Chapter 16: Coming Home

Coming back through the Arch from the Park into the hallway of 1030 Broad Street was a rush, as always. After sending the various Fae that were with me to the Lounge to replenish their various artifacts and to relax themselves, I turned to the elevator and took it to the upper floor to enter my condo.

I saw Dr Atkinson and two of his nurses in the living room. Dr. Atkinson said “I feel that there was an excellent chance for full recovery, if Itsuki can finish reversing the effects of the Wormed Memory stones that were used. The fact that the girls had not died afterward promised some hope, and the recovery of the artifacts used to pull the memories from their minds gives us the tools to replace whatever was lost.”

Paula said “Maggie and Carrie are in the second and third bedroom, with Gnomes in attendance monitoring the various machines that they were attached to. Dr Atkinson had emptied out his office and a surgical suite worth of equipment to make sure that he had everything needed.”

“Hank” Dr. Atkinson said “We got to them in time. There is no sign of long-term impact from the Wormed Memory stones, and Itsuki feels that he can rebuild the memories if needed. We cloned the two memory stones first to make sure we had everything just in case. If needed, we could do mental transfers from storage.”

“The physical is not nearly as bad. Neither of them was raped or subjected to major physical trauma. This was a mental mining expedition just like they did to Lynn, Bernie and Cindy. I think you got the jump on them, and they wanted to bring you in too.”

“Doctor, is there anything you need from me, from the Fae, or that the council can provide that will improve the odds?”

“No, Hank. Now it’s’ a wait and see game. Fortunately, there isn’t any nerve damage, just a lot of mental reconnections in the pathways of the brain.”

“You’re sure that there isn’t anything you need from me?”

“No. We have everything under control.”

“Then, I’ll go downstairs and see what I can do. There is nothing I can do to help you here.”

A lot of people would think it was cold of me to leave my sister and lover in their bed. But I knew two things. One, they had the best medical care I could get them. Two, I didn’t know how to help with the relief of their illness. I was as useless as I could possibly be. Worse, I would be standing around worrying everyone else and probably getting in the way of competent people (Human and Fae). And it was an elevator ride down 5 floors.

When the door opened, I had a surprise waiting for me.

Visiting Royalty

Two of the senior Dwarves of Arno’s personal guard were standing there alongside of the Prince of Elves. All in full combat uniform.

Additionally, two Ogres were in the hallway, also standing tall as they could with the limited overhead.

Arno looked upset. And I figured that needed to be addressed first.

“Arno, my friend and Prince of Elves. I am happy to see you and wonder what it is I can do for you?”

“You can make me feel better by explaining the last twenty-four hours to me.”

“I will be happy to do so.

A smile broke across Arno’s face.

I gestured with a wave for the Arno to precede me into the Foyer, where we could all sit and talk about the events of the day. I also sent one of the Gnomes to ask Natalie to come and join us. (Lawyers are always good to have when things might become complicated.)

Seating himself in one of the large couches, with the Dwarves and Ogres standing behind him, Arno looked at me and said “Please be seated, Hank. This is your clan’s house.”

“Arno, what would you like to know?”

“Hank, as you know, we have a treaty between Mages, Wizards, and the Fae. I am the senior of the Fae. Today, I was told, an incident of conflict occurred with a Fae Gargoyle and a Fae Dragonet which resulted in some injury to a Mage and a Wizard.”

“First, I am glad you already know that such actions occurred. I would be telling you even now as my sister and my first lover are under medical care and as soon as my prisoners are under guard. Two of my Bodyguard Fae’s took action to protect me while I was on a mission to recover and rescue my sister and my first lover from those who would have harmed them. I am not sure even now how successful that mission was, because both women are in fact now in my penthouse being medically treated.”

“What I have always liked about you, Hank, is that you speak plainly, and openly, and provide complete explanations to me. Something that I would hope your other Mages would adopt. Were these Fae that acted to protect you part of your bodyguard, or part of your Clan.?

