Mantle of the Gods [LitRPG / Slow Burn / FTB Harem]

Ether confused me.

Most of the time she was a very logical, methodical person. But this morning had been weird.

"She's stressed." Ren's voice snapped me back to the present.

We were in a room somewhere in the basement that looked like a second-hand clothing store. A curtain had been put up to preserve the ladies' modesty on one side of the room. Oz and Ren were already done changing, so we were just waiting on Aelin and Jenne to finish. Kara and Miel had already left to get the car ready.

Oz was in a black suit similar to my own. Her hair was pinned up in a bun by two needles that looked big enough to be one of the knitting needles the nuns back at the orphanage used to use.

Ren was in a simple sleeveless silver cotton dress. Her blonde hair was braided, and she was wearing thin rimmed glasses, which gave her a very innocent look.

My outfit had been fairly simple: a jacket, button-down shirt with a tie, slacks, and my boots. We were going to have to hike, so no one was going to begrudge us for having decent footwear.

While my outfit looked normal, there was a blade in my tie clip. The tie itself was a level four rope, as was my belt. Speaking of my belt, the buckle was designed to be taken off, and the fancy loops were actually finger holes so I could use it as a knuckle weapon. I could feel the buzz of enchantments on the jacket and slacks. I wasn't sure what they did, but I was willing to bet the level sixteen crystal I had that they had more defense than my actual armor.

I had a feeling that Oz had similar weaponry on her, though I wasn't sure what Ren was hiding. It wasn't like the obsidian woman was wearing a belt or some other accessory. She did have on the yellow bolt ring, so she at least had that.

I'd managed not to think about how weird Ether had been until I'd finished getting dressed, but now that all I could do was wait, my thoughts had started drifting. Somehow Ren had keyed in on what was bothering me.

"What?" Probably not the best response, but it was the one that got through my lips.

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"Ether." Ren sat down next to me and smoothed out her dress. "She's stressed, and a lot of things are happening fast for a lot of us." She touched the spot above her heart where the seal to prevent someone from forcing her to tell them about me was.

"Yeah." I hung my head. "Sorry about that."

"Nothing to be sorry about." Oz was looking nervous standing by the racks of dresses. "We chose to stay, and we're choosing to do this." The brown woman tried to smile. "Even Fray asked if she could go."

"She did?" I looked around. I hadn't heard anything about her coming.

"She decided it would be best if she stayed behind and helped Astrid acclimate." Ren glanced over at her friend before turning back to me. "Ether's just afraid of losing you, so she's trying to mark what she can control so it doesn't feel like she's being left behind. That's what this morning was about."

I scrunched up my brow. "Are you sure? Because…"

"Her sister represents a version of herself." Ren almost sounded like she was quoting from a book, or maybe the glasses were making her seem more scholastic. "Ether has abandonment issues, and now you're going on a mission without her, but with another version of her." Ren put her hand on my knee. "She's worried that you'll like the other version of her better and not come back to her."

I wrinkled my brow. "I'd never do that! Especially not now that we're…" I caught myself before I finished that sentence. We were going to talk about it, but then Ren had gone with us to bed, so we'd fallen asleep without ever discussing what we were going to make of it.

"Now that what?" Aelin stuck her head through the curtain. "Come on! You can't just leave me in suspense like that!" Her brown eyes widened. "Is she pregnant? Is that the real reason why she's staying behind?!?" The blonde squealed.

"No, she's not pregnant." I stood up and started pacing. "At least, not that I know of."

"So what is it?" Aelin repeated her question."You know I'm not going to stop until you tell me!"

She had a point. While Aelin might seem ditzy at first, once she fixated on something, she followed it through.

Before I could respond, she yanked the curtain back and stood in front of me in a strapless emerald green dress. The entire dress hugged her body like it had been painted on. From the way it pushed up her already ample cleavage, all the way down to her hips, where the dress part started, but it was cut so short, I wasn't sure that it would even count as a miniskirt.

"You can marvel at how good I look later!" Aelin marched over to me. "What did you and Ether do that you haven't told anyone about?"

I thought about trying to deflect. Aelin was pretty easy to sidetrack, but she always came back, and if she caught on that you were trying to sidetrack her, she would only dog you that much more.

I closed my eyes and blurted. "Klix used the seal to modify her Mantle so now it thinks that we're married."