Before Arius actually left, he turned back to Tavras. “Oh, and one more thing: I am breaking up with Evalaite tonight.”

Could Arius even break up with Evalaite if he wanted to? While Val pondered about that, Tavras reacted aggressively.

“That’s good for you, I guess. Why are you even telling me this?”

Arius darted his eyes between Val and the wall. “While I think that it is best if the two of you do not associate with each other, fate has decided to bind you two together as soulmates. Because of that, I just thought that I should let you know.” During his speech, he crossed his fingers together in a rigid, cringey way. “I’m just doing my duty as a god of love or something like that.”

“I don’t know if you realized this,” Tavras said, “but women are not objects. They are not returnable like that.”

Arius shrugged.

“But seriously,” Tavras said, “good for you. I thought you would have ended things with her already. Have you not heard any news while you were in Gon?”

“That would depend. What news?”

Curtly, Tavras laughed. “Never mind. You will realize it eventually. On another note, I don’t think that the announcement went to the mortal world yet or maybe information was suppressed from Gon since you were there. I don’t really pay attention, so I couldn’t tell you.”

“What has happened while I was gone?” Narrowing his eyes, Arius seemed genuinely concerned. He leaned back against the door and crossed his arms.

“Oh, you know, nothing much ever happens. There has been a change to the Pantheon. That’s all.”

“What? And I was not told?” Shock entered Arius’s voice, then his eyes became dominated by a haze of red. “Suvier took me off the Pantheon, didn’t he?”

“No,” Tavras laughed. “You’re his favorite son, remember? How could he ever do anything like that to you?”

“Are you mocking me? He moved Nero up to the second seat, didn’t he?”

From her knowledge of the Pantheon, Val remembered Nero, the god of lightning, as the second son of Suvier who was seated third.

“Again,” Tavras said, “you are his favorite, and you will always be his favorite.”

In response, Arius rolled his eyes as if he had heard that dozens of times before.

Over Tavras’s claim of his relationship with Suvier, Val would trust the way that Arius regarded his father. It would only be fair if the God Supreme treated his children equally and rewarded them based off of their achievements. Arius probably earned his place by being the best of his siblings and hence worried that his status had changed.

“If you are not going to tell me what is new, I can find out myself just as easily.” Arius pulled out his phone and started looking it up.

“Oh, no you don’t. You’re not doing that here. I don’t want to deal with you throwing a temper tantrum.” Lifting up one hand, Tavras made a shooing motion with the backs of his fingers.

“Fine. I will be back tomorrow to assess Val’s skills and sort out her legal situation.” Without further ado, Arius turned on his heel and left.

“Wait—!" she tried to say.

The door shut behind him.

Val would have liked it if he had lingered around a while longer so that she could warn him about Evalaite. No one deserved to be trapped in a relationship with someone who had tried to kill them. If Arius still served Evalaite’s ulterior motives, she was not going to allow him to leave her just like that. Because of that, Val needed to warn him at least.

“Where do you think that you’re going?” Tavras barked.

“You know nothing about the situation.” It felt good saying that right back at Tavras. Without waiting for him to respond, she slammed the door behind her.

Val ran down the street until she caught up to Arius who had his head down to his phone. “Arius, wait!”

“What? Val?” he turned back to her entirely surprised. At once, he put away his phone with a big smile on his face. “To what do I owe the pleasure?” Stooping close to her and whispering low, he said, “Do not speak freely. We have come closer to Suvier’s walls.”

Within a few blinks, Val assessed whether her warning would be acceptable for Suvier to hear. It pertained to Arius and his relationship, not her, though she still hoped that this would not get Arius in trouble with his father. As a grown man, she assumed that he could do whatever he wanted in his personal life.

“Are you going to talk to Evalaite to break up with her?”

“What?” Arius asked, half choked. “Do you think that I would just leave her without a word? I know that I might have come across as a bit of a jerk today, but I am not that bad.”

“No,” Val said hurriedly. “That was not what I meant at all. I mean, it might be a good idea for you not to talk to her.”

“Um, that is a terrible recommendation that you are giving me. I appreciate your concern, but I do not need any advice on how to break up with somebody.”

“Evaliate might not let you break up with her,” Val blurt out. “She manipulated you to start dating her, and she might make it so that you are literally unable to leave her.”

