When morning came, Val awoke with a start. Her eyes flung open, wide at once from excitement. Today was the day that she would travel to the Summit of Ascension, at long last.

Before getting up and getting dressed, Val shot a sidelong glance to her long-dead cellphone. More so than going to the Summit, Val simply wanted to have access to electricity again.

As soon as she returned to civilization, she would replace her phone charger and find the nearest electrical outlet. Immediately after her phone powered on and hit one percent, Val would call her mother.

A full two months had passed since they had last been in touch. Originally, her journey across the sea to the Summit was supposed to take three days, but Tavras had turned that time into months. Her mother undoubtedly missed her all of this time, maybe even finished mourning her, thinking that she had died. Either way, her mother must have felt like she had lost her daughter. Both excitement and anxiety coursed through Val with the fact that she would finally be able to talk to her mother once again, today.

She hurriedly got dressed and headed out to the kitchen where Iharu and Fang already sat around the table. There was no Tavras, but he seldom joined them for meals. He probably waited for Val somewhere along the beach where he had caught and cooked his own breakfast of fish. He would have also summoned a sea serpent nearby, ready for them to travel to the Summit.

With such a big day ahead of her, Val figured she ought to eat a good breakfast. First, she set down the plate of meat that Iharu always hunted for Foofy’s meal. Then, she sat at the table for herself and looked at the food spread across the table with hungry eyes. Before she dug in, Val noticed that both Iharu and Fang sat still and quiet.

“Is something the matter?” she asked, looking between them. Her mouth hung open, frozen as she stopped midway through taking a bite of food.

Iharu snorted.

To give a more eloquent answer, Fang communicated with words. “Yes, there is something wrong. I know how much you have been looking forward to going to the Summit today, but your trip has been delayed.”

Val’s nails bit deep into her palm. How long exactly would she have to wait to go to the Summit of Ascension? It felt as if she had been trying to go there since the very beginning of her journey, yet these constant barriers posed artificial delays. Frankly, Val was so thoroughly sick of it that she was not even surprised anymore. In a sarcastic voice, she asked, “Why can I not go to the Summit now?”

“Tavras left last night,” Iharu said.

Now that got a reaction out of Val. Her heart dropped. Had her interaction with him last night made him decide to leave her here with Iharu and Fang for longer? Indeed, he did say that he had thought it was best for them to spend some time apart. In a whisper, she said, “I’m the reason why he left.”

Fang looked confused at the table, glancing between a smug Iharu and a downcast Val. “Uh, I have no idea why you would think that, but let me assure you, this has nothing to do with you. There was an oil spill along the coast of Gon last night. If Tavras’s reaction was anything to judge by, it was a bad one.”

“The sea was unsettled like nothing compared to the ripples that you had caused last night,” Iharu added with a chuckle.

Sitting there with his chin deep into his chest, Fang bobbed his head in a nod. “Tavras has gone to clean up and likely punish the mortals. He should be back in a few days tops, so you just have a little longer with me and Iharu.”

A tight smile pressed to Val’s lips, and she sighed. This would not be so bad, though she would miss being able to talk to her mother today the most. At least her own insolence in confessing her feelings to Tavras had not been the cause of the delay.

“Hurry and eat,” Iharu said. “We have much work to do today, as always.”

"Today, we will travel," Fang said. "Tavras's Paradise is closer to the Summit, so he asked that you wait for him there."

Obediently, Val ate quickly and headed out of the house behind Iharu and Fang, whilst Foofy followed at her heels. They all headed towards the coast.

One of Tavras's sea serpents awaited them in the water. Its lithe and snaking form created an inky shadow beneath the water. The coils of its body occasionally twitched to keep itself afloat.

Without hesitation, Iharu went running and sloshing out to it. She jumped onto its head and gave its scaly fins a big hug. "Hello friend!" she crooned.

Fang, Val, and Foofy followed at a more relaxed pace, almost dreading.

"You have likely been acquainted with Tavras's sea serpents already. Iharu is on friendly enough terms with both Tavras and beasts of the land that sea creatures accept her. You and me are different, though. Don't get too comfortable around sea serpents."

Val recalled the way that a behemoth had run Fang through as a child. Did he also have a less than desirable experience with a sea serpent? At least someone had the sense to dislike sea serpents with her. "Don't worry," she said. "I am not too comfortable around them."

"That's good." While Val could climb onto the sea serpent by herself no problem, Fang still gave her a hand up.

They all settled onto the sea serpent, Foofy between herself and Iharu. Along with Foofy, Val was also in the middle on Fang's other side. Like that, they set off.

The sea serpent swam slowly as it kept its head above the water for them. There would be no swimming faster underwater since Tavras was not here to provide a bubble of air beneath the surface.

"Have you been to Tavras's Paradise before?" Fang asked.

"Yes. That was where he kept me for the past two months or so since he found me."

Iharu made a grunting sound but did not say anything.

