uprising of witches I wanted so badly for him to be lying.

But this man was scared. He feared those in this room, his eyes kept flickering to Anelie and Lidiya and I knew that this man truly believed he was risking his life by being here. He knew it was the right thing to do to warn the Volturi and that’s why he was here. He truly believed in what he saw. I could see that.

I turned to Zio and his eyes locked with mine. All I had to do was nod once and Zio knew.

The intimidation stance dropped. Zio’s voice softened and he reached out an arm for the nervous man.

“Relax Nikolai. You are under our protection. No harm should come to you within these walls. Thank you for coming to us and telling us of this. We appreciate it.”

At Zio’s words the advisors on the stage started to mutter. The guard around the room started to shift nervously and the man in front of me relaxed slightly in relief.

“I’m sure you understand that whilst I believe you saw what you say, I will have to have someone check over your story. It will involve telepathy, I hope you understand that this is necessary to validate the threat,” Zio explained to his new ward. The man looked nervous again.

“E-E-Esther?” he asked his voice shaking.

“I promise you she isn’t as scary as the stories say. Esther will not harm you,” Zio assured Nikolai. He nodded.

“I’ve heard of her compassion, but I’m afraid many like to spread the horror stories of her power,” he said, relaxing at Zio’s words of protection.

“I’m sure they do,” Zio said with a small smile. “Charlotte,” he called to one of his guard members. The young blonde came over to her master with a smile.

“Yes Re.” she said. Using the title only reserved for Zio. Its literal translation was ‘king’ but it was a title the guard themselves gave him, not from his own accord. It had more meaning than just ‘king’ to this guard. Zio had given them everything and they were his family. The title was a form of respect.

“Please escort our new friend to the guest quarters and explain the situation. Esther will be available tomorrow for him to meet,” Zio said.

“Of course,” Charlotte said with a small smile. “This way,” she added to the nervous looking Nikolai and they headed out of the throne room.

The room erupted into conversation, the hum was almost deafening.

“Enough!” Zio called to the room of his guard members.

“I know you’re scared but you’ve been trained better than this. This is not the threat we once faced. Lilim has not returned from the dead, they are poor inadequate copies. We are not facing an immortal witch. We are facing the whispers of a cult. Something we have faced before and easily vanquished. Please remain calm, my friends. This is not something to worry over. Court is dismissed for the evening.” Zio said in a strong voice and a wave of his hand the guard members were free to leave the room, they all headed out the door to the guard common area, leaving the leaders and advisors remaining. Ariella and Lizzy were looking nervously at their leader. Asta was talking to her sister and everyone else was sort of in their own world.

“Do you truly believe that? True Descendants of Lilim are no ordinary witches.” Matthew asked his father. Everyone’s attention fell on Zio for his answer.

“I believe it.” He said strongly.

“Esther is an immortal witch now. We have Axton and Alena and we would have Cain at the click of a finger too should we require him. These fanatics have nothing on those four and you all know it.” Zio dismissed the worried faces of those closest to him.

“And me,” Asta grinned at her grandfather. Asta was unique, she was a Luna Bambini hybrid but she was also a witch, thanks to Lilim casting a spell on her mother when she was still in utero. The spell caused immense amounts of power to combine with the growing Asta and Lidiya’s Death ability. Giving Asta a catastrophic version of Lidiya’s power. Although Asta no longer had her volatile ability, she still had witch magic and had mastered it to a pretty fine art too.

“You are staying far away from this,” Matthew turned to his daughter.

“Like hell I am!” Asta fought back. Even without her ability, Asta was the feistiest person I knew. Her soul matched that too, it was like watching flames dance.

“Asta, you have Lilim’s power. For all we know, they’re after you!” Matthew argued with his child.

“Hold on a second,” Allesandra said coming to her sister’s aid. Her soul was one of the prettiest id ever seen. It was pure light and flame. There wasn’t one patch of darkness in it. She had the fierceness of Asta but it was pure and good. She had some similar flecks of light to her grandfather Aleksander, and it wasn’t until Edward explained to me that both had been dead for decades and brought back with the power of the moon pool that I realised I had been seeing actual concentrated moon pool magic in their souls.

“Asta is likely the only one they’ll listen to. They’ll sense Lilim’s magic in her as their own and they’ll understand her. She’s our best bet to getting out of this without a fight,” Allesandra explained defending her younger sister. Their relationship was interesting to me, they were very similar but not quite soul mates. They had spent so much time together and bonded so much that their souls were a perfect compliment of each other. They were some of the closest siblings I had seen.

