This wasn’t like the last time.

  The last time that I’d been inside Mive’s Mantle, the entire room had been brought inside the Mantle. That time it hadn’t started out dark like a boss room or when I had gone inside Wurn’s Mantle, so I’d expected that Mive’s mantle would always be lit, but I was learning that wasn’t the case as my eyes tried to see anything in the darkness. For a moment, I thought that Justia might have done something wrong, because as soon as the room lit up, everything looked very wrong.

  The room we were in was similar to the one from Wurn’s Mantle. There was a plain room with Mive sitting on a wooden chair instead of an ornate throne. The difference was that the Kitsune God was tied to the chair with shadowy ropes. The rest of the room was slowly being eaten by whatever shadowy thing that the demons had been made of. It was creating holes all over the wall giving way to nothing but an empty void outside.

  I looked at the others to see what their thoughts were. The look on Whisper’s face was completely unfazed, though that was his usual look, so that might not have meant too much. The Roots and Kara were still wearing their armor, so their faces were being hidden by their helmets. I wasn’t sure if any of the three of them would have given anything away until I looked at Harror.

  The green Goddess had horror written all over her face. I didn’t know what she found so horrifying about it, but I found myself sharing in that assessment. It looked like a giant snake was slowly constricting itself around the old God, and his red fur had definitely lost the diminished luster that the one outside the mantle still had.

  “How am I supposed to get Him out of that?” Justia looked at her city’s God.

  Harror was keeping her distance as she examined Mive. “You have to untangle that from around Him.” The green Goddess stuck her hand out to stop me from getting closer. “WHAT are you doing?!?”

  “I was going to help.” I could feel her arm tense as she pushed me back. “The faster we get…”

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  “YOU CAN’T TOUCH HIM!” Harror got in between me and the throne. “If a Deity touches another God’s Mantle while in the Bequeathal Chamber, then a fight for that Mantle begins. None of us would be able to leave this place until either we Desolated him, or He eliminated us.” The Goddess swept her gaze over all of us. “The priest is the only one who can attend to Him, so no one else get close!”

  Whisper put his hand on my shoulder and pulled me back. “Don’t worry, we’ll stay on this side of the Chamber.” The blonde bandit nodded at Ether and Kara. “Come over here.”

  I swallowed as I nodded at Justia. I didn’t want to leave her with Harror, but it didn’t seem like I had much of a choice. I couldn’t help her, which made me feel like the only reason I was even on the team was because they needed me in order to get into the Chamber.

  “What are we going to do?” I looked at the silver man that was leading me to the other side of the room.

  Whisper ignored me and looked at Kara. “How many times have you been inside a Chamber?”

  The Scarlet shook her head. “Once. Klix has dozens of Scarlets and I’m the youngest one. She brought me into hers after my confirmation, but after that, she has been more focused on training…” Her voice choked off like she had just tried to say something that she shouldn’t have.

  “Don’t try to force it.” Whisper moved over to the other woman’s side to steady her as she leaned heavily on Ether. “You can’t go revealing secrets that the seal is protecting without pushback.”

  “Secrets?” I was confused. “How is a Goddess training their bodyguards a secret?”

  Whisper shook his head. “Explaining it would just make it worse on her.” He touched the white visor. “Would you mind taking this off? I like to be able to look at the people I’m talking to.”

  The visor vanished, revealing her red eyes staring at him. “Sorry.”

  “You’re young.” Whisper straightened. “You’ve got plenty of time to learn.”

  She hung her head, but that wordless gesture told me that she didn’t really believe that.

  “How do you know so much about the Bequeathal Chamber?” I felt like changing the subject while Kara was moping.

  Whisper glared at me, then shook his head. “I used to be like her, but for Mive.” He held up his hand. “And that’s all I’m saying about it.” The blonde bandit looked between the three of us. “But that means that I can help you learn how to navigate this place…” A smile cracked his face. “I guess you’re getting a lesson Trent never taught.”

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