Mantle of the Gods

The dorm was a one-room building with a bathroom.

“Wait, we’re all going to be staying here?” I looked at my teacher

“This is all to get you ready for your time in the dungeon,” Trent looked at the two of us.”Does that make you uncomfortable?”

“A little.” The joke about a sock on a bedpost started making more sense.But that wasn’t the biggest thing that was uncomfortable. It was that there were seven beds in the dorm room. I was afraid that meant Trent was going to be staying with us as well.

“Are there going to be partitions?” My heart sank as he shook his head.

“When you go on a long hunt in the dungeon, you never know how long you'll be gone.” He paused, “And on the lower floors, who knows what your party will consist of. It’s better to get used to bunking with all your party now than having to wait until the discomfort might result in someone's death or an entire party wipe.”

The logic made sense but didn't help my level of discomfort.

“So where's the rest of our party?” I asked

“We'll figure that out in a bit.” Trent pointed at the beds, “Figure out which ones you want.” he nodded towards the lone one near the door, “Except for that one. That one's mine.” he set down a bag that I hadn't realized he had been carrying.

“How do we mark the one we want?” I asked

The old man walked over to the door post and drew a crude map of the dorm on the back of the door with his finger. Somehow he was using magic to engrave an outline. He wrote Trent over the bed near the front of the door and turned to us for which one we wanted.

I studied the room, it was rectangular with a bathroom that covered the entire back wall with doors in the middle of the wall. The front only had one bed with the space opposite it filled with boxes. The other six beds were three on one side, three on the other. There was a desk beside each bed. I took in the room and then pointed at the bed nearest to the front, diagonal from my teachers.

“I'll take that one.”

Justia pointed at the one two rows over. “That one.”

“Gotcha.” Trent turned and wrote my name on the bed closest to his and Justia’s name on the one next to it.

“That wasn't what I said.”

Trend smiled, “This way you're the closest to me if something happens and with Justia on the other side of you we can almost ensure that you don't try wearing your pants around your ankles while everyone else is sleeping.”

I started to try to defend myself but the chuckle coming from Justia made it that much more difficult to do.

I sighed. “Fine, so now what?”

My teacher looked at his watch, then started doing math in his head. “Give me a second.” He suddenly became inaudible as he started talking on his phone.

I cautiously walked over to where Justia was sitting on her assigned bed, “So about before. I'm sorry.”

She looked confused.

“In the bathroom. For the ArchBishop. What he said. I would have never made you… I mean… I didn't make her… not that… with her, not you…”

She held up her hand to stop my incomprehensible ramble. “It’s okay.”

For some reason, it didn’t feel like it was okay, but I didn’t know what to say and didn’t trust my mouth to not say something stupid, so I clamped my mouth shut. We sat in silence for a few minutes while Trent talked on the phone. The silence became unbearable, so I tried to say something simple.

“I guess you're pretty high level then,”

She shook her head.

“Then how are you a high Priestess?”

She kept her head in her hands and then looked up at me, “I'm not. I'm a level one just like you. I got here today to start my training, I'm not even a cleric, just a regular Healer.”

I started to ask her more about that but I heard Trent close his phone.

“All right, the other students are in the training area,” He motioned to us, “Let’s go.”

I looked outside, it was already dark.

“This late?”

“The faster we get there, the faster we can go to sleep.” Trent opened up the door, “Come on, we've got an early start tomorrow.”