Watching Sherlock re-runs and doing my washing has got in the way of this chapter slightly.

Hope it's OK

Please review

Jas xx

"Mr Holmes I need to go home and make a report to my owner" Keridwyn informed Sherlock 10 minutes after they had returned to Baker Street. He had spent this time on John's laptop googling Keridwyn's cauldron, reading the legend, and to her surprise making notes.

"You're not a battle sprite you lied to me?" he asked, curious more than angry.

"Mr Holmes, Sherlock, I am over ten thousand years old, I have been many things in that time, and your information is coming from wikipedia. Demons like humans change their roles over time, they get more powerful, or less powerful, our life though longer than yours have similar ups and downs. I was hatched as a battle sprite, I gained power and grew stronger, I was mated had a family and yes I was once the owner of the Annwyn Cauldron. It has been passed on through my daughters family, as has my power, till I am little more than a battle sprite again." She finished by cocking her head to one side, challenging him to ask more.

"I want to come" Sherlock stated instead

"Where?" Keri asked

"To meet your family, yours and John's family. I want to meet them, say hello as it were." He smiled, knowing full well that she was going to relent "Anyway I was there at the scene today, I could tell them what we saw." Keri shrugged and Sherlock beamed grabbed his coat and got her to lead him downstairs again and into a cab.

When they arrived it took a moment for Sherlock's internal A-Z to kick in. Keri had given the driver an address in Beckton, and it was distractingly easy to tell they were yards from London City Airport. The building looked like an old pumping station, but at some point it had been converted into a private residence. Keri was out of the cab, and running up the path towards the main pump house doors, while Sherlock was still making his deductions, he was forced to pay for the cab, and followed at a more sedate pace.

For Sherlock it was easy to see what was going on in Keri's mind. To the family she had always been a teenage girl, a free spirit she ran up to the family home laughing and giggling like any other child would. When the door opened, a large man dressed all in black blocked it, he gave Sherlock a cold calculating look, which melted somewhat as Keri hugged him.

"Sherlock, meet my dear friend Darin" she called to him, "Darin I need to see Daddy Murray, please" she begged in a sickly voice to the man she had her arms round. He looked down clicked his teeth and kissed the top of her head.

"He's in his workshop little one" Darin told her, "go through he's been expecting you and your friend."

Matthew Murray stood in front of the burning firepit, his arms covered in iron bands, and his chest covered with a homemade smock shirt. He was in his early sixties, and with a long grey beard and hair. As Sherlock and Keri walked in he looked up and beamed, opening his arms to Keri, then holding out a hand to Sherlock.

"Mr Holmes, nice to meet you at last" his thick Northumbrian accent taking Sherlock by surprise.

"Mr Murray, I thought it was about time we met" Sherlock smiled back at the man, starting to search around the room, as Keri quickly filled Mr Murray in on the murder scene they had been too. Sherlock was not surprised that this was all old news to the man. "Tell me Mr Murray is it a psychic connection you use?"

"No, it's a magical connection, as de facto head of the family I can sense all the strands of our power, I can concentrate on a single strand, and see what's happening to them." Mr Murray explained. "I can for instance see that Dr Watson is attempting to charge his phone using magic, that he's bored during his lunch break, and he is getting constant texts from your brother asking for your whereabouts."

It had been an interesting afternoon, Sherlock had discovered far more about this 'family' than anyone had let on to him about. He now knew that they ran a successful protection racket, worked for the government on a mercenary basis, and that most of the known family members were soldiers or ex-soldiers. Keri was treated like the little sister she proclaimed she was to the world, Matthew Murray treated her like daughter, rather than the supernatural creature he knew her to be. When he'd questioned Keri about her appearance she'd told him battle sprites tend to have two appearances one that they show to the dying a non-threatening wraith look, she portrayed as a teenage girl, and their real demon form that they show to each other. Sherlock realized Matthew Murray hadn't seen that demon form since he'd enslaved her. There had been an interesting answer when he'd enquired about that.

"Matthew was a soldier, he was serving in the Gulf, and the oldest of my line so I was following him. During Operation Granby after Sir Peter De Billiere took over Matthew was sparking magic, he was traumatized by the operation, and suddenly he could see me. He spoke to me constantly asked me about the enemy, asked me to spy on them, begged for my help. Eventually people noticed, and Matthew was sent home, medical discharge and I out of guilt went with him. Of course he's so powerful, and had a young family then, a wife and kids. He had this plan to bring our family together, around the cauldron make us the most powerful family in the islands. He bought land in London, installed the cauldron and started calling the family forward. He needed me to stay though, he wanted my power and draw so he bound me to him, made me a slave. His wife treated me like a daughter, an extra child and that's the way we've stayed for 20 years."

"So why John, why choose him to send you too?" Sherlock asked

"Because Matthew will die one day, and the next powerful person, the one who will lead the family, the person to whom all this will go, is Dr Watson."

Operation Granby details coming from my friend Darin who was there.

Hence his appearance as a heavy, lol!

TBC

Jas xx