Mantle of the Gods

The dungeon gate was closed.

“No! no-no-no-no-no!” Aelin pounded on the covering.

“This has got to be a sick joke!” Edward threw a rock the size of his first at the gate. The projectile bounced off thankfully away from the rest of the group.

Rix walked over to the side of the gate and pulled off a piece of paper. She read it, then handed it to me.

“What is that?” Edward demanded as the others crowded around to see what it said.

Survival Training

See you all at the end of the week.

Don't die.

“I cannot believe this!” Edward threw another rock at the gate. “He can't do this to me!” the Noble ran screaming and yelling off to the side of the woods.

I let the blonde man throw his fit. Partially because I didn't want to spend the energy to try to call him down. Partially because I felt like joining him. We had our mantles for barely two days and now our teacher had walked us on to the first floor of the dungeon and left us there with barely any supplies.

“What do we do now?” Ether was the first one to speak.

The other women looked at me but I honestly had no idea. We had only brought enough rations for the whole day, which meant I still had the six bars in my bag. Once we ate those, we wouldn’t have any more food. Even if we tried to ration it out, it definitely was not going to last 5 days.

“You’ve stayed in the dungeon overnight before, right?” Aelin looked like she was about to cry.

“Yes…” I didn’t like where this was going. It was true that I had stayed in the dungeon overnight but I had always been with a group of Adventures. Those Adventurers had brought supplies with them and I had known beforehand that we were going to be spending a prolonged amount of time in the dungeon, so I had also brought extra supplies.

“What do we do now?” Ether asked again

“We need to find shelter.” I tried to remember what the Adventurers had done. “If we're going to be here a while we should probably find water.” I looked at Rix, “How well do you remember the layout of where we’ve been?”

Her face was neutral, “Where do you want to go?’

“Do you remember the creek where we stopped for lunch?”

She pointed, “That way.”

I walked over and handed her the broken blade. “I think you can use this better than I can.”

She tested the weapon, then lashed it to her side. “Let's go.”

The other women looked at me and then looked towards Edward who was still screaming.

“What about him?” Aelin moved so that I was in between her and the raging Noble.

“HEY!” I yelled, “Edward! We're leaving!”

The man stopped his screaming but was still on his knees and he rested his head against the tree that he had been pounding on. There were indentations and most of the bark where he had hit it was gone.

“Come on.” I said softer, “We've got to go.”

I walked over and put my hand on his shoulder, “We've got this.”

Edward glared at me. His eyes held nothing but pure rage and exhaustion. He locked onto his sword at Rix’s side.

“That's mine!” He scrambled towards her, “Give it back!”

I grabbed the back of his jumpsuit to pull him back. He tried to swing at me, but it went wide. I twisted around with him and pushed him into the dirt. I grabbed his arm and pinned it behind him.

“Let me go!”

I pushed him down harder, “Not until you calm down.”

“You have no right!”

I leaned down so that I could whisper in his ear. “I'm going to hold you down until you calm down.”

“Get off of me!” Rage rolled off of him as his veins began to bulge.

Despite his fury, I could see his confusion. He was the Hitter with ten power and I was the Caster, who should have very little power. I shouldn’t be able to hold him down, but I was.

“We have to spend a week here and it's going to take every one of us to survive.” I leaned back so that everyone could hear, “If you insist on not working with us or if you try to attack another one of us again.” I slipped my right hand around to the front of his throat and pulled him back as I squeezed. I felt him start to struggle for air.

“I will kill you myself. Do you understand?”

He nodded, unable to breathe.

I relaxed my grip, “Are you going to calm down?”

He nodded again.

“I'm going to let you up.” I let go of his throat and arm as I stood up, “But you don't get that sword until you prove you can handle it.”

I held out my hand to help him up, “Are you going to lay there or are you going to come with us?”

The blonde Noble grumbled but rolled on his side and reached out to take my hand. I helped him up and looked him over.

“You good?”

He nodded meekly.

I could see he was still upset but for the moment at least I didn't think he would have another outburst. I looked over at Rix who was testing the remains of the blade in her hand.

“After you.”