Chapter 297: Franklin House

Chapter 297: Franklin House

Ben bowed low. "Please, fair lady, I believe there is a misunderstanding. Can we talk about this situation?" He tried to use the identify skill on her but got nothing at all, which was disturbing because that meant her level was much higher than his.

She made a cut with her saber that caused him to jump backward and avoid a nasty cut. He pulled a heavy chair between them. She smiled like a cat playing with a mouse. "No misunderstanding, Damien. Not this time. You overstepped your already precarious position and have pissed me off. I think walking back from death a few times is the best thing for you." She made another small cut, forcing Ben back again, then kicked the chair over and advanced by stepping over it.

Ben put a large table between them and looked around for possible weapons. He had a whip at his belt and a hand crossbow in his backpack. His adze was sitting on a table where he had set it, but with only an 18" handle, it was only good to parry with, and he'd probably lose a hand. He'd rather keep one hand free. He didn't have a good counter for a sword in close quarters. His spells involved fire, and he hated the thought of being in a burning library.

"I am NOT Damien Franklin. Please, I've never met the man. Is Harmony here? She knows me."

His words seemed to infuriate the woman further. "You really should not have gone there, Damien. That's another thing I owe you for. Harmony is young and just starting her career. Posing as a distant cousin and abusing her trust is something I won't condone."

Ben lashed out with his whip three times, forcing her to dodge and giving him space. "Dammit. Why the hell do you think I'm Damien Franklin!"

She paused. "I'm astounded at the lengths you'll go to play out the role of a dimwitted, distant relative. But let's examine the facts."

"Fact one: Only I decide who will inherit the name of Benjamin in this family. You know this, and yet you perpetuate this farce by claiming to be the 7th."

"Fact two: I have it on good authority that a magic-tech device based on theories only you are familiar with was used in Sedgewick, in the affair of the Fallen, and was instrumental in his demise."

"Fact three: You showed up here after walking back from death, wearing your own pajamas and sleeping in your own bed."

"Fact four: You are disguising yourself with a clever role: The Friendly Local Courier. Very well done. It will fool most people. But you are using a glamour that a Tier 2 human has no chance of casting."

"Fact five: You're wearing your signet ring. How fething stupid do you think people are, Damien?"

She ran at him, leaping on the table and slashing at his neck. Ben dropped to the floor and crawled under the table, then lifted it, dislodging her to the floor and letting the table fall on top of her. Compared to Ozzy, he wasn't remotely strong, but even a few points of STR let a contract worker lift tons. Ben ran to the other end of the room and started throwing things, talking as fast as possible. A strangely colored rock from a shelf made a decent projectile, followed by a large clay mug. She dodged the stone but struck the mug, destroying it.

"You used to love that mug, a shame to break it. Of course, you used to love the family, and now you've started playing dangerous games that link us to a renegade Baron who threatens the empire."

The stern-faced woman he'd just fought was dressed formally in a grey dress, her white/grey hair tied up in a bun. She held a small dog in her lap. Four young men and three women stood behind her, all wearing the uniform of the emperor's couriers. Harmony stood in the center of the three younger women. The nameplate read:

Graduates of the 197th class of the Imperial Academy of Couriers

Back Row: Francis Franklin the 6th, George Stanton Franklin, Raphael Franklin the 4th, Thaddeus Franklin the 2nd

Center Row: Loren Franklin the 6th, Harmony Franklin, Sora Franklin

Front Row: Countess Dame Harmonia Franklin the 3rd, Matriarch of House Franklin and Fluffle.

Ben mulled that over as he looked at the other portraits. The room was deceptive, with alcoves hiding the entrance to rooms beyond. It was like a museum to one large family. He found a picture of Damien. Ben looked at himself in a mirror. If he had a twin who somehow aged forty years, that would be Damien. Not surprising as he had a passing resemblance to most of his new relatives. Whoever painted the portrait emphasized Damien's piercing eyes and amused smile. It said, 'I know something.'

In the same portrait was Benjamin Franklin the 6th, who could pass for his own twin. He began to hurry through the rooms, glancing quickly at the paintings. He found in quick order Benjamin the 5th and the 4th, centuries apart, but with an uncanny resemblance to each other and to himself. Harmonia the 2nd could pass for the woman he had tied up in the study. He moved further back into the last room and stopped, stunned to find a ten-foot-tall bronze statue.

The inscription read Benjamin Franklin the 3rd, the first of his line to come to these new worlds. It looked like him, which wasn't surprising since all the other Bens looked like him. But what bothered him was the statue's dress. Where all the other portraits were formal and wore Victorian-style clothes, the statue was dressed like a pirate. A certain pirate. It was the outfit he had worn long ago when he sailed the seas of EOQ2. The portraits in this room were different. They'd been painted but from photographs or screenshots. Scenes from EOQ2 and EOQ3 of a white-haired female pirate dressed in a grey tunic and breaches. They advanced down the wall, each showing the same girl but younger. They ended with a girl in a grey hooded tunic sitting in the rigging of a ship. He'd seen her before.

The last picture made him cover his face in shame. He stood in the rigging of a ship, wearing only his underwear and a hat. Across the water on the dock was a crowd of hundreds of cheering people. He knew the ship and the scene; here it was, bigger than life. Embarrassing, but only a bit. He'd really looked good back then. The portrait was hundreds of years old if he was any judge of artwork. And he'd stolen quite a bit of it over the years.

He went back through the portraits of the girl in grey, following her progression from a traveler, to pirate to commanding her own ship. Then in the next room, a young Harmonia Franklin the 1st, standing in front of a much smaller Franklin House. Benjamin Franklin the 4th seemed to be her grandson. Harmony was actually the great-great-granddaughter of the current Harmonia Franklin. There was a puzzle here. Fourth Ben was the first at Franklin House, but third Ben was 'first in these new worlds'.

He pulled out the hand xbow that Harmony had given him and looked at the maker mark on the back. To himself, he whispered, "It all fits. Crazy, but it fits."

He heard a noise and turned. Harmonia stood in the doorway, looking at him, ink stains half wiped from her face, her burnt and stained vest and tunic removed, now wearing a short, grey undertunic. She stared at him and stepped forward as the years fell away from her face. Within three steps, she looked younger than Harmony, again the shy girl he had met on his ship. Her eyes were huge as she looked at him. Then she raced forward and caught him in a fierce hug. Then stepped back and was again the woman he had dueled in Damien's study.

"You came! You finally came!"

He looked up at a soft laugh from someone else. Harmony stood in the doorway, smiling at him and wiping ink stains from her hands. "I hope you can explain things, cousin, because I grew up in this family, and I'm confused."