Eventually we managed to pull ourselves away from the market and head towards the Conservatory of Sorcery. Tula and Garth had gone ahead to meet us there (and gather their wits after meeting Kori), and the rest of us wrapped things up in the park.
I noticed that Kaldur took a little longer to get back to us than I thought he would.
In any case, the Conservatory was similar to the Palace in that it was constructed out of magically enchanted stone. For the most part. Like any institution of science that has existed for a long period of time, the campus had undergone a number of apparent renovations over the centuries. In addition to the numerous domes and stoas, there were a few additional buildings made out of the newer coral structures added on.
We swam a short distance in to reach a large spherical chamber with small groups of students milling about. There were globes of light they congregated around, and I saw a few with food, so this was likely some sort of recreational room. This is where we met Kaldur's school friends, and they certainly were a diverse bunch. Ronal was a human looking Atlantian, whereas Lori was a full on mermaid. La'gaan looked similar to the creature from the black lagoon, with green scaly skin, fins, and massive red eyes. The unfortunately named Blubber honestly looked like a small grey whale with a flat face and arm-like fins.
Nanaue Sh'ark was a street shark. I don't care what the actually term as, the man was a goddamn street shark.
It quickly became apparent that many of them didn't know English, so the rest of my team broke off into conversation while I hung back. Blubber was chatting up Superboy and La'gaan was (somewhat surprisingly) showing an interest in Kori. M'gann on the other hand was talking to Lori, and after a few moments she shapeshifted her legs into a mermaid tail. Lori reaction to this was… polite discomfort if I was reading her correctly, and a moment later she excused herself from the conversation. Oh dear, I supposed that was the Atlantian equivalent of 'I am not a costume', I thought.
Kaldur had explained the Atlantian subspecies to me back when I was first doing medical checks for the team. Back when the continent first sank, Ahri'ahn, Atlantis's greatest mage came up with a solution that would let the Atlantian people survive: a magical gene-seed that would transform them into beings that could survive underwater, and who traits could be passed down to their children. The people who received this, the most human-like Atlantians, were known as 'purebloods'.
But, this gene-seed didn't make it to the whole population. From what Kadur said, the Sinking was so chaotic and violent that Ahri'ahn died during the fighting, and all the gene-seed copies were destroyed or heavily damaged. Since there were still plenty of people who needed to be able to live underwater sooner rather than later, mages from each city-state worked frantically to repair their seeds as best they could. None of them were good enough to replicate Ahri'ahn's work, but they found they could patch it up by using genetic material from sea animals. Each city-state worked independently on their own version, which was why there was such a wide range of subspecies.
Once everything settled down, the various Atlantian came together in… well, not harmony. They mostly just tolerated each other. Things had gotten better as the years had gone on, but it was clear that there was still some tension under the surface.
Garth and Tula swam up behind me as Kaldur came to me at the same time. He looked between me and his friends for a moment before he addressed the other two. "They seem to be getting along well. For the most part." He sighed as he glanced at the retreating form of Lori. "I fear cultural differences are unavoidable."
Tula looked a little embarrassed. "There's just a little adjustment we have to go through. I'm sure they mean well," she said, as she looked at Kori with a less than friendly glance. "Whatever the case, all of us here at the conservatory are happy to see you again so soon."
"There is still one left." Kaldur said. "What of Topo? I expected to see him here."
Garth and Tula exchanged a look before Tula looked back at Kaldur. "We have to tell you something."
A short while later we were at the Conservatory dorms. They were part of the newer coral structures and from the inside it honestly looked like a mundane apartment building. Well, if the building didn't have any stairs, in any case. The doors themselves were a line of teal ovals which drifted past us as Tula let us to the room that belonged to Kaldur's friend.
"I still find it hard to believe that the purists have become so brazen." Kaldur said was we came to a stop in front of the door. "Has the guard been informed?"
Tula's mouth pressed a thin line. "Topo doesn't want to be involved in anything else. I tried to get details out of him, but he hasn't even told me who did this to him."
