To get the answers out of Tavras that she needed, first, she would try talking to him directly.

“I hate secrets,” Val said bluntly. “The more mysterious that the secrets are, the more that I hate them. My mother had told my brother Rosamer things that she had refused to tell me. Even with my ability to look into the past, I still do not understand what she did exactly nor her reason behind it. Her secrecy hit my breaking point. It’s the reason that I had run away when I did, wanting to follow Ross and make my own way in the world.” All of this, Val said while she stared down to her sandy shoes. Her elbows crossed over her knees. Her hands twisted and fidgeted with the other as she let everything out.

She had never been one to talk deeply about neither her past nor her feelings. Never, had she opened up to Tavras like this—or anyone really, for that matter.

“I guess what I am trying to say…'' she continued. Val lifted her gaze to look earnestly into his eyes. “If you are hiding something from me, please tell me. I think that you are on my side here, Tavras. I really want to trust you, but to continue to do that, I also need you to put some trust in me.”

The mother of all sighs hefted from Tavras’s lips. “I only wish that you were as simple-minded as you let on, sometimes.”

Under normal circumstances, Val would have made an issue over that insult, if not a joke. Right now, though, she wanted to hear what Tavras had to say for himself.

“I admit that you caught me. I am keeping a great deal of information from you.” Tavras brushed his long hair over his head and gave it a shake along his back. “Would you believe me if I said that this lack of information is for your own good?”

“No.” Not even for a second, would Val fall for that. Actually, Tavras sounded like Ross right now, after he had just looked into the future: overly mysterious with not enough substance.

“Certain people have developed abilities to read minds, emotions, or intentions with their divine blood. It would take time for you to develop an appropriate Mind Shield to ward off these spies. This is not meant to be an insult to you because frankly, I have difficulty keeping certain gods and goddesses from entering my own head.”

Val swallowed hard because this was actually starting to make sense. Whatever the root cause of danger, she had to wonder to what extent that she would be safer, if not happier, in knowing less. So far, it seemed that she would have to swallow this stupid, mystical response.

“If I told you certain things,” Tavras continued, “I would be painting a target on your back, or more accurately, within your mind. You would have enemies fall on you for that reason alone. I want to keep you safe, so that is why I cannot tell you certain things.”

“Is this the reason why I cannot have a brother? Is this also why I need to pretend to be a boy?”

Tavras gave a shallow nod on both accounts.

“Obviously I have no idea what is going on, but wouldn’t my guise as a boy end up drawing more attention to me, especially if someone finds out?”

"If someone were to find out, then yes, but you are not going to let that happen. Right now, it is simply a dangerous time for all young demigoddesses on the Summit. You will not draw any suspicion so long as you are a demigod instead.”

Her eyes trained onto a patch of moss in front of her. Val did not want to be a boy, but now that she had gotten more or less of an answer out of Tavras, it seemed like she would have to play along with the ruse. Even so, she did not like it one bit.

Val jumped and yelled, “This is stupid. It makes absolutely no sense!”

Tavras blinked at her and said, “It makes perfect sense. You know that I am right.”

Deep down, she did indeed know that. Those with divine blood developed all sorts of abilities. The knack to read minds was one of the more believable of all the possibilities. Still, it did not make Val any less mad.

She deserved to know this information pertaining to her. Beyond that, she had a right to the privacy of her own mind. As a demigoddess heading to the Summit of Ascension though, she would have to relinquish all of this in her pursuit of power.

Val closed her eyes for a long moment. This anger inside of her, she did not want to quell completely. Instead, she would describe what she did with it to be more like tucking away. Later, Val would call upon this anger to obliterate anybody who tried to read her mind with Divine Judgement. Even if they found nothing useful in her head, they would be the one posing this threat against her, so they would deserve all of the flames in the Nether.

Her attention returned to Tavras. “Can I have some yes or no answers at least? Some warmer or colder hints? I want to try to guess the reason behind all of this, at least.”

Tavras rolled his eyes around in his head. “If it would humor you to take a few stabs at it, then go ahead.”

Val hopped up to her feet and paced around a bit. Then, she returned to standing in front of him. “Is there some stupid prophecy that a demigoddess is going to take over the world?”

