Disclaimer: See chapter 1 (Spoiler, I own nothing in this story)
Monday, May 29th, Steps of Gringotts Bank, Los Angeles branch
It was unnerving for Giles to stand in front of a colossal stone building that overlooked the city of Los Angeles. Faith, Xander, Wesley, and he had never been to the Griffith Observatory before, but they suspected that the thousands of visitors there didn't realize that it also housed a bank for magical and supernatural folk. Giles took off his glasses and polished them, the rote actions giving his mind the time to collect itself and process all that had happened since the conquering the nigh Old One scarcely a few days ago. A fortnight earlier, he was only troubled by the thought of surviving the accursed ritual allowing the former Mayor his Ascension, but now his charge and, daresay he think of him as, friend had to discover something about his heritage that could alter his life forever, and that is not accounting for whatever business these goblins had with Faith.
He was able to call his father on Saturday, both to report to the Watchers more thoroughly about the aborted Ascension and to learn more details about these goblins and this Gringotts, apparently a bank for the supernatural, dealing with werewolves, vampires, mages, demons, and many others. His father had a few memories of documents relating to them, and promised to look into it and deliver what he could to Sunnydale via courier at soonest convenience.
By talking with the legal division of the Watchers, he was able to pull up mention of an ancient treaty with an entity known as 'Gringotts Goblins'. His father did urge great caution for his little band since the Goblin-Watcher Treaty of 1217 firmly stated that the Slayer would never engage the Goblin Nation after what was known as the First Barons' War had swept most of England. Luckily, the goblins stated in the letter that this meeting did not violate that particular treaty, and his father impressed upon him that one point all records agree on is that the Goblins never broke a written agreement. Even so, he was worried that his troop would cause several international incidents over the next few hours, which would necessitate his repairing the fractured relations. He cleaned his glasses slightly harder with that dire thought.
"Now, remember, the Council classifies Goblins as a category J demon, so the appropriate approach would be to…"
"Wesley, shut up," Xander voiced the thoughts going through their collective minds as they approached the massive doors. Giles could feel the magic wash over him as they passed through the wards that prevented non-magical folk from noticing it. It was awe-inspiring to feel the power the stone walls held and he knew where he would head should the hellmouth ever open. A thousand demons would not even leave a scratch, let alone breach the bank. And if the rumors were true, the guard dragons would handle anything that got inside.
The gaze of the guards at the door never left the group as they ascended the stairs,their very functional and well used weapons gleaming in the light. He paused a moment to allow Faith, who had stopped to size up one guard and their kukris, to catch back up. As she hurried on, Giles noted the involuntary shudder that the goblins displayed at Faith's scrutiny. Interesting, something to note for later, but for today he needed to concentrate on what the goblins, and no doubt some sinister force, wanted with his charges.
There were three tellers available to service them, Xander chose the closest one to walk up to. He could see Xander talking, but his conversation was obviously protected by some sort of silencing spell, an intelligent precaution. Xander showed the goblin the letter, which seemed to satisfy the small creature. The goblin waved the four of them to follow him to another part of the bank, and headed into a moderate sized conference room after passing through a hallway.
A tasteful selection of chairs surrounded an impressive table that took up half the room. There were a dozen blunted weapons, ranging from longswords to maces, along with a few combat dummies on display at the back half of the room. Faith had already gravitated to them, testing the weight and giving the scimitar a few practice swings.
At this point, another goblin, appearing older than the ones in the teller lines, entered with several large tomes under his arm. He (probably a he) took his seat at the head of the conference table, and motioned for them to take their seats as well. The goblin started speaking once Xander and Faith were seated, seeming not to care about the two watchers. His voice was surprisingly deep and formal for a goblin.
"Mister Alexander Lavelle Black, also known as Alexander Lavelle Harris, Xander Harris, White Knight, One Who Sees, Zeppo, Nighthawk, and Universe's Butt Monkey, Welcome to Gringotts. May you find your gold stained with the blood of those foolish enough to displease you." The goblin had to wait a moment for Faith to stop laughing. Xander looked sheepish as the titles piled on, but got a scowl at the last one, causing Faith to laugh even louder. Giles wondered if goblins smirked.
"I understand that you wish to discuss your banking business with others present, is that correct?" Xander nodded to the question asked of him after glancing around. Giles could see the uncertainty when he looked at Wesley, but he nodded still the same. The goblin continued.
