Chapter 47: Home

"Geoffrey," Joffrey says, recognizing the clone who lured him here with his false information.

"She's calling me Harris, now," the clone answers.

"You must be so proud," Joff answers, his disdain undisguised.

"Would you be?" the new Harris Landgraab answers.

"Me? No, of course not. But you..."

"We're not so different as all that, Joffrey," the clone says. Something in his voice makes Joffrey pause, "We both want the same thing, after all."

"We do?" Joffrey asks, surprised, "And what is it you think that I want?"

"To forge our own destinies," Geoffrey/Harris answers.

"I always thought you were on board for  the world domination agenda," Joffrey says, surprised.

"Oh, I am. The life you've chosen is...a humble one. Kind of pathetic, really, given what  you could be. My goals are far grander. But what you've done, set out on your own path...I respect that, and I mean to follow in your footsteps in this, at least."

"You're the heir, you will run MorcuCorp...what more do you want?"

"It's Cecilia who runs MorcuCorp. She uses us as figure heads, we're all just her puppets, and when we die, she replaces us with the next one. I'm going to put a stop to that. I'm going to father new dynasty of Landgraabs. No more clones."

Joffrey nearly gasps. Though marriages always arranged for the clone heirs of the Landgraab name, none are ever allowed to produce actual children. The next heir is always another clone. "With Cecilia?" Joffrey asks, "I've heard that you are engaged now."

"She's made the engagement very public," Geofrrey says, "But, no, she's not interested in changing the inheritance arrangement. Nor am I interested in having her for a wife or the mother of my children." His voice grows noticeably softer, "I have, for some time now, I've had..."

"You have a girlfriend?" Joffrey really gasps this time.

"Don't look so surprised," Geoffrey scowls, "You aren't the only one with 'outside interests'."

"Congratulations," Joffrey says, almost sincerely, "But none of this explains why you planted that file to bring me here."

"I need Cecilia out of my way. I need you for that."

"Out of your way? I'm not an assassin!"

"Don't tempt me," Geoffrey laughs, "No, I don't want her dead, if there are other options.  She told me that when the dragon captured her at the cloning facility, he brought her to Tania Summerdream to be 'bound'. It's apparently a permanent state, and will rid me of Cecilia for good."

"You do know that you have Summerdream captive, don't you?" Joffrey points out the obvious, "I'm sure if you brought her to Cecilia, she''d take care of her for you."

"I need more from the Summerdreams than just binding Cecilia. Now that she's gone public and informed Brooklyn Heights society of our impending wedding, her sudden disappearance would be investigated. I need them to glamour the whole town into believing Cecilia never existed. I don't think Tania would do me any favors, even if I released her, but you've married into that world, you have connections amongst the fae..."

Joffrey's brow furrows, "They want Tania and Auberon released, but what you're asking...MorcuCorp is no friend to them. If they help you, you'll just turn around and start taking them captive for your research again."

"It was the old MorcuCorp that did those things," Geoffrey says, "With Cecilia gone, it will be different." Joffrey raises a disbelieving eyebrow. "I mean that, brother. All this supernatural research...where has it gotten us? We have vaults full of spirits in jars, countless ancient relics supposedly imbued with special power, and mummies roaming around deserted labs. We used to be on the cutting edge of technology. Landgraab Industries made the first laptop...and now we poke around at ghosts and fairies. We're becoming laughingstocks, and our stock value drops at every quarter. I'm going to turn all that around, return MorcuCorp and the Landgraab name to its former glory. Help me with this, and MorcuCorp will leave you and your family alone forever."

Trusting his clone brother is a tall order, but Joffrey doesn't see much of a choice. "Tell me where they have the Summerdreams," he says, "And open that door for Sage," he adds, hearing his wife's muffled voice from behind the stone door telling him she'd failed to find any hidden switches or other doors out of the room she was stuck in.

"An old bunker, in Riverview," Geoffrey told him.

"Riverview?" The name sounded familiar. After a moment's thought, Joffrey remembered, "That town was evacuated and quarantined. Some kind of nuclear event? They say the radiation levels are still too high for people to return."

"It's wasn't a nuclear event, and there's no radiation," Geoffrey explained, "Our research into the supernatural brought that town down, and we've used the radiation excuse to keep people away. It's a ghost town now, except for our research bunker."

Joffrey and Sage would take care of getting Tania and Auberon out of the lab.

