Mantle of the Gods

“What have we here?”

The booming voice belonged to a towering brown-haired brown-eyed woman. She spread her arms and she started walking towards us as we walked into the training area.

“Trent Vowler!” she exclaimed, “I thought you already had a team!”

The old man in front of us shrugged, “Apparently the ArchBishop is friends with her father.” My teacher nodded at Justia, “So he had me swapped so that I could train her personally. What about you?”

“Celia already absorbed her last team into her company.” The stoic black-haired blue-eyed man in a white suit commented.

The imposing woman narrowed her eyes, but ignored the barb and refocused on Trent. “It looks like you've already got one of your students before the choosing.” She looked at me, “And who is this?”

Trent looked over at me and shrugged like I was insignificant, “The bribe to get me to agree to this. I took the first pick of the Casters, since traditionally, I’d get first pick.” he looked at the young, red-haired, brown-eyed woman that was standing nervously beside the other male teacher, “I'm truly sorry that I have taken your first pic.” he spread his hands out like there was nothing he could do.

The red-haired woman just nodded wordlessly, her eyes barely raising long enough to meet his before she looked back down at her fingers that she was picking at.

“You've got the first pick of two classes?” Celia demanded “and we're just supposed to be okay with that?”

Trent looked at the two of us and then turned back to the loud woman. “There was really nothing I could do about her.” he nodded towards Justia, “and I was going to get first pick of the Casters anyway.”

Celia shook her head, “Doesn't matter. You jumped the line and have preferential treatment.”

“How about this?” Trent was visibly having to struggle to keep his voice neutral, “The two of you each take first pick in your classes then we let Miss Reder take first pick of a class of her choice.” It looked like they were warming to his suggestion, “Then I'll take a last pic of each of those three classes.”

“What about the 6th class?” the stoic black haired man asked

Trent took a deep breath. I could see that he was trying to be diplomatic but it was also clear to me that the Healer was going to accept whatever was given to her.

“I'll tell you what,” Trent shook his head, “As my way of apologizing for this inconvenience I'll take last pick for each class.”

Oh, how Noble.” Celia mocked him, “You get first pick twice and we are supposed to be okay with that?”

My teacher shrugged, “Just trying to make the best of the situation we have Celia.” He nodded to the door behind us, “If you don't like that then you can take it up with the ArchBishop.”

For a moment I thought she was going to storm out of the training building but instead she looked over at the stoic man.

“Warder, what do you say we divvy out the Casters and Healers first then take our classes?”

Warder nodded, “Sounds good.”

Celia turned around not even bothering to give anyone a chance to say who was going to pick first or how they were going to choose.

“Gideon Allard.” she pointed at the red-haired blue-eyed man who was in what I could only assume was the Noble group considering how they were wearing suits and seemed relaxed. They were also acting like they knew each other while all the rest of the students had kind of scattered throughout the training area and most were wearing work uniforms of some sort.

When the Noble saw Justia his eyes narrowed as he walked over to his teacher. There was something between the two of them, some kind of history that was so bad that I could feel the tension.

Warder pointed at a brown-haired red-eyed girl off to the side, Islyn Juel. He motioned with his hand for her to come over to him.

The timid teacher said a name, but she said it so softly that no one could hear. Considering that the Noble group was talking and whispering amongst themselves, it wasn't hard for her soft voice to get drowned out in the static of their loud whispers.

“QUIET!” Trent did something that amplified his voice. All of the students froze and looked towards him. “If you all are talking, how are you going to hear when your name is being called?” he scanned the crowd, “Unless you would rather leave and go back to wherever you came from.”

One of the students in the Noble section puffed up their chest like they were about to challenge him when Celia blitzed over and grabbed him by the front of his shirt. She lifted him off the ground with one hand. “You may have been at the top of whatever microscopic food chain you were in before you got here.” She scanned the rest of the students, “Now you are at the bottom of this food chain and you will show your teachers some respect.”

When she let go of the blonde-haired man, I realized that it was the same snob that had been so rude to me and Rix when we first received our mantles. I scanned the room again and saw Rix propped up against the wall the furthest away from everyone. Her demeanor was like she was bored but I could see her eyes scanning the room. Our eyes met for a moment and she realized that I was staring at her. She broke the gaze and continued sweeping the room keeping her eyes on all of the other students and teachers.

Celia was back by the teachers by the time I looked away. She pointed to the black-haired brown-eyed shorter man in scrubs. “Helry Harror,” she pointed towards the red-haired teacher “you're with her.”