Mantle of the Gods

It was past bedtime.

After Edward and I had showered and changed into matching jumpsuits everyone else had already been in bed. It took a little while for me to fall asleep given that Ether snored, but I managed to get some sleep until my body decided to wake me up at 5:00AM. It was a habit of working as a Porter. I needed to get up early so that I could get dressed and be ready to go into the dungeon before 6:00AM when the Adventures arrived. I got out of bed and slipped on my boots. There was a yard outside the dorm building and I figured it wouldn't hurt to slip out and run a bit before the others woke up. As I walked through the door I realized that I wasn't the first one up. Trent was outside sitting with his back to a tree. I turned around and made sure the other students were all in their beds, then walked towards my teacher.

“You're up early.” Trent stated

I nodded as I walked around so that I could face him, “So are you.”

The old man shrugged, “Dungeon life.” He said as if that was enough of an answer.

“What are we going to do about…”

He cut me off with a slash of his hand. “I'll tell you when it's safe.” Trent said, “For now we're going to get ready to go into the dungeon.”

“I was wondering about that.” I said. “I know that the Cathedral is walled and shielded but couldn't someone just walk over from another dungeon?”

Trent shrugged, “As far as we know the Cathedral’s dungeon isn't connected to any other dungeon. That place is always shifting so it's hard to be one-hundred percent certain that there isn't some place where it's connected. Especially since no one has been to the bottom.

I shook my head, “So what you're saying is probably?”

“With the number of watchers in between each floor and at the entrances of each floor there would be a pretty good warning if they tried coming up from the depths.” he made a chopping motion with his hand. “As soon as the mouth was alerted they would clamp the seal down tight.”

I nodded. I had seen the silver ring that Adventures had to walk through in order to enter the dungeon, but I'd never seen one put into action. Supposedly they were there in case there was a stampede and monsters started getting out of the dungeon. It had happened before in the past, I knew, but I couldn't think of a time in my life where I had heard about one. It didn't mean one hadn't happened. Honestly, I didn't keep up with the news too much outside of Zeb or really, just the Dispatchers in Zeb.

“What are we going to do today?” I asked

“Have class.” Trent said like that answered everything. “After we wake everyone up anyway.”

“We?” I asked,

“You're already up, so you get to help.” He got up and handed me a few marbles the size of a cherry. “They have one minute to get up and get out here.” He nodded at the marbles in my hand, “Anyone who's not out of the building before the minutes up you hit with one of those.”

I look down at the cool marbles. They were soft, almost like gelatin; and cold like they had been in the refrigerator all night.

The look on his face was slightly mischievous as he threw open the door. “Wake up deadheads! Class is in one minute.” He flipped on the light and then walked back out of the dorm room. I saw that where he had touched the door frame he had left a counter that was quickly counting down.

Justia shot out of bed, had her shoes on, and was by my side in an instant. With the light on I realized that Rix wasn't in her bed. I looked around but she wasn't anywhere in the room. Edward slowly rolled out of bed, picked up his shoes and walked out of the dorm with them still in his hands. His eyes were half closed as he trudged through the door.

“I think you're forgetting something.” I touched his arm which caused his eyes to open wide. I pointed at the shoes in his hands and realization dawned on him that he hadn't finished getting dressed. He flopped down on the ground in front of the dorm and began putting on his shoes.

Aelin was moving just as slow, but at least she had on her boots as she ambled towards me. Her face was confused, “Why are we up so early?”

“We're having class in the yard.” I pointed my thumb behind me, “Does anyone know where Rix is?” The other three shook their heads.

“No clue.” Aelin patted me on the shoulder as she continued her reluctant walk out of the dorm. A few seconds after she cleared the building the timer on the door frame went off alerting me that the white-haired girl that was curled up in her covers was in need of one of the marbles that my teacher had given me. I transferred most of the marbles into my left hand, took one and tossed it so that it would hit the middle of her bed. I had expected something minor like a little bit of frost or maybe a handful of water. What I hadn't expected was for the marble to soak the bed as soon as it landed.