“I am not putting my daughter in a nest full of vengeful witches!” Matthew argued back.

“Here we go again,” Allesandra sighed at her father.

“Perhaps this is a family argument for another time,” Lidiya said to her husband and daughters. “Right now, we need my mother to authenticate his story and then we go from there.”

“Agreed,” Chantelle said, her hand entwining with Zio’s. I saw his body and essence relax at her touch.

“It’s late, we’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Lizzy said taking Ariella’s hand and leaving. Ariella eyed Matthew as they left and he nodded in response. Their friendship was always interesting to me. Ariella had been Matthew’s constant for pretty much his entire life. She was the one to brainwash him into being the leader of the Volturi, she took him away from his family nearly two centuries ago and yet they were best friends, their souls were forever entwinned with each other.

As everyone left Zio and Chantelle turned to me.

“Esther will be performing the interrogation tomorrow, then we’ll hold a family meeting in the afternoon. You’re welcome to come,” Zio said placing his hand on my shoulder before dropping it. I nodded.

“Thanks. I’ll be there,” I said as they left the room. I headed out, dropping my cloak off with Olivia and making my way home. I had various thoughts running through my head on the run home and I wanted nothing more than to discuss it all with my best friend.

When I got home Esther and Aleksander had gone. Ivana was fast asleep in her bed and as much as I wanted to wake her and tell her everything that had happened, I knew she had a long shift starting tomorrow and she hated the on-call rooms at work. She wouldn’t get much sleep the next three days. She needed her rest now.

I decided to put off worrying until tomorrow. There was no point until Esther had done her thing. I went back to my case and worked through the night.

Ivana left early and I stayed in my study until I heard a knock at the door.

It was Olivia.

“Hey,” I frowned, what was she doing?

“Hey stranger. I’ve been sent to request your immediate presence at the Volturi,” she said happily.

“A message wouldn’t suffice?” I asked.

“Nope. Esther sent me directly. Told me I had to bring you to her straight away. No detours,” she said. I sighed and put down my book on the side.

“Is Esther with the subject?” I asked as we left my house and made our way to the estate.

“She is. She wanted your help,” she said.

“And she sent you? Or did you volunteer?” I smirked at her.

“I may have been the 2nd or 3rd person she could have asked,” she giggled at my side.

“So, you volunteered to flirt with me?” I asked her.

“I’m not high enough born for you,” she teased. I rolled my eyes. When we were together she liked to tease that I was born royalty in our world, she knew I hated it. I decided to deflect the statement and quote something she said to me mid-way through our breakup that she wasn’t ‘brunette enough’ for me.

“Pretty sure I’m just not into blondes anymore,” I nudged her and she let out a laugh.

“My mother not being the most powerful creature in the world might be an issue too,” she joked nudging me back.

“Are you saying I’m into one of the Life and Death twins? Did you know they’re married?” I diverted. She laughed again.

“Yeah okay Micah, just deflect the entire situation,” she said as we reached the Estate.

“For the record, I like blondes just as much as brunettes,” I said as we entered the mansion, I saw her smile out of the corner of my eye but she didn’t reply. My cloak was waiting for me so I pulled it on and said goodbye to Olivia as I went to the green meeting room Esther tended to take her guests to.

“Micah my love, thank you for coming,” she said letting me into the room.

“Did I have a choice?” I asked her in reference to the personal escort. She smirked at me.

“Perhaps not. Since I wasn’t here yesterday I’d like to see what you saw to get a full picture of the situation of our guest.” She explained and I nodded. This was a general occurrence if Esther wasn’t around when I examined a subject. She liked to make sure what she was seeing in their minds matched my checks. I began to focus on the vampire’s soul. He watched me with curiosity and I began to separate the personality traits for Esther to see more clearly in my mind.

“Thank you, Micah, I have what I need.” Esther said with a brush of my arm. I smiled at her and headed for the door.

“Do you know when the meeting is?” I asked her.

“Early afternoon,” she responded. As I left I gave her a small nod and made my way to the common area of the mansion. This was where the guard hung out in between court or between what ever they had to do for the day. There was a buzz of chatter when I walked in. The whole room stopped when they saw me.

“Carry on,” I muttered heading to the fridges where animal and human blood was kept for convenience of the guard. They were clearly labelled, thank god. I had never tasted human blood and I never planned to.

