Ace of Pentacles

Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Ciaran searched the garden and found Madeline fainted on the ground. His wife scared the hell out of him sometimes. He could see nothing unusual in the garden. The plantation in the garden looked plastic, but having dealt with chemicals for such a long time, he recognized that the material was organic, just not of Earth.

He knew for sure that the dome above that looked like sky was artificial. Its purpose was to create an environment that a human body could tolerate. The air inside the dome was normal. There were no strange creatures here or anything in the garden that he could peg as a sign of danger. So why had Madeline fainted?

He looked back at the house. It was more like a grand mansion than a bunker or a stereotypical space residence. Ciaran smiled to himself. Bran was Irish. It was only natural he’d build such a house to live in.

Ciaran noticed an old robot standing at the corner of the garden and approached it. It hadn’t been operated for a long time. If dust existed in Eudaiz, the machine must have gathered a lot of it. He activated the robot.

The machine came back to life. After humming for a second, it blinked and looked at Ciaran. At first, the monitor on its chest was blank. Then it seemed to reconnect to the current network, and it updated its system.

Text appeared on the monitor on the robot’s chest. “Please verify your access.”

Ciaran pressed his right palm to the control panel.

“Left palm please,” the text stated.

Ciaran pressed his left palm to the control panel.

“Welcome to Sciphil Three’s residence, Ciaran LeBlanc—king-to-be of Eudaiz,” the robot verbalized.

“Is there a surveillance system in this garden? I need to know what happened here before I activated you,” Ciaran said.

“Yes. The data is available in your control room,” the robot said.

Ciaran nodded and turned to go to the house.

“Please accept my condolences about Bran’s death. It was a great loss for Eudaiz,” the robot said.

Ciaran paused and looked at the machine. “You are one smart robot.”

“My name is Robert. I am the first-generation robot that could potentially handle data from the EYE.”

Ciaran glanced around to ensure no one was close by. “I thought you were a garden robot.”

“No. I am the central robot. 245.21YZ ago, Bran deactivated me here because he was in haste to leave for a mission.”

“How long ago?” Ciaran asked, arching an eyebrow.

“My apologies. Converted into Earth time, it has been the equivalent of thirty-three years since he deactivated me.”

“No one has reactivated you since then. How do you know your information is up-to-date?”

“Only a King Sciphil can activate me. You will be King Sciphil in twenty-eight days from now after your coronation. You will have access to the full data of the EYE. My system has been connected to the central databank. It is up-to-date.”

Ciaran hissed audibly. He didn’t know how much intelligence they had here. How much surveillance data would be available and to whom. Attempting to access the EYE system violated multiversal law and would result in a death penalty.

“We are not authorized to access data from the EYE system. I have no intention of building that databank. Neither did Bran,” Ciaran stated as clearly as possible to the robot. He knew the message was being recorded.

“You do not have to worry about surveillance. No one in Eudaiz has the privilege to access King Sciphil’s data in his private residence.”

Ciaran smiled. You’re a robot. You’re allowed to be naive, he thought. “All right, Robert, how many others have lived in this residence?”

“Pierre LeBlanc until 1655. Aedan LeBlanc until 1755. Ealga LeBlanc until 1805. Malachi LeBlanc until 1976. Bran LeBlanc until 2015. Current owner, Ciaran LeBlanc,” the robot narrated the information in a monotone voice.

But every word cut at him like a knife on bone. Generations of his family had been involved in this. And he hadn’t known. His parents had worked their whole life to keep him out of it. To spare him the pain of power and responsibility to people he didn’t know.

Ciaran LeBlanc, King of Eudaiz. Ciaran shook his head. He wasn’t sure how long it would be before he got used to this life. A few months ago, he was a business man, running his family global pharmaceuticals empire out of his London headquarters.

Now he was here, working toward his kingship. There would be a lot to do before his coronation. If claiming the kingship of this universe was easy, there shouldn’t have to be much bloodshed required.

He glanced around. Every brick in this place was soaked with the mystery of his family. The mysterious aura that had followed his family for generations. From Earth to the multiverse. Some people considered his family the most mysterious family on Earth.

Perhaps they were right.

He looked at his hands. There was blood on these hands. He’d killed to get here. But as Bran had said, it took a life to save a life. He didn’t have to be a virtuous king—he only needed to be a just king.

But would he be capable of being a just king? What would it cost him to do the right thing for the citizens of this gigantic universe?

His emotions were his weakness. He was a human, not a robot. And when it came to his family, he would not compromise. Ever. He would do whatever it took to protect them. Everything else came second to that.

Family!

It dawned on him now why Madeline had fainted.