"Mr. Landgraab," Gwen Glover greets them as they come in, "We weren't expecting you today. Wallace is compiling our latest notes right now."

"Thank you, Ms. Glover," Joffrey says, "There's been a change of plans. We're transporting the subjects to our facility in Riverblossom Hills. Dr. Archer here will be in charge of the removal. I need you and your assistant to prepare to relocate."

"I don't understand," the scientist replies, "We built this facility especially to house these subjects..."

"You aren't questioning me, are you?" Joffrey answers coldly.

"No..no sir!"

"Then open the cage so Dr. Archer can prepare the subjects for relocation."

"We're moving you to a new facility," Sage informs the subjects.

Tania and Auberon are released, and brought to the circle of standing stones where Aymei and Ico wait for them.

The old friends have a tender reunion. They've all been briefed on the plan to bind Cecilia and then glamour the inhabitants of Brooklyn Heights to believe she never was there at all.

But these powerful fae aren't content to simply do the bidding of MorcuCorp.

"There's magic here," Tania says, her mind finally free of the specially treated walls of the cell that blocked her abilities.

"The mortals have sullied this place, but they are gone, their influence is fading..." Ico answers.

"We can cleanse this place," Tania says.

"And make it our own," Ico finishes.

"We'd have to destroy that...prison where they held you," Aymeri interjects.

"You've always been good at destroying human buildings," Ico answers him with a teasing smile.

When the human scientist have gone, Aymeri takes care of the lab.

In the Landgraab mansion in Brooklyn Heights, Cecilia tries on her wedding gown.

"You? It can't be!" Cecilia sputters as Tania teleports into her room.

"You promised me a child," Tania says bitterly, "You lied."

Not giving Cecilia a chance to respond, Tania weaves her binding spell.

"You were my sister's kin, you should not have betrayed us," Tania speaks her final words before leaving.

"It's good to be home," Joffrey sighs, sinking back into the pillows.

"Is this home for you?" Sage asks She was born here, but with all the traveling they do, Joffrey hasn't spent more than a few days total under this roof.

"I've never had any other home, Sage," he answers.

"Let's have a baby," she says.


______________________

Challenge Notes:
So, Becky, you were mostly right. I wouldn't call Geoffrey a 'nice' clone, but his intentions towards Joff and Sage weren't malevolent.

In my spare time, I've been working on Riverview, adding some AP combined rabbitholes and other EP venues. And when it comes time to start a new legacy, I may do it in New Riverview.

In the last pic you can see Joff's 2nd tattoo. The tattoo addict thing is more drawn out, because so much time is spent in vacation worlds, and the occasional alternate save. We haven't been in the home world for more than a full week.

Chapter 46: Under the Waterfall

"I have wronged you," Ico says. With their part in the subterfuge done with, the dragon and the water sprite retreat back to her underground spring. "I wanted you to suffer the way I suffered. I shouldn't have let my anger rule me so."

"I shouldn't have let you drive me off," Aymeri answers, "Had I spoken to you..."

"I wouldn't have let you near enough to speak to me," she answers, smiling sadly.

"I think you would have, Ico, if I had tried."

"Even in my anger, I still loved you, Meri," she says, "I told everyone that the tears I shed were for Lusinea, but most of the time, I mourned my own loneliness. In secret,I would visit the waterfall where we first met, and wish that day had never ended. Do you remember?"

"How could I forget?"

"I was with Tania, and we saw you soaring above. I said to her that riding a dragon in flight must be an experience like no other, and she laughed at me, and said I was far to timid to approach a dragon, let alone try to mount one. So I set out to prove her wrong, and  followed to where you landed, to the waterfall where made your lair. But when I arrived, I saw not the great dragon I was expecting. You had transformed."

"'Her heart did tremble, but her fear was gone, and Icovellauna mounted her dragon'," Aymeri sings the refrain of a ribald song written about them.

"We were so innocent then" Ico sighs, "Could we ever be so again?"

Aymeri's head dips sadly, "Innocence, once lost..."

"Is lost forever," she finishes.

"We cannot go back, Ico, but we can go forward."

"Together?"

"Together."

"Have you found anything?" Sage asks. Joffrey has been working on decrypting MorcuCorp's files for days.

"Most of this was encrypted with standard MorcuCorp cipher," he says, "And most of it is useless. But there's this one file..."

"Not so easy to decrypt?" Sage guesses.

"It shouldn't be," Joffrey answers, "But this encryption algorithm is mine. I used it for my personal files, and I never shared the key with MorcuCorp. Or anyone."

