Mantle of the Gods

Gesai was angry.

That wasn’t exactly anything new. She’d been yelling when I first met her and according to Oz, she was always like that. While I could see it was, I also knew that there was a very calm and caring demeanor under that fiery exterior.

“Which one!?” She raised her voice and then sucked her lips into her mouth and bit them when she remembered who she was yelling at.

Trent seemed unaffected. "How.” He looked at Rix and then at me. "This part concerns the two of you the most. There is a running theory that only Gods can kill each other, but even a mortal can do it.” The brown-eyed man looked sad, like he was having to remember something difficult. “The reason that the Gods don’t want the Mundane, or more importantly, the Nobility to know that they can be killed by anyone is because there would be a lot of people who would try. Most Gods are at least Tier Six, so even someone like me would have trouble taking one down even if I was able to sneak up on one.”

Trent took a deep breath. "The other reason is the fallout. The Desolation causes a blast wave that will have gone over fifty miles from the center. Most things will die from that release of magic, which is why most Gods dismiss their army when they take to the battlefield. They don’t want their people to die.” His face got serious, almost threatening. "This is highly confidential information. The main reason why I am telling you this is because of Rix and Atlas. They may have to Desolate a God in the future, and it sounds like this party might try to stick together after graduation, which means you’ll be close by when that happens. Just remember to start running if they ever start fighting on that level. You might want to help them, but regardless of who wins, you will die with the loser.”

I got the unstated meaning of his part of the lecture. Rix and Justia would do everything they could to keep me alive now. It was a hard pill to swallow, knowing that I could kill everyone in this room if I accidentally died somehow.

“In this case you are correct, though.” Trent turned back to his assistant. "Rae was Desotated by an Alliance of Gods. The good news is that because Rae didn’t reveal the cure to his allies, they all sat this one out, so this war should be over.”

That was good, considering how much devastation and loss happened as a part of the wars between gods.

“I have a question.” I cleared my throat. "The Dispatchers and the All-Temple maintain the dungeon mouths to ensure that there isn’t a dungeon break, but what about the dungeons like the one in Gar. Or..?”I looked from Trent to Gesai. "How many were there in Rae?”

“There were two dungeons in Rae.” Gesai looked at Trent. "Both Common?”

He nodded and started to speak, but she cut him off. "But after a Desolation, that may not be the case. Sometimes a dungeon vanishes, sometimes one upgrades its rarity, sometimes nothing happens.” She looked at her mentor. "So until the Dispatchers and the All-Temple decide who is going to go to Rae to explore it, there’s no way of knowing for sure what the state of dungeons in Rae is at the moment.”

“Ok…” That told me some information that felt important, yet useless at the same time. "But who will monitor the dungeon mouth?”

“Contrary to what the Dispatchers or All-Temple might tell you, a dungeon break won’t happen simply from the dungeon being unmonitored for a few days or even weeks.” Trent closed the console on his desk. "So the one in Rae will be fine until they can figure things out. To answer your other question, in the case of Gar, Sipher was allowed to maintain the dungeon mouth. Now that he’s been…” He looked at Gesai with a little pride in his eyes.

Geasai looked away. She’d been the one to kill Sipher. It’d been to keep him from pointing out my secret, which he was planning on using to leverage his freedom. It was the reason she had permanent black scorch marks on her hands all the way to her elbows. In order to hurt someone of that high of a level, you had to use high level materials, but at the same time, if you weren’t high enough level, you’d wind up burning your hands, or worse. Now, she wore elbow-length gloves to cover the scars and marks.

“... Killed, Celia Taray has absorbed it into her company.” He finished.

Celia Taray was one of the other first year teachers. Gileon Alard was the Healer of her class and from what I’d heard whispered in the cafe a little while ago, they were the favored team to go to the global Adventure Games at the end of the year.

“Well.” He clapped. "I believe that concludes our lesson for today, now onto the more pressing matter, filling out your team.”

“More members for the harem!” Aelin jumped up and pumped her fist in the air.

I closed my eyes and shook my head and tried to keep the smile off my face. Aelin was still Aelin.