"Very well. You are not the son of Anthony and Jessica Harris of Sunnydale. They were selected by your mother to protect you when your father died. Your mother Satele Shan of the House Black has not been in contact with us since establishing your vault 16 years ago. Your late father Regulus Black of England left you everything, which amounts to a significant amount of money, artifacts, properties, marriage contracts, stocks, bonds, businesses, titles, and servants. I recommend we go over the details of those at a later date, since there is little you need to do with them until late next year."
"Wait, marriage contracts? As in getting married? As in multiple marriages?" The panicked note in Xander's voice was too much for Faith, again, and she started laughing. Knowing a little about the marriage customs of the previous centuries, including marriage contracts, Giles was fairly certain the contracts would be mostly harmless, more politically binding than legally. He indulged in a smirk at Xander's discomfort, just as he had been discomforted by his four marriage contracts growing up. Hopefully they were not demonic contracts, though, because that would be unfortunate for both Xander and his "bride".
Giles had had several conversations with the boy about his family, in the which Xander expressed doubts that his parents were really his parents. Little things that they said or did, plus some photos and timing, seemed to indicate to Xander that he was not living with his birth family. To Xander, they felt more like guardians than parents, so it was no surprise that Xander did not question his parentage and instead focused primarily on the contracts.
"If you so wish, we will discuss it. House Black has 34 confirmed contracts, currently, 7 of which you cannot fulfill, and 17 proposed contracts, which you may confirm at your leisure. None of them require that you be the one who has to marry, only someone of the House. As I said, none of them will have any effect on you until the next calendar year, at the soonest, so you have plenty of time to view them later on your own time instead of on mine. May we proceed?" The slight annoyance in the goblin's voice warned Xander not to push it, which he thankfully picked up on. The goblin continued when Xander didn't object after a moment.
"The only thing you must do concerning the Black estate is accept your father's wishes and receive your inheritance. If you do not accept it, I am obligated to inform you that the inheritance will default to your uncle, one Sirius Black from England, who was arrested for murdering more than a dozen people and for being a high ranking member of an internationally known terrorist organization known as the Death Eaters. Unfortunately, he escaped custody before the trial, and is currently the center of a massive manhunt in England. I must have your decision within the hour, though, due to several contractual obligations that would take more time than that to explain."
The panic that was in Xander's eyes before transmuted to steely resolve to keep anything from a murderer when this stipulation was given. Before Xander could speak, though, Giles cleared his throat and interjected a few points that would help the boy not make a rash decision. Giles did not delude himself into thinking that he would do anything besides accepting the inheritance, but he wanted to verify some points on Xander's behalf. Better to go into the vampire nest with both eyes clear and open.
"Master Goblin, I believe you have not given us your name, yet." Xander's eyes lost their glare and gained an interested gleam. For the past year, Giles had taken Xander to the various peaceful demon councils as part of his training. He had said it was as backup in case there were conflicts, but Giles had really been taking Xander to introduce him to the various duties a Watcher took on, including demon negotiations, so that Xander would one day become a Watcher himself. The first thing he told Xander was to know who you were dealing with, it may save your life. Knowing this, Giles could see Xander was curious where he was going with this line of questioning. From the goblin's smile, he was not displeased with the question.
"You may call me Nagnok." There was a bow of his head to go with saying his name, a very slight bow but a bow nonetheless. Giles carefully noted that he didn't say what his name was, only what they could call him.
"Thank you Nagnok. May your gold flow forever. Now, what negative long term effects would Xander experience were he to claim the inheritance?" In his haste to prevent anything from falling in the hands of terrorist, Xander would have completely ignored any detriment to himself. While he still will choose to do so, Giles wanted to make sure that he did so with all the facts.
"He would incur the hatred of the terrorist organization his uncle is allegedly part of, as well as their focus for depriving them of a substantial amount of funding, for one. He will need to receive schooling on wizarding customs and politics to manage his wealth, titles, and businesses. We may help with that, for a fee. He will need to travel to England, Hawaii, India, Japan, various countries in South America, and several other undisclosed locations to personally and magically accept the properties as his. You also will need to travel to England for the official reading of your father's will before the end of the goblin year. Once again, we may help with transportation, for a fee. Some of his servants may be hostile to serving him, potentially causing them to try to kill him. He will have to pay local taxes in Britain, which are easier to manage than the taxes inside the United States, but still are taxes. Others of the Black line will be upset about not getting what they think is their fair share of his inheritance, some of which are capable of assassination and willing to do so. There will be attempts to enspell him with love spells and potions in order for desperate witches to gain access to the inheritance. Incidentally, that is the main purpose of marriage contracts that he seemed so concerned about earlier, to prevent those spells and potions from interfering with the inheritance within Houses." Giles could tell Nagnok was prepared to go on, but he also saw that Xander had a contemplative look on his face. Hopefully it was enough to make the boy think before jumping into a situation.