I frowned. "Maybe he's afraid the guard won't believe him? Or of retribution from his attackers?"
The girl sighed. "I don't know. He didn't even want to go to the healers. I'm hoping that as an outsider you'll have better luck reaching him." Garth and Tula had informed us how Topo had been assaulted by 'purists', a group of pureblood supremacists. Judging by their reaction, this sort of hate crime wasn't common, but it was still worrisome. I managed to convince them to let me see him when I mention that I was capable of treating injuries.
Although, that was after Kaldur, Gath and Tula had to settle a little argument between the other students. I wasn't privy to it due to the language barrier, but Sh'ark had accused Ronal of being the one who hurt Topo. It almost looked like things would come to blows until Kaldur, Tula and Garth had intervened and broken everyone up.
We came to a stop in front of a specific door which Tulu then knocked, and said something in Atlantian. There was a pause before I heard something muted in return on the other side of the door. This went back and forth a few times before the door slid open on its own, and we all shuffled inside. The room was small, with a number of shelves lining the walls and a few bits of decoration and murals. And in the corner a short figure was resting in a bunk cubby, looking at as warily.
Topo was an Octopus-folk (I hoped that was the correct term), though apparently what that meant was that he had a head shaped like an entire octopus. He had a large, bulbous head with deep inset eyes, and a mass of tentacles just below them ringing around the head. The exposed skin I could see had a similar greyish mottled texture, but otherwise looked human. I would never say it out loud, but that was not what I would have expected out of a person who had mixed in octopus traits.
At the moment Topo wore a skin tight black and green suit, which he picked at nervously. Reading his expression as best I could, he seemed to look at me in confusion before looking at Kaldur in alarm, saying something to Tula. The girl tried to placate him, but he shrank in on himself. The other Atlantians looked at each other before Kaldur looked at me. "We're going to step outside. Call us if you need us." And with that they exited the room.
Topo looked at me warily as I approached. "Don't worry," I said, unsure if Topo knew English but trying to put him at ease regardless. My hand then opened up along all the seams, folding open into a medical diagnostic tool. "This won't hurt all, you'll just feel a slight tingling sensation."
He looked at me in amazement for several long seconds before he realized I was waiting for him. Sheepishly, he peeled back the top of suit his suit to reveal his torso. On his exposed chest, I could see Greek lettering branded onto his flesh. I had been told that it meant 'Impure.' I leaned in close to inspect the damage, the sensor that was my hand letting me know how bad it was. Looked to be second degree burns, but it wasn't infected thankfully. I had never worked with octopus flesh before, but from what I could tell it wouldn't be a problem.
My hand shifted again, this time into an organic grafting device. It was one of the medical tools I had first assimilated when I was introduced to the Mountain's medical lab. It applied a sort of all-purpose organic gel to wounds while stimulating the cells around the area to induce a sort of rapid healing, integrating the material and breaking down any dead cells in the area. It wasn't instantaneous, and it would be a few days before the gel was properly converted into new cells, but it would clean up the area in the meantime.
Good thing I can make this gel out of seaweed, I thought to myself as I took it slowly, carefully knitting his flesh back together to make sure that his biology was taking the graft as well as it could. Topo twitched every so often, but he didn't appear to be in any pain, so I continued on in silence.
"What are you?"
I looked up at Topo in surprise, who was looking back at me with a curious expression. I guess he did know English. "Complicated." I said as I looked back down at his injuries, wondering how to explain it. "I guess you could say I'm person inside a machine."
"I… don't even know what that means." He said. "You… fight beside Kaldur right? Up on the surface?"
"Yep. We're teammates."
"Can… you tell me about it? I've heard he goes on all kinds of adventures on the surface."
I arched an eyebrow. Given the tone, seemed like he was a bit of a fan. "Well, most of our missions are classified… but I guess there are a few things I can talk about. Like the first time we fought together. See, shortly after I joined the team, there was this android call Mister Twister…"
As I talked I continued my work on the burn on his chest, grafting the gel material into his skin. By the time I was done, the burn was much less noticeable, far more faded and matching his current greyish skin tone. "Alright, that should do it. Your body's natural healing should take over from here, though I would advise you go see an actual doctor just to be sure. I've never worked with skin quite like yours."
