4 –

A short while later, the Veritas team, including the European contingent, found themselves in the same privacy alcove.

"Hey, did one of the footmen direct you over here?" Kate looked up at Solomon.

"Yeah…."

The major domo came up to the group. "Madame wishes to speak to you in her private study." He turned and began walking away, expecting that they would follow.

Kate, Vincent and Solomon looked at each other, puzzled, and then moved to follow with the rest following suit. After they made their way through several of the lower-story rooms, they began to climb a wide marble covered staircase. When they reached the third floor, the major domo led them down a long hallway with paintings covering the walls. At the end of the hall, the major domo opened a door and gestured for the team to go inside, shutting the door behind them.

Kate looked around the room. It was a large study with plenty of comfortable sofas and chairs to seat the entire Veritas Foundation.

"Feel kinda trapped?" Kate whispered to Vincent and Solomon.

Solomon barked a laugh. "Oh, yeah!"

"Should we sit down?" Nikko asked.

"Certainly, you should." Madame DuPre stood in the door that they had just entered. She was a very old woman with a regal bearing and startlingly white hair, and was wearing a simply cut silver gown.

"Madame DuPre, I assume?" Solomon moved through the room to greet this unknown woman.

"Yes, Doctor Zond. Please help me to my desk." Solomon gave the woman his arm, and they crossed to her antique secretary-style desk.

After Madame was seated, the Veritas team all took seats – Solomon, Kate and Vincent on the chairs immediately in front of her desk, and the rest scattered on the other sofas and chairs.

"If I may be so bold, why did you invite us to your ball?" Alexander Zond asked.

"Professor Zond, I have had my eye on the Veritas Foundation for a very long time. I do have a personal stake in your work, Doctor Zond. May I call you Solomon?" Madame's attention shifted from father to son.

"Certainly, Madame. I do have to wonder what your personal stake is in Veritas." Solomon was confused.

"Very simple. Kate." Madame gestured to Solomon's sister-in-law.

Kate's head jerked up. "What? What do you mean I am your personal connection to Veritas?"

Madame smiled at Kate. "You were in this house several times as a child. Don't you remember?"

Kate looked at Vincent and Solomon, shaking her head. "You'd think I would remember being in a house like this, but I don't." Kate's eyes drifted as a few things began to click into place from her very early memories. "Wait, I thought it was a museum?"

"Yes, that is what your father told you."

Kate was even more confused. "Why would Dad tell me it was a museum?"

"To keep it from your mother. He didn't want her to know that he was bringing you and Haley to see me."

"And you are?"

"Your grandmother. Jonathan Cayce's mother." Madame settled back in her chair as she watched Kate digest this bit of information.

"What? You're like my great-grandmother?" Nikko's eyes were huge at this exchange.

Madame smiled. "Yes, Nicholas, I am your great-grandmother."

Madame's attention shifted back to the three in front of her. "I also have another son. Solomon, you and Vincent both know him from dealings with the Foundation. In fact, there he is right now." Madame gestured to the man in the doorway.

Jacques DeMolay walked over to the desk and bent to kiss his mother. "You are certainly a sly one for inviting Veritas to the ball."

Madame looked at her son. "They needed to know the things you aren't willing to tell them. Things that affect their future."

Jacques bowed to his mother. "Fire away, mother."

"Solomon, you know my son as your benefactor." Everyone let out a gasp as they looked at Solomon.

Solomon's attention was on Madame. "Yes, your son is our benefactor."

Madame shifted her attention to Vincent. "And you, Vincent know him as one of the Council of Nine of Dorna?"

Vincent ignored the buzz around him. "Yes, I know Jacques DeMolay from Dorna."

"And my son sent you to Solomon and Haley all those years ago?"

Solomon and Kate both looked at Vincent, but he ignored both of them. "Yes, DeMolay sent me to work with Solomon and Haley to find the truth."

"I thought you came to us because you hated Dorna." Kate asked in a very small voice.

Vincent turned to her. "I do hate Dorna. DeMolay had known for quite some time that I was growing more disgusted with the tactics they were using against you, Haley, and Solomon."

Jacques decided now was good time to jump in. "I may be a member of Dorna, but that doesn't make me their puppet, and I certainly don't have to believe in all their tactics. I knew Vincent was chaffing under Tollan's thumb, and was looking for a way out. I just gave him a reason to leave."

Kate was still trying to comprehend everything. "But you and me, and…."

Vincent turned in his seat so he could put his hands on either side of her face. "WE are real. Nothing I have told you about us is a lie."

Jacques chuckled to himself. "In fact, Vincent began to hate Dorna just after he met Kate in Paris."

Kate looked over at her newfound uncle and smiled. "Love conquers all?"

"In fact, part of the reason to send Vincent to Veritas was to keep you together." Jacques smiled back at his niece.

Vincent narrowed his eyes. "What do you mean?"

Jacques held up the flute of champagne in his hand and pondered it a moment. "It seems that your destinies are intertwined more than you or Kate realize."

"What do you mean by that?" Kate was getting more confused.

"Taking into consideration your separate ancestries, any offspring of your could be as powerful as Nikko." Jacques's eyes moved from Vincent to the young man.

"What? What do you mean?" Nikko sat straighter on the sofa.

"Nikko, have you been noticing strange occurrences lately?" Madame asked.

Nikko looked back and forth between his father, great-grandmother, his aunt and Vincent. "I…," he stammered, blushing. "Yeah, I've noticed some things."

Nikko got up, and reached his hand out towards Madame's desk. After a moment, the small statue of Cupid moved from the edge of the desk to Nikko's outstretched hand. "Do you mean things like that?"

Solomon rose from his seat to face his son. "What?"

Nikko dipped his head bashfully. "I did that the first time after we got back from Chateau Rene."

"You were given that particular power the day you mother disappeared," Madame explained.

Nikko looked shocked. "You mean that light…."

"Yes, Nicholas. The light gave you that power because of who you are and who you are from."

"And he is from…?" Solomon asked the old woman.

Madame smiled. "He is from me, of course! I don't look as old as I really am."

"And that is…?" Vincent asked.

Madame looked at her son Jacques and then at Kate. "I am the last of my kind on Earth."

"You're an Ancient." Solomon didn't ask because the puzzle was coming together for him.

Madame closed her eyes and nodded. "Yes, I am what you younger generations refer to as an Ancient. I was one of the youngest, and my brethren chose some of us to stay here to watch over you," she said, looking sad. "I am the last one left here."

"So what does that mean?" Calvin asked.

"That means, young Doctor Banks, that I am very, very old. And anyone related to me by blood has great longevity."

"And special powers?" Nikko asked, grinning.

Madame laughed at the young man's question. "Yes, and special powers."

Jacques moved to sit on the edge of his mother's desk. "For instance, the Jacques DeMolay who was DaVinci's benefactor was not an ancestor of mine."

"What about the DeMolay who rode out from Chateau Rene with the map to find the Ring of Truth?" Solomon asked.

Jacques smiled. "That also was me."

"So you're almost a millennia?" Juliet asked.

"That is a few decades away."

Small groups began to chatter, trying to make sense of this news. Kate was silent, looking at her hands and thinking.