I woke up first.
Technically third since Trent and Rix were gone, but I didn’t count either of them, since they almost never slept. I knew that for Rix it was a defensive thing. She was almost on guard and felt too vulnerable in bed. For Trent, I had no idea. He was a hundred thirty two years old, even if he looked like he was barely sixty. A longer lifespan was a product of having a Mantle, and I’d recently learned that his mother had been a Goddess, so between both of those, I assumed he’d probably have a very long life. It wouldn’t surprise me if he had some skill that didn’t require him to sleep.
I slid out from under Ether and walked as quietly as I could to the door. I was surprised to see Rix standing in front of the tree that Trent liked to sit against. Usually, she kept her stealth on when she was in the courtyard.
“Morning.” I waved at the two of them. “What’s the plan for today?”
“We’re about to wake everyone up.” The white-haired man looked up at me. “Then we’re going to head out. I was about to send Rix to the cafe to get breakfast for us, then we can meet her at the RVs.”
“RVs? As in plural?” We’d been just driving around in one. Even our last trip had just been a really big one.
“We’re two classes, so each class should have their own vehicle.” Trent stretched, “Plus that will make us look like less of an easy target for bandits.”
I saw just a moment of apprehension cross Rix’s face before she was able to dismiss it. I knew that the bandits that she’d been living with had a bounty out on her, but I doubted anyone would try to collect it while she was around Trent.
“Are we splitting it up by class or..?”
“You can do whatever you want.” The old man stood up, “We just need to spread out evenly.”
I had a feeling that Aelin was going to split up the groups, which meant that her five would take one RV and the rest would be with me. Which was okay with me, because that meant that I might get a chance to talk to Mitchel.
“Do you want me to go wake everyone up?” I pointed my thumb at the dorm behind me.
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“Here.” Trent reached for his CB.
I waved my hands. “No thank you. If I walk in there with one of those water bombs, Ether will kill me.”
Trent put the marbles back in his CB. “Then I’ll see you at the garage.” He started walking towards the exit.
I expected that when I looked over, Rix would already be gone, but she looked like she was deep in thought.
“What are you thinking about?” Considering she was a slice first, ask forgiveness after kind of person, if she had something that was making her mull it over, it had to be heavy.
“We were talking about getting an experience storage while we’re in Mive.” She took a deep breath. “There’s been more bandit sightings in the last week. It seems like Sipher was holding a lot of the Godless territory as well as a significant number of Desolations. Now that he’s dead, at least one Desolation in the Fane Ward has broken, Trent doesn’t know how many more have and we’re just not able to tell.”
I saw some regret on her face, which I thought was weird because Gesai was the one who killed Sipher, not her.
“Hey, it’ll be okay.” I put my hand on her shoulder, “Plus with Trent being Tier Seven now, I’m sure he can handle anything we might run into.”
“That’s just the problem.” Rix looked towards where Trent had gone. “There are very few Gods that are Tier Eight, which means that if Trent was seen as a threat to the Primus before, he really is now. He doesn’t think they’ll do anything right now because of all the chaos, but when it settles down…”
“You’re worried about him.”
Rix shrugged, “He’s like the father I never had. I thought losing my mom was hard, but this…” She looked down at her hands. “I want to get stronger.” She looked at me. “In the Bequeathal Chamber levels didn’t matter. We didn’t have our Mantles augmenting us, it was only the skills and training that we had. I need to get better, because…”
“Hey, you can’t even get down low enough to challenge the Beque…” I saw where she was going. “You want to use the seeds to bring the Mantles to you.”
Rix took a deep breath. “Right now we don’t know enough about how the Cult was making the seeds, but it’s something to consider in the future.” She smiled. “Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere, I’m just trying to plan for the future and worst case scenarios.”
“Thanks.” I gave her shoulder a playful punch. “Because we need our Shooter.”
“You and I are bonded.” Rix touched her chest where the mark that hid her class and stats was. “Where you go, I’ll follow. I just want to be able to keep you safe.”
“We’ll all be safe enough for now.” I smiled. “So go get our food and I’ll wake everyone up.”
Rix gave me a weak smile, then turned and walked to the exit.
I watched her leave and thought about what she’d said. If the Primus came after Trent, then I’d be helpless as a Tier Zero. I just hoped that they’d wait until we graduated, then I’d see if Trent or Gesai would power level us up. Because I had a feeling that if they went after Trent, they’d take care of all of us.