Chapter 9

"You will be doing what now," Atom said, annoyed. He'd just finished being kicked around the Council room by his peers and the envoy from the Nine. Now Tess was talking about shopping like it wasn't one of the worst days he'd had in centuries. He needed to nip this in the bud asap.

"Tess, you know we don't have time to go out into the city. Just wait here. This won't take long." His voice came out more patronizing than he meant it to.

"Did you hear something Layla?" Tess glared at him, and his steps faltered for a moment before he continued towards the two.

Layla gave him a big shit-eating grin, "No I don't believe so Tess. Must have been a bag of wind."

Why that ungrateful little—

He looked to Tess, doubling down on his disapproval. "Hey. Tess I know you heard me."

"Definitely a bag of wind." Tess answered back. She laid a hand on Layla's shoulder. "Let's get out of here. We have thousands of credits to spend."

"TESS," Atom said warningly.

"Maybe even millions. Who knows how much damage we can do."

Layla smiled at Atom wickedly, "I agree, who knows indeed. But isn't a million so yesterday. Surely a billion is more reasonable."

Atom missed a step after that remark then began speed walking towards them. Reaching out to snag the two troublesome women before they could ruin him, he caught nothing but air as they shifted away. Stumbling, he swore aloud.

Who had given them permission to shift in the Citadel? Dammit!

He turned his gaze in the direction of Dory's office door. It was that woman's fault. Why was he surrounded by women who had it out for him today? Arguably that was a regular thing, but Mantles shit, today was all-you-can-eat, kick Atom day. He cursed again. Thinking of something clever, he brought up his credit accounts in his HUD.

"Ignore me will you. Lets see how you like it when you have zero credits. Wait, what the hell..."

A pop-up on his HUD said access was denied. The second time he tried it, 20 pop-ups saying the same thing. He tried again, and hundreds filled his vision.

"Did that woman hack into my system? No wonder she waited so long to leave. She was uploading malware into my suit." Atom muted his external speakers and began to scream in rage.

Of course, that's how Dory found him. Standing in front of her door, swinging his arms in a muted silent tantrum.

"What the planes are you doing, Atom? Get in here and stop acting like an idiot in front of my door." Dory said in annoyance.

Atom raged at Dory. Calling her every name under the book. Gesticulating wildly in anger.

"Are you having a seizure?" Dory asked with concern written on her face.

Atom deflated, realizing he'd still been on mute. It was probably a good thing. Dory would have certainly not taken well to what he had said.

His head was throbbing. This day sucked. After the reaming he received in the council chambers, he just wanted to go home. So many lies were told, and he wasn't able to refute a single one. As usual, at the top, things have already been decided before you step into the room.

Dory had been right. Nothing he said would have changed the outcome. He'd screwed himself, let himself be open to attack, and now he had to deal with the consequences.

Unmuting he said, "I'm fine. Let's just get this over with." His petulant tone making him cringe. He really hated his job sometimes.

"Fine by me. Do come in." Dory moved back into her office and sat behind her desk.

Atom followed her in and shut the door. He moved to sit on the small couch, but Dory cleared her throat. Making the warning evident. He had forgotten he was in one of his suits. That wouldn't have ended well for the small piece of furniture.

Walking over to stand in front of her desk, he waited for her to speak. He was feeling very antisocial at the moment. His day was complete shit. The General had taken him to task. Dory would dole out her punishment. Honestly, the whole affair was crap. Everyone knew he hadn't done anything wrong but yet he would be punished anyway. Yes, the day was a complete nightmarish pile of crap.

Dory searched through her desk drawer for a moment, almost as though she was working on something and intentionally making him squirm.

She finally pulled out an old paper file folder. It wasn't something you really saw nowadays. Oh, sure, you could still get paper products, but they were more of a novelty item. Everything was electronic or digital. There was even electronic paper.

