"Come inside," Moose told me as he gestured from the living room. "You must be cold after flying here."

"It wasn't that bad," I answered, opting not to correct his misunderstanding.

"Gimme a moment! I'll whip up a warm drink, don't go anywhere!" Mike exclaimed and disappeared through another door.

Sighing, I walked over to Moose's side and took a seat on the cheap couch in the middle of the living room. I glanced over at his corner of the room, where he set up his laptop, along with a couple of extra screens. Combine that with the aesthetics of the rest of the apartment, and it had a slight 'nineties movie hacker den' kind of vibe. To be fair, it was still better than how the place used to look just a couple of days ago.

Before Moose came to hole up with Mike here, the whole place had a bit of a 'bachelor man-cave' vibe to it, but now most of that was isolated in the hapless Celestial's own bedroom. As for why the big guy was staying here, the explanation had multiple layers. For a start, while I did give them operational funds, and I expected them to rent a place for Moose, he went with a different plan. Instead of 'wasting' perfectly good money like that, he moved into Mike's apartment, bought a guest bed, and spent the rest of the funds on networking equipment.

This decision meant that he didn't have to keep the various patrols and surveillance teams of all the different factions clustered in Timaeus in mind, and when combined with his full access to the Celestial Hub, he somehow ended up way more on top of current events in the capital than I was. To be fair though, it might not have been that big of an achievement, considering at this point I was being pulled in so many different directions, the only reason I didn't misplace my head yet was that it was firmly attached to my neck.

"So, Admin?" Moose addressed me the moment he sat down in front of his screens. For the record, we decided to refer to each other by our online handles, because it was more comfortable for both of us. "I suppose you're here for a situation report?"

"Pretty much, yes," I admitted, and the guy gave me a curious look. "What?"

"To be honest, I thought you wouldn't come today, after dueling an arch-mage."

"You already know about that?" I blurted out, and Moose let out a soft chuckle. Despite his rough looks, I quickly learned that he was a surprisingly soft-spoken and reserved individual.

"I think I already told you that we have two agents and four assets in the local School. They were practically stumbling over each other in their rush to be the first one to report what happened." Moose paused and looked me over. "But speaking of which, are you all right?"

"Of course. It was a friendly sparring match involving laser beams, magical railguns, and a fusion bomb."

"… I can't tell if you're being sarcastic or not."

"I'm not… At least, I don't think I am. Considering how stupid crazy my life has become as of late, I'm not even sure I'm capable of sarcasm anymore."

Moose was about to respond, but he was beaten by the punch by Mike returning to the room with a plastic tray.

"Sorry for the wait. I only had a few cheap tea bags, so I'm afraid they may not be up to your standards, but—"

"Don't stress over silly things like that."

I gestured for him to hand over the teacup, and he let out an audible gulp.

"O-Okay." He took a seat on the other end of the couch, and glanced at me before mustering up his courage to ask, "So…? Who won?"

"Were you listening?" I asked as I inhaled the scent of the tea. It was… probably Earl Grey, I surmised, though I wouldn't know for sure until I gave it a taste. In any case, Mike nodded, so I responded with a light shrug. "Technically I did, I guess, but neither of us was going all out. As I said, we were just sparring."

"Ah! As expected from the Archon!" Mike exclaimed as if my 'victory' somehow brought him vindication.

Shaking my head, I took a sip from the tea and… Ugh. It was quite plain, and based on the aftertaste, Mike let the tea filter sit in the hot water for too long. Speaking of which, I didn't hear the sound of a water boiler, so… did he just put the whole mug with the filter in it into the microwave? That's so…

"Oh."

"W-What?" the blonde guy stuttered, sounding downright frightened by my reaction.

"Nothing. I just realized I might be becoming a tea snob, and I felt ashamed," I told them, and took another sip from my average mug, like a good guest should. "Anyhow, I'm still waiting for the sit-rep."

"Right, on it," Moose responded and reached for his mouse. After a few clicks, he turned to me again. "So, while I was at first skeptical about this whole 'taking down the Directorate from the inside using the Intelligence Network' plan of yours, it's coming along easily."

