Chapter 1: The Offer
The house was almost clean. Elena Fisher Drake just busied herself with tidying up the rest. After all, company was coming over, so it had to look like she didn't live with a slob part of the time. She didn't worry about dinner. She was assured by her dear husband that they were just going to go out to dinner with everyone anyway. If there was one good thing about Panama City, Florida at least there were plenty of restaurants.
The house they owned was on the coast, approximately fifteen acres of land, with the beach down the hill to the beach. They had a dock and a boat out in the water, and the house was a two story brick home with three bedrooms, two and a half bathrooms, with a dining room, living room, kitchen, and den. Much of their home was decorated with historical portraits and artifacts. Most notably was the portrait of Sir Francis Drake in the main den.
Nathan's share of the profits they gained from the Spanish gold they gathered from the uncharted island after sinking the El Dorado and killing Navarro were gone, but it had mostly been put towards buying this house, the boat, and his Jeep Wrangler. He still had some in savings, but not much. Most of his savings had gone to getting him out of jail two years ago. And even then Sully had used a lot of his own profits to get him out. Elena had no idea what Sully had spent his profits on. He still had the same house, which was a nice house and property like theirs that enabled him to have his sea plane, even the one before that she and Nathan crashed. She was sure most of it had gone to debt.
Elena, it seemed, was still the only one who had a considerable amount of her profits leftover. On top of that, she made good money as a world wide reporter.
Elena was putting up dishes now, looking through the kitchen window above the sink and watching Nate outside under the hood of his Jeep. She shook her head, noticing how dirty and grimy he was from working on the vehicle. Of course he was not going to bother getting clean before friends came over to visit.
It was better than having him out in the middle of nowhere almost getting killed. Elena sighed at the thought. It had been four months since Nathan and Sully's dicey escape from Ubar, Iram of the Pillars. They had their wedding a month after, having had it broken off for too long. Their friends and family all came, even Charlie, who was still in a cast from his broken leg came with Chloe.
Nate had spent the rest of these months recovering as well. She could tell this last escapade put a lot more toll on him. Not physically. Mentally. Broken bones, cuts, and bruises heal, but Elena suspected that there was something about this last adventure that had scarred him deeper. He lost his ring, and even though he was happy enough to admit that he had a better ring now on his left hand, Elena could still tell that he had lost a part of himself when Sir Francis Drake's ring sank with Katherine Marlowe and the city.
Marlowe and Talbot were dead. And hopefully that meant the fall of the secret organization that they led. Now four months later, Elena could tell that Nate was getting bored. He was itching for adventure again and was already taking small jobs.
It was one of the main reasons they had broke off their engagement. Elena felt she couldn't live worrying all the time while he was out seeking long lost cities and treasure or saving the world. They all had their close calls, eventually their luck was going to run out. What about starting a family? They couldn't do it if he was off adventuring all the time.
She loved Nate for who he was. And would always. As much as she wanted him to settle down, she knew it would take time. He had been raised by Sully after all.
"Hey babe, could you get me a bottled water?"
Elena broke from her thoughts, turning to him with a plate in her hands as he entered through the kitchen door.
"Shoes off! I just mopped!"
Nate jumped, quickly bending over to toss his shoes out the door. "Sheesh! Sorry! When did you become a cleaning Nazi all of a sudden?"
Elena laughed. "Funny. We got guests coming and guess what? You still look like a slob."
"It's just Sully, Chloe, and Charlie," Nate replied, giving his impish smile. "They see me like this all the time. Look, I have oil on my shirt and pants from working on the rigs, and there's a spot of mustard from my hotdog earlier."
Elena reached into the cupboard to place the plate with the others. As she was withdrawing her hand, she heard a pop, and a sharp sting hit her butt. She glared over her shoulders at him while he grinned like a mischievous boy, a kitchen towel in his hands.
"Mr. Drake."
"Yes, Mrs. Drake?"
"You got twenty minutes before Sully is landing his plane by our dock."
Nathan heaved a sigh. "Fine! I'll go take a shower and change!"