It boggled his mind at times how advanced the ascendant planes were in comparison to his home plane. Atom had left Earth during a massive boom in technical advancement, or he so had thought. The tech on the ascendant planes might as well be magic in comparison. You could spend lifetimes studying how a holo slate worked and still not fully comprehend its complexities. He had done just that too. Of course, when he'd finally gained a seat on the Council, he'd gain access to the Feed and most of the knowledge in existence.

The holo slate was similar to an ultra-thin tablet from Earth, yet it had practically limitless storage capacity, zero computational lag and never lost connection. Plus, it provided a complete immersion holographic experience. It produced zero heat and ran on ambient anima. You could buy them for a few credits anywhere. It was a piece of tech that would have had every nation at war back home, and it cost the equivalent of a number one at any fast food place.

He looked around at the tomes lining Dory's office before taking the folder. Some things were just too dangerous to be available on the Feed, though, and it was usually on paper. Part of the Council's job was to keep some knowledge from entering general circulation.

"What's this?" Atom said.

"That dear, is your new job for the foreseeable future."

"What?" A hitch of panic came into Atom's voice. He began flipping through the paperwork quickly. The more he scanned and flipped, the more he wanted to cry.

He looked up at Dory, incredulous look hidden but full in his voice, "You can't be serious."

"Quite serious actually."

He looked back down at the documents then back to Dory.

"I can't do this."

"And why not?"

He thought furiously, then the obvious hit him, "My suit—"

Dory slid something across the desk, cutting him off. Atom caught it before it could fall and inspected the item. A bracelet of twisted silvery metal with his symbol pressed into a coin-shaped disc. He had to admit the artistry was beautiful, masterful even.

"I thought you couldn't get one of these." He turned the thing over in his hand as he thought about the item. He had wanted one of these in the beginning. As his path and Mantle matured beyond his ability to suppress. It was an extremely rare suppressor. It functioned just like his suit but was much smaller. He knew about them but Enoch planet had been destroyed in the beginning of the war and no one had yet to achieve the mastery with anima in somethings like they had.

"I lied." She shrugged. "This is a child's tool. You are fully capable of learning to suppress yourself. You just choose not to. A handy reason to be antisocial and hide behind a helmet." Atom raised his hand in protest, but she cut him off, "I'm aware that some of your suits are not suppressors. Frankly if you didn't have Tess we would be having a conversation about those and why you have them. But Tess and I have an understanding. Wonderful woman. She deserves way better than being cooped up on a solitary planet isolated from the rest of the planes."

They have an understanding? Since when did Tess have an understanding with anyone on the Council. Things were spinning way too far out of control.

"Did I offend you or the General somehow? Why are you doing this to me?" Atom said. His shoulders slumping.

"Oh stop it, Atom. You're over a thousand years old. It's time you did a little adult work. The General and I have let you do your own thing for far too long. Don't think we don't know what you and Tess get up to. Hacking into parts of the Feed and rummaging in things better left alone. This has been long overdue." Dory sighed deeply. "Look dear, things are going to be changing over the next few years. Changes that require you to stop acting like a child."

"I don't act like a child," he said sullenly.

"I'll admit that you don't always, and when you do apply yourself, you get things done but Atom. You are barely known in the planes. You have the bare number required to hold your seat on the Council. Even Kitos has more followers than you and he is the most repugnant smelling thing in all the planes."

Kitos was a Slyverian, a species of insectoid creatures that sort of looked like a human, and praying mantis had a love child. They wore dung forged armor. The stinkier, the more prestigious. He was so foul-smelling that the Council had him sit in a special container during meetings so that the smell wouldn't make everyone sick up. Kitos was an alright guy for a bug, and had an odd dry sense of humor that Atom could appreciate.

"Great, now I'm lotted in with the smelly guy."