"Does it?" I blurted out, unable to hide the pleasant surprise in my voice.

"Frighteningly so," the big guy nodded, and clicked a few more times, probably to bring up a new window or document. "I had no idea there was this much pent-up resentment against the current system, not only amongst the Ishim agents outside of Elysium, but all of their relatives back home. I've already recruited dozens of collaborators, with more on the way. If you give me three… no, just two. Two weeks, and we'll have a faction that can turn the current Orthodox/Unorthodox/Reformist divide on its head."

"I call them Archonists," Mike chimed in, adding nothing to the conversation.

"That's good news, I suppose," I noted, and Moose nodded without any reservations.

"Of course it is. I mean, if you insist on dismantling the Directorate politically, this much is pretty much necessary."

"I don't insist on—"

"Oh, speaking of Archonists," Mike spoke up, only to cover his mouth when he realized he cut me off. When I didn't speak up again though, he let his hand down and awkwardly cleared his throat. "M-My apologies. It's just that, since it came up, I was curious if you knew about your cult yet."

It was a good thing I was very careful about when and how I was drinking my tea, because otherwise, this would've been the most obvious spit-take scene in the history of ever.

"My what?"

"Your cult," Moose affirmed, proving that I didn't hear it wrong. "They are the descendants of the closest followers of yours, from your first incarnation," he explained, completely missing how reluctant I was to hear any of this. "Once Deus was elevated to his, or in this case, her current position, they had to go underground, but they continued to revere the Second True Archon, despite the Polemos of old getting de-emphasized in Elysium's tradition and history books. They were too disorganized to make contact with you while you were still in Elysium, but once they heard we were recruiting sympathizers, they immediately made contact and pledged their—"

"Hold on," I cut Moose off, just as he was getting into it, by raising a palm. "Is this a secret society of some sort?"

"They call themselves the Sons of Polemos," Mike responded, and in his hurry to contribute, it took him a few seconds to realize he was missing the point and hastily add, "A-And yes, I suppose they kind of are, aren't they?"

His eyes were signalling for help, and Moose let out a long breath.

"Ninja got it right. They kind of are a secret society of sorts, but seem to be dedicated to you, so it shouldn’t matter much."

"Bloody hell," I whispered under my breath and took another sip. "A secret society within a secret society. Now I've seen everything."

"Excuse me?" Moose cocked his head to the side, probably because he couldn't hear what I said, but I dismissed him with a wave of my hand.

"Never mind. Anything else to report?"

"A few things," he said and returned to his laptop. "My brother's making some suspicious moves."

He was meaning Director Mensah, and while I was still looking for the right opportunity to ask exactly what their story was, this wasn't it.

"How suspicious?"

"The Unorthodox faction pushed a military readiness bill through the Directorate, and it involves taking the Colossi out of storage for maintenance and readiness testing."

"How many are we talking about?"

"About six," Mike answered in his stead. "It's the biggest mobilization in the past three hundred years, I think."

"More like four hundred, but close enough," Moose noted.

"And the other two let him do that?" I asked with a brow raised, and Moose winced.

"Well, we're not sure what kind of agreement they made under the table, but neither Director Savir nor Tsephanyah objected. My gut tells me it might have had something to do with the other motion that was passed that day."

"Don't keep me in suspense," I said jokingly, but he still took me seriously.

"I wouldn't dare. It was about Director Savir's proposal to relocate an old Book of Hymnos from the archives to the grand vault under Migdál Iodes. It's an odd hill to fight for, but so far, I couldn't figure out why she would make a deal with my brother for this. I'll try to find out by the next time we talk."

"No need. I have a very good idea about what's going on," I noted, wondering if I should do something about it.

"Really? What is it?" Mike pestered me, so I shook my head.

"Sorry. It's personal."

"Oh."

Disregarding the blonde Celestial, Moose typed a few words and then gestured to get my attention.

"Ignoring that, there are a few other collusions in motion. The most relevant ones are the ones that want to remove the Prefect of your Praetorian Guard from his position."

"A conspiracy against Jaakobah?"

He gave me a shallow nod.

