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You always were a selfish, ungrateful child. For centuries I fed you, clothed you, and cared for you, granted you powers beyond anything you could have ever dreamed, and still you yearn for more. Always wishing for another life, never satisfied. Soon enough you will beg for me to bring you back into my home. After all, after I am done with these poor souls I will be the only family you have left. You should know better than to defy me -- a lesson your father and brother will learn shortly.

The former-family relationship between the witches Freya Mikaelson and her maternal aunt Dahlia.

Due to a deal between her mother Esther Mikaelson and her aunt Dahlia, Freya was taken by Dahlia when she was five years old and was then raised and trained by her through adulthood. The two then spent centuries living with and traveling together until Freya eventually escaped her in the early 20th century. When the two each awakened from their century-long slumber spell in 2013, Freya immediately teamed up with her siblings Elijah, Klaus, and Rebekah, along with their allies, as she knew that the three would be intent to protect Klaus' daughter Hope from Dahlia, who sought to collect her as payment for the same bargain Esther made with her in the 10th century. Though Dahlia nearly killed Freya for her betrayal in Fire with Fire and Ashes to Ashes, it was Dahlia who was ultimately defeated in the end, thanks to help from the recently-resurrected Esther and the Cursed Shackles she was wearing. It was Dahlia's death that led to the dissolution of the relationship between her and her powerful niece Freya, who was finally free of her tyrannical control after a millennium together.

History[]

In the Kingdom of Norway in 972 AD, Esther, who had recently married the Viking warrior Mikael and attempted to start a family, was so worried that she was barren that she went to see her older sister Dahlia, a powerful witch, to ask her to perform a fertility spell to allow her to conceive. Dahlia initially refused, as she was still resentful that Esther had abandoned both Dahlia herself and their family's tradition of witchcraft in favor of starting a family with a Viking, but when Esther pleaded with her that they were sisters who were bound by blood, Dahlia eventually relented. However, she warned that the magic Esther wanted would require a heavy sacrifice, but Esther, desperate to have children of her own, insisted that she would pay any cost. Just a short time afterward, Esther became pregnant with her firstborn child, a daughter named Freya.

Five years later in 977 AD, Dahlia sensed that Freya's magical abilities had begun to manifest, and so she traveled to Esther's home to remind her of their bargain: Dahlia would perform the fertility spell for Esther, but in exchange, Dahlia would claim not only Esther's firstborn child, but every other firstborn Mikaelson child of every single one of Esther's descendants for as long as her bloodline should last, starting with Freya herself. Dahlia chose this method of payment because she was devoted to making herself as powerful as she could so that she would never be vulnerable again, and she believed that creating a coven of Esther's firstborn descendants would give her a limitless source of power from which she could draw. Esther, more upset with the prospect of losing Freya as she had anticipated, begged Dahlia not to take her daughter and threatened to inform Mikael (who was away in battle) of what she had done, but Dahlia simply reminded her that if she did not live up to her end of their agreement, she would take all of her children, including her second-born child, Finn, and her third child, Elijah, with whom she was still pregnant at the time. Dahlia then left the village with a distraught Freya in her arms, who continued to desperately call out for Esther as they walked away.

As soon as Dahlia and Freya had returned to Dahlia's home, Dahlia began to train Freya in witchcraft and raised her as her own, though the only value she seemed to place on Freya was the magical power that she could offer her, as Dahlia held a lasting resentment toward Esther for abandoning her. Because of this deep-rooted bitterness, Dahlia convinced Freya that her mother didn't want her anymore, that she was the only family she had left, and that there was nothing stronger than the bonds of family. Once Freya had learned the basics of magic, Dahlia led the five-year-old Freya through a spell using a "brand" of connective magic of Dahlia's own creation to bind them together, which both augmented Freya's magical ability and also allowed Dahlia to channel her to give herself more power.

Over the next two decades, Dahlia continued to train Freya in the "Dark Arts" until she was nearly as strong as her aunt. However, Freya, as a firstborn child of Dahlia and Esther's bloodline, possessed a devastating amount of raw magical power, which she found very difficult to control and which caused her many incidents where her powers overwhelmed her with disastrous results. When Freya was in her late-20s/early-30s, Dahlia came up with a spell that would grant her and Freya a form of immortality and invulnerability that was otherwise unavailable to witches. However, the cost of this spell was that the two would be put in a magical sleep for nearly a century (though the magical power they possessed would continue to grow exponentially during this slumber) and then awaken for one single year of life before repeating the cycle anew. Dahlia was insistent that they both cast the spell, but Freya refused her, believing that what Dahlia sought to accomplish would actually be a curse. Unfortunately for Freya, Dahlia grabbed her by the arms and forced her to participate in the spell anyway, insisting that she would someday thank her for the eternal life she would be granted. From then on, Dahlia and Freya spent roughly one hundred years in a magically-preserved sleep, only to awaken in the next century with more power than they had ever possessed before. They would then live their lives for the duration of the year before returning to their sleep.

