Jack of Harts

My family raised me to believe that we were the most powerful beings in the universe. That we ruled mankind with a velvet fist. That the little people could enjoy the augmented realities we gave them as long as they voted for the people we told them to vote for. Monarchies are so much easier to maintain when the people think they have a say in their rulers. The problem was that I always doubted those truths. And then the Peloran made Contact and I knew without the shadow of a doubt that my family was wrong. Critically wrong. Fatally wrong. Not just for us. For all of us. That was the day I stopped playing at being a young testosterone filled rebel and became the real thing.