Before he had pulled Val onto his island paradise, Tavras had asked the water for a favor. He had required certain information delivered to him by the next rainfall. Luckily for him, Tavras could also Wish for Rain and make enough condensation gather for rainfall whenever he wanted, exactly as he had done the previous night.

Rain had drizzled down to the rippling waves across the ocean. Some of these droplets had consisted of recycled water from Suvier’s Fortress.

Water had a special knack for learning everything about anything—the greatest spy in the world that only gods of water had access to. In the most important meeting rooms, cups of water littered the table to replenish those voices parched from their whispers. The very body of every human contained up to sixty percent water. Sooner or later, they would have to sweat or pee, sending that water back into its cycle.

Therefore, Tavras got to learn everything that was possibly known by Suvier the God Supreme and his allies in the Fortress.

“Two traitorous children,” one droplet of water had announced.

“One daughter,” another drop had splished.

“One son,” yet another had splashed.

Each droplet of rainwater had something to chime in, and each one, Tavras listened to intently. Their clips of words strung together to tell a tale that went something like this.

The male child had already been captured. The prisoner named Rosamer had been brought in for questioning over suspicious, traitorous thoughts in his head that had been reported, related to Balduino. Refusing to submit to a Mind Delve, his appeal for an exception had been granted thanks to his possession of a weak but budding ability of Future Sight.

These two facts had been telling enough in and of themselves. Who could that young demigod possibly be, having the same age as Balduino’s son, caught with thoughts of treason in his mind, and possessing affinity for time like Kierla? Obviously, Rosamer had been identified as one of the traitorous children at once.

The odd part: no thorough interrogations had been conducted on him, neither had he been subjected to imprisonment nor torture. Apparently, he had actually been given apprenticeship under the Truth Teller and was treated according to that role.

That made sense enough, Tavras supposed. Abilities related to time, especially in regards to the future, were coveted and rare. They would use Rosamer for all that he was worth, and once his Future Sight had been ruined from their abusive use, they would cast him away.

Rather than imprisoning him as a traitor by his blood, they wanted Rosamer to believe that he had gone undiscovered, successfully having infiltrated the Fortress. The first traitorous child, Suvier had decided to keep him close. This way, Suvier could glean information from anyone who tried to reach out to him and also feed false information back to the traitors. It was believed that Rosamer would draw his sister to them and so much more, if only they let him believe that he had slipped right under their noses.

It seemed that Suvier was willing to wait in this long game against the remainder of the resistance. This had one major perk: Val’s identity had not been compromised at all. The only known fact about the last traitorous child was that she happened to be a girl.

Not even her name had been slipped, and Rosamer with his Future Sight should have the sense never to utter it. So long as Suvier continued to care about the integrity of Rosamer's Future Sight, then no one would be allowed to read his mind. Those who were privy to the future received special protections, as there were limitations on how much they could manipulate destiny before their precognition would be stripped away from them by the Weaver.

All of this, Tavras had learned last night, arming him with the information that he would need to protect Val. The only thing that the enemy knew about Val was her gender. A small issue like that would be easy enough to fix.

Val was not a particularly pretty girl. She was not particularly ugly either—Tavras did not want to be mean. Just, it looked like she was one bad hair cut away from looking like a little boy, he determined. From there, he would just have to teach her how to actually act like a boy.

While he circled Val in giving her this assessment, he grinned with contentment at his plot for her. Just before, Tavras had suggested for Val to punish those who deviated from her moral compass, and now he would tell her something that would surely set her off.

“Now then, I had said that I would help you along, not only in teaching you, but also by providing you a connection that will protect you. The easiest way to communicate a connection between us is if I claim you as my child.”

Val’s eyes grew wide in her head, almost mortified for some reason.

Would Tavras make for a bad enough father to warrant that reaction? He could not even take offense to that, because Tavras knew the answer: most definitely. His attempts at raising children had turned out poorly at best, in the past. Even so, Tavras had tried his hardest. At least he had actually been there for those kids when their parents were not around to do so.

Now, Tavras could do the same thing for Balduino and Kierla's daughter. Admittedly, it was a shame that he did not grab their son in the same way that he had snatched Val off of the boat. That had been an oversight on his part, but at least Rosamer seemed like he was faring well enough on his own.