"So that means...?"

"Someone worked out my encryption and is using it. For this one file only, apparently."

"What's in the file?" Sage asks.

"The location of a secret lab where MorcuCop was developing a technology to interfere with... fae powers, it says. It would block the ability to glamour, or teleport."

"You think that's where they're holding Summerdream?"

"That would make sense, they'd need some defense against her abilities. But it might be a fake, a trap."

"Why do you think that?"

"Because the way this file was encrypted was guaranteed to get my attention. It's like they wanted me to find this."

Joffrey still worries that they're walking into a trap, but Sage didn't want to overlook the one clue they'd managed to find about Summerdream's location. So they set out for Sunset Valley, to the hidden lab beneath Stoney Falls.

"Maybe it would be better if you stayed here," Joffrey says, "They may be waiting for us inside."

"Who will get you in, if not me?" Sage answers as she finds the mechanism to open the sealed entrance, "You need me."

Behind the metal door, they find the stairs to the underground lab.

"There should be a lab here. This is just an empty cavern," Joff observes nervously, still hoping to back out of this before anything bad happens.

"Empty caverns are never what they seem," Sage answers, and starts feeling the walls for a hidden door.

"Summerdream put a lot of trust in Cecilia. She must want a child pretty badly," Joff observes. He hasn't mentioned his own desire for a child since he broached the subject in Egypt, but he hasn't stopped thinking about it.

Sage grunts as she pushes on the wall. "Secret lab," she says, "Just like you expected."

The lab is small, with no evidence that anyone, fae or otherwise, had every been held here. "It's a dead end," Joff says, firing up the lone computer, hoping to find new information there.

"It's never a dead end. This corner is suspiciously empty," Sage answers, "There's a hidden door here, I just know it."

Sage turns out to be right.

Joffrey gets up to follow her through the door.

But as soon as she's inside, the door swings shut behind her, leaving Joffrey alone in the lab. He calls out to her, and they both try pushing the door back open, but it won't budge. This is exactly what he was afraid was going to happen.

"I'm going to search around for a switch, or another way out," she calls, her voice faint through the walls.

Behind him, Joff hears footsteps coming through the open door to the lab, and a very familiar voice, "You got my message."

________________________
I used Claeric's Stoney Falls Underlake Tomb for the hidden lab entrance scenes. The actual lab is a set I built myself.

Chapter 45: A Complicated Glamour

It has been generations since Cecilia Landgraab 'died', long enough that anyone who ever knew her is long dead. Now that she's found her Harris reborn again in one of his clones, Cecilia decides that the time is right to come out of hiding and take her place as the bride of the next Landgraab heir, to live in the open in the Landgraab manor in Brooklyn Heights. She's even confident enough to host a gala charity event here in the city where she was born and is supposedly buried beside her late husband.

The plan is simple enough. Rory, disguised as one of the catering company's employees, will get inside the mansion and disable the security. Then, Sage will break into the secret underground office, and Joffrey will hack into their computer and download all the files on their secret labs, trying to locate where they have Summerdream locked up.

Aymeri and Ico are disguised as party guests. Ico's job is to create a glamour, making the guards and other security personnel believe that everything is as planned and not to investigate any noises or follow up on any suspicions that arise. Her glamour also extends over herself and Aymeri, making their hosts and other guests believe they are a well known couple of wealthy philanthropists, invited to this party by the Landgraabs. No one will question their presence here, everyone expects them to be there. Even Cecilia, who has already proven herself as susceptible to glamours as any human, despite her fae background.

Aymeri's job is simply to chat with any party guests who decide to interact with the well known pair of philanthropists. Ico can create powerful illusions, but that doesn't mean she can handle small talk with humans.

"That was my great-grandson," Aymeri remarks to Ico when the young man moves off to the dance floor after a brief conversation, "He's the image of my son. He's even named after him."

"I could lift the glamour enough for him to recognize you," Ico offers, "So you might speak to him as his kin."

Aymeri shakes his head, "He wouldn't recognize me even without the glamour. My descendants all believe me long dead. If I am anything to him, it's just a name."

"But you are immortal. How do your kin believe you dead?"

"Only one of our four children was ever told about my true nature," Aymeri explains, "Our daughter Tearney, because she was a dragon herself. The others...we decided it was better that they didn't know."

"Four children?" Ico asks, her brows knitted, "You overcame your grief over our daughter's fate quickly, then."

