Rise of The Martian Heir

Chapter 5: The Pill

Chapter 5: The Pill

Raven woke up because someone was saying his name.

Not shouting. Not yelling. Saying it soft, like you’d wake a kid.

“Young master. Young master, please wake up.”

He opened his eyes. Light was coming through the huge windows. Wakedah sprawl glittered far below. He was in the giant bed, under a blanket so soft it felt like water. He was still naked.

Sebastian stood by the bed, holding a tray. On it was a glass of water, a small blue pill, and a set of folded clothes. White shirt, red pants — like the ones from yesterday.

“What time is it?” Raven mumbled, his voice thick with sleep.

“Seven a.m., young master,” Sebastian said. “Madam Rhea requests your presence for breakfast in the dining hall. Please prepare yourself.”

Raven sat up, rubbing his face. His shoulder didn’t hurt. He pulled the bandage off. The skin underneath was pink and new. No wound. No scar. Just like his stomach.

The healing spray actually worked.

“Okay,” he said. “Give me a minute.”

Sebastian bowed and left the tray on the side table, then walked out and closed the doors.

Raven stared at the blue pill. Same as last night. *For your wedding night. For strength.*

He picked it up, swallowed it dry, then drank the water. It tasted like nothing.

He got up and went to the bathroom. It was bigger than his old apartment. The shower turned on by itself when he stepped in, warm water raining from the ceiling. He just stood there, letting it hit him.

He thought about yesterday. The police station. The photos of Jax dead. The photo of the girl — his crush — dead. He felt sick, even with the hot water.

He got out, dried off with a towel that felt like fur, and put on the clothes. White dress shirt, red pants, black shoes that fit perfectly. He looked in the mirror. He didn’t look like a delivery boy anymore. He looked like someone from the Heights.

He combed his blond hair back with his fingers. His blue eyes looked tired.

The doors opened by themselves as he walked toward them. Hazel was waiting in the hall.

“Good morning, young master,” she said with her professional smile. “This way, please.”

She led him down the marble stairs, down a different hallway than last night. The mansion was quiet. He could hear his shoes clicking on the stone.

She stopped at a set of double doors and opened them.

The dining hall was huge. A long table that could seat thirty people stretched down the middle. But only two places were set — at the head of the table, right next to each other.

And the table was covered in food.

Not just breakfast food. Everything. Pancakes stacked high, bacon, sausages, eggs, fruit, breads, bowls of noodles, steaming soup, pitchers of juice. Enough for an army.

Madam Rhea sat at the head of the table. She was wearing the same white and blue corporate dress as yesterday. Her brown hair was braided neatly. She looked up from a tablet and smiled when she saw him.

“Good morning, Raven,” she said. “Did you sleep well?”

Raven walked over slowly and sat in the chair next to her. It felt weird, sitting at a table this big with just one other person.

“Yeah. Best sleep ever,” he said honestly.

“Good.” She pushed a plate toward him. “Eat. You need your strength.”

Raven didn’t need to be told twice. He loaded his plate with pancakes and bacon. He ate fast, like someone might take it away.

Madam Rhea just watched him, sipping from a small white cup of tea. She didn’t eat much.

“Slow down,” she said, laughing softly. “No one will steal it.”

Raven slowed down, feeling embarrassed. He wiped his mouth. “Sorry. I’m not used to… this.”

“I know,” she said. Her violet eyes were soft. “You’ve had a hard life. That’s why I’m here.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes. Raven kept looking at her. She was beautiful, but in a way that felt distant, like a statue.

“Madam,” he said finally. “Can I ask you something?”

“Anything.”

“Yesterday, at the police station. You said… you said Mars belongs to me. That I’m the heir to the throne. What did you mean?”

She put her teacup down carefully. “The truth is complicated, Raven. And you wouldn’t believe me if I told you everything now.”

“Try me,” he said. “After the last three days, I’ll believe anything.”

She smiled, but it was a sad smile. “Not yet. First, you need to get stronger. Your body needs to accept the gifts.”

“Gifts? You mean the pills?”

She nodded. “And other things. The Garden Corporation did something to you when you were a baby. They put a seed inside you. All the orphans from your batch got one. You are the only one who lived past eighteen.”

Raven stopped chewing. “A seed? Like… in my head?”