“Arno, they are members of both. I will accept any punishment which is directed to them onto myself, for their conduct. I own their conduct. They are my clan.”

“Where did you learn to speak out so formal in our language, my friend. You have come a long way in learning how to state your relationships.” Arno asked.

“I had excellent teachers, including you. And Arno, I say to you again, if any complaints are to be lodged against any members of my Clan, for any conduct, that those complaints are against me personally, and I will seek to satisfy the complainant, if they are real. And I will seek redress for those complaints that have no foundation. We are Clan Lambert.”

Ogrenaut had been coming toward us with a tray with several pitchers and glasses, and I heard his gasp, behind me. I looked at Arno, who’s eyes were fully wide open, and asked “I assume you would like some refreshments, My Prince?”

“Yes, thank you. I assume that code of conduct is why almost all my royal guard is diligently working to get temporary assignment to you. Hank, you are stealing my best people”.

“You sent them here as a reward for their excellent service. They come to me freely and if in their own mind decide if they are happy here. It’s not my fault that they don’t want to come back”. I said with a smile.

That got a laugh from Arno, and wide grins from both of his Dwarves. I had met them both earlier on a visit, and they were used to my frank speech with their Prince.

Arno continued “So, I heard Pae’le that he froze the witch’s servant when he tried to run from you after you immobilized the attacking mage. I understand that the Mage’s knees are both broken, and that the immobilization was done by one of your Power Mages. I know from Brynstan that she was attacked by the Polish Warlock with Force arrows, but that you shielded him in a container that would reflect all that energy that back onto him, and then convinced him to stop attacking. This seems to have become one of your favorite methods of eliminating attacks. Quite a deterrent. You have to teach it to us so we can use it as well some time. And that I heard from Brimstone that when another of the Mages sought to attack you with an obsidian knife, that Brimstone felt that the safest way to protect you was to cast it into a Force pocket. Along with the Mages’ Hand. Something I understand that he learned from you?”

“Yes, both Dragonets have become accomplished with the use of Layline magic, and they read spells and runes very well. Their collars give them an energy reserve to be able to work that magic more freely.” I replied.

“You realize that enabling and weaponizing them is outside of the allowances of the Treaty.”
Arno said.

“I realize that they are not allowed to weaponize themselves as a result of that treaty. There is no limitation or restriction for me providing power artifacts with gemstones to them to give them additional stored energy to use the magic that they already possess. Nor is it a violation to place runes that allow those energy stores to provide them with shields where they have not had that ability before.” I said. “And furthermore, they are members of my personal guard, which is exempt from such limitations, under the terms of that same treaty.”

“So, when Reginald Van Houten, Cecile Henrard, or Sir David Drummond come to me to complain that Fae are violating the treaty I should send them to you.” Arno said with a laugh.

“Yes. Tell them to call Carla to make an appointment with Natalie during business hours Here at 1030 Broad Street. I will attend to them at our earliest mutual convenience.” I said with a similar smile.

“You have learned the language of Human Diplomacy as well, Hank. You’re almost as good at it as you are with Fae Language.”

“I’m learning. And here comes my Lawyer now. If you still have questions?”

“I don’t think so. Hank, I’m going to head home, as I have made my formal review of the Fae that were my people who are now your people and found that I have no issue with their conduct. Nor should anyone else. Take as good a care of them as you have up to now, my friend.”

“I will. And thank you for trusting them to my care. And thank you again for allowing them to become members of my Clan.”

And with that, Arno stood up, and walked to the arch that went to the Fae Lands and went home. His Dwarves and Ogres followed.

I grabbed Natalie and we walked to the hallway door going into the warehouse to look at the modifications we were making to Jail our temporary guests.

A jail fit for a Mage.

I looked at Jeffery and Paula standing inside of the front of the warehouse, along with Peter and Amelia, all of whom looked very satisfied with themselves. Behind them were two rows of cage frames, with what appeared to be shields projected across the top, sides and front. Nothing solid, but total wall of energy going between the uprights and across the top. I figured that there was probably a shield floor as well. Much like I built with Arno when we were talking during the siege of the collective a year ago. Total shut off of external energy and a drain on the internal.