"Is that what you think?" Aymeri asks, "When our Lusinea fell to the corruption, I was devastated. I did not want to believe it, even when she joined the enemy and fought against us. I watched her kill several of us in battle and I did not move against her. She killed her own lover, Ico, in front of my eyes. I had to stop her. If I had acted sooner, those she killed might have survived that day, and their blood is on my hands as much as on hers. And after this battle where I was forced to cut down my own child, I came to you for comfort, and you turned me away, blaming me for what the corruption did to Lusinea. You cut me in half that day, Ico. Do not accuse me of overcoming it so easily."

"You never showed the slightest sign of grief," Ico protests, "The next day saw you in battle again, as though Lusinea's death hadn't touched you at all. The songs all tell of your victories, your heroism."

Aymeri takes a deep breath, "Oh, aye, I threw myself right back into battle, Ico. I wanted vengeance and I sought my own glorious death. Vengeance I got, in battle after battle, but it did my heart no good, knowing the enemy were just like Lusinea, sick, polluted, no longer who they were once were. And my own death continued to elude me, no matter how recklessly I fought. When Tania brought Thierry Tricou to me and asked me to make him a warrior, I believed I would finally meet my end fighting beside this untrained halfling. He trusted me, and spoke to me often of the wife and children he had to leave behind, and his deep regret at not being with them. He never wanted any part of the fae, and was made to fight a war he had no stake in because of a deal he made with Tania. Despite that, he gave himself to our cause, fought as though it was his own home he was defending. He shamed me, and gave me the will to carry on the fight, even though my daughter was lost to it, and I had lost you."

"It was his daughter you married," Ico says, her eyes lowered and her voice soft.

"Allyriane," Aymeri sighs, wistfully, "Her father sent me to bring her a gift. By then, he had risen to the highest ranks and could not get away from the fighting as easily as I could. She was so pure, so earnest. And she loved me with that bright, human intensity. She made me whole again. For a time at least."

"Meri," she breathes his name through a suppressed sob, and a large tear rolls down her cheek.

"Not here," he says, wiping her tear way with an affectionate caress, "You have a complicated glamour to maintain. This is a conversation for another time."

From the dance floor, an Archer descendant watches the exhange. She's not fooled by the glamour, and while she doesn't know who they really are, she knows these two are not what they appear to be. Still, she has no love of the Landgraabs and is more than willing to pretend she's as taken in as the rest of the party.

While the party gets underway, Sage works on the hidden door to the underground office. The Landgraabs used ancient technology similar to that used in the many tombs she's raided to conceal the entrance, and her skills come in handy in finding it out. Joffrey, wearing his 'clone uniform' as instructed by Rory, keeps watch while she feels around for the right place to apply pressure on the seemingly solid wall.

Hidden in the hollow of the wall is a staircase to the underground office.

Joffrey had often seen reference to this place in MorcuCorp's files, but he'd never seen it with his own eyes.

Now comes Joffrey's part in the plan. Hacking through MorcuCorp's password protection is easy for him, he's been doing this since they gave him his first laptop. He finds the locations and schematics of all MorcuCorp's secret labs and safehouses, all heavily encrypted. He downloads them all to his drive, planning to work on the encryption when he gets the files home.

Chapter 44: Sacred Spring

Kieran and Theophile play pretend.

"When is Mom coming home?" Kieran asks as they sit down for lunch.

"Sometimes her work keeps her out all night," Joffrey explains, "I'm not sure when she'll be back."

This time, Sage is back shortly after Joff has cleaned up the lunch dishes.

"I didn't expect you so early," he says, greeting her with a hug and a passionate kiss, "Can I make you some lunch?"

Sage accepts the lunch, and spends the rest of the day with her family.

It's only later when they're in bed that Sage tells Joffrey about her meeting with Moth.

"I'll be leaving before dawn," she says, "Moth says Aymeri has gone deep underground and it might be sometime before I get back."

"Maybe I should go with you," Joffrey offers, "Kieran could spend the night with the Saint James family. He and Theophile have gotten very close."

"I'd love to have you along, but Moth says only someone with fae blood would be allowed to enter," she answers, "But I will need your help in this. Moth doesn't know where Cecilia has taken Summerdream. You know MorcuCorp, I'll need you to help me find her, whether or not I suceed in getting Aymer's aid."

