Sage jerked awake; inky darkness could be seen through the window to the left of the desk; the curtains in front of Sage's position were still closed. What had woken her? Groaning softly as she pushed up from the slumped position over the papers and laptop, Sage massaged her neck and stretched her arms above her head. A noise from below drew her attention to her closed bedroom door. She quickly gathered her work and electronics and entered her dressing room, hiding the items and locking the door. The light automatically lit up the room, letting Sage see her way to the passageway behind her bookcase. Easing herself into the space, she pulled it closed as someone rattled the door to the dressing room. Whoever it was had gained entry to the house. Fear sliced through Sage, slamming into her chest and making it difficult to breathe. Forcing herself to move slowly down the passageway toward the stairs, Sage focused on breathing deeply and slowly. She didn't have time for a panic attack, and she had never had one before. She wasn't going to start now.

Once she gained the stairs, Sage moved as quickly as her bare feet would allow her to go. It seemed like a lifetime before she reached the basement and gently eased into the darkness, leaning against the cold stone wall as she closed the panel.

Waiting, Sage listened in the thick silence; she couldn't hear a sound anywhere until she heard two footsteps coming from the floor above, and the basement door opened. A hushed argument was happening between two men; ducking behind the line of large wooden crates, Sage eased into the gap between them and the wall.

"You said she never leaves the house," an accented male voice hissed.

"I also said I usually tell her if I'm going to see her at night," Stuart's muted tones came to Sage's ear, "I asked you to let me contact her and make arrangements, but you decided a surprise visit would be a better option."

"So you are correct," the accented voice said, "now what?"

"You … now …" Stuart spluttered, ending his garbled attempt of speech in a low growl, "I can only hope that standing here in the dark at the bottom of the stairs will miraculously convince Sage that we come in peace."

"If it doesn't?" the other man asked.

"Then I guess we've wasted our time tonight," Stuart muttered, "as if I have nothing else to do but accompany stubborn men on a visit."

Sage bit her bottom lip, holding back the urge to chuckle, and slowly stood from where she hid, "Miracles do happen."

Two gasps came from the other end of the room before Stuart spoke, "How did you get down here?"

"This is a house of many secrets," Sage said, "did you close the door above?"

"We did," Stuart said, "how did you know we were inside?"

"I heard a noise," Sage said, "since the normal safety protocols were not used, I thought it was an intruder with intent to cause bodily harm ... life has become full of peril lately."

"See, I told you," Stuart muttered, "can we turn on the lights?"

"You can, but not there," Sage said, moving to the switch closest to her, "move in this direction."

A soft glow bloomed around where Sage stood with her hand still on the light switch. She watched Stuart, accompanied by an elderly gentleman, slightly on the stout side with greying red hair and a gristle of beard on his face, move toward her.

"You brought a friend," Sage said, looking between the two men, "who am I to entertain tonight?"

"Avidan, this is Sage," Stuart said softly as the men stopped, "Sage, Avidan is Matthew's contact."

"Matthew?" Sage asked, her gaze snapping to Stuarts.

"Maddy's father," Stuart said, "she chatted with him yesterday about someone who could help with some information you had."

Nodding, Sage moved to a crate, easing herself onto the top and watching the man called Avidan, "That name is a strange one; I've never heard it before."

"It's Hebrew," Avidan said, the slight accent fitting with his disclosure.

"Are you Hebrew?" Sage asked, noting the slight lift of the man's lips.

"I'm Israeli," he said, "why do you ask?"

"Do you know the Channing family?" Sage asked quietly, seeing the slight flicker in the muscles below his eyes as he took in her words.

"Know them ... no," he said, "know of them ... yes."

"How do you know of them?" Sage asked.

Avidan glanced at Stuart, who nodded; slowly, he moved toward Sage, his voice lowering to barely a whisper.

"For decades since the war," he started, easing on the crate next to hers, "there have been rumours of people who were not German doing horrendous things to humanity. During the war, there was a society ... a club ... a group," he shrugged, "call it what you will ... that joined with the oppressors helping them find people in hiding, committing war crimes in their name and if possible selling my people into slavery and death."

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"You could never find out where they were or who they were ... exactly," Sage whispered, "so they got away with it."

He nodded, "We would come close only for them to slip through our fingers and intimidate, buy or manipulate their way out of being arrested and charged. It has become a frustrating mission to find any information about them since the war ..." he shook his head, "... they simply disappeared."

"Perhaps they didn't disappear," Sage whispered, "have you ever considered they may have gone underground?"

Stuart came closer to the pair, "You've uncovered something."

Sage nodded, "I've uncovered enough information for them to assassinate me without thought and with great pleasure."

"What do you have?" Avidan asked.

"Before I give you any false hope," Sage whispered, "what was the group's name during the war?"

