Jareth leaned back in his throne with a sigh. Formal appeals and complaints were rare these days, so when issues arose they were generally ones needing careful attention and delicate answers. Though this particular audience had been granted early that afternoon, it had taken until the early evening before a solution could be reached that would bring the most satisfaction to all parties involved. The interruption of a footman arriving through a side door, one that went unnoticed to all save he, tempted him to push things along. However, he was able to reign in his impatience for the last half hour it took to get everything resolved.

As the door to the room closed behind the group of his subjects, he stretched and addressed the awaiting Goblin. "Is she waiting in my study?"

That Jareth would know who sent him was unsurprising. "Yes, Your Majesty," the Goblin answered with a bow. "As is His Highness."

"Ah, of course. Thank you." Jareth's gratitude was genuine, as it was whenever he gave it to those who worked in the Castle. He felt the use of gratitude as dismissal rather unnecessary, especially in instances such as these wherein he simply vanished from sight. Still, the Goblin footman bowed to the empty room before letting himself out the door through which he entered to return to his position outside the door to Jareth's study.

Sarah looked up at her husband when he appeared in the chair behind his desk. "How did it go?" He kept little from his wife, and that which remained secret usually was done so either at the justified request from their children or with the intent to surprise. For her part, Sarah never demanded he tell her anything unless it was of great importance. This demonstration of trust early in their marriage enabled him to be completely open to her, a result that was unintended but deeply satisfying for both of them.

He shrugged. "Well enough, I suppose. Pointless disagreements allowed to escalate into minor feuds between neighbours are never simple matters to resolve."

"No," she chuckled, "that they are not."

Christoph waited out the moment of intimate exchange, one that would seem light to an outsider. But to anyone in this household it was apparent that there was rarely an interaction between his parents that did not carry the depth of their union beneath it. He had long since grown past the age that told him to cringe in embarrassment at such displays and could watch them with great admiration instead. He had seen enough of pretentious Fae interactions to have a deep appreciation for true passion.

"Your son," Sarah said, bringing the conversation to its pivotal point, "has something he wishes to tell you. And he has requested my attendance."

"Did he indeed?"

It was playful banter, this formal attitude between family members. Normally, Christoph would have joined in, regardless of the seriousness of the situation. It made the difficult bearable. In this instance, however, he found he was incapable of doing so. "I know how the Wizard broke into the vault all those years ago." The statement simply came out, not as he intended but not able to be prevented.

Jareth's eyebrow rose and he focused on his son. "Oh?" He saw, out of the corner of his eye, Sarah lean back in her chair to simply listen to the two converse, though she would interrupt with comments as she saw fit. "And what did you discover?"

"Well, to be fair, I didn't. Bill saw it first."

At the mention of the Wizard's name, Jareth's eyebrow rose another millimetre, amusing Sarah to no end but unnoticed by the other two.

"Very well. What was it?"

"The Goblins came to you in concern that this Dark Wizard of theirs was present for the Wizard Quirrell's journey through the Labyrinth, right?"

"Yes..."

"Well, I don't think that will either be proven or disproved simply through a recreation of his journey. I think with the information given in that tome, anyone of intelligence and skill could have made his or her way through to the doorway to the vaults. But one of the relevant problems is how he got into the vault in the first place, or so Bill explained when we got there."

"How so?"

"I guess the security measures on the vaults, specifically high security vaults such as the one broken into by Quirrell, can only be opened by Goblins. Now, I'm not sure if this is because of Goblin magic, or if it is because of a specific spell, but Quirrell was given a way around it. Sort of."

Jareth glanced at Sarah, who shrugged. "It makes sense to me," she said. "Though I still want to be told how it was done."

Jareth turned back to Christoph, intending to ask him to continue when, without warning, a glowing ball appeared at the centre of Jareth's desk. As it manifested into a crystal, he picked it up, concern evident. "Katrin?" he asked, sharply. "You know you are not supposed to personally conjure --"

"I know, I know," she interrupted. "But this is important."

"Why did you not simply come Underground in person, then?"

At the question from her mother, Katrin blinked. "Oh, hi Mom. I didn't want to risk it."

"Risk it?" At that, Christoph followed his mother's lead and they stood behind Jareth's chair to look into the crystal as well.

"Crikey, who all is there?"

"Just the three of us," answered Jareth. He was about to ask her to continue her explanation as to why she did not make the journey when Sarah spoke again.

"Dearest, you look terribly pale. Are you all right?"

Katrin nodded. "Yeah, I'm just a bit shaken, I guess. It's why I didn't want to risk coming Underground. I doubt anything would have gone wrong, but Dad always says to only make the journey when in complete control of one's powers, so..." She trailed off with a shrug.

"True," Jareth agreed. "What happened?"

