Later that night, Iharu was resting inside of the cabin. As the good brother that he was, Fang was tending to her. Val did not feel like she belonged inside of their cabin, so she sat outside in a dark, lonely grove.

Not even Foofy could come with her. While Tavras had healed him shortly after his rest, he had to stay in the warmth of their cabin too. The nights had grown too cold for him, without their little shelter on Tavras’s Paradise to keep them warm.

Val, on the other hand, had ventured out here alone. After what she had done today, she belonged out here in the dark of night without even Foofy to comfort her. Gazing down to her feet, she wondered if any behemoths would come for her.

The weather was too cold for her as well. With her knees balled up to her chest, she shook in her shivers. At some point, she would be forced to return before frostbite set in.

Instead, she would have to suffocate in the oppressive atmosphere that was Iharu and Fang’s cabin. There, she only got to experience the hushed whispers and sidelong glares from Fang.

As if the Weaver of fate sought to punish her, it began to drizzle on top of everything. Her wet hair and clothes made her shake uncontrollably. Val would need to head back now unless she wanted to pass out in a shade of blue.

When she was about to get up, a low voice spoke, the one that always used to make her feel happy. “Hey Val. You shouldn’t be out here.”

Val turned back to look at Tavras. Her face probably looked teary from the rainwater on her cheeks, but she did not care. She turned her back to him once more so that she could face the dark trees beyond. “I do not belong in there either.”

After a pause, Tavras decided on saying something else. “I’m sorry for raining on you. I needed the water to tell me where to find you.” Slowly, he sat down at her side.

By his Bend Water, the droplets were removed from Val’s person. While she was no longer wet and would not become any colder, it also seemed impossible for her body to regain any sense of warmth.

“You’re freezing. Here.” Tavras draped a cloak over her shoulders and kept an arm around her. “You should at least grab warmer clothes if you are going to sit out here.”

Val did not need a lecture right now, especially not from Tavras who had never bothered with getting either of them warmer clothes as the months had drawn colder. “What do you normally do in winter? Do you keep warmer clothes somewhere?” Even the warmest of clothes would not do him much good considering how Tavras liked to stay in the ocean.

“I usually migrate. Why should I bother to stay in either hemisphere during the wintertime?”

“Right.” So soon, there conversation had dried up. Val clutched the cloak tightly to her breast in a useless attempt to warm up. All the while her body wracked in its shivers.

In the silence, Tavras moved to drape an arm over her shoulders. His hand rubbed a bit at her forearm, trying to warm her up a bit.

More than the heat that he provided, the presence of his arm around her back made a heat kindle within her. Something about nearly killing Iharu made Val shameless or perhaps brazen. She dared to lean into Tavras’s side, and he let her stay there and sap his warmth.

He also had a cloak, so the two of them sat together and shared their warmth while they had their backs swaddled in the soft cloth.

Despite the way that she loathed herself, her heart could still burn for Tavras. Without needing so much as a second to absorb some of his body heat, Val started to feel hot inside at once.

His hand squeezed at the side of her arm. “What happened today was not your fault, kiddo.”

Again, they had a pause until Val found the words to speak her mind. “It was my fault. I had no idea that I could deliver an attack powerful enough to actually hurt Iharu that badly. I was out of control.”

“And, your point is…?” Tavras asked with a big, drawling question. “You might have been out of control, but so was Iharu. At least you are young and first exploring your powers. Iharu has no excuse for the way that she was acting. Frankly, I think that she needs to be trounced every once in a while.”

How could he say something like that? Val looked up to him with shock. “I almost killed her.”

“Yes, and ‘almost’ is the key word. You did not kill her.”

“I only have you and Fang to thank for that.”

“Exactly,” Tavras said. “You would never have been put in a position to spar with Iharu if we were not there to supervise the fight. Frankly, I was expecting Iharu to nearly kill either you or Foofy before we would have to put an end to it. This result turned out much better than I had hoped.”

With tight lips, Val tried to let that sink in.

“I’m proud of you, Val.”

Her ears perked up as did her heart swell. He could have said ‘I love you’ for how much that meant to her. A massive smile pealed across her lips so that she could beam up to him. “Are you really proud of me?”

“Yes, of course. You are a powerful demigoddess—everything that I could have hoped for.”

Val gazed into those eyes, a calm and steady blue that was almost natural in color. With a sigh, she let herself sink deeper into Tavras’s arms. These feelings, she kept to herself and let them grow firmer in her heart.

She adored Tavras, the way that he had trained her and made all of this possible. She had worked so hard to become everything that he could hope for. The simple act of replaying those words in her head made her want to wiggle in happiness if not for the way that she sat so close to him.

Her heart beat away, each pulse noticeable in her chest. She was actually sitting here with Tavras and sharing a physical connection with him. Later, Val would replay this moment again and again with Past Insight.

Her eyes closed to better enjoy this moment. Scarcely moving, Val was too afraid to do anything that could possibly interrupt the magic that had kindled between them. In the end, it was her lack of animation that caused the cessation of the moment.

“You better not be falling asleep on me. It is too cold out here for that!”

“Mm,” Val agreed with him.

“Come on. Let’s head inside.” Tavras got up, but when Val stayed sitting, he started in a speech. “I know that you feel uncomfortable in the house, but just know that I do not hold anything against you. Fang is the most upset, but you already saw how he is. It would be impossible for him not to forgive you. Iharu will be mad for a bit and might try to get you back, but she will come around. You did beat her fair and square after all. I already talked to her. She will perform the ceremony for Foofy’s ascension tomorrow!”

That was right. Foofy would now become her divine dog. Val stared up to the dark canopy with starry eyes.

“He is waiting for you right now, you know. I am skeptical that dogs actually have feelings, but he has seemed sad ever since the fight.”

“Of course, Foofy has feelings!” Val jumped up and gave Tavras a slight punch on the arm.

“Then let’s hurry up and get back to him.”

The two of them took off through the trees. Tavras always ran playfully ahead of Val and made fun of her when she lagged behind. Their breaths turned to frost in the air, and both were panting by the time that they made it back to Iharu and Fangarus’s cabin.

Val had the biggest grin on her face as she looked forward to the ceremony in which Foofy would ascend to the status of a divine beast.

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

Divine Judgement

combat, tactical

- deals punishment for morally offensive acts

- punishment must equal the crime

- incredibly versatile with regards to type of punishment

- extemely powerful to the point of killing some gods—must be careful

Keep the Peace

tactical

- calm agitated creatures

- can sense the baser emotions of others

- works on animals up to the size of dogs, as well as mortal humans

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

Mind Blast combat

- physical blow from the mind

- can shoot herself backwards with equal force

Past Insight

cognitive

- watch a replay of the past

- three 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

- can fast-forward through time in a vision

- one day cool down after a failed vision