"Indeed. There seems to be a widespread sentiment about him being unworthy to serve under the Archon, landing his position entirely because he was at the right place at the right time, and not due to personal merit."

"So, jealousy."

"Pretty much." Moose paused, and then added, "One of these conspiracies is trying to frame him for some crime or another to force him to resign, while the others are just straightforward assassination plots."

"Two of them?" Moose nodded. "By different people." He nodded, again. "Bloody hell."

"Do you want us to do something about it?" Mike asked, looking like a puppy waiting for me to throw the ball, so that he would get praised when he brought it back.

"Can you?"

"Sure," the big guy answered off-handedly and turned to the screen again. "Do you want these plots shut down?"

"Of course I do. An assassination attempt on him is the last thing I need right now."

"Noted." With that cryptic response, Moose started typing. I waited in silence to see what he was up to, and after about a minute of clicking and keyboard-hammering, he turned back to me. "Done."

"… What's done?"

"You said you wanted the plots shut down, so I did," he told me like it was weird I didn't get it the first time.

"… How?"

"Some of the people involved are currently online on the hub. I sent them PMs saying that Archon Polemos wants them to stop scheming against his Prefect. And…" He fell silent as he glanced at the screen again, and his lip bent up into a satisfied smile. "Look. One of them already wrote back, apologizing and asking me not to tell you who he is. I'm sure the rest will get around in a few hours."

"… Okay, no. There's no way in hell it would be this simple."

"It kind of is though," Moose told me, sounding puzzled by my reaction.

"No, I mean, doing this would only make them hunker down, making them and their schemes even harder to track in the future, and you even told them you're affiliated with me."

"Yes. I've been doing that from the beginning. It's why nobody tried to interfere with us so far." Seeing the eminently skeptical look on my face, Moose let out a heavy breath and closed down his laptop, so that he could face me properly. "Admin, or rather, Lord Archon. Can I be brutally honest with you for a moment?"

"When have you ever not been so?"

"… A fair point," he granted me and then linked his fingers in his lap. "Before anything else, I want you to know that even if I disagree with your methods, I'm willing to follow through with your instructions. It's just that I really, really don't understand why you're insisting on doing things this way."

"Please define 'this way'."

My flat response made his eyes shake, but he remained serious and even frowned a little.

"Lord Archon. You are aware that we don't need to be surreptitious about your plans, right? I'm sure you have your reasons for trying to do it this way, but if your goal was only about taking over the Directorate and reforming the government of Elysium, you could do it any time you wanted to. I mean, you do know this, right…?"

"Oh, not this again," I groaned and put the empty tea mug onto the nearby coffee table before using my fingers to massage both my temples. "Listen, Moose. That's just not how politics work, okay?"

"Right, Raz. Don't be silly," Mike hurried to back me up, but if anything, he sounded like he was just playing yes-man without understanding what he was agreeing with.

Disregarding him again, Moose's attention remained on me as he narrowed his eyes in clear displeasure.

"I apologize, but I think you're the one who's not entirely clear on how influential you are in Elysium."

"That means nothing," I argued back. "No man rules alone. Politics is all about holding the keys to power. Military, finance, law, and so on. All of those are under the control of the directors, so it doesn't matter how much influence I have; until I've got those keys, it's worthless."

Once again, Moose looked at me as if worried that I was having a stroke. It irritated me quite a bit, but I remained silent and waited for him to say his piece.

"With all due respect… are you fucking with me right now?" When I continued the silent treatment, he exhaled hard and sat up straight in his seat. "Listen, Ninja here put me in contact with his father, so I think I'm more-or-less up to date about what happened in Elysium during your stay. Consider this: the military departments, including the Seraphic Safeguard, are already on your side."

"Tentatively," I granted.

"I don't see what's tentative about it, but let's look at it objectively: even if they weren't, what could they do? You soloed a Colossus in public, right?"

"Yes?" I nodded, wondering what that had to do with this conversation.

"And you won a duel against an arch-mage of the Assembly, on top of their School. Meaning the ley-line nexus." I was still uncomprehending, so he further stressed, "One of the scariest people on the planet, at the spot that gives them nigh-infinite power and makes them practically undefeatable."

