*****
Austin knew that Amber was right. If he was to prevent the loss of his son to the troublesome Anita, then he’d have to get him more involved. The problem was that there was a lot he didn’t want Marcus to be involved with, or even know about, so he’d been racking his brain for suitable areas for several weeks. It had to be far enough removed to keep him out of the contentious stuff, yet significant enough that Marcus would both find it interesting and feel that he was genuinely being let in to Austin’s inner circle. In the end, it was the troublesome Anita herself who had sparked an idea. Austin had overheard a conversation between Anita and Marcus where they’d been discussing her friend Cleo’s new found interest in the Archives. She was on some mission to uncover something about something, not that that was important, but what was important was that the Archives would be a great place for Marcus to start, at the family vault.
Each of the three bloodlines had a vault in the Archives in which to store whatever they wanted, and given the significant security that had been installed there, the Descendants did tend to use their vaults to store some explosive stuff. Luckily, it seemed to most an unlikely place for the Descendants to store secrets, so it was one of the last places people thought to look for gossip and the security rarely had to be used. None the less, this was a place where Marcus could learn things that seemed important, where he could be let in on certain secrets, and learn about the family’s history without extensive involvement in Austin’s day to day business, which Marcus was not even close to being ready for yet.
Austin thought back to what he’d been like at Marcus’ age. He’d been exactly like Marcus was now. Young, idealistic, hedonistic, care free and with no idea how his father really operated. If Tobias had introduced it to Austin too early, he would almost certainly have shied away, and Marcus would inevitably react the same way. This though was genius. It would seem the troublesome Anita did have some perks.
Austin opened the concealed door in the panelling under the main stair case, stooped through the gap and ran lightly down the small, cramped, flight of stairs within that took him to the castle’s basement, and the headquarters of Amber’s security team. Here he greeted the guard sitting behind the desk in his usual curt way. ‘Keys to the archive.’ The guard got up and turned to a cabinet behind him, rolling his eyes as he turned his back to Austin. He’d worked at the castle for almost five years and Austin still had no idea what his name was, let alone anything else about him, and not once in all that time had Austin asked for something nicely, or used the word ‘please’.
Jerk, the guard thought as he handed a set of large brass keys to Austin, saying politely, ‘there you are sir. Anything else I can help you with?’
‘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’re 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 important events.
Austin descended a further two flights of stairs and came out onto a dimly lit floor filled with racks of books, manuscripts, letters, energy metres, 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 and not 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’m afraid these days is not very 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’re 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 else know it exists. As I mentioned, part of the success of the vaults is that very few people know about them, 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 the 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.