I noticed that the four occupants were naked, and hairless. Paula strikes again.

Jeffery and Peter were in a lively discussion about the human contents of the gerbil cages, who seemed to be unaware of the discussion of their fate.

“I say we drain them, hook them to the same devices that they used on Maggie and Carrie, empty their minds and then turn them into tomato paste.” Jeffery said.

“That may have some diplomatic fallout down the road” Peter said.

“Peter, didn’t you say that one of them was the same character we caught breaking into Sylvia’s house? And that we gave him back to Cecile who shipped him home “Under arrest”?” Paula asked. “Do we want to let the bad guys keep being recycled to take more information back with them on each successive encounter?”

“I think Hank would want to get all of the information about these guys that we can get. We’re already on a project to do historical linkages. We probably should get the real names of these guys, find the ancestry if we have it, and then look up the contacts and allegiances that they have had in the past.” Amelia said.

“You mean through the Journals that we got from Pat?” Paula said.

“Yes, the linkages are already there, we just have to write a script to pull one of the names of the Mage or warlock into a search, apply it to the documents and we can get the past and current information on the individual.”

“How long does it take to execute the script?” Jeffery asked.

“Not long. Ten to twenty minutes for each person. That combs all the way back to the last 400 years that we have documents for.”

“What will that give us?” Peter asked.

“Complete social and commercial activity for each of these mopes from Abigail’s journals. Including political connections and who they were connected with. Kind of like having a complete family tree of the Mafia in the 1960s. The journals also hint at the murders, thefts and other economic activities. Anything that any of the Familiars that Abigail bred and sold for almost three hundred years saw, heard or were told. It all went back to Abigail, and she put it in a journal. Those same mental pipes were in us until Hank had Itsuki kill them and rip out the connections.” Amelia said. “We’re talking about all of the connections and most of the business of almost all of the Mages, Wizards and Slaves for the last almost three hundred years.”

“I hope that those cages are sufficiently soundproofed that the current occupants haven’t heard that particular piece of information. Because both of the Councils we know of plus the Wizards will all feel a bit unhappy to see that we have managed to put this together.” I said, joining the group.

“No sounds and they cannot see us. They are looking and trying to hear what is outside, but all they see is opaque white. Which probably is making them crazier yet” Jeffery said. “These are better then the interrogation cubes we had in California.”

“When we surrendered the polish warlock to Cecile Henrard, I assumed that he was going to be incarcerated for some length of time. Not ten days. Abigail, I want you to run a query that looks for association between this Warlock and Cecile Henrard, and Sir David Drummond. I cannot help but think that there are a lot of points of intersection between these three people, as well as any others that spin in that orbit.” Hank said.

“And while you are at it, I also want to pull the list of members of the American Council that are older than a hundred years. That include me and Grace. I want to see if there are connections from that group that also go back to the Europeans.” Peter Gill said.

“Ok Peter. I’ll get onto that those now.”

“Paula, if Amelia needs any help, please provide it to her?” I said.

“Hank, when do you want to start interrogating these characters? I assume that we are going to do that here, rather then handing them over again.” Jeffery asked.

“Let them stew in their cages for now. If we have an ability to open a blocked port to put food and toilet paper into them, that’s all that they need. They can sleep on the floor.” Hank said. “When Amelia is finished with the first pass of the information, that gives us more ammunition to go into interrogation with them. The one what lost his hand isn’t going to die, is he?”

“Nope. Brimstone did a great job of the amputation and closed the skin down over the bone. Also, there is a Control rune on the palm of the older Mage that wanted to shake your hand. Once he had his hand on you, your mind would be blanked, and he would be able to move you around and give you orders. It’s proscribed in this country’s Mage Council” Peter said. “We need to be wary of that until we blank his mind.”

“So, that’s why Mr. Abrams was so insistent. Can we remove it without removing his hand?”