Meanwhile, Fang was much more expressive as he blinked in shock. "Did he really take you to his Paradise?"

"Why? Is that significant for some reason?"

"Yes!" Fang exclaimed.

"No," Iharu siad, unmoving as ever. "Evalaite is not there anymore, so that place is no longer special."

Val's ears pricked up, and a jab in her chest pricked worse. She would ask who that was, except for the fact that she already knew.

Evalaite was a major goddess, seated tenth in the Pantheon. Of all things, Evalaite was the goddess of love. By the simple reference of her having been on Tavras's Paradise in the past, Val could put two and two together. They must have been lovers.

In retrospect of last night, Val felt all the more ashamed of her confession. Of course Tavras would have zero interest in her, because he had dated many more interesting people throughout his life--the very goddess of love, for one. Given how they were both immortal, maybe some relationship existed there, though Tavras had never said that he was declining her due to his relationship status. Maybe, Val could still become someone worthy of a relationship with him, so she refused to give in to shame. Her chin held high against the vast sea.

Whenever she had intense thoughts like this, Val ought to practice her Mind Shield and see if she could keep her thoughts private from Iharu. Once her Mind Shield had been put up, active, her thoughts could no longer be probed without sensing the foreign person shifting through her head. Indeed, Iharu raked through her mind with her own, hard and rough like claws.

"You are like an animal in search of a mate."

At Iharu's declaration, a cough from surprise came from her throat. "Excuse me?"

“The only reason that you want Tavras is because he is an acceptable, potential mate even though he is ill-suited for you.”

Staring at her completely dumbfounded only made Iharu explain more.

“You are a young woman, inexperienced but with many desires. You will like the next man who is an acceptable, potential mate, just as well. Hopefully you will find somebody that suits you better, even.”

What could Val even say to that? While she knew that Iharu lacked social graces, her face still boiled over to a hearty red. Her knees pressed tightly together so that not a gap of space existed between her thighs.

Her crush on Tavras had developed quickly, but strengthened over the course of these past two months. Val did not think herself so flippant with her feelings that she would switch to liking the next kind, handsome man who she would come across.

"Your unreleased desires make you more anxious than you should be about these things." Iharu laughed curtly and put her words bluntly. "If you would just have sex once, your head would be much clearer."

"Uh, ignore Iharu's suggestion--" Fang began.

"I would offer Fang to you for that purpose but he prefers to keep his relationship with his girlfriend monogamous."

"Iharu!" Fang shouted. "You are making both me and Val extremely uncomfortable. Could you shut up?"

"I am not wrong," Iharu said with a skulking mutter.

Val had never felt her face burn hotter before in her life. Foofy sat on one side of her, while Fang was on the other. With not much space on the sea serpent's head and fins, the side of her body brushed up against Fang. She had never taken any notice of this before, until now. Val tried to press into Foofy's side as much as she could, pushing them both closer to Iharu who had been the source of the offense.

In her heart, she knew that she truly did appreciate Tavras exclusively. No other man would turn her head so easily. Past her lowered brow, Val dared to peer up to Fang.

His face had a rosy complexion too, and one hand hid the lower half of his face. "What Iharu was trying to say is that there are many fish in the sea. The Sea Itself just isn’t the one for you. Trust us on that. Tavras is, uh, focused on other things in his life.."

"Another person--" Iharu spat.

Fang continued talking. "Keep your mind open when other options are available to you. Just, uh, I am not one of those options.”

“Yeah,” Val said, looking down to her feet. In the back of her mind, hope lived on. After all, Tavras had said that he would reconsider her once she had officially become a goddess. Still, the rejection for the time being hurt, even more so now that she had learned of his connection to Evalaite.

To lighten the mood, she looked back up to Fang with a smile. "Iharu had said that you have a girlfriend. Who is she? What is she like?"

The conversation got to shift away from Val and her pathetic love life and onto Fang. He turned out to be in a happy, committed relationship with a demigoddess. Mallory centered her attribute around flowers, living by the principle of the abilities in which she had developed.

"You should see them in the spring!" Iharu howled. "They both have blossoms in their hair and go around spreading the seeds for new fields of flowers together."

"Do not mock Mallory's tribute to the earth! Flowers are incredibly important to the ecosystem."

"The only reason why she is dating you is because you are one of the few vegan men in existence and you put up with her flower nonsense."

Now, Val got to listen to Iharu and Fang bicker the entire way. Why did she let herself be placed between them again? Since she had nothing better to do, she tried laying Keep the Peace over the two of them, but all that did was bring Iharu's jeers back around to her.

Once they had arrived at Tavras's Paradise, Val jumped off of the sea serpent first with Foofy leaping after her. The two of them swam to the beach and wandered off on the island that was familiar to them. Val just wanted some space to clear her head--peace and quiet to reaffirm to herself that she did indeed have a chance with Tavras, and she only wanted him.