“Uh… thanks for your concern. How do you know that?”

Val hesitated, because it seemed out of place to divulge her ability of Past Insight, especially around Suvier’s walls if she needed to hide her true identity from him. Without Arius knowing that she could see the past, her warning seemed to be coming out of left field. He didn’t believe her. “I am being serious,” was all that Val could really say.

“Okay, well, I am serious about breaking up with her. If I am still dating her tomorrow, then I need help. Come rescue me, I guess.” With a chuckle, Arius winked at her.

“Okay, it’s a deal.” In the event that Evalaite would not let him go, Val had no idea what she could do to rescue a god who was trapped in a relationship. Hopefully, she would not have to worry about that.

The silly smile on his face made Arius look profoundly happy at their awkward exchange. “I’m going to go now. You should head back in.”

“Yeah, I should.” Hesitantly, Val turned to go just as Arius also spent some seconds in deciding to walk away. That might have been the most awkward exchange that Val had to date, but she was happy that she had warned him regardless.

When Val went back into the apartment, Tavras grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. He did not handle her as roughly as a god could have, but she still scrunched herself up and drew away. “What is wrong with you?” he screamed in her face.

“I wanted to warn Arius,” Val said in the smallest of voices. “His association with Evalaite is not his fault. When she went with him—willingly,” she added with a spit, “she tried to kill Arius. He doesn’t remember that. Frankly, I am not so sure that Arius would have associated with her romantically at all if not for the way that she edited his memories.” A tight swallow slid down her throat, just waiting for Tavras explode in a bunch of screams at her.

Instead, his reaction was a lot more subdued. Just staring at her and looking at her, Tavras said nothing. Finally, he released a big sigh. “You really are a stalker, aren’t you? Your ability to see the past is something, all right.”

“You’re not surprised by the truth?”

“No. I… already knew this about Evalaite,” Tavras admitted slowly. “She came to the coast and spoke with me, told me all about her plan. As you can imagine, I do not agree with what she is trying to do. Whether or not Arius is a willing participant with Evalaite, he follows his father’s every whim. I will always hate him until he is dead, and the sea is free.”

On that note, Tavras shot his hate-filled glare up to Val. “You need to stay away from Arius—” Before he could get into his advertisement against him, Val cut him off.

“I already know who he is,” she snapped. “The ocean was unaffiliated and free to do as you pleased. Then, Arius was sent to bring you under Suvier’s rule, and you have been restricted from leveling acts of wrath whenever you see fit. Frankly, I think that it is a good thing that the God Supreme chose—"

Tavras’s face seemed to seethe with his twisted expression. “Is that how you see my torment? You think that it is a good thing that mortals can fill the ocean with pollution, and I have to stand by and watch?”

Val shrunk back as much as she could in Tavras’s grip. “I’m sorry. We already apologized to each other today. I really do not understand your connection to the ocean that well, so I’m sorry.”

Releasing her, Tavras also pushed her against the door and turned away.

Where her shoulder hit against the wood, she stayed pressed against the door

A big sigh left Tavras’s lips. His fingers curled into his brow where it knotted up. “I suppose that we do not have much to talk about if you already think that you know everything. Do you really want to accept Arius’s help?”

“Yes. What would we do otherwise?”

“We could run away. My realm is vast. We could hide away somewhere while you get stronger. I am telling you: we could go somewhere tropical! It will be great. That is my proposition.” Tavras turned around with his arms spread wide and a big smile upon his face. “What do you say?”

The simple act of talking about the ocean perked Tavras up. Maybe things could return to normal between them if it were just the two of them on coastal waters. That would be running away from the problem, both Val’s apparent persecution and Tavras’s effective imprisonment. Both of their battles were here.

“I want to stay,” she said slowly. “I have always wanted to come to the Summit. There is no better place for me to get stronger, other than here. I want to accept Arius’s help.”

He shook his head over and over again. “I think that this is a big mistake, but I cannot deny that any time spent on the Summit will help your development. We can always run away as a last resort if things get too bad.”

Val nodded along. She would very much like to run away with Tavras if they were ever left with no other options. Until then, she wanted to stay and do what she could on the Summit.

Like that, Val and Tavras had come to an agreement as to their course of action. For the rest of the day, she needed to stay inside. Val would wait until Arius came back tomorrow morning, hopefully single.