"That's overstating it a little, but—"

"Please, let me finish."

"Hey, Raz. You're being rude," Mike tried to intervene, but the moment the big guy sent him a glare, he shrunk back.

"As I was saying," he continued unabated, "You had already publicly proven that you can take on the biggest guns Elysium and the Assembly have at their disposal, and come out on top. That means you cannot be regulated by the military, and they know it. You already subverted the lion's share of the secret services through the Hub, and as for the directors in charge of law and finances and so on… the truth is, you are their key to power, not the other way around. Deus is currently too inexperienced and something of an airhead, or so I've heard…"

"H-Hey! You promised you wouldn't tell him I said that!" Mike whined, completely missing the point that he just outed himself.

On the other hand, Moose calmly continued his previous thought.

"… while you're an already established leader with a strong grasp on power both amongst the Celestial elite, middle-class, and even the Malakim. And that's not even counting your power-base here on Critias. You have all the necessary qualifications and justifications to take control of Elysium at any moment, and ninety-nine percent of the directors, and the rest of the population for that matter, would cheer you on, because they already consider you the key for staying in power. Do you get what I'm saying?"

"I do, but I call bullshit on that," I answered just a tad dourly. "Yes, the Directorate, and the political culture of Elysium in general, are absolutely messed up, but I refuse to believe it's this infantile and simplistic. It's absolutely, categorically impossible for it to be this easy."

"It is. You need to stop being so pessimistic about this prospect."

"Don't knock pessimism," I warned him with a finger pointed at him. "Pessimism is what carried me so far, so I won't have you badmouth it."

"I still think you're wrong about this…" Moose began but then raised his palms in surrender. "… but as I said, you're my boss in more ways than one, so I'll follow your lead. If you want to subvert the Directorate from the inside because you can't believe Elysium would rally behind you in a heartbeat, so be it. However, I withhold the right to point at you when this is all over, and say 'I told you so'. Deal?"

I eyed the guy for a moment, then let out a long, lung-rattling groan.

"You're sounding just like my assistant."

"… Is that a good thing, or a bad thing?" Mike asked, sounding genuinely baffled by my comment, but I continued the tradition of disregarding him and stood up.

"Fine. For now, just continue as you were. Contact me if there are any new developments or conspiracies afoot, but otherwise, focus on recruitment and organizing."

"If that's what you want, sure," Moose responded tersely before opening up his laptop again and stifling a laugh. "Hey, Admin? Speaking of conspiracies, got another message back from the guys who wanted to frame your Praetorian Prefect. It's like a small essay, but the gist of it is that they only want what's the best for you, weren't entirely serious, and then they ask about when you're returning to take over Elysium. What do I tell them?"

"To mind their own business and behave themselves," I growled as I headed to the balcony.

"Roger. That sounds like something you would say," the big guy concluded and began typing. In the meantime, Mike also rose to his feet and tried to follow after me, but I already reached the balcony door and stepped outside.

"W-Wait! Leonard!"

"Yes?"

"Erm… Have a nice evening, and if you meet Ammy, please tell her I'll call her later."

I wanted to tell him to do it himself, but then I realized that calling the class rep to say he would be calling later would've been pretty silly. As such, I settled on a shallow nod.

"Will do. Anything else."

"That's all, and… uh… next time, you could stay longer? You know? Maybe we could hang out, instead of always talking about politics and work? W-We're friends, after all, right?"

He looked both expectant and scared of my answer, so I rubbed my face and told him, "Sure. Next time."

The guy beamed at me like I just handed him a winning lottery ticket, but I ignored him, put my foot on the handrails, and after miming the act of jumping off, I immediately Phased away and back to the base.

As skeptical as I was about Moose's claims, they did give me something to think about. Before any of that though, I had to check on Ammy and the girls and see how things progressed. Also, I had a meeting with Roland. Plus there was that whole thing about Savir trying to lock away a specific book, which no doubt held the forgotten laws with which she threatened to annoy me. All in all, I had a lot of things to look into, and there were only so many hours in the day, so worrying about whether I could truly become the supreme dictator of the Elysium just by walking into the Directorate's assembly hall and giving them a stern look had to wait.