“Are you still going to come with me?” Val asked Tavras while her fingers hovered over her phone.

“Yes. I intend to supervise you until this shit all backfires in your face.”

“Great!” She ignored his negativity and focused on her phone instead.

Val: We’re done now. Tavras is going to come with us.

“This is not great at all,” he muttered. Tavras held open the door and ushered her out with Foofy. “If we are going to meet the Ravager, let’s do it by the river so that I will have ample access to water.”

While they walked towards the river that they had visited previously, Val updated Arius on their location.

Val: Tavras wants to meet by the river. Are you okay with that?

Would you be able to find us there? Tavras does not even want to wait.

Though Arius was a god, she did not want to assume that he could find them at an indiscriminate point along the river. He could have a bird’s eye view by flying, but making him search for three specks on the bank would be a royal waste of his time.

Val lagged behind Tavras with heavy feet. In part, she walked slowly so that she could more easily watch her phone for texts.

In contrast, Foofy sprang ahead to scout out the sidewalk. As a good watch dog, he never strayed too far away.

Once they passed Suvier’s walls that surrounded New Gate, they could speak freely again. The only barrier to this was the fact that Val and Tavras did not have anything else to talk about. Hence, they strolled in silence.

After a bit, her phone lit up with a message. This text served as proof that Arius was capable of sending more than a few words.

Arius: I’ll meet you there—no problem.

I could find you anywhere. I’m your stalker, remember?

That was going to be a constant joke between them, wasn’t it? Val shook her head.

“Why are you smiling so much at your phone?” Tavras asked. “It’s just a technological brick.”

“I’m not smiling.” She put away her phone and skipped ahead. Never having texted boys or anyone extensively for that matter before, Val felt happy enough being able to receive messages from her supposed soulmate.

While Val, Foofy, and Tavras were walking towards the river, a fourth figure joined them from above. So soon after their text exchange, Arius had found them.

He straightened himself up and acknowledged each of them in turn. “Tavras. Val.” Then, his voice jumped up to say, “Foofy!”

Startled by the person dropping from the sky, Foofy leaped to attention. Recognition entered his eyes before he could growl. Foofy greeted Arius with a relatively calm demeanor. Only his wiggling tail betrayed how much he liked to be pet by the new person who was now becoming familiar to him.

“Foofy already seems to like me more than before.”

“Yeah,” Val agreed, “he knows you now.”

Their group continued on to the river. Subconsciously, Val later noticed that she fell into step with Foofy and Arius so that Tavras led them all. No one spoke which allowed her to stew in the full extent of their awkwardness.

The only thing that she could think of was that horrific conversation with Tavras.

Arius was lucky enough that he did not have to share in her discomfort. Part of Val wished that she could tell him. Then, they could both have a laugh and feel equally creeped out. Of course, she would never actually tell him.

Unfazed by anyone around him, Arius stared down at his phone and appeared to be texting somebody.

Already, he seemed so far away despite walking right next to her. Val did not know how she could possibly bridge the gap between them and become a worthy partner to a god like him.

Stop that. She tried to reprimand herself, not to let anxiety overtake her the moment that Arius devoted his attention to something else. There ought to be many times where he would be too busy for her. Without a doubt, he had a good reason for being on his phone.

His gaze pulled up from the screen and landed upon her. It took him winking at her for her to realize what he was getting at.

Val’s heart practically skipped a beat as she pulled out her own cell phone. When he had been texting someone, he had been texting her specifically. And here she thought that he had been ignoring her. Even though they walked right next to each other, apparently Arius wanted to share something that was for neither Tavras nor Foofy’s ears.

Arius: What are you thinking about?

I’m so confused.

It feels like you want to tell me something and not tell me something at the exact same time.

Though she tried to contain herself, she snickered at her phone. This was what he got for trying Read Intentions on her.

Val: I might tell you eventually if you really want to know.

It’s awful—just Tavras being Tavras.

A crease of concern developed on Arius’s face as he checked his phone. When he lifted his eyes, he kept his line of sight steady so as not to look unduly between Val and Tavras.

Similarly, Tavras had been discreetly watching them from the corner of his eyes. When Arius tried to reply to the text, he spun around and snatched his phone. From there, Tavras hurled it far away. They had come close enough to the river that a splash resounded.

One of Tavras’s bony fingers pointed into her face. “Get off your phone, Val, or else yours is next.”

Slowly, she put her phone back into her pocket.

No one moved any further than that for a solid five seconds.

“Well, that was uncalled for,” Arius said with a shrug. “It looks like I’ll be needing a new phone. Thanks, Tavras.”

“That was completely uncalled for!” Val emphasized. “Arius is mature enough to try to get along. Can’t you do the same? Act your age for once, Tavras.”

“Let me just play dead in that case.” Though he said one of his usual jokes, he delivered it with a stark expression upon his face.

Arius took a step away and held one hand out to each of them. “Whatever is going on between you two, stop it right here. I don’t want to know.”

Did Val and Tavras look that angry at each other?

Looking over to Arius, she pouted. “I’m sorry,” she said, and she was. If Arius could behave himself around Tavras, then she had better get along.

Also, she wished that she could say something more. It must pain him to know that Val ever had feelings for Tavras, even if she had crushed her crush last night. Without him having a phone anymore, she could not even text him a reassurance.

All Val could do was sigh. Then, she remembered something. “Your phone is probably fine, actually. Tavras, you should go get it out of the river and dry it off.” Back to Arius, she said, “Tavras basically drowned me in the ocean for a greeting when we first met.”

“How charming,” Arius muttered.

Val could practically feel her bottom eyelid twitch. He was definitely going to hold that stupid, old crush against her. As much she wanted to yell at him, how she had met him when he was making an ass out of himself, she bit back her tongue.

“My point is that Tavras was able to save my phone! That was with salt water, so yours is definitely going to be okay.”

“I don’t know if I care that much,” Arius said with a sidelong glance to the river. “It will be more annoying to replace than anything.” Saying that must have convinced himself that he wanted to fish his phone out of the river.

Rather than having Tavras do it, Arius went over to the river himself. His red, hazy output solidified into a disk over the water, and he hopped onto it. From there, he plucked his phone out of the river without even looking.

“How did you do that?” Val had her mouth slightly dropped from awe. The littlest things could impress her.

“I’m literally a god,” Arius said, jumping back to the bank. “Do you not think that I can’t find my own phone?” The disk melted behind him and merged with the river.

That did not explicitly answer her question, but it kind of covered it. Arius must have dedicated some portion of his godly powers to the mundane task of knowing where his phone was located. Val giggled because that purpose was weirdly understandable.

When he walked back, Arius tossed the phone into Tavras’s hands. “Dry it off now. To appease your technological sensitivity, I promise that I won’t check my phone again.” Arius had one hand up as though he were taking a vow. “I’ll do that unless Suvier calls, that is. I have to take his calls.”

“Ah, yes, you can’t possibly call your daddy back later.” Tavras pulled the droplets of water from his phone and passed it back to him.

Arius rolled his eyes and looked to Val. Obviously, he wanted to say something to respond, but at some point, he would have to let Tavras have the last word. He chose to leave that remark hanging in the air.

“Let’s get down to business!” Arius said. “Are you ready, Val?”

She nodded but also swallowed hard. Quickly, she tried to calculate the odds that she could possibly impress Arius with her abilities: slim to none. Val balled her hands into fists nonetheless, determined to try.