“Are you actually my father?” Val asked.

It seemed that his suspicions proved right insofar that she had no idea of her status as Balduino’s daughter. Either that, or she had the sense to pretend not to know about her blood relations. If only Tavras could read minds as well as he could Read Blood, then he would have been able to know for sure.

Assuming that her ignorance was real and not feigned, Tavras ought to lie to her and take on the role as her biological father. He only needed to agree with her, and he would become her true father in her mind. She would be safer that way, so his mouth opened to say yes, but for some reason, his voice came out differently. “No.”

The wind roared around in his ears. Why had Tavras just said no? As much as he wanted to kick himself over this, he knew at heart that it did not matter. Hardly anyone would have believed that he had fathered a child of his own anyway. He had this habit of picking up orphaned kids from strange places.

“I have never had any children, but I consider all of the creatures of the sea to be my own. Anyone and everyone knows not to touch one of my children, unless they want a burial by water.” He laughed, even though drowning people did not tickle his fancy most days. “I have done this with other humans in the past, too. It would not be out of the ordinary for me to call a random demigod my son.”

After a long pause, Val asked, “Uh, you do know that I am a girl, right?”

Now was when Tavras needed to put on a convincing act. With an irrepressible smile, he said dramatically, “Yes, but I won’t have a daughter! If you want this arrangement with me, then you must be a man from now on.”

Hopefully, trying to protect a woman would make this sexism excusable, as odd as that sounded. Knowing that he was not serious but needing to act the part, Tavras did his best to straighten his face.

Each second grew harder for him, what with that deadpan stare of Val’s mounting anger. He had been spot-on. Comical sexism was a great way to push a demigoddess's buttons.

Impossible to restrain himself anymore, Tavras doubled over laughing. This is why he loved keeping with his jolly demeanor. He could laugh at this grand joke, while maintaining the needed guise of seriousness the entire time. Anyone would believe him to be nothing more than his good, old, erratic self.

As if she were in on the joke, Val started laughing too but much more uneasily. “You can cut it out now. I think that I have known you long enough by now to understand that you are joking.”

“Whenever have I joked about something serious?” Tavras leaned back and opened up his arms. “I am as serious as ever.”

“No, I don’t believe you.” Val took on a more imposing, defensive stance. “We had just discussed how I am going to punish immoral people, so of course you would try to say something outrageous just to offend me.”

While it would have been more fun for Tavras if she would have flipped out all at once, it was a good sign that she had a decent level of intelligence, at least. Val did not seem to be a total meathead as he had believed at first.

Tavras returned to circling her, drawing himself closer to stand immediately behind her. His charms still had some effect on her, appearing to fluster her to some extent. She was very obvious in her attraction to him. This, he could use to his advantage and tease her a little.

“It seems that I have lost some of my shock value,” Tavras whispered. His hand stroked through her plain, long hair, gathering it up at the back of her head. Still whispering to her, he said, “It looks like I will have to win some of that back.”

Her long hair was the defining factor that made her look like a girl. Without long hair, though, she would be confused for a boy more often than not. With the state on the lookout for a second traitorous child being a young woman, Val would be much safer as a boy.

Quietly, he slipped his knife from its leather sheath. Then, he slung the stone blade through all of her hair that he had gathered, as close to her skull as he could manage without cutting her.

Val’s hair scattered from his fist, much like feathers drifting from the air.

Instinctively, she gasped and cried out. Val yanked away from him at once. One hand grasped at what remained of her dull locks. It was not like her ugly hair would be much of a loss, but of course she would freak out regardless. “Ah! My hair!”

That was exactly the reaction that he had been expecting. It was only too bad that Tavras did not get to cover his ears in time.

“There you go. You look just like a boy now,” Tavras said with a wink. The knife twirled around in his fingers so that he could brandish it in front of her face before sheathing it. “Do you still think that I am joking around here?”

The skin of Val’s face boiled to a bright red. It seemed that he had finally elicited the reaction that he wanted, and once she lashed out at him, she would be in for the beating of a lifetime.

Tavras was grinning, ready to play around with this kiddo in a fight.