Mantle of the Gods

“What next?”

Celia was obviously the one that the three other teachers were going to allow to guide the flow of the selection process. When no one immediately said anything she pointed at the blonde-haired red-eyed man that she had roughed up earlier.

“I've grown fond of Ande.” she pointed at the uptight Noble. The look he gave the other teachers was one of pure terror. For a moment I felt like it suited him and was kind of glad that he was going to be in Celia's team.

Warder pointed at a brown-haired green-eyed Noble woman, “Mara Grant.” He nodded and she moved over to his side.

“Carter Warray.” Miss Reder actually pointed at the student this time but quickly dropped her arm as he walked over to join her class.

“Aelin Zeb.” Trent nodded for the blonde hair brown-eyed woman in a waitress uniform to come to his side. Aelin was the fifth person who had received a mantle from my hometown. Part of me was glad that I would at least have someone in the group who was familiar with where I had spent my last 4 years. Even if Zeb wasn't my hometown it was the only town that I could call home. With the buffers out of the way that left only one class, the Shooters. The last four students were three notables and Rix who was on almost the complete opposite side of the training area. I was surprised the Warder was the one who spoke up first.

“Teph Riff.” He pointed at the black-haired green-eyed Noble. The man came over to his side.

“Francis Arror,” the white-haired brown-eyed man smiled and walked over to Celia's group.

“Sabil Reace.” Bethil looked at Trent as if she was looking for approval to take the last Noble. Trent didn't give her any indication either way. He simply pointed at the first person from my hometown to receive a mantle.

“Rix Zeb.” The red-haired brown-eyed woman waited until her name was called to push off of the wall and begin walking towards us.

“It seems our teams are set.” Trent motioned toward the door that we had come through. “It is late so we should head back to our dorms.”

Warder nodded and moved towards what I assumed was his team's door. That was when I noticed that there were numbers above each of the four doors on the sides of the training room. The door that Warder ushered his students through had a two over it.

“Move it brats!” Celia began shooing her students towards the door with a one over it. The five Nobles moved as a group while James followed behind her almost like a puppy. I felt bad for the man who was the only Mundane in a group of Nobles. Three was the number above the door we had come through. Which left four to be the number for Miss Reder

“Good luck,” Bethil gave Trent a slight bow. Her eyes only darted up to meet his for a second before looking away.

Trent started to say something but caught himself. After a short pause, he seemed to find the words he was looking for.

“You'll do fine.” He said and then he pointed at our door, “Let's head back to the dorm and we'll get everyone squared away.”

I hung back just a little and watched Bethill try to get her team to her team’s quarters. It became apparent that she hadn't done this before. I started to wonder why someone in their 30s was a teacher. Celia and Warder were both at least double her age and I had no idea how old Trent was but considering the lifespan of those with mantles he could easily be near a hundred or more. I hoped that her team would do well, in fact, I hoped all four of our teams did well. Despite our mantles, the dungeon was still a perilous place and people died in there almost every day. For a brief second the question of which one of us was going to die first crossed my mind. I pushed the thought away. I hoped that the answer was none of us but I couldn't shake the feeling that not all twenty-four of us were going to see graduation.