Topo withdrew into himself a little. "Doctors would ask questions…"
"That's kind of their job." I remarked. "Why is that a problem?"
"It might cause more problems for me. If they found out." He looked off to the side. "I just wanted to be left alone. I-I tried to get away, but I wasn't fast enough."
Guessing he doesn't have a water siphon, I thought to myself. "Purebloods really are that much faster, huh?" I asked. It was something I hadn't realized until I had seen a few in motion myself. If I focused, I could see how the current of water moved around Atlantians when they swam. And I noticed that there was something different about the purebloods: each movement they made displaced a far greater amount of water than they proportionally should, giving them much more speed and mobility than should be mechanically possible. I guess that they had some form of… tactile hydrokinesis they used while swimming. "Do the students here do physical training in addition to magical?"
"Yeah, and they were much better at it than-" Topo said before he gave a start, realizing what he admitted. "Wait, you can't go around questioning students! They'll know I said something!"
I sighed. "Alright, I'm not going to pretend that I understand the social dynamics down here, but is there really no authority figure you can go to?"
Topo calmed down a little and looked back off to the side, his hands knitting together. "Maybe… but even if people believe me, they have friends. But if I keep my head down…"
"Look," I said as I put my hand on his shoulder. "I'm not saying that it'll be easy, or even that it won't cause you trouble in the future. But if you do nothing, what's going to change? How do you think the people who did this to you will react to that?"
"They'll leave me alone?" Topo said hopefully. "I mean, what else would they want from me?"
"Very few bullies leave their targets alone if they try to ignore them." I replied. "And these aren't bullies, these are violent racists who committed a hate crime. If they're not stopped they'll do it again. Maybe not to you, but to someone else."
The Atlantian cast his eyes down. "But I'm not strong enough…"
"So get help." I said. "Everyone needs help sometimes. There's nothing wrong or shameful about that. And I know for a fact that you've got people you can count on. They're waiting for you out in the hall right now."
Topo was silent for a long moment. Finally, he pushed himself off the shelf. "Thank you. For healing me. And for… everything else." With that he moved past me and out the door, much to the surprise of his friends waiting out there.
I listened to them talk for a few seconds before I looked up, letting out a long breath. "Adulting is haaaarrrrrd."
By the time I was done, I had only a little while to actually explore the Conservatory before we had to head back to the Palace, and to be honest I didn't get much out of it. Given the late time of day most of the actual teachers had gone home for the day, so there was no one for me to really talk to or show me anything. As well, the libraries were less than useful to me, seeing as how everything was written in Greek.
Still, while I was a little disappointed, the fact that I was now going to meet the headmistress more than made up for it.
The library of the Royal Palace provided an interesting contrast to the one I swam though at the Conservatory, from an architectural standpoint. While the Conservatory had been expanded and rebuilt over the millennia, the palace had stayed more or less the same since the Sinking. So while it shared the wide open spaces and pillars of the others I had seen, the one I found myself swimming through then still had evidence that it used to belong on the surface. There were still railings and stairways, for instance.
The rotunda I swam into had a number of tables near the scroll shelves with a wide open pace in the middle. There looked to be a complex arcane circle etched into the floor in the center. I noticed that the currents of water in the area were slightly different than the water surrounding it, flowing up towards the domed ceiling.
Standing just outside the circle was Mera, who turned to look at me as I entered. "Ah, Jacob. Had a good time, I hope." Her gaze flickered to my shoulder and she quirked an eyebrow. "And have made a new friend I see."
I looked to my shoulder to see that Galileo the octopus had started shifting about again. "I keep letting him go and he keeps showing back up."
"She." Mera absentmindedly corrected as she swam around the edges of the circle, inspecting line work. "Given the larger size, that's a female."
