Supernatural Taxes

36) Even death cannot spare you from my mother's wrath.

The other side was silent, Atla gulped she was imagining her mother with her arms crossed looking at her expectantly to spill everything. But Atla still had hope, it could just be a coincidence that her mom was calling immediately after she appeared on TV. Right, a coincidence, no need to poke a sleeping bear. She waited this out, until, "Atla, is there something that you would like to say to me?" That voice was like a winter blizzard, she was not escaping.

Atla tried another strategy, "Yeah, you watch four News?" she tried to sound indignant or disappointed but she just hadn't inherited her mom's flair for it.

"Your uncle called your dad who messaged me," Her mom finished succinctly, she wouldn't let Atla derail the topic, Atla groaned internally, uncle Henry was exactly the kind of person to watch four tv. "So, my, dear. Would you care to explain why you are partnered with that THING!??" Her mom burst and Atla's mind turned into a loop of "oh dear, oh dear, oh dear."

"After your father and I explicitly asked you not to, we didn't want to inherit this mess of a magic and all your grandmother's other shit. Why oh why did you partner with him, you even agreed with me how horrible that idea was at the memorial, did you lie to me Atla?" She sounded a bit hurt beneath her anger.

Atla could tell that this would go on for at least an hour if she didn't cut her off early, so she summoned her dregs of courage and said, "-Calm down mom, I can explain." And so Atla tried to explain how she was duped into signing a pre-linking contract, trying not to make herself as stupid as she realised she sounded when recounting the events. For the most part Thanos made minimal comments only sticking close to inside of the phone so that he could hear both sides of the conversation.

By the time she was done her mom was fuming again, "That no good, spineless, manipulating executor, taking advantage of my daughter's naiveté... Oh this isn't the last you'll hear of me Adelard Basel!"

Atla probably deserved that offhand insult and was happy to let Adelard Basel take the brunt of her mom's anger. But Atla's respite ended soon enough and her mom was back on her case, with a vengeance. "But Atla. On the TV they said that you started a business centered around the orange curse, and that means that you've had this magic for at least two weeks!"

"Er three actually..."

"Why haven't you told me anything, anything at all about this, we've spoken several times. Why haven't you mentioned how you were tricked? We could have sorted this out much sooner, now your finals are coming up and I doubt you're anywhere near prepared, you're jeopardising your future!"

At that pressing question Atla reverted to mumbling excuses, something about not wanting to bother her mom and dad, along with not wanting to get them to pay for the extravagant contract release fees. Those were legitimate reasons, but Atla chose those specifically because she doubted that her mom would understand the rest, Atla sure didn't understand half of why she didn't give Thanos up.

Her mom regained some of her cool when she realised that Atla was worried about them, "Atla... That's nice of you, but you don't need to worry about us, your job is to focus on your studies and staying away from dangerous stuff. I especially don't want you anywhere near that magic, Athanasius I think it called itself,"

"-He prefers Thanos." said Atla automatically before regretting it.

"I don't care!" Her mom took a deep breath, "I do not care what it wants to call itself Atla, it was almost as bad a Ruth herself and it can't even talk. Now I can't tell you who you should have as your friends but I'm really not sure about this elf girl, was she the one that suggested you undertake such unscrupulous activities, or was it the magic that egged you on?"