Trent made it belowdeck.

  Miel had teleported out to the battle and let him know what our plan was. The two of them had held off the Sea Dragon as long as they could, which had resulted in both of them taking a beating. Instead of teleporting to the ship, in case the Sea Dragon locked in on Miel, they had gone to one of the islands to hide. Which was why it had taken a while for my mother-in-law to spend my free stat points to take my Magic to Tier One.

  The rest of my team tried to harvest as many scales as they could before the crew had to push the corpse of the Sea Dragon into the water. I wasn’t sure how much they got, but I had a feeling that they were going to be able to make some interesting upgrades to their armor and weapons.

  I went back to the RV and crashed, sleeping through what was left of the night and into the afternoon. When I finally woke up, I heard people talking about Iver being in sight as they ran out of the RV.

  It was one of those rare times when Ether woke up before me, or maybe she’d been too wired to ever go to sleep. Either way, I was alone in the bunk as I rolled out and into the hall.

  “Headache?” Trent huffed as he looked at me from where he was lying on the couch.

  “Yeah.” I rubbed my head. “How’re you?”

  “I’ve been better.” Trent rubbed his neck with his left hand. “Last night…”

  “Did you know we’d be a target?” I wasn’t sure what I wanted him to answer. If he hadn’t, then my image of him knowing everything would be shattered. If he had, then I needed to know why he would have put everyone in danger like that.

  “I knew it was a possibility.” Trent sighed. “As far as I knew, there hadn’t been a sighting in over a decade, and with the two of you not having city Mantles…” He shook his head. “It was a calculated risk and it failed miserably.”

  “Yeah…” I took a deep breath. “How many people died?”

  “They lost two.” Trent closed his eyes. “What you did…”

  “Was stupid?” I finished for him.

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  My father shook his head. “Saved us.”

  “What about the part where I went into the monster’s mind and held it there until it bled out?” I walked over to the couch. He turned so that I could sit down next to him.

  “That was…” Trent shrugged. “It worked. That’s all I can say.”

  “You seem…” I studied the older man’s pale face. “Different.”

  “I’ve spent over a century playing this game with the Gods. I thought I knew how it was played and could compete with them, but this year…” My father shook his head. “Has shown me that there’s still so much that I’m not prepared for.”

  I took a deep breath as I held out my CB. “I got a drop from it.”

  Trent raised an eyebrow. “Hybrids don’t drop items.”

  “I don’t think it was a true hybrid.” I scrolled through my inventory until I found the item. I turned my wrist so he could look at it.

  “How…” Trent whistled as he read the item’s requirements. “Why don’t you think it was a true hybrid?”

  “It could talk.” I closed the menu. “What do you think I should do with this?”

  “It could talk?” Trent repeated, then he shook his head. “From what I know, they should just be hybrids that are attuned to divine Mantles.” He put his hand over my CB. “And keep that under wraps; we’ve got a few allies that might be able to use it, but it might be best for you to wait until Cora is able to use it.”

  “O-kay.” I looked at the door. There was a part of me that wanted to go up on deck to see the harbor as we sailed into Iver. Considering what had happened on this trip, I wasn’t looking forward to getting out on the water again any time soon. I wasn’t sure how we were going to get back home without taking a ship. Driving past Slece was probably an even worse idea now, but that was a problem for later. Before the Mantle Ceremony, I would have never thought that I’d be weighing the risks between avoiding a Goddess and monsters.

  “What are you thinking about?” Trent leaned forward on the couch to look at my face.

  “Just thinking about how far I’ve come since I was a Porter working for Paul.” I took a deep breath. “And thinking about how much farther I’ve got to go.”

  “You’ve not even made it through your first semester.” Trent laughed. “It’s just the 22nd of Sail and we’ve got the whole month of Ech to go.”

  There were six years of the Academy and before I’d made it a third of the way through my first year, I’d already done so many things. I wasn’t sure what the rest of my time at the Academy held, but if these first three months were any indication, my life was only going to get crazier from here on out. I took a deep breath. “Everything is finally starting to come into focus with what I need to do.” I looked over at the man who was everything that I could have hoped for in a father. “Now that I don’t have to worry about hiding from the Gods, I’m excited to see what the rest of this year has in store.”

  “So am I.” Trent patted me on the back. “So am I.”

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