"Wait," Elena stated before Nate could slide across the tiled kitchen floor in his socks. She walked over to him and they kissed. Then Nate slid across the kitchen floor in his socks, making her roll her eyes and laugh.
As he took a shower upstairs, Elena finished tidying up. When she heard the plane, she smiled. Walking outside to the front of the house, she looked down the hill to the coast. Sully's beat up blue-green sea plane had just landed into the water, spraying up waves of white water as it skimmed across the surface. The plane slid across the surface of the water, engine rumbling, and rotors still turning but slowing down. She saw Chloe and Charlie jump out and locked the plane to the dock on the other side of the boat. Sully was the last to jump out. No surprise, he was wearing a bowling shirt and had a cigar in his mouth.
Sully wore khaki pants with a light blue bowling shirt. Charlie wore jeans and a casual shirt. Chloe wore a yellow tank top with black capris. It seemed Elena and Chloe were thinking alike. Elena had on a dark blue tank top with white capris.
"Hey Sunshine," Chloe greeted with a smile, her raven black hair glossy and up in a loose ponytail.
She had stuck with that nickname for Elena but she didn't mind. She and Chloe got along good now, even though they still had their major differences. Elena hugged her and Charlie.
"Hey Charlie. I see you are no longer in a cast. How's the leg?" Elena asked.
"Good, good. Full recovery, darlin'." As if to emphasize his point, Charlie kicked his once broken leg back and forth, grinning.
Sully had finally caught up after making sure the plane was set. He chuckled with that cigar in his mouth and Elena melted.
"There's my girl!"
"Hey Sully!"
Elena threw her arms around Sully, the two hugging hard. "You guys have a good trip?"
"Not bad at all," Sully answered, still grinning under his silver mustache.
"Except that Charlie threw up," Chloe added, slightly glaring at Cutter.
"Hey, bloody hell I said I was sorry. The plane was rocking and I got motion sickness. C'mon, darlin' it's not even your plane."
Sully rolled his eyes. "Alrighty you two, knock it off." He turned back to Elena, taking a puff on his cigar. "So where's that oaf of a boy of mine?"
"I heard that," Nathan stated, walking up in jeans and a maroon shirt.
Sully chuckled, the two men embracing into a father-son hug before Nate pulled away to shake Charlie's hand and hug Chloe.
"So Charlie, I must admit, I was getting used to the cast." Nate grinned.
"Haha, mate, very funny."
"Well, let's get you guys settled and then we can go eat. Sound good?" Elena proposed.
"Sounds great to me. I'm starving," Chloe answered bluntly, smiling.
"I'll second that," Sully added.
There was a lot of talking and laughter at their table at the fancy Italian restaurant. The group caught up with each other, even though Sully was always around, it had been months since they had seen Chloe or Cutter. The last time besides Elena and Nathan's wedding was in Syria after Charlie broke his leg from his jump to get away from the fire that Marlowe and Talbot tried to kill him with. Chloe had opted out from there to take him home and care for him. It was the first they really discussed the events in Ubar since it happened. At the wedding, it still had been too soon and no one wanted to talk about it.
"So how's the marriage going?" Chloe asked, moving onto the next subject and not at all worried about being nosy.
"It's great of course," Nate answered, glancing at Elena who sat next to him, and smiling.
"We're just trying to get into the groove, I suppose," Elena said jokingly.
"The groove huh?" Charlie chuckled.
"Anytime soon for a bun in the oven?" Sully asked bluntly.
Nate choked on his beer, spitting it onto his plate of food and coughing. Elena's eyes grew wide and she started slapping his back to help him.
"Wow, Nate. Didn't know that was gonna be a touchy subject," Sully chuckled.
"It's not a touchy subject. It just came out of nowhere. You got me by surprise, old man," Nathan answered, glaring at his father-figure.
"I don't know if it's a good idea to have little Nates running around," Chloe joked, causing both her and Charlie to choke up in laughter.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Nate asked, glaring at them.
"You get into enough trouble as it is, mate. Imagine if you had little tykes following right behind ya," Charlie explained.