"Well you don't try so I don't know why you are surprised. But that's besides the point. At least now I know why your numbers are so low. Tell me Atom. Why did you modify your relics to require a soul shard?" Her tone wasn't exactly hostile, but it wasn't friendly either. He had to be very careful here. If she knew the whole truth about his relics and why they required an additional mythical item, this conversation might end poorly for him, but if she knew anything, she wouldn't be asking.

"I have very high standards," he shrugged. "If you can't acquire two items then why should you be a Holder of mine. I give them my tenets which is more than enough to start the temple. But if they want to be a Holder of mine, then they will need to go the extra mile, as they say."

"No one says that Atom."

"They do where I'm from. Plus it's not against the rules. I'm positive even you have different standards that your Holders must meet. I simply require another item."

Dory eyed him suspiciously, "I do require different things from my Holders but obtaining an extremely rare artifact is honestly a little too much. Why do they need it?" Her voice going a little too sweet for his liking.

"That Dory, is none of your concern. You can bully me into doing this," he choked out the words, "assignment but my followers are MY followers. Nothing I require hurts them and if they can achieve the full Holder status they are arguably more competent than a normal holder for the effort."

She never let the look of suspicion leave her face as she attempted to browbeat it out of him. He wouldn't budge though.

Dory finally sighed exasperatedly, "Fine, fine have your little secrets for now. But don't think I won't figure out what you're up to."

Good luck with that. I specifically designed my relics so they couldn't be tampered with or even found by a council member. All my Holders are fully aware of what they have and would never dream of telling a soul what they can do. Spin your webs, but it will do you no good.

"I'm sure you will."

"Now I expect you to be suitless and reporting to Nexus in four days. Layla will be accompanying you."

"What? Why would she be coming with me?" He couldn't stop the irritation from lining his voice. The two women were most definitely spending all of his credits at that very moment.

"I gave her a spot in this year's cohort of fledglings."

"Wow, did she offend you too?" He was seriously surprised. Nexus Academy was barbarically savage, but it was effective.

You can't argue with results.

"It's not a punishment Atom. She is beyond exceptional. Did you know that she saw all of the relics those ingrates had stolen. All of them. I'm almost positive a selection happened given how she explained the encounter. How your relic came out on top is beyond me. But the girl hasn't taken a single step onto the pathway and she is now a Holder. That speaks to an unbelievable amount of potential. Did you sense that disk she's carrying around? You need to do something about that by the way."

"Yes I have. I was planning on masking it." He said.

"You better and do it before she gets to Nexus. If they find out what she can do too soon then she will be targeted. Are you aware of what it means?"

"I'm not. I know she made it. That much is obvious but how is unclear."

Dory leaned back. Her blue and green eyes looking up at the ceiling in contemplation, "It's her heritage. That much I'm sure. I wasn't aware… no never mind. I'll need to look into it. All you need to know is that she's a Contriver, probably. Do you know what that is?"

"I have an inkling but I haven't studied up on them."

"It doesn't matter right now. I won't know more until I figure out who her parents were. She was an orphan right?"

Atom honestly wasn't sure. They hadn't had a serious conversation since the day they returned from Golar. Tess did most of the talking then.

"I think so. Tess knows the details I believe."

"Good, I'll speak to her later. Layla needs to be brought up to speed before the entrance trial. You have four days before faculty needs to report. I expect Layla to be physically capable of completing the first trial."

Atom started laughing, "That's not going to happen. Four days is not enough time. A year wouldn't be enough time." Dory pushed a black disk towards him with the Council's Spartan style helmet pressed into the metallic disk.

"You have four days. I'm sure this will help." Dory took her hand off the hockey puck size disk hesitantly.

Atom whistled in surprise. "Yeah that will do it. You know… I'm not giving this back right?" He didn't pick it up. He wanted her to make sure she knew that he wasn't giving it back if he took this. At least not until he managed to copy it, that is.

She sighed, "I'm not giving it to you. I'm loaning it to you. I know what you will try to do. I'll expect that one back at some point." He nodded. She knew and was okay with it.

