Mantle of the Gods

We were loaded into an armored vehicle.

Rix was unconscious and taking up three seats. The back of the vehicles had very comfortable seats lining both sides of the back. The two royal guards had gotten into the front, leaving myself, Rix, Trent, and Tres in the back.

“You didn’t have to do that to the kid.” Trent was sitting just a few seats over from God.

I was sitting next to her. I touched the side of her face. She was just sleeping, which I’d never actually seen her do. She looked so peaceful. There was a part of me that wished she could keep a part of the way she looked right now with her when she woke up. I looked over at the God, who looked very upset. If she woke up.

“You didn’t have to bring a Hunter..!” Tres pointed at Rix. "Into my city!” He pinched his eyebrows together. "Seriously Trent, I’d heard rumors that you were active again, but THIS…? Seriously?”

“What was I supposed to do?” Trent raised his eyebrows. " And don’t talk like you don’t know exactly what I’ve been doing.”

The God groaned. "EXACTLY! If I know what you’ve been doing then HE definitely does!”

“I didn’t have a choice…” The old man looked from the God to us. "You know what they are.”

“You always have a choice.” Tres sighed. "You could have ignored them like all the other ones.”

“There were others?” I had planned on staying quiet, but my inside voice had really wanted some answers.

Trent waved his hand at me. "Now is not the time Atlas.”

“How old do you think he is?” Tres cut in.

I looked the old man over. "I know he’s been teaching for about fifty years, but I have no idea how old he is.”

“He’s about the same age I am.” Tres seemed to enjoy the shocked look on my face.

Trent looked like he was eighty or ninety at least. I knew Adventurers would age slower than the Mundane, but I wasn’t sure how much slower. Though considering how I’d seen him move in his fight against Sipher, I wouldn’t have been surprised if my teacher was only forty.

“Do you even know whose they are?” The light-haired god turned his attention back to Trent. "I mean, do you have any idea how bad this could get? I knew you supposedly had a secret lovechild, but THIS?” He gestured at me and Rix. “This is a whole different bug ball.”

“There’s too many Nephilim running around that could have had a kid that activated the Mantle.” Trent looked over at Rix. "Both are orphans, so I don’t know if there’s any way of knowing who their parents really are.”

Anticipation began to build as my heart sped up. I looked down at the woman sleeping next to me. "Are you saying that she’s my sister?”

“No.” The old man shook his head. "I tested the two of you once I learned what she was. You aren’t related.”

The joy of possibly finding out something about my family was dashed as fast as it had bloomed. I sighed, at least the anticipation hadn’t been given time to build.

“I thought you said that if a God found out about us, that they’d kill us on the spot.” I looked from Trent to Tres. "Why am I still alive?”

The strawberry blonde started laughing. "We’re not all mindless killers…” He wiped his eyes. "Just how few of us do you think there are?”

I shrugged. "I don’t know.”

“Guess.” The god leaned forward.

“Maybe a hundred?”

He smiled and looked over at Trent. "I thought you were teaching them.” The blue-eyed God looked back at me. "There are twelve Wards, plus the Vatican and each Ward has between five and fourteen cities…” He waited for me to do the math, but Rix was out and Ether hadn’t been brought along, and I didn’t feel like do something that complicated in my head.

“Which is like a hundred?” I decided to stick to my original guess since there was one God ruling over every city.

“A little over, yes, but then how many Gods do you think have children?” He grinned widely when he saw that I hadn’t considered that. "Nevah himself has proudly boasted that he plans on having a child with every Goddess and that’s not counting all the Nobles and Mundane he’s knocked up over the last three hundred years.” He let the numbers sink in. "Yeah…, and it’s not exactly safe for the environment to just walk up to one of you and lop your heads off either. Which means there are a lot more of us running around than what you might think.” Tres pointed at Rix. "Not that her kind believe that, but they aren’t nearly as dangerous to take off the board.”

He put his left hand on Trent’s shoulder and pointed at Rix with his right. "If it was anyone else but you, Trent.” His voice got serious. "I’d have just killed her on the spot. So do you want to explain why you brought a Hunter to my city?”