“Probably not. It would have been funny to see what the reaction would have been when he contacted with you. Your reflection shield would have possibly put you in charge.”

“Could we do that now?” I asked.

“Probably not legally, Hank. Knowing what the effect would be and deliberately performing that action would be seen as premeditated. Puts a whole other view on what would have been an happy accident.” Natalie said.

“Damn, I hate having a good lawyer standing on top of me.” I said with a smile.

“Yea, it’s a pain by having to play by the rules all the time.” Peter said with a laugh.

“Just remember that it leaves the other guys no ground to stand on when you do.” Natalie said as a reminder to all of us.

“Yes, Mother.” I said, dodging her smack to the back of my head.

“So. Who do we talk with and let be known that we have these stooges in our little jail?” Peter asked.

“Peter, do you still have Sunday morning meetings with Reggie, Sir David and Cecile? Can I get on the agenda for a few minutes?”

“Yes, and I think we can set an agenda. When do you want to submit the agenda and notify them of the meeting?” Peter asked.

“Today is Thursday. Paula, you and Amelia work on producing files on each of these four and the linkages of them to each other, to Sir David, to Cecile and any other common third party. We need those in triplicate for Peter, Jeffery and Natalie to have to review before we put them into an interview room. Peter and Jeffery and Natalie, you are the interrogators. When Amelia and Paula are finished, have an interview table set up in the conference room with paper, pencils, and the everywhere workbooks that Paula and Natalie love so well to do a formal interrogation of these stooges. I’ll scrounge up translation pearls and scripts to help handle language difficulties.” Hank said.

“Ok, Master Hank. What do we do for charges?” Natalie asked with a snarky grin.

“For that, you need to research the Council actions, causes and judgements for the last two hundred years for the American Council. I would like you to get ahold of Kathy Peele, I think she’s still the Vice president, of the American Council as well as the Canadian one, and if you need to reach out to Janice Van Houten. She’s the secretary. Make it a legal research project. Don’t let her know if you can avoid it what we are really going after.” Hank said. “Tell them we are putting together a formal education program for rules and conduct for Mages and Fae. Reggie is supposed to have wanted that, so tell him we are offering to do it for the council as an example of our social philanthropy for the council.”

“You sneaky bastard.” Peter said. “Natalie, also make sure you get all the past punishments we have meted out. We want to scare the shit out of these fellows. Might as well make it comprehensive.”

“Ok” Natalie said. “And Jeffery, you and I will put together the forms as formal charge documents for presentation to these miscreants. And when they say they are Not Americans, we hit them with the 1916 Foreign Saboteurs act. That leaves them with no wiggle room. Maybe we even accuse their governments or council with aiding and abetting these actions by releasing them the first time.”

Damn, don’t you hate it when a lawyer starts getting excited?

“Peter, make sure you put Natalie on the agenda for Sunday.” I said.

Jeffery smiled and shook his head in awe. “This is going to hit them like a giant sandbag. I remember being on the receiving end of this not too long ago. I got a great wife out of it. I wonder what these guys will get besides acid indigestion?”

“They will get the hint to not Fuck with Clan Lambert. I wonder if Sir David is regretting giving me that Sgian-dubh?” I wondered aloud “We need to make sure that our presentation is not too adversarial. Just a solid setting of boundaries for the protection of Clan Lambert.”

“And by the way, when are you and Paula setting the date for a formal ceremony? Hopefully before the babies are born.” I said.

Jeffery’s face turned an interesting shade of red. All the way from the neck to the forehead. “Hank, you have to ask her. Darn woman won’t give me a date until she talks with you.”

Paula’s face matched. “Hank, we should talk.”

“Ok. Lets’ get that settled this week.” I said.

“Good. Thank You, Sir.” Jeffery said.

This “Master Hank” Shit is a pain in the ass.

Recovery.