Nathan threw a spoon at Charlie, the utensil striking the British man's forehead before dropping into his lap. "Oh yeah, real mature, mate. I had an offer for you, but now I doubt I'll clue you in anymore, pal."
The word offer got Nate's attention. Elena's face fell, as if she knew where this was going. Sully elbowed Charlie, but their British friend only chuckled. "Aw come off it, mate. I was just joking."
"What offer?"
"The other reason we are here, besides to visit you two of course," Chloe added.
"Oh no," Elena sighed, putting her fingers to her nose and shaking her head.
"It sounds promising, Nate. I like it," Sully stated.
"You like anything that will get you paid," Elena mumbled.
"Back in London I met up with a professor who wanted to hire some fortune hunters for a little trip. Luckily, I know him pretty well. Professor Lansin, he taught History and Sociology at the university I went to get my Bachelor's degree years ago."
"I'm sorry to interrupt but you really don't look like a man that would go to college and be well educated in anything let alone history," Sully stated.
Charlie glared at the older man, and then shook his head, slightly smiling. "Anyways…He works for this rich man named Kelley."
"Kelley?" Nate asked.
"Yes, Kelley."
"Isn't Kelley a girl's name?"
"Last name, mate. Focus."
"Oh."
"And there are men named Kelley by the way," Chloe quickly added.
Charlie glared at her. "Anyways, if I can just bloody finish folks! He wants to locate the Book of Saint Dunstan. He dropped a thousand pounds on us already and we haven't even started looking. And Lansin says that Kelley will still pay the rest even if we don't discover the book where it is supposedly hidden."
"Oh c'mon, there is no Book of Saint Dunstan," Nate snorted.
"What makes you say that?" Chloe inquired.
"Because Dunstan was a saint and the Archbishop of Canterbury. He was accused of being involved with witchcraft and black magic. All to disgrace him in the court. That story about his cunning defeat against the Devil is a load of crap. And all the swelling tumors that came up over his body after he turned down a bishop's request to become a monk wasn't a sign that he should, it was just from him being thrown in the cesspool after being disgraced. There was never any book of witchcraft or alchemy," Nathan explained.
"Just like that? You're gonna turn it down? I've never seen you so skeptical about something before, mate."
"Yeah, for a man that lived in the 900s AD, the chance of a book being found in readable condition nowadays is rare in itself, let alone a book that was only mentioned once in history that was also later contradicted by John Dee."
Elena seemed to be relieved. It looked as though Nathan was turning this one down. Sully perked up at John Dee's name.
"Wait a minute, wait a minute. John Dee? How is he in on this?"
Nate sighed. "The book was supposedly taken from Glastonbury Abbey by Edward Kelley. Dunstan was claimed as an Abbot there, but he was mainly associated with Canterbury, which is where he is buried."
"Who is Edward Kelley again?" Sully asked, scratching his chin.
"He was John Dee's partner in his search to commune with angels and discover the secrets of the Philosopher's Stone. He was a scryer, you know, crystal ball gazer and could supposedly call upon angels and spirits. But he was also a renowned alchemist, and one of the few men in history to even get close to understanding the Philosopher's stone."
"Oh yeah, he helped John Dee create the Enochian language," Elena added.
"S'cuse me?" Chloe grunted.
"The Language of Angels," Elena and Nate stated in unison.
"That's the language that was on the Cipher disk when we were searching for Ubar, remember?" Nate added.
"Oh, now I remember."
"So what's the purpose of the book?" Sully asked. "You would figure that someone would prefer John Dee's private journals for an angelic language, not a book on alchemy."
"And why am I not surprised that this secret man who is paying you to find this book has named himself "Kelley"? After Edward Kelley? Are you sure you can trust this Lansin guy, Charlie? Are you sure you can trust this "Kelley"?"
"Look mate, he just wants to find the book. Probably to see if there is a link between it and the Philosopher's Stone. But we aren't looking for the Philosopher's Stone or trying to create one, we are just looking for a book. A book that he will pay big bucks for if we find it or not."
"It sounds harmless to me," Sully stated. "And Cutter just said that Kelley has already paid them a sum."