"I don't know what they went by officially," Avidan said, "but we knew them as Die Vernichter; they would carve that into the doors, floors, walls anywhere they could when a family were taken by the oppressor's death squads, and it happened by their hand."

Sage nodded, "I can tell you with certainty they went underground," she sighed, "while researching for an article, I ended up going down a rabbit hole of sorts ..." Sage cleared her throat and looked between the two men, "... into the world of secret societies."

Avidan shook his head as he clamped his hands at the side of his head, groaning with frustration, "Will we never find them?"

Sage remained silent as the man expressed his emotion at the news, but Stuart never took his eyes from her face. After a few minutes, Stuart spoke in Hebrew, ending the agonising scene Avidan enacted.

"What did you say to him?" Sage asked.

"I told him to stop being dramatic," Stuart whispered, "what did you find?"

"I never said I found anything," Sage whispered, "why do you ask?"

"When you go down a rabbit hole, it may last an hour or so," Stuart said, "it doesn't cause the expression of exhaustion to show in your eyes nor the thick black smudges under your eyes."

"Maddy spoke to you," Sage said, rolling her eyes, "what else did she tell you?"

"Maddy expressed concern for your health," Stuart said, "she refused to say any more when pushed."

"Oh," Sage said, nodding, "then all of this is an observation."

Stuart's steady gaze met her own unflinchingly, "What do you think?"

"I don't know," Sage said, exasperation blooming suddenly, "that's why I'm always asking questions."

A sudden, awkward, tense silence filled the air; Stuart continued to stare at Sage, neither speaking.

"What did you find?" Avidan asked, his hushed words slicing through the sudden tension.

"There is a secret society that was started decades ago by members of your group from the war," Sage said, turning from Stuart to Avidan, "they show themselves to be a group of open-minded people who want to live and experience what they call a pure life."

Avidan shuddered, inhaled and blew the breath out between pursed lips, "Continue."

"The members are from all walks of life, with various beliefs and opinions; some have ties to controversial groups such as white supremacists and the like. The society's current name has been registered as ..." Sage paused, glancing between them, "... Vernichter des Unreinen ..." Sage sighed, "... their name has been linked with many horrifying events ranging from intimidation, extortion ... and murder."

"Genecide?" Avidan asked.

"There are several notes against their name that they may have funded such events," Sage said, "but there is never any solid proof."

"Do you know who the members are?" Stuart asked.

Sage hesitated before nodding, "I have the list of current names."

"You don't seem very happy about that," Avidan said, "you know some of the people."

Sage pushed off the crate and paced away before returning and rubbing her hands over her face, "Yes, the list has many influential names, but it also includes many of the Channing men, including my brother and father."

"You're a Channing?" Avidan spluttered as he bristled.

"I guess you could say that," Sage said, "except my last name is Cooper-Channing." Avidan stilled at her words, remaining that way for so long; Sage looked worriedly at Stuart, who shrugged, "Are you okay?"

A slight nod and his eyes began blinking at the sound of her voice, "You're Sage Cooper-Channing?"

"Yes, with several names in between," she said, "why?"

He nodded, smiled and rose, coming toward her, quickly enveloping her in a bear hug, "You are going to help many people. What do you want to do with the information you have?"

"Well, there is more involved than war crimes and secret societies," Sage said, "we're running out of time to stop them taking this cove and exploiting the people and the lands."

"They must not have this land," Avidan hissed, "they will have more resources than anyone should and will have nothing to stop them or the evil they undoubtedly will do."

Sage frowned, "What does the Magi's Coronet have to do with anything?"

"It has everything to do with the ownership and protection of this land and its people," Avidan said, "what do you know of it?"

"Its name, how it came into Charlotte's family but nothing else," Sage said, "is there more?"

"Yes, whoever holds the Magi's Coronet holds the rights to the lands, islands, and the ocean surrounding them."

"That is a lot of power," Sage said, frowning thoughtfully, "does it also pertain to who owns Charlotte's estates and lands from where she came?"

"It does," Avidan said, "why?"

"If you were able to use this information to crack open your many cases of war crimes, as well as the fact they are buying doctors, lawyers, judges and many others, including being involved in the act of murder by proxy," Sage whispered, "would it stop whatever they are trying to do in getting their hands on Charlotte's estates and this land?"

"I don't see why not," Avidan said, "anyone involved in war crimes and crimes of any other kind cannot request ownership of an entitled land."

"In that case, we need to be very careful who we involve in this," Sage said, "we have to be very sure they are not on the Channing payroll or owned in any way by the Channings."

"We have people we can trust," Avidan said, "I just need to make contact."

"Then let's get to work," Sage said, "we need to get these documents to the correct people, as I said, not owned by the Channings and stop this push to take what is not theirs and quickly."

"Finally, the breakthrough we needed," Avidan said, rubbing his hands together, "let's see what you have."