I blinked at looked down at my shoulder buddy. "Oh. Guess I can't keep calling you Galileo, huh?" Would Gali work? My thoughts drifted to a certain fictitious cyborg with pouty lips, and I nodded to myself. "Gali it is then."
Mera hummed as she swam up to me. "Well, you'll have to put her aside for the moment. The analysis artifice used by our researchers works best when the subject of study is isolated. Though in this instance I will be in the circle with you to insure precision. Gali will have to wait outside."
Something seemed slightly off about that, but I pulled the mimic octopus off my shoulder and placed her on a nearby table. "Stay." I said. The octopus gave me a critical look, but remained where she was. I noticed that the few other people milling about in the rotunda were also clearing out for some reason. A glance towards the queen showed that she was making specific gestures in their direction.
Once everyone cleared out of the rotunda and I reentered the circle, and Mera sweep out her arms. Glowing, sweeping lines came into being on her limbs, crawling up her shoulders and onto her face as energy flowed out through the pattern beneath us. Blue light formed a shimmering curtain around the edge of the circle, and I felt the quality of the water around us change as if we were now in an enclosed space.
"There, we can talk. So," Mera said as she turned to me fully. "Are there any comic books of me where you came from?"
I froze where I was. "I… what are you talking about?"
"Come now, my husband told me of how you first came to this world." She said as she waved her hand. "I must say the idea that there are novelizations of our lives in an alternate world is both fascinating and mildly terrifying."
I was silent for a moment as I considered what to say. If she already knew that much I didn't see much of a point in denying it. Still… "I wasn't aware that you were included in that list of people who were briefed about my… origin."
"Well, strictly speaking I shouldn't know." She remarked, "But my husband trusts me. And you need not worry about me revealing your secrets."
That didn't entirely put me at ease (and I was going to give Aquaman a stern talking to the next time I saw him), but for now it seemed best to just roll with it. "I see. So, is there something you want to talk about aside from quasi- fictitious writings of you?" I asked as I gestured to the simmering curtain around us.
"Just if there was anything relevant to Atlantis. My husband summarized the report as best he could, but it was a bit… rambling."
My mouth quirked a little, "To be honest, I don't really have anything for you. I picked up what media I could, but I was never really a comics guy." There were only two things that came to mind, and I honestly didn't want to tell her about Flashpoint. The whole Atlantian-Amazonian war and everything that led up to it seemed stupid and out of character to me, and even if it did happen the time-travel shenanigans would cause her to forget that I told her.
So, that left the other thing I had been wondering about since the throne room. "There might be one thing." I said. "Orm. The one time I saw him in a story line, he was a warmonger who usurped the throne and tried to kill your husband and infant son."
Mera was taken aback, and her hand went to her belly. "Really? You are certain?"
I held up my hands. "Yes, but please don't take what I say as absolute truth. There's no reason that the Orm you know couldn't a perfectly fine person."
Mera still looked worried for a few moments before she shook her head. "I see. Well, thank you for telling me. I shall have to keep my eyes open in the future." She then noticed that I was giving a questioning look to the hand on her stomach, and she smiled in return. "I am expecting."
"Oh! Congratulations!" I said cheerfully, before I realize that a few seconds ago I had just given her a quasi-prophesy of doom for her unborn child. "Err, maybe we should move on."
"Perhaps you're right. One last thing though." Mera gave me a serious look before her lips quirked upwards a bit. "You still haven't told me if there are any comic books about me and my people."
"Well, technically they are about your husband."
"Hmm, typical." She said with a sigh, but there was no heat in it. "So, what is this magic that you were talking about earlier?"
I gestured vaguely. "Well, for some context, after I first became what I am now, I didn't have any magical ability. As far as Kaldur could tell I had about as much magic in me as a toaster. But then something… happened to me, and now I'm pretty sure I have the magic of technomancy."
Mera arched an eyebrow. "Technomancy…" she rolled the word around in her mouth. "The art of controlling machines? Curious, I have never heard of something like this. Atlantian technology does allow those with magic to command it directly, but I imagine that you mean more mundane technology?"
