entrancelogs | 010 ƒ open } { they’ll make their judgments, so assured

[She stands, and he takes a step back. The folding of his arms is a subconscious defence, fingers curling loosely around his elbows. Under normal circumstances that could be a lead-in to some exchange of pleasantries, but as accustomed as Dan is to such things, he feels them stick in his throat.]

No offence here, but there's only one thing 'm interested in talkin' with you about, and it ain't yer life story.

[He glances away from her, just for a moment.]

Reckon y'll understand that the person still shieldin' whatever killed my girl ain't gonna elicit any feelin's that y' could call warm. Told y' I'd help y' with yer mirror, an' I will, but that's all.

[Her lips purse for a moment, because she's used to being the bad guy. It's a natural hazard, when it comes to being a Mikaelson. But at the same time, this particular situation rubs her the wrong way. She pauses as she easily glides to her feet, before turning to face him.]

What would you have done if it were her? If it were Evelyn, who had been forced to kill someone while under someone else's control, and everyone else was readying their torches and sharpening their pitchforks towards her instead of the person who was controlling her, what would you do to protect her? Would you expose her in public for all to see? Allow an angry mob to cause more harm when the Mirrors were the true problem?

[She's very curious. Because she's fairly certain his response would be the same.]

[He smiles coolly.]

If it was Evie, I wouldn't hafta expose her. She'd come clean, take responsibility fer her part. She'd not need t' be bullied into it, an' she wouldn't hide. 'Cause that's the kind'a person she is.

[There's no squirming in his response, no flinch, and no hesitation. Evie wouldn't hide. There isn't much he could be more certain of.]

An' I'd stand with 'er. She don't need me to be her shield an' she'd not ask it of me. [He lifts his shoulders.] Y' can ask 'what if's all fuckin' day but those 'what if's ain't what's happenin' right now. I ain't askin' you t' tell me who killed her, but she fuckin' deserves to know, one way or another. Meantime, I'll keep my head on the Mirror problem.

I'm not shielding him. I'm shielding the ones less theoretically honorable than you. There had been enough carnage for one day.

[Because she knows her brother can take care of himself, for better or for worse. And she doesn't want the worse to be Sam, whom she does consider a friend, ending up dead by pursing a creature he can't kill. Sam isn't as fortunate.]

That being said this is going to be a long process. Killing her isn't going to be as simple as a bullet to the head or the snapping of a neck, and it may even involve less than savory practices. It may even involve working with the werewolf that killed her. So I want to make sure this is a team you still want to be on.

Didn't say I blamed 'im, Freya. Not all the way. Already told y' I've been in 'is position.

[What he doesn't like is that Evie is still pacing circles in her mind not know who the person was who killed her, but knowing that other people are hiding him from taking any kind of responsibility. Very little of his irritation and anger is for himself.

He's not stupid enough to go after a creature like that. Sam, though> Sam, he thinks might just be. In that, he could understand her caution.]

But I ain't any stranger t' 'unsavoury practices'. I can do whatever needs t' be done to get t' the end of this.

[She nods in agreement.]

Good.

[Now to get to the complicated part.]

When I was very young, my maternal aunt Dahlia, who also happened to be an incredibly powerful witch, bound me to her so that she could use my power to supplement her own. I managed to break free a year before I came here after I and my siblings killed her, but my mirror has not. Which means she is not only more powerful than I am, but very difficult to kill, and I won't be able to use the same means as I did to kill Dahlia.

[He hasn't forgotten what he's the most irritated about, but he puts that aside for now. The odds don't sound good but it isn't the first time he's faced apparently insurmountable problems and come out on top.

For a long moment he's quiet, thinking, then he tips his head towards a nearby bench and moves to it, sitting down. His elbows braced to his knees he leans forwards, resting his chin against his clasped hands.]

You mean we won't be able t' use the same means. [He says, glancing up at her.]

I didn't offer t' help with this t' let y' go waltzin' off on yer own.

Well, luckily for you, I can't.

[She tips her head to the side in response.]

My mirror and I cannot be on the same side of the mirror at the same time. So whoever we recruit into this, I would be trusting you to be able to follow through in my absence.

[Dan leans back on the bench, hooks his arm over the back of it, and taps his fingernails against the wood. He doesn't look at her - his attention is somewhere in the middle-distance, not quite focused on a nearby garden wall. His eyes narrow, lips slightly pursed in thought, then he clicks his tongue against the back of his teeth and pulls in a quick breath.]

So we kill 'er. If we kill 'er. What then. People in this place got this habit of not stayin' dead.

[And really, crazy mirror or not, there's no use in doing away with the witch if she's only going to come back worse.]

[She tips her head to the side and nods.]

I am not sure if that remains true for Mirrors. But my brother mentioned that as well, and should she come back, I'm working on a back up plan, that will be able to simply strip her of her magic. Without that, she's too weak to hurt anyone.

An' if she comes back worse? If she's somethin' you can't stop?

