I realized something about the tub.

  It was how Gesai had known exactly where to cut to get us out of the sewer. There was a drain in the middle of the tub that she had plugged. The circle that she’d cut had been with the drain exactly in the center.

  We’d drained it after the others had finished, then filled it back up and Gesai had warmed it. By the time I’d finished getting cleaned up, the others had eaten and were laying down cots near the tent.

  The warm air trick that Gesai used to dry me off was pretty neat, though I was a little disappointed that despite all of the other items she seemed to have packed, the only thing she had to eat were ration bars.

  The dry, bland bars were full of nutrition, but traded that for a complete lack of flavor. They were very cheap though and the thing I’d eaten almost exclusively before I came to the Cathedral. So the flavor wasn’t something I wasn’t used to, it was just a reminder of all the food that I’d experienced since I arrived.

  Ren and Oz fell asleep pretty fast, curled up together on the same cot. The pair had said they’d been best friends almost from birth and Ren had constantly been around Oz and her cousin Justia, who had been named as my High Priestess. I shook my head as I watched them sleep. There had to be a very high level of trust that they had in myself or Gesai that they were going to be safe in order to fall asleep like that.

  Fray on the other hand, was jumping every time the building creaked. I noticed that she was holding the white Katana that we’d ordered the night before. Sydney must have finished it and brought it along to give to us. She had her knees up against her chest and was hugging the sword between them.

  Ether walked over to me and sat down on the floor with her back against the tub. The water had already drained out and the tub was starting to deteriorate. Gesai hadn’t put much mana into making it permanent, which meant that the magically created stone was breaking down into magic. In a few hours, there’d be nothing but magic residue left. The seal that she’d used to fix the disc that she’d cut out had mixed the two sides of the cut together. There’d be a slight dip in the floor later, but it’d be fairly stable.

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  “How’re you feeling?” I ran my hand through her white hair as she laid her head on my right shoulder.

  “Like I was dunked in a used toilet.” The ivory woman shuddered, “But not nearly as dirty.”

  “That’s good.” I smelled her hair. “You smell better now too.”

  “Hey!” She playfully pushed on my chest, then squeezed tight against me when she realized that she’d been loud and other people were trying to sleep.

  “Are you ready for tomorrow?” I was kind of hoping that she would have a much more positive thought about it than I did. Something about it wasn’t sitting right with me. Like there was something that I was missing.

  “Gesai said she was going to spend the night on the roof.” Ether had closed her eyes. “We cleaned up Astrid and Gesai used a lot of healing magic on her, so she should be okay. Trent and Mive don’t seem to have gotten much on them, so we just wiped them down a little with a rag.”

  I nodded. That was good. “You think you’re going to be able to sleep tonight?”

  “Probably.” She yawned as her voice drifted off. “I think Gesai will know if they find us. Not much we can do anyway.”

  She had a point. As a Tier Zero, we might be able to double team a Tier One, but after that, it’d be like a five-year-old trying to fight an adult. We wouldn’t have a chance.

  I wanted to say something to Fray to try to calm the green woman’s nerves, but I couldn’t think of anything that was working on mine. My only comfort at the moment was the woman curled up on my side, but I knew that offer would probably only stress her out more.

  “Fray.” I gave her my best smile. “You did great helping out today. Thanks.”

  The compliment seemed to help a little and it wasn’t like it was an empty one. I had been losing my fight against the River Arm until she got there.

  I closed my eyes. I wanted to at least offer to take a turn at watch, but that would mean going back up on the roof and it seemed like Ether had just fallen asleep. I knew Gesai was trying to take her responsibility over us seriously, but she was only seven years older than us. I’d try to remember to talk with her about that in the morning.

  My mind started to wander and I realized that despite only feeling tired, I suddenly felt very sleepy. I tried to force my eyes open, but my eyelids felt so heavy all of the sudden. I blinked and looked over at Fray, who was soundly asleep and realized what was going on.

  I stopped trying to fight it. I wouldn’t win and the faster I relented the more sleep I would get. It was just something else that I’d have to talk with Gesai about in the morning.

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