Mantle of the Gods

She looked kind of like Oz.

Maybe it was just the black hair and green eyes that I was equating the two with, but it almost looked like Jenne Vilou could be at least related to Oz. She was only five foot two and Oz was five-eight, so there was a height difference. Oz also had shorter hair, not even long enough to touch her shoulders, while Jenne had long, straight hair that stretched down to the middle of her back. And now that we were closer, I could see different skin tones and facial features. So it was really just the hair and eye color.

“Everyone, this is the Caster for Green Team, Jenne Vilou.” Trent then pointed at each of us. "The Blue Team is Atlas Vowler, Justia Publian, Ether Klix, Aelin Zeb, and Fray Harror. Rix Zeb is on a different assignment, but you’ll meet her tonight.” He pointed at the others. "And these are your teammates, Oz Mite and Ren Zavel. And your teacher, Gesai Alard.”

Gesai walked over and grabbed the younger woman’s hand.

Jenne smiled. "So many sexy people!” She winked at me, which made Gesai bristle and Ether grabbed my arm. The new woman laughed. "And so close too!”

“I. Love. Her!” Aelin ran over and hugged the newest member.

Trent let them bounce and squeal for a few moments, then he cleared his throat. “You have a lot to do today.” He motioned at the RV. "You need to get started.” He looked at each of us, then ended on Gesai. “I’ll meet you back here this evening, try to make it between five and six.”

The other Teacher nodded. "Yes Sir!”

“I think the new girl has her rattled.” Oz came up beside me as we followed them Into the vehicle.

I watched the stiff redhead get into the driver’s seat and start the vehicle. “I think you’re right.” I got into the right side booth with my back to the giggling women. Somehow both Justia and Fray had been pulled into the other booth and while they didn’t look comfortable, they didn’t exactly look uncomfortable either.

Ether sat beside me, leaving Oz and Ren to sit across from us.

“What are we doing first?” I had to raise my voice so that Gesai could hear me.

“We need to outfit all of you with new armor and weapons, plus a few new skills wouldn’t be a bad idea either.” Gesai only partly turned towards me as she began driving into town.

“Shopping!” Aelin and Jenne squealed together.

I shook my head. "I have a really bad feeling about this…” I mumbled under my breath.

“A bad feeling about about how much extra teasing there is going to be or that now Aelin will be uncontrollable?” Ether smirked.

“Was she controllable before?” Oz chuckled.

“Justia could…” I searched for the right word. "Contain her somewhat.” I looked over at them. "Now, I don’t know…”

I looked back at the three women at my table. "Do we know what we need?”

“Leveled gear would be nice.” Oz pulled up a screen. "And I need some gear that I can move around in as well as new weapons.”

“I need light armor as well.” I looked at the woman beside me. "Ether needs to go to heavy gear and Ren, you’ve looked at..?”

“I don’t need to worry as much about getting hit, so the armor I have now is fine.” She looked at Oz. "I could go with Ether, since the two of you are going to the same place.”

The black haired woman nodded. "We should probably rescue Fray, since she’ll need the same stuff we will.” She looked at me. "Don’t you need a focus?”

I nodded. "I do but…” I glanced at the other table. "I think I may see about an upgrade for my sword too. Going with those three.” I shook my head. "Ren, didn’t you need some abilities?”

The blonde looked at me like I’d just threatened to strangle her. “I can just have Aelin pick up a second copy of whatever she’s getting.” Ren sighed. "Or I should probably make a list.”