I nodded. "It seems to work best on computers, or things powered by energy. It does technically effect more purely mechanical systems as well, but it's next to impossible. Like, the parts have to be absolutely minuscule for me to actually do anything to them. I can still… get a feel for them though, if that makes sense."
Mera hummed. "I should like to see an example, though we don't keep electronics down here for obvious reasons. Have you tried applying this craft to Atlantian technology?"
"Yes, on Kaldur's waterbearers, but the results were… odd. I could get a basic idea of the internals and the mechanisms, but to me they didn't make sense or seem to do anything when combined together. It was like… looking at blueprints of several random devices merged together, and with some pieces missing." I imaged that magic is what filled in those gaps, but even when I scanned them while in use it didn't make sense to me. There was just something… more.
"Well, is there anything you can show me?" She asked. "Something small, a bit of light or sound perhaps?"
"My magic doesn't really do flashy and obvious. Well, except for maybe this." I held my arm out to my side as I dedicated almost the entirety of its mass to running Core-Loop Reinforcement Protocol. The blue circuit pattern that I associated with my data form traced itself over my limb reaching all the way up to the side of my face. I could still use my magic on myself, after all. "This happens whenever I really try to push my abilities to their limit. The pattern goes fractal all the way down, if you look close enough."
Mera hummed and held out her hands, the curving tattoos lighting up along her arms as she hovered her hands over my limb. As she did so, a number of arcane glyphs and sigils made out of light appeared in the water around my arm. Mera hummed as she analyzed the ever shifting glyphs. "Interesting… There is certainly a flow of mana present, but I've never seen it like this. A mage's mana flow normally should be constant and uniform, but this is almost… patterned. If I wasn't seeing this myself I would say that it is impossible."
"Well, remember, I'm not biological." I said. "However I'm channeling this is probably different from how normal mages do it." While I said this, I noticed something on the edge of my perception, a slight shift in Core-Loop Reinforcement Protocol. Was I getting new data?
Mera hummed again. "Perhaps this is a purely soul based expression of magic? I heard there are mystics capable of such but I have never met one myself." She looked at me. "What exactly is this… spell you are using? I can tell there is a purpose behind this this but I can't tell what."
"It's something that reinforces my mind against outside control. I developed in in response to a techopath I ran into." As I said this, Mera drew several lines of light from my arm to the glyphs around them, which then expanded and displayed more data to the queen. And as this happened, that strange tickling sensation increased. Was… I sensing the magic Mera was using? If that was the case, why didn't I get this sensation when I was testing Kaldur''s weapons? Maybe because it's directly targeting me?
Experimentally, I focused the Algorithm on that sensation, just to see what would happen. For the most part, the answer was nothing. It wasn't… solid enough, nothing to latch onto, like air. On a whim I briefly increased the random functions I was doing a massive amount, seeing if anything stuck.
The glyphs floating around my arm suddenly twitched a bit before returning to normal. Mera and I blinked in confusion, and on an impulse I did it again. And again the glyphs went static before settling. "Are… you doing that?" Mera asked.
"Yeah," I replied. "I felt what you were doing and… poked at it? To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm doing."
"You seem to be 'scrambling' the data the spell is trying to collect." She remarked. "To be fair I am not sure how to interpret what I am seeing normally, but I am not sure how that is possible."
"I… think my magic is very good when it comes to manipulating information." I said, thinking about my various executions to dataspace.
This caused there eyebrows to rise. "Logosmancy? Many researchers have speculated of such an art, though it's still theoretical. Many hope to find an easier way of gaining knowledge than simple hard work and logic." She pulled back and looked to the side, speaking to herself. "Then again, I know that I would like a better way to pull information out of the Blue."
I blinked. The way she had said that… "The… Blue?" I asked. "Is that like the Green and the Red?"
Mera suddenly brightened. "You know of them! Oh of course you do, you were there during the incident in Louisiana." She moved closer to me. "What do you know about them? Did you speak to anyone who is connected with them? Oh! Did you meet that Champion of the Green I was told about?"