This day was looking up.

"Anyway, back to you and your new position, Professor Atom." He cringed at the words.

Back down it goes.

"I'm sending you to Nexus for more than just a punishment. That was just an excuse. Something fishy has been going on at Nexus and other Ascendant academies. The most promising students have been either turning up dead or vanishing. I've sent my people in to discover what has been going on but they have all vanished. They are presume dead." A pain-filled expression came over her face before she continued, "they of course knew the stakes but it doesn't change the fact that I'm not pleased about the situation."

Someone killed Dory's people? That doesn't bode well for anyone involved in the situation.

"Why me though?" He felt better about the task now. A purpose. It wasn't a punishment so much as a job that needed handling. But he was still curious why he had to be the one to go do her dirty work.

"That's simple. Four reasons. One, no one knows what you look like. Two, you are very good at getting into things that you shouldn't. Three, you're one of the most personally powerful members on the Council when you take away the Mantle from the equation. Basically you're hard to kill without giving away we are looking into things. Four, I don't have the time to investigate this personally, at least not for long stretches. I'll be by periodically but that isn't enough time to do anything meaningful. "

The power ranking was news to him. Council members didn't exactly fight each other, so he was unaware of where he would stand if it came down to it. He knew he was powerful, of course, and he'd yet to run into a situation that required him to manifest his Mantle. His personal power with a suppressor being well more than enough to handle any issues. If it got too hairy, he could always take off a piece of armor.

Come to think of it, he'd only openly manifested his Mantle once. Obtaining the Council seat had required it. They had taken him to a special training area where he was told to manifest. After a few moments, the General had asked him to stop, and then he was hit with a slew of damage restrictions any time he was out and about. He figured that was universal for all of them. Finding out that he was the only one that had to ask for permission to go out in public had been quite annoying.

Atom was the youngest Mantle at the moment, and no new ones had been offered a seat since he was accepted. Making him the only member who was stuck on permanent training wheels. He mostly broke things on purpose now. The continued treatment offended him.

"You will be teaching aside from your extracurricular activities." Dory slid a slate to him.

"Dory!" He whined, "You know I suck with people. How do you expect me to deal with idiot neophytes? I barely manage with my Holders and that’s only when they can find me."

She chuckled, "I'm sure you will figure it out. I can't get you a position there and then allow you to do nothing. But don't worry Atom. The classes you will be teaching are well within your ability."

He perked up, "Oh really?" Atom already resigning himself to the new role. Any more complaining, and he was sure she would make life more difficult for him.

"You will be teaching several classes actually. The older student's require more hands on."

He thought he could handle the upperclassman much easier. They weren't searching, they were climbing.

The main one is Offensive Combat."

"Yes! Now that is something I'm very good—"

"And the other is Anima Theory"

He started cursing up a storm, for which Dory laughed heartily. Shaking his head in dejected acceptance, Atom muttered, "You giveth, then you taketh away."

"You will be fine." Dory chuckled again, then her face turned to concern. "Now the last item. Exactly how long has Layla been wearing a full soul shard around her neck like some piece of jewelry?"

Atom winced. He had meant to speak to Layla about that.

"A few weeks now." Atom admitted.

"For the love of, Atom. That's dangerous. Is she even aware of what it is?"

Atom held up his hands in protest. "Look I tried to talk to her but well it didn't go right, and I wasn't able to get to it. Plus she still has some time before symptoms become an issue. I'll take per cautions during her training so that it's not a distraction."

Dory scoffed, "Why don't you just take the thing from her? No, never mind, it's not important. Just handle it. I expect her to be ready for the Academy. And I expect you to have a new Holder by the end of this cycle."

Atom snapped to attention and saluted. "Sir yes sir, Major Dory sir!"

Dory sighed, "Just get out of my office Atom. You're going to give me a headache."

He made two about faces like a soldier and saluted again, "Sir, Right away sir."

"GET OUUT!!"