Mantle of the Gods

We had an entire floor to ourselves.

We had only gone down a single floor, which hadn’t been a very long elevator ride, but it had still been in silence. There was way too much to unpack with all the information that Tres had given us. Part of me felt betrayed, knowing that Trent had withheld this much from us and wondering what else he wasn’t telling us. Another part felt overwhelmed again, like I had in the beginning when I had first found out what I was. And there was yet another part of me that felt for my teacher. I couldn’t imagine what it must have been like for the last fifty years to live with a death threat like that looming over his head, especially after that large of a loss.

The jumble of all those feelings led to a complete loss as to what to say to my teacher. A man who I had thought to be one of the strongest on the planet and to realize just exactly how insignificant he was to the threats that were out there.

The doors opened to a similarly open room facing the water. One that was just as lavishly furnished, complete with art and trophies.

The rest of our group was sitting on the couches with a stunned look on their faces. I hadn’t expected everyone to still be awake, but considering the excitement that we’d just gone through, I couldn’t blame them. They just stared at us for a little bit before Ether broke the silence.

“Atlas!” The white-haired woman ran over and threw her arms around me.

I felt moisture against my cheek and realized that she had been crying. I hated to put her through that again so soon after we had been reunited. I squeezed her tightly. "It’s okay, we’re fine.”

Rix skirted the edge of the room and made her way to the north wall where she wrapped her arms around herself as she stared out into the darkness.

Trent walked over and sat down on the couch closest to us. He leaned back and let his shoulders sag. Aelin only let him have a moment to rest before she started with the questions.

“What happened? How are you okay? Are we going to stay here? I thought we were dead for sure! Are they going to kill us?”

Trent started laughing. It was a deep, jovial laughter that went on just long enough to get all of us to smile. "Aelin, you are precious.”

She beamed and puffed out her chest, like she was a superhero who had just saved the day and was posing for pictures. “Yes, I am.” The blonde eyed him. "You didn’t answer any of my questions though.”

“Can it wait until morning?” The old man rubbed his temples. "I’m tired and it’s been a long day even without the excitement of the last hour.”

She crossed her arms and pouted her lips.

“I’ll let you pick out the rooms if you’ll wait until morning.” He got up and looked at Gesai. "We should take the rooms on the sides though, just in case.”

Aelin pretended to be shocked. "I thought I was going to get to pick who got what rooms?”

The white-haired man shrugged as he walked towards the room on the left. "And you think I don’t know you well enough to know you’ll want a corner room…” He looked from the blonde over to our brunette Healer. "With Justia?”

He started laughing when the two of them blushed.

“I… I uh… Maybe I…” She watched him shut the door to his room. "Whatever.” She stiffened when she realized the entire room was looking at her. "What?”

“It’s late and we should get some sleep.” I held up my hand when the blonde tried to speak. "Trent said morning and I’m not going to stay up just to answer your questions.”

She looked over at Rix, then back at me. "Is she okay though? She’s more… Rix-y than normal. Honestly, I thought he killed her.”

I swallowed and looked over at our redheaded Hero. “She’s just…” I didn’t know how to put it. She hadn’t been awake for most of the information dump, but learning that there was a coalition of Gods that were trying to subjugate the whole world was a lot to take in. She’d also been stopped so fast again. I could understand just how powerless that was making her feel. I wanted to help her, but right now, I felt like letting her brood in a corner to collect her thoughts was the way to go.

“She’s just been given a lot to think about.” I shook my head when Aelin tried to ask another question. "Where are we sleeping?”