Val did not use her fork to eat. Instead, she used the tines to push the fish and hashbrowns into a new array on her plate. “Tavras, you don’t need to have this discussion with me. Trust me—my mother already gave me those lectures even though I never had a boyfriend.”

One awkward hand stuck out in his defense. “Yes, I do trust that she gave you whatever talks at the appropriate ages. She also was a mortal woman though, so you were never warned against the dangers pertaining to your divine blood, especially being who you are.” Tavras said that in a vague way, as if Arius had not already told her that she was the daughter of the previous God Supreme and the Demiweaver.

Val let her head slam onto the table hard enough that Foofy came over to see if she were okay.

It was ironic how Tavras of all people thought to give her this talk to be careful around old immortals. Just yesterday, he had revealed his full intention to not just tease her or wait for her to get older but also manipulate her. It was something that Val should have always seen coming, yet only in retrospect, did her skin crawl at her prior crush.

“I already learned my lesson the hard way,” Val said with her arms folded into herself. “Eternal youth is misleading. Don’t fall for any of the old, predatory gods. I know better by now.”

“Excuse me?” Tavras said, nearly flabbergasted. “I’m not predatory.”

“I never said that you were.” She had nothing else to say to him. Val tilted her head along the surface of the table and glared.

“Look, you eavesdropped on my conversation with Evalaite last night. It was a terrible thing for me to say.” Both of his hands stretched out to her as if to mediate between them, but his face winced up with the full extent of his guilt. “Evalaite brings out the worst in me, so I said some things that I did not actually mean. As always, you are like a daughter to me, not… anything else.” Momentary confusion passed over his face, but more confidently, he reiterated, “I’m here to help you.”

“Yeah,” she said crossly. Again, Val had nothing to say. She just wanted to sit through this talk and get it over with. The sooner that the conversation ended, the sooner that she could go outside and scream.

“Do you know the three types of demigods that can come into existence?” Tavras asked.

Already, Val had to pinch her lips together out of frustration and ignorance. She did not actually know the answer to this. “I know that there are two types. There are demigods who were born with their innate power and those who were chosen from mortals to become heroes. The latter doesn’t really exist outside of myths though, right?”

Tavras nodded. “The hereditary variant of demigods far outnumber the chosen in this age. However, the first immortals were all chosen directly by the Weaver. I was one of those demigods back in the day.” Quickly, he shook his head and dismissed that topic with a wave of his hand to keep himself from going down a tangent.

Val found herself leaning over her plate of food. Had Tavras, the Sea Itself, really started his life as a simple mortal like the myth? The amount that she knew about him was miniscule compared to the wealth of his long life. She would not mind learning more about him, but he never talked about himself much.

“Of the hereditary demigods, it is useful to think about them in two groups.” Tavras had held his index and middle fingers together but now split them apart so that he held up two fingers. “You can call them different things: high born versus low born, pure versus mixed, and so on. Are you getting the idea here?”

Her front teeth pinched down onto her bottom lip. When she had been on the beach near the Old First Pier, she had met a demigod who looked down on her the moment that she had said that she was coming from the mortal world. “Um, the so-called pure demigods have two immortal parents, whereas the mixed demigods have only one immortal parent.” It was obvious which one would be inferior to the other.

“Generally speaking, yes,” Tavras said. “Though it depends more so on the parents’ strength and reputation. The children of two weak, mixed demigods will always remain weak, mixed demigods. On the other hand, the children of two strong, mixed demigods are considered pure.” He used his fork to stab some pieces of fish quite fiercely. “It’s more of descriptive designation rather than prescriptive. Some mixed demigods are incredibly strong, but it is undeniable that the most powerful immortals tend to come from purebred lines.”

Val did not dwell on this much before, but it certainly made sense enough. The strong would beget the strong. She herself had recently discovered her place in that paradigm.

“I’m a pure demigoddess,” she stated. “I’m the daughter of the previous God Supreme and the Demiweaver. What is your point about all of this?”

Tavras sat there stunned for a moment before slapping one hand over his eyes. “I doubt that Arius finished teaching you a comprehensive Mind Shield before telling you all of this.”

“Well, it is not like you can make me forget it now.”

Considering Evalaite’s ability to edit memories, at least one method existed that could make her forget anything in her head. Most likely, more techniques for memory erosion would exist too. Val gritted her teeth, because she wanted to hang on to this information and have Tavras respect her right to know about her own identity.

His hand drew along his face. “Fuck. I suppose that I will have something to discuss with the bastard later. Let me emphasize this again: you must be careful around him.”

Val rolled her eyes and focused on eating her food. Her appetite had been regained long ago, but she wanted to hurry up and finish before this conversation went somewhere gross.

“Anyway, do you know what strong gods and goddesses like to do? They prefer to surround themselves with powerful children. Obedient, well-raised children are usually the most dependable allies because they were spoon-fed their parents’ worldview since they left the womb. Our wonderful God Supreme is a prime example of this. You might not have realized this from the mortal realm, but he surrounded himself with all of the most powerful fertility goddesses.”

Val scrunched up her nose at the remainder of her hashbrowns. “Can you just get to the point already?” She suspected that she knew where this was going in its relation to her.

Times like this made Val only wish that she could have been a boy in actuality. It would have saved her this terrible discussion.

“Lucky for you, your bloodline is tainted by your parents who Suvier considers to be traitors. You don’t have to worry about him or anyone in his inner circle keeping you for… breeding stock.” Tavras not only went there, but he had chosen to phrase it in that way.

Val stood up immediately, swearing that she would leave right now. “Suvier, damn you. I can’t believe the things that come out of your mouth sometimes! You are actually the worst,” she spit out lowly.

This was not a fate that she wanted, much less an idea that she would entertain. Val would simply refuse.

However, it did not look like Tavras was quite finished with this conversation yet.