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The Atlas Six
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Chapter 5Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 5 Summary: “Time”
Tristan
Tristan is starting to realize that he may be capable of more than seeing through illusions and that perhaps he can see the true nature of things. He is frustrated by his limitations and unsure how to use his ability. He is interrupted in his thoughts when Parisa knocks on his door. She claims that she wants Tristan to trust her, even though she confesses that she will not tell him what she has just learned from Dalton for fear Tristan will not react well. She also warns him against Callum, arguing that he is using Tristan’s trustful nature against him.
Later, Libby comes to find Tristan to conduct an experiment; she wants to find out whether Tristan could “see” time. Together, they learn that Tristan can indeed feel time and, with his help, Libby successfully stops time for a moment. Tristan is elated because he finally feels that his powers can be useful, while Libby is excited about the possibilities of working with time and space.
Nico
Nico sets out to repair the holes in the house’s defense after Eilif’s intrusion. He indirectly asks Reina for advice as she has insight into creature magic (which is different from human magic) and evades Libby’s inquiries about what he is trying to achieve. Nico then starts fixing the wards but overexerts himself and begins to falter. Libby, who noticed his suspicious behavior, comes in just in time and helps him finish the job. Nico does not tell Libby about Eilif, but he reassures her that their alliance still means a lot to him.
Parisa
Wanting to find out more about the elimination, Parisa asks Dalton questions about the initiate he killed. He remains evasive but eventually gives her a test to assess her abilities. While he is asleep, Parisa is to enter his mind and find the secret he is hiding. Parisa makes her way through a telepathic labyrinth and climbs up a tower where she finds three doors. The first room contains her and Dalton, revealing his feelings toward her; the second room shows Dalton and the man he killed; and, in the third room, she finds information about the Forum. Parisa only has time to search one room, so she chooses to watch Dalton’s memory of the moment he murdered the other initiate. Unsettled by the scene, Parisa realizes that that younger version of Dalton is an animation, and she is pulled out of the memory by Atlas’s voice telling her to “get out [...] now” (197). Back in the real world, Dalton is confused by Parisa’s long absence because she did not solve his test, a simple riddle to open a vault, and he does not know where she was. Parisa understands that Dalton does not know about that hidden part of him but does not reveal anything to him.
Reina
When the initiates are offered an opportunity to go home for a weekend at Christmas, Reina decides to stay in London because she doesn’t want to have anything to do with her family in Japan. While visiting the British Museum, she is accosted by a stranger who makes it clear that he knows who she is. He attempts to convince her that the Society’s work is misguided and claims that the Forum stands for equality and free access to information. Reina rejects his offer to join their cause, not because she believes in the Society’s principles, but because she does not like being used and has decided to serve only her own interests.
Chapter 5 Analysis
The six potential initiates begin to investigate time and its relationship with magic. Building on what they have learned in “Space,” their individual paths and group dynamics now take on a more abstract dimension. As usual, the narrative brings in several different definitions of time, from the most literal to the most metaphysical.
First, there is the physical time that the characters experience. The characters are given some time away from the Society over the winter holidays, which is the first disruption in their studies. Reina enjoys her time alone, deciding to visit London’s landmarks, while the other candidates’ time away is explored in the next chapter. As for Parisa, she experiments with linear time when she enters Dalton’s mind and explores his memories. The younger Dalton she encounters shows her what happened in the past, then interacts with her in the present, revealing crucial information about Dalton in the process.
This is also a significant chapter for character development, as some of the characters are depicted working together for the first time. When Nico sets about fixing the house’s defenses on his own, Libby scolds him upon finding him drained but does not hesitate in helping him. Their relationship, although still strained, is beginning to develop more synchronicity: “They had been without aim, without direction, so that alone the use of their abilities felt retroactively clumsier, less refined. Combined it was purified and focused, untarnished and distilled. A consequence of use: growth” (179-80).
The interdependence of Nico and Libby’s powers is made evident, hinting at even fuller development later in the series. Additionally, their growing awareness makes Libby’s abrupt disappearance later in the novel, and Nico’s inability to sense her when she is, more impactful: their growth as a duo is interrupted just as they were starting to come to terms with their relationship. However, this also foreshadows Nico’s crucial role in finding Libby: he is the one who pushes the others to look for her, relentlessly searches for answers, and prompts the other initiates to swear an oath to find her.
Equally significantly, the chapter opens with Tristan and Libby’s experiment with time, tying in the title theme with character development. Libby is the one who suggests that Tristan may also be able to see time, which could lead her to manipulate it. Under her guidance, Tristan indeed does:
There it was—when he dismissed his expectations, he found it. It was the only thing moving at an identifiably constant pace, though it varied from different levels throughout the room. Faster higher up, slower lower down. Not the same constancy of the clock on the wall, which was close to the ceiling’s apex, but near Libby, it was regular. As regular as a pulse. He could see it, or feel it (or however he was experiencing it), at what he presumed to be sixty beats per minute (166).
Working together, Tristan and Libby stop time for a few moments. This is the second time Libby is part of a groundbreaking experiment (after the wormhole), also working with an unlikely counterpart (first Nico, who she claims to hate, then Tristan, who generally underestimates her). Libby’s inquisitive mind is the main drive behind those successes, and her willingness to bring Tristan into her experiment paves the way for their tentative friendship. Importantly, the characters’ new awareness that time can be manipulated like matter foreshadows the role that time dimensions will take later in the story, setting up a challenge that only Tristan will be able to solve.
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