A crooked smile crossed Tavras’s lips. “No, but I wouldn’t mind if there were one. Thankfully, the gods and goddesses who have decided to look into the future and understand the inner workings of destiny have not cursed us with any such prophecy. Some of the more fatalists among us have crafted some head canons, though. Certain gods operate off of those paradigms as though their suspicions were real.”

“Okay, so there is no prophecy.” If Val did not turn out to be the chosen one of a prophecy, she was out of ideas already. “Well, thanks for letting me take a guess.”

“No problem. Are we done discussing serious things?” Tavras’s eyes flitted to the lake. “I’m kind of in the mood to have fun now.”

She had to stifle a laugh, because she did want to ask a few more important things. “You had said that you had sensed when my brother had crossed the ocean…. Can you tell me if he made it safely to the Summit, at least?”

“Yes, he did.”

Half exasperated with relief, Val asked, “Do you have any idea how he’s doing now?”

“He is safe and faring quite well, or so the rains have told me so.”

At this small blessing, she let go of all of the stress that she had been holding along with her breath. If she would have to stop thinking of Ross for now, going so far as to remove him as her brother from her mind, at least Val got to know that he was doing well. “Thank you. That’s really all that I need to know.”

With a tight smile, Tavras said, “Thank you for being so understanding. Oh, one last order of business: what do you want your name as a man to be?”

“Well,” Val drawled out. This thought had never crossed her mind, having never taken Tavras fully serious before. “Valentine can be both a boy’s name or a girl’s name, depending on how you say it. Can I just keep my name and have it pronounced the other way?”

Tavras turned his eyes up to the sky. His pupils seemed to follow one of the few clouds which drifted through the air. “For something so small, it would not be worth taking the risk. I do not believe that your brother would be careless enough to let your name slip, but we could never be too careful. A different name would be better.”

“It will also be suspicious if I do not respond well to a fake name,” Val tried to insist.

“I can start using your alias so that you can get used to it.”

They seemed to be at crossroads, in which Tavras had the objectively superior argument. Still, Val felt attached to her name. Regardless of how she felt about her mother as of late, Val liked the name in which she had given her. She was Valentine. Even if she had to switch her apparent gender, she wanted to keep the masculine variant of her name.

“Can I say that I trust Ross and make the decision to keep my name?”

“I highly discourage it,” Tavras said. “Do keep in mind that I’ll be in on this too, what with the way that I will be claiming you as my son. If you go down, you’re going to take me down with you.”

In a way, that only reassured her in making a bold decision. If she had one of the most powerful gods in the world at her back, anything seemed possible.

For all that Tavras was doing for her, she ought to give his opinion much more weight than her own. With this one thing, though, Val wanted to be selfish. She had already agreed to relinquish all knowledge of a situation that was very much relevant to her, change the outward portrayal of her gender identity, and worst of all, give up on her brother entirely. All Val wanted to keep was her name.

“My name is Valentine,” she said, altering the pronunciation. While she had announced this with such confidence, that quickly fell away with her next question. “Can Val be a nickname for Valentine or would that be too feminine?”

“Please steer away from anything vaguely feminine,” Tavras begged. “Though for this, I would not classify Val as overly feminine. Valentine was a man’s name first before it had ever come into use as a woman’s name. It is common for those with divine blood to have old names, even for young demigods and demigoddesses since they have older parents. Feel free to continue to go by Val, I guess.”

“Yes!” she cheered. “Thanks, Tavras. You really are the best!”

The warm undertones of Tavras’s skin brightened, flushing red near his nose and around the ears. Actually, she had to wonder how many times did Tavras blush around her, only for her to have missed it based off of his dark skin.

“Anyways, it’s time for fun now.” Tavras jumped to his feet and ran for the lake, diving off of the cliff headlong.

Val sat there with awe and waited to hear the splash. When she did, a smile curled onto her lips.

Tavras really was the best. From here, she would only have to make the most of the opportunity extended to her by passing his test to go to the Summit of Ascension.

For now though, she just wanted to enjoy the day with Tavras.