I leaned back from the woman's intensity, and she realized what she was doing. "Oh! I'm sorry!" For the first time since I met her, the queen looked abashed. "I got a little carried away. It is rare that I meet someone new to discuss the more mystical matters of magic."
"Shouldn't you have plenty of those at the Conservatory?" I asked.
"Not as many as you'd think." She replied. "Atlantians have had millennia to refine and hone our form of magic. It is so reliable and measured that any of our citizens can use it, with the tattoos and the right training." She let out a breath and looked to the side wistfully. "And yet, for all the benefits of formalizing our magic, something is lost in exchange. A certain loss in potential, of wonder."
"Have you considered trying to bring back these… more mystic arts to Atlantis?"
"Yes, but few would have the potential for it. While all Atlantians have the potential for magic, most need assistance in coaxing it out. That is why the tattoos were developed." She shifted a little. "I have managed to learn some things from the ancient scrolls the city Thierna Na Oge possesses, though my knowledge is far from extensive. And our relationship with those mystics has always been tenuous."
I tilted my head. "Is that where you learned of the Blue?"
"Ah, in part, but much of it has been passed down the royal line. The Blue, or the Clear as it is sometimes known, is an elemental force in the same vein as the Green and the Red. But strictly speaking, it is not an elemental Kingdom."
I looked at her blankly for a long moment, and she took this as a sign to go into lecturer mode, "The elemental Kingdoms, as I am sure you are aware, are named as such because they are representative of the kingdoms of life. The Red for Animalia, the Green for Plantae, and so on. I believe the Grey is the term for Fungi, but it has been a while since I have studied the subject."
"How many types of elementals are there?" I asked.
"As many as there are concepts." Mera replied. "Well, perhaps not in practice, but in theory an elemental can be an embodiment of just about anything. Of course, some are much more common, more… prominent than others. If enough of the same kind exist and congregate, they form Parliaments among themselves. As life evolved and diverged, so did the elementals that represented them, and they took their colors as part of that."
"So… why is the Blue is not a Kingdom?" I asked.
"There are four Parliaments that are comparable, or perhaps even exceed, those of the Kingdoms. The Parliaments of Stones, Flames, Vapors, and Waves. These existed even before life. You know, I have a theory that they formed in relation to the states of matter-" She cut herself off and shook her head. "Sorry, not important at this juncture. My point is that they are more elementals of matter and energy, rather than life. They predate the structure that life uses. They are not Kingdoms so much as… Primordials."
"So, I'm guessing the Parliament of Waves is the Blue?"
"Yes, and it is the only one of the four that has a 'color'. The Blue is an exception to this for a very simple reason: all life on this world started within it. Even if it is not its main preview, being the origin of life leaves a strong connection. Enough of one that it is capable of influencing the life that dwells within it. In fact, The Royal line of Atlantis formed a pact with the Blue some millennia back." She sighed. "Though the means of properly entreating it have been lost to time. It has been my job to muddle through as best I can."
She was silent for a moment before she looked at me with a start. "Oh, look at me rambling when I promised to help you." She frowned before she dismissed the glyphs around me. "Unfortunately, I am not sure if I can at the moment. I don't have anything to relate your magic to, and I can't rely on you using it on yourself for a good measurement. I'll have to find something for you to use it on first. Hmm, perhaps a trip to the surface is in order? Ah, but it is so hard to get away."
"Ah," I said, a little disappointed. "So, I guess there's nothing else to be done?"
She hesitated for a long moment before she shook her head. "There is one more thing I would like to try." She said, and to my surprise the tattoos along her arms stopped glowing before they faded entirely. "Something a bit more… mystical." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, going still in the water. A moment later she opened them, eyes glowing a scintillating white as she chanted.
I didn't recognize words, but I felt the change in the water around me. Different than before, this felt… deeper. Like a heartbeat thrumming around and through me. Colors deepened, sound fell away, and things took on a dreamlike quality. I felt myself sway in the water a bit, and my body lit up with blue lines in resonance with that heartbeat. With each pulse I felt something different pass through me.
