Since Val and Arius were going to depart from Tavras, she called to the one who would follow her anywhere. “Foofy, come!”

That Foofy dog sprinted to her and sat obediently at her feet.

“Good boy.” With Foofy in her arms, she used Keep the Peace on him, and turned her attention to Arius. “I’m ready.”

He made them ascend into the sky and shoot back towards New Gate.

The wind whipping through Val’s hair gave her a sense of exhilaration. “I don’t think that I will ever get tired of this!”

“Good,” Arius replied. “You will be flying with me for a long time.”

Though he said that, he had them land in a quiet plaza in New Gate.

While there were not many people here, there were some. Heads turned to look at the new arrivals from the sky. Those gazes lingered on Arius and flitted to Val. Then the onlookers must have decided that they did not want to take any chances by existing in the same space as the Ravager. A number of people ducked their heads and scuttled away. Of those who stayed, they minded their own business.

“You certainly have an effect on people,” Val chimed as she followed at his heels.

Arius did not reply. His eyes stayed focused on his destination only, as he led her to the center of the plaza. An empty brazier rested there, blackened as if it had been in recent use.

Though Foofy tried to sniff out the area, Val called him back to her side. The three of them stood there in front of the brazier.

While Val peered inside, she could not help but wonder, “Why are we here? I thought that you said we would be flying for a long time.”

“I meant that metaphorically not literally,” Arius muttered. “I can teleport through fire, remember?” He adjusted a dial on the brazier, though the flames did not seem to react. The next one that he turned caused the brazier to explode to life.

Foofy yelped and ran away a fair distance to bark.

Just as well, Val leaped away while the heat blasted in her face. Lucky for them, no sparks nor embers fluttered through the air to sear at them. The flames burned crisply, having been made from gas.

“Which of you wants to go first? We can make Foofy wait here for us or have him wait on the other side. He will only be alone for a moment either way.”

“What?” Concern became Val’s dominant emotion, as she did not think that Foofy would take well to traveling through fire, least of all alone if she could not use Keep the Peace to calm him. “Why can we not all go together?”

Arius locked his eyes on the flames, dour in his mesmerization. His lips moved robotically. “I will lend you my Fire Immunity just like how I shared my heat with both of you last night. When I divide my power amongst others, it gives us all a smaller piece of it. I can only take one of you through at a time, unless we all want to sustain burns.”

Val swallowed hard. This was not just out of Foofy’s element but hers too. “Let’s leave Foofy here.” That way, he would not have to wait for them in a strange environment. Directing her attention downwards, she said, “Foofy, sit. Stay.”

He sat upon his haunches and observed carefully. His ears laid back, clearly stressed by the burning brazier.

“I see that you are eager to walk into the fire with me.” While he said that, his voice into a playful, haughty tone. At last, Arius wrenched his eyes from the flames and turned to her.

“Were you, um, watching something in the fire?” Val asked. Any other mortal or immortal would not have bothered to stare into fire as intently as Arius.

“No,” he said, “I do not have Fire Sight. I have always known the Fire Tongue innately, and it likes to say things to me from time to time.”

“May I ask what the fire says?” Val tilted her head quizzically.

She had seen Tavras whispering a strange language to water before but never knew the things that the water had told him. Lots of gods could converse with an element, or so it seemed.

With his head tipped back, Arius laughed curtly. “The fire has never said anything useful to me. It’s a pretty abusive element, absolutely obsessed with consuming things.” He started to nod along as though he were saying something insightful. “As you could guess, fire has the one-dimensional personality of a pyromaniac.”

“Yeah,” Val said. If he claimed to dismiss the words that the fire had spoken to him so easily, then Arius would not have been so preoccupied with it. “You do not let the fire get into your head, do you?”

“Of course not.” To put that conversation to rest, Arius took up her hand and pressed his mouth up against her palm. Wet and soft, his tongue traced the interior of her hand.

Val’s eyes widened while her fingers to her wrist alit with tingles. After her initial, shocked reaction, Val yanked her hand away, close to her chest.

Arius looked down at her expectingly with that sly smile.

“Couldn’t you just kiss the back of my hand or something?” she muttered.

“That sounds like it would be too appropriate.”

As tempted as Val was to hit him with the hand that he had licked, she did not want to create any more of a scene out of Arius’s public appearance. The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. It was weird being around a celebrity figure that everyone steered clear to avoid.

Slowly, Val turned around to lick her hand too.

Arius put one hand on her shoulder and leaned closer to her. “I thought that we were on a hand-licking basis,” he whispered to her.

“Gods!” Val was just trying to lick her hand in shameful peace. Roughly, she twisted her shoulder away from Arius and finished licking her hand.

Either by her verbal and physical cues or mental disposition, Arius realized that he was being a bit too much right now. “I’m sorry, Val.” He shrugged. “If you would rather me kiss the back of your hand, I can do that in the future.”

Her head spun like a whirlwind, actually having a conversation about boundaries with him. Were they really and truly going to act on this soulmate thing?

In a small voice, Val said, “That would be better in public, yes.”

“I never realized that licking your hand was so sultry.”

The way that Arius held her hand and did it, he definitely made it too much for outside eyes. It dawned on her that Arius could have a quite liberal standard for public displays of affection, given the way that Evalaite had behaved around him.

“I would prefer if we did not do that around other people.”

His breathy whisper tickled her ear. “What you’re telling me is that you want me to lick your hand in private.”

“What? No!” If their destiny came true, then Val and Arius were going to have a relationship one day, and they were going to make for the weirdest couple ever. “I have heard of foot fetishes before, but do you have a hand fetish—?”

“Be quiet!” His voice kept his upbeat intonation, but Arius grabbed her without ceremony and dove into the fire with her.

Val gasped and received a lungful of the flames. He had not waited until she was ready nor counted to three. Like this, Val experienced fire transportation for the first time.