"Well, I was going through the tome. Actually, I dropped -- Ok, I threw it accidentally and came across this drawing that was on the back page."

Christoph interrupted her this time. "The one about the vault?"

"Yes, exactly. How did you--"

"The Gringotts Wizard representative," he was quite pleased he managed to remember not to say Bill's name aloud. "He figured out what it meant earlier this afternoon. I had just gotten back to tell Dad about it."

"Oh, right. Obviously I reacted a bit prematurely. Should I just go and let you get on with it then?"

Jareth sighed heavily, once more amusing Sarah. Every now and again he would display signs of impatience with their children that would remind her of when they had first met so many years ago. She spoke up before her husband could, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Why don't you let Christoph tell it, since it obviously bothers you so much, and you can fill in any blanks he leaves out."

Jareth reached up to grasp his wife's hand and smiled as she gave a gentle squeeze in return. "That would be fine. Since you have already made the connection it may as well be kept open. Chris?"

"Ok," Christoph continued where he left off. "So the high security vaults can only be opened by Goblins..."

"Are you absolutely certain about this, Mr. Weasley?" Though Crinklow was the only one to speak, all three Goblins were staring at Bill with the same intensity.

"Unfortunately, yes. If you were to retrieve the copy of the tome provided to me, which I left at the door to the vault and the guards picked up, you could examine the drawing for yourselves. The only way to verify with any certainty, of course, is to test the theory with the original tome. However, considering the nature of the protective spell on the vaults, there is no reason why it would not work."

The Goblins exchanged glances. "If this is true," Queezink said to the others, "then we have more than a mere security breech on our hands."

Frank snorted. "We suspected from the very beginning that this whole thing was more than a security breech. Had it been otherwise, we never would have followed through with this quest in the first place."

"That is entirely beside the point!" Queezink slammed his hand on the table. "This goes farther than we could have expected. Our worst suspicions were that the Dark Wizard may have discovered a way to enter the Underground unbidden. But this atrocity, this outrage? "

"Do you really believe that the two are not related?" Frank said, sharply. "That the Dark Wizard would not utilize such means in order to ensure his success? He inflicted vile punishments on those of his own kind. What makes you think the species of his victims would give him pause? Especially if it would mean gaining access to the kind of power found in the Underground?"

Crinklow coughed. "Gentlemen, this is hardly relevant to the issue at hand." He held up a forestalling hand at their immediate attempts to disagree. "Unless you have further questions for Mr. Weasley, perhaps we should have him escorted from the building discreetly and continue this discussion in private." The two other Goblins slowly nodded their agreement. "Very good." He turned to Bill once more. "We shall expect your full report tomorrow and will schedule a debriefing shortly thereafter, Mr. Weasley."

"Yes, sir." As he rose to leave the table, Crinklow rose as well.

"I will escort you out; I know this building well enough that we should be able to avoid some of the more persistent security guards with ease." Before the door to the Board Room closed behind them, Frank and Queezink could be heard picking up their argument once more. "I apologise for my colleagues," Crinklow said as they walked down a narrow hall. "While it would be best if we could be in constant agreement about, er, priorities, disturbing news such as this often brings dissention between even the most congenial."

"It is often said that the ability to cause dissent is one of You-Know-Who's greatest weapons, sir."

"Indeed, Mr. Weasley," Crinklow said. "I can only agree with that statement."

"You can imagine our relief when touching the tome to the door didn't open it," Christoph finished off brief his retelling of the events in the vaults.

Katrin's snort of indignation came across loud and clear from the crystal where it now sat on Jareth's desk. "How do you think I felt? I've been carrying the real thing around with me for days now!"

"Oh. Good point."

"You think?"

"Isn't it fascinating how even under the most distressing of circumstances, our eldest children still squabble like chickens?" Jareth commented to Sarah as their children continued to banter.

She moved from behind his chair to perch on an armrest, his arm encircling her waist. "Indeed. It is comforting to know some things never change."

He chuckled briefly before clearing his throat to stall the discussion "You two can finish this later. Or, rather, continue it. This discussion of yours has not ended since you discovered you were capable of having a conversation with each other. However, what I want to know right now is who did it?"

"Well," began Katrin, "as far as I can gather, the tome doesn't say. Its whole purpose is to get the user through to the vaults, not explain who put it together or why. My only guess would be one of these Gringotts Goblins, though why in the world they'd think to..." She visibly shuddered. "Eaugh."

"These Goblins were guilty of far worse before they ever became bankers," Jareth stated gently, resting his forehead against Sarah's shoulder.

"Very comforting, Dad," she responded dryly. He shot her a half grin.

"What about this Dark Wizard the delegates were going on about?" suggested Christoph. "The Wizard also mentioned him; actually he told me the whole story. Sounds like the kind of person who wouldn't hesitate to do this if it meant he would get what he wanted."

