Loosely, Val had her fingers wrapped around Arius’s hand. “Hey. You have had a rough day. I am not going to hold it against you.”

His hand turned over and clenched onto hers. “See? This could be why we are soulmates.”

Here Val was holding a god’s hand because he was struggling. It was inherently more dreamy for him than for her, she realized with a jolt. By being overly nice to him, she would probably always have him as her stalker. Aware of this, Val still did not have the heart to treat him any differently.

“I can help you relax with Keep the Peace,” she said. “You just need to stop resisting it.”

“Okay. Right. I need to stay calm tonight. We are trying to have a nice conversation.” A big sigh left Arius as he picked his head up from the grass. His eyes softened in their red hue as Keep the Peace reiterated over him.

Now that he had calmed down some, Val wanted to return to the topic of her father. As much as it unsettled her to know that the God Supreme not only had imperfections but also malevolent tendencies, it also reassured her to know that her own father had been a good god. Her heart lifted a bit.

Though Val had never cared about her father before, maybe she would not mind meeting him in the immortal world. “Do you know where my father is now?”

“Um, about that….”

Her eyes squeezed shut. Considering how many gods that Arius was said to have killed and how he had mentioned that he had met him in battle, this did not bode well. Had Arius been the one to kill her father that she never got to meet?

Anger instilled in her at the prospect and riled her up. “I thought that you were somehow going to justify why we were soulmates. Did you kill my father?”

“No!” Arius exclaimed. “Although, I am sorry to inform you that he did perish in that fight. It was by Suvier’s hands, not mine. I was somewhere else.”

Val balled her hands into fists. Her nails bit into the back of Arius’s hand which she still happened to hold. Drawing away, she preferred to cut her nails into her own palms.

On the bright side, she now knew what happened to her father. At least he had a good reason for never having a presence in her life. The smallest hole in her heart tore open.

Maybe Balduino would have loved her and been an amazing dad to her, if only he had been alive to fulfill the joys of fatherhood. To think that all this time, she had despised and degraded her father’s memory.

While Val lay here in turmoil, Arius took to telling another story.

“I had departed to chase after Brixatorrixom and your mother. She had your brother as a baby and you were not born yet, at the time.” His eyes darted away, and he said, “I did not kill you before you were born, so that is one thing that I have going for me.” A nervous laugh prattled from him.

“Ah, yes. That makes us perfect soulmate material.” Her voice beheld no sarcasm, only criticism.

“I’m sorry. That was supposed to be a joke.”

“This is not a very funny topic.”

“Yeah, I know. Let me offer my condolences. I’m sorry about your father, and also the fact that you never got to meet him.”

Val hummed and intoned, “It is not like I ever knew him or thought about him much.” Another time perhaps, she would invest more energy into mourning the man that she had never met. It would be better if she kept the atmosphere light with Arius for tonight, for both of their sakes.

“I don’t know where he received a burial, but I do know the region where he died. You could figure out his final resting place and see if you can talk to him on All Souls’ Day.”

Val nodded along. Past Insight could always help her find that too. It looked like she would actually have somebody to visit on All Souls’ Day when that came around again next year.

“So, basically Suvier wants me dead because my father was the previous God Supreme. Can he not trust that I was raised to believe in him and be happy with his rule? I don’t think that I really had a problem with him as God Supreme until I learned that he wants to kill me, apparently.”

Arius tightened his lips. “It is more complicated than that. It is not just your status as Balduino’s daughter that poses a threat. It would be a self-fulfilling prophecy if Suvier wanted to kill you for that reason alone. You are also the daughter of a powerful goddess known as the Demiweaver. Can you guess how she earned that title?”

Demigods were one thing. Gods were another thing, vastly stronger than the former. In comparison to gods, the Weaver was on an entirely different plane of existence.

The Weaver was the first cause. It started the chain reaction of all things in the universe, and as such, it presided over them all. It was the very fabric time, past and future. The Weaver constructed the threads in which carried them about their lives from fated birth to predestined end. If her mother had become known as the Demiweaver, then she must have developed extensive powers to manipulate fate itself.

“I always thought that my mother was a mortal woman. It looks like I have never met my real mother either,” she mused. “What can she do to destiny that let her be known as the Demiweaver?”

A perplexed look crossed Arius’s face as he tilted his head. “She might have had a mortal woman raise you, but I doubt it. I think that your mother would have stayed with you throughout your childhood, or at the very least, she would have visited you often. I don’t know if you had a relative or a godmother sort of figure who could have been the Demiweaver in actuality.”

Val could only look on at him with her brow raised. “I don’t know. My mother did some strange things. She did not always act like the simple mortal woman that she was supposed to be, but….” Trailing off, Val shook her head hard.

She knew the mysterious ways that her mother had acted. Even when she had let her mother speak to Tavras over the phone, the two of them had acted oddly as if they might have been familiar with each other. All evidence pointed to the conclusion that her mother had only pretended to be a mortal. Her mother was the Demiweaver.

As it turned out, Val had not one but two major deities for her parents.