[While he's not sure of the specifics, he's sure that the mirrors are not like them, and their process of revival is not like theirs if they're killed on their own side.

Dan is the walking example of dialect not indicating intelligence - he's thought quite hard about this.]

Don't get me wrong, I ain't saying don't stop 'er, but maybe strippin' her of her magic should be the first plan.

Stripping her of her magic is more complicated.

[Which is why it's the back up plan, and not the main plan.]

I can block it with containment spells, but those aren't permanent. I could try and force her to transfer her magic into something else, but that would take her willingly doing so. For both of these options, I would need to be present on the same plane as she is, which is impossible with her being my mirror.

Killing her is difficult, but in the long run, infinitely simpler and can be done by someone other than myself. Which is why it's plan A.

Simpler, sure, but simpler ain't always better.

[He is seeing a lot of flaws in this plan, with the biggest one being the one she hasn't yet addressed.]

Right now, y' know what she is an' what she's capable of. She dies, an' there's every damn chance she comes back as somethin' you can't stop.

[Dan gives a small shrug.]

So, I'll ask y' again. What happens if she comes back worse? That a risk yer willin' t' take?

As far as my world is concerned, she can't be worse than she is without giving up her magic, and I believe she would be loathed to do that. Have you heard of a mirror going outside the realm of what is possible within their world?

[Though she gives a small exhale of frustration.]

True immortality for a witch is impossible. They would have to become a vampire for that, and should she complete the transition and not choose to simply die instead, it would make her more vulnerable, not less. And I don't think she would team up with another mirror to try and preserve her life another way.

Essentially, she already is top of the food chain without giving some things up, and I doubt that the Queen of Hearts would give her those options.

[He thinks about it. His experience with mirrors has been limited, but they do seem to be confined by what is possible within their own source worlds. That's.. a plus, he supposes, in a way.

Dan presses, certainly, but he will not for a moment think that he knows more about this situation than Freya does. She knows her world and what might come out of it, but this isn't something he's going to get involved in blind.

He's never liked being viewed as nothing more than hired muscle.]

So, what yer tellin' me is, she can't get worse without throwin' some weaknesses into the mix. An' she ain't likely t' be remade by the Queen without those weaknesses. [Okay. That's... something.] Right. 'M with you. Where d' we start.

I killed a witch similar to her once. But there were very specific ingredients involved: The soil of her homeland, the blood of a witch who betrayed her, the ashes of her oppressor - obviously those ingredients are going to be difficult to come by.

[She gives a small shrug.]

I'm simply going to have to find a more creative way to neutralize her immortality.

['Difficult to come by'. He makes a face like he would have snorted had it not been so entirely out of place in the conversation. Freya has a talent for understatement, it seems.]

An' y' got some kind a' idea how yer gonna do that?

[She pauses for a moment before giving a small shrug.]

There was a spell that I saw done in New Orleans, that neutralized magic in a given space. If we could find somewhere and use that to contain her until the deed was done, in theory we would be able to kill her and she wouldn't be able to revive by normal means.

[Though that doesn't preclude Wonderland means.]

That somethin' y' could set up then not be there when it went off?

[Like a trap? It's not going to work if she needs to be present, after all. All of this hinges on them being able to bring the mirror over, or being able to get to the mirror side somehow.]

Reckon that 'normal means' is the catch here.

Oh yes. The catch would be making sure that the mirror side doesn't know about it.

[Once she's created the neutralized area, it will remain that way until someone forcibly breaks it.]

The spell that our aunt cast on us didn't simply make us immortal. If someone would try to kill us physically, we would simply wake up a few hours later as though it never happened. Without magic to trigger the spell, in theory, she wouldn't be able to wake up.

[She never tried it when she was immortal, so it's hard to say that it will truly work without it being specialized to her mirror, as she had done with Dahlia.]

... Well, that's useful.

[It's out of habit that he glances around to make sure there's nothing nearby that could serve as a conduit to the Mirror side. Nothing reflective, not a single shard of mirror on the ground.]

In theory, anyway.

[Considering that all of this, right now, is in theory.]

Y' really think this would work? Cuz I gotta tell y', I ain't up fer more werewolves any time soon.

Honestly?

[She sighs as she raises one hand to rub her forehead.]

There's no guarantee that Wonderland won't pull in any other werewolves. And Regina and I are working on a means to prevent her magic from being used on this particular werewolf again.

But in terms of stopping her? I'm figuring that out as I go. There isn't exactly a precedent for a witch like her where I'm from.

[In the end, it's all a huge mess, isn't it? There could be more werewolves, she's right, but there's only one he's really concerned about at the moment.]

No precedent... so that means she ain't really gonna be expectin' any kind of success.

[That.. could be useful.]

Could be on t' somethin' there.

[She nods in agreement.]

I always prefer to have the element of surprise in that respect. It's just a matter of making sure that our shot will hit it's mark.

010 ƒ open } { they’ll make their judgments, so assured

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