Before the sun rises, Sage follows Moths directions to the frog pond in the small wood outside of town. He told her she would now the place by the magical butterflies that frequent the area. One lights on her hand in greeting. Faintly, she hears a voice welcoming her in Moth's name. Moth does not show up himself. He had told Sage that the last time he spoke to Aymeri, the dragon had warned him off, telling him not to come again, and Moth is far too frightened of the dragon's wrath to even come near this place. Sage knows no such fear, however, and sets to smashing the boulders that covered the entrance to the underground lair.

Below she finds no natural cavern, but a series of twisting corridors. Steam vents provide water for the grasses ad flowers that grow here.

Along the way she encounters dart traps that block her path. The mechanism that controls them responds to her presence, and clears the way forward.

The maze of tunnels finally ends at a dive well of magically swirling green water. So Sage dives right in.

On the other side is a large cavern, dark yet filled with life, trees and flowers growing everywhere.

"You have come through much to get to me, great-granddaughter," Aymeri says, embracing Sage in greeting. She hadn't known what sort of welcome to expect, and is pleasantly surprised by her first meeting with her ancestor. "Well met," he continues, "But surely you did not come all this way simply to make my acquaintance; you must have something you want of me."

"My husband has told me much about you, and I did want to meet you for myself, but it was Moth who asked me to come here," Sage explains, "Tania Summerdream has put herself in MorcuCorps' hand; we have to rescue her, as you and Joffrey rescued me."

Aymeri frowns, "I gave the traitor to Summerdream to bind her. Instead, she made a bargain with the woman, and set her free. Why should I rescue her from a trap she stepped in to?"

Sage is taken aback by the sharp anger in his tone, but it doesn't frighten her the way it did poor Moth. "Cecilia promised her she could help her and Auberon conceive a child," she says, "You must understand how difficult it would have been to walk away from that."

Aymeri doesn't soften in the least, "I understand Tania's weakness," he says, "She believes in a future that will never be. And I am done with fighting a war we lost ages ago. We are over, and it is time we let it go."

Sage realizes there's a lot she doesn't know about these fae she's only recently discovered she's related to, she's gathered only bits and pieces about their long war and the vast numbers of them who perished in it, but whatever the past, she cannot accept Aymeri's defeatism.

"How can you say that?" she asks, "As long as you fight, there's always a chance."

Aymeri shakes his head, "I have fought for more years than can be counted. Fighting will not bring us back to what we were before the mortals came. We were numerous then, the world was ours. Everything changed when the mortals came, we became vulnerable, we began to die, and there were fewer and fewer children to replace those that were lost. The world belongs to the mortals now, and perhaps that is the way it is meant to be."

"That sounds like an excuse to me," Sage says, her jaw set firmly, "Your human wife and children have grown old and died, and you're holing yourself up here because you don't want to face it."

"I cannot deny it," Aymeri agrees sadly, "I have seen too much of death, and my will to fight has died in the process."

"Bullshit," Sage says, but a loud splash interrupts her, and a head emerges from the well.

"Ico," Aymeri says, turning to the woman as she steps out of the water.

"You come here, to my place, and yet you are surprised to see me?" Ico says.

"I came here for you, but I did expect you would show yourself," Aymeri answers.

"You came to lay your grief at my door, seeking comfort. Did you grieve so when you killed our daughter?"

"I grieve for many things I've done, Ico, and many more that I haven't," Aymeri answers, "You saw what she became, the pollution made us into monsters. Your own hands are not so clean, you fought in the war, and killed in it."

"She was your daughter."

"I have not forgotten, Ico. Would you have wanted her to live, polluted and twisted as she was. You know as well as I, death was a mercy."

Sage listens uncomfortable to their exchange. Clearly, there is much she doesn't know about her great-grandfather.

"Excuse me," Sage interrupts,  addressing Ico, "I came here to find help rescuing Tania Summerdream."

The fae woman stares at Sage for a moment, "You are his kin, and yet mortal. And you are fae, as well," her eyebrows raise, "I even sense some elf in you. Strange. I am Icovellauna, and this is my place. Tell  me, what has become of Summerdream that she sends a halfing to my spring to ask my assistance?

Sage explains the situation.

"Oh, poor Tania," Ico sighs, "She has long wanted a child. But to throw herself into the hands of mortals...she must have become desperate. Of course we will aid you, mortal child."

"'We', Ico?" Aymeri says, a spark of hope lighting in his eyes.

"I will put aside my wrath to join you on this quest, Meri," Ico says, "For Tania," she adds, looking away with a blush.