“EVERYTHING!”
ArchBishop Mavery finally snapped out of his shock. “You told her EVERYTHING?” He turned to Trent. "Without TELLING ME!”
“Plausible deniability.” Trent pointed at Rix, then at me. “Think about it. The All-Temple is not only raising a God, but also a God-killer.” He let that hang in the air for a moment. "How fast are ALL the Gods going to put aside their differences and burn the Cathedral down if they learn about either one of these two?”
“You want to raise them together?” Mavery looked at Rix. "How did you even change your class???”
“My guess is that she had the potential as a family trait.” Trent cut off her answer. "She must have awakened it during training, like Edward Rene did.”
The ArchBishop stroked his chin as he thought about it. "Fine. Whatever. Do what you want and I’ll forget about this.” He turned to Trent. "What happened with the Alard Clinic?”
“From what I can tell, Farsch got upset at the renovations and word got out of the All-Temple’s support of the Publian Clinic model. Farsch offered to buy them out, even going so far as offering Suna a seat on the board.” Trent shook his head. "When that didn’t work, he resorted to kidnapping. Sipher was supposed to take extras so it didn’t seem like it was targeted kidnapping, so he took Gesai Alard and tried to ransom her back to Farsch. Farsch was insulted that Sipher would try to get more All out of him, and refused to pay. Sipher then worked out a deal with me, because…” His eyes narrowed. "Atlas told him that he was my secret lovechild.”
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Mavery looked from me to Trent. "How do you know this?”
Trent laughed. "I’ve been farming in the dungeon with him for over two weeks and the man likes to brag.”
“So this wasn’t about Atlas?” Mavery seemed relieved.
“Not at first. In fact Sipher would never have taken Atlas if the boy wouldn’t have offered himself as a target…” Trent’s voice was full of irritation.
“I had to do it, they were going to sell Rix to…” I had forgotten the name of the Bandit crew she’d been with. “Bandits who wanted to kill her. I couldn’t let them do that.”
“Why?”
It was a simple question, but I didn’t have a simple answer for her on the tip of my tongue.
“Because you’re... I mean you… It’s like…” I couldn’t find the right way to phrase it and realized I’d also not been breathing as I searched for the right words. I took a deep breath and found them. “Because you’re my friend and it would be wrong for me to stand aside and watch you get hurt when it’s within my power to stop it.”
Rix motioned with an open right hand at me. "And that’s how he’s going to get us all killed.”
Trent laughed. "And why you’re helping him.”
“Alright!” Mavery swished his arms. "Atlas has a bleeding heart. What are we going to do about Farsch?” He looked at Trent. "He’s not exactly someone I can touch very easily. Do you think he’s going to be a problem?’
Trent thought for a moment.
“Use Gesai.”
The old man looked over at Rix. "Come again?”
“Use Gesai. This old man is all about his image. That image is family pride, and he’s upset that Suna left the family.” Rix raised an eyebrow. "She can’t exactly go back now.”
Trent nodded. "That could work… Oh. About Gesai, there's something I need you to do.”
Mavery sighed. "I’m not going to like this, am I?”