“Yes. Here.” She reached over and gently touched the top of his skull with one fingertip. “It’s why you survived the knife. It’s why you heal fast. It’s why you can see things others can’t.”

Raven thought about the red exclamation marks. Above the customer. Above Officer Vex. Above her, but gold.

“I saw… marks,” he said quietly. “Red ones. Over people. And a gold one over you.”

Madam Rhea’s eyes widened just a fraction. Then she smiled, wider this time. “Good. It’s activating faster than I expected.”

“What are they?”

“Warnings. Enemies. Friends. The seed lets you see the truth of people,” she said. “The red ones are threats. The gold one… well, that’s me.”

Raven felt a chill. He looked around the dining hall. No marks over Hazel, who stood by the door. No marks over Sebastian, who entered with more juice.

“Why me?” he asked. “Why put a seed in me?”

“Because your blood is special,” she said. “Brilliant blood, we call it. It’s old. Older than Mars. Older than Earth. The Garden wanted to use it to make power. To make money. They killed thousands of children trying.”

Raven put his fork down. He wasn’t hungry anymore.

“They killed kids? For money?”

Madam Rhea nodded, her face serious. “Garden Corporation is not what it seems, Raven. They tell everyone they made Mars green to save humanity. The truth is, they farm suffering. They built the South Ocean Wall to keep something on the other side. Something that makes a stone they need. A mana stone.”

“The South Ocean Wall?” Raven had seen it on the news. A giant energy wall, thousands of kilometers long, in the southern sea. The news said it was to keep monsters out.

“It’s a lie,” she said. “There are no monsters. Not really. There are people. And a tree. The Tree of Mars. It makes the stones. Garden kills people to feed the tree.”

Raven stared at her. This was insane. This was conspiracy stuff you heard from drunk guys at the bar.

But then he thought about being stabbed and waking up healed. He thought about SWAT officers falling unconscious without being touched. He thought about red marks floating in the air.

Maybe it wasn’t insane.

“Why are you telling me this?” he asked.

“Because tomorrow you marry my daughter,” she said. “And the day after that, you will start training to take Garden away from the people who run it now. You will break the Wall. You will free the people on the other side. You will become what you were born to be.”

Raven laughed, but it came out shaky. “I’m a delivery boy. I can’t even pay rent. You want me to take over the biggest company on Mars?”

“I don’t want you to,” Madam Rhea said, and she reached over and took his hand. Her hand was warm. “I need you to. Mars needs you to. The poor need you to.”

Her violet eyes locked on his. He felt that warmth again, like in the alley. Like she was looking right into him.

“And I need you to,” she whispered, “because I have loved you since before you were born. Since before Mars was green.”

Raven didn’t know what to say to that. His brain felt stuck. Dense, like always.

Before he could answer, Sebastian walked up and whispered something in Madam Rhea’s ear.

She frowned. She stood up.

“I have to go. Work,” she said to Raven. “Hazel will show you around the estate today. Rest. Eat. Take the pill I leave for you tonight. We have a big day tomorrow.”

She leaned down and kissed his forehead, quick and soft. Then she walked out, Sebastian behind her.

Raven sat alone at the giant table full of food.

Hazel walked over. “Young master? Would you like to see the gardens?”

Raven nodded, still trying to process everything. Seed in his head. Brilliant blood. Heir to Mars. Marrying a daughter he’d never met. Breaking a wall.

“Yeah,” he said. “Sure.”

He followed Hazel out of the dining hall, through glass doors, into the sunlight.

The garden was huge. Perfect green grass, flowers he’d never seen, trees trimmed into shapes. In the distance, he could see the city, and beyond that, the faint blue line of the southern ocean.

And far, far away, barely visible on the horizon, was a single, impossibly tall tree.

The Tree of Mars.

As he looked at it, his vision blurred for a second. A line of text appeared in the air in front of his eyes, like a hologram.

[ SYSTEM ACTIVATED ]

[ USER: RAVEN WELL ]

[ SEED INTEGRATION: 15% ]

Then it faded.

Raven stopped walking. His heart pounded.

Hazel turned back. “Young master? Are you alright?”

Raven looked at her. Above her head, for just a second, he saw a faint, flickering golden mark appear, then disappear.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I’m fine.”

He wasn’t fine. Nothing was fine. But for the first time in his life, he felt like maybe, just maybe, he wasn’t a dustlicker anymore.