The parking lot was almost empty.

  At least with a temple, the priests inside were supposed to act as the intermediaries for the God or Goddess of the city. A way for the Mundane to let their needs, usually wants, known to the administrator when their voice would otherwise be drowned out by more influential Adventurers known as the Nobility. That usually translated to there being a lot of traffic in a Temple even if it wasn’t from Adventurers going into the Dungeon.

  The Dispatchers were all about the Dungeon. They were composed almost entirely of Anubis, and even within the Temple, Authority, or private Dungeons, there were still Dispatchers who monitored those Dungeons for surges in monster populations.

  But that meant that if there weren’t Adventurers who were going into that specific Dungeon, a Dispatcher’s Station would be fairly empty.

  Aelin whistled as we got out of the van. “You weren’t kidding about there not being many Adventurers here.”

  “How is this place still running?” I scanned the building. At one point, it might have been an extravagantly decorated building, but now it looked like a big metal warehouse. On the outside anyway.

  “When the Dungeon Mouth first appeared, a simple building was put over it.” Miel started the short walk towards the front doors. “Usually, it would have been modified and renovated over time, but due to the lack of interest…” She shrugged as she held the glass door open for us. “It was kept basic.

  The inside was almost as bare as the outside. There were three counters inside, one on our left, right, and in front of us. There were two doors slightly apart from each other between the right and center counters. The left counter was the smallest of all of them, and placed almost directly against the wall, giving the room a lopsided feel as the entire right side of the building was walled off.

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  Unlike the other Dispatcher’s Stations that I’d been in, there was only one attendant. The tan-furred Anubis had their feet on the right counter and was reading something on the CB. They were so engrossed in what they were reading that they didn’t notice us until Miel smacked her palm on the counter.

  “Nefer! What have you been told about goofing off?” The mom-voice didn’t seem to be reserved for just us.

  The Anubis male fell out of his seat as he tried to stand up. That motion ended with him falling over his chair before he was able to finally stand up. He straightened his gray uniform and saluted. “I wasn’t expecting you!”

  “And that is a good enough reason to not be attentive?” Miel nodded towards the door. “What happened to the chime?”

  “There’s a short in it or something. It started ringing non-stop, so I turned it off…” He looked down at his hands. “I’ll make out a work order to have it fixed.”

  “Good.” Ether’s mother motioned towards the door closest to the middle counter. “We need a ready room.”

  “Of course.” Nefer picked up his chair, sat down, and began entering information into the screen in front of him. “If you would…”

  Miel held out her CB so that he could scan her wrist. Once he was done, the center door opened.

  “Room one is open.” The Anubis focused on me for some reason.

  “We’ll be back once they change.” Miel nodded at the door on his right. “They’ll want to start at the second floor.”

  “Yes, Ma’am!” He began typing again, finally looking away from me.

  “Let’s go!” Aelin took off through the door.

  I chuckled as I followed behind everyone. Sometimes I wished I had her seemingly limitless energy.

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