by H. R. Moore
‘No, not today. I will return these later this evening.’
The guard didn’t respond, he half nodded his head, waited for Austin to leave and then sat back down again. ‘You’re welcome, arsehole,’ he muttered under his breath when he heard the door click shut at the top of the stairs.
As Austin emerged from the basement, Marcus was coming down the stairs, having been told to meet him in the entrance hall at 10am, ready for a day of education, whatever the bloody hell that meant. Marcus couldn’t think of anything worse than an ‘educational day’, as in his experience, education and enjoyment did not go hand in hand, however he was intrigued by what it was Austin wanted to show him, so he’d agreed with little argument.
‘Morning,’ said Austin cheerily.
‘Morning. Ready to tell me where we are going yet?’ Marcus asked hopefully.
‘No. It’s a surprise.’
‘I see,’ said Marcus, deeply suspicious and a little nervous about why Austin wouldn’t tell him where they were going. This was totally out of character for his father and that was worrying.
‘Come on. The car is waiting.’
Austin and Marcus travelled without conversing, Austin not noticing that this was strange given the circumstances and Marcus not knowing what to say to break the silence. ‘Why’ve you brought me here?’ asked a disappointed Marcus, as they pulled up outside the Archives, ‘I’ve never considered myself a great historian dad.’
‘And I wouldn’t consider myself a great historian either Marcus, however I find what’s inside extremely exciting and I’m sure you will too.’
Marcus looked dubious. ‘If you say so.’
Austin barely heard Marcus’ reply, already striding off up the steps, through the front door and into the beautiful old building that housed the Archives. The building resembled a lovely country manor house, large and square with high ceilings and enormous full length windows. It had been one of the earliest buildings constructed in Empire and the stone work had a lovely worn finish that seemed to fit perfectly with what it held inside. Austin breezed past the plush reception area, without pausing to say hello to the startled receptionist and made for a door leading to the staircase to the floor below, Marcus trailing in his wake. The Archives had originally all been held upstairs, however more space had been required pretty quickly and the light the windows let in was not good for the artefacts, so now everything had been moved to subterranean levels and the vast rooms upstairs were used for hosting private events.
Austin went down a further two flights of stairs and came out onto a dimly lit floor filled with racks of books, manuscripts, letters, energy meters, brass cylinders and a whole host of other relics of the past. He walked to the back of the room to a door separating two racks of artefacts. He checked there was nobody around, pulled out the brass keys he’d picked up earlier and crouched down to the floor, inserting the larger key into a hole in the wall next to the door. To Marcus’ surprise, this made a panel in the side of the rack to the left of the door swing open, revealing a small keypad and thumb reader. Austin quickly entered a code, then placed his thumb on the reader before the panel swung shut again leaving no trace, or at least no trace that could be seen in the dim light anyway. Austin stood up, then used the second brass key to unlock the door as you would any other, pressed down the handle and swung open the door to reveal a room full of artefacts similar to those outside. Marcus could not have been more disappointed. Austin had brought him here, performed a number of convoluted steps to get inside a ‘vault’ that was in fact a normal room, and was making a big song and dance about a few bits and pieces from the past? Great.
Austin entered the room and gestured for Marcus to follow him before closing the door behind them. ‘Welcome to the family vault,’ he said with a flourish. ‘This is where we keep the family secrets Marcus, along with documents about our history and the sacrifices we’ve made to serve the world as rulers. Each Descendant family has a vault here, protected by similar security, and we use them to keep things locked away that we would rather not be in the public domain. The best thing is that nobody suspects a thing, as this is the last place anyone would imagine a Descendant would keep secrets, in such a public location. As you know, we take steps to ensure everywhere we go is secure, but over the years we’ve had countless raids on our properties, whereas there is yet to be a single raid here. It works really quite well.’
‘And why have you brought me here?’ asked Marcus, confused as to why his father was showing him this now, or indeed at all, given that he usually tried to keep him as far away from anything interesting as possible.
Austin looked surprised. He’d expected Marcus to be distracted by the artefacts in front of him, not to ask questions about why he was here. ‘To let you into the family secrets. To start getting you more involved in the work I do and the work you will one day do as a ruling Descendant. To bring you up to speed on our history. All of these things are essential for you in preparation for power. If you don’t know our secrets, how will you ever know if someone is blackmailing you using threats with some foundation, or if they’ve just made something up? When you rule, you will find it beneficial to see how previous Mind Descendants have acted when faced with challenges and you can draw on their experiences to shape the decisions you make. But most importantly,’ Austin softened, looking a little uncertain, ‘I’m showing you this because I hope you’ll find it interesting.’ Austin gave Marcus what he thought was a hurt look and although it came over somewhere between a scowl and a grimace, Marcus did feel a little guilty that he wasn’t being a bit more enthusiastic. After all, this was the first time Austin had ever shared anything with him, so it was a pretty big deal, if for no reason other than that.
‘It’s great dad,’ Marcus said with all the enthusiasm he could muster. ‘So where should I start?’
