Mantle of the Gods

I couldn't believe the word he just used ally.

“Ally?” I repeated it back to him, “How does what you’re offering sound like an ally? To me, it sounds like I either become your weapon or you feed me to the dogs.”

“You’re looking at it the wrong way.” The ArchBishop sat on his desk, “What I’m offering is to shelter you, train you, and help you build a powerbase. Yes, you would be removing some things that are threats to me, but they are also threats to you.”

“Besides,” He pointed at Justia, “If this doesn’t give you an idea about what I am going to be giving you, then I don’t know what more I can do to prove how good of a deal for you this is.”

“How about not forcing her into a deal she…” Justia cut the comment short with a single look from the ArchBishop.

“You want your family’s Clinic to survive and you want to be able to go back there and run it once you’re strong enough.” The ArchBishop held up two fingers, “I will have the All-Temple endorse Publian Clinic, which would be more than enough to keep the larger Clinics from trying to absorb it.” He lowered one finger, “And you won’t find a better or faster way right now to get stronger than by his side.” The ArchBishop paused as he was lowering the second finger, “And I am willing to bet that he would let you operate out of Publian Clinic once he establishes himself.”

Justia looked to me for confirmation and I couldn’t disagree. As much as I hated the feeling that I was being used, it sounded like it was a really good deal.

“I’ll need to have this in writing.” Justia stated.

“Writing leaves a paper trail. And we don’t want a paper trail. There is something else we can do to ensure we have each others trust.” The ArchBishop waved his hand in the air in front of us.

Magical letters appeared in the air, writing out the details of our contract. It spelled out everything that we had discussed, but something concerned me.

“What are you getting out of this?” I looked at Trent.

The old Caster shrugged, gesturing at the ArchBishop, “I already have a deal with Mavery, this falls under that.”

I was curious what that deal was, but now was not the time to ask.

“So are we in agreement?” The ArchBishop held out his left hand, palm up.

“It works for me.” Trent put his hand over the ArchBishop’s.

“What happens if someone breaks the contract or tries to hurt someone to get out of the contract?” I asked

The ArchBishop pointed at a line at the bottom that I’d missed.

“If anyone within this accord shall breach this contract or attempt to harm another party in this contract, then they shall receive all ill back upon themselves.” I looked up, “That’s kind of vague.”

“And also covers a lot.” The ArchBishop pointed to his hand, “Look, I’m busy with a lot of other things before this came up and pushed everything back. If you could hurry up so that we can all get on with our lives, that’d be great.”

I put my hand on top of my teacher’s, “I think I can live with this.”

That left Justia as the odd one out.

“My lady,” the ArchBishop's voice was much sweeter, “you're getting everything you want plus more.” He nodded at the linked hands, “You've already promised, now make it binding.”

I could tell that Justia was beginning to panic but the look in her eyes told me that she also knew there was no way out. I wasn't sure what exactly was causing her to be so afraid of it being binding instead of just a contractual agreement but I didn't understand the gist of the magic either. All I knew was this would keep me alive longer than one week and as far as unpleasant allies went it seemed like I could do a lot worse than the ArchBishop.

Justia cautiously put her hand over my right hand. As soon as her palm touched the back of my hand, the ArchBishop jammed his fist on top of our hands. I didn't realize until I heard my own screams that he had just rammed a silver knitting needle through all of our hands. The spell began to be absorbed by the silver needle and spread out through each of our hands.

“There.” The ArchBishop pulled the needle out, “Now it is binding.” he nodded to Trent, “You can show your new students to their dorm.” He looked back at some notes on his desk. “You're in number three.”

Trent nodded and opened the door.

I rubbed the back of my hand, smearing away the blood only to notice that it had already healed. I ducked through the door ahead of Justia. Might as well go get settled in.