During their single year of life in the early 15th century, Freya fell in love with a man named Mathias. Her feelings for him were so strong that it caused her to break the one rule she had vowed to enforce for as long as she lived—that she would never have a child of her own, since doing so would be birthing them into the same life of indentured servitude to Dahlia that she had lived for centuries. When Freya was almost due to deliver their firstborn son, Mathias, who wanted his child to be free as much as Freya did, attempted to help the very-pregnant Freya flee from Dahlia. Unfortunately, this plan was unsuccessful, and Dahlia, furious that Freya would try to take what she believed was rightfully hers, cursed Mathias with a death hex and caused him to die right in front of her. Freya was so devastated by the loss of her true love that she ran into their house and drank an entire bottle of Dahlia's most potent poison in hopes of freeing herself from the pain of her existence under Dahlia's rule. Freya awoke hours later to learn the truth—the spell that granted her and Dahlia pseudo-immortality also protected them from all conventional forms of harm, including poison. However, the effects of this spell did not extend to her unborn son, who was killed in Freya's suicide attempt, much to the latter's shock and devastation. From this moment on, Freya began to loathe Dahlia, as she believed it was her aunt who caused her to become such a monster that she would kill her own child.

At some point in their life together, Freya was able to escape from Dahlia's clutches. In 1914, Freya eventually made her way to New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, where her biological siblings (who had been Original Vampires for nearly a thousand years at this point) had been living for over two centuries. Freya would not run into Dahlia again until 2013, when they awakened from their most recent slumber. This time, however, Dahlia sensed the manifesting magic in Freya's brother Klaus' firstborn daughter Hope and came to New Orleans to claim both Freya and Hope as payment for her deal with Esther.

Throughout The Originals Series[]

Season Two[]

In Wheel Inside the Wheel, a young Esther went to her older sister Dahlia for help after discovering that she couldn't have children. After some hesitation, Dahlia agrees to help her sister, but at the price of Esther's firstborn daughter and every other firstborn child of any of Esther's descendants for the duration of her bloodline's existence. Five years later, Dahlia comes to collect Freya, taking her away from her pregnant mother and younger brother and ignoring her niece's cries to stay with her family.

In Save My Soul, a young Freya is shown with her aunt, who is making food for her. Dahlia tells her to eat so they can be strong. Dahlia later binds herself to Freya for more power. In later flashbacks, where Freya is grown, Dahlia casts the aging spell on them where they sleep for a century and then awaken, a spell she performed without her niece's consent.

Dahlia and Freya are shown again when Dahlia murders Freya's lover Mathias. Realizing she will never be free of her aunt, Freya attempts to kill herself using her aunt's strongest poison. As Dahlia comes in, Freya collapses. Awakening hours after, Freya is devastated to learn that in killing herself, she has killed her unborn child. Dahlia pulls her niece into her arms and comforts her while telling her that nothing, not even death, will ever free her from the older witch.

In Night Has A Thousand Eyes, Dahlia returns to modern day New Orleans in search of Hope Mikaelson, who has been promised to her by Esther long ago. Freya and Dahlia briefly reunite, which frightens Freya, who is shown to still be fearful of her aunt.

In Ashes to Ashes, after linking herself with Klaus, is subdued unwillingly by a gold dagger. While she is subdued, Freya suggests staking Klaus with the white oak stake, killing both him and Dahlia for good; she is stopped, however by Marcel, who worries about Klaus' sire line dying in the process.

After Dahlia awakens, she forcefully takes Freya to an abandoned warehouse on the edge of town. Here, she uses her magic to choke Freya, forming a salt barrier around the two. Freya admits that over their long life together, she has seen Dahlia's broken soul, to which Dahlia replies that darkness isn't born, but is a result of Esther's betrayal when they were young. She continues to choke Freya, almost killing her until Esther and the Mikaelson siblings arrive, saving her temporarily. Dahlia turns her attack on Klaus, Elijah and Rebekah, giving Freya an opportunity to use her magic and break the protection circle around them, allowing Esther to choke her, ultimately ending in Esther's death and Freya's freedom from her aunt's grasp.

Trivia[]

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