I decided to stick around the Volturi until the meeting. There wasn’t much point in me heading home to come back. I chatted with a few of the guard members I had become quite close with whilst we waited for the non-Volturi Cullen’s to arrive.

The guard lined the walls of the throne room first. I stood at the top end as I waited for my father to come in so I could stand with him. The leaders came and sat on the edge of the stage, very informal for a meeting in this room. The only reason we were here was because there would be far too many people for the conference room. This was no ordinary court. The Volturi Cullen’s sat on the stage, some on the edge, some in the thrones although no one was following protocol.

The first Cullen’s started to enter, the usual visitors wore robes but many of the extras didn’t. Especially the descendants around the area. Most were human with no involvement in the Volturi what so ever. In fact, some faces were new to me. There weren’t many children or the younger generations around. I headed over to my father when I saw him enter with my mother.

“Hello sunshine.” He said as my mother took my hand. He led us both to the stage to stand with the prime guard.

“This can’t be everyone,” I said when I saw the doors close behind Edward and Bella. The walked to the front followed by a few famous faces in the Cullen’s. They walked over to Zac and Madeleine who were talking to their daughter Clara.

“No, it is not. Zio has sent up a system within the family. We have far too many descendants to ever be in one room. He has a networking system, one representative of every major family branch that live relatively close to Chicago. After todays meeting they are responsible of passing on the message to those that require to know it. Its been a system in place since Lilim came after the family as a whole sixty years ago. All those that live in Chicago are welcome to meetings too. It’s just so no one has to travel far distances for the sake of a meeting.” He explained to me. I eyed the leaders at the front of the stage as Zio stood up.

“Thank you all for making the effort to come today at such short notice. I know you are all curious as to why we’ve brought you here for such a rare meeting. We’ve had some information given to us about a possible threat growing in Europe. The story has been verified by both Esther and Micah and we believe the messenger is telling the truth about what he saw. We are being led to believe a coven of witches are forming in honour of Lilim.” Zio began and the second he said her name whispers erupted in the room.

“Whilst we don’t believe they are heading here, the threat still stands,” Zio said raising his voice above the whispers. They quietened, letting him continue. “We need to be aware. You need to pass on the message to anyone with the Cullen name. We don’t know what they want, we don’t know if they’re coming here. We don’t know what they’re doing. All we know is that they are forming a coven, a big one, in the name of Lilim. Whether they’re after revenge or think they’re under threat from us. We don’t know yet. We’ll be sending scouts to Italy to find out as much as we can. For now, please be on your feet. We will update you all as soon as we know more. Thank you,” he said and as soon as he finished the conversations erupted again. Various members of the family began to ask questions.

“You knew?” my mother grabbed my hand to get my attention.

“I met the messenger last night. I did a brief check but Esther found out for sure this morning,” I explained to my parents. I watched as my mother’s eyes danced with worry across my face. I had never seen my parents worried before. Never.

“Dad…” I said turning to my father. Was this a more serious situation than I thought?

“It’s okay son. It will be okay,” he smiled at me. His smile reassured me but I could see his eyes darting to his children in deep discussion with Zio and Matthew. “If you’ll excuse me,” he said and made his way over to Edward, Bella, Rose, Emmett, Alice, Jasper, Zac and Madeleine all around Zio, Matthew, Chantelle and Esther.

I turned to look at my mother who was watching them with a frown on her face. I didn’t like my mother frowning. It wasn’t right for her beautiful face.

“Momma,” I whispered. She turned to look up at me. Her face softened into a smile of reassurance. Her hand stroked my cheek.

“Everything will be ok my sweet boy. I promise,” she said. “I have more faith in our family now than I ever have before.” I looked back at Esther who was deep in conversation with my father.

Please go and take care of my daughter. Don’t worry her over the events here. It will be sorted. I promise. Esther’s voice echoed through my head. She looked past my father to look me in the eye and I nodded.

Okay. I said and dropped my mothers hand. I gave her a quick kiss and I left the buzzing room of conversation.

The next day Esther left with Edward, Bella and various guard members to Italy to find out more of what was going on. I avoided the Volturi, which whilst was my favourite place in a normal situation, the whispers of war and conflict worried me. I hated war, I hated fighting and violence. I hated the mere thought of threat or conflict. I hoped this could be resolved peacefully. The thought terrified me. I hadn’t become accustomed to war or tragedy like my immortal family. I wasn’t sure how I was supposed to deal with it. I had never seen my parents worried like this and it scared me. There was only one person in the world that would make me feel better.

I needed my best friend.

End of Part 2