"Thank you. Without needing an exact amount, approximately how much wealth does this inheritance represent?" This was more of a filler question, to give Giles a moment to think of more important questions and to allow Xander to digest the previous answer. Nagnok's answer, however, stunned everyone to silence.
"You could buy Iceland without liquidating any property or assets."
It was a minute before anyone spoke. Their blinking said it all.
"B is going to flip when she knows how many shoes you can buy her." Leave it to Faith to break the tension when Xander was unable to. The two did complement each other in that respect, he had to admit.
"She must never know." Giles wasn't certain that Xander was joking when he responded. He loved his slayer as a daughter, but he could not fathom her obsession with footwear.
"How did the Black family get that much bloody money? No family has that much money on hand, not even the combined wealth of the Watchers has that much?" Surprisingly, the outburst came from Wesley, not Giles or Xander. He could not recall the younger watcher ever losing his composure is such a spectacular fashion. The question, though, was a valid one. The goblin waited until Xander nodded his head before answering.
"16 years ago, when Satele Shan established her account here, she did something that few wizards have ever done. As the widow of the Head of the Black family and mother of the Black heir, she gave complete financial control to Gringotts, with Gringotts receiving 3% of the annual profit in addition to the standard fees. The more we increased the vault's content, the more we increased our gold. She knew how to motivate, and you are reaping her cunning methods." It was enough for Wesley to calm down, and would have to do for now. At a later point they could review the details of the financials.
"What else should Xander know before making his decision?" With the previous revelations still in mind, he hoped that Xander's world would not be fractured more. Unlike Nagnok's previous answers which were immediate, the goblin gave this one some significant thought before answering. The others did not complain about the minute delay, since it gave them time to process the bombshells dropped in the previous minutes. When he answered, it was directly to Xander, instead of to Giles.
"While you have a large quantity of wealth, it would be unwise to start spending it on high priced items. There are those out there who monitor large or frequent purchases, on the scales of thousands of dollars, who would see your wealth as competition to be crushed or easy pickings for fraud. You are not yet experienced enough to protect your wealth, yourself, your family, your friends, all those you know, from attack both financial and physical. If these individuals become aware of your wealth before you gain this experience, they will have no qualms bankrupting or killing everyone you care for to get your money. For a fee, we can provide guidance in this area, but I recommend that be a temporary solution.
"The goblin seers have indicated that you will play a significant part in the world during the upcoming years. Personally I think the seers simply look at who has the most in their vault and talk about them, but it depends on your faith in prophecy." Xander snorted in mirth over that tidbit. Giles smiled too at the long list of prophecies that Xander had broken already, some unintentionally and others without Xander even being aware. Nagnok had a contemplative look when he beheld the youth's reaction to prophecy, but held his peace.
"The last thing you should know before making your decision is that hundreds, possibly thousands, will die because of what you decide. The Goblin King, the mighty Go'Derk, has spoken it. The average rule for a Goblin King is 2 years. Our seers may be faulty, but in his 127 year rule, Go'Derk has never once misspoken. Many will perish, but it is your decisions that will determine if it is good people or bad people who will die. If you reject your inheritance, you lose control over protecting the good." Silence reigned once again. Quietly, Nagnok slipped from his chair and started towards the door, leaving one of the tomes in front of his chair.
"I will return in 40 minutes for your answer. Feel free to make use of the weapons and dummies, or to peruse the details of your accounts. The time is now yours." With that, the four protectors of the Hellmouth were left alone. Xander stood and retrieved an axe from weapons, and swung it at the first dummy. The head flew off and impacted the far wall, both parts dissolving into dust as a "killing blow" was delivered. Another combat dummy magically appeared in its place. When it became obvious that Xander was not going to let up anytime soon, and Faith had joined him in the practice slaughter using a scimitar, Giles picked up the tome of accounts and contracts and began to research what Xander would be accepting. With nothing else to do, Wesley looked over his shoulder in a well-practiced dance of research.