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

Rix woke us up.

It was still way too early to be awake, but the younger redhead wasn't trying to be subtle.

Gesai almost leapt out of bed and put her hand over her CB. Her reflexes were at least good enough that she didn't draw a weapon. That got me to wonder if Rix would have been able to dodge an attack if the older woman had been too startled.

Ether, on the other hand, didn't budge even after I slid out from under her. I was a lot more jealous of the ivory woman's ability to stay asleep than I probably needed to be.

"What's wrong?" I slid off of the bed in between the two redheads.

"Miel is supposed to take you to Klix's Chamber to work on them." Rix nodded at Ether. "I can bring her later."

"Actually…" I looked over my shoulder at Gesai before turning back to Rix. "Could you stay with Gesai today? Pixie is having some trouble adjusting to the team dynamic, and we thought that you could help smooth things out."

"You mean keep Oz from killing her." Rix shrugged. "Sure."

I patted the golden woman on the shoulder as I walked past her. "Thanks."

Miel was the only one waiting for me in the hallway. I looked at the closed doors and realized that I had no idea which one Fray was in.

"Where's Fray?" I looked back into Gesai's room at Rix.

Rix walked out of the room, down the hall to the door two away from the room I should have slept in, and tapped on the door. I started to go to wake her up myself but stopped before I was halfway there. Knowing Fray, she was going to panic enough as it was with just being woken up at… I looked at my CB. Four in the morning!

I looked at Miel. "Why does Klix want to start this early?"

Ether's mother shrugged. "She's got a lot to do, and this is taking up a bunch of her time."

I sighed. I guess I couldn't complain too much since I was the one imposing on her. I looked at Rix. "Would you get her up? I don't think she'd appreciate it if I did."

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"Out of water?" Rix smirked as she slipped into the room.

"Hey! That was one time!" I was talking to a closed door. Miel gave me a curious look.

"Our first day, Trent had me wake everyone up and…" I realized who I was talking to. Probably wouldn't be a good idea to tell Ether's mother about how I dropped a bucket's worth of cold water on her daughter within a day of meeting her. "He gave me what I thought was just a marble of water to throw at anyone who didn't get out of bed. I didn't realize how much water there would be, and they haven't let me live it down that I used one of them."

Miel shook her head. "Mom has some very colorful ways of waking us up. It didn't take me long to learn how to wake up before she did."

"How did all of that work out?" I gestured around. "Why did you raise your kids like they were normal when you knew your mother was just going to take them when they got older?"

Miel flinched. "Part of it is that there is always a choice to leave it all behind." She looked sad as memories came back to her. "That's what I did for a while. I left the Scarlets to be with Hayh. For the most part anyway. I still had a few visits with Mom, but when you're one kid out of over a dozen, you start to get lost in the day-to-day activities. Then when Ether disappeared, I came back to look for her." She shrugged. "I have older siblings as well as nieces and nephews who left because they wanted a more normal life. There are also some who left because they wanted a city for themselves…" Her voice trailed off for a moment as she followed that memory in her mind. She sighed as she refocused on me. "Anyway. It's about having options. The younger part of your life is more about forming who you are. You have your adulthood to live it."

A sleepy Fray walked out into the hallway followed by Rix.

"I'm ready…" Fray yawned, then rubbed her eyes.

"Okay." I followed behind Miel as we headed towards the elevator. "Miel, do you think you might be able to take Aelin, Justia, and Ether to do some of the training that you put the teenagers through before they become Scarlets?"

The older woman paused and looked at me. "Why?"

"Basically, I don't want them to be bored, and it couldn't hurt to teach them while they aren't doing anything else here."

"What about the Hunter?"Miel looked a little concerned as she looked down the hall at where Rix was watching us.

I knew that a level seven versus a Tier Seven was a no-brainer as far as who would win, but it seemed that the Scarlet was still wary of my friend who had a skill named <Godslayer>.

"Rix is going to fill in for Astrid so that Gesai's team can work on their synergy."

"Ah…" The short woman thought for a moment. "I guess I can do that."

"Cool!" A thought hit me, and I realized that the three women might not appreciate the extra work when they could be relaxing instead. "Could you, um, not tell them that it was my idea?"

Miel laughed. "Oh, I'm definitely telling them that."

I tried to send a silent apology to the other members of my team. I was going to hear about it when I got back.