"Possible, but it is uncertain based on what we know," put in Jareth. "If it was him that implies two things: Firstly, that he knew how to open the high security vaults in advance, which is possible. And secondly, that he knew enough about our world to prepare the tome as well, which is also possible but not very likely. I suspect if he knew before, he would not have waited until his destruction to enter the Underground, and certainly not to merely use it as a travelling plane to get to the vaults."

"Unless he was not entirely aware that he was in the Underground, as the Delegates suggested," offered Sarah.

"No. While this Quirrell person may not have been intelligent enough to know the difference, I cannot imagine one who cast such fear over the entire Magical Realm to be incapable of sensing the distinctive nature of the Underground."

Sarah snuggled closer into Jareth's embrace at that. "Hm."

"Well if it was just the first, then why not just kill a Goblin and take the body, or just a hand or something?" asked Christoph.

"Okay, that's the thing that creeps me out the most about this." Katrin shut her eyes and rubbed her temples as she spoke. "If you take a good look at the drawing, it explains the entire nature of the security spell. To open the vault, it needs to be touched by the hand of a living Goblin. Just a body part on its own wouldn't work. So, whoever did this didn't just cover this book with the skin of one of their people. They somehow incorporated the life essence of the victim within the very pages. It's clever, much as I hate to admit it." She opened her eyes and looked at her father. "I mean, I only did a brief probe, and you'd be able to tell better than I in any case. But I think what happens is that the upon encountering the spell, the essence within the book sort of mingles with or coats that of the person holding it, in effect convincing the door that the person standing there is actually a Goblin instead of a human or whatever."

"Shit," Christoph muttered.

"Yeah, that's what I said."

Jareth sat bolt upright during their exchange, nearly knocking Sarah off the armrest. She gave him a concerned look as he snatched up the crystal. "Katrin, where is the tome now?"

She pointed next to her, grimacing slightly. "Right here."

"I'll be right there to get it."

"Um, ok. Does that mean I should go now?"

"Yes. And don't touch it."

"Believe me, I don't plan to. Well, bye then, family." She waved and the crystal disappeared with a tiny pop.

"Jareth?" Sarah asked as she stood, moving to lean on the desk as he rose as well.

"I need to take a closer look at the tome myself, and I have no desire to allow something like that to remain Aboveground. Most certainly not in the dwelling of my child. While it does not sound as though it is still sentient, I am taking no chances."

She paled. "If the book is basically alive, then why weren't you able to sense this before? You flipped through it as well when we were in the antechamber, remember?"

He wiggled his fingers at her. "Formal regalia means gloves."

"Oh, of course. I always forget about that."

"I shall return shortly. We'll have to continue the discussion about the implications of this later. Chris, I'd like you here when I examine the tome."

"Sure thing, Dad."

"Are you bringing Katrin home as well?"

Jareth sighed. "No. Much as I would rather have her here, this whole development may require more meetings with the Gringotts Goblins, and possibly an interview with the Wizard."

"You're going to bring Bill here?"

"Possibly. And if that is the case, I'd rather not have them meet."

Sarah crossed her arms. "Jareth."

He placed his fingers over her lips. "I know, I know. I'm not supposed to interfere. But she is Fae and he is a Wizard. She only just found out about the existence of the Magical Realm and likely assumes he is simply a Mortal."

Christoph interrupted, "Yeah, and he had no idea about the Fae until sent here by the Goblins and thinks she is simply a Mortal as well."

"Exactly," Jareth continued. "It is not that I do not want them to meet again." At Sarah's raised eyebrow, he smiled. "You know what I mean. In any case, I think it would be better if they were able to tell each other about their true natures on their own, not have it sprung on them because of this whole problem."

"Hm." Sarah continued to regard him dubiously. "Very well. But you are the one who gets to explain to her the necessity for this charade when it all blows up in your face."

"I accept full responsibility." He kissed her gently before making the journey Aboveground.

When he was gone, Christoph turned to his mother, who stood there staring at the spot Jareth had occupied moments before and shaking her head. "Do you really think it is going to blow up in his face?"

She gave him a sideways glance and grinned. "Oh, naturally. This sort of thing always does. He is not being completely honest, though he is not lying outright. However, as long as he does not appear to be deliberately trying to keep them apart, in Katrin's eyes at least, she'll probably just rail at him for a few hours, make him feel terribly guilty, and then all will be well."

"Hm." He thought about that for a moment. "I don't think I'll get off that easily."

Sarah chuckled. "No, probably not."

"Oh well," he shrugged. "It's still much more fun this way."

Sarah laughed outright at that. "Oh, Chris. You are just as bad as your father!"