Aelin was waiting for us.

The blonde hopped from one foot to the other as she guarded the door of Trent's RV. We'd wrecked Gesai's in Mive and that city was going to be rebuilding for months, maybe years, after the dungeon break a few weeks ago.

"HURRY UP, YOU TWO!" Aelin waved at us.

I glanced down at my CB. "We still have five minutes." A chuckle threatened to escape as I watched her antics. I made sure that no indication of it appeared on my face.

"Trent's already inside!" She pointed at the idling RV next to us. This one was scarlet with black trim, while Trent's was yellow with white trim. "Miel is taking that one. Green team over there!"

Astrid hurried away from me without a word and got in the other vehicle.

"So?" Aelin stepped out of the way so I could get in. "Is she in the harem?"

"Not like that." The chuckle escaped when Aelin's face fell. "I think you'd have a better shot if anyone did."

"So Pixie?" Ether put down her spoon. The white-haired woman had just finished a bowl of cereal at the booth to the left of the door.

"That would be like mixing oil and fire." I slid into the booth next to her, facing the front of the vehicle.

Aelin rushed over to the driver's seat and jumped into it. "Ha!" She looked over at Trent, who was sitting shotgun. "We have two whole minutes to spare!"

"Who knew the key to motivating people was to impose penalties." The tired old man settled back in his seat. "We've got an eight-hour drive ahead of us. I suggest the five of you think about the monsters in the Harror Dungeons on the drive there." He opened the menu on his CB. "I've got a lot of messages to answer, but I'm sure Miel would be happy to answer any questions you have."

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I looked at the two green women sitting across from me. They both had brown hair as well, but that was where the similarities ended. Fray Harror was five inches shorter and had round ears like the rest of us in the RV, unlike Justia and Rix, who both had more pointed ones. Justia had blue eyes, unlike Fray's brown.

Their personalities were also almost polar opposites. While Fray was timid, Justia wasn't afraid to take the lead. Justia was a healer at heart as well as class and was hard-pressed to hurt a person, while Fray had no trouble inflicting bodily harm. It was almost like looking at two sides of the same coin and if I hadn't known Hye Publian better, I might have thought they were half sisters.

The head of the Publian family ran a free clinic in Harror and while affairs and multiple spouses were a norm, Justia's parents took in strays way too easily for me to believe that Fray's mother wouldn't have been cared for and that Fray wouldn't have known if Hye had been her real father.

I turned to the older version of my wife that was leaning against the kitchen sink. "I thought you'd be on your RV."

Miel shook her head. "My place is with you and my daughter." She smiled. "Kara is riding with them."

That's not going to go well. I groaned inwardly. Ether's older sister had been level-drained during the dungeon break. The former Scarlet had been higher level than Gesai, though I knew that Klix had taken the other teacher down into the Dungeon when the Goddess had gone to farm. I made a mental note to see what level Gesai had reached once we had a chance.

Kara hadn't taken her new assignment well. The twenty-three-year-old had already dove deeper into the Dungeon than most Adventurers ever dreamed of reaching. I imagined for her, having to go to school felt the same as if I were told I'd have to go back to primary school. I wasn't sure what they'd been thinking, but I had a feeling that there was going to be conflict, especially since she was going to be taking a spot in an established class.

"Have you been to Harror before?" Justia kept her voice neutral.

"A few times." Miel went through the menu on her CB. The top of the table shifted from a silver surface to a monster card. "Let's get started."

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