That day at school finished with the ringing of the final bell. Much to Val’s relief, she got to hurry out of school and carry on with her life.

Her favorite dog Foofy no longer offered her so much practice with Keep the Peace. As soon as Val arrived at the animal shelter, he woofed at her briefly, then pranced with excitement.

All of the other dogs combined gave her more of a challenge these days. Lucky for her, Val no longer required the shelter worker to babysit her just to take a dog out of its kennel for a walk. As all the dogs barked at her from the kennels, Val closed her eyes.

A sea of tranquility gathered beneath her ribs, and in her heart, she held this power close. Then, she sent the energy outward in every direction to attempt an area of effect, stronger than those she had used against the pigeons.

All at once, the dogs grew silent throughout the entire shelter.

Val knew how to Keep the Peace. At least among medium-sized animals, she had no doubt that she could quell an agitated beast with a simple thought from her mind. The progress that she had made on this ability made her lips draw upward in a smile. Val had just silenced every dog inside of the animal shelter in a matter of seconds.

For the rest of her time at the animal shelter, Val walked Foofy and the other dogs. Afterwards, she headed home to work on Past Insight.

“How was your day at school?” her mother asked in a singsong voice as Val walked in.

“Actually, today went surprisingly well.” Casually, Val kicked off her sneakers and left them alongside the door.

Yesterday, she had been in a particularly glum mood after the altercation with Gina, but she had refused to tell her mother about it. As a mortal woman, her mother might just have felt more outraged over the bullying than about her divine blood having been exposed. Now, since everything had already resolved itself, Val made sure to talk more about her day so that her mother would not have any reason to worry.

In the end, her mother ended up saying, “You are not normally this talkative. Are you trying to hide something from me?”

Val widened her eyes because her plan had certainly backfired on her. Maybe she should not have tried to avert suspicion by acting more cheerful than usual. The deviation from her typical behavior had made her more suspicious than anything else.

Val decided to fall back onto her favorite technique with her mother: telling a vague truth. “I did have a particularly bad day, yesterday. It seemed that you had caught onto that, so I just wanted to let you know that I’m doing well!”

“That is quite perceptive of you,” her mother said with a kindly smile. “I am glad that whatever was troubling has subsided. If you ever need help with anything, I’m always here for you.”

“Thanks, Mom. I know.” Her mother’s constant kindness brought a smile to Val’s face, even if she could not help her with much due to not having divine blood herself.

Her mother still sought to provide support through her enthusiasm. “The good news is that tomorrow is Friday!” she cheered. “You have almost completed a full week of school. How does that feel?”

“It feels really good.” Now that she had been in school for a few days in a row, each day became easier to attend. Not to sound like a nerd or anything, but in some ways, Val took interest in how the next day’s material would build off of the last. “I still have more work to catch up on,” she said, thinking to some assignments which she had been trying to turn in.

“Good luck,” her mother said.

When she retreated to her room, Val did some of the easiest assignments from her schoolwork. If she was going to continue to attend, she might as well graduate with some not-atrocious grades. Val had the predisposition to do well in anything that she did, pointless tasks included.

As the night wore on, so did her patience for mundane activities. Her mind pondered the puzzle of the icy barrier, and the solutions to her math problems started coming out all wrong.

Val packed away her textbook and notebook, figuring that this had been enough studying for one day. Instead, she used her critical thinking to imagine a way to take down the barrier.

In the frenzy of her limited seconds, she always searched the barrier as aggressively as she could. Every single nook and cranny of its jagged surface, Val had traversed with her mind. Now, she had more time than ever. Her duration for staying in the tunnel of time had capped out at sixty seconds which could now accommodate some different strategies.

A new ability might be necessary to pass the barrier. Val found herself at crossroads. Two options lay before her, and each one would take her set of abilities down a different path. The way that Val saw it, she could either be covert and tactical by trying to phase through the barrier or she could try to be strong and aggressive and force her way through the barrier.

Val knew which one of these suited her style better. Considering how she had already been trying to sneak through the barrier for months, Val wanted nothing more than to blow it to smithereens.

Alas, she would not have the strength of her physical body available in the construct of time. Val needed to rely on her divine blood and develop a new ability, something that could create a physical attack with nothing more than her mind.

Situating herself on her bed, Val lifted her spine into a straight line while her hands relaxed over top of her knees. With a great inhalation, her eyes closed and began to search along the dark backs of her eyelids. She felt ready to begin the development of a new ability.

Character Update

* New information is marked in cyan.

* All entries are based on what Val knows.

Valentine (Val) Title: None Rank: Demigoddess Attributes: None Abilities Name Class Description

Keep the Peace

tactical

- calm agitated creatures

- can sense the baser emotions of others

- works on animals up to the size of dogs

- can manage multiple animals at once, according to their strength

Past Insight

cognitive

- watch a replay of the past

- four pieces of initial information are required

- can stay in the tunnel of time for up to one minute

- real time passes slower in the vision

- one day cool down after a failed vision