"I don't know," Nate stated. "You think that it's too weird that this is linking John Dee into all of this…after our last round? I mean we did stumble upon one of Dee's alchemist labs at the chateau in France before we found Godfrey's tomb."
Sully snorted. "Where we almost got consumed by thousands of man-eating spiders, and almost died in a fire. Kid, it's England. Dee is a big figure in history over there, hell throughout the world, get used to it. It's like saying that the Kennedys were never apart of our history."
Nathan sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I guess I'm just still a little shook up from last time. Getting too easily suspicious of things."
"Which isn't like you at all," Chloe pointed out frankly.
Nathan glared at her mildly for a moment before looking back to Charlie. "So, did he give you any locations to search, or are we supposed to figure this wild goose chase out on our own?"
"Yes, two locations. Glastonbury Abby and Prague Castle. It's unlikely that John Dee had the book ever, even when the two of them were together. So it's likely that Kelley returned it to the Abby or King Rudolf II took control of it after Kelley's death."
Nate seemed to consider Charlie's words, thinking hard. Elena chewed on her lip beside him, watching his face intently as he thought. Chloe, Cutter, and Sully were also watching closely, awaiting Nathan's next thoughts.
"I can see this already. This is turning into some kind of expedition to find the Philosopher's Stone," Nate chuckled, shaking his head as though it was hard to believe at first. "Charlie, did you ever meet face to face with this Kelley guy?"
"No, I've only spoke with Lansin. I'm telling you, we can trust him."
"We might be able to trust Lansin, but can we trust Kelley? I mean, it's easy to see that this is just an alias. We don't know who we are really dealing with. I just want you to be sure on your judgment. You didn't get any weird feelings about this at all?"
"Not at all, mate. Not at all."
Elena sighed out loud. "Because you already got a thousand pounds. I think that would hurt your judgment."
"I'm with Charlie. Whether we find the book or not in these two locations we still get paid the full amount just for going. I say we do it. The likely output here is that we aren't going to find it, and then we can get our payment and let it go. Well, unless this Kelley guy wants to pay us more for further investigations. But I say we burn that bridge when we get there," Chloe put in.
"See Nate? She makes a good point," Sully pursued.
Nathan looked from Chloe and Charlie, to Sully, to Elena. He could see the worry there in her eyes. It was too soon. Nathan couldn't really judge his own instincts. He hadn't met Lansin or Kelley himself. He was trying to make himself be more careful since their last battle with Marlowe and Talbot and their organization. If he agreed, it would be because he trusted Charlie's judgment. Nate trusted his friend's judgment, but there was something about this that bothered him.
Finally, Nate heaved a sigh. "Alright, fine. I'll do it. Sully and I will go to Prague Castle. You two go to Glastonbury Abby."
There was an excited "yes" from Cutter, and Chloe seemed happy as well. Sully laughed, rubbing his palms. Nathan turned to Elena. "Would you like to join us, baby?"
Elena shook her head. "No. You know I keep myself in reserve anymore. Only in emergencies will I decide to go along with these escapades any longer. I've had my fill."
"If Charlie is right, then this will be easy. I'll be home before you know it. No danger, no extraordinary search, no lost city, no nothing. Easy peasy!"
"Yeah…if Charlie is right. There have been a lot of ifs in our lives lately, Nate. I just hope you are sure about this so soon after what went down in Arabia."
Nate leaned in and kissed her deeply, understanding her worry and moved that she always cared so much. He put their foreheads together, looking deep into her eyes. "I'll be fine. I promise."
A/N: And there is chapter one! I'm going to try this story out, still a little unsure about it. Got a lot of ideas in my head, but it will be hard to make into a good story I think! I'm sure the Philosopher's Stone has been done before, but ehh, I just wanted to do it. There wasn't much else in legend that sounded good to me to make an Uncharted fic with the ideas I had, and I didn't want to make something up at first. Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this and I hope you give it a try! :) Gonna be plenty of action, suspense, adventure, humor, and romance! Rating might go up, but for now this is rated T! And by now you know that this is a NatexElena story as well, but I also plan on sneaking in some ChloexCharlie!