I didn't sleep.
The threads wouldn't let me.
They drew my awareness inward, toward something I had avoided since arriving in Mystic Falls. A memory. Old. Buried. Intentionally ignored.
The system had not been the first of its kind.
It had been a reconstruction.
Long ago, balance had existed without me, without the Mikaelsons, without this town. It had failed because it relied on obedience rather than adaptation.
The woman was not an enemy.
She was a remnant.
A keeper of an older order that believed instability was necessary. That chaos prevented stagnation.
And now, that order had noticed me.
The threads trembled as the realization settled.
This was not a war between power and power.
It was a conflict of philosophies.
Balance versus entropy.
I opened my eyes slowly, staring into the darkness as the town slept unaware.
If they returned in force, the system would not survive unchanged.
Neither would I.
Something would have to evolve again.
And this time, the cost would not be subtle.