Mantle of the Gods

We walked in silence.

That made it feel so much worse. And I probably wasn’t helping the situation by panicking about how I was going to explain a situation that I didn’t fully understand. I knew that she had done enough math to figure out that I had told her thirty-six points worth of stats. I’d been told in school that everyone had at least one in every stat, so that would mean that I was at least sporting thirty-eight points worth of stats, which thirty-six, I might have been able to get away with, but thirty-eight was pushing it.

Neither of us had said a word as we crossed the bridge, then followed the river to the east just a little until we reached the creek that we had camped on. The smaller body of water was much better suited for use as drinking water since it was moving significantly slower.

I took a long drink of water while she sat on the bank and watched me. I could see the gears turning in her head, but couldn’t tell what she was thinking.

“Are you going to get a drink?” I started rubbing water over the scrape, only to realize that it had already started to heal. I knew that healers had a higher rate of self-healing, but I had always thought that was because of some spell. I realized now that it was due to the higher recovery stat.

“How much are you lying?”

My heart caught in my throat.

“I haven’t lied…” I held up my hand. " Okay, when I said that I was an Abnormal, that was the truth. When I said that Justia had been brought in to help cover for me, that was also the truth.”

“And?” She crossed her arms in front of herself. “Thirty-six points in four stats? No one has that high of stats.”

“I have more.” I had been thinking about how to tell her. Part of me had thought about running with what Trent had originally thought about me, that I was a level ten with really bad stats, but that would unravel really fast.

“MORE? How much more could there be?”

“I can class in every stat.”

The look on her face was unreadable. I wasn’t sure if she was in shock or disbelief.

“Ether?” She flinched as I moved toward her. I held up my hands. "I’m not going to hurt you.”

I hated having her look like I was an enemy. I sat down on the bank and put my head in my hands.

We sat in silence for what seemed like ages. I wanted to know what she was thinking, but I didn’t want to scare her again.

“Who else knows?”

“What?” I looked up

“Who else knows about your stats?”

“Justia, Trent, and the ArchBishop.” I paused. "And now you.”

“Why?”

“Because I think I can trust you.” My heart was beating faster, but this wasn’t anticipation, it was fear. "I don’t know who I can trust, and if it gets out that I have such high starting stats, then one of the Gods will see me as someone who could get too powerful in the future and they will kill me before I could become a weapon for one of their enemies.” I looked into her eyes. "So please don’t tell anyone else, because if this gets out, then one of them will kill me.”

“I meant; why does the ArchBishop know?” Her eyes twinkled. "But it’s good to know that you think I can be trusted.” She started putting things together before I could respond. "The ArchBishop would have seen your stats first.” She looked up. "The All-Temple is planning on using you against the Gods?”

“Shh!” She was smarter than I had realized. Which I should have put together already, but it hadn’t been quite so obvious as it was with Rix. “We can’t talk about that here!”

“But this is…” Her eyes widened. "Not everyone is loyal to the ArchBishop. Do you know which teachers he’s worried about or are there Priests who don’t know about this?”

I started to answer, but it hit me that she was probably right. I knew that he was worried about the Nobility finding out about me and reporting to one of the Gods, but I had assumed that it was one of the students that he had envisioned as the potential leak. I hadn’t stopped to think that it might be one of the staff that he was worried about.

“I don’t know.” I shook my head. "We can’t be talking about this here!” I looked at her. "Are you still scared of me?”

She looked hurt. "I wasn’t scared of you.”

I raised an eyebrow.

“I was afraid of being lied to.” She moved over to sit down next to me. She took my hands and placed them in her lap. "I have a problem with the people I trust hurting me.” She rubbed my hands. "This started to bring up some of that.”

“Sorry.” My adrenaline was starting to come down and I could feel myself slowing down.

“It’s not your fault.” She took a deep breath. "I’m the youngest of four, but my parents had trouble making ends meet.” She started picking at her fingers. "Their solution was to sell me.”

“To whom?”

“I don’t know." She sniffed, holding back what I could only assume were tears. "I ran away before they could complete the sale.”

I had heard of some really sad stories from the other orphans, but that had been from orphans. I couldn’t fathom parents being so desperate that they’d do something like that. “Have you been on your own since?”

She nodded. "For the last six years.”

“That’s…” I kissed the top of her head. "That’s horrible.”

“It’s okay.” She leaned against me. "I made a new life, I just…” She paused. "It brings up bad memories sometimes.”

I don’t know how long we stayed like that. But before long, I fell asleep.