With the prisoners safely enclosed, I was confident that Paula and Amelia were going to get things underway on the preparation for the interrogations. I left and went to my condo to stew and worry about my sister and my first lover. Thinking back over the last five days, I realized how negligent I had been with respect to them. They were older then me, but they were all the close family that I had left. They predated my emergence. They knew me as the geeky kid in the neighborhood, and the geeky brother who read books from Heinlein and Clark and others. They were my first lovers. And my first closest real friends. And they deserved better then to be left out alone and, on the edge, where they could be used as tools to attack me. I can see how people and governments got nasty when they felt that someone who was close to them could become really hurt. I knew I was from now on. And regardless, neither of these two women were going anywhere without some level of protection. I didn’t care how hard they argued with me. And as to the American Council saying that adjuncts were not to be messed with, apparently those rules were not valid in Europe.

Going into the condo, I saw Itsuki and Dame Matsuko both in the living room, looking very tired.

“Hank, I hope that you skinned those bastards alive and rolled them in salt.” Itsuki said when he looked at me.

“Not yet. That’s an option for later. What can you tell me about the girls?”

“Hank, those memory stones are a worm that infects the mind and memories and pulls everything out into the stone. They are not designed to leave a sane person behind.” Dame Matsuko said, “I worked with the stones and the girls as carefully as I could, and we are still a long way from finished. But now, at least, they know you. I am trying to recover and replant the memories of the last six months, but those were ripped from their mind with no regard to what was left, so a lot of the memories have raw disconnects.”

“Dame Matsuko, I am forever in your debt for the work you are doing here. I am forever in your and Itsuki Leyasu’s debt for this work. If there is any favor I can do for either of you, you have but to ask.”

“Hank, you have always given favors without regard for equalization from others. This is just us giving back to you. I liked your sister a lot when I met her” Itsuki said. “We are sorry that Cindy was taken from you so brutally. And we feel your pain at what your Familiar’s have felt here. And we will work to recover them as much as we can.”

“I take it that they will not be able to return to school for some time?” I asked.

“Hank, I would be happy if we were able to get them to recognize themselves within a week. I believe that school is out of the question for this year.” Itsuki replied.

“Are they awake? Aware?” I asked.

“Not right now, Hank. I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I need to get to Ms. Albris and tell her that Carrie is here with me. And get her withdrawn from college due to, I guess, some sort of mental breakdown. Probably the death of her sister Lynn. Delayed stress and all that.”

“I’ll tell Natalie to do that.” Itsuki said.”

“No. I have her doing something else first. I have Carla do the research into the college stuff and I will get to Ms. Albris for Carrie.” I said.

“You may want to check on her as well, Hank. I am not sure how far up or down these savages will go.”

My God. Carrie’s parents? Her father was back overseas, but her mother was back in Richmond County. If she wasn’t already affected, I had to make sure she was protected.

Back Home to Richmond County

Walking my large dog up to the door of Ms. Albris’s house I stopped before ringing the doorbell. I sensed the wards we had placed there after last Christmas, right after the girls were killed. No sign of anything foul. I rang the bell and waited.

And waited. And waited some more. I didn’t remember if she worked out of the house or not. I hoped she did.

I heard a car drive up into the driveway next door, and a woman got out and said in a loud voice “She’s not home. I think she went to the College to collect her daughter.”

And suddenly we were there. With nobody else there, and it looked as if everything was clean and in place. Walking outside, there was a note on the door from Ms. Albris asking if Maggie could please call her and listed a phone number. I dialed it.

“Ms. Albris?” I asked.

“Hank, are you at Maggie’s place?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know where She and my daughter are? They have been absent from class this week and I have not heard from them since Sunday. I was getting worried.”

“Yes, Ms. Albris. They are at my place in Augusta. Where are you?”

“I’m here at the college finance office. I am making payment arrangements.”

“Ms. Albris, maybe you should hold off on that. Until you see Carrie. Why don’t you come to my place in Augusta and we can talk about it.”

“Hank, what’s wrong?”

“Something we should talk about when we are face to face. Stay put and I’ll catch up with you in a few minutes.”

