With a knife at her neck, Val’s supposed soulmate had made a very serious threat to kill her.

“That was very poetic of you,” Val replied tritely. “It still doesn’t make sense to me.” Her voice sounded oddly casual even though she could feel the sweat beading at her hairline.

That was when a new strategy sprung to mind. By the tortured souls in the Nether, maybe she could diffuse some tension with one of those awful, lewd jokes that they had been making to one another.

She might as well try. “Personally, death isn’t my kink. I hope necrophilia isn’t yours.”

A chuckle from him followed that joke. “That’s bold of you to make me laugh when I have a knife at your neck. You’re lucky that I have a steady hand.” Arius’s voice had been restored to general stability, and he parried with a joke of his own. “Since we are supposed to be soulmates, and I clearly have a domination thing going on, does that make you submissive? Do you secretly enjoy this?”

Val’s eyes flicked either which way in her head.

Foofy still had growls rumbling from his chest, crouched in a readied stance to spring.

One thing in which Val felt grateful: at least Foofy did not understand Marivench.

“Um,” she started, “I’m going to have to say, ‘no,’ to that.”

“Right. I forgot to give you a safe word.”

“Ugh.” Val groaned, and not in the good way.

Even though he sounded genuinely happy, the pressure of the knife did not loosen at her neck. “You know what Val, I’ll drop the act.” Just like that, the weapon disappeared from Arius’s hand. Standing up, he walked between her and Foofy casually and offered a hand up.

With her head tilted back to him, she saw that his eyes were neither golden nor red. The dull, natural brown permeated his irises. As it turned out, Arius derived less joy from that little display than she had thought.

Her trembling hand accepted the offer, mainly because she could not afford to offend Arius again. With the tension diffused, Val looked around him to praise Foofy. “Good boy, Foofy!”

Unconvinced, he remained alert, though the growls relaxed.

Arius stepped to the side so that Val could position herself closer to Foofy. Her arms crossed

“You intend to keep me talking for a while, so let’s actually talk.” With a sigh, Arius finally started to explain the issue at hand.

“I was not suggesting that you discontinue your association with Tavras as an option. It is one of my demands. You are moving into your own apartment. That is the end of this discussion.”

That was not the end of the discussion because Val threw out her arms. “Why did you even bother asking me then?”

“It was a nicety,” Arius said with a roll of his eyes. “Why are you making me play the bad guy here?”

That remark left Val with boggled eyes. “Wait, what? Why should I have to give the answer you want? If you’re a possessive, controlling lunatic, I would prefer to make you show your hand!” Her neck still felt vulnerable as a gulp slid down her throat.

A narrowed glare cast her way. “Did you not see the relationship that I have with Tavras in your visions? You are supposed to understand! I will not have my soulmate skipping around with the Sea Itself.”

The way that his voice broke with distress made Val take a step back. Her heart began to race, realizing that Arius was trying to have a lover’s quarrel or sorts with her. More than just angry enough to put a knife to her throat, he was upset enough to yell. In a sense, the latter thing astounded her more. A similar scenario likely existed in girlish fantasies about the one and only god of war.

All of this was a bit much. Val wanted to pull away from Arius and disappear. They did not even have a relationship, and she could not say that she was particularly excited about him anymore.

The hot edge of the knife still burned at her throat, and she swallowed hard. “I do understand that you have good reason to hate Tavras. You’re not the only one that I understand better from my Past Insight. I know things about Tavras too.”

Those vague things, Val did not actually know. She did not know much about him at all, aside from the fact that he had offered her unwavering help since her journey to the Summit began.

A big sigh left her lips, and each word she placed with great care. “We just met the other day and first talked last night. While I have tried to be receptive to the idea that we’re soulmates, it’s a bit much for me if you try changing sizable things about my life. That’s been my point of view.”

That was a terrible ramble, practically begging him to slit her throat.

Quickly, she started up again to appease him. “We already established that I’m super dense. I’m just a young demigoddess who happened to find out that we’re supposed to be soulmates last night. I think that I might have missed a memo. C-Could you clarify what you expect from me, if anything?”

Arius’s stance had slouched a little, mouth partially open. “You really have not been paying attention at all, have you?”

His body language had been misleading, as he spung forward and grabbed at the collar of her shirt. Ready for Foofy, his leg kicked out with surprising flexibility and connected his foot into his deep chest.

Foofy landed backwards and rolled around to get up.

By that time, Arius held a knife of new energy at her throat.

“Stay,” Val was forced to say to Foofy once more.

Here they went again. This time, Val tried to compose herself in the face of terror. I just need to come up with more sexual jokes, then he will let me go.

Where was Tavras? As risky as it would be to cast Divine Judgement, she might just have to save herself.

Arius stuck his angry face close to hers and spoke incredibly slow—even better for giving her more time.

“I have been trying to negotiate with you! A normal, healthy person would have agreed to compromise already. I don’t want you around Tavras at all, you want to keep everything the same—the obvious solution is to have you live somewhere else, but I’ll somehow let you stay friends with him!”

“Yes,” Val said in mindless agreement. Actually, that sounded reasonable when he put it that way, but she was past being reasonable with Arius.

Longing for Tavras more than ever, she wanted him to come for her. She would fling herself into his arms and feel safe in his hug—not the embrace of a lover but a guardian.

Back when they had done her second ability assessment, Val had made a choice, she realized. Her choice had been between Arius and Tavras, and she had chosen the catastrophe before her. Tavras had every right not to come for her now.

Smiling in the face of the blade at her neck, she whispered, “Maybe I wanted to make you mad at me again though. What if submission is my kink?”

Arius’s face dropped, dumbfounded. “Your intentions tell me that you’re just messing with me, but um, I’m still uncomfortable.” The knife withdrew an inch, exactly what she needed.

Her eyes fell closed in preparation to cast Divine Judgement. Before she gathered the gall to launch the attack and start a serious fight with Arius, a spray of water pattered against her face.

A column of water gushed into Arius and sent him back a fair distance.

“Tavras!” she sang. Her eyes lit up at the sight of Arius drenched and far enough away to make a run for it.

“Val, let’s get out of here!” his voice called. Across from her, Tavras stood with thick arcs of water encircling him. One arm reached out as he blasted to her side.

He had really come to save her, and her eyes dazzled when she looked up to Tavras once more.