Mantle of the Gods

Oz was holding a pair of axes.

One of them had a hammer on the back while the other had a pick. She twirled them around in front of her to test how they felt in her hands.

“I like these!” The black-haired woman cradled them in one arm as she turned to Fray. "Is that what you’re getting?”

“I don’t know…” Fray looked at me. "Do you think it’ll be okay?”

I nodded. "I think that if you'll be happy using it then you should get it.”

“Well…” Fray stared at the katana in her hands. "That’s a lot…”

“You’re going to spend more than that on gear eventually." I looked at her. "Go ahead and get it.”

Oz took the katana from her and added it to the weapons in her arms. "Tell you what, I’ll trade you this for that sword that you already have. Deal?”

Fray blinked and after a moment of staring at the other woman slowly nodded.

“Cool! That’s done!” Oz turned to me. "What about you? What do you think of the hammer?”

“Honestly?” I hefted the weapon again. "I don’t really care for it, but if it’s what we’ve got to use against the spiders…” I handed the hammer to Fray. "What do you think?”

The brunette took the weapon and hefted it in her hands. "I could probably use this.”

I looked at all the weapons that were there for our level and shook my head. "Nothing here feels right.” I turned to Oz. "Maybe I’ll just provide support when we do that dungeon.”

“If that’s what you want.” The raven haired woman shrugged and headed for the counter. "I’ll get these together and we can settle up later.” She nodded at a pair of benches outside the store. "You can wait for me there if you want.”

There was a part of me that thought that if I stayed in line with Oz, she’d point out who I was. But there was another part of me that was afraid she was going to do that if I wasn’t there to look over her shoulder. I decided that waiting outside the store for her made more sense and took Fray’s hand. "Come on, we can see if there’s anything that we’d want to do if we have any extra time.”

The brunette let me lead her over to the bench, which was within viewing distance of the map of the mall. I sat down and motioned around. "You grew up in Harror, did you ever go to one of these?”

Fray shook her head. "Not before…” She nervously looked around. "I went with all of you, we never had the All.”

“Neither have I.” I chuckled. The person in our group who knew how we could best spend any extra time was the person we’d left in the store. “Is there anywhere you’d like to go?”

She shook her head. "I don’t think we’ll have time.” She scooted closer to me as a group of Noblewomen walked past us.

I had to agree with her, we had just under ninety minutes left before we were supposed to meet back up at the RV, which I had my doubts that we’d be able to make.

“It could be fun to dream.” I nodded at the layout. "We could always try to come back before we leave.” I could see how little she believed that. "Or we could try to stop at Harror on our way home.” Our last stop was supposed to be in Klix, which was eight hours west of Harror. We also had to drive past Harror when we went from Mive to Klix and I doubted that we would be driving past the city without stopping in at the Publian Clinic.

Fray flinched when I mentioned her hometown.

“Hey.” I put my arm around her and pulled her closer. "It’ll be okay. You’re with us now and that’ll never change.”

I felt her relax a little as she leaned against me. We sat like that until Oz walked out of the store.

The raven-haired woman tapped her crystal bead. "I’ve got our stuff. Ready?”