“Ok, Hank. We’re here at the Finance office on campus.”

It took a few minutes to get there, and when I did, I saw Ms. Albris sitting down with an older gentleman standing next to her. I didn’t recognize him, but I did recognize her face was empty of expression. Almost as if she didn’t know me. Suddenly sensing something amiss, I cranked my shields up full and looked at the man with my oversight. And saw through the geas that he had up and running. And the orange glow of the Rune in his right hand, extended toward me to shake my own. Smiling, I went and grasped it.

I watched the jolt as the energy flew down his arm, hit my hand and bounced back up to his shoulder and up into his head. I heard him mutter “no” quietly and then he shuddered and stood still. “You have me, Master. What would you have me do?”

“You will release Helen Albris from any geas or hold immediately. You will sit in this chair, and you will remain here until this place closes, at which time you will return to your place of origin and contemplate methods of suicide. At the end of that contemplation, you will perform that action which is most undetectable. As carefully and silently as you can. What is your True Name.?”

“I am called Viktor Kaslove.

“Goodbye Viktor. I will never see you again. And you will never harm any of Clan Lambert again.”

“Goodbye Master.”

“Helen, Come with me.”

Helen stood up and followed me out to her car, which was parked at the street. Brim was standing next to it, his Geas intact, looking like a big fluffy Shepard.

“Helen, give me your keys. And let’s go to Augusta.”

Lots and lots of explanations.

Driving along, Helen gradually got out of the fugue state she was in and became gradually more alert. But she was curious as to why she was here, and where we were going, and what was going on. She was submissively obedient, but very curious. She was satisfied with my answers that we were going to Augusta to see her daughter, and that she was withdrawing from school,

The closer we got to Augusta, the more energetic and agitated Helen became. Evidently, she had an aversion to coming to my place, and I wanted to see what or why that was.

When we got parked in the garage, she outright rebelled. “Hank, I won’t go with you. You are evil. You have killed my daughters.” She began to scream over and over. Not wanting to make a scene, I wrapped her in a shield, and yelled for help.

Two Goblins and a Dwarf came out across the bridge from the building and helped me carry Helen across to the second floor where we got her into the elevator and up to the condo. And where I asked Itsuki to help me calm her down and discover what was wrong.

“Hank, this is a crude avoidance geas. And it had a command geas superimposed over it, do you know who did this?”

“He said his name was Viktor Kaslove. I don’t think he will be bothering us again.”

“Kaslove? Hank, he’s one of the strongest mentalists in Europe. How did you meet him?”

“I shook hands with him. And my reflected shield sent his geas back into his arm and up into his head, and he became as docile as a puppy. He has decided to return to his home tomorrow and contemplate suicide, and at the end of his contemplation he will consider it.”

“Well, you gave him the order to contemplate it. Whatever his decision will be is all his.”

I didn’t tell Itsuki that I ordered Kaslove to do the action he was to contemplate. That didn’t seem necessary.

It took Itsuki about a half an hour to unwind the different geas that were pushed into Helen. The avoidance had been pushed into her since her daughter Lynn died. It was overlaid stronger with each successive week. Only me taking over the order shield from Kaslove kept her able to sit with me at all. But when she saw the building at 1030, she cracked a bit and we had to take her in by force.

And now, I got to contribute to the effort of deprogramming. Itsuki and Paula had the tough part, with the two girls and un-worming their minds. All I could do was bring Helen up to current events. For the last two years. That took a bit of talking. A lot of talking. A whole lot of talking.

It was almost seven o’clock when Helen finally decided to take a break. In that time, I had admitted to her, step by step, being seduced by her oldest daughter (“I’m not surprised”) having carnal relations with my sister, (“You have good taste. She’s a sweetheart), seducing her youngest daughter with her oldest daughter’s assistance (“Hank, we really have to talk about this in detail. And so do I and Carrie”) and the current state of how both were attacked, one was killed, my parents were killed, and everyone else was under attack.