In the absence of Arius and the effect of his power, Val felt colder and had need of her winter coat. “Tavras,” she said, swiping at her tears, “why did you try antagonizing him like that, right when he left?”

Bringing up the death of Urru had been entirely uncalled for, even for Tavras who often said awful things. The expression ‘god awful’ must have originated from behavior like Tavras and Arius.

“I have my reasons to hate that child,” he said simply. “Val!” Swinging to face her, he took her cheeks in both hands. “Why would you ever say something like that to him?”

“What?” she asked.

“I’m referring to what I overheard,” he said tautly.

Fuck me, she thought, rather ironically. Of all things, Tavras just had to come when she had made a sexualized joke. “I don’t know,” she began slowly. “I was just trying to buy time and appease Arius by saying any old thing.”

“And you chose to tell some sexual jokes?” Tavras asked. “You are either a mindless idiot, or you are mindless slut.”

“Don’t call me that!” Val tore herself from Tavras’s grip as hard as she could and turned away. Her elbows folded across her chest so that she could stick her bare hands into the warmth of her armpits.

“Do you want him to take that sort of thing as an invitation and force himself on you? Just, gods Val, you have no sense of self-preservation! I explained the dangers that Arius poses to you just this morning. Why can’t you take your own safety seriously?”

Her fingers went to her ears, because she did not want to hear any more of this. After what had felt like a narrow escape from Arius, she did not have the strength to worry about her next encounter with him. “Tavras, stop. Please just stop for a minute.”

Slowly, she sunk to the ground and welcomed the flustered Dobie into her arms. Val wanted the reassurance of Foofy very much right now, relieved that Arius had not tried to use him as a more extreme bargaining chip. She needed her good boy right now.

After that big argument in which he had been tied up, Foofy seemed further distressed by the continued emotion in the air.

Now silent, Tavras stood behind her but carefully sat at her side. “I’m sorry. My outburst just now was not productive. I was worrying about you all night, and now you’re making me worry about you all day.”

Chuffing out a sigh, he focused on the matter at hand. “As it turned out, I was not able to follow you teleporting with Arius. Did anything happen when he took you to get proper documentation?”

Miserably, Val shook her head.

“Did something happen when you were with him last night?”

There was a pause, her not knowing what to say.

“I know that I am the last person who you would want to confide in for stuff like this,” Tavras continued, “but please tell me if anything happened with him. Whether he forced you to do something or you did it willingly, I won’t judge either way.” His uneasy fingers touched gently to the back of her hand. “I just need to be informed so that I can properly assess the threat and help you, yeah?”

Her heartbeat elevated as she debated on whether to tell Tavras or not. As much as she wanted to feel warm and fuzzy inside at his offer to listen, Val reminded herself that this was Tavras. The Sea Itself that she knew was wonderful but other times disastrous, just like the ocean on a clear versus stormy day.

Though he had brought a great deal of moisture to the immediate area, her throat felt dry. She tried to swallow. “Tavras, I really need to know why you hate Arius so much. It’s not fair that you want all relevant information from me, but you refuse to tell me everything.”

“That’s because my personal issues with the Ravager have no bearing on you.”

If his deep-seated hate was such that Tavras had no remorse over killing Arius’s dragon just to spite him, then Val did not want to make herself a target by admitting her status as Arius’s soulmate. After all, he had warned her not to tell him for that reason. If Tavras had been right about Arius’s penchant for sadistic psychopathy, maybe Arius was also right about the vengeful, unrelenting nature of Tavras.

She desperately needed to figure out who her allies were, as she was becoming more confused now that she had lost Arius as her favored option so quickly.

With a tight smile, Val tilted her head to the side. “Personal issues or no, do you have a valid reason to hate him? Because when I looked into the past, you hated him ever since he was a literal child.”

Tavras winced up his face and took in a deep breath. “I doubt that you will understand. You have always failed to understand me.” At some point, his fingers had withdrawn from Val’s hand which she only just noticed now.

She swung herself around to face Tavras, Foofy resituating himself in her lap. Deeply, she stared into his eyes.

“I want to understand you,” Val insisted. “If you’re unable to explain yourself, you would leave me with no other choice but to think poorly of you.” This time she let her hand linger over top of his, warm compared to the biting cold around them. “I know that I’m not exactly someone you want to confide in either, but can you try? I promise that I won’t react like last time.”

Eyes closed, Tavras nodded.

Quietude passed between them until he began to speak freely in a forlorn intonation. It was the first time that Val got to hear Tavras truly speak of himself.