I wasn’t sure how to answer that.

  “Before we got to Mive?” I looked at Rix. “No.”

  “And now?” Miel drew my attention back to her.

  “Unless someone wants to veto it, I’d like to be like Iver and take my mother’s mantle.” There was actually another reason why I wanted to take my mother’s mantle. It would let me see her.

  Within a mantle was a portion of the former wearer’s soul. Upon entering the mantle to claim it, usually a godkin would have to fight against the fragment of what remained of the previous owner, but sometimes it would be gifted instead. I didn’t have any memories of my mother and as illogical as it might seem, I was hoping I’d at least be able to talk to what was left of her

  “Your mother?” Aelin looked around the room. “Who is she?”

  “She was Gar.” I looked at Miel. “What do you think?”

  “I think you are far too trusting.” The older woman sighed. “You’ve known me for how long? Yet you are casually talking about your plans for the future. Plans that some might even see as a declaration of war.”

  “War? How?” I glanced over at Rix. The redhead had leaned forward in her seat and put her hand on the chainsword at her side. I shook my head. Nothing we could do would even scratch Ether’s mom, so there was no reason to antagonize her.

  “Slece will take offense at you resurrecting that city. She still hasn’t gotten over that insult.” Miel shook her head. “Even if it wasn’t personal, there are a lot of other factors that the other Gods in the region would complain about.” She began counting them off on her fingers. “First is proximity. Granted, Gar has the only Dungeon in that area of the Ward, so it wouldn’t take too much traffic from the other cities, but it will take some traffic, which means less experience and less crystal, and the Gods won’t be too happy about it. Next is alliances. Trent is a big enough name even if he is retired. It’s pretty much common knowledge among the Gods that the Primus told him to stay out of the Dungeon. Considering he defied them for you, there won’t be a question of if he’ll back you. Any God out there who wants to curry favor with the Primus is going to be coming for you. And that’s just one person backing you who has a lot of enemies.” She clenched her jaw. “Last is the split. Not long after a city is claimed, at least one but as many as three Dungeon Mouths have split off of the main one. Those new mouths tend to spit out monsters until they’re fitted with a gate. Again, Gar is kind of isolated, but no God wants a new monster wave showing up outside their city walls.” She shook her head. “Those are just the biggest issues amid the whole spiderweb of permissions that you’re supposed to go through. You don’t have to, but it’s a pretty easy way to ensure your city is going to be attacked before you get the wall up.”

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  “Oh.” I looked over at the bathroom door, where the other women had congregated to listen. “I mean…” I turned back to Miel. “I wasn’t planning on going there until after I graduated.”

  “But you are planning on going.” The short woman sighed. “Not every one who is friendly is a friend. I appreciate your honesty, but maybe learn how to say ‘I haven’t thought about all of that.’ instead?” She held up her hand. “If you’re worried about someone calling you out for lying, just remind yourself that you haven’t thought about all of the angles.” She stood up. “It looks like everyone is ready, so I guess you could say this lesson is over.”

  “You said we’re going to the second floor.” Ether looked at her mother. “Are you going to bus us through?”

  Miel looked at her daughter for a moment. “I thought you’d have more fun fighting things closer to your level than fighting random mobs.”

  “We’re not supposed to level up.” Justia looked at me. “Trent was going to get us experience rings but…”

  “Already taken care of.” Miel chuckled.

  “Wait, how?” I looked at my hands. Trent was going to get us bands to transfer experience to our lower-level party members, but she hadn’t given us anything.

  “The Scarlets have tricks that old man hasn’t seen.” Miel nodded at the door. Let’s go.”

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