The fall of hammers on metal, echoing in time.
The clacking of gears, each fitting into the next.
The thunder of pistons, burning forward with each step.
The hum of electricity, flowing in an intricate dance.
The harmony of waveforms, becoming something real.
Then, quick as it came, it left, and it was just Mera and I floating next to each other. "What… was that?" I said.
"A spell meant to reveal the true nature of things." The queen was breathing deeply, but she seemed excited as she looked at me. "I can't say I used it with any skill, but oh I have definitely never seen anything like you." She collected herself a little before she continued. "It is not just machines that you are aligned with, that is only a part. It is more than that, a drive, a progress, culmination of material and process that makes something greater than its parts."
I was silent for a long moment before I said "So, technology then?"
She blinked and looked at me. "I suppose so, yes. I am sorry I can't be more helpful, but for now all I can suggest is that you don't make the same mistake many of my kinsman do. Don't try to reduce your magic to its smallest bits and reduce it. You can do more."
I was silent, thinking over that sensation of something greater. "…Thank you. This has helped me a lot."
"A pity I could not be of more use," She said, blinking blearily. "But using magic without my tattoos takes its toll on me. I suppose I should turn in for the evening." She smiled at me. "Anything else I can help you with before I retire?"
A thought occurred to me, and I suddenly felt a little sheepish. "Ah, well, I guess there is one thing."
Mera tilted her head at my hesitance. "What is it?"
"Well, I probably should have asked this earlier, but the last time I was thinking about it didn't know any truly proficient mages that could answer this for me, and it's honestly slipped my mind until now but…" I trailed off for a moment before I continued in a slightly quieter voice. "Do I have a soul?"
Mera was taken aback by the question. "What? How can you possibly consider that you don't?"
"…I got eaten by a swarm of nanomachines." I said. "There's no trace of my original body at all. Hell, I'm still not sure how my mind survived intact. I… I don't know how souls work."
Mera looked at me for a long moment before her expression softened, and she touched my arm. "Jacob," as she said this, her eyes glowed slightly, and I felt that familiar energy flow into me. Blue circuit patterns lit up in response, and she continued. "This is your soul. The non-physical part of your being. It is not like any I've seen, but it is as alive as soul that I have ever seen."
"…but, I didn't have it when I first became like this. What about before then?"
She sighed. "Your soul does not feel new or unformed, if that is what you are wondering. Unique, to be sure, but I have never heard of a soul… being copied from an impression of a mind, as you seem to be implying. Most likely, your soul simple became more. Regardless of anything else, this is you."
I took a deep breath before I nodded. "Thank you."
With everyone else asleep I had spent the rest of the night just wandering about the city seeing what I could. And mulling on what I had learned. To be honest, some time to myself was just the sort of thing I needed, and Poseidonis provided ample vistas to just watch the life of the city ebb and flow.
Considering that M'gann and Superboy had school, my teammates work up fairly early so that we could return the Mountain with enough time for them to prepare that morning. As we made our way through the Palace to get Moya though, I noticed that Kaldur was looking a little disturbed. "Something wrong?" I asked.
He frowned a little. "There was an… incident last night."
Oh god, please let me go to just one place without things going horribly wrong, I thought before I said. "Which was?"
"Topo identified the student who assaulted him. One of them was Ronal, who as it turns out was part of the purist movement." He sighed. "He somehow learned of this before the guard could move. As a result, there was a small skirmish between the guard and several purist cells across the city. Fortunately it was very disorganized, and was quelled quickly. I did not want to bring it up, as I didn't want you to see this aspect of my home."
Slightly relieved that it was already dealt with, I put my hand on Kaldur's shoulder. "Don't worry about it, man. We've got our fair share of assholes on the surface too."
=====A=====
A/N: Once again proving I'm terrible at trying to write short chapters.
I will note that all the stuff about 'colors' and 'Primordials' are things I took a very liberal hand with compared to what is canon.