"Hey," Val said, nearly jogging in her strides to keep up with Tavras.

The tension in the air had carried over to Foofy and it had put him in a stressed mood too. In his quick, trotting walk to match their pace, at least somebody's mood seemed to lift.

"You can calm down now," Val tried to say.

"You want me to calm down?" Tavras asked. "Maybe I could if you had done a better job at not sticking a target on your back! Your association with me is bad enough already. Having Arius run the trials this year was just my luck—the worst possible luck. We would have been better off with Herrick. He's a total sadist, but at least he would not be a sociopath who has it out for me like Arius!"

All of that was well and good—it could leave Tavras understandably upset—but the immortal running the demigod trials was a factor beyond their control. Why did Tavras try blaming her? "What did I ever do wrong? I kept my mouth shut as much as I could, just as you said. I only spoke when you made me."

Freezing in place, Tavras exploded at her. "You do not know the attributes of the gods of the Pantheon! This is basic knowledge that any kindergartener should know. How can you exist in the world and be this dense?"

Val swallowed hard. Indeed, she remembered kindergarten, and she remembered learning about the ten major god's attributes and the order of the Pantheon. Arius was the god of war and Evalaite was the goddess of love, or so she thought. "I really do not know what I said wrong," she said in a shameful murmur.

"Do tell me. What is Evalaite's title?"

Her teeth went into her bottom lip and started gnawing nervously. Val had forgotten her title at the time of its usefulness. As she racked her brain, of course she could remember now, after it did not matter anymore. "Evalaite is referred to as the Courtesan."

"Yes. Now tell me. What is a courtesan?" The strict anger in each one of Tavras's words pounded over her ears, making Val want to shrink away and disappear.

A courtesan was not particularly related to romantic love, that was what. "Oh," Val said, feeling immensely stupid right now. "Is she actually a sex goddess?"

"Yes, Evalaite is a sex goddess!" Tavras yelled, way too loud for being in the middle of a sidewalk.

Passersby definitely turned their heads. This was not an appropriate subject matter to be screaming about in public, but he kept right on going.

"She literally oozes sex appeal for her entire personality. It is her one redeeming quality, otherwise she is just…" Tavras shook his head hard and settled on saying, "difficult. What else did she look like to you?"

In a small, not very masculine voice, Val said, "I don't know. I've just always heard that Evalaite is the goddess of love. That is what I had learned in school."

With a deep breath, Tavras cooled his head by a couple tens of degrees. Ultimately, he admitted, "Fair. They would probably not dare to mention the true nature of a sex goddess in school, else all of the parents would start crying." Tavras had two fingers pinched at his nose. Behind his hand, his eyes squeezed shut. "Still, you messed up big time. Can you tell me who is actually a god or goddess of love?"

A thousand repetitions of "no" was the only thing that could process through Val's mind. The way that Arius had glared at her replayed in her memory. The moment was as bright as if she had used Insights of the Past to relive her shame, just as it had happened minutes ago. "Please do not tell me that Arius is also a god of love."

"He is."

"No," she whispered aloud.

A god of love and a goddess of sex pairing up together—it made sense. How was Val supposed to know that Arius was both a god of war and god of love?

Aside from his perfect physique, beautiful face, and lustrous hair, nothing gave Arius away as a god of love. He simply looked like a gorgeous god of war, ready to emerge victorious from battle without a scratch on him. War and love went together like polar opposites. It seemed wrong for a god to embody two conflicting attributes at the same time.

She shook her head, convincing herself more and more that there had been no way for her to know better. In the end, she sighed and tried to look on the bright side of things. "At least Arius seemed like an easy-going person—very aggressive, but agreeable. I am sure that he would forgive me." The optimism oozing from her words amazed even her.

"Yeah," Tavras spat. "It always puts Arius in a good mood when he is tormenting me, even more so when he just found his next victim, if that is what you mean. You should see him in a fight! That is really when he starts having the time of his life."

Tavras went on in his rant against Arius. "He will not forgive you just like he did not forgive me for something that happened eighty-some years ago. The child is only one hundred years old or so—a few years younger than Iharu and Fangarus. Despite that, he has despised me for the majority of his life, and what did I do? Nothing that he did not already have coming to him!"

At that, Val sneered. She could certainly believe it. The way that he had gotten into Tavras's face, flaunted Evalaite in front of him, and even tried using Val against him, Arius seemed like an awful person who could rub a lot of people the wrong way. Having an enemy who had lots of other enemies might give herself an easier time of dealing with him, but the fact remained that she had gotten on the bad side of a god stronger than Tavras.

"What do I do about Arius?" The genuine worry crept into her voice.

"You will need to keep your head low around here. It is more important than ever that you do not draw attention to yourself."

Val nodded with a hard swallow. "I can do that." Her voice dropped back down to the deep, confident, composed sound for her male imitation. Likewise, she straightened her shoulders out and did not let her body language show any of the concern that she felt.

From there, the three of them continued through the quiet streets of New Gate. Throughout that entire conversation, Val had followed Tavras around, unsure if he was in a calm enough state to think rationally and walk them to whatever destination he had in mind. Apparently, Tavras had been in more control of himself than he let on, because he led her into a building: their first stop since their arrival to the Summit of Ascension.