The Temple was one of the largest buildings in town.

  We ate our donuts on the way. Once we walked into the two-story building, Trent ducked off to the side and disappeared through one of the doors marked Temple Access Only. It didn’t surprise me that he had access to areas of the Temple that the general public didn’t. Trent’s relationship with the Temple through Archbishop Mavery allowed him privileges that most other people didn’t even know existed.

  I wondered how many of those privileges had been rescinded since Mavery had withdrawn his support from our team. There were a lot of uncertainties now that the Archbishop was trying to protect himself.

  We got in line as the daily farmers got checked in. Jyscor wasn’t a large town, so there weren’t a lot of farming teams, but there were enough that we were going to have to wait our turn as the regulars were called up to check in.

  There was only one receptionist on duty, which slowed the process down considerably. She also took her job very seriously, going over each team’s roster and their destination in the Dungeon while cross-referencing that information with where the classes were going to be training.

  I didn’t understand the need for such detail. The farmers almost always wanted floor twenty-five, with some of them choosing floor sixteen. For a godless town, none of the students were going to get to level twenty-five before they graduated and from what I remembered, the sixteenth floor was only off-limits during the last month of the year. So it shouldn’t have been an issue for the lone farming team that was signing up to farm it.

  When it was our turn, the green woman at the front desk smiled at us as she looked us over. “Hello! I’m Phine Tridi. How can I help you?”

  “Instructor Miel Warray.” Our protector stepped forward and held out her CB. “I’ve got this class that I’m taking to practice on the first-floor boss.”

  “Yes, I just need to get your party registered.” Phine brushed a lock of brown hair behind her pointed ear as she pulled up our information on her screen. “Let’s see here, Our first year classes are currently scheduled to go into the Dungeon this afternoon, so if you’re still down there after lunch—”

  “We’re just here to do a little training while we wait for our ship.” Miel interrupted the woman. “We’ll only be an hour, tops.”

  “Right…” The receptionist glanced over at Aelin, who stifled a yawn. “It looks like your team is all level four, so they should be able to handle it, but they look a little tired.” She looked over us, then turned to Miel. “Are you sure they should be going down there in their current condition?”

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  “They’ll be fine.” Miel growled as she folded her arms against her chest. “We’ve had a long drive and it’s early, but they’re ready to go.”

  I half expected Aelin to say something, but she must have been able to sense that Miel was not in the mood to be messed with, because she stayed quiet. I wondered how long it was going to take the receptionist to realize that Miel wasn’t someone she wanted to irritate.

  The receptionist looked at the bandage on our teacher’s arm. “Have you gotten that looked at?” She looked back at her screen. “The Priest here is only Tier Four, so I know it would take more spells to heal a Tier Five like yourself, but he could heal that for you and you could let your team rest while—”

  “We’re fine.” Miel took a deep breath. “They’re fine, I’m fine, we’re all fine!” She motioned at us, then turned back to the receptionist. “We just want to go down to the Dungeon and clear the first floor to kill time while we’re waiting on our ship!”

  “And I want to help, but you’re obviously injured and your students are tired, also…” She us over again. “It looks like you’re down a Shooter.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry, but Temple policy states that I’m only supposed to allow full student teams into the Dungeon.” She smiled sweetly. “If you need to take a moment to rest while you wait on your other teammate, then I can schedule you down later, but until you come back with a full team—”

  Miel looked like she was about to reach across the counter and strangle the receptionist. I knew that it wouldn’t take much for the Enforcers to get called, but if their Priest was only Tier Four, there was no one here who would be able to stop her.

  I opened my mouth to tell Miel that we could come back with Trent, but a deep, but sweet voice beat me to it.

  “I have their other party member right here.”

  I turned around to see a familiar ivory man walking towards us, though I didn’t know where I knew him from. The Adventurers between us parted to let the white-haired man through. His dark eyes focused on me as his lips parted in a smile. He wasn’t muscular, but he was tall and I could tell by the way that the others were giving him space that his Aura stat was very high.

  The demihuman behind him was an Anubis. The black-skinned woman was captivating, though no one else was looking at her. I hadn’t seen many Anubis, so I wasn’t sure of her age, but I would have guessed she was around my age. There was a hint of mischief in her yellow eyes and the skimpy leather outfit looked like something a Speed class might wear, but it wasn’t going to protect much.

  “Of course, your grace.” Phone swallowed and typed something in on the console. “Will you also be accompanying them?”

  He let out a hearty laugh. “You know I can’t do that.” His smile swept over all of us. “But I’ll be waiting for them once they get back.” He waved his hand over Miel. “And that should take care of your concern about her injury and…” There was a faint pulse.

  The exhaustion that I’d felt vanished as I was suddenly more rested and refreshed than I’d ever been.

  “That should take care of their fatigue.” He winked at me. “May the drops ever be what you need.”

  “O-kay…” The green woman motioned at the door behind her. “You’re free to enter the portal room.” She bowed her head. “And if there is any way I can serve you, Lord Nevah. It would be my pleasure.”

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