Austin perked up. ‘Over here I think. This is where the brief history of the family is kept. We keep a biographer on hand to document all significant occasions and events. At the end of each reign, a book is compiled about each Descendant, with a summary added to the brief history, which I am afraid these days is not exactly what you might call brief. It is however a very good place to start. Once you’ve cracked that, we can move on to other areas.’
‘What are those over there?’ asked Marcus, pointing to a row of brass cylinders with one on the end singled out from the rest.
Austin’s face pinched. ‘We’ll deal with those at a much later date. They are memories of important things that happened in the past. I store them here for safe keeping, but it’s important you get a good grounding in our history before we touch on things like that. There is just one thing you need to remember, nothing in this room can be taken out of this room and think very carefully before letting anyone know that it exists. As I mentioned, part of the success of the vaults is that very few people know of their existence and I’m sure I speak for all the Descendants when I say we would like it to stay that way. I’ve had your thumb print programmed in and the code is 521183. You can collect the keys from the basement in the castle any time you want to come here, the guards know to give them to you. I hope you find this room inspirational and informative, and if you have any questions about anything you find, you can always come and ask me about it. For now, I’ll leave you to explore the brief history in peace, just lock the door as you would a normal door when you leave and the security will reset. See you later,’ he said, handing over the keys and leaving Marcus more than a little bit bemused.
Marcus stood for a moment, wondering whether he was in some bizarre dream, then looked around contemplating where to start. He was tempted to walk straight over to the brass cylinders, or to start rummaging around in the other piles of stuff that looked much more interesting than a not-so-brief brief history of the family, but given that this was the first time he’d been let into anything by Austin at all, he thought it best to comply with his wishes, at least to start with anyway. So he picked up the history, turned on th
e light suspended over one of two worn, old, armchairs that had been positioned next to a little sink and kettle, sat down heavily, and started to read.
CHAPTER 13
‘Again, Bas you seem to have misunderstood your brief. You are here to monitor the energy and report your findings to the Council, you are not supposed to interpret those findings in a way that is extreme overestimation and present them here as fact.’ Austin was getting going now, Bas standing still as the words hit him, his face set, trying to keep his energy steady and resisting with all his might the urge to send a tirade of truths in Austin’s direction. ‘Frankly Bas,’ he spat the name with disgust, ‘this is tantamount to scaremongering and that is something that this Council must take extremely seriously, especially given the effect we all know too well something like that can have on the energy…’ Austin was really starting to enjoy himself when a calm, even voice cut him off mid-sentence.
‘…we can’t ignore what is right in front of us Austin,’ Alexander said standing up and walking towards the lectern, clearly indicating his support for what Bas had come to the Council to present. ‘Bas’ report is entirely in line with reports I have been getting from farmers and fishermen all over the world. The crops are failing, fish are dying, it’s only a matter of time before we start to see food shortages. I’m sure everyone in this room will be just fine, we all have means to secure food and protect it, but others, those we have a responsibility to as rulers, will not be so fortunate and we must take action now,’ he turned to Austin pointedly, ‘or we will have a revolt on our hands.’
Austin screwed up his face. ‘This is the problem with young ruling Descendants,’ he laughed, as though they were discussing a trivial matter, ‘they have no experience of life, have never seen situations like this before, have never witnessed situations like this blowing over, running themselves out of steam. When everyone realises life will go on as it always has, regardless of whether Christiana or Peter is ruling, everything will go back to normal, the energy will stabilise and food will be in abundance once more. Now I think we’ve had enough of these hysterics for one day. Bas, I would advise you to think carefully what you say in this chamber during your next update, or we may have to reconsider your position here. No reflection on you of course, we have appointed you at a very young age.’ Austin smirked, enjoying the power he held, Bas about to explode with indignation. The stupid, arrogant, blind, ignorant, pompous, idiot, he thought to himself.
Alexander could easily read Austin’s and Bas’ energy, so intervened, both before Bas did anything stupid, and due to his own indignation at Austin’s arrogant stupidity. ‘No Austin, this conversation is not over. I am a ruling Descendant with as much of a say here as you, regardless of whether you like that or not, and we must take some kind of action. You cannot use the past to predict the future, especially as you’ve never previously encountered the situation we now find ourselves faced with. People think the bloodline has been cut, that there’s no hope for freeing the world, and that isn’t something people can easily bounce back from.’
‘Well luckily we have three ruling Descendants, which comes in handy in moments like these,’ Austin rounded on the unsuspecting Peter, who had shrunk so far back into his seat that he looked like he was trying to escape through it. ‘Peter, we come to you for the deciding vote. More time as the young bucks suggest, or should we move on to more pressing matters?’
Peter weighed up his options. He had no desire to piss off Austin, the cruelty that man could exact was startling, however he did think that Bas and Alexander had a point. The energy showed no signs of perking up, and that could be the cause of untold suffering amongst the people if they did nothing, not to mention he had after all taken an oath. He paused to think for several moments, in the end settling on the path of least resistance. If Bas and Alexander were right, then no improvement would be seen and at some point even Austin would have to realise action needed to be taken. ‘It seems to me that we are here weighing the merits of youthful energy, versus experience,’ he paused, stealing himself, ‘and I often find it best to side with experience.’ Peter looked deflated as he said it and Alexander knew from his energy this was not what he really felt. Austin’s intimidation tactics, it would seem, had worked their magic once more, but right now he had to get Bas out of the chamber before he blew his top.
‘Well, I have no doubt this will be a topic we revisit time and again as the energy continues to drop,’ Alexander said, walking over to stand right next to Bas, ‘and when it does, we can all gain precious first hand, front row experience of the chaos that will cause, so maybe in the future, if and when this happens again, we will have some experience to tell us how not to deal with it. For now though, I think we have all had quite enough for today.’ With that he turned and looked Bas straight in the eye, inclining his head a little in the direction of the door. Bas nodded with a tiny incline of his head and he and Alexander wheeled towards the doors and strode out in perfect, confident unison, the doors opening for them as they got there. They walked quickly out through the Temple of the Spirit and almost ran straight into Anita and Marcus, who were walking towards the Temple of the Body, as they got to the entrance steps.
Anita felt them coming before she saw them, their powerful energy was a strange mix of rage and comradery. ‘Hi,’ she said tentatively, as they marched down the steps, oblivious to everything around them, so consumed in their own thoughts. They looked up together, both of their energy reacting when they saw Anita and Marcus. Anita was glad Marcus was not a reader and almost laughed aloud at the energy change when they realised it was them. The rage in their energy was immediately directed at Marcus. Anita knew they didn’t really like him, but she thought this was a bit much. The comradery was extended to Anita, who felt grateful they weren’t mad with her, but this only served to further confuse her, what the bloody hell was going on? Then, to her surprise, some sheepishness crept into Alexander’s energy, which he quickly supressed, although possibly this was a reaction to his reading Anita’s energy spike at seeing him, which she was now desperately trying to hide. Sometimes, Anita wished she was as oblivious as Marcus now was, although even he could tell something was wrong.
‘Is everything alright?’ asked Anita tentatively.
‘No. Everything is not bloody alright,’ fired back Bas, happy he could finally start to vent some of his frustration. ‘His bloody father,’ he said, throwing an accusing look in Marcus’ direction, ‘is an arrogant, blind, fool who is about to sink the world into chaos via starvation, whilst happily ignoring his duty to do something about it.’
Marcus and Anita looked blankly back, so Alexander stepped in, ‘we’ve just had a Council meeting and Bas came to give an update on the energy. He reported the facts, which are, as you know only too well Anita, that the energy is showing no signs of bouncing back, in fact, it keeps falling and the consequences of that are starting to become evident in failing crops and dying fish. It’s only a matter of time before the weather starts to react as well and then who knows what might happen to, for example, the water supply, and only the Gods know what else after that. But the Council, particularly Austin, has no appetite to accept the facts in front of them, let alone do anything about them. It’s Austin’s opinion that because the energy has always bounced back in the past, it will continue to do so in the future, pompous fool.’
Anita reached out and squeezed Marcus’ hand before dropping it again. She didn’t like Austin either, but it couldn’t be easy to hear others talking about him like this. Surprisingly, Marcus’ energy was remarkably stable as he took stock of what he was hearing.
‘So what happens next?’ asked Anita. ‘How bad does it have to get before they finally decide it’s time to act?’
‘Who knows,’ said Bas, ‘but the Descendants have the means to look after themselves for a great deal longer that the rest of the world, so maybe it will take starving people revolting in the streets before they finally feel the need to act. But to be honest, even if
that happens, I doubt Austin would show much compassion.’
This seemed to finally tip Marcus over the edge. It was one thing criticising Austin’s actions to date, but to imply that he was totally heartless and would have no compassion if people were suffering, was another thing all together. ‘He’s only doing what he thinks is right, based on what he and my ancestors have seen in the past,’ he said, pressing on, even though they had all now rounded to face him square on. ‘Dad may be many things, but to imply that he’d intentionally hurt others for his own gain is pushing it too far. He would never do that.’
‘Really?’ asked Alexander brashly, ‘what makes you so sure?’ Marcus couldn’t really believe that could he?
‘Because I know him. He is my father after all. I know he can be quite severe and difficult to deal with, but he does genuinely want what is best for the world.’
Anita jumped in. ‘But you can’t possibly agree that what is best for the world now is to do nothing? To take no action? To ignore the facts in front of us?’
‘What facts?’ Marcus said tentatively. ‘All we have are a few observations. We’ve had bad crop yields before, maybe this is just another bad year, maybe it will pick up again next year. Who really knows?’
This was too much for Bas. ‘I thought Descendants were given a decent education and especially taught of the role the energy plays. It is fundamental to everything we do. It feeds into everything and everything feeds into it. A change in the levels like we are experiencing now will be having a fundamental impact on the world, and that is manifesting in poor crop yields. Who knows what will be next. Otherwise you are hypothesising that a significant dip in the energy could have no effect on the world, something we know categorically to be false.’
‘Yes, but we don’t know that the energy dip is manifesting through the crop yields and fish stocks, it could be having an impact elsewhere, on something we have yet to find, and the